<Episode 87>
***
[Grrr….]
Ashmed felt cold as he looked down at the shredded corpse of a monster with the lower body of a reptile and the head of a wolf.
He was taking a test one level below Edith.
However, as the monsters that had to be killed became weaker, the number of monsters that had to be killed increased.
Now thirty left…….
[Kill more than sixty monsters.]
“…….”
Killing them would have been easier if he used Wheelkassel’s hallucinations.
Ashmed thought, letting out a frozen breath.
After getting engaged to Edith, he made a promise to himself.
He will no longer use the power of the dark spirits.
……It was only because he wanted to be an honorable person for that child.
Ashmed slightly lowered his head, took a deep breath, and walked ahead.
[Ahahaha….]
It was right then.
A strange, unidentifiable sound of laughter was heard.
Ashmed stopped walking and looked towards where the sound came from, but he did not feel any signs of a presence.
……The moment he thought something bad was good on.
Roaaaar-!
Beneath the quiet blue sky, a loud roar suddenly began to be heard.
“…….!”
Ashmed turned around in confusion.
The epicenter of the roar was, of course, towards Litera.
Howl-
Immediately after that, monsters cries simultaneously echoed loudly in the quiet sky.
Ashmed looked up at the sky, unable to believe his eyes.
A pitch-black darkness literally erases the blue sky…..slowly eating it away.
Ashmed, looking at the unrealistically bizarre phenomenon, instinctively realized something.
The spirits of darkness.
“……..!”
They must be appearing simultaneously and were gathering in Litera.
And there was only one person that came to the boy’s mind.
Ashmed hurriedly turned around, remembering Edith, but had no idea where the girl was in this vast forest.
Moreover, he was currently taking the Spiritualist exam.
Ashmed, who belatedly remembered that he couldn’t even make a sound, was filled with nervousness and took a deep breath, barely suppressing the viciousness that was threatening to come out again.
At that very moment, two figures covered in black fog appeared behind him.
Even in that extremely confusing situation, Ashmed noticed their presence and turned around.
“……..!”
The names of the two spirits that appeared were Tregard, the spirit of hatred, and whoolkassel, the spirit of fear.
Even though he did not summon them, his spirits of darkness appeared and stood silently staring at Ashmed.
How on earth..…?
Ashmed looked at the spirits that had been by his side during the coldest and loneliest times he had encountered for years.
He wanted to say something, but due to the spell that suppresses his voice, he could only move his lips silently.
They stared at Ashmed for a while with their black, empty eyes, then suddenly knelt down on the ground, opened their mouths, and began to chant.
[The humble servants greet the great and almighty darkness, our King.]
“…….!”
Following this Ashmed’s sharp eyes suddenly turned blank.
[Do you remember me?]
He got goosebumps all over his body at the abrupt presence of a being he hadn’t noticed before.
Ashmed slowly turned his head.
A pale hand that contrasted with the deep darkness contained in the voice and presence slowly approached, filling his vision.
[Finally, I get you back.]
Ashmed’s eyes were colored with astonishment.
[Let’s go back. To where you belong to.]
Accompanied by a friendly voice that did not match the eerie fear, Ashmed’s vision was tinged with darkness.
***
Screech-!
I was running at a reasonable distance from the monster that seemed to be chasing me with its black abysmal mouth wide open, but I momentarily lowered my body and placed my hands on the ground.
And the moment the monster’s mouth rushed into empty space…
Boom-!
A wall rising from the ground struck the body covered in thick fur.
[Keeeeek……!]
The monster rose into the air with a terrible scream.
I did not miss the opportunity and split the ground, creating a huge crack.
The monster that fell through that gap got stuck and struggled viciously. Eventually it was torn apart alive by the ever-tightening crust and died.
I was hiding far away and slowly approached, out of breath.
I killed twenty of these.
Finally Completing the qualifications to pass the test.
At last!
I smiled slightly and looked up at the sky, feeling relaxed.
“What’s this?”
The sky was getting dark.
At a glance, it was clear that the phenomenon did not occur because the sun had set.
There weren’t any dark clouds, it was just…….
It was as if the dazzlingly blue sky was being swallowed up by an inky shadow.
Everywhere was stained incredibly black, and there were not many areas of the sky that retained any color.
Why?
