Chapter 49
Chapter 49
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 49
Chapter Title: Chapter 4: Eyelids (22)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
***
“...Professor?”
Even as Rakshasha uttered the name aloud, she felt a profound strangeness about it. She was the one who had wrapped the unconscious man in threads and hidden him on the ceiling, so there was no way the person emerging from within could be anyone else.
Yet why? Why did this man before her, unchanged in every way, feel so utterly alien?
‘No, one thing has changed, hasn’t it?’
His eyes. Those eyes, always half-lidded with mischief no matter the situation, now darted about like those of a reptile.
The one who first shattered this bizarre standoff was Isaac, who had been observing the scene with immense fascination.
“Professor. Did you just call that monster ‘Professor’?”
‘...Damn it.’
She had slipped up in her panic. There had to be a reason the Professor was hiding his identity.
A razor-thin curve appeared on Isaac’s face, which had remained utterly still until now, like a mask. His eyes bulged as if he couldn’t miss a single instant, and the smile drawn only with his mouth was that of a true madman.
“Professor... Professor... Yes. There was indeed an experimental subject by that name. Among the countless subjects, one that stuck in my memory quite vividly. Now I remember. That appearance... it’s him from when he was first captured as a subject.”
Rumble! Rumbllllle!
Isaac’s hands trembled uncontrollably, unable to contain his emotions. The mage clasped them together as if in prayer. The mana source behind him began to boil explosively, mirroring his fervor.
“You mutts... you always exceed my expectations. So does that mean that monster isn’t the Queen’s creation, but something I made? What principle caused such a change? Since it’s using the name ‘Professor,’ does it retain human memories even after becoming a monster? Is it truly following the Queen’s orders? Or is it acting on its own will? If so, who remains inside now? You, Professor? Answer me!”
Whooooom—
His clasped hands extended his middle and pinky fingers straight, while the first joint of his thumb folded inward, fixing Isaac’s imagery through the meaning embedded in his fingers. A spell born from six enlightenments. Isaac had witnessed it—in his dreams, humanity’s future swept away helplessly by the fierce waves of fate. In nightmares repeating endlessly, Isaac had resolved himself. Since no one else could open their eyes, he, the one who had, would save humanity. Even if most of the living perished, even if they lost their human forms—it would be better than his nightmares!
“I shall study your body and lead humanity to the next stage!”
Isaac’s clasped hands parted to the sides, and the entire body of water floating above the mana source poured out endlessly like a waterfall.
6th Hierarchy Origin Spell
[Isaac Mandalius’s Sinking Wave]
“Gahk!”
“M-Master...! Khek!”
Isaac’s disciples, serving as mana conduits within the mana repulsion field of the magic stone, could not withstand the immense power. They spat blood and collapsed one by one. In exchange for that blood toll, the colossal mana freed from the repulsion field transformed into living violence at Isaac’s command and spread throughout the laboratory.
“Waaah. So that’s water? It doesn’t look as pretty as they say.”
‘A 6th Hierarchy spell. This could really kill us...’
Rakshasha hesitated. If she revealed her full power here, she could block it somehow, but she would collapse from exhaustion right after. Was the man before her truly the Professor she knew? Could she count on this entity as an ally?
“Water, huh... Guess I’ll touch it anyway? Looks dangerous, though—”
Watching the Professor casually spout such nonsense, Rakshasha gripped thread in one hand and a dagger in the other, steadying her breath as she asked,
“Who... are you?”
“U-Uwak! H-Human woman!”
The Professor—no, the ‘thing’ wearing the Professor’s form—finally noticed Rakshasha behind him and leaped back in surprise.
“D-Don’t misunderstand. It’s not that I dislike you or anything, it’s just... the shell is sleeping right now...”
“There’s no time! Answer!”
Kwaaaaa!
There was no more time to deliberate. She didn’t know what kind of spell it was, but the moment it touched the water, even her tough Elder Spider threads shattered into fragments and scattered.
