232 Chaos [1]

<nulli>Bang!

I hastily sat up the moment the explosion sounded.

"What happened...?"

I looked in the direction of where the noise came from.

"Reinforcements?"

Were we going to get rescued from this place? My heartbeat accelerated at the thought, but Owl-Mighty was quick to pour cold water over my thoughts.

"It's unlikely."

I turned my head to look at it.

"Why?"

"....If it were reinforcements, then they wouldn't be so obvious. In fact, considering how important you all are to the Empire, I'm sure they would send that lady."

"That lady?"

I looked at the owl in confusion, but seeing that it refused to elaborate, I could only remain silent.

<nulli>'Who is he talking about...? And why do I notice something strange when he mentioned her?'

It almost looked scared, but at the same time didn't.

....It was hard to tell.

"Judging from the power of the attack, it's most likely been done by one of your classmates."

"One of my classmates?"

I was surprised by Owl-Mighty's words.

While I didn't know any of them, judging from the power of the explosion, they seemed to be quite strong.

Nonetheless, I knew that something outside of its expectations had occurred.

I looked at Owl-Mighty and asked,

"What do I do?"

"....We hasten our plans."

Flapping its wings, Owl-Mighty moved and positioned itself over my shoulder. Pebble, on the other hand, moved ahead of me and faced the door.

I looked towards it for a few seconds before turning my attention towards the door.

"What now?"

"Press your hand against the door."

".....?"

Though confused, I still complied and pressed my hand against the door.

"Focus all of your attention on the door and use the skill that I taught you. Imagine that cracks are all over the door."

"Ah."

I finally understood what its intentions were and closed my eyes.

'Cracks. Cracks. Cracks...'

I then started to imagine cracks like Owl-Mighty suggested. Be it on the front, and on the back, I imagined for cracks to appear.

It took me several seconds to complete the imagery, and once I was done, I put my hand away and took a step back.

"Not bad."

Owl-Mighty was the first to compliment me as it looked at the door which was filled with all sorts of cracks.

It looked like it would shatter with a simple touch.

"Get ready. The door will be opening soon."

I nodded and looked towards my arm.

For a few seconds, my eyes lingered over the tattoo that was on my arm. It was a strange four-leaved clover that wasn't all that pleasing to the eyes.

Rather, it was a little too simple.

.....I wasn't a fan of tattoos, to begin with, so I felt a little repulsed by the sight.

<nulli>'What a waste. Good thing this isn't my body.'

"Get ready."

Rumble!

I hastily looked up towards the doors that rumbled open. My heart skipped a beat the moment it did, and I suddenly grew nervous.

Threads began to flow out of my arm, moving forward and slipping through the narrow gap in the door.

"Haa... Haa..."

I could feel my breathing grow with each passing second as I focused my entire attention on controlling the threads.

Sweat dripped down from the side of my face as I fully focused on my task.

Slowly, the threads started to make their way forward and encircle the legs of the person standing on the opposite end.

"Now!"

At Owl-Mighty's words, I clenched my hand and hooked the threads around the legs.

Snap! Snap...!

I thought that I had succeeded, but I was disappointed and horrified to see the threads snap the moment they hooked onto the ankles.

"This...!"

The doors opened up further, and the figure on the opposite end bent over to get in.

Their hollow, lifeless eyes fixed on me, and from beneath, their skeletal hands reached out, grasping hungrily in my direction.

My heart sped up and I tried using the threads again, but that was of no use either as the hand swept over the threads, snapping them quickly.

"....!"

"Pathetic."

Stepping forward, Pebble pressed its tiny foot against the ground.

Thump!

The guard immediately lost their balance and fell face-first against the ground. Then, stepping forward, Pebble pressed its tiny paw over its head, and...

Puchi!

Squished its head entirely.

"...Ah."

Pieces of flesh scattered throughout as I felt something well up from deep within my body, slowly making its way up into my mouth.

"Ukh!"

I pressed my hand against my mouth and tried my absolute best to not puke.

But it was hard.

Really hard.

"Get over it."

Pebble said, looking back at me with cold eyes.

".....This shouldn't have happened had you been more decisive. Who told you to aim for its legs? You clearly don't want to kill."

"....."

I had no excuses.

The cat was right. I... the reason why I had failed was because I didn't aim for the kill and just planned to get rid of its legs.

But...

"How can you ask me to kill when I've never killed before?"

It wasn't as though I was pro-life or anything like that.

....I could kill if it was necessary, but I understood my limits. If I was to kill right now, then my mind would fall into a state of chaos.

It would be all that I was going to think about for the next few hours, making it hard for me to focus.

But it wasn't just that.

