Chapter 62

Chapter 62: Black Drug

The lightning bullet that escaped Ferda’s grasp pierced through the head.
The sight of him collapsing while spraying blood was so foreign that no one could respond immediately.
— Eh, what, what the hell?!
The enemy forces could not even properly comprehend the situation.
Following Ferda’s preemptive strike, Consillus and Marco rose and broke into the enemy formation.
— Kuaak!
— Keuk!
Consillus and Marco struck down the two men in front.
Only then did they understand the situation.
— An ambush!
— R-run!
Just as they were about to fall into chaos, a woman shouted.
— Damn stupid bastards! There’s no retreat anyway! Take up your weapons!
At the dark elf’s command, Director Linne, the confused soldiers drew the weapons they carried.
Director Linne raised her staff.
— How dare you raid this place! Bastard sniper, show yourself obediently as well!
Ferda obediently showed himself at those words.
Director Linne’s eyes opened wide.
— Gray hair, blue eyes… you… are Ferda Valdrova.
She recognized Ferda.
— Well, well. I thought I would like to see the face of the bastard who destroyed my lair someday, but to think you would visit this place in person.
— Are you happy?
— If you call this happy, it is. Since I will be able to kill you with my own hands. Kill them all!
The henchmen charged at Ferda.
At that moment, a calm energy began to erupt from the bodies of Consillus and Marco.
A knight’s mana, an aura, enveloped their entire bodies.
A knight using aura boasts the strength of a hundred men.
Dealing with a score of mere low-ranking henchmen was child’s play.
Buung—!
Every time Marco and Consillus traced a path, the henchmen collapsed helplessly.
The henchmen, no different from a mob of mercenaries without cohesion, quickly lost morale.
The dark elf watched the scene in fury.
— Useless pieces of trash! Secretary!
— Y-yes?!
— Come here!
At the beckoning gesture, the dazed secretary approached.
The dark elf took something out of the pouch she was carrying.
It was a syringe filled with a black liquid.
The dark elf plunged it into the secretary’s neck.
— Keck?!
The black liquid was absorbed into the secretary’s body.
— Eugeuk… eugegegegeck?!
The injected secretary began to convulse with the sound of his whole body twisting.
Consillus instinctively sensed the threat and shouted:
— Marco! We have to stop that before it transforms!
— Leave it to me!
Marco charged at the mutating man with his sword drawn.
— No way!
The dark elf’s palm aimed at Marco.
A magic circle formed from her hand.
What she used was human magic.
It was Force Rush.
Tung!
— Eueok!
The space in front of her palm compressed and then turned into a shockwave that sent Marco flying.
He failed to stop the man’s mutation.
— Eugeck! Gegegeck!
The man’s body, making bizarre sounds, swelled up.
At the same time, his skin began to dye a dark color.
It only stopped growing after tearing through his clothes and reaching the size of a brown bear.
He raised his head.
Black skin, red eyes, and sharp teeth.
Unmistakably the typical features of a demon.
— A demon…!
— A Bouncer among them.
Demons specialized in physical bodies that can break even binding magic with brute force.
Marco and Consillus felt intimidated before that scene.
— Gehehehe!! I too! I too received the grace of that person!!
The Bouncer flew into an excited rage like a child who received a toy.
Unused to controlling his strength, the room shook every time he struck the ground.
That vibration froze even the knights who had traversed countless battlefields.
However, not even that managed to capture Ferda’s interest.
Ferda’s eyes turned to the dark elf’s pouch.
“She took the syringe from that pouch.”
And there is no way only that syringe is inside there.
“I must secure that object without fail.”
Ferda looked away and ordered Consillus:
— Count, you take care of that Bouncer. Can you do it?
Consillus replied:
— If I cannot overcome a wall of this level, how could I walk around with my head held high?
— My sword belongs to the Regent!
Consillus did not take a step back.
Inspired by that, Marco also mustered his courage and wielded his sword.
— I understand your intentions well.
Ferda extended his hand.
— But there is no need to do it the hard way.
A magic circle forming in his hand.
Ferda recited the spell.
— Frenzy.
A magic circle dyed in black shot out in the form of a ray and pierced through the Bouncer’s head.
— Gehehe! Geu… geuek?
The Bouncer struck by that magic laughed foolishly and then suddenly grabbed his head.
— Geueuk… geuaaaak! Aaaak! It hurts! It huuuurts!!
The monster of muscle began to run amok while clutching his head.
He began to tear apart everything within his reach.
— Keuk!
— What are you doing?! We are allies, pueck!
