The Wandering Knight, Von Derk
The Wandering Knight, Von Derk.
I stared at the rusted knight standing dead ahead of me.
Von Derk's appearance was truly horrific. The skin visible between the joints of his rusted armor was crawling with repulsive maggots, and black blood streamed in rivulets from his melted eye sockets.
Even the bones showing through his rotted flesh had been stained black.
Black magic had become a byword for terror because of its curses—and yet even black magic possessed no curse as grotesque as this one. It was as if he had been cursed by a god himself.
Well, the Outer Gods are gods, so technically it is a divine curse.
An Anomaly was one who had been utterly consumed by an Outer God fragment.
Just then, Von Derk's askew eyes turned toward me. Four arms jutted out of his body at grotesque angles—two clutching a round guitar, the other two gripping a long, rusted sword.
The blade was caked in rust so thick that no amount of time it had endured could even be guessed at.
But the aura wreathing that sword had not rusted.
Blue aura blazed as though someone had thrown oil onto a fire, and every single strand of it was as solid as iron forged through a thousand quenches. It merely rippled and swayed, and yet it permeated the entire space.
It was a truly overwhelming presence.
"A Higher Knight—"
Milo muttered, his voice trembling. Fear dripped from every word.
Milo was right. Von Derk was a Higher Knight. A Higher Knight was on par with a professor. He was only at this level because Evangeline had gotten us here in record time—given more time, he would have grown far stronger.
A professor-grade Anomaly appearing on the day of the entrance ceremony, no less.
Utterly ridiculous—but even so, this was on the favorable end of things. Anomalies, being creatures devoured by Outer God fragments, were fundamentally powerful by nature.
Which was exactly why a clear method was needed.
Every Anomaly had its own. A lich, a black-magic Anomaly for instance, required you to smash its hidden life vessel. That was what made Anomalies such a pain in the ass—they were barely manageable as it was, and on top of that, you had to figure out a separate clear method for each type.
Evangeline, however, was the exception.
Because she has a quest window.
The quest window already contained information on each Anomaly, and that information could be used to deduce their clear methods. That was why Evangeline's role was so critical inside a Rift.
That said, I could handle a C-rank Rift Anomaly without a clear method. At my current level, clear methods only became necessary from A-rank Rifts upward.
Still, I needed to train Evangeline in advance, for what was to come.
"Evangeline."
Evangeline was glaring at the Anomaly with undisguised contempt. Outer God fragments and Evangeline were natural enemies, after all.
"Yes?"
"Find the Anomaly's weakness."
"What on earth are you suddenly—"
Without bothering to explain, I stepped forward.
Von Derk's twisted darkness swung toward me. The already violent aura flared as if doused in oil, and a razor-sharp bloodlust scraped at my throat.
Not bad.
But that was all it was.
"Gate Opening."
My right chest tore open and the chains came bursting out. They were blacker, thicker than before.
Von Derk thrust his sword out in a panic.
Far too late, of course.
The chains had already unfurled. Spread wide like a net, they came down over Von Derk.
He reversed his grip and stabbed upward, apparently trying to beat the chains away with his aura. An excellent reaction.
The problem was that these chains were black magic, not aura.
The chains skewered by his aura burst apart on the spot, spraying a black curse that spattered like blood from the severed links. He frantically yanked his sword back, and the aura that had been shaped into a blade spread out to shield his front like a wall.
The shield of aura held back the oncoming chains.
Decent response—if there had only been one or two chains.
A single chain punched clean through his back. He had been standing precisely in the blind spot, and never managed to react. The curse spraying from the chain painted his body black.
His movements slowed, visibly.
The moment the remaining chains moved to skewer him one after another—
Tiiiriiing. A bright, ringing note sounded from his guitar. It was a beautiful sound, entirely at odds with his hideous form. And his sluggish movements abruptly sped up.
It wasn't just speed. His aura sharpened and clarified as well, his blade-edged presence pressing down on the air with crushing weight.
An Anomaly's awakening. In common parlance—phase two.
Then I'll do the same.
I dug the finger pressed against my right chest in deeper.
「───────────.
───────────.」
The horrible, viscous breath reverberating through my mind sank in even deeper, and the chains grew thicker and denser still. Soon the entire space was blanketed in chains.
However much sharper his aura had become, it was nothing but a candle flame before the wind against that wall of links.
Through the dense weave of chains, I could see his black eyes flickering. He looked, unmistakably, flustered. He hadn't expected an enemy to hit phase two as well.
Did he think he was the only one with a second phase?
What a funny creature.
"Now then—round two begins."
The chains, far denser than before, came down over him.
「……………!!」
The Anomaly howled, as if lodging a complaint.
"So it's true, then—that the Republic was targeting the Principal? In that case, the existing rumors that the Principal is connected to the Republic—"
"Mm."
At the Vice Principal Sen Vandro's short hum, Karel fell silent. Sen Vandro was looking off somewhere else.
"Is something the matter?"
After a moment's thought, Sen Vandro replied with his usual gentle smile.
"A Rift has opened."
"A Rift—! Here, inside the academy?"
"Yes."
"Good heavens! Was it the work of those Republic dogs?"
With a Republic terror attack against the Principal having just occurred, Karel naturally suspected the Republic at once.
Sen Vandro gave a light shake of his head.
"A Rift is not something mere humans can open at will. It is a trial handed down directly by Him."
"Of course. Forgive me."
