The Summoner of Rest (45)

The first thing I did was start fires. Not some massive explosion—just ordinary blazes in places where a real fire wouldn't look out of place.

The people steeped in mental contamination seemed to take even that as entertainment. They laughed like maniacs, either standing by and watching or pouring oil and liquor to make the flames grow larger. As if the screams of those burning to death inside simply didn't exist.

I kept manufacturing all sorts of staged accidents and chaos. I never moved directly. When I needed to, I used the shadow crows; when that wasn't enough, I relied on Haze.

As the incidents piled up, the ones I suspected were vampires finally sensed the danger and began scrambling to clean up the mess. Of course they did. Every human in this place was their livestock. Who just stands there watching the cattle die in the pen? They would move at once to find the cause and eliminate it. And so, even amid the festival atmosphere, people started rushing about in a panic.

Those would be the low-ranking ones. I started tailing them. Haze smothered every sound I made. In this world I thoroughly cast myself as a shadow.

Then who would draw the vampires' eyes? Simple. There were people perfectly suited for the job.

"Echidna. Comet."

At my call, laced with mana, my shadow surged upward and shaped itself into human forms. The darkness scattered, and two girls stood there.

One wore a neat black nun's habit, a matching black veil covering half her face. Even beneath the dark veil, her pale pink eyes shone with beauty. With every quiet breath she took, the mysterious black-and-white hair tangled irregularly beneath the veil stirred softly.

"Yes, Master."

She brought both hands together before her as if in prayer and bowed her head in ready acceptance.

"I shall obey your command."

The one who added her own affirmation was the maid whose soft blue hair held pink strands within. Her attire, a harmonious blend of pale aqua and deep navy like her hair, looked plain and simple at first glance—yet that restrained beauty only sharpened her refined features.

"Good. I'm counting on you."

Without another word they understood my intent and moved at once.

From now on the two of them would draw the city's attention in my place. They would walk around openly, making certain the vampires' eyes locked onto them. The vampires would think: all these incidents keep happening because those two are up to something. As a result, people would almost certainly try to keep them in check—or eliminate them entirely. We would clean those people up. Keep repeating the cycle, and those who lost contact with their comrades would grow alarmed. They would realize the two were far stronger than expected. Rank-and-file wouldn't cut it. They would need someone stronger, someone higher up.

If I could push things that far, the game was over.

Echidna's race was devil. Specifically, the kind that prodded emotions to amplify them—or buried them to sow conflict—and then fed and grew on the new emotions that resulted. That was exactly why her Sin skill had never risen until now. It was a skill that defined a devil's very identity, yet she had never performed the acts it required, so the low level made sense.

In that regard this city was the perfect place to raise the proficiency and level of Echidna's Sin skill. Everyone here already had brains turned to mush by mental contamination; a light touch from her would pierce their mental barriers with ease. It was practically an optimal training dummy built for open practice. In fact, the reason this dungeon sat inside the Academy was precisely to cultivate Awakened who possessed skills that could interfere with the mind.

To those ruled solely by joy and pleasure, unable to feel anything else, she would reawaken the despair and fear of this situation—the indifference and terror they had forced themselves to forget. Awaken it. Make them feel it. Return the abnormal to the normal. Imprint once more the most basic instinct a person—no, a weakling—should possess: the struggle to survive. Then, once those emotions revived, show them death. A death clearer and sharper than anything they had known.

That role would be mine. I would appear ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠before them as a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠far more definite image of death. Adding the rest of my summons—Growl and Keres—would be threat enough on its own. Kallion I would save for the absolute end. Sudden terror was frightening, yes, but the pressure that closed in like a slow rot, and the overwhelming dread of death it conjured, was far more terrifying. The moment something that could be called death itself revealed its form—that would be when their worst nightmare began. Across every age and dimension, the existence called "dragon" commanded that kind of awe, so it was best to bring him out as late as possible.

I almost thought I heard the still-unsummoned Kallion sulking, but I decided it was my imagination. Just tell yourself you're the protagonist, so you show up late. Real powerhouses don't stick their noses into petty business like this.

On top of everything, the biggest reason I chose this dungeon was affinity. Vampires belonged firmly to the undead category, which made them vulnerable to holy power. Kallion went without saying, and Echidna was essentially a walking weakness to them. Comet, lacking the blood that was their mainstay, was a machine that could be repaired whenever my mana held out—no matter how many times they smashed her, she would regenerate without end. If they shattered her core in a single blow before she could recover she would die, but Echidna would never simply ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠stand by and watch, so I wasn't particularly worried.

