“…How did things turn out like this?”
Kaelion mumbled, staring at the scene that greeted him beneath. He stared at the individual faces and understood that they were the same people that he knew.
‘How did this happen?’
“They’ve fallen under some sort of mind magic.”
Hearing Julien’s voice, Kaelion looked at him.
He seemed unusually calm about the situation. Especially considering how things were evolving.
It almost felt like he knew in advance…
But there was no way, right?
‘No, wait.’
Kaelion suddenly recalled the owl and it all clicked into place.
“… I lost connection with Owl-Mighty a while ago so I had an inkling that something like this would happen.”
“Ri-“
Kaelion paused for a second and blinked his eyes.
Did he just say Owl-Mighty?
Surely he didn’t hear wrongly, did he?
“Wait, did you say mind magic?”
“…Yes.”
Julien nodded seriously as he mumbled, “Take a look at their eyes and see how unfocused they are. They’re not acting out of their own will. This looks like something coming from the ‘Spirit’ category of ‘Mind’ magic.”
“Ah.”
Kaelion quickly understood.
‘Spirit’ magic was the most unique and rare form of magic that came from the ‘Mind’ category. There were rarely any people who were born with talent in it, but those who were born with such talent were quite the noteworthy figures.
This was essentially due to how unique the ‘Spirit’ category was.
Most of those who were talented in the ‘Spirit’ category ended up becoming high-ranking Clerics due to their ability to manipulate and control souls.
Especially powerful spirit users could control the souls of other living beings such as monsters or humans to do their bidding-in some sense like mind control.
Of course, there were specific limits to such magic, and just like Emotive Magic, it was extremely hard to improve.
There was a reason why there weren’t that many spirit users.
However, just like Emotive Magic, those who succeeded in such magic all became extremely powerful and note-worthy figures.
Realization dawned on him knowing all this and looking down to see the familiar faces.
‘A spirit user is controlling them.’
His expression grew grim at the realization.
“If someone is controlling them then the only way we can free them is to directly find the one responsible for all of this and deal with them.”
This time, it was the Head Elder who spoke.
She had come up with a similar conclusion to Kaelion’s and her expression was similarly grim.
“…In any case, while it is important that we figure out who the mastermind behind all of this is, we should start taking action before your classmates end up dying.”
Bang-!
A muffled yet terrifying explosion echoed in the distance.
Flicking his head to look at the chaos, Kaelion saw the members in the northern wall directly dash down the walls to attack the monsters and cadets.
“Attack them!”
“Kill them!”
“Don’t let any one of them survive!”
He could see a massive difference in skill level and knew that if they didn’t interfere soon, things would get quite bad for them.
He wasn’t the only one who understood this.
Be it Julien or Caius. The two of them understood as well and with the help of the Head Elder, they rushed forward.
Arriving just close enough to the scene, the Head Elder infused her voice with mana and spoke, “Stop.”
Her powerful voice reverberated loudly throughout the surroundings.
It rang loud enough to sweep everything, and several figures stopped at once. In particular, she caught the eye of Arten who froze mid-motion and looked in her direction.
“Rosanna?”
His voice carried hints of surprise, but soon his surprise turned into wariness as he noticed the three figures standing alongside her.
‘I don’t recognize their faces, but one of them feels particularly familiar.’
He was talking about Julien who felt eerily familiar to the old man he had ‘mistakingly’ assumed for professor. His frown deepened at the thought as his head raised slightly to eye Rosanna Astrid, the current Head Elder of the House of Astrid.
Ting!
Pressing her staff onto the ground, a terrifying pressure swept the surroundings, halting the advance of the monsters momentarily.
“Stop your attacks at once.”
“Ho.”
Arten’s eyes narrowed, briefly glancing at the frozen monsters.
“Stop? Do you have any idea what they’ve done? Do you—”
“Look carefully, they’re being controlled.”
Rosanna pointed directly at the cadets but Arten didn’t even spare them a glance.
“Do you think I can’t see that?”
“Then…?”
“Do you think we have a choice in the matter? If we don’t get rid of them then they’ll enter through and kill everyone within the borders. Had you been present then-“
“I understand.”
Pressing her hand, she cut Arten off and looked around.
“…We were in a situation ourselves which is why we weren’t present, but don’t worry. We
have managed to resolve it, and it’s thanks to these three.”
She gently nudged in Kaelion, Julien, and Caius’s direction with a gentle smile. At the same
time, the pressure coming out of her body intensified.
Beneath her, the monsters shook and several of the weaker ones exploded on the spot.
Bang, Bang-!
Blood splurted all over the streets as she looked down coldly.
“Cleaning this up might be a lot more troublesome than I thought.”
There were quite a few powerful monsters that she couldn’t deal with quickly. Thankfully, she
wasn’t the only reinforcement from the House of Astrid.
With then then…
Rumble!
Rosanna’s expression suddenly froze.
