/
“Bold of you to try and use such tricks on me, arrogant fool!”
He wasn’t sure exactly what Aldrich had done, but after he had cleared out the undead in the square in one sweep, the dark mage’s expressionless face crumpled with anger for the first time.
“How many did you use? Tens? Hundreds? Alright. Try all you want! There are dozens of times more souls tied to this place, so try to be that almighty captain you wish to be until your soul wears out into nothing!”
Rummmmmble—
With the dark mage’s spell, the earth started to shake once more.
Professor was already moving before he finished thinking.
‘This is already way beyond the population of one village. This place is on the path that goes from Pellas to Tobrune. That guy, he captured and absorbed all of the refugees that came from Pellas!’
He could instinctively feel it when Aldrich used his spell. The source of power that moved the undead into the square, the souls tied to the bodies, left this place. But according to that dark mage, he still had a surplus of souls to use, so dragging on the fight would just repeat their previous situation.
“Borka. Can you open up that wall just this one time?”
“…I will try, but I can’t guarantee it because of the distance.”
Just when Professor and the werewolf were bracing themselves to leap into the air,
“I can solve that problem for you.”
Ottoman’s right hand, which had been preparing for a spell, finally started to create hand motions.
Craack, crk, cr-ack!
The square was quiet without the shrieking and growling of the undead. In that silence, a familiar finger-cracking noise rang out. As combinations are a specialty in water-type magic, there was no way Ottoman would pass up this opportunity.
While Professor and Borka were hesitating, the dark mage’s momentary dark expression returned to its original arrogant one.
“How foolish! You have lost your chance to attack with that moment of hesitation! Come! My army of the lost! Rise! The despair of the deceased! [Undead Rise]! [Summon Patchwork Giant]!”
Crrrgggggghhhh, rrrrumble!
Just before Ottoman’s spell was completed, the dark mage quickly activated a spell, and a large amount of black ash sank into the ground. At the same time, the earth started to rumble so fiercely that it was hard even to stand. It was obvious that something big was about to come out.
“Sir Ottoman!”
“Do not worry. Just continue watching.”
“But… If we give them any more time, the chance Aldrich gave us will become useless!”
“No, that is not going to happen.”
Looking at the land that had swollen up like a balloon, Ottoman gave them a triumphant expression.
“Time… Yes, a mage’s lethality is relative to the time given to them.”
Grrrrgrrggrgggr-umble!
.
.
.
.
.
With Ottoman’s confident expression, all of the vibrations and sounds instantly disappeared.
Rustle, plop—
One rotten arm shoved its way up to the surface.
The arm that managed to struggle its way up helplessly fell back into the hole that it came out of.
“…You fiend… What did you…?“
“Nothing much. You merely… gave me too much time.”
Rumbleeee—
With the sound of something massive collapsing, the ground that had swollen up started to sink back down. Down, down, and lower it went, completely breaking down.
“Professor lad, do you know the first rule of a mage’s battle?”
“If you stand on a battlefield prepared by the opponent, change the field?”
“You are correct.”
Figuring out what Ottoman just did, Professor couldn’t help but laugh in disbelief.
“How in the hell is that even…”
“Isn’t it a mage’s task to enact what is impossible?”
Crack!
Level 5 Water Type Magic…
“[Ottoman Bodlair’s, Sinkhole]”
Crashhhhh!
Below the surface, which had completely collapsed, was a massive cavity. At the very bottom of what was an empty space other than roots that glowed with an oddly white color were countless undead that were struggling within a large whirlpool of water.
“As a mage specializing in academics, it’s a habit for me to observe and analyze the situation. I don’t know much about dark magic, but I at least know that 90% of the undead walk on two feet or are otherwise completely useless puppets if they do not have land to walk on. And the water we used at the entrance conveniently submerged into the earth, so I dug out the earth from the inside out. My original objective was to collapse that horrid structure over there… but it seems that there was not enough power.”
“S-so you’re saying… that you brought that entire wave you used at the entrance?”
“Hm? You’re asking an obvious question. How can a water mage facing a battle leave that water there? I used a path that the underground water travels through to bring it here. Although it did take some time as it was a land contaminated by a dark mage…”
Looking at the dark mage’s defeated expression, Ottoman smiled pleasingly.
“I see that I was successful, looking at that.”
