Chapter 33
Chapter 33
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter Title: Predator (1)
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Sophia's smooth and peaceful persuasion had restored calm to all the students of the Faculty of Magic.
Thud.
Sophia stepped up onto the half-destroyed platform and slammed the sheath of her sword against the floor, drawing everyone's attention.
"Listen up, all of you."
Sophia pointed toward the Ivory Tower with her finger.
"From now on, we're going to take down that monster."
The cadets' shoulders twitched at Sophia's declaration.
They had all witnessed the monster writhing as if to devour the Ivory Tower just moments ago.
"H-how are we supposed to catch that thing?!"
"..."
"...!"
A cadet protested in a voice that seemed to crawl into a hole. Though no one else spoke, their eyes conveyed silent agreement with the sentiment.
—Thud—Thud.
Regular vibrations were still emanating from the direction of the Ivory Tower.
It meant the monster was relentlessly gnawing away at the tower even now.
Against an otherworldly being that had swallowed such a grand and massive tower in an instant, how could the likes of academy cadets possibly stand a chance?
Their thinking was perfectly reasonable.
However...
"I didn't exactly ask for your opinions."
Everyone froze at Sophia's single remark.
Their gazes then turned to a cadet whose arm was broken and who was still groaning in pain.
Protest now, and you'd end up like that.
"Choose. Arm or leg—which do you prefer?"
"..."
"Either way, if you don't cooperate, you'll die here. I might make it out alive, but you definitely won't."
That statement was undeniably true.
The Ashen Tower was blocked by debris.
No matter how talented the Ashen Tower cadets were, none of them could cast destructive magic powerful enough to clear away the mountain of rubble.
The professors might have managed it, but they were away at a gathering in the main building to celebrate the faculty head student's presentation.
"If only Izolde were here..."
One of the cadets muttered.
Indeed, with the top student of the entire faculty, Izolde, they could have overcome this ordeal.
As the cadets thought that, their eyes suddenly fell on the madwoman standing before them.
"...Come to think of it, this woman beat Izolde."
Someone murmured.
Ambush or whatever—it didn't matter. The power Sophia had displayed at the faculty exchange event that day had been utterly overwhelming.
She had even defeated the faculty head student, Izolde.
So then...
'Instead of sitting around here... wouldn't it be more rational to bet on this lunatic?'
Mages were beings born with reason.
The Ashen Tower cadets exchanged glances in perfect unison and nodded.
"W-what do we do first?"
"I'll draw its attention up front. You use that magic or whatever it is."
A disarmingly simple strategy.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
With Sophia leading the way, they began ascending the spiral staircase connecting to the upper floors of the Ashen Tower.
Though the Ivory Tower and Ashen Tower were separate structures, bridges linked the two at intervals.
As soon as they reached the third floor, several black shapes appeared. Grotesque chimeric lifeforms, as if the bodies of multiple animals had been stitched together—chimeras.
-Kieeeek!
"W-watch out...!"
Slash!
Before an Ashen Tower cadet could even muster their mana, Sophia's sword was drawn.
By the time they registered that it had been unsheathed, the chimera's face was already bisected.
"...Huh?"
An impossible speed.
Drawing and swinging the sword had happened simultaneously.
And it wasn't even with her right hand, but her left.
This was no feat achievable at the cadet level.
As everyone panicked, they also felt a spark of hope.
If it's this madwoman.
If it's someone this reckless.
'We can survive.'
That was the moment such thoughts crossed their minds.
"Hold up."
They had just crossed a cloud bridge and entered the Ivory Tower when Sophia stopped and looked around.
Chimera corpses littered the area, their limbs torn apart.
"...Who did this?"
One of the cadets murmured.
Not just one or two—there were several bodies.
It didn't seem like the work of Ivory Tower cadets. Perhaps some staff members were still around.
The moment everyone wore hopeful expressions, Sophia whipped her head around.
"Ngh."
Sophia caught a scent.
A very familiar, comforting smell—but one that shouldn't be here.
"...Master?"
The scent of Priest Leo was present in this Ivory Tower.
Her master had clearly said he would evacuate to safety. He wouldn't lie to her.
