episode_0004

Crackle!

A white light surges violently, targeting Zervil’s head. Despite the sudden attack, Zervil smiled slightly and made a hand seal.

[cădáver párĭes]

Crack! With the sound of something being crushed, a wall of corpses rose from the ground. A wall of flesh (肉壁) full of distorted human faces everywhere, with a heart embedded in the center beating and scattering blood around. A lightning bolt struck its center, and the wall shattered with a loud noise.

Blood, pus, and fluid dripped from the crumbling wall. Zervil watched the filth being washed away by the rain and then raised his head to look at the owner of the lightning bolt.

Hidden in the darkness of the alley, his face was not visible, but his blue eye-light shone clearly. That alone fully revealed the identity of the mage.

Even without the eye-light, Zervil would have immediately recognized the owner of the lightning. Any mage rolling around in this world could not possibly be unaware of the name of the continent’s sole Thunder Sorcerer. Especially a monster who had reached the realm of a Great Mage.

“It has been a long time, Kaipek (開闢). Have you been well?”

Zervil said so and bowed his upper body slightly, bringing his hand to his chest. It was the etiquette of nobility.

Familiar formality flowed from his gesture. But the voice from the alley was not so formal.

“Continent’s Hunted Target.”

A high voice, typical of a woman, was transmitted through the air. Just that intensified the surrounding thunderclap (雷聲). A magic power of a violent and ferocious nature began to slowly occupy the space.

“Corpse Sorcerer Zervil. The given alias is Shiju (屍主).”

“Oh, my. For the Great Mage to call me by my alias. It is an honor.”

“Annihilated the Verom Kingdom single-handedly, built a fortress by piling up corpses. Hunted down the envoys from the Holy Kingdom and the Empire who came looking. Declared sovereignty over the surrounding area centered on the ruined kingdom, creating a land where the living cannot enter. Then suddenly disappeared.”

“There were circumstances.”

Zervil said, shrugging his shoulders. At his feet, the heads of corpses slowly rose.

They were grotesquely twisted corpses. Where eyes should be, sharp teeth were attached, and a pointed tongue flicked out from a mouth extending from the jaw to the abdomen.

“I’ve been researching methods to refine corpses recently. This is the result. But I used up almost all the kingdom’s citizens in the process of making them, so I’m roaming around to replenish my corpses.”

Ignoring Zervil’s words, the woman slowly walked towards him. Then her figure was fully revealed.

A youthful appearance, more fitting to be called a girl than a woman. But the pressure emanating from her body was certainly not at a level that could be called a girl’s. The surrounding air was heavily oppressed, and static electricity mixed with the humidity tingled and stung the skin.

It felt like standing before an insurmountable monster. A crushing pressure, as if just looking at her would grind you to death, weighed down on his entire body.

But Asel did not take his eyes off her. No, he couldn’t. Not from Zervil’s miasma, but from the violent magic power bearing the nature of lightning, Asel felt something tickling in his chest.

An alien feeling, as if the sensation in his arm, which he had forgotten he possessed, was being resurrected. Asel etched that newly blooming intuition into his mind and stared at the girl with wide eyes.

At that moment, with a crackling sound, thunderbolts sparked around her.

“The large-scale massacre that happened in the Empire’s slums a year ago. Was that your doing too?”

“Speaking twice would only hurt my mouth. But since I committed it without being on drugs, I don’t have many memorable images other than the prostitutes screaming for their lives.”

“Alright.”

The girl closed her eyes and replied.

Gradually, the number of lightning branches blooming around her was increasing. At the same time, miasma began to flow profusely from the bodies of the corpses standing near Zervil. The corpses trembled violently from the energy exceeding its limit, but Zervil didn’t care. Instead, he curled his lips with a bitter smile.

“This is quite something. The Magic Federation is amazing. No matter that I’m designated as a target for subjugation, they assign a Great Mage as a hunter? Are they that short on people in the Federation?”

“There’s a contract I made a long time ago. I just wanted to clear it all out this time. And…”

The girl said with a small laugh.

