Ch.268Episode 12 – The Strongest Mage in History

The moist sensation clinging to my skin woke me up.

I looked around with half-open eyes as if I’d just woken from sleep, but everything was pitch dark.

Splash. The moment I touched the ground, the sound of water splashing echoed in my ears. There seemed to be a foul smell, and my entire hand felt instantly soiled.

Damp clumps of what might be mud squeezed between my fingers as I gripped the ground and carefully raised myself up. That’s when I grabbed something warm and squishy that would be difficult to hold with one hand.

Well, this feels like…

“……”

The soft, elastic sensation under my palm naturally brought to mind a certain body part, but I wasn’t flustered.

That wasn’t what mattered to me right now.

I quickly pulled my hand away as if burned and hastily searched my pockets. Then I used the lighter next to my crumpled cigarette pack to illuminate the darkness.

-Flick!

The darkness receded as my vision brightened.

The first thing I saw was Lucia beside me. She had collapsed on the ground, unconscious.

I was in a small tunnel filled with a putrid, musty smell.

Holding the lighter, I looked around and muttered in bewilderment.

“…What the hell.”

Where is this place?

Episode 12 – The Strongest Mage in History

A memory from long ago surfaced, something a senior officer told me when I worked at the Intelligence Command.

‘Hey, do you know when an intelligence officer is in the most danger?’

‘No, sir.’

‘When you wake up with your hands and feet tied, and there’s plastic sheeting hanging around you. You know that plastic they use for greenhouses? If you pass out and wake up surrounded by that, you’re in deep trouble.’

Kill Room Deco.

It’s one of the methods intelligence officers use when they don’t want to leave traces of murder. Whether it’s spies or terrorists, it’s mainly used to easily clean up “evidence” created during torture and killing.

My senior put it this way:

‘It’s just like putting foil on a grill when you’re cooking meat. Same concept. Just like you use foil to reduce dishes, they use plastic when dealing with bodies and cleaning up scenes. You just wrap up the corpse and whatever else in plastic and throw it all away.’

‘I see. So what should I do if I wake up in a room lined with plastic?’

‘What can you do? You’re screwed. Either fight your way out for dear life or die there. There’s no other option.’

It wasn’t particularly helpful advice, but my senior’s story definitely had its interesting points. It was a technique I’ve used well, both during my time at the intelligence agency and now.

Is it mere coincidence that this old story comes to mind?

A place I’ve never been before. I felt the ground collapse beneath me and passed out in an alley, only to wake up in some dark place.

I couldn’t even properly assess the situation, but the thought that I needed to escape filled my mind.

“…Wake up, Holy Maiden.”

“……”

“Lucia…!”

I shook the unconscious Lucia to wake her.

Her cassock, which only clergy could wear, was stained with filth in various places, perhaps from rolling on the ground. Her legs, thighs, arms—even her face and hair had mud-like substances stuck to them.

Suddenly, I noticed a hand-shaped stain of filth on her chest area. I felt dizzy as if struck by a hammer, but I quickly regained my senses and hastily wiped away the trace with my sleeve.

If she had been wearing her usual snow-white fascia, it would have been so contaminated that it would need to be thrown in the trash rather than washed, but fortunately, the fascia Lucia was wearing now was black.

“Lucia. Open your eyes. Lucia!”

“Mmm….”

After shaking her shoulders and tapping her cheeks for quite some time, a low moan escaped Lucia’s lips.

“Ugh…. Where is this…?”

“Are you conscious? Try to sit up. Quickly.”

“My head is ringing… Please speak more quietly….”

She had regained consciousness, but her condition wasn’t good.

I forcibly lifted the dazed Lucia and sat her on the floor, helping her lean against the wall.

“I know this is sudden, but listen, Holy Maiden. We need to get out of here right now.”

“Where are we…? Underground, perhaps…?”

I didn’t answer. Or rather, I couldn’t answer. I didn’t know either.

“What on earth happened…?”

“I don’t know that either.”

