Ch.38Light (3)

*Screech-!*

A sharp shadow cuts through the wind as it advances.

The pitch-black becomes a thin line, slicing through the moment, and only its elegant trajectory embroiders the empty space.

The tip of the sword suddenly cuts through flesh.

*Slash-*

Following that, the head of the charging monster splits in half.

It doesn’t even leave behind a momentary scream. Pieces of the lifeless beast scatter across the floor.

Black, rotten blood splatters at his feet.

Narrow eyes quietly observe this death.

“Hmm.”

A short, nasal sound.

By now, the surroundings are littered with wolf corpses sliced into dozens of pieces.

Each one had been mercilessly cut apart.

The boy shakes off the residue clinging to his sword.

Though the laboratory was filthy with blood, not a single stain had splashed onto the snake’s clothes.

A truly overwhelming scene.

A chilling bloodlust spreads through the cool air.

“My, my… Are they perhaps frightened?”

The mutants hesitate to attack.

Seeing the monsters’ wavering, the boy smiles as if amused.

It was the mockery of a terrible predator.

*Keeeeek-!*

Perhaps falling for this provocation.

Several creatures at the front lunged forward, swinging their tentacles, but a slash came flying as if it had been waiting for them.

The shadow devours the monsters’ ugliness.

*Thud…*

Following a rather weak bursting sound, holes simultaneously appear in the wolves’ chests.

A single strike that carved out only their hearts.

The beasts, having lost their unique life rhythm, soon collapse.

He was handling them like toys.

“These failures certainly lack refinement, as expected.”

Creating chimeras based on beasts.

Normally, the focus would be on extreme vitality, with modifications allowing them to survive even with their heads cut off.

After all, the goal was to create immortal magical beasts.

But these wolves were different.

They clearly possessed ferocious power, but their vitality seemed significantly lower than usual.

It felt like someone had mixed things without following standard protocols.

It seemed more like someone’s pastime.

“If they were bored, they should have just read a book… I never understand cultists.”

The snake clicks his tongue softly.

After wearing a regretful expression for a while, he suddenly turns his head to look toward his companions.

There, girls were fighting hard against the mutants.

*Boom-! Thud, Crack-!*

The rather brutal sounds were impressive.

The two were responding calmly.

Amelia would keep approaching creatures at bay, while Lezia would intercept with basic magic.

If there was one disappointing thing…

“Hey commoner! Can’t you summon that precious familiar this time either?”

“I-I’m sorry. I’ve been trying continuously…”

“You’re completely useless!!”

“I-I’m so sorry!”

“Forget it! Get out of my way and stop being a hindrance!”

It was that the summoning was causing problems again.

Perhaps her heart was shaken by the sudden attack, causing her incantations to repeatedly fail.

Finally giving up, Lezia prepares basic magic instead.

“What do you think you’re going to accomplish with such attacks…!”

Perhaps thinking it useless.

Ameila harshly rebukes her while deploying mana.

Dense snowflakes bloom in the empty air.

The boy, quietly observing the scene, soon mutters with a bitter smile.

“…It seems still difficult for her, as expected.”

She appeared to have a long way to go before awakening.

The snake calmly moves forward. At the same time, he flicks his finger toward the mutants threatening the girls.

A bursting sound grazes the moment.

*Snap-!*

“Now.”

The wolves baring their teeth float into the air.

As they struggle pathetically, dripping slime, ice arrows soon fly from somewhere and pierce their bodies.

The snake’s and the vain one’s gazes cross.

Ameila breathes heavily as if exhausted.

“Haa, haa… They really keep coming endlessly.”

“You seem to be struggling.”

“I understand you want to provoke me, but could you refrain in this situation?”

“I was genuinely concerned.”

“Hardly.”

Her brow furrows elegantly.

Deep irritation is evident in her blue eyes.

“Those monsters. They seem to have been created in this basement, don’t they?”

“I think so too.”

“Chimera experiments… It seems we’re involved in no ordinary matter.”

“It’s knowledge that has been forbidden in the Empire for a long time. It seems they were conducting research in this space where no one could find them.”