'No way...'
A horrifying thought flashed through her mind.
What if her master had been kidnapped by that white woman...?
"Um, Miss Sophia?"
One cadet cautiously approached.
"It seems like there are staff members here. Maybe we should link up with them and..."
"Shut up."
"Yes, ma'am."
Sophia sharpened all her senses and followed the scent.
Second floor.
Below that.
Not the first floor.
Somewhere in between.
"Landing."
No time to descend the stairs properly.
Sophia drew the Ink Sword. At the same time, she slashed downward at the floor.
Rumble rumble rumble!
"Aaaahhh!"
The cadets screamed at the sudden reckless act.
The Ink Sword cleanly sliced through the floor, revealing the scene on the second floor below.
"...Huh?"
What Sophia had expected was the sight of Priest Leo captured by the white-masked woman.
But the scene unfolding before her was somewhat different from her expectations.
No, very different.
"...Master?"
Her master was carrying a black-haired little girl on his back.
*
After grasping the anomaly in the Ivory Tower, Otilie had deployed her dolls.
"Save the people, Edelweiss."
Dolls modeled after Otilie herself.
Though they were simplified versions newly created based on Edelweiss, their performance was reliable.
The dolls nodded vigorously and scattered throughout the Ivory Tower.
Chimeras were already roaming inside the tower. Protecting the cadets from them was Priest Leo's parting message.
"It's a request from my muse."
Otilie steeled her resolve and swept through the Ivory Tower alongside Leo.
Rumble.
Vibrations from the massive monster writhing above their heads echoed regularly. However, the Ivory Tower was protected by magical wards, so even an otherworldly monster couldn't devour it in a single gulp.
"Come out."
"Y-you're... Ihen Dorp? Why are you here...?"
"I said come out. Stay there, and you'll die."
"Uh, y-yeah."
After rescuing classmates buried in the debris and dispatching the occasional chimera that lunged out, a few minutes passed.
Boom.
A massive explosion sounded from the Ashen Tower side.
"...Leo, can you figure out what's going on?"
Otilie tapped the doll's drive core a few times and cast a control spell. Leo's blue eyes glowed. It was mana detection magic.
In the shared field of vision, the area around the Ashen Tower was filled with an eerie black mist.
And it wasn't stopping there. The black mist was steadily closing in.
"...We need to run."
Otilie hurriedly climbed onto Leo's back.
She didn't know what that mist was, but her instincts told her it was far more dangerous than the chimeras.
Just as Otilie, riding the doll, fled down the stairs toward the central hall—
Slash.
Her view suddenly cleared.
The ceiling had been neatly sliced off.
Otilie whirled around, ready for combat. She came face-to-face with a red-haired woman wielding a pitch-black sword.
"...Master?"
The woman murmured.
But she quickly shook her head.
"...No. The scent's there, but... you're not Master..."
"..."
"What is that thing?"
The woman pointed at Leo, on whose back Otilie rode. Her hand gripped the sword hilt tightly.
"...A doll."
Otilie replied curtly.
"A doll."
The woman muttered softly, her expression turning fierce.
Otilie sensed it immediately. This woman was no ordinary human. Fighting her now offered no guaranteed victory.
"Why does that doll look like Master?"
"...Master?"
"I mean that doll."
"This is my muse."
"..."
The woman's eyes narrowed at Otilie's response. She stepped one foot back and reversed her grip on the sword hilt.
An unmistakable combat stance. In response to the hostility, Leo assumed the same posture.
The woman's eyebrow twitched at the sight.
"S-Sophia! That girl's not an enemy! She's an Ivory Tower cadet!"
The Ashen Tower cadets hurriedly tried to restrain the woman—Sophia.
"A cadet? That shady girl?"
Sophia looked baffled at the cadets' words.
"It's Ihen Dorp! First-year Faculty of Magic! You saw her at the entrance ceremony last time!"
"Y-yeah! She's not an enemy! So please... stop...!"
Sophia glanced back and forth between Otilie and the cadets before reluctantly loosening her grip on the sheath.
"Whether she's an Ivory Tower cadet or not doesn't matter. The problem is why that doll of hers smells like Master."