I explained the situation while checking Lucia’s condition. She might have been injured from hitting something while unconscious.

Using the lighter’s flame, I examined her and fortunately found her physical condition to be near normal. No broken bones or wounds.

It would have been understandable if she had raised her voice at me for suddenly touching her body without explanation, but Lucia made no protest. Despite the chaotic situation, she calmly and precisely assessed her current predicament.

“We both lost consciousness and fell somewhere. Are you injured?”

“No. I don’t know our current location.”

“It’s probably underground. Perhaps… we might be in a different area far from Novo Nikolayevsk.”

Lucia tried to stand up after regaining her strength but staggered, unable to maintain balance.

I supported her body as she was about to fall.

“Are you alright?”

“…Yes. Just a moment of dizziness.”

We ended up in a position where she almost fell into my arms, but neither of us paid any attention to that. Lucia grabbed my shoulder and slowly stood up, and I supported her while illuminating our surroundings with the lighter.

With her center of gravity leaning toward me, Lucia spoke while limping.

“It seems we’ve either fallen into a trap or had an accident.”

“……”

“I’m sorry. You got involved in this because of me….”

“Don’t say that. I followed you knowing what I was getting into, didn’t I?”

Lucia smiled faintly at my response not to blame herself. When the small flame flickered and illuminated one side of her face, I could see the smile on her lips.

I waited a moment to let Lucia find her stability.

Lucia, who had been limping while leaning on me, seemed to have regained her strength as she thanked me and stood on her own two feet.

“Are you feeling better?”

“Yes. Thank you for your concern.”

“That’s good.”

I asked Lucia, whose condition had improved:

“What’s the plan, Holy Maiden?”

“First, we need to inform the priests who are coming to support us. We need to find a way out of here….”

That’s when it happened.

-Tap.

The sound echoing through the air interrupted our conversation.

A noise like something solid hitting the floor.

Lucia stopped speaking and raised her head to look in the direction of the sound.

-Tap.

She showed no sign of surprise. She just stared straight ahead with an expressionless face.

Lucia’s small lips parted slightly.

“…It’s coming from straight ahead.”

“It doesn’t seem too far from here.”

I looked at Lucia as she stared into the darkness. Then I asked:

“What do you want to do?”

Instead of answering, Lucia showed me through her actions. She searched the floor barely illuminated by the lighter’s flame and found her cloth bag, the saint’s relic, and the wooden box she had brought.

After putting on the items she had prepared in advance, Lucia spoke with an expressionless face.

“…Let’s go there first.”

*

“I’ll go first.”

“Are you sure that’s alright?”

Lucia took the lead, carrying the items she had found on the floor. She wore a purple silk stole around her neck and put on an olive wood rosary and a Roman cross made of pure gold on her wrist.

I stuck close behind her.

“This problem arose because of what I asked you to do, so it’s only right that I handle it. Stay behind me. Leave the front to me.”

“Are you protecting me?”

“More precisely, I’m entrusting my back to you. Even I don’t have eyes on my back.”

Lucia slowly tapped the floor as she traversed the dark tunnel.

If we lit the lighter, we could at least see ahead, but illuminating ourselves in darkness where unknown dangers might lurk would be suicidal. Fortunately, Lucia seemed to have a good method as she asked me to leave the path to her and save the lighter.

She reached out her hand to me as I followed closely behind.

“Take my hand.”

“What? Is that okay? If I hold your hand, it might interfere—”

“Please take my hand. It’s more dangerous if we get separated.”

Before I could say anything, Lucia firmly grabbed my hand.

Being suddenly held by the hand was a bit embarrassing, but it actually made me feel more at ease. Lucia tightly held my hand to prevent me from getting lost in the darkness, and I firmly held her outstretched hand in return.

And so we began to move slowly.

As we walked, unidentifiable objects bumped against our feet, and some creature—whether a mouse or an insect—scurried across the top of my foot, but neither Lucia nor I made a sound. We simply tightened our grip on each other’s hands and pushed through the deep darkness, relying on each other.

