chapter_0063

Chapter 62 : Chapter 61 : Underworld, Underground City (3)

“Wow, what the… How did they already figure it out?”

The guards suddenly stormed into the auction house.

Seeing them, Asili scratched her head and muttered under her breath.

I, too, placed a hand on the sword at my waist, ready to draw it at any moment, while Nella closed her eyes and began focusing, as if constructing a teleportation magic circle.

With the intimidating presence of the guards flooding in, chaos erupted in the auction house in the blink of an eye.

Crash bang—!!

“What the hell is this?!”

“What’s going on all of a sudden?!”

“Damn it, what is this?! What the hell?!”

Some rose from their seats and panicked, others bolted for the exits in a rush.

But when they realized the guards weren’t threatening them and were instead slowly approaching us, the mages began to regain their composure.

As their initial panic subsided, they followed the guards’ gaze and turned to us.

“Are they here to catch those guys…?”

“Who the hell are they anyway…?”

“Wait a sec, isn’t that girl in the back kind of weird? She’s a mage, isn’t she?”

And then, noticing Nella—who was at the rear, constructing a magic circle—some mages shouted out.

The guards, catching on, immediately charged toward us. The man who appeared to be the guard captain shouted loudly:

“Those bastards are with the scum marked for summary execution! Seize them! A reward of 10,000 gold to whoever contributes most!!”

At the mention of 10,000 gold, not only the mages already watching us but even the ones who had been fleeing turned greedy eyes toward us.

Immediately, mana began to glow all around.

“This is gonna be a mess.”

Shing—!

I drew my sword and asked Nella,

“Nella! How long will it take?!”

“The distance is far—it’ll take a bit! And now the mages around us are interfering with it too… Ugh!”

The location was bad. You could say we were unlucky.

Almost everyone here was a mage.

And the moment they realized Nella was preparing a teleportation spell, they began interfering to disrupt it, delaying her magic.

But even so.

Even so, standing here was none other than Nella Oracle—the greatest mage humanity had ever known, in all of history.

“With mere mana like this, you dare…!!”

BOOM—!!!

With just a wave of her hand, Nella dispersed the countless magical interferences aimed at her and sent them back to their casters.

“Ugh?! D-Damn it… Mana backlash…”

“W-Who the hell is she?! How is she doing this alone?!”

“You idiots!! Stop her properly!! If this goes on, the spell circle will complete!!”

“You think it’s that easy?! Are you even doing anything right?!”

Hundreds of mages versus a single one.

An overwhelming numerical disadvantage that should’ve been impossible to overcome—yet Nella treated it as nothing, and held her own.

No—more than holding her own, she was gaining the upper hand.

The mages, cursing under their breath, poured more power into their attacks. But Nella either blocked or severed every one of them and shouted to me:

“One minute…! Just give me one more minute!!”

“Got it—leave it to me! Asili!!!”

“I’m already ready to fight!!”

Asili had already been exposed, so I didn’t hesitate to call her name as I swung my mana-wreathed sword.

Slash—!!!

In one swing, dozens of mages were cut down.

But other mages, seeing this, began to put up magical barriers. I channeled more mana into my sword and shouted:

“I’ll hold them off—go wreak havoc! I’ll slice through the barriers!!”

“Yes, sir! As you command!!”

CRASH—!!!

Before the words were even out of my mouth, my sword cleaved through the air. The slash shattered the mana-fueled barriers like paper.

As the mages flinched in surprise, Asili wasted no time. She dashed in and began slaughtering them with her twin daggers before they could react.

Watching Asili out of the corner of my eye, I stepped in to block the guards charging toward Nella and me.

“Kill them!!”

“Attack from all sides!!”

“Some of you—target the mage in the back!!”

Swords, spears, crossbows—attacks of all kinds came at me from every direction, even reaching for Nella behind me.

But they were nothing more than low-grade fighters—not even at the level of a 15-year-old trainee from Elia.

They may have faced real battles and grown used to killing, but their skills were pathetic. Dealing with a few dozen of them was easy.

“How dare you…!!”

First, I cut down the ones trying to slip past me toward Nella.

Gurk?!

“Ugh…!!”

Their death cries echoed as a dozen soldiers collapsed to the ground.

Nella trusted me so fully that she didn’t even open her eyes—meaning I couldn’t let anyone past.

Next, I clashed with a group of sword-wielders. I raised my blade—still wreathed in mana—and blocked their attacks.

