The Contract (3)
The exchange of blows dragged on.
The beast used its horn. Roy used his sword.
Still a long way to go.
With the swordsmanship he currently possessed, blocking every one of the creature's attacks was simply beyond him.
Inevitably, the horn punched into his torso.
"Ghk…"
An amulet activated.
And not just any amulet—this one had been crafted with intermediate-grade mana solution, the highest quality he could currently produce.
It erupted in a fierce blaze of light and flung the horn back. The creature's decisive strike ended only in the tearing of the specially made leather shirt, stitched from ogre hide.
Even with an amulet, it tore through ogre leather…
This thing was no ordinary monster.
"That won't work, you bastard!"
Roy kept a blank face, pretending the blow had meant nothing, and pressed the taunt. If there was a moment to counter, it was the instant the beast believed it had finished him.
Right now.
"Haaaah!"
The creature's attack had come to nothing. Roy kicked off the ground and launched himself upward. After that exchange, he intended to at least take an eye for his trouble.
But the beast twisted its massive head without a shred of mercy. Roy's blade cut empty air, and the next instant the creature's skull smashed into him. He had no time to guard; the impact hurled him backward. He tumbled across the ground, light flaring from one place after another on his body as every impact was absorbed.
Fortunately, he hadn't brought only one amulet.
"Haa… haa…"
His breathing roughened. Conserving mana while barely holding on had reached its limit. He no longer knew how many amulets had already spent themselves.
Lily. How much longer is this going to take?
He didn't even dare glance elsewhere, afraid the beast might shift its attention toward her.
"…!?"
That was when it happened.
Right on cue, Lily's magic took hold. Dozens of unidentifiable plant vines burst up through the floor, the walls, even the ceiling. Their sole target was the corrupted unicorn. They shot out from every direction and wrapped the beast in an instant.
At last, its movement stopped.
One chance. Only one.
For the first time, Roy poured mana freely into his blade.
I have to end it in a single stroke!
Sword dyed red, he charged. The corrupted unicorn, bound tight in the vines, couldn't so much as twitch. Using footwork, Roy flashed to the side of its head, kicked off the ground, and leapt. He brought the sword down in a single, powerful vertical cut.
Pssshhhhh—an enormous torrent of blood poured down like a waterfall.
The unicorn's neck was severed cleanly in two.
Damn it… I should've just come back tomorrow.
Roy was utterly spent. If he'd known it would turn out like this, he would have used his mana freely to hunt today and returned the next day.
Still, the ordeal hadn't been for nothing.
"Ugh… gross. Why are you cutting open a dead horse's belly?"
"…I don't want to do this either, so just be quiet for a second."
Intestines spilled out of the massive unicorn's gut in a wet cascade.
Just as I thought…
Black mana stones, each holding a faint inner glow, were embedded throughout the entrails.
Next time I come to a dungeon, I really need to bring dismantling specialists.
Fighting down the urge to retch, Roy somehow managed to recover every last stone. The haul was so great his bag could barely hold it all.
And then came the real surprise.
"Whoa. That's huge."
"This must be the real core stone. Living this long in a place like this clearly paid off."
A mana stone emerged that rivaled the giant ogre from four years ago. Roy swallowed hard.
Hah… with something of this grade, I should at least be able to replace the amulets I burned today.
Last of all, he cut free the unicorn's horn, overflowing with pitch-black energy. The thing was nearly twice his own height.
I can put this to use somewhere too.
He abandoned the idea of skinning it. The hide would certainly be top-grade, but he decided not to get greedy. He had no desire to peel off blood-caked leather, and these weren't the only things he needed to take from this dungeon.
"The spoils are enough. Now for the real reason we came."
"The real reason?"
"Yeah. The actual purpose of coming here."
Lily watched him with open curiosity. Roy packed the recovered mana stones into his bag, then drew out several glass bottles filled with bluish liquid—intermediate-grade mana solution. He uncorked them and drank in long gulps, restoring the mana he had just spent.
"Whew. Still, I managed to conserve a lot of it. Somehow I recovered everything."
All preparations were complete. At last, it was time to summon that suspicious Golden-Eyed spirit.
"Well then. Shall we get started?"
