The Vermin's Demise

We began with a probing exchange, summoning Dark Spears and hurling them at each other. I had grown tremendously, yet Cal Bent—who had stolen the life force of countless people to empower himself—possessed dark power that dwarfed my own.

"That can't be all you've got, right?! Make this more fun for me!!"

"........"

The gap in our dark power meant the most basic attack technique, Dark Spear, could never decide the outcome. It was time to move on to the next stage.

As Cal Bent continued boasting and looking down on me, dark power began to bubble and seethe from his shadow. It soon transformed into the shape of a spear and surged toward him.

"Kuhaha! You're really at the high priest level?! Not just anyone can use Shadow Lance!"

"Could you please be quiet."

Until now, no dark mage had ever seen through or dodged my Shadow Lance. But Cal Bent kicked off the ground, leaping high and evading it with ease.

So. You're a little different after all.

I possessed Inverse Calculation, the greatest weapon available to me in battles against dark mages. Yet revealing my strongest card in this ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠situation would be utter foolishness.

I concentrated my dark power and locked onto my target. A Dark Spear burst from the empty air and flew at Cal Bent while another spear erupted from his shadow. He dodged both attacks from opposite angles without effort, as if he could read the trajectories and calculate my movements in advance.

"There, finished attacking?! Then it's my turn—!"

I sensed a familiar shape of dark power in the air and looked up. Shadow Lances produced from the darkness above hurtled toward me, aiming to pierce my entire body. They were far sharper than anything I could create. What surprised me more was that while I could ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠only summon them from an enemy's shadow, Cal Bent had called them forth from the open air. Black chains of dark power even rose from the ground to seize my ankles.

If things continued this way, I would be skewered without being able to move an inch. Yet my mind turned toward the flow of the dark spears flying at me. Watching that current, I felt as if I could do it too.

"Ah... So that's how it's done."

I understood it perfectly now. Instead of focusing the summoning space on Cal Bent's shadow, I concentrated it in the empty air. Black mist appeared overhead, and from it black spears materialized. They collided with the Shadow Lances Cal Bent had fired, then scattered and vanished into the air like drifting snow.

And that black chain from earlier, too.

At the same moment, black chains wrapped around the ankles of a stunned Cal Bent, who had been staring blankly as his Shadow Lances vanished. He leaped upward in shock and barely escaped their reach.

"....You. You're no ordinary opponent."

Whether because his attack had failed or because he realized I was still growing in the middle of battle, the laughter vanished from Cal Bent's voice. Dark power began to whirl around him, and an even greater aura pressed down on me.

So this is where it truly begins.

With my robe fluttering in the storm created by the dark power, I lowered my stance and began drawing up my own energy. Go ahead—show me what you can do. If your attack doesn't kill me instantly, that blade will turn back on you instead.

A massive sphere of dark power floated in the space between us as we glared at each other. The tension was so thick that whoever struck first would decide the outcome. I was the one who moved first.

I unleashed a barrage of Shadow Lances summoned from both Cal Bent's shadow and the open air, while Dark Chains blocked his escape routes. At the same time, I extracted as many crude Dark Spears as possible and hurled them forward. Cal Bent pretended to struggle but skillfully deployed the same techniques, neutralizing every strike.

I wasn't merely watching, however. With a blade-shaped Dark Spear gripped in my hand, I charged straight at him while summoning Dark Chains from every direction. A close-quarters fight between dark mages was probably the last thing he had imagined. His panicked expression and voice were visible even through the mask.

Squelch—!

"Grk...!"

While his attention was diverted by the barrage of dark magic attacks from all sides, I drove the blade into his abdomen. The sensation of flesh tearing and organs twisting traveled through the dark power dagger.

I'll press the attack like this.

This body was unnaturally specialized for melee combat. The strikes flowed like water, each one aimed precisely at the enemy's vital points. Cal Bent, forced to allow close range because of my dark power techniques, was soon helplessly slashed, stabbed, and beaten down.

"Guuuu... Uaaaaagh—!"

Boom—!

Curling his body tightly while bleeding from every pore, Cal Bent released all the dark power he had gathered in one explosive burst. The shockwave sent me flying backward.

"Huk... Huk... You... Just what the hell are you?!"

"...You're asking now? There's no need for you to know."

"This voice... I've heard it somewhere before...."

Cal Bent seemed to have realized something. Clutching his bleeding stomach with one hand, he pointed at me with the other and shouted.

"You... You! You're that pathetic bastard who was always stuck to that bitch Erielle...!"

"........."

"This... This fucking bastard... Even back then something felt off. You're a dark mage too, yet you left that bitch Erielle alone!!"

"Miss Erielle. Why exactly do you want her?"

The fact that Cal Bent had identified me was irrelevant. I was going to kill this bastard no matter what. Still, the strange obsession all dark mages seemed to have with Erielle sparked suspicion in me. It had been the same when I first met her. Cal Bent's approach must have been part of some scheme.

"That bitch Erielle's magic power...! With that amount, she could serve as a vessel for the Demon God to manifest! You know it too!"

".......Ha."

All my questions were finally answered. The reason the dark mages had lusted after Erielle so desperately. She had been born with an overwhelming amount of magic power—one might even call it a divine blessing—and they wanted to use her as a vessel for that insane entity known as the Demon God.

