Ch.80Chapter 80. The Real Purpose (4)

Grrrr-

“A-Aunt!”

“Haa.”

Yuria looked around and sighed with irritation.

The undead emerging from all directions were no longer skeletons or death knights like before.

They were ghouls.

‘Of all things, it had to be ghouls.’

Squeeze-

Emily instinctively grabbed Yuria’s skirt tightly and pressed herself closer to her.

Yuria knew exactly why Emily was so tense.

The incident from over a decade ago that caused Yuria to leave her family and left Emily suffering from trauma.

Undead were at the center of that incident too.

And not just any undead, but ghouls like the ones right in front of them now.

“Keheheh.”

Yuria wanted to unleash an attack on Nigel, who was floating in the air with a sinister laugh, but she couldn’t.

Because Emily’s trembling hands were gripping her clothes even tighter from behind.

If she had been alone, she would have ignored the ghouls and targeted Nigel.

“A-Aunt!”

“It’s okay. Calm down.”

Yuria forcibly turned her gaze away from the retreating Nigel.

If she kept looking, she might abandon Emily and rush toward him.

Whoosh-

Instead, she summoned mana from her fingertips.

Having cast large spells in quick succession, she felt dizzy just from drawing out her mana.

It seemed impossible to deal with the ghouls and target Nigel simultaneously.

Grrrr-

Looking at the ghouls slowly approaching from all around the forest, Yuria clenched her fist.

Crack-

The cold emanating from Yuria’s fist spread instantly, completely freezing everything around them.

The ghouls walking toward Yuria and Emily froze in place, and at the same moment, Emily collapsed to the ground.

“Are you alright?”

“Y-yes…”

Yuria embraced Emily while looking in the direction where Nigel had disappeared.

The man who called himself Nigel had vanished as if that had been his plan all along.

Though Yuria had frozen the ghouls in an instant, mages above a certain level could accomplish much in that brief moment.

Just as Nigel had cleanly escaped.

She shouldn’t have lost him because of mere ghouls like these.

‘Sigh, I can only hope the captain had better results.’

Yuria patted Emily’s back as she sat there in shock, inwardly letting out a small sigh.

Hoping that the captain would find clues related to Landgar.

**

Three accessories were neatly arranged on the table.

A ring, a bracelet, and an earring.

“The necklace is late.”

“…”

No one dared to respond to the low voice of the man in the black robe.

They couldn’t.

The founder of the Nameless Organization, who never showed emotion, was rarely displaying anger.

Even the usually talkative Second Elder kept silent at that low voice.

“The promised time has passed.”

Shiver-

The First and Second Elders standing near the founder felt goosebumps rising on their bodies and trembled slightly.

It had been a long time since either of them had felt such emotion.

The title of Elder in the organization wasn’t something just anyone could have.

Including the Third Elder Landgar, the First and Second Elders were among the strongest on the continent.

For such powerful individuals to get goosebumps just from the energy in a voice…

The Second Elder bowed his head deeper and managed to speak.

“I’ll go check on it.”

“No.”

The founder cut off the Second Elder’s words.

It was just a brief moment, but the silence was suffocating.

“I’ll go myself. You may all leave.”

“Yes.”

At the founder’s words, the First and Second Elders disappeared from the spot without a moment’s hesitation.

As if they had been waiting for permission to leave.

The founder stared at the three accessories on the table for a moment after the two had vanished.

Woong-

And shortly after, the black-robed founder disappeared from that place.

**

Kwaaang-!

‘This is insane.’

The curse came out naturally.

Kwaang- Kwang-

After taking medicine from his pocket, Landgar unleashed attacks on a completely different level than before.

In truth, only one thing had changed.

The black energy of dark magic surrounding Landgar remained the same, as did the mana tentacles.

The only difference was the size of the tentacles.

Kwaaang-

“You slippery bastard!”

‘This is too much.’

The tentacles, which had been about the thickness of tree branches, had grown to the size of entire trees.

They were clearly too large to deflect with punches.

I was quickly jumping through space to avoid the attacks, but there weren’t just one or two of these tentacles.

Like before, dozens of tentacles were dancing toward me.