“This is terrible in many ways.”

“Hehe.”

It was a troublesome situation.

But it wasn’t entirely hopeless.

“Still, we should be able to handle this much.”

“We have such skilled people gathered, after all. Miss Lezia also seems to be adapting.”

“As always.”

The wolves were simply numerous.

Their individual strength wasn’t great.

Any decent Gallimar student could handle them all calmly.

Ameila loads mana at her fingertips.

“We should quickly clean up and look for an exit.”

“I’ll draw the wolves’ attention.”

“The commoner and I will support with ranged attacks. Direct confrontation seems inefficient.”

“I’ll be counting on you.”

*Thud-!*

The snake leaps forward with a brief smile.

As the boy jumps into the mutants, the two deploy magic from a distance.

As they continued their extermination…

*Rumble-!*

Suddenly, a massive vibration colors the basement.

“…?!”

Was it an earthquake?

It was such a heavy tremor that maintaining balance was difficult.

The sudden roar makes their ears go numb.

*Rumble-! Rumble-!*

The sound comes from the ceiling of the laboratory.

A bursting sound like something breaking and being crushed.

The children raise their heads in confusion.

The next moment.

*Crash-!*

With an intense impact, part of the ceiling collapses.

A hole opens with a wide diameter, and something unidentifiable falls through.

A massive silhouette.

Below it are the mutants and…

“Oh.”

The narrow-eyed boy is standing there.

Before he can react, it crushes everything around.

*Rumble-!*

Thick dust rises.

Broken fragments scatter in all directions.

It happened in the blink of an eye.

The children, standing in a daze, soon cry out in horror.

Toward the now invisible boy.

“Y-Young Master…?!”

“What is this so suddenly…!”

The children stare at that spot.

The space spreads with distant confusion.

The two, desperately searching for the boy, soon meet the gaze of “something” looking down at them.

Their breath catches.

“……”

It was no coincidence they fell silent simultaneously.

A sticky, alien sensation. It felt as if actual pressure was choking their throats.

Their breathing trembles involuntarily.

<Uaaa… aaa>

Movement that wriggles like a jellyfish.

As if made by stitching together animal intestines, its surface was covered entirely in pale pink.

A repulsive size that seemed to exceed 15 meters.

Tentacles extending in hundreds of branches.

Large and small eyeballs densely embedded all over its body.

<Aaa…>

A mouth positioned in the center.

The body opens in five parts, revealing the interior filled with tightly packed teeth.

An unpleasant breath sweeps through the entire basement.

The distinctive rotten smell of corpses wafts through.

The monster was twisting its body while making strange crying sounds.

<Aaaaa… aaaa!!!>

The entire laboratory shakes with its screams.

[EP5. Midterm Exam]

-Abandoned Laboratory, A Monster That Cannot Laugh-

A monster that cannot laugh.

The boss monster had appeared.

***

Ameila remained frozen, holding her breath.

What met her sight were countless eyes staring at her.

And writhing tentacles.

<Aaaaa… aaaa!!!>

The monster screams with its mouth open.

Between its split body, densely packed teeth are visible. It seemed ready to grind everything to dust.

Ameila couldn’t respond at all.

“……”

Terror that crushes one’s existence.

Just facing it made her consciousness go blank. It was truly an overwhelming presence.

If she let her guard down even for a moment and lost focus.

It felt like her entire body would be crushed.

Lezia beside her was in the same state.

With a face turned pale, she stood frozen, unable to move even a finger.

The two sensed they were at death’s doorstep.

<Aaa… uaa?>

A moment of luck, perhaps.

The monster’s gaze, which had been having a fit, turns elsewhere.

The mutants lying on the floor.

It seemed interested in those who had now become lumps of meat.

It moves its tentacles.

*Slither, slither-!*

It peels the wolves stuck to the ground one by one and puts them into its massive mouth.

It completely chews the raw meat that barely retained its form.

*Crunch, crunch-!*

The sound of bones being crushed that hadn’t been completely pulverized echoes.

It was nauseating just to hear.

