The Tower of the Dead
"This place is dangerous. Get out of here, quickly."
"P-Professor!"
Simon shouted after Aaron, but the professor had already thrown himself out the window Magnus had escaped through.
Down below, Magnus stood unharmed, as if he had never taken damage at all. Aaron descended and landed a set distance away, and the two men faced each other.
"It's been a few years, Professor Aaron."
Magnus said.
"Back then you were a passionate young professor. You've changed quite a bit since."
"...You were a serious problem child then, and you're a serious problem child now. Magnus Alban."
An immense hostility rippled in Aaron's eyes.
"A student murdering a Kizen professor is a sin that cannot be washed away. To think you'd have the audacity to set foot on this island after what you did."
"Boring talk."
Magnus sneered with his murky eyes.
"Professors weaker than their students deserve to die."
Aaron's mouth twitched, but he quickly raised his arm, as if even arguing with the man would be a waste of time.
"Why did you come back to Kizen?"
Kugugugugugu!
Beyond the roof of the boys' dormitory, two colossal undead battleships made of bone revealed themselves.
Their bellies split open, and red skeletons poured out from within in an endless stream.
"Undead battleships, is it."
Magnus looked up at the sky.
"A highly sophisticated Hive Magic installed in the ships governs your entire undead force, distributing the caster's commands down to each subordinate unit. That's how you artificially multiplied the number of undead you can control. It's truly—"
The corners of Magnus's mouth split open.
"—sickeningly boring."
Kajakkajakkajak!
Countless shadowed figures with eyes and teeth began spilling out from beneath his feet.
"A necromancer with limits on his numbers? What's the difference between him and a chef with no arms? Honestly, I wonder how you all don't drown in self-loathing, clawing your way through such a pathetic existence."
A Legion, then.
Aaron gave the attack order.
The red skeletons flying from the undead battleships began raining down on Magnus without end. In response, the shadows at Magnus's feet surged out in countless numbers, jaws gaping wide, swallowing or swatting away the skeletons.
"Do try harder."
Magnus sneered as he watched the wreckage of red skeletons tumble across the ground.
"How much does one of those skeletons cost? Feels like I've already burned through days of your salary."
Aaron swept his arm through the air.
"!"
Magnus's pupils widened slightly.
Beyond the two existing battleships, a third was drawing near at his back.
"Except for your Legion Commanders, every human eventually hits the wall of 'quantity.'"
The four battleships opened their gates.
"That is why humans struggle desperately to overcome that limit—"
Red skeletons cascaded down, dyeing the sky crimson like a swarm of locusts.
"—and in the process, they advance without end."
Whiiiiiiiiing!
The flying skeletons wheeled around Magnus in a great circle, forming the shape of a crimson vortex.
Magnus's tongue flicked across his lips.
"A rare sight, to be sure. But what exactly do you intend to do with these scraps?"
At that moment, the skeletons spinning in their red vortex all stopped moving at once.
Magnus glanced around, wondering what was happening, but the real spectacle was unfolding beyond it.
Every single ship was splitting open into four segments like a blooming flower bud. What lay visible within were colossal magic circles laden with massive quantities of Jet-Black.
The battleships themselves were giant magic circles!
Kwaaaaaaaang!
From all four directions—north, south, east, and west—flashes of destruction converged on Magnus. He vomited forth his shadow monsters, wrapping them around himself like a defensive wall.
"Now this is a bit surprising."
While Magnus devoted himself entirely to defense, the frozen red skeletons all rose back into the sky.
Each body scattered into hundreds of bone fragments, then began attaching, aligning, and linking to one another, constructing an indescribable, colossal edifice.
It was a tower—upside down.
"Aaron Original — Tower of the Dead"
"Be gone. This is far enough."
Aaron lowered his arm and continued.
"Fall, traitor."
The inverted tower of skeletons descended straight down toward Magnus, who was pinned to the ground. His shadows burst forth by the hundreds, coiling around the tower and trying to tear it apart, but the tower ripped straight through them, shattering Magnus's skull, cleaving through his chest, and driving all the way to the bedrock below.
Kuguguguguguguguguung!
Half the tower buried itself in the earth, and a thick cloud of dust completely engulfed the area around the boys' dormitory.
"...Wow."
Like all the other students watching through their windows, Simon couldn't close his mouth.
[Kghahaha! Not bad at all!]
