Black Moon (2)
At first glance, the necklace looked like nothing more than an ordinary piece of jewelry. A somewhat expensive-looking gem sat in its center, yet the overall design was nowhere near lavish enough to stir any real desire for luxury.
Still, an inexplicable, eerie aura clung to it.
Was I the only one who could sense it? Ren and Pria seemed to notice nothing unusual about the necklace.
It wasn’t the sharp sixth sense that screamed of imminent danger, but I tightened the loose reins of my tension all the same. Once that instinct had stirred, I abandoned any thought of holding back.
The group blocking our path—roughly twenty enemies—had been ordered to kill us, yet most of them still kept their distance.
Only five charged forward, rushing at Ren and me. The rest held their ground, watching for an opening.
Whether they were dividing roles or relying on numbers, it made no difference to me.
I fixed my attention on the man standing at the very rear of the pack, the necklace already around his neck, and took a single step forward.
I swatted aside the first two who came at me. A casual sweep of my arm sent them flying, blood spraying in their wake.
Unlike before, I no longer lost control of my strength and reduced entire bodies to pulp.
My arm sliced cleanly through flesh, shattered bone, and punched straight through the far side. Bodies split in two; thick blood fanned through the air.
Dealing with those two took almost no time. I immediately leapt toward the remaining three who were closing on Ren.
Their eyes stayed locked on him until I was right in front of them. They never even registered my approach.
I drove my fist deep into the lead man’s solar plexus. When I pulled my hand free, blood gushed from the gaping hole.
Next I seized the napes of the two on either side and twisted. Bone cracked, and their bodies crumpled bonelessly to the ground.
All that remained were the ones still preparing something in the rear.
I charged without hesitation. I carved flesh with my arms, snapped necks, grabbed bodies and slammed them into the earth.
Only after I had cleared nearly half the group did they finally realize an enemy was already among them.
“C-crazy….”
A murmur of terror and confusion spilled from someone’s lips.
I paid it no mind and continued methodically finishing the rest, as if clearing a backlog of work.
In the time it took Ren to draw his sword at the approaching foes and pour mana into the blade—in that brief instant when he stared open-mouthed at the enemies who had already been halved—I finished every last one of them except the man wearing the necklace.
I walked slowly toward the final man. Frozen with fear, he could only look up at me.
I stood before him and reached for the necklace at his throat.
Just before my fingertips touched it, a sharp, stinging sensation flared.
As if an invisible force shoved my hand away, a prickling energy flung it back.
…It’s pushing me away?
Startled, I reached out again.
In that moment the gem set in the center of the necklace flashed with an uncanny light.
Feeling a sudden unease, I didn’t hesitate. I drove my hand straight into the man’s throat. When I yanked it free, thick blood and gore came with it, bones snapping under the force.
His body staggered backward.
No—before it could fully fall, it stopped, bent at a grotesque angle.
Crack.
Bones realigned with a wet sound, and he slowly straightened again.
Blood still poured from the massive hole in his neck, yet something strange writhed within it.
Black threads like silk spilled from the flesh and stitched the gaping wound shut.
Even more grotesque was his face. His eyes had turned completely black. No pupils, no whites—just two dark holes bored into his skull.
As if newly revived, he immediately raised a hand to strike me.
I blocked the arm with ease.
…Hard.
His skin had become so rigid it was hard to believe it belonged to a human. Hard and inelastic, as though some shell had been layered over it.
Still nothing I couldn’t handle.
I raised my other hand and brought it down on his shoulder.
With a wet tear, flesh ripped free and the entire arm tumbled to the ground.
Immediately black threads poured from the severed stump. They stretched to the fallen arm, dragged it back, and reattached it exactly as they had repaired the neck.
It was an absurdly bizarre sight.
And it wasn’t limited to the man in front of me.
The roughly twenty corpses I had already dealt with began rising one by one.
Bodies split in half, necks twisted, solar plexuses punched clean through—
Every one of them had suffered catastrophic damage, yet the wounds vanished without a trace, restored to pristine condition.
My gaze flicked to Ren and Pria behind me. I shot them a look that demanded an explanation, but they only stared at the scene with grimly set faces. It was clear they understood no more than I did.
The corpses, stripped of all reason, charged straight at me.
Whether they had been preparing magic or charging from the start no longer mattered. They simply hurled themselves forward like beasts.
I swatted them aside one after another, yet no matter how many limbs flew, bones broke, or holes opened, they regenerated almost instantly and rose again.
What the hell is this?
Impossible recovery. Hardened skin.
Those were the only two changes I could sense.
Watching Ren fight a few of the outer corpses, I could tell the skin wasn’t hard enough to stop an aura blade. But if this power could be applied to dozens—or hundreds—of corpses?
Wouldn’t that create an immortal legion?
Is this magic…?
