Chapter 325: It Was In Here (5)

There’s one question.

I had been looking at the suspects, and they were clear on the inside, unaffected by illusion magic. But looking back, Senior Chal-Something’s body had been taken over.

Which meant the body snatching happened after I countered his toolbox by turning it against him. I’d re-hypnotized Senior, made him stick the syringe into his own neck.

So that means…

“Yes. I maintain my self-awareness even in liquid form, inside this syringe. My magic efficiency drops drastically without a human body… but I can still cast spells in this state.”

“You crazy fuck.”

I felt chills run down my spine.

The thick liquid sloshing inside the syringe was practically a human, melted and trapped. And they were silently enduring that situation.

This work is hosted on mananovel.com

Self-replication aside, he was effectively performing self-inflicted torture, whether for efficiency or something else, it was insane. A complete screwball.

He smiled nonchalantly.

“What’s so special? I’m just a little more used to suffering than others. Isn’t it you who’s the crazy one…? Daring to try and harbor a god within your own flesh. If you had failed, you would have endured hellish pain.”

“You seem to know quite a bit?”

“Yes. And I acted accordingly. How much I struggled to break your shell and set the god free. If it weren’t for Yurensto’s experiment, it would have been done long ago.”

So that’s it. He knew that it was sealed in my head, and he was after my life.

Back when I first entered the Magic Tower, I was a complete novice in combat, my combat power close to zero. Even then, the ‘Promise’ inside me existed, but it couldn’t come out carelessly when it was 100% suppressing an evil god.

But because Yuna never left my side, he couldn’t kill me. She had always been protecting me.

Now that the purple Magic Tower’s b*stard is exposed, he’s got a few more accusations to his name.

“…That human trafficking in Sanjebi Village, my hometown, was that you too?”

“Black mages need a lot of sacrifices. While ‘Corpse Flower’ took charge of the Academy, and ‘Virgin’ and ‘Noose’ took charge of the Empire, I led the sacrifice procurement unit.”

“Then the hypnotic statues that spread through Crown Hall, those were your doing too. And deliberately using the Scarface senior’s magic, that was to frame him.”

“I thought I could kill Lorei then. After Yurensto’s enraged experiment turned her into an idiot, I was going to put her empty body to good use. It didn’t quite work out, though.”

I understand now that most of the dark shadow cast over everything was that b*stard’s doing. So, what’s left is ‘why’.

The succubus queen seemed to want to break free from something, and the Red-Flavor Duke was acting for his own power and authority.

And that guy…

“You see… I’m reminiscing about the past.”

“…”

“When the god was free, the world was filled with joy. He enjoyed the suffering of people… and as his minion, I could enjoy my hobby in the name of the god. How beautiful, the infinite happiness promised by the heavens.”

“In the name of your god, you just want to live tormenting others, putting it in a grand speech. I’ve heard enough. You need to die now.”

*Kreeeee*

I draw in my mana. I’ve confirmed everything I wanted to. That he’s a follower of ‘that’ thing, and that he’s after my head.

I can’t reopen the Evil God’s toolkit. I just signaled Aisha. She’ll be holding the entrance shut tight.

If I attach and detach Succession-Sublimation, there’s no way I can lose.

“Can you kill me? I’m not a singular being. There are countless others beyond this tower.”

“I’ll take your head, stick it in an analyzer, and run it. Then, I’ll create an algorithm to find the same information. After that, I just make a ‘Lamb’ tracker and tour the whole damn country.”

Actually, there are more options.

The elven forest community, for one. If I take their soul-linking methods and use them, it’s not impossible to create a contagious information bomb that only works on ‘Lambs.’

If it weren’t for illusion magic, dealing with you would be exceptionally difficult. But I’m the most troublesome mage to fight in this world. I can boast about that.

“Indeed. Someone like you… could do it. A monster descended to this realm.”

“Ready to leave your last words? You should consult with the little friends in those syringes, pick a sentence. No time, hurry.”

“Well, the one who doesn’t have time is──“

“『Phantom Harpoon』.”

