Chapter 74
The Count’s Domain (4)
Just as Ilea was about to pass through the iron gate, she suddenly stopped.
She rummaged beneath her hooded robe, removed some clothes, and pulled them out.
Then she approached the nearly naked woman and handed them to her.
“Put these on, at least.”
The woman alternated between looking at Ilea and the clothes with a terrified expression.
“Th-Thank you.”
“We’ll be leaving now. You should hurry out of here as well. The path we came through should be safe.”
Ilea returned to the iron gate.
Hakain gave her a suspicious look.
“That isn’t very mage-like of you.”
Mages were fundamentally vicious people. Since they acquired their mana by contracting with demons, most of them were steeped in evil.
Naturally, they showed no respect for the weak or for life itself.
Ilea seemed somewhat different from them.
As she passed Hakain, she said,
“That’s because I’m not a mage.”
Ilea was a witch.
Depending on how one looked at it, she was a far more sinister being than any mage.
“What? What do you mean by—”
“Knowing would only get you hurt.”
Ilea smiled mischievously and disappeared beyond the iron gate.
Hakain stared after her with a slightly dazed expression
****
Only after passing through the alley and the iron gate did the first level of the Shadow of Death reveal itself.
Simply put, the first level was an underground city. Instead of a sun, violet lights created through magic floated near the ceiling, dimly illuminating the subterranean world.
Day and night did not exist within the Shadow of Death. Its underground residents lived according to their own measure of time beneath the violet twilight.
It was currently the Hour of Reverse Light.
That was what they called the period when demons were most active.
By the surface world’s reckoning, it would be around one in the morning.
The Hour of Reverse Light was the busiest period in the Shadow of Death.
Mages, alchemists, apostates, fallen knights, heretics, drug addicts, and others who could no longer live on the surface gathered near the city’s center, each carrying their own ghosts.
They wandered the dreary streets, trading information and goods.
Standing in the middle of the black market, Ilea exclaimed in admiration.
“It’s more organized than I expected.”
Countless shops lined the street before her.
There were mana brokerages, monstrosity dealers, proxy services for corruption rituals, bookstores specializing in forbidden texts, curse workshops, artifact shops, and many other establishments that anyone who practiced magic would covet.
Ilea’s eyes shone.
She wanted to take her time looking around, but they probably couldn’t afford the delay.
She looked into the empty air.
“What do we do now?”
Mapheltan was somewhere nearby, but she couldn’t see him.
He remained hidden through the Authority known as Sinking Night.
Just remain still as you are.
When no answer came, Ilea looked troubled.
“Hmm...”
At that moment, a man wearing black robes approached her.
“You give off a very pleasant impression.”
He wore a warm, amiable smile.
Ilea tilted her head.
“Can you see my face?”
She was wearing both a mask and a hood.
Unless he was using some form of clairvoyant magic, there was no way for him to see her face.
The man replied,
“I was referring to your overall atmosphere. You radiate an exceptionally positive energy.”
Ilea found the situation somewhat awkward. She couldn’t understand what the man wanted.
“I’ve never heard that before. Thank you, anyway.”
“Ha-ha! You’re modest as well. You seem like someone I would enjoy getting to know. Rather than standing around in the street, how about joining me for some tea?”
Ilea looked into the empty air.
Her gaze silently asked what she should do.
Mapheltan gave no response.
Ilea sighed softly.
“Very well. Let’s do that.”
The two immediately entered a nearby establishment.
The interior of the teahouse was more ordinary than expected.
The man took a sip of black tea before speaking.
“Do you know about Calamity?”
Calamity was a concept completely opposed to Divinity.
Ilea nodded.
“If Divinity represents structure, order, and discipline, then Calamity represents freedom, liberation, and transcendence from worldly constraints.”
The man looked surprised.
“You’re quite knowledgeable. I am also a student of Calamity.”
“I see. How far have you progressed?”
The man answered proudly,
“I broke through to the second rank just a few days ago.”
“How impressive.”
There was no sincerity whatsoever in Ilea’s praise.
The man cautiously asked,
“If it isn’t too presumptuous of me, may I ask what rank you have reached?”
Ilea briefly fell into thought.
After a long pause, she answered,
“It would be difficult to measure me according to the ranking system.”
The corners of the man’s mouth rose slightly.
He quickly regained control of his expression.
“Ha-ha. I suppose you’ve devoted yourself solely to theoretical study.”
“Yes. Let’s leave it at that.”
“I believe I may be able to assist you.”
“How?”
“This is my card.”
He held out a small slip of paper.
Ilea murmured,
“...The Calamity God Society.”
“That’s right. I am a missionary belonging to the Calamity God Society.”
The Calamity God Society was one of the kingdom’s larger heretical organizations.
They had only one objective: to enthrone a Calamity God.
They sought to summon a demon ranked within the top ten of the Netherworld hierarchy and worship it as a god.
Ilea said,
“You’re asking me to join the Calamity God Society.”
“Precisely. I’m certain it will be of great assistance to you. The Calamity God Society provides various opportunities for practical experience to those who have studied the theory. You haven’t contracted with a demon yet, have you?”
To anyone watching, Ilea’s curious glances around the black market made her appear to be an inexperienced mage.
She looked like a perfect novice to recruit.
Ilea nodded.
“I don’t have one at the moment.”
The man gave her a friendly smile.
“The Calamity God Society will help you form a contract. We’ll provide the summoning ritual, the offering, and all the required mana. You need only bring yourself.”
Ilea tilted her head.
“You’ll provide everything for free?”
Unless they were a charitable organization, that was impossible.
“Consider it an investment in the future. Would you care to look over the contract?”
