“Charlotte.”

“Yea, M’lord?”

“Give me a comprehensive list of situations in which the ruler of an autocratic nation could be guilty of subversion of the state.”

“ ‘Tis imposs’ble, M’lord.”

“Indeed. Then, Charlotte.”

“Yea, M’lord?”

“What in the world is this defective piece of junk blabbering about?”

“I truly wish I could tell thee, M’lord.”

Indeed, we had taken to completely ignoring the Living Armour’s words of arrest. In a state like mine, I was judge, jury and executioner, so to place me under arrest was a fundamentally flawed idea.

Of course, this whole situation was by no means outside of my expectations… but still, I had hoped that she would be at least a little more subtle about this.

A vain hope, it seemed.

“You. Under whose authority was that sentence decided?”

My words rang through the air, sharp like a blade. If his answer was insufficient, his head would roll.

“Ah-Under the authority of Her Majesty the Ice Queen, Lady Philia, sir!”

“As I thought… Tell me. Does she currently take residence in my castle?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Understood.”

I rose from my seat. The children rushed to my side.

“Tempest, try out one of your new spells. Imprison her. And… you.”

With slow, calm steps, I descended the stairs, until my face was no more than five centimetres from the Living Armour’s. In a hushed whisper, I spoke.

“Your acting is decent, but your improvisation needs work. Good work, soldier.”

“I-I am undeserving of your words!” he replied at an equally low volume.

I turned around and addressed my demons—the former humans could stay with the parade for a while.

“You lot. It is time to go snuff out a traitor. Davna, get the parade going again, then join the rest of us.”

“Aye, sir!”

***

The entire castle was—

To put it in a few words—

Frozen over.

A thick layer of ice, at least twenty centimetres, caked the thing, top to bottom. The exception, then, was the garden, but…

I raised my hand and delicately cupped a rose. It crumbled to frozen shards at my touch.

“My garden… Our garden… The garden the maids raised themselves, with love and affection…”

Certainly, plants inhabited by magical creatures and the like, like Lizei’s tree, would be fine, but…

“You have gone too far, Philia. Today marks the day you die.”

I raised my hand, used a bit of magic to melt straight through the ice, and placed my palm on the castle’s wall.

And then, I spoke the keywords—

“Wither away, wilt until nothing is left, melt into miasma, and die.”

The spell keeping the ice in place followed my instructions. Within the blink of an eye, there was not a single shard of ice left. Nay, even more fundamentally—the concept of ice was denied existence. The castle, following my set rules, would not allow ice to exist within its walls.

For it was the Thousand Throne of the Creator God.

The castle alone possessed enough power to end the world.

“We are advancing. All of you, stick close.”

Demon Generals, bodyguards, pet and spirit—they moved as one in response to my command.

***

Not five minutes passed before we were approached by a maid.

“Your Highness Astaroth, sir. She wishes to see you,” she said. It seemed she could not even manage to call Philia a queen. I could not blame her.

“Very well. Guide us there.”

She had probably set up shop in the throne room. Occupying the throne specifically prepared for me.

“... Correction. Guide us there immediately.”

“All will be according to your will, Master Astaroth.”

Hmph. Philia had it coming if she believed her silly little trick to have worked on my subjects.

***

“Ah, you’ve arrived, my liege.”

On that black, stone throne—on my black, stone throne, sat a moving skeleton with blazing pits of blue fire in its eyesockets. The icy crown on its head was long gone. A few paces in front, at the foot of the staircase, stood a statue of ice, staring me down with fury in its eyes. Or perhaps it was not quite ice, but something similar.

And then, spread around the hall, as always, was a multitude of Living Armour, standing guard. There was not a pair of eyes in the room that was not turned to me.

“So I have, Philia.”

I made sure not to let my anger slip into my voice. Still, it was likely some seeped in anyway.

“This is an interesting prank you are playing. If you go home right this instant, I might find it in my heart to forgive you,” I said. A blatant lie. She would die here, no matter what she did.

“Oh my… But my liege, if I did that, I would not be able to give you the gift I have so painstakingly prepared.”

