Chapter 66
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 66
One of the ghoul’s arms, cleanly pierced by a fire arrow, tore loose from its body. The creature stumbled, crashing to the ground with a grating shriek before lunging toward Melju.
“Kieeeeeek!!”
An endless barrage of magic followed.
Boom. Boom.
Although its body was resistant to flames, with every deafening blast, the ghoul’s flesh was steadily blasted away.
Finally, despite the resistance it should have built against the continuous internal explosions, the ghoul's entire body caught fire. Limping, it attempted one final leap.
It swung its right hand, aiming for Melju, who hadn’t moved a single step while unleashing her magic.
Just before its claws could touch her face—
With a final, massive explosion, the wrist bearing those sharp claws was blown clean off.
Its face melting, the ghoul contorted and roared one last time before its burning body collapsed with a thud.
Without a single change in her expression, Melju spoke to Swallow.
“…If it’s only twenty minutes, I can hold out as well.”
“Reassuring.”
“Is there anything else I should keep in mind?”
“Hmm…” Swallow mused, noticing she had only been casting fire magic. “You prefer fire magic?”
“My body can’t cast holy magic, so fire magic is currently the most efficient.”
“Then that’s all. Just try to keep the village intact. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t burn the whole place to the ground.”
“Understood. I’ll keep that in mind.”
Only after Melju floated away using levitation magic did Swallow approach Simon.
Numerous magic circles hovered around Simon, waiting to be activated. They had all been cast while the ghouls bought him time. Swallow grinned.
Seeing that over thirty of his ghouls had been wiped out, Simon asked in a voice thick with wariness, “I had my suspicions… Are you an ancient monster?”
He’s quick on the uptake, Swallow thought in admiration. The Lich at the castle only realized it when his life was hanging by a thread. He sneered playfully.
“Close, but not quite.”
“…Not quite? What do you mean? Then who in the world are you?”
“Who knows?”
A meaningful smile touched his lips, and then he moved.
Though a considerable distance separated them, Swallow closed the gap in an instant and whispered in Simon’s ear.
“Maybe Patrick’s slave.”
In that moment, the magic circles Simon had prepared in a panic unleashed their attacks.
A storm of spells raged in the narrow space. Small but sharp bolts of lightning pierced Swallow’s torso. A curse that would rot human flesh with a single touch wrapped around his entire body, and a double-layered drain spell designed to completely sap a target’s energy manifested.
Of course, none of it worked.
The spells didn’t even slow him down.
“What—!!”
Grabbing Simon’s face once again, Swallow slammed it straight into the ground. As the Lich was smashed into the earth with a sharp crack, the surrounding ground convulsed, sending debris shooting high into the air.
In that instant, two spells Simon had hidden as a last resort activated in rapid succession.
Giant shackles erupted from the ground, binding Swallow’s entire body. At the same time, the air around Simon distorted, and he vanished from sight.
“Well, look at that.”
He planned a few moves ahead, didn’t he? Swallow thought, easily snapping the chains of high-grade binding magic. He raised his head.
Instantaneous teleportation magic had a severely limited range. Just as he expected, Simon had only managed to teleport to the far side of a swarming horde of undead.
Dozens of undead immediately rushed at Swallow, a desperate attempt by Simon to buy a few more seconds.
In that brief window, a new magic circle began to glow.
A second teleportation spell.
This time, he intended to escape Swallow’s sight completely.
—Riiip.
But the black mouth that burst from Swallow’s body was faster.
A shadow fell over the dozens of undead as the mouth gaped wide. In the next instant, everything beneath it vanished.
But Swallow, having only swallowed the pests, frowned in annoyance.
He had intended to devour the Lich entirely, but the distance had been just a little too great.
He had only managed to devour the Lich up to his right shoulder.
Having finished the spell at the cost of his right arm, Simon vanished.
“Ah, damn it.”
It felt like playing around had only made more work for him.
Hastin was larger than he’d thought. Finding someone who was deliberately hiding would take time. But he couldn’t just ignore the Lich and leave the Veil. If left alone, the creature would only cause more trouble in the territory.
And taking the time to find him is a pain, too.
His main concern was Melju, who was protecting the village. Her mana wasn’t infinite, and the fact that she had asked about the time meant she was well aware of her own limits. That twenty-minute window could easily be shortened by unforeseen variables, just like the battle with the ghoul.
He couldn’t afford to waste any more time.
He let out a deep sigh and scanned the area ahead. He didn’t know exactly where the Lich had gone, but he could guess the general direction.
Since he controlled the Elder-class ghoul, he was likely in charge of all the undead here. He fled because he knew he couldn't win, so he would immediately report to his superior.
He would try to inform Erebos.
And Erebos was outside the village.
That meant he was probably hiding in the residential areas closest to the city wall.
As he finished his train of thought, a solution popped into his head. It was a very simple method, though probably far from the best.
At the same time, his own words echoed in his mind.
“But we need to keep the village intact.”
“…Ugh.”
He had definitely said that.
Thinking about it now, he shouldn’t have. Regret washed over him in a low groan. Ah, damn it. I didn’t know it would turn out like this. Next time, if someone looks like they’re good at running, I should start by ripping off their limbs.
Even as he hesitated, time was ticking away. Trying to use his rusty brain, which he rarely used, was giving him a headache.
