Chapter 86. Interference (3)
Pain searing at his side.
A scorching agony like being burned by fire made Dukel open his eyes wide. It was a completely unexpected ambush, leaving him utterly defenseless.
Then, as Jeron twisted the blade, Dukel broke into a cold sweat and collapsed backward.
"Je, Jeron, why on earth would you...!"
Thud!
Jeron gave no answer and struck Dukel's jaw. Then, Merck smashed his shield down toward Dukel's face. With that impact, Dukel's head was driven halfway into the ground.
Of course, he did not die, only bruised.
Dukel was so tough that to properly knock him out, there was no other way.
The soldiers and knights, unable to comprehend what was happening, simply stood staring in shock.
Jeron spoke.
"Clean it up."
At once, several of the soldiers who had been lying on the ground leapt to their feet and attacked them. The knights reacted swiftly, yet the attackers' movements were far beyond what one could call ordinary soldiers.
In an instant, more than half were subdued and thrown to the ground, leaving the knights back to back, raising their blades in defense.
"Th, the Central Knight Order, why would they suddenly betray...!"
It made no sense.
Whatever the case, they had to escape first, rush to the city, and deliver this news.
The knights exchanged glances.
A young knight dashed forward to break through, aiming for Jeron. If he could just bring down that man, a path would open.
But he could not even take a single step forward.
Jeron seized the knight's blade with his bare hand, crushing it, then grabbed his throat and knocked him unconscious in an instant. The rest of the knights too, helpless, were subdued one after another.
Merck shook the blood from his shield.
From Harold's dead hand, he took the Shadow of the Reverse Side. Then, looking over the unconscious, he grinned slyly.
"These will do well enough for materials."
The Gluttonies who had infiltrated beforehand.
They had long been seeping into the duchy. And today, at last, they revealed themselves upon the surface, for the sake of Gluttony's grand design.
Jeron turned his gaze toward the forest.
There, watching them, was the crimson-red Red Hat, who vanished into the darkness.
"...That Red Hat, becoming quite an annoyance."
"As it happens, Fang has ordered that once preparations are complete, we are to dispose of the Red Hats. Such abnormal species are worth even less than the Old Humanity."
In the world Gluttony envisioned, such beings were unnecessary.
At best, they were chess pieces to raise, use briefly, then discard. That was their only value, and they ought to be grateful they even had that much.
Jeron nodded, then gestured to the Gluttony members disguised as soldiers.
At once, they began dragging away the bodies strewn across the ground.
At that moment,
────Kwhajajak!
A massive fragment of stone flew in from somewhere.
The Gluttonies caught in its path were torn apart instantly, while Jeron at the far end reflexively twisted his body. Part of his torso split open, and a fountain of blood erupted.
"...?"
A situation they had not anticipated at all.
As they all turned their heads toward the source of the stone fragments, there stood a lone mage in a deep green robe, where none had been before.
Verden. He gazed at the Compass of the Black Hour.
The needle, which should have been wandering, pointed straight at the Gluttony before his eyes.
"So, it only functions properly when this close."
One lesson learned.
Verden slipped the compass into his spatial bag and raised his staff.
***
Gluttonies hidden among the Central Knight Order and soldiers.
Just as Verden had expected.
Creak, crack, crack.
With grotesque sounds, Merck's body swelled monstrously. Jeron too began to take on a form that could hardly be called human, his wound healing as it did.
'Two transplant hosts, nine others.'
No need to hold back power.
After all, even if captured, nothing could be extracted from Gluttony fragments.
"Take him alive."
The Gluttonies charged at Verden all at once.
The earth shuddered, lightning flashed, screams of agony filled the air. In an instant, battle erupted, and its end soon followed.
All around lay the shattered, unrecognizable remains of Gluttony's members.
The two transplant hosts still clung to life. Jeron, coughing blood-foam, at last addressed Verden.
"You, are you the Ark? How can you be here so soon...."
"That word again, I'm sick of it."
Ark, Ark, every time they met.
Even if he denied it, they would ask again later—it was irritating to the point of madness.
Verden snapped his fingers.
A cold, dark wind enveloped the transplant hosts. Ice magic, its attribute twisted by the Ring of Permafrost. The bitter frost froze their bodies, and even the aura they held froze solid with them.
The transplant hosts, who had displayed unnatural vitality, could not withstand it and froze to death on the spot. The ice then shattered into thousands of pieces, scattering their corpses into fragments.
'Not bad at all.'
For a replica, quite effective. That it was not even one-tenth of the original's power—how great must the true one be? It was beyond imagining.
Well, it was safe to say the chance of it ever falling into Verden's hands was zero.
Verden swiftly gathered up the fallen soldiers, knights, and Dukel.
Using the potions carried by the Central Knight Order, he healed Dukel, then carved out a space beneath the ground and hid them there.
This way, they would not end up dying a dog's death at the hands of passing demi-humans. He had opened breathing holes, so once they regained consciousness, they would find their way out on their own.
'And this, I'll be taking with me.'
The Shadow of the Reverse Side.
