Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Coincidence and Inevitability (3)

“Hmm......”

I swallowed a low sound and carefully examined the monster’s corpse.

Its head and torso were lying separately, and the head itself had been pierced by the Holy Light Spear, leaving half of its shape mangled.

Flies were buzzing around it as well, so it looked utterly miserable.

Why had the corpse of a Mid-Rank Monster still not been cleared away and left here like this?

Because I had made a separate request to Levia at the hospital yesterday.

‘You have not gotten rid of the monster corpse I took down yet, right?’

‘That? I left it there for the time being. A Mid-Rank Monster’s corpse is useful enough for research as it is, you know? I was actually thinking of handing it over to the teachers.’

‘Give me the Ozen Serpent’s corpse.’

‘...What are you going to use it for?’

‘I was thinking of making an undead. I have studied Summoning Type Black Magic too.’

Levia had looked dumbfounded, but I had remained firm.

‘I have never tried turning a Mid-Rank Monster into an undead before. It seems perfect for practice.’

‘Fine, give it a try. You stopped what could have become a disaster, so I can grant you at least that much.’

Right now, I did not have a single undead I could summon.

Originally, a corpse or bones were needed as materials to create an undead.

The Skeletons I had summoned when sparring with Lloyd at Necropia had, in truth, been made by pouring mana into the remains that had been buried beneath the Sparring Arena beforehand and turning them into Skeletons.

What was the point of using the Summoning Type if I did not even have a single undead to command?

‘This damned body is a problem too....... I really do have to think of ways to grow stronger in every respect.’

Mana, strength, stamina.

Compared to ten years ago, every single one of them was so far below standard it made me sigh.

With my body in this condition, it would be best to at least prepare one useful summon.

If I turned a Mid-Rank Monster’s corpse into an undead, I would be able to make use of it in a number of ways.

CRACK!

I briefly wrapped my left arm in Demonic Armament and tossed the monster’s head, which was as large as my own body, over near its torso.

Since I had activated and dispelled the Demonic Armament quickly, the recoil was not too severe.

I loosened my tingling left arm for a few seconds.

Then I bent one knee, lowered my posture, and placed a hand on the corpse’s torso.

Flutter......

The more violet mana spread throughout the monster’s corpse, the more its body began to twitch little by little.

‘Tch, this is troublesome since it has been dead for quite a while.’

To turn a monster into an undead and command it, the first thing needed was the corpse of a monster that had not been dead for long.

On top of that, the less damage the monster’s body had suffered, the higher the chance of successfully turning it into an undead.

Naturally, I was satisfying neither of those conditions right now.

I was creating an undead under the worst possible conditions, but in the end, it was a matter of probability.

As long as one’s computational ability for constructing magic was sufficient, it was not impossible.

I had done nothing but dig into Black Magic for ten years. 

Could I not manage even this much?

Shrrr......

Violet mana stretched out like threads from the torn torso.

As the mana seeped into the monster’s head, it tightened and began stitching the torso and head back together as though repairing a doll.

Ssssss......

At last, the monster, having regained its original form, rose to its feet with the grotesque cry unique to the undead.

A Mid-Rank Undead, an Undead Serpent.

“Hoo......”

I swept my gaze over the undead I had created from top to bottom, then wiped the sweat beading on my brow.

Had it taken around an hour? 

The damage to the corpse had been severe, so it had taken a long time.

Thanks to that, I had used up half the mana inside my body as well.

Kiiiirk......

The Undead Serpent flicked its tongue as it looked down at me.

Since it was an undead created from my mana, it was waiting for orders from me, the owner of that mana.

Now all that remained was to store this thing away, but......

“This still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.”

Coincidence.

Was there any word more convenient for putting one’s mind at ease?

Viole had run into a Mid-Rank Monster right at the entrance to the rift due to sheer bad luck.

To anyone looking in, it was an incident easy enough to dismiss as nothing more than misfortune.

But the information I had gained in my previous life, along with my instincts, was telling me otherwise.

Was the Ozen Serpent appearing before Viole... really just a coincidence?

Before I had even finished the thought, I found myself already questioning the undead.

“Was there someone who summoned you here?”

Kiiirk.

The undead nodded its head up and down.

“...Ha, well now?”

A cold smile curled at my lips.

That settled it.

The Ozen Serpent’s appearance before Viole had not been anything so simple as coincidence.

Not coincidence, but inevitability.

Someone had deliberately tried to kill Viole.

As for who that was......

Rustle... rustle......

“...I suppose there is no need to go looking for them myself.”

Sensing a presence, I slowly surveyed my surroundings.

Dark figures began emerging from behind the trees and brush.

Before I knew it, they were standing in a circle around me. 

There were easily more than thirty of them at a glance.

It was too dark to make out their exact identities, but one thing was clear.

These were the ones who had controlled the Ozen Serpent.

“It was fortunate that we arrived quickly.”

A wrinkled old man stepped forward before me.

“To think you would revive the Ozen Serpent as an undead. We nearly found ourselves in serious trouble.”

The old man clicked his tongue as he looked at me.

“Tsk, tsk. You are a student of Saengterminum Academy, so why do something like this....... If you had not resurrected that monster as an undead, we would never have had to appear before you.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“It means you are going to die by our hands.”

“......”

“Ah, my introduction is late.”

The old man bared his crooked teeth and gave a slight bow.

