Chapter 62
The Black Drug
The lightning projectile that shot from Ferda’s grasp pierced the mage’s head.
The sight of him collapsing in a spray of blood was so jarring that no one reacted immediately.
“W-What the hell?!”
The enemy had not even grasped the situation yet.
Following Ferda’s opening attack, Consilus and Marco rose and charged into the enemy ranks.
“Gah!”
“Urgh!”
Consilus and Marco cut down the two men at the front.
Only then did the others realize what was happening.
“It’s an ambush!”
“R-Run!”
Just as they were about to descend into chaos, a woman shouted,
“You useless fools! There is nowhere to run anyway! Take up your weapons!”
At the command of Director Rinne, the dark elf, the confused soldiers drew the weapons they had been carrying.
Director Rinne raised her staff.
“How dare you attack this place! The one who fired that shot should show himself as well!”
Ferda obediently revealed himself.
Director Rinne’s eyes widened.
“Gray hair and blue eyes... You are Ferda Valdrova.”
She recognized him.
“What a pleasant surprise. I had hoped to see the face of the bastard who destroyed my home, but to think you would come here in person.”
“Are you pleased?”
“I suppose I am. Now I can kill you with my own hands. Kill them all!”
Her underlings rushed toward Ferda.
At that moment, a calm energy began circulating through the bodies of Consilus and Marco.
A knight’s mana—aura—enveloped them from head to toe.
A knight capable of wielding aura was said to be worth a hundred ordinary soldiers.
Dealing with twenty mere servant-class enemies was an easy task.
Whoosh—!
Every time Marco and Consilus swept their swords through the air, the underlings collapsed helplessly.
Little more than a disorganized group of mercenaries, they quickly lost their nerve.
The dark elf glared at them in fury.
“You worthless pieces of trash! Secretary!”
“Y-Yes?!”
“Come here!”
At her gesture, the bewildered secretary approached.
The dark elf pulled something out of the bag slung over her shoulder.
It was a syringe filled with black liquid.
She plunged it into the secretary’s neck.
The black liquid was drawn into his body.
“Ugh... Urk-kekekek?!”
The injected secretary began convulsing as his entire body twisted with sickening cracks.
Sensing danger instinctively, Consilus shouted,
“Marco! Stop him before he finishes transforming!”
“Leave it to me!”
Marco raised his sword and charged at the mutating man.
“Not a chance!”
The dark elf thrust her palm toward Marco.
A magic circle formed over her hand.
The spell she used was human magic.
Force Rush.
Thoom!
“Urgh!”
The space before her palm compressed, then erupted into a shock wave that hurled Marco backward.
They had failed to stop the man’s transformation.
“Urk! Kekekek!”
The man’s body swelled as he made grotesque noises.
At the same time, his skin began turning a deep, dark color.
He tore through his clothes and continued growing until he was roughly the size of a gray bear.
Only then did the transformation stop.
The creature raised its head.
Black skin, red eyes, and sharp teeth.
They were unmistakably the typical characteristics of demonkin.
“A demonkin...!”
“A Bouncer, at that.”
Bouncers were demonkin specialized in physical strength, capable of tearing apart even binding spells through brute force.
Marco and Consilus felt the pressure radiating from it.
“Gehahahaha! Me too! I have received His grace as well!”
The Bouncer rampaged in excitement like a child who had been given a new toy.
Unaccustomed to controlling its strength, it made the entire room shudder whenever it stomped the floor.
The tremors were enough to make even knights who had crossed countless battlefields freeze.
Yet even that failed to draw Ferda’s attention.
His gaze remained fixed on the dark elf’s bag.
‘She took the syringe out of that bag.’
And there was no chance it held only one.
‘I must secure it.’
Ferda turned his gaze toward Consilus and gave an order.
“Count, deal with that Bouncer. Can you do it?”
Consilus answered,
“If I cannot overcome an obstacle of this level, how could I ever hold my head high again?”
“My sword belongs to you, Regent!”
Consilus did not retreat.
Inspired by him, Marco also found his courage and tightened his grip on his sword.
“I understand your resolve.”
Ferda extended his hand.
“But there is no need to make this more difficult than it has to be.”
A magic circle formed over his palm.
Ferda chanted the spell.
“Frenzy.”
The blackened magic circle shot forward in the shape of lightning and pierced the Bouncer’s head.
“Gehaha! Wh-What... Guh?”
The Bouncer stopped laughing and clutched its head.
“Urgh... Gaaaaah! Aaaagh! It hurts! It hurts!”
The muscular monstrosity thrashed while gripping its skull.
It began smashing everything around it without distinction.
“Gah!”
“What are you doing?! We’re on your side—blurgh!”
A slaughter began as though a rabid dog had been released into a chick farm.
The underlings were torn apart in an instant.
“It hurts! I said it hurts!”
