Ch.342342. Destiny (8)

# Corrosion’s Feltiburgos

While Ashpern was annoying with his rampant spellcasting until his weakness was revealed, if one were to name the most dangerous case for humans right now, it would undoubtedly be Feltiburgos.

Its characteristic is the viscous corrosive magical energy it emits like poison, but it’s not actually poison.

If it were poison, it would slowly intoxicate its target, weakening them until death. But the magical energy Feltiburgos emits isn’t aimed at being a lethal weapon—its goal is to corrode magical circuits. It waits and waits until the target collapses and can no longer control their body.

And when the moment comes that they lose control… Feltiburgos reveals its true nature.

The corroded magical circuit takes away life while simultaneously losing its original form to create a nucleus, which is reborn as Feltiburgos’s seed and advances toward other living beings.

The corrupted life form devours another life form. Then the life form with the corroded magical circuit is revived and moves by Feltiburgos’s spell formula.

In other words, everything that has been corroded so far attacks living beings to corrupt them. Even if you kill them, as long as the nucleus remains intact, they continuously recover by receiving magical energy from the main body.

Therefore, Feltiburgos’s power integrates all life forms with magical circuits into a single entity called Feltiburgos. Spreading indiscriminately without distinguishing between friend or foe, it resembles Shanberesh’s plague.

The endlessly spreading corrosion would continue until it devours the entire continent, but even Feltiburgos wasn’t without flaws.

The existence of a resting period.

Like Ashpern, its magical power isn’t infinite, so after exhausting its strength, it enters a resting period. Therefore, Feltiburgos also needs time to draw up that much magical power, and during that time, it curls up like a turtle to protect itself.

In that state, nothing can stop Feltiburgos. However, by exploiting this cycle and engraving a sealing formula, one can delay the time of its release.

That’s why Professor Muniher tried to seal Feltiburgos first, rather than Ashpern.

However, not long after Ashpern was subjugated, Feltiburgos broke through the sealing formula Renias had engraved by its own power. This meant some variable existed. Junon hadn’t taken his eyes off this question for three days.

‘It’s time.’

Soon, there was a knock at the door.

This time was the only maintenance period before the final battle; few people would enter the command room.

Click.

“Brother.”

“Senior.”

Junon’s eyes narrowed as soon as he saw Cain and Lumia.

He nodded, and Cain took out a broken staff fragment.

“As you can see from this, among the corrupted humans that Duke Düsen dealt with, one was definitely Marquis Flocan.”

“Marquis Flocan.”

The head of Mirpark and the de facto leader of the noble faction. He was thought to have escaped during the Mirpark blockade. The fact that his traces remained here inevitably meant he had been corrupted by Feltiburgos.

“Were Count Nevel or other Mirpark nobles there too?”

“Yes. Their facial features weren’t preserved because your Anti-Cast shattered the nuclei, but their possessions remained intact. That’s how we could identify them.”

“Hmm…”

The corrupted humans Düsen encountered were all Mirpark nobles.

Then the enemies they would face next would be the Mirpark Roadschool faction that had plotted rebellion after becoming Mains, and the private soldiers of the Mirpark nobles.

It seemed impossible to know why Feltiburgos had awakened, but…

“And Lumia’s side also had something like this.”

“No, Cain.”

“Pardon?”

He explained that similar noble items were found on Lumia’s side as well, but Cain’s explanation was wrong.

“Not ‘also’ from Lumia’s side. These were found only where Lumia went.”

Cain looked at Lumia with an unspoken question, but she just shook her head.

The two items might appear to be possessions that nobles would carry, with no significant difference to the untrained eye. But this was precisely the means to prove why Feltiburgos had awakened.

“Tell each unit. We’re changing the military formation.”

There were only about three hours left until deployment.

.

.

.

“Now!!”

As soon as they neutralized them, the magical beasts scattered and tried to turn into liquid. Not missing this opportunity, the humans changed formation and charged.

When Feltiburgos’s spell formula was broken by the close-range spell destruction technique, the corpses that were dissolving into liquid no longer melted away.

“Really… Anti-Cast…!”

With only about three hours left until deployment, the news of changing the military formation had completely altered the battle formation and tactics, causing some anxiety. But they confirmed with their own eyes that Junon’s choice was not wrong.

Those disgusting magical beasts that kept reviving no matter how many times they were killed finally fell.

The real battle hadn’t even begun yet. The Principality’s army had only eliminated a few beasts patrolling near the front line, but maintaining such morale wasn’t bad at all.

