Ch.9Mourning (1)

Beort, a mage who had studied for a long time at the Empire’s School of War Magic and gained practical experience, was positioned a short distance from the ruins.

This was where the fleeing Inquisitor had hidden. Though he didn’t know what scheme the Inquisitor had in mind, Beort maintained his guard and moved cautiously.

In truth, if he wanted to, he could have cleared away those ruins in an instant.

He possessed several spells capable of doing just that.

But all those spells required substantial magical power. So much that after using one, he wouldn’t be able to cast multiple attack spells afterward.

And he didn’t want to fight the Inquisitor beyond those ruins in such a depleted state.

‘That one is strong.’

He was a veteran who had been through countless battlefields.

Since becoming part of the Empire’s School of War Magic, he had always been a soldier first, not a mage.

The common mistakes made by ordinary mages didn’t exist for him.

His choices stemmed from this experience.

Clear the ruins while minimizing magical consumption, and prepare for an attack.

Give the enemy no opportunity to strike during rest or absence.

Not knowing how the opponent would emerge, he attempted to counter two possibilities at once.

That’s why he now stood behind the barrier he had erected, monitoring the ruins while his subordinate cannibals, enhanced by his support magic, busily cleared away the debris.

Of course, that wasn’t the whole story.

He could have buried everything under destructive magic, but that wasn’t an option.

‘If the hunter dies in the process, it would be a loss.’

The hunter was a talent they absolutely needed to recruit to maintain this group.

In a land where stable food supplies were scarce, Isla’s exceptional tracking and hunting abilities were essential.

‘But of all things…’

To think she was with that monster of an Inquisitor.

He frowned as he recalled what had happened earlier.

When the Inquisitor revealed his identity, the atmosphere had suddenly changed.

What followed was a leap and acceleration like a projectile being fired, followed by an intense attack.

Beort was a mage capable of stably using 5th-tier magic, even if hastily cast.

Yet his protective barrier was shattered and blown away in a single strike?

And the impact penetrated through the body enhancement magic Beort had applied beforehand, with just bare hands?

It was abnormal. Even Eila would struggle to accomplish such a feat.

It was astonishing strength, even for a so-called monster.

So Beort carefully watched the ruins while weaving his magic, ready to incinerate the Inquisitor the moment he appeared.

‘First, take away his legs. Then one strike will be enough.’

He gave a gentle smile to the fake daughter standing beside him and continued monitoring the ruins.

Eventually, the cannibals cleared all the debris.

Crash!

“Lord Baron! We’ve finished!”

The ruins collapsed. The remaining debris tumbled down toward the floor where piles of cleared rocks had accumulated.

Amidst the coughing cannibals, the mage kept his distance and prepared his magic.

Come on, anytime.

Whenever you appear, I’ll impale you with a red spear.

As Beort prepared himself, the cannibals nervously backed away, and Eila tensed up, swallowing hard.

When the dust cloud settled, an empty corridor was revealed.

“Search the area. Throw torches first.”

The cannibals moved with fearful expressions.

They threw torches, anxiously gazed at the brightening corridor, and slowly began to move forward.

They picked up the torches again and walked, occasionally looking back. Soon they reached the end of the corridor.

Beyond the corridor lay the research laboratory, the deepest part of the dungeon.

A place once filled with countless experimental specimens, now abandoned as unsuitable for habitation.

“Th-there’s no one here!”

Beort frowned. That couldn’t be right.

“They must be hiding somewhere! Search carefully!”

That space was a dead end. There was no other way out.

So they must be hiding somewhere. After some consideration, Beort advanced to the deepest part with his daughter.

“My lord. Be careful.”

“Ah, yes, okay.”

The daughter and the mage moved forward nervously. The mage scanned the surroundings with wide eyes.

The first thing that caught his attention was an open table. What he had thought was a simple research table was wide open.

It had an unfamiliar structure. It was impossible to fully understand it just by looking.

He couldn’t even guess that something might be hidden inside, let alone something that only a homunculus could use.

He simply thought the monster and the hunter must be hiding somewhere inside.

That’s why he was too late.

“L-Lord Baron…!”

“Emergency!”

Two cannibals called out to him simultaneously—one who had rushed in from the entrance and another who had been investigating inside.

Signs of something ominous. The mage frowned as the two cannibals reported.

“We’re under attack from the main gate!”

“Th-there’s an exit here…!”

From their reports, the situation became clear.

Somehow they had found an unknown exit and were now attacking the dungeon’s main entrance.

And their likely target…

“Could it be…!”

He hurriedly retraced his steps. The screams and sounds of death gradually grew closer.

Along the way, bodies began to litter the path.

