Into the Darkness (3)
Sir Dan and Dante quickly located the warriors.
“Morgon!”
“C-Captain!”
The voice was urgent. The warriors had surrounded one of their own—the fighter named Morgon.
“Captain! Morgon’s acting strange! He looks insane!”
Morgon shouted back.
“I—I haven’t gone mad…!”
“…”
“Help me… Please help me, Captain!”
Morgon raised his massive axe and swung it at his comrades. The warriors recoiled in horror. Though they were seasoned fighters and no one was injured, shock and fury burned clearly on their faces.
“Morgon! Drop the axe! Now!”
“I—I want to…! But my body won’t listen!!!”
“That’s no excuse!”
Just as everyone condemned Morgon, another warrior suddenly raised his weapon.
“…Huh?”
“Graaah!”
He brought it down hard on his comrade’s thigh.
“Algen! You—what the hell?! Have you lost your mind?!”
“No…! Why am I doing this?!”
Morgon was only the beginning. One by one, the other warriors lost control of their bodies. Weapons were drawn and turned on one another.
Sir Dan stared blankly at the scene. He was an exceptional warrior, yet he had no idea what was happening.
“Demon…! Is it a demon?!”
He could only mutter fragmented rumors about the ruins.
“The sealed demon has awakened…”
Then someone stepped forward—Dante Aision, the suspicious mage from the Empire.
“I’ll handle this.”
“…!”
“Any warriors who can still move—disarm them.”
Sir Dan snapped back to his senses. He hated relying on anyone, especially an Imperial, but right now the only person he could count on was this mage.
“Disarm them!”
“Yes!”
A chaotic fight erupted among the warriors. Sir Dan knocked weapons aside with practiced efficiency, helping wherever he could.
‘My body…!’
Even Sir Dan felt it during the struggle. Sensation in his limbs was fading, as though someone else were seizing control. Yet before his own body failed him, he managed to subdue every remaining warrior.
‘He fights well.’
Dante was impressed. The man was a true master of combat.
The disarmed warriors knelt in a single line. Dante approached one of them, a symbiotic bug already in his hand.
“Wait.”
Sir Dan grabbed Dante’s wrist. Dante tilted his head.
“What is that… bug-looking thing?”
“It’s a bug. A symbiotic parasite.”
“…Symbiotic parasite?”
“As I said before—you’ve all been infected by parasites lurking in these ruins.”
The warriors drew sharp breaths. Dante shook the bug gently.
“If these were ordinary parasites, my magic could extract them. But they’re not normal bugs. We have to deal with them physically.”
“Physically…?”
“By having other bugs bite them to death.”
“???”
“Watch.”
Dante stepped up to Morgon and held the symbiotic parasite before his eyes. Acting on instinct, the bug crawled straight into Morgon’s eye socket.
“…!”
The warriors covered their mouths, trembling at the grotesque sight.
The symbiotic parasite slipped through the eye and reached the brain, quickly locating the brain-parasitic worm.
The symbiotic parasite bit the intruder to death without mercy and swallowed the corpse whole. Moments later it emerged through Morgon’s nostril, spat out the remains, and vanished back into Dante’s palm.
Dante displayed the dead parasite to the warriors.
“That’s how it’s done.”
“…”
“There’s a risk of reinfection, so from now on I’ll leave the symbiotic parasites inside you instead of removing them.”
The method was horrifying, yet the parasites were gone.
“D-Do we really have to do it this way?”
Sir Dan asked, visibly uneasy.
“If you’d rather go mad and die, I won’t stop you.”
“…”
Any reluctance vanished instantly. Letting bugs into his brain was far preferable to losing his mind.
“Then start with me.”
“Fine.”
Sir Dan set the example, calming his men. Dante implanted a symbiotic parasite into his head and eliminated the brain worm. He repeated the process for every warrior until all were clean.
“Is that it?”
“If you keep moving through the ruins, more parasites will enter. But the symbiotic ones I left behind will handle them. They seem to target the brain first, so any new arrivals will be destroyed.”
The symbiotic parasite whispered fresh information to Dante while chewing through the brain worms. It had gleaned fragments of the parasites’ mana.
