Chapter 6: That Being
[Guge]
It was clear that the creature was a child.
Short limbs, a small body, a protruding belly, and a large head.
Though it was unclear what kind of creature it was, it carried an unstable, immature aura.
In some ways, it resembled a human infant—but there was not even a trace of cuteness to be found.
Distorted, eerie, and repulsive.
What welled up from the depths of Diz chest was not a desire to protect, but pure disgust. Her instincts as a living being rejected it. Diz knew she shouldn’t feel any affection for this thing.
[Guge]
Its long tongue, which had spilled out from a mouth large enough to split its head in two, extended again. The tongue, so long Diz wondered where it had been stored, writhed and then vanished from Rose’s sight in the next moment.
[Guge]
The tongue—sliced through the room, through space itself.
“Wha—!?”
“Shield!”
[Nnnn!!]
A deafening roar echoed through the room.
The tongue, which had gouged and carved through space, was blocked by Diz’s crimson shield. The impact was so intense that the space trembled, and the already crumbling walls were blown away.
Rose couldn’t comprehend what had just happened. But she noticed that nearly half of the room’s contents had vanished. The corpses piled up by the necromancer, the necromancer’s own body, various magical tools, and countless magic stones—even the core magic stone.
[Did it eat them?]
“【Gluttony】… but that’s not all. Did he mix them?”
As Diz conversed with a strange voice coming from somewhere, the small creature retracted its tongue and began chewing, its mouth moving grotesquely. Then,
[Geggegege]
It opened its mouth wide, as if showing off, proudly displaying what was inside.
“What’s that…?”
At first glance, it was the same purple as a magic stone, but it glowed with an ominous, cursed black-purple hue. However, the veins pulsing across its surface made it look like a living organ. Staring at this thing that seemed to straddle the line between inorganic and organic, Diz let out a sigh. “Troublesome.”
“A custom-made core magic stone, huh?”
At the same time, Diz raised her free hand—the one not holding the crimson shield—toward the small creature. A beam of light shot out, so intense that Rose felt her skin burning. The light struck the creature repeatedly, cracking the pulsating magic stone. But then,
[【■■, ■■■■■, ■■■■■■■】]
The small creature let out a sound. It was a broken, distorted voice, as if something had malfunctioned. It resembled a failed incantation for a spell.
The difference was the immense power behind that voice.
“────!”
In the next moment, the entire command tower was engulfed in black-purple light.
Canaan Fortress, Rooftop Walkway
“This is bad.”
“…Yeah, seems so.”
Shizuku’s words were met with a dazed agreement from Ur.
The explosion of light wasn’t a physical destruction, as became clear when the light subsided and the tower reappeared. The unremarkable exterior of the command tower had bulged, warped, and sharpened. It was still transforming.
It was as if the terrain of a labyrinth was shifting.
Furthermore, something was flung out during the transformation. Something black-purple, just like the earlier explosion. Its shape was familiar to Ur. It was the same thing they had found in the deepest part of the first small labyrinth they had conquered.
“A black-purple core magic stone…!?”
As Ur and the others stood there, unable to grasp the situation, the black-purple core magic stone began to pulse.
“Eek!?”
Laura, who had been rescued from the prison, let out a scream. It was understandable. The pulsating sound from the core magic stone was overwhelmingly loud. Even from this distance, it was so intense that it felt like their bodies were shaking—no,
“We’re actually shaking!”
In sync with the pulsations, the entire Canaan fortress began to tremble. It wasn’t strong enough to knock them off their feet, but it was clearly abnormal, and the pulsations gave off a foreboding sense that this wasn’t the end.
“Let’s retreat into the tower for now!”
Ur gave the order, and they all ran down the walkway. He judged that the intense shaking could be the final blow to the already crumbling fortress. But even as he gave the order, Ur didn’t feel like the fortress would collapse immediately.
Instead, it felt as if the fortress was reviving alongside the pulsations—
[This is bad. One thing after another.]
“Wait—why are you running with us!?”
Mid-run, Ur was shocked to see the undead knight running alongside them. The undead knight skillfully used the castle’s jagged walls as footholds while scratching its white skull.
[Well, my master’s turned into that thing. What else can I do?]
“That thing?”
[That thing.]
