Ch.297Episode 12 – The Strongest Mage in History

I step on the accelerator hard. The engine roars to life.

With a sound like a beast’s howl, the vehicle tore relentlessly across the black asphalt road. The route requisitioned by the Military Government Command for transporting military supplies and troops was completely empty.

Thud! The car shook violently as it hit a deep pothole. Lucia, sitting in the passenger seat, momentarily lifted off before being thrown back down onto the seat.

After passing the checkpoint and turning the steering wheel, I finally began to see our destination. I parked the car at a spot that clearly wasn’t meant for vehicles, then quickly jumped out and sprinted down the road.

The destination was the collapsed underground waterway where the battle had taken place.

Where Camilla and Francesca were.

“Stop, stop! You can’t go in there right now!”

I pushed past the security forces blocking the way and rushed to where the two of them were.

When my footsteps finally halted and the troops who had followed me prevented me from going any further, what I saw was patients coughing as if their lungs would burst, spitting blood onto the floor, and Imperial troops dressed in protective gear.

Episode 12 – The Strongest Magician in History

It didn’t take long for the security forces surrounding us to withdraw.

An officer who had received contact from a superior unit came running and dispersed the troops who were trying to restrain the trespasser. That trespasser was me.

With Lucia by my side, I could essentially roam the scene without anyone stopping me.

“Camilla! Francesca!”

Sensing something ominous about the atmosphere at the scene, I immediately set out to find Camilla and Francesca.

Fortunately, finding the two was easy. The combination of intense red hair and purple hair stood out wherever they went.

“Ah, you’re here?”

“You’ve arrived, Officer.”

I met the two inside a military tent set up at the scene.

Camilla was crouched in front of a magic-powered heater, while Francesca sat in a chair with her legs crossed. The inside of the tent, made of sturdy material that blocked out the cold and snow, seemed detached from the chaotic world outside.

In other words, it looked completely peaceful.

“Are you both safe?”

I asked with a bewildered expression, to which Camilla responded.

“As you can see? We’re both fine. For now, at least.”

Camilla shrugged, spreading her arms wide.

Right after, Lucia rushed into the tent, frantically turning her head to check on the two. As she quickly fixed her disheveled blonde hair while invoking holy power, the sounds of violent coughing and retching seeped through the slightly open tent door behind her.

I pointed my thumb toward the outside and bluntly said:

“It’s absolute chaos out there.”

People coughing like they had COVID and were about to die, suddenly spitting up blood. And not just one or two—from what I glimpsed, there were already dozens. Plus, for some reason, soldiers in full protective gear were walking around.

“What exactly happened?”

“Underground.”

Francesca, who had been sitting with her eyes closed and legs crossed, slowly unfolded her arms.

“The problem started from underground.”

“Underground? What do you mean?”

“I’ll explain the details. But before that…”

Her slender fingers pulled open the tent flap. After surveying the situation outside, Francesca scanned everyone’s faces with a serious expression and began:

“Let’s move somewhere else first.”

*

Even in the brief moment I spoke with Francesca, the situation seemed to have worsened. People coughing with their entire bodies shaking could now be seen everywhere. Those in more serious condition were either coughing up blood-tinged sputum or vomiting whole mouthfuls of bloody fluid.

While the patients’ symptoms were generally similar, their identities varied.

Some were firefighters, others were military police. Occasionally, there were also people in safety shoes and work clothes or civilian clothes mixed in the crowd.

Among them were some who appeared to have difficulty moving, and whenever such people were spotted, soldiers in protective gear would take them somewhere. I couldn’t tell where they were being taken or why, but the situation here was clearly serious at a glance.

After leaving the tent, I led the group to find the safest possible location.

There, I was able to hear the full story of what had happened.

“So the workers who went underground suddenly started showing symptoms?”

“Yes. They were the first ones to exhibit symptoms.”

The place where we are now is one of the major cities in the north.

Here, Lucia and I found a demon inhabiting a nun’s body, and with the support of Veronica and the Church, we fought against demons.

