“Haah....”
I could feel gravity again.
The Demonic Energy filling my body escaped with my breath and dispersed into the air.
“The air sure is refreshing.”
I slowly tilted my neck from side to side.
Everything looked astonishingly clear.
The Summoning Circle, Samigina’s Holy Relics, the various research instruments....
When I glanced to the side, I even spotted several torture instruments hidden behind the research equipment.
But something else surprised me even more.
‘Demonic Energy is overflowing from me.’
The Demonic Energy my body could not contain was pouring out and enveloping my surroundings.
Simply forming a contract with a demon did not allow a person to draw out the full power of the demon itself.
But with Samigina’s soul bound entirely to mine, his power was now effectively my power.
‘I can’t control all of it yet, though....’
I clenched my fist.
Even so, Samigina’s power was extraordinarily potent.
This was no contract.
His soul itself belonged to me.
Only now did I truly realize just how extraordinary that was.
“W-what in the world....”
Prochi was kneeling on the floor in front of me, his head raised as he stared up at me.
‘There’s only one problem left.’
I slowly placed a hand over my chest.
‘At most, about thirty minutes.’
Perhaps because of the shock of the contract, Samigina’s soul had yet to awaken.
But that state would not last long.
If Samigina began rampaging inside me, he would become a serious obstacle while I dealt with Prochi.
Defeating a 5th Circle Mage by myself was still extremely difficult for me.
Prochi’s eyes darted around continuously as his mouth opened and closed.
Then his eyes abruptly stopped moving.
Slowly, his lips parted into a smile.
“I see. So that was it. That was what happened.”
Prochi repeatedly nodded to himself as he muttered.
His bulging, toad-like eyes turned toward me.
Step.
The sound of my footsteps echoed through the vast chamber.
I slowly approached him.
“You are....”
Prochi asked in a trembling voice.
“You?”
I extended my index finger and drew it downward through the air.
Prochi’s body was slammed into the ground as though an enormous force had crushed him.
“Kgh!”
A groan burst from his mouth.
“This Demonic Energy, this power...! You—you are Samigina!”
Prochi desperately crawled across the floor toward me.
He clawed at the shattered stones beneath him while kicking his legs.
Blood streamed from his nose, and droplets gathered beneath his broken fingernails.
Still, he crawled until he finally reached my feet.
“Samigina...! Your—your faithful servant is here! O Evil God, grant me enlightenment...!”
Clinging to my leg, Prochi screamed in a hoarse voice that was nearly a wail.
“Let me ask you one thing.”
“Yes! O Samigina!”
“How many people have you killed so far?”
“Including the body you now possess, Lord Samigina, exactly one hundred and one...!”
His expression showed no more concern than if he had killed a few ants.
No.
If anything, a grotesque smile spread across his lips, as though he expected to be praised for what he had accomplished.
GRIND.
I clenched my teeth.
I already knew.
Information about the sacrifices had flowed into me together with Samigina’s soul.
Naturally, every soul Prochi had gathered had belonged to slaves, commoners, or fallen nobles.
Most of them had been talented children who had entered Prochi’s tutelage as Personal Disciples while dreaming of becoming mages.
Still, I had wanted to hear it from Prochi himself.
The exact number of people he had murdered.
“You want enlightenment?”
“Yes! I do!”
I raised my right hand.
Then the corner of my mouth curled into a grin.
“If that’s what you want, I’ll gladly give it to you.”
There was no reason to even fight him, was there?
I snorted and swept my hand horizontally through the air.
“Take as much as you desire.”
“Oh, Samigina, may your merciful grace—!”
GUSH.
At that moment, black water began pouring endlessly from the floor beneath Prochi.
He stared down at it.
“This is enlightenment...!”
Prochi reached down and scooped up a handful of the black water.
“Enlightenment indeed.”
SPLASH!
“……Hmm?”
Countless hands suddenly burst from the black water and seized Prochi.
It hurts! It hurts!
You! We’ll never forgive you! Never!
The voices of countless dead souls poured toward him.
“Kgh!”
Numerous hands clawed wildly across Prochi’s face.
More hands erupted from below and tightly seized his arms and legs.
Before long, his entire body had disappeared beneath them.
The hands emerging from the floor completely covered his face.
Through the gaps between their fingers, I could see his bewildered eyes.
Even until the very end, those eyes remained fixed on me.
“This ending is far better than you deserve.”
“……!”
Countless black hands dragged Prochi downward, pulling him beneath the ground.
Bubble.
BUBBLE-BUBBLE-BUBBLE!
Countless bubbles erupted from the black water.
‘The dead are probably tearing him apart and devouring him right now.’
Pit of the Dead.
Black Magic that summoned the dead to drag a human away.
Naturally, the dead I had summoned were the souls Prochi himself had sacrificed.
Bubble.
After bubbling violently for quite some time, the surface finally grew still.
The black water, disturbed only by faint ripples, gathered toward a single point as though being sucked into a drain.
Then it vanished with one final pop.
Silence filled the chamber as though nothing had ever happened.
I stepped onto the spot where Prochi had been moments earlier.
Scrape.
When I ground my foot against the floor, I heard small stones scraping against one another.
Prochi was dealt with for now, but....
“There’s still something left to do.”
Samigina.
It was time to test the Authority I had just obtained from him.
Samigina.
A Demon possessing the Authority to command the dead.
His Authority allowed him to resurrect corpses.
At first glance, that ability might not seem particularly useful.
What mattered, however, was what kind of corpse he could resurrect.
