YM778.TV Chapter 41 - Light (6)
Chapter 41 - Light (6)
A solemn silence settled over the laboratory.
The swirling shadows had faded, leaving only the pungent scent of blood in the air.
The fierce battle had finally come to an end.
"...."
In my arms rested the girl with blue hair.
Perhaps the tension had finally left her.
She had been as beautiful as a flickering snowflake, but now, exhausted, she had lost consciousness.
Her faint breaths brushed against my collar.
“You must have been tired.”
Her delicate eyelids were softly shut.
Feeling the warmth from her against my chest, I gently laid her down on the floor.
Carefully, so as not to wake her.
Beside her lay the protagonist with pink hair, also unconscious.
Both of them were covered in dust, but neither seemed to be injured.
That was a relief.
“I had set up some safeguards... but I couldn\'t help worrying.”
I smiled bitterly.
Even though I knew they wouldn’t be hurt, I couldn’t help but feel anxious.
Worrying was always an adult’s curse.
“It seems my concern was unnecessary.”
The girls had done far better than I expected.
It must have been a terrifying situation, yet neither acted selfishly.
Feeling a sense of fondness, I gently patted the foreheads of the two girls.
My whispered words were filled with affection.
“You both did well.”
The pilot and the vain girl.
They had played their roles to the fullest.
Though many challenges still awaited them, for now, it was time for them to rest.
I draped a shadow over them like a blanket.
“I hope you have pleasant dreams.”
Snap!
I snapped my fingers.
The space around them twisted for a moment, and a small barrier formed around the girls.
Even the dean of Gallimard wouldn’t be able to break through this.
“Though I said it was over... I still have something left to take care of.”
I brushed the darkness from my fingertips.
Quite some time had passed since we arrived at the laboratory, and soon the academy would track our location.
There were about thirty minutes left.
Cutting it close.
Considering the episode that would unfold next, I needed to prepare thoroughly here.
With a contemplative sigh, I turned my gaze.
<Uh... Aaah...>
In my sight was a grotesque shape, writhing pathetically.
Though its body had been sliced in half and its tentacles were barely able to move, it clung to life with a tenacious vitality.
If left alone, it would likely die soon.
<Aah, Aaah...>
A sob leaked from the creature’s grotesquely open mouth.
Its blood-red eyes flickered, as though filled with sorrow.
I quietly met its gaze.
Rotten blood streamed down its face like tears.
“...”
The monster that cannot laugh.
The worst of Baob’s experiments, a catastrophic chimera that had taken countless lives.
“Poor thing.”
And yet, it was merely one of many victims.
It had undergone unwanted mutations through gruesome experiments, lost its sense of self, and became a creature that craved nothing but slaughter.
How could one not pity such a pitiful existence?
“This is truly the ugliness grown from the seeds sown by adults.”
The other mutants we encountered today had been created from animals, but this monster was different.
It was the only one made using human materials.
The torn, ragged flesh that covered its body.
Once, it had likely been an innocent, smiling girl.
A girl who hadn’t even reached the age of ten before becoming a monster.
She hadn’t even been given the chance to forget her childhood.
What adult could blame her?
All we could do was feel sorrow for a life so tragically ruined.
‘I have to keep my promise.’
I quietly reached out.
Shadows crept up from the floor, wrapping around the broken body.
The monster struggled for a moment, but soon gave in, disappearing into the darkness.
I stored her in a pocket dimension.
No one would find her there, and she could rest in peaceful silence.
And I could always bring her out whenever I wanted.
“Heh.”
A bit of my good mood soured, but I swallowed it down.
A bitter smile touched my lips.
There wasn’t much time left.
It was time to bring this episode to a close.
I calmly turned and began walking, crossing the long corridor that stretched out before me.
Heading toward my final destination.
‘Let’s go pay someone a visit.’
Deep within this dark, vast basement.
To find the rat hiding somewhere within.
***
Meanwhile, in the deepest part of the basement.
A hidden room, accessible only after descending seven flights of maze-like stairs.
There, a man stood.
Bang—!
There was a flurry of activity.
The man hurriedly packed the scattered documents on his desk, preparing to flee the laboratory.
His face, visible between the folds of his disheveled robe, was pale with fear.
“Damn it...!”
He cursed harshly, his deep voice trembling.
His hands fumbled, unable to find what he was looking for, his state of panic clearly on display.
It was as if he were running away from something.
“How could such a thing even exist...?!”
He muttered in terror.
When he had first received this mission, no one had told him about the existence of such a monster.
He had assumed it would be simple.
“Damn it! This is insane...!”
It had originally been a simple task.
Hijack a teleportation using a secret route.
Kidnap a single student.
The target was the girl rumored to command a wyvern as a summon.
—She’s worth studying.
—There have been few chimeras created from dragons... She’ll be a great asset for the cult.
—We should offer her to our god.
As for the other two that came with her, he had been given permission to deal with them however he liked.
The man had accepted the mission eagerly.
After all, it was a rare opportunity to feed his “masterpiece” directly.
He had imagined the scene.
Students screaming in despair in front of countless tentacles.
Their flesh tearing apart—he could almost feel the thrill running down his spine.
The man had looked forward to witnessing such a glorious sight.
But.
[My, my... What a moment of crisis this is.]