Just as its rage was about to turn toward the dark elf, she hurriedly chanted a spell.
“Restrain!”
“Urgh!”
“...!”
A rune-shaped spell pierced the Bouncer’s head.
The creature, which had been rampaging madly, became docile in an instant.
“Do you recognize me?”
“Uh... D-Director?”
“You’ve finally regained your senses. If you understand, hurry up and wipe out those vermin!”
“Y-Yes!”
Having recovered its sanity, the Bouncer charged toward the two knights.
“You bastards humiliated me in front of the director! I’ll never forgive you!”
Marco and Consilus met its attack from the front.
Boom!
The two men were driven backward by the heavy impact.
But they endured.
And because they endured, they could counterattack.
Shhk—!
Aura that could cut through human flesh and bone as easily as radishes struck the Bouncer.
Yet against its hardened body, the blades barely managed to pierce its skin.
“Wahahaha! I’m stronger! I’m strong!”
The battle between the two knights and the Bouncer reached a fierce deadlock.
The decisive factor in such an evenly matched fight would be the mages.
Victory or defeat would depend on the support provided by Ferda and the dark elf.
The dark elf was the first to unfold a magic circle.
The spell she intended to cast was Slug Time.
It would slow the two aura-clad knights and create an opening for the Bouncer.
“Slug Ti—”
Before she could complete the incantation, she sensed an incoming attack.
A projectile made of mana was visible to the naked eye.
It flew directly toward her magic circle.
“Urgh?!”
The magic circle she had filled with mana exploded on the spot.
“He destroyed my magic circle with a Mana Shot...”
Director Rinne was stunned.
She forcibly suppressed the question that arose in her mind.
‘There are only a handful of people capable of identifying and striking a spell’s mana weak point...’
A blue gleam flickered in Director Rinne’s eyes.
She was attempting to gauge the strength of Ferda’s mana.
And her instincts had been correct.
‘That brat of a regent has only reached the Fourth Circle, yet he can manipulate mana weak points?’
That only deepened her confusion.
Against a complex spell like the Slug Time she had just attempted, such a technique was devastating.
“What are you waiting for? Go ahead and cast another spell.”
Ferda taunted her.
“What would become of an elf who disgracefully abandoned nature’s blessing to wield human magic if she were to lose in a contest of spells?”
“You are only Fourth Circle at best. Aren’t you being rather arrogant when we are both at the same level?”
Ferda also gathered his mana and assessed her Circle.
Its apparent size was roughly the same as his own.
“Do not lie. I already know you are Fifth Circle.”
“My eye sockets were not carved into my face because there was excess leather, Regent. Once someone reaches the Fourth Circle, they should at least be capable of examining another’s mana circuits—”
“Do I look like a fool who cannot even recognize someone using the Aquinas School’s cultivation method?”
The dark elf’s eyes widened at Ferda’s words.
Before she could blurt out How did you know?, Ferda cut her off.
“Do not make that face. It is irritating.”
Ferda began preparing a magic circle of his own.
Magic Blast.
It was one of the more powerful Fourth-Circle spells.
Its strength came at the cost of a long casting time and considerable complexity.
Ferda, however, was already an experienced mage.
Every step of the process moved faster than it would for an ordinary caster.
Still, his choice of spell made his intention clear.
He was looking down on her.
“What a pathetic provocation!”
But before the magic circle could be completed, it lost its power and collapsed.
It was not Ferda’s doing.
“You are correct. I am Fifth Circle.”
Rinne’s secret had been exposed, but that did not present any real problem.
“That means I have no need to resort to tricks like striking mana weak points, unlike you.”
There was already a difference between their Circles.
All she had to do was crush him head-on.
With mana of greater purity and rank, she could forcefully break apart the structure of his magic circle.
In reality, Ferda was the one at a disadvantage.
‘She uses the Aquinas School’s cultivation method.’
The Aquinas School was a firepower-focused school that compressed mana by sacrificing efficiency in the lower Circles.
It possessed the advantages of deceiving opponents and amplifying the effects of higher-ranked spells.
Looking at the dark elf’s body, she appeared to contain only Fourth-Circle levels of mana.
In truth, highly refined Fifth-Circle mana had been compressed within her.
If the battle became a simple contest of raw power, Ferda’s defeat was already assured.
“Do you know something?”
Ferda had spent his entire life looking upward.
When he lacked strength, he fought with skill.
When skill was not enough, he used another method.
And when even that failed, he fought with his bare gums if necessary.
That was how Ferda had always survived.
“There is a monster living beneath your desk.”
“What?”
What kind of nonsense was that?
Just as she was about to ask, she sensed something from the desk.
A blue light shone from the darkness beneath it.
It was unmistakably part of a magic circle.
“How did you form a magic circle there—?!”
“Lightning Bolt.”
Crack!
