Chapter 61
Chapter 61
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 61
Chapter Title: Ancient Lich, Skeval (1)
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Crack, craaack!
The dream imprisoning Resti develops cracks.
Platinum mana devours the dismantled circuits. And so, the dream begins to crumble.
Crunch!
Finally, the dream shatters completely.
Resti, awakening from the dream, immediately seizes control of her body. Since she'd already dismantled the spells in advance, it wasn't particularly difficult.
"Ugh..."
A light dizziness washes over her.
Resti staggers as she lifts her head. She slowly opens her eyes. She sees reality, not the dream.
'...Where the hell is this?'
She couldn't tell.
Everything is bathed in grayscale. There are trees. There is grass. But they lack the colors they should have.
The endlessly stretching monochrome landscape feels utterly desolate. Resti rummages through her memories, searching for what this place might be.
'Monochrome.'
She'd never seen a scene like this before.
But she had encountered records of it.
'A world of nothing but gray... the intermediate dimension.'
Resti is a Summoner.
And there is one dimension that must be traversed whenever familiars are summoned. Resti utters its name.
"Otherworld."
The moment Resti speaks it.
"...Keeping you asleep was the bare minimum courtesy."
A voice echoes.
Resti turns her head.
"If you'd stayed that way, I would have let you take the easy path."
Her eyes turn toward the source of the voice.
"Why did you wake, child?"
In this gray world, one thing alone is black.
It is a shadow. The edge of the shadow connects to Resti's toes.
"Was the dream not to your liking?"
The shadow approaches Resti.
The only thing with color in the Otherworld feels ominous. An instinctive revulsion rises.
"Tell me what you desire. I'll let you walk it from the start again. What was it... as I said before, I am..."
"Summon."
Resti doesn't let it finish.
No reason to listen, no value in it. She chants briefly and swings her arm.
Kwach!
A wolf bursts from somewhere and clamps down on the shadow's nape. The shadow's voice cuts off.
"Summon."
She continues the chant.
Each time she snaps her fingers, familiars appear from nowhere. They tear into the shadow.
Crunch!
There is no hesitation in her summons.
Without giving even a moment's gap, the familiars begin ripping into the shadow.
Multi-Casting.
"Nested Summon."
The wave of familiars doesn't stop.
Resti chants a bit faster. With one hand she draws circuits, with her mouth she intones spells, and with the other she infuses mana into the circuits.
Resti links it all simultaneously.
Familiars pour out.
Their number surpasses the ten that was once her limit, yet they keep coming. And at a speed incomparable to before.
There is only one reason such a feat is possible.
Because this place, right now, is the Otherworld.
The Summon spell calls familiars from the Otherworld into reality. Due to the nature of the spell requiring passage through the Otherworld, there is inevitable mana waste and delay.
'But not here.'
The place where Resti stands is the Otherworld.
Standing in the Otherworld skips the entire process. Mana consumption drops, and delay vanishes.
In other words, feats beyond her skill become possible.
Resti's eyes assist her. Nearly a hundred familiars she has bound fill the Otherworld.
Crunch, craaunch!
Kwach!
Sounds of clawing, biting, and shattering echo. The shadow, buried under familiars, can barely be seen.
"......"
At that point, Resti stops building her chant.
Not out of confidence in victory.
"...What the hell are you?"
Quite the opposite.
Nearly a hundred familiars tear into the shadow, yet it rises nonchalantly.
Scree, skreeek.
As the shadow moves, the familiars are dragged across the ground. It brushes off its hand lazily.
Raises its hand upward.
Then swings it down in a flick.
Thud.
That's it.
The familiars explode. They are crushed. Some have their necks torn off. Their forms vary, but all connections to Resti sever.
"Compared to the apostate... it's still lacking, but not bad. If you can do this much before your talent has even blossomed, it's far from terrible."
The shadow steps over the familiars' corpses toward Resti. With each step, the shadows surrounding it crumble away.
"Child."
The shadow stands before Resti.
The last remnants of its shroud peel away completely. Resti gazes at what lies within the shadow.
What catches her eye first are the gaunt bones. No flesh clings to them. No blood. Only bare bones stare at Resti.
"Once the ritual ends, I will arrange your contract. I will do it personally. Perhaps even He might choose you Himself."
A skull too bizarre to be human.
From within, black eyes gleam wetly. The pitch-black gaze meets Resti's eyes.
The moment their eyes meet.
Instinctual terror engulfs Resti.
Resti's eyes waver.
'Ah...'
Resti realizes what this undead is.
It wasn't hard to recall.
Countless histories covered this undead.
'Ancient mage scholar.'
The mages' nightmare.
The one who hates the living.
The one who touched truth through death.
And.
One of the four calamities that once razed the kingdom in the past.
"...Ancient Lich, Skeval."
"That's the name they call me by."
Skeval raises his hand.
The gaunt bone heads toward Resti's forehead.
"Sleep a little longer until everything ends."
Tap.
The bone touches Resti's forehead.
