Episode 36
* * *
The Book of Carnage.
The place where Dale was now was the world inside the book. The imaginary world that projected the evil thoughts and malice of the book’s author, the blood magician Duchamp.
─ Will you reject my contract and become a piece of meat here?
The Avatar of the Grimoire, the Executioner, spoke again, leaving behind a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood that stretched endlessly beyond the horizon.
Dale didn’t care. The world inside the book. In other words, this is not the real world. Therefore, the executioner in front of him, namely the Book of Carnage, cannot be subdued by force or offensive magic.
So, just like that, the cold and refined dark magic began to swirl along the ground. The cold and dark magic swirled like a whirlpool, and the scenery around the area became distorted once again.
What 『The Book of Carnage』 shows is the mental world of the blood wizard Duchamp, and Dale also confronts it and brings out his own world.
Pale, gray sleet fluttered. A horizon of nothingness spread out beneath my feet.
“Your world cannot invade my world.”
A mental barrier to protect oneself from the Book of Carnage, and an abyss of thoughts that even Dale himself cannot escape.
A clash of ideas and worlds, a clash of worlds. It was undoubtedly a clash of high-ranking magicians.
And then a world of emptiness, made of cold and darkness, began to engulf the area. A world of carnage, made of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
“But my world is not like that.”
The world is eating the world.
─ How… … !
A grimoire is the result of a wizard who has reached a high level of skill and has compiled his or her thoughts over the course of a lifetime. Therefore, the Book of Massacre is in a sense the ‘Blood Wizard Duchamp’ itself.
A 6th Circle Red Magician and a heinous war criminal who has caused countless victims with his forbidden magic of mass destruction. The world of such a high-ranking magician is being devoured by the world of a mere eleven-year-old child.
─ Do you think I’ll just accept it like this?
The executioner, who could be called the avatar of the Grimoire, the Blood Mage Duchamp himself, kicked the ground. Towards the empty world where Dale was standing with both feet.
A sea of blood swept over the area, forming huge waves.
Bloody tsunami.
In response, Dale’s ‘shadow cloak’ began to flutter.
Tidal wave of shadows.
It is an ability that can only be displayed because it is, after all, the ‘world within a book.’
This is not the real world, and the only measure of power is the strength of one’s thoughts, the depth of the abyss that one’s imagination holds.
Dale walked forward, surrounded by endless emptiness, nothingness, and an army of shadows. He turned his back on the landscape that he would later add to the country called the Empire.
It was not an area that a mere 6th circle psychopath wizard could approach.
The world was engulfed in darkness.
Clang!
With a sound like shattering glass, the entire landscape comes crashing down.
‘Are you back?’
Finally, Dale emerged from the world of the book and looked around. There, the whole world was enveloped in darkness.
“──Brother.”
Just then, a voice was heard. Without even a sound, from behind.
It was the voice of a pure girl, without a speck of dust. I turned my head. There was a young girl wrapped in a pitch-black dress.
“My brother called me?”
A girl with curious eyes that knew nothing about the world, and two horns of a black goat rising from between her hair…
* * *
At that moment, in the first room of the Apostolic Palace.
Cardinal Nicholas bit his lip in burning impatience.
Even if the eldest son of the Saxon family is the most talented genius in the empire, he is only an 11-year-old child. He is also a young wizard with only the level of a 3rd Circle Expert. Even if he is a ‘black prince’, the probability of him returning alive from the library of hell is close to 0%.
──The church takes no responsibility for what happens in hell.
It was a deal made through the Geass (binding of the oath), and originally, Nikolai had no idea that Dale would return alive. Also, as long as there was evidence of the contract, the Saxon family would not be able to move recklessly.
Nevertheless, did the world’s ‘Black Prince’ really enter the library of hell without any countermeasures?
The son of the Black Magic Tower Master, known as the greatest black magician on the continent?
If the eldest son of the Saxon family were to obtain the Book of the Black Goat as he had said, Nikolai could not even imagine the aftermath of such an act.
It was at that moment that something crossed Nikolai’s mind.
“The church is not responsible whatsoever for what happens in hell… … .”
A clause in the contract between two people through the binding of the oath. In other words, it means that ‘whatever happens’ there is not Nikolai’s fault.
“… … We definitely need to drive the wedge in.”
Cardinal Nikolai, who was a white magician of the 6th circle and a white tower elder who pursued the light of wisdom, took his seat without hesitation after making up his mind.
* * *
“Yeah, Oppa. It’s so boring here.”
The girl with the black goat horns spoke.
“And I’m so lonely.”
In the form of a slender girl, clinging to Dale.
“It’s so lonely, cold, and desolate here.”
“… … .”
But Dale wasn’t swayed by her innocent appearance, because he understood the weight of the being before him more clearly than anything else.
『The Book of the Black Goat』.
A grimoire written by the Immortal Frederick, who sacrificed his young daughter in order to reach the truth beyond death. That is probably why the avatar of the grimoire takes the form of a young girl.
But that girl is by no means the young daughter of the Immortal.
“Make a contract with me.”
Dale said.
“Black goat of the forest with a thousand cubs.”
Towards the girl with black goat horns.
