Ch.303Episode 12 – The Strongest Mage in History

A fishy stench vibrates through the gray city.

The melted snow turns to water, seeping between the paving blocks. A wind blows, mingling the damp smell of earth with the nauseating scent of sewers.

The north wind descends from the sky with snow-white flakes, carrying winter’s distinctive dryness.

After confirming the corpse, I swallowed hard.

“…Judging by the lack of uniform, not a soldier. Someone from the Magic Tower.”

The fallen magician’s body was horrific. Red flesh, pulverized with broom fragments embedded in it, looked like mashed potato salad.

Lucia approached and asked cautiously.

“Is treatment… possible…?”

“It’s too late.”

I stood up, straightening my bent knees. Raising my gun barrel toward the sky, I surveyed the surroundings.

“Stay alert and begin the search.”

The area was quiet. Only the sound of wind and distant military broadcasts from afar occupied the night in Orbentsk.

This scene, so unlike a city of hundreds of thousands, repeats itself.

Except for refugees crouching on basement stairs, watching with terror-stricken eyes, the number of people we encountered during our search could be counted on one hand.

Amid the desolate echoes, we silently traversed the ash-gray city covered in snow.

As we crossed alleys where stray dogs roamed, passed through barren roads and bus stops, and moved past homes where light filtered through curtains—

Bloody footprints entered my field of vision.

Episode 12 – The Most Powerful Magician in History

When tension and stress dominate the body, you notice things distinctly different from normal.

Things you would have passed by without thought suddenly register in your senses.

The wind brushing your ears, the faint footsteps tapping the ground, the metallic sounds of loosely joined parts, the back view of someone disappearing into a crowd, the subtle scent of unknown origin, the license plates of passing cars…

Even swallowing through a dry throat doesn’t dull these sharpened senses.

The winter air touching my skin feels incredibly vivid.

I had the illusion that my consciousness was being pulled out through the back of my neck and ears, as if someone were yanking my hair from behind.

“……”

The red marks on the snow-white path were so intense they were clearly visible even in the deep darkness.

“Blood tracks.”

“Could it be traces of a demon?”

As Francesca asked while placing her hand on her rune sword’s hilt, Camilla frowned and added:

“I don’t know about anything else, but this is terribly ominous. Just looking at it makes my head hurt and my stomach queasy.”

My brain blanched the moment I saw the bloody footprints.

The brain, tightly gripped by tension and stress, turned white as if bleach had been poured over it.

The footprints extended toward the commercial complex across the road.

Following those red tracks, I quietly began to walk.

The small alleyway between buildings was dark.

Without the faint moonlight, it would have been difficult to distinguish objects directly ahead. But even in the thick darkness, some things remained clearly visible.

Dried, dark red blood on cracked tiles, fallen flowerpots spilling soil and plants, scattered items presumably belonging to homeless people.

Though I wasn’t certain, I felt we were on the right track.

That thought soon became reality.

While leading the way, I heard a noise and raised my hand to stop the others.

“What’s wrong? Is there something ahead?”

“Shh…”

As soon as I placed my finger on my lips, Camilla fell silent. The street, devoid of audio, was quiet as death.

After a brief, solemn silence during which everyone concentrated on listening, an indistinguishable faint sound began to reach us.

It didn’t take long to recognize that the sound was something voraciously chewing and swallowing.

“……”

With my back against the building’s exterior wall, I peeked around the corner.

My eyes adjusted to the darkness instantly.

In the thick gloom, far away, I spotted a figure crouched low. The figure was hunched on the ground like a stray dog, using its front and hind legs. Similar proportioned figures were scattered around.

The crouched figure was making smacking sounds as it devoured something with its face pressed to the ground.

I didn’t need to see more.

“Camilla.”

Aiming my rifle at the figure, I quietly called Camilla’s name.

At that moment, flames erupted from thin air.

The fire streaked across Orbentsk’s night sky, driving away the darkness.

The area brightened in an instant, and the figure reacted to the sudden commotion.

Its black eyes met mine as it hastily raised its head. In the flickering crimson light, I clearly saw its blood-smeared face and the red flesh stuck between its teeth.

At that exact moment, I pulled the trigger hard.

-BANG!

The sharp gunshot raced through the snow-covered gray city.

*

On Orbentsk’s dreary streets, I received the falling snow directly on my body.

My optic nerves, extending to my cerebrum, transmitted every bit of incoming information to my brain without omission.

Snowflakes turning to slush upon touching my gloved hand gripping the cover, the gun barrel jerking upward with the explosion, the demon hit by the bullet rolling on the ground beyond the scope.

How it broke through the seal, what it was plotting here—none of that mattered.

What mattered was that a demon was right in front of me.

And that I had a weapon in my hand capable of giving it a taste of pain.

Repeatedly pulling the trigger, I shouted at the top of my lungs:

“Get that bastard!”

