Chapter 591: Spirit Growth Promotion Ritual (2)
“What did the Ghost God Palace sorcerers ride in on…? What does that matter?”
Unlike Mila, who tilted her head in confusion, Cassia immediately understood the meaning and gasped.
“The subway…! Of course!”
“The city government’s subway line runs directly beneath Rebatenon University. The sorcerers apparently used it to infiltrate.”
Lennok said, unfurling a map of the university he’d brought from the lab.
“The train they rode in on. We’ll ride it in reverse to escape the university.”
“Ah, I see. Of course, they’d leave themselves a way to escape after finishing their business.”
Mila belatedly understood Lennok’s words and nodded.
Mila quickly estimated the distance on the map, then looked up and said,
“It’s not far from the Faculty of Elemental Studies lecture hall. We can get there in about ten minutes on foot.”
“There are over five subway stations within the university where we can board. We’ll pick one, occupy it, and seize the subway.”
Lennok said, pointing to a lecture hall where students were resting.
Cassia asked, a troubled look on her face,
“What about the students? Dozens of them moving to the subway station will definitely draw attention.”
“I’ll move first, pretending to head to a different station, to draw their attention.”
Lennok replied instantly.
“If I distract the other sorcerers, it should buy the students enough time to move. Mila, will you help?”
“Helping isn’t difficult, but… there are two problems.”
Mila said, spreading her fingers.
“First. What if the train the sorcerers rode isn’t at the station we plan to occupy?”
“I have a way to call it.”
Hacking the subway system itself through Davi wouldn’t be too difficult.
Concealing the process was also not difficult for Lennok.
“…Alright. Then second. What about going to find the Ghost God Palace leader?”
“I have a way for that too.”
“Ahahahahaha!!”
Mila burst into laughter at Lennok’s nonchalant reply.
Grinning, her shotgun slung over her shoulder, she nodded.
“If our assistant professor’s confidence is that high, then it’ll work out somehow. Alright. Let’s start.”
The Rebatenon Magic University’s internal subway station. A quiet scene, shrouded in a thick fog.
Beyond the fog, dozens of students were tiptoeing, quietly descending the transfer passage stairs.
All of them had tense, hardened expressions, some carrying injured classmates on their backs, suppressing their fear and anxiety as they moved.
Cassia, leading the way for the students, also had a faintly rigid expression.
“…If you go down this way, you’ll see the subway transfer point.”
Cassia, who had quietly whispered to the students following her, turned her head slightly.
“Hide for as long as you can and hold out until Assistant Professor Evan drives the train here. Understood?”
“Um, Assistant Professor Cassia…?”
“What is it?”
Cassia, turning to the student who had questioned her, noticed that the other students’ gazes were uniformly fixed on something above her head.
Hiss!
At the same time, a stinging sensation on her shoulder.
A green liquid, dripping from the station ceiling, was dissolving her clothes and burning Cassia’s skin.
“…”
Cassia’s face turned pale as she looked up, forgetting even the pain.
Clinging to the stairwell wall of the station, a spider easily the size of a person dripped green saliva, staring down at them.
“I think we’ve already been spotted…”
“…Run!!”
Clutching her injured shoulder, Cassia sprang up and began pushing the students forward, urging them to run.
“Please, please, please, not spiders…!!”
“That’s so creepy!!”
“If they catch us, we’ll be turned into living cocoons!”
Thump-thump-thump!
The students, pale-faced, scrambled down the stairs.
Dripping green saliva, the spider tilted its head, then swiftly scuttled down the stairwell wall, blocking the students’ path.
Its three-dimensional maneuverability made it impossible for an ordinary human’s speed to even approach it.
As its eight slender legs clacked, and a mass of webbing gathered at the tip of its tail, the spider was about to shoot its web at the students.
Above the students’ heads, a brilliant blue lightning flash.
Crackle…!!
A bolt of lightning, shot like an arrow, burst the spider’s lower abdomen, causing webs to spill out.
[Kieeeek!!]
The spider, belatedly realizing its lower body had been crushed, let out a sharp shriek.
“Ugh…!!”
Someone, unable to stomach the grotesque sight, gagged, but something, sensing the motion, shot forward like lightning and struck the student’s head.
Whack!
“Ow, ow!”
The male student, whose queasy stomach suddenly settled, looked up with a bewildered expression.
“Da-Davi?”
A dazzling indigo glow in the form of a fox pup.
Davi looked at the student, chin raised, and pointed proudly down the stairs with a paw.
“…Go?”
Nod-nod.
“Alright. Hey, you hit harder than I thought, though?”
As the student grumbled and picked up Davi, starting to lead the way, Davi emitted electricity, illuminating the inside of the station.
“But are you sure you don’t need to be with Assistant Professor Evan? If you’re not there, what about the Assistant Professor…?”
Shake-shake.
“So you’re fine. Then are you staying with us because of us?”
Nod-nod.
“Thanks. I’ll buy you spirit snacks often from now on.”
Perk.
“What, you liked that, didn’t you? You’re more opinionated than I thought, huh?”
Davi ignored the question, turning its head sharply away.
As the students chuckled and whispered quietly to Davi, the group arrived at the subway transfer point.
A dark, cavernous passage with metal rails laid out. There was no light to rely on except for the faint magical glow emanating from Davi’s body.
“We should hide until Assistant Professor Evan arrives.”
“Assistant Professor Cassia, the control room here is open.”
