The Siege of Erebos (3)
Tap. Tap. Tap.
How long had it been since I last ran like this?
I caught my breath and sprinted madly through the forest. Void weighed almost nothing, so carrying her on my back posed no real strain.
I had never run these dark woodland paths before, but after living in the remote chapel for half a year, I had grown familiar with the surrounding geography. Escaping the chapel grounds proved effortless.
“For now…”
I had to put as much distance between us and our pursuers as possible.
Even if the Yaksha caught up, I needed to reach people who could help.
The academy’s main building was out of the question. The shadow monsters and Hyun’s chimeras had already seized it.
The annex was too far.
The best option was the village below the eastern gate, but that lay in the complete opposite direction from our current position in the west. We would have to cross the central district, which had become a battlefield.
Even I wasn’t reckless enough to charge straight through a hail of gunfire.
“Huff…”
Catching my ragged breath, I glanced at Void clinging to my back.
She looked up at me with pure delight, as though this life-or-death chase were nothing more than a game.
“…Yeah. At least one of us is having fun.”
“Sajae!”
Void tugged at the back of my neck and pointed deeper into the forest.
A moment later, the ground trembled.
The Yaksha was closing in.
“This is getting ridiculous.”
I burst out of the trees and vaulted over the fence. It wasn’t difficult—Void had already torn the gate off its hinges through her void space.
Crash!
“There! Stop them! Stop them!”
“Senior! My… mana…!”
As expected, the area around Erebos’s main building had turned into a full-blown war zone.
Shadow monsters poured out from every direction while faculty and students fought back. The ground was slick with blood; casualties were clearly mounting.
“…Tch.”
I had no confidence I could weave through that chaos unscathed.
I needed to circle the outer perimeter and find a safe haven.
Fortunately, I knew exactly one such place.
“…Void. Let’s go see your nanny.”
“Mama?”
“Yeah. The black mama.”
“Black!”
I dashed down the outer road. Since we avoided the center, we encountered far fewer shadow monsters.
[Kieeeek!]
“Kuh!”
Of course, they weren’t entirely absent.
Unlike during the second act, I now possessed at least a modest ability to defend myself.
Crack!
I raised my hand and fired a flame arrow. Aiming was simple—Void assisted me.
While the arrow obscured the monster’s vision, I slipped past it.
“…Maybe you really do have talent as a mage.”
Isolde’s words might not have been empty praise after all.
I chuckled softly as I ran.
Rumble.
The ground shook beneath my feet as though an earthquake had struck.
Bang! The impact launched me into the air.
I barely managed to regain my balance and land. Standing directly in front of me was a massive figure.
“…Shit.”
It was the Yaksha. A bear pelt draped over his shoulders like a cloak—the very same fur he had pulled from the void space earlier.
“Hmm… Priest Leo. You got me good. Using hidden weapons? That was a perfect ambush.”
“…”
Did canned goods and pelts count as hidden weapons to this guy?
Given the Yaksha’s transcendent physical abilities, a can of food or a dagger probably made little difference.
“Your fighting spirit and that clever ambush… It has been far too long since my heart raced like this!”
“…”
The Yaksha flared the bear pelt and clenched his fists. His eyes gleamed with madness—the gaze of a predator that had found its prey.
“Come, this time do not dodge. Face me head-on!”
He kicked off the ground.
Instead of meeting him, I raised my hand high.
“Oh? Planning to use the same trick again?”
The Yaksha grinned and twisted his body, lifting his arms to guard the top of his head. He was clearly wary of the void space.
But Void’s void space no longer contained any objects.
The hand I raised was a signal for someone else.
Shhhk!
Silver flashes rained down from above the Yaksha’s head.
Not one. Dozens of throwing daggers.
Blades came from every direction, leaving no blind spot.
This time, they were real hidden weapons.
“Ugh!”
The Yaksha hurriedly dodged, snatching at the incoming daggers. A few struck his body, but they merely bounced off as though hitting metal plates.
“…Oho… Priest Leo. You surprised me. I never imagined you were an assassin.”
“No, I didn’t throw those.”
“Hmm?”
The Yaksha tilted his head. Several figures emerged from the bushes.
They wore modified maid uniforms designed for mobility, dagger holsters strapped to their thighs and silver threads in their hands—terrifying women whose attire clashed completely with the situation.
Maids.
“…You perverted priest. What the hell is this?”
Leading them was a black-haired maid who stepped in front of me.
“As you can see, we were attacked.”
“Then you should have died quietly. Why come here?”
“I need your help.”
At my words, the maid Helena’s expression hardened.
“We only protect the dormitory.”
“Is that so? Perfect. Touchdown. My feet are already inside the dormitory grounds, aren’t they?”
I deliberately showed her that my shoes were planted firmly on the grass within the fence.
Helena let out a deep sigh.
“…Haa… You slippery bastard.”
“Stop playing coy and help me. If anything happens to me, that young lady of yours will finally become an archangel.”
“Do not speak of the young lady that way.”
Helena snarled as though she wanted to devour me, but…
“Black mama!”
When she saw Void on my back, her sharp gaze softened for the briefest instant.
She clicked her tongue, turned, and faced the Yaksha.
“Is that brute the mastermind behind this attack?”
“One of them.”
“This will be a troublesome hunt.”