A massacre akin to unleashing a rabid dog in a chicken coop began.
The henchmen were torn to pieces in an instant.
— It hurts too much! It huuuurts!!
Just as that rage was about to turn toward the dark elf, the elf hurriedly recited a spell.
— Restraint!
A rune-shaped spell pierced through the Bouncer’s head.
The enraged Bouncer settled down in an instant.
— Do you recognize who I am?
— Uh uh, D-Director-nim?
— You’ve come back to your senses. If you understand, hurry up and sweep away that trash!
— Y-yes!!
The Bouncer who regained his senses charged at the two knights.
— To humiliate me like this in front of the Director, you bastards! I will not forgive you!!
Marco and Consillus met that attack head-on.
Kuung!
— Eueuk!
— Hm!
The two people were pushed back with a heavy resonance.
But they endured.
Because they endured, they were able to counterattack.
Peoseok—!
Aura that cuts through human flesh and bone like radishes.
That aura barely managed to pierce the skin, which had grown so tough.
— Euhahaha! I became stronger! Me! Strong!
The struggle between the two knights and the Bouncer formed a fierce contact point.
Those playing the decisive role in the tight fight were precisely the mages.
Victory or defeat depended on the support of Ferda and the dark elf.
The dark elf deployed a magic circle first.
What she attempted to use was Slug Time.
Magic to decelerate the two knights coated in aura, giving the Bouncer an opening.
— Slug Tim—.
She detected an attack before she could finish the chant.
What was visible to the naked eye was a bullet made of mana.
It flew precisely toward the magic circle.
— Euk?!
The magic circle infused with magical power exploded just like that.
— Breaking a magic circle with Mana Shot…
Director Linne was shocked.
She forcibly repressed the doubt arising in her mind.
“There are only a few who can see through a blind spot of magical power and detonate it…”
A blue flash shone in Director Linne’s pupils.
It was to gauge how strong Ferda’s magical power was.
And she was not mistaken.
“A mere novice Regent who only reached the 4th Circle handles the blind spots of magical power?”
That was why the doubt amplified.
In complex magic like the recent Slug Time, it was a fatal technique.
— What are you doing? Hurry up and use magic.
Ferda provoked her.
— An elf who cast aside the grace of nature and uses human magic… what if they see you reduced in magic?
— You are at most 4th Tier. Aren’t you too arrogant for a fellow 4th Tier?
Ferda also condensed his magical power to gauge her circle.
The size was similar to Ferda’s level.
— Don’t lie. I already know you are 5th Tier.
— Eyes aren’t holes made because leather was lacking, Regent. If you are around the 4th Tier, you should have the ability to grasp mana circuits—.
— Do I look like a fool who cannot even recognize a bastard using the cultivation method of the Aquinas School?
At Ferda’s words, the dark elf’s eyes widened.
Before she could spit out “How did you know?”, Ferda cut in.
— Don’t make that face. It only makes me feel bad.
Ferda also prepared a magic circle.
Magic Explosion… strong among those of the 4th Tier.
As strong as it was, casting took time and the magic was complex.
But Ferda was already a skilled mage.
All processes moved faster than with other mages.
However, the meaning was clear in using that magic.
It meant looking down on the opponent.
— What a cheap provocation!
But that magic circle lost its power before long.
It was not Ferda’s will.
— That’s right, as you say, it is the 5th Circle.
Linne’s hidden secret was exposed, but that did not mean it was a problem.
— That is why I don’t need to use tricks like magical power blind spots like you.
Since the circles already differ, simply pressing down is enough.
She dismantles the magic circle’s shape with even purer, higher-ranking mana.
That was why in reality, Ferda was in a disadvantageous situation.
“The opponent uses the cultivation method of the Aquinas School.”
The Aquinas School is a school focused on firepower that abandons lower tiers to compress mana.
It has the advantage of deceiving the opponent and amplifying high-level magical effects.
Looking inside the dark elf’s body, it seems to contain 4th Tier level mana.
But in reality, it is a compressed, high-purity mana state of the 5th Tier.
If it turns into a weight-class fight, Ferda’s defeat is already a foregone conclusion.
— You know what?
Ferda has always lived looking up.
If the weight class doesn’t work, then technique.
If technique doesn’t work, then the next means.
If that means doesn’t work either, then even with gums.
That was the Ferda who had struggled like that.
— That there is a monster living under your desk?
— What?
What kind of stupidity is that?
Just as she was about to ask, something was felt under the desk.
Blue light illuminating the dark space under the desk.
Unmistakably, it was part of a magic circle.
— How is there a magic circle here—?!
