Summoner (8)
Slash!!
"...Gueeeek?!"
A massive greatsword tore through the tentacle-formed neck as if crushing it outright.
"Hiiiek?!"
One cadet who had watched it happen right before his eyes collapsed onto the ground in pure terror. Another orc seized the opening, charging in with a club writhing with tentacles and swinging it down hard.
Whoosh!
But the attack never reached the cadet. Before the club could connect with his head, Ban Taewung moved—grabbing the fallen cadet by the nape and leaping backward in a great bound while intercepting the blow at the same time.
"Hup...! Where did that suddenly come from?!"
"...The sky, I think. An endless tide of evil energy is pouring down from overhead."
Lucia charged forward to fill the gap Ban Taewung had created while protecting the cadet, and Shin Na-rae answered while letting a divine-power buff wash over everyone nearby.
Fighting while shielding someone in the middle of a chaotic melee was something she had already drilled with Ban Taewung beforehand, so it was not especially difficult for Lucia.
Yet her expression remained dark. Unlike the man who had anticipated this exact situation and even prepared countermeasures in advance, all she could do was carry out the tasks he had assigned her.
She needed to do something only she could do.
No matter how hard she tried, however, she could not even confidently claim she had reached the soles of his feet—or so much as a fragment of his shadow. That fact was unbearably galling, yet she had no choice but to accept it. Catching up to him overnight was impossible. He had lived for Ban Taewung far longer than she had.
Narrowing that gap with pure time alone was, frankly, impossible—or so Lucia believed.
The reason might be the utterly incomprehensible fact that he was the "protagonist," but the result of acting for Ban Taewung's sake remained unchanged. So Lucia swallowed her frustration and forced herself to accept it.
Right now, that man was more reliable than she was. But she would reclaim that place without fail. It had to be so.
She flinched.
What am I even thinking?
She barely had enough focus for the fight itself—why was this thought surfacing now? Her mind was tilting further and further in one direction. Lucia, who was excellent at self-objectification, noticed it at once and poured even stronger mana around her body.
"Ugh..."
The strange, bubbling emotion that had been churning moments earlier gradually faded. But this was only a temporary fix.
"Lucia! Are you all right?!"
Ban Taewung was the first to react. Seeing her clutch her head with a pale face, he panicked, swept the surrounding monsters aside, and rushed straight to her side.
"Everyone, be careful. Wide-area mental contamination is deliberately amplifying negative emotions."
"...Proof that the mastermind behind this incident is getting desperate. Cadet Sera, can you prepare a mental barrier?"
"I can."
"I'll... assist..."
Sera's face hardened as she raised her divine power; beside her, Shin Na-rae—who had just received healing for her wounds—added her own strength to it.
Their power was incomplete, so the effect could not be great, yet whether from talent or something else, a translucent membrane instantly enveloped those nearby. Their expressions eased as if their moods had improved a notch.
"There's a force in this place itself that rejects divine power, so the effect won't last long."
"A moment is enough. Cadet Lucia and I will take the lead and move the victims outside."
At Hong Su-ah's words, Lucia glanced briefly at Ban Taewung, then immediately looked at the badly injured cadets beside him and nodded in agreement.
"Taewung-ssi. Be careful."
"Yeah. I'll definitely rescue Erika and come back."
That was right. Three people still unaccounted for—and Onohara Erika was among them. According to those they had found and Shin Na-rae's account, Erika had drawn the monsters' attention so the others could escape safely.
Which meant she was likely deeper inside, or held in an even more dangerous place.
Rumble-rumble-rumble...!
As if sensing their attempt to leave, the temple walls began to heave and writhe like living things, steadily closing the gaps.
Looking closer, massive tentacles nestled between the bricks were moving in real time, shifting the walls themselves.
"Ugh...?! Run!!!"
"Aaaaaaagh!!!"
"Stay calm and follow the crows!! Understood?! Follow the crows!!"
People split left and right to dodge the closing walls. Ban Taewung wrapped himself in mana, Sera in divine power, and both shot forward; Lucia and Hong Su-ah each hoisted an immobile injured person onto their backs. Those who could still move all stared at the crows and ran for their lives.
"Hup!!"
