40. The Seventh Main Tower (5)
Jeremy Scarlven never does anything that results in a loss for himself.
In other words, he does nothing for others.
And to explain it one step further, one could say that he moves solely for his own sake.
Not once in his life had he ever sacrificed himself for someone else.
That was how it had always been, and that was how it always would be.
Even if the person in question was Flame, that did not change.
Sacrifice for the woman he loved?
What meaning could that possibly have?
In the end, if I cannot have her, then all of it is meaningless.
How drowsy…
Surrounded by ghosts and shadows, Jeremy closed his eyes and sank into his own private world.
Ghosts did not exercise direct physical force.
What made them frightening was that they shattered the minds of intelligent beings to pieces.
By stirring up negative emotions such as despair, chaos, fear, and sorrow, they reduced a person into a complete wreck.
That was the true power those ghosts possessed.
But…
None of that meant anything to Jeremy.
He possessed a firm mental structure of his own, so though intrusion was easy enough, his emotions could not be shaken.
It felt like drifting lightly over the surface of an unmoving lake.
Even being surrounded by ghosts did not feel all that unpleasant.
This should be enough.
He was not doing something as foolish as sacrificing himself for Flame…
But he thought he had at least sufficiently accomplished the goal of helping her.
Thinking he might as well take a rest until this incident came to an end, Jeremy closed his eyes.
Slowly, he sank into the swamp of self.
“Headmaster!”
Bang!
The door to the headmaster’s office was flung open with shocking disrespect, and two or three faculty members came rushing in all at once.
However, Eltman Eltwin’s office was already packed with faculty members who had come to see him.
“T-this is terrible! Students who were wandering around the Main Towers are disappearing!”
As the mysterious disappearances kept occurring, the school had given the students a clear warning.
Do not wander around inside the Main Towers alone, and make sure to be accompanied by faculty or obtain permission first.
But that had all been useless.
The professors could not protect every student, and worse still, even students who had been moving around in groups were now vanishing all at once.
“This… is truly serious.”
An unprecedented crisis in Stella’s history.
Students were disappearing one by one into an unknown space, yet the school was unable to respond because it could not even determine the cause.
Eltman lifted his head, his face dark with shadow.
Under that overwhelming pressure, everyone there, including the professors, felt their muscles shrink involuntarily.
Even so, there were things that had to be said.
“Headmaster… that man is deliberately avoiding the faculty and taking only the students. We have to find a way to stop him, quickly……”
A way to stop him.
If such a thing existed, we would have done it already.
After all, his objective was obvious.
Abeline Starberg’s innate trait…
A Stella student himself half a century ago.
Magic Absorption.
It was an unprecedented, absurdly overpowered trait that let him make another person’s magic his own, but because of its severe penalty, the restrictions on using it were enormous.
But what if someone could properly wield that trait?
…What if they absorbed every one of the Twelve Disciples’ magics, the ones the Founding Magician divided into twelve fragments and passed down?
What would happen then?
Would it not perhaps create a power great enough to stand against the Founding Magician himself?
That student had possessed grand and clear dreams and ambitions from a very young age.
Eltman had tried to correct Abeline’s dangerous ideology and restrained him countless times, but the boy had continued to cause trouble, and in the end it all concluded with him withdrawing from school.
On the day he withdrew, Abeline had said:
“Headmaster, you will not be able to stop me. Because you will be betrayed by everything you believe in.”
And now, half a century later.
He was tormenting him with the legacy he had left behind fifty years ago.
He means to absorb the magic of the Twelve Descendants.
At present, Stella had not one but two descendants of the Twelve Disciples enrolled.
Hong Biyeon Adolevit.
Eizel Morf.
At first glance, their magic looked like ordinary fire- and ice-element magic, but as powers left behind by the Founding Magician, they contained extraordinarily special potential.
But.
Even Abeline himself had not been able to handle the trait Magic Absorption properly, so how could a mere clone made from fragmented pieces of his soul possibly absorb magic correctly?
