Chapter 112
Chapter 112
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 112
Chapter Title: The Spark of War
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112
“…That bastard!”
Sebu opened his eyes to the voice echoing in his hazy mind.
“You son of a bitch!”
Collan’s subordinates, who had maintained an inhumanly calm demeanor until now, were seething with rage.
The target was Jane.
“…You’ll regret cursing like that.”
“What’d you say?”
Jane was being grabbed by the collar by one of Collan’s subordinates, while the others pressed their swords against him, ready to cut him down at any moment.
That was when Sebu realized.
Sizzle.
The pitch-black lumps of meat lying beside Jane.
They must have been Collan’s subordinates who had tried to tear open a gap in the barrier alongside Jane.
“What did I do wrong?”
“You bastard, you still—!”
“Enough.”
Collan stepped in then.
Pat, pat.
Jane was utterly mad.
Swords were thrust at him from all sides, poised to kill, yet he was brushing off his clothes as if the hand that had grabbed him moments ago was just dusted with dirt.
“You knew it was dangerous, didn’t you?”
Jane said nonchalantly.
“I did exactly the same thing. You know that, don’t you, Collan?”
Whether he knew or not didn’t matter.
“…”
Collan couldn’t deny it.
He’d have to admit that Demorus’s great heir apparent was inferior to a mere Black Sword squad member.
“These men couldn’t endure it. Or maybe they got greedy trying to claim the credit.”
“You son of a—!”
“I said enough.”
At Collan’s words, his subordinates finally backed off.
The barrier was definitely torn open.
“Even if what you say is true, the sin of costing me my men is grave.”
Collan said, locking eyes with Jane.
“They’re not comparable to the likes of Black Sword riffraff.”
Clench.
Sebu, forced to just watch, balled his fists tight.
“Can you handle it?”
“Collan, can you…?”
Did that kid have this side to him?
“Can you handle it?”
Jane shot back with a smile.
“How many more barriers do you think lie ahead? Can you press on after losing me?”
One barrier had nearly cost one life.
Three.
Sebu and Ballack’s mana were already all but depleted.
If there was just one more barrier ahead, they could toss Jane at it.
-But after that? And the one after?
What if there were even more?
They could throw subordinates at them to open the barriers.
But if another one appeared at the end?
That would be checkmate.
Collan hadn’t anticipated this dungeon harboring so many top-tier barriers.
And if they failed to break them and had to turn back…
-Mission failed.
A crack would form in Collan’s reputation.
“Bold one, aren’t you? You know your worth and how to leverage it.”
Collan said.
“A warning?”
He said it while eyeing his men’s corpses.
As if warning against treating Black Sword squad members like consumables.
“Of course not.”
Sein replied, though he doubted Collan would believe him.
“I respect that. But if it happens again…”
But the opponent was Collan.
“I’ll turn your comrades into well-chewed meat chunks first.”
“I can’t promise, but I’ll do my best.”
In the end, the negotiation succeeded.
‘What are you thinking, Jane?’
Sebu felt only unease.
They could push through now out of necessity, but once they reached the dungeon’s end and Jane’s usefulness waned, the outcome was plain as day.
But what could he do?
Clench.
Nothing was in his power.
Finally, they began to move.
And as expected, they encountered two more barriers.
The silver lining was that no further deaths occurred—whether because Jane had truly heeded the warning, or because the other subordinates were more cautious.
At last, the mission’s target came into view before them.
“That’s…”
A single doll, wrapped tightly in iron chains.
*
*
*
This sight was familiar to Jane.
“…”
A human bound in chains, dangling from a cross-shaped stake.
Exactly like what he’d seen in Contra before…
‘Demonkin.’
A sealing restraint for binding demonkin.
Ruuuumble.
An ominously sinister mana leaked from it, corrupting the space around them.
This was a higher-grade demonkin than the one from Contra.
Yet the mingled auras it exuded felt somehow different from before.
“All hands.”
The goal was securing that thing intact.
But Collan said,
“Battle stations.”
Snap.
His subordinates instantly readied for combat at his command, and the Black Sword squad members, Jane included, gripped their weapons and took positions.
Most had depleted mana and injuries, but they had to make the show of it.
Here, aside from the demonkin, no other presences could be felt—yet there was an enemy?
“We have guests.”
There was.
“How did you learn of this place?”
The voice from empty air split into multiple echoes in an instant.
