Chapter 97
<Grrk! Grrrk-!>
<Grrkrrrk!>
Watchers swarmed in from every direction.
Golems made of books and bookshelves charged at us in a horde.
They varied in size and appearance, but all seemed to share the same purpose: eliminating intruders.
“Hoo···!”
The heavy density of mana weighed down on my shoulders.
The librarians who had guarded this vast archive, a space preserved since ancient times, were by no means opponents to take lightly.
“Your Highness!”
“I know···!”
A bookshelf rained down from overhead.
At my signal, Carmilla deployed her blood sorcery.
-Blan Dhir Style Blood Sorcery, Seventh Form-
‘Crimson Blood, Half the Sky (赤血半天)’
“Bloom!”
Shaaak-!
Following the short incantation, a blood-red barrier covered the two of us.
The red hemisphere blocked the falling bookshelves.
At the same time, it ground down the golems that touched me.
Kwagwagwak-!
<Grrrk, grrk!>
<Rk-rk-rk-glglgl!>
They turned to dust with dying cries.
Ink and pages that had filled their insides in place of organs spilled across the floor.
Kuuuuung-!
“Here I go!”
“I’ll support you!”
Thwack-!
Amid the falling bookshelves, I kicked off the ground with all my strength.
My body shot straight toward the golems like an arrow.
A fierce wind lashed at the hem of my robe.
Whooosh-!
“Victor!”
“Yes!”
A red tile spread across the floor at exactly the right moment.
It was Carmilla’s blood sorcery.
Boing-!
The instant I stepped on it, my body sprang high into the air.
As I rose violently, my eyes met those of several especially enormous golems.
I gripped my scythe and leveled it.
“Hmph···!”
The scythe rose like a pitch-black crescent moon.
I swung it deeply, beheading the towering bookshelves.
Shhk, shhk-!
The heavy sound of cutting traveled up through my fingertips.
Immediately afterward, the towers of knowledge that had risen nearly to the ceiling collapsed.
Koom, ko-gugugung···!
“Ugh···.”
I wavered in midair.
Soon, the body that had leaped up lost its momentum and began to fall.
As I dropped helplessly, I saw a golem below with its mouth gaping wide.
<Grrrraaaaaaawk-wak-wak-wak!>
It had a mouth of truly enormous proportions.
I didn’t hesitate; I dove straight into the Watcher’s mouth.
Chomp-.
The thing swallowed me in a single bite.
Immediately afterward, I muttered as I slid down its esophagus.
“Activation. Thorns.”
Fwoooosh-!
Thorns burst through from inside its throat as if exploding outward.
The golem shuddered, then soon collapsed in place.
“Activation. Scissors.”
Riiip-!
I tore through its paper hide and escaped.
Perhaps it had been a little rough, because black ink stained parts of my shirt.
‘Good thing I wore this instead of my uniform.’
Ink stains tended not to come out easily.
I ran a hand through my hair while taking a deep breath.
The battle must have continued outside as well, because the Watchers’ remains lay scattered everywhere.
“Victor.”
“······Ah, Your Highness.”
Her Highness stood between the bookshelves.
Most of the smaller golems that had swarmed us had already been dealt with.
“It looks as though things have been more or less cleaned up.”
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“I haven’t even a scratch.”
The field: Raziel’s Library.
As I had seen earlier, it was a hidden space with a peculiar gimmick.
Apparently, it was an extradimensional space created by some ancient sage to preserve his knowledge.
Countless Watchers guarded it, but Carmilla and I were strong enough to break through, more or less.
‘Well··· Carmilla and I are both strong enough to rank near the top of Class A.’
I lightly shook out my hand.
My gaze fixed on the high ceiling beyond the bookshelves.
‘It should be about time for it to appear.’
A considerable number of the minor mobs had just been cleared out.
It was about time the boss poked its head out.
Kuuuuung-!
Sure enough.
The moment I thought that, the entire archive began to shake.
Before long, the remains of the shattered Watchers floated upward.
Books and fragments whipped about noisily, as though being sucked into a single point.
Shrrrraaaak-!
“Vic, Victor? What is···.”
“Perfect timing.”
The scraps of paper formed layer upon layer.
Torn pages became wings, while bent book spines became a beak.
Fragments of broken bookshelves became talons, and the covers of each volume formed feathers.
“A bird···?”
It had taken the shape of a bird.
It was magnificent enough to fill the ceiling.
Judging by its wingspan, it looked about the size of a small apartment.
A deep scent of old books wafted through the air.
[Name : Watcher of the Highest Knowledge]
-Race: Golem (Paper)
-Classification: Boss Monster
-Description: A librarian who has guarded this ancient tome for a very long time. It is a golem crafted by the ancient sage ‘Raziel,’ modeled after the phoenix he raised. It can be killed, but it cannot be destroyed. Even if the Watcher dies, it will be reborn in the Ossuary of Type.
-Passive Skill: Raziel’s Blessing
Its appearance was magnificent.
A few beats of its wings made it seem as though a storm had erupted inside the archive.
Carmilla’s silver hair whipped about as she furrowed her delicate brows.
“To think that something like that is a golem··· How exalted must its creator be···.”
“Rest easy. Its creator is no longer in this world.”
“That thing is intimidating enough on its own.”
“Hehe, leave it to me.”
Smile-.
The corners of the mask’s eyes curved into a thin smile.
I absently toyed with the scythe in my hand.