‘An instinct to parasitize the strong…’
The brain worms possessed a clear drive to attach themselves to powerful hosts. Stronger hosts meant better survival odds. That was why they immediately forced their hosts to attack others—victory meant their current host was superior; defeat meant switching to a stronger one.
‘…No wonder they were clinging to that demon brat.’
Dante clicked his tongue inwardly. If these were otherworldly bugs, their natural home was hell—a place of constant conflict. Clinging to the strong was only natural.
Once every parasite was removed, Dante turned to Sir Dan’s group.
“The exit is sealed?”
“…”
Sir Dan hesitated, then answered.
“Lakravan contacted us. He said you entered the ruins without permission, so we were to eliminate you along with the warriors.”
“That’s why you came looking for me.”
“…I came to get rid of you, yet now I owe you another debt.”
Dante was certain Sir Dan no longer intended to attack him. When they had met again inside the ruins, Sir Dan had spoken of escaping rather than striking first. Whether he planned to capture Dante outside or not, he had chosen not to kill him outright. Perhaps he felt he already owed Dante after the werewolf fight. Either way, it worked in Dante’s favor.
“Lakravan… sealing the ruins on his own.”
Killing intent flashed in Sir Dan’s eyes. He had trusted the man as a fellow member of the northern liberation army, only to be herded into a deadly ruin and locked inside.
“If we get out of here, I’ll make him pay.”
Dante studied him for a moment.
“Is there another way out?”
“There are two exits. The one we entered through is the first. The second is a narrow, dangerous passage at the far end of the ruins.”
When the ruins were first excavated, the parasites had been dormant. They only became active once people began wandering inside and prey became plentiful. From that point on the cult had restricted access and hidden the parasites’ existence.
“Why did Lakravan excavate this place?”
“I don’t know the details. He never shared much information with us.”
“You allied with someone like that.”
“…It was an unavoidable choice. He’s not a good ally, but having no ally at all is worse.”
Sir Dan shook his head.
“If I’d known what he was really like, I never would have joined him.”
A belated realization.
“You said there’s an exit at the far end?”
“Yeah.”
“Let’s hope it isn’t sealed.”
Since the main entrance was blocked, they had no choice but to head for the second exit. Even though the ruins swarmed with parasites, Dante felt no fear.
“Let’s keep moving.”
“Right…”
Sir Dan naturally fell in behind Dante. Inside these dangerous ruins, they were comrades.
Dante and the warriors pressed deeper into the ruins.
…A small bat watched them from the shadows.
# Bar reported to Dante.
[Dante, sir. This place is enormous. Like the underground storage beneath a mansion.]
It was the best description a cockroach-level intellect could manage.
[But terrible things are scattered everywhere. They tried to cling to me, so I barely escaped.]
“Good work, Bar. It’s dangerous ahead—stay close.”
Dante recalled the bat. This area was just as heavily infested as the previous section.
As expected.
“Grr… grrrooooh—!”
“!!!”
From the darkness, monsters emerged one by one. Werewolves and giant rats, their bodies covered in clusters of parasite egg sacs. There were also ice trolls native to the northern snowfields, dire wolves the size of tigers, and crystal lizards encased in glittering crystal.
“What… is this place…?”
Sir Dan muttered in confusion. Monsters were expected, but the sheer variety was staggering. It looked like a northern monster exhibition.
Then a voice spoke from the darkness.
“Cluck cluck cluck… Guests all the way to this makeshift laboratory? How unexpected.”
An old man stepped into view. Dante recognized him at once.
‘…A mage.’
The mana waves radiating from the old man carried the unmistakable signature of a true practitioner.
“Who are you?”
Sir Dan glared at the stranger. He had never seen the man before.
The old man smiled thinly.
“If you’re asking for my insignificant name, it’s Namiraz.”
“You’re a deaf old fool. I didn’t ask your name—I asked what you are.”
“Cluck cluck cluck… Full of spirit, young man.”
Namiraz slowly raised his hand. The monsters bared their fangs in response.
“As you can see, this is the magic workshop I created.”
“Workshop…?”