“To think humans would breach those barriers and reach here.”
What finally appeared was a decrepit old man.
But his piercing, gleaming eyes and sinister mana kept him from seeming like any ordinary elder.
“One of the Great Names?”
Collan asked.
“Kekeke. Regrettably, I haven’t reached that level yet.”
And in that instant.
Thwack!
Collan vanished like a mirage, his slender sword at the old man’s throat.
But Collan’s sword couldn’t sever the old man.
Something pitch-black, an aura, had engulfed the aura-infused blade and held it fast.
He knew what it was.
‘Wraith.’
A wraith sorcerer—not quite a necromancer, but that rare breed—was the old man’s true nature.
“Rotem’s disciple?”
“Don’t utter that Great Name lightly!”
At Collan’s words, the old man bellowed, and black wraiths poured from both sides, swarming Collan.
But the old man didn’t achieve his goal either.
Clang!
Collan’s subordinates had stepped up, restraining the wraiths.
“Kekekeke.”
The old man’s voice echoed as he gradually retreated.
“So it’s that loathsome Demorus spawn.”
The old man seemed to have realized their identities as well.
“No one.”
Fwoooosh!
The world began to drown in darkness.
“Leaves this place.”
It was all wraiths.
The wraiths swirled in a vortex, devouring everything.
*
*
*
The terrifying thing about a wraith vortex wasn’t its physical force, but its mental assault.
Curses clung thickly, gnawing at the foe, and the wraiths—once human souls—exploited the cracks to consume the mind.
“Ugh… Uuugh…”
That was why wraith sorcerers were so feared.
No matter how experienced or tough.
No, especially the experienced and tough.
“Uuuuugh!”
Wraiths pierced the mind with ease.
The accumulated kills, the guilt, the buried blood.
All that nourished the wraiths as they took control.
Thud, thud.
Collan’s subordinates collapsed, clutching their heads.
“Grrraaah!”
Ballack barely holding on, Sebu already down.
“Kekekeke.”
Amid it all, the wraith sorcerer’s laughter boomed like thunder.
“So easy.”
The first one Sein had faced was Phelfero’s puppet.
But this old man was no puppet—he was a true child of darkness, a genuine article with a Great Name as his master.
“Feast well, children…”
As the old man addressed his wraiths.
Kakakakang!
Flames sparked on both sides of the old man.
“…!”
The wraith sorcerer’s eyes widened in shock.
“How?”
Collan Demorus—responsible for more blood and death than anyone—stood with burst veins in his eyes, swinging his sword down at the sorcerer.
“Demorus…”
A strangely distorted voice leaked from Collan’s mouth.
“Does not yield.”
“You fiend! You’ve lost your reason!”
Collan moved despite his shattered sanity.
It could be willpower, or something else.
Boom!
The explosion sent the wraith sorcerer reeling back.
The problem was that Collan wasn’t the only one unswallowed by the wraiths.
“You’re… even stranger.”
Jane.
Unlike the unconscious Collan, Jane wielded his sword with a perfectly composed face.
No sins weighing him down?
Little buried blood?
Given his age, maybe, but he was a Demorus squad member standing here.
That made it impossible…
“…!”
The wraith sorcerer’s eyes shot wide as realization dawned.
“N-No way…”
His eyes twisted from shock to terror.
“No way!”
He screamed denial, but his eyes betrayed the truth.
He had seen it.
“A sin my wraiths couldn’t even awaken—!”
He shouted.
“My wraiths…!”
The ones he’d sent at Jane.
“Were all devoured…?”
By that young man.
“Why so surprised?”
Jane said with a smile.
“Thanks to you, things got easier. Didn’t expect a wraith sorcerer.”
With that, Jane scanned the surroundings.
Here, the only ones still sane were Jane and the wraith sorcerer.
“You worm! Who are you!”
The sorcerer bellowed.
No ordinary squad member could be like this.
“You worm!”
“Calling for earth spirits or something?”
Jane said with a grin.
In that moment.
Clang!
Collan attacked the wraith sorcerer from his subconscious.
“Peace has lasted too long.”
Jane turned his back, uninterested in the fight now.
“Time to end it.”
“What are you doing!”
“Starting a war.”
Jane said.
“War, obviously. And it begins here, with big brother Collan.”
“…!”
Grin.
“Isn’t that right, Immortal?”
It was Jane—Sein—who had connected Collan to this place, this mission, from the start.