“Oh, really? That’s good timing—”
Cassia’s words caught in her throat as she naturally tried to turn her gaze.
She, too, realized that the control room door being open at a time like this could by no means be a positive sign.
The student holding the control room doorknob also seemed to notice something odd, their expression changing abruptly.
“…Huh?”
The moment the student, who had noticed the sticky white spiderwebs on the doorknob, took a step back.
CRASH!!
The control room door burst open, and a dozen or so spiders simultaneously swarmed out.
“Kyaaaaaaah!!”
This station wasn’t guarded by just one spider spirit.
Dozens of spiders, having somehow gathered inside the control room, burst out, spewing webs, and instantly bound the students’ bodies to the subway station floor and pillar walls.
[Kieeee.]
“H-Heegh…!!”
The students’ faces turned deathly pale at the sight of the spiders dripping green saliva before their eyes.
[For magic academy students, you’re rather dim-witted.]
A foreign voice echoed from beyond the dark passage where the subway rails were laid.
Shhhhhhhk!!
Several times larger than the spiders that had captured and bound the students, a gigantic spider the size of a medium tank crawled out from the passage floor.
[Did you really think we wouldn’t be guarding the subway?]
“Ugh…”
The Tank Spider stopped in front of Cassia, who grimaced, looking strained. From atop it, a sorcerer wearing a spider mask descended and stood before her.
[If you were relying on luck, it’s too late. You’ve all already been chosen as sacrifices for our ritual of offering—]
BANG!!
Suddenly, a gunshot rang out, and the sorcerer’s body violently trembled on the spot.
“Fate?”
Mila, holding a smoking shotgun behind the sorcerer, asked nonchalantly.
“You’re a wizard, and you believe in that crap?”
[Damn… it, I’m not a wizard—!!]
Mila kicked the head of the falling sorcerer, knocking him unconscious, then quickly bound his body to a pillar with the same spiderwebs.
“If he dies, the spirits might go wild, so let’s just knock him out for now.”
“…Isn’t it a bit much to expect him to survive a shotgun blast to the back?”
Mila shook her head at Cassia’s bewildered comment.
“Wizards nowadays are tough, it’s fine. I’ve hit a few, and they don’t even seem to mind.”
“…”
Mila, spouting an illogical answer based purely on personal experience, pulled a dagger from her pocket and began cutting the webs, one by one.
“Mercenary, excuse me, but could you please untie us quickly…?”
“Just a minute. Huh? Why isn’t this cutting?”
“Those spiders, they’re stopped now, but it wouldn’t be strange if they started moving again any moment.”
“It’s fine… huh?”
The moment Mila looked up to answer Cassia’s question.
She realized the sorcerer she had just bound was gone, and stopped her hands.
Following the direction of the flowing spiderwebs with her gaze, she saw the Tank Spider stopped on the subway rails.
From the Tank Spider’s mouth, which was merely mumbling without any visible movement, the sorcerer’s body was being chewed alive.
“…”
[…]
The moment Mila’s green eyes met the Tank Spider’s.
The Tank Spider’s green eyes, having just devoured its master, soon became bloodshot and began to glow crimson.
[Kieeeeeeek!!!]
With a sudden shriek, the dozen or so human-sized spiders, which had been motionless, began to stir as if waking from a slumber.
At the same time, they gaped their mouths in various places, as if ready to devour the students bound by their webs at any moment.
“Whoaaaaaah!!”
“M-Mercenary!!”
“Hold on, I’ll free you right away…!!”
Mila, sweating profusely as she cut the webs, suddenly lifted her head as if something occurred to her.
“W-Wait a minute!! Now that I think about it, Evan’s spirit was also here just now—!!”
Fzzzzzzzt!!
At that instant, a brilliant blue lightning flashed from the control room, burning away all the spiderwebs spread across the subway station.
A discharge of lightning that burned away all the webs without harming anyone, making Mila’s struggles seem pointless.
The moment the students jumped to their feet and turned their gaze towards the control room.
The fox spirit was clearly visible, standing proudly, holding onto the control panel with both front paws.
“Davi!!”
[Kieeeeee!!]
Upon seeing the fox spirit, the Tank Spider spirit shrieked wildly, trying to crawl into the subway station.
Saliva streamed from its mouth, and it frantically spewed webs indiscriminately from between its limbs.
An overt hunger, as if it couldn’t bear not to devour the small spirit at once.
But Davi, seeing the Tank Spider’s frenzy, far from retreating, overtly snorted.
Crackle!!
With the electrical signal sent by the Cybernetic Spirit to the control room panel, the direction of the subway’s internal rails changed.
From the dark rails beyond, a faint vibration and a flash of light.
WHOOOOSH!!
A massive train car, rushing in from further down the passage, slammed directly into the Tank Spider’s side.
The impact tore off all of the Tank Spider spirit’s limbs, and its body burst open, spraying webs like a fountain.
[Kueeeek!!! Kieheeehee!!]
The spider spirit thrashed, letting out a desperate shriek so piercing it was difficult to hear even with ears covered.
But it was relentlessly crushed and mangled by the train’s weight, which pushed forward, overwhelming the impact.
Screech!!
Only after completely flattening and tearing apart the spirit did the train finally apply its brakes, coming to a halt just at the end of the station.
In front of the train car’s driver’s window, which was covered in webs and unknown bodily fluids.
“I was a little late, wasn’t I?”
Lennok, holding the steering wheel with a calm expression, waved to the students.