“Gift? Let us hear it. Knowing you, it will probably be something worthless, but…”

“ ‘Tis a coronation gift, my liege! For my coronation, that is! And as for the specifics—”

She raised her arm in a dramatic gesture—was she imitating me?—and pointed to the Living Armours, now surrounding us on all sides.

“—It is the gift of your death!”

“I do not want it. Take it back with you.”

At her command, the Living Armours rushed forward. And at my words, laden with mana, they were beaten down one-sidedly.

“Rise!” she said, “Rise and rush forth once more!”

Figuring I had a bit of time, I decided to appraise her.

Name

Philia

Sex

Female

Race

>

Grade

8 (Supreme)

Skills

Lich

[Phylactery] [Undead Heart]

Phylactery

Passive: as long as your phylactery and soul both remain intact and can reunite, you will revive, even if your physical body is completely destroyed.

Undead Heart

Passive: you are completely immune to all mental effects, such as charm, sleep, fear, despair, etcetera.

Other

[Long-Distance Control] [Ice Magic] [No-Attribute Magic]

Long-Distance Control

You can control parts of yourself even if they are separated from your body.

Ice Magic

You may use various water-attribute spells related to ice.

No-Attribute Magic

You may use various spells that are not bound to any particular attribute. You may use these spells without chanting.

Unique Skills

[Ruler of the Dead]

Ruler of the Dead

Passive: you possess control over all corpse-type undead.

Afflictions

[Cursed Blessing]

Cursed Blessing

You have received part of the power of a being that exists outside of the framework of this world.

As I had expected, [Necromancy], which had once been on her skill list, was gone. But more than that—

It was red, there was some strange affliction at the bottom, and her race had become distorted.

Even she was not immune, it seemed. It was subtle, but I now noticed a small, distorted bell chime that sounded whenever she moved. I was unsure how it had convinced her to accept its ‘blessing’, but that was not particularly relevant, either.

“Tempest.”

“Understood! [Magic Storage: Spacetime Magic: Severed Prison]!”

At once, she used two of her new abilities. First of all, Magic Storage—in simple words, the ability to chant a spell now, and cast it later. And then there was spacetime magic. One of the rarest magic-related skills out there, high level practitioners could even turn back time and sever space.

Philia did not seem to have noticed Tempest’s actions, instead more focused on the Living Armours around us—and their lack of movement.

“What are you doing?! I said rise! Rise!”

“It will not work, Philia,” I said, shaking my head. “And not because they are dead. Indeed, normal Living Armours would be standing up.”

“What are you-?!”

“These are not corpse-type undead, Philia. And neither are the maids.”

“?!”

“They are artificial. Artificial souls, forced into suits of armour made specifically for this purpose. Artificial ghosts, produced from scratch. In either case, they were never alive, so they cannot be corpse-type undead. Ah, and do not bother trying to control Charlotte, either. She was born to vampires, and thus also falls outside your control.”

“Don’t-!!! Don’t screw with me!”

With a motion of her hand and the chime of a bell, a massive, frosty tentacle emerged from the ground and struck at me. But before it could hit me, Charlotte—

“[Chivalry o’ the Princess Knight].”

Her main new ability, which forcibly dragged an opponent’s attack over to her. The tentacle changed its course, dashing straight into her sword, which swiftly cut it to pieces. Charlotte followed the action by taking a bit of distance from the main group.

“Ngh… Pawn! On my signal!”

She did not appear to be addressing the former Hero, now an Ice Statue, by name, instead sticking to a derogatory title. Fair enough—I did not particularly feel like dredging his name from my memories, either.

With her coordination, he rushed forth from one side at the same time as several of her spells. But she appeared to be missing a vital point.

The fact that we had not yet acted, despite being numerically superior. Even if I decided to leave all my Demon Generals and my bodyguards with me for my protection, then still there were members of my team left.

There could only be one rational explanation, and she was not seeing it—

Indeed, I was letting her attack me.

“Charlotte. Leave the statue.”

“Aye, M’lord! [Chivalry o’ the Princess Knight].”

