Chapter 53 – Test Subject

Test Subject

“Magic really is convenient.”
“Indeed. Maybe I should learn magic too?”
The journey there was arduous, but the return was simple thanks to Ariel’s teleportation magic.

They arrived in front of the house in an instant and were about to open the front door and enter when Ariel stopped in her tracks.
“Ariel? What’s wrong?”
“I feel uneasy leaving those corpses as they are… I’ll go back and take care of them. Explain it well to Saya and Puel.”

“I could report it later… Alright.”
Ariel nodded lightly at Mona’s words and teleported back to where they had reunited with Cherny.
“She’s gone.”
“Yeah. She’s always thorough. Well, that’s part of Ariel’s charm too.”

“As I thought, I didn’t see wrong.”
After teleporting back to where the demon corpses were, I witnessed a bizarre sight.
“Grrrr…”

The demon that had certainly died, crushed by my gravity magic, was imperfectly regaining its form.
…Its twisted appearance in places was reminiscent of a zombie.
‘Something felt off.’

Normally, when a demon dies, the demonic energy in its body naturally disperses into the air.
But this one was different.
…Far from dispersing into the air, demonic energy was minutely condensing around its corpse.

It’s a good thing I came back here just in case; it could have been a big problem if I hadn’t.
Fortunately, it’s just this one, and the other corpses are quietly lying down.
It seems to have regenerative abilities… and fire magic is especially effective against regeneration.

‘Why does this feel familiar…’
Pushing aside the sense of déjà vu in my mind, I cast a fire spell on the continuously regenerating creature.
“[Inferno]”

Whoosh─!
The moment I chanted the spell, a hellfire engulfed it.
“Guoooo…”
Instead of crying out in pain, it only made incomprehensible noises.

Seeing that it didn’t scream even as its whole body burned, it’s clearly not an ordinary living being.
“Phew. It’s over… huh?”
What’s with this thing? Why isn’t it burning completely?

“Grrrr…”
This flame can melt even rocks. It’s powerful enough to instantly turn even trolls with their good regeneration into ash, but the demon in front of me was still not completely incinerated.
It’s not immune to fire. The proof is that its body keeps melting.
…But it keeps regenerating.

“Graaaaargh!!!!!!”
Eventually, after regenerating to some extent, it charged towards me.
“…?!”
A sight that sent chills down my spine, even for me who had been through countless chaotic battles.

‘This won’t do, I’ll use gravity magic for now…’
The reason I frequently use gravity magic is that there’s no better magic for subduing someone.
There aren’t many beings that can withstand pressure dozens of times normal gravity.

Crunch─!
“Guooooo!!!!!!!”
Yet this thing is still moving bit by bit. One step, then another.
It’s moving even as its whole body is melting and being crushed by gravity. This clearly defies logic.
…It reminds me of the final battle with the Demon King.

He was like that too. Even when his whole body was slashed to ribbons, his heart pierced by the holy sword, and melting from my fire magic, he threatened us until the very end.
He finally fell before us, but the scene from that time is still vividly etched in my mind.
It was such a chilling scene.

‘No. It can’t be.’
I denied the thought that briefly crossed my mind.
It can’t be. We all clearly confirmed with our own eyes that he died.
…Even the goddess said we had defeated the Demon King.

“Did you receive some power from the Demon King before he died?”
I casually asked the creature slowly crawling towards me.
It was a half-reflexive question, so I naturally didn’t expect an answer.

It couldn’t communicate normally even before being engulfed in flames, so there’s no way it could now.
“Grrrr…”
Something slightly surprising happened, but in the end, nothing out of the ordinary occurred.

Thud.
It seems its regenerative ability wasn’t infinite after all. The demon that had been regenerating faster than its body was burning finally seemed to run out of strength and collapsed right in front of where I was standing.
The demon finally turned to ash and completely disappeared.

Although there were many unsettling points, the situation seemed to have been resolved for now.
‘…Surely it won’t come back to life from ash.’
“Ugh… I should burn them all at once.”

Whoosh.
After gathering the remaining demon corpses in one place and burning them, Ariel headed back to the house where her companions were waiting.