The wall and tentacles that tried to bar their path were punched clean through by a single fist wreathed in Hong Su-ah's crimson mana. There was no time to stop; everyone squeezed out their dwindling mana until their hearts felt ready to burst and kept running.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!!!
Then a tremendous surge of mana and a colossal noise that shook the air thundered down from the sky. It came from outside. The owner of that mysterious mana was the dragon.
"Hiiiek?!"
"Don't stop!!! If you don't want to die here, move!! Hurry!!!"
Some flinched and shrank back at the sudden assault, but Hong Su-ah immediately identified the source of the mana and barked orders so no one would freeze.
Whatever principle governed this space, it interfered with the absorption and exercise of mana as well as the use of divine power.
The cadets who had been inside for so long had barely a handful of mana left in their bodies—so depleted it was less than an ordinary person's. Their breathing was ragged beyond measure.
While Hong Su-ah burned with resolve for the next class at the sight, a massive flock of shadow crows flew in from the far side and blocked the path. Confirming they seemed to be stopping further progress, Hong Su-ah raised a hand and signaled those behind her to halt.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!!
Boom!!!
At the same moment the wall ahead collapsed downward, forming a barrier of tentacles.
Everyone held their breath at the suddenness of it—then a vast movement of mana erupted and the wall before their eyes burst apart, flooding the space with brilliant light.
KRAAAAAAASH!!!!!
The delayed roar made those unable to protect themselves with mana clap their hands over their ears. Some raised their arms against the blinding light; others could not withstand the shockwave and simply collapsed where they stood.
"...Ah."
And someone saw it.
The majestic form of a colossal dragon descending through the light.
The figures fighting before the hole from which countless monsters poured.
A girl in a nun's habit swung a mace larger than her own body, pulverizing enemies.
Every arrow loosed by a skeleton gripping a massive bow tore through the air with a thunderous crack, spraying chunks of flesh; even if it failed to kill, a giant skeletal hand erupted behind the monster and ripped it apart.
A blood-soaked giant wolf howled and charged, leaving carnage in its wake. Flesh tore, blood sprayed in every direction, and with each kill the wolf's body swelled larger and more ferocious.
A swarm of crows descended from the sky and swept over the enemy positions; nothing remained afterward. The way even corpses vanished in an instant was eerie enough to send a chill down the spine.
Most striking of all was the man at their center, scattering shadows as he fought.
He appeared without fail between the hunters of monsters, ceaselessly wringing screams from the battlefield.
Every time the man moved, monsters lifted into the air and shrieked in agony.
Spikes suddenly erupting from the ground left them reeling; the whip-like sweep of a sword that followed cleaved any monster trying to block the path cleanly in half.
Dragon magic rained down like artillery into the openings thus created, and the crows and wolf devoured whatever remained.
He smashed an approaching enemy's jaw with a fist, then hurled a massive spear that had appeared in his hand, skewering the monsters behind it like meat on a spit.
As if guarding the gap created by the large motion, the nun-clad girl slammed her huge mace into the ground, shattering the earth; the man then clubbed the floating boulders one by one and sent them flying into the enemy ranks.
Fast. And overwhelming. The one-sided battle unfolding before their eyes made the words rise unbidden.
There should have been openings, yet the man and the monsters arrayed around him left none, their movements flowing without interruption.
But Hong Su-ah felt no hope at the sight. For every enemy their overwhelming assault wiped out, even greater numbers continued to pour down.
The cause was the enormous hole above—like a tear in the sky itself—from which enemies endlessly descended.
Hong Su-ah gritted her teeth at the sight.
"Everyone, your mana?"
"Ah—"
"I-it's coming back...!"
"Divine power is returning little by little too!"
Fortunately, with the entrance completely destroyed, those who had been mana-starved began to regain their strength. The cause had indeed been the temple's interior. Those horrific tentacles enveloping the entire structure were the culprits.
No—it would not be an exaggeration to say the tentacles were the temple itself.
They should have realized it the moment the walls crumbled and what rose was not dust but the stench of blood and gore.
Hong Su-ah immediately gathered them with mana, hoisted them like baggage, and powered her legs to leap high toward the hole Jang Sinwoo had created.
Masses of tentacles tried to bar her escape route, but the shadow crows protected her—intercepting the attacks or severing the tentacles outright.
