Exploration of the Relics
Mea’s voice was calm and steady. “Sure. The moment I bring out the mana, it vanishes into thin air. It feels like something is sucking it right out of the air.”
She said it the way Teresa had predicted.
There was some force here actively scattering the mana, a unique law of the Abyss forced into action, and someone had added a barrier to control and amplify it.
“This place is artificial,” Mea added, watching the process without a flicker of unease. “A control-and-amplification barrier, layered on top of the Abyss’s own special rules.”
“Artificial, you say?”
“Probably.”
Artificial… and this room proved it. Instead of the natural caves we had come through, the walls were unnaturally flat, clearly shaped by some kind of craftsmanship.
Mea had already read the structure of the barrier the moment she stepped inside.
“Handprints are here. The situation is way too obvious.”
“Mea, who is that person?”
Mea had been the one to notice the mana being sucked away first, so I set aside my own worry for now and asked the question we had been delaying.
The small chamber we occupied was no more than six paces across. In the very corner, curled into a tight ball, was a single figure.
Even under the faint light, a head of pink hair emitted a powerful presence, drawing every eye.
The person kept muttering to himself, eyes glassy, as though he had completely lost his mind.
“He’s an upperclassman from our school. The leader of this training program too.”
“Senior?”
“That’s right. Don’t feel bad for him. A mage without mana is meaningless.”
That was true, yet it only made the sight stranger.
Seniors were the lowest rank that still qualified as a guide, the same level as Mea, and they were the ones who led teams on the third floor and could join fourth-floor expeditions.
A senior should have been wrapped in basic defensive magic.
But the mana leaking from his body was so weak his control had probably slipped; how was he even still standing when the mana inside him was being drained away?
“It’s a camouflage,” Teresa said, face tight with memory. “They melted us from the outside. Demonologists don’t usually keep active magic running, so we didn’t notice at first.”
“They’re draining the mana that makes up our spells.”
“…Exactly. Even I couldn’t cast a single spell. The same for the seniors. We were completely helpless. We should have prepared another route…”
Another route?
There was more to it than that.
Probably a monster.
It was stranger that there were no monsters at all in a ruin like this.
Mages whose mana had evaporated. Without even body enhancement, they were no match for even a low-grade monster.
If it were Reina Arthur, a combat mage, maybe it would have been different. But our Blostma school had no connection to that kind of fighting at all.
The team had already collapsed under the sudden invasion of monsters while we were in this shocking state.
‘How on earth did Teresa get out of that?’
There was always one last resort.
In a world without mana, what could even be used?
‘Maybe an item.’
While we talked, Mea kept glancing at the pink-haired figure and spoke in a serious tone. “Priority one: we get out of here. If we can just climb back up the hole we fell through from the top…”
The height was the problem. When Mea and I had come down, we had both used body enhancement, so the fall hadn’t been dangerous. Now, without it, climbing back up would be treacherous.
Mea and Teresa began discussing how to reach the surface.
They were treating the fight with the monster as impossible; escape was the only goal.
“Too high to climb like this,” Mea said, shaking her head. “We need to move.”
“We need to go down. Teresa, when you fell, was there a staircase?”
“Yes. But there are monsters there.”
They had somehow fallen into easy conversation, both of them usually quiet and uninterested in small talk. It actually worked.
“Have you spotted what kind of monster it is?”
“That’s… I didn’t see it.”
Teresa looked disappointed as she recounted the incident.
The moment she realized the mana was being drained, she tried to leave, and the monster slammed into her without warning.
Before she even knew what it was, half the team was wiped out by the first attack.
From then on the team collapsed.
The only one who survived was that pink-haired student whose mind had already snapped—Freya Priscilla, who somehow forced out the last of her mana and shoved the unknown creature away while Teresa dragged her to safety.
Teresa’s hand had only reached Priscilla.
She had failed to save the others.
Right after, Priscilla had completely broken under the shock and fallen into that state.
“Maybe he’s still there,” I said.
“He might be.”
In short, there was only one exit we could identify. But it was guarded by monsters. So a fight was inevitable.
Could we break through with our current numbers and zero mana?
‘Impossible.’
A mage without mana is like a soldier without a gun.
The moment combat became necessary, mana was mandatory.
“…I’ll handle the monster,” Mea said.
“I tested it just now. The drain isn’t instant. There’s a lot of loss during the borrowing process, but I can still cast simple spells.”
