Chapter 25

Chapter 25: Demon Worshippers

BOOM!

The Undead Serpent’s maw slammed brutally into the ground where I had been standing just moments before.

I had thrown myself to the side a split second ahead of it and avoided the attack, but the Undead Serpent had already slid away and taken its place beside the believers surrounding me.

“What the......”

I stretched a hand toward the Undead Serpent and tried to control the mana residing within it, but it was useless.

From the moment the old man had given his order, the Undead Serpent had slipped beyond my control.

“Heh heh heh, are you surprised? No matter that it is an undead created from your mana, it is meaningless before Lord Valak’s authority.”

“What a nuisance.”

It infuriated me to be jerked around by a demon’s power, but what could I do?

There was nothing more foolish than trying to apply common sense to the power of a demon.

A supernatural power that magic could not explain.

That was what a demon’s power was.

The Undead Serpent and the believers slowly narrowed the distance between us.

Judging that they had already subdued me, the old man let out a dry chuckle and spoke.

“Truly, I cannot understand it. That Lloyd Desmond, one of the Four Great Houses who supposedly enrolled this time, is the same, but why do people who use Black Magic become students of Saengterminum Academy, which destroys demons and monsters? If you serve the demon lords, you can obtain overwhelming power like this. Is this not the true truth?”

“Do Black Mages look the same as lunatic bastards like you?”

“I know that the Dark Empire and we are of a different breed. But even among such foolish humans, there are always those who come to enlightenment.”

“Enlightenment?”

“Yes. Like Aron Bayonel.”

“...What?”

At the old man’s utterly unexpected words, my head went cold.

“Why... are you speaking that name?”

“I heard that despite being one of the Four Great Houses, he abandoned the Dark Empire. If a man in such a position fled the Dark Empire, then the reason is obvious.”

A mad grin spread across the old man’s face as he spread both arms.

“Would it not be because he found the Dark Empire’s ideology distasteful? He is a talent destined to become an outstanding Black Mage before long, so from our perspective, he ought to be celebrated.”

“...Kh!”

Unable to hold it in, I covered my face with one hand and burst into wild laughter.

“Hahahat! Kkhk...... Hey, what did you just say? What? Aron Bayonel is a talent destined to become an outstanding Black Mage?”

“What is so amusing?”

Question marks rose on the believers’ faces as I laughed like a madman despite standing at death’s door.

“Hah...... It is funny. If this is not funny, then what is?”

What a damned joke.

I had left the Dark Empire to stop the end of the world, and yet somehow that had ended up leaving a favorable impression on demon worshippers, the disease of the continent.

Thud.

I lowered the hand that had been covering my face and glared at the old man.

The chill in my head gave way to heat.

“...The way you people just interpret things however you like.”

I was irritated.

...So.

Shall I stop pretending to be on the losing end now?

“Aaaagh!”

“Wh-why is that undead......!”

A series of explosions and screams rang out from one side of the encirclement.

The believers, including the old man, turned toward the sound, and all their faces stiffened at once.

KIIYAAAAH! BOOM! CRUNCH! CRACK!

The Undead Serpent was whipping its body around and sweeping away the believers nearby.

Some were skewered clean through by its massive fangs and fell to the ground as corpses without even managing to scream.

Kiiirlk......

Blood dripping from the corners of its maw, the undead looked down at them, and the believers’ faces turned deathly pale at its grotesque conduct.

“P-Priest! What is happening here!”

“Why is it attacking us......”

“N-no, this is not my doing......!”

While the demon worshippers, including the old man, broke into confusion, a sneer tugged at my lips.

“Kkhkhk...... Ah, this is fun. Hey, did you think having a demon’s power meant you could do everything?”

“How can this be......”

When I snapped my fingers, layers upon layers of violet runes rose over the scales of the Undead Serpent.

“I built defensive spells into it while creating the undead. Defensive spells that can resist a demon’s power.”

That was why it had taken me a whole hour to turn the Ozen Serpent into an undead.

“You keep babbling on about praising your lord. But in the end, you did not receive proper power from Valak, did you?”

Not everyone who made a contract with a demon gained powerful strength.

A demon granted power to a contractor in proportion to the price, but a price was only as good as what it was worth.

“What could an old man like you possibly offer Valak? Your limbs are all intact, so at best you offered your blood or the lives of the believers who follow you. Would a High-Rank Demon really be satisfied with something like that?”

That old man had not received great power from Valak.

If he had been a powerful contractor, there was no way I, a returnee, would not have known of him, and he would have shattered the defensive spells I had painstakingly constructed and seized full control of the undead without trouble.

More than anything else— “A moron who did not even realize he failed to steal control of the undead from me could never be a powerful contractor. Right?”

“You insolent wretch!”

Ignoring the Undead Serpent, the believers sharpened the blades of their daggers and charged toward me.

But the speed at which they came was only a little faster than an ordinary person.

Unlike before, Demonic Aura was no longer pouring thickly out from within their bodies.

It seemed they had used up all their Demonic Aura in maintaining the barrier so they would not be noticed by Levia....... Just how lightly had they taken me?

Shrrrack-!

I summoned four Shadow Daggers and hurled them straight at the believers’ heads.

The heads of the four believers struck in the forehead snapped backward as they collapsed to the ground.

