Chapter 66
Chapter 66
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 66
Chapter Title: Magic Tower Genius Hides Physics
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There should be no miracles in this world.
The cult leader gazed up at the night sky visible through the shattered cave ceiling and thought to himself.
Divine providence is perfect.
The seven planets trace perfect circles around the sun, and the seasons cycle without fail according to the motion of the stars.
There must be no variables that defy that order.
The existence of a variable would be proof that God's world is imperfect.
That was why he despised mages.
They mocked the natural order and defied providence.
Grind.
The cult leader's teeth ground together as he stared at the night sky.
"Blasphemy...!"
Man should not stand in the heavens.
Yet one man was slowly descending from the sky to the ground.
Dozens of iron beads orbiting around him gleamed eerily, stealing the moonlight.
The cult leader scanned his surroundings.
The initial attack had already disarmed half of his priests.
'I need to buy time until the other priests can arm themselves.'
The cult leader called out to the mage hovering in the sky.
"Who are you, and what do you want?"
At his words, the mage's gaze turned toward the cult leader.
He spoke.
"Howard Wallowitz."
A name he'd never heard before.
'One of the Empire's hunting dogs?'
The man continued.
"My goal is to smash you all. Cults like yours need to be eradicated."
"Cults? We are the 'Guiding Lights of the Lantern.'"
"Still heretics."
"That's just the Empire's rule... The true heretics are those orthodox fools who bowed to magic."
"What are you talking about? Their name means orthodox. You're the twisted ones."
"..."
Grind.
The schism in religion had been caused by mages.
'And yet...'
Hearing the word "heretic" from the very mages who caused it twisted his guts.
But he had to stay calm.
The attack preparations weren't ready yet.
The priests quietly gathered their weapons, avoiding the mage's gaze.
Slither.
And the moment the black-haired mage's body touched the ground...
The cult leader bellowed in a bloodshot voice.
"Kill him!"
At that single command, the priests' bodies moved on instinct.
-"Death to the one who turned his back on God!"
-"Ready to fire!"
-"Draw your swords!"
Some drew crossbows, others charged with swords and spears.
But it was futile.
Shrieeek-!
With a sharp sound tearing through the air, several iron beads orbiting in the sky shot forth like lightning.
Krunch!
Splatter!
The limbs of the priests charging at the front exploded one by one.
You can't charge without legs.
You can't fire a crossbow without arms.
All attacks ended in vain.
Kraaaah-!
Screams echoed as blood sprayed everywhere.
"How... how is this possible?"
"I used detection magic."
Detection magic?
Impossible.
Detection magic isn't omnipotent.
Such a simple spell couldn't respond to omnidirectional threats across the entire cavern.
There had to be... some other magic at play.
The mage didn't even glance at the priests missing their limbs.
He grimaced slightly and muttered.
"Ugh... gonna puke. Good thing I blocked above with magic, or I'd be in trouble."
"...!"
Those words snapped the cult leader's sanity.
"You bastard! You godless wretch, how dare you mock the glory of martyrdom!"
The cult leader could no longer hold back.
He extended his hand toward the pool of blood created by his priests.
The blood pooling on the floor began to boil as if gaining life.
The mage furrowed his brow.
"Didn't you hate magic?"
"Shut up!"
Faith blooms atop contradictions.
Apostates can never comprehend its profundity.
Immediately, scorching streams of blood surged toward the mage.
But the cult leader's attack never reached him.
It halted in midair.
"Impossible..."
"I've already caught someone who handles blood better than you."
With a gesture from the mage, the blood streams reversed direction.
They headed straight for the cult leader.
"Stay back! I said stay back!"
But no matter how much mana he poured in, the blood kept coming.
Gulp.
The blood coalesced above his head into a massive droplet.
The priests' blood clogged his nose and mouth.
The agony of suffocation swallowed him whole.
Gurgle...!
Glurk-!
Just before the cult leader drowned in his priests' blood.
Splat.
The prison of blood unraveled.
"Kahk...! Hack, hack!"
The cult leader dropped to his knees, coughing violently.
Step. Step.
The mage approached and spoke.
"Give up quietly. By now, the hostages from the other branches have all been rescued."
The cult leader trembled, backing away.
"No! It can't be! Fight to the death! We'll win, even if we offer the blood of every believer!"
"Sounds like you're about to lock yourself in a bunker and blow your brains out with a pistol."
"This...! This war was started by you first!"
There was no retreating now.
Hundreds of years ago, decades ago, and even now.
It was always those arrogant mages trampling their faith.
'Is this how it ends?'
The cult leader pulled a pitch-black heart from inside his robes.
The mage asked him.
"What's that? Detection magic isn't picking it up."
"It's common knowledge that animals corrupted by the northern filth become magical beasts. Then... what happens if a human accepts that filth?"
"Hm?"