A boy had appeared with a playful tone.
With a casual flick of his wrist, the tentacles had been sliced apart in an instant.
He couldn’t even comprehend what had happened.
Before he could grasp the situation, a streak of blue light had cut through the air.
The massive creature, his masterpiece, had been torn to pieces, powerless to resist.
“Where in the world did such a monster come from...?!”
The man’s greatest creation.
His finest chimera, made in Bergen Belzen, had been effortlessly destroyed.
It was power beyond the norm.
A creature even the heroes of the Empire had struggled to fight, yet it had been overwhelmed by nothing more than a student.
Something was wrong.
[Heh.]
And then.
The boy had smiled at the screen, his expression disturbingly ominous.
It was as if he knew the man had been watching.
It was an eerie smile that sent chills down his spine.
The man realized something was terribly wrong.
A cold, creeping sensation ran down his neck.
He knew something bad was coming.
The man immediately prepared to flee.
He planned to escape through the emergency stairs that led from the hidden room.
No one could find the location unless they were the manager of this place, so he had no reason to worry about being followed.
“I have to get back to headquarters immediately.”
He had to inform the leader.
A being this powerful was hiding among the students, and it was possible their informant had betrayed them.
The man stood up, ready to leave this ominous place behind.
At that moment.
“I need to tell the leader...!”
“You seem to be in a hurry?”
“....”
A voice spoke from behind him.
The man felt his mind go blank as he froze in place.
He hadn’t sensed anyone.
“....”
“Where are you rushing off to?”
A leisurely voice whispered in his ear.
His stiff neck creaked as he slowly turned his head.
There stood the golden-haired snake he had seen on the screen moments ago.
Had he appeared out of thin air?
The boy smiled casually, his eyes curved into a carefree expression.
But alarms were blaring inside the man’s head.
If he didn’t move now.
He wouldn’t escape death.
Instinctively, he gathered mana into his hands, preparing to launch an attack.
But.
“An amusing attempt.”
Snap!
The boy snapped his fingers, and the spell on the man’s fingertips disappeared.
At the same time, every muscle in his body froze.
It was as if he had been poisoned by a paralyzing toxin.
The man couldn’t even blink.
“There are many things I want to ask.”
The snake smiled slyly.
But the air around him was filled with a suffocating killing intent.
“You’ll be answering a lot of questions for me.”
The boy placed his hand over the man’s face.
His cold touch shattered the man’s sanity, plunging him into an abyss of fear.
The snake whispered softly.
“There’s no need to bother speaking.”
His white pupils gleamed ominously.
The boy’s eyes, fully open now, bore into the man’s soul, crushing him with an overwhelming sense of loss.
They were the eyes of a reaper.
The eyes of someone staring down at a damned soul, ready to claim it.
“I’ll hear the answers directly from your mind.”
“Ah...”
Snap!
The sound of the boy’s fingers snapped again.
A moment later, the shadows covering the man’s face erupted.
In the last seconds of his fading consciousness, the only image that remained was—
"Well then, may you sleep well in your nightmare."
It was a cold, contemptuous white gaze.
***
After a short time.
Several people burst into the basement, which had been quiet for a while.
They were none other than some of the Gallimard faculty members.
"Find the students immediately!"
The students who had disappeared with the explosion of the magic circle.
Though detection was delayed due to the twisted mana, swift action allowed them to backtrack the destination of the teleportation.
They had located the children’s whereabouts within two hours of their disappearance.
All available personnel had been dispatched to the location.
With hurried steps, they tread the corridor.
As the professors continued their search, they soon discovered the two students lying on the laboratory floor.
One with pink hair, and the other with blue hair.
"Here are the students!"
"Regia Filarts and Emilia Vanity. They seem to be two of the three missing students."
"Where is the remaining one?"
"I will search the surroundings more thoroughly!"
"No, more importantly... what are all these scattered things around?"
"…The bodies of beasts?"
The professors who entered the laboratory could not help but be bewildered.
It was a scene of utter chaos.
Two unconscious students.
Unknown chunks of flesh scattered around.
Numerous corpses of creatures that seemed to combine wolves, spiders, tentacles... all kinds of beings.
The professors were stunned.
"…What is all this?"
"……"
"What on earth happened here?"
It was a space that evoked terrifying imaginings.
What could the students have gone through during the two hours they had been here?
As they were lost in vain glances.
Thud thud.
Footsteps could be heard from somewhere.
Perhaps startled by the sudden presence, the professors responded sharply, each taking a defensive stance.
As they held their breath, waiting.
Suddenly, a sticky voice whispered in their ears.
"Oh dear... you’re all a step too late."
Attention was focused.
Emerging from the dense darkness was none other than the golden-haired snake.
A foreboding smile with slitted eyes.
"It’s already too late."
A particularly meaningful remark.
It was the figure of the last student they had been searching for, but for some reason, the professors found it hard to relax.
There was a suffocating sense of dread tightening around their necks.
"……"
The professors swallowed nervously without realizing it.
Of course, regardless of their state, the boy approached them with a leisurely stride.
"Hmm~ You don’t need to be so wary."
"……"
"The situation was resolved a long time ago."
The background was thick with the smell of blood.
The snake flicked its tongue as if in delight.
"Please, be at ease."
It was a greeting that made the temperature in the basement even colder.