He took a sheet of paper from inside his robes.
It was densely covered in writing.
Ilea’s eyes rapidly swept across the contents.
She spoke playfully.
“I’ve finished reading it. Are you perhaps looking for slaves?”
There were far too many unreasonable clauses.
The moment someone used anything provided by the Calamity God Society, they would be bound to the organization forever.
The man gave her a skeptical look.
“I only just took it out.”
“I read rather quickly.”
He couldn’t believe her.
No matter how talented someone was, understanding all its contents in only a few seconds should have been impossible.
The man smiled.
“Then could you recite Article Three, Section One?”
Ilea answered indifferently,
“Any recipient of assets provided by the Society shall be deemed to have immediately transferred to the Society the authority to summon and mobilize their entire being, including both body and mind.”
The man appeared slightly flustered.
He immediately put the contract away.
“Y-You certainly possess an exceptional talent.”
Without answering, Ilea stared into empty space for a moment.
She then laughed with a sigh.
“Give me the contract again.”
“Ha-ha. It seems I brought the wrong contract. I’ll bring you a new one shortly—”
Ilea abruptly interrupted him.
“I’m going to sign it.”
“...Excuse me?”
“I’ll join the Calamity God Society.”
The man stared at her blankly.
“Didn’t you just accuse us of searching for slaves?”
“Everything comes with a price. I urgently need a demon to contract with.”
The man’s expression brightened.
“Ha-ha! You possess a remarkably rational way of thinking. My intuition was correct after all. I knew I sensed a positive energy from you.”
He held out the contract again.
Ilea immediately signed at the bottom.
“There. That’s my signature.”
“Excellent. Please follow me.”
The man collected the contract and left the teahouse.
He headed directly toward the center of the Shadow of Death’s first level.
A massive sinkhole occupied its center.
Several people dressed in black robes stood guard around it.
The man spoke to Ilea.
“This is the entrance leading to the second level. It isn’t a place just anyone may enter. You have been chosen.”
“I’m very grateful.”
“Ha-ha. Please wait here for a moment.”
The man approached the sinkhole and spoke with the guards.
A short while later, he beckoned to Ilea.
Standing before the sinkhole, Ilea asked,
“Are we going down?”
“That’s right. Please step onto the lift.”
An old lift stood suspended over the seemingly bottomless hole.
It was an artifact powered by mana.
Ilea immediately stepped onto it.
The man boarded with her.
One of the guards recited the activation phrase.
The lift descended underground.
Screams and groans rose from below.
The deeper they went, the louder the noise became.
When Ilea finally set foot on solid ground, a living hell unfolded before her eyes.
The enormous cavern was filled with countless people.
Every one of them was chained and suffering.
Acts intended solely to inflict pain and terror were repeated without end.
One man was having his skin peeled away while his entire body remained restrained.
An old man without arms or legs writhed and begged to be killed.
A centipede fashioned from human bodies squirmed across the ground.
It looked like a miniature version of hell itself.
The man from the Calamity God Society said,
“This is the Society’s farm. Quite impressive, isn’t it?”
Demons were obsessed with human suffering and fear.
This farm existed to sustain the demons contracted to members of the Calamity God Society.
Ilea said,
“It’s a more primitive farm than I expected.”
This place produced nothing but crude, low-quality pain and fear.
Truly skilled specialists created carefully designed circumstances that shattered the human psyche.
Betrayal by someone trusted, an endless series of failures, and the final collapse of one’s identity—to satisfy a high-ranking demon, a more sophisticated form of suffering was required.
The man looked embarrassed.
“Ahem. Please come this way for now.”
They crossed the cavern and entered a spacious room.
Several novices had already arrived and were conducting summoning rituals.
Like Ilea, all of them had been recruited through missionary work.
Dark blue demonic energy erupted from beneath one woman’s feet.
“I-I did it!”
A hideous, decrepit creature emerged from the summoning ritual.
She had summoned a lowly evil spirit.
In exchange for obtaining such a worthless spirit, she had become a lifelong slave of the Calamity God Society.
The others were in similar situations.
Every one of them was forming a contract with a lowly spirit.
The man said to Ilea,
“Please stand before an unoccupied summoning circle.”
Ilea approached one of the grotesque formations.
“What about the offering?”
Both an offering and mana were necessary to activate a summoning ritual.
“You’re impatient. Here it is.”
The man handed her a fragment of bone.
Ilea let out a quiet laugh.
She couldn’t sense the slightest trace of holiness from it.
“What is this?”
“A fragment from the first joint of Saint Antonius’s index finger.”
That was nonsense.
Even a bone fragment from some third-rate monk would have contained more divine power than this offering.
“Yes, I’m sure it is.”
With offerings this worthless, it was no wonder they could summon nothing but lowly spirits.
The man asked,
“May I begin?”
Ilea placed the bone fragment on the summoning circle.
“Whenever you’re ready.”
The man channeled mana into the ritual.
The formation ignited with black flames.
At the same moment, dense mist spread around the summoning circle.
“Wh-What is this?”
“There’s something strange about its purity.”
The rapidly accumulating demonic energy consumed everything around it.
The lamps went out one after another.
Darkness descended.
The space itself was being devoured by shadow.
Everyone backed away in alarm.
At that moment, red eyes flickered within the darkness.
Enormous wings unfurled to either side.
An unfathomable presence pressed down upon the entire cavern.
Every sinister scripture in existence scattered violet light.
『All evil, close your eyes and contemplate. The Calamity God has descended. Let the hypocrites close their holy texts, for your laws and order shall be written anew.』
The summoned spirits trembled uncontrollably.