novelraw Chapter 613: Episode 613
Chapter 613: Episode 613
He’d seen more than his fair share of bones at a necromancer school, but human remains always felt different. Especially when discovered unexpectedly in a place as suspicious as this.
"I’ll take a look."
While Meirin stood frozen, Simon strode forward to examine the skeletons. The bones were cracked and damaged, with strange, bite-like marks gouged into the ribs.
"...Based on the skeletal structures, two men and one woman," Simon determined, his voice low. "They haven’t been dead for very long. And," he added, slowly closing his eyes, "they didn’t starve or drown. They were murdered."
Meirin’s face went white. "Huh?! D-Don’t say such terrifying things!"
"It’s the truth." Simon rose to his feet, his eyes narrowing. "The Valkese family, the owners of this arena, are definitely hiding something."
[Boy.]
Pier’s voice echoed in his mind.
[Eleven o’clock.]
Simon shifted only his eyes, staring into the shadows. A dark shape flickered at the edge of his vision and then vanished.
"Meirin! After it!"
"H-Huh? What are we chasing?"
Flaring his Jet-Black, Simon broke into a full sprint. Meirin, though bewildered, immediately matched his pace.
"There’s someone else in this cave!"
Simon flooded his body with Jet-Black, accelerating. He ran along the cave wall, leaped, and scrambled up a high ledge, pulling himself over. ’Does this cave lead all the way to the top of the arena?’
He scaled the rock face like an agile predator, using ’Cloud’ to stick to the wall and propel himself from one handhold to the next. Meirin watched in awe for a moment before hastily drawing a magic circle beneath her feet.
"Wait for me!"
’Ice Road’
A ramp of solid ice formed beneath her with a sharp hiss, and she shot up the wall after him.
In the sudden chase, the fugitive’s form slowly came into view. It was running on all fours, and judging by its shadow and footprints, it wasn’t very large.
"We have to catch it!"
At Simon’s mental command, a skeleton from his subspace materialized, encasing his arm in bone.
’Bone Armor – Handgun Mode’
He fired a volley of bone bullets while running, but the unfamiliar terrain threw off his aim. He scraped his legs and banged his head on low-hanging stalactites. The environment was clearly to his target’s advantage.
’Damn it!’
By the time Simon navigated a cluster of rock formations on the cave floor, the fugitive had completely disappeared.
"Did we lose it?"
"Leave it to me!" Meirin declared, catching up to him. She closed her eyes and held out her hands. A magic circle unfolded before her, complex formulas writhing into place as she instantly inscribed the necessary runes.
’Scrutor’
The magic circle condensed into a black sphere that pulsed outward like a wave. Her brow furrowed in concentration, and then she flung a blade of ice from her right hand toward a nearby stone pillar.
As the ice blade shattered the pillar with a crash, something dark shot out from behind it.
"Ah!"
It happened too fast for her to react. The creature pounced on Meirin with lightning speed, and they both tumbled over the edge of a cliff.
Simon raced to the precipice.
He saw them fall into a pool of water deep within the cave with a splash.
[Khahaha! This is quite a crisis,] Pier commented dryly. [Isn’t now the perfect time to unleash the Legion Commander’s power?]
"...No." If he donned Pier’s armor now, there would be no way to deny his identity as Pyeon. Besides, it wasn’t necessary. "Meirin’s got it."
’Frost Nova’
In the middle of the pool, a massive flower of ice bloomed with a deafening crack, spewing a frigid white mist. The surrounding water instantly froze solid, and trapped within the flower’s crystalline petals was the creature.
"Nice one, Meirin!" Simon yelled, extending his right arm, still equipped with the ’Bone Handgun’.
With a rasping sound, two more skeletons emerged from his subspace, swarming over the handgun. The bones interlocked, reassembling into a new form: a sniper rifle with an impossibly long and sleek barrel.
’Bone Armor – Sniper Rifle Mode’
Taking aim at the monster ensnared in the ice, Simon pulled the mental trigger without a flicker of hesitation.
He heard the clack and click of bones being stretched to their absolute limit, followed by a sharp crack as a short Bone Spear shot forth. The recoil sent Simon staggering back, and the rifle shattered into a shower of bone fragments, but—
The accuracy and power were undeniable. The bone spear tore through the air and pierced the creature’s chest with a sickening crack.
A pained shriek echoed through the cave. He could have blown its head off, but he needed to get information from it first. Simon leaped down onto the sheet of ice Meirin had created.
He had assumed it was a monster, but it was a nature-type undead. It was so emaciated that its ribs protruded from its skin, its face was a distorted mass of flesh like unbaked dough, and a few pathetic strands of hair whipped around its head. Putrid saliva drooled from its mouth. It was an undead that defied easy classification.
’So this is what killed those people.’
The undead thrashed violently, clawing at the ice that encased its lower body. Cracks began to spiderweb across the surface.
It finally shattered the ice with a crash and charged.
"Ah!" Meirin, who had just freed herself from her own ice, cried out in warning. "Simon, dodge!"