Samigina’s Authority could revive even corpses of considerable stature.
For example....
The corpse of a 5th Circle Mage.
I carefully stared at the ground where Prochi had been dragged away.
The solid floor looked completely untouched, as though nothing had happened.
Not even a footprint remained.
‘Normally, I wouldn’t be able to use his Authority this recklessly....’
Using the Authority of a demon, especially a Demon, normally required an appropriate price.
In Samigina’s case, that meant human souls or corpses.
But....
“That isn’t a problem for me right now.”
His soul belonged to me.
I slowly rubbed my chest.
Samigina remained silent.
‘Keep sleeping for now.’
I had subordinated his soul through what amounted to trickery.
Just imagining how violently he would rage when he awakened was already enough to give me a headache.
“Manifest.”
CRACK!
At my quiet command, the ground split open around the place where Prochi had disappeared.
An arm made entirely of white bone suddenly thrust upward.
The skeletal arm braced itself against the floor and slowly pulled the rest of its body up.
Before long, a skeleton with empty eye sockets staggered upright.
CLATTER.
The sound of bones knocking together echoed through the chamber.
“Disgusting.”
I quietly voiced my impression.
I had just resurrected the bones from Prochi’s freshly dead corpse.
Bits of flesh and traces of blood still clung to several parts of the skeleton.
Prochi—or rather, the Skeleton—stood there unsteadily.
And now came the moment when Samigina’s Authority truly showed its value.
“Crave souls.”
The instant I quietly recited the incantation, black energy engulfed the newly resurrected Skeleton.
CRACK.
A breaking sound came from the bone of its big toe.
The white outer layer began peeling away.
The pieces that flaked off immediately turned into tiny embers and scattered through the air.
Beneath the white bone, a bone as black as pitch was revealed.
Crack. Crack.
Before long, every bone in its body had turned black.
A Skeleton of black bone.
A Skeleton reinforced with enough Demonic Energy to possess durability far beyond that of an ordinary Skeleton.
It was said that some Black Skeletons saturated with Demonic Energy could even wield magic.
But a mere Black Skeleton was not what I wanted.
HUMMMMM!
Samigina’s Demonic Energy inside me began surging violently.
I placed my hand against the Skeleton’s chest.
“Become a monster that pursues the pinnacle of magic.”
With the final Activation Word, Demonic Energy erupted from my body.
The torrent was strong enough to whip my hair wildly around my head.
Cough.
A fresh drop of blood ran from the corner of my mouth.
I wiped it away with my left hand and continued focusing on the Skeleton.
HUM—
The Skeleton absorbed a sufficient amount of Demonic Energy.
With a flash, the energy surrounding it gradually faded.
“Awaken, Lich.”
FWOOSH!
At that moment, brilliant crimson flames ignited inside the Skeleton’s empty eye sockets.
Grrrrk.
It raised its head and stared at me, producing a sound somewhere between the cry of a human and the growl of a beast.
A Lich.
A cursed mage who had overcome death and obtained tremendous power.
‘Normally, a mage becomes a Lich of their own will....’
But I had forcibly transformed Prochi into one using Samigina’s Authority.
“……Tch.”
I frowned slightly.
Turning him into a Lich had succeeded, but it had consumed an enormous amount of Demonic Energy.
‘I still can’t fully control Samigina’s soul.’
For Samigina himself, turning a 5th Circle Mage into a Lich would have been trivial.
But for me right now, this was my limit.
‘I need to reach the next Circle as soon as possible if I want to solve this problem.’
Only then would I be able to make Samigina’s soul completely my own.
I drew a vertical line through the air and recited an Activation Word.
“Lich Gate.”
Space tore open.
A cold, eerie wind flowed through the rupture.
Beyond the torn space lay an endless darkness.
It was a Subspace Gate where Necromancers stored the corpses they needed for battle.
“Enter.”
CLATTER.
At my command, the Lich silently walked into the Gate.
Once it vanished into the darkness, I waved my hand again.
Like a wound healing, the violet tear in space sealed itself shut.
Silence immediately returned.
“For now....”
I muttered as I looked around.
The Demonic Energy released during Samigina’s summoning still saturated the chamber.
“What am I supposed to tell everyone?”
Scratching the back of my head, I left the laboratory.
Prochi was dead.
At first, I had worried about how I was supposed to clean up the aftermath.
But contrary to my expectations, the matter resolved itself.
“To think he left the moment Kano decided not to become his disciple....”
Prel let out a deep sigh and lifted her teacup.
Sunlight quietly streamed through the window.
Apparently, even before coming to Zeleta, Prochi had repeatedly taught disciples for a time before leaving without warning.
‘He must have moved on to another city every time he secured a sacrifice.’
The Blue Mage Tower was evidently familiar with Prochi’s habits as well.
They had simply sent a letter saying that Prochi had left, without treating it as anything unusual.
No one seemed to suspect that Prochi was dead.
‘Well.’
Even I would have found it difficult to believe that a 5th Circle Mage could die overnight without leaving so much as a corpse behind.
The idea that he had simply disappeared without saying anything was far easier to believe.
‘That saves me from having to explain myself or getting summoned for questioning, at least.’
Even if they had called me in, I was confident I could avoid suspicion.
Who would ever believe that a thirteen-year-old child was the Black Mage responsible for killing a 5th Circle Mage?
“Sip.”
Sitting beside Prel, I carefully tilted my teacup.
“Hmm?”
At that moment, I noticed a horse-shaped shadow appearing on the surface of the tea.