“Can’t be helped.”
Isn’t trying to protect both just greed? Let’s give up on one. Having reached a reasonable compromise, Swallow raised his hand.
A crude magic circle formed in front of him.
As the massive amount of mana surging within his body was discharged, a great disaster, disguised under the name of low-grade magic, swept away everything in its path.
*
Immediately after wiping out the entire street in a single blow, Swallow searched the rubble for the Lich.
Fortunately, the corpse of the Lich, Simon, was sprawled not too far away.
Should killing someone who was already dead still be called making them a corpse?
Scratching the back of his head at the awkward thought, Swallow decided it didn’t matter, grabbed Simon’s head, and walked toward the Veil.
Dragging the corpse along, he looked back. Though he had called it low-grade magic, the area it had swept through was a complete ruin. The houses were gone, and the ground itself was deeply gouged out.
“This… well… let’s just say you did all of this. You.”
Swallow, pinning the blame on the already dead Lich, stopped in his tracks.
In front of him was the Veil.
“Those who do not know well seem to call it supreme-grade magic. Most of those who aspire to magic studies, including myself, call it the magic of the Divine Realm.”
“The Divine Realm, huh?” Swallow muttered, standing right before the barrier.
Before leaving the castle, he had received a brief explanation about the Veil from Melju. As someone practically illiterate in magic, he hadn’t understood the details, but seeing how excited she’d been… it probably meant the Veil was amazing, or whatever.
Did she say it was an advanced magic that was considered purely theoretical?
Looking at its scale, it certainly felt like a force that far surpassed high-grade magic.
Stroking his chin, Swallow fell into thought for a moment before reaching his arm toward the Veil.
From a distance, it had looked purely red, but up close, its color was mysterious, similar to the iridescent sheen of oil reflecting light.
The moment he touched the mysteriously glowing Veil, his hand was repelled with a crackling sound.
At the same time, he felt a stinging pain.
Frowning slightly, Swallow opened his repelled hand. The skin on the part that had touched the barrier was torn, a wound that looked as if it had been ripped by a high-speed rotating blade.
“Heh, so it really is something.”
A faint smile played on Swallow’s lips as he stared blankly at the torn skin.
Regardless of level or type, barrier-type magic was usually powerless before him. The massive flow of mana surging through his body was enough to shatter low-grade and even intermediate magic the moment it touched him. High-grade magic wasn’t much different; at most, it just required him to consciously exert some force.
Yet this thing hadn’t broken. Instead, it had torn his skin.
The wound healed in seconds. His curiosity piqued, Swallow reached out his arm once more. This time, he applied more force, shoving his hand past the Veil. In response, a roar several times more violent than before echoed in all directions.
All the skin on his wrist, which he had forced through to the other side, was torn away.
A cold wind brushed against the raw flesh of his wrist.
Roughly estimating the Veil’s thickness, Swallow pulled his arm back out.
I think I can manage it.
It would sting a bit, but if he forced his body through, he could easily cross over. For an idea from his head, it wasn’t bad.
However, that made him worry about Demeura.
This damn bracelet didn’t seem sturdy enough to withstand something called magic of the Divine Realm. It would obviously shatter, and if Demeura broke and he could no longer control his Polymorph, that would be a problem.
…And I’d get scolded by Patrick, too.
At the thought that the one option he’d come up with was ruined by a single bracelet, Swallow glared at the Veil in annoyance.
He didn’t have much time, but he was out of other options.
If there was no other way, he might as well try. If it didn’t work, too bad. And if a problem arose…
“…”
He glanced at the Lich’s corpse he was still dragging and muttered to himself.
“Let’s just say you did it.”
He checked for any presence. Just in case, he turned his head to look behind him. There were no humans around. All that remained were a few undead wandering in from somewhere, now running toward him from a distance.
Backing up about ten steps, Swallow blinked.
His pupils turned pitch-black.
He pulled his shoulder back. His arm, from the elbow down, turned black. It expanded. An alien energy leaked out, uncontrollable.
Faster than the eye could follow.
A tremendous blow collided directly with the Veil, and a massive vibration, like an earthquake, echoed throughout Hastin and its surroundings.
*
If the place on earth closest to death was hell, then this was it.
While the inside of Hastin was dyed red, the outside beyond the Veil was a faded black.
The hills opposite Graphenia’s forest belonged entirely to the undead. Their numbers already exceeded ten times the population of Hastin. Even so, the procession of the dead lining up from afar was endless, as if they had not all yet gathered.
The army of the dead gathered like a single black cloud.
There was no disorder among the countless mindless undead that should have naturally existed in such a massive army. They were organized no differently than a human army.
Leaders equivalent to centurions in a human army commanded the zombies and skeletons at the lowest level. In front of those leaders stood their respective ‘Elders,’ and before them stood ‘strong individuals with epithets.’
And at the very front of all these legions, serving directly under the Lord of the Dead, were the Ten Calamities.
The gatekeepers of the Great Evil Cave ‘Where Corpses Die’ and the legion commanders of tens of thousands of undead.
Those called the Ten Calamities.
Acrid smoke rose from within the walls of Hastin, a fiery testament to the complete ruin of Erebos’s plan. Nevertheless, the undead of the Ten Calamities did not utter a single word.
They were merely watching a single entity approaching from the distance.