Was that why they had kidnapped her, tortured her, and made her suffer?

Uncontainable rage surged through me as I glared at Cal Bent. Both he and every other dark mage had to die. In this competition, I would definitely take his head.

"Kihihi... Kihihihi! Now you're finished too! You dare oppose me?!"

"That thing..."

Cal Bent raised his blood-soaked hands toward the dark power sphere floating in the air. The energy flowing from his body began pouring into it. The sphere that had gathered the dark power rising from the entire village—if even more was compressed into that endlessly condensed mass...

It will explode.

It seemed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the dark mages' plan had been to appear quietly while the villagers slept, detonate that sphere, and turn the entire village into ruins. If dark power continued to be added at ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠this rate, the sphere would eventually exceed its limit and burst like an overinflated balloon, killing Cal Bent, me, and every resident.

"Damn it all...!"

The moment I realized the danger, I flung the dagger to the ground and stretched my hand toward the sphere. While Cal Bent poured dark power into it, I began absorbing it instead.

"Urgh...!"

"Khaaaak—!"

He pushed, I pulled. It was like a tug-of-war with the dark power sphere between us. I devoted every ounce of strength I possessed to the absorption.

I ignored the madly flickering status windows and poured every last drop of strength into the absorption. I could feel my total dark power and proficiency rising in real time even as my lifespan drained away, but I had no attention to spare for it.

—Gyaaaaagh—!

—Insane—!

Dark mages who had been hiding somewhere finally revealed themselves, but they couldn't withstand the dark power storm. They were hurled into walls or smashed their skulls open and died. Soon realizing that getting involved meant certain death, they began fleeing in every direction.

"This is the end!! Die, all of you! Kha ha ha—!"

Cal Bent seemed ready to unleash every ounce of dark power he had kept hidden until now. He prepared to fire what was clearly an overwhelming amount.

In that desperate moment, I smiled instead.

"....Ha. I've been waiting for this."

"What—!"

"Inverse Calculation."

Crash—! Clatter—!!

My hidden joker card. Using Inverse Calculation, I completely nullified Cal Bent's full-powered dark energy. Cracks spread across his mask before it shattered, revealing a face filled with utter disbelief.

"That's... impossible..."

Having exhausted all his dark power, Cal Bent aged visibly, his body growing gaunt and withered. He could only stare blankly as the sphere's dark power was entirely absorbed by me and vanished.

Step. Step.

I walked toward him in silence, saying nothing. In my hand I held the black dagger—which had now taken the form of a greatsword.

"N-No...! I can't die here...!"

"........."

Do you know what a bug does when it's injured and on the verge of death? It flips onto its back and flails all its legs. It's truly repulsive—the kind of sight that makes you want to crush it immediately. That was exactly how I felt watching Cal Bent crawl across the ground in a desperate attempt to escape.

"Hee... Hiiik—!"

The speed difference between a crawling creature and one walking upright was obvious. Noticing the shadow falling over him from behind, Cal Bent looked up at me with pure terror in his eyes.

"P-Please spare me just once...! I'll do anything! Okay?! Someone of my level...!"

Now he was groveling pathetically, begging for his life. I quietly raised the greatsword.

"You are a lowly, filthy, disgusting bug. When an intruder enters a peaceful place of life, wouldn't you step on it?"

"What...?"

"You are a bug. The same goes for every dark mage. You destroy people's happy lives, feed on their suffering to grow larger, and gnaw away at the world."

"I... I...!"

"And I hate bugs so much that the moment I see one, I want to step on it and kill it. So, farewell. Bug."

"No... Noooooooo—!"

Squelch—!

Once the noisy bug's head was severed, silence finally fell. The eyes filled with terror went dull, and blood seeped from the severed neck.

Cal Bent. The dark mage who had harmed and ruined so many lives died in utter anticlimax.

".....Huu."

...Was it finally over? I could no longer sense any dark power. It seemed someone had already dealt with the remaining dark mages.

The first stage of the dark mage assembly's end scenario—the attack on Snowfield Village—had been successfully prevented.

Now... it was time to prepare for the next stage. I also needed to find a way to treat Erielle.

'Memory Reading.'

I crouched beside the limp corpse of the bug and activated the skill. Countless memories flowed into my mind like scenes from a television.

Additional information granted only to dark mages above the high priest rank. Locations of other assembly spaces within the dark mage organization. Even the identification codes known only to them.

This was more than enough. I now had sufficient information to operate as Cal Bent rather than some suspicious newcomer.

And one clear goal formed immediately.

I must head to the dark mage assembly location right now.

The time allotted to Cal Bent was until midnight tonight. There was still a little time left before then, so I needed to move immediately. Otherwise I would lose the chance to obtain further information on their movements.

The attack on Snowfield Village was only a tiny fraction of their grand plan. No matter what, I had to participate in that assembly and stop their so-called grand design.

Just because I had saved Snowfield Village didn't mean I would stand idly by while other villages were destroyed.

I rose to my feet at once, preparing to head for the dark mage assembly.

"...Dark mage!"

"Did you destroy this entire village, you filthy bug?!"

".........."

...What?

It was only then that I saw Kayle and Fria with faces twisted in rage, and Erielle staring at me with pure disgust in her eyes.