Chapter 36 - The Truth (1)

"W-wait! If you spare me, I'll tell you about a secret passage to the inner depths!"

The one who had been mocking from behind the door desperately begged for his life the moment I approached, but having come in through the main entrance and smashing everything in sight, there was no need for a secret passage now, and

Judging that if I were a black mage, I wouldn't make a separate secret passage in a place with such thorough security,

I realized this offer was a lie and immediately swung my mace to end the opponent.

Blue blood.

The one I killed wasn't an ordinary human, as his blood was blue.

Thinking it was somewhat unusual, I slowly looked around and saw a rather peculiar sight.

Black mages surrounding me from all sides and two men who seem to be the ones in charge here.

One was lying on a sofa, leisurely smoking a cigarette, while the other was tapping his foot on the floor, wearing a black robe.

I instinctively sensed that if I took out these two, the whole situation would end, so I approached, and the man in the black robe walked forward and showed hostility towards me.

"Why has the young master of the Carsaril family come here?"

Is my existence famous so they know me, or have I been involved in some incident without my knowledge and that's why he knows me?

In fact, there were too many possibilities to pinpoint exactly what was right, so I decided to act rather than think and answered indifferently, "To seek cooperation."

"...Ha. Is it trendy these days to burn everything down, kill everyone, and then talk about cooperation?"

"Isn't it?"

"Your head must be broken."

He lowered the robe he was wearing and took out a black potion from his chest.

Judging by the intense mana emanating from it, it didn't seem to be an ordinary potion.

I was wary of this and prepared to swing my mace at any moment when he briefly said to me, "I'll give you one last chance. Get lost. Then I'll at least spare your life."

At that offer, I smiled slightly and lifted Daisy, saying, "Oh really? But it seems our Daisy doesn't think so? Daisy, bite!"

"Myamyeong!"

Although I gave the order somewhat playfully, the power of the flames Daisy spewed out was not playful at all.

Daisy greedily sucked in the surrounding mana, took it all in, then turned it into flames and spewed it out at the person in front.

"You crazy bastard."

His reaction speed seemed to be fast, as he avoided Daisy's attack quite quickly despite its speed and said to me, "I'll make you a body that wants to die but can't."

With those words, he drank the black potion from above and started screaming.

"Kheuk... keuuk, gueeek."

He seemed to be in considerable pain, twisting his whole body to express the pain, then suddenly went limp like a marionette with loose strings and stopped all movement.

I judged there was no need to watch anymore and was about to tell Daisy to attack him when…

Crack, creak.

All the flesh and skin composing him tore apart, and suddenly a grotesque thing that looked like a shadow monster popped out from inside.

It looks like something out of a ghost story.

Just as I was thinking that if one turned a human into a spider, it might look like that, suddenly, over a dozen hands and feet popped out of the monster's body.

Seeing this appearance that anyone would see as not an ordinary monster, I was contemplating what to do when suddenly Daisy on my shoulder started barking "myeong myeong" very angrily.

Seems she doesn't like it.

Well, Daisy always hated black magic.

Thinking this, I calmed Daisy down and was wrapping flames around my mace when suddenly, black liquid started dripping from the shadow monster's hands and feet.

Hiss.

The liquid that fell to the floor melted it, then created small black arms inside and made them flail around.

It was quite an interesting sight, and as I was watching this, the monster started rushing at me recklessly.

Now, what should I do?

Seeing how the places touched by that black liquid melted, it seemed I absolutely shouldn't let it touch me.

Thinking it would be better to avoid actions that might splash the liquid by hitting it with the mace, I narrowed my eyes.

How should I counter a technique that leaves black liquid behind to torment the opponent wherever it moves?

Thinking this, I avoided the enemy rapidly approaching me and filled my mace with fire.

After pondering for a moment, I came up with a quite interesting idea as I watched the approaching creature.

I can just do the same thing.

Using the fact that I could keep setting fires using Daisy's power, I swung the burning mace and threw fire everywhere.

Whoosh!

The fire I shook off started to swell up, devouring the black liquid on the floor as soon as it fell.

As I was satisfied seeing everywhere burning,

The enemy seemed to judge this wouldn't do and started struggling to catch me, rushing straight at me.

"Kueeek!"

A scream that could hardly be considered human anymore.

Hearing such a scream, I pushed mana into the mace and took a stance to use the point explosion I had learned earlier.

If I could hit the opponent using the point explosion technique, I could probably deal massive damage and end it in one shot.

Thinking this, I was gathering power when the shadow monster approached me, melting everything around,

And towards it, I took a stance and swung my mace towards its head.

Boom!

Due to the huge shockwave bursting out, everything around shook violently.