“Wait a sec. I’m thinking. Everyone’s been asking what I am since earlier—this is quite the philosophical question. You saved the shell, so I’ll save you too. Just stay calm and wait. No need to rush.”
“No need... to rush?”
The thing blocked Rakshasha’s path as she lunged forward, nodding its head. Its attention wasn’t on the spell threatening their lives, but elsewhere.
A name. An independent entity possesses a unique noun to refer to itself. Though he was but a half-existence of consciousness, now that he had emerged, shouldn’t he have a name to introduce himself?
‘Shadow? Too cliché. Monster? Seems useful only for waking up. A name... something I’d like others to call me by...’
Slowly sifting through the Professor’s memories in the languid flow of its consciousness, it finally found a word that fit perfectly. Not an old memory at all. One from when it had dredged up the guy’s trauma to seize his body.
[Deep inside every human lurks a beast... Peel away the thin shell of reason, and there lies a colossal beast the likes of which they’ve never even imagined in their lifetime...]
“The beast within, huh...”
Drip, plop, drip drip!
The Professor’s skin cracked open, and the monster’s flesh trapped inside began stepping toward the world. Come to think of it, when the shell was young, he’d read a story much like their current situation. About a good doctor and his hideous inner self.
The thin mask covering the Professor’s face clung to his skin, and his mouth tore open wide enough to reach his ears as it moved.
“Hyde. My name... Hyde will do.”
The fully shed monster charged toward Isaac’s spell.
***
The monster, Hyde, had been born without a body. Born from the unique properties of Edenora’s infection factor—an infection factor capable of independent activity—he sometimes thought of himself as a ghost, another ego born within the Professor’s mind.
As he devoured the host’s memories and his consciousness grew, the instincts of the infection factor that failed to claim the brain only shrank, buried within that consciousness. But the more memories he absorbed, the more sensations he shared with the Professor, the greater the monster’s thirst grew. A thirst to experience it directly. The loneliness of being stranded on an island of consciousness in an empty mind, and...
“Shell, your thinking is too human...”
Trapped in the framework of consciousness called Professor Park, frustration at being unable to properly utilize such an excellent body.
A short time, but a body of infinite regeneration. As long as the thinking brain remained, what did the form matter? Why cling to a human shape?
‘Regeneration doesn’t require injury, right? For example... using it like this?’
Dozens of red arms sprouted from Hyde’s shoulders. In an instant, atop those arms grew white bones, muscles, skin, layering endlessly to increase in size. Soft material meant easy to shape. In the blink of an eye, what grew wasn’t so much a body part as a massive spear or stake.
“Mage, you were curious who I am?”
Kwaaaaa!!
Swinging the colossal structure born from his body toward the water flow closing in, Hyde declared,
“I’m a monster. Neither a mute nor a human—just a monster.”
Kwadududud!
The massive spear of flesh and bone clashed with Isaac’s spell.
***
Isaac couldn’t believe what was unfolding before his eyes.
‘Is... that even possible?’
Sinking Wave. The most powerful spell he had created upon his sixth enlightenment. A wave that drew in and crushed everything it touched with deep-sea pressure—and into it plunged a red spear.
Kwadudududuk!
The massive spear crumpled and twisted pathetically upon contact with the wave, but like shedding its skin, it shattered endlessly, cleaving through the torrent. Amid the mangled flesh, new flesh sprouted, only to be crushed again, broken again. After hundreds, thousands of compressions, the spear’s tip, now needle-like and black, finally pierced through the pressure-formed wave and impaled Isaac’s hand forming the seal.
“Urk!”
Isaac swiftly summoned a water whip with his remaining mana, shattering the diamond-hard spear tip, then calmly canceled the Sinking Wave to prepare his next spell.
The seal disrupted, the imagery forming the deep-sea wave scattered. Maintaining a multi-enlightenment image without seals in such constrained conditions was impossible, so he decided to shift from offense to defense.
