Lord of The Red Planet

"This is no fun! No fun at all!" Lily shook her head, her face contorted in a cute, angry expression.

She stood up, then pointed her index finger to the sky. The air around her instantly grew heavy, as if pressed down by an invisible force.

She looked at the sky with an angry expression. "Tenth-Sequence Magic: Meteor Fa—"

Before Lily could finish her incantation, Arthur suddenly felt an immense surge of mana. He moved instantly.

"Lily! What are you doing?! Are you trying to use a large-scale spell like that?!" Arthur shouted. His hand quickly grabbed Lily's wrist, forcing her mana flow to a halt.

That was… close. Damn it. Arthur felt his heart pounding. Lily had almost used the Tenth-Sequence: Meteor Fall spell. If he hadn't managed to cancel its activation, this place and the nearby city would have been utterly destroyed by a meteor shower.

Epsilon, who was near Lily, slowly backed away and hid behind Emma's back. Cold sweat dripped down her face.

So terrifying… the Floor Guardians.

Emma also showed an angry expression. She stepped forward, her hand raised, about to slap Lily's face. But before she could, Arthur gave her a sharp look and shook his head.

Arthur bent down to be at Lily's height. He held the little girl's shoulders and looked straight into her large eyes. "Lily, why did you do that?" he asked.

"Because it wasn't fun!" Lily replied, a little angry as she puffed out her cheeks. "I thought the suitcase would have treasure in it, like in the stories I always read!"

Hearing the unexpected answer, Arthur was shocked.

What?! You were about to destroy a city just because the contents of a suitcase didn't meet your expectations?! What kind of logic is that?! Arthur screamed in his head. He now felt there was something wrong with his friends' psychology.

"Lily, do you know what would have happened if I hadn't stopped your spell just now?" Arthur asked seriously.

Lily shook her head in confusion.

Arthur sighed at the sight. "Hundreds of thousands of people would have died if I had let your spell finish."

"So, what's wrong with that, Lord Arthur?" Lily retorted, her expression as if there was nothing wrong with what she had said.

"They're just lowly humans. No matter how many of them die, their population will always return to the same number, or even more. Lady Fitria told me that."

Fitria!! Look what you taught this child!!

Damn you, Fitria! How could you teach Lily things like this?! Could words like that come out of a child's mouth?!

Emma nodded in agreement with Lily's statement. To her, the deaths of hundreds of thousands of humans would never be a problem. According to Belial's population statistics, there were eight billion humans on Earth. Killing a few hundred thousand of them wouldn't make them extinct. In fact, she felt the population of these lowly creatures was already too high.

Emma approached Lily and also crouched in front of her. "Lily, what Lord Arthur is concerned about isn't the deaths of those hundreds of thousands of humans. Even if that happened, Lord Arthur wouldn't care. Right, My Lord?"

Emma looked at Arthur, waiting for his approval.

"Uh… yes, you're right," Arthur answered, confused and resigned.

Right, my ass! Arthur cursed himself. Damn it! Why do the words I want to convey come out so differently to them?!

"So, what's the problem?" Lily crossed her arms, her expression still angry with puffed-out cheeks.

"The problem…." Emma pulled Lily's right ear hard. "…is that you almost just ruined the plan that Lord Arthur has laid out!"

"Ouch! Ouch! It hurts, Emma!" Lily cried out in pain. Her smug expression immediately turned to one of fear.

"If Lord Arthur hadn't stopped you, the humans would have immediately known about our existence! The giant magic circle from the portal you were about to open would have been clearly visible! And at that moment, Avanheim would have had no choice but to reveal its existence, and the initial phase of the World Conquest Plan would have turned into a frontal war!"

"Do you understand that, Lily Loriart?!" Emma's blue, reptilian eyes stared coldly at Lily's face.

"I know! I know! I'm sorry, Lord Arthur! Emma, I'm sorry!" Lily started to cry.

"Stop it, Emma." Arthur turned his attention away. "We should take care of this body first."

He looked at the skeleton curled up inside the suitcase. From the remnants of the clothes it wore, it seemed to be a teenage girl. How pathetic. She must have been a murder victim.

Arthur crouched down and gently touched the yellowed skull. Strangely, he felt no fear at all, even though the sight before him should have been terrifying.

This must be an effect of this body, he thought with a sigh.

Even though I don't know who you are, your fate… is so tragic.

Arthur's blue eyes glinted with sadness for a moment as he looked at the pile of bones before him.

Emma released her hand from Lily's ear and also crouched down. "Shall I burn it to ashes, My Lord?" On her palm, a small orange fireball immediately appeared, burning slowly, fanned by the wind.

"No," Arthur shook his head. Seriously. Is that the first thing that comes to your mind, Emma, when you see a dead body?

Besides… I want to try that spell. I need to know if a spell like that still works like it did in the game, or if the laws of this world have changed it.

But before that, I want to know how long this body has been here.

Arthur held his palm in front of the skeleton. A small green magic circle with complex, counter-rotating runes appeared before him.

"Identification." he said.

The magic circle transformed into a small, floating square screen.

Name : Unknown

Species : Homo Sapiens (Human)

Sex : Female

Age : 16 Years

Estimated Time of Death : 25 years, 3 months, 17 days, 20 seconds…?

Cause of Death : Unknown

Arthur looked at the body with a sad expression. So, she's been dead for that long and no one found her? How pitiful. If Lily hadn't caused destruction in this forest, she might have been buried here forever.

