Requiem of the Goddess of Destruction: A Konosuba Dark Side Story - 500 Years of Solitude: The Witch Who Awakens at the End of the Seal

Cold. That was the first sensation she felt upon returning after 500 years. From her fingertips, to her wrists, to her elbows, to her shoulders—the frozen numbness slowly thawed. As though being lifted from an icy coffin, her body gradually reclaimed the air of this world. Eris opened her eyes. What spread before her vision was darkness, identical in every detail to the place where she had once been sealed. Deep beneath the Eldoria Mountains. A sealed chamber carved into a fissure of bedrock, unknown to anyone. Only the sound of water dripping from the ceiling continued to mark the passage of 500 years—an unfathomable span of time. (Ah... that sound again.) She slowly raised herself. The black silk robe stirred faintly, catching the air. The embroidery of stars glittered silver in the darkness. Her long, flowing pure-white hair shone faintly as though it had trapped moonlight within it, its tips gradually dissolving into purple. Her snow-pale skin, even after 500 years of slumber, betrayed no trace of warmth. Her eyes, like deep amethysts, opened as though piercing the darkness. Eris lifted her own hand. Slender, delicate fingertips. The cold air touched the small beauty mark beneath her left eye. She confirmed that her body moved properly by bending each finger, one by one. (500 years...) Yes, 500 years. Her actual age exceeded 600. Yet this body remained in its late twenties, unchanged from that day. The sealing magic had stopped her time. Her flesh, her memories, her emotions—all frozen from that moment, only now finally thawed. "...No one has come, I see." Her voice was parched. Her own voice, uttered for the first time in 500 years, was swallowed by the rock walls without even a faint echo. She exhaled slowly. Her white breath dissolved into the darkness. It was not that someone had broken the seal. Eris understood this instinctively. The seal had simply lost its power naturally. The 500 years had gradually eroded the sealing magic cast by the Demon Lord's generals, until it finally reached its limit. That was all. No one had come to save her. No one had been waiting. Eris stood. The soles of her bare feet conveyed the cold sensation of stone. She began to walk—one step, then another. Walking for the first time in 500 years felt surprisingly natural to her body. With each step, the black robe swayed, and the star embroidery glittered silver. At the center of the sealed chamber, an ancient magic circle was inscribed. The circle that had bound her here 500 years ago. Now its radiance had vanished completely. Only an old, worn groove traced a circle on the stone floor. Eris stood at its center. The memories of that day rose quietly from the darkness. —500 years ago. She had been born as the Demon Lord's true daughter. Carrying the blood of the Demon King, she was born with the power to perceive both the blessings and curses of this world. That power was far too great. The power to rewrite the world. The power to turn blessings into curses, curses into blessings—or even to repaint the world itself into another form. The Demon Lord's generals called her talent "dangerous." —That child will eventually destroy us all. —As the Demon Lord's successor, she is far too unstable. —We must seal her away while we still can. The voices of the generals still clung to the depths of her ears even now, 500 years later. She remembered the air of that council, its smell, even the color of the lighting. She had been summoned to that place and looked upon the faces of the generals. Not a single one would meet her eyes. And then, her father. The Demon Lord was there. Upon his throne, after a long silence, he spoke. "...It cannot be helped." Just one sentence. Even now, Eris could reproduce that voice with perfect accuracy. Low, heavy, yet trembling somewhere within. Her father rose and personally led the sealing ritual. As the generals drew the magic circle and began their incantation, her father stood before Eris. And he wept. A single tear fell from the Demon Lord's eye. In that moment, Eris thought: (Ah... this person loves me.) She thought so. She believed so. That was the only salvation of her young self. But she was wrong. Just before the seal was completed, her father's lips moved faintly. Eris did not miss that expression. —Relief. Her father's tears were not grief over losing his daughter. They were relief—that he could eliminate with his own hands the existence that threatened him. "...Father." In the darkness, Eris uttered the same word as 500 years ago. This time, no tears came. They could not. Her tears had dried up in that single moment of that day. The one who should have been loved most was feared most. Blessed too greatly, and therefore cursed. That was the beginning of her life. Eris stepped down from the magic circle and headed toward the exit of the sealed chamber. Passing through the fissure in the rock, a narrow passage continued. The air moved slightly. She could sense the outside. As she walked, she coldly organized her situation. Where was her father now? Even to her, sleeping within the seal, fragments of information had flowed in. During the 500 years, the Demon Lord had been sealed once more by others. Now the Demon Lord's army had scattered general-class monsters across the land, each acting on their own objectives. The coordination of the former organization was lost, and her father was in a separate seal, even deeper within the Eldoria Mountains. In other words, there had never been anyone coming to greet Eris from the start. "...Of course. No one loves me, after all." She murmured softly. Her voice was cold, yet somewhere within it creaked under the weight of 500 years of solitude. As she advanced through the passage, the air changed. From the scent of enclosed darkness to the smell of soil, grass, and night dew. Eris passed the final corner and emerged from a small opening in the mountainside. Her vision opened. The foot of the Eldoria Mountains. Below spread the Axel Plains. A vast flatland stretching across the eastern part of the continent. Beyond