Ch.92Black Magic Workshop – 1

From behind the door that had turned to mere dust, a pitch-black energy seeped out insidiously. Despite being at quite a distance, I could feel it with horrifying clarity.

The nature of that energy was obvious.

Black Blood Demon.

Whether it was blood, flesh, bone, or bodily fluid—this was evidence that some byproduct of that creature lurked behind there.

It wasn’t that I thought Charlotte had lied to me, but there was a vast difference between hearing about it and actually seeing it.

I never imagined I’d encounter a human foolish enough to meddle with Black Blood so quickly, believing they could somehow control it.

I had anticipated this would happen eventually.

Having observed all manner of human specimens for hundreds of years, I never assumed there would be absolutely no fools trying to somehow harness the dangers of the Black Blood Demon.

Rather, I found it surprising that such humans hadn’t appeared when the Black Blood Demon crisis first erupted.

Of course, I merely found it surprising—I certainly wasn’t hoping for their appearance. Do you think I’m insane?

Or perhaps such humans had been operating in secret all along, and I simply hadn’t noticed.

Following quietly behind Charlotte, I organized my complicated thoughts.

First, anything even remotely connected to this incident, directly or indirectly, must be completely eradicated. No matter the cost.

The memories of researching the Black Blood Demon, the research facilities, and everyone involved in the research—all of it.

I could officially declare through Charlotte that all research related to Black Blood Demons is strictly forbidden, but that wouldn’t be a particularly good move.

Such a declaration might actually cause masses of humans who never even considered researching Black Blood Demons to dive into it.

Prohibiting research implies there’s something worth researching, which would inversely draw attention to it.

Many humans wouldn’t even think of trying to extract anything from Black Blood Demons, but this would only needlessly pique their curiosity.

If that happened, I might have to consider the extreme measure of deploying Serena, Charlotte, and Christine to scorch the entire continent.

While I was lost in these thoughts, Charlotte paused her steps.

“Hmm?”

Just as Charlotte frowned and uttered a slightly irritated question, several fireballs flew from inside the doorway.

They were large enough to fill the entire corridor.

Though they appeared to be simple fireball spells, their power was anything but simple. The walls of the corridor turned pitch black where the fireballs grazed them.

Moreover, in such a narrow corridor, finding a suitable means of evasion was difficult.

The corridor was barely wide enough for two people to stand side by side, making it impossible to roll away. The fireballs were too large to dodge by any other means.

It was quite an intelligent tactic.

Using the narrow corridor to force our formation, then taking us down one by one from the front, effectively neutralizing our numerical advantage.

Without a proper means to block those fireballs, breaking through would be extremely difficult.

“What a pointless effort.”

Yes, if there were no proper means.

With a single gesture from Charlotte, the fireballs—each nearly the size of a person—were extinguished pathetically. Without leaving even a spark, silently.

Only the lingering heat transmitted through the air testified that something had been there at all.

Realizing the fireballs had failed, the other side immediately launched another spell. This time it was a small sphere glowing with a purple-violet light.

The hair on my body naturally stood on end. Sparks occasionally flew from the surface of the sphere. An electric explosion spell after the fireballs?

But it was meaningless against Charlotte.

Her slender fingers came together, waiting for the round electric mass to approach her hand before lightly touching it with her index finger.

With that simple action, the electric explosion spell completely reversed direction and began returning to where it came from.

It moved much faster than when it had flown toward us. It even seemed to have amplified in power during that brief moment, leaving deep marks on the walls and floor.

The electric sphere disappeared through the doorway and exploded in a flash of purple-violet light. The blast was powerful enough to cast shadows behind Charlotte and me.

“To use magic against me, what an impudent wench. If you thought you could lay even a finger on me, I shall ensure your death is anything but merciful.”

“They probably didn’t expect you to come personally, Charlotte. They just assumed some intruders had arrived. And for ordinary intruders, magic of this caliber would have been sufficient.”

Though Charlotte neutralized them too easily, the two spells just used by the other side were powerful enough to crush even a decent demon beast in a single blow.

They simply had the misfortune of facing an overwhelmingly superior opponent.

“They didn’t even notice that I had dismantled the magic formation laid here. Their skill level is hardly worth my time.”

“That’s because your abilities are too overwhelming. Normal mages wouldn’t notice a magic formation being broken unless it shattered right before their eyes. You’d be lucky to find one or two capable of that even if you scoured the entire Royal Mage Corps.”

In truth, Serena and Charlotte had surprisingly similar temperaments.

Both possessed such genius talents that they questioned why others couldn’t do simple things, or casually mentioned how they just tried something and it worked.

What Serena and Charlotte called simple swordsmanship or magic were achievements others might not accomplish in a lifetime.

They both had overwhelming talent even before meeting me, and with the soul binding magic on top of that, it’s fair to say they’ve both essentially reached the limit of what humans can achieve.

Christine is an exception. The source of her power comes from faith, and as long as that faith continues to exist, she can grow infinitely stronger.

If I were to tell the two of them they’re alike, they’d probably fight each other, telling me not to spout nonsense.

The point is, they wouldn’t fight me for saying it—they’d fight each other.

“Well then, what would you have me do?”

“About what? This place? Or that mage?”

“You would undoubtedly order me to destroy this place without leaving a speck of dust, so there’s no need to discuss the disposal of this location. I’m referring to the pathetic mage cowering inside.”

“…Do you have means to extract information?”

“Of course I do. Even if that wench were to take her own life now, I could extract every memory she has accumulated throughout her life from her corpse.”

“Then there’s no need to hesitate. Attack. Just don’t damage the workshop inside.”

What I want is information about the workshop that researched the Black Blood Demon and the people involved in this experiment.

If I can find that out, I don’t care whether that mage lives or dies right now. I’ll kill her later anyway.

I’ll destroy the workshop later too, but before that, I need to know exactly what they were researching here. That’s necessary for formulating countermeasures.

I need to know whether they were simply researching the Black Blood Demon, or… if their research had ventured into the realm of black magic.

If it’s the latter, I’ll have to raze this entire city to prevent any information from leaking out.

No sooner had I finished speaking than a flame spear appeared above Charlotte’s right shoulder. She must have adjusted its power, as it was much smaller than what she usually used.

The spear made of flames rotated clockwise, intensifying its force. The rising flames flickered like a snake’s tongue.

At first glance, the flame spear might look similar to a fireball as they’re both fire-based magic, but upon closer inspection, the two were completely different.

First, the flame spear was a much higher-tier magic. Comparing a spell that simply hurls a mass of fire to one that sharpens that fire and gives it penetrating power would be a great disrespect to the flame spear.

Charlotte must have known this and deliberately chosen the flame spear to mock her opponent.

The magic that had been fiercely rotating above her shoulder was launched at an incredible speed. I could barely follow it with my eyes.

The flame spear, turning the corridor not just scorched but charcoal-black, flew beyond the doorway and caused a massive blaze in the darkness. A wave of intense heat rushed toward us.

The acrid smell of ashes followed a step behind.

“As you requested, I controlled it so that not even the slightest damage was done to the workshop where that mage was. You’ll be able to obtain all the information you want.”

I had no idea how she managed to control the power in such an explosion to prevent damage to the surroundings, but I had no intention of questioning it.

Charlotte surely knew what she was doing. Doubting her abilities would be foolish.

“Wait a moment, my lord.”

Charlotte stopped me just as I was about to move.

“Why?”

“There’s something left to do.”

Her finger twitched. A loud crash came from the far end of the corridor. Telekinesis, perhaps?

“Now you may proceed.”

I nodded obediently.

I’d been wondering why she kept referring to the mage inside as “that wench.”