As soon as I detected that ominous line, I immediately shot my magic. Those types who say things like that always end up doing weird stuff.

“──how hasty. 『Ectoplasm』.”

*Clang!* *Fwhoosh!*

One of the syringes broke, and the liquid inside—a Lamb—burst out and spread widely. It’s using its own body as a shield. More durable than I thought.

Not a big deal. I advance.

The rhythm of my footsteps, the flicks of my fingers, each rustle of my clothing—I turn them all into spells and fire them. I’m converting every movement into incantation, and casting magic.

A cuckoo bird that scrambles the mind, a blue swamp that induces depression, a light orb that erases memories when hit. Like a trainer leading a pack of animals, I’m conjuring and firing all sorts of illusion magic from every direction.

*Thud thud, crck crck, squeak, squeak, grrrr grrrr.*

“You aren’t giving me even a chance to counterattack…?”

I’ll crush you to death like this.

I reversed the magic he was trying to cast and used it to attack. Stealing control before the magic was complete, turning it into my own and firing it back. By that point, it seemed he realized there was no way out.

Blood dripped from his eyes as he gave up on defense. All sorts of illusion magic pummeled him in various ways.

“Ah, that stings. So thrilling, hmmm…”

And instead of using that time to counter, he just kept running his mouth. It wasn’t a dying wish, not by a long shot. That fact sent a chill down my spine.

“I’ll probably die. Or, if not die, then get captured. You’ll rummage through the scraps of information I leave behind and find something… a way. But, will you have the time? “

“…….”

“All my information has a self-destruct process embedded in it. It’s set to wipe clean after a week. Of course, you might find a solution in a week. But… I suspect you’ll find yourself in a much more urgent situation very soon.”

“Shut up and die, you b*stard!”

Could I shut him up? No. That prick, even taking the full force of every spell with his guard down, was managing to protect that damn mouth of his. He was determined to keep talking, come hell or high water.

Don’t get played. I can’t get played.

No matter what comes out of that mouth, I can’t let it shake me.

“Everything unstable is vulnerable to attacks from within. You know this very well. The dream world of the ‘Pleasure-Drinking Virgin’ shattered so easily because it was an attack from the inside.”

Right.

Inside, and out.

The reason we wrecked Lodelus in a session was because we targeted him by riding the Parshym-Hyun inside him.

The Succubus Queen was the same. Because Yuna directly hammered a ‘Subtraction’ into the inside, using the gate planted inside the Third Prince’s head, the attack was effective.

“When the Violet Tower was seen as pleasing and righteous in the eyes of the gods, twelve boys and girls gathered for a greater cause. They connected their minds by sharing their pain through the solid doors installed in their souls.”

That’s the story of the human experimentation Yuna endured.

Gates of the mind. I know that.

I commissioned the self-aware session NPCs to explore Yuna’s psyche. And according to the last periodic report, they had discovered a “door” there.

A trace of where her mind had connected to something in the past.

… But the NPCs found only ten doors.

“We thought all eleven of Yurensto’s test subjects were dead. But, what if one had actually survived? And what if the door connected to her psyche… was still perfectly functional?”

“I’m warning you, don’t do it. Whatever it is.”

“I’ve had a way to trigger Yurensto’s test subjects for a long time now, and I’ve been saving it. I wanted to use it at a more decisive moment, but… I promised to use it immediately if anything happened to the ‘lamb’ residing in the mage tower.”

“I said don’t-!!”

A long-laid trap. A bomb planted before I even met her.

He grinned, wide.

“The me outside, already did it. All the tragedies that took place in the ‘village’ I manage, the countless pains arising from a twisted society where families buy and sell each other… I poured it all inside. Into the deepest parts.”

“……..”

Something felt like it snapped.

I felt numb.

“Ha, ha ha ha ha! That’s a sight to see. Yes, it suits you perfectly. That’s the expression I wanted to see… Are you angry? Will you torture me? It’s fine. I’ll gladly accept it!”

……..

She’s already a sensitive person.

If I’m a bit late for our appointments because I’m engrossed in my research, instead of getting angry, she worries and frets over whether I’ve come to dislike her.