Even Pier—who for some reason was a total sucker for praise—said so.
[To think a mere summoner, not even a Legion Commander, could go that far!]
Soon all the skeletons returned to the undead battleships.
Aaron raised a wind to sweep away the dust, then walked toward Magnus, whose body hung in tatters. He prodded at the crumbling torso and fell deep into silent thought.
"Professor!"
Simon, who had leapt down from the window at some point, was approaching him.
"Are you alright?"
"I told you to stay back."
As the Bone Armour enveloping Aaron dissolved, he returned to his usual attire of shorts and slippers. His stubbly beard and bristly leg hair were on full display.
At that strange imbalance, Simon smiled and said,
"Well, you handled it, Professor. What about Magnus?"
"That thing is fake."
Aaron said.
"A kind of living clone, essentially."
"Th-that was a clone?"
Simon's jaw dropped.
That thing was strong enough to defeat Kajan, and it was a clone?
"I heard the 5th Legion has a versatile Ancient Undead called 'Alaze' in its ranks."
Aaron straightened up.
"If Alaze and Magnus combine their powers, something like this would hardly be difficult. And don't ever assume that common sense applies to a Legion Commander in the first place."
"......"
Then Aaron stepped close and put a hand on Simon's shoulder.
"Any idea why Magnus was after you?"
Simon flinched inwardly.
"Magnus is an extremely dangerous man. A rogue operating entirely outside the control of the Dark Alliance and Kizen headquarters—there's no one who even knows his exact whereabouts. So how did you end up entangled with someone like that?"
"I-I have no idea."
Simon put on the terrified expression of an ordinary student.
"Today was the first time I'd ever seen him."
Which was also the truth.
"What did he say to you?"
"Something about the wavelengths of undead, but it was all so complicated I couldn't understand it."
"...And that student who was bleeding earlier?"
"The dorm staff took him to the medical wing. I was about to head over there myself."
"Understood."
Aaron spread a magic circle to collect the fragments of Magnus's clone, then trudged away.
"I'll report to Lady Nephthys myself. Get some rest."
The summit of the Washburn Mountain Range.
The Demon King's Ancient Castle.
An undead entered the vast bathhouse within its walls. A zombie dressed in a butler's uniform let out a deep sigh.
[The bath is a disaster once again, I see.]
Inside the tub, a long-haired man reclined with his head tilted back, bleeding. The sulfur spring he was soaking in had turned into a sea of blood as blackish-crimson chunks of flesh oozed steadily from the magic circles on his chest and abdomen.
"It was fun, so no complaints."
Magnus rose lazily, his voice languid. His gaunt body was dyed scarlet with blood.
"Clean it up."
Undead bearing cleaning tools crowded in and began draining the water and clearing away the remains of flesh.
Magnus draped a robe over himself and took a sip of water.
[Did you achieve anything of note?]
"Aside from reuniting with an old teacher, nothing worth mentioning. I was interrupted before I could exchange so much as a few words with that Simon fellow."
The corner of Magnus's mouth curled upward.
"But I felt it. A hunch."
[A hunch?]
He was recalling his first face-to-face meeting with Simon.
—Who are you?
It had been a very striking moment.
The instant the boy laid eyes on him, he had burned with pure, unadulterated rage.
He had leapt straight past the bewilderment of the situation, past any deliberation or questioning about the perpetrator who had done that to his roommate, and simply exploded with fury first.
Magnus had found that unnatural.
"Lorraine Archbold was a bluff cooked up by the Witch of Death. The 7th Legion Commander is Simon Polentia."
[You sound certain.]
"Nearly so."
The Zombie Butler gripped his monocle and closed his eyes.
[However, your actions this time were far too rash. The Witch of Death will no doubt find and dispose of our collaborator within Kizen headquarters as well.]
"Oh? Are you blaming me?"
The Zombie Butler gave an awkward smile.
[Of course not. After all the years I have served you. I was merely reporting the consequences that followed your actions.]
Magnus walked on, water dripping from his body, and sat upon the throne of skulls. The Zombie Butler handed him a towel.
[How did it feel to return to your alma mater?]
"Decent entertainment."
Magnus said with a grin.
"Although—"
[?]
"I got the sense there's someone else at Kizen preparing something. Besides me."
[Is that so.]
Magnus rested his chin on his hand.
"It looks like they're planning to pull off something rather big. In many ways, we have much to look forward to."
