“Damn it.”
To put it simply, I underestimated the water.
Of all times, the aftereffects hit me underwater.
But excuses like that don’t mean a thing when your life’s on the line.
◆ Warning! You have consumed the high-risk drug “Mirage Oasis”!
◆ Excessive overuse of drugs is triggering side effects.
I extended the duration of the effect by administering another dose. Once more, mana settled throughout my entire body.
“…How many more days will I need to overcome the aftereffects? A week? A month?”
I might even need several months of recuperation.
This was bad. I had already set things in motion.
“…If it’s come to this, I’ll finish it today.”
***
Jingle—
The small bell hanging on the shop door rang. From the back of a store tucked away in a corner of Black Alley, an old man stepped out to greet the customer.
“A customer at this hour? …Hmm? You?”
“Shopkeeper, long time no see.”
Deeks Magic Tool Shop.
I hadn’t been back once since rescuing Sasha.
“…Must be my time to die. I’m seeing a dead man.”
“I’m not dead.”
“…I distinctly heard the announcement that you died.”
So he knew who I was.
That didn’t matter right now.
“Magic tools. I’ll take everything Second Rank and above.”
“…Then you really are dead. Looks like you’re about to become a corpse.”
“Cut the chatter and hand them over. I’ll pay.”
“I won’t stop you.”
Deeks returned with a small basket piled high with magic tools. Just as requested, they were all second rank or higher.
I took them and inspected each one. My hands trembled slightly from the drug overdose, but fastening the tools onto the combat belt strapped around my waist and thighs posed no problem.
“…I’ll say this just in case. If you’re heading further inside, I’d advise against it.”
“Why?”
“…Because you shouldn’t. You brat.”
“I don’t really follow.”
“Anyone who goes in there either goes mad or becomes a monster. One or the other. It’s no place for a kid.”
I finished checking my equipment.
There were a few spells of usable quality, but that was all.
In the end, they were nothing more than magic tools for replenishing mana.
“…If the northern snowfields are called a demonic realm, then that place would be no less than a man-made demonic realm. You’d be better off giving up.”
“I see.”
The place Deeks was warning me about lay deep within Black Alley.
An alley whose darkness had no known end, even in the original game.
I knew how dangerous it was.
Black Alley was the kind of place where hitting a dead end at any moment wouldn’t be strange.
I didn’t bother replying.
When it came to that place, I knew it just as well as the Deeks standing before me.
“Thanks for everything, shopkeeper.”
“……!”
For some reason, those words slipped out of my mouth.
Perhaps somewhere deep down, I had already realized that I might die.
***
…It reeks.
The inner depths of Black Alley were completely different from the outer streets.
If the outside was painted in mystical, multicolored lights, this place was drenched in shades of dark crimson.
On a stall within my sight, something bent at an unnatural angle lay on display.
Bloodstains splattered across it, and unpleasant things peeked out from behind a signboard.
“…What am I supposed to do with it hacked up like this?”
“Ah. That one… we don’t sell it outside. The other parts are too damaged.”
Off to one side of my vision, a hunched old man wearing a pitch-black mask was complaining to the shop owner.
“Then… you should’ve just cut off the… tch. …Why is this part cut too?”
“That piece already sold. …I was going to cut it up further, but the customer arrived.”
“Hmm? Sold? Ahh. This one…? Then do you have any that’s been thoroughly dried?”
“Thoroughly dried? Ah~ planning to use it as a reagent, are you? I’ve got some. Wait there.”
The revolting conversation flowed as if it were nothing out of the ordinary.
“……”
Was it because I had just witnessed raw, unfiltered inhumanity? A sudden wave of dizziness made my head spin.
I barely managed not to show it. I focused all my attention on walking with a blank expression.
Harunsdel’s experimental site.
I couldn’t forget my objective.
I walked through the wide, dark space heavy with the stench of blood.
.
.
.
If Sodom and Gomorrah truly existed in this world, this would be it. After about ten minutes, I reached that conclusion and glanced around.
There was nothing here that wasn’t for sale. I could even see items emitting powerful waves of curses.
“…This isn’t good for one’s mental health.”
I had known that already. That was all.
Anyone who haggles here, who knows what happens in this place and still turns a blind eye, is trash. No….worse than trash, they’re vermin gnawing away at the world itself.
Methods of “processing” that no ordinary person could ever imagine existed here.
It wasn’t merely cruel. It was another world entirely.
A world of psychopaths, where every shred of human emotion had been stripped away.
…More than ever before, this moment felt utterly unreal.
Crunch.
After scanning the area casually, I stepped into a shop tucked away in a more secluded corner.
***
Clunk—
“Oh. A customer? Welcome—?!”
The instant I entered, I shut the door and reached out, grabbing the man in front of me by the face.
◆ Excessive drug overuse is triggering side effects!
◆ Control over your innate trait is loosening.
[Adel Bliss] ↔ [Ma□□□ Adel]
“Ghk!!”
“Don’t open your mouth, you maggot. Don’t let me know you possess intelligence.”
My vision blurred; I could barely make out what was floating before my eyes.
All I knew was that I felt sick. A nauseating rage flooded my mind.
A pure killing intent and hostility. Things that would never surface in modern society leaked out from somewhere deep within me.
“Mmph!! Mmfff!!!”
I channeled mana into my arm, gripping his mouth as I lifted him into the air.
Bam—!!!
I slammed his head into the wall with all my strength.
“I’ll let you go if you answer one thing. Harunsdel is involved here, aren’t they?”