“I agree. The face of a helpless enemy always means that the plan worked.”
Professor could also see the face of a disgusted old man within the young boy’s distorted face.
“How dare you measly gnats… interrupt my act!”
In the square, where only a white tree and a large crater were left, the enraged voice of the dark mage rang out. It may have sounded like an angry cry, but Professor could see he was also quite flustered because the victory was theirs now. The undead that were supposed to protect them were mostly all down there, and a dark mage and a water mage that were supposedly on the same level as them were now concentrated on them, with two more highly skilled fighters protecting them.
Slowly, the fear of defeat slowly started to seep into the dark mage’s mind.
“That cannot be.”
He could not bear that. It was already terrible enough that the dark mages needed to travel all the way up here because of mere creations called mutes, but now he’s going to die to some lanky warriors like those? Him?
“That will never happen. Never, never, ever happen! I do not lose! I, who reached the peak of curses and spirits, to measly gnats like you!!”
Shhhhk!
With the dark mage’s defiant cry, his nails grew sharper. I can do it. I am not a puny being that will die somewhere like this! He was different from the souls he had burned away for decades! He could do it! It cannot fail!
“Did you think I could be surpassed with cheap tricks like these! If you had thought so, I will show you how foolish of a belief that was!”
The dark mage flew above the bone-flesh tree by riding the black ash, and there, he pierced his ten fingers into his heart and opened it up.
“Gahhhhh! Watch! The pinnacle of the almighty dark magic! The peak state that cannot be reached by walking the path of hypocrisy!”
Tree branches made out of human bones started to gather around the dark mage, who had reached for his heart while coughing up blood.
“Sins collect to become karma, and karma becomes the frame of the sinner to testify thou life!”
Pshk!
The dark mage pulled out his heart with a single moment’s hesitation and held his cracked heart up high into the air. Soon, the black ash scattered throughout the entire village started to collect in the square and then began to fly toward his heart.
An uneasy wind blew. A wind that told everyone that something horrifying was about to happen.
“Throw me! Before that guy finishes his chant!”
Borka ran in front of Professor, who had been preparing to leap over the cavity and charge at the man, and spoke to him. He seemed incredibly on edge for some reason.
“Throw you? Right now? In the middle of that?”
“There is no time! Hurry before I completely lose consciousness!”
Only after he said that did Professor look at Borka’s current state. A dark aura lingered inside his eyes, and the silvery holy glow on his pelt was replaced with a dull gray. The dark magic’s power had seeped that much into him while he wasn’t paying attention.
“Just once! If I use my full power, I will be able to neutralize the man’s defenses.”
After saying that, Borka closed his mouth. With a growling snarl, drool dripped out of his mouth.
But he didn’t need to say it for Professor to know what words followed next.
Looking at Borka’s resolve, Professor silently clasped his hands together like a volleyball player. And Borka stepped up on top of his hands. The cold air tainted by dark magic made the werewolf’s feet feel like burning flames.
“I’m trusting you to be strong enough to handle my full power.”
“Just make sure you’re following behind, alright.”
Rumbleeeeeeeee—!
Professor raised his head to look up at the dark mage. The heart absorbed so much of the surrounding air that it was getting harder to breathe.
‘There’s no time. I don’t know what that is, but if that gets completed, then it won’t be just another troublesome wave of monsters.’
“Huuuuap!”
Clench!
Professor put force into both of his arms.
“Brace your legs! Let’s go!”
After checking that Borka was prepared, Professor pushed Borka upwards with all of his force.
“Haaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!”
“Grahhhhhhh!!”
Borka jumped up in sync with the force he was thrown at and shot toward the dark mage like a bullet.
Thump— Thump—
At some point, the heart had sucked up all of the black ash, turned black, and started to beat on its own. The dark mage’s dying eyes watched that with a satisfied expression.
“I… collect sins. Create stairs with thine frame, and drag down thee hypocrites from the heavens.”
C—rack!
“Graaghh!”
In that instant, Borka broke through the bones that had been covering the dark mage and precisely cut through the dark mage’s neck, then shot out through the back wall.
Professor, who was preparing to jump in as well, Aldrich, and Ottoman were all watching the scene unfold. The beheaded object flew up into the air, and the massive bone-flesh tree that had been moving continuously stopped completely.