“We are those who help our master descend upon reality.”

“You went a long way around just to say you are demon worshippers.”

Demon worshippers.

It was the collective term for those who served demons, and the demon each one served varied from worshipper to worshipper.

Throughout the Luknica Continent, countless demon worshippers were spread across the world, and every nation was desperate to root out these demon worshippers, who had spread like a disease.

Even Saengterminum Academy, where Levia reigned as Headmaster, was no exception.

Sliiither......

The Undead Serpent behind me flicked its tongue at the old man.

“So you were the one controlling this monster.”

“That is correct. I had left it waiting with orders to kill any users of Holy Power who appeared nearby. I believe it caught two of them. Truly... I never imagined it would fail to kill even one.”

Judging by his manner, it seemed he had only given the Ozen Serpent orders and did not know that I was the one who had killed the monster.

“Quite regrettable, really.”

“Why were you trying to kill those who had awakened Holy Power?”

“Is that not obvious? To the demon lords, Holy Power is like poison. Among them, students who use Holy Power are highly likely to become great threats later on. Is it not better to cut them down before they grow properly, so there is less trouble in the future?”

“Ah, really?”

His tone was calm and measured, but every word spilling from his mouth was steeped in madness.

There was a reason every nation hunted demon worshippers so fiercely.

To wield a demon’s power properly, one had to form a contract with a demon and place restrictions upon that power.

That was one of the four branches of Black Magic, the Descent Type.

Even without learning the Descent Type, it was possible to form a contract with a demon and use its power, but if one made the contract that way, it became impossible to impose restrictions on the demon’s power.

It would be more accurate to call it an unfair contract with a demon.

At first, it allowed one to use the demon’s power with ease, but in the end, the more one used that power, the more one’s body and mind slowly broke down and were eroded by the demon. 

Like a drug.

In the end, such people became fanatics who would stop at nothing for the sake of the demon. 

That was the fate awaiting them.

Just like these bastards surrounding me now.

“That was a pointless thing for me to ask.”

I could roughly see what had happened.

Originally, the connection between the old man and the monster should have been severed the moment the monster died.

But the moment I began reviving the monster as an undead, the connection between the old man and the monster must have come back to life, and realizing that the monster he had once controlled was being turned into an undead, the old man must have hurried here with the believers who followed him.

To retrieve the resurrected Undead Serpent.

“If that undead remains, the fact that we worshippers were the ones controlling the monster will be exposed. And you, who have realized the truth, are no exception.”

“So you were afraid of getting found out after all?”

I narrowed my eyes.

“For followers of ‘Valak,’ your methods are awfully petty, are they not?”

“What... did you just say?”

The old man’s brow tightened, but I continued without caring.

“Valak, the Demon of Reptiles.”

“...What?”

I swept my gaze across the believers surrounding me.

“That is the name of the demon you serve, is it not?”

Valak, the Demon of Reptiles.

Its epithet was Dragon Generalissimo.

It was a Top-Rank Demon, one that possessed the power to rule over all reptiles.

The Ozen Serpent belonged to the reptile family.

That was why that old man, a follower of Valak, had been able to control the monster so easily.

“If you worship Valak... then it also explains how you people were able to show up openly inside this Artificial Rift.”

Since Levia, a dragon hatchling, served as Headmaster, Saengterminum Academy was fundamentally woven through with security spells personally created by Levia, to say nothing of the inside of the Artificial Rift.

If Levia had noticed these people, she would have come immediately and frozen every last one of them solid, but if one looked deeply enough into the matter, dragons also belonged to the reptile family.

Valak could grant its believers enough power to keep them from being detected by the security spells Levia had created herself.

There was a reason Valak’s epithet was Dragon Generalissimo.

However, at this point in time, despite being a High-Rank Demon, Valak’s name had not yet been registered within the Dark Empire.

If I had not known of Valak’s existence because of what I had experienced in my previous life... I probably would have let it pass too.

Wariness filled the eyes of the old man and the believers as they looked at me.

“How did you discover the identity of the master we serve?”

“If you are that curious, figure it out yourselves.”

“You are arrogant. Very well. Considering that you even managed to turn that Mid-Rank Monster into an undead....... It seems you must be the child of a rather prominent house even within the Dark Empire.”

Hummmmmm......

“Then we shall slowly peel the flesh from your skin and hear your answer that way.”

A pitch-black energy began rising from the bodies of the old man and his believers.

It was not mana.

Even if Black Magic was used, when it was cast through the mana residing in the heart, that mana took on a violet hue.

That murky black aura was Demonic Aura.

A power from the abyss that could manifest forces like magic even without constructing magical formulas....... a power that could not be explained through reason.

The believers, including the old man, pulled daggers from their robes and slit their palms all at once.

Swaaaa......!

The blood dripping from their hands turned into vapor, then spread through the surroundings in an instant.

‘Hah, they are even using a barrier?’

This was a kind of barrier art activated through Demonic Aura using blood as its medium.

The moment it was activated, no one within the caster’s range could leave this barrier.

The troublesome part was that this barrier could not be seen from the outside.

Even if the casters died, the barrier would not come undone until its time had run out.

With fingers wreathed in Demonic Aura, the old man pointed at the Undead Serpent standing beside me.

“Undead Serpent, annihilate that man.”

KIIYAAAH!

“......!”

The Undead Serpent beside me opened its maw toward me.