What is this…… what’s the matter?
Roooar-!
At that moment, a flash of golden light illuminated the dark sky.
Immediately afterwards, a huge roar, as if the sky was being torn apart, and a vibration that evoked instinctive fear were felt from beneath my feet.
I took a breath and turned around.
Dozens of lightning bolts were striking the Litera building in the distance.
In front of that scene, I thought of someone as a matter of course.
Meinhardt.
No other possibilities came to mind.
I don’t know why, but there was no doubt that a huge disaster was coming upon Litera right now.
***
People came outside the building due to the sudden shaking and the noise, looking up at the rapidly darkening sky and expressing surprise and concern.
“……Arkane. Lady Mekaila, what is going on right now?”
The chairman’s office was filled with heavy silence at the shout containing Mekaila’s name.
Meinhardt asked softly, his eyes shining sharply, although his complexion had not changed from before.
Mekaila stood up, letting out a trembling breath.
“The sky being eaten away by darkness, and the threat being delivered cruelly as if it fully knows my existence…….”
A subsequent voice came from her as she staggered to the window.
“It was a warning sign that I experienced countless times when I was young.”
“………A warning sign ?”
A pale-faced Riat, who seemed to be in shock like never before at the word Arkane1Ironic, how he is his country’s spirit king…, looked back at Mekaila and muttered softly.
Staring at the darkened sky, she placed her trembling hands on the cold glass window and answered.
“………It was an intuition that hinted at a disaster that would soon come where I was.”
“Disaster……? Chairman, then this phenomenon happening now…”
“Are you saying this is a sign that the Dark Spirit King will attack Litera?”
The moment Meinhardt spoke in a cold voice, Riat looked back at him with his eyes wide.
Soon, Mekaila slowly turned around from the window and replied.
“Yes. It’s coming. Something I haven’t experienced in the past decades…….”
Eyes filled with unconcealable fear and heavy determination glowed blue against the dark sky.
“It is a terrible disaster that your generation has never faced.”
***
“……..”
I ran towards Litera.
Even in the midst of this, my eyes were dizzy from the endless golden lightning.
The roar that shook my heart and felt like it would rip my eardrums only intensified my fear.
The situation got worse, and the sky was so dark that it would be safe to say that it was now night.
I can’t take this anymore.
I gritted my teeth and used the power of the earth to raise the ground.
Crash-!
Trees that had grown thickly were cruelly broken and uprooted, creating huge cracks in the ground, and the ground, which was wide enough for a couple of people to walk through, rose up high.
I ran over it, continuously raising the ground with one hand, and didn’t hesitate to even destroy the outer wall of Litera to get there as quickly as possible, creating a passage that I could walk on directly without a checkpoint.
While I was running, breathing heavily, the thunderbolts continued to strike.
As I got closer to Litera, I began to see the situation there in detail.
And then I realized the identity of the black figures floating in the air, and was struck with astonishment.
They were spirits of darkness.
They had the general structures of young men, but at a glance, their hideous appearance was nothing more than a crude imitation of the human form…….
More than a hundred high-ranking spirits of darkness, had appeared in the skies of Litera.
The eerie golden pupils that symbolized that status flashed across the background, and people were rushing to get away from them everywhere.
The dark spirits laughed at the spiritists, stretched out their black hands and recited spells in the spirit language.
After that, some of the spiritist vomited and fell to the floor, their whole bodies convulsing and screaming.
Other spiritists were caught up in their anger toward the illusions and fiercely attacked their own allies, destroying Litera.
It was a scene so horrible as that it was worthy of the expression of devastation.
“…….!”
After jumping into Litera’s, I was unable to run away quickly because I was out of breath and wondering where a safe place would be.
Unfortunately, a sprite found me.
The spirit looked down at me with extremely cruel malice in its eyes and stretched out its black hands.
The spirits of darkness ware something I had never dealt with before.
We had already made eye contact and I couldn’t avoid it.
What the hell……how should I respond?
That moment when I stood there unable to do anything as my fear grew farther…
Bang-
Someone ran towards me roughly, hugged me, covered my eyes, and we fell to the floor together.
“…….!”
After rolling on the ground, I suppressed the pain and grabbed the large hand covering my eyes.
The person I saw at that moment was none other than Riat.
***
TL:
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