Chapter 595: Form Change (3)

“Should we split up and search separately?”

“I’ll go up from the second floor, so please take care of the first-floor lobby and the basement archives.”

He said this, but it wasn’t safe to entrust dangerous areas to Priscilla, who lacked combat ability.

It would be better to assign her the ground level, where one could evacuate relatively quickly, especially the first floor, which didn’t have many hidden spots, and the basement archives, where it would be difficult for Priscilla to go far alone.

Just as Lennok thought so and was about to step onto the central staircase leading to the second floor, at that very moment.

BOOOOM!!

Suddenly, with a powerful burst of mana falling from the sky, something hurtled past Lennok and slammed into the stacked bookshelves on the first floor.

CRASH!!

With that impact, the bookshelves, spaced at regular intervals, tumbled down like dominoes, scattering countless books across the floor.

A blood-soaked corpse lay slumped amidst a sea of scattered books.

The moment Priscilla, with a slightly startled expression, recoiled from the corpse, a familiar voice came from above the second-floor railing.

“Silla? Did you already finish and come back?”

“Sis!!”

Mila turned her head, shotgun raised, a hint of surprise in her expression.

“You really took care of it in a flash. I thought I’d have to bust through the second floor on my own.”

“…Bust through?”

“Look at that.”

Following Mila’s gaze, Lennok frowned as he saw the opponent who had appeared from above the wide central staircase on the second floor.

[Grrrroooowl…!!]

A beastly form, its entire body covered in jet-black fur. Its vague, unidentifiable appearance, a mix of dog and leopard, was striking.

Even more surprising were the five heads that sprouted from its muscular torso.

Perhaps injured from its fight with Mila, one of the five heads hung limp, but the other four were wide open, drooling profusely.

Its appearance, though modeled after an animal, more closely resembled a mythical beast than a spirit.

“It seems certain that something is hidden in this library. There was a sorcerer and a spirit stationed on each floor.”

CLICK!!

Mila reloaded her shotgun and spoke.

“I dealt with the sorcerer and spirit guarding the first floor, and I mostly finished off the sorcerer on the second floor. But the spirit is left alone, acting like that.”

While Lennok was dealing with the Gorilla Spirit with Priscilla, had Mila also successively defeated two executives of the Ghost God Palace?

“A spirit that’s alive and moving perfectly fine even after its sorcerer died…”

Come to think of it, the spider spirit he encountered in the subway tunnel also tried to run wild, devouring its own subjugated master, rather than depending on the sorcerer’s presence.

“Perhaps the spirits handled by the Ghost God Palace sorcerers aren’t merely subjugated to a single sorcerer.”

Lennok quietly muttered, intently watching the spirit that was snarling openly at him.

“It seems clear that what they wish to conceal is in the upper levels of the library. Let’s deal with this quickly and head up.”

As Lennok said that and stroked Davi’s head, who was still in the form of an ice fox, at that very moment.

[Woof, woof…!!]

As if sensing danger the moment it saw Davi, the five-headed mythical beast spirit let out a rough howl.

At the same time, its previously limp fifth head regenerated and regained its vitality, instantly becoming lively and revealing its hostility.

Mila reloaded her shotgun again, her expression a frown…

“Its regeneration is annoying. Even if you blow up all five heads at once, they just regenerate on the spot.”

“So that’s why you were stuck around the second floor.”

Lennok nodded, placing the subtly chilling ice fox at his feet.

“Good. This is a good opportunity to show you both how to deal with a regenerating opponent.”

“…Huh?”

“Professor, are you really going to lecture us in the middle of this?”

Mila let out a hollow laugh and shook her head.

“Your professional dedication is admirable, but that’s completely the opposite of ‘dealing with it quickly and moving on’.”

“It won’t take long. I only need to give you a quick tip.”

Lennok said, snapping his fingers.

“First, you arbitrarily blow off a part that the target must regenerate.”

“What?”

SLASH!!

Before Mila could even retort, Davi’s body instantly moved behind the mythical beast spirit and swung its tail.

The tail, transformed into a sharp ice blade, cleanly severed one of the mythical beast spirit’s heads.

While the two sisters stared blankly, one of the foxfires plunged directly into the severed neck of the mythical beast spirit.

CRACKLE!!

The foxfire completely enveloped and froze the severed neck stump.

[Kahaaak, kahaak!!]

Only then did the mythical beast spirit struggle, desperately trying to tear off the block of ice stuck to its severed head, but…

Davi casually ignored its struggles, blew a breath, and froze the mythical beast spirit’s four legs solid, binding it to the spot.

Meanwhile, Lennok, who had rummaged through the lobby and retrieved a thick bundle of wires, tossed the wires to Davi.