The red mute had become an entirely different creature. No more room for complacency.
“Yes. So this is a talking mute... Truly living up to the name! Enough to fell this kingdom’s greatest knight!”
Just a little longer. Stall a bit more, and Tovrun’s forces would arrive. Time was on his side. Focusing solely on defense, blocking the abomination’s attacks wouldn’t be impossible. Calm your mind. Steady yourself and form the imagery for the next spell...
Crack-!
“Gaaaahk!”
In that instant, Isaac’s thoughts crumbled before excruciating agony.
‘Water Bind was deployed flawlessly, so how, from where did it—
His eyes turned to the source of the pain, and Isaac realized he could no longer maintain his composure.
His hand. From the small wound on his hand grew an arm twisting his wrist, tiny teeth between its fingers gnawing at his arm, and a white eyeball sprouting from the back of his hand glaring at him in mockery.
‘Th-This, what in the world is this! Growing from my hand, from my own hand!’
Terror began filling the old mage’s eyes.
“Knowledge is for use. You knew mutts can still move even without heads. Means infection factors can share senses and control the body without a brain, right?”
Well, you’ve never lived as an infection factor like me, so you couldn’t pull that off.
Hyde snickered to his sleeping host as if lecturing him.
“Gaaaahk! Uwaaa, uwaaaahk!”
Isaac clutched his arm, rolling on the floor, sanity unraveling. It wasn’t just pain. A primal terror he’d never felt before. The horror of being attacked by something infiltrating and growing within his own body—it paralyzed the great mage’s reason.
Grinning at the sight, Hyde quietly backed up to Rakshasha’s side.
“Human woman.”
“...What?”
Rakshasha raised her dagger warily. She didn’t know the full situation, but this thing wasn’t the Professor, and it was extremely dangerous.
Hyde’s face fell as if hurt by her reaction.
“Tch! Harsh. So sweet to the shell, but I get the cold shoulder.”
“...Because you’re not him.”
Yeah, fair enough.
Grumbling at her words, Hyde flopped carelessly onto the floor.
“Finish that guy off.”
“Why not do it yourself?”
“Even if I wanted to, nothing left.”
Seeing Rakshasha’s confused look, Hyde held up his hand. His parched hand was crumbling from the fingertips.
“Used up every drop of absorbed blood to the limit. The shell can’t control this stuff, so if I push further here, he’ll really dry up and die. My time awake is almost up anyway.”
An infinite yet consumptive body. Observing the battle, he’d mobilized everything he’d learned, observed, and imagined.
-Impurity in water disrupts the mage’s imagery.-
So he’d invested most of his resources into the spell. As the spear pierced and his flesh was swallowed by the wave, the pressure weakened, reaching its target.
-Magic originates from the mage’s imagery.-
So he’d squeezed nonexistent resources to stage the most brutal, irrational assault. To make the enemy mistake. To balloon into the object of terror in the enemy’s imagination, stripping their sanity. Even if he could move detached infection factors, not as freely as his own body. The arm gripping the mage’s wrist had long stopped moving, the biting teeth barely piercing skin, the eyeball just rolling about on its own.
But wasn’t a mage one who reshapes the world with their imagery? The terror seeping into the mage’s heart had already grown on its own, gaining power. What Isaac saw was no longer Hyde’s creation. Merely the mage’s self-made horror taking form.
A tactic the shell often used against foes.
“Call it ‘bluffing.’”
Ahh, that was fun. A body really is great.
Feeling his consciousness fade, Hyde smiled in satisfaction, striving to etch every sensation into memory as it sank away: the cold touch of water droplets, Rakshasha’s beautiful face gazing down suspiciously, the thirst craving blood from his body, even the pain of his body burning away. Each one precious to Hyde.
“Human woman, wrap up that plan or whatever. Give my regards to the shell.”
With a final wink to Rakshasha, Hyde slowly sank back into consciousness.
***
```