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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
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Chapter 98
The instigator stepped in to stop her.
“How are you supposed to beat Vance without even using aura or mana with that small body of yours?”
“Hey, listen! There’s no need to doubt— the artifact didn’t react, did it?”
“No, that’s not it…”
Of course, the crowd wasn’t entirely on their side.
“There must be some factor that conceals the artifact…”
“If you’re not going to believe anything anyway, why even hold an event like this?”
Luna tilted her head and asked.
The instigator gave her a bitter look and sighed deeply.
“I’m dead if the steward finds out…”
Then he handed her the jewelry.
“A promise is a promise, so take it. I won’t ask you for anything more, but tell me—was it really just pure strength?”
He tried to ask in a way others wouldn’t hear, but when he looked at her figure hidden under her robe, he flinched.
Luna, however, didn’t pay him any mind and answered nonchalantly.
“I’m strong without needing to use aura.”
Her simple answer left the instigator staring at her with a dazed look.
Ignoring him, she ran up to me with the jewelry, then placed it on my head.
“Hey, this is a women’s accessory.”
I ended up with something fit for a noblewoman on my head—completely out of character for me.
Why did she put this on me?
When I asked, baffled, she silently looked me over and took it off again.
“It doesn’t suit you.”
“Of course it doesn’t.”
“Too bad.”
She then threw the jewelry back at the instigator without hesitation.
“Uh… huh?”
“I don’t need it anymore.”
She really had no material desires.
The first day of the festival flew by.
Luna roamed around as if she had been waiting for this moment, disrupting everything that required physical prowess as if she were an invasive species.
At this point, it was impossible not to notice.
The count’s domain must have paid certain people to host various events.
It made sense that the arm-wrestling vendors had high-end artifacts on hand.
Then, when the sun fully set, the streets lit up with magic stones, and the night sky sparkled brightly with stars.
As I was making my way to our lodging, my steps were forcibly halted by an unusual phenomenon.
Crack… creak!
The sky began to shatter, and a gloomy light flowed out like dry ice.
“What is that?”
“Huh?”
At the same time, the bustling city in the count’s domain fell silent.
Was this what Saintess Nadia had warned about?
A thick fog spread rapidly, pouring to the ground and enveloping everyone in the area.
“Uh… ahhh!!”
Screams erupted from all directions as the fog spread and quickly engulfed everything.
This wasn’t just being surrounded by fog.
It was as if people were being sucked into a subspace.
The fog expanded at an almost unavoidable speed and quickly swallowed the entire count’s domain.
And when the fog slowly cleared…
I found myself alone in the outskirts of the city.
Most of the lights were out, except for a few dimly lit magic stones scattered here and there.
And although there was less fog than before, a significant amount still covered the area.
A ghost town.
There couldn’t be a more fitting term to describe the city now.
What was going on?
What was the cause?
Someone’s consciousness?
Or a monster with this kind of power?
There was a similar monster called Mist, but it didn’t have this same feeling.
If not that, then it was some other kind of power.
It wasn’t a necromantic spell either.
It felt unnatural and unsettling.
This seemed more like authority than a power that could be wielded by an ordinary human.
What was the purpose?
Feeding?
Massacre?
Whatever it was, it wasn’t good.
Melissa.
Luna.
I thought Luna would have been transported with me since she was holding my arm, but it didn’t seem to be the case.
Step… step…
Then, I heard the sound of something being dragged and approaching me.
The source of the sound was an unidentified monstrous creature.
Its shape was hard to describe.
Its base form resembled a bug, but it was several meters long.
Yet its appearance went far beyond that of a simple insect—completely grotesque.
It looked like a grasshopper with more than ten legs.
And its enormous compound eyes were clearly focused on me as prey.
“These incidents just keep coming every week, don’t they?”
Could someone have deliberately caused this phenomenon?
I wasn’t sure, but it was clear the situation was bad.
I had seen a similar situation before in the Labyrinthos.
But if you asked me if this was the same, I’d say this situation was much bigger in scale and subtly different.
When hunting prey, mutated bugs like this would pounce and subdue their target in an instant.
And this one seemed no different.
The creature, which had been frozen like a statue, suddenly compressed its body and then expanded in a flash, leaping at me.
Even seasoned fighters would have trouble reacting before being caught off guard.
But instead of panicking, I took a step forward and extended my hand in response to its movement.
Against opponents like this, raw strength was usually more effective than fancy techniques.
Hoo.
I took a short breath and clenched my fist.
The creature came flying at me at incredible speed, and I threw a punch with my bare hand.
