Chapter 73
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 73
Chapter Title: Surprisingly Human Fanatics
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For a bunch of madmen commanding such a massive force, they sure gave off a surprisingly strong human vibe.
"You don't need to know who I am. I've got business with your lot."
With that, Leon drew his sword, wreathed in red ghostly energy.
"What's that?"
"Looks good, right? Got it from the Mielephons."
"...Electra."
Luna recognizing the name made Leon's eyes widen in surprise.
"You know it?"
"I've seen that blade before."
Considering how long she'd been sealed away, her recognizing it pointed to one simple conclusion.
"Is this sword older than it looks?"
"Use it well."
"I will. If I return it with even a scratch, Duke Katsi will probably try to kill me."
Duke Katsi and Sword Saint Osberg might have their own schemes, but I fully intended to return this sword.
And they weren't the types to misunderstand that.
Afterward, Leon stared silently at Luna.
Petite as she was, she radiated femininity.
He took in her long, pink hair cascading down to her calves and her almond-shaped eyes laced with an enigmatic decadence.
"What?"
"Nothing. Let's just get this over with and wrap up."
It was a far cry from the Leon who'd giggled through repeated beatings earlier.
Soon, he twirled the sword lightly.
"Wa... wait!!"
Slash!!
In an instant, the heads of every cultist except the leader flew off.
With their deaths, the ritual forcibly ended, and the leader's body slumped powerlessly to the ground.
"Urgh..."
Even with shattered bones, the ritual's power had kept his body rigid. Now bereft of it, he couldn't even muster the strength to move.
Yet this fanatic erupted in rage rather than pain.
"How dare you!! Do you even realize what you've done?!"
Leon approached the fallen man and pressed the sword tip to his throat.
"Let me flip that. Did you know what this was when you started the ritual?"
He tried to resist with necromantic magic, but oddly, his necromantic mana had felt sluggish ever since earlier.
"Ha! What would a brat like you know?! I need to climb higher! And for that, I must secure the Kraken! You've ruined everything!!"
"Yeah. My bad!"
Leon puffed out his chest proudly.
"You mad bastard!"
"So what're you gonna do about it?"
"Raaarghhh!!!"
Leon smirked and rubbed his hands together.
"Alright, ritual's stopped. Since we're at it, spill everything you know."
The leader found Leon's grin infuriating.
Without hesitation, he bit down hard on his last resort hidden in his mouth.
Crunch!!
Black blood immediately poured from his mouth.
It was an assassin's suicide poison.
His skin began rotting black in seconds, yet his face held a smug leisure.
"Heh heh. Whatever happens, you get nothing from..."
Fwoosh!!
A burst of light erupted, instantly healing his body.
"I'm useful now, right?"
The cult leader's head spun.
Luna stood tall, proudly declaring it, while Leon clapped and cheered, "Good job! Good job!"
The suicide artifact he'd used wasn't some poison curable by holy magic or basic healing.
It was a secret brew designed to kill in any situation.
And she'd neutralized it with a flick of her wrist?
"N-no way. How...?"
"Suicide's a grave sin. I won't allow it."
"Hear that? You only die when we say so."
As Leon's chilling grin closed in, the leader felt true terror for the first time.
In the end, we gained almost nothing.
More precisely, our opponents weren't idiots.
Separating his bones from muscles until he spilled everything he knew? Fine up to that point.
But piecing together his "truths" afterward revealed the ploy.
He was feeding us disinformation.
Somehow, he believed his own lies as truth.
No point ripping out his soul or anything after that.
So I took drastic measures.
Implanted a few special spells, then layered on simple brainwashing.
If he wanted to hide info, I'd Trojan Horse his ass.
"Name."
"Rahel..."
"Good, Rahel. From now on, you met us, lost all your men, and barely escaped."
"..."
"Got it? Now scram."
Someone high up in their cult must love mind games. Fine, we'd play along.
As the dazed fool shuffled off, I tossed the unexpectedly acquired Necronomicon into the air.
Roarrr!!!
Black flames erupted, incinerating it.
