The Holy Cross
The dungeon training ground shook with a deafening crash. A thick cloud of dust billowed up from the impact.
Licht staggered to his feet almost immediately, roughly wiping the blood that trickled from the corner of his mouth.
And then he raged.
He had dropped every pretense of being a kind senior. The fanatical gleam of a man who communed with gods was gone as well. All that remained was a hideous expression twisted by pure fury, like a vengeful demon.
He was confused.
Why? Why wasn’t this bastard that existence?
Was he not the Lord of the Night that Licht had worshipped without reservation? Was he really nothing more than a pathetic first-year academy student, a mere sack of blood?
It was as if everything he believed had been trampled into dust.
“You… you dare deceive me?! How dare you—how dare you?!”
He no longer bothered with polite speech.
He was simply a necromancer consumed by rage.
Licht’s scream sent a tidal wave of emotion crashing through his undead army. The hundreds of corpses that had frozen in place all turned their heads at once to stare at me.
Clatter. Clatter.Hssssss—
The grotesque sound of bones scraping together and the wet sloshing of rotting flesh filled the air.
Then the wave of undead surged toward me like a horrifying tide.
Watching that terrible flood approach, I twirled my staff with deliberate nonchalance.
“You’re the one who jumped to conclusions and got yourself fooled. When exactly did I ever deceive you?”
“Shut your mouth!!”
“Why are you blaming me?”
“A mere 2-Circle mage dares to show such arrogance before me?! I’ll tear the flesh from your bones and feed them to my children as excellent nourishment!”
Licht screamed like his sanity had completely snapped.
“Kill him! Drag that insolent bastard to my feet!!”
The moment his command rang out, the skeleton knights at the very front raised their weapons in unison. Behind them, a horde of ghouls let out piercing shrieks and began to swarm me from every direction, attempting to surround me.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
I was still in Blood Flow Acceleration. My body had already surpassed its limits by an absurd margin.
The instant a skeleton’s rusted sword slashed toward my neck, I twisted my upper body with minimal effort and slipped out of its path. The chilling sound of the blade slicing through air brushed past my ear, but that was all.
Using the momentum, I lightly kicked off the ground.
My body floated in midair as if gravity no longer applied to me.
Watching the ghouls’ claws rake the spot where I had just been standing, I leisurely created distance between us.
“Perfect timing.”
The moment I landed, I adjusted my grip on the staff and muttered under my breath.
“I was just looking for someone to test my abilities on. And look at this—there are so many excellent test subjects lying around.”
Perhaps my provocation had struck a nerve. Licht ground his teeth audibly and began drawing thick dark mana into both hands.
“A pathetic 2-Circle mage running his mouth…! Do you really think your cheap Moving Casting will work in front of my legion of the dead?!”
I ignored his words and pointed the tip of my staff into the empty air.
Inside my head, I began drawing out complex calculations.
The spell I chose was 3-Circle. And among them, one that held absolute superiority over him—holy attribute magic.
A purifying strike that condensed light into the shape of a cross.
“The brilliant light that sweeps away the abyss…”
The first verse of the incantation flowed quietly yet clearly from my lips.
At that moment, Licht’s face twisted in a bizarre expression.
As a necromancer, he understood better than anyone what was happening.
The dazzling mana beginning to coalesce at the tip of my staff. The spell I was trying to cast.
“That’s… holy attribute magic! How can a 2-Circle mage—! Holy magic should only be possible at 3-Circle!”
He shouted in disbelief.
Holy attribute magic was, by nature, a domain that could only manifest properly at 3-Circle or higher.
Therefore, to the Licht who knew me as a 2-Circle mage, this made no sense.
His trembling eyes were filled with thick suspicion.
Those eyes asked: Is it real? Is it a bluff? Could Eros truly be 3-Circle?
There’s no way. A first-year student reaching 3-Circle? Impossible.
He shook his head violently, as if trying to cast off his anxiety.
“Whether it’s real or just bravado, I just need to kill you before you finish the incantation.”
Licht snapped his fingers, sending a signal.
The skeleton archer unit fired in unison. Dozens of bone arrows began raining down on me.
Under normal circumstances, anyone witnessing that arrow storm would have abandoned their incantation to cast a defensive spell, or simply fled.
Or they would have been turned into a pincushion and died right there.
Moreover, the widely known limit of my Moving Casting was only a single step.
Just one step.
But I refused to believe in that limit.
I could feel the speed of the arrows pouring toward me slowing down.
My thought process accelerated like crazy, and the calculations needed to maintain the incantation felt as natural and smooth as breathing.
…Somehow, I think I can do this.
It was the same feeling I’d had when facing Eisen.
The sensation of thoughts accelerating until the processing speed itself became overwhelmingly fast.
