Chapter 89
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 89
Chapter Title: Execution (6)
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“…!”
Teddy Divine's throat bobbed convulsively.
The suicide order had been given.
It was an act that acknowledged himself as a lowly criminal while elevating the authority of the Imperial Magic Tower to its utmost heights. Could there be anything more humiliating than this?
The current Black Tower Lord, Teddy Divine.
Just moments ago, his face had been brimming with a leisurely smile, but now it was drenched in cold sweat, glistening unnaturally.
“Wait, just wait a moment…!”
Still slumped on the ground, he shuffled backward on his butt. Teddy Divine was revealing a pathetically servile and ugly side he'd never shown before.
“A misunderstanding, it was all a misunderstanding. I got it completely wrong! Give me one chance. We are a proper Magic Tower too! There's no way we'd do something that evil!”
Teddy's eyes shook as if struck by an earthquake.
He frantically scanned every corner of Zekiel's face, desperately searching for any clue that might offer him an escape.
But the inspector's expression remained utterly impassive.
“Eeeek!”
Teddy hurriedly glanced toward the audience seats.
But soon, resignation slowly crept over his face. In the end, there was no faction anywhere willing to take his side.
It was the natural karma for his past deeds.
Teddy Divine finally clasped his hands together.
Like a fly, he began rubbing his palms together.
“...The Black Tower has suffered under tremendous oppression all this time. But to avoid being pushed out by the other towers, we needed some plausible achievements! In the end, corpse research was the only path we could take! Right?”
“Using that as an excuse.”
Zekiel scoffed.
“The Black Tower managed achievements without crossing the line until now. It was simply your greed that went too far.”
“Please, please show mercy! You could at least spare my life! No matter how great the White Tower's authority, can you really do this?”
Teddy pointed a trembling finger at Zekiel.
Sudden fury filled his pitiful face.
“You, you…! Inspector, you…!”
Tears of terror welled in his eyes.
“If you insist on killing innocent Black Tower members, you'll surely face divine punishment, you know why? Because I…! Even if I die, I'll curse you! I'll haunt you as a ghost, even using necromancy!”
Teddy bellowed furiously, but suddenly prostrated himself flat. Dragging his thigh pierced by the ice spike, he desperately crawled toward Zekiel's feet.
“No, that's not it! Inspector! White Tower Inspector!”
Teddy tightly hugged Zekiel's calf.
“I forgot my place and spoke arrogantly! I must have lost my mind! Inspector! Please, I ask for nothing else…. Just spare my life…!”
Desperation born of a desperate wish to survive gleamed in his eyes.
“Inspector, as an inspector, you can't just ignore a pitiful tower like ours, right? Is there any tower more wretched than the Black Tower? Where could there be one…!”
Zekiel's expression remained utterly impassive.
Perhaps driven by impatience at that, Teddy's frantic cries grew even louder.
“Inspector! I'll become a slave of the Imperial Magic Tower. I'll accept any order except death, okay? I must have some use…!”
Zekiel pushed Teddy's head away with his other foot, pressing down hard as if crushing a bug.
“Ugh…!”
Instead of replying, the inspector nudged the spear lying at his feet with his toe.
Thud—
A chilling ring echoed out.
Pick it up and end it yourself—that was the meaning.
“No exceptions, no mercy. Didn't I already say that?”
“... .”
Tears streamed down Teddy's face, leaving it hollow with despair.
“How can this be….”
He brought his trembling hands to his face.
“How can this be, how can this be, how…!”
Teddy clawed at his own face with his nails, drawing blood along the scratches.
“Even as I grovel like this, abandoning everything to beg, you demand my death! How can you do this, how on earth…!”
Then, at some point.
Teddy stopped speaking and let his hands drop limply.
The Black Tower Lord no longer shed tears or sobbed. He simply stared blankly at the floor with empty eyes.
“...Fine.”
Teddy slowly lifted his head.
His soulless, vacant eyes stared piercingly at Zekiel from an unnaturally twisted angle.