Davi bit down on one of the mythical beast spirit’s intact heads and bound it.

“By forcefully blocking the severed part that it must regenerate, and then forcibly supplying power to accelerate its regenerative ability, it becomes like this…”

BULGE, BULGE!!

The spirit, forcibly supplied with power, writhed to regenerate its head on the spot, but the severed neck was firmly blocked, frozen solid.

The lost regenerative energy wildly inflated parts of the spirit’s body, then burst, and finally, its entire body twisted and exploded.

BOOOM!!!

“You can safely and surely eliminate a regenerating entity.”

Lennok said, turning to the two and smiling.

“You’d need to put in a bit more effort to use this against life-system sorcerers or psychics, but the principle is similar.”

Lennok said, watching Davi shake itself off lightly and wiggle up his leg.

“The important thing is to forcibly twist the direction of the regenerative ability, causing a massive overload in the target’s body. If you can achieve that much, the rest isn’t difficult.”

“…No, first off, blowing off a head and blocking the stump isn’t easy.”

Mila muttered, dumbfounded.

“The fact that it’s even possible means you have to be perfectly superior in skill to your opponent in the first place.”

“Is that so?”

“Is your spirit perhaps stronger than us?”

“I wouldn’t know.”

Lennok laughed, picking Davi up again.

“I’m diligently training it so that it will become so someday.”

“…”

For now, it was an automatic combat algorithm that only worked in spirit combat.

Its true value wasn’t just in perfectly responding to given situations and precisely manipulating all necessary mana where needed.

It was an incomprehensible state where it learned the opponent’s abilities and combat patterns, then deconstructed and used them in reverse, continuously developing Davi’s own combat intelligence.

Its powerful computing ability and the combat skills acquired by mimicking Lennok were enough to make Davi appear far more intuitive than most mages.

“I thought your Associate Professor’s abilities and Hierarchy were excessively disparate…”

Priscilla, unlike Mila, nodded as if she understood.

“You’ve been continuously applying various mana theories in real combat through Davi. Now I understand.”

“Silla, this isn’t something possible through training or research. How can applying mana theories through a spirit even make sense?”

Mila retorted.

“No one would believe it if you told them your professor is trying to raise his spirit like a mage.”

“Sis, have you forgotten what paper Associate Professor Evan published recently?”

“…”

Priscilla shook her head, seeing Mila rendered speechless.

“He’s already reached a peak in his research on mana theory and its derived effects. If he says so himself, what more is there to say?”

“No, this is something that even people who have researched spirit formulae for decades…”

Lennok chuckled, shaking his head.

“My research specialization isn’t even spirits, to begin with, so what are you talking about?”

“Your tiny spirit is too strong to be explained by applying mana theories or whatever. What did you do?”

“I merely nurtured it with love and care.”

“…”

Mila was speechless, closing her mouth as Lennok held Davi up with both hands and spouted such brazen words.

[WOOF!!]

Davi, too, raised its front paws with a dignified expression, its tail wagging furiously.

Not content with that, it subtly lifted its tail towards Mila, who was doubting it, straightening it into the shape of a middle finger.

Mila’s lips twitched as she asked Priscilla.

“Was it always this… a bit cheeky?”

“…Perhaps?”

“…”

Mila sighed, turned away from Davi, and shook her head.

“Let’s go up. We need to find out what’s hidden in the upper levels of the library.”

The group immediately passed the second-floor staircase guarded by the Leopard Spirit and began walking between the rows of bookshelves.

Unlike the first floor, which had a desk and a lobby, from the second floor upwards, there was nothing but bookshelves storing books and desks set up for reading.

The library’s large size meant each floor was 상당해서 quite extensive, taking a considerable amount of time for the three of them to walk through.

“This won’t do.”

That was Lennok’s conclusion after surveying the entire second floor.

“What won’t?”

“I think we need to stop exploring on foot. It’s taking too long to check each floor.”

Lennok said, looking back at the library corridor they had just passed.

WHOOSH…!!

A silence so profound it made their ears ring.

No sound was heard except for the footsteps of the three as they talked and walked.

“I’ve noticed this every time I’ve come to the library, but the soundproofing is excellent.”

He lightly stomped his foot, but the sound merely hovered near the three before fading away.

“The very structure of the library is designed so that sound doesn’t leak out, and the bookshelves, floor, and walls absorb sound.”

Lennok turned to Mila and said.

“Even if someone is hiding on another floor or in another space and causing trouble, it would be difficult to notice with just our five senses.”

“It would also be dangerous to search too far apart. And if the three of us stay together, that would take time for searching…”

Priscilla agreed with Mila.

