A Priest Who Wields Jet-Black
"Run!"
Simon grabbed Camibarez's hand and bolted. At the same moment, a chilling *whoosh* of displaced air tore through the space behind them.
Kuuuuung!
Kung!
Black crosses hammered into the ground one after another, carving out massive craters. Simon's eyes went wide.
'……A Priest is using Jet-Black?'
The situation was far more serious than he'd realized.
This was no mere Priest who had slipped onto Roc Island undetected.
'……There's a traitor inside Kizen!'
Two reasons drove Simon to that conclusion.
First: Jet-Black and Divinity were powers that clashed with one another — no one could wield both.
Second: this Priest was using Jet-Black instead of holy power.
In other words, this person hadn't come in from outside. They had been operating within Kizen all along.
Nine times out of ten, a spy of the Holy Federation, siphoning off Kizen's secrets.
Nobody at Kizen prayed to a god. Which meant this Priest had to venture deep into the Forbidden Forest — far from where any foot might wander — just to offer prayers in peace.
And he and Camibarez had simply had the misfortune of witnessing it.
Which led to one unmistakable conclusion:
'If they catch us, we are dead!'
Shwaek!
Shwaeaeaek!
Crosses of Jet-Black rained down indiscriminately. Blood spattered from his arm and thigh as a searing pain welled up.
'Hah! Hah!'
Simon ran, gasping for breath — and then his eyes went wide. Something was writhing toward him from up ahead, moving like a serpent.
"Look out!"
He shouted and threw his upper body back.
A jet-black chain burst from the ground, slicing past Simon's hair by a hair's breadth.
Straightening up, Simon glanced to the side.
"You okay—!"
She was being dragged away.
"S-Simon!"
Her leg was snared in a chain. Both of them lunged for each other's hands, but they missed by a fraction of a second, grasping only empty air.
Then she was yanked away at terrifying speed, pulled into the darkness.
"Ghhk!"
Simon cried out and sprinted after her.
When he caught up, she had slammed into a tree and lost consciousness, the black chains binding her body tight.
'Cami's been captured!'
Simon gritted his teeth and whirled around.
A robed Priest was approaching slowly. The darkness beneath the pulled-down hood was too deep to make out a face.
The baggy robe made it impossible to even guess at gender or build. There was almost nothing to learn from outward appearance.
Then the Priest raised his left arm.
Tat!
Simon instantly stepped on Jet-Black and ducked behind a tree. The surging chains slammed against it and ricocheted away.
Wuum! Wuum! Wuum!
This opponent was clearly a skilled one — this time, dozens of crosses unfurled in the air at once.
A Priest manifesting the cross — the very symbol of Priesthood — out of Jet-Black, the power that defined necromancers.
Simon felt an indescribable sense of wrongness.
The moment the Priest pointed his palm at the ground, the crosses all came pouring down together.
'Ngh!'
Simon pulled a skeleton's short sword from his subspace pocket and charged.
Crosses slammed into the earth like gravestones. And at the one moment he couldn't dodge, a black streak of destruction came rushing at his flank.
Clang!
Simon swung the short sword and knocked the cross aside. A numbing jolt shot up his wrist — and the short sword shattered to pieces.
Shrararararak!
This time chains flew at him from both sides at once.
Simon dropped flat enough to kiss the ground, slipping beneath them, then snatched up a stone from the ground.
'Jet-Black Imbuement!'
Wuum!
Pouring Jet-Black into the stone until it turned black as night, Simon rose and hurled it with all his strength.
Shwaeaeaek!
Simon watched the flying stone with everything he had.
'Hit him! Show me your face!'
The Priest, evidently never imagining Simon would counterattack, turned his head a beat too late. The right hem of his hood tore slightly — but sadly, that was all.
"……"
The face remained hidden, but a deep fury seemed to radiate from the Priest all the same.
Even more crosses floated into the air. Simon scrambled to rise and evade, but the crosses' range had spread beyond his front — all the way over his head.
There was no dodging this.
"Hoooh."
Simon closed his eyes in resignation and raised both arms. And then—
'Now!'
Behind the Priest, a massive greatsword revealed itself.
BOOOOOOOM!
With an ear-splitting roar, the Priest's body went skidding backward.
