Chapter 424: Proof of Existence (12)
Chapter 424: Proof of Existence (12)
Unrefined mana is dangerous. This power, which defies the laws of nature, can contaminate living organisms and turn them into monsters.
The creatures born from this process are known as 'Demonic Beasts.'
Usually, the mutation ends with the creature simply growing larger than its original form, but some species undergo dramatic transformations in response to mana. These Demonic Beasts are given new classifications.
The monsters lined up before me were a prime example.
They were writhing, linear masses of flesh. Their mouths had grown so large it was impossible to distinguish them from their faces. Acidic saliva dripped from between the jagged teeth lining the edges of those maws.
They were the entities known as 'Hellholes.'
Back when the ecology of Demonic Beasts was poorly understood, no one could even guess what their original forms were. It was merely assumed that some mysterious creature living deep underground had been corrupted by mana.
That was why they were named 'Hellholes.' No one ever imagined that their original form was actually an 'earthworm.'
It made sense. Who could possibly look at these overwhelming, gargantuan bodies and think of an earthworm?
Their wrinkled skin and carnivorous diet were the exact opposite of the original species. It remained unknown why only a few species, including earthworms, underwent such peculiar mutations.
However, one fact was certain.
Individuals that underwent unique mutations like the 'Hellhole' were stronger than other Demonic Beasts—so much so that the ratio of them becoming Named-class Demonic Beasts was significantly higher.
Kieeeeeeeek!
An unpleasant shriek tore through the silence of the night. The sound was high enough to make my eardrums ache, and cold sweat began to bead on my forehead.
To be honest, the Hellholes themselves weren't particularly scary.
I had a track record of defeating an Agent of the Evil God. Unless it was a Named-class Demonic Beast, no matter how many there were, they didn't really move me. Perhaps if they were Fiends, it would be a different story.
There was only one reason I was tense.
The presence of the woman with black hair. Whoever she was, she had to be the one behind this situation.
That was the problem.
Since I didn't know her identity, I couldn't gauge her strength. To make matters worse, it was already night. It was difficult to identify dark colors in the low light.
Even more so in the middle of a battle with Demonic Beasts.
I lowered my stance and tightened my grip on my sword.
For now, the best course of action was to clear the battlefield. The silver Aura gathered on my blade began to blaze like a wildfire.
And then, a Single Flash.
A pure white sword light drew a sharp line, tearing through the atmosphere. The masses of flesh crossed by the silver horizon exploded without a sound.
With a scream, several Hellholes were sliced in half and tossed into the air.
Blood rained down. Drenched in that unpleasant scent of blood, I shouted to Sir Reynold.
"Sir Reynold, how much longer do you need!"
"Just a moment more!"
His voice was laced with a faint groan, meaning he was in the middle of a grueling calculation process.
I gnashed my teeth and looked ahead. It was a sight that had already repeated several times.
With every swing of my sword, several Hellholes were turned into corpses.
It was an extremely efficient battle. Normally, one would predict my overwhelming victory.
Nevertheless, the tide of battle had not yet decisively turned.
There were simply too many Hellholes. Furthermore, the ones that kept surging up were moving with intelligence.
While my vision was obscured by the spray of blood, something writhing began to accelerate rapidly.
I held my sword horizontally to block the maw of a Hellhole that lunged at me. Even in that moment, several other Hellholes were launching themselves toward Sir Reynold along exquisite trajectories.
This wasn't the intelligence of a beast. They were intentionally creating openings.
Zap! A bolt of lightning erupted from my hand. It was the hand axe hanging at my waist.
The thrown hand axe struck the head of one of the Hellholes lunging at Sir Reynold. A droning scream erupted once more.
Kyaaaaaaaak!
The successive bursts of blood bore witness to the deaths of the Hellholes. Seizing the opening, I poured enough mana into my blade to make it hum.
The silver Aura grew larger.
As the pure white flames blazed, the acidic fluid sizzled and burned away. The Hellhole struggled desperately to push me back, but that was its fatal mistake.
Gritting my teeth, I pulled my sword with all my might.
The resistance lasted only a moment. After a brief hesitation, the Aura began its steep sprint. The severed flesh of the Hellhole, split in two, dangled in the air.
A shout burst from my lips.
"Is it ready yet!"
No answer came. Instead, Sir Reynold simply focused on his chanting.
It meant he was at the final stage.
"Star of Truth that sentences life and death... Guide of the Seeker, Heavenly Providence and Natural Order, I command light and fire in the name of eternal and infinite Order!"
A gentle breeze began to blow through the world of tangled flesh and blood.
The breeze soon became a gale, and the gale a storm. Crackling electrical charges were erupting within the violently vibrating atmosphere.
The sky was weeping.
Even the Hellholes sensed the strange omen and momentarily froze. At the center of the racing gale, Sir Reynold's brown hair whipped about wildly.
Yet, he remained calm. The man's eyes were fixed only on his own fist.
A brilliant blue light was leaking from between his clenched fingers.
"Release."
With the trigger word, Sir Reynold opened his fingers. A small sphere of light was visible on his palm. As soon as Sir Reynold blew on it, the sphere floated upward.
It was right after it reached the center of the whirlwind.
"Get down!"
I faithfully followed Sir Reynold's instruction. Above my body, which was pressed flat against the ground, blue lightning bolts branched out indiscriminately.
It was nothing short of a meat grinder.
The lightning bolts, endlessly erupting from the whirlwind, rotated and swept away everything in the vicinity. The Hellholes shrieked, and the electrical charges that grazed the ground like stray bullets gave off a pungent smell of burning.