She died so young…. She must have had dreams she wanted to achieve in her life, Arthur thought, his gaze softening, looking through the bones as if seeing the ghost of a life that once was. A dream of graduating, maybe. Or maybe a silly dream like becoming a J-Pop idol, like Kazumi used to talk about.

His fingers unconsciously clenched in his trouser pockets.

She should have still had a future. There were still so many things she hadn't experienced. The pain of heartbreak, the regret of saying the wrong words, and the relief of finally being able to forgive. The happiness of being accepted into her dream university, the warmth of a first love, and the pride of seeing the smile on her parents' faces.

Arthur sighed, his breath visible as a thin vapor in the cold Fukushima air.

She might have dreamed of walking through Shibuya with her partner, laughing under the sea of neon lights. She might have dreamed of taking her parents on vacation, showing them a world they had never seen. She might have had just a simple dream, no matter how small, a dream she wanted to grasp with her own hands.

And all of that… all that future, all those dreams… just gone. Buried here for twenty-five years.

Arthur looked at the skull again, and this time, a piercing cold ran through his heart. Not the cold of the winter temperature, but the cold of an aimless anger. Anger at whatever or whoever had caused this. Anger at the injustice of it all.

Suddenly, a thought about who the perpetrator might be crossed his mind. Wait a minute… Isn't this land owned by Sato Yujiwara? Could it be… he knew about this?

Damn it! That old man! How dare he act like a poor old grandfather in front of me?! Give me back my sympathy for you! The thought that the old man was the culprit made him even angrier.

No… no. Arthur forced himself to calm down. He shook his head, chasing away the anger. I can't jump to conclusions like that without proof. It could have been someone else who deliberately buried this suitcase here to cover their tracks, and Sato Yujiwara had no idea.

He stood up straight, his hands out of his pockets. The black ring on his pinky finger melted, flowing into his palm like liquid mercury, then solidified back into the Staff of Avanheim with a smooth, swift motion.

Emma, Lily, and Epsilon stared in amazement at the transformation.

"My Lord, what do you intend to do?" Emma asked. Her eyebrows raised slightly, while Lily leaned forward with sparkling eyes, clearly curious to see their master go so far as to bring out the Staff of Avanheim.

Arthur turned, his gaze calm. "I want to try to resurrect her. I want to confirm whether resurrection magic can still be used in this world or not. This is an important observation for Avanheim's future plans."

That's a lie, he thought, looking at the pile of bones below him. I'm not doing this for observation or strategy. I'm doing this because I think it's right. Because I believe that in this world, there is still a little bit of justice that can help unfortunate people like them.

"I see! As expected of you, My Lord!" Emma exclaimed, her eyes sparkling with admiration. "Even trash like this human corpse has a use in your eyes! I didn't even think of that!"

In my old world, I had no power to do anything about injustice. I could only curse at my monitor, be angry at the world, and then go back to my pathetic life. Arthur ignored Emma's praise. He raised his staff. Its tip began to glow with a soft, holy light, feeling strange and contrasting with his casual white shirt.

But here… in this world… I can do something.

I don't know if this is right. I don't know if I have the right. Maybe this is the height of arrogance, playing God with a life that isn't mine. Maybe Emma is right, she's just a lowly human. Maybe Belial is right, she's just a resource to be exploited. Arthur closed his eyes for a moment. A gentle breeze blew the hem of his shirt.

But maybe also… just maybe… giving her a second chance to find out her own truth, to reclaim the dreams that were stolen from her, is the only truly meaningful thing I can do with this power.

He took two steps back, then opened his eyes again. In his blue irises, now reflecting the holy light, there was no longer any doubt.

In the game Avalon, resurrecting the dead wasn't special, but normal. Resurrection magic was divided into three categories: Darkness, Light, and Alchemy. The one he was about to use was from the Light type, Holy Magic belonging to Saints and Priests.

An example of resurrection magic from the Darkness type was Create Undead. And the highest spell in this category was Resurrectio Profanata. As far as he knew, this spell worked by summoning a dead person's soul from the afterlife, then placing it into the body of a prepared living victim. As a result, the living victim's body would be covered in ash, and their appearance would change to match the soul of the person summoned.

One of the advantages of Resurrectio Profanata was that it didn't matter how long the person had been dead: as long as their soul was intact, they could be summoned back to the world. And most importantly, they would not suffer penalties like level loss and would become immortal as long as the spell's effect was active. No matter if their body was cut or destroyed, they would return to their original state. However, the weakness was that this wasn't true resurrection. There was a time limit, which was only one week.

So this was the main reason why he preferred to use Holy Magic to resurrect her rather than Darkness Magic.

Because resurrection through Holy Magic was true resurrection.

He shouldn't be able to use Holy Magic because his attribute was Darkness. But with this staff… Arthur looked at the black, Buddhist-style staff with a mini black hole in the center. …that's not a problem. The Staff of Avanheim was designed to be able to use all seven existing magic elements.

He pointed the staff at the bones in the suitcase.

"True Resurrection." he said.

Then, a holy white magic circle appeared above the skeleton. The magic circle emitted a very sacred and calming aura, but for Arthur, he felt an uncomfortable sensation from the aura.

The magic circle slowly spun faster, then transformed into a liquid white sphere that fell and enveloped the bones.

I don't know if the 'True Resurrection' spell can work on someone who has been dead for a long time. In the game, this was never confirmed.

What I do know is that this Ninth-Sequence Magic: True Resurrection, doesn't have severe side effects like level loss. It's just that the newly resurrected target will be in a very weak state for several hours.