By throwing up an instantaneous wall of Jet-Black like a shield, he avoided being cleaved in two — but every cross he'd been conjuring scattered or fell to the ground, leaving piles of ash in their wake.
[Kheheheheh! You alright, boy?!]
Pier emerged, sinister blue flames roaring from both eye sockets.
A massive frame standing well over two meters tall, a formless cloak billowing at his back, and the pure-white greatsword gripped in his hand.
At the sudden appearance of an Ancient Undead, the Priest visibly faltered.
'Pier!'
[Stand far back! This one is beyond you!]
Pier raised the greatsword into position beside his face. Simon nodded without hesitation.
'Please!'
[KHAHAHAHA! I hardly remember the last time I tasted battle! Now — here I come!]
Pier's foot slammed into the ground.
The earth exploded, and his body shot forward like a cannonball. The Priest swiftly formed a Jet-Black shield in front of him.
KRAAAAAAANG!
Shield met greatsword; the air itself wailed and the ground flipped over. The surrounding trees were ripped out by their roots and sent flying.
This was a battle far beyond the tier where Simon could interfere.
Abandoning any lingering hesitation, he turned his back and ran to Camibarez. Pier's surprise attack had apparently canceled not just the crosses but the chains as well — she was free of her bonds, slumped on the ground.
"Cami!"
Thankfully, she seemed to have only been knocked out by the impact; nothing looked seriously injured.
Simon scooped her up in one motion. He'd noticed it before, but her body was worryingly light.
Kuuuuung!
When the wreckage of a massive boulder came crashing down beside them, Simon put more distance between himself and the fight. Every time Pier and the Priest collided, the surrounding terrain was being rewritten.
'Pier! How's it looking?'
[Ngh! Not easy!]
Pier's voice was trembling.
[This one! His Jet-Black magic alone is absurdly strong! He might be professor-level!]
Even for an Ancient Undead, Pier had only just been freed from his seal — his power was drastically diminished.
What's more, Pier was the Legion's Manager, not originally a combat unit. If the opponent truly was a Kizen professor, a hard fight was inevitable.
'Think.'
Simon bit his lip. He couldn't lose his father's undead so pathetically, not like this.
'There has to be a way……!'
Then, as he searched for a way out, Simon's pupils dilated in an instant.
'Pier! Break away from the Priest! Then stall for time and make as much noise as you can!'
[What?]
'No time to explain! Hurry!'
Perhaps out of trust in Simon, Pier asked nothing further and pulled back from the Priest. Then he began raising a racket — swinging his greatsword to send the ground surging skyward, cleaving the air to produce thunderous booms.
From the Priest's perspective it must have looked like wasted effort, but right now, it was the only way to survive.
And before long—
"Over there! I can hear something over there!"
"Sounds like explosions?"
Lights appeared in the distance. Simon clenched his fist.
'Yes!'
The sentries had arrived, drawn by the commotion.
Only hours ago they had been the objects of his terror, but for this one moment, he could not have been more glad to see them.
The Priest, who had been pressing Pier hard, spotted the sentries' lights too.
With every additional witness, his situation would only tangle further. In the end, the Priest broke off the fight with Pier and fled into the forest.
"Don't chase him, Pier!"
Simon ran up. Pier, still gasping with his greatsword planted in the ground, flashed a grin.
"Are you alright?"
[This much is nothing! Though I suspect staying here will only invite more trouble.]
"Yeah, you're right."
The pounding of hound paws and the sentries' lights were nearly upon them now.
Pier scooped up Simon and Camibarez together in his arms.
[We're leaving! Hold on tight!]
Pier kicked off the ground and launched into the air.
The landscape below rushed backward at a staggering speed.
Pier carried the two of them out of the Forbidden Forest and set them down at a spot where Kizen's castle walls came into view.
[From here on, even I cannot enter.]
Pier said as he lowered them to the ground.
[I can smell something unpleasant — wide-area detection magic, no doubt.]
Simon nodded. Camibarez still hadn't regained consciousness.
"Thank you, Pier. You saved our lives."
[Kheheh! I've barely had my contractor a short while — I can't afford to lose him yet! Get inside safely!]
"Yes. Thank you."
Pier vanished into the darkness.
Going through the main gate would mean explaining himself to the guards, so just as on the way out, Simon passed through the wall via the tunnel in the stable.