“Rather than sending other hunters and having them hand over high-quality corpses to you, they probably needed someone who could definitely handle it.”

“This is becoming troublesome. If I had known this would happen, I should have just pretended to be caught and killed by the previous hunter.”

Zervil let out a deep sigh and stretched out his hand to the side. Then a long sword that had risen from the ground was caught in his hand.

A sword refined from flesh and bone. Thick miasma clung to its apricot-colored blade. A demonic sword (妖刀) that would rot the area it touched. Zervil spun the sword around and smiled towards the girl.

“You don’t intend to let me live, do you?”

“Can a Corpse Sorcerer live even if only their brain remains? Then I might consider letting you live.”

That was a sufficient answer. Zervil handed the sword he was holding to a knight-like corpse and spread his arms wide. Then he shouted.

“Alright! Then shall I warm up for the first time in a while?”

The girl said nothing. Instead, she tilted her head slightly. That simple movement became a single incantation and poured down on Zervil.

[Pursuing Thunder (追雷)]

Crackle!

Pure white lightning sped towards Zervil at high speed. Zervil evaded the attack by unnaturally twisting the joints of his body. At that moment, the missed lightning bolt changed its path and returned towards Zervil.

And hit directly. Zervil’s body was instantly covered in pure white lightning.

“Gugugugugugu…!”

Syllables that failed to form words escaped his lips. His electrocuted body rattled and trembled, and his fingertips turned to ash and scattered from the overwhelming thermal energy.

But Zervil showed no sign of pain, contorted his electrocuted face, and wore a grotesque smile.

Pu-hwaak!

His chest split open. Blood and flesh spurted from it, and compressed corpses were shot out like cannonballs.

[cădáver solútĭo]

As they were shot out, the compression was released. The corpses, which had increased to hundreds in an instant, densely filled the street. Asel, who was standing behind Zervil, was fine, but the girl was so covered by the countless corpses rushing at her from all sides that her figure was no longer visible.

However, her voice was clear.

“Annoying.”

The girl looked at them with indifferent eyes and waved her hand.

[Annihilating Advancing Thunder (殲進雷)]

Lightning danced following her hand movement. The rapidly advancing white light burned, crushed, and burst everything it touched. With every movement of the lightning, blood and flesh splattered and formed pools of blood on the ground. Even those evaporated the moment the lightning touched them, washed away by the rain.

“Hoo.”

The girl blew out the thunderbolt that had bloomed at her fingertips and turned her head towards Zervil.

Zervil watched the girl vaporize the blood with lightning and quickly made a hand seal.

The lightning that had covered his body had long since scattered as residual energy. He drew up miasma and activated his magic.

[cădáver bráchĭum]

A giant arm made of woven corpses was summoned before Zervil. The arm, covered with human faces stuck to it, advanced as if to crush the girl, and the girl, holding a lightning bolt the size of her palm, clumsily thrust it forward.

[Severing Thunder (斷雷)]

The short lightning bolt and the giant arm collided.

The result was the lightning’s victory. The pure white lightning collapsed the arm from the inside, scattering chunks of flesh and blood everywhere.

Cr-aaaash!

A huge noise spread as the arm exploded. Asel unconsciously winced, and the girl pointed a finger at Zervil. A simple incantation. But the power born from it was not simple.

[Turbid Thunder (濁雷)]

-Crackle!

The sound of lightning crackling was heard from the girl’s fingertip. But nothing was shot out. Only silence filled the street densely.

However, Zervil frantically pulled a corpse whose belly bulged like a pregnant woman’s in front of him. Immediately, the corpse exploded like a bomb. Covered in blood and gore, Zervil shouted in a voice filled with disbelief.

“Are you kidding me! This is a corpse entirely focused on defense! It’s not some flimsy individual that explodes with one magic spell!”

“What do you want me to do?”

The girl replied indifferently and opened her palm towards Zervil. A straight form of lightning shot out from her hand.

[Rectifying Thunder (雷正)]

“Let’s take a breath!”

Zervil put his hands on the ground. The smell of rotten corpses wafted from beneath his feet, and a rotten head the size of a building rose. The moment the head touched the lightning, it exploded without exception, just like before.

