Chapter 69
Hitler and Goebbels, of all people.
They were war criminals who once nearly shook the balance of power across the continent. The idea that men like that had recognized and even made use of Mysteries was absurd.
“Mysteries have been used in the wars of every age. How long do you think magicians have been around?”
Seoa wasn’t particularly surprised. She casually opened the bottle she had taken out, dipped a finger into the pure-white bone dust, and slowly applied it to her face.
“Those absurd incidents recorded throughout history? They were all the work of magicians, shamans, astrologers, and so on. There was even a major incident during the Crusades because of the Necronomicon.”
“……Back then, magicians were active in the open fairly often too.”
“Right. It was only after the modern era began and the Clock Tower and several other organizations were established that they started operating in the shadows. Back when information control could go screw itself, magicians were a common sight on battlefields.”
Seoa said that, then used the bone dust on her face to turn her skin as pale as a ghost’s. As if that weren’t enough, she pricked her finger to draw a little blood and used it to paint her lips red.
Watching her, Ian asked dubiously,
“More importantly, what have you been doing this whole time?”
“Preparing a spell.”
Seoa answered casually and took out a pen to draw a magic circle across the table.
“Have you ever heard of the clashing of Mysteries?”
“……I think I’ve seen it in a book. Isn’t it the theory that when Mysteries of the same category encounter something similar, they weaken the power of both sides?”
The dictionary definition was complicated, but it wasn’t actually that difficult a concept.
For example, let’s say there’s a genuine aberration. One that barges into a convenience store and wreaks havoc can perform at its best when dealing with a part-timer.
But what if the part-timer is an aberration too? What happens when an aberration that smashes the heads of customers whenever it dislikes them encounters a part-timer who smashes the heads of aberrations whenever it dislikes them?
The answer is weakening. When mutually antagonistic or similar aberrations meet in the same place, both sides grow weaker.
It’s a sort of territorial dispute. A battle that continues until one of them is absorbed. The winner absorbs the defeated side’s concept and grows into a stronger Mystery, while the defeated Mystery simply disappears.
It was a method often used by magicians who directly handled Mysteries when taming other Mysteries. They would release a tamed Mystery to weaken another, then either devour it as-is to grow stronger or seize and control the weakened Mystery.
Either way, it was a frequently used approach.
But Seoa, who wasn’t a Mystery mage, couldn’t use that method. She had no Mystery to call and no aberration she had tamed in advance, so how could she summon another Mystery?
But contrary to Ian’s expectations, her expression was full of confidence.
“This is a cruise ship, right? That means it falls under the category of ‘ships’ one way or another. There are quite a few aberrations related to ships, more than you’d think.”
Seoa poured a generous amount of bone dust over the magic circle and dripped blood onto it as she spoke.
“There’s the Ship of Theseus, shipwrecks, turtle soup, the Curse of the Titanic, and so on. Even counting only the major ones, there are this many. There are far more if you include the minor ones. Oh, and the Kraken.”
“……Aren’t those all aberrations in the literal sense? Necromancy can’t bring them here or lure them out.”
“True. But there is one famous aberration related to ghosts.”
Just as Ian was about to ask what it was, a sudden thought occurred to him, and he let out a hollow laugh.
“……No way?”
“The outlaws of the sea! The fools who died as pirates yet couldn’t stop plundering! A notorious group of ghosts who are evil spirits and aberrations, and who even destroyed several warships outright during the World Wars!”
Ignoring Ian’s words, she grinned and placed her hand over the magic circle.
“A ghost pirate ship! They’ll come here to plunder the cruise ship!”
“This is insane.”
Ian shook his head while holding the grimoire, and Seoa closed her eyes and began chanting.
A spell to summon uncontrollable evil spirits. It was dangerous magic that was rarely used, but she didn’t hesitate.
“You who hunger for blood and flesh. You who are cursed. You who are made of resentment. Come here, for I have prepared the feast you desire. Eat and indulge to your heart’s content, and revel in pleasure.”
BWOOOOOOOO!!
Somewhere beyond the windows, a sound like a ship’s horn began to ring faintly. The waves grew even rougher.
“As priest, shamaness, mistress of Mysteries, and holder of the leash, I command you.”
Seoa opened her closed eyes and smiled faintly.
