Chapter 74 - The Count’s Domain (4)

Just as she was about to pass through the iron gate, Ilea abruptly stopped. She slipped off some of the clothing beneath her hooded robe, then approached the scantily clad woman and handed it to her.

“Here. At least put these on.”

The woman looked fearfully between Ilea and the clothes.

“Th-thank you.”

“I’ll be going now. You should leave quickly, too. The way we came should be safe.”

Ilea returned to the iron gate. Hakain gave her a puzzled look.

“That’s not very mage-like of you.”

Mages were, by nature, a vicious lot. Since they obtained mana through contracts with Demons, most were steeped in malice. Naturally, they showed no respect for the weak or for life itself. Ilea had a somewhat different air about her.

She spoke as she passed Hakain.

“Because I’m not a mage.”

Ilea was a witch. In a sense, she was probably far more sinister than a mage.

“Pardon? What do you...”

“Knowing could hurt you.”

With a playful smile, Ilea disappeared through the iron gate. Hakain stared after her, looking slightly dazed.

* * *

Only after passing through the alley and beyond the iron gate did one reach Deathshadow’s first level.

In short, the first level was an underground city. In place of the sun, violet lights made of mana floated along the ceiling, casting a soft glow over the underground expanse.

There was neither day nor night in Deathshadow. Its underground residents lived by times of their own devising beneath the violet twilight.

It was now the Hour of Counterlight—the name they gave the time when Demons ran most rampant. By the reckoning of the surface, it would have been around one in the morning. The Hour of Counterlight was Deathshadow’s busiest time.

Mages, alchemists, apostates, fallen knights, heretics, junkies... All those unable to live aboveground gathered in the city center, each burdened by ghosts of their own. They roamed the dreary streets, trading information and goods.

Standing in the middle of the black market, Ilea murmured in admiration.

“It’s more organized than I expected.”

Countless shops lined the street before her: mana brokerages, accursed-object shops, Unhallowed Array agencies, bookstores specializing in forbidden texts, curse workshops, artifact general stores. The place was full of shops that would tempt any magic user.

Ilea’s eyes shone. She wanted to take her time browsing, but there probably wasn’t time to indulge herself. She looked up into empty air.

“What should we do now?”

Maphel’tan had to be somewhere nearby, but he was nowhere to be seen. He was hiding with his power, Night Immersion.

‘Just stay where you are.’

When no answer came, Ilea looked troubled.

“Hmm...”

At that moment, a man in pitch-black religious robes approached her.

“You have such a pleasant countenance.”

He wore an affable smile. Ilea tilted her head.

“Can you see my face?”

She was wearing a mask and hood. Unless he was using some sort of see-through magic, there was no way to see her face.

The man replied, “I meant your overall air. I sense such positive energy from you.”

Ilea was a little at a loss. She couldn’t tell what he was after.

“That’s a first. Thank you, anyway.”

“Haha! Modest, too. You’re someone I’d like to get to know. Rather than standing here in the street, how about a cup of tea?”

Ilea glanced into empty air, her eyes asking what she should do. Maphel’tan gave no response. With a small sigh, she said, “Well, all right. Let’s do that, then.”

The two headed straight to a nearby shop. The teahouse’s interior was more ordinary than she had expected.

The man took a sip of black tea and said, “Are you familiar with unholiness?”

Unholiness was the exact opposite of holy power.

Ilea nodded.

“Where holy power represents structure, order, and discipline, unholiness represents freedom, liberation, and detachment from the mundane.”

The man looked surprised.

“You’re well educated. I study unholiness myself.”

“I see. How far have you progressed?”

He replied proudly, “I broke through to the second tier just the other day.”

“Impressive.”

There was no feeling behind Ilea’s praise.

The man asked cautiously, “If you don’t mind my asking, what stage have you reached?”

Ilea considered this for a moment. After a long pause, she spoke.

“It’s difficult to express in terms of tiers.”

The corners of his mouth rose slightly. He immediately schooled his expression.

“Haha, you must have devoted yourself entirely to theory.”

“Yes, let’s say that.”

“I believe I could be of some help to you.”

“What sort of help?”

“Here’s my card.”

He held out a small piece of paper. Ilea murmured as she read it.

“... The Fell God Society.”

“That’s right. I’m a missionary with the Fell God Society.”

The Fell God Society was one of the kingdom’s heretical factions, and quite a large one at that. They had a single goal: to enthrone a fell god. They intended to summon a Demon with a single-digit rank in the underworld and worship it as their god.

Ilea said, “So you want me to join the Fell God Society.”

“Precisely. I’m certain it would be of great benefit to you. The Fell God Society offers a variety of practical opportunities to those who have studied the theory. You haven’t contracted with a Demon yet, have you?”

Looking about the black market as she had been, Ilea had seemed an inexperienced mage to anyone watching. A novice ripe for recruitment.

Ilea nodded.

“I don’t have one at present.”

The man smiled warmly.

“The Fell God Society will help you make a contract. We provide the summoning array, the offering, and the mana. All you need to do is show up.”

Ilea tilted her head.

“You provide all that for free?”

That was impossible unless they were a charity.

“It’s an investment in the future. Would you take a look at this contract?”