Zervil chanted a spell amidst the scattering flesh.

[supréma únĭo]

[gigas]

The compressed corpses rolled out from Zervil’s hands gathered at a single point. Then they instantly formed a giant corpse golem. The golem looked down at the girl with eyes from which blood dripped and roared, stomping its foot hard.

-Uwoooooh!

“Loud.”

The girl muttered so and drew her hand downwards.

[Annihilating Advancing Thunder (殲進雷)]

[Imitation (模倣)]

[Falling Thunder (落雷)]

Falling Thunder, classified as a high-level magic even within Thunder Sorcery, manifested from other magic forms by imitating only its core principles. Its power was significantly lower, and its range was incomparably narrower, but it was enough to vaporize the golem whole.

Kwaaaaaang!!

Simultaneously with the lightning strike, a thunderous roar deafening to the ears was heard. Asel, forgetting that he had ringing in his ears, opened his mouth in awe, and Zervil involuntarily let out a hollow laugh.

“That’s not something that can be killed so easily… really…”

“Are you done playing games?”

Beyond the golem scattering into ash, the girl said, scattering blue eye-light.

Zervil shrugged his shoulders and replied, spraying corpses from the hole in his chest.

“Well, not yet.”

The small compressed corpses rose to their feet. Corpses controlled by a high-tier Corpse Sorcerer are capable of killing a skilled warrior with their physical body alone.

Moreover, Zervil is a being who has reached the pinnacle among Corpse Sorcerers. Every corpse he controls is comparable to a high-level expert.

But the girl didn’t even blink at the tsunami of corpses flooding her vision. She just scattered lightning and killed them all, as if it were bothersome.

A corpse extending a sharp arm evaporated from the arm and disappeared. With every flash of lightning, dozens of corpses burst entirely. Electricity extending along the rain electrocuted and burned the corpses, and falling thunderbolts in bundles cleanly cleared the surroundings.

When almost no corpses remained around the girl, she detected Zervil, who had started to retrieve miasma, and furrowed her brow.

“You weren’t planning to go all out, were you?”

She stomped on a rushing corpse, making it burst, and pointed at the three corpses standing as if guarding Zervil, continuing her words.

“Those strongest ones aren’t even moving, and the magic you’re using is just mindlessly throwing corpses. It seems you’re aiming for something.”

“You’re quick on the uptake.”

Zervil wore a bitter smile and mended his chest which had been ripped open at the side. He compressed a corpse lying at his feet and chewed it like candy, then wiggled his blood-dripping mouth and spoke.

“I was just planning to run away. It’s not a big deal. Am I crazy enough to try and fight Lady Ena seriously?”

“Trying to run away in front of me is a big deal. Do you think I’ll just stand by?”

“Of course not. So, I’m thinking of setting up a shield.”

Saying so, Zervil sharply turned his head towards Asel. Asel, who had been carefully watching the girl’s magic until just now, trembled at the blatant gaze.

The moment Asel, finally snapping back to reality, tried to get up to run away, Zervil’s arm, which had stretched out by tearing flesh, grabbed Asel by the hair.

“Aah!”

Asel screamed in pain, as if his entire scalp was being torn off. But Zervil didn’t care.

He thrust Asel, whom he held in his hand, forward and laughed mockingly, swinging him like a pendulum.

“Ta-da. An innocent citizen. And a child at that, a monster with talent who was just now practicing magic by himself while watching our magic!

“……Shit.”

“As you can see, his mouth is foul, but well, that’s probably natural since he grew up in the slums. Anyway, originally I planned to conduct various experiments now that I found him, but Lady Ena’s appearance ruined it. It’s regrettable, but I have no choice but to let him go here.”

Zervil said so, shaking Asel’s body up and down. In the process, his scalp was torn, and blood flowed out.

Asel let out a suppressed groan at the stinging pain. Zervil glanced down at the flowing blood and then turned his head back to the girl.

“I thought about killing him, but it felt a bit wasteful, you know? I’m also curious what would happen if someone with this much talent learned magic… I also have a desire to find him again later and resume the experiments. Haha! As you know, I’m a bit of an oddball, aren’t I?”

