49: What happened that Night (4)

Salom was a 6th class dark magician.

He was an expert in darkness magic, and had a great sense of human nature that he could handle any conversation in a nice way.

“How long are you planning on avoiding it?”

Jamie flew over to a corner to avoid explosions.

The darkness intertwined with lightning, and the pure white hallway turned black.

‘Good.’

This new person seemed stronger than the due he’d just faced.

Had he known this was going to happen, he would have used less Mana on those two.

‘It is too late to regret it now.’

The dark magicians’ corpses started to explode randomly.

Salon swung the wand as gracefully as a maestro.

Various magic spells were unfolded and targeted Jamie.

It was meaningless to excel in only one type of magic. Dark magicians were also magicians, and they would only survive if they performed various tricks simultaneously.

So Jamie acknowledged Salom’s abilities.

A ray of light spread through the air.

Jamie spread several shields at the same time.

And the light ray exploded.

‘Monotonous.’

The man seemed to be good at multicasting, but that was all.

His shots weren’t changing their direction.

“Shield.”

The attack magic exploded when blocked.

“Oh.”

Salom exclaimed.

Jamie let out a short breath and smiled.

Seeing that expression, Salom’s face turned stiff.

Seeing that, Jamie said.

“Not diverse.”

“What do you mean?”

“You seem to have skills, but maybe because you lack experience, you are very predictable.”

“… are you talking about my magic?”

“Is there anyone else here beside you? Would I talk to the corpses over there?”

Jamie looked around and replied sarcastically.

Salon frowned and began to generate Mana on his wand’s tip.

“Monotonous? If so, then try to avoid this one.”

Darkness formed at the end of the wand.

The darkness was formed like a ball.

[Black Bounce]

As Salon threw the dark sphere, it began to bounce like crazy.

“Block this now!”

Jamie snorted as he watched the dark spheres bouncing around.

“This is a kid’s joke.”

It was disappointing.

Jamie lost his will to fight any longer.

But Salom began to laugh as if he didn’t understand Jamie’s words.

“Right! Right! You won’t be able to avoid it! Because!”

Suddenly, Salom started to chant magic in his empty hands.

“Because you missed this!”

[Stiffen Muscle]

A curse that stiffens the entire body the moment it touches it.

However, that was a kid’s joke too.

Jamie opened his mouth in disappointment.

“Is this all?”

“What?”

Salom asked, doubting what he had just heard.

“Is this all?”

“You must be crazy.”

Salom exclaimed in disbelief.

The spell he just cast should’ve made his body rigid.

With that thought in mind, the effect would increase.

But Jamie didn’t seem to be troubled.

In the end, Jamie stopped having fun.

This person had to struggle now.

‘I was planning on saving it for later…’

To show him true horror.

What would lie ahead of him would be the fear of death.

Jamie raised his lips into a smile and said.

[Reverse Heaven]

[Summon]

Shhhhh!

Thick chains intertwined with each other and made loud noises.

A black rusty iron gate rose from the floor.

A strange dark purple smoke flowed through the iron gate, creating an eerie atmosphere.

Salom turned troubled at what was happening.

His existence itself turned into pure fear.

However, fear wasn’t the only thing he felt.

‘Amazing’

On the surface, it was a terrifying rusty iron gate, but there was an energy that made Salom feel like he wanted to ‘have it’.

It was like black magic, but not really like black magic.

No.

The iron gate contained a kind of power that dark magicians should avoid.

The man was completely fascinated with the gate. If he could have it, he thought he’d reach a higher level.

So he reached out and looked at Jamie…

But.

“Open”

Kwang!

The chain broke.

The rusty door opened with a terrifying roar.

Wind blew from inside and engulfed Salom.

The wind of death.

“Ahh…”

Salom realized that something was wrong, but then knew it was too late.

“Azad and Raiza.”

Two purple shadows appeared.

They looked human. And there wasn’t much difference from normal humans.

But the dark magician knew that something was off.

‘Not humans’

Warmth, vitality and the sound of breath.

They didn’t have human characteristics.

Undead.

Then how did they retain their human appearance?

Salom didn’t study necromancy, but he never heard of such types of Undead. If there was a way, then the world of black magic would have definitely known it.

It was then.

Among the two Undead, the one with a scar said.

“This is what happens when you think differently.”

The daggers moved too quickly.

Salom responded, but it was too late.

“Kuak!”

His left hand was cut.

When he went stiff for a moment, the Undead thrust his dagger into his chest.

“Kuak!”

After being hit twice, he felt the pain sting him.

‘I was out of thought!’

Seeing the gate, his mind turned hazy, and then he lost his thoughts.

Apparently, there was a curse on the gate which made the opponent’s mind go dazed.

“Two undeads!”

It was shocking that the opponent was a necromancer, but even more shocking were the skills of the Undead.

He wasn’t sure where the kid got such high-quality Undeads.

If it was hand-to-hand combat, he would lose.

Jamie smiled.

“Two?”

Salom felt someone grab him from behind.

An arm.

There was no one.

“Kuak!”

He felt a terrible pain in his thigh. When he looked down, someone was biting down his thigh.

Upon looking closer, it was one of the dark magicians of the school.

And he wasn’t alone.

Suddenly, the number of Undead around him increased.

Skeletons and zombies.

They had weak bodies but were equipped with weapons.

They were Jamie’s undead soldiers.

“Uhhhh…”

“Ku….”

The number kept increasing.

They weren’t coming from the gate.

They were the corpses that began to rise as Jamie called for the Reverse Heaven Gate.

All of them were dark magicians of the Gav school.

“Die”

“Noo!”

Salom didn’t want to die.

