Ch.129Conjecture

“Are you alright, my lord?”

Serena’s voice, filled with concern, buzzed beside my ear. I nodded to indicate that I was fine.

A precariously hanging stone at the edge of the ravine, unable to bear its own weight, fell into the gaping darkness below along with a few nearby pebbles.

Despite the time that had passed, no sound of the stone hitting the bottom could be heard. This meant one of two things:

Either it hadn’t reached the bottom yet, or even if it had, the ravine was so deep that the sound couldn’t reach us.

Either way, the fact remained that this was a ravine of absurdly unfathomable depth by human standards.

And the culprit who caused this massive destruction was standing quietly beside me.

“Serena, are there any moving ones?”

“No, my lord. Your judgment was correct.”

Rather than making a judgment, I had simply suggested trying something. But Serena seemed firmly convinced that I had displayed great insight by striking at the creatures’ weakness.

I’m not sure if “hit them with everything you’ve got” qualifies as insight, though.

It was a simple deduction. If those flesh masses split every time they were cut, then the solution was to leave no flesh to split by melting everything completely.

Of course, this approach would be useless without an attack powerful enough to do that, but with Serena by my side, lack of firepower was hardly an issue.

Serena faithfully followed my order and used a technique powerful enough to overturn the wasteland and melt its bedrock, resulting in this desolate landscape.

The vast wasteland had been completely transformed into an enormous ravine with no visible bottom.

The trees that had once marked the boundary between desert and forest were all uprooted, broken, blown away, and utterly destroyed.

This land belonged to some city lord’s jurisdiction. I pondered for a moment.

Regardless of which noble’s territory it was, it was clear that the area would suffer greatly for some time.

If Serena returned without explaining to the lord, the lord and his people would tremble in fear, imagining all sorts of things while searching for the culprit of such destruction. And even if she did explain, that would create its own problems.

It would mean that something so powerful had appeared that the Royal First Knight Captain had to unleash an attack capable of overturning the surrounding land.

For ordinary people, just knowing such a being had been nearby was enough to instill fear.

—Earth Shaker.

Looking down at the bottom of the ravine shrouded in complete darkness, I recalled Serena’s emotionless voice and the tremendous surge of mana that had gathered in Wind Shear in stark contrast.

The technique Serena used as soon as I ordered her to wipe out everything nearby, regardless of whether I got caught in it or not, lived up to its name: Earth Shaker.

By the time my evaporated eyes had recovered, I was stuck in an abyss so deep that not even sunlight reached it. If Serena hadn’t helped me, I would never have been able to climb out on my own.

I wasn’t particularly impressed by the power of the technique. All three people I knew could easily create such ravines in solid ground if they exerted their power.

Those three beings could even cause destruction that would require redrawing maps if they wanted to, so obliterating a mere wasteland was nothing to them.

‘Well, what’s most surprising is this filthy body of mine that doesn’t die even after taking a direct hit like that.’

I grumbled inwardly. It was an attack powerful enough to annihilate even the endlessly dividing black blood demon, yet I had regenerated perfectly fine after being caught in it.

No, that’s not right. I’ve recovered even after being caught in a dimension that was being severed, so this much is only natural.

“Serena, what do you think that thing was?”

“That thing” obviously referred to the black blood demon.

Serena seemed to ponder for a moment, but soon shook her head. It seemed she thought it pointless to dwell on it when nothing came to mind.

“I don’t know, my lord. I apologize. Did you not know such a demon would appear either?”

“I knew something about demons sealed in the World Eater. But regarding the black thing created after it got its head cut off by you, I’m just as clueless as you are. I never expected a demon could transform into something like that. It was our first encounter with such a creature, so what could we have known? So don’t blame yourself, Serena. It’s natural not to know.”

Whether summoning demons was some human fantasy or not, information related to demon summoning wasn’t difficult to find.

Even in ancient books that were old by my standards, there were stories about methods of summoning demons and their aftermath.

Well, most of them ended with explanations of the misfortunes of humans who fell for demons’ wordplay, concluding with lessons about why one should never make contracts with demons.

But I had never heard of demons being tainted by black blood. It wasn’t mentioned in any ancient text.

