Dark Dawn Society (4): The Black Light in the Sewers

The sound reverberated through the darkness. So this is what the sewers beneath London feel like. I quietly scanned the interior, sinking into a strange mood.

“It’s damp… and it stinks… and somehow it feels stifling…”

On top of that, there was an eerie energy impossible to sense in ordinary places. …Then again, I’d never actually been inside any other sewers, so it might just be my imagination.

Enough sentiment. I examined the trace that stretched out like a thin thread. It resembled the faint aura that had leaked out when the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠five users handled the book. No, it was virtually identical. I couldn’t be certain the culprit’s lair lay at the end of this trail, but it was clearly the main route.

“Still, it’s pretty dark down here…”

Probably because few people came this way; most of the space had no lights at all. Regrettably, my new body lacked convenient abilities like glowing eyes or perfect darkvision.

“Unomunoeo, any ideas?”

Since we’d entered a section of the sewer with no people around, Unomunoeo had climbed down from my head. The book floated in mid-air, pages fluttering with a soft charrk, then presented a passage for me to read.

The moment I read the passage written in the style of a prophecy, the entire area was swallowed by darkness. The space had already been dim, but even the faint traces of light vanished completely. Strangely, I felt as if my surroundings had grown brighter. More precisely, everything became sharper. Even though not a single photon existed, I could perceive the space perfectly.

Is this why they call it black light?

It was difficult to describe. Against an utterly black background, slightly more distinct contour lines marked the boundaries of objects. Like someone had taken the typical ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠night-vision filter from a game and painted every color black. …In any case, it was an utterly bizarre phenomenon that defied easy explanation.

“Thanks. Let’s keep going.”

I continued following the trace still visible ahead of me. As I walked, I glanced at Unomunoeo floating beside me.

Come to think of it, where is Unomunoeo’s true body?

I knew the true forms of both Swamp Zone and Jijong. One was a giant sleeping inside a supermassive black hole at the edge of the universe. The other resembled a transcendent being formed by fusing every god that had ever existed. Yet I had never seen, heard, or even sensed Unomunoeo’s true body. Every power it had displayed so far had come directly from the book itself.

When Swamp Zone emerged from the Deep Warehouse it scattered its aura, and Jijong manifested directly to use its abilities…

Those might not have been the limits of their true bodies, but they had at least been visible to my eyes. Unomunoeo, however, showed nothing of the sort. Its name was peculiar too, when I thought about it. Universe Door Darkness. It sounded intuitive yet somehow impossible to fully grasp.

I understood the contents of every book in the library to some degree, even if not perfectly. But no matter how many times I read Universe Door Darkness, its meaning slipped away.

It was like understanding each individual word while the sentences they formed remained incomprehensible. Take the sentence “I bit into a sweet apple.” The words sweet, apple, bite, and into were all clear on their own.

Yet the meaning of the sentence as a whole refused to cohere ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in my mind. Even if I lined the words up in order or drew arrows and notes, it remained impossible. The way certain years and strange events were recorded made sense only in that same slippery context.

If I had to define it, I understood the “sentences” but there seemed to be some higher category sitting in the place where “sentences” should be. Not paragraphs. It felt like trying to imagine four-dimensional space by stacking three-dimensional ones; the mind simply couldn’t hold it.

“⋯⋯.”

Charrk?

“It’s nothing. Never mind.”

By my standards, Universe Door Darkness was a very strange friend. Still, it followed me obediently and helped whenever I needed it, so I kept things as they were. My personal wish was that someday I might truly understand it. After all, it was a good companion.

Before heading to the appointed café, Inspector Emily ducked into a restroom. A sudden wave of nausea had hit her. Ignoring the stares of passersby, she hurried to a stall and bent over the toilet.

“Ueeeck.”

Thump.

Only dry heaves came out. While she was still feeling frustrated, the nausea vanished as abruptly as it had arrived. Emily let out a long sigh.

“Haa… why am I like this today…?”

