There’s an abundance of Death Energy here, and even ordinary corpses can be turned into zombies…
But why is that?
Is it because I’ve become the master of this “Kingdom of the Dead”?
So this ownerless Kingdom of the Dead now has rules simply because of me?
Or is it… because she brought corpses and undead into the Kingdom of the Dead?
Then… if she continues to throw corpses and souls in here, will this place eventually produce the “Wind of Sighs” that Veil mentioned?
If that’s really the case, then this place could automatically start producing low-level undead creatures…
But don’t assume low-level undead are weak. Insmouth, after all, is just a slightly stronger Tier-3 undead.
If things really turn out the way she imagines, then doesn’t that mean she has, in a way, gained an Undead Army she can summon at any time?
The more Ileya thought about it, the brighter her eyes became!
However, this kind of “ultra-flat” world is really rather unappealing to look at… If only there were some vegetation, or some rolling hills…
Rumble rumble!!
Just as Ileya’s thoughts landed, she heard an intense, rumbling sound!
The ground seemed to be responding to her thoughts. The once-level land instantly rose up, transforming into countless undulating hills.
Within several hundred miles of where the Lady stood at the center… everything turned into the Hills Region.
This ability to alter terrain just by thinking—if it appeared in the outside world, wouldn’t it definitely be called a Godly Miracle?
In other words, she… could actually perform Godly Miracles within this space!?
At this moment, Veil’s words suddenly echoed in Ileya’s mind.
[The Key to the Land of the Dead is the proof of the Lord of the Dead.]
So… I am now the “Lord of the Dead” here?
But even as the Lord of the Dead… is it really possible to control the terrain here with just my mind?
Slowly descending from the sky, Ileya bent down, carefully inspecting the ground…
It was still rather ashen land, with no trace of plants growing.
Her command hadn’t been fully carried out. Could it be… that this place simply doesn’t have any plants to begin with?
So, even if she thought about it, it just couldn’t be realized.
“I can’t create something from nothing… What if I bring in some plants myself? Could they multiply here?”
No sooner thought than acted upon. The moment she thought about returning to her body, she immediately felt the bumping of the carriage.
“Interesting…”
The Lady slowly opened her eyes and murmured, then looked toward Reliel in front of her.
“Go pull up some weeds for me.”
“…?”
The mute girl, who had been somewhat sullen just now, was a little stunned when she heard the “master’s” command—a command that, in a sense, was the very first task given to her.
Whoosh!
But she quickly remembered her identity, said nothing more, and obediently opened the carriage door as it rumbled along, leaping out.
A dozen seconds later, the girl returned to the carriage holding two handfuls of weeds, with a few little wildflowers mixed in.
“Not bad～”
When Ileya took the handful of wildflower-dotted weeds, she even smiled and nodded.
Her intention was to offer a bit of praise to her newly acquired “Sister Maid”, but obviously, as Reliel watched Ileya accept the “bouquet”, she seemed to think of something else.
As a result, the Red-haired Personal Maid turned her head to the side, avoiding those red eyes.
But the Lady had no time to notice her sister maid’s girlish feelings just then; she simply pressed the two bunches of weeds against her wrist.
Whoosh whoosh…
The next second, a black hole, the same as before but several times smaller, appeared at the Lady’s wrist!
The weeds and wildflowers instantly fell in…
And Ileya didn’t pay attention to Reliel’s expression. In the very next moment, she was back in the Kingdom of the Dead.
The very second those weeds scattered to the ground, whether because of the light or something else, their originally green color instantly dulled, as if covered by a thin layer of dust, looking rather old and withered…
With a single thought, the two clumps of weeds and wildflowers stood upright, their roots digging deep into the ashen soil.
As expected, they didn’t look to be in good shape, not at all like they could survive here.
And that makes sense~ There’s probably no water in this earth, no sunlight from above, and even a faint Death Energy in the air…
It would be strange if they could survive.
Ileya touched the wilted little grass and flowers, helplessly shook her head, and once again flew up into the sky.
After this spur-of-the-moment bit of “gardening”…
Now it was time to get down to business.
That was… to look for where all those Soul Pivots had gone.
Although the disappearance of the [Soul Pivot] that “attacked” her had put her mind at ease,
Still, those things are treasures—each one is a mobile “skill book.” If they all vanished, Ileya would really be heartbroken!
But after glancing all around, she couldn’t find the Soul Pivots. Instead, Ileya discovered something else.
It wasn’t that her control was limited to a radius of a hundred miles—
Rather, this place itself was only about a hundred miles in every direction, like a giant square box!
All those other times, she’d entered here in a daze—either under attack, or kicked out after learning a skill.
But now, Ileya could properly survey the place from the air.
Within a hundred miles around her, with herself at the center, everything had turned into hills.
But beyond that… it wasn’t the endless black earth Ileya imagined. Instead, there was a constantly swirling black mist!
From Ileya’s perspective, those black mists looked like massive black walls reaching up to the sky, daunting to behold.
And within those black mists… she seemed to see some shadowy human-like figures wandering aimlessly back and forth.
Hiss…
Could all those [Soul Pivots] have run into the mist?
Boldly speculating, Ileya carefully reached her hand into the black fog.
Glug…
In an instant! A sticky, sluggish, icy-cold sensation made her pull her hand back at once…
The moment she put her hand in, Ileya felt as though she’d plunged it into a swamp full of icy slush…
Even bending her fingers took effort, and the pain was stabbing…
If someone went in there, could they really come out again?
For now, let’s call this thing… the “Boundary.”
Ileya rubbed her chin.
Before… she couldn’t move freely here, much less oversee everything from a god’s-eye view.
Of course, she had no way of knowing whether this [Boundary] existed before it became her “Kingdom of the Dead.”
But before, those [Soul Pivots] could freely move toward her… without any sluggishness.
Now… they were all trapped outside the “Boundary”…
Taking into account the earlier attacks, this kind of “Boundary” seemed to her, rather than just a restriction, more like a form of protection.
Going a step further…
After she started adding “the dead” to this Kingdom of the Dead…
A faint amount of Death Energy began to be produced here. So could it be that… because of her actions, the place’s “level” has increased?
If…
She were to put in even more things, would the Boundary expand as a result?
Would the kind of Wind of Sighs that automatically produces skeletons also appear?