Ch.506Reverse Summoning Association

Valkers’ final strategy seemed to be begging for his life. Just like all villains do when cornered.

“Gaaagh…! Kuhuk, huaaak…! The formation of Reverberating Sound is maintained through me! I can also change the content of the brainwashing!”

“So you’re saying you’re the mastermind.”

I stuck my dagger into his eye socket and stirred it around.

“GYAAAAAAAK-! Keu, keuuuk…! Listen! I can erase their nightmares, the memories of the past few days, and return them to their normal lives! Only I can do this!”

“So what?”

Even with his limbs torn apart and his eyes melting from the holy fire, Valkers persistently attempted to negotiate.

I was in the process of skinning him while waiting for fifteen minutes to pass. Valkers’ upper body was already completely flayed, exposing the bright red flesh underneath.

“Kuuuuuuk…! If you want to save them! Shouldn’t you save their minds too! I’m telling you how!”

“You talk well. So you’re asking me to spare your life?”

As if that’s possible. It was a tempting offer, but there was no guarantee that Valkers’ boasts were true.

Even if they were true… it wouldn’t change anything.

Valkers had to die. As long as he lived, he would never stop his evil deeds. If I let him go here, the same things would just happen somewhere else.

Never negotiate with hostage-takers. That was a soldier’s iron rule.

“Then go ahead and try. Erase their memories and return them to normal. Right now.”

“And then you’ll kill me! First swear to your gods that you’ll let me go…!”

…He’s not falling for it.

I had planned to pretend to release him if he erased the townspeople’s memories, then cut him to pieces. But he’s too clever for his own good.

Since I don’t worship any gods, oaths mean nothing to me, but with Lacy present, I couldn’t break a promise sworn in a god’s name.

“That’s unfortunate. I can’t grant such a request… How about this instead? I’ll slice off your flesh piece by piece until you feel like returning them to normal. Wouldn’t that be much simpler?”

“Ha. Do you think I, Valkers, would succumb to mere physical pain…!”

Quite the bravado for someone who was screaming and writhing in pain.

“Well, let’s test that, shall we?”

I pressed my dagger against Valkers’ groin.

“First, this unnecessarily large piece of meat.”

– Squelch.

With the sensation of soft flesh being cut away, the blade of my dagger plunged into his groin.

“GWAAAAAAAAAK!”

“Why don’t you save your screams? You’ll strain your voice!”

I carefully excised Valkers’ last leg, moving the dagger blade up and down like a saw.

“GIAAAAK! GWOEEEEEOK!”

Valkers twisted his body, bleeding as if he were expelling ten years’ worth of menstrual blood at once. The smell of excrement stung my nose. For someone who claimed he wouldn’t succumb to physical pain, it was quite an unseemly display.

When Lacy’s holy fire cauterized the cut surface, Valkers convulsed again with another scream.

“Kuuuuk….”

“Well, feeling like changing your mind yet?”

“Huk… huk…! This much… is nothing…!”

Despite sweating profusely, Valkers painfully pulled up the corners of his mouth in a provocative manner, as if this was nothing.

…Something’s off.

“Shall I burn him some more?”

“No, wait a moment.”

Lacy, her eyes sparkling like a child on a ride, was raising a small holy fire.

I reached out to stop her while putting a cigarette in my mouth, pondering the source of my unease.

Valkers. I thought he would hide, but he came out boldly and held his ground against me until he was defeated. As soon as he was subdued, he tried to negotiate by offering to erase the townspeople’s memories.

…Come to think of it, if it were possible to change the content of the brainwashing, couldn’t he have turned them all into idiots or made them commit suicide?

It would have been better to threaten me with that. The fact that he didn’t suggests… it was probably a lie. Just desperate begging for his life.

No. Wait. More importantly, did he have any reason to beg for his life…?

By the time his groin was cut off, Valkers must have understood that I had no intention of letting him live.

So his best option would have been to provoke me into killing him quickly. He could only be resurrected through the “Impure Legacy” if he died within the next ten minutes.

Enduring torture and stalling for time like this would only reduce the effective time of his power.

Right. In other words, this bastard had no reason to hold out like this!

I identified the source of my unease. No doubt about it. He was stalling for time right now!

But why? Why would he endure such terrible pain, reducing his chances of revival, just to buy time? What would change by stalling?

“Lord Median…?”

“Just a moment, I’m thinking. Something’s strange.”

He couldn’t be expecting Eljur to come rescue him… could he? No, that woman couldn’t possibly defeat Ceylon.

Does he have other reinforcements? No, that’s not it. If so, he would have held out in the bell tower. That would have allowed him to last a bit longer.

Then what is it? Wait a minute. Bell tower. Bell tower…?

…Come to think of it, the cultists said Valkers spent all day locked up in the bell tower. Is there something in the tower? Something that mustn’t be destroyed?

I looked up at the towering bell tower. There was nothing particularly noticeable about its exterior. As for the interior… I wouldn’t know without going inside.

“Haha! You said you’d cut my flesh piece by piece, but is this all! It doesn’t even hurt or itch!”

Perhaps sensing my silence with unease, Valkers shouted and burst into forced laughter. Earlier I thought it was mere bravado, but now that I was suspicious… it looked like nothing but a suspicious struggle.

[Hmm. For someone who soiled himself, this attitude is truly suspicious. Don’t you think? He must be plotting something we don’t understand.]

‘I think so too. And I think I have a rough idea of what he’s up to.’

He must have hidden something in the bell tower. Judging by how he’s stalling, it seems the preparations aren’t complete yet.

“Is this what you call torture! How amateurish, like a little girl! I could teach you if you want!”

“Shut your mouth, evil heretic!”