— Lightning.
Kwajik!
A single bolt of lightning shattered the wooden desk and surged upward.
It pierced directly through the dark elf’s head.
— Kuaak!
The one who used the magic was Ferda’s Shadow Hand.
Ferda had been concentrating on moving the shadow under the desk amidst close combat.
Using Magic Explosion was also to disperse her focus.
‘It worked well.’
Ferda had wondered a bit how useful it would be in real combat.
But it became certain that no one knows as long as you hide your cards well.
— Truly disappointing.
Ferda said.
— The Aquinas School is a school that gains superiority by giving the opponent unknown information. However, a practitioner of that school is taken by surprise by the opponent.
It was a mockery, and simultaneously an expression of pity.
— Well… I didn’t properly utilize the opportunity either.
For Ferda, this was the opportunity to kill Director Linne.
But instead of collapsing to the floor, Director Linne stumbled in place and then stood upright again.
— Keueueueuk…!
Director Linne groaning.
She clutched her left eye and steadied her head.
Ferda examined the wound.
The Lightning pierced below the chin and exited through the eye.
— Survival instinct is remarkable. I intended to kill instantly, but to think you would dodge the attack itself.
— Damn it! Damn bastard of a short-lived race!
The dark elf glaring with eyes full of venom.
Ferda simply showed a crooked smile at that scene.
— Ferda Valdrova! I will definitely remember this humiliation!
The dark elf took out a scroll as a last resort.
It was Emergency Escape Magic.
As she tore the scroll, light burst around her body and swallowed her entirely.
— Uh uh, D-Director-nim?
The Bouncer looking blankly at the place where the dark elf disappeared.
The Bouncer who lost his mage was subdued easily.
Marco and Consillus, having fought a fierce battle, looked down at the Bouncer while breathing heavily.
— Phew, phew… I never dreamed I would fight a demon.
— Same here. To think I would barely see one at this advanced age.
— Save the private chat for later. We only have 20 minutes left.
— Yes.
Carrying the heat of battle that had not yet cooled down, they began the search.
Since they were in the middle of classifying information before abandoning the research facility, top-secret information and trivial information were somewhat separated.
They searched there, and Ferda moved toward the place where the Director had disappeared.
“Emergency Escape Magic does not move belongings either.”
Magic with rapid effect that abandons everything.
It does not even allow belongings, let alone clothes, to move along.
What met his eyes were clothes shed like skin.
And a leather alchemy pouch.
Ferda pulled open that pouch.
What was visible was a diary and a box.
Inside the box, syringe ampoules were arranged in a grid pattern, each with an attached label.
— Doppler
— Butcher (Prototype)
— Dark Sorcerer (Prototype)
.
.
.
All were titles of Knight-grade demons recorded in history.
Excluding the Doppler learned from the Chancellor Kidnapping Incident, new titles caught his attention.
“Not only was the Doppler threatening.”
What he had seen so far was not a forest, but merely a single tree.
“Roughly this is enough; what is in the diary?”
Ferda opened the diary from the pouch.
There, illegible hieroglyphs were lined up.
“A cipher?”
Characters placed so that the diary could not be arbitrarily interpreted even if stolen.
Ferda sensed it.
Something even more valuable than the information scattered here was hidden inside this.
Ferda placed the diary into the sample bag and locked it just as it was.
— Count, I obtained everything I wanted.
— Understood.
The information theft was completed successfully.
They retreated in secret and made their way back.
— —
Meanwhile, the three who headed to the research building.
Jed, wearing cold-weather gear, rubbed his body vigorously as he traversed the snowstorm.
— Ugh, shit, fucking cold. Why the hell build a house in a mountain valley like this?
— Please, keep quiet. What if someone hears?
— Oh, don’t worry. Even if an orc bastard howls, it won’t be heard in this weather.
He uttered complaints every time the cold wind touched his face, and the knights walked in silence listening to those complaints.
Soon they found the designated point and entered.
— Silence.
Unlike the quarters, the research building was already empty.
What remained were uselessly bulky objects and garbage.
And explosives prepared to bury the entire place.
— That demon was right. They really intended to blow everything to pieces within 6 hours.
— Well.
— So you’re saying that’s not the case?
— What I mean is that it could become “right now.” How can you trust the words of those demon bastards? Let’s move quickly.
Their mission was demon rescue.
It was said that the test subjects for the research were locked in the research building.
They would not bother transporting prisoners.
They must have left them behind to be buried along with the explosives.
That prediction hit the mark.
— What the hell is this?
But when they witnessed it with their own eyes, they could not suppress their horror.