The Fallen Hero Reincarnates as the Demon King's Son
Chapter 75 - 74 - Finding Her

Chapter 75: Chapter 74 - Finding Her

He felt his face land on grass, some dirt even smudging his cheeks. However, he barely paid any attention as he lifted his head right away, wondering where he might have ended up.

He had no idea where that light ball had come from. But it had guided him to a strange place that was far away from the darkness. Caliste had to admit that the view here was a lot less depressing; he could finally see something different than his own reflection as he stared at the ground.

"Where am I?" Caliste muttered as he began observing his surroundings.

He was on a very large plot of grass, and he could see a few hundred meters away some structures. Caliste wasn’t quite sure what they were just yet, but from a far glance, they seemed to be statues of some kind.

In this short lapse of time, Caliste’s hope that he would be able to find a way out of this place was very high. He truly hoped for it. Being stuck in this place was the last thing he wanted, and if he had stayed in the darkness any longer, he might have truly lost himself.

Caliste began walking in silence toward the distant structures.

He did so quietly. He did not shout her name since he still had growing doubts that this was all her plan to keep him stuck inside this place with no way out.

Within a few minutes, he finally got closer to the structures.

Now that he was much closer, he confirmed that they were statues, but they looked special.

There were four statues, all of them positioned in a diamond shape, and in the middle of them was a small altar filled with a liquid that did not smell nor have a color.

Caliste believed it to be water, but he had no real way of finding out if it really was.

The statues were all similar with some minor differences. However, they all had one thing in common.

Their poses.

All of them were pointing with one of their hands out. They were all pointing in different directions; one of them toward the South, another the East, one toward the altar... It seemed random.

’What am I supposed to do here?’ Caliste thought for a quick second as he looked at the statues.

There was only one idea that found its way into his head. It was to redirect the statues so that all of them would point toward the altar.

Caliste got to work as he began pushing against the base of the statues, which already had a mechanism that made it possible to turn them around in whatever direction you desired.

A few minutes later, Caliste was about to be done. He was already pushing the last statue, and in a few seconds, all of them would be pointing toward the altar. Caliste hoped that something would happen; otherwise, he had little to no idea as to what he would do.

-Click!

Caliste finally placed the statue in the correct position, and a small clicking noise was heard once he did so. It resembled the noise of a mechanism getting activated, and within seconds, the altar and the platform around it nudged slightly, dust coming from its edges.

-Zoooom!

The platform began moving down as Caliste’s eyes widened. He didn’t ask himself any questions as he simply jumped onto the platform. There was nothing else to see in this grassy area; he had to go down. At least, he sure hoped so; otherwise... he would truly be stuck in this place.

As the platform began descending, Caliste frowned as he looked around himself. It was no longer a bright space with a clear blue sky and a beautiful sun. He seemed to be descending toward somewhere much darker... even darker than what he had experienced for more than 150 sleeps.

Within seconds, he could no longer see around himself. At most, he could see a few meters in front of his feet. But that was as good as it would get.

***

-Click.

The platform stopped moving.

Caliste felt it stop. He could no longer even see his feet.

He could no longer see anything around him. Right now, he was in a similar position as if he were completely blind. It was a very strange sensation, but Caliste stayed calm. He wasn’t sure what was happening, but he had a feeling that he was getting closer.

The light ball wasn’t a coincidence.

Something was happening.

’At least... I hope so.’

As he reached the ground, Caliste was now walking blind without a single clue of where he was supposed to go.

This time, he decided to shout as he walked before him.

"LIANA! Where are you?!"

Silence.

At least, it was silent for a few moments, but then, all of a sudden, a very weak cough reached Caliste’s ears. It seemed to be coming from a place very far away, but because of the echo, it had reached him.

It seemed to be coming from Caliste’s left. However, he would have to hear it again to find his way.

"Cough again!" Caliste screamed after a minute of walking to his left.

The sound of the cough now sounded much closer. At most, it would be around 100 or 200 meters away from his position.

It seemed to be coming in the direction he had already been walking toward. Caliste truly hoped that it would be Liana standing there and not someone else, because if it was someone else, then he had suffered through all of this for basically no reason.

"Liana?" Caliste repeated as he walked carefully toward the weak sounds of coughing.

"I-I’m... here..."

Even if her voice sounded extremely sickly, Caliste’s eyes widened. He would be able to recognize her voice anywhere in the world.

Caliste continued, and as he was only a few steps away from her, the light ball from earlier returned, illuminating the surroundings very slightly.

However, it was just the right light density for Caliste to see Liana’s face.

She stood there, her body sickly, her eyes half-closed, her right hand holding the light up.

Caliste looked at her and wasn’t sure what to even say. She looked so unwell; with a glance, Caliste could tell that she had suffered a lot more than he had since he had died. She had lived through this era, organizing everything.

Looking at her, sitting on this old wooden chair, Caliste gulped, feeling guilt from blaming her one sleep ago.

He wasn’t sure how much time she had spent in this place, but anyone who would have spent that much time here would have completely lost their mind a long time ago. Caliste had done so in less than 150 sleeps. So for Liana, who had spent years in this place... Caliste could only imagine what she had gone through.

The beautiful shine of her golden hair and pupils was now gone.

"W-What happened to you..." he muttered, his voice quivering.

He got on one knee as he slightly got closer to her, touching her right hand and slowly caressing it.

Liana did not say anything; she simply looked at him, crying. There was no change in emotion on her face; she just looked extremely tired.

"S-So... that’s your new appearance..." she weakly muttered.

Caliste smiled as tears fell down his face at an even faster pace. He could feel the tears falling on his chest and legs, but he didn’t care; he was pouring out everything he had for his past friend.

It was clear now that he was looking her in the eyes.

Liana had never betrayed him. She was the one who had suffered the most from his death.

Her left hand slowly rose as she passed her finger along his cheek, a weak smile finding its way onto her face.

"H-How long has it been since you’ve been here?"

Caliste didn’t even want to know the answer, but he had no choice. He had to know more about it.

"I don’t know... the time here... it’s... different from the one on the outside. A day here could be one second in the outside world. It’s been a very long time since I lost count."

’If one day here is equal to a second in the outside... she could have spent thousands of years inside of this place, all alone in this darkness?’ Caliste’s words were stuck in his throat. ’How didn’t she lose her mind already?’

Caliste didn’t want to ask her questions right now. She seemed so feeble, so weak; he didn’t want to make her think.

However, before he could even say something, Liana was the one who spoke first.

"If you’re here... it means it worked. It means... that it’s time for the plan to truly begin."

There was a small look of relief in the corner of her eyes.

Everything that she had worked for seemed to be realizing itself.

"W-What plan? Am I supposed to take you out of here?"

Liana weakly smiled as she shook her head. "No... I’m stuck here for eternity. However, you aren’t."

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