"Seven secured!!"
"Riri, start!"
Jang Sinwoo answered Hong Su-ah at once. As if waiting for the cue, the array of mana behind him shifted.
"[Erosion][Death][Chain][Ice][Perception][Protection]"
Six syllables of magic wove into a single spell and spread across the ground.
Immediately the cold that had been freezing enemies solid gathered at a single point, forming an igloo-shaped bunker with a massive door.
Rumble-rumble...!!
The door opened and a torrent of cold air blasted outward, flash-freezing the monsters that had gathered to prevent the barrier's creation into sheets of ice. On top of that, the very ground where the enemies stood froze solid.
"Kueeeek!!"
"Krrruk...?!"
The moment an unwitting foot stepped onto the frozen floor, the leg froze and the creature toppled; whatever part touched the ice froze next.
The ice used the corpses as nutrients, extending cold and ice spikes in every direction and driving the adjacent monsters one after another into death.
Even the fearless monsters that had been charging began to falter and retreat before the quiet, certain approach of cold death.
Seizing the opening, Hong Su-ah charged straight into the bunker and shoved the seven cadets inside in one motion.
At once she raised her mana and drove a mana-charged fist toward the hole open in the sky.
KRAAAAASH!!!
The attack that flew toward the enemies was far too powerful to be mere wind pressure from a mana-charged punch. The monsters falling through the distorted air were, as if it were only natural, torn into chunks of flesh and exploded.
I saw the wind warp the instant Hong Su-ah's fist punched the empty air. But I never saw it take form and advance. With vision enhanced by the skill Combat Focus, I only barely caught something streaking past at high speed.
In other words, even with the stats and skill effects boosted by Subjugator raised to level 2, it was still an attack that only registered as a blur.
She's something else, all right.
Well, that was why I hadn't even seen the attack she threw at me in the classroom. I supposed I should be grateful I could finally see it now.
I glanced at the wind beginning to coil around her body, then—following Hive's warning—sliced the insect that had closed right in front of me cleanly in half with a shadow blade.
"Head toward Ban Taewung. We're fine here."
Hong Su-ah nodded at my words, wrapped the wind around her entire body into her feet, and stomped a true step.
Boom!!!
At the same time a storm of mana scattered in every direction, becoming blades of fierce wind that instantly bisected the bodies of the creatures blocking the path to the temple.
"Escape?"
"Same as before—shall I punch a nice clean hole?"
"Yeah. The mastermind seems fused with the entire temple, so it'd be better to take care of that at the same time."
"...Your basis?"
I had already received information that the temple was abnormal. I had seen the walls moving on their own to stop them, which was why I had stepped in personally and punched a separate exit.
But moving walls was something tentacles alone could easily manage. Declaring fusion with the temple itself felt like jumping to conclusions.
If it was mere gut feeling, I could not accept it. The moment I confirmed the ten missing people had been rescued, my plan was to kill the boss I had already located and leave the dungeon, ending the matter.
Whether anyone came back here later was the academy's problem.
"I confirmed through the flow of wind that a massive eyeball shape, covered by numerous tentacles, sits in the temple's center."
Hong Su-ah spoke with confidence, and I had no choice but to nod. That was the place so densely packed with tentacles that Hive's shadow crows could not reconnoiter it.
Shadow crows could hide in darkness and move swiftly and stealthily, but that was all.
In the end they only concealed their bodies in shadow; they did not sink into the shadow itself, so they needed a passage of shadow to travel through.
The tentacles had been packed so tightly and solidly that the interior could not be checked. But what about wind, which had no real substance?
Possible.
No matter how dense, there would be gaps for air to pass. Once that thought reached me, I quietly accepted Hong Su-ah's intent. This much I could acknowledge.
If the main cause of this situation was confirmed to be inside that temple, it was more profitable to settle it cleanly now than to go through the trouble multiple times.
"Kallion."
"Grrrr...!"
At my call, Kallion descended from the air and took position beside me.
"Time limit is five minutes. Follow the crows and you'll meet Ban Taewung bringing the missing people. Wait there and I'll punch a hole right in front of you."
Leaving those words, I immediately grabbed Riri—who had been concentrating on magic behind me—by the nape, hauled her onto Kallion's back, and soared into the sky.