“That’s true. Normally, in situations like this, an exploration-type ability user would be important…”

“Our opponents will be waiting for us to show a weakness, and they’ll try to conceal the Dean’s whereabouts or the location where the ritual is taking place. I think it would be better to take a different approach here.”

“You mean there’s no need to waste time on pointless searching? But is there another solution besides searching on foot?”

Mila asked innocently, raising her shotgun, contemplating if she should just blow up the ceiling.

Lennok chuckled, seeing Priscilla shake her head with a pale face, and walked towards the second-floor wall.

“One shouldn’t discuss problems without considering alternatives. Could you help me a bit?”

“You want me to move the bookshelf, right?”

With Mila’s help, who lightly pushed aside a bookshelf near the wall, Lennok found an electrical outlet behind it and nodded.

“Found it. I thought there’d be one nearby.”

“There weren’t any outlets before this?”

“It seems that during the several reconstructions the Central Library underwent, they buried all these outlets into the walls.”

Lennok said, placing Davi in front of the outlet.

“Still, they likely left one or so near the stairs between the second and third floors for events or special occasions.”

“What are you planning to do with an outlet? You’re not thinking of messing with the library’s facilities using that tiny connection point, are you?”

ZAP!!

At that moment, the light directly above Mila’s head flickered, momentarily plunging the surroundings into darkness.

“…”

Mila, speechless, stared at Lennok as if he were a monster.

“You’re completely insane. Is this really possible?”

“The faculty members of Rebatenon University have the authority to remotely operate the school’s internal facilities.”

Lennok said, drawing up mana and rapidly amplifying Davi’s cybernetic interference ability.

“If I can combine my spirit’s power with this authority to forcibly expand it, then like this…”

BOOOOMMM!!

No sooner had he finished speaking than the second-floor ground of the library, where the three stood, shook violently.

“Whoa?!”

Priscilla gasped, grabbing Mila’s arm, while Mila looked around with curiosity.

Leaving only the space where the three stood untouched, the surrounding bookshelves began to slide and move as if racing across the ground.

CRASH, RUMBLE!!

From all directions, the floor and pillars disassembled and moved in sections, then reassembled dozens of meters away.

The second-floor ceiling opened wide, and bookshelves that should have been on the third and fourth floors descended, sliding into new positions.

Conversely, the second-floor floor and walls disassembled and soared upwards, circulating broadly as if shuffling the entire library’s levels.

CRASH-CRASH-CRASH-CRASH!!!

An incredibly bizarre spectacle, as if the entire reading room of the Central Library was being churned and thoroughly rearranged.

All visible structures changed positions and rotated, reorganizing the library’s internal pathways and bookshelves.

“Wow…”

While Priscilla stared in dumbfounded admiration at the grand wave of change, Mila, instead, turned to Lennok, her eyes gleaming.

“Amplifying faculty authority alone could never manipulate the entire library like this. So, this function was built into the Central Library from the beginning, wasn’t it?”

“There were quite a few irregularly classified bookshelves in the first-floor lobby. I thought there must be a reason for the book arrangement on the first floor, which is practically the face of the library.”

Lennok replied, stroking Davi, who was concentrating with its front paws extended to the outlet.

“And from that, you deduced there might be a function to arbitrarily move the library’s bookshelves?”

“It would be a system designed to easily organize bookshelves and books without affecting the Central Library’s external structure.”

“So, because the library is excessively large, they intentionally included such a function…”

Instead of answering Mila’s question, Lennok merely smiled quietly.

To be precise, this entire situation was part of a plan to drastically reduce the time spent on searching.

He had told Priscilla and Mila that his mana detection found no abnormalities, but the reality was different.

Lennok’s mana detection and resonance abilities already far surpassed those of mages of the same level.

While it was difficult to pay attention when detecting across a range of thousands of meters, when he focused his mind on a single location like this, he could discern even the slightest tremor of mana.

Using his unique detection ability, Lennok had already noticed the faint sense of unease within the library.

He had never intended to individually break through each floor of the library where several Ghost God Palace sorcerers were waiting.

Instead, he would forcibly manipulate the library’s internal system, flip the established board, and rearrange the situation and layout to his liking.

To produce results that made sense within the abilities and circumstances given to his Evan identity.

No matter what identity or face he wore, it was what Lennok did best.

The sight of sorcerers caught off guard on various floors, and the spirits guarding those floors beginning to stir and rampage.

And on the top floor of the library, amidst a messy scattering of books, in a secluded corridor corner where blood flowed profusely.

“I’ve found the location where the ritual is taking place.”

Lennok muttered, lightly grasping Davi’s tail and drawing up mana.

“Now, shall we go ruin the tower they’ve so diligently built?”