At Sen Vandro's glance, Karel hastily nodded. In the Holy Nation, rifts had originally been defined as heresy—but of late, there were those whose attitude toward them had changed, and Sen Vandro was the foremost among them.
"Faith is like iron—it must be hammered by fire and forge before it grows harder. The Rift is His fire, and His hammer."
"Yes, that is true."
Karel nodded without a shred of doubt.
"Where is it located? I will depart at once."
He rose from his seat without hesitation, but Sen Vandro laid a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"There is no need to rush."
"What if another claims it while we wait?"
"The only ones who can sense a Rift are the Principal and the Chairwoman. It may well be a smokescreen, but the Principal is undergoing treatment after the attack, and the Chairwoman is hardly one to stir herself over such a thing. So there is no need to hurry."
"But what if someone caught up in the Rift manages to break it?"
At Karel's earnest concern, Sen Vandro let out a short laugh.
"A Rift is a trial handed down by His own hand. You, Student Karel, have undergone special training, so you would be fine—but the others could never break one."
"Never, you say?"
"Never."
At that assured reply, Karel fought to suppress his excitement. Sen Vandro, wearing his courteous smile, continued.
"To break a Rift, one must find and capture the Anomaly. To find an Anomaly requires an exceptional adventurer—and even then, only when fortune smiles. The odds that someone swept up in a Rift by mere chance could locate the Anomaly are vanishingly low."
The wrinkles at the corners of Sen Vandro's eyes deepened.
"And even should a miracle occur and the Anomaly be found, one would need power that counters its particular affinity. Power of considerable caliber, at that. Why do you suppose we chose you, Karel?"
"Because I wield both aura and holy power, I can respond to every attribute."
"Precisely. Frankly, it would be a kinder fate for them to die without ever finding the Anomaly at all."
Sen Vandro gazed out beyond the window.
"The Anomaly is a trial too terrible to contemplate, after all."
Karel offered a silent prayer of mourning for whoever had been caught in the Rift.
Evangeline stared downward with blank, uncomprehending eyes.
There, before her, was the Anomaly in all its horrific form.
Its presence was so murderous that her skin prickled from sheer proximity. Even by Evangeline's untrained eyes, the thing was unmistakably powerful.
And yet the Anomaly sat obediently before her, trussed up by the hundreds of chains wrapped around its body. The chains held it bound fast.
It looked for all the world like a gift, carefully wrapped.
The problem was—
"Read it."
—that the recipient of the gift was Evangeline.
"...I'm sorry?"
"Read it."
Grave ordered, pointing at the gift-wrapped Anomaly. Evangeline followed his finger with her eyes without thinking, met the Anomaly's gaze, and instinctively squeezed her eyes shut.
"R-read what, exactly?!"
"That. Read it."
Grave's voice was laced with irritation, as though she were being deliberately dense. Evangeline felt sorely wronged.
"How am I supposed to read THAT?! It's horrifying!"
"You'll figure it out."
"I don't know how! I really, truly don't! I'd stake everything on it!"
"Stake what, exactly?"
"Everything!"
Grave let out a long, deep sigh. Evangeline flinched despite herself.
His eyes turned on her, brimming with open contempt—the look she hated most in all the world.
Then Grave spoke, annoyance thick in his voice.
"You can't even manage this? Useless."
And there it was. The one thing Evangeline hated more than anything else.
Her glare sharpened into points all on its own, and before she knew it, she was shouting.
"I'll do it!"
"Good."
She regretted it instantly—but the words had already left her mouth.
Fine. I can do this. Let's just try.
Resolving to at least pretend to try, she squared her shoulders and looked at the Anomaly.
GYAH! It is SO terrifyingly ugly!
Evangeline clamped her eyes shut again.
She shuts her eyes the moment she looks at the Anomaly.
I held back a sigh with everything I had.
Binding an Anomaly took several times more strength than simply killing one. Even now I could feel my life force draining away through my skin, and any other black mage who saw this would raise holy hell about what a criminal waste it was.
But there was nothing to be done about it.
"Huuurgh—ack! I'm sorry! It's just—your face is too horrifying—!"
"Evangeline, aren't you being a bit too harsh?"
"It IS horrifying-looking, though!"
It was a mere C-rift Anomaly, and a completely neutralized one at that, and Evangeline was carrying on like the world was ending. Judging from how she was holding up, that level of mental fortitude would make her faint at the mere sight of a B-rank Anomaly. Training her early was, once again, clearly the right call.
"Couldn't we just cut its head off and be done with it?"
Milo asked, uncharacteristically deferential. His phrasing was still every bit as graceless, so it came out sounding like insolence anyway.
When I looked at him, he pointed at the Anomaly.
"You said we could close the Rift once the Anomaly's captured, didn't you? If we take its head off now, I'd say that counts as captured. Should I do it?"
"That won't work. Not yet."
I shook my head firmly, and Milo's face turned grave.
"What is it this time, then?"
In response to his question, I turned my gaze away.
Evangeline was crouched down in front of the Anomaly, muttering something or other. It was a pathetic spectacle that gave me a headache just watching—but there was nothing to be done.
"Taking it down according to the clear method yields a much bigger reward."
"Eh? What's a clear method?"
"It's a thing."
"Oh, come on—if you're not going to tell me, don't even bring it up—"
I brushed off Milo's grumbling without a second thought. And then—
"I—I can see it!!! It's showing up!"
Evangeline thrust both hands into the air.