In the process, the underground waterway collapsed, causing the ground in the area to sink and buildings to collapse. It was the aftermath of the battle, and I knew there had been several casualties.

What we just saw was the scene of the recovery operation at the collapsed underground waterway.

“Actually, ‘recovery’ isn’t quite the right word. For the Military Government Command, finding the demon buried down there is far more important than restoring damaged infrastructure. That was the primary purpose of the operation from the beginning.”

Francesca swept up her hair and spoke in a cynical tone.

“The first people to show symptoms were the workers who went underground for the operation. They were tasked with clearing away debris like piles of stones so cranes could lift them.”

At that point, Francesca suddenly frowned.

“But when the next shift of workers came up after the rotation, their condition seemed off.”

“In what way?”

“They were constantly sweating cold sweat, couldn’t walk straight and kept staggering. They couldn’t focus during conversations. Sometimes they would stare blankly into space. Then they started coughing and suddenly began collapsing.”

All the workers who came up after finishing their shift reported similar symptoms. Cold sweat pouring like rain, chills, unstable gait and posture, and so on.

Given the severe abnormal climate in the north, these symptoms could be dismissed as fatigue from hard labor and bone-chilling cold, but symptoms like loss of concentration, vomiting, coughing up blood, and fainting could never be attributed to mere fatigue.

That wasn’t the only problem.

“Shortly after the workers who finished their shift collapsed, the workers still operating underground began reporting similar symptoms. Was it the Fire Department? Or the military? I don’t remember which organization they belonged to, but they were personnel deployed by the Military Government Command.”

“And after that?”

“Nothing much happened after that.”

When the rotated workers started showing similar symptoms, the Imperial Army commander in charge of one section of the on-site response headquarters made a decision. He ordered all troops under his command to wear protective gear, sealed off the collapse site, and began controlling the movement of people.

I’ve heard in passing at the Imperial Ministry of Defense that there have been instances of unfamiliar epidemics spreading in the north, and given the precedent of demon tribes attacking in various strange ways, they were able to respond quickly.

“Thanks to that, the number of people showing symptoms seems to have been limited to several dozen. The commander made a wise decision.”

Francesca concluded her explanation in a calm voice.

While I now understood what had happened, questions still lingered in my mind like ink splattered on paper. Why were people showing these symptoms? What had happened underground? And so on.

I racked my brain to figure out the cause of the situation.

Perhaps when the underground waterway collapsed, it damaged a gas pipeline running through the underground, and the workers were coughing up blood due to the leaked gas. I couldn’t rule out the possibility of an epidemic either, but…

“Isn’t it spreading too quickly to be an epidemic?”

Camilla, sitting in the corner, swung her legs as if on a swing.

“I’m not an expert, but I’ve been to various places with my sister as part of Doctors Without Borders or the Red Cross. While symptoms vary from disease to disease, if we assume it’s an epidemic, the current situation where only workers who were underground are showing symptoms doesn’t make sense.”

“That’s true…”

Having rejected the epidemic theory, Camilla proposed a new hypothesis: chemical leakage.

She couldn’t specify how the chemicals had leaked or what substance they had been exposed to that caused such symptoms, but it sounded much more plausible than a sudden epidemic outbreak.

“So could it be some kind of chemical leaking from underground?”

But,

“No.”

Francesca shook her head, flatly rejecting Camilla’s speculation.

Camilla pouted, looking dejected, but opinions were useless in the face of facts. Francesca placed her hand on the armrest and slowly pressed her fingers against her temple as she began:

“It’s probably not gas or chemicals. Nor an epidemic. Rather than these rational, common-sense explanations, the cause is likely something more… akin to superstition.”

“Superstition? What do you mean?”

“Think about what’s sleeping down there.”

“…”

Though no one said it out loud, everyone except Camilla knew what was buried underground here.

A demon.

“Are you saying that’s the cause? Are you serious right now?”

“Women have good intuition, Officer. Especially magicians with developed spiritual senses. Haven’t you seen it once before at the department store?”