“Mmmph!”
He shook his head frantically. Tears streamed down his face in an instant.
“Good. That’s a lie.”
I tightened my grip.
A tooth came free.
Blood pooled on the floor. The sight of red liquid trickling down felt distant somehow.
[Adel Bliss] ↔ [Mad□□ Adel]
“I already know Harunsdel is involved. For every lie you tell, I’ll take one.”
The man’s eyes darted wildly, panic written all over him.
“There’s a large warehouse they’re renting. Tell me where it is.”
Thud!
◆ [Total Magical Structure Analysis] activated.
I adjusted my trait and completely distorted the mana waves emanating from one side of the shop. At the same time, I began tightening my grip again.
“You’d better think carefully. I’m not very good at controlling my strength. I might end up shattering your entire jaw while trying to pull out just one tooth… Hmm. Want me to practice?”
“…Khng…!! Mmmffbbbbb!!!!”
Shock. Then terror. The bastard shook his head wildly.
The sight made me smile without even realizing it.
“Good. Then talk. And don’t piss yourself.”
I loosened my grip. My palm was stained a vivid red with blood.
A demon. He’s a demon.
Thinking that, the man answered.
“…Y-Yes… I-I’ll talk… j-just spare me….”
He avoided my gaze, his pupils looking red as if he were hallucinating. He slid limply to the floor and collapsed.
***
“Y-Yes… it’s true. The Archmage Maria? Not at all….Mmph?! Gghhhhk!! I’m sorry! I’m sorry…!”
“I-I saw them. A man who’s always smiling and a short woman going in and out…! Aaaagh! It’s true! It’s true! Sob…!”
“…Kill me! Go on, kill me! You think you’ll get away with this? You’re making a mistake! You hypocritical bastard….Huh? Aaaagh!”
After questioning a few more people, I was able to pinpoint the location of Harunsdel’s testing site.
All I’d known was that it was somewhere in Black Alley, so I had to circle around a bit, but I found it in the end.
“…Hoo.”
I opened my eyes and looked ahead.
Rather than deep inside Black Alley, it was actually beyond it.
A warehouse exuding such a dark, ominous atmosphere that it was hard to believe a place like this existed in the capital.
From outside alone, I could already sense something unpleasant.
…This is the decisive moment.
If I break through here and stop the demonization experiments taking place inside, it’s my victory.
At the front gate of the old warehouse stood two guards with swords at their waists.
“Thorn Hail. Hyper Shot.”
I sniped them both down in an instant.
“Urk!”
“Wh-What, enemy—! Kuhk!”
I pushed open the front gate and entered. The heavy iron door creaked open slowly.
A huge storage warehouse.
It was large enough that “hangar” would be a more fitting word than “warehouse”.
The vast space, filled with still darkness, was packed with what looked like numerous container boxes.
“…Too small to be container boxes.”
A foul smell pricked at my nose.
I started running.
After pushing through countless steel boxes and crossing the vast warehouse for quite some time, an elevator came into view.
Aren’t there too few guards?
I barely had time to think that.
The moment I approached the elevator.
Beep—
Pshhhh—
Clank!
The magical elevator came to a stop.
At the same time.
Wiiing— wiiing— wiiing—!!
An alarm blared, filling the old warehouse.
– Intruder detected.
– All sections will be sealed. All personnel in the research wing, please evacuate immediately.
I’d been discovered sooner than expected.
More importantly, that wasn’t the urgent issue. There was something in the announcement that bothered me.
“……Research wing?”
If it was the research wing, then in the original game, it had definitely been an empty space.
“So there are still actual researchers here?”
Since I had arrived earlier than in the original timeline, it seemed they hadn’t withdrawn yet.
***
“Who the hell is it all of a sudden?!”
The underground control room. Those in white robes were flustered.
“What’s going on?”
“An intruder on the first floor! The front gate’s been breached!”
The man with glasses stroked his chin. This was an unexpected development.
“……So they’ve discovered this place. That’s troublesome. Where is Sir Quinoron?”
“He’s in the laboratory! However, Lady Maria is currently absent!”
The situation itself was clear. An unidentified assailant had infiltrated the research facility.
“……Threat level of the intruder?”
“……It’s alternating between red and yellow……!”
“Explain.”
“Normally it would indicate a measurement error, but…… we should assume the highest level of danger…….”
At those words, the man frowned.
“Sir Quinoron is participating in the experiment. Handle this as quietly as possible so the lowest level remains unaffected. Just in case, evacuate the mages in the research wing.”
“……!!! Understood!”
However, it was while such exchanges were taking place.
Jiiiiing—!!!
A sudden vibration.
And not just any vibration, but a powerful one, reaching all the way down to the fifth basement level where they were.
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
For a moment, silence fell over the control room.
“……An earthquake?”
“……Don’t be ridiculous. Put the surface feed on the screen, now!!”
A surveillance magical device installed in the old warehouse captured the scene.
What appeared in the control room was the dust-filled state of the first floor above ground.
Soon, as the dust settled, what came into view was—
“……?”
An empty space.
Beside the magical elevator, only a gaping hole in the floor remained.
“……Don’t tell me?”
A chill ran down the man’s spine as he looked at the operator controlling the broadcast screen.
Meeting his gaze, the subordinate hurriedly pulled up another feed.
[B1 Surveillance Feed]
The screen flickered on with faint static.
There, the figure who had smashed through the floor in a single blow was standing, wearing a chilling smile.
“……The intruder is currently on Basement Level 1.”
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