"Be remembered as an apostate if you must. First, I'll send you to hell, then follow!"
Gulp.
Swallow.
The cult leader swallowed the black heart whole.
Then, spreading his arms wide, he cried out.
At his words, black energy rose from the ground.
Writhing.
The haze-like tendrils clung to the fallen priests' bodies.
In that instant, the priests who still drew breath screamed.
"Kahk! My soul...! My soul!"
"Cult Leader! Please!"
"Get off me! Aaaargh!"
But the cult leader's resolve didn't waver.
He said.
"Die for the faith. I'll follow soon."
Clap!
The cult leader clapped his hands together.
The light faded from the priests' eyes.
Immediately after.
Gurgle.
Crack-!
Their bodies grotesquely swelled, bones twisting.
The mage asked the cult leader.
"What did you just do?"
Grrrrowl...
Awoooo-!
The fallen priests rose one by one, transforming into massive wolves.
The cult leader replied.
"I offered my soul as sacrifice... to summon the full moon's emissaries."
"Please! Snap out of it!"
Sara screamed at the believers holding out in the prayer room.
But the believers' reactions were no less fierce.
"Don't touch me! Get lost!!"
"We're dying here!"
Sara and her squad tried desperately to secure the believers' identities.
But none of them trusted the Field Mages' words.
"The Heavenly God would never abandon us!"
"We believe! We believe!"
They clung to each other's arms, forming a massive wall of human flesh.
"Agh, why won't they listen!"
The most stubborn was Sara's own sister.
Her twin, pale-faced and tear-streaked, was reciting prayers nonstop.
Sara said to her sister.
"Let's go, please! I'll save you!"
"You go, sis! Leave this holy place!"
"Damn it... brainwashing magic?"
Sara muttered through gritted teeth.
A squad mage specialized in detection shouted.
"No, Squad Leader! No mana reactions!"
"Crazy... then why...!"
At Sara's cry, her sister looked up.
Her twin, with Sara's exact face, yelled.
"I'll die here if I have to! With the Cult Leader, I'm not afraid! I'm staying!"
Her shout ignited the others; the believers began chanting "We'll die here!" in unison.
We'll die-!
Die here-!
Their voices filled the prayer room.
"This... fuck...!"
Sara clenched her fist.
'Should I just knock them all out and drag them out?'
Hesitation gripped her ankles.
Right then.
Awoooo-!
A wolf's howl echoed from deep in the cave.
Not just one.
Dozens howled in unison, shaking the entire cavern.
"..."
"..."
All noise in the prayer room stopped as if by magic.
'That's where Howard went.'
The fanatics paled.
They murmured.
"Full moon and wolf howls... no way, were... werewolves?"
Sara and her squad exchanged glances.
No more time to hesitate.
Sara made her decision.
She gathered mana at the tip of her staff and aimed at her sister.
"Sorry."
Crackle-!
"Ugh...!"
A small spark later, her sister's body stiffened and collapsed.
"Werewolves on a night with a full moon, of all days..."
Werewolves under a full moon were practically immortal.
No matter how strong Howard was, he couldn't beat undead monsters.
Sara shouted to her squad.
"Mages, follow me! The rest, load the people into the carts and return to base immediately!"
"Yes!"
At her command, the squad moved efficiently.
Sara dashed down the corridor with the Field Mages.
Then, a squad member beside her asked.
"Will we make it in time?"
He meant, would Howard still be alive?
A valid question.
Against dozens of werewolves, even a School Head couldn't guarantee victory.
By the time they arrived, they might not even recover his body.
Any sane person would run.
But...
Sara didn't stop running.
She yelled.
"You fucking idiot! If you need certainty for everything, you'll never do shit?!"
All the pent-up rage exploded.
"Did you search for your son this long because you were certain he was alive?!"
"..."
"You just believed! Believe this time too and run!"
No evidence at all.
But Sara gritted her teeth and sped up.
Thanks to Howard, her sister was already saved.
'At least buy time to rendezvous and escape.'
She had no regrets about life.
Hungry gazes pressed in from all sides.
The fallen priests were gone.
They had become werewolves.
'Let's see how tough they are.'
I floated the iron beads I'd pulled from my subspace pocket around me.
Shooom-!
I hurled one at the nearest one.
One to the chest, one to the head.
Thud.
Splat.
"Keng! Grk... grrr."
But it was fine.
The exploded flesh regenerated in an instant.
'Even decapitation regenerates?'
Worse than Malakai.
The blood ghost regenerated via blood, but these showed no such process.
Like creating something from nothing.
'Impossible...'
The cult leader chuckled.
"Useless. Under the full moon, werewolves are invincible."
I ignored him.
Thud.
Splat.
"Maybe not enough hits."
I kept firing the beads.
Regeneration might have limits.
Even if not, it could reveal the source.