And to make Yuna, not only remember her past but, to pour mental agony into her mind… She must be suffering terribly. I can imagine it.

I… I’ve even tried the ‘Pashim Hyeonjeon’ on my own head. It’s something I wouldn’t want my loved one to ever experience, not even in death.

But it happened.

I, I have to get to Yuna right now. Figure out what happened, comfort her. That’s the first thing. Thinking can come later.

“Or perhaps, you’d like to grovel? Beg with all your heart, and I might just contact the 『Lamb』 in charge of the switch. Have them halt the plan. How does that sound? Quite enticing, wouldn’t you say──”

But that b*stard, I can’t just let him go.

“『Promise』.”

“……..?”

“Grant me a fleeting moment.”

Just a brief moment, I asked, to release all the power holding back ‘it’. To let me use 100% of myself.

I heard the boy sigh. But even the 『Promise』 within wasn’t stopping me. Rather, it told me to go ahead, it would hold ‘it’ tight with Aisha.

*Thuk*.

The sound of something being released, and in an instant, a feeling of omnipotence floods through me. The intellectual omnipotence, as if I could break the world down into tiny grains and read the movement of each one.

But the exhilaration doesn’t make me feel elated. What good is such power, if I can’t even save my lover?

Now, all that’s left is rage and hatred. I wanted to make that b*stard regret it. To track him down and wipe out the entire race of 『Lamb』s.

This is the groundwork for that.

I created a black arrow and shot it.

……..

That’s enough. I returned the processing power to 『Promise』.

–

The 『Pain-Swallowing Lamb』 had witnessed the god’s existence. Truly, the god he served was residing inside some mage’s head.

When the mad mage’s aura shifted. The lamb had clearly seen the form of a scaled lizard squirming within him.

And then he was struck by the black arrow.

I could only recognize it after being struck. That I had been hit by something…

I don’t know what the effect is. But I’ll probably die. Still, it was fine. I even saw the twisted face of the crazed mage in pain, wasn’t that enough?

The rest will be done by the other ‘Lambs.’ They will resurrect the god, and spend their lives basking in his wings.

The Lamb accepted his death with relief…

… … … …

Ten years passed like that.

He was like a person left alone in a world where time had stopped, his body stiff but his consciousness still moving.

Something was wrong, he felt. Did that arrow have the effect of slowing down perceived time to an extreme? But there should be a limit. It’s okay. Waiting is familiar.

Simply causing boredom could not inflict pain on a ‘Lamb.’ It was too easy.

… … … …

Around 120 years had passed.

The ‘Lamb’ realized that this spell had a more complex structure than he had thought. The pain of long periods of time, could possibly trigger the potential for sublimation.

The structure was designed to transfer and obliterate tiny fragments of consciousness and information, when the subject’s pain or knowledge neared the limit, just before madness.

The ‘Lamb’ realized that without going mad, reaching a state of sublimation, or finding a way out through exploration, he was to remain locked in nailed time.

… … … …

At the point where 3,000 years had flowed by.

The ‘Lamb’ wanted to know when this life would ever end.

He worked hard to die. Thinking that there must be a way to break the spell, he racked his brain to somehow overcome this situation. Or he devised ways to transfer his pain to another him.

He also had regrets.

There is a limit to the pain of the real world. If you die while being tortured, that’s the end of it. That’s why he had made light of suffering.

The ‘Lamb’s’ spirit, innately powerful, wouldn’t even scratch from being impaled or crucified. He’d thought he could mock death itself, no matter how it came.

But the pain of illusion magic was limitless.

He regretted it.

He desperately regretted it.

He begged someone, a god, no, even a goddess, to pull him out. He hated his past self, desperately cried out to his other selves. Messing with the crazed mage was not a good choice.

He shouldn’t have made him an enemy…

…….

It was far, far in the future when he’d understand that this ‘slowed-time perception’ was actually a recurring dream within a dream, a fractal spiral endlessly diving inward.

–

*Crack.*

With a small sound, that what’s-his-name senior fell straight back. The ‘Lamb’ residing in his head was dead, so once he regained consciousness, he’d be able to live his own life.