More than that, Comet knew her own specialty well. In her spare time she had mass-produced nanomachines and packed them densely throughout her body. With them she could materialize middling objects, and even if body parts were destroyed or damaged she could recover to a degree under her own power without my mana. Not quite on the level of my shadows, but within the range nanomachines allowed she could fight even harder than I could. For instance, send nanomachines into a body, ride the blood vessels to the heart, and detonate them right there? Since they ran on mana they weren't ideal for pure assassination, but against those who couldn't handle mana, handled it poorly, or in exceptional situations where mana itself was blocked, the efficiency would be insane. Even against a mana-user she could at least create a small opening.

My total force was strong, but that was only when every summon was gathered. Split them up and the power dropped accordingly—that was only natural. So I had to select the absolute best combinations that could create synergy and complete their assigned tasks, and beyond that I had to find ways to raise each summon's individual combat power.

"Just move around moderately."

"I shall live up to Master's expectations."

"Leave it to me."

I saw the two of them off as they accepted my words and walked into the darkness, then continued strolling the streets myself, still stirring up trouble.

As time passed and Echidna's influence began to spread, a type of person who had been invisible until now started appearing one by one amid the festival mood: people who looked at those right beside them with strangeness—or fear.

As naturally as a person breathes, Echidna could shake the emotions of everyone around her. That power was exactly why the devil race was so often depicted as evil. There is a saying that humans are slaves to emotion. Compared to other creatures their intellect and sense of self are firm, and precisely because of that they are heavily swayed by emotion. "I understand, but I can't accept it" exists for a reason. What the head recognizes and what the self feels are different, so the discrepancy always shows. Thus humans are slaves to emotion. They live their entire lives tossed about by it. If someone could perfectly control—and further, completely exclude—their own emotions, they would no longer be something that could be called human.

That is why humans fear and try to exclude devils. Who could stand unafraid before someone who can casually manipulate the weakness you can never cut away no matter how hard you try? And further, humans worship and crave devils. They desperately want someone who will compensate for that chronic greatest-and-worst weakness and grant them superior power—even if the price is their own soul.

"It's all right. You have not gone mad. Your weakness is not fear—it is a trial to be overcome. Our distant Rest always waits behind you, hoping you will prevail."

"Ahh... O Rest..."

"Believe. And fight. When you have struggled and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠struggled until you are exhausted and weary, Rest will embrace us."

"I will fight... I'm not afraid anymore!!"

Echidna was both devil and priestess. To her, who had lived until now building faith for me alone, those who had broken free of the abnormal and fallen into confusion were both delicious prey and lost souls to whom she could spread her faith. Moreover, the holy power accumulated through her Self-Faith naturally possessed the property of encouraging and uplifting the weary and the suffering. To them, Echidna must have been like a single lamp cast upon a pitch-dark road.

I caught that at once and, through Haze, folded space to deliver Keres's flames to the mace Echidna held.

"Rest has commanded me. To aid you—and further, to stand before you more than anyone and become the one who leads you all!"

Whoosh!!

When Echidna gripped the mace, blue flames roared to life. Keres's staging. The visual effect did not stop there. As Echidna's Divine Aura blazed, part of the flames peeled away from the mace, gathered behind her, and burned in a form that supported and emphasized the halo of her Divine Aura.

"I will go before you. So, everyone! It is all right to be afraid! I will protect you from the front! If you are frightened, follow behind me! Confront your terror, defeat it, and seize victory!!"

Echidna naturally gathered them up and became the one who incited and led those slowly regaining their senses.

"Saintess!!"

"Follow the Saintess!!!"

"Let's fight! We'll drive out the fear!!"

Watching that, I thought cults really were terrifying. They hadn't even known her a full day, yet simply because she had lightened the weight on their hearts they could become that blindly devoted. Their current state was pure fanaticism. If Echidna ordered a charge they would rush forward without a shred of doubt. That much was driven by the avoidance instinct desperate to escape this situation, and the biological instinct that they would be safe with that woman.

The problem was that the number of people swelling far exceeded my expectations—frighteningly fast. At this rate, rather than clumsily imitating "Radiance" separately, it looked better to just push Echidna forward as she was. Turning the direction awkwardly now and sowing confusion would be harder than simply riding the tension straight ahead.

All's well that ends well—but not everything brought only good results.

Tweeeet!!

"You there! What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

In the end I had drawn even the gazes of vampires I hadn't managed to catch. The ones blowing whistles and tapping their clubs looked every bit the thugs, yet their uniforms announced that they were, nominally, the guards protecting this place. And unlike the people behind them who laughed and ignored whatever was happening, the fact that they were paying attention to Echidna's group meant they were almost certainly vampires or connected to them.

So I decided to make an example of them. Originally I had planned to slowly tighten the noose around unknown enemies, but forcing death upon a clear enemy—me—wasn't bad either. Even in my previous life I had always been better at instantly reading and responding to a given situation than at carefully laying out plans.

First impression... right, let's go with hanging.