Yet the shock and confusion on Pria’s face—someone thoroughly versed in magic—suggested that wasn’t the answer either.
I realized half-measures would no longer suffice. I pulverized the charging corpses until nothing recognizable remained of their forms.
Bones shattered to powder, flesh burst, blood and organs scattered across the ground. Some were simply buried as the earth itself collapsed beneath them.
From the crushed remains, black threads spread like spiderwebs and swiftly rebuilt human shapes.
Even those revived. From the pulverized wreckage, black threads wove outward like spider silk and reconstructed bodies in moments.
This was nothing a human could have created.
“What the hell is going on?”
I shouted to Pria while continuing to smash the endlessly rising corpses.
“This… isn’t orthodox magic, and it isn’t black magic either.”
Pria clenched her teeth, eyes darting between me and the dead.
“Even magic can’t make something this absurd possible.”
“So you don’t know?”
“For now… yeah.”
A phenomenon so alien that even top-tier adventurers could neither recognize nor explain it.
I abandoned further analysis and speculation and simply swept away every corpse that came at me.
It was annoying and ridiculous, but not difficult.
After several more cycles of destruction and revival, the corpses finally stopped rising.
In this place thick with the stench of blood, silence suddenly fell.
I looked around in confusion and saw that the faint light once seeping from the black necklace lying on the ground had completely gone out.
…Had its power run dry?
Ren and Pria, who had been dealing with the outer corpses, also stopped and gasped for breath.
“….”
There was no sense of accomplishment at having defeated the enemy.
An uneasy feeling still lingered.
The dead moving again, threads stitching their bodies back together, turning them into something like an undying army.
Even accounting for how little I knew of the world beyond the Red Barrier, this was utterly incomprehensible.
One thing was certain: that black necklace stood at the center of every unnatural phenomenon.
I walked slowly toward it.
Lying amid the bloodstains and debris, the necklace now looked completely ordinary, showing no reaction at all.
I bent down and reached out.
It still rejected me. The moment my hand neared, black currents crackled around it and flung my fingers away.
Ren, who had come up beside me without my noticing, rested a hand on his chin as he watched.
“That’s… the kind of reaction you’d expect from a Relic.”
“A Relic?”
“Yeah. I don’t know the details myself… but Relics are sealed by holy law so that ordinary people can’t even touch them unless they’re the designated ones. Of course, that uses holy power, not black mana.”
Black mana… hadn’t they said black mana was rare?
Sensing the question in my mind, Ren turned to look at me.
“I don’t know much about black mana either. But there’s one thing I haven’t told you.”
“What is it?”
“Every single person the Empire has found across the continent who possessed black mana was… wrong somehow. Either their minds were broken, they died young for no reason, or they were already criminals living in hiding.”
“All of them?”
Ren nodded firmly.
“Without exception. That’s why some people call black mana ‘cursed mana.’ Cases are so rare that few even know about it.”
He watched my reaction carefully before continuing in a more cautious tone.
“Because the sample size is so small, we can’t say anything for certain. There’s just too little that’s been uncovered.”
I looked back at the necklace.
An extremely small sample.
And one of them was lying right in front of me.
If I wanted information about my own mana, I needed this black necklace.
I slowly reached out again.
As expected, the closer my hand came, the more electricity crackled around the necklace, trying to push me away.
This time I refused to be shoved back. I forced more strength into my arm and pressed down.
“Wait!”
Ren hurriedly tried to stop me.
“If it really is something like a Relic, you can’t just take it by force. That kind of crude method won’t—”
Even as he spoke, I didn’t stop.
The closer I got, the stronger the repulsive force became. The air around the necklace grew scorching hot, and black currents lashed wildly at my palm like claws.
Crack. Crack.
When my fingers entered touching distance, the necklace convulsed as if in a seizure.
Violent resistance shook my entire arm from the wrist, yet I pushed through.
At last my fingertips made contact.
I closed my hand around it and gripped tight.
CRACKLE-CRACKLE-CRACKLE!
The necklace still refused to yield. Pain beyond mere stinging—pain like my skin was being torn—spread through the hand that held it. Flesh burned; thin smoke rose from my palm.
That was how strong it was.
Probably the most threatening force I had encountered since leaving the Red Barrier.
“…You all right?”
Ren, who had fallen silent and simply watched, asked in a hollow voice.
“I think I can carry it for a while. If it gets too much, I’ll just toss it in the carriage.”
It seemed to react only when someone tried to take it; lying on the ground it stayed quiet.
As long as I could walk a few steps while holding it, bringing it along was entirely possible.
Ren still couldn’t tear his eyes from the necklace thrashing madly in my grip.
“Now that this thing is in our hands, they won’t give up easily.”
I grinned and nodded.
“Even better. Black Moon, was it? I hope they show up soon.”