Black blood creatures were beings whose origins remained unclear.

I knew that their blood was related to black magic or black mana, but I hadn’t yet discovered why such a connection existed.

Whether black blood created black mana or black mana created black blood remained unclear. There was no way to determine which was the cause and which was the effect.

‘The worst assumption is that the reason for the demon’s sudden transformation is somehow connected to black magic.’

If they were entangled with black magic in some way and achieved a kind of conceptual fusion based on it, the problem would be far from ordinary.

It would be better not to know anything about black magic. After all, the human brain never forgets traumatic experiences.

They say you should always predict negative outcomes maximally and positive outcomes minimally, but the worst-case scenarios I use as benchmarks are levels of misfortune that ordinary people couldn’t even imagine.

I can confidently say “that ended pretty well” even about results where an entire kingdom is destroyed and all humans are annihilated.

“Serena, what were your impressions?”

“Pardon?”

“About the demons we just faced.”

Serena blinked her round eyes several times. The question seemed so abrupt that she didn’t quite grasp my intention.

“You’ve killed many black blood creatures, right?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“And the demons we just faced were also black blood.”

Serena nodded again.

“Was there any difference between them?”

It was a rather amusing question even as I asked it.

Serena hadn’t captured and studied them thoroughly like Charlotte; she had just cut, stabbed, and blown them up. How could she know if there were differences?

But it was a question that could be quite useful for my assessment of the situation, and I had firm faith that Serena would remember all the details.

This time her contemplation lasted quite a while. Given Serena’s personality, she was probably comparing all the black blood creatures she had ever cut with the black blood demons we just faced.

Whether I should be amazed that she remembered all of that in detail is another matter.

“There wasn’t much difference, my lord. In fact, the sensation when cutting them felt almost exactly the same.”

“I thought as much.”

Bad predictions always come true.

I pressed my palm against Serena’s cheek to express my appreciation. Serena quickly grabbed my wrist and rubbed it vigorously against her cheek.

“Then let me change the question. How does it compare to before the blood turned black?”

“Before the blood changed, you mean?”

“When the demon’s blood was still red.”

Still holding my wrist in her grip, Serena’s eyes widened slightly as if she had realized something.

“I think the sensation was a bit different, my lord.”

“It was a bit easier to cut when the blood was red, right?”

“It made no difference to me, but it would have been a significant difference for other humans. If you wish, I can explain more specifically.”

“That’s fine. It’s enough. It’s exactly as I expected.”

From what Serena said, it seems that when the demon was still bleeding red blood, it could be cut normally, but that changed after the blood turned black.

The conclusion was clear: when black blood began flowing through the demon’s body, the demon’s body itself changed to become identical to a black blood creature.

The difference would probably be imperceptible to ordinary humans.

They would be too busy trying to survive, and even if they won the fight, detecting the difference in the sensation of cutting them would be impossible without exceptional skill.

It’s a feat only possible for someone like Serena, and an answer only she could give.

Just as I was about to sigh deeply upon confirming that we were once again entangled with black blood, Serena’s eyes filled with intense killing intent. She pulled my hand away from her cheek, hid it behind her, and glared at the empty air.

Before I could ask what was happening, mana began to gather at the spot Serena was glaring at.

The gathered mana formed a dark blue sphere. A familiar color, a familiar shape.

The dark blue sphere rotated clockwise, gradually increasing in size, then transformed into a thin oval shape.

The middle part of the oval began to open slightly.

It was a transfer gate.

Given Serena’s sharp reaction and the sudden appearance of the transfer gate, it was obvious who would emerge from it.

A familiar figure appeared from the connected dimension. Seeing this figure, Serena’s killing intent sharpened even more.

She looked ready to create a Wind Shear and pounce on the silhouette.

From within the transfer gate, a cold voice flowed out.

“It hasn’t been long since you parted from me, yet in that short time you’re behaving like a beast in heat.”

Black uniform embroidered with golden patterns.

Silver hair reaching down to the waist.

“A beast should behave like a beast, yet you dare to try to match humans.”

A face exuding arrogance.

Skin so pale it was almost white.

“Truly disgusting beyond measure.”

It was Charlotte.