I used Haze's power to the fullest and closed to a distance where they could see me clearly. Then I poured out shadow and crafted snares that could choke their throats. Little by little, aiming for the moment of certain completion, I triggered the traps.

"Ghk...!?"

"Gyaaaah... What the hell is—kak?!"

The ones thrashing in midair, desperately trying to tear the shadows clinging to their necks, began to change.

"Th-that's..."

"Monsters! People turned into monsters!!"

Their faces went deathly pale, ears lengthened. Nails grew unnaturally long, and their pupils flooded with visible blood-red. In the process their muscles hypertrophied until parts of the police uniforms they wore tore or burst for dramatic effect.

"No! Look carefully! People didn't turn into monsters—monsters were disguised as people!!"

Even so they could not free themselves from the shadows. As death slowly approached they gurgled blood and struggled to the very last moment to tear the shadows free—until their bodies went limp with a soft thud.

Even monsters were no threat to Rest, to the Saintess. Therefore they themselves were safe. Realizing that fact again, the rigidity in the crowd gradually eased.

"Oh hell... isn't that Jayden? We were drinking together just a minute ago."

"You shared a glass with a monster. You sure you're...?"

"Crazy! I'm innocent!! Saintess! O most snug Rest!! Please forgive me!!"

Some launched into untimely confessions; others began eyeing one another with distrust and suspicion.

Thud!!

"Be still!!"

The one who gathered every gaze was none other than Echidna.

"Such clamor is not what Rest desires. Because I understand your confusion, I will speak. Calm yourselves."

Riding mana, Echidna's words rang out clearly and drew every eye. Then they gasped—because her expression looked so very sorrowful. What could have made her so sad? Everyone held their breath and watched her every move.

Echidna slowly approached the place where the monsters lay, raised the mace wreathed in blue flame, and set the corpses alight. The sight resembled someone transferring a sacred flame. The blue fire burned brilliantly, consuming the monsters' remains without leaving so much as a bone fragment. Everyone stared blankly—yet the moment Echidna began to speak they focused at once.

"Simply believe in yourselves. No matter how far from the ordinary your 'difference' may be, if you truly believe it is right—and if you sincerely desire it... that is enough."

Then Rest will watch over the path you walk.

At the end she brought her hands together in prayer, and a milky aura tinged with pale pink rippled outward from her. It was mana mixed with Echidna's holy power. Ordinary people felt encouragement from it. To others it was a virulent poison more violent than any toxin.

"Grrrk...?!"

"Kehek...!!"

Indeed, those who had been hiding among the humans began clutching their throats one by one in agony.

"Now, everyone! Look! Even at this very moment, wicked ones who seek to beguile us and lead us astray are brazenly hiding among us!"

"Ugh, monsters..."

"Enemies... the monsters are the enemy."

As the vampires desperately transformed their bodies back toward their original forms in order to live, the citizens' expressions grew steadily more savage.

"Rest desires not empty words but clear proof. Strike down the enemy before your eyes and prove yourselves to our most glorious Rest! Then Rest will praise us. Remember that value holds meaning only when seized by your own hands, not by someone else's."

Crunch!!

With those words Echidna mercilessly smashed the skull of the vampire who had killed the nearest citizen and tried to escape the situation by draining his blood.

"All things unto Rest..."

Whoosh!

The vampire carbonized into ash in an instant. The citizens roared in frenzy.

"...Yeah. That's right. We'll seize it. We'll fight!!"

"Uoooooh!!!! Blessings upon the great Rest!!"

"“Rest! Rest! Rest!!”"

This is why fanatics are terrifying. When the mascot is beautiful and strong on top of it, people fall in so easily.

"Ahh, Master. May mercy grace the path ahead of these people."

She really went all out in spectacular fashion. When a girl who was like a daughter to me asked like that, it was hard to ignore.

I had no choice but to pour more mana into Echidna. Delighted, she immediately converted that mana into her own holy power and used it. While the citizens cheered, calling out Rest—that is, me—Echidna gazed upon them almost rapturously and began scattering holy power over them in real time, strengthening them. If they were hurt she enhanced their natural recovery to heal them. If their strength was lacking she reinforced them to fill the gap. If their spirits were weak she soothed it with encouragement and faith.

Without Subjugator I could never have covered the level of mana Echidna was sucking down, yet I fed her more without a word of complaint. Go as far as you can.

Repeat that enough times and—oh my, how marvelous—you complete a splendid suicide army that will gladly charge even into certain death if ordered. At the same time it was the moment when the Doctrine of Rest recorded in Echidna's Self-Faith fully blossomed.

And the things I had so longed for began to happen one after another.

Echidna's part was enough for now. What remained were Hive, Shiz, and Comet. I would handle the ones that looked fastest first, one after another.

The night of this dungeon would never end, and there was still plenty of time.

I quietly smiled as I tailed those frantically trying to flee this place.