The kid detective asked cautiously,

“…Is the ‘Goat’ dead?”

“Yes. The one you saw today died of old age. But the whole is still out there. I’ll take care of that later. Right now, something truly urgent has come up.”

I picked up the syringe ampoule rolling on the floor, sealed it, and asked the scarred-face senior to keep it safe. And I entrusted the kid too.

The senior readily nodded.

“Yes, um… I understand, junior. I will keep them safe.”

“Thank you.”

I clutched my throbbing head and started on my way home. My destination was the academy where Yuna was. Money, mana, whatever it took, I needed to get there as fast as possible.

I used teleportation magic, spurred my horse on with hypnosis magic, and raced like a madman, finally reaching the vicinity of the academy.

Far, far away.

A gigantic tower, seemingly reaching the sky’s peak, shimmered like a mirage.

–

The Academy, the mad mage’s lab.

Yuri Lanster felt a chilling aura and sat up in bed. Cold sweat instantly beaded on her back, and ‘Bondage Restraints’ chains encircled her arms.

Instinctively, she engaged her Beastial Transformation, assuming a combat stance.

Her honed instincts incessantly warned her rationality. This place is dangerous. Close by, an unbelievably dangerous natural disaster is about to occur. Something is there.

Is it an enemy attack?

No, something more… colossal. It was similar to the feeling when the Goddess prepared a divine punishment in the holy city. Confrontation was entirely out of the question. Escape was necessary.

But… even while escaping, she had to take care of the Auto-Tower Manager. She headed to the simulation room. Yuna was preparing a surprise for when the mad mage returned.

A gift of gratitude, to say “thank you” after he skillfully handled the matters of the Auto-Tower. A session she’d diligently created by asking Yuri and Selvier for help.

The mad mage seemed to have wanted to play as a player, too.

However, for some reason, as she approached the simulation room, the pressure intensified. Her fingertips trembled minutely, and the shirt on her back was already soaked with cold sweat.

*Creak*.

She opened the door.

“…………”

Yuna Yurensto sat slumped on the floor, her head bowed.

And behind her, a crack ripped open in the shape of a cross, emitting a blinding white light. Yuri knew what that was. It was the phenomenon that occurred when Yuna used her Ascension ability.

Within the crack, ominous and disgusting, writhing phantasms pulsated as if they would burst out at any moment.

That’s it. That’s the source of the overwhelming pressure.

Broken fingernails lay scattered on the floor, mixed with splatters of blood. Scratches marked the ground, as if someone had clawed desperately, trying to hold on.

Glass Lanster swallowed hard, his throat dry. “…Yuna? Was there… was there an intruder inside?”

“……”

Yuna lifted her head.

She was weeping, raw and heartbroken.

“I tried to hold them back.”

“Yuna?”

“But I don’t think I did it right. When I was alone in the prison, I think I could have… could have held on longer. I guess I got too spoiled. I should have become stronger…”

Her face contorted in pain, but in her eyes, guilt flickered more than agony. Magic surged around her, wild and uncontrolled.

Out of control. Two words flashed in Glass Lanster’s mind.

“Yuna, I’ll save you right away. Mima will be here soon, too. So just–“

*Whoosh.*

Using the last sliver of control she possessed, Yuna protected Glass Lanster. A massive bubble enveloped him, lifting him up and away, bobbing in the opposite direction.

*Thump. Thump.* He pounded on the bubble’s surface, but it showed no sign of bursting. Yuna, watching him drift away, offered her last farewell.

“I’m sorry.”

*KeeeEEEEEE-!*

Immediately after, a volatile sublimation erupted, consuming the entire simulation room.

–

[Imperial Defense Bureau Dangerous Individual Report]

Name: Tower of Illusion / Yuna Yurensto Violetiris

Rank: Undetermined (Estimated Class 0, if not dealt with early, could become a national disaster)

Active Period: End of Lion Era 453 ~ Ongoing

(Being compiled by first eyewitness, former National Defense Agency operative Yuri Lanster)⋯⋯.