The spells which fired projectiles made of ice simply disappeared as if they had never existed to begin with, while the rest were pulled towards Charlotte. As for the former Hero, who was rushing towards me, blade in either hand—

I raised my hand.

Aye, that was all I did. Raised my hand and put some mana into it.

The Hero stopped moving in mid-air, dropped his knives and fell to the ground.

“Nyx. Clean up the garbage.”

“Gotcha, Oberon!”

She fluttered over and, using my mana to manipulate some darkness, dragged him away.

I did not envy the guy.

“And then, as for you,” I said, turning my attention back to Philia. “You are out of hands to play. Kneel.”

“I refuse!”

It seemed she was resistant to the effects of [Dark Prince’s Authority]. Probably a side-effect of that Cursed Blessing or whatever.

“Out of hands…? I am out of hands, you say…? You are wrong, my liege! I have my strongest hand yet left!”

She seemed to have gone completely mad. Indeed, she had always been slightly unhinged, but this was incomparable.

“Now, I summon thee! Appear before us, ██████████████!”

It was not hard to deduct who she was calling upon, considering her status window. For a moment, for just a moment, ‘our’ world connected to someplace else.

Fire stopped burning. Rivers forgot to flow. The wind stopped in its tracks and the land no longer supported all that stood upon it. Light stopped driving away darkness, and darkness no longer seeped into the places not covered by light.

And then, the very next moment.

Fire burned the world. Rivers flowed once more. Wind gushed across the land, which supported all that stood upon it. Light drove away darkness, and darkness seeped into every little crack the light did not cover.

And absolutely nothing had changed.

“... Eh?”

Philia’s voice was delightfully dumbfounded.

“Thought to call on that so-called ‘God’ of yours, did you? Well, unfortunately, Philia, this place we are in currently does not exist. At the very least, not in Grand Atlas. Did you not hear Tempest’s spell earlier? Or at the very least, feel its effects? She severed this place from reality.”

“But that… That means that…”

“Aye, Philia.”

Blatant joy seeped into my expression, and I could not help but narrow my eyes.

“If I kill you here, your soul will not be able to return to your phylactery, and I can do with it whatever I wish.”

The flames in her eyes, for the first time in this entire encounter, flickered. Perhaps it was uncertainty, or perhaps it was fear. I did not care.

“Now then. Come here, Philia.”

“I refuse!”

She scrambled out of my throne in the biggest hurry I had ever seen her in, but it would not save her. Of course not.

This was her Thousand Throne, and I had gotten all my power from her—thus, it followed that this was where I was at my strongest.

In just one step, I crossed the room and was at her side.

“Wha-?!”

“Where do you think you are headed?”

She almost fell over scrambling away from me, and my Demon Generals let her go unimpeded to the door. Of course, it was closed.

Step.

“That will not open.”

“In that case-!”

Once more, she fired off her spells. It seemed she had learned, as there were no pure ice spells in the mix this time. But this time, her target was Tempest—

“[Chivalry o’ the Princess Knight].”

Indeed, a knight not only protected their lord, but also their allies. Just changing her target would not allow her to escape Charlotte’s grasp.

“Then… Then at least…!”

Once more, she scrambled away, and she started gathering mana. From the pattern, it was some kind of self-destruct spell, but…

The moment she finished her chant and started to say the spell’s name—

“[Eternal Fros-”

The clattering of bones resounded as her skeleton fell to the floor.

I had simply reached forward and plucked her skull off her body. And with just that, I had interrupted her.

“Ah, for what it is worth,” I said, strengthening my grip, “[Eternal Frost], was it? ‘Tis an ice spell, if I recall. Aye, turning all of the user’s magical power and life energy into ice… Well, it would have been a waste of your life. Right now, inside this castle, the concept of ice does not exist.”

While enjoying the expression of despair and fear that somehow made its way onto her skeletal face, I tightened my grip yet more, ‘til naught of her skull remained but dust.

As for her soul—

I caught it quite handily and, after a moment’s consideration, tore it to shreds and fed it to the dog—to Alpine.