"Kya...mmpf!"
"Shut up."
I sealed Riri's mouth with shadow just as she tried to scream at the sudden altitude gain. She glared at me with half-lidded eyes.
Yeah, so what?
I glared right back without yielding, and Riri—as if it were only natural—used magic to peel the shadow from her mouth, then puffed her cheeks out like a hamster stuffed full of grain.
"What are you doing. Hurry up and prepare mana."
"...Pff."
I poked the cheek with a finger and forced the air out.
Apparently that displeased her even more, because she started thumping my body. Calling it hitting was generous—there was not a scrap of mana in the blows, so it felt weaker than a child pounding on me.
Probably because my stats had risen while Riri's strength stat was pitifully below average.
Even normally she sat on the books she made and rode them around because walking was too much trouble; her strength and stamina were not merely weak but frail—easy enough to notice.
I ignored it without pointing it out and spoke.
"Support."
"Tsk... [Amplification]!!"
The moment Riri confirmed her magic included Kallion and me, she poured mana into Kallion. Echidna was not nearby, but with my current mana, Hive and Kallion alone were enough.
"Napalm. Maximum output."
Load it with the intent to erase everything.
"Grrrrrrrr......"
Whether he accurately understood my will or not, the creature that had been spewing mana freely and casting mass magic since his first appearance today—without a single sign of fatigue—let out a low growl.
The scale was wider than the desert pyramid. But my current mana was also greater than then.
The same went for Kallion and Hive.
I forced in every last scrap of mana that could be packed. Even when the excess supply exceeded Kallion's capacity to convert into magic and reverse-flowed mana materialized and scattered through the air, I did not care.
If more mana could enter the spell, a little leakage meant nothing.
"Ugh?! Y-you're too... crude...!"
Correcting that and making it useful for the magic was her job—Riri's.
Did she think I had dragged her here for no reason? Simple amplification of power was not enough. It was to manifest a more perfect spell, a more powerful single strike, into this world.
Whoooosh!!!!!
A vast quantity of mana, multiplied by Subjugator and further enhanced one stage by Sadism, began to unfold across the sky.
At the sight of the enormous black sun taking shape inside the giant magic circle, the temple visibly grew agitated.
They had instinctively realized it was a threat to them.
"Too late, you bastards."
Confirming it, I checked through Hive's shadow crows that Hong Su-ah and Ban Taewung's group had safely reunited.
Ban Taewung seemed to have filmed another dramatic episode on his own; he was taking attacks from Onohara Erika, who was half-engulfed by tentacles.
The others had managed to clear the parasitizing tentacles with the arrival of Hong Su-ah and Lucia, but Onohara Erika was different.
The mastermind had taken a liking to her talent-filled body and had burrowed even deeper—even if it meant slowing the erosion of the others—so completely removing the tentacles was practically impossible.
There is no perfect good person in life. No—rather, because she was good, she was more easily exposed to malice.
Because she was good, she knew evil all the more clearly. Her position as a scion of a prestigious family had forced her into the role of the villain.
That was why she had been consumed by the mental contamination the tentacles spread.
What followed was a common story.
Under the passionate approach of the protagonist and his companions, Onohara Erika—half-regaining her senses even while eroded by tentacles—desperately blocked the attacks aimed at Ban Taewung while shouting for him to attack her.
Ban Taewung shed tears and refused. Instead he told her he was grateful she had held on and sorry he had not come sooner, then simply embraced her and took every one of her attacks head-on.
Sensing she was no longer useful as a host, the tentacles tried to transfer to the better host—Ban Taewung. The moment they touched his body, the skill that recognized it as damage met its activation condition.
At the same time Ban Taewung's eyes snapped open and he raised his mana.
Ban Taewung's job was Indomitable Warrior of Reversal.
The foundational first skill doubled all damage received so far, summed it, and returned every bit of it as a counterattack to "the one who attacked."
The skill's name was none other than Reverse Counter.
Pinpointing only the tentacles that had eroded Onohara Erika's body, Ban Taewung activated Reverse Counter. His gentle yet fierce strike erased every tentacle devouring her in an instant.
That side was finished. The position was perfect, so I ordered Hong Su-ah's crow to stand by.