it, countless lights flickered. The lights of human towns. Eris stood on the mountain slope and gazed at the scene. The wind blew, sweeping her white hair backward. The hem of her black robe fluttered, and the star embroidery shone silver under the moonlight. Her amethyst eyes, reflecting the distant town lights, glowed quietly without any color of emotion. (What ugly lights.) She thought so in her heart. The lights of humans spread in chaos, as though encroaching upon the darkness of the mountains. The light of a race that had broken the silence of nature, burned the earth, and turned blessings into desire. Eris slowly began to descend the mountain. Still barefoot, treading upon the cold rock surface. A few more hours until dawn. She intended to reach the village at the foot of the mountain by then. To see the world of humans with her own eyes. By the time the eastern sky began to pale, Eris had passed through the mountain's forest belt and emerged at the edge of a small village. The village was quiet. The morning light softly illuminated the thatched-roof houses. She heard the cry of a rooster, and somewhere a dog barked. The sound of water being drawn from a well. Breakfast smoke rising from chimneys. Eris stood at the village entrance and stared at the scene. Through the window of one house, she could see a family. The father sat at the dining table, the mother arranging bread. Two children sat in their chairs, laughing. On the table were steaming soup and freshly baked bread. The family's voices carried through the window to the outside. "Thanks for the food." A child's voice. "Did you wash your hands properly?" The mother's voice. "I did!" Laughter. Eris simply listened to those voices. (What... is this?) Something beyond words spread within her chest. It was not warmth, nor nostalgia. Something darker, colder, and yet fierce. (Why can they laugh?) Eris's fingertips unconsciously gripped the sleeve of her black robe. (Why can they be so defenseless, knowing nothing?) She walked slowly through the village. Pulling her hood deep, erasing her presence. The black robe melted into the shadows, and her figure was barely noticeable even in the morning light. In the plaza she passed, an old man sat alone in a patch of sunlight, sleeping. His white hair swayed in the wind, his face peaceful. Beside him, young children played, kicking stones. Their laughter was absorbed into the sky. Eris stopped. (For 500 years, all I heard in the darkness was the sound of dripping water.) (And yet, they—) She bit her lip. She tasted blood. (And yet, they know nothing of me.) (Who I am, what I lost, in what darkness, how much time I spent alone. No one knows. No one tries to know. Not a single person in this world.) Anger quietly, yet certainly, blazed within her. It was not a hot anger. Something colder, deeper—an anger like ice. Hatred at absolute zero, crystallized from 500 years of solitude. Eris passed through the village without stopping. Only once did she look back. The villagers' laughter dissolved into the morning air. The warmth of that family's dining table. That old man's peaceful sleep. Those children's innocent play. To her, all of it was incomprehensible. And at the same time, unbearably infuriating. (Someday, I will make you understand.) Eris faced forward again and began to walk. (What your happiness is built upon.) Her amethyst eyes deepened in color with the surge of emotion. From deep purple to a blood-red radiance. The shadow behind her distorted in response to her magical power. Having left the village, Eris sat beneath a large tree in the grassland and spread out a map. The Axel Royal Capital Federation Sphere. A free-city alliance in the eastern part of the continent. Comprising 10 cities and 30 villages, with a total population of approximately 1.2 million. The capital is Axel City. The political system is a federation of city-level autonomy and a Council of Ten Cities represented by delegates from each of the 10 cities. Major industries are agriculture, commerce, and magical tool manufacturing. Eris slid her finger across the map. The magical system of this world is entirely born as "blessings." Power granted by the gods. And depending on how it is used and in what context, it reverses into a "curse." Even healing magic becomes a curse if used to harm someone. Blessings and curses are two sides of the same coin. Humans had been turning blessings into curses. Eris was convinced of this. For their own desires, they had destroyed nature, turned magic into a tool, and repainted the world into a form convenient for themselves. The result was those chaotic town lights, and that defenseless happiness. Her goal was not the destruction of towns. It was to reverse the very blessings of the world into curses. To fundamentally collapse the foundation of "this wonderful world" that humans believed in without doubt. Eris's finger stopped at a single point on the map. Axel City. The capital of the federation sphere. Population 450,000. At the center of the city lies a holy spring. The Holy Spring—the sacred ground of the Aqua Faith, and the source of the goddess Aqua's power. Its water is eternally clear, and drinking it heals wounds. The holy water, a specialty of the Axel Federation Sphere, is all born from this spring. It could be said to be the very foundation of life in the federation sphere. Eris stopped her fingertip at the spring's location. "...Let us begin here." Her voice rode the wind and vanished into the grassland. "I will contaminate the Holy Spring. Turn that water of blessing into water of curse. The water that people drink every day, that heals their wounds, that they offer prayers to—it will become poison that corrodes them. The very foundation of the blessing they believe in will

日本語

What is Novelia? →

Episode 1

Name: Requiem of the Goddess of Destruction: A Konosuba Dark Side Story
Author: Novelia

What is Novelia?

Novelia is an AI-powered platform to read original light novels and fan fiction, create your own in just a few taps, and chat with the characters. New, illustrated episodes arrive daily — free to start.

Learn more about Novelia →New sign-ups get 5,000pt