Several days before the field trip, I had asked Jaber in advance to charge the attack.
“Your Highness.”
“Hmm?”
“It may be dangerous, so would you come into my arms?”
“Very well.”
When I held out my hand, Carmilla transformed into her bat form without hesitation.
The girl flew over and slipped neatly into my shirt’s breast pocket.
Only then did I grip my scythe and look up at the sky.
<Screeeeeech-!>
A gigantic paper bird looked down at us.
It raised its beak and swooped down as if to crush me.
‘Good.’
It was the perfect angle.
Soon, its face closed the distance in an instant.
I raised my scythe and recited the activation word without hesitation.
“Release.”
Ding-!
[Skill 2 of the exclusive weapon ‘Black Mist’ has been activated.]
[Skill Name : Predation]
-Stores damage inflicted on the user exactly as it is.
-Stored damage can be released.
A message flashed by for an instant.
Immediately afterward, an unadorned flash of light engulfed the ancient tome.
-----!
The pure white light erased every sight within my vision.
The bookshelves were swept away helplessly, leaving behind a broad fan-shaped swath of scorch marks.
The Watcher that had been flapping its wings was swallowed by the immense current without even a chance to resist, torn into pieces.
As expected, the power was utterly absurd.
<······!>
A faint, wordless cry from something.
The flashes exploding in succession erased even that.
Ding-!
[The item ‘Mask of the Evil God’ has been activated.]
-Remaining uses: 2/3
-Time until uses recharge: 49 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds
The brutal recoil consumed one of the mask’s stocks.
By the time that light subsided and my vision, bleached white, returned to its original colors···.
“Hoo···.”
I stood at the center of a devastated landscape.
About three-tenths of the archive, which had been so vast, had been completely erased.
The Watcher that had been flying above the ceiling was nowhere to be seen.
A light notification chimed.
Ding-!
[Boss Monster ‘Watcher of the Highest Knowledge’ has been defeated.]
One-hit kill.
As expected, combining Jaber’s strike with the double-counting bug had produced phenomenal results.
‘I told you it was good.’
Lua’s Unique Skill 2.
The strongest card among everything I possessed.
Its one drawback, however, was its exceptionally long cooldown.
Ding-!
[Unique Skill 2 ‘Predation’ has been activated.]
-Time until reuse: 6 days 23 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds
After using it once, I had to wait almost a full week.
Moreover, its power came with various restrictions.
It had to be charged by someone else, and even I, the caster, was caught up in the recoil.
Because the range it targeted was so wide, it couldn’t be used when there were people nearby.
‘If there had been even civilians nearby···.’
It would have been a catastrophe of truly epic proportions.
It was certainly a powerful card, but that also made it difficult to handle.
As I was lost in thought for a moment, Her Highness, who had returned to human form, looked around.
“It’s overwhelming no matter how many times I see it. To think it took down a golem that enormous in a single blow···.”
“Let’s move. Even if it looks like we destroyed it, it’ll be resurrected in a few hours.”
We should finish what we came here to do and leave quickly.
We walked side by side across the archive.
The resounding din faded, and silence settled over the archive once again.
Millions of books lined the rows of bookshelves.
‘The problem is··· how am I supposed to find the book I need here?’
There wasn’t time to search through every single one.
The place was large enough that it looked like it would take at least several decades to search.
Just as I was groaning at the hopelessness of it, a message arrived from the status window.
Ding-!
[Tip. Follow the white thread.]
A white thread?
Before I could even dwell on the question, a trace shimmered in my vision.
A line giving off a soft glow.
It stretched a long way between the bookshelves.
As though it had been assigned the role of showing us the way.
“······Oh-ho.”
Right, this had to be it.
Even so, asking me to search this entire enormous space would have been a bit much.
I walked with Carmilla and Lua farther into the archive.
“······.”
A long corridor.
Perhaps to indicate the classification of the books, signs and writing had been placed here and there.
I tried to decipher, at least a little, the writing in the ancient language.
‘Theology···?’
Theology.
That was the classification attached to the bookshelves we were approaching.
I was looking for information related to ■■■, so why did I have to look through theology books of all things?
‘Just what is it?’
My suspicions only grew.
Before long, the thread stopped and pointed toward a certain spot.
A bookshelf jammed into the farthest corner of this vast archive.
As I arrived, the shortened thread led to a book shelved in the bottom compartment, where no one would think to look.
‘Is that it?’
I bent down and pulled it out.
Unlike the others, this book was especially thick with dust.
Tap, tap-.
I brushed it off lightly.
It had no title, and its cover contained nothing but black and white.
Unable to make sense of it, I turned the page and found only a single line on the first page.
[Can humans live again?]
And,
someone’s name written below that sentence.
[From Delkirn.]
Delkirn.
I stared blankly down at the name.
That section was glowing like a white thread.
‘Three letters.’
■■■.
It was probably the identity hidden beyond this mosaic.
Yet even after learning the name, I couldn’t determine who my opponent was.
‘Who is Delkirn···?’
I turned the page, wondering if there might at least be an answer on the back.
That thought proved correct.
And when I checked the page, I could do nothing but freeze.
Only three sentences had been written in hurried ancient script.
[Delkirn.]
[A name coined by the sages of old, a shortened form of the evil god ‘Delkirnos.’]
[However, to erase the horror of that name, all mention of it was forbidden in the present age.]
“······.”
I stood staring blankly down at those sentences.