As if responding to my call, Camilla gritted her teeth and swung her arm.

Flames bloomed as her spotless hand cut through the air.

The fiercely burning flames struck the demon directly.

-WHOOSH!

A bizarre howl erupted. The demon wailed like a soul fallen into hellfire.

Hearing this grotesque cry for the first time, Camilla covered her ears with both hands.

“Ugh…!”

“Step back, Hero.”

Amid the terrible screams, a gentle voice was heard. At that moment, a vial flew toward the demon suffering in the flames.

Francesca, who had thrown the potion high into the air, swung her rune sword.

The blue slash cutting through the air cleanly bisected the glass vial at its center.

-CRACK!

Freed from its glass confinement, the solution scattered freely. However, even a potion containing mysterious principles couldn’t defy the laws of physics.

The potion, moving forward with inertial force, fell to the ground due to gravity.

The liquid that escaped the vial formed a membrane as it flew in a parabolic arc, eventually becoming a large net that enveloped the demon.

Francesca didn’t stop there but pressed the attack even harder.

-SWOOSH! SWOOSH!

Each time the rune sword was swung, light illuminated the characters engraved on the blue blade. The fierce slashes cut through the air, wounding the demon’s flesh.

As Francesca’s fierce attack continued, I finally got a proper look at the demon while replacing the magazine.

Its appearance was beyond what could be described as shabby.

The once robust physique, hardened by rigorous exorcist work, had withered to skin and bones. The face, which had been handsome even without grooming, was now gaunt with prominent cheekbones, and the blackened eyes visible between sunken eyelids sent chills down my spine.

The once glossy hair had faded to resemble withered seaweed strands. Worse still, patches of scalp were visible like a cancer patient’s.

The skin hung loosely on the bones. With skeletal limbs, a hunched back like a hunchback, and only a few strands of hair remaining, it resembled the creature corrupted by the ring’s power in that movie.

I wasn’t the only one who thought so; Camilla, who had been grimacing, jumped in surprise and pointed at the demon.

“W-what is that Gollum-like monster?”

“It’s a demon!”

“That’s a demon? I’d believe it if you said it was a monster from ‘Kevin in the Woods’! When you said demon, I was thinking of Constantine!”

Click! After pushing the bolt forward, I scolded Camilla.

“Cut the nonsense and fight!”

Bang! The muzzle began spitting fire again.

As pain-filled screams echoed, Camilla, who had finally come to her senses, conjured flames and hurled fireballs at the demon.

Francesca, Camilla, and I attacked with all our might. The flames burned its skin, and potions made with deadly poison festered its wounds, poisoning it. Bullets consecrated with holy water made from St. Balthasar’s boiled bones didn’t kill the demon but dealt significant damage.

We took advantage of the surprise attack to land as many effective hits as possible before it could respond.

The key to this demon subjugation was to kill it in the most certain and quickest way. For this purpose, numerous countries had united around the Empire, the Church, and the Magic Tower.

For the plan to succeed, forces capable of definitively eliminating the demon must gather. Therefore, our first goal was to hold out until reinforcements like Veronica arrived. Now that we’d sent a visible signal, they would soon come swarming like a pack of dogs.

Though we were only four, it was a perfectly achievable goal.

-BANG! BANG! BANG!

-Click…!

As I was firing, the loud gunshots ceased, replaced by a tiny sound of parts colliding. I’d run out of bullets.

I quickly dropped the empty magazine. Holding the gun with one hand, I found a new magazine with the other. Just as I finished reloading and tried to aim at the demon again:

“Look out!”

Francesca’s scream-like warning snapped me to attention. In the brief moment I’d diverted my attention, the demon had disappeared.

It hadn’t missed the small opening. Like Spider-Man climbing a building wall, the demon had pressed its body close to the ground with its limbs, and was now lunging at me, propelled by its hind legs.

My body froze momentarily at the snake-like movement targeting its prey. Though I belatedly aimed my gun at its maw, its face had already come past the barrel.

A revolting smell of corpses wafted from its open mouth. Just as its blackened teeth were about to tear my face off—

A fist connected with the demon’s face.

-THWACK!

A dull sound like breaking bones struck my eardrums. The demon, hit in the face, flew back and tumbled on the ground with a crash.

The person who had punched the demon was none other than Lucia.

Having appeared somehow to shield me, she brushed the snow from her blonde hair and sighed with relief.

“I wasn’t too late this time either.”

Turning around, Lucia smiled at me. On her fist that had pushed back her hair was a gleaming silver knuckle.

“Good work, everyone.”

With tension suddenly released, I laughed hollowly and asked her:

“…Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

Lucia nodded with a gentle smile.

Then, taking out a thick Bible from her waist, she added:

FWOOSH!

“Now I’ll prevent it from rampaging any further.”

A snow-white light began to flow from the opened Bible.