Chapter 73
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 73
Chapter Title: Slaughter of the Cultists
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(3)
7.
A body cleaved clean in two.
Duode collapsed without so much as a scream. Guts and chunks of flesh slapped against the dirt. Desem reeled in shock at this sudden assault.
But his panic lasted only a moment.
Sensing the danger, he hurriedly put distance between himself and Ullan. Then he shouted urgently toward his comrade behind him.
"Nonus! Distort the space!"
Ullan had closed the gap in an instant.
This man was dangerous.
He couldn't be allowed to get close! His instincts had been screaming warnings from the very first moment he'd laid eyes on him.
...No chance of winning!
So he chose to run.
And for that, he needed Nonus's help.
Twist the space to hurl Ullan out of the forest, then buy enough time to escape.
But no matter how long he waited...
Nonus's spell never activated.
"What are you doing?! Hurry up with the spell...!"
As he screamed in frustration...
A dull thud echoed through the air.
Thump! Roll...
A round object came rolling across the ground.
It was the face of an old man, eyes bulging wide. Nonus's severed head.
"...!?"
Desem jumped in terror at the sight.
And he had every reason to.
Ullan hadn't left his line of sight since splitting Duode in half.
W-When the hell did he swing that axe?!
He hadn't seen it at all.
And Ullan had been a good ten paces from Nonus.
How could he cross that distance in a single stroke and lop off the head? From an advanced mage, no less—and so fast the man hadn't even noticed.
Wait... hadn't noticed?
Goosebumps erupted across his skin.
A chilling suspicion flashed through his mind.
A monster who wielded absolute dominance within his range. A superhuman who moved far faster than the eye could follow.
Desem's eyes went wide.
"N-No way... a Master...?!"
And in that instant...
Ullan's gruff reply came roaring back.
Boom!
He clamped his palm over Desem's face and slammed the man's head into the ground.
"Guhk!"
Excruciating pain, as if his skull were shattering.
Desem let out a short yelp.
And in that moment, enlightenment dawned.
Just now, clearly...
Up until the second Ullan grabbed his face, he hadn't properly tracked the man's movements even once.
There was only one thing that could mean.
A Master-class powerhouse!
His face drained of color in an instant.
A silent scream escaped his lips.
Why was a strategic weapon of a nation—the kind they called a monster—lurking in this forest? Weren't there only academy students here?
Questions flooded his mind.
But his panic was fleeting.
...Calm down. Stay calm.
Desem quickly regained his composure.
He knew he couldn't survive if he lost his cool. So he forced himself to think clearly, searching for a way out of this crisis.
He didn't kill me right away.
There was only one reason for that.
He had questions.
And in this situation, the question Ullan would ask was obvious. Probably the locations of his other comrades.
In that case...
The best counter was to stall for time.
Then, without Ullan noticing, gather the clones scattered through the forest.
If he could just slip out of this Master's domain, it would be Desem's victory.
Good. That's the plan.
Now he just needed to execute it.
But Desem didn't know.
Ullan was a veteran when it came to fighting Abyss Worshippers. That's why he swung his axe first and asked questions later—if at all.
Splat! Crunch!
Flesh tearing, bones shattering.
Desem's ankle came clean off.
"...! Gyaaaaah!"
An ambush he never saw coming.
Desem screamed amid the agony. His mind went white from the torment, but Ullan didn't stop.
Crunch! Crack!
Like butchering an animal, he sliced off the other ankle clean. Only then, with all means of escape severed...
...did Ullan finally speak.
"One question."
"Kh! Guh...!"
Desem groaned in pain.
He might have seemed pitiful at a glance, but Ullan's expression didn't flicker. He simply asked what he wanted to know, face impassive.
"How'd you summon Candira?"
"...?!"
Desem blinked in surprise.
Candira, the bloodsucking plant from the Abyss.
At this point in time, few knew its name or existence. So with genuine curiosity, he started to ask...
"H-How do you know about Can—Guhk!"
But all he got was a massive fist.
Dizzying pain as his skull rang like a bell.
As he reeled, too stunned to even scream, Ullan spoke again.
"Answer the question. Nothing else."
"I-I don't know! I really don't!"
"..."
"It's true! I swear, I really don't know!"
As Ullan raised his fist again, Desem flailed his hands in panic.
"Only Duode knew how to summon Abyss monsters—out of all of us!"
"Who's Duode?"
"The big guy you just took out..."
Right there.
A Spirit-infused fist flew.
Splat! Crack!
Skull pulverizing, brains spilling out. Like the others, he died without a scream.
"Picked the wrong one to spare."
He'd seemed the sharpest of the three, so Ullan had kept him alive. What a bust. Frowning, Ullan kicked the headless corpse aside.
As he rose to his feet...
Whoosh!
The unnatural distortion blanketing the forest suddenly vanished.
The woods returned to normal.
The faint illusions scattered around evaporated like mist. Probably because he'd taken down their creator.
"Now, what's left..."
Link up with Dilia.
Deal with any remaining Abyss Worshippers, and done. Noa had said there were six in total.
