CLATTER. CLATTER.
Two skeletons Terlo had summoned moments earlier stood before him.
As in his previous life, two was the limit of his summons.
The two skeletons stared at Terlo with hollow gazes, as though awaiting orders.
But Terlo’s eyes were fixed on the giant tree.
‘Let’s see.’
All the preparations were complete.
Now that all he had to do was chant the spell, Terlo hesitated.
Had the time not finally come to confront the true nature of the ability he had questioned for so long?
Yet now that the moment had actually arrived, he could not easily bring himself to speak.
Terlo drew in one deep breath.
<Connect.>
Then he chanted the spell.
The moment Terlo connected himself to the black form beside one of the skeletons,
CRACK—
A fissure appeared in the center of the tree’s trunk.
‘…!’
Terlo was startled and elated by the tree’s reaction, but only for a moment.
Something suddenly poked its head out from between the cracks.
It began slowly slithering free.
It wound itself around the tree’s enormously thick trunk as it emerged.
‘…A snake?’
At first glance, it had the shape of a snake.
But judging from its pitch-black body and the black smoke billowing from it, it did not seem to be an ordinary one.
The snake was long enough to wrap around the thick trunk twice with length to spare.
It was a frightening sight in some ways, coiled around the tree as though guarding it.
Its two glossy black eyes glared at Terlo.
‘When the tree with the longest shadow meets the spell, a new path shall open.’
The moment everything fell into place, just as the book’s final sentence had described, the tree had cracked open.
The jet-black snake that emerged from the fissure was probably the guardian protecting that new path.
But the guardian was far too enormous.
It was so large that Terlo could not imagine how he was supposed to get it off the tree.
After all, Terlo had never killed so much as a small animal.
The day the territory was attacked had been the first time he killed a person.
And even then, he had not done it directly with his own hands….
‘Well, I can just attack it.’
Whatever the method, removing the snake came first.
Terlo was about to command the skeletons when he stopped.
Both skeletons he had summoned were holding swords rather than bows.
Since the gigantic snake looked extraordinary at a glance, recklessly sending the skeletons toward it did not seem wise.
‘It’d be better to use black magic.’
[Black magic. Use.]
A low voice suddenly reverberated in his mind.
It was a chilling voice that did not seem human.
‘…?’
After a moment, Terlo realized it was the skeleton’s inner voice, which he could hear through Connect.
It was his first time using Connect on a skeleton, so it took him a moment to understand.
He reflexively glanced toward the skeletons, but both of them merely stood there blankly.
Terlo gave a faint laugh at his own needless wariness and began condensing his dark mana.
Then,
WHOOM—
He fired a black sphere at the jet-black snake.
But then,
‘…?’
What was that?
There was another sphere flying after Terlo’s.
While he was still wondering about it, Terlo’s Black Ball struck the jet-black snake directly in the body.
Yet the snake did not move in the slightest.
Then it was the second Black Ball’s turn.
The moment the new sphere struck its body,
SKREEEEEEEEEE!
The snake stretched its enormous jaws wide and unleashed a shriek.
The sound was nearly enough to tear his ears apart.
It was a shriek powerful enough to be an attack in its own right.
As the sound continued without end, Terlo grimaced and covered his ears.
‘Did it react to the Black Ball that followed mine rather than my own?’
The timing matched too perfectly to be a coincidence.
Then again, perhaps it had reacted simply because it was struck twice.
It could hardly be expected to endure his attacks without responding.
Regardless, what was the Black Ball that had followed his?
Terlo had only fired one sphere.
‘Could it be?’
Terlo looked toward the skeleton connected to him.
He remembered that it had been repeating his words for a while now.
He had heard its thoughts echoing his words when he chanted Black Ball as well….
‘But how?’
A skeleton wielding a sword could not use black magic.
A skeleton’s class was determined by the weapon it held, so one carrying a sword could only belong to the warrior class.
To use black magic as a mage, it needed to wield a staff.
Yet this one had cast black magic while holding a sword rather than a staff.
‘Is it because of Connect?’
He could immediately test whether that was the reason.
Terlo issued a command to the connected skeleton.
‘Black Ball.’
Then,
HSSSS—
Dark mana gathered in the skeleton’s left hand.
‘…!’
Terlo had suspected it, but seeing it happen was even more astonishing.
Even as the skeleton condensed and fired the dark mana with its left hand, it continued gripping the sword in its right.
WHOOM—
Watching the sphere fly, Terlo imagined the skeleton wielding its sword while casting black magic.
Using two entirely different disciplines—swordsmanship and magic—at the same time was not something just anyone could do.
But if his summoned creature could accomplish it,
‘Heh.’
Would that not astonish the entire world?
However, the true surprise came from elsewhere.
The jet-black snake caught the incoming sphere.
‘…!’
Terlo’s assumption that the attack would certainly land was proven wrong.
The snake curled its tail backward, caught the sphere, then used the recoil to hurl it back.
The black sphere flew straight back along the path it had come.
WHOOM!
At the same time, the snake shrieked again.
SKREEEEEEEEEE!
Terlo grimaced deeply at the sound and spread a shield before him.
“Dodge!”
CLATTER! CLATTER!
At his command, the two skeletons hurriedly ran behind him.
Then,
BOOOOOOM!
The shield and sphere collided with a thunderous crash.
The power of the impact was as tremendous as the sound.
It pushed Terlo’s feet far backward.
Cracks also appeared across the shield.