“Come. Everything you desire is here.”
The moment the spell ended, the magic circle began to glow and scattered bone dust in every direction. As soon as she confirmed that the magic had activated, Seoa roughly wiped her face with the tablecloth and shouted,
“Let’s go! They’re coming!”
“Go where, and for what—”
KWA-AAAAANG!!!
Ian’s words were drowned out by a sudden roar. The cruise ship shook with a sound like a cannon shell striking it, and Ian frowned deeply as he turned to look out the window.
[Kya-ha-ha-ha-ha-haak!!]
Far away, beyond the sea fog, the outline of a massive sailing ship slowly began to appear. Beneath the flag fluttering in the wind, the hazy form of a sailor carrying a telescope and a hefty sniper rifle came into view.
There was something ominous about the sniper rifle in his hands. It wasn’t the sort of matchlock musket commonly used during the Age of Sail; a semiautomatic sniper rifle was clutched in his hands. The smooth black metal mass shifted with a metallic click.
“God fucking damn it!”
Ian cried out in dismay.
“Why is the weapon so modern?!”
SHWOOO-!
With a sound that cut through the wind, the restaurant window shattered, sending shards of glass flying in every direction. Ian gritted his teeth and ran out of the restaurant with Seoa. She let out a shriek and shouted,
“They must’ve looted it after taking out other ghost ships and warships! Run faaaaster!”
“What about the passengers?!”
“I let the ghosts loose! They’ll guide them to safety on their own!”
“You really had a plan!”
“I’m a veteran in this line of work!”
KRAAANG!
Another cannonball struck the cruise ship’s hull. Ian staggered, then barely managed to regain his balance.
When he turned his head, he saw that the ghost ship had already drawn right up in front of them.
A sailing ship shrouded in pitch-black fog. Its deck was packed with all kinds of ghost pirates, who licked their lips while gripping modern and old-fashioned weapons alike. Some of them even had bulletproof vests and helmets pulled low over their heads.
It looked nothing like Ian had imagined.
The ghost ship he had expected would have been crewed by skeletal pirates creaking around with scimitars, matchlocks, or hooks. He hadn’t expected them to swagger around carrying rifles and RPGs.
Apparently, the bar for being a pirate had gotten damn high these days. Ian cursed inwardly and drew his revolver.
[Kya-ha-ha-haak! It’s a raid! Murder! Treasure!]
[Kill the women, and kill the men too! Make them all our crew!]
[What about the children and old folks, Captain!]
[Throw them into the sea to feed the fish! They’re useless!]
A fairly vicious exchange drifted through the air. The pirates latched grappling hooks onto the broken cruise-ship windows and climbed aboard, laughing raucously.
Seoa merely turned her head to watch the pirates illegally boarding the cruise ship and shouted,
“Protect the living humans and kill those things! That’s an order!”
The moment she spoke, ghosts dressed in white mourning clothes began bursting from the ceiling, walls, and floor. Grim reapers clad in black hanbok marched forward, while evil spirits with hideous appearances, drenched in blood, laughed madly.
Ghosts collided with ghosts. Savage screams, gunshots, and monstrous howls rang out clearly. Seoa roughly wiped away the nosebleed caused by her excessive use of magic and turned to Ian.
“Let’s split up and find the cruise ship’s core aberration! I’m going below! You go above!”
“Are you sure you’ll be okay alone?”
Ian said while aiming his gun behind him. Seoa took out a glass bottle as if it were nothing.
“I can hold out against this much! I’ll send a signal if I find anything, so don’t die!”
With that, she lightly tapped Ian’s shoulder and ran toward the stairs. Ian watched her back for a moment, then threw himself through the doors of the elevator that had just arrived.
With a fairly loud noise, he boarded the elevator, pulled out the grimoire, and sprang to his feet.
At that moment, he sensed a gaze on the back of his head and turned around.
“……”
“…….”
The newlywed couple who had been engaging in amorous behavior inside the elevator since morning were staring fixedly at him.
Ian saw the silhouette of a long worm dart between their pupils and immediately pulled the trigger.
Bang-! Bang-!
The bullets pierced the centers of their brows and blew through the backs of their heads before lodging in the wall. Their bodies collapsed face-first before they could transform, and blue worms crawled out through the blood pooling beneath them.