However.

“Huh? Why did it suddenly get so dark?”

“I don’t know. Is it going to rain?”

“…”

“Hey? What are you looking at?”

“Th-there… that…”

“What are you looking at with that kind of expres— Gasp!”

The soldiers who had just been using Anti-Cast to deal with the magical beasts one by one were once again gripped by fear at the enormous shadow blocking the sun.

“F-Feltiburgos!!!”

It was a being that should have been in Lebrant.

***

Meanwhile, Michelle went to Junon and handed him a memo.

“This is…”

“It’s what the Lakans sent to the Sirens, with my interpretation added. Since other students are also there, why don’t we wait a little longer?”

The reason Junon had initially attempted to provide supplies was because he knew well that they couldn’t face Feltiburgos in that state.

Even if they couldn’t get help from the Sirens, the fate of the Principality would be determined by whether they could hold out a little longer until reinforcements arrived from the Empire.

But what if additional reinforcements arrived at this point?

What if the necessary forces were strengthened at this crucial moment?

There could hardly be a better stroke of luck.

If they waited for the Imperial army to arrive, the Principality would already be reduced to ruins. Unlike before, they now had to directly subjugate Feltiburgos, so receiving support was much better.

“So that’s why Aris wasn’t around?”

“Yes. She needs to bring them here personally. She’ll send me a magical signal when they get close. The estimated time was… about an hour.”

“Good. Then if it’s about an hour…”

—RUMBLE!!!

At that moment, an unidentified tremor shook the ground.

The two immediately headed toward the source of the tremor. Outside, they were currently training to use Anti-Cast in actual combat, eliminating the magical beasts’ reconnaissance teams and attacking corrupted humans without hesitation.

There was no way such a sound could occur. The same went for such a strong air pressure.

—AAAAARGH!!

Along with the soldiers’ screams, a huge shadow came into view.

And then.

BOOM!! KABOOM!!

All sorts of magic spells were raining down on the Principality’s army.

“This is…!”

It was unmistakably magic from corrupted humans.

***

“Son. Are you trying to kill your father? Why are you raising your sword against me…!”

“F-Father…”

“Brother. You always said that older brothers are supposed to let their younger siblings win. But… but why were you casting a spell?”

“Ugh…!”

“How can you, who called yourself a friend and comrade, look at me with such eyes? You abandoned me!”

“Urgh, uuuurgh…!”

Sometimes there are truths better left unknown. They had withheld this information from the soldiers, judging it too early to reveal, as the shock might lower their morale.

But it backfired.

With few exceptions, everyone thought they would only be facing magical beasts by breaking Feltiburgos’s spell formula contained in the nuclei… but what stood before them were humans.

Humans corrupted by Feltiburgos.

There’s a natural resistance to attacking fellow humans. Even though the corruption is visibly apparent, it’s disturbing to have to stab and kill those who speak like normal people, with the same habits, voices, and appearances.

It’s even more painful when you have to raise your weapon against someone you once knew and had connections with.

To make matters worse, the truth they had planned to reveal after eliminating the magical beasts and advancing was now exposed at this already confusing moment, causing them to be stunned by the premature shock.

In the midst of this.

—FLASH!

A white light swept by, obscuring the corrupted humans behind a cloud of dust. A girl with snow-white silver hair asked:

“Everyone, remember what the commander said about returning alive? Don’t you remember?”

The words Junon had spoken hours ago when he stood on the platform.

“If they truly are people precious to you, you must liberate them from Feltiburgos. If you die here without fighting… more of you will point swords and cast spells at each other. Is that what you want?”

The hesitant soldiers were silent for a moment but soon gripped their weapons firmly and stood up.

They aligned their formation and relied on each other.

And recalling memories from the past, they spoke aloud:

“My father would never tell me to die!!”

“My brother has let me win many times before! Sorry, but I can’t let you win this time…!”

“This life was saved by that guy. You’re not him, no matter how much you look like him!!”

Their will to fight was rekindled.

They didn’t stop fighting until the corrupted bodies finally crumbled and disappeared with a splashing sound.

As a result:

“Those fakes. They’re absolutely, absolutely not the people they were when alive! I don’t know about habits, but their magic is completely different!”

“Even those who were better with weapons than magic are using spells. That’s a complete contradiction!”

“Right, they only look the same! Don’t be confused!”

Feltiburgos’s poisonous energy that had been deeply infiltrating the Principality’s army began to be pushed back.