Most of the corpses were mangled. Crushed heads, collapsed chests, severed arms and legs.

Wounds that looked as if they had been inflicted by a heavy hammer. It was abnormal. The image of the Inquisitor he had seen earlier came to mind.

That powerful charge and strength. The brutal attack method that could do this to humans with bare hands.

The mage was well familiar with this type of attack. Of course—it had been the most prominent social issue after the Empire’s civil war.

“Report the situation. Where is the intruder!”

He grabbed the hand of a cannibal who was still breathing and asked. The cannibal, eyes trembling, barely managed to gather strength and said:

“Monster…”

Then breathed his last.

The limp cannibal was missing his left arm. The wound, as if savagely bitten off, was beyond what a human could do.

It was horrific. But at the same time, it gave him a certain confirmation.

The identity of the Inquisitor he was facing.

A Mourner.

If it was them—renowned as the Empire’s plague and warriors of the North—it would be possible.

Though he didn’t know how, if it was those who could draw superhuman strength from the mere act of mourning the dead.

Especially if they were of the same kind as Eila.

‘But for such a being to be an Inquisitor.’

What circumstances had led the haughty Inquisition to accept such a being? Beort couldn’t understand, nor did he want to.

He just needed to kill that monster.

Before that monster ruined everything.

“Eila.”

His daughter looked at him with anxious eyes. Eyes that seemed to question if this was really the right path. The same look she had given since they first left the city, the Empire.

But Beort didn’t hesitate. He advanced toward the battlefield.

Steadying his anxious heart, gathering his magical power, heading toward the place filled with terrible screams and thunderous sounds.

As he approached the dungeon entrance, the wounds on the corpses became increasingly precise.

And there, he finally found an unfamiliar figure.

Crack!

Someone crushing a head underfoot. Something metallic, gleaming black, recognizable only as humanoid in shape.

It was a type of creature he had never seen before in his life. For someone who had expected to see the Inquisitor from earlier, it was an unexpected situation.

It was a monster with its back to the entrance of the wide hall. A monster that made even an experienced mage like him hesitate momentarily.

Corpses were everywhere. Countless bodies fallen to the floor, holding axes, swords, spears, and the like.

They were all brutally shattered. Precise yet fatal wounds.

Belatedly, Beort realized who the monster before him was.

“Inquisitor…”

At that, the figure that looked like a mass of black shadows raised its head.

It stared at him with a face whose eyes were not visible.

“Beort.”

The voice echoed as if speaking from inside armor. Yet the familiar voice confirmed Beort’s suspicion.

This Inquisitor had killed them all.

Perhaps it had been planned from the beginning. Maybe he had recruited the hunter Isla to come here and kill them.

Perhaps the Emperor had secretly supported this, or maybe another organization had. Beort had many enemies, after all.

But that wasn’t important right now. What mattered was that an enemy stood before him, and he had to kill it.

He stared at his enemy. Only then did he notice certain things.

The cannibals strewn at the Inquisitor’s feet, his subordinates, hadn’t died meaninglessly.

The Inquisitor’s body was covered in countless scratches. As if ordinary weapons couldn’t penetrate it, only scratches remained.

As an experienced warrior and mage, he deduced much from this alone.

Ordinary weapons could inflict nothing more than scratches.

It appeared to be something magically treated. If so, magic would be the appropriate solution.

He had plenty of spells for that purpose.

That’s why the conversation broke off and didn’t continue. Only Beort’s hollow gaze met the invisible black gaze.

As his lips parted slightly and an incantation began to form.

Thunk!

For the first time, a light sound was heard. A sound impossible to ignore once heard.

From behind, a crossbow. Following the word that flashed in his mind, he extended his hand to form a seal. Creating a barrier.

But Luvellin moved faster than that.

CRASH!

The stone floor shattered and scattered, fragments bounced off corpses spraying droplets of blood, and his daughter was knocked back as she tried to shield him.

The mage deployed barriers to his sides. To block both the crossbow bolt and the charge.

But that was a misjudgment.

He thought the Inquisitor could no longer use Mourning.

So he hesitated when he saw his deployed barrier crumple.

Ordinary Mourners can only use Mourning once a day.

The duration also typically doesn’t exceed one minute on average.

But not now.

A second Mourning beyond common sense, with too long a gap to have continued from the previous use.

He didn’t know. The monster now breaking his barrier and pounding him with black fists.

The reason why he had re-entered the dungeon he had just left to kill the cannibals.

And the text that appeared in the corner of his vision.

[Class: Warrior – Mourner 2]

His body flew, hit the wall, and rolled. His daughter also slid across the floor, pushed by the impact.

Amidst the falling stone fragments, the mage glared at the monster.