Staring at the pieces of flesh on the ground, and the blood that was polling beneath my feet, I felt my stomach churn.

That was also another thing that I needed to get used to.

"Ukh."

Holding onto my mouth, I forced myself to look at the scene right before my very eyes.

I made sure to imprint it in my mind.

'....I need to get used to this. I need to get used to this.'

In order for me to survive.

....I needed to get used to this.

"Hoo."

Letting out a long breath, I slowly looked forward to where Owl-Mighty stood. It stared at me in silence, and I felt a shudder run down my back under its piercing gaze.

It was there that I understood something.

<nulli>'If I don't change, it'll kill me.'

"Ah."

I clenched my teeth.

Lowering my head to stare at the body once more, I clenched my teeth harder before moving forward.

<nulli>'....You don't have to tell me that.'

***

"Uakh...! Ukh!"

Crack!

A neck snapped as Leon clenched his hand.

Thump!

Tossing the body to the side, he looked towards the door to his left and pressed his hand against the wall. There was no complicated password to unlock the door.

All he needed to do was channel his mana on the door from the outside.

Rumble!

The doors started to open shortly after he channeled his mana.

"....I still don't understand how you did it."

Several people were standing behind Leon. They were none other than Aoife, Kiera, and a few others from Haven.

The first thing Leon did after coming out was help them out.

He didn't know who was in which door, so he just opened whatever door he passed.

"What's going on? Who are you...!"

A girl with purple hair appeared right after the door opened. She looked at them in a daze.

Leon felt himself sigh in relief upon seeing her and moved closer to her.

"Wait, stop...!"

She tried to protest, but it was of no use.

With her mana sealed, she wasn't able to put up much of a struggle. In the end, Leon overpowered her and pressed his hand against her back.

Pftt

Spitting out blood, a familiar centipede appeared for everyone to see.

Aoife stared at it with a frown.

'Mana suppressing cetipede.'

It was a rather rare breed of centipede that was used to suppress someone's mana. Given that, there were other methods to suppress someone's mana, they weren't that popular, but that wasn't what bothered her.

'How did he get his hands on them?'

Mana-suppressing centipedes were quite rare and very hard to find.

Unless someone had a lot of resources, it was almost impossible to find them.

How did a cult of this size manage to get them?

Aoife didn't understand.

"Uh, Leon?"

Turning around, Aoife's eyes paused on Evelyn. Her gaze was no longer muddled, and her eyes were clear.

'Looks like he succeeded.'

Staring at Leon, Aoife pursed her lips slightly.

He had been the one to save her, and everyone else. She was extremely surprised to see that he had reached Tier 4 and that he had been able to resist the effect of the Ring of Nothingness.

Unlike him, she found herself unable to retain her rationality.

'...He's certainly hiding something.'

From the sudden surge in strength to his ability to resist the ring's power. Aoife knew that Leon was hiding something, but chose to keep her curiosity in check.

There was no need to pry over the secrets of everyone present.

Furthermore, he had saved her.

She wasn't ungrateful to the point where she'd demand answers from him.

She was just glad to be free.

"What next?"

Kiera's voice reached Aoife from behind.

Turning around, Aoife looked at Kiera who briefly paused her gaze on her. Things were certainly awkward between the two, but given the circumstances, they managed to push the feelings aside.

"We need to free the others."

Leon answered from the back as he stood up and helped Evelyn up as well.

Walking forward, he looked around with a serious expression.

"By now, the Archbishop should be aware of the fact that we've escaped. We don't have much time. I'm sure that all of you have noticed this, but he's not very strong. The ones who are strong are those who are under his influence. If we go now, we don't stand a chance of escaping. We need more people."

Listening to his words, Aoife nodded her head.

His reasoning made sense. She agreed with him.

"....Are we also rescuing the bastards from the other Empire?"

Kiera asked all of a sudden, and everyone turned quiet.

The silence was quickly broken by both Leon and Aoife.

"Yes, of course."

"Yes."

Everyone turned to look towards them, and Aoife answered for Leon.

"Not only are they strong, but this is also a chance to get them to owe us something. If we can, we should free them."

"....I guess."

Kiera mumbled while scratching the back of her head.

Leon looked around the group before looking at Aoife.

"Let's split."

".....Okay."

Aoife nodded without hesitation.

If things were to continue at their current pace, they would never be able to get enough people to fight against the cultists.

They needed to split up and free enough people.

"We're currently in ten. You bring five and I take five. When you gather five more, you can split again. Let's meet at the church. That's where the exit is located."

".....Yes."

Aoife nodded before turning around to look at her group.

Her heart dropped the moment she noticed Kiera, but she quickly pushed her feelings aside and nudged with her head.

"Let's go."