The Abyss Gazes Back
It was not a matter of the ability’s power or rank, but of its sheer size and the nature of its existence.
From between the blood-red runes, grotesque and ominous movements began to seep out.
In the darkness where even starlight and moonlight were being swallowed, the crimson glow of the runes burned away the light, yet within that glow one could clearly see the sickening green hue and the repulsive writhing that seemed to violate the sky itself.
That green had nothing to do with the freshness of trees. It shared no resemblance whatsoever with the beauty of emerald.
It was a nauseating green, as if everything were rotting away. A bizarre green that seemed to mix itself into decay.
The sight of what looked like countless green worms endlessly squirming together covered the entire sky above me, and even I felt the urge to stop the summoning at that grotesque scene.
Moreover, the unreal, distant sensation transmitted through soul synchronization as the summon grew more solid felt as though it were savagely howling to devour my very soul.
I heard the assassins’ swords striking my barriers. Though I did not tear my gaze from the sky, I could sense the urgency and desperation in the sounds and in the faint movements visible at the edges of my vision.
They, too, must have realized it. This summoning must never be allowed to complete. It was not about victory or their own deaths; as living beings, they simply did not want to face that thing.
With the sound of a barrier shattering, I felt the fifth barrier disappear. It had not been destroyed by impact, but had simply reached the end of its duration. Amid faint joy and relief, I sensed them swinging their swords once more.
Whether this was a strange illusion or hallucination born from my unstable mind through soul synchronization during the summoning, or whether their emotions were simply that intense, I could not tell—but at least I felt it clearly.
Then, reacting to my danger, the fourth barrier activated, and after a single despairing impact, the sounds of swords striking the barriers ceased entirely.
A moment later, I felt the flow of mana around me shift slightly. The Grendels must have been wiped out, or perhaps even the Grendels had halted their movements at the sight of the ominous sky, allowing several mages to redirect their focus toward me.
But it meant nothing and had no effect. The summoning was already complete, and the summon was enormous. Unlike before, they were not completely blocking the surrounding mana flow—merely disrupting it in part—so it had no impact on my connection to the summon.
The runes vanished, and from between the ominous, repulsive writhing, enormous shapes began to reveal themselves one by one. They were massive, spine-chilling green eyes. As if tearing through the curtain of the night sky to peer down at the ground, countless enormous green eyes covered the heavens.
The being I had just summoned—or rather, the existence that could never truly be called a living creature—was Neaphis Naka Honus. Its name meant “the eyes that gaze from the abyss.” It belonged to neither the demon realm, the celestial realm, the spirit realm, nor any of the eight material worlds, including the one we inhabited.
It existed in a separate dimension called Minocas, detached from all other worlds and even the flow of time, where the emotions and sensations of every living being in the eight material worlds gathered and flowed.
Originally, it possessed neither ego nor substance nor life; it was merely a fragment of the swirling vortex of emotions that filled Minocas. Yet a thousand years ago, an exceptional summoner had called it into this material world for the first time, granting it substance and a name, thereby bringing it into existence as a summon.
Even so, Neaphis Naka Honus did not exist as a living creature within Minocas either. Until it was summoned to the material world and granted substance and a name once more, it remained nothing but a part of the emotional vortex that filled Minocas. Because of its utterly alien form of existence and special properties—completely different from ordinary living beings—it could only materialize in this material world in such an enormous form.
Overcome by instinctive terror and revulsion, the Grendels fled, abandoning the feast right before their eyes. I “saw” it. Not only the Grendels, but even ordinary soldiers and mages turned their bodies away to avoid that gaze and fled.
Neaphis Naka Honus ignored them and turned its attention toward the mages holding staves.
“Die.”
With that brief declaration, the mages screamed in agony and collapsed, never to rise again.
This was the power of Neaphis Naka Honus. An existence closer to a collection of emotions than to life itself temporarily strengthened the connection between its target and Minocas, pouring the entire vortex of emotions and sensations the target had felt throughout its lifetime directly into its mind.
Ordinary living beings could neither maintain their sense of self nor their lives within that vortex of emotions.
A few mages succeeded in preserving their lives by severing the connection through barriers, but the majority were not so fortunate.