First, he unrolled the scroll.
It was the scroll bearing a portion of the ancient spirit-summoning chant, drawn out as a magic circle. Lily shoved her head into his field of vision, eyes bright with curiosity.
"What's that?"
"A magic circle."
"I know that much. What kind of magic circle?"
"One that opens a dimensional gate."
"A dimensional gate? What are you planning to do once it's open?"
"I'm going to summon a spirit. This is the preparatory work for that."
Curiosity fully ignited, Lily fired off question after question. Roy had no particular intention of hiding anything from her. He had brought her along knowing she would see this, and even without that, he trusted her in his own way.
Not because she was tight-lipped—though that helped. As the Witch's disciple and a half-elf, spreading word of what she witnessed here was fundamentally close to impossible. And if she told the Witch? The person least interested in the Witch finding out she had come here was Lily herself. People with many secrets of their own rarely go around talking about other people's.
"Lily. Come over here for a second. Two more steps. The circle's going to be drawn from here, so don't cross the line."
"Okay."
Roy prepared with meticulous care. This time, no matter what it took, he intended to form a contract with the spirit.
At the very heart of the mana vein, he cleared away every scattered bone and corpse until, before long, a radius of several meters lay clean and level. The blackened, dried bloodstains on the floor were beyond help, but that was no great problem.
Before beginning the spirit-summoning chant, Roy called forth a magic pen. As the extraordinarily long incantation poured out, Lily stood watching, mouth hanging open. She looked as if she had dozens of questions she was dying to ask, her eyes shining as she tracked his every move.
The summoned pen strode through the air, etching a vast magic circle across the floor Roy had cleaned. He didn't bother using mana solution. In a place like this, there was no need.
"Whew. The circle's ready."
Lily stuck to his side like a cat demanding attention and peppered him with questions.
"Roy, how did you do that? Can't you teach me too? We're partners, aren't we?"
"Depends on how you behave."
As if I'd teach you that.
It wasn't that he dismissed her. The chant alone was so long it was hard to memorize, and even if he taught it, she wouldn't be able to use it easily. The same went for enchantment magic, and for this spell. As far as Roy was concerned, he had simply acquired a useful lure for when he needed to put Lily to work.
He drained the last of the mana solution, restoring even the mana he had just spent drawing the circle.
After all this hell, if it turns out to be some useless spirit, I really won't let it go.
At the exact center of the formation lay the prepared scroll. Around it, a massive circular magic circle several meters across took its place.
"What's this big circle for?"
"It gathers the surrounding mana into the center. I'm using it to make up for the mana I don't have."
"That's possible?"
"Mages use the mana in mana stones to conserve their own, right? This circle works on a similar principle. The difference is that instead of a stone, it draws on the enormous mana vein around us."
"Whoa! Is that true?"
"The mana density here is so high that magic becomes stronger even without something like this. That's how you were able to summon a shadow spirit. This circle just improves the efficiency."
"Really? I just summoned it without thinking."
"That means you're impressive. Forming a spirit contract isn't usually that easy."
He had only stated a fact, but Lily brightened at the praise. Taking advantage of her good mood, Roy issued an order dressed as a request.
"Lily. Move these for me, will you? Then all the preparations will be done."
She obeyed without the slightest suspicion, carrying the countless mana stones taken from the corrupted unicorn's belly to the center of the circle—every stone except the ones he had already packed to take home.
"You're using these stones too?"
"Yeah. We couldn't carry them all anyway. The one I'm trying to call isn't ordinary, so as much as it pains me, I'm going to need their help."
"What kind of spirit is it that you're going this far?"
"Honestly, I don't know either. I'll find out once I call it."
The mana stones piled atop the scroll bearing the circle. Every preparation was complete. Even though he hadn't begun yet, goosebumps rose across his skin—whether from anticipation or sheer nerves, he couldn't tell.
"Don't step onto the circle from here on."
"Okay."
Lily quietly retreated to a corner and watched with her shadow spirit at her side. Roy first recited the activation chant for the two circles laid out on the floor. Light spread outward from him across the entire formation.
All right. Let's see just how impressive you are, to put me through all this hell. Show yourself, you damned spirit!
At last, the true summoning chant began in earnest.