Chapter 114. Encounter (2)
With Sirocco at the lead, we pushed through the passage.
After crossing the mine’s tunnels for a while, a large passage appeared. The path forward was clear.
A cold breeze from somewhere reminded me we were descending deeper underground.
Soon, we passed a massive aluminum sign labeled [Section F].
Just ahead, a guard lay slumped against the entrance wall, bleeding heavily. Checking his pulse, I found it faint but present.
As I pulled the tourniquet from his combat uniform to stop the bleeding, the light from the fox doll in my hand flickered and died.
It had run out of charge at the worst possible moment.
Realizing it wouldn’t light up again until recharged by sunlight, I quickly grabbed the flashlight from the guard’s waist.
There was no time to waste. We had to keep moving.
The tunnel’s scenery flashed by.
An artificial passage, carved squarely from the majestic natural environment. Inside, rectangular pillars stood orderly under cold white lighting.
After entering the inner tunnel, I lowered my stance, weaving between the shadows of the pillars to advance discreetly.
How far had we gone?
Suddenly, the surroundings plunged into darkness.
The I-shaped lights lining the high walls were shattered, their fragments scattered on the ground. Flickering broken lights buzzed irritably, and a chilling air lingered.
During the investigation, the guards operated in pairs at minimum. Three teams meant at least six people.
Their individual skills might not match Elsyde’s mages or freelancers, but they weren’t incompetent.
They would’ve been vigilant. They would’ve been prepared.
So what had happened? What could cause such silence?
Stay sharp.
I gripped a one-handed sword in my right hand and the flashlight in my left. Crossing my arms, I kept the sword aimed forward. The flashlight remained off—shining it abruptly in an enemy encounter could disorient them visually.
Plus, in an emergency, I could wield the flashlight, held reverse-grip in my left hand, like a dagger.
A technique called “Harries,” an advanced pistol tactical shooting method, adapted for a one-handed sword.
Suddenly, a sense of déjà vu hit me.
It was like the Leopold mission.
This wasn’t a technique or knowledge inherited from the Sword Saint. So how was I naturally employing such combat expertise?
My thoughts scattered as I pressed forward through the darkness.
Before I knew it, I’d entered a tunnel so vast the ceiling seemed distant.
A downdraft blew from somewhere, carrying a thick, inescapable stench of blood that stung my nose. The smell made my heart race involuntarily.
Gripping my sword, I dashed toward the large passage.
Sirocco, following beside me, caught her breath.
“Hey, this is…”
In the center of the mine’s vast plaza, a pile of bleeding guard bodies lay stacked. The path had long turned into a sea of blood.
Among them were faces I’d seen when the operation began. They looked like marionettes with their strings cut.
“Ah, you’ve arrived.”
On a path draped in a red carpet of blood.
In the faint darkness, someone was crouched atop a tower of neatly stacked corpses.
“Watching how this situation unfolded, I figured you’d be the first to show up.”
The shadow in the dark grinned widely.
“As rumored, your initiative is something else, huh?”
He spoke leisurely and stood upright.
A gaunt man dressed in a black tailcoat. His entire face was covered by a long, beak-shaped black metal mask, reminiscent of a medieval plague doctor.
The modernized, faintly reflective beak mask tilted slightly, as if amused.
“Oh, your name’s already quite known among us in Vendetta, so no need for formal introductions.”
He rose lightly, spreading his arms exaggeratedly, as if greeting a long-awaited guest.
“I’m not as famous as you, so I’ll introduce myself. Call me Ixion.”
I didn’t respond. I already knew the name well.
Vendetta’s 9th-ranked Annihilation Officer, “Ixion.”
Among the original story’s black mages, he was notorious for using particularly dangerous and grotesque magic.
Even five years later, when countless factions led by Vendetta and their mages rose, he remained a formidable villain in the main storyline, never outshone.
A slight chill ran down my spine.
Could I win?
In my current state, with only Sirocco, still growing, as my follower family.
“Honestly, I never thought a direct descendant of Elsyde would personally come to a backwater city like this.”
He glanced at me and chuckled.
“I caused just enough chaos that the city’s guards could handle if they tried. Shouldn’t a celebrity like you be living the high life, not trudging through dusty places like this?”
His tone was mocking, but his surprise seemed genuine.
The feeling was mutual. Knowing Ixion’s current rank—five years before the original story—made it even more so.
Having surpassed the experience and expertise accumulated up to Rank 10, he’d reached the next stage of enlightenment: Rank 9. A combat mage and Vendetta executive.
To think he was behind this incident.
I glanced around.
“The beasts in this place. Your doing?”
