The Spider That Collects Gold Coins
Beatrice was, objectively speaking, a rather powerful superhuman. The fact that she rarely had any reason to reveal her combat prowess was simply because her main occupation was that of a merchant. After all, it wasn’t easy for someone who had reached the 5-Ring level to be weak. Moreover, her spell type was manipulation magic—one of the rarest and most difficult to handle even among the uncommon categories.
Far more people were ignorant of manipulation magic than those who understood it, which meant very few knew how to counter it. No matter how little combat experience she had, Beatrice was not so sloppy as to lose while holding such an overwhelming advantage. After all, she was still a superhuman who had built up five rings of power.
“I didn’t expect you to walk in here on your own two feet.”
The demon contractor, who had been quietly watching Beatrice enter, slowly began to move. Unlike the other merchant guild leaders who had frozen in terror and tried to flee the moment they saw her, his demeanor was completely different. That was only natural. Those guild leaders weren’t superhumans who had accumulated rings like Beatrice or the contractor—they were pure merchants. There was no point in them staying here.
The real battle was between the two superhumans.
“It seems everything I prepared has become completely useless. To think the witch herself would show up here.”
“Did you really think I was that much of an idiot? That I’d fall for such an obvious trap?”
At Beatrice’s calm smile, the demon contractor stared at her for a moment. The demonic energy he was using gradually darkened his eyes to pitch black.
“Indeed, I can sense that almost none of the demonic energy has seeped into your body. You discarded it before a single day had passed. How did you know?”
“It just felt too suspicious, that’s all.”
“It wasn’t at a level that could be detected by mana, and I confirmed there were no high-ranking priests nearby. There shouldn’t have been any way for you to notice.”
The contractor muttered briefly before shaking his head and slowly releasing his demonic energy. “Well, since you’ve already found out, these assumptions are meaningless now.”
The demonic energy that began to leak out made it clear he no longer intended to hide anything. Beatrice’s body trembled faintly. The power of demonic energy emitted by a high-ranking demon contractor was overwhelmingly stronger than ordinary mana. The oppressive feeling it carried alone was enough to explain why those who craved power made contracts with demons and became fiends. It was only natural—any ordinary person would lose consciousness just from exposure to such energy.
“My original plan was to turn you into a puppet and slowly corrupt you, but…”
The fiend drew the sword at his waist and swung it without hesitation.
The slash of demonic energy tore through the walls of the room with a deafening roar.
It was an intentional strike that had grazed right past the side of Beatrice’s face.
“In that case, I’ll have to revise the plan.”
The demonic energy continued to pour out, accompanied by sword strikes aimed directly at her. Even a passing five-year-old child could have figured out how the fiend in front of her had changed his original plan.
“I will kill you and take everything I need.”
With those final words, the fiend charged. While it was possible to launch sword strikes from a distance, such techniques were inherently inefficient. The fundamentals of swordsmanship lay in closing the distance and attacking directly. And then—
“You’ll need to revise that plan again.”
A violet mana web unfolded right before the charging fiend’s eyes. The invisible yet palpable mana threads spread out with a sharp snap, seizing control of the fiend’s movements. For a manipulation mage, a mana web was both a medium that allowed them to control anything it touched and a weapon capable of inflicting damage upon contact. Moreover, the web Beatrice had just created wasn’t a single strand—it was dozens of threads intricately twisted together.
Its cutting power surpassed even that of a masterfully forged blade.
Tap—!
Realizing this, the fiend abruptly halted his charge. Beatrice didn’t miss the opening.
Boom!
The wall connected through the mana web naturally stretched and flew toward the fiend’s head. He sliced through it like tofu with his sword, but Beatrice wasn’t using just one wall. From above, below, left, and right—walls erupted from every direction. No matter how skillfully the fiend could cut them down, he couldn’t block them all. Especially since each one was intertwined with her mana threads.
“Hmm.”
The only option left to the fiend was to retreat. However, if that were all manipulation magic could do, its name would never have become so well-known.
Ping!
Another mana thread shot toward the back of the retreating fiend’s head. This time, the direction was from behind. Swish.