Sophia grimaced as she leaped down from the ceiling, landing in front of Otilie.
Her piercing eyes scanned Otilie from head to toe.
"...You know Master?"
Though she didn't know the full details, it was clear the "master" Sophia referred to was Priest Leo.
Otilie nodded.
"Did Master say anything to you?"
"He told me to protect everyone here."
"..."
Their gazes met briefly.
Sophia was the first to look away.
"Tch."
Sophia clicked her tongue and slung the sheath over her back.
"Get ready. We're going to beat down the monster upstairs."
"...Just us?"
"Yeah, just us. It's Master's orders."
If it was Priest Leo's words, they had to obey.
Otilie nodded as well.
Just before leading the cadets and dolls upward—
"One last question."
Sophia spoke up abruptly. Staring intently at Leo, she continued.
"Is the inside implemented too?"
"The inside?"
"Inside the clothes."
Otilie's lips twisted at Sophia's question.
"Of course. My dolls have perfect human anatomy..."
"...In that case."
Sophia cut her off. She hesitated before speaking.
"Make one for me too."
"...No."
*
Meanwhile, in an alley near the Twin Towers.
"Why... why did it turn out like this?"
The white-masked woman gnawed at her nails.
There had been a minor miscalculation, but the plan had been perfect. She had summoned the otherworldly predator, Predator, and isolated the Twin Towers' cadets. With the brainwashed cadets as sacrifices, she had plenty of offerings.
She regretted not being able to control the simultaneously summoned chimeras, but they were sufficient for sowing chaos.
Predator was a devourer. The more lives it harvested, the larger it grew. Especially when consuming humans with high internal mana like mages—the efficiency was maximized.
In other words, if Predator devoured all the mages in the Twin Towers, it would become massive enough to swallow the entire Erebus.
That was necessary.
"...Why won't they just get quietly eaten...?"
Yet currently, not a single casualty had emerged from the Twin Towers.
On the contrary, they were banding together to resist Predator.
Relations between the Ashen Tower and Ivory Tower were atrociously bad. Cooperation was out of the question. The white-masked woman knew this well, having disguised herself as a Faculty of Magic cadet for the past six months.
Which was why the current situation was utterly incomprehensible.
"And Izolde isn't even there."
Even the faculty head student, who could serve as a rallying point, was bedridden. What in the world was happening?
"...This won't do."
A Predator that hadn't devoured enough wasn't particularly strong.
Thus, until it could consume the entire Twin Towers, she needed to devise some countermeasure.
"R-right. Ihen Dorp's there."
She could brainwash that manipulation mage and make her control the chimeras.
The blond priest who had interfered earlier was now outside the tower, surely defenseless.
That should turn the situation around.
"Oh my, the little rat was hiding here."
At that moment, a graceful voice reached the white-masked woman's ears.
Whipping her head around, she saw a woman in a shortened clerical robe.
The white-masked woman knew her well.
Just a few months ago, this woman had ruined Shadow's plan targeting the Full Moon Festival.
"You must be that white woman. I heard all about you from Priest."
"...W-why are you here, you...?"
The white-masked woman had thoroughly reviewed the situation before plotting.
Naturally, she had confirmed this woman should not be here.
"You should be in the dorms..."
"Oh, that? I'm a bit of a free spirit, you see. I often go for night walks like this."
"Kgh."
Saintess Candidate Elise Aurora de Lua.
Someone she must not encounter.
But also someone she could not kill.
No matter how much a Shadow she was, turning the Church into an enemy was something she desperately wanted to avoid.
Fwoosh.
The white-masked woman unleashed her power and stared straight at Elise.
She planned to erase her memory through mental manipulation and send her away.
Tap.
But in that instant, Elise stepped on a nearby stone ledge and leaped briefly.
A meaningless motion.
Or so it seemed.
Elise spun once in midair.
With that, the hem of her clerical robe flared out.
"...Huh?"
Her mind went blank.
The white-masked woman's thoughts halted.
Her power faltered along with them.
For the briefest instant.
But that instant was enough.
"Oh my, a gap."
A holy barrier dropped from above onto the white-masked woman's head.