“Welcome back!”
Upon returning home, Cherny, with tear stains still visible around her eyes, greeted me cheerfully.
She must have had an emotional reunion with Saya and Puel.

“Where’s Mona?”
“She said she was very sweaty, so she’s taking a bath now.”
She’s improved a lot. Oh, is this rude to say?
…There was a time in the past when Mona didn’t shower, saying her hair color was the same as blood.

“Cherny?”
“Hehe. I missed you.”
Cherny suddenly hugs me tightly. She must have gone through a lot emotionally. Well, after experiencing such an ordeal.

“Let’s go in. Saya and Puel are waiting.”
“Alright. Oh, wait a moment.”
“Eh?”

As Cherny took my hand and led me into the house, seeing her figure reminded me of the apron I had put in my spatial storage.
“Cherny. A gift.”
“Oh, oh. This is…”
Cherny’s eyes widened in surprise as I took out the apron from my spatial storage.

“I thought I had lost it… sniff…”
“Cherny. Are you crying?”
“I’m not crying! Sniff…”

She received the apron I handed her with trembling hands, and then started to sob as if overwhelmed with emotion.
“…Cherny. Are you crying?”
“Sister made her cry. Bad person.”
“Waaah…”

Saya and Puel, who had come at some point, were patting Cherny’s back as she sobbed.
“Waaah… I, I want to stay here forever…!”
Cherny’s tear-filled voice echoed.

Knock, knock knock, knock knock.
A purple-haired girl rhythmically knocks on the door of a mansion located on the empire’s border.
Not long after, the door she knocked on opened, and a man in a butler’s uniform greeted her.

The girl greets him cheerfully when she sees him.
“I’m here! Kyahah. Hey, Heleon. Where’s Master Erdas?”
“My name is not Heleon, but Helion, Milene.”
“Tch. It was close enough.”

Sigh. The man in the butler’s uniform—not Heleon—Helion, exhaled briefly and pointed downwards.
“He’s in the basement. He’s experimenting.”
“What’s he using this time?”

“…Two people in their twenties, a man and a woman. One is a novice who just learned magic, and the other can use basic magic, I heard.”
Hmm. The girl shook her head as if not very interested, and then moved towards the basement the man had pointed to.

“Aaaaarghhhh!!!!!”
“P-Please save me, Master, I… I don’t want to die… Please!!!!”
“You won’t die, my poor child… if you’re suitable, that is.”

What entered the girl’s eyes as she reached the basement was the sight of a man grotesquely mutating and emitting demonic energy, and a woman begging for forgiveness from the old man in front of her, her face covered in tears and snot.
The girl approached the old man without batting an eye, as if used to such scenes.

“Um, Master Erdas. Those dog-like creatures, it seems they all died in the end. Kyahah. Even though I gave them the awakening drug.”
“…It doesn’t matter. We have enough clinical trial data on demons anyway. Rather, it’s a waste of the awakening drug.”

The old man replied to the girl’s words without any change in emotion and forcibly opened the mouth of the woman in front of him.
“Please!!! Master…”
At first, she resisted strongly, but when the old man chanted some spell, she stopped resisting as if her strength had left her.

The old man put the black cube he was holding into her mouth.
“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!!”
Gulp. As the black cube went down her throat, the woman’s magic flow began to fluctuate unstably. Then the woman started screaming.

Not long after, she began to gradually turn to ash from her toes and scatter.
The old man watched this as if he had expected it.
“A failure as expected. I tried to recreate the experiments from the old magic tower… but it’s still lacking.”

“What’s lacking?”
“…Talent. The talent to accept the truth of magic. The quality to become a god, that is.”
“Milene. I don’t plan to experiment on humans anymore. The same goes for demons, so you don’t need to supply them anymore.”

“Then… what will you do? Surely not me? Kyahah.”
The old man shook his head at the girl’s words, accompanied by a somewhat distorted, strange smile.
“You are the test subject closest to success, so that won’t happen.”

After saying that, the old man closed his eyes as if lost in thought for a moment.
“I’ll have to change the target. Living beings with magic affinity similar to the successful subject… for example, creatures like dragons would be good.”