The young girl’s gaze wavered anxiously.
"You can’t... see Ms. Hongfeng. She’s currently captured and locked up underground."
Gasps of surprise erupted from the group.
"P-Professor Hongfeng was captured? By who?"
The young girl shook her head.
"I don’t really know. It was someone draped in a robe."
"That’s impossible." Meirin’s legs gave out, and she sank to the ground. "Professor Hongfeng was really captured? Someone that strong...?"
"M-Ms. Hongfeng!" For the first time, the girl raised her voice. "She wasn’t captured because she lost a fight!"
They looked at her in confusion.
The girl explained what had happened.
When the vacation began, Hongfeng returned to her hometown for the first time in a while. She had always dedicated her academy salary to the development of the Marlat clan and the grasslands. She provided food during winters when there was nothing to eat, and she even brought in livestock that grew high-quality wool. Above all, it was her firm belief that even nomadic tribes, who frequently had to change their residences, needed to focus on education.
Thanks to her help, the children were able to learn the continental language and writing from a teacher. Returning to the grasslands for the vacation, Hongfeng mentioned that she would invite the students she taught here. She said it would be a fun time for her students, and that interacting with Kizen students would be a good experience for the children of the grasslands. The clan readily agreed to Hongfeng’s idea, and everything seemed to be going smoothly.
However.
"While Professor Hongfeng briefly stepped away to investigate the surroundings, strange monsters stormed the village."
As if picturing that moment, the girl continued with a terrified look on her face.
"The monsters captured the villagers and locked them up underground here. Professor Hongfeng came to rescue us, but in the end, ’that person’ threatened her with the villagers’ lives, so..."
Unable to finish her sentence, the girl began to cry. Kamibarez approached and gave her a warm hug. Soon, only the sound of her quiet sniffling filled the air.
The remaining three gathered in silence with stiff expressions and began to discuss the situation.
Meirin spoke, her face flushed with fury.
"Who the hell is doing this, and why? There’s nothing to gain from attacking the grasslands!"
"I have a guess," Dick said.
Simon and Meirin turned to him.
"What is it, Dick?"
"Think about it. The temples of an ancient civilization suddenly appearing. And the unidentified residents and monsters! Those people were performing some highly suspicious ritual, right?"
"They were."
He opened his hands.
"The vengeful spirits of a ruined civilization are trying to rebuild their ancient society in the modern era! They captured Professor Hongfeng because she’s the most powerful and threatening obstacle, and the villagers will probably be used as live sacrifices."
"What? Live sacrifices? Isn’t that a bit of a stretch?"
Meirin glared at him, but Dick spoke with a voice full of conviction.
"Do you remember that the ancient civilization of the grasslands had a custom of human sacrifice? They weren’t trying to eat people; in reality, they were all sacrifices for dark magic!"
"Wait a minute," Simon interjected. "The timeline doesn’t match up for people of that era to be using dark magic."
The history of the continent, as passed down through records, was as follows. At the very beginning was the ’Ancient Civilization Era,’ whose existence was still debated among scholars. Following that was the ’Equestrian Era,’ the golden age of nomadic tribes. Then came the ’Era of Knights and Mages,’ a battleground for aura and pure magic.
And finally, the current ’Era of Necromancers and Priests.’
"The ruins down below belong to the Ancient Civilization Era. Dark magic didn’t even exist back then."
"No, no." Dick waved his hand dismissively. "Even in that era, a very primitive form of dark magic must have existed. Just look at the use of live sacrifices. In the modern dark magic world, live sacrifices are unthinkable, right?"
"It’s unethical, and the process is inefficient," he continued. "If they went out of their way to use a ritual involving live sacrifices, it must be a very primitive system."
Simon closed his eyes with a serious expression. He couldn’t tell the other two, but he also had a hunch. What if all of this was the doing of ’Mur,’ who had belonged to the 7th Legion? Pier had clearly stated that among the captains of the 7th Legion, Mur was the most dangerous.
And above all.
’An Ancient Undead.’
Ancient Undead were entities that had existed for over a thousand years. Mur might have had an even longer lifespan than other Ancient Undead. If Mur was the originator of ancient dark magic, and if he was trying to use a certain dark magic utilizing live sacrifices...
’I need to hurry.’
Simon stood up.
"Let’s stop guessing and get moving for now."
Everyone nodded at Simon’s words. The girl seemed to have calmed down and stopped crying. Kamibarez asked in a gentle voice, "Could you take us to where Professor Hongfeng is being held?"
"Yes." The girl gave a small nod and pointed to a narrow passageway. "It’s this way."
Simon’s group and the grassland girl frantically navigated through the interior of the ancient temple.
It was like a maze. Perhaps because it was a facility meant for rituals or dark magic, the spatial design wasn’t efficient for humans to traverse. There were many passageways meant for long, snake-like creatures to travel through, or spaces presumed to be used for passing dismembered human flesh over the walls. The young girl, with her small frame, could freely move in and out of such places, but...
"My lower half is stuck!"
The rest of the group was struggling. Still, they managed to squeeze through somehow. Especially after Dick developed a method of applying a ’Slippery Potion’ to the walls to slide through, they were able to progress relatively easily.
"I’ll go first!"
Kamibarez, who was the smallest after the girl, took charge of scouting. She slipped into the small passageways, checked if any monsters or natives were coming and going, and then signaled to the group that it was safe. After passing through the smelly, cramped, maze-like section, the group entered a fairly spacious area for the first time.