The undead’s jaw unhinged, and a wave of pure Jet-Black—a blind, seething rage against the living—washed over them.
Simon stood his ground, calmly meeting its gaze.
[Stop.]
The undead, which had been about to lunge, froze mid-stride. The very air in the cave seemed to turn a deep, oppressive blue under the weight of Simon’s command. Meirin felt the hair on her arms stand on end.
’Simon?’
He was completely different from the Simon she knew. That expression, that aura... an intimidating presence so powerful it could make an undead flee in terror. It was just like...
’That time...’
Fleeing from Simon, the undead spotted the vulnerable Meirin and lunged at her instead with a shriek. Startled, she scrambled to get up, forgetting about the slick ice she had created. She slipped and landed hard on her rear.
’Aah! What am I doing?’ she thought, flailing in a panic.
Just as the undead bared its teeth to tear into her—
Simon dropped from above with a thud, pinning the struggling creature to the ground. He casually settled into a cross-legged position on its back and smiled.
"Are you okay, Meirin?"
Her heart pounded in her chest.
She panted, nodding wordlessly. For some reason, she couldn’t seem to catch her breath. "Y-Yeah! Thanks!"
Simon must have cast some kind of curse, because the undead’s struggles were slowly weakening.
---
Three hours later.
"How dreadful," Jane said, her voice dripping with ice. She gestured to the undead that Simon and Meirin had captured, which now stood restrained before the arena’s owners. "If you have mouths, I suggest you use them."
Such a horrific creature had been hiding in their arena. The members of the Valkese clan prostrated themselves on the floor.
"W-We have committed a sin worthy of death!"
The ’Water Arena’, a famous landmark of the Valkese region, was an ancient ruin once used by royalty for their amusement. Their kingdom had long since fallen, but their descendants had survived by managing the arena, scraping together a meager living. The region was unsuitable for farming and poor in resources, leaving it entirely dependent on tourism. The arena was their only asset, a popular vacation spot for nobles.
Then, one day, people started disappearing. Vicious rumors spread, the nobles stopped coming, and their business plummeted. The Valkese family had been desperately trying to cover it all up.
"I see," Jane said with a curt nod.
The Valkese family members bowed their heads lower. "We swear we are not hiding anything else!"
"You can demand compensation for damages! We won’t even charge a usage fee!"
"The incident is resolved and the arena is safe now, so please, allow us to host for the Dark Festival...!"
Jane turned her back on them. "We will be returning the arena to its original location."
"Huh?!"
The Valkese clan stared, mouths agape. Teleporting such a massive facility cost an astronomical sum, nearly as much as building a new one from scratch. And she was canceling it? They had been certain that once the arena was on Kizen soil, the contract was a done deal.
But Jane was implacable. "We have no intention of holding the Dark Festival in an arena where the safety of our students was so nearly compromised."
She snapped her fingers. A squad of subordinates swarmed in and arrested the Valkese family.
"W-Wait a minute, Professor! We will gladly pay for our crimes!"
"Please, just reconsider returning the arena...!"
They struggled desperately as they were dragged away, but there was no chance of Jane changing her mind. She turned to the committee members.
"Investigate every Kizen insider who verified and signed the contract for this Valkese arena. There is no way they were unaware of the rumors. There must be a connection."
"Yes, ma’am!"
As the committee members departed, Jane turned to Simon and Meirin with a rare, pleased smile. "Excellent work, as expected from the student council. You prevented what could have been a major accident."
At Jane’s praise, Meirin couldn’t hide her own smile, replying with a heartfelt, "Thank you!" Simon, however, looked somewhat bewildered.
"Are you really sending the arena back? The cost..."
"There is no guarantee that another incident won’t occur in an arena that has already proven to be a liability," Jane said with a faint smile. "More importantly, I will report your exemplary performance to headquarters and to Lady Nephthys. You did very well."
It seemed everything had worked out. Meirin looked at Simon with relief. "That’s great, right?"
Simon slowly nodded. "Yes, well."
He swept his hair back, his eyes narrowing slightly.
’I guess... it’s resolved, right?’
---
Deep within the Valkese arena’s cave, darkness reigned. Seven hundred meters from where the bones of the victims lay scattered, past a narrow, naturally formed passage, lay a place no human hand could reach.
Water droplets fell, one by one, from the tips of long stalactites. It was a place unknown even to the Valkese family, who had managed the grounds their entire lives.
On the far wall, something was mounted. A rigid, geometric shape. A symbol that had no place in the Dark Alliance.
Two long, wooden planks, crossed over each other.
It was unmistakably a cross. The symbol of the goddess Deva. If the people of this land saw it, they would collapse in horror.
Below it, on a silver platter, sat the severed heads of the dead. It was an altar. A blood offering to the goddess.
A long, saliva-drenched tongue made a slurping sound as it touched the bottom of the cross.
The tongue slid slowly up the rough surface with a wet, rasping sound, leaving a trail in its wake. When it finally reached the top, a pair of red lips pressed a kiss against the wood.
"Soon, you will all be in the arms of ruin."
A deathly white aura filled the cave.