Chapter 79
Chapter 79
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 79
Chapter Title: Uninvited Guests of Darkness (3)
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Nade picked up a pen and wrote something on his palm. His friends, watching him, etched the same words onto their own.
- I have lost my memory. Anyone who knows the keyword can be trusted. The keyword is Polaris.
Shirone and his friends unfolded their palms in satisfaction. With this mark, they would be able to cooperate even if they lost their memories.
“Alright, done? Let’s head out.”
His confidence restored, Shirone left the Estas.
Students whose classes had ended were walking around the campus. Now that he had regained his composure and could observe properly, he noticed more than a few odd things.
The students, who would normally be walking around in groups of two or three, were all moving individually. What was strangest of all was that despite their hurried steps, their paths were a jumbled mess.
“Guys, those people…”
“I know. I felt it too. They have no destination. They're just walking wherever, aren't they?”
Nade spotted someone he knew in the crowd. It was Gabe, a classmate from Class Five.
“Hey, Gabe. Where on earth are you going?”
Gabe approached. Then, in a flat tone, as if addressing a complete stranger, he asked back.
“Who are you?”
Nade pouted. But having already heard what Shirone went through, he paid it no mind and got straight to his questions.
“Yeah, whatever. I'm asking where you're going right now.”
“Where am I going?”
Nade said, thumping his chest in frustration.
“You were just walking. What's your destination?”
“I was?”
Gabe looked down at his own two legs. Then, as if struck by a sudden realization, he began to look around.
“Where… is this?”
“Hey, snap out of it. What's wrong with you? Did something happen in the last few days? Did you see anyone suspicious?”
“Do you… know me?”
“Of course I do. How could I not?”
Gabe's face turned pale. He suddenly grabbed Nade's shoulders and started shaking him.
“Then tell me! Who am I? No, where the hell am I? I… what's my name?”
As the terrified Gabe clutched his head, Nade slowly backed away, preparing for anything. Fortunately, Gabe didn't turn aggressive. He was simply going mad.
“What is this sound? I hear a strange noise! Why do I keep hearing this sound!”
As Gabe shouted, looking around, his words began to slur. Eventually, completely unintelligible sounds started spilling from his mouth.
Shirone's eyes wavered in shock. He realized what was happening to Gabe. Iruki, on the other hand, hadn't seemed to notice yet and was listening to the surrounding sounds.
“What does he mean, a sound? Auditory hallucinations?”
Shirone said in a trembling voice.
“No, he's hearing his own voice.”
“What? His own voice?”
“He can't remember language. He's speaking out of habit, but he doesn't know what the words mean. Of course he'd be terrified.”
Gabe had completely forgotten the system of language. Eventually, he even seemed to forget syllables, screaming like a primitive man.
A chill ran down the spines of Shirone's group. Judging by the speed of his mental regression, his memories were disappearing at an alarming rate.
As time passed, Gabe's voice faded, the light in his eyes vanished, and eventually, he even lost his motor functions. At that same moment… everyone on the street stopped moving.
A frightening silence fell over the magic academy. It was as if the campus were filled with wax figures; not a single person showed any sign of movement.
“What in the world… is happening?”
“In any case, we're safe. We can't be optimistic, but this gives us a chance to investigate further.”
Shirone examined the people one by one. It felt as if the world had stopped, like Armin's Stop magic. But time was definitely still flowing. Besides, they weren't frozen, as he could see people blinking occasionally.
“Their thoughts… have stopped.”
If this was a type of magic, its effect was more dangerous than Stop. One could pose a threat to them. If one wished, even a child could harm everyone here.
The three of them entered the crowd and conducted a few experiments. When they tickled a younger student, he burst out laughing. But as soon as they stopped, his expression immediately went rigid again. When they feigned poking his eye, he blinked. His nerves were still active.
“Hoh, so only their thoughts have stopped. This is peculiar.”
“Then that means their stamina has a limit too. They won't be able to stand for long. What is the person behind this planning?”
“Before that, we need to figure out who did this. Let's look around a bit more for now.”
Shirone's group headed north. They wanted to see if the graduating seniors and teachers, who were on a higher level of magic, were in the same state.
When they reached the uphill path, graduating students were pouring out from under the arch of an iron gate.
Shirone's group hid in the bushes.
The fact that only the graduating class was moving while everyone else was immobilized was reason enough to be wary.
Among the crowd of graduates, they spotted unfamiliar faces.
There was a young man and woman who looked to be about Shirone's age, and a man wearing twin swords, a sight completely out of place at a magic academy.
Lucas whistled and joked.
“Whew, I've seen a lot of gruesome sights in my life, but a dreary scene like this is a first. They've all turned into zombies, haven't they?”
Abyss Nova was a spell that blocked the memories of anyone exposed to the nova within 24 hours. Since thought is impossible without memory, it was no exaggeration to call it a spell of inanimate conversion. The memories were blocked in order, starting from the most recent and most impressive.
It was Arin's job to lead those whose memories had been blocked. Specializing in mental magic, she led the graduating students to the same campus grounds where Shirone's group had encountered Gabe.
‘Shadow of Capture.’
And there, she cast her magic again. Her shadow flowed like writhing tentacles, piercing through the shadows of the people.
It was a unique form that didn't exist in the Four-Directional System. However, for a mental-type mage, this tentacle form was considered standard.