“A unique place you won’t find anywhere else in this world. You must have received quite the warm welcome from the parasites… Cluck cluck cluck. It seems that handsome mage handled them well.”
Namiraz pointed a bony finger at Dante. He had instantly recognized Dante as a mage as well.
‘No ordinary mage.’
Dante sensed the old man’s formidable skill. At the same time, he realized Namiraz held the key to escaping the ruins.
“The otherworldly parasites… The mage Dorkuns named them A’k chi Kxhi’s Worm. They burrow into a creature’s brain and seize control, awakening aggression and driving the host to attack anything nearby.”
True to his nature, Namiraz chattered on with a grin, revealing everything he knew.
“I built this workshop to study what happens when A’k chi Kxhi’s Worm infects monsters.”
“…”
Sir Dan’s expression hardened. The combination of parasites and monsters carried no benevolent intent.
“You… don’t tell me…”
“Cluck cluck cluck… The north is a fascinating land. Monster waves appear every year, so experimental subjects never run out!”
Dante stepped forward.
“You released bug-infected monsters outside the ruins?”
“Not yet.”
“…”
“These otherworldly vermin are interesting but dangerous. My patron asked me to find a way to control them… Cluck cluck cluck… Unfortunately, I’m a beast tamer, not a bug tamer.”
A spark flared at Namiraz’s nape—an A’k chi Kxhi’s Worm had tried to attach itself and burned against his electric barrier. Dante understood at once: the old mage had wrapped his entire body in electric mana to protect himself.
“But time is running out.”
“…”
“The monster wave will begin soon. It’s time to release my proud experimental subjects.”
He had originally planned to master control of the worms before releasing them, but since he lacked that ability, he had settled on simply unleashing them.
Sir Dan roared.
“How dare you attempt such a thing in the north—!”
Even a fool could imagine the result: a sea of blood and slaughter.
Namiraz laughed lightly.
“Complaining to me is pointless…! It’s all my employer’s decision!”
Dante asked calmly.
“Lakravan?”
“Oh. You’ve met that wealthy swindler too?”
“…”
“I thought you weren’t an ordinary mage. Tell me, resourceful mage—how did you cross the ruins teeming with A’k chi Kxhi’s Worm? Did you perhaps learn a secret art for handling bugs?”
Snap! Namiraz snapped his fingers. The monster horde surged forward.
…And that was not all.
“U-urgh…”
“Grrroooar…”
The excavation workers, now bodies swarming with parasites, joined the charge.
Namiraz grinned.
“If you’re curious, I’ll simply capture you and ask.”
“…”
“Go, my proud minions! Spare only the mage—kill the rest!”
“Uwoooargh—!”
The heavily infected monsters charged, their bodies reinforced by forced mana. If their flesh burst, the parasites would swarm for new hosts. They were formidable opponents.
But not for Dante.
“Yeah. If you’re curious, I’ll just capture you and ask.”
“…?”
Dante took a combat stance. The Noon Fairies burst forth in a buzzing swarm. Namiraz clapped his hands.
“So you are a bug tamer after all! You avoided infection by enslaving bugs inside your body! Cluck cluck cluck! But A’k chi Kxhi’s Worm is an otherworldly bug—not something ordinary bug taming can control!”
Namiraz knew of bug taming from his studies of beasts. These worms possessed natural magic resistance; no ordinary bug tamer could command them.
He assumed Dante had no way to deal with the infected monsters.
“Your magic won’t work on A’k chi Kxhi’s Worm, bug tamer!”
Dante answered with a single word.
“I know.”
“…?”
His attempts at subjugation had already failed. The worms refused to obey. But that didn’t matter right now. Defeating the old mage came first.
Dante detonated his mana, boosting his physical abilities to the limit. The fastest way to end a mage? Close the distance and beat him senseless.
In an instant Dante blurred forward and drove his fist into Namiraz’s face.
“Graaah!”
The old mage screamed and tumbled across the floor. Dante’s voice cracked like thunder.
“Everyone, attack!”
Sir Dan echoed the command a heartbeat later.
“Attack!”
The northern warriors charged the infected monsters. Caught off guard, the creatures fell helplessly.