The hacked-up chunks of flesh acted as conductors for the lightning, spreading the charge even further.
It was a merciless spell. The scene produced after such a short chant was utterly horrific.
And even this was just the beginning.
Sir Reynold slammed his hand onto the ground. The earth began to swell around that point, and soon a storm of light and heat tore through the ground, devastating the area.
Lightning, blood, and soil.
I caught a faint noise amidst the chaos. Soon, the monsters that had been hiding deep underground revealed themselves to the world with a scream.
Kiek, keeeeeeeeek!
The storm was subsiding.
The bodies of the monsters, paralyzed by the electrical charge, stood upright. I threw my hand axe at the head of a Hellhole that had just begun to surge up.
A fountain of blood sprayed from where the axe buried itself with a thud. While the Hellhole was stiffened, I ran and leaped onto its head.
My eyes met those of another Hellhole that was surging up even higher. I flashed a faint smile.
"What are you looking at, you punk?"
Thwack! The sword I threw pierced through the crown of the Hellhole's head. I leaped onto the head of the monster as it fell backward with a spray of blood, and only then did I see the leader of this pack.
The other Hellholes were about 6 to 8 meters long. But this one looked twice that size. From an impossibly high vantage point, it looked down at me.
I didn't like it.
As I attempted another leap, the hand axe spun through the air and returned to my hand. The moment my body reached its peak after successive jumps, I was at eye level with the leader Hellhole.
That's more like it.
Holding the hand axe high with both hands, I let my silver Aura blaze.
The silver flame plunged down, splitting the world in half.
Kieeeeeeeeeeeek...
The scream faded into the distance, and immediately after the axe blade slammed into the ground...
The monster's body, split in two, fell wide open. I took a deep breath, calmly letting the pouring blood wash over me.
My hands were stiff. It meant I had put too much strength into the strike.
As I was opening and closing my hands, heedless of the stench of blood, Sir Reynold walked toward me with heavy steps.
He was just as blood-soaked as I was.
"Your Aura has become stronger than before. Have you bloomed your attribute?"
"No, not yet..."
"And yet, it has this much power."
Sir Reynold's eyes flickered around the surroundings. Only then could I take in the carnage we had created.
A landscape of flesh and blood had been formed over the soil. Furthermore, most of the severed corpses had been felled in a single blow, split clean in half.
I felt it too. At the very end, my Aura had blazed fiercely enough to overwhelm the axe blade.
As proof, hadn't this small hand axe split that gargantuan monster in a single stroke?
Perhaps that was why I had been so excited—enough to use unnecessary strength.
Sir Reynold, who had been surveying the area with a stoic expression, soon shook his head as if it didn't matter.
"Forget the Demonic Beasts. What's important is where that woman went."
"I don't sense her presence at all."
Sir Reynold nodded in agreement. It meant neither of us could detect her.
Does that even make sense?
It was a possibility that didn't feel real even as I thought it. That a swordsman who had reached the level of Expert and a mage with the title of Archmage couldn't even notice her presence.
I let out a groan and asked.
"Sir Reynold, you said you've seen that woman before, right?"
"I have. For some reason, I've been strangely remembering her lately."
"Weren't you about to say something just a moment ago?"
At my words, Sir Reynold hesitated for a moment.
When he gave me a puzzled look, I pressed him further in my anxiety.
"Didn't you say so? Something about her 'eyes'..."
"Ah, yes. I did."
The middle-aged man's eyelids closed again. His expression as he immersed himself in the past looked, in a way, quite helpless.
"It was a dark night. The plains were silent, without even a breath of wind... so quiet it didn't even feel like Demonic Beasts were infesting the area. That was when I saw her."
"The girl?"
"She still looked young. Her long black hair was fluttering... I approached the child and asked."
Sir Reynold, drifting through the storms of time, momentarily showed a pained expression.
A short play made of testimony unfolded before my eyes. A mercenary met a girl sitting and looking at the sky in the darkness of the plains.
Her face wasn't visible as her back was turned. The only thing that stood out was her long, jet-black hair.
"I asked her what she was doing there, and told her it was dangerous."
Then, the girl smiled brightly. It was such a pure smile that it was chilling.
"The child was smiling. She just told me she was waiting. Before I could even ask what she was waiting for, the Hellholes attacked us..."
"And after that? What happened to the girl after that?"
The middle-aged man's groan deepened. With a pained look, Sir Reynold pressed his hand to his forehead and revived his memory.
"Yes, yes! She was watching us and smiling! The Hellholes shouldn't have been a match for us. But, but how..."
As he traced back the past, the man's face turned pale.
His haggard eyes snapped open. With a panicked look, he fumbled as he looked around. I had no choice but to ask him in confusion.
"What's wrong, Sir Reynold?"
"...It wasn't just this many."
His voice was hollow. His gaze was fixed somewhere.
Toward the military camp.
Sensing an ill omen, I focused mana into my retinas. My enhanced vision pierced through the darkness, bringing the dust rising in the distance into view.
My expression hardened instantly.
"It wasn't just this many... the main force is elsewhere."
"Son of a bitch."
I strode over and roughly pulled my sword from the corpse of a Hellhole.
There was no time to hesitate. My mind was already filled with worry for one person.
Lia, my younger sister.
I sheathed my sword and was about to bolt when my body momentarily faltered.
My eyes searched the empty air. As I stared blankly behind me, Sir Reynold, who had regained his senses, asked me.
"What is it?"
"No, it's nothing..."
I thought I heard a laugh.
Though I tilted my head in confusion, I had no choice but to sprint toward the camp.
Please, let Lia be safe.
I prayed fervently in my heart.