Into the Darkness (5)
As Dante’s symbiotic bugs poured forth, the parasites recoiled in terror and scattered.
[Host…! What is the host doing!]
[Protect us!]
[Move, quickly!!!]
The parasites desperately sent signals into the dragon’s brain, stirring its aggression. Trample and slaughter everything in sight—now! Yet the dragon was steeped in a massive dose of poison. The Noon Fairies had injected it with Red Slumber. Enough toxin to massacre dozens of humans had been pumped into the creature, but on a dragon it merely induced a heavy daze. That was enough.
Dante laid a hand on the dragon’s body and sent a pulse of mana through his bugs, commanding the symbionts.
[Leave none alive. Kill every parasite!]
The symbionts understood and obeyed perfectly. They had lived as one with their master since childhood; Dante’s orders were absolute. Without a single mistake, they tore into the parasites.
[Run!]
[No—fight back!]
[Gather! Everyone, together!]
The parasites fell into utter chaos. They had succeeded in parasitizing the dragon’s body, after all—the strongest creature alive. Nothing outside had ever frightened them. Yet when these enormous symbionts appeared, they had no way to resist.
[Kill them.]
[!]
[!]
[!]
Dante’s symbionts were calamity incarnate. There was nowhere to flee. They ripped through flesh and organs with terrifying speed, hunting down every escaping parasite. They never triggered the dragon’s immune response or left wounds; like the parasites themselves, they were creatures that lived inside other beings.
[Run!]
[This way!]
[Over here, quickly!]
The A’k chi Kxhi’s Worms writhed and clustered together, believing that unity might somehow save them. Of course, it only made them easier targets.
[Kill.]
[Kill.]
[Kill.]
The symbionts mercilessly dismembered the parasites in perfect rhythm with Dante’s mana pulses.
One of the A’k chi Kxhi’s Worms watched the slaughter in a trance.
[Save us!]
[Host! Do something!]
[I don’t want to die…!]
Its kin were being sliced apart by the colossal symbionts. The symbionts themselves showed no emotion as they butchered their own kind. And beyond them, faintly, came the pulse of a mage’s mana.
The worm thought, [I… I want to feel that power too…]
The reason was simple: the symbionts could feel it. They moved to that mana’s rhythm as they slaughtered its kin. If it could not win, then it would join them. Parasites were creatures that instinctively gravitated toward survival through submission.
The A’k chi Kxhi’s Worm surrendered its body to the mana pulse it sensed from beyond. Even the dragon, the strongest being alive, could not protect them. But this mage—if it allied with this mage—perhaps it could live in safety forever.
[I]
The worm sent out its own mana pulse.
[I want to live with you, Mage.]
The signal reached Dante naturally. He opened his eyes slightly.
‘This feeling…’
It was the same mana pulse that natural insects often emitted toward him—the plea of creatures that wanted nothing more than to stay by his side. And now an otherworldly parasite was sending it.
When he had tried to communicate, they had ignored him. One thorough beating later, and they were the ones bowing first.
‘No reason to refuse.’
Dante answered with his own pulse.
[Come to me.]
The worm replied at once.
[Thank you, Mage.]
A moment later, a tiny parasite slipped into Dante’s body. It instinctively tried to head for the brain, but Dante guided it to settle behind his eye. The worm had already accepted his mana; it was now one of his bugs. It curled up obediently behind the eyeball, its presence so natural that Dante felt nothing strange.
Other parasites belatedly begged for mercy as well, but Dante’s order was final.
[Kill them all.]
He left not a single one alive. Uncontrolled, these parasites were far too dangerous.
When the slaughter ended, the symbionts returned to Dante’s body.
“Well done.”
Dante turned his head. Sir Dan and his warriors were still desperately fending off the remaining monsters.
“Dante—!” Sir Dan shouted. “What happened—!!!”
Dante smiled without a word. The dragon let out a low growl.
“Krrrrrr…”
The monsters froze. Their instincts screamed a warning from the apex predator. Yet the parasites’ infection had dulled their reason; they did not flee. There would be no second warning.
The dragon opened its jaws wide. Destructive mana flashed.
KWAAAAAAA—!
“Good heavens…!” Sir Dan gasped, forgetting the battle in pure awe.
Over half the monsters vanished in the dragon’s breath. Dante spoke to him.
“Satisfied?”
Sir Dan laughed helplessly. “Incredible.”
The dragon lowered its head, eyes fixed on Dante.
Sir Dan immediately set off after Namiraz. The mage had hidden inside the cave and was dragged out by the warriors.
“This is impossible!!!” Namiraz screamed. “How did you break my magic? What bizarre trick did you use?!”
Dante merely smiled. Explaining that he had simply reversed the method Namiraz used to control the dragon would have been pointless—especially to a man whose fate was already sealed.
“Pekaraksis! Can you not hear me? I am your master! You must obey my commands!”
The dragon, Pekaraksis, answered.
[Every being is its own master, foolish mage.]
“You—!”
[Even if my body once responded to your mana, now that my mind is clear, I have no reason to listen to you.]
Pekaraksis snorted.
[I might lend an ear to a polite request. Commands, however, are another matter.]
Namiraz’s head drooped in defeat. Sir Dan glanced at Dante.
“Any use for him?”
“Interrogate him first.”