“If you're determined to kill me, then no choice….”
Rumble—!
At the same time, corpses poured from the spire's walls, and Teddy began absorbing all the dark energy from their mana cores into his own body.
The speed and momentum were terrifying.
Gurgle—! Gurgle—!
The vast energy seemed too much for Teddy to handle. Black veins bulged everywhere, and his muscles writhed grotesquely.
“Hah…! Heuk…! Haaa…! Hehehe—!”
Teddy suddenly let out a bizarre smile.
Finally, his eyes rolled back completely.
“Grrrr—! Graaaaaah—!”
As he roared, spewing black light from his entire body.
The scenery enveloping Zekiel flipped upside down.
.
.
.
.
.
.
“... .”
Zekiel quietly surveyed his surroundings.
The conference hall had vanished completely.
A massive stage shrouded in curtains, tiered audience seats, lights illuminating the stage in a circle but blocked by the curtains…. It resembled a grand opera house.
In this sudden performance hall, there were only two people.
Zekiel and Teddy Divine.
'Hallucination-type magic.'
He understood the situation easily. It seemed Teddy had cast an illusion on him in a final act of desperation.
Swish—!
The curtains parted, and the lights shone on the stage.
At the center of the stage, bathed in light, Teddy stood deferentially. He was dressed in an extravagantly ornate gown and wide-brimmed hat, like an opera diva.
Teddy slowly opened his previously closed eyes.
“To think it would be this much…. Absorbing the mana cores of corpses I've gathered for ten years feels so exhilarating? The power is overwhelmingly strong, hard to contain….”
Her face melted into an expression of ecstasy, as if reaching climax.
“...At this moment, I am finally perfect!”
At last, Teddy's gaze turned to Zekiel.
“Inspector, have you heard of the Transcendent Realm?”
The Transcendent Realm—a vista visible only to transcendent beings.
It was the name for the unique ultimate technique and secret art that a mage who reached the pinnacle finally obtained.
“Thanks to you pushing me to the brink of death, I could finally absorb all the corpses…! I should thank you! This is the Black Tower's true secret!”
Snap—!
Teddy snapped her fingers.
Grrr— grrr—
At once, corpses appeared from all directions and began closing in.
Since this was a world within the illusion, their numbers were effectively infinite.
“This is my Transcendent Realm.”
Like singing an aria, Teddy placed one hand on her chest and raised the other high toward the ceiling.
“Curtain Up. Congratulations on being my first audience.”
Groooo—!
The horde of corpses charged like a swarm of clouds.
Zekiel's reaction, however, was lukewarm.
“Quite the crowd of spectators.”
He murmured quietly and formed ice in midair. Its shape was a bell nearly as large as the ceiling.
The next moment, Zekiel struck the bell with all his might, infusing it with mana. The corpses had already rushed right up to him, leaping at the perfect moment.
Dooooong—
The struck ice bell resounded magnificently.
A visible shockwave swept through the entire space, clear even to the naked eye.
“Grk….”
“Guh?”
And that was it.
All the corpses collapsed like scarecrows. Throughout the performance hall, only the sounds of flesh hitting the ground echoed endlessly.
It wasn't just clearing the corpses.
Like puzzle pieces being torn away, the space itself began to crack bit by bit.
The hallucination Teddy had wrung her soul to activate was shattering entirely. A perfect counter.
“...What?”
Teddy's face went blank.
“No, that can't be…”
She muttered in disbelief, hollowly.
“Corpses I gathered for ten years…. Magic I prepared for ten years…. Why….”
Thud. Zekiel kicked up the ice spear from the floor.
Whoosh—!
The next moment.
Stab—!
It pierced Teddy's throat demonstratively.
The Black Tower Lord's death.
Her head, severed from the body.
A face still unable to comprehend the situation.
To that dazed corpse's face.
“Your performance must have been pretty boring.”
Zekiel murmured softly.
“The audience has dozed off and won't wake up.”