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“Do you want to play with me too, Oppa?”
The girl smiles innocently. Dale nods silently.
“Then show me your world.”
At the same time, the scenery beneath the feet of the two people quickly distorts. A blank horizon with gray sleet fluttering opens up. An abyss of thought filled with cold and darkness.
The girl was running lightly across the cold ground as if she had come out for a spring outing. The sleet falling from all directions settled on her shoulders.
“This is oppa’s world.”
After running around for a while, the girl finally turns around. Dale nods silently.
“It’s a very beautiful world.”
The girl with the goat’s horns smiled contentedly. Underneath her skirt, countless ‘tentacle bundles’ were wriggling.
“I really like you, oppa.”
It was a very dark, cold, and twisted smile.
* * *
“Ah, ahhh.”
When Nikolai, the elder of the White Tower and the white wizard of the 6th circle, entered Hell to silence the people.
In that hell, twisted with impure thoughts and evil ideas, Cardinal Nicholas and the Church Knights he led could not help but be speechless.
The eldest son of the House of Saxony, the Black Prince, was there.
With ‘the most horrible thing in the world’ by his side.
How can one describe its existence?
A swarm of writhing tentacles, hideous teeth jutting out along the tentacles, and growing fleshy masses. An otherworldly abomination.
The Abomination was there.
An indescribably horrifying being that causes madness upon sight.
* * *
“Yes, oppa.”
A girl with goat horns was at Dale’s side.
A pure and clean ‘girl’ who grew up like a noblewoman in a pitch-black dress.
“What are those?”
Countless bundles of tentacles wriggled beneath the hem of her skirt.
“wait.”
Dale quietly reached out and stopped the girl.
“Your Eminence, Cardinal Nicholas.”
After stopping, Dale opened his mouth. He spoke to the Cardinal and his party, who were terrified as if they were seeing ‘the most disgusting thing in the world’.
“Why did you come all the way here?”
“I, I just… … .”
Dale opened his mouth to Nikolai, who was stammering and unable to continue speaking.
“The parties to the contract are not responsible whatsoever for what happens in hell.”
As if he had known Nikolai’s intentions from the beginning.
The content of the deal made between the two through the Geass (binding of the oath). What Nikolai was aiming for was precisely the weak point of the Geass. Even if it was Dale, he would not be able to win against the elder of the White Tower and the knights he led at his current level.
There is a saying that “it is dark under the lamp.”
Just as in a fight between infantry, the one occupying the high hills has the advantage, the terrain advantage was no exception in the world of magic.
And this place is a hell where all kinds of impure thoughts and evil ideas have accumulated and invaded even reality. A world without light. For Dale, who makes a living from the power of darkness, it is a stage where he can truly demonstrate his greatest power, but for those who use the power of light, it is a place that is no different from a death ground.
“You picked the wrong place.”
Moreover, it wasn’t Dale they had to deal with.
The world’s most terrifying grimoire, once created by the founder of the House of Saxony.
How an eleven-year-old could control the Book of the Black Goat is probably not a very important fact to them at the moment.
“Oh, that’s a misunderstanding! I was just worried about you… … .”
Cardinal Nikolai was about to say something in embarrassment.
“Yes, oppa.”
The girl opened her mouth. Countless tentacles were writhing beneath her black skirt.
“──Can I eat this?”
“I can’t take responsibility for your stomachache either.”
Dale nodded as well, as if he was satisfied with Cardinal Nikolai’s will.
“Yeah, okay.”
The girl smiled, and the ground beneath her feet turned black. Magic is the power to turn thoughts into reality, and a grimoire is a book containing such ‘thoughts of a magician’.
A forbidden grimoire containing the world of the Immortal Frederick, the founder of the House of Saxony.
“… … have mercy (Eleison).”
At the same time, Cardinal Nicholas, the elder of the White Tower, makes the sign of the cross.
It was never an act of resignation.
The title of White Mage of the 6th Circle is not just a hollow name. Moreover, Dale is not the only wizard in this world who possesses a book of magic.
『The Book of the Gospel』.
The light spread from Cardinal Nicholas and his knights of the Church.
“Have mercy on us (Miserere nobis).”
As Nikolai’s cry grew, the consciousness of the knights of the church guarding him began to rise.
“God wants it… … .”
“May the mercy and loving-kindness of the sister gods be with you.”
It doesn’t stop at just a mental elevation. The body, the sword, the armor, and the brilliant light begin to transform into separate entities. Before you know it, it’s not just a church knight. It’s an ‘angel of the battlefield’ with six wings and a flaming sword.
The magic of the hymn that the White Tower is proud of. An aria filled with light and sacred sounds against the darkness of Dale.
Nikolai is also a person who has been cultivating the path of magic before becoming a priest. The ‘Heavenly Hymn’ sung by Cardinal Nikolai, a 6th circle white magician, continues to resonate.
The power displayed as an elder of the White Tower who pursues light (wisdom).
‘It’s not that easy, after all.’
Looking at that sight, Dale thought.
Light and darkness. Clash between thought and thought, world and world.
What was unfolding here was, without a doubt, a battle between high-ranking magicians.
