Chapter 72 - Found You (2)

I looked at Siren using magic beside me and fell into thought.

By the way, where could the real Liana be?

Realistically thinking, there was a high possibility she was kidnapped along with Ruen when Ruen was taken by the black mages.

But Siren said the Liana who came to the family was real.

If we assume that was true, it would be right to think there's a high possibility Liana wasn't caught by the black mages.

Just in case, I lifted up Daisy who was making "myeong myeong" sounds and asked if the Liana who came before was real.

"Myeong! Real!"

The answer came back that she was real.

I patted Daisy's chubby back to thank her and fell into thought.

Then where could Liana be?

Judging by the fact that she was not coming to find me, she was probably busy with work or caught up in some incident…

Seeing that there was not even any contact from her, there was an extremely high possibility she was dealing with something of very high importance.

So I decided to trust Liana and leave her be for now, and decided to search for Ruen first.

With that thought, I was creating a shadow mace and waiting for Siren when Siren calmly opened her eyes and said to me, "I found where she is."

At those words, I raised the corners of my mouth and nodded.

***

Perhaps to fill the affection deficiency from not being able to meet me for a while, Siren firmly grasped my hand and moved her feet towards the center of the port city.

I don't know what confidence it is, but they always make it in the center.

Whether it was aiming at the fact that even if it was suspicious behavior, acting openly received less suspicion.

Or whether they placed it deliberately in the center to make human procurement easier, I couldn't know.

It was quite irritating that these gloomy beings no different from cockroaches were openly active like this.

I need to discipline them once.

I was laughing hollowly and following Siren when Siren pointed to the back of a huge building standing in the center and said to me, "This way."

Hearing those words, I looked behind and saw an empty lot with nothing in sight.

...To be precise, there were various materials scattered about, but they were literally just scattered, not piled up enough to have meaning, so there was no need to pay much attention.

I sent a somewhat puzzled look to Siren while looking at that empty lot.

She pointed to the huge shadow created behind the city hall and said, "The shadow is the entrance."

"...The shadow?"

As soon as I heard those words, I immediately tried to spread mana to dominate the shadow on the ground, but it seemed like an enormous amount of mana would be consumed as if I had to dominate the entire large town, so I gave up and became full of interest.

Creating a living space inside the shadow...

Seeing this, I thought I had discovered something quite interesting and fell into thought for a moment.

Maybe I could create something like this too?

Of course, it seemed quite difficult to create just by wiggling a finger, but I nodded, thinking that if I invested some time, I might be able to create something about the size of a village.

...I should try it later.

If successful, it could become a living fortress, so I thought it would be quite fun and moved my feet into the shadow.

***

I couldn't know what method they used, but in addition to negotiating with the demon race to make them invade the port city,

They committed the atrocity of openly capturing Saintess Ruen within the city.

The moment I entered inside the shadow, I could realize the reason they were able to openly take a position in the center of the port city.

...It seems they were planning to turn the entire city into a laboratory.

I laughed hollowly looking at the city created in the exact same shape as a shadow.

I had thought the overly peaceful and happy appearance of the port city was somewhat strange.

It seems the black mages artificially created this city scenery to complete the shadow city.

It must be to remove suspicion.

To devour all those living in the port city, they gave them a sense of security, then the moment the shadow city was completed, they planned to swallow all those fallen into the swamp of security and turn them into test subjects, I speculated.

...Of course, this was just speculation, so there was an extremely high possibility it wasn’t true, but still, thinking there was a good chance it might be so, I looked around at the surroundings.

They recreated it perfectly identically.

Well, it would be possible since they just copied and pasted the original.

With that thought, I moved forward and saw numerous Chimeras clinging to the floor or walls and making strange noises.

It seems security measures were being implemented upon detecting external intruders who forcibly entered.

Seeing this, I realized it was time to show the results of the training I had built up in the training ground and grabbed the shadow mace.

Then what would be the best way to do this?

There were so many things to use that it was quite difficult to choose, but I decided it would be better to stick to the basics at times like this, so I decided to use a point explosion after a long time.

The moment I decided to attack, numerous black mages gathered from all around.

It seemed the security measures were activated and the black mages were also contacted.

Thinking this was good, I was about to gather power when mocking voices were heard from the front.

"Another bug who doesn't know its place has come in."

