Episode 61
A world of monsters unfolded before him—a manifestation of the countless atrocities he had committed as a captain of the Black Red Order.
“Ahhh! My foot! It’s rotting away!”
“Please, save me! The baby inside me, the baby…!”
This was the realm of thought projected by the sixth-circle dark sorcerer, Velok. The Black Red Order’s laboratory of human experiments.
A man screamed in agony as his toes decayed. A mother, unable to bear the sight of her own leg rotting from the toes up, began sawing it off to protect the child in her womb.
”…It was an experiment to understand maternal love,” the monster said.
“The control group, the man, couldn’t even think of picking up a saw as his body rotted away.”
Velok boasted proudly of his achievements.
“But astonishingly, the pregnant woman did not hesitate!”
She cut off her own leg without a second thought to save the child inside her.
”…”
“Isn’t a mother’s love truly magnificent?” Velok exclaimed, spreading his arms wide as if in genuine awe.
“That’s why I pondered day and night on how to harness a mother’s love, her very thoughts, into a weapon…”
Dale bit his lip in silence.
Before Velok’s grandiose speech, Dale remained stoically quiet.
The captain of the Black Red Order, who had committed unforgivable acts. A world reflecting the mind of a monster.
Even Dale couldn’t suppress the nausea in the face of such a scene.
As a hero from another world, he was not ignorant of the Black Red Order’s true nature. But knowing and witnessing it firsthand were entirely different matters. In truth, there had been no direct contact between the hero and the Order. If anything, he had been one of their “unwilling test subjects.”
The images of his mother, Elena, and his sister, Lize, flashed through his mind.
His stomach churned. He wanted to vomit right then and there.
“Don’t think you’ll die a peaceful death,” Dale finally spoke, biting his lip hard enough to draw blood.
“I’ll show you what a real living hell is.”
“Oh, that’s quite an exciting promise,” Velok mocked.
”…”
“It seems the ‘notorious cruelty of the Black Prince’ isn’t just a rumor after all.”
Dale didn’t respond to Velok’s taunts. He simply let his shadowy cloak billow, casting darkness over the entire scene. Waves of shadow spread like a flood.
“The Black Prince’s famed artifact, the Shadow Cloak!”
Yet Velok remained unfazed atop the dark lake that engulfed the area.
“To think you’ve already expanded the artifact to summon the ‘Shadow Lurker’ at this level.”
As a sixth-circle elder of the Black Tower, Velok was not unfamiliar with the concept of Dale’s dark artifact.
“I knew from the tower’s trials that your talent was extraordinary.”
”…”
“But to think it was to this extent. Truly, you live up to the Black Prince’s reputation.”
Velok spoke as if genuinely regretful.
“To have to kill such a brilliantly talented sorcerer…! Blame the weakness of the Black Tower’s master.”
The mention of his father’s weakness made Dale smile bitterly. He merely snapped his fingers in silence.
Thwack!
Suddenly, the Shadow Lurker’s spiked tendrils shot up from beneath Velok’s shadow. Yet, the tendrils rushing from all directions failed to touch him. Velok’s body became a blur of darkness, charging toward Dale.
Wraith Form.
A sixth-circle dark sorcerer was no mere title.
That day, in the library of hell, when Dale defeated the sixth-circle white sorcerer Nikolai using the Book of the Black Goat, it was a victory born of twisted, malevolent thoughts and the geographical advantage of hell. This place was different.
‘The empire’s greatest talent, advancing by leaps and bounds every day.’
That was the reputation people spoke of when they mentioned the Black Prince of the Saxon family.
It was not a story inflated without reason.
And after defeating Nikolai, how much time had passed? How much had Dale grown in that time? Even he couldn’t fathom it.
Thus, a mere sixth-circle dark sorcerer could not possibly imagine it.
Accelerating three mana circles, a void horizon unfolded beneath him.
A world of a white and dark winter night.
A frigid chill and refined dark magic swirled into a black-blue vortex, and an unforgettable voice was heard.
It was the pure voice of a young girl, untainted by a single speck.
─ You finally came to play with me?
Before he knew it, a girl stood beside Dale. A young girl draped in a jet-black dress.
Amidst her black hair, two horns of a black goat stood tall.
─ I’ve been waiting for you for so long.
Beneath her skirt, countless tendrils writhed.
Wraith Form.
Velok had just closed the distance with Dale, evading all of the Shadow Lurker’s attacks.
”…!”
Seeing the ‘being’ beside Dale, Velok gasped in shock.
The most terrifying entity in the world was there.
A grotesque mass of writhing tendrils, so repulsive that even the most fearsome monsters would recoil.
From the black tendrils, a tar-like, sticky liquid dripped.
He could sense it. The indescribable malice contained within that tar-like black liquid.