Before long, he climbed the ladder, pushed aside the straw covering the ceiling, and poked his head out.
"Ah, there you are."
Kevin, who had been watering the stable's horses, spotted Simon and smiled.
"Did Dick happen to come through?"
"Nope. The sentries suddenly blanketed the area outside, so nothing came through this way. If it's Dick, he's probably out looking for a longer route around."
"I see. Thanks for letting me know."
Kevin gestured at Camibarez, cradled in Simon's arms.
"Is the young lady alright?"
"The sentries chased us and she pushed herself a bit hard. She'll be fine."
Just as Dick had done, Simon flicked a coin from his pouch as a tip. A tip that said: keep this quiet.
Kevin broke into a wide grin and bowed deeply.
Out of the stable, Simon paused to consider where to go.
Should he head for the central infirmary? But they'd inevitably press him for how she'd been hurt, and if he answered honestly, it would end up in the ears of professors and officials anyway.
A midnight battle. The Priest might have seen Simon's face, but there was a good chance Camibarez's face had gone unseen.
To keep her from being dragged back into danger, whoever treated her had to be someone he could trust.
'Someone I can trust……'
Going to Nephthys would be the safest bet, but he had no way of knowing where she was right now.
After turning the problem over and over, Simon set off.
Boys' Dormitory Building 1 Duty Room, Kizen.
"Huaaaaam."
Lena, the dormitory caretaker, sprawled across her desk with her arms folded under her chin, yawning hugely.
"I haaaate night shifts……"
Cleaning, laundry, cleaning, laundry, cleaning, laundry. Her main duties were technically dorm management, but waiting hand and foot on these noble young masters never got any less grating, no matter how many years she put in.
She glanced at a stray document lying in the mess and gave a hollow laugh.
"Sneaking girls into the dorm rooms to play three-on-three in what? Good grief, absolute lunatics, the lot of them……"
Kids these days really did have not one cute bone in their bodies.
When she'd threatened to report one incident to the overseeing professor instead of letting it slide, they'd immediately started name-dropping their family houses like that was supposed to scare her. Utterly absurd.
"Ahh, I want to quit it aaaall……"
Knock knock.
A knock sounded at the door.
What on earth, at this hour? She rubbed her eyes and spoke.
"Come in."
Click!
The door swung open to reveal a male student carrying a girl in his arms. Lena's eyes went round as saucers and she shot to her feet.
"Y-you're bringing a girl into the boys' dormitory! What is the meaning of th—!"
Mid-shout, it belatedly dawned on her that the boy's face looked awfully familiar. And his uniform was caked in dirt, with bleeding wounds to boot.
"Ah…… S-Simon? You're Simon, aren't you?"
"Please help us."
Simon's voice was strained. Lena scrambled over and cleared the items piled on the duty room bed. Simon laid Camibarez down on it.
"What on earth happened? You shouldn't have brought her here — the infirmary should be your first—!"
"It's… complicated."
Simon's expression hardened.
"I can't go into details, but I can't take her to the infirmary."
"……"
Four years as a Kizen dormitory caretaker.
Drawn in by the lavish henchman wages, ninety-five percent of hires ran off within a month — and in this notoriously brutal workplace, Lena had lasted a full four years.
In that time she had seen every manner of madness imaginable, and she knew about Kizen's dark side too. Students did absolutely anything to survive at Kizen.
Yes. Truly, anything.
Getting hurt and then skipping the infirmary to dodge the consequences was one of the most common things in the world at Kizen.
She let out a long sigh.
"Out."
"Sorry?"
Lena gave Simon a firm shove toward the door. Simon panicked.
"W-wait, just a second, Lena! I—!"
"Out, because I have to treat a girl's wounds!"
"Oh…… right."
While Simon scratched his head sheepishly, Lena fetched an emergency medical kit, set it down beside the bed, and drew the curtain shut with a swift sweep, blocking Simon's view.
A moment later came the soft rustle of Camibarez's uniform being peeled off.
"……Haah."
Lena's sigh drifted over from beyond the curtain.
"Honestly, I could just scream. What in the world happened to you two? There's a scrape down to the knee, and this one's shallow too — but this wound on the thigh……"
Her voice turned cold.
"That looks like it was made by something sharp, doesn't it?"