As she spoke, something long and wriggling slipped out of her. She hastily wiped her nose, which had begun to bleed. A nosebleed right before an important meeting. She could only blame the Chancellor for this. She had pulled too many all-nighters trying to track the bastard…

Still, things would change from now on. Even if their personal feelings weren’t exactly warm, she would be cooperating with the Anomaly Management Bureau, whose skills were undeniable. And the person she would work with was…

“Hello. I’m Inspector Emily from the London branch of the Magic Police Department.”

“Hiii~ I’m the Pioneer Division Chief of the Anomaly Pioneer Division~.”

She was the highest-ranking official, a director-level figure.

“I’m sorry. I suddenly felt unwell, so I had to step away to the restroom for a moment…”

“Oh, it’s totally fine! We’ll be working together from now on, so something like that doesn’t matter at all.”

The Pioneer Division Chief stood up and casually ran her finger across Emily’s nose. Then she silently stared at the residue on her fingertip through her sunglasses.

“Ah, sorry. I’ve been working overtime a lot lately, so my nose just started bleeding…”

Thinking she hadn’t cleaned it properly, Emily apologized in a rush. But the Pioneer Division Chief didn’t seem to hear her. She simply kept staring at her fingertip.

“Division Chief…?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. More importantly, you even got a nosebleed. Don’t you think you should rest a little?”

“Haha… I was planning to take a vacation once this case is over.”

“That’s a good idea. Personally, I recommend somewhere bright. A place where the sun’s power is strong.”

“Sorry? Um, thank you for the suggestion.”

“Shall we talk now?”

And so the two of them—an inspector from the Magic Police and the Pioneer Division Chief, both far from ordinary—sat in an ordinary café and talked for a long time.

Several hours later, having received a favorable answer, Inspector Emily stepped outside with a sigh.

“The Pioneer Division Chief…”

She had been incredibly friendly, yet something about her felt… off. It was as if she were too close to an ideal person, the kind everyone dreams about at least once. Every part of their conversation had been nearly perfect.

“Now I understand why those rumors exist…”

The ridiculous rumor that they had formed cooperative contracts with heaven, hell, and the underworlds of every realm through pacts. But with that level of warmth and eloquence, it suddenly seemed plausible.

Meanwhile, at the seat Emily had just vacated, golden eyes blazed fiercely behind the Pioneer Division Chief’s sunglasses. Her gaze followed the path the inspector had taken. An unmistakably anomalous energy clung thickly to every inch of Emily’s body. It wasn’t only her. While walking around London, the Chief had noticed similar auras on some of the citizens she had passed.

“⋯⋯.”

Gulp.

That energy didn’t belong to ordinary magic. In fact, it felt very distant from the energies of this universe. Perhaps, like the ■ she herself had contracted with and originated from, it came from another space, another dimension.

“⋯⋯Haa. I want to rest and read a book.”

What rose in the Pioneer Division Chief’s mind was the library she had encountered in Korea. Although the memory came with a rather eerie experience, it had still been a strangely satisfying anomalous space.

“After this job is finished… maybe I’ll stop by once.”

Of course, she doubted the matter would resolve easily. Still. The Pioneer Division Chief stood and disappeared among the café patrons.

How long had I been walking through the sewers? At last the trace began to grow clearer. At the same time, I realized this place was far from an ordinary sewer system.

“Do alligators really live down here…?”

A pure-white alligator charged at me with savage intent. I flinched, but Unomunoeo swallowed it whole with darkness. It had probably been raised by the culprit and then abandoned, or perhaps discarded from the surface.

In addition, there were bizarrely twisted staircases that warped in unnatural directions and bottomless abysses of pure darkness. All kinds of anomalies that would never appear in a normal sewer began to catch my eye.

“⋯⋯There.”

Finally I saw a trace leading to a door. Beyond it, I could feel the powerful aura of a magic book. I slowly opened the door.

Clank.

“⋯⋯?”

Once again, I stood at the entrance of the sewer I had first descended ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠into.