I was thinking it was quite a useful technique, looking at the shadow monster whose head had completely disappeared, and was loosening my shoulders when

I approached the fallen shadow monster and lifted my mace.

Always double tap.

Not double tapping and passing by could unnecessarily lead to fatal threats, so this action was quite important.

As I was striking down with my mace until the shadow monster's entire body was crushed,

I felt massive mana spreading from far away.

It seems they were buying time because of that.

Seeing everything around shaking as if there was an earthquake due to the intense mana, I let out a hollow laugh and looked to the side.

The man lying on the sofa threw his cigarette on the floor and said to me, "What we're doing here is for the greater good. So withdraw now."

"What?"

"It means exactly what I said. To you who knows nothing, what we're doing might seem evil, but in reality, we're carrying out work that saves countless people."

Hearing those boring, pedantic words that were likely to cause an argument, I briefly said, "Then die."

I could find out the details through torture or investigation, anyway.

There was no need to be swayed by listening to the enemy's words, so I ignored him and was about to move forward when

Daisy started barking "myeong myeong" anxiously, looking at something black in front.

It was the first time Daisy had been this anxious, so I stopped in my tracks and looked ahead.

What on earth could that be to make her so anxious?

As I was wiggling my mace, looking at the black object that looked like a heart,

He stroked the black heart and said to me, "How ignorant and blind. Your behavior of seeing only the trees and not the forest will one day lead to regret..."

I didn't really understand, but it didn't seem to be important talk, so to cut off his words, I threw my hammer filled with Daisy's fire forward.

I threw it thinking that with Daisy's power in it, it could at least make him shut up, but contrary to my expectations, massive flames burst out from the black heart beside the man.

It melted the hammer I had thrown and made it disappear.

It beat Daisy's flames?

I had no idea what the identity of that black heart could be.

As I was frowning and looking at it, he stopped what he was saying, reached out his hand to me, and said, "Then let us begin."

With those words, suddenly everything around was dyed in darkness and massive mana started swirling.

An overwhelming sea of mana beyond the range that humans could use.

As an unbelievable amount of mana poured towards me and pressured me, it became difficult to even breathe, let alone move.

Not just a difference of strong or weak, but an overwhelming strength that felt like a difference in class.

As I was gritting my teeth at such a gap, suddenly, an intense wind swept through, and the mana that had been pressuring me evaporated in an instant.

"Young Master, I'll handle this."

Loraine approached, wearing her helmet deeply for the first time in a long while, and drew her sword.

Seeing Loraine, who was usually playful, step forward seriously with her helmet on, it seemed the one in front was an opponent even Loraine needed to be tense about.

I nodded to Loraine and said I understood, then turned around and saw Liana quickly gesturing to me from the front.

Feeling tension rising, I approached her, and Liana urgently said to me, "Let's search this place while Loraine is distracting them."

"...Sounds good."

There was nothing else to do anyway, so it would be good to explore this place.

Still, just in case, I decided not to approach those two and was about to search what they were doing here when Siren pointed to one side and said to us, "...This way."

She seemed to have sensed something we couldn't feel.

I patted Siren's head to show she did well and approached, seeing a bookshelf.

It was highly likely they had hidden a path behind this, so I was about to strike it down with my mace when Siren shook her head and said to me, "If you do that, it will explode."

"Really?"

"Yes. I'll try."

Then she reached out her hand and started rearranging the mana floating in the air.

Even I, who was ignorant about magic, knew how impossible this was, and as I was admiring it,

Siren neatly arranged the mana and said to me, "It's done."

"...Already?"

"Yes."

Looking at Siren who acted as if she had done something obvious, I patted her head to show she did well, then slowly reached out my hand towards the bookshelf.

Then I applied force to push it sideways.

The bookshelf disappeared into powder as if it had been an illusion from the beginning.

Seeing this, I nodded and said, “Let's go inside.”

What we saw when we went inside was a huge maze.

Seeing a maze appear after entering the laboratory, I was certain there was something here that absolutely must not be discovered, and as I was trying to break through it,

Siren shook her head and guided the way.

"I think we can follow the flow of mana. Every living being leaves traces of mana."

"...Is that even possible?"

We heard Liana's astonished voice as we unraveled the maze.

What we discovered at the end was a book kept under strict guard and one report.

Both caught my attention, but I was more interested in the report than the book, so when I checked it, there was a somewhat shocking sentence written.

[Creating an Artificial Sun]

Joint research by the Wintreaven family, the Church, and Kirnesis (Black Magic Tower).

The goal is to convert and synthesize living beings as an energy source and use it as energy for an artificial sun.

Current achievement rate: 87%

Note: There is a singularity where rifts occur while creating the source of the sun.