Chapter 31
Chapter 31
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 31
Chapter Title: The Magic Tower's Atrocity
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Numerous bookshelves lined with countless tomes,
Desks piled high with stacks of research materials.
And scattered throughout were mages wandering about for their studies.
However, at this moment,
none of them—cloaked in thick robes—paid the slightest attention to the one person who had just entered.
They merely shot a single hollow glance this way with their utterly lifeless eyes.
People utterly disinterested in anything beyond their own work.
I'd heard that most mages were creatures of habit like this, but watching it firsthand still left a strange feeling I couldn't shake.
'Is that experiment... still underway? Even so, I didn't expect them to ignore me quite this thoroughly.'
Arcroyal, who had just massacred the horde of attacking monsters in a mere three minutes.
After seeing that child off, she bore no burden in battle at all—human-made magic beasts were utterly beneath her notice.
Immediately after,
she had returned straight to the research labs of this magic tower and was quietly observing the situation.
While feeling a touch of bewilderment at the humans' excessive apathy.
'Hmm... Maybe I should at least browse some books?... No matter what, I need to gather information...'
With that thought, Arcroyal reached out toward the bookshelf.
At that moment…
-Ding! Ding! Ding!
“!”
“...Hmm.”
“Has the time come already?”
[?]
As the bell tolled, the mages promptly set down their books and pens, heading off somewhere.
At this abrupt shift, Arcroyal wondered if the experiment was finally beginning and followed along with the group.
The destination was a vast glass wall positioned at one side of the lab.
She hadn't noticed it before, shrouded as it was in darkness, but people stood there clutching notepads and pens.
Arcroyal mimicked them for the time being.
And…
-Flash!
A blinding light suddenly flared to life.
At the scene that materialized all at once, Arcroyal found herself momentarily unable to process a single thought.
'Wh-what... is that…? What in the world…'
*
Dreams are most blissful when pursued.
Once grasped, all that remains is a bittersweet satisfaction laced with regret, followed by the harsh, unrelenting truths of 'reality'.
The truth that what one believed to be the pinnacle of happiness is merely the gateway to even greater suffering.
And in this regard,
the mage who had once desperately yearned to enter Somora Magic Tower—and finally realized her dream—
the woman named Obelia Solt let out another sigh today amid the exhausting, brutal reality that shattered her ideals.
‘…Huh?’
In the midst of her reverie, one figure caught her eye.
Clad in a mage's robe just like everyone else here, possessing a notably tall stature.
A newcomer, no doubt, since security magic barred ordinary folk from even approaching—but like the others, Obelia paid them little mind.
She lacked the spare energy for it anyway, and this place operated on the principle of claiming your own spot and pursuing your research independently.
Just a passing impression along the lines of, 'Another soul come to rot away alongside us here...'
Obelia roughly shoved the book in her hand aside.
Some tidying remained, but the next experiment would commence in three minutes.
They rang the bell precisely on schedule,
yet she always moved a step ahead of the rest.
To observe them...
Even a single moment longer than anyone else.
-Ding! Ding! Ding!
The bell resounded right on cue.
The others milling about the room slowly rose and converged here.
Simultaneously, the space beyond the brilliantly illuminated glass wall lit up.
Positioned roughly three meters below this level,
there lurked a cluster of 'those things'.
Clad in pristine white garments,
a single sword sheathed at each waist.
Beings emanating faint traces of holy power.
Angels.
Heaven's emissaries bearing spotless white wings.
Existences dubbed fragments of the Absolute God.
Rarities one could scarcely glimpse even a single one across the continent, yet thirty of them filled the space beyond that glass.
What stood out was their uniform appearance—all identical.
Pink tresses,
delicate features evoking frail human girls starved for days, utterly haggard,
and vacant eyes devoid of focus or emotion.
The sight resembled thirty twins gathered in one place, grotesque in every sense,
yet none of the mages present—including Obelia—felt anything exceptional about it.
No… perhaps one exception.
Excluding that newcomer from earlier.
Dismissing the trivial notion, Obelia gazed down at the angels staring blankly ahead with hollow expressions.
Then a middle-aged man strode forward before them.
Archmage Gai.
Somora's grand archmage and overseer of this experiment.
Flanked by his prized disciples, he addressed the angels in a voice stiff with rigidity.
"Commencing the 66th experiment. In thirty minutes, only the one left standing here will eat."
{!}
{Food...}
At his words, the angels abruptly exuded an ill omen.