‘What on earth is that…?’
And then, all at once, the black tendrils struck. A blow that even his wraith form couldn’t evade.
The black tendrils. An embodiment of malice so vile and terrifying that it couldn’t even be compared to the Shadow Lurker’s ‘spiked tendrils.’ In a panic, he widened the distance and began chanting his decay magic.
A deathly wind surged toward Dale from the ground.
《Wave of Annihilation》.
A wind of death, condensed from the extinction of life, rushed forth, and Dale was not idle. His shadowy cloak, disguised as a black surcoat, billowed as he leaped forward.
This was not a combat style relying 100% on the Book of the Black Goat.
The black tendrils provided covering fire from behind, but the battle itself was Dale’s to fight.
As the empire’s greatest talent, both swordsman and sorcerer, the ‘Black Prince’ charged at Velok.
He didn’t even think of dodging the dark wind rushing toward him.
‘Is he trying to get himself killed?’
Velok wondered at the sight. The deathly wind of a sixth-circle dark sorcerer. Though he couldn’t know it was the ‘decomposition process of organic nitrogen compounds by decay bacteria,’ the rotting and decaying of corpses was no exception in any world.
And in response, Dale processed the black-blue magic based on his otherworldly knowledge. A black-blue armor enveloped him to protect against the deathly wind.
The two magics collided, and Velok’s vaunted wind of annihilation dissipated without a trace.
”…!”
Before he knew it, Dale was charging, creating a blade of shadow with his cloak.
‘How did he neutralize the decay magic?’
It didn’t matter. It wasn’t the time to think about it. Velok didn’t panic.
As Dale rapidly closed the distance, Velok formed another ‘barrier of decay’ between them.
The moment Dale’s body made contact with the barrier of decay.
‘I’ve won!’
Velok exulted, but at the same time, Dale’s body, which should have decayed upon contact with the barrier…
Enveloped in that same black-blue armor, it charged straight at Velok’s face.
Without any damage, completely unscathed.
”…!”
Velok’s expression turned to one of shock. The feeling of a mere sorcerer allowing a knight to close the distance.
The shadow blades orbiting around Dale were all aimed at him.
“H-How did you bypass the barrier of decay…!”
Velok, who only understood the concept of biological decay, couldn’t possibly know.
Decay. The decomposition process of organic nitrogen compounds by bacteria.
And decay magic merely accelerates that process through the ‘power of thought.’ Thus, for Dale, who understood the mechanism, blocking decay magic wasn’t as difficult as it seemed.
The annihilation of the bacteria that were the magic’s core.
‘Disinfection.’
In this world, nothing is immortal. Not even microorganisms like bacteria.
Thwack!
Simultaneously, the black tendrils that belatedly resisted Velok’s movements pinned him down from all sides.
Then the shadow blade struck.
“Aaaah!”
The blow wasn’t meant to be lethal. It was a decisive strike to immobilize the opponent, severing tendons and cutting just deep enough to cause excruciating pain without being fatal.
“Aaaah! Aaaah!”
Screams echoed through the air.
“Oh, come on, don’t be so dramatic,” Dale sneered coldly, unfazed by the anticlimactic end.
In the world of mages, victory hinges on whose magic can project a more refined and powerful logic. Thus, in a battle of ideologies, the precision of otherworldly knowledge was unparalleled.
Even if the opponent was a 6th-circle dark mage, it made no difference. In fact, because they shared the same magical attribute, the outcome was even more one-sided.
‘Didn’t even need to rely on the grimoire’s power.’
There hadn’t been an opportunity to showcase the true strength of the grimoire. But Dale had a different reason for summoning the Book of the Black Goat in the first place.
“I told you,” Dale continued, his expression devoid of emotion as Velok knelt, screaming in agony.
“I’d show you what a real living hell looks like.”
“A-ah…”
“Do you finally fear the infamous Black Prince?”
Beside Dale, a young girl stood, her skirt concealing the writhing tentacles beneath.
“Does the title of the Black Tower’s heir still seem laughable to you?”
To Velok, who was now utterly defenseless, the sight of those loathsome tentacles must have seemed like a swarm of black tendrils descending upon him.
They were incredibly small and thin, like surgical nano-wires from a sci-fi movie.
”…!”
The slender, jet-black tendrils plunged down simultaneously.
They pierced Velok’s ears, nostrils, mouth, and even tore through his retinas, reaching for his brain.
To penetrate the skull and reach his mind.
“Aaaah!”
Velok began to thrash wildly, blood-tears streaming from his torn retinas.
“It’s better to get the punishment over with early,” Dale remarked nonchalantly, watching the scene unfold.
“Since you’re destined for hell anyway… I might as well give you a preview before you fall.”
His words were laced with an icy hatred beyond compare.