The Magnus incident was, for now, settled.
It was sheer luck that few students had been in the dormitory.
Kizen headquarters issued Magnus a summons for investigation. Naturally, he had no intention of complying, and it seemed the Crows were being mobilized to track him down.
Now that Kizen's watchful eyes would be fixed squarely on Magnus, it was nothing but good news for Simon.
Meanwhile, Simon headed to the medical wing to visit Kajan.
"Kajan has already been discharged."
"What?"
The medical wing delivered completely unexpected news.
Kizen's infirmary, famous for clinging stubbornly to any injured student, had simply discharged Kajan on the spot.
Simon made his way to the duty office of the 1st-Year Boys' Dormitory, where Kajan had reportedly gone.
"Ah, Kajan. He said he needed a place to bathe."
"A... bath?"
After being drenched in blood like that, he wanted a bath?
It probably wasn't a real bath—he must have gone to pour that strange potion over himself. Kajan had a habit of dousing himself with that steaming potion every time he got hurt.
"There's no hot water in the boys' dormitory right now, so I sent him to the staff bathhouse in the 2nd-Year Girls' Dormitory."
Simon's face stiffened.
"Th-the girls' bathhouse?"
"Yes. Apparently orders came down from above that the staff are to cooperate with Kajan in every way possible."
Nephthys's inner circle really was on another level.
Simon accepted it and immediately headed for the 2nd-Year Girls' Dormitory building.
Shuaaaaaaaa.
Sure enough, the sound of running water reached his ears as he arrived before the female staff bathhouse.
Simon wavered morally for a moment in front of the sign reading Women's Bath, but decided that as long as no one else was there, it would be fine, and steeled himself.
Then he knocked lightly on the bathhouse door.
"K-Kajan? Are you in there?"
There was no way he'd be heard over the water. Bracing for any contingency, Simon cracked the door open just a sliver and peeked his head inside.
Shuaaaaa.
Since it was a bath used only by staff rather than students, it was small. There wasn't even a separate changing cabinet—misty steam greeted him the instant he opened the door.
There was only a single tub. And in the hazy vapor, a grey-haired man was pouring a potion over his body.
It was Kajan.
"...Simon, is it."
He spoke in a voice heavy with fatigue. The bathhouse floor was a mess of water, blood, and potion.
"A-are you okay, Kajan?"
"Yeah."
"I'm coming in, then."
Since things had turned out this way, Simon decided to wash up too before leaving.
He stripped off his clothes, set them in a basket like Kajan had, and came closer.
"I'm sorry, Kajan. You got dragged into this because of me, for no reason at all..."
"Why are you apologizing?"
Kajan rubbed at the wound beside his eye with his fingertips.
"Protecting you is part of my mission. And injuries sustained on a mission are a given—there's nothing to apologize for."
Simon helped pour the potion over Kajan's body as well. When the liquid hit the gaping wounds, a vapor-like steam rose and the injuries began to close.
But like the long gash on Kajan's face, the healed wounds left scars behind. His body was already covered in them.
Once Kajan finished recovering, he lowered himself into the hot tub.
Simon fetched cleaning supplies and tidied up the washroom, wrecked by blood and potion. He felt guilty enough about borrowing the women's bath—the least he could do was clean it.
Squeak, scrub. Squeak, scrub.
As Simon wiped the potion stains from the floor with a bathhouse mop, he brought the subject up almost casually.
"Kajan."
Kajan, soaking in the steaming water, gave a slight nod.
"It feels like you've been avoiding me this semester."
"......"
Simon had barely exchanged a word with him lately.
Whenever he came back to Room 409, Kajan was always asleep.
During the first semester, Kajan had gone out every night because of the Saintess incident—but even after that affair was resolved, he kept leaving.
"I'm not avoiding you on purpose."
Kajan replied.
"I'm on a mission."
"...Come on, there are no Priests on Roc Island anymore. What mission could you possibly have now?"
"What kind of idiot reveals the contents of his mission to an outsider?"
An outsider? Simon's face fell with disappointment.
"We're roommates. We fought the Saintess side by side, remember?"
"Public is public. Private is private."
Simon pressed a hand to his forehead and let out a long sigh at this stubborn senior.
When on earth will I ever get close to this guy?
"Actually, I'm the one who wants to ask you something."
At that moment, Kajan spoke.
"Worrying over something you're keeping hidden—you're one to talk, aren't you?"