Had the attack been even slightly stronger, Terlo might have been smashed to pieces instead of the shield.
But despite the danger he had just faced, the corners of Terlo’s mouth rose.
‘I think I understand why that snake screamed when the second sphere hit it.’
After experiencing it himself, he understood.
The Black Ball cast by the connected skeleton possessed tremendous power.
When one thought about it, that was also Terlo’s power.
If he tried to block it, he should have been fully capable of doing so.
Yet it had not merely been difficult to stop—the attack had even cracked his shield.
That meant Connect had produced power beyond his own.
‘All right. I can admire it later.’
First, he had to get rid of that snake.
Terlo wiped the smile from his face as he looked at the jet-black snake.
He had noticed it earlier, but the snake did not appear willing to leave the tree.
Perhaps it was trying to protect the fissure, because it moved only its head and tail.
If it continued to behave that way, it would not pose much of a threat.
‘At most, it’ll hang there shrieking and swing its tail around.’
As long as Terlo did not give it a reason to use its tail as he had before.
Or if he distracted it for a moment and forced it to use its tail somewhere else.
Then he could finish it easily without being counterattacked.
‘My attacks didn’t seem to affect it much.’
It would therefore be best to create an opening for the connected skeleton to attack.
Once he made that opening, they could focus their attacks on the snake’s head and tail.
Having completed his plan, Terlo began condensing dark mana.
A black, blunt arrow flew toward the snake.
But Terlo did not stop after one.
He chanted the spell repeatedly.
Several arrows flew toward the snake’s head and tail.
Even then, Terlo continued chanting.
SWISH— SWISH— SWISH—
The snake reacted.
It began moving its head and tail to swat away the arrows.
Judging by that response, Terlo’s attacks were not entirely ineffective after all.
Terlo was about to maintain the momentum and command his skeletons when,
SKREEEEEEEEEE!
The snake once again unleashed an ear-splitting shriek.
The sound disrupted Terlo’s concentration.
At the same moment, the number of arrows decreased noticeably.
Terlo recalled Doristen’s warning that he must take care not to become distracted while controlling dark mana.
‘Focus.’
Terlo did his best to shut out the sound and devote every sense to controlling his magic.
After several attempts,
SWISH— SWISH— SWISH—
The number of arrows returned to what it had been.
No, there were even more than before.
As the number of arrows increased, the snake moved its head and tail even more violently.
Taking advantage of the opening, Terlo commanded one of the skeletons.
‘Run toward its tail! Then cut it with your sword!’
CLATTER! CLATTER!
The skeleton charged.
With arrows still raining down, it reached the snake’s tail and kicked off the ground.
THUMP!
Only then did the jet-black snake notice it.
Apparently judging the sword-wielding skeleton to be the greater threat, the snake endured Terlo’s arrows and swung its tail toward the skeleton.
The inner side of its tail was left completely exposed.
Terlo did not miss the opportunity and commanded the connected skeleton beside him.
‘Black Ball at its tail!’
[Black Ball.]
WHOOM—
The connected skeleton’s black sphere shot forward at tremendous speed.
The sword-wielding skeleton was struck by the snake’s tail and shattered into a heap of bones.
At that same moment,
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
The flying sphere slammed into the exposed inner side of the snake’s tail.
The impact was so powerful that the snake could not curl its outstretched tail back inward.
SKREEEEEEEEEE!
‘Good. In that case….’
Terlo redirected every arrow aimed at the snake’s head toward its tail.
The arrows poured down on nothing but the tail.
The connected skeleton’s Black Balls joined them as well.
GRAAAAAAAAAGH!!
The snake howled.
The sound was entirely different from the threatening shrieks it had unleashed before.
But it was not over yet.
The snake’s body was still wrapped tightly around the tree.
‘Keep attacking!’
Indiscriminate attacks rained down across the snake’s entire body.
With its tail disabled by the attacks, the snake could do nothing but howl, let alone counterattack.
Then, at last,
SLITHER—
Just as it had when it first appeared, the snake quickly vanished into the fissure.
‘It acted as though it would guard this place to the end, only to run away.’
That was probably the purpose it had been placed there for in the first place, but Terlo could not help feeling deflated.
He stared pointlessly at the fissure the snake had disappeared into.
CRACK.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!
The small fissure split upward and downward, rapidly growing larger.
At last, an enormous entrance formed in the tree’s trunk.
‘Wow….’
The tree had already been enormous, but the addition of the entrance made it look truly imposing.
Terlo admired the sight only briefly.
Then he approached the entrance and examined the inside.
But he could see nothing.
It was not simply dark.
The structure looked as though it had been covered by a black veil.
‘It seems to be connected to another space.’
His curiosity aroused, Terlo immediately stepped into the darkness.
He remained wary in case something else suddenly leaped out at him.
But the first thing he sensed was profound silence.
It was an unknown space where even the faint noises of the mountain were swallowed up.
‘So it really is another space.’
The unknown space was dark in every direction.
He could see absolutely nothing, making his efforts to drive away the snake and enter this place seem almost pointless.
Puzzled, Terlo moved.
Then,
‘…!’
The dark interior gradually brightened.
Before long, an enormous wall appeared before him.
The wall rose so high that he could not even estimate its size, while an intricate pattern had been drawn across the floor.
He guessed it was a black magic circle.
Terlo’s eyes widened at the sight.
But what surprised him even more was,
‘What is all that?’
The enormous wall was densely covered in writing.