“……”

“……”

Our aimless footsteps continued in silence.

Lucia held Saint Balthasar’s relic in one hand while gripping my hand tightly with the other as she forged ahead. The holy water flask attached to her waist made clattering sounds that broke through the silence.

Finally, as we were nearing the end of a passage so narrow that we had to bend our waists and press our bodies together to barely pass through.

“…Wait.”

Lucia, who had been maintaining silence, called out in an urgent but quiet voice.

“What is it…?”

“Please wait a moment. There’s something ahead.”

“……”

I waited as Lucia instructed.

With our vision obscured by the surrounding darkness, we waited for several minutes, confirming each other’s presence through our clasped hands. The stench was numbing our noses, and some liquid—sweat or something else—was moistening our palms, but neither of us complained.

As the indefinite wait continued, I suddenly noticed something strange.

“…Holy Maiden. This breeze we’re feeling, could it be wind?”

Wind was blowing.

Very faintly, but I could feel the air moving.

“You’re right. It’s wind.”

“Where is it coming from?”

“From the front. More precisely….”

Above.

The wind was coming from above.

I moved forward without letting go of Lucia’s hand. My eyes had adjusted to the darkness, so I could make out the shapes of objects if they were close enough.

After moving forward bit by bit, feeling the blowing wind.

Finally, we could see where we were.

“……”

An underground facility with its ceiling blown open.

A massive cavity revealed itself before us.

Feeling the faint breeze, I looked up to see dim starlight pouring in from the ceiling. The stars of the night sky, shining brightly due to the blackout, were transmitting their light across tens of thousands of kilometers into the deep darkness.

“…There.”

Lucia whispered in a small voice.

“Look there.”

“Where?”

“There. Down below.”

I lowered my head in the direction Lucia was pointing.

In the dim starlight illuminating the cavity, I could see small mounds of what might be vomit or soil filling the bottom of the deep cavity.

Standing tall on that mire,

-Tap.

A friar was tapping the ground with his staff.

“…That man.”

“Yes.”

Our clasped hands automatically tightened. Lucia, who had been looking down with me, continued speaking.

“It’s Friar Agato.”

Her voice was filled with certainty.

*

Real name, Romain Cheire.

Baptismal name, Agato.

A former combat priest and monk of the Inquisition. A person who disappeared while on a mission on the Mauritanian continent 20 years ago.

He received a request from a diocesan bishop operating secretly in a country on the Mauritanian continent where religious persecution was taking place. He set out with an exorcist priest to meet a possessed person and disappeared without a trace.

Now, after nearly 20 years, Friar Agato has appeared in the northern part of the Kien Empire, far from the Mauritanian continent.

He is now before our eyes.

-Tap!

The sound of the staff hitting stone spread out.

For a long time, the friar kept tapping the floor with his staff as if testing a stone bridge.

“…What is he doing?”

“I’m not sure….”

The friar wandered around the underground cavity. He would tap the floor with his staff, move a few steps, and then tap the floor again.

An incomprehensible action. I couldn’t understand what he was doing, but he was repeating the same behavior like a broken doll.

Watching him, Lucia lowered her posture and let out a faint sigh.

“At least we’ve confirmed Friar Agato’s location. We’ve also just confirmed that there’s something wrong with him.”

Lucia looked down at the holy relic she was holding.

Saint Balthasar’s relic, which supposedly reacts to beings with impure energy.

Just like when we were searching for traces in the alley, the saint’s relic had its finger raised straight up, pointing downward. More precisely, toward the friar below.

Lucia said:

“Whether he’s possessed or a necromancer, I need to prepare an exorcism first.”

The only way to escape from here is to flee upward. But the moment we move to climb up, the friar below is likely to notice our presence.

Yet finding another path is impossible. The path we’ve walked so far has been terribly long and treacherous—how could we, who don’t know the way, find another passage from here? If we get lost, this place might become our grave.

There is no retreat.

At that point, instead of fleeing, Lucia proposed to stand and fight.

