Chapter 80 – Failed Ritual

Failed Ritual

“Brace yourself.”
“Who are you worried about? Just hurry up and guide me.”

The dense magical power carried in the air has been washing over my body for a while now.
…It was clear that something unusual was happening, just as Helion said.

“Then, we’ll move.”
With Helion’s words, my vision changed completely.
The place Helion teleported me to was inside some alley.

Seeing the capital’s city walls behind, it seemed to be somewhere on the outskirts of the capital.
Helion, who seemed familiar with the alley, walked out of it and stopped at a certain point, then pointed his finger forward.

“That mansion you see there is Erdas’s base. It’s also where the dragon girl is being held.”
“…So that’s the place.”

…At the end of Helion’s pointing finger stood a dilapidated mansion.
Around the mansion, people were gathered in clusters, all wearing the same unpleasant hoods.

…It seems that place is indeed Erdas’s base, as Helion said.
Seeing their figures, my heart started beating faster and strength began to fill my entire body.

Seeing me like this, Helion raised his eyebrows as if surprised and said,
“Are you nervous? As expected, you’re human too…”

“No.”
I cut off his words midway. He had completely missed the mark.
The reason I was somewhat tense wasn’t due to fear or nervousness as Helion said, but because of uncontrollable anger and excitement rising within me.

To be honest, I feel like rushing out right now.
But I need to stay calm. Uncontrolled emotion is like poison in the blood.
…I can release this suppressed anger on those who kidnapped Saya.

“Phew.”
After taking a deep breath, I pointed at the hooded figures gathered around the mansion and said,
“Shut up and explain. Those guys loitering around the mansion, it’s okay if I kill them all, right?”

“I’m not sure about your standards for humans you think are okay to kill… but those guys are all Erdas’s disciples. They’re people who willingly follow him, influenced by that madman’s ideology. They’re quite skilled as a group.”
“Then, I guess it’s okay to kill them.”

Should I just blast away the entire mansion? No. What if Saya gets hurt somehow.
…Then I have no choice but to break through from the front.

I took out my staff from subspace after a long time. A familiar feeling. The last time I took this out was during the battle with the Demon Lord.
Of course, holding this doesn’t cause any dramatic changes… but it’s a matter of mindset.

“Helion. Let’s just go for a frontal assault. Follow me as you see fit.”
Just as I was about to grip my staff tightly, Helion said something unexpected.

“Ariel. I’ll deal with those guys, so you head to the basement of the mansion while preserving your magic power. When you enter through the front door of the mansion, you’ll immediately see stairs leading to the basement.”
“That’s fine with me… but you’re going to face those guys alone?”

“In exchange, I have one request.”
“A request?”

Helion seemed to choose his words carefully for a moment as if overcome with emotion, then said to me,
“Please burn everything in the basement. Whether it’s Erdas… or the Demon Lord. It’s something you’re good at, isn’t it? Burning things.”

His words carried a desperation unlike his usual self. Does he not want to see his former superior, the Demon Lord, being used arbitrarily?
…Only now did I seem to understand why Helion had asked for my cooperation.

I nodded at his words and added one thing.
“…Except for Saya.”

Hearing my words, Helion smiled slightly and said,
“That’s enough.”

After finishing his words, Helion’s body began to expand gradually. Is he going to transform or something?
And indeed, he became much more massive than the demon form I had seen before. Helion had grown almost as big as a house.

“You, why didn’t you take this form when fighting me?”
“…It just makes me a bigger target.”

That’s true.
Of course, at this point, there’s no way Helion and I wouldn’t be noticed by them.

“He-Helion-nim?!”
“You idiot. Don’t you remember what Erdas-nim said?! Helion-nim betrayed Erdas…”

Crack. The body of the hooded figure whose head disappeared, unable to finish his words, collapsed lifelessly to the ground. With that as a signal, the attention of the hooded figures gathered around the mansion focused on Helion.

“Ah. It’s time to return to being Helion the human slaughterer…!”
…Does his personality change when he transforms too? Somehow, thinking that this guy and I are in a cooperative relationship made me feel like I was committing a sin against humanity.

‘But I was in the hero party once. Let it slide this once.’
Taking advantage of the distraction Helion caused, I advanced through the crowd of hooded figures.

Fortunately, they were in such a panic that they had no time to notice my concealment magic, and I arrived at the front door of the mansion more easily than I expected.
Creak.

Lightly pushing open the door and entering, sure enough, there were stairs leading to the basement as Helion had said.
And the unpleasant mana clinging to my entire body also became thicker.

The stairs were quite long. It felt like entering the maw of a giant snake.
Pushing through the sticky darkness and moving forward, an iron door covered with all sorts of protective magic spells appeared.

Even I took some time to open the door that looked like it could withstand a nuclear explosion right in front of it.
About half a second.

Boom!
After opening the door a bit roughly, what I encountered was…

“Kyahat. You came?”
The sight of Milene standing covered in blood, and Erdas lying dead with a large hole in his chest.

‘What in the world is this.’
The place where I was standing took the form of some kind of altar.

Numerous magical symbols adorning the walls, mana filling the space so densely it made my body tremble.
It’s a place that might be the embodiment of suspiciousness if expressed as a space.

