Chapter 262: Missionary Walter (1)

Minutes before infiltrating the Necromancy Department Research Building.

“I’ve finished speaking with the Department Administration. They’re just as keen to handle things quietly, so we saw eye to eye.”

“For the next two hours, they’ll pretend not to notice anything happening in the Necromancy Department Research Building.”

“Good.”

Lennok nodded immediately upon hearing from Archwood.

Indeed, having Archwood, who had close ties with the school’s internal staff, made things proceed quickly.

From Rebatenon University’s administration’s perspective, they wouldn’t want things to escalate due to an unnecessary commotion.

This aligned roughly with Lennok’s desire to quietly secure the Guido Cult members.

“P-Professor Evan… Is this really okay?”

Priscilla’s eyes darted around, while Mila, wearing a mask one might expect a terrorist to wear, smirked.

Lennok sighed softly and said,

“As I’ve said repeatedly, you two don’t need to help. I told you I’d handle it alone.”

“But how can we just leave this to you, Professor…”

“Hmph…”

Though she trembled, Priscilla showed no sign of backing down, which likely stemmed from her good intentions. But for Lennok, honestly, it was just a hindrance.

“Alright. Then, from now on, listen carefully to what I say, and promise to move strictly according to my instructions. Understand?”

“…Yes.”

Priscilla nodded with a tense face. Mila, watching her from the side, snorted with a displeased expression.

“I told you to just watch from a safe distance. You just never listen.”

While Priscilla was obviously of no help, Mila, a mercenary who had been through all sorts of battles, was different.

Aside from the risk of accidentally killing the wrong person, she was undoubtedly a quite useful vanguard from Lennok’s perspective.

“Well, I rushed out and only brought this one thing… but it should be enough to meet my sister’s friends.”

Mila twirled a dagger with a ring at the end of its hilt, muttering, and Priscilla shrieked, trying to stop her.

“Don’t you dare lay a hand on the students! What if something goes wrong?”

“Aren’t they all from a cult? Won’t the commander take care of it somehow?”

Ignoring her absurdly carefree words, Lennok immediately summoned Davi.

“Ready?”

[Has the time come again for me to show my power to humans?]

“…”

Davi’s personality seemed to be emerging again recently… He couldn’t quite tell if he should be happy that the spirit’s personality was becoming so distinct.

Lennok silently sighed and pushed her into the circuit breaker box next to the lecture hall.

The lightning-shaped fox cub transformed into an intangible current and blended into the electrical wires.

A massive amount of information flowed directly into the power room of the area where the Necromancy Department research buildings were concentrated, rapidly taking control of the network.

Rebatenon Magic University naturally restricted outsider access, but its defenses primarily focused on magical formations.

The power supply rooms connected to each department’s research building also had basic security, but it was nowhere near enough to stop Davi’s intrusion.

This was likely because there wasn’t much to gain by tampering with the department’s database.

Lennok also had no intention of going that far.

For now, simply depriving the Necromancy Department’s research area of light was enough.

Woo woo woo woo…!!!

A rough engine sound rumbled from below, and the surrounding streetlights rapidly dimmed, plunging the street into darkness.

As shadows fell across Mila’s face, her expression completely changed.

“Don’t worry.”

She put a hand on Priscilla’s shoulder and murmured.

“I’ll make sure nothing happens to your university life, no matter what.”

With those words, Mila plunged into the darkness without a moment’s hesitation.

Silent, covert movement.

Her gaze, as she dashed with swift footwork, was fixed on the dilapidated research building among the Necromancy Department’s complex.

An abandoned old school building, no longer frequently used for practical training. The problem, perhaps, was that the student dormitory was located right next to that research building.

There must have been a reason why that particular spot was chosen for the ritual altar.

Mila, holding a dagger in a reverse grip, ran past the research building’s main entrance and along its side.

She kicked off the wall with her combat boot, slammed her dagger into the wall, and swiftly ascended to a second-story window, then quickly sprinted down the corridor.

Avoiding any potential traps near the first-floor entrance, she instantly infiltrated the building and leaped up the stairs without hesitation.

Pat-pat-pat!!

The scent of blood intensified the moment she entered the building.

Then, the sudden power outage caused panic.

At this close range, Mila could also roughly pinpoint locations using mana detection.

The third floor of the lecture hall.

A storage room, located in the furthest corner, yet occupying a large space.

The moment Mila waved her hand a few times at the door, which was tightly bound with thick chains.

Sapphire-blue cutting marks appeared between the chains, and they crumbled.

Kwang!!!

Mila kicked the door down and stepped inside. What met her eyes was a female student suspended in mid-air.

Mila threw her dagger to sever the chains binding the girl, then caught the falling student and asked,

“Penia?”

“…How?”

“You’re Penia, right?”

“Yes…”

Without personal information, even with awareness of presence or life signs, it was difficult to confirm without seeing their face directly.

Mila’s sharp gaze scrutinized her.

A stab wound on her abdomen. Pale complexion and parched lips.

There was an overwhelming sense that a large amount of blood had been drained, yet no blood was visible anywhere in the room.

There was only one answer.

“Evan. You’re listening, right?”

Mila spoke without waiting for a reply.

“Guido escaped. He plans to commit his act elsewhere. Can you confirm the direction?”

[No need to look elsewhere.]

The voice came, absurdly, from Mila’s phone.

[Why else would he choose a location so close to the dormitory?]

“Haaah, haaah…!!”

Lan Fei ran, clutching a glass bottle filled with crimson blood.

The blood was far heavier than she had anticipated.

She’d had many opportunities to handle blood while studying necromancy, but this was her first time transporting such a large quantity at once.

“Just a little, just a little more and it would have been done…!!”