"Ugh, I survived." Meirin straightened her back with a tearful expression.
Dick chuckled. "Feeling the need for a diet... ’Ack!"
Dodging Meirin’s kick by leaning his head back, he hid behind Kamibarez. Simon also straightened his back and looked around.
’This place is...’
All sorts of bizarre characters were carved into the walls of this room. In truth, it was ambiguous to even call them characters. They were primitive hieroglyphs, closer to pictures. Simon slowly scanned the contents.
"This is it." Dick, who had also been scanning the drawings on the wall, raised his arm. What looked like parts of a human corpse were depicted. "Heart, kidneys, liver."
"And look here," he pointed. "It says if you mix a heart with something, ’rain’ will fall."
"You’re right. It says if you add something to a tongue and skin, a ’snake’ is created. This must be where the formulas for dark magic using live sacrifices are written."
Kamibarez and the girl hugged each other with terrified faces.
Meirin sighed. "I get that your sense of adventure is welling up, but can you guys tone it down?"
As she said, they wanted to decipher more, but there was no time. Rescuing Hongfeng was the priority. Without even a moment to stretch their backs, the group decided to set off again.
"Oh." Dick, who had been walking quickly for fear of getting hit by Meirin again, pointed ahead. "I see a wide passageway over there. Do we go that way?"
"No, not there..."
A low, resonant hum vibrated through the air. Everyone flinched and lowered their stances at the sudden sound. A magic circle began to unfold on the floor. With heavy clanks, parts of the room opened up like doors, and the faceless, blood-soaked monsters they had seen outside earlier rushed out.
"W-We’ve been spotted!"
"Run!"
Everyone ran for their lives. The blood-soaked monsters chased after them, shrieking.
’Ice Bolt’
’Blood Bullet’
Meirin and Kamibarez hastily chanted and fired the dark magic they could use, but the spells were easily deflected. They appeared to be quite powerful summons made from corpses.
’It seems Mur really is here.’
Simon stopped in his tracks and looked back at the group.
"I’ll draw their attention! Everyone, escape through that passageway!"
"What?"
Simon roused his jet-black aura and lured the monsters into the wide space. Kamibarez, who had entered the passageway, urgently poked her head out.
"S-Simon!"
"I’ll be fine, Kami!" Simon sent out Bone Needles to keep drawing the monsters’ attention. "It’s just a division of roles!"
"You guys keep going and rescue Professor Hongfeng!" he shouted. "She’s the only one who can resolve this situation!"
Kamibarez looked at Simon with a worried face before finally nodding.
"Okay, Simon!"
"I’m counting on you!"
"I’ll be really mad if you get hurt!"
Dick and Meirin each added a word as they threw themselves into the narrow passageway. Left alone, Simon continued to lure the monsters into the wide space. He tried attacking with ’Bone Spear’ and ’Bayonet’ in the middle of it, but they seemed to be quite powerful entities, barely taking a scratch on their surfaces. Curses like ’Sleep’ had no effect either.
’I’ll leave Professor Hongfeng’s escape to those four.’
Simon’s eyes sharpened.
’I need to go meet Mur.’
Looking around, Simon spotted another narrow space and dove into it. The monsters followed him in. They had much larger bodies than Simon, but upon entering the narrow space, their bodies shrank to fit the area. At this rate, he would be caught.
Pier’s whereabouts were still unknown, and Prince’s ring was unresponsive. Simon opened his subspace.
"Herseva!"
[What, is it my turn again?]
Herseva popped out of the subspace and was caught firmly in Simon’s hand. Simon slammed the tip of the staff into the ground.
’Goldenization’
The narrow space around him was dyed in a golden hue, and the walls began to close in. They caught and crushed the lunging monsters by a hair’s breadth with a sickening crunch.
"Ugh!"
Simon swiftly pulled his head back. A monster’s arm reached out from the narrow gap and flailed right in front of Simon’s nose, barely missing him. Simon let out a sigh of relief and stepped back to widen the distance.
"Your strength probably hasn’t fully recovered yet, but help me out, Herseva."
[Well, can’t be helped! Do you have a plan?]
Simon stood up.
"First, I need to find Pier. He’s definitely here in the grasslands."
Meirin, Dick, Kamibarez, and the grassland girl had to go much deeper for a long time even after separating from Simon.
The underground maze seemed endless. They didn’t know how deep they had gone, but it felt like the oxygen was slowly decreasing.
"Simon will be okay, right?" Kamibarez seemed unable to shake off her worry.
Dick spoke up, trying to sound brave. "Of course! You’ve seen everything that guy has pulled off so far, haven’t you? Let’s just trust Simon for now."
"Okay, Dick!"
Just then, the grassland girl reached out her arm.
"We’re almost there! I always came through this passageway when bringing meals to Ms. Hongfeng!"
"Good." Meirin’s expression turned serious. "We need to rescue Professor Hongfeng as quickly as possible."
Emerging from the narrow passageway, she looked around. Soon, her pupils rapidly dilated.
"Ah."
In the darkness where not a single ray of sunlight properly reached. Against the moss-covered temple wall. The figure of a woman bound by iron chains could be seen.
"F-Found her!"
"It’s really her, right?"
That face everyone knew so well. It was unmistakably Kizen’s Combat Magic professor, Hongfeng.

Comments

Loading...