Skeval's black magic power burrows into Resti's mind. Just as it tries to root itself deepest within.
Sizzle.
Sparks fly up.
Skeval's finger bounces back.
"...What is that?"
The Ancient Lich narrows his eyes.
Resti follows Skeval's gaze downward. It lands on the inner pocket of her uniform. Something inside emits light.
"Why...?"
The Ancient Lich questions.
He stands frozen, unable to approach the light. Resti reaches into her inner pocket.
Tap.
Something catches on her fingertips.
Resti pulls it out. A neatly folded note. The material is familiar. Circuit recording paper she'd used recently.
'...Why is this here?'
Questions arise.
But the moment she sees the circuit engraved on the paper, they fade. A circuit fills one side of the recording paper.
A stunningly intricate circuit.
One that feels beautiful the instant she sees it.
This endlessly precise circuit... as far as Resti remembers, belongs to only one person.
'...Professor Lania?'
No mana is stored in the circuit.
What flows along it is Resti's own mana. Resti instantly understands what the circuit does.
"Destroy that thing right...!"
The Ancient Lich bellows.
The howl is beastly. The eerie voice rattles her eardrums. Amid the mind-shaking roar, Resti lifts the note.
"Really."
And, incongruously with the situation, she bursts into laughter.
"You were watching."
Resti immediately channels mana into the circuit.
Platinum mana fills the circuit. The diagram glows. The light engulfs Resti.
"Aaaah! Aaaaaaah!"
Skeval's black eyes shake with rage at the sight.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ "Star! Fulfill the contract! External interference shaking the contract means a shift in control...!" Skeval demands of the star.
A response returns.
⭐ STAR RESPONSE ⭐ -Not external interference. The circuit wasn't engraved by Resti.
But Resti is the one infusing mana and activating the spell.
⭐ STAR RESPONSE ⭐ -No anomaly in the phenomenon. The star declares it free of issues.
The grayscale world begins to crumble. A door from the Otherworld to reality opens.
"Ashen!"
Gazing at it.
"Vile Ashen!"
Skeval claws at his own skull.
Skreeek, the sharp bones rake across bone amid Skeval's monstrous roar echoing.
"You again! Again?!"
Crunch!
The dream crumbles, and the Otherworld too.
What returns is complete reality.
"Aaaaaaah!"
Roaring, Skeval claps his palms together. He slams his bones into the ground. Demonic energy erupts from the bones, forming a barrier.
Just before the barrier engulfs the forest.
A gaze from afar pierces Skeval.
"Ah."
She said.
"Found you."
2.
"Hoo."
Kalt lifts his head, breathing heavily.
His eyes are bloodshot red.
"Location pinpointed. Can you see it?"
"Yeah, thanks. Good work."
True to his word, Kalt pinpoints it in under ten seconds. I engrave the location into the circuit.
As I do, I suddenly feel eyes on me.
"......"
Kalt stares at me blankly.
"...What?"
"Do I have anything else to do?"
Anything else.
"Go down and help the knights. Beasts will show up soon."
"...You gonna be okay alone?"
"What, drag you along? You're not fully recovered from the demonic energy poisoning. You'd be wheezing the second you cross that barrier? I ain't fighting while lugging dead weight."
I've spent the last few years fighting with two lumps of baggage.
'Do that shit again?'
I shake my head.
Just imagining it is nightmare fuel.
"Get going, kid."
"...If you insist."
Kalt shrugs and crouches. Looks like he's prepping to jump off the roof.
Suddenly, as if remembering something.
"Lady Raniel."
Right before leaping, Kalt turns back to me.
"What? Spit it out."
"Just... stay safe and come back. When it's done, let's grab a drink. Been a while."
A chuckle slips out.
I wave him off casually.
"Yeah, see you later."
I watch Kalt jump, then roll up my sleeves. Kalt did his part. Resti exceeded expectations.
"What's left..."
Is my role.
I crack my wrists and glare at the barrier.
The barrier keeps expanding. It stretches beyond the forest it once covered.
Scree, skreeek.
The barrier inches toward Aphria.
I calculate the distance and open my mouth.
"Release."
The stocked circuits on my forearm ignite one by one.
I slam my raised foot into the roof railing. Crack, craaack—the roof tiles fracture.
Accel.
Muscular.
Enhance-Strength.
I raise my arm.
Fold my fingers one by one.
Spell-Boost.
Spell-Enhance.
Triple-Spell.
The circuits keep burning.
The blazing circuits spark and sizzle. Sparks leap atop the circuits. I grab them without wasting a speck of mana.
Soon, the barrier closes to arm's reach.
The approaching barrier is like a black wave.
Facing it, I clench my fist. Pull my arm back. Bend my elbow.
Smash.
The enhanced spell gathers in my hand.
Gripping the surging mana, I stare at the barrier. More precisely, the coward hiding inside.
"Hey."
I say to the Ancient Lich, Skeval.
"Stop hiding and come out, you fucker."
I swing my fist.
The layered spells erupt in light.