“But, Senior…”
Teresa looked worried that Mea, a fellow demonologist, would be the one to take the risk.
“I’m the guide. Mea and Roman, you two go ahead with Priscilla. Get out of the drain zone any way you can. Then come back and help me.”
If we could simply stay outside the drain zone, Teresa would be able to recover her mana at least a little, and I, with the infinite mana of my contracted demons, could fight at full power.
Mea was clearly thinking of the second option when she volunteered to handle the monster.
I had already seen her pull off long-range magical bullets.
Still…
Do we really have to?
“Mea, about the mana drain.”
“Hm? What?”
“If it’s artificial, there should be a limit, right?”
“Hmm… I suppose so. The Abyss’s special laws probably have their own cap. With our numbers it will be impossible. Even a Master-rank mage might struggle.”
“So there is a limit?”
Mea nodded carefully.
That was all I needed.
I slowly began drawing in mana.
“Then let’s test it.”
You eat mana like it’s candy?
Let’s see exactly how much you can take.
‘For starters, Lady Seir.’
[Good.]
Mana could be drained, but the contract itself, the spiritual link, could not be blocked.
Following my will, the contract pipe let Seir’s mana flow into the real world.
At the same time, the mana I was trying to take vanished as if sucked toward some distant point.
“This isn’t enough.”
[...Arrogant. Whose mana is this…]
The mana flowing through the contract grew thicker.
The quantity stayed the same, but the density increased dramatically.
Hell’s lord.
The power of a demon duke.
The dense mana of a high-dimensional being simply invaded this space, painting the area its own color.
And the unknown force that filled the room as if erasing that color began pulling back Seir’s mana.
It was a tug-of-war.
A competition of strength over the ownership of this space.
Seir pushed constantly, and the space continued to accept it.
The contract pipe, widened dramatically since our first meeting, pumped mana without stopping.
It wasn’t enough.
If we didn’t pour in more…
‘Leraje.’
[Good. Use it.]
The second contract on the back of my right hand opened.
The mana that had been pouring in and out through two pipes flooded my body in a single surge.
Fill. Empty. Fill. Empty.
The back-and-forth of emptiness and fullness made my senses swing wildly.
Was this what mood swings felt like?
The emotional roller coaster was violent.
But far greater than the euphoria was the thrill of being able to handle so much mana.
My entire body tingled.
Even though my body was already used to mana from daily training with Ray, the same soreness I felt the first time I ever used magic returned.
Now neither emptiness nor fullness was felt.
Whether there was or wasn’t—didn’t matter.
Instead, my consciousness reached outward.
It focused only on the struggle with this space.
Stubbornness or arrogance.
We kept playing the game.
And finally the balance broke.
Like releasing the rage against the thing that dared to steal us away, the mana I kept releasing surged into the space.
The black mana raced like unleashed hounds, howling.
That deep resonance sounded as if it were celebrating its own victory.
I closed the contract.
And felt a pang of regret.
I had poured everything into the tug-of-war, only for the other side to suddenly let go.
I had won, but something was missing—maybe two percent short.
Just a little more…
I was already nearing my limit too.
“It’s broken.”
My toy.
§
I wondered when.
Probably the words of the previous headmaster of Hekate’s school.
Or the one before that.
I couldn’t remember.
Mea, who now no longer remembered exactly who he was or what his face had looked like, still reflected on that conversation from that day with a distant ache in her voice.
“There are mages who use demons’ power for free.”
“Bullshit.”
Mea dismissed it at once.
Why were demons evil?
Because they were born with an evil nature and stained the world with their very existence.
They hated losing and gladly fed on others’ despair, fear, and pain.
How could one control such a thing without payment?
It would have been believable if the worst demonologist in the world had simply passed the cost to someone else.
Even so, the man had answered without hesitation.
“No. There really is one. The one who receives the love of demons. The material for ruling demons as their master, not as a contractor. Do not meet him. The demonologist who can take your pain.”
Did he see it?
Did he see it too?
The sight we had right now.
A being emitting mana of density that would rank among the strongest of all demons we had ever encountered, without fear or crisis awareness.
Mea’s body trembled.
“You…”
There he was.
In front of me.
In the real world.
Truly there.
The one who took precious things for the price of power.
The one who savored the pain of contractors above their heads and hoped for their ruin.
The one who wielded their authority freely and took their power as he wished.
The one who collected all the sins and suffering shouldered by every demonologist.
The savior of evil.