A bolt of lightning burst upward, shattering the wooden desk.
It pierced straight through the dark elf’s head.
“Aaagh!”
The spell had been cast by Ferda’s Shadow Hand.
Amid the chaos of battle, Ferda had focused on moving his shadow beneath the desk.
Even his use of Magic Blast had only been intended to disrupt her concentration.
‘That worked well.’
Ferda had wondered how practical the tactic would be in actual combat.
Now he knew with certainty that no one would anticipate his hidden cards as long as he concealed them properly.
“How disappointing.”
Ferda spoke.
“The Aquinas School is meant to gain an advantage by feeding the opponent false information. Yet despite using its cultivation method, you were the one caught off guard.”
It was both mockery and an expression of genuine disappointment.
“Well... I suppose I failed to make proper use of the opportunity as well.”
This had been Ferda’s chance to kill Director Rinne outright.
But instead of collapsing to the floor, she staggered in place before forcing herself upright again.
“Urghhh...!”
Director Rinne groaned.
Clutching her left eye, she struggled to hold up her head.
Ferda examined the wound.
The Lightning Bolt had entered beneath her jaw and burst out through her eye.
“Your survival instinct is impressive. I intended to kill you instantly, but you managed to avoid the full force of the attack.”
“Damn you! You filthy short-lived bastard!”
The dark elf glared at him with venomous hatred.
Ferda merely responded with a twisted smile.
“Ferda Valdrova! I will never forget this humiliation!”
As a last resort, the dark elf pulled out a scroll.
It contained emergency escape magic.
The moment she tore it, light erupted around her and swallowed her body completely.
“D-Director...?”
The Bouncer stared blankly at the spot where the dark elf had disappeared.
Without a mage supporting it, the Bouncer was quickly subdued.
After the fierce battle, Marco and Consilus looked down at the creature while breathing heavily.
“Huff... Huff... I never dreamed I would fight a demonkin.”
“Nor did I. To think I would only encounter one after growing this old.”
“Save the personal conversation for later. We have only twenty minutes left.”
“Yes.”
Still carrying the heat of battle, they began their search.
Since the staff had been sorting the information before abandoning the research facility, the highly confidential material had already been separated to some extent from the insignificant records.
They searched through the room while Ferda moved toward the place where the director had vanished.
‘Emergency escape magic cannot transport possessions.’
The spell acted swiftly because it forced its user to abandon everything.
Not only personal belongings, but even clothing could not be taken along.
What remained was a pile of clothes shed like an empty skin.
Beside them lay a leather alchemy bag.
Ferda opened it.
Inside were a journal and a case.
The case held syringe ampoules arranged in a grid, each bearing a label.
—Doppler
—Butcher (Prototype)
—Dark Sorcerer (Prototype)
Every one of them was an alias belonging to Knight-class demonkin recorded in history.
Aside from Doppler, which he had learned about during the attempt to kidnap the Chancellor, there were several unfamiliar names.
‘Doppler was not the only threat.’
Everything they had seen until now had been no more than a single tree rather than the entire forest.
‘This should be enough for the samples. What is in the records?’
Ferda opened the journal from the bag.
Rows of incomprehensible pictographs filled its pages.
‘A cipher.’
The writing had been designed so it could not be easily deciphered even if the journal were stolen.
Ferda sensed it immediately.
Something more valuable than all the documents scattered around the room was hidden within these pages.
He placed the journal inside the sample case and locked it.
“Count, I have obtained everything I wanted.”
“Understood.”
The intelligence-gathering operation had ended successfully.
They slipped out in secret and began making their way back.
Meanwhile, the three who had headed toward the research wing were still pushing through the blizzard.
Wrapped in cold-weather gear, Zed rubbed his body vigorously.
“Damn, it’s freezing. Why the hell would anyone build a place in a backwater mountain like this?”
“Keep your voice down. What if someone hears us?”
“Oh, don’t worry. In weather like this, they wouldn’t hear an orc howling right beside them.”
Every time the freezing wind struck his face, Zed let out another complaint.
The knights walked in silence, listening to him grumble.
Before long, they located the designated entry point and went inside.
“It’s quiet.”
Unlike the residential wing, the research wing had already been emptied.
The only things left behind were bulky, useless equipment, trash, and explosives prepared to bury the entire place.
“So the demon was telling the truth. They really did intend to destroy everything within six hours.”
“I’m not so sure.”
“You mean you think that was a lie?”
“I mean they might do it right now. How can you trust anything those demon bastards say? Let’s move.”
Their mission was to rescue the demon.
They had been told that the test subjects used in the experiments were being held in the research wing.
There was no reason for anyone to bother transporting the prisoners.
They had likely been abandoned there to be buried along with the explosives.
Their prediction proved correct.
“What the hell is this?”
Even so, when they saw it with their own eyes, they could not hide their shock.