Without this, Gluttony would have no way to trace Verden's tracks. He immediately stored it in his spatial bag.
'Then this side is finished, but....'
It was not over with just this.
That grotesque Red Hat who had been watching a moment ago remained, and there was a high chance that Gluttony was hidden within the other squads as well.
Where were they hiding?
There was a way to find clues.
The tracking magic circle Verden had inscribed on the back of a soldier in the first squad.
The afterimage of it still lingered. Since Gluttony had moved, surely something had happened in the other squad too.
Gluttony.
They were completely in Verden's grasp, not just here, but elsewhere as well.
Once again, Verden moved.
***
Theon.
He had spent his childhood as an orphan, wandering back alleys just to survive. Then, kidnapped, he was forced to live as one of Gluttony.
Days so harsh, no one would blink if someone died. Many children actually did die, and their corpses were used as test materials by Gluttony.
Here, even death was not free.
Thus, Theon lived with desperate tenacity just to survive, and so became an assassin of Gluttony. Nothing more than a replaceable part, ready to be swapped out the moment he died.
Still, he had survived.
Even now, he survived.
Theon had to keep moving in order to live.
'But this, this is wrong.'
Theon, with Gluttony's fang hung around his neck.
He bit down on his lips and forced one heavy step after another forward.
Ever since being captured by the Ark, he had been wracking his brain on how to survive, but to think he would be ordered to do something like this.
"Damn..."
Theon muttered a curse under his breath as he walked.
He entered a building in the city.
There, a hulking old man and a bespectacled fellow awaited him, both Gluttony members disguised as ordinary citizens.
Theon, who had walked into Gluttony's lair on his own feet, subtly showed them the necklace. Their eyes went wide, and they hurried to guide him further in.
After passing through several underground passages, they arrived at a destination.
From the distance and direction walked, it was clear the place lay far outside the city.
In the tense atmosphere, someone stepped forward before Theon.
A transplant host with the eye of an abnormal species embedded in his throat. He spoke to Theon.
"You survived."
Just a single phrase, yet the pressure squeezed the air from his lungs.
Survived. Meaning, why did you survive?
The Gluttony who had been moving with Theon had all perished, so why had he lived? That must have been the implication.
One slip of the tongue here meant death.
With a sense of resignation, Theon drew out the fang hanging at his neck.
"The Doctor seeks the tooth."
"..."
The transplant host's gaze fixed upon the fang.
A second that stretched like a day passed several times over before, finally, the host spoke.
"Follow me."
Turning his back, he vanished into the shadows.
Theon let out a quiet sigh of relief, then soon followed after.
The bait Verden had sent was gradually burrowing its way into the depths of Gluttony.
***
Verden traced the afterimage of the magic circle.
Landscapes flew by in rapid succession, and soon, he arrived at the location. He scanned the surroundings.
"...Nothing?"
There was nothing nearby.
Only forest and cliff. Even spreading his mana detection wide, nothing particular was caught.
The afterimage had ended here. Surely, they had not noticed and removed the magic circle entirely just to leave it here.
Verden's mind spun rapidly.
His senses, heightened by the Ring of Rune Exceed. To conceal themselves even from that—aside from the special abilities of certain abnormal species, there was only one possibility.
Magical concealment, illusion.
'Then, the cliff.'
An ideal terrain to conceal an entrance.
Descending to the ground, Verden placed his hand upon the cliff, slowly advancing. After a moment, his hand sank straight into the rock.
At the same time, he felt it—the afterimage of the magic circle he had crafted, and a familiar mana.
'Luke.'
This illusion, without doubt, had been wrought by the missing Luke.
Verden stepped into the darkness.
Damp air, musty smell. Entering the inner cave, in the center lay a stone coffin he had seen before.
This time, he turned his gaze to the corner.
The corpse of Count Dabirk with one arm missing, the bodies of soldiers and knights belonging to the first squad, and members of the 3rd Central Knight Order, all laid out in order.
Beneath them, a long groove leading toward the stone coffin.
And finally, Luke.
He stood with eyes closed, forcibly maintaining the illusion. Was his mind being controlled?
'At least, it seems I'm not too late....'
Rupel's second squad was nowhere to be seen.
Likely, they had not yet been captured by Gluttony. Or perhaps, they had already been caught and were being dragged here.
But probably not the latter.
This cavern swarmed with countless presences.
Thud.
A crimson-red Red Hat dropped from the ceiling. Then all the other Red Hats as well. Alongside them, Gluttony revealed themselves from where they had been hidden deeper within.
Among them, a transplant host with a face resembling the Red Hats, yet above his mouth there were no eyes nor nose, only a red, crushed maw remained.
Of all the transplant hosts he had seen thus far, this one was the least human.
The creature spoke.
"Whooo, are youuu?"
A halting, throat-scraping voice.
Dozens of monsters encircled Verden. He had to protect the unconscious while also facing foes outnumbering them many times over.
But Verden carried experience.
Instead of answering, Verden slammed his staff down upon the ground.
And the world began to move.