Francesca’s words automatically drew my gaze. At the end of my line of sight was Camilla, swinging her legs back and forth.

As our eyes met and she gave a slight smile, I turned my head back to look at Francesca.

“Yes, I know magicians have developed spiritual senses. But do you have any evidence?”

“Evidence…”

Her eyelids lowered, hiding a pair of violet eyes.

“I don’t think I need to go through the trouble of explaining that.”

When Francesca opened her eyes again, her gaze suddenly fell on one person.

“Isn’t that right, Saint Lucia?”

“…”

“That silver cross you showed us last time, do you happen to have it with you now?”

“Yes, it’s right here.”

Lucia, who had been sitting quietly, showed the cross hanging around her neck. A silver cross. It was one of the Church’s sacred objects that, while not precise, could vaguely detect evil energy.

After confirming the cross glinting in the light, Francesca nodded.

“I’ll explain the details separately later. For now, wouldn’t it be helpful to try holding that cross near those showing symptoms to see what we can find out?”

“You’re not wrong.”

Lucia nodded, agreeing with Francesca’s suggestion.

“Nothing to lose by trying.”

She gently lifted her golden hair and removed the cross from her neck, then gripped the silver cross tightly in one hand and stood up.

“Let’s go check.”

With a serious expression, Lucia left the tent to scan the symptomatic people with the cross. However, for safety reasons, nearby clergy members dissuaded her, so an Imperial Army officer in protective gear took the cross on behalf of the saint and went to find the patients.

And shortly after.

The cross held out by the officer in heavy protective gear had turned so black it was hard to believe it was originally silver.

This cross told us one fact:

“…”

The demon buried under the rubble was very much alive.

And thriving, at that.

*

Lucia’s cross had detected evil energy.

Whether this malevolent energy came from the demon, from the necromancer’s corpse, or from residue left at the scene was unknown, but it was clear that this evil energy had turned the site into chaos.

“If evil energy is the cause, that’s somewhat fortunate. If it had been an epidemic, whew, man…”

Veronica, who had rushed to the scene after hearing the news, arrived with clergy from the diocese.

Driving what appeared to be an Imperial Army small tactical vehicle from who knows where, she leaned against the hood at an angle and surveyed the scene. All while wearing inexplicably fancy sunglasses.

“The Military Government Command is wondering what to do next. What should I tell them?”

“Hmm, it doesn’t seem contagious for now. Evil energy can harm people, but it doesn’t have contagious properties! Tell them to control the site and prevent people from going underground for the time being.”

“Until when?”

“Until the purification work is complete, of course.”

Fortunately, the cause of the unfortunate incident at the site was determined not to be an epidemic.

Veronica prepared to deploy a large number of diocesan clergy for prayers for the patients and large-scale purification work.

The purification work halted the recovery operation of the collapsed underground waterway, which drew protests from some officials of the Military Government, but when she countered by asking what they would do if someone died from being sent to a place filled with evil energy, they finally shut up.

Military Governor Mikhail provided all necessary supplies and personnel for the purification work without reservation. The Imperial Army set up tents at the site, classified the patients, and mobilized military chaplains and magicians to assist the diocesan clergy.

“Is it all over now?”

I asked Veronica, grimacing at her attempt to look stylish by wearing sunglasses in the dead of winter.

“Hmm…”

“Why do you say that? You’re making me nervous.”

“Honestly, I’m not sure from here on out. Dealing with demons is never easy… I’m badgering the Inquisition for any information they might have, so just wait. Those folks will find a solution.”

“When?”

“Well, sometime, I suppose?”

“…”

At her joke that didn’t even sound like a joke, I made a face like I’d bitten into something sour, and Veronica poked my side with a playful expression.

“It’ll be fine. How much worse could things get here?”

She probably meant it as an attempt to lighten the mood, but I couldn’t bring myself to laugh. Somehow, it felt like her words might become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Sure enough.

Not long after, I received news that patients had started appearing among the Imperial Army troops stationed at the site to manage the situation.

It was just three days before the New Year.