Chapter 187
Chapter 187
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Subjugation
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I wasn't some brainless thug who blindly swung away just because a quest message told me to.
Who knows.
They might be innocent.
But I couldn't just let it slide either.
Seven of them meant a total of seven skill points.
The reward was solid.
I needed to verify first.
Black mages worshipped demons and the Demon King.
I'd heard they made contracts with beings from the demon realm and borrowed their power to cast spells.
That was why Liliana looked down on black mages—their power wasn't built from their own efforts.
Luna had told me that because of those contracts, they were linked to demons and the Demon King, so they couldn't even badmouth the Demon King.
"Demon King you son of a bitch, how's that? If you don't say it, I'll attack. Nothing to lose, right? He's the world's disaster. Demon King you son of a bitch. Why can't you say it?"
"........You'll regret this."
Under the slightly raised hood, the guy's eyes glowed red. Sinister mana churned around them.
"D-Demonic energy!!"
Luna cried out in shock.
At that moment, the world stopped.
No, I'd just heightened my senses to the extreme.
The world slowed to a crawl.
It felt like time around me had frozen.
It was the effect of my expanded perception and accelerated thinking.
There were quite a few of them.
Probably all black mages.
Mages required caution.
But black mages, who contracted with even more dangerous demon realm entities? No need to explain.
With kids to protect, I had no intention of messing around with half-assed spells.
In this accelerated world, I took a step forward and generated a greatsword with mana.
The only one who noticed my movement was Ignis.
She moved in sync with me.
In this sped-up world, only Ignis and I were moving.
The hooded guy with glowing red eyes inside didn't even register my approach.
I swung the greatsword down at the crown of his head.
The blade sank in like cutting tofu, piercing from the top of his skull straight through to his groin.
Glancing aside, Ignis had speared one guy's head.
In this time-frozen-like moment, we sliced throats and bisected bodies of the defenseless fools who couldn't perceive us.
My heightened senses returned to normal, and the halted world resumed.
"Die…! Huh?"
The black mage tried to say something, but blood trickled vertically from his face, his body split in half and collapsing to the ground.
-Thud. Thud.
The rest followed suit, heads severed late, torsos cleaved, rolling across the dirt.
Massacred in an instant.
The scene was a gruesome slaughter.
"Wh-what just…."
Isla gaped in shock at the sudden events.
"Didn't know what they'd do, so I handled them quick."
A pleasant system alert.
'Huh? But the point count seems off? One, two….'
I counted the black mages' corpses.
Seven, spot on.
But only six skill points came in.
'One didn't die?'
Injuries that would kill any human.
No, even zombies would've dropped dead.
-You bastard.....I don't know how you figured it out, but you won't die easy!
Ridiculously, the polite leader black mage, split in half, was reassembling. He absorbed the corpses of the dead ones rapidly.
A grotesque five-meter-tall monster giant made of red flesh was born.
-Groooar!!
The monster giant let out a beastly roar.
"H-High-ranking contractor!!"
"That human must be contracted with at least a high demon!!"
Luna and Isla shouted in horror.
He'd clearly been bisected and killed.
Yet he revived.
Immortality like that would tempt weaker foes.
But it didn't feel like a major threat.
"My lord. I'll handle it!"
Ignis charged at the grotesque monster giant.
The giant's fist smashed down at Ignis.
She blocked the massive fist with her round shield.
The size difference made it look like feeble struggling.
-Crunch!
But the giant's fist that hit the shield shattered instead.
Ignis, having blocked the fist, thrust her spear at the giant's chest. A pale red aura swirled around the spear.
-Boom!
A huge hole punched through the monster giant's chest from Ignis's thrust.
Yet the monster didn't die, trying to grab and crush Ignis in a hug.
This time, the giant's head vanished in an instant.
Ignis had pierced the chest then blown the head apart with follow-up strikes.
The headless monster giant's body collapsed.
-Thud.
Revived only to be instantly slain by Ignis pathetically.
But no message popped up.
'.......No points?'
The quest didn't specify a number to kill. Maybe originally six Demon King followers, and one wasn't?
......Still, better safe than sorry.
"Luna, light 'em up."
"O-Okay."
Luna, catching my intent, set the monster corpse ablaze with magic.
The body burned fiercely.
"Hmm…."
Why no points?
Was that guy not a Demon King follower after all?
But that didn't add up.
He even transformed weirdly….
"Un-ho, how'd you know? That they were black mages."
Lost in thought about the missing skill point, Luna asked.
".....Just did?"
The system told me.
Or was it the system?
It felt like maybe not.
The unease from the missing skill point lingered.
No point sticking around here.
After burning the monster corpse, we left.
The spot where Un-ho's group had left.
From the burned corpse, clumps of black flesh gathered, forming a human shape.
Charred, ragged black skin.
Only red eyes gleamed fiercely in the barely humanoid grotesque body.
"Th......those vicious bastards…."
They somehow knew we were black mages. Not content with killing us, they thoroughly incinerated the bodies.
Forget their absurd strength—they were vicious.
"H-Hurry. We must go to Lord Bloa…."
That was when it happened.
The black mage's heart was pierced by a sinister-looking spear flying from nowhere.
"Gaaahk!!!"
With the spear in his chest, the black mage writhed in agony on the ground.
This was bad.
He'd used up the resurrection power from his contract.
"As my lord said. You're a freak after all."
"H-How…."
"No idea. Just following orders."
Ignis impassively yanked the spear from the black mage's chest and skewered his head.
-Splat!
"Gurgh! Nooo!!!"
-Fsssh….
The black mage screamed, crumbling and vanishing like sand.
Ignis glanced at the spot where the black mage had scattered, then headed toward her lord.
Just in case, I'd left Ignis hidden in ambush as we departed.
And it paid off.
The nagging doubt vanished.
'Knew it. That bastard hadn't died.'
Killing him on revival seemed to finish him for good.
No instant-kill method?
In normal games, priests would be rat poison....This world has priestly clerics too, I hear.
Short if short, long if long—a lot had happened in the labyrinth.
Surprising: no normal people since entering the 10th floor.
No place more hellish.
'Everyone inside the fortress crazy too?'
Still, gathered enough points to level Body Strengthening—not a bad haul.
With light steps, I headed back to the mansion where my maids awaited.
Verna Perkuna unexpectedly reunited with her old master.
Quite some time had passed since they parted.
Parted—or rather, she'd fled.
Liliana was unfortunately still alive and kicking.
Her master sticking with him complicated things. Verna could guess why.
The path to transcendence.
To climb one more step.
Verna had been stuck at 8th circle for ages.
As time passed, her desire to raise her realm grew. How much greedier must her master Liliana be, with even more years under her belt?
The transcendent in the empire was out of reach.
But maybe meeting him here offered a clue to breakthrough.
So she'd rushed over upon hearing his info.
Meeting a transcendent casually was risky. But her master seemed close to him. All the more reason not to pass it up.
She had to reach transcendence before her master.
Sticking with that temperamental woman meant the transcendent wasn't too picky.
'If I were transcendent, I'd have beaten her senseless long ago. Or….'
Un-ho, was it?
Reports said he was quite the womanizer.
'Liliana.....maybe seduced him? With her body? That personality? No way….'
Her face was decent enough to catch a playboy's eye.
Even if so, wasn't she, much~ younger, more competitive?
-Knock knock.
The knock snapped Verna from her thoughts.
"Lady Perkuna. It's Allen."
"Come in."
Allen knelt before Verna and spoke.
"Lady Perkuna. Word just came—he's out of the labyrinth."
The moment had arrived.
Verna's pale blue eyes gleamed as she rose from her seat.