novelburst
Chapter 73
Chapter 73
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Chapter 73
For lunatics with immense power, they truly give off a strong sense of humanity.
“You don’t need to know who I am. But I have business with you.”
With those words, Leon unsheathed a sword imbued with a sinister crimson aura.
“That sword…?”
“Looks good, doesn’t it? I got it from Mielephon.”
“…Elekstra.”
Hearing the name, Luna’s eyes widened slightly.
“You recognize it?”
“I’ve seen it before.”
Considering how much time had passed since she had been sealed away, the fact that she recognized it suggested a simple conclusion.
“This sword must be older than I thought.”
“Use it well.”
“Of course. If I return it with even a scratch, Duke Catsey might try to kill me.”
Duke Catsey and Sword Saint Osberg each had their own thoughts, but I intended to return this sword.
And they weren’t the kind of people who wouldn’t understand that intention.
* * *
Leon silently gazed at Luna.
Despite her small frame, she exuded a strong sense of femininity.
Long pink hair cascading down to her calves, her drowsy eyes carried a strange sense of decadence.
“What?”
“Nothing, really. Let’s wrap this up.”
His demeanor was completely different from when he had been laughing while repeatedly beating them earlier.
Then, he lightly spun the sword in his hand.
“W-Wait!!”
Slash!
In an instant, the heads of all the cultists, except for their leader, were severed.
As their deaths forcibly halted the ritual, the cult leader collapsed to his knees, drained of strength.
“Ghh….”
He had been holding his body together with sheer willpower, even with broken bones.
Now that power was gone, leaving him unable to move properly.
Yet, rather than pain, he erupted in rage.
“You bastard!! Do you even understand what you’ve done?!!”
Leon approached the fallen leader and pointed the tip of his sword at him.
“Let me ask you instead. Did you even know what you were doing when you performed this ritual?”
The cult leader tried to resist with necromantic magic, but strangely, the flow of necrotic mana had become sluggish.
“Hah! What does a brat like you know?! I must ascend higher! To do that, I must secure the Kraken! You’ve ruined everything!!”
“Yeah, I ruined it!”
Leon puffed out his chest proudly.
“You lunatic!”
“So what are you going to do about it?”
“Gaaahhh!!!”
Leon chuckled and rubbed his hands together.
“Well then, the ritual has been stopped, so since things turned out this way, why don’t you spill everything you know?”
The cult leader found Leon’s grin utterly infuriating.
Without hesitation, he activated his last resort—biting down hard on something hidden in his mouth.
Crunch!
Immediately, black blood gushed from his mouth.
It was an assassination-grade poison, meant for swift suicide.
His skin rapidly blackened and began to rot, but despite that, his face was filled with satisfaction.
“Khahaha… No matter what you do, you won’t gain anything…”
Fwoooosh!
Suddenly, a radiant light burst forth, healing his body completely.
“I’m useful now.”
The cult leader’s mind went blank.
Luna twirled in place, her expression smug.
Meanwhile, Leon clapped his hands, cheering,
“Good job! Well done!”
The poison he had just ingested was beyond ordinary remedies.
It was an esoteric toxin designed to ensure death under any circumstances.
And yet, it had been neutralized with just a wave of her hand?
“This… this is impossible… How…?”
“Suicide is a grave sin. Absolutely not allowed.”
“You heard her? You only get to die if we give you permission.”
Leon’s sinister smile crept closer, and for the first time, the cult leader felt genuine terror.
* * *
In the end, we didn’t gain much.
To be precise, the enemy wasn’t foolish.
Even after dislocating his bones and muscles multiple times to extract information, I realized something troubling—
He had been misled.
Somehow, the cult leader truly believed the falsehoods he was spewing as if they were facts.
No matter what means I used—even if I extracted his very soul—it wouldn’t help.
So I took drastic measures.
I implanted a few special spells into him and cast a simple mind-control spell.
If they wanted to play games with information, I’d just slip in my own Trojan horse.
“Your name.”
“…Rahel.”
“Alright, Rahel. From now on, you believe that you ran into us, lost all your subordinates, and barely escaped.”
“….”
“If you understand, then go back.”
It seemed that someone in the upper echelons of the cult enjoyed playing mind games.
Fine.
I’d play along.
As he wandered off blankly, I turned my attention to an unintended acquisition—the Necronomicon.
Tossing it into the air, I set it ablaze.
Fwoooosh!
The ancient grimoire of the Ancient Gods.
Even if it was a scripture capable of reviving a being of ruin, the temptation it carried was far from trivial.
So I destroyed it entirely, ensuring no one could ever find it.
The Necronomicon of the Ancient Gods…
Even for a mage, it was an artifact that could elevate one to unimaginable heights.
However, it not only warps the mage’s very being but also inevitably turns them into a sacrifice for the resurrection of the Ancient Gods.