He managed to dodge it with superhuman senses, but the fiend stared silently at the wound on his arm. It was a scratch left by the thread. Normally, using demonic energy would allow him to recover from such an injury through natural regeneration alone—if only that wound had been his only disadvantage.
Swish, swish, swish—!
The moment the fiend’s blood was drawn, Beatrice’s fingers moved with dazzling speed. From her grasp, from the walls, and sometimes from debris on the floor, fragments and mana threads sprang forth, endlessly restricting the fiend’s movements. No matter how much he cut or blocked, he couldn’t completely counter what he couldn’t see. Naturally, the fiend was gradually driven into a corner.
And that was exactly—
“Got you.”
—what Beatrice had intended.
Like a puppeteer manipulating strings, Beatrice’s hands suddenly spread wide open. She brought both palms together with tremendous force, hands held vertically.
Silk Binding Coffin
The countless mana threads unleashed from her hands shot toward the fiend all at once.
They pierced not only his arms, legs, neck, and heart, but every single meridian point throughout his body—including wrists and ankles—that allowed mana to flow. While it couldn’t inflict massive direct damage, the fact that it completely immobilized the opponent meant Beatrice had already won.
From the moment he had stepped into this space and given her enough time for her mana web to dominate the entire room, there had never been any chance for the fiend to win through normal means. That was the true power of a manipulation mage who could control an entire battlefield.
“You won’t be able to move. You won’t even be able to draw up your energy.”
Beatrice spoke as she gazed at the fiend she had bound. The sword he had been holding had already flown far away long ago.
“You’ll stay trapped like this until you’re taken into custody and made to testify. The losses to the guild are no small matter, after all.”
“……”
“When I think about what that damn bastard did, the amount of money I’ll wring out of him…”
“So that’s why they call you the ‘Spider That Collects Gold Coins.’”
The fiend quietly muttered, brushing off Beatrice’s words. Even though both his body and energy were completely sealed, his voice remained perfectly calm. Considering that demon contractors were usually comparable to the fanatical zealots who followed the Outer Gods, it was rather strange.
“I knew you were a 5-Ring manipulation mage, but the guild leader herself rarely steps onto the battlefield. I thought I’d have quite a hard time since there’s almost no information on manipulation magic, but…”
The fiend, who had been muttering to himself, slowly raised his head. His eyes glowed with a crimson light as he smiled.
“It seems there was no need for such worries at all.”
“…What?”
Ignoring Beatrice’s wide-eyed question, the fiend continued.
“Using invisible threads to ‘manipulate’ the terrain and turning the threads themselves into weapons to ‘control’ the opponent’s movement. Then naturally finishing off the enemy once they’ve been driven into a corner.”
“……”
“At first glance, it might seem like the entire battle is conducted by the manipulation mage’s hands, but…”
The fiend deliberately dragged out his words. At the same time, black energy began to flow from his body. It was demonic energy. Even though every meridian was blocked by Beatrice’s mana threads, the fiend had still drawn it forth.
“If one can simply deal with these invisible threads, then in reality, you’re nothing more than a puppet that can’t do anything.”
As he spoke, the fiend released the demonic energy he had gathered in all directions. The released energy brushed against the dozens—no, hundreds—of threads embedded in his body.
Whoosh—!
The threads seemed to resist for a moment before they could no longer endure and burst into flames. It wasn’t red fire, but black flames tainted and corrupted by demonic energy. The flames, infused with malice that would continue burning the world as long as there was anything left to consume, completely incinerated Beatrice’s mana threads.
The fiend, now freed, casually brushed off his hands and spoke.
“Earlier, you said I’d need to revise my plan again, didn’t you?”
The fiend opened his mouth and raised one hand. The sword Beatrice had sent flying from afar shot through the air and returned to its master.
Vwoooong—.
Looking down at the faintly howling blade, the fiend declared,
“It seems there won’t be any need for that.”
At the same time, an overwhelmingly oppressive demonic energy—far beyond anything he had shown before—exploded from the fiend’s body.