Chapter 35 : Chapter 35
Chapter 35. Necromancer's Dungeon (3)
'……!'
Although Blanc was in an exhausted state, he could clearly hear the word Assinsao spat out by the Warlock.
The Assinsao family of the Anton Kingdom. Those who founded the White Thunderbolt.
However, they disappeared behind the scenes of history, and now even their traces were hard to find.
Were Warlocks involved in their extermination?
As Blanc raised his sword pointing at the Warlock even in his exhausted state, the Warlock hurriedly deployed a defensive magic formula with his remaining hand as if in fear.
'There is something!'
It seemed the White Thunderbolt dwelling in Blanc's body was something that posed a threat to Warlocks.
However, he realized it too late.
Blanc's body was truly at its limit now, and even searching every corner of his body, not a grain of Aura could be found.
Complete exhaustion.
Blanc felt the world tilting, but the one actually tilting was himself.
'Kugh!'
He had overexerted himself too much.
Even if it was Enlightenment gained by chance, he should have rested for a few days to refine it well, but he had implemented it once more beyond that.
Seeing Blanc collapse on the spot, the group couldn't hide their panic.
If they took just one more step, they could kill the Warlock trembling over there.
With just one swing of Blanc's sword.
However, there were no more opportunities left for Blanc.
And that was the same story for the group.
"It is a thunderbolt that has not fully bloomed yet!"
Seeing Blanc collapse on his own, the Warlock smiled a smile of conversion.
"To think a surviving clan member existed! This time for sure, I will cut your breath!"
Leaving his burnt left arm be, the Warlock raised his intact right arm and gathered dark red malice.
At the end of his blood-streaked gaze was the fallen Blanc.
"