I immediately sent a shadow crow to Riri, who was grinding her teeth uncharacteristically hard behind me while repairing Kallion's magic.
"When this one signals, fire. Got it?"
Unlike me, who was linked to Kallion, she looked strained just maintaining the current phenomenon. Probably because dragon magic was that irregular and operated on principles different from ordinary magic.
If I had to put it, dragon magic was like implementing as a skill the power dragons are born with that lets them use magic naturally.
In short, she was currently being taught how to breathe underwater by a fish.
Of course it was hard. The fact that she was forcibly imitating the impossible in the first place meant her talent was absurd. Did people think archmages were called archmages for nothing?
They were called archmages because they turned the impossible into the possible.
"Nnngh...! When this is over... you're dead...!!"
The grumbling was long, but I took it as acknowledgment and forced every last drop of remaining mana—leaving only 50 percent—into the magic circle.
"Kiiyaaaang...?!!"
The bizarre croaking from behind grew louder, but I did not care. Half of the remaining 50 percent had to be used to punch the hole over there, and the rest preserved as emergency reserves to protect my body.
I dropped straight from Kallion's back, formed a shadow sword, then reshaped it into a spear.
That secured the effect of Transformation at Will. What remained was the image—and stacking skill effects.
I created an additional giant bow to match the enormous shadow spear. At the same time I reshaped the shadows wrapping my body into the form of massive armor, then packed the interior solid with shadow.
The image was my body itself—the body of muscle connected to bone that moved me.
Because I could move shadow with my mana, the technique formed right here and now.
My body swelled as if I had become a giant. My field of vision itself did not change. What changed was solely my sense of presence.
In a world falling even more slowly under the effect of the skill Combat Focus, I moved mana and nocked the spear onto the bowstring like an arrow.
Even though it was clearly receiving the effect of Spear, the effect of Bow was somehow added as well.
On top of that, the act of throwing a spear itself added the effect of Throwing, and because I was essentially riding a giant suit of shadow armor while moving it myself, the effect of Riding stacked.
Being manipulated and moved through the shadows I had installed was recognized as part of a device, adding even the power of Trap Installation.
Skill effects began stacking repeatedly onto a single simple action.
It felt like a sense of unity, as if all the power inside me was gathering into this one strike.
I condensed half my mana into it.
Having poured continuously since Kallion's back, my mana had plummeted to 20 percent in an instant. Only about two-tenths remained in my body, but it was enough.
I added more mana and drew the giant "bow." Just that alone made my head throb and dizziness surge. Proof I had used far too much mana.
On top of that, mana recovery was difficult inside this dungeon, so consumption outpaced recovery and the strain was worse.
Crunch.
I clenched my teeth hard. I squeezed out more mana and focused.
Then I aimed right beside the cavern where Ban Taewung's group stood and fired the condensed power.
Twang—
Calling it firing was generous; all I did was release the drawn bowstring.
A heavy, crude sound matching it rang through the sky. Yet despite the dull-seeming noise, the black stake that began flying at the speed of light crossed the temple and drove into the earth the moment it struck.
KRAAAAAAAAAASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The ground was gouged out as if carved away. The massive impact ground the earth itself to pieces; masses of tentacles erupted from the temple to stop it, but they were shredded and exploded by the mana packed around the spear before they could even touch it.
Thanks to that, the spear was prevented from reaching the center.
Yes—it did not reach the center. But it definitely reached the place where Ban Taewung's group had been.
At the sight of Ban Taewung's group shooting out as if blasted by Hong Su-ah's wind, I sent the signal to the crow waiting in the sky.
Fwoosh!
The black sun.
Fell to the ground.
As the black sun instantly began to engulf the entire temple, I decided there was nothing more to see and closed my eyes.
Immediately afterward, heat so intense it felt ready to cook my closed eyelids registered vividly on my skin. Light bright enough to pierce even shut eyes blasted outward.
FWOOOOOOSH!!!!
The sound of the temple melting—evaporating in real time—rang out clearly.
Damn thing sure took its time.
Thud!
I landed hard enough to crack the ground, stripped away the shadows that had wrapped my entire body like a giant doll, and stood on the earth.
Dungeon Cleared.
At the system's declaration that the dungeon had been cleared, I was finally certain the job was truly over.