"You bastard! Didn't you hear?!"
No interest.
Fire more beads first.
Keng-!
Grrr-!
Keng-!
Blood sprayed from all directions as the werewolves' bodies reformed.
At the same time, I maxed out my detection magic.
'Found it.'
The regeneration source was the black haze rising from the ground.
It granted them healing.
But magic didn't affect the haze itself.
I turned from the werewolves, mid-disassembly and reconstruction.
I said to the cult leader.
"This is obvious sorcery. Doesn't that make you heretics?"
"God decreed that on full moon nights, man's savagery awakens."
The cult leader smiled as he replied.
"Their transformation into werewolves under the full moon is divine providence, not heresy."
"What bullshit sophistry."
"...For that sin, after you and I die, my body will be consumed by the northern filth."
The "filth" probably meant the haze or its source beyond.
'A mutual destruction ploy from the start.'
Tsk.
Killing the cult leader wouldn't make the werewolves vanish.
As I clicked my tongue, the werewolves' encirclement tightened.
Thump-!
Thud-!
Even as their bodies exploded, they regenerated endlessly, pressing into my fire net.
What now?
'Just levitate the werewolves away from the haze...'
The issue was how.
Direct levitation magic on werewolves was impossible.
Mages and beasts have magic resistance.
Without it, mage battles would end with telekinesis crushing hearts.
'No choice but that.'
Adjust local gravity on a wide scale.
This interfered with space itself, not the beasts, so resistance wouldn't matter.
No need for isolated system formation precision.
This didn't defy principles.
I stopped throwing beads.
And designed the next spell.
Midway through enveloping the cavern with my mana, the cult leader said.
"Mana depletion? Magic Tower assassin, this is the end."
Grrrrowl...
The werewolves crouched low.
The cult leader commanded.
"Kill him!"
The werewolves charged.
Too late.
The calculations were done ages ago.
Spell complete.
Local gravity manipulation.
Execute.
Rumble...!
Nearby rock chunks floated up, creating noise.
Everything in the cavern except me lifted into the air.
The others too.
"Grrr! Kr!"
The airborne werewolves flailed helplessly in midair.
No advancing, no descending, no matter how they struggled.
Attacks impossible.
"Wha... what is this? You bastard! What did you do?!"
The cult leader's jaw trembled at the sight.
Naturally, he floated too.
I told him.
"Gravity... you know, universal gravitation?"
"No way... the equations from [Principia] as magic?!"
"Guess you read it."
Of course, if you're plotting terror against me.
Know your enemy, read my papers.
Horror filled the cult leader's eyes.
"Impossible... those equations are fraudulent, impossible to manifest as magic..."
"What? Did you even test if they work in reality?"
Surprising experimental spirit for a cult leader.
...Did he doubt his own beliefs?
He had a point, surprisingly.
You can't cast this with just "universal gravitation."
Without general relativity, you couldn't even attempt it.
I turned to the werewolves.
As expected, separated from the haze, changes appeared.
Slither.
Grrr-!
Keng-! Kaeng-!
They gradually reverted to human form.
Torn clothes revealed pre-transformation wounds.
'Wounds return too.'
Good, no need to subdue twice.
"Kahk-!"
"Hic!"
Re-injured, they fell unconscious from shock one by one.
Each a valuable interrogation subject.
I cauterized their wounds with heat.
Then bundled the unconscious priests into a sphere.
Spheres are easier to calculate.
To avoid suffocation deaths, I left their heads on the surface.
Float, float.
Watching the human ball drift...
Gulp.
Nauseous.
But magic suppression kept it down.
The cult leader muttered.
"...Now I get it. You're no assassin. You came yourself."
"Still slow on the uptake."
"Isaac Uphills...!"
"..."
No need to silence him.
Only me and him left in the cavern.
I told him.
"Yeah, I'm Isaac. Wanna kill me? Go ahead."
"Eeek!"
The cult leader flailed in midair.
His fists naturally missed.
"You bastard! Deception to the end!!"
"Your deception is deception."
"...What?"
"If you hated magic so much, you should've never looked at it."
"That's..."
The cult leader was speechless.
Hates it until he needs it, then blood magic, forbidden arts...
Endless excuses.
"Anyway, for guessing my identity, electric shock as reward."
I zapped his body with electricity.
"Gah!"
The cult leader passed out.
"Now it's all over... Hm...?"
Then, detection magic picked up presences.
Someone entered the cavern briefly, then retreated.
'Who?'
I turned around.
Near the cavern entrance, outside the gravity spell boundary, familiar silhouettes appeared.
"..."
"..."
It was Sara and her squad members.
As if by agreement, they all froze in place.
They gawked, mouths agape, alternating between me, the cult leader, and the priest-sphere.
I asked them.
"From where did you see?"
"From the universal gravitation magic... onward."
"..."