“Yeah. Testing an artifact, you see.”
Artifact. My eyes narrowed at the word.
Artifacts were relics from before the empire’s founding, created by ancient mages across the vast continent.
Ixion proudly extended one arm.
Wooong.
A large metal disc, emitting a faint glow, floated slowly above his hand.
“To be precise, it’s a replica of an artifact. Being an ancient artifact, its structure is so complex that not just anyone can replicate it.”
A replica.
As the name implied, a copy of the original artifact. While far less powerful than the real thing, it could still produce certain effects.
Staring at the disc he held, I asked quietly.
“You used that disc to summon the beasts to the mine?”
“Yeah. I’ve been testing it with some colleagues in various regions lately. The activation conditions are tricky, and figuring out the structure gave us all a headache.”
Ixion shrugged nonchalantly, as if recalling the ordeal. His tailcoat rippled lightly.
I asked calmly.
“Why do it?”
“No grand reason. It’s just a test.”
“A test? To bolster Vendetta’s forces?”
He nodded once, chuckling.
“Not entirely wrong. The more cards we have to take revenge on the empire, the better. But that’s not the only reason.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve met Tantalus. You already know, don’t you?”
He gripped the disc in his hand and added.
“—The Book of Gnosis.”
My grip on the sword tightened at the mention of the prophetic book’s name. I’d nearly forgotten it since Tantalus brought it up.
“Why mention that?”
“Well… I suppose it’s fine to tell you. Or rather, it might even be good to let you know.”
He touched his black beak mask with a meaningful air.
“It’s simple. To ‘use the coming fate.’”
“Use fate?”
“A prophecy foretells what will happen. And the Book of Gnosis is a book that shows the future of the end.”
“…Most of its pages are said to be lost.”
“Right. No one knows its full contents, meaning no one can know the complete future. But what if you know even fragments of that future?”
He said with a smile.
“Then, using those ‘predetermined’ fragments of fate to pursue prosperity and reform an unjust order—that’s our mission, isn’t it, direct descendant?”
“No one, huh.”
I gave a faint smile and tilted my head. I knew better than anyone that there was a flaw in his words.
The future fate he grandly proclaimed to know and use wasn’t something only they were aware of.
But there was no need to point that out.
I held my sword at an angle and said quietly.
“What’s your point?”
“Well, it’s something like this.”
Ixion replied in a light tone.
“Some parts of the Book of Gnosis detail the locations and usage of powerful artifacts. There’s no reason not to use them.”
He slowly raised the hand holding the disc.
“Of course, its performance is laughably inferior to the original, and among the replicas made over decades, this is the only decent one…”
He looked up, his eyes gleaming.
“But it can do something like this.”
As translucent mana particles spiraled around the disc, beasts with flapping wings emerged from the darkness, aligning like shadows.
They surrounded Ixion as if guarding him, staring at us in unison.
Behind the beak-masked figure in the dark, the beasts’ glossy black carapaces gleamed eerily under the lights.
Ixion looked at them and bowed his head.
“With this inferior model, we can’t yet achieve proper effects, but isn’t it impressive? A device that can command magical beasts at will.”
“…”
“But it seems to synergize quite well with my unique magic.”
Whoosh!!
A burst of dark red glowing mana exploded around the hand he extended toward the beast swarm. The beasts screamed in agony, writhing and transforming.
Twitch, gurgle.
In midair, their forms melted like clay, reshaping as dark red mana was absorbed into their bodies, glowing.
“…!”
Sirocco took a step to the side, assuming a combat stance. I calmly raised my sword.
Unlike Tantalus, a main villain whose unique magic was never clearly revealed despite reaching beyond Rank 10, I vividly remembered the grotesque unique magic Ixion used in the original story.
> [Unique Magic - Life Fusion: Creation Transformation]
>
> Combines two or more low-intelligence lifeforms, freely shaping and recreating them into forms and traits desired by the caster, then commanding them.
A massive unicorn beast, emitting dark red light, appeared.
Grrrrrrk!!
The twisted flesh transformed into a beast with a single massive horn, slamming its heavy forelegs into the ground. The impact shook the entire underground.
[Transformation: Chimera - Unicorn]
A rhinoceros armored with tank-like carapace.
Yet, massive wings from the flying-type beasts used as materials sprouted from its back, and dozens of red mana tendrils glowed ominously like eyes.
A grotesque form, as if combining the best traits of various creatures, prowled in a semicircle behind Ixion in the darkness.
Its hostility was directed at us.
“Now then.”
Ixion, standing before the monstrous creature, laughed lowly behind his mask.
“Shall we begin?”