Krak!
Ian stomped them to death as they were, shot a pirate running from the far end of the corridor in the leg, and pressed the elevator button.
He placed his hand over the slowly closing elevator doors and used magic.
“Be reborn.”
Crack!
With a savage crunch, the open elevator doors fused together as if they had been welded shut. A knife slid through the closed doors, but the elevator rose faster than it could be swung.
“Phew……”
Ian wiped away his sweat, put a cigarette between his lips, and lit it. As the hot smoke traveled down his throat and seeped into his lungs, his pounding heart gradually calmed.
The situation had suddenly become urgent, but Ian didn’t particularly resent Seoa. He hadn’t planned to solve the aberration by the book in the first place, and causing a commotion was far better than spending several days investigating quietly.
Why waste time sitting still, wondering what might happen?
Even the man who had lost his memory and died was alive on the second day, only to die the next. That meant there was more than enough possibility for the situation to grow more complicated as time passed.
So finishing everything today in one swift blow wasn’t a bad approach either.
“……”
Ian waited for the elevator to stop with a half-smoked cigarette between his lips while loading his revolver.
A short while later, the elevator stopped with a ding. He spun the cylinder of the loaded revolver and placed his hand over the elevator doors.
When he recited the familiar spell, the doors split wide apart to either side. Beyond the open doors, Ian blew out a plume of cigarette smoke at a corridor filled with worms, infected survivors, and pirates.
A cruise ship where those fellows from the Bleeding Tongue Sect or whatever were lying low.
And yet the captain and the rest of the crew still hadn’t shown themselves.
To ask them anything, he had to find them first. He slipped his revolver into its gun holster, spread out the Hand of Re-Creation, and moved his lips.
“I am the companion, the lantern, and the servant of the Great One. Grant me the blessing meant for you and a spear to punish our enemies.”
As he chanted, he piled flesh from an aberration onto the grimoire and poured a little blood over it. The grimoire began to vibrate, emitting a pale white light.
“And thus I shall open a path for you. O Great One, please lend me your hand.”
Drip.
As soon as he finished the chant, the materials of the magic circle atop the grimoire evaporated and vanished. A pure-white cube took their place.
“Kiyeeeeeek!”
[It’s a living person! Kill him! Kill!]
Sensing Ian’s presence, the aberrations charged toward him, but Ian didn’t even blink as he commanded the cube,
“Clear a path.”
[I obey.]
The cube answered in a woman’s voice and began to glow.
Soon, it transformed into a disk-like shape, compressed itself, and raced forward at tremendous speed.
KWA-AAAAAA!!
It flew forward in a gale, tearing apart everything in its path and disassembling and reassembling it. The creatures whose limbs and organs had been transformed into grotesque shapes convulsed, then went limp.
[Complete. Annihilation.]
With the enemy gone, the compressed cube also scattered into a cloud of light.
It was a type of attack magic recorded in the Hand of Re-Creation. It was disposable, required a fair amount of material, and caused fatigue every time it was used, but with power like this, those drawbacks were more than manageable.
Ian wore a satisfied smile and spat out the cigarette he had been holding in his mouth.
“Shall we go?”
[Wuuung.]
The grimoire vibrated as if answering Ian’s mutter.
At that moment, the status window opened of its own accord, and its contents began to change.
[EX. CHAPTER 2 – Shipboard Murder Case]
[Summary: Instead of uncovering the truth behind the murder case, you decided to destroy the cruise ship with Seoa. And you even lured in the utterly absurd enemy known as pirates. Because of that, the passengers have begun harboring murderous intent toward you. But you ignored them and set off to find the captain. Will you be able to find what you’re looking for?]
[ENTER. CHAPTER 3 – The Thing Sleeping Beneath the Sea]
[You began wandering around the ship in search of the captain and crew. But then you suddenly became curious. Why are there monsters like this on the cruise ship? What are these worms? Why do they parasitize humans and transform their bodies? It was a reasonable curiosity. Will you be able to satisfy it? Oh, I have a feeling it won’t be easy.]
A chapter summary and guidance message packed with personal opinions.
Ian stared at them blankly, then let out a snort and raised his middle finger.
[……Ha.]
The status window let out a hollow laugh at his blatant cursing and vanished.