“……”

“I’ll keep him alive, and I have no intention of interfering with his body separately! He’s an overly sensitive child, so if I interfere, it would be like adding impurities. Then his growth trajectory would be strangely twisted, wouldn’t it? I’m not really inclined to do that.”

Zervil continued speaking, swinging Asel’s body around. Asel’s face was already covered in blood from his head.

“But I have to get something in return for letting him live. I’ll use him as a shield for a moment. If Lady Ena uses magic, this child will be roasted whole and roll on the ground, right? If that’s fine with you, you can attack. I’ll gladly take the hit.”

Ah, excluding high-level magic.

Zervil finished speaking and pulled a rotten arm from his chest. Then, along with his other hand not holding Asel, he began to chant. Incomprehensible words spilled from his lips, and the corpses standing guard over him gathered near Zervil.

The girl, Ena, looked at the scene with displeasure, but seeing Asel’s blood-covered face, she gave up on killing Zervil. She withdrew all the magic she had spread and clicked her tongue, watching Zervil’s magic.

“It’s transfer magic. You learned something like that?”

“Haha, it’s a minor skill. A transfer sorcerer I ate a few months ago happened to know a good spell. I improved it a bit.”

“You answer well when asked.”

“I’m using magic openly against a mage like you, so how can I hide the spell structure? It’s easier for me to just explain it myself rather than get deciphered… Done.”

Zervil finished the hand seal and condensed miasma in his hand. Then he strongly struck a corpse lying on the ground.

Crack!

The corpse’s body, which touched his hand, tore vertically, and beyond it, a darkness full of foul stench unfolded. Zervil nodded with a satisfied expression.

“…A portal that can only be used by corpses. It really is a minor skill.”

“Right? But it’s quite useful for me. Especially for a sorcerer like me who has modified their body to be close to a corpse.”

Zervil said so and roughly threw Asel towards the portal.

But he didn’t let go completely. He held Asel by the nape of his neck with a gentle touch and bowed his head towards Ena.

“Then I’ll be going. I hope we don’t meet again.”

“Well. The Federation’s request to track you down just once ends here, but I don’t have good feelings towards you personally.”

Ena smiled slightly and tilted her head to the side.

“I hope you have a good hostage the next time we meet.”

“Thank you for the advice.”

As soon as Zervil finished speaking, he threw himself into the portal. His body disappeared into the darkness, and the transfer magic was cut off only after the arm holding Asel’s neck was also sucked beyond the portal.

Asel finally grasped his neck, where a bright red mark was left, and gasped for air roughly.

Intense pain surged from his torn head. Thanks to the pouring rain, most of the blood on his face had been washed away, but the wound had become even worse. Every time a thick raindrop hitting his head struck the wound directly, he felt a pain that made his body tremble.

But, he survived anyway. That his skin was torn? Compared to meeting a crazy mage, that was getting off cheap. Asel slowly regulated his rough breathing and exhaled a long breath towards the sky.

“Kid.”

As he did so, Ena, who had been standing still, approached Asel’s side. Asel let out an “Ah” and then jumped up from his spot, bowing deeply towards Ena.

“Thank you, Mage. Thanks to you, I could live. If you had been even a little later, I would have been tortured alive.”

He was sincere. If Ena had arrived a little later, Asel would have been slowly disassembled by Zervil’s hands.

Also, when Zervil escaped using Asel as a hostage. If Ena had put her mind to it, she could have killed both Zervil and Asel at the same time. But Ena didn’t, and thanks to that, Asel was able to survive. It was natural courtesy to feel sincere gratitude towards such a person.

Ena also recognized his sincerity and nodded with a faint smile.

“Hmm, yes, yes. I’m glad you’re safe. I’ll fix your torn head.”

“Huh? You don’t have to…”

“No, just stay still.”

Ena ignored Asel’s refusal and took out a red potion from her pocket, pouring it on his head.