He pulled a sheet of paper from inside his robes. It was densely covered in writing. Ilea’s eyes skimmed rapidly down the page.

She asked playfully, “I’ve read it all. Are you looking for slaves, by any chance?”

There were far too many unreasonable clauses. The moment someone used anything the Fell God Society provided, they would be bound to the organization forever.

The man gave her a skeptical look.

“But I only just took it out.”

“I’m a rather fast reader.”

He couldn’t believe it. Even a genius would have difficulty grasping the contents in mere seconds.

He smiled and asked, “Then could you tell me what Article Three, Clause One says?”

Ilea answered indifferently.

“Any recipient of assets provided by this Society shall be deemed, upon receipt, to have delegated to the Society the authority to summon and mobilize their entire being, including body and mind.”

The man looked somewhat flustered. He immediately put the contract away.

“Y-you certainly have your talents.”

Without answering, Ilea stared into empty air for a moment. Then she gave a laugh mingled with a sigh.

“Let me see the contract again.”

“Haha, I seem to have brought the wrong contract. I’ll get a new one in a moment—”

Ilea cut him off.

“I’m going to sign it.”

“... Pardon?”

“I’ll join the Fell God Society.”

The man was a little stunned.

“Didn’t you just say something about slaves?”

“Everything comes at a price. I urgently need a Demon to contract with.”

His face brightened.

“Haha! What a sensible way of thinking. My instincts were right after all. I knew there was a reason I sensed such good energy from you.”

He offered the contract again. Ilea immediately signed at the bottom.

“There. My signature.”

“Excellent. Now, please follow me.”

Taking the contract with him, the man left the teahouse. He headed straight for the very center of Deathshadow’s first level.

A large sinkhole occupied its center. Figures in pitch-black religious robes stood guarding it.

The man said to Ilea, “This is the entrance to the second level. Not just anyone is allowed inside. You’ve been chosen.”

“I’m grateful.”

“Haha. Please wait here a moment.”

He approached the sinkhole and spoke with the gatekeepers. A little later, he beckoned Ilea over.

Standing before the sinkhole, she asked, “Are we going down?”

“Yes. Please step onto the lift.”

An old lift stood motionless in the seemingly bottomless pit. It was a mana-powered artifact.

Ilea stepped onto it at once, and the man joined her. A gatekeeper recited the activation phrase. The lift dropped into the depths.

* * *

Screams and groans reached their ears. The farther they descended, the louder the noise became. When Ilea finally set foot on the ground, a living hell lay before her.

The enormous cavern was packed with people. All were suffering in chains. Acts intended solely to inflict pain and terror were repeated over and over.

A man was being flayed, his entire body restrained. An old man with neither arms nor legs writhed, begging to be killed. A centipede made of humans joined together squirmed.

It was hell in miniature.

The man from the Fell God Society said, “This is the Society’s farm. Quite well set up, isn’t it?”

Demons went wild for human pain and terror. This farm existed for the Demons affiliated with the Fell God Society.

Ilea said, “The methods here are more one-dimensional than I expected.”

This place mass-produced only the lowest quality of pain and fear. Truly skilled operators staged ‘situations’ that broke the human psyche.

Betrayal by someone trusted, failure after failure, a sense of self that finally shattered... Satisfying a high-ranking Demon required more sophisticated suffering.

The man looked embarrassed.

“Ahem. This way, for now.”

The two crossed the cavern and entered a spacious room. Several novices had already arrived and were performing summoning rituals. All had been recruited just as Ilea had.

Deep-blue demonic energy surged from beneath a woman’s feet.

“I-it worked!”

A hideous crone spirit sprang from the summoning array. She had summoned a petty spirit. The price of obtaining such a creature was lifelong slavery to the Fell God Society.

The others were in much the same position. Every one of them was contracting with a petty spirit.

The man said to Ilea, “Please stand before an unoccupied summoning array.”

Ilea approached a grotesquely shaped spell array.

“What about the offering?”

Activating the summoning array required an offering and mana.

“You’re an impatient one. Here you are.”

He handed her a fragment of bone. Ilea gave an incredulous chuckle. She could sense nothing holy in it.

“What is this?”

“A fragment of the first joint of Saint Antonius’s index finger.”

Nonsense. Even a bone fragment from some nobody of a pilgrim would contain more holy energy than this offering.

“Yes, well. I’m sure it is.”

No wonder they summoned nothing but petty spirits, using offerings this worthless.

The man asked, “May I begin?”

Ilea placed the bone fragment on the summoning array.

“Whenever you’re ready.”

The man channeled mana into the summoning array. The spell array blazed black. At the same time, dense mist spread around it.

“Wh-what is this?”

“There’s something strange about its purity.”

The swelling demonic energy encroached on everything around it. Lamps went out one by one. Darkness fell. Space itself was being consumed by the dark.

Everyone stumbled back in confusion. Then red eyes flickered in the darkness. Enormous wings spread to either side.

A fathomless presence bore down upon the entire cavern.

Every Book of Doom in the world shed violet light.

『 All evil, close your eyes and meditate. A fell god has descended. Hypocrites, close your scriptures. Your rules and order shall be written anew. 』

The summoned petty spirits were trembling.