CLANG—!!!

To their shock, their swords shattered upon striking mine.

Staring in disbelief at their broken weapons, the soldiers froze for a moment. I used that opening to slice their throats and deflect incoming spears aimed between the gaps.

CRACKLE—!!

“M-My spear…!”

“Don’t panic!! Stay focused and use your dagger…!!”

“Guh?!”

The soldiers whose spears had broken were also briefly flustered, but they quickly regained their senses and tried to respond.

However, the moment they lost composure had already given me enough time.

With a single sweep—my blade, imbued with sword energy, sliced through dozens of soldiers in its path.

As the ones charging at me fell dead in an instant, I turned to face the guard captain, who was now breaking into a cold sweat, veins bulging in his neck.

“Crossbows! Fire the crossbows!! Kill him somehow and stop the mage!!!”

“Yes, sir!!!”

At the captain’s order, the soldiers shouted in unison and aimed their crossbows.

But before they could fire—my blade was faster.

“Gh…!”

With strength in my legs and mana surging through me, I unleashed a full-force strike.

Kiiiiiiiin—!!

A single slash tore through the auction house like it was rending the air itself.

“Whoa?!”

Having been given a signal, Asili had already crouched to the ground. Even so, she swallowed a gasp as the deadly slash passed just above her head.

And when the screech of the strike finally faded—

Not a single person at eye level with me remained alive.

Srrrk.

Splat.

—!

A beat later, bodies began collapsing all at once, falling to the ground.

Blood trickled down the stairs, flowing across the floor of the auction house.

The mages seated farther back were unharmed, having been outside the slash’s range.

But they too stood frozen, stunned, as they watched the massacre that had just unfolded before them.

“What the hell… this is insane.”

“O-oh god…”

They must’ve already known we weren’t ordinary—after all, just three of us were holding off this many.

But what they saw now was something entirely beyond comprehension.

So much so that it froze them in place.

No one wanted to make a careless move and end up another corpse in this scene of carnage.

And during that brief lull in their interference, Nella completed her magic circle and shouted to us:

“It’s ready! Let’s run!!”

“Ah, damn it!”

“Right…!”

The mages, who had frozen in place at her shout, finally snapped out of it and turned toward us.

But it was too late.

Hundreds of them couldn’t stop even a single person from completing their spell—there was no chance they could break Nella’s fully-formed magic now.

“Looks like backup’s arrived from outside. Let’s get out of here!”

“Yes, Master!”

“Good, let’s go!!”

From beyond the collapsing pillars of the auction house, I could hear footsteps—far more than the soldiers we’d just dealt with.

One look, and it was clear: running into them would be a huge headache.

I urgently called out to Nella, and Asili, who had rejoined us, gave Nella’s leg a quick slap and yelled.

And just before the soldiers stormed into the auction house—

We were engulfed in the light of the magic circle beneath Nella’s feet.

“Teleport!”

The brilliant light filled my vision, and when I blinked again, we were back—standing beside the rocky mountain near Rahman, where we first entered the underworld.

We must’ve spent quite a while in that underground city.

Now the setting sun dyed the sky red, greeting us as we returned.

Staring up at that sky, I let out a sigh of relief and leaned against the rock wall behind me.

“Phew… thank goodness. We made it out in one piece.”

“If those reinforcements had caught up to us, it would’ve been a mess. Still, Nella really came through.”

“Heh, well, I am known as humanity’s greatest mage. No way I’d lose to some back-alley trash.”

I didn’t know much about magic, but I did understand enough to realize this hadn’t been easy.

Taking the upper hand against hundreds of veteran mages wasn’t something just anyone could do.

Even though I couldn’t use magic, I had learned enough to counter it. So hearing Nella speak so casually about it only made me more impressed.

Gone were the days when she used to stumble and falter—now she was someone I could rely on.

Guess I raised a fine disciple after all.

Catching my breath, I recalled the last thing I’d heard at the auction house—just before everything went to hell.

“By the way… that host. He mentioned something about a demon plague, right?”

“Yes. And he said it wasn’t naturally occurring—it was part of an experiment conducted by the mages there.”

Currently, the underworld was united under the name of “Worst.”

And those underworld mages had joined forces for this experiment—The ones labeled with the demon plague were the product of that.

So what does that mean?

“…Looks like we’ve got another job to do.”

As soon as we returned to the kingdom, I knew I’d need to speak with Enoch.