He pointed to the black-purple stone that had drastically altered the situation. He had called it his master, but of course, his master was supposed to be the necromancer. So, as the necromancer, he pointed to that black-purple stone—?
“…Is that the necromancer!?”
[Well, I knew he was crazy, but I didn’t think he’d stop being human! Kaka!!]
The undead knight laughed loudly, completely unfazed by his master’s transformation. But Ur certainly didn’t have the luxury to laugh along.
Without a doubt, an abnormal situation was unfolding. It was something beyond the meticulous plans Diz and he had prepared. Diz had warned that this was a possibility, but it was still hard to accept.
“What the hell is going on…!? Wait, huh!?”
The path to the tower was suddenly blocked. Something crawled up from beneath the castle walls, obstructing the way. It looked like the 【Evil Spirit Treant】 they had awakened by breaking the seal when they infiltrated the fortress.
But something was off.
[G, rrrrrrrrrr……!]
The stench of rotting plants and an eerie, inhuman sound. It was visibly abnormal.
“Take this!!”
Nina, who was ahead, struck the Evil Spirit Treant with her worn-out sword, and it easily broke. It wasn’t much of a threat. But that wasn’t the end.
[Rrraaaaa……!]
“Again…!!”
More of the corrupted Evil Spirit Treants appeared. It wasn’t just the ones sealed in the underground labyrinth—they were crawling out of the walls and pathways of the fortress, as if being born anew. Ur understood the nature of this phenomenon.
“【Labyrinthification】!?”
It was an act of defiance against the natural cycle of life, producing demonic entities. A summoning phenomenon of monsters.
In other words, the Canaan fortress was transforming into a 【Labyrinth】.
“What’s happening, Diz…!?”
The center of this anomaly was the command tower and that bizarre black-purple orb. Ur tried to contact Diz using a communication device, but his focus remained on the unfolding chaos.
[Kakakakakaka]
“What…!?”
Then, he witnessed a horde of undead soldiers clinging to the pulsating black-purple core magic stone.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT LOCALIZERMEERKAT.GITHUB.IO
Same Time, Canaan Fortress, Eastern Tower Rooftop
[────That brat, I’ll kill him…!]
Randa woke up.
At the last moment before losing consciousness, he didn’t know what had happened.
But he remembered one thing: that brat had gotten the better of him.
“Damn it! Damn it…!!”
Strangely, there was no pain from being burned by that intense light. Instead, an overwhelming itchiness welled up, and he scratched his face furiously as he stood up, filled with rage. His body felt oddly light. He ran down the tower with ease, intent on getting revenge on the kid who had chased him.
Yes, revenge. Not just that kid, but the girl too, the knights who had captured him, and the damn priests who had exiled him from the city-state. He’d kill them all.
[I’ll kill everyone!! Everyone!! Hahaha!!]
Uncontrollable emotions spilled out as laughter. Every feeling poured out like saliva. He didn’t notice that his body was starting to make unsettling noises.
As he moved his limbs erratically, he saw a shadow moving in front of him. It looked at him, its eyes widening in shock.
“Ra, Randa!?”
“No, you…!? Your head—GYAAAAHHH!!!?”
Annoyed by the noise, Randa bit them apart.
[……Ga, gaga, gagagaga]
[Ah, what’s this? You guys, huh?]
He realized what he had done and let go. The man collapsed to the ground, twitching and convulsing, before slowly standing up again.
[Ga……gagagagagaga……!]
[Don’t just stand there! We’re going after those brats!!]
“Eek!? Gyaaaahh!?”
Seeing this, another subordinate screamed and tried to run, but the shaking of the fortress caused him to slip and fall from the rooftop walkway. The fallen subordinate convulsed, possibly with a broken neck, but then slowly got up as well.
[Don’t waste time! Let’s go, you lot!!]
[Ga, kakakakakagagaga]
[Oh, yeah! You get it now, don’t you!? Let’s kill them all! Even that necromancer!!]
[AAAAaaaaaaaAAAAA……!!!]
[Hahahaha!! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!]
With part of his head burned away but still moving, Randa swayed and staggered forward with his newfound companions.
Contrary to his words, his steps were unerringly directed toward the courtyard, toward the light—like a moth drawn to a flame, toward the pulsating black-purple magic stone.
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