“J-just kill me!”

Salom didn’t want to die from being bitten by corpses.

However, Jamie wouldn’t give him mercy.

“Oh, come on! It wouldn’t hurt to die like that.”

“KUAA!”

A Terrible scream.

The Biting of flesh.

The piercing of a sword.

The cracking of bones.

Jamie watched silently.

Salom’s scream was fading which meant he was dying.

Then his occasional breathing stopped.

“Dead.”

After eating him, the Undead looked at Jamie, waiting for orders.

Jamie ordered them to stay still and walked over to Venna.

She lost consciousness as she was hit by Salom, but she seemed to be okay. The darkness which was bounding her was wholly removed.

Jamie shook her shoulders.

“Wake up.”

“Yes…”

Venna was tossing and turning.

So Jamie shook her again.

“Let me sleep…”

“This kid! Wake up!”

Jamie created water and poured it right on her face.

“Puah!”

Cold water was the best way to wake up people.

Venna jumped up and looked around with a bewildered face.

She then found Jamie looking at her.

“W-what just happened?”

“Enough”

Explaining was annoying.

Jamie turned towards Salom’s body.

“S-Salom…”

Vena covered her mouth as she trembled.

All that was left of Salom was a shattered corpse. The Undead were still biting on him.

“Stop.”

At Jamie’s order, the corpses moved away from Salom.

A moment of silence passed.

And Venna was the first to speak.

“… is it done?”

Jamie didn’t answer.

He just looked at the corpse.

“Hey…”

Venna was about to ask once again.

Boil.

The body of Salom began to heat up.

Venna, who was shocked, moved back a little.

Jamie, who saw that, mumbled.

“Here he comes.”

Red blood boiled and turned into a human form.

Seeing that bizarre thing, Venna felt dizzy.

Eventually, the bubbles dissipated, and someone stepped ahead.

“Here you are.”

An old man’s voice.

The staff in his hand had a cobra figure with ruby-studded eyes.

“All my children are dead.”

The old man said it as if he was upset, but the large smile on his face said something else.

The old man looked at Jamie and greeted.

“Nice to meet you. I am Gav, the owner of this place.”

Gav looked at the Undead and smiled.

They all looked special.

Besides, that rusty iron gate was a treasure for dark magicians.

“Your necromancer abilities are great.”

He wasn’t sure there was such a thing, but he admired it.

“You look fake?”

There was no way that such a skilled dark magician was just a mere child. It was only possible if he had some kind of disease stopping his body from growing.

No matter what it was, it didn’t change the fact that the kid defeated Salom with ease.

‘He looks similar to Salom, but…’

Despite having the same air as Salom, Jamie thought his skills seemed different.

Salom’s talent was acknowledged by Gav, but he lacked experience. And that was why he lost.

‘I want to have it.’

Gav was a greedy man.

The ability to handle the iron gate. If the kid opened the gate, then it would be a mess.

All the dark magicians in the school were annihilated, so he wondered what he could do.

He considered them to be just tools, but when he lost them all, he felt that something was robbed from him.

And if he could control them after getting the Gate, it would be a huge bonus.

“Should I make a proposal?”

“Proposal?”

Jamie asked back.

“Nothing much. How about we join hands?”

Jamie kept staring at the man without answering.

Gav took that as a sign of affirmation and continued.

“We have a goal we need to achieve. It’s difficult right now, but if you get stronger, devouring the country won’t be a problem. I was trying to raise Salom as doing it alone was difficult, but you killed him.”

“So I am to be held responsible?”

“No way! If so, I wouldn’t have called it a proposal. It’s just that we are going to work on a project that I’ve been preparing for.”

“Specifics?”

“Huhu. You are asking too much.”

Gav smiled.

A plan big enough to take over the country.

Had it been coming from someone else, it would have been appealing. But Jamie had no interest in it.

“Don’t want to.”

“Oh, how unfortunate!”

Gav seemed disappointed.

Although he did say that, he didn’t seem that sad.

At that moment, Venna, who was listening from behind, opened her mouth.

“W-why did you order everyone to bring me?”

Gav looked at her.

There was a smile on his face.

“You look great.”

He didn’t answer her question and spoke.

“Was it an awakening? Indeed, I can feel incredible energy from you.”

“H-headmaster?”

“Right. That is so cool.”

Gav didn’t even look at her.

Venna couldn’t even understand it and burst all she had been holding back.

“Why didn’t you stop when they were all hurting me? Why did you always stand by? You said everything would be fine! But this… why!”

“…”

“A-are you trying to kill me?”

“I didn’t want to kill you.”

The first answer Gav gave.

He smiled kindly and took a step closer to Venna, but she stepped back.

Seeing that, Gav stopped again.

And began to speak.

“It was all for the sake of perfection. They were necessary steps to annihilate your innate personality. See. Have you awakened to the form you needed?”

“…. What?”

“You lost your confidence with pain and suffering, and always acted timidly with others. You don’t know how happy I was.”

“Huh?”

“I succeeded in annihilating everything you were born with as the Valkyrie! And now you have awakened! Just as I expected! And now you are standing in front of me, the way I always wanted you to. Venna, I am so proud of you!”

Venna couldn’t understand it.

What was a Valkyrie? And what did he mean by annihilating her innate nature?

Did that mean everything was his plan?

To isolate her. to inflict pain and fear into her. To make her lose herself.

“Ahh… ahhh”

Venna crouched down, grabbing her head.

“Cheer up!”

Gav looked at Venna and smiled.

Jamie looked at her.

Her body was shaking. She seemed to have realised that her past was indeed a plan made by this man.

He looked up at Gav.

Jamie had walked down the same path once before.