Chapter 85
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 84
Chapter Title: Academy Recapture (3)
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Inside the barrier. The academy interior, which had been firmly sealed shut, was so dark that distinguishing objects was nearly impossible... and strangely quiet.
Even if you strayed just a little, you couldn't see your companions, and unless you shouted, you could barely hear the person right next to you.
Even I, who had faced black magicians to the point of boredom, couldn't comprehend this peculiar phenomenon.
The one saving grace was that these rules weren't absolute.
"It seems most of it eases if you light up the surroundings... but the problem is that any light draws monsters straight to you."
-Kuuoooh!
A grotesque monster with a horse's head and an ogre's body. Unusually, its lower half had wheels instead of legs, and dozens of slender arms that looked like those of human women protruded from it.
Quite a repulsive form. However, that didn't mean it was threatening.
"Oh. Pretty fast."
I took the monster's full-speed charge head-on, as it barreled toward me like a carriage.
Boom!
With a dull thud, the monster's massive body came to an abrupt halt and floated briefly in the air.
-Prrrng?
The horse head blew out a puff of air, as if puzzled, perhaps thinking I would be sent flying.
I grinned at the sight and said,
"There sure are a lot of monsters I've never seen before in here. ...Guess I need to scout for weak points."
I gripped the wheel made of flesh and bone—not wood or iron—tightly and hurled it sideways.
Kwang!
-Hiiing?!
The medium-sized monster, about the size of a two-story house, slammed into the ground in an instant. Mounting its flailing body, which couldn't recover from the impact... I first ran a light durability test.
Crunch!
-Kueeek!
I smashed the wheel-like lower body, yanked out or pulverized several of those incongruously normal-sized women's arms, and finally sliced open its belly and tore off its head.
With that, even its pointless thrashing ceased. Just as its pulsing heart, visible through the split abdomen, stopped.
Sizzle.
Not only the severed head but the entire body melted away, turning into a black puddle.
This made five monsters defeated since entering.
Three by me, the other two by Adriana.
"Looks like this one's about the same level too."
And all five had wildly different grotesque appearances, yet their power was roughly equal.
Some, like the first one I took down—a drake-headed snake specialized in ambushes using its vise-like grip.
Others obsessed with hit-and-run tactics while flying through the sky, or ones that barely moved but shot fluids over long distances.
This last one had sacrificed arms for mass and speed, a ramming type.
Thus, while directions varied... strangely, the effort required to deal with them was almost identical.
They also shared black blood flowing through their bodies, dying like ordinary creatures when their necks or hearts were destroyed, and melting into small puddles postmortem.
Ah, but the most glaring commonality was that none resembled any known monsters.
Like base monster forms twisted and mixed with other beasts or objects.
Similar to chimeras, but something even more bizarre.
I stared down at the black puddle thick with dark black magic for a moment.
Adriana approached, her expression slightly queasy.
"I don't know if there's really any need to go that far."
"Hm?"
Turning my head, I saw our group: torches, magic, holy power, each illuminating the darkness in their own way.
Their faces, visible through the faint light sources... somehow seemed more afraid of me than the monsters.
Thanks to that, I understood what Adriana meant.
"Just so you know, I don't have a taste for carving up monsters for fun. It was purely necessary."
"Necessary? Isn't killing them enough?"
"Normally, yes. ...But against black magicians, it's a different story."
Black magicians' spells are bizarre beyond compare. Not just dyeing elemental magic black with black magic power or adapting necromancy to shoot bone spears or spray acidic solutions.
Those you can tell at a glance are the milder ones.
But spells prepared through magic circles or rituals... even I can't afford to be careless; they're full of wild variables.
"Just off the top of my head: Hunger's Curse that wraps you in such intense starvation you devour your own flesh; Death's Duel that temporarily turns the surroundings into the land of the dead, forcing you to fight defeated foes again; and Thanatos' Bed, an irresistible drowsiness that kills you if you sleep."
"...At that level, yeah, it's tricky. Me or little Zahav might handle it, but others would struggle."
"But luckily, these monsters aren't anywhere near that."
They reeked of unusually thick black magic, yet the monsters that emerged were barely a bit stronger than trolls.
Put nicely, ample threat for the mercenaries and nobles per the original plan.
Put differently...