The tentacle form unravels the Spirit Zone into fine threads, allowing for far greater flexibility than the Four-Directional System.
But it was also time-consuming; it would take at least twenty minutes to pass through the shadows of all the advanced class students.
While Arin was at work, Lucas passed the time by sizing up the female students. Being nobles, they all had fair skin and smelled pleasant. As his viper-like eyes scanned their figures, Lucas found a woman to his liking and stopped.
“Oho. Look at this one.”
She was a girl whose eyes remained clear even after losing her memories. Her reddish bangs flowed down, covering one eye in a retro style, but her looks were the best among the students.
“She looks like she's got some personality. I like feisty women.”
The moment Lucas's hand reached for Amy, Canis grabbed his shoulder and spun him around.
“Lucas, stop. Refrain from such classless acts.”
“What? ‘Lucas, stop’? Are you talking to me?”
“I won't stand by if you do anything unnecessary.”
“Pfft!”
Lucas let out a deflated laugh. Had the prestige of the Parrot Thieves fallen this low?
“Hey, what's so serious? I heard this is all about revenge anyway. What's wrong with having a little fun?”
“This is revenge to reclaim our master's pride. I will not forgive such vile behavior.”
“And what if you don't forgive me? You wanna go at it, right here?”
“I will terminate our employment contract.”
“Haha! Kid, you seem to be mistaken about something. I was hired by Arcane, not you.”
“It makes no difference. Arin is in the middle of casting Shadow of Capture. If you do anything to interfere with the operation, I can fire you anytime. Of course, if you have a problem with that…”
A whirlwind of the abyss stirred in Canis's eyes.
“I will kill you right here.”
Lucas licked his lips and backed down. Having killed countless mages on his way to becoming the vice-captain of the Parrot Thieves, he knew how dangerous it was to show hostility within a Spirit Zone.
“Sheesh. Fine. After all, if I don't get paid, I'm the only one who loses.”
“Let me be clear. If you interfere with our work one more time, I won't hold back either.”
“So uptight for a partner. And that so-called master of yours is nowhere to be seen. Where did he go, anyway?”
“Our master is making important preparations. He means for us to handle simple matters like this ourselves.”
Arcane was currently in hiding, recovering the mental energy he had exhausted using Abyss Nova. But knowing it would do no good to reveal this, Canis kept the truth to himself.
“Yeah, yeah, I'm sure he is.”
As he turned away with a mumbled reply, Lucas's eyes flashed intensely for a brief moment.
‘Hmph. He's probably hiding and resting somewhere.’
Lucas was well-versed in the mage's principle of equivalent exchange. A spell that could block the memories of hundreds was something an ordinary mage couldn't even attempt. No matter how great a mage Arcane was, it was clear he wouldn't be at full power for a while.
‘This bluffing will only last so long, kid. There's no way I'd miss such an interesting opportunity, is there?’
Once Arin's work was finished, the graduating and advanced class students began to move all at once. Only after they were out of sight did Shirone's group emerge from the bushes. From what they had observed, it seemed the intruders planned to take the entire student body somewhere.
“Who the hell are those people?”
“We don't have time to think. It seems like nothing will happen for now, but we don't know what they'll do once they reach their destination. Besides, even the teachers were caught.”
Shirone said.
“The spell that girl cast seemed to be dark magic. Does that mean they're responsible for this whole situation?”
“The chances of that are slim. To cast a spell of this magnitude, the zone itself would have to be immense. Of the three, two are too young, and the one with the weapons is likely not a mage.”
“So you're saying there's a third party?”
“That seems likely. For now, let's focus on tracking them. If someone ends up in danger, it won't be too late to step in then.”
“Taking over the magic academy… The guy's insane. And using dark magic, no less…”
With an unshakeable sense of foreboding, Shirone's group began to tail the uninvited guests.
* * *
Etella remained in the training hall, wearing the same clothes as yesterday. Sitting cross-legged and perfectly still, her eyebrow twitched. Her brow furrowed and the bridge of her nose crinkled. She clenched her jaw, veins popping on her neck, and her body began to shake violently.
The building trembled along with Etella's body. The walls and ceiling vibrated, showering dust from above. Finally, her eyes snapped open, and she collapsed forward, gasping for breath.
“Hah! Hah!”
Having battled through the night against the inner demon that had come for her at dawn, Etella was drenched in a cold sweat.
‘What was that?’
She couldn't grasp it precisely, but it was a type of magic that infiltrated a person's mind and blocked their memories. Dark magic belonged to an orthodox school, but the malice contained within this spell was so intense it had pushed Etella's vigilance to its absolute limit. If not for the precepts of the Order of Karsis, she too would have helplessly lost her memories.
‘It's dark magic. But it should be strictly forbidden on campus.’
Etella checked the time. It was bright as day due to it being summer, but it was late enough that classes should have been over for a while.
‘Does this mean I was trapped by that inner demon for over twelve hours?’
Considering Etella's exceptionally pure mental fortitude, it must have been an incredibly powerful spell. What was even more astounding was that despite having missed all her classes, no one had come looking for her.
She wasn't the only one affected.
As soon as that thought struck her, Etella rushed out of the training hall without even changing her clothes.
* * *
A flash of light streaked across the sky above the magic academy. Then, as if drawn by a magnet, it curved and plummeted to the ground. Without so much as an impact sound, a single man landed.