– Thud!

Disgusted by Valkers’ provocation, Lacy shouted fiercely and stomped down on his abdomen.

“You deserve divine punishment! Vile and filthy cult scum! How dare you wag your tongue! The only time you may open your mouth is when you meet your murdered mother in hell! Do you understand! Crawl back into the hole of hell where your mother waits!”

“Kuhuk! Khek! Kueok!”

Valkers let out gasping groans as if he were about to die each time Lacy’s boot dug into his abdomen. With her holy power but limited physical strength, Lacy’s kicks wouldn’t kill him.

“Stop for a moment, Lacy. I have something to ask this bastard.”

I grabbed Lacy’s arms as she was panting and pulled her away from Valkers, then pointed Durandal at him.

“Kheu… Well, ask away. If I feel like it, I might even answer!”

“Oh, really? Then… would it be okay if I destroy that bell tower?”

Let’s see how he responds.

“What…!”

Valkers gaped in shock.

Just as I thought. I didn’t need to hear more. His reaction alone made it obvious that he had hidden something in that tower. Whatever it was, destroying it would solve the problem.

“No, never mind. You don’t need to answer. Lacy, burn him completely. We have no more business with this guy.”

I sliced open Valkers’ abdomen with Durandal, then gave Lacy, who was looking at me like a dog eyeing its prey, permission to execute him.

“Yes. Finally, the time has come to deliver heaven’s retribution to a sinner who deserves to be burned!”

Lacy smiled benevolently at me, then shoved her holy fire into Valkers’ abdomen.

“Kuk, kueu, KWAAAAAAAAAAK!”

Valkers let out a desperate scream as he burned from the inside out, spewing flames from every orifice of his body.

His intestines were browning nicely. Lacy’s healing miracle descended upon his body. So he wouldn’t die too quickly, but would remain alive until the healing power was exhausted.

“Serves you right, you dog.”

Enjoying Valkers’ screams from behind me, I ran to the bell tower and kicked down the firmly closed door. Lacy followed, running after me.

That’s when it happened.

“GAAAAAAAK! KWAA! Here, GUUUAK! I can’t end it here…! Time, still not enough, but, better than failing…!”

Amidst the blazing agony, Valkers shouted at me in a desperate voice. Lacy and I turned our heads to look at him simultaneously.

“K-khueu…! Blood…, shed blood and pray! Climbing the mountain of corpses piled high, we shall finally welcome the inverted divinity!”

Like reciting a prayer, Valkers shouted with a scream.

The anomaly occurred immediately after.

—-

– Boom!

A vibration felt at the tips of my feet. The earth trembled once. Like a giant’s heart pulsating, heavy yet gentle.

An earthquake…?

Feeling a vague sense of foreboding, I instinctively looked up at the bell tower.

– Crack!

The white-washed brick tower shook with the earth’s vibration, creating cracks. The tower split like cracking thin ice. Crushed stone powder fell in showers.

…This thing is going to collapse.

I abandoned my intention to enter the bell tower and aimed Frosting at the cracking tower wall. Immense power gathered in my left arm.

Valkers’ final struggle. I couldn’t tell what he was attempting, but the core of it was undoubtedly this bell tower. So I intended to destroy it without delay.

“KYAAAAAT!”

With a fierce shout, I unleashed my attack. With a boom like a tank’s cannon, the first floor wall of the bell tower exploded outward.

The cracks deepened. The entire tower shook like a small boat in a storm. The massive bell at the top emitted a deep resonance.

– KWARARRUNG!

A thunderous roar followed. The bell tower, cracked like dry paddy fields in a drought, began to collapse like a snake shedding its skin. A rain of boulders poured down.

And then I realized what Valkers had been doing in this tower.

The bell tower, which I thought would collapse completely, only had its outer walls torn away, while the interior remained undamaged and stood firm. That interior was the problem.

Red and white. A familiar shape greeted me. The thick smell of blood. Small skulls. The stench of decaying corpses. Inside the collapsing bell tower, another tower had been erected.

Instead of bricks and wood, a tower of corpses built by gathering skulls and red flesh!

“A tower of… skulls?”

[What bad taste. As always, these sorcerers…]

Hersella clicked her tongue in disgust.

A tower made of skulls the size of my fist. Not the bones of adults, nor even children’s bones. Fetuses. Yes, the skulls of newborn fetuses would be about that size.

I threw my body sideways to avoid the falling brick fragments, glaring at the horrific bone tower made from fetal corpses.

– KWAAAA!

An enormous amount of dark mana began to rise.

“KUUUUUAK…! Ha, hahaha! It’s already too late! By sacrificing a thousand fetuses, I’ve finally opened the door! His, His descent has begun…! With this, I shall carve my name in history! And as His apostle, I shall be reborn…!”

Perhaps sensing the surging dark mana, Valkers screamed in agony yet rejoiced as if he had won.

“Be quiet!”

“Guek!”

Lacy, who had rushed toward Valkers as soon as he started shouting. Her cross spear struck down and shattered his head.

Blood and flesh splattered like a burst tomato, staining the ground red and boiling up. It was the end of Valkers, the Mage of Discord.

Though it was a pathetic end for such an infamous mage, I had no time to dwell on his death.

Because a word had emerged that oozed ominousness just by hearing it.

Descent.

My mind spun rapidly, spewing out ominous prospects. Mage Valkers was a follower of Invidius. The one he called “Him”… there was only one in the world.

The evil god of jealousy, Invidius.

Only then could I understand. Why they had named their organization the “Reversed Star Descent Society.”

That name wasn’t just the typical pretentious naming of cultists, but clearly revealed their very purpose!

Reversed Star, Descent.

The sky turned black.