Watching their response,
“You grasp the implication, yes?”
Gai continued, a chill smile curling his lips.
“Kill one another. Now.”
-Splatter!!!
Blood erupted in every direction the instant the command dropped.
Without a flicker of expression, the thirty angels drew their waist-mounted swords and struck at the one beside them.
Plunging blades into napes.
Severing limbs.
Jamming steel into eyes.
Like savage beasts ripping into each other,
they extinguished the lives of their kin...
Their sisters' lives.
Not a word of protest from any.
As if it were the most natural course imaginable.
Some even tore into their foes' flesh and blood, succumbing to starvation.
“...Hah.”
A nightmarish tableau perfectly embodying 'hell unleashed'.
Obelia sighed softly at the sight.
Embedded within was a parched, lingering unease.
An instinctive human repulsion impossible to ignore.
Yet,
amid the carnage, she—like the other mages—scribbled notes furiously on the 'experiment' unfolding before her.
Average reaction times,
Interval from vital strikes to death,
And ultimately, the lone survivor.
At that moment…
[Wh-what… is this…? Wh-what the hell are they… doing right now?]
“…”
“Haa…”
The newcomer, voice strangled, body quaking.
Anticipating as much, Obelia paused her notes and seized the newbie's hand outright.
[Wh-what are you…?]
“Follow me for now. Don't disrupt anyone else.”
Aware of the newbie's panic, but with the experiment underway,
Obelia led her to the adjacent break room to minimize interference.
[Hah… hah… hah…]
The figure still shuddered.
A tad incongruous for such a gangly height, yet hardly incomprehensible.
Having witnessed this experiment longer than most, she'd been no different once.
"Calm down—everyone's like this at first. A few days watching and it'll be fine... Ghurk!!"
In that instant, the newbie's hand shot out, clamping her throat.
An irresistible force crushed her windpipe; Obelia gasped, desperately trying to invoke magic.
But.
'Wh-what…? M-magic… why won't it…?'
It refused to manifest.
As if pulverized unilaterally by some colossal presence.
Her spells crumbled before activation.
And amid that,
Obelia belatedly beheld it.
The loathing glare scorching toward her from the figure.
Beneath the robe,
that tiresomely familiar pink hair and pink irises...
"C-could you be…? Y-you're…?"
[Tell me everything you know.]
*
Among Eastern sorceries exists 'Solitude'.
Known also as Mugo, its method proceeds thus:
Confine myriad venomous creatures in a jar.
Bugs to minor monsters—variety irrelevant, quantity ideal.
Seal the brimful vessel,
and forthwith, the inmates devour one another.
Propelled by starvation
and primal survival drive.
Until one sole survivor endures.
This final specimen accretes unimaginable grudge and toxin,
rending any curse employing it taboo—the nadir of maledictions.
And presently,
the 'experiment' inflicted upon those myriad Angelculi draws precisely from this 'Solitude'.
Frail, artificially forged Angelculi.
Yet these Angelculi absorb portions of slain foes' power—a revelation.
An aptitude akin to gods imbibing divinity.
Inspired by this property and the Solitude rite,
the tower's potentate, Archmage Gai, conceived the current trials.
Immature angels, incomplete immortals craving sustenance for survival.
By pitting them to slaughter and consume kin, amalgamate their might into singularity.
The emergent angel vastly eclipses prior creations,
and reiterating with fortified specimens yields ever mightier progeny.
Sequestration via spellcraft and philters indispensable therein.
Not yet attaining Great Seraph,
yet they professed imminent ascension via this paradigm.
The profuse pristine blood besmirching the floor? Irrelevant to their pursuits.
"Th-they're… not true heaven's lions or anything! Merely… lab rats, that's all..."
Winged livestock fabricated by human exigency.
Naught more, naught less.
"I… feel pity, truly… b-but no helping it…? Ex-experiments demand sacrifice… All… for magic's progress..."
And.
-Splatter!!!!
Unable to finish, Obelia's head detonated mid her teary, contorted grin.
And.
Gazing upon the worthless meat-chunk left behind,
hers...
Arcroyal's pink eyes gradually suffused with blood.
[I'm… sorry… Truly… so very sorry…]
Pain and despair.
And guilt-laden timbre.
Therewith,
from her Great Seraph form flowed holy power.
Imbued with virulent slaughter-lust.
Might to exterminate legions of ten thousand.
Crimson-veined holy power.
[I'll kill them… Spare not a soul… Every last one.]