It was absolutely impossible.
He has another objective.
Yes.
No doubt he would succeed in absorbing magic itself.
But if that happened, the fragmented soul would probably be completely annihilated.
Still, in exchange, the descendants of the Twelve Disciples would lose their magic entirely, so from Abeline’s perspective it would be a tremendous gain.
Because he had hated the Founding Magician more than anyone.
“The Founding Magician was wrong. The world he built, the society, the system, the laws, and even the past and future alike.”
Eltman rose from his seat and flicked a finger.
At once, the robe hanging on the coat rack flew on its own and draped itself over his shoulders.
“Headmaster, are you finally stepping in?!”
“I’ll be going to do what I must.”
“As expected…!”
Whatever they were expecting, he was not going to stop the Seventh Main Tower incident.
Quite the opposite.
He intended to deal with what was happening outside it.
Those rats that had hidden themselves in the shadows after stirring up this entire disaster…
He would dispose of them.
The rooftop of the Seventh Main Tower.
This open space, with a dome supported by twelve pillars, had once also been called the Stella Balcony.
The astronomical instruments and star maps still left behind there were proof enough of that.
Through the mirror, Professor Raidin observed the sky of the Seventh Main Tower.
He himself had not crossed into that world, but he had continued watching everything that was happening there.
—Are you uneasy?
The mirror spoke to him.
Professor Raidin did not answer.
—You are afraid.
“…Yes.”
This time, he answered.
He was not uneasy.
Everything would proceed as planned.
In that world.
The two descendants of the Twelve Disciples and Flame would have both body and mind completely stolen by Abeline’s fragmented soul.
Those girls, who should have gone on to dream of bright futures and live lives more brilliant and beautiful than anyone else…
Would crumble away there.
Abeline’s fragmented soul had said:
“I am merely sacrificing the lesser for the greater.”
Could those girls being sacrificed truly be called “the lesser”?
As a dark mage, he ought to hate and keep all magic in check.
Because magic had been the decisive cause that pushed the world onto the path of destruction.
All of this was for the future.
For the sake of the world.
Was that not the very reason Professor Raidin had sworn loyalty to the Dark Divine Cult Leader?
—You seem to be entertaining too many useless thoughts.
“That is not the case.”
—You need to meet me.
“…May I ask why?”
—Because you resemble me.
He paused for a moment.
—We have no need to hesitate. Are you pitying them because they are young girls? If that is what you are thinking, then cast off all your duties this instant and leave this place.
—Only when every sprout is uprooted will weeds stop growing. Those children are nothing more than weeds consuming the world.
“Yes. I know.”
—Then do your job. By now, Eltman Eltwin must have realized it. You should hurry.
“…Understood.”
Professor Raidin turned his back and left the hall.
Watching his retreating figure, Abeline’s fragmented soul once more turned its gaze upon its own world.
“Heuheu! Heuheu, heuhik! Hihihihit!”
The idiotic dark mage named Professor Chekiren was cackling madly, unable to contain himself.
The very thought of being able to absorb not only Adolevit’s power but Morf’s as well had filled him with uncontrollable delight.
“Stupid bitches! Come on, get over here! Hurry!”
The Child of the Stars, knowing nothing, was running straight toward this place while leading along yet another descendant of the Twelve Disciples.
On the way, they would meet countless curses born of ghost stories, but being the Child of the Stars, she would surely overcome every hardship and trial and finally arrive here.
But what awaited at the end was not the hope of saving everyone and escaping.
Only bottomless, endless despair.
—Resent your “previous life.”
Because the life you lived before has driven you into such a cruel fate.
“At last, this sickening, filthy life ends today! Hahaha!”
Professor Chekiren roared with laughter, imagining his future.
Including Eizel and Flame, countless students were still even now being drawn into the Seventh Main Tower, so if he absorbed all of those possibilities, he might grasp a power worthy of being called the strongest.
…Or so he believed.
A blatant lie.
Professor Chekiren was nothing more than a puppet of Abeline, who could not act on his own.