Then Asel’s wound began to heal instantly. The pain also gradually disappeared, and after a few seconds, the wound was cleanly gone. Asel, marveling at his head which no longer hurt even when hit by rain, bowed again at a right angle.

“Thank you!”

“Your cheek… Just a moment.”

Ena placed her hand on Asel’s cheek, which had flesh rotting away. With a crackling sound, magic power was shot out from her palm. The magic power gently delved into Asel’s wound, extracting and annihilating the remaining miasma.

It was a task so delicate that most mages wouldn’t even attempt it, but for her, a Great Mage, it wasn’t that difficult.

Ena poured the potion on the now clean wound once more. Then the rotting flesh slowly healed, soon returning to its original state completely. Asel, whose cheek no longer felt pain, expressed his gratitude again.

“Thank youuu!”

“Yep.”

Ena looked down at Asel with a gentle smile. As she did so, something shimmering was visible in Ena’s eyes.

It was mana. She tilted her head and slightly drew up her magic power. In her eyes, which had begun to haze with icy blue eye-light, a clear mana swirling around Asel was reflected.

“…Oh.”

Ena couldn’t help but let out a gasp of admiration. She had reason to.

It was common for Great Mages or seasoned Masters with a certain level of hierarchy to be loved by mana, but Ena had never seen such a large amount of mana surging around a child who hadn’t even learned magic yet. It was a rare occurrence, and a talent so exceptional it would be hard to find even if one searched the entire continent.

‘Zervil praised him openly, so I thought it was just nonsense. But it was true.’

She had lived a long life as a long-lived species, but life was still unpredictable. Who would have known that a being with greater talent than a mage from the ruined magic kingdom would be found in the slums of a rotten kingdom? Ena thought as she wrapped her hand around the mana swirling around Asel.

That his talent is exceptional? Understood. But should this much talent be left here?

Is it right to let a brilliant talent that could bloom rapidly with someone’s help rot away in the slums? Wouldn’t it be a way to contribute to the continent by taking him in and raising him as a mage instead?

And what if he is left here and picked up by strange people and grows up to be a demon worshiper? Isn’t that bringing disaster?

Furthermore, a being with exceptional talent for mana has extremely high value as a sacrifice. If this child is sacrificed to summon a demon, wouldn’t a dominant entity appear?

Thoughts followed one after another. Ena let out a groan and narrowed her eyes.

‘Should I just take him?’

She hadn’t really planned on taking a disciple, but it was also true that she felt greedy when faced with such talent.

Thinking about it, the reason she hadn’t taken a disciple all this time was because no one met her standards, wasn’t it? A being so loved by mana is more than sufficient to be taken as a disciple, even overflowing.

‘Other mages would go crazy trying to stake their claim if they saw this, wouldn’t they?’

She could see it clearly without even looking. A mage, who like her accidentally discovered Asel, takes him as a disciple, and a few years later appears in the Federation, boasting of his disciple’s achievements.

Then other mages would feel envy and jealousy for not being able to take Asel as their disciple, and that master would chuckle seeing their reaction.

She herself would surely be grinding her teeth with regret and disappointment for not having taken him as a disciple. Rather than that, it seemed beneficial for her to take him and assume the position of master.

Unlike other mages, Ena had no intention of boasting excessively just because her disciple was outstanding. There was no reason to do so, and she wouldn’t gain anything from it. It was enough if he just grew well and became a strong mage.

In that regard, Ena had no doubt that she could be a better master than other mages. She imagined Asel, taken in by her, not generating fire and ice, but intensely generating lightning, and nodded.

Yes, she decided.

“Child, what is your name?”

Ena asked with a benevolent smile. Asel replied without hesitation.

“It’s Asel. I don’t have a surname.”

“I see. I am Ena Renatus.”

Ena introduced herself and gently stroked Asel’s head. Then she cleared her throat with a “hmm hmm” and spoke in a serious voice.

“Well… Asel? Can I make a proposal?”

“A proposal?”

Asel asked back. Ena nodded and replied.

“Would you perhaps be interested in becoming my disciple?”

To this question as well, Asel’s reply was immediate.

“I don’t think I can.”

Ena’s smile cracked.