"In other words, these are just appetizers. The real deal's elsewhere. Or these unheard-of patchwork monsters aren't intentionally spawned but naturally occurring byproducts."
"...Evil god."
"Exactly. The enveloping darkness, the bizarre phenomena within, monsters swarming at any light with consistent strength levels. Doesn't it evoke some kind of rule... or law?"
A law's power stems from the enforcer's authority and its impartial application to most people.
In this class-based world, nobles and commoners get different punishments for the same crime.
But at least, same commoner stealing the same bread gets the same fine, regardless of age or gender.
...Just like similar-strength monsters charging at those who violate the darkness rule with light.
I asked the middle-aged priest, who had been silently pondering with lips sealed.
"Archbishop Byron. Any guesses about the current situation? Or maybe a hint from the Night Goddess?"
"...Sadly, since the Night of Tragedy, the Goddess and all gods of the Pantheon have been silent. They convey their will only through the Northern Saintess."
"Not asking for an oracle. Just if you've heard anything similar in scriptures or whatever."
"Not that I recall. I know why you're asking me. Since darkness has invaded here, you hoped Nix might exert her influence."
With that, Byron raised his hand, concentrating holy power.
A pure black swirled above his palm—utterly unlike the oppressive blackness filling the surroundings, which begged to be driven out with light.
Not just pure black; against that canvas, deep blues, faint purples, and countless white starlights mingled—a color worthy of being called night itself.
Just looking at it mysteriously calmed the mind. The true darkness, starkly different from the purely unpleasant ambient gloom.
The night veil that embraced all rather than excluding anything.
...Yet a power that couldn't exert its might here at all.
"It's like the barrier. Completely different from Nix's darkness—they repel each other. ...Of course, the Goddess isn't weaker than this unknown evil god, but as her mere human proxy, I fall short."
"Tsk. So it's not just black magic filling this place, but this evil god's power too?"
"Yes. This is already the evil god's domain."
"Still no clue which one?"
"...My apologies."
"Fine. We know the summoning's progressed quite far, but it's not too late yet."
The Hunger's Curse, Death's Duel, Thanatos' Bed I'd explained to Adriana.
All ones I'd personally endured and overcome... but the most dangerous was Thanatos' Bed.
In Igni's words, a spell so close to divinity it bore a god's name.
Shortly after entering the academy, instinct told me: this was akin to that sealed chamber where the black magicians' leader had activated Thanatos' Bed.
This space itself was one grand divine authority—or a near-perfect spell mimicking it.
That's why I'd tried gathering any info en route to the center, but unfortunately, no real gains.
"Can't be helped. Looks like we'll brute-force through this time too."
"...Pardon? But it's an evil god—power near divinity...?"
Byron's confusion at my mutter was brief.
-Kiriik!
-Tseut! Tsurrut!
-Keheek!
The scraping of metal and twisted insect cries from afar. Overlaid with various other grotesque howls.
In the pause, more monsters had been drawn like moths to our flames.
But the numbers were no joke this time. Unlike the singles before, a horde was coming.
"Ellis. Lighting magic."
"Got it."
Ellis muttered something short, and a faint orb of light bloomed at the tip of her staff-sword.
She swung it forward, launching the light ahead.
Fwaaah!
The light flew far, illuminating the academy's main avenue. Now we could see.
The grotesque monsters packed densely ahead, glaring right at us.
"Oh."
Hard to notice upon entry with black magic saturating everywhere... but seeing monsters lined along the avenue confirmed it.
Amid the chaos, the black magicians were at the avenue's end—the path to the academy's central spire.
Crack.
I lightly cracked my neck and clenched my fist.
"Investigation time's over. Stick to the plan. You know?"
"""Yes!!"""
The mercenaries' response from behind. They drew their weapons, and the Night Church priests who'd entered with Byron blessed them.
The nobles too activated their talents and bloodline abilities, ready for battle...
Roar!
I spewed massive, excessively flashy flames from the front.
To keep from losing the way in the darkness—and even if we did, to quickly find the path forward.
The darkness even an archbishop's holy power couldn't easily dispel. But for me, with resistance to black magic... precisely, the Tragedy God's divine power, it was manageable enough to illuminate.
I was their lantern.
"Let's go."
With that short word, I kicked off the ground.