I thought a mage would attack with some stylish magic befitting a mage, but this was very simple.

‘But very effective.’

Woong-

No matter how high I teleported into the air, it was useless.

As if he had placed some tracking device on me, the tentacles quickly followed wherever I moved.

Swaaak-

Even now, tentacles were rising from below toward me.

It felt like giant octopus legs writhing and flying toward me.

Not pleasant at all.

“Die!”

“Haaa.”

Woong-

Teleporting back toward the ground, I thought about how to take down Landgar while using the least amount of energy.

Killing him wasn’t an option.

I needed to capture him alive to gather evidence and expose the forces behind him.

If killing had been an option, this might have ended more easily.

As someone once said, sparing a life is harder than taking one.

‘With wide-area magic like this, I should target the caster first.’

The problem was that Landgar had anticipated this and had been thoroughly prepared from the beginning.

Knowing I could teleport freely, Landgar had surrounded himself with layers of black mana.

Even though my gloves could penetrate that mana, that was limited to my gloved hands.

Moreover, the coordinates around Landgar were obscured by the black mana.

I couldn’t just reach through space with my hand to attack.

“Are you that scared?”

“Eeek! You!”

I deliberately tried to provoke Landgar’s anger, but he didn’t cross the line.

He prioritized defense, reserving minimal mana while focusing on attacks.

This wasn’t easy.

‘Damn, this mana is annoying.’

I’d seen various incidents and abilities in the Black Shadow Corps, but dark magic was a first.

Before properly facing Landgar, I thought it was just magic, but it wasn’t.

This unpleasant, sticky mana and the magic it produced…

It was quite a tricky ability.

Kwang- Kwaang-

The standoff continued.

Landgar kept launching tentacles whether they worked or not, while I was looking for an opening.

Neither of us was making progress.

By now, others from the academy should have come looking, but still no one had arrived.

The barrier Erika mentioned must be working well.

‘This is quite troublesome.’

Landgar, who seemed to be turning black himself because of the dark mana.

Though far away, he was glaring at me with flashing eyes.

His eyes, filled with rage, looked terrifying.

“I have no choice.”

“Hmph. Don’t think you’ll escape alive. I’ve prepared myself for this.”

Landgar’s words made me snort.

If I had wanted to escape alive, I would have done so earlier.

The only reason I’m still here is to capture you.

“That’s my line.”

“How arrogant. So arrogant. This is what’s wrong with young people these days.”

“How do you know if I’m young or not?”

“…Shut up.”

With that old-fashioned remark, even denser mana erupted from Landgar.

I didn’t expect him to still have enough energy to emit such power, which was somewhat surprising.

I thought he would be running out of strength by now.

“I can’t waste any more time.”

“That’s my line, thief.”

“Sigh.”

Landgar was surprisingly talkative.

From when he first encountered me, he’d been chattering away, and he always had to respond to everything I said.

“This is truly the end!!”

Even now, when he didn’t need to speak, he shouted loudly as he unleashed his attacks.

Black tentacles stretched toward me from all directions with staggered timing.

Watching the approaching tentacles, I closed my eyes.

With my eyes closed, I took a light deep breath.

From the outside, this might look like a critical moment, but not for me.

Just closing my eyes and slowly inhaling calms my mind.

Additionally, I feel more stable and my concentration increases.

Woong-

The “woong” sound of space distorting according to my will reaches my ears clearly.

The aggressive sound of black mana attacks coming toward me was no longer audible.

Because they couldn’t approach close enough to reach my ears beyond the sound of spatial distortion.

Wooong-

As the sound of spatial distortion grew louder, I opened my eyes.

As expected, black mana tentacles filled my vision.

Attacks flying with killing intent, trying to pierce my body.

Woong- Wooong-

“W-what…?”

The numerous attacks were simply disappearing in front of me.

Not deflected, not dispelled, but literally the mana itself vanishing.

Landgar’s shocked expression—was this the second time I’d seen it today?

Wooong- Kwak-

“Kuh, kuuugh-!!”

With my face scrunched up in concentration, I grabbed Landgar’s neck again.