Dante asked Namiraz several questions—his connection to the Hand of Power, what the Lakravan Elder was planning—but the mage knew nothing. Or rather, he cared about nothing except his magical experiments.
“I—I’ll teach you everything! My magic! My research results! Take it all, just spare my life!!!”
“Not interested.”
Namiraz stared in disbelief. Dante had no desire to learn ordinary magic; if he had, he would have enrolled at the Mage Tower and studied alongside its master.
“Money! Yes, I’ll give you all my money! An enormous sum!”
“How much?”
“Seventy million celon!!!”
Dante’s reply was indifferent. “Pocket change.”
Namiraz gaped. Seventy million celon was a fortune most people could never amass in a lifetime. Objectively it was a vast amount, yet Dante was the eldest son of the Aision family. Spending that much would only make his father proud—“Our boy is finally learning how to socialize!”
Dante turned to Sir Dan. “He claims to have seventy million celon hidden away. Go take it.”
“…You’re sure? Giving it all to us?”
“Doesn’t matter to me.”
Dante handed Namiraz over to Sir Dan with one condition.
“In exchange, promise me one thing.”
“What?”
“Stop your liberation army activities.”
Sir Dan nodded. “Understood. I’m done with them anyway.”
He had already broken with Lakravan. Namiraz, however, shrieked in protest.
“W-wait! This is invalid! I never agreed—!”
“Hey, mage. We’re going to play a fun little game. Every time you fail to tell us where your money is, you lose a finger. Sound entertaining?”
Namiraz fell silent. The warriors would handle him from here.
[Finished?]
The massive dragon gazed down at Dante.
“More or less.”
[Then let us speak for a moment, young bug tamer.]
Dante and Pekaraksis talked. Most of the story was already known. When the mage Dorkuns continued his experiments—including demon summoning—Pekaraksis had killed him. In the process, the dragon had been infected by the remnants of A’k chi Kxhi’s worms. Realizing it could not remove the parasites with its own power and would eventually lose its reason, Pekaraksis had chosen to fall into a deep slumber, hoping time might somehow resolve the problem.
[I thought I might never open my eyes again.]
Pekaraksis looked at Dante with gentle eyes filled with trust and gratitude.
[The worms left by the great demon A’k chi Kxhi possessed a strange mana resistance unique to their world. Once infected, there was no way to remove them.]
“I understand. I tried to control them with magic myself, but they wouldn’t listen.”
[The only solution I could think of was to seek help from a lizardman mage of Bancatria. But lizardmen would never come this far north.]
Pekaraksis had slept for centuries, waiting for someone to find and help him.
[I never expected a human bug tamer to come to my aid.]
To Pekaraksis, Dante’s existence was extraordinary luck—a human who had learned bug taming, crossing the cold northern lands to reach the depths of these ancient ruins.
[I offer you my sincere thanks once more.]
“I’m glad to see you well again.”
[What is your name?]
“Dante of the Aision family.”
[Dante the bug tamer… What will you do with the A’k chi Kxhi’s worms?]
“I happened to subjugate one. I can control it, so I’ll keep it. The rest will be destroyed.”
[Commanding A’k chi Kxhi’s worms is dangerous, but I suppose no one can take a bug tamer’s bugs away. First, let us clear the rest from this laboratory.]
“Yes.”
Together they eradicated the remaining parasites. Using the dragon as bait, the worms revealed themselves, and Pekaraksis allowed them to enter his body—knowing Dante’s symbionts would finish them.
When it was done, Dante and Pekaraksis emerged from the ruins. A vast snowfield stretched before them. After so long underground, the blue sky felt like a breath of fresh air.
[Only one A’k chi Kxhi’s worm remains in this world now—the one you command, Dante.]
“That’s correct.”
[Manage it well. Should it ever escape your control, disaster will follow.]
Dante understood. He intended to be extremely careful.
Pekaraksis gazed toward the edge of the snowfield.
[It is noisy. Has the dimensional rift opened again?]
“Dimensional rift?”
[Throughout these lands are places where gaps to another world have formed. I used to seal them whenever they grew too wide.]
“Then…”
[It must have been difficult for your people. Every time a rift opened, monsters swept through and attacked.]
The “dimensional rifts” were the source of the monster waves. Dante stayed silent. Without the Empire’s intervention, the northern kingdoms would have fallen. And the one who had been quietly reducing the scale of those waves was Pekaraksis.
The dragon narrowed his eyes.
[Someone is deliberately widening the cracks.]
“You mean someone is intentionally making them larger?”
[Yes. The rift has grown far more than expected. I do not know why, but I will be busy for a while.]
Pekaraksis looked at Dante.
[There is much I wish to discuss, but now is not the time. I must tend to the rift. Dante of Aision, visit my nest whenever you have the chance. I would like to repay you properly.]
“I will come before leaving the north.”
[I shall await you gladly.]
The great dragon spread its wings. With a roar of wind and snow, it soared into the blue sky and vanished.
Dante and Sir Dan stood watching until the dragon was gone. Dante asked, “What will you do now?”
Sir Dan answered without hesitation. “Namiraz is dealt with. Next is Lakravan.”
Dante smiled. “I wanted to catch Lakravan myself.”
“Then come with me.”
Sir Dan dashed ahead. Dante followed at a leisurely pace. Countless Snowstorm Beetles danced around him, as if welcoming the bug tamer.