…There stood Milene, and Erdas lay dead.
At a glance, Milene’s body showed no signs of injury, so the blood she was covered in naturally belonged to Erdas.

Erdas’s magical energy response had completely disappeared. Meaning, he was definitely dead.
Which means.

“You, did you kill Erdas?”
“That’s right. I killed him. From behind, like this. Bang!”

Milene aimed her finger at the air and pretended to shoot something. Erdas’s body was growing cold without the slightest movement. It seemed he was really dead.
His face was frozen with his mouth wide open as if in disbelief. He was probably ambushed….

It was a futile death. Truly.
“Where’s Saya? And what is this place?”

I wasn’t not curious about why Milene had killed Erdas, but Saya’s well-being was more important than that.
“Over there.”

Milene lightly gestured towards the back in response to my question.
On top of a magic circle emitting an ominous presence in the center of the space, Saya lay with her eyes closed as if dead. Along with an arm that I couldn’t identify whose it was.

I pushed aside the motionless Milene and immediately ran towards Saya.
“He said he left it to regenerate only up to one arm on purpose. That’s the limit of what that little dragon can accept. But he said that’s enough. It’s quality over quantity, or something. Kyahat.”

Milene, who had somehow approached my side.
She then showed me an ominous black cube she was holding and said,

“Now, if we just feed this to that little one, the ritual is over. The birth of the god of magic. Pretty simple, right?”
“You think I’ll just let that happen?”

I approached the magic circle, embraced Saya, and then pointed my staff at Milene.
…I had been worried, but fortunately, Saya was breathing.

The problem now was Milene, who was staring right at me and Saya in front of me….
“Just take her away. I won’t stop you.”

“…You want me to believe that?”
“It’s true. Why do you think I killed Erdas-nim? Kyahat. No, just Erdas now. I guess I was brainwashed or something like you said. After killing Erdas, my head feels clear.”

Inhale. Exhale. Milene took a deep breath and spun around once on the spot as if doing ballet.
As I felt before, she doesn’t seem to be in her right mind. That one.

‘Did the brainwashing really wear off?’
Originally, brainwashing doesn’t wear off even if the caster dies. If it did, the hooded figures causing riots in the capital would have come back to their senses.

“It’s all pointless now. Everything.”
…But could that empty expression really be an act?

If she was going to attack me, now would be the chance while I’m holding Saya, but she shows no signs of doing so, which makes it seem like it might be true.
‘What should I do….’

She’s fiddling with something while staring blankly into space.
After some deliberation, I finally decided to let her live.

I was worried that Saya, who was quietly breathing in my arms while unconscious, might get hurt, and the fact that I felt some sympathy for her as a fellow former test subject also played a part in my decision.

“Kyahat. It hurts. You’re binding me too tightly. Tying me up like this when I’m not resisting. You’re a pervert. Successful product.”
“Stay still. I won’t kill you. Phew. First, I need to burn this ominous place. For now, hand that over.”

I pointed at the black cube she was holding in her hand.
“No. Sorry.”

Before I could stop her, she easily undid the magic binding her, and immediately swallowed what she was holding in her hand.
“You…! What on earth…”

At the same time, the magic circle where Milene and I were standing and the magic letters adorning the walls emitted an intense light.
Rumble!

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!”
Mana and demonic energy swirled violently around Milene, who was screaming as if her soul was being ripped out.

The ground I was standing on shook violently as if in response.
‘It’s collapsing…!’

In the face of the powerful flow of mana and demonic energy that was distorting even the space, I teleported outside while holding Saya in my arms.
And in an instant, the entire mansion collapsed.

“…What on earth happened?”
Just as I was trying to figure out what had happened while watching this scene, Helion trudged towards me holding Saya and demanded an explanation. Unfortunately, he seemed to be unharmed.

‘This is perfect timing.’
I spoke quietly to Helion, who had somehow returned to his human form.

“Helion. Take Saya to the temple. Pfel and Cherni should be there. You know the location, right?”
“I do know, but… telling a demon to take someone to a temple. It’s a bit ironic.”

“Stop talking and go quickly. Before I burst your heart.”
“…Understood.”

After grumbling for a moment, Helion took Saya and disappeared from sight.
I just confirmed that the suggestion magic is still working properly, so he shouldn’t be able to do anything rash.

After the dust settled from the collapsed mansion, a human figure appeared on top of the debris.
“Haha. It doesn’t work. Is it because I’m a failed product?”

…Milene, standing blankly on top of the debris, was crying.
“I thought if I became the god of magic, I could revive my parents… No. I don’t need it anymore. Look, Erdas-nim. I fulfilled your wish.”

“I became a god! I fulfilled your wish that killed my parents!”
Her cry sounded almost like a scream. Milene’s appearance was far from anything that could be considered godly. The two pairs of horns growing haphazardly on her forehead and her skin discolored to purple reminds one of a demon.

The two pairs of hideous wings growing from her shoulder blades added credibility to my impression.
‘What kind of god is that. It’s just a demon. That.’

An appearance without even a speck of holiness.
I don’t know what kind of ritual she performed, but one thing was clear. That it had failed.