Even those who believe their minds to be steadfast would struggle against its overwhelming temptation.
Yet, that didn’t matter.
The Necronomicon of the Ancient Gods was certainly powerful, but considering the things I had slain in the Labyrinthos, even this so-called Necronomicon had its clear limitations.
Without hesitation, I reduced it to ashes, and along with it, I incinerated every last chimera that had halted without its master.
"We stopped the ritual, but now what? If we stay here any longer, the Kraken will return and turn us into a quick snack."
"Yeah, we need to get out of here."
Encountering the Kraken unprepared?
That would be a first-class ticket to becoming its meal.
But we couldn’t just leave empty-handed.
"Before we go, let's squeeze whatever benefits we can out of this thing."
"How?"
"Like this."
I carved magic circles throughout the cave.
Most of them were meaningless resonance wave sigils.
"First, we erase the traces left by those cultists. The Kraken is sensitive to mana, sure, but it's not intelligent enough to understand what’s happening."
That wasn’t the real issue.
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"Alright, here’s a question for you: If a mother Kraken, already on edge due to being in the middle of its spawning season, senses unfamiliar magic in its nest, what will happen?"
"It’ll be on guard, obviously."
"Exactly. But it’ll only stay cautious."
With a smirk, I snapped my fingers.
The sigils began to split apart, interlocking like gears before disappearing one by one.
"Now, imagine someone wakes you up in the middle of your sleep and then runs away. Wouldn’t that piss you off?"
"Yeah. You do that to me all the time."
"When did I ever—"
"You always wake me up with your sleep-talking and then go right back to sleep yourself."
…I might have to reconsider sharing a room with her from now on.
"So, what happens if this keeps repeating?"
"Extreme frustration. Just like how I want to punch you every time you do it."
"No, not me, dumbass."
The Kraken would experience severe stress.
And in its already heightened state, that stress would be far worse.
"But wouldn’t that make it relocate? If that happens, the hunt is over—we’d lose our one and only chance."
"That thing hasn’t moved in 500 years."
Finding a suitable alternative nesting ground wouldn’t be easy.
"That’s why I’m using resonance sigils. A direct attack would make it feel threatened."
But subtle, seemingly coincidental mana fluctuations would only leave it feeling confused.
The goal was simple—exhaust it as much as possible.
"One thing's for sure."
"What?"
"It’s going to lose its damn mind. No way it'll die peacefully."
Melissa might not show it, but in the end, we weren’t so different.
* * *
The Colossal Sea King.
The Kraken was already in a highly irritable state.
Long ago, while hunting a group of humans, it had sustained a severe injury, leaving it unable to properly use its mind control abilities.
And now, with spawning season approaching, more humans—somehow aware of its presence—were gathering to hunt it down.
The Kraken instinctively recognized them as a threat to its offspring.
Then came the strange energy that began to seep into its lair.
Desperate, it forcefully unleashed its power, summoning tidal waves to eliminate the humans.
But despite all that, one of them—a particularly dangerous individual—prevented its attacks from landing effectively.
Having spent years transferring its nutrients to its eggs, the Kraken was already exhausted.
Even summoning storms and waves required a significant toll.
Yet, it had still resorted to doing so twice in its attempts to eliminate the humans.
Now, weary from battle, the Kraken finally returned to its nest.
Dragging its exhausted body into the cave, it curled around its precious eggs.
And then—
Whoooosh!!
A chilling presence made its body jolt violently.
BOOM!!
Instinctively, the Kraken lashed out at the source of the mana fluctuation, expending even more energy—
—only to find nothing there.
…
Slowly, the Kraken closed its eyes once more.
And then—
Ten minutes later.
Vrrrmm!!
Like an alarm clock blaring, another mana pulse shattered its fragile rest.
* * *
I surfaced from the underground passage like a human bulldozer—or perhaps more like a bipedal mole—and quickly took in my surroundings.
The Kraken’s nest was closer to the coastal village than I had anticipated.
"Just as I thought, it’s nearby."
"Ugh… I feel like a mole."
Poking her head out from the tunnel, Luna grumbled, her face etched with exhaustion.
The fishing village, where the hunting party was stationed, was filled with jagged reefs, shipwrecks, and sheer sea cliffs.
I had figured the Kraken’s lair wouldn’t be too far from such an area.
"So, are we heading straight back?"
"The Kraken won’t be moving for the next few days. It can’t keep holding onto its eggs forever. Meanwhile, Mielephon will still be searching for us."
A glance at its nesting ground confirmed that the Kraken was running out of time.
Soon, it would have no choice but to leave its eggs behind to guard them from predators.
That meant it would have to venture out to hunt again.
All we had to do was make its life a living hell until then.
"Lord Leon?"
A surprised voice called my name.
I turned to see none other than Isna, staring at me in shock.
[Translator - Night]
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