"How about we cut off its legs and make it eat them this time? It might be quite fun."

"That's gotten boring lately. Wouldn't it be more interesting to make it eat its family's body parts?"

I couldn't tell if they were saying such things to break my spirit, or if they had been stained by madness and were unable to make normal judgments.

Whatever the case, it was certain that these were beings not worth keeping alive.

With that thought, I gripped the shadow mace tightly.

Massive mana created by absorbing the essences of countless soldiers, knights, golden knights, and the king's essence poured out of my body.

The mana that gushed out so massively that even Siren was momentarily flustered started to distort everything around and vibrate, then it became calm and quiet as if entering the eye of a storm.

Explosive mana that made the shadow mace tremble intensely.

Normally, this much would have been satisfyingly powerful enough to stop here, but…

"Myeong!"

Now “Daisy”, who wasn't in the training ground, existed beside me.

I raised the corners of my mouth seeing Daisy's massive spirit mana seeping into the shadow mace.

Siren seemed to have noticed the power of the force I was gathering.

With an uncharacteristically flustered expression, she urgently called out to me, "D-Damian."

It seemed even Siren judged this much power to be excessively strong.

Seeing Siren's reaction, I smiled slightly, then drove the point explosion into the Chimeras gushing out from all over.

Not a simple loud sound like "boom" or "bang".

For an instant, the sound disappeared and pure white and blue fire enveloped everything and spread everywhere.

I couldn't help but marvel as I watched everything twist as if a storm had hit.

Daisy's flames and my powerful mana mixed together, destroying and breaking everything.

Normally, I shouldn't do such a thing considering damage to allies, but…

Since Daisy's power is contained...

It was clear that such damage wouldn't reach allies.

So I enjoyed watching this scene with peace of mind.

After about a few minutes had passed, I smiled with satisfaction looking at the incinerated shadow city, then proudly said to Siren, "How is it?"

At my question, Siren looked at me with a reluctant expression, then spoke to me with a blank expression, "...Monster."

I laughed hollowly at the word monster.

Thinking I didn't know who was calling who a monster, I looked at Siren and said, "Then tell me where Ruen is."

"Okay."

Siren calmly nodded and pointed her finger at a location far away.

Judging by the fact that there was nothing in the direction she pointed, it seemed to be underground rather than above ground.

I didn't know they would dig underground even in the shadow world.

At this point, I thought they might actually love the underground, and laughed hollowly before approaching that place.

***

"D-damn it! Run away! A monster is coming!"

"Save me!"

"Aaaaargh!"

As I entered underground, all sorts of screams were heard and the black mages all started to run away.

Feeling somewhat wronged at that sight, I complained to Siren beside me saying, “What did I do wrong,” but Siren looked at me and shook her head, saying, "Idiot."

At those words, I made an expression as if I was hurt, and Siren momentarily paused and looked at me.

Then she quickly ran over and started patting my head.

Thinking she was cute anyway, I smiled slightly, then changed my expression and looked at the corridor.

She definitely said Ruen was this way.

In other words... there was an extremely high possibility they would take Ruen hostage and threaten me.

I judged it would be better to rescue Ruen after spreading darkness around, like an ambush, rather than going to save her normally.

So I quickly dominated the entire underground with shadows and walked slowly.

Where could she be?

Judging by the faint holy power I could feel, she seemed to be nearby.

As I was slowly turning my gaze feeling that, I sensed Ruen's energy from one side.

Thinking it was fortunate I found her faster than expected, I raised the corners of my mouth widely and said, "Found you."

At those words, loud screams and crying sounds were heard from inside.

It was laughable that those who had driven countless people to death and even tortured them were quite vulnerable to the fear they themselves experienced, but I had no intention of sparing them at all.

So I calmly moved my feet, then caught those trembling with shadows and twisted their necks.

The lives of many faded away without even being able to scream properly.

I was breathing a sigh of relief seeing Ruen trembling far away, when I noticed a woman beside Ruen holding thumbtacks and a knife in her hand.

...It seems she was trying to torture Ruen with those.

The moment I saw this, I thought I didn't want to kill just that one normally, so while I was pondering what torture to do while binding her whole body with shadows…

"...Could it be you, Lord Damian?"

Ruen, who had finally come to her senses, discovered me and called out my name.