Given the accuracy of the daggers striking their marks precisely in the head, their movements should have faltered, yet they continued pressing toward me without hesitation.

A sound decision. 

Rather than aim for a Mid-Rank Undead, it was far more certain to target the life of the caster standing right in front of them.

But these bastards were overlooking one thing.

The Black Magic I primarily used... was not the Summoning Type.

Clench.

I tightly gripped the two Shadow Daggers I had summoned into my hands.

Curse Enchant.

Durability Curse.

After laying a curse upon the Shadow Daggers, I met the trajectory of the nearest believer’s dagger head-on.

CLANG!

The believer’s dagger cracked the moment it collided with the Shadow Dagger, and the blade split cleanly in two.

Ignoring the look of shock on his face, I slashed across the neck of the believer, whose stance had crumbled with the destruction of his weapon.

SLASH!

Weapon-Breaking Technique.

A combat method in which I broke the opponent’s weapon with the Durability Curse and immediately struck for the vital point.

This level was perfectly sufficient for the likes of you.

CLANG! SLASH! CLANG! THRCK!

Destroy the weapon, then strike the vital point.

After cutting down around eight of them that way, even the believers who had been rushing me mindlessly no longer dared approach me carelessly.

KIIIAAAAH!

Those who hesitated instead of coming at me were dealt with by the Undead Serpent.

If they hesitated to come at me, the Undead Serpent killed them, and if they tried to kill me, I killed them myself.

...Now then, who exactly was trapped in a cage?

The believers faltered, unable to find a way out.

The same was true of the old man standing behind them.

“Not only can you handle undead... but shadow weapons... and Curse Combat Arts......?”

The old man’s eyes shook.

“Who... in the world are you?”

“Who am I?”

I spun the Shadow Daggers and shook the dripping blood from them.

“People like you, who worship a demon’s power fanatically, could never understand why the Dark Empire makes Black Magic—something all other nations shun—its primary strength. Nor do you intend to understand.”

I gave voice to the lesson my teacher, Rienna, had drilled into me until my ears had nearly callused over.

“It is to serve as an example to bastards like you who run wild trusting only in a demon’s power. To prove with our own bodies that a demon’s power is not everything—that is why we Black Mages exist.”

I reached for my neck.

With the barrier spread around us, no one knew what had happened here.

So watch carefully.

See for yourselves exactly whose temper you dared provoke.

“You asked whether I was the child of a prominent family in the Dark Empire, did you not? Good instincts. You are right.”

I removed the pendant.

Polymorph, release.

“The very same scion of one of the Four Great Houses of the Dark Empire you praised so highly.”

Jet-black hair and crimson eyes.

The worshippers’ faces turned pale as they beheld before their eyes the distinctive features of House Bayonel.

“...Aron? It is Aron Bayonel!”

“How does it feel, seeing the real thing in person?”

Shoving the pendant into my pocket, I spun the Shadow Dagger in my hand.

“You people picked the wrong person to provoke.”

KIIYAAAAH!

The Undead Serpent once again bared its fangs at the believers, and the barrier filled with shrieks of despair and agony.

***

Within the forest, thick with the metallic scent of blood, the corpses of the believers who had followed the old man lay scattered across the ground.

The blood splattered throughout the woods and the chunks of flesh strewn everywhere created a grotesque scene, but it stirred no particular feeling in me.

Compared to what had happened in my previous life, this did not even come close to deserving the word horrifying.

It was not as though I had only done this once or twice.

“Now you are the last one, aren’t you?”

“I... do not understand......”

The old man, pinned within the coils of the Undead Serpent, let out a groan of pain.

“Why is it... that even after fleeing the Dark Empire, you still side with the Dark Empire......”

“Are you an idiot? Then why do you think I came to Saengterminum Academy?”

“Then were you... perhaps bribed by the Holy Empire....... Guhk!”

I had the Undead Serpent tighten its grip around his body and shut his babbling mouth.

The things he imagined.

It was not even worth answering.

“Enough of that. Let me ask you again what I asked before. Why did you do something like this?”

“Kkhkhkh....... I already told you, did I not? To kill the users of Holy Power who threaten Lord Valak......”

“Really? How strange.”

Cutting off the old man’s words, I looked down at him while recalling what had happened in my previous life.

“The Valak I know is not the sort who would harm the students of Saengterminum Academy.”

“......!”

The old man’s face went rigid.

So I had hit the mark after all.

“This was not something Valak ordered either, was it? You just wanted to get rid of those who had awakened Holy Power, so you acted on your own, did you not?”

“How... could you know that......”

There was no need to hear any more.

It was enough to confirm that this had not been Valak’s will.

“If you live your life by forcing everything to fit your own standards, I suppose it does make things easy to think about.”

Though he was a demon worshipper driven mad, this old man resembled someone, if only a little.

Mad Dog Aron.

The man I used to be—the one who never doubted he was right, who went around spouting off as though his own convictions were justice itself.

That was why he had tried to kill the users of Holy Power in this way. 

I understood.

And because I understood.

Because I had learned in my bones more than anyone else that it was wrong.

It was only right that I be the one to personally end this old man’s life.

I drew the Shadow Dagger back behind me.

“But do you know something?”

“W-wait—!”

Slash.

Blood erupted from the old man’s neck as it was cut across, and I murmured words that would reach no one.

“...If you live that way, all that remains in the end is regret.”