At this rate, with this level of mental calculation speed, I was certain I could maintain the incantation even while moving my body.
No—I was convinced.
Shall we try?
So I moved.
Without stopping the incantation, I kicked off the ground and shifted my body sideways.
Shwoooosh—!
I slipped through the trajectory of the falling arrows and instantly widened the distance.
“Punishing the impure darkness, and granting rest to the restless dead…”
My lips continued to recite the spell without pause.
The moment I revealed myself again, Licht’s mouth fell open in utter disbelief.
I could see his pupils trembling, losing their focal point.
“W-what the hell is that….”
For the first time, true terror had taken root on his face.
“No way. No way. No way no way no way no way…!”
Whether his face showed confusion or sheer horror didn’t matter to me.
I was completely immersed in my own senses.
In the Blood Flow Acceleration state, my brain thought and processed as if it had evolved to the next level.
The sensation I had only glimpsed while fighting Eisen was now fully under my control.
Before long, I completed the final verse of the incantation. At the tip of my staff, a sphere of condensed light took form.
The air in the dungeon seemed to purify itself in the presence of the holy energy swirling around it.
Licht instinctively screamed.
“Stop it!!! Block it right now!!”
He tried to shove his undead forward, but it was already too late.
I thrust my staff in Licht’s direction.
And in a low, cold voice, I spoke.
⟨ Holy Cross ⟩
BOOOOOOM—!
A massive cross of light slammed down with a thunderous roar.
The blinding radiance—too intense to keep one’s eyes open—swallowed the horde of undead whole. The sickening sound of burning flesh erupted from every direction.
Skeletons melted as their bones dissolved. Ghouls spewed black smoke before being completely purified from existence.
“Uwaaaaah!!”
Licht, unable to dodge completely, let out a pained death rattle as he was blasted backward.
When the afterglow of light finally scattered and the dust settled, Licht’s figure became visible once more.
One of his shoulders and his side were horribly charred, as if burned by flames.
Even as he writhed in agony from the searing pain, he glared up at me with eyes full of murderous rage.
“Cough, hack…! Uuuugh…! Y-you monster…!”
I twirled my staff once in a relaxed motion and readjusted my grip.
Then, as if showing off, I activated my mana circuits once again.
“Hmm, it wasn’t as easy as I thought. So, what should I test next?”
Without even trying to hide my excitement, I began constructing a 3-Circle fire spell.
The moment my lips started the incantation again, uncontrollable horror flashed across Licht’s eyes.
He seemed to realize something instinctively and screamed once more.
“Kill him…! Rip that bastard’s mouth apart no matter what!!”
…That’s right.
He gave orders to every last undead remaining under his command.
Flesh golems, bone knights, skeleton soldiers—every single one.
Disgusting sounds were closing in on me.
But somehow, none of it felt particularly threatening.
How disappointing.
If I hadn’t been in the middle of casting, I would have gladly said it to his face.
I would have enjoyed watching his face twist even more. It would have been quite entertaining.
I snorted without realizing it, ducking under the flying axe blade of a spear as it whistled past.
I dodged attacks, leaped over terrain, and strolled leisurely through the gaps in the undead formation.
All the while, my incantation continued without interruption.
Licht ground his teeth in fear.
“That damn rat…!!”
In the end, he had no choice but to acknowledge it.
As if to prove it, he squeezed out every drop of his mana and summoned a pitch-black cloud into the air.
Rumble.
Piles of bones scattered across the floor shot upward, beginning to form something enormous.
The undead stopped charging and instead clumped together, gradually sealing off my escape routes.
When I turned right, two flesh golems blocked the path. When I veered left, a wall of bones cut off my retreat.
“Heh heh… Just die already.”
With Licht’s words, the net made of corpses tightened around my range of movement.
I felt the cold touch of the dungeon wall against my back.
To my left and right rose masses of bone and rotting flesh. In front of me, dozens of undead were being funneled inward.
A perfect encirclement. No room to retreat, no space to dodge.
Licht, blood dripping from his wounds, limped out from between the undead with a grotesque smile.
On his twisted face bloomed the ecstasy and triumph of finally having me trapped.
“This is the end for you, you filthy little rat.”
He lifted his chin, certain of victory.
Dark mana swirled and gathered at his fingertips.
“Before your incantation finishes, I’ll kill you myself.”
The moment Licht prepared to deliver the final blow—
I looked at him and spoke with a quiet, mocking laugh.
“If you let your guard down…”
“What?”
Licht’s expression stiffened. He followed my gaze and turned his head.
There, a woman stood with her sword raised high.
“You should have died, senior.”
With eyes as cold as ice, Lise brought down the sword gripped in both hands.
“N-no…!”