Slowly lifting her head, her gaze fixed on the direction of the shattered gate. Rumble! A deep,
guttural tremor resonated through the air as a massive, clawed red hand emerged from behind, gripping the top of the crumbled wall with unnatural force.
Its shattered nails scraped against the stone, sending a spine-chilling screech across the
surroundings.
Shortly after, a powerful pressure enveloped the surroundings.
“When did it…?!”
“Careful!”
Almost immediately everyone grew alarmed.
For a monster of such immense proportions to appear so suddenly and unexpectantly, it was
as if the air itself froze in shock.
Bang!
The walls shattered, forcing several people to leap back as an enormous humanoid red creature emerged. Its hollow eyes, long and stringy black hair cascading unevenly from the sides of its head, and sharp, angular nose combined to create a truly terrifying sight. Kaelion found himself stepping back at the sight of the creature as Rosanna stepped forward.
“Yes, this is going to be quite troublesome.”
At the same time, she glanced in Arten’s direction and the two nodded, understanding the
gravity of the situation.
‘Destroyer Rank.’
‘Destroyer Rank.’
Beyond Terror was the Destroyer Rank, which ranged between Tier 7 and Tier 8.
However, what truly made Destroyer Ranked creatures scary wasn’t their tier, but their
intelligence which was a level above that of a Terror Rank, capable of fully understanding
emotions and other aspects of the human mind.
Vooom!
Lifting her staff in the air, an enormous blue magic circle formed in the air as Rosanna eyed the monster in the distance who took notice of her, offering a creepy and unnerving smile that
reached the ends of its face.
The atmosphere seemed to freeze over at the sight of the smile.
It was just a simple smile, and yet…
‘Why does it feel like it’s mocking us?’
Right, it was mocking them.
Why?
But why-
Bang!
All of a sudden, a muffled bang echoed from the very opposite end of where they stood.
Rosanna’s expression stiffened, and so did that of everybody else present.
Bang!
Another muffled bang resounded in the air, and the tension that filtered through the air
seemed to magnify. This became especially glaring upon hearing the third, and last muffled explosion as the walls on each side of the city crumbled.
“Ho, this.”
Kaelion looked at all sides of the city with a pale expression as his lips pursed tightly
together.
“…This is really bad.”
Rosanna’s expression alone was telling enough of how serious the situation was.
But if that wasn’t enough…
Turning his head one more time, Kaelion’s lips parted open before freezing on the spot as the
spot he turned to look at was empty.
‘Where in the…?” Feeling his heart sink, he looked to his left and right, but regardless of where he looked, he
was nowhere in sight. Eventually, his gaze fell on Caius who looked back at him with a silent expression.
The two stared at each other for a few seconds before Caius’s lips parted.
“…Why do you even look surprised?”
***
“Are you sure it’s this way?”
“….Yes.”
Pebble’s voice echoed quietly inside my mind as I nodded and kept my footsteps light.
Slipping past everyone wasn’t exactly easy. Especially since there was such a powerful person
standing next to me, but the sudden appearance of the Destroyer Ranked monster, made things a lot easier for me.
Added with [Veil of Deceit], I was able to slip out rather quickly.
Swoosh-!
Navigating through the rubble, I carefully made my way past the chaos at the focal point.
Slipping through one of the major cracks in the shattered walls, I slipped out of the city,
exposing me to the outer area of the Kasha.
|| ||
Stepping out of the walls, my steps momentarily paused upon seeing the sight that greeted
me.
“This…’
I did a double take to make sure I wasn’t seeing things, but looking at the area in front of me, I
felt my stomach flip.
‘This is worse than I thought.’
The land before me was completely arid, devoid of any vegetation while monsters appeared
to lurk everywhere, all of which were mindlessly moving towards the walls as though they had
a mind of their own.
The air felt heavy, and the ground beneath me was cracked and dry. Normally, I wouldn’t feel too much upon seeing this sight, but what truly took my attention
was the massive tree that appeared in the very far distance.
Despite the distance, it still stood tall, reaching toward the sky. Its blood-red leaves swayed
faintly in the air, casting a chilling and oppressive atmosphere all around. Something about its leaves felt compelling, and the more they swayed the more I felt myself
lose sense of my mind.
Rustle, rustle~
“Wake up.”
Pebble’s voice was all it took for me to snap out of it as I quickly shifted my eyes away from
the tree.
At the same time, I felt my heart beat loudly against my mind as I pressed my hand tightly against my chest.
…That was close.’
Lifting my head slightly, I felt a close sense of dread upon seeing the tree in the distance.
I merely glanced at it for a second before looking away again. Just one look and I felt my mind
start to fog up.
“Be careful.”
Unlike me, Pebble had no issue staring at the tree.
Hearing Pebble’s solemn voice, I kept my face down. However, its next words almost made
me jump up on the spot.
“…I don’t know how, but it looks like that stupid tree is close to breaking through to the Destroyer Rank.”