Panting, she arrived at the dormitory backyard, not far from the research building.

It was a place where she always spent her time after finishing her departmental studies.

She opened a manhole cover hidden among dense bushes, not easily noticeable, and descended into the basement, revealing a neatly cleared open space.

Originally, she had wanted to create her own laboratory here, but then she wouldn’t have been able to avoid the eyes of the Necromancy Department professors.

For the task at hand, simply clearing the space beforehand was all she could do.

With trembling hands, she opened the lid and inverted the bottle.

The oily blood, not yet fully cleared of its viscousness, flowed stickily, but this was no time to care about such things.

“I have to do it quickly, quickly…!!”

Disregarding her clothes and face turning crimson, she drew a massive square magic circle on the ground with her bare hands.

Unknown monstrous words were scrawled within the enormous, blood-drawn square formation.

“If I can’t do this, I… to Paradise…!!”

There wasn’t enough blood. She should have extracted much more from Penia.

She never imagined someone would figure out her plan in such a short time.

Gulp.

Lan Fei, sweating profusely, chose to stab her left forearm to supplement the lacking blood.

“Done!! Now…!!”

She formed a hand seal and poured incantation into it.

Her belief, close to fanaticism, acted as a powerful will, transforming the mere drawing into a gate of miracles.

Paahhh…!!

A brilliant yellow light erupted in the middle of the dark sewer clearing.

It was the very light that had always guided her to Paradise during her prayers.

“Ahhh…”

Lan Fei knelt with an enraptured expression, as the brilliant light descended before her.

An alien voice spoke from within the light, softly stroking her head.

[Your preparations are quite late.]

“I apologize!”

[It’s alright, devotee. If you have prepared sufficient offerings, there will be no problem.]

“Yes, they are ready!”

Lan Fei lifted her head and declared triumphantly.

“Hundreds of offerings are prepared directly above the magic formation. If the Bishop proceeds with the ritual, the gate will surely open!!”

[You have done very well, devotee.]

The voice whispered warmly.

[You may rest now. I will handle the rest.]

“Huh?”

Crack!!

At that moment, a pale forearm extended from within the light and plunged directly into Lan Fei’s chest.

Without even a hint of resistance, her heart was pierced, and a death rattle escaped her lips.

Something pale emerged from the light, entered Lan Fei’s body, and crushed her head.

Creak, creak, creak…!!

At that moment, Lan Fei’s human personality completely vanished, replaced by a powerful will.

The human mode of existence, where body and mind interact, was distorted, and as the body changed to follow the powerful mind, Lan Fei’s physical form began to transfigure.

What emerged from her blood-soaked clothes was a young boy with pure white blonde hair.

He gazed down at his body for a moment, then let out a small laugh.

“The vessel is what it is, so the mutation wasn’t perfectly achieved.”

The boy murmured, staring up at the light floating in the air.

“It probably doesn’t matter… After all, it’s just a temporary physical manifestation. As long as the objective is achieved.”

He extended a hand and slammed the light, floating in the air, directly into the magic formation drawn on the ground.

Kooong!!

At that moment, the magic formation Lan Fei created split in two, opening wide like the maw of a colossal beast.

The massive fissure formed beneath the clearing swept everything in the underground and devoured it.

The boy gazed expressionlessly at the fissure that instantly burst onto the surface and began gnawing at the dormitory building.

The spell created here was Amrita’s Scales, one of the Guido Cult’s large-scale spatial transfer rituals.

It was a spatial transfer spell that transferred an equivalent amount of life as the life and mana it consumed.

Normally, activating such a large-scale transfer spell with a hastily constructed magic circle would be absurd, but when humans were used as consumables, the spell’s efficiency dramatically increased.

Hundreds of Necromancy Department students would undoubtedly be more than enough offerings to activate the spell.

The boy nodded in satisfaction and was about to conceal himself in a secluded part of the underground waterway.

Crack!

A streak of lightning struck from the darkness, piercing directly through the boy’s body.

“…!!”

The boy, with a slightly surprised expression, flexibly twisted his body, and the missed flash of light, losing its target, instantly plunged into the space beyond.

Right into the spot where the fissure had opened.

“This is…”

Only then did the boy realize that the previous attack was not a surprise attack aimed at him, and he frowned, but it was already too late.

The unknown will contained within the lightning instantly analyzed the structure of the magic formation and rapidly dismantled the structural equations needed to open the fissure.

Even if one didn’t fully understand how the spell worked, it was enough to find the points within the magic formation where mana was strangely mutated and paralyze them.

Zzzzzzzzz…!!

It was like tampering with the soldering between electrical circuits to deliberately break the power source.

This was by no means a disruption that the fissure, which hadn’t even swallowed a single life, could withstand.

Creak, creak….

“Hmm.”

The boy swallowed a grunt as he watched the fissure rapidly lose power and fade away.

To others, it might have looked like the magic formation was simply canceled by accumulating shock, but the boy was one of the insiders who knew very well how excellent the durability of that transfer spell was.

As a spell favored by high-ranking cult officials, it was a proven spell with no doubt regarding its safety and stability.

There was no need to mention the spell understanding and intuition of an opponent who could break such a magic formation with just a single mana interference.

Seeing the brilliant blue eyes flashing in the darkness, the boy calmly said,

“Indeed, it seems there are many talents in the megacity. I didn’t expect such an excellent sorcerer to be in this miniature garden that the city government created as a toy.”

“…”

“That’s why I always intended to get an estimate sometime. I hope this occasion can be that opportunity.”

“That’s very interesting.”

Lennok slowly walked out from the sewer and smiled.

“I’m very curious about what you guys are thinking, too.”