The Necronomicon of the Elder God.
Even as a tome calling forth ruin and revival, its temptations were no joke.
Better to burn it before anyone found it.
For mages, the Necronomicon granted massive leaps in power.
But it twisted their souls, inevitably turning them into sacrifices for the Elder God's revival.
Temptations even the mentally steadfast couldn't resist.
Didn't matter.
Impressive as it was, compared to what I'd slain in Labyrinthos by my own hand, the Necronomicon had clear limits.
I reduced it to ashes without a second thought, then torched the now-masterless chimera too, erasing all traces.
"We stopped the ritual, but now what? Stick around and the Kraken'll come back and snack on us in one bite."
"Yeah, time to bail."
Facing the Kraken unprepared? Straight to the express snack course. But leaving empty-handed? No way.
"Before we go, let's squeeze max profit outta this bastard."
"How?"
"Like this."
I carved magic circles across the cave.
Mostly meaningless resonance wave arrays.
"First, clean up the cultists' traces. Kraken's mana-sensitive but not smart enough to figure these out."
The real issue was timing.
"Here's the kicker: What happens when a spawning, super edgy mother Kraken senses unfamiliar magic traces in her nest?"
"She'd go on high alert, obviously."
"Exactly. But it'd end at mere suspicion."
I grinned and snapped my fingers. The arrays fractally split, meshing like gears before vanishing one by one.
"If someone wakes you up right as you're dozing off and bolts, you'd be pissed, right?"
"Yeah. That's your signature move."
"When did I ever?"
"Every night, mumbling in your sleep, waking me up, then snoring away peacefully."
Might rethink sharing a room with her from now on.
"What if it keeps happening?"
"I'd lose it. Wanna kill you every time."
"Not me, dummy."
Ultimate stress.
Especially when already hyper-sensitive.
"But wouldn't she just relocate? Then subjugation's toast. We'd miss our only shot..."
"Hasn't budged from here in 500 years. Hunters always find her here."
Finding a better spot ain't easy.
"That's why resonance arrays. Direct attacks would spook her for real."
But vague mana flows that come and go? She'd just tilt her head.
Goal: wear her down as much as possible.
"One thing's certain."
"What?"
"She'll go nuts, jumping at shadows. Won't die easy."
Like Melissa, I hid it well, but I was just as ruthless.
Gigantic Sea King.
The Kraken was in a highly agitated state.
Long ago, hunting a human group had backfired, wounding it badly and crippling its mental domination.
Spawning season loomed, yet humans—who were scarce—were swarming to hunt it.
Instinct screamed they threatened its spawn.
Then some weird power invaded it, forcing a reckless power surge that whipped up a tsunami.
Now, most nutrients went to its eggs, so even storms or tsunamis drained it heavily.
Still, it unleashed two tsunamis and a storm against the humans.
But one dangerously strong human foiled it.
Exhausted from feeding its eggs, the Kraken retreated to its lair.
It curled up in the cave, cradling its hidden clutch.
That's when it happened.
Fwoosh!!
A chilling sensation jolted it awake. It thrashed wildly.
Boom!!!
It reflexively smashed the mana source, wasting huge energy—for nothing.
....
The weary Kraken closed its eyes again.
Ten minutes later.
Vrrrrm!!!
Mana waves blared like an alarm, shattering its sleep once more.
Like a human bulldozer—or bipedal mole—I surfaced in seconds, realizing the Kraken's lair was closer to the fishing village than expected.
"Right on target, nearby."
"Ugh... feel like a mole."
Luna poked her head out of the tunnel, grumbling tiredly.
The subjugation force's village had reefs, shipwrecks, and sheer cliffs—prime spots. I'd figured it was close.
"Head back right away?"
"Kraken's pinned for days anyway. Can't clutch eggs forever. Plus, Mielephons are probably hunting us."
Surveying the lair confirmed: no more egg-brooding possible.
Meaning it'd deposit them and stand guard.
Torment it until it hunts again.
"Young Master Leon?"
Gaping at me was none other than Isna.