“Did… it work?”
The white wall covering the dark mage crumpled down, and with it, the small boy’s body and the black heart in his grasp also started to fall. Just as the word ‘victory’ passed through everyone’s minds…
“Last… Spell…”
The dark mage’s head, which had been falling down with a smile, opened its mouth.
[Rise, Damned One]
Snap!
A large white arm shot through the tree and snatched the black heart from the air. The pulsating aura from the black heart rode up the arm and flowed into the tree.
“Damn it! We’re too late! The spell’s completed!”
“”“KA—AAAAAAAAA!!!!!”““
With Aldrich’s despairing shriek in the background, a pale white demon was preparing to emerge into the world.
It was a large demon made of bones.
Wide wings made from black ash.
Three heads that were like the skulls of goats.
A black mace in one hand, a black chain in the other.
The being that let out an impact strong enough to blow off the roofs of the houses with just one shriek slowly started to turn its body towards the group.
“What… is that?”
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“A demon. No, it’s not a complete demon. He used a demon summoning spell and a lich spell together. He used the white tree, which was his soul jar, to summon the demon, and then moved into its body before the demon’s consciousness could fully enter.”
“Then are you saying that’s the dark mage?”
“Partially. Just a normal lich spell that’s activated with incredible care only has a 60 percent chance of succeeding, but this one was done during battle, on a demon that has a completely different frame of soul, and by someone that was only Level 5. And he even died before the spell was completed, so I guarantee that he lost most of his soul in that process. Its power is probably not at its fullest, either. Do you see its body already starting to collapse? It will most likely die off on its ow—”
“”“KAAAA!!! DUUU! RAKA!!!!!”““
Whoosh!
“Damn it!”
Crashhhh!
Escaping from the range of the black mace that was swung at them with the two mages in his grasp, Professor spoke with a grimace.
“…It definitely looks like its intention to kill us passed over into the demon.”
“Hmm. We won’t have time to wait until it dies off by itself.”
“Its weakness?”
Aldrich responded instantly to Professor’s question as if the answer was obvious.
“Although its form has changed, they are still the same dark mage. Find its soul jar. If you break that, the rest is just a mound of sculptured bones.”
“I don’t think I’ll need to look for it.”
Professor’s vision shifted to the demon’s heart at Aldrich’s answer. Above the monster’s heart that was breaking down was the blackened heart the dark mage had created at the end, and it was clear that it was what gave the bones the power to move at their will.
This was not the time to spare his strength. If this character died, then he was going to lose his only chance to separate Hyde from him.
Professor closed his eyes and called out to his partner, who was quietly living inside his consciousness.
‘Um. Hyde, if you come out and use Bloodlust right now, exactly how long can you last?’
[Well, there isn’t any mute blood here, so I’ll need to use only your blood. And I can’t make a lot like last time either… so, under the assumption that you’re just using the regeneration, about 15 seconds?]
‘15 seconds… Then, can you bring me in front of that heart within that time at the right timing?’
[It is probably possible… but I don’t think you’ll have any spare power left. It’ll end just after you get in front of it. There’s no next step. Even if I give it back to you, all you’ll have left is the strength of about a normal human male.]
‘Then you do your part getting there. I’ll figure out the rest somehow.’
Trk—Tt-trk!
The moment he allowed it, Professor’s consciousness sank into the darkness, and Hyde’s rose to the surface.
“Ahhhh—! How refreshing. Although I do want to come out sometimes when it’s a relaxing situation and not an urgent one like this.”
[If this time works out well, I’ll let you take control for a full day.]
“Ohh!! Really? Vessel, you promised! You know we can’t lie to each other, right? You promised, alright?”
And so while Professor, no, Hyde was talking to himself, Aldrich, who had been standing next to him, stared at him with horror as if he saw another demon.
“This can’t be… his soul, it’s completely changed. Is this something that is truly possible?”
“Aha! Nice to meet you, Aldrich! You were pretty cool for an old man! I saw everything inside!”
“Inside? Then… are two souls coexisting? What exactly are you then?”
“Hehe. I am what you think I am—a monster.”
After making Aldrich fall into confusion with a few words, he lifted up Ottoman, who fell down from shock when the demon was summoned, and spoke to him.