<Aaa… uaaa>

Was the Young Master’s body in there too?

It was impossible to know. Among the corpses mashed like meatballs, it was difficult to find the boy.

Death had been instantaneous.

There was no possibility of survival.

With something like that falling directly on his head, he probably departed without even feeling pain.

Ameila couldn’t shake her vacant gaze.

*Crunch, crack, munch-!*

The meal continues greedily.

Watching the scene of blood and flesh splattering, reason grips her mind that had been paralyzed with fear.

Only one thought spreads in her head.

‘I need to escape.’

It was instinct.

The instinct of a living being yearning to survive.

Blue eyes quickly scan the surroundings.

Seeking a way to live.

‘If I run just a little, I can reach the corridor.’

Ameila glances at the exit nearby.

The monster had a massive body.

Though they were in a spacious laboratory now, it would certainly get stuck at the door leading to the corridor.

It seemed the route with the highest probability.

‘The problem is…’

That the monster wouldn’t just stand by and watch.

Based on her current position, it would take about 10 seconds to reach the door.

More than enough time to be caught by those disgusting tentacles.

That’s why she needed it.

Bait that would buy her 10 seconds to reach the door.

“……”

Ameila subtly looks to her right.

There stands a girl with pink hair. Shoulders trembling, perhaps from fear.

A burden that had been irritating her from earlier.

‘Bait.’

If she froze Lezia’s legs now.

While she couldn’t move, if she escaped alone, she could secure some time from the monster.

She wasn’t sure if she could reach the door.

But it was worth trying.

For her, survival had always been the priority.

‘I have no choice.’

Green eyes wavering pitifully.

Though Lezia’s expression, half in tears, tugged at her heart, Ameila decided to ignore it.

She mutters as if hypnotizing herself.

‘Someone has to be sacrificed anyway.’

Someone had to take the role of bait.

To save the other one.

Then naturally, the role of sacrifice should fall to the more useless, lowly being.

Ameila bites her lip firmly.

‘I am a special person.’

Unlike this commoner with no background.

Born with Venatti’s grace, she was in a position praised for her noble bloodline.

There was an unbridgeable difference from the very foundation.

‘I am special… Because I’m special, it will be okay.’

The girl rationalizes her ugliness.

By praising herself, she creates a reason to live, and by belittling others, she creates a reason to use them as bait.

She gathers mana at her slender fingertips.

-May I dare ask why you, Young Lady, desire to be at the top so much?

Why was it?

A question that Judas Snakus had asked echoes in her ear.

At that time, the girl had answered like this:

-Because I excel.

-Unlike a worthless fool like you who has no qualification, I am a person who rightfully should stand in that position.

Her thoughts hadn’t changed since then.

Ameila considered herself a qualified person.

The girl widens her eyes.

Above her blue pupils, a venomous light shines brightly.

‘I will survive.’

She deploys her magic.

Following the temperature dropping coldly, deadly frost flowers bloom in her palm.

She feels Lezia’s confused gaze.

-Ameila.

-You may forget everything else, but you must remember this one thing as you live.

Because I am a special person.

Because I am a valuable person.

She steels her heart.

-Light… is only valuable when there is someone to illuminate.

Even if she had to throw the person beside her as bait, she would definitely survive.

Yes.

That was certainly it.

She had certainly resolved to do so, but…

“Commoner.”

“Young Lady…?”

Why couldn’t she act as she thought?

“Run to the door right now.”

The villainess speaks harshly.

To the protagonist standing with a hardened expression.

“I’ll try to buy time here… At least you should escape alive.”

“W-What…?”

“I won’t be able to hold out for long.”

A voice that rings calmly.

The sharp tone was a means to erase the trembling.

*Shing-*

In her hand now is a spear made of ice.

The girl twirls it and takes one step at a time toward the monster.

Behind her wafts a subtle winter scent.

“It’s okay.”

Ameila mutters again as if hypnotizing herself.

“Because I am a special person.”

Right after.

The girl rushed toward the monster, swinging her spear.

Meanwhile.

The narrow-eyed one had been watching all these scenes.

As if finding them quite interesting.