Helena did not call it a fight. To the maids of this dormitory, the Yaksha was simply a massive wild beast—one they would handle through mechanical, efficient slaughter.
“…Barely… safe.”
I exhaled in relief and gently stroked Void’s head.
“Daddy?”
“Yeah. Looks like we’re going to survive this somehow.”
Erebos’s most prestigious dormitory.
Lavish security forces. Even maids trained in assassination arts. A fortress blessed by heaven itself.
This was the grounds of Ophelia Hall.
*
The Shadows lived up to their name, operating in the kingdom’s shadows.
Their activities were limited to assassinations of key figures, information manipulation, and localized terrorism.
Even as a secret society, they lacked the audacity to wage open war against the Royal Academy’s guards.
The academy’s leadership had thought the same.
That was why the Shadows could strike from an unexpected angle.
The reason the Shadows assaulted Erebos…
“…Because we have a method.”
Baekmyeon sighed deeply as she walked through the ruined main building.
Breaching the academy itself had been simple.
The guards at the main gate had opened the way. Afterward, she erased their memories, leaving them to act as though nothing had happened.
Baekmyeon’s ability could not be resisted by anyone within the bounds of humanity. Their minds were bleached, turning them into puppets that obeyed her will.
Thanks to that, the Shadows had infiltrated the heart of Erebos without spilling a single drop of blood.
They planted explosives in the clock tower and detonated them.
“Everything went according to plan up to this point.”
The clock tower housed Erebos’s defensive barrier.
Even the academy’s top brass would never have imagined that instead of dismantling the barrier, someone would simply destroy the tower itself.
While the resulting chaos allowed Yeongrang to unleash the shadow monsters and Shades upon the academy, Baekmyeon headed for the underground of the main building.
Everything had been perfect.
Just as Baekmyeon had scripted, Erebos fell with ease.
However…
“We don’t have the numerical advantage.”
Right now, the academy’s forces were still reeling from the surprise attack, but soon the professors would rally them into a proper resistance.
As time passed, the numerical gap would widen, and the disadvantage would fall on their side.
Baekmyeon had to achieve her objective quickly.
“I should have found a way to bring that Eihendorff girl over to our side.”
Baekmyeon clicked her tongue in regret.
If she had recruited Eihendorff, they could have unleashed hundreds, even thousands of chimeras. Then there would have been no need to rush—they could have crushed the academy at their leisure.
“More importantly…”
What Baekmyeon feared was not merely numerical inferiority.
“That priest…”
Within Erebos Royal Academy, there existed one being whose depth she could not measure.
Priest Leo. The man whose mind her ability could not touch.
Was he even human? At the very least, no one she had ever met had resisted her power.
“A mental barrier? That shouldn’t be possible.”
Baekmyeon bit her lip.
She had tried to assassinate him while he was away in the Libel region, but even that attempt had failed pathetically.
Leo commanded a void creature. He was also connected to an immensely powerful saint.
An unpredictable variable whose limits she could not fathom.
Baekmyeon had concluded that the only way to ensure the success of the Erebos invasion was to keep Leo occupied.
“I’ll go.”
“We need to deal with that priest for good.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure to cut his throat.”
So she had sent the Yaksha.
More precisely, the Yaksha himself had declared he would kill the priest. It was only natural—he craved battle against the strong.
Baekmyeon had no reason to refuse. The Yaksha was a monster with giant blood, born with the magic resistance of the divine age.
No matter how powerful a mage the priest might be, he would be powerless before the Yaksha’s overwhelming physical might.
She didn’t even need him dead.
“If he just buys us time, that’s enough.”
Baekmyeon slowly descended the spiral staircase leading to the underground of the main building.
She reached the lowest floor and opened the firmly shut iron door.
Creaaak—
Along with the scent of old dust, she felt a heavy wave of mana.
In the center of the underground chamber, atop a sealed altar, rested a single ornate box engraved with intricate patterns.
“There it is.”
This was why the Shadows had dared to attack the Royal Academy.
Baekmyeon opened the box.
Inside lay a single small awl.
“…This is what he has been longing for…”
An instrument that fixed the causality of the world.
Conversely, a source of power capable of twisting the laws of suppression.
“The Wedge.”
Baekmyeon smiled faintly.
“To think they built the academy on top of such a dangerous object. The royal family really is foolish.”
She slowly reached out and grasped the Wedge.
Any ordinary human who touched it would have their body collapse, but Baekmyeon was merely a puppet with a soul residing within.
“To have arranged everything up to this point… His foresight truly knows no bounds.”
Baekmyeon murmured with reverence as she lifted the Wedge.
Once she retrieved this and returned, their great undertaking would be complete.
The kingdom’s future would end.
“…Huh?”
Yet the Wedge she held carried no power whatsoever.
Crack.
Something crumbled in her hand. The Wedge she gripped disintegrated like a sandcastle.
It wasn’t broken.
It had never been real to begin with.
“A fake…?”
Baekmyeon’s elegant face stiffened. She stared at the crumbling remains in disbelief.
A counterfeit that had cleverly mimicked the original’s appearance.
Someone had switched it.
When? Who? The academy? No—if the academy had known of the Wedge’s existence, they would never have left it in such a careless place.
Then it was a third party.
A single spark flashed through her mind.
“That priest…”
Baekmyeon’s beautiful face twisted with fury.