“If he’s a necromancer, he must be in a contract with a demon, so an exorcism should be effective. If he’s possessed, that goes without saying.”

Crouching behind the wall, I asked her:

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

Lucia placed her cloth bag on the floor and began searching through it.

“When I perform the exorcism, the demon will resist violently. Given that it has possessed the body of a robust adult male, its strength will be beyond imagination. To suppress that resistance, we’ll need to bind his body with the stole.”

“You want me to tie up the friar?”

“Yes.”

Lucia handed me a stole she had taken from her bag. It was a stole with religious patterns embroidered in gold thread, identical to the one she wore around her neck.

After handing me the stole, Lucia looked at me with concerned eyes.

“I know it’s a difficult request. But please help me just this once.”

“…Well, let’s give it a try.”

I snatched the stole Lucia offered. She didn’t specify how to tie it, but I’ve restrained people more than a few times, so this would be a piece of cake.

Lucia hurriedly took out items while explaining her plan. She also gave me several precautions.

“I advise against using your gun if possible. Unless it’s an exceptional situation, bullets won’t be effective.”

“Then how should I fight if a battle breaks out?”

“Leave the combat to me. I can protect you.”

Crouched behind the wall, I listened carefully to Lucia’s precautions.

“When I start the solemn exorcism, you must stay in the place I designate for you. If you leave that spot, you could be in danger.”

“What kind of danger?”

“You might acquire a disability you’ll have to live with for the rest of your life, or you might need to recover in a mental hospital. In the worst case, you might lose your body to the demon.”

Lucia dipped her finger in holy water and made the sign of the cross. Then she made a small sign of the cross on the back of my hand, held both my hands tightly, and spoke in a small voice.

“The priests will notice my location. Until they arrive, you just need to hold out until then.”

“Understood. Any other precautions?”

“For now, that’s all you need to know.”

Having quickly completed her preparations for the exorcism, Lucia knelt down and offered a small prayer. I silently listened to her prayer while observing the movements of the friar who was still wandering below.

After finishing her prayer, Lucia unclasped her hands and said quietly:

“Please hold the holy relics while I perform the exorcism. The navigator’s map and Saint Balthasar’s relic are not items to be used in the ritual.”

“Give them here.”

“Here….”

Lucia handed me the neatly folded parchment map and the saint’s relic. But her expression suddenly changed.

There was no problem until she handed over the map. But her expression changed when she handed over the relic. I don’t know why, but it was a very serious expression.

“What’s wrong?”

“…The relic. Why is it…”

“What?”

“Why is the relic reacting?”

I looked at Saint Balthasar’s relic that Lucia was holding. The relic’s index finger was stretched out straight, clearly pointing to a specific spot.

At the end of that finger was none other than me.

Lucia continued with a voice clearly showing her confusion.

“This shouldn’t be reacting right now. Why…”

“Holy Maiden? What does this…”

“…The pendant.”

Lucia, who had been looking down at the relic, quickly raised her head.

“Where is the pendant? The item that conceals energy.”

“Of course, I have it…”

I said while feeling my neck where the pendant should be. However, I couldn’t feel the pendant as I touched my neck.

The pendant that concealed the evil energy emanating from the wound inflicted by the friar was gone. Did I lose it when I fell? Did the string break?

In that moment, numerous thoughts flashed through my mind like a kaleidoscope, but nothing else came to mind.

“It was definitely here…”

Then, suddenly, I noticed something strange.

The rhythmic tapping sound of the staff had stopped. And it stopped abruptly.

I exchanged glances with Lucia, and simultaneously, we slowly turned our heads to look down.

“……”

“……”

The massive cavity where dim starlight barely reached.

The friar in the deep underground darkness.

He had raised his head and was looking up at us.

“……”

Lucia, who had been looking at the same place as me, grabbed my hand.

And then came Lucia’s voice:

“…Run!”

At that signal, we sprang to our feet.

It was the signal for the beginning of a long battle in the deep darkness.