Chapter – 20….
As I drew in the surrounding energy with my sixth sense, it rushed into me as if it had been waiting all along, greeting me warmly.
Its heavy density felt comforting, yet at the same time, overwhelmingly powerful.
With a faintly unfamiliar sensation, I awakened my mana.
As I pumped mana throughout my body along the flow of my blood, the body that had been battered by a burst of power regained vitality as if nothing had happened.
“…What are you, exactly?”
I was getting up and sheathing my sword when the woman asked.
She looked a bit unnerved.
I didn’t understand her intent, so I stayed silent. She continued.
“You cut a spell with a sword. I’ve never heard of such a thing. Is that something all swordsmen of your level can do? Am I just ignorant about swordsmanship?”
“That would never be the case.”
If it were, swordsmen wouldn’t fear magic so much.
Those who couldn’t awaken mana had no way to respond to even a properly cast fireball—other than running for their lives—before being reduced to ash by the next volley of spells.
“So you’re saying you are special?”
“A few coincidences overlapped.”
It was literally that. Cutting through that falling-star-like orb of mana had only been possible through a series of overlapping accidents.
If I had successfully recreated—even imperfectly—the secret sword art Starsever taught by the Sword Saint…
If the thing in my hand hadn’t been the indestructible soul of an ascended being but some cheap iron blade…
If that terrifying woman’s final spell had been one whose array I understood—something described in detail in the novel—instead of one completely foreign to me…
If even one of those conditions had failed, I wouldn’t be alive right now.
“And… that woman. She was Calam Castruna, wasn’t she? One of the elders of the Seven-Tailed Comet Council.”
“……”
“Surviving her is a miracle.”
“Calling it a miracle feels premature, considering the situation.”
“What?”
I pointed with my chin toward the passage ahead.
Her eyes rolled toward where I indicated.
There were occasional reddish lights, but they were sparse—too few to illuminate the pitch-black corridor.
The way back was sealed. The air was heavy, damp, and foul.
After a moment of thought, she said:
“…We’re underground, aren’t we?”
“Most likely.”
“Where?”
“No idea. But it should be related to Remidia. They wouldn’t place a teleportation circle somewhere pointless.”
This was Remidia Fronçois’s laboratory.
The setting of the “Immortality Experiments” episode.
It was also where I suspected the Crimson Sage was headed—likely the very reason the woman had been dragged into Remidia’s warehouse.
I had never imagined I would face Calam Castruna herself, but the result had aligned with what I originally intended.
“…I destroyed the teleportation circle so she can’t follow us. So we have no choice but to move forward.”
“Let’s go.”
The corridor was long and dark.
It reminded me of the research labs of the Phoenix Order where the mechanical garden lay.
Different systems, same roots—magicians revealing their lineage in how alike their laboratories felt.
But I knew better.
The exterior might be similar, but beneath the surface lay rotting secrets.
This place was nothing like the Phoenix Order’s labs—strange but pure in purpose.
Here, the air itself was steeped in something foul.
A suffocating death-qi seeped from the depths of the hall, soaking into our soles.
It didn’t take long for the woman to feel it too—she hugged her arms and shivered.
“Is it just me, or is it getting cold? Not cold—clammy.”
“It certainly is.”
“And the chemical smell is growing stronger… What is this place?”
She sighed and murmured to herself:
“How did I end up in a place like this…”
We walked for a long while.
We found what seemed to be the end of the hallway after about ten minutes.
A soot-blackened metal door greeted us.
I pulled on it without hesitation. It scraped open with a harsh screech.
The woman looked uneasy.
For good reason.
The smell of chemicals was far stronger inside.
And not just that.
My heightened senses—sharpened by mana—picked up a faint scent of blood.
From far ahead came a rustling noise, like rats gnawing on something.
The woman almost hid behind me, trembling as she spoke.
“I really hate this… Stuff like this creeps me out.”
“Let’s go.”
“Ugh.”
Ugh, my foot.
I first examined our surroundings.
The space was much wider than the corridor.
The sparse lights made it feel several times darker.
The stone floor was cold, devoid of the slightest warmth.
The woman stepped forward, having noticed something.
“Look at this.”
Iron bars lined the walls.
Cells.
The entire hall was flanked by rows of iron-barred cages divided into small sections.
It wasn’t hard to guess what this place was for.
“A prison?”
“Seems like it.”
“What were they keeping here?”
“No idea. But one thing is clear: whatever was inside already escaped.”
The locks and hinges were twisted or destroyed into grotesque shapes.
Drag marks of blood—smears and splatters—painted the floor.
The blood trail led deeper in.
I followed. It didn’t take long before I found it.
A corpse.
If one could still call it a person.
A white, skeletal frame lay sprawled on the cold ground like some macabre mannequin.
Only a few mosslike scraps of flesh and a dark dried pool of blood hinted it had once been alive.
And murdered.
Bite marks covered the bones.
The ribs were shattered and gouged by teeth.