I had returned Luna’s weapon, the leather glove [Hand of Fury], to her earlier.
It was fortunate she had the weapon.
At least she’d be safer with it.
Now I needed to find two people.
Luna and Melissa.
If my judgment is correct, both of them are somewhere in this city.
[Shockwave]
[Void]
Thud! Thud!!
A flying fist tore through the air, twisting it with a shockwave.
The air split instantly, creating reddish cracks and emitting a shockwave that tore apart a monster, splattering its bodily fluids everywhere.
Of course, its fluids didn’t fly in my direction due to the shockwave from the cracked air.
Getting covered in insect blood isn’t exactly my style.
The bug, now with a massive hole in its body, slumped to the ground.
Although the noise caused more bugs to gather from all directions, I didn’t dodge.
Instead, I tore them apart in an instant.
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
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Even though it’s not ideal to waste time when I need to find the two of them, some investment is necessary.
Necromantic mana surged through my body, exuding a massive and oppressive force.
Necromantic mana exerts an oppressive presence on living beings when felt up close, but there was no room for such concerns now.
"All of you, rise."
The corpses of the bugs began convulsing, one by one rising in the form of specters.
Their bodies burned, with their spirits being absorbed into the specters.
Though grotesque, numbers matter.
“From now on, search for survivors. Protect only those in danger and ignore the rest. Prioritize finding Melissa and Luna.”
The bug specters, now my obedient minions, scattered in all directions.
With the dense fog obscuring everything, the only option was to search manually.
Melissa at least had a Death Knight with her, and Luna was strong, so they should be able to hold out for a while.
Still, there was no room for delay.
There weren’t many bugs to spread out through the fog labyrinth, but that didn’t matter.
I could always increase the numbers now.
Watching the incoming swarm of bugs, I drew the cursed sword Elekstra.
"I’m not a fan of seeing corpses.”
Specters don’t have fixed forms by nature.
I can overlay a slight form, but the essence doesn’t change.
“Come at me.”
Slash!!
I decapitated a mantis-like bug that flew at me and immediately turned it into an undead.
Then I began increasing their numbers like a zombie apocalypse.
A necromancer has limits on how many undead they can control.
The higher the quality of the undead, the fewer they can manage.
For a typical 6th-circle necromancer, just forcibly turning these unknown monsters into undead would have consumed a lot of power.
The actual consumption of necromantic mana was far more significant than expected.
Still, it didn’t matter.
I had an abundance of necromantic mana.
It regenerated naturally faster than it could be consumed, so I had no worries.
While running for a while, I started feeling like I was looping around the same area.
“Librarian.”
[Confirmation. You are circling the same terrain you passed earlier.]
It’s some kind of barrier magic, with a few extra twists.
I reached into the air, attempting to interfere with it.
It’s a unique style.
Not quite like typical magic.
If it were necromantic magic, it would be easier, but it’s not.
The specters I spread are likely also lost somewhere in this space.
I tried breaking it with force, but the Librarian dissuaded me.
[The barrier is spread over a large area. The effects are unpredictable.]
“Librarian, can’t we transfer memories from the archives related to mages? There should be something.”
[Selective memory transfers from the archive are not allowed under the system.]
The Labyrinthos had safeguards to prevent madness, but there’s nothing like that here.
For now, I’ll keep moving.
I killed every bug monster I encountered and turned them into specters.
When the number of specters I created surpassed thirty, I felt a strange sense of déjà vu.
“With this many people in the city, it doesn’t make sense that I haven’t encountered a single person despite scattering randomly.”
Although my specter undead were also lost in the barrier, some had broken free from its confines.
Yet they had only found a few people.
Most remained missing.
Without any magical knowledge beyond necromancy, I currently lacked a safe way to interfere with this barrier.
While running again for a while, I finally encountered someone.
“This way!”
It was a man fleeing with five other people from a swarm of bugs.
“P-Prince!”
Prince?
If there’s a prince of the empire here…
[It is undoubtedly Prince Dorn Lu Pascalia, who is set to marry Lilia Berner.]
“Just a little farther, and we’ll reach a safe spot! Hang in there!”
“Ahh… Ahhhh!!”
Of course, no human can outrun a giant bug.
A massive grasshopper pounced on a helpless civilian, opening its grotesque jaws to devour the person whole.
In that instant, Prince Dorn charged forward, unsheathing a silver sword and cutting down the bug.
“Haah… I’m alive.”
“Are you alright?!”
“Thank you! Thank you, Your Highness!”
“Get up quickly. There’s no time. The noise will attract more of them.”
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
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