“I don’t have time, so answer me fast. Can you make some kind of platform up there?”
“Uh… it’s possible. But you seem to have changed a litt—”
“Then please do that, alright!”
After hearing Ottoman’s answer, Hyde turned right around and jumped towards the cavity.
“H-hey! Wait….. Eeeeek! [Floating Water]!”
Just as Hyde lost his momentum and started falling, the flat water puddle Ottoman created bounced his body back up. Looking at how he bounced up higher, even with a light jump, showed that it wasn’t just an ordinary puddle of water.
“The water is imbued with the awakening of resistance! Its amount is more than enough to control at Level 1, so take that and—”
“Sorry, but I don’t know any of that magic stuff! That’s the other Professor’s thing! Just do what you just did and help me up there!”
“W-what?”
Pow!
Jumping into the demon’s heart using the water platform, Hyde activated all of the infective agents in his body as if lighting a fire on his entire body.
“Mutation Bloodlust”
Whoooooosh—
Bongggggg!
As his right arm collided with the massive mace that flew towards him, the demon’s right arm shot back from the impact, and Hyde’s body shot back like a bullet.
“Ahhhhh! [Floating Water]”
Pow!
“Wahoo! Nice catch! Water magic grandpa!”
Using the force of the impact, Hyde shot forward at an even faster speed.
Although the heart had been exposed just now by the previous impact, the chain in the demon’s right hand was flying towards him.
‘Looks like we’re all gonna die if I fail this here, so I’ll try a little bit harder!’
“8 seconds!”
Craack!
Hyde’s arm and chest burned away from hugging the chain that contained cursed mana, but Hyde continued to hold the chain as he landed at the edge of the cavity and then used all of his strength to pull at the chain as if uprooting an entire mountain.
Cra-a-a-a-ck-k!
“KAAAAA!!!!!”
The demon’s brittle skeleton, which had already been breaking down, shattered from the force, and as the demon’s entire right shoulder ripped off, the black wings attached to the back started to scatter.
“KUUU!!! DU KAA! TESAAAAA!!!!”
“Yeah, yeah! I know! It hurts when your body breaks this easily! 5 seconds!”
Poww!
Jumping into the cavity with a body now crumbling like the demon’s, Hyde braced himself on the magic Ottoman quickly activated and jumped towards the demon’s falling heart, then hammered his two arms down.
Boooooom!
Cr-r-k-rk-g-rack-k!
“KAAAAAA!!!!”
The demon had been struggling to crawl back up from the sinkhole by grabbing onto the edge but ended up completely falling back from Hyde’s final impact, leaving a long claw mark on the wall as he crashed down.
“Bones are supposed to be buried underground! Even I know that! I left 3 seconds for you! You have about one blow left!”
Whooosh!
With Hyde’s last words, Professor’s consciousness rose back up to the surface.
“Thanks, Hyde.”
Professor wasted no time ripping off the relic from his necklace and holding the main body of the relic in his hand.
A large oval with sharpened edges and an empty center.
Light of Nelphia
Cannot be destroyed until holy power is consumed. (4500/4500)
Effect: Enhances holy power. / Regenerates holy power when left in the light. / Locked / Locked / Locked
Its effects were an enhancement effect that was useless to Professor.
‘If it was a person associated with the church, then they could have been able to utilize the locked effects too. If I had even a pinch of holy power to activate the relic, then the power would have collected in the middle of the circle like an eye and shot out all sorts of powers!’
“But the moment I saw this, I knew I could use it like this!”
Professor secured four of his fingers inside the hole where the holy power was supposed to gather and gripped it tightly. It was a scene that a follower of the church would have fainted watching.
Professor was holding onto the Light of Nelphia like a brass knuckle.
Ziiiiiiingg—!
As soon as the relic started to react with the dark magic’s mana and let out its holy light, Professor used all of his strength to punch his hand into the demon’s heart.
“““KAAAA!!!! KU DEKA!!!! ALSEKRA!!! MAHELA!!!!”““
“Shut up and die!! It’s a fairytale tradition for demons to die at the hands of a warrior!!!!!”
Crack—
As Professor’s fist and the relic broke through the bone covering the black heart and reached inside—
Whooooooooooshhhh—!
“““KAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!”““
A bright light filled up the massive cavity, and a pillar of light shot up to the sky.