The moment I confirmed the mages’ deaths, I immediately severed the mana flow sustaining Neaphis Naka Honus’s materialization.
After spending so much time on the summoning and materialization and consuming nearly all my mana, it was an incredibly inefficient action—but I had no choice.
Even though its form and abilities had been fixed by the first summoner, controlling an existence from Minocas while protecting one’s own ego was no easy task, and the mana required to maintain its substance far exceeded even the mana recovery rate of the Pope’s Ring, one of the highest-grade artifacts.
If I had possessed another means capable of precisely eliminating multiple specific targets at once, and if I had not been in a situation where rapid mana recovery was possible through the Pope’s Ring, it was a summon I would never have called. Yet unfortunately, it was the only summon capable of such a feat without being affected by mana disruption spells.
Though it was regrettable that I had missed a few mages contrary to my original intent, with their numbers reduced, they would no longer be able to cast high-level spells capable of destroying all my remaining barriers or repeat the earlier mana disruption spell.
If I waited for my mana to recover and summoned other creatures, I would have no trouble dealing with both the remaining forces and the Grendels I had called.
As the otherworldly being in the sky rapidly lost substance and vanished, the soldiers and assassins seemed to regain their senses. They quickly dispatched the Grendels still milling about nearby, then broke formation and charged toward me all at once.
It was their will to deny me time to recover mana, and their belief that the barriers would not last long—but four layers of barriers still remained.
Of course, due to the nature of my equipped barriers, which created synergistic effects with the existing ones, the inner barriers were relatively weaker, but they were not so fragile that they could be quickly broken by mere swords and spears, let alone concentrated cannon fire.
And the very moment I let my guard down like that, I realized the most important fact I had momentarily forgotten and the fatal flaw in this strategy.
“No wonder Orcan said that to me!”
Even if the barriers could hold until my mana recovered sufficiently, there was no guarantee that the enemy would simply continue meaningless attacks and wait in place until then.
That was why the first targets Neaphis Naka Honus should have attacked were not only the mages.
What was the reason I had come on this journey, walking into this trap? What was my goal?
I could not know the red-haired man’s exact objective, but this operation had been attempted in a somewhat dramatic and unnecessarily ostentatious manner for the sake of avenging his younger sister.
Thanks to that, even though I had not known the exact scale or timing, I had been able to prepare sufficiently and survive. But if they had completely changed their method and attempted a truly covert assassination, the weight of it would have been different.
Not only would it have become difficult to keep it secret from Rowell and Aegina, but there was also a high possibility of unnecessary collateral damage. Furthermore, though the likelihood was low, if they had brought an even larger force than now, it would have been truly dangerous.
That was why, no matter what, I should have dealt with at least the red-haired man. In Hyler’s case, even if this operation had failed, he would never have fled from my presence.
Yet simply to guarantee my own safety first, I had targeted only the mages.
“……!”
As I hurriedly scanned my surroundings, unlike the other soldiers charging forward, I caught sight of the red-haired man and the assassins retreating farther away, taking Hyler with them.
“…He certainly seems to have a good head on his shoulders.”
He had sensed that the operation had failed. Knowing that with most of the mages eliminated, the remaining forces could not possibly deal with me, and yet he had not issued a retreat order—instead taking only Hyler and escaping—was because he intended to use the other forces as a delaying tactic.
“It feels somewhat like looking in a mirror.”
And it was an extremely unpleasant experience.
I wanted to summon something immediately to block their escape route or pursue them, but even the Pope’s Ring could not guarantee that level of rapid recovery. With the amount of mana I currently had, any summon I could call would at best be capable of dealing with the surrounding small fry.
“Damn it!”
I could not stop the curse that burst from my lips. In the end, without my other companions, this was the extent of my combat style and my level. I could protect myself, but I was woefully inadequate at achieving my objectives.
At my gesture, runes once again appeared in the air. Chasing after them was already impossible, and there was no other way, but at the very least, I could vent my frustration on what they had left behind.
Demons with child-sized bodies covered in a rough, stone-like carapace, long legs, sharp mandibles split on both sides, and small pincers that constantly moved beside them.
Tanarors Apollyon.
My personal demon legion, which obeyed only my will, crawled out following the black shadows and the veil of night that had settled around us.