Likely the work of an animal.
Not far away lay the shattered pieces of what had once been a staff.
“Someone who was imprisoned? Or someone who managed the place?”
I didn’t answer.
Another corpse appeared shortly after.
The woman recoiled.
The deeper we went, the more bodies we found, and the gnawing noise grew louder—now a constant irritation.
The corridor darkened further.
The few lights that had existed were shattered.
If it got any darker, we would need a torch.
And just as I thought that—
Grrrrrrrrr—
A very faint growl—barely audible—yet unmistakably from a predator.
I pretended not to hear and stepped forward.
No reaction.
I took another step. The growling ceased.
Half a step.
Then—
Red light tore through the darkness.
A massive beast lunged with a guttural roar.
It was something between a leopard and a lion.
No—calling it an animal was an insult to animals.
A monster, rather.
Its gaping jaws flashed with spike-like fangs.
If I let that hit, I wouldn’t merely be bitten.
I would be torn apart.
In a flash, I drew my sword and sliced upward.
A vertical cut, swift as lightning, split the beast from its jaw to its crown.
Dark blood burst upward like a sudden downpour and rained across the floor.
The limp body swayed. I kicked it aside.
It twitched a few times before going still.
“What—what is that?!”
I blocked the woman as she stepped forward.
A few seconds later—
The beast, which should have died instantly, shook itself and slowly rose.
Blood and brain matter bubbled, then sealed seamlessly.
Faster regeneration than a troll.
No matter how many times you cut it—
Even decapitating it—
It wouldn’t stay dead.
If I didn’t know what this thing was, I might’ve panicked.
Luckily, I knew it well.
Better than the ones who made it.
A low growl.
It watched me warily, hesitant to attack.
When it inhaled—
I slid forward instantly.
In that brief opening, I closed the distance and slashed diagonally across its ribs.
I felt something unnatural being cut.
This time, the beast died completely.
I stabbed the corpse several more times before relaxing.
The woman asked cautiously:
“It’s over… right?”
“Yes.”
“Regenerating even with its head split open… Was that a chimera?”
Half right, half wrong.
It was a chimera—an artificial lifeform cobbled together from multiple creatures.
But that wasn’t the reason for its regeneration.
I pulled out a small dagger, cut open the beast’s chest, and dug near its heart until I retrieved a glowing gem drenched in blood.
The woman frowned.
“A magic stone? Why is that inside its body?”
“My blade grazed it. Can you identify its purpose?”
“The engraving… it says regeneration enhancement. That explains a lot. But embedding magic stones inside a living creature is taboo in sorcery. The rejection is too severe—they usually explode from mana overload right after implantation. No one has ever succeeded in turning a magic stone into a biological organ…”
“And yet, here it is.”
She fell silent.
I tossed the now-dimmed gem aside.
Behind the corpse, a staircase and a door led deeper underground.
Maintaining caution, I opened the door.
Crunch.
Something shattered under my foot.
Glass shards—coated with a sloshing green fluid.
Strange machines lined the room.
A laboratory for cultivation—an incubation chamber.
But like the prison, it had failed its purpose.
Growling erupted again.
Not one—many.
From the shadows cast by the vats came metal-scraping echoes.
At least a dozen.
Troublesome.
If we got surrounded, we’d be finished.
Should we retreat?
But I needed to go deeper.
Stopping the immortality experiment and saving the Crimson Sage was my first, second, and third priority.
Keeping the woman safe was the fourth.
Who knew when another chance would come?
As I hesitated, the monsters emerged, slowly tightening the noose.
If I delayed any longer, even retreat would become impossible.
I stepped backward carefully.
Then suddenly, the woman took a step forward.
She asked:
“Just answer me one thing. The Chancellor… he’s beyond there, isn’t he?”
The question startled me.
Her lack of any intention to flee startled me more.
Yet I answered instinctively:
“I don’t know.”
She scoffed through her nose.
As if she were standing in a flower field.
Though her mind might have been in one.
“You said you were getting used to how you talk, right? You’re pretending you don’t know, but you kind of do, huh?”
“Maybe we should talk after running for our lives. Abandoning you would bother my conscience, so—”
“No need. And you won’t be able to. Not when Master is in there.”
She gathered mana.
I prepared to bolt.
I had no intention of crossing the Styx with a madwoman.
Turning around—
No, just before turning fully—
When my body had turned halfway—
I caught her movement by pure chance.
If I hadn’t seen it—
I would have run.
I felt an intense sense of déjà vu.
Both hands poised in the air, as if holding something invisible.
Then—
She flicked one finger against the others.
A gesture like rubbing fingerprints together.
It was unfamiliar—
And yet seared into my memory.
I knew this sensation.
It was the feeling that came when a thing I had only read about suddenly appeared in reality.
I understood.
Right then, right there.
Her gesture meant—
A Trait.
<Ashen Incantation>.
A bird wreathed in blazing crimson flame swept across the incubation chamber like a miniature sun.