The moment his body absorbed the magic of another descendant of the Twelve Disciples and the Child of the Stars, it would fail to endure the critical threshold and explode.
At the same moment they were extinguished, he too would vanish from this world forever.
But if, through that, the true “I” could step even one stride closer to my goal…
Hm?
But then.
He sensed something strange.
Something… impossible to describe properly in human words.
An alien presence.
As though it did not belong to this world.
A presence so absurd it defied reason.
That thing stepped into the Seventh Main Tower.
—This aura is, almost…!
It certainly existed in this world.
And yet, at the same time, it did not.
What kind of impossible description was that?
Was human language really so pitifully insufficient?
Something has gone wrong.
That thought came to him, but it was already too late.
Because that being had already stepped into the Seventh Main Tower.
As though it had visited this world before, it pierced through the space at astonishing speed.
Using unidentifiable magic, ignoring every obstruction, and even making use of hidden paths that not even Abeline, lord of the Seventh Main Tower, had known about.
Rapidly.
At blinding speed.
It was approaching this place.
…No, there is no need to panic.
Fate has already been decided.
Clunk!
“Ohhh, they’ve finally arrived!”
The doors of the Stella Balcony opened, and at last the girls Professor Chekiren had been waiting for showed themselves.
Their uniforms were in tatters, and from how drenched in sweat they were, it was obvious they were already utterly exhausted, yet their eyes still shone with unmistakable clarity.
As though they had no intention whatsoever of giving up here.
Flame limped forward until she stood face-to-face with Chekiren.
Eizel and Anella took their places proudly beside her, and for that spirit alone, one had to give them credit.
“Mm! I really do like those eyes. To be honest, I’d love to pluck them out and put them on display. But…”
Speaking in satisfaction, Chekiren frowned when he spotted Anella standing behind them.
“Aren’t you one of our own kind? Why are you standing over there? Come over here—no, actually, this works out even better. Bring those girls down. In exchange for sparing me the trouble, I’ll share some ‘power’ with you.”
Flinch.
At Professor Chekiren’s words, Anella’s body trembled.
Power.
That bastard’s power was the problem.
In dark mage society, everything was decided by strength, and because she possessed only a single unusual trait, Anella had been treated as less than trash.
If she had power…
Then from now on she would be able to live in comfort and pride.
If she subdued Flame and Eizel here, obtained power, and then even killed Baek Yuseol after that…
Then surely a brilliant future as a dark mage would be guaranteed.
“…No.”
But Anella answered, her eyes burning with conviction.
“Even if my life is shabby, I choose to live as a human.”
At that,
Chekiren fell silent.
Like someone who had just heard something utterly ridiculous, he wore a stunned expression.
Then—
“Pwahahahahahaha!”
He burst into wild laughter.
“Human? Hu-man? You mean to live as a human? When you already gave up being human and became a dark mage? Do you really think going back to being human is possible, you idiot bitch?!”
Of course, it probably was impossible.
There had never been a precedent of a dark mage becoming human again.
Even so, Anella believed firmly.
“No. It’s possible.”
Those were words Baek Yuseol had spoken with his own mouth.
There was no proof whatsoever, but his words had carried weight, and Anella trusted them completely.
She stepped forward and stood in front of Flame and Eizel.
As if to protect the girls.
“I’ll prove my sincerity.”
As Anella fought her way through the Seventh Main Tower, she had come to realize that she possessed another talent.
The destructive force contained in these pathetic punches and kicks of hers.
But…
It’s not enough.
She would lose. There was no doubt of that.
The opponent before her radiated endless power, whereas all she had were clumsy punches that happened to hit a little hard.
Even so, she still believed.
Even if she had fallen now, if she repented of her sins and kept doing the right thing to atone…
Then someday, she would surely see the light.
With a firm expression, Anella raised her fists and spoke boldly to the higher-ranking dark mage she once would have had to kneel before and worship.
“So come at me, dark mage.”
Even knowing she would fail today, she had no intention of giving up.