With his new goal set...
...Ullan wiped the gore from his axe.
As he turned west...
A new presence emerged.
Rustle! Rustle!
A familiar aura from behind.
Ullan whipped around.
And locked eyes with something he never expected.
[Grrr!]
A massive wolf rising from the shadows.
The White Wolf.
Stretching lazily after its sudden appearance, it drew wide-eyed surprise from Ullan.
"You've been in my shadow this whole time?"
No verbal reply.
The White Wolf just nodded.
An affirmative.
Ullan tilted his head again.
"Then why didn't you come out until..."
Before he could finish the question...
...the White Wolf moved. Straight to the cultists' corpses.
It tore into Nonus's body, shredding it viciously. As if venting rage. A suspicion clicked in Ullan's mind.
"Was it that guy keeping you trapped?"
[Grr! Grrr!]
The White Wolf nodded vigorously.
Ullan's guess was spot on.
The spatial distortion over the forest had pinned it in the shadows. So it was taking it out on the culprit's corpse.
Crunch! Snap! Smash!
Flesh ripping, bones splintering in gruesome symphony. The body fragmented into hundreds of pieces.
[Grr!]
The White Wolf grinned in satisfaction.
As it turned back...
...it suddenly face-planted into the dirt.
Sniffing around intently...
Its body swelled to twice its size. Bigger than a wild horse.
Then it turned its back to Ullan.
Tail wagging invitingly. The intent was crystal clear.
Ullan asked right away.
"You want me to ride?"
[Grrr!]
The White Wolf bared its teeth in a grin.
Exactly right.
No reason to refuse. Ullan hopped on. And they were off like the wind.
Rumble!
A brutish charge.
The White Wolf bulldozed everything in its path, barreling straight west. Soon, something caught Ullan's eye.
"That's..."
A shooting star piercing thunderous clouds.
A familiar sight.
Dilia from his past life had used that spell often. In that moment, the talisman from Noa trembled faintly.
Flash!
Glowing blue, it pointed dead ahead.
Dilia was three kilometers straight ahead.
And whatever forced her to unleash a spell that big was there too.
What it was...
...no need to guess.
"Abyss Worshippers!"
The last three prey.
Ullan grinned and gripped his axe.
Hunting time.
8.
While Ullan was hacking through trees...
...Dilia stared down the man before her, fear still etched on her face.
A mage without eyes.
His grotesque appearance was unsettling enough, but something else drew her gaze.
The ambient mana...
It churned unstably.
Like it could explode any second. And the mana itself pulsed with potent curse energy. Only one type wielded mana like that.
Mad sorcerers who had forsaken their humanity.
Abyss Worshippers.
...Scary.
The realization hit.
Dilia clenched her fists tight.
Her tremors hadn't stopped. Even her golden eyes quivered faintly.
Then...
...the man spoke.
"First, allow me to introduce myself."
His twisted lips curled.
He bowed politely.
"I am Quint Vinita. As you surmised, a worshipper of the Abyss—and a grand mage who has reached the pinnacle of sorcery."
As if to flaunt his grand mage status...
...Quint unleashed his full mana reserves.
Vast enough to swallow everything. Yet Dilia's expression remained unimpressed.
A moment later, she shook her head.
"...Liar."
"What?"
"A real grand mage... has a different... texture."
Texture—the unique weave of their mana.
True grand mages transcended ordinary ones. Their mana bore a distinctive 'texture' worlds apart from the norm.
Dilia could see it.
But this man...
...lacks a grand mage's weave.
Judging by mana texture alone, he was probably just shy—a Battle Mage, at best.
As she sized him up...
...Quint grinned.
"So you can indeed read mana flows."
Not the reaction of a caught liar.
More like he'd lied deliberately for a test. As Dilia's brows furrowed uneasily...
Rustle!
The nearby brush shook.
Two men emerged.
Both in ashen robes, just like Quint.
"No need for further verification, then."
"Verification done? Let's grab her and go before trouble finds us."
One lacked a nose; the other's arm had sprouted wooden roots.
Unstable mana, same as the rest.
Abyss Worshippers, all of them.
By mana texture...
...weaker than Quint.
Still advanced mages.
Like Dilia herself. Grasping the situation, she bit her lip.
...Running won't work.
Three at her level. No chance. And the forest's space was still warped.
She needed another option.
Dilia decided quickly.
Stall for time.
Until allies arrived.
Even Professor Stella would even the odds. Though her real hope was someone else.
Ullan.
If he were here, just his presence would feel reassuring.
But he probably wouldn't come.
No telling when, either.
So Dilia shelved vain hopes and resolved to break through with her own strength.
Truth is, I'm terrified...
These foes were mad sorcerers.
Wielding forbidden magic, summoning unknown horrors.
But she couldn't give up.
Dilia had things she wanted to do.
I want to see Ullan again.
Her reason to survive.
Etched in her heart...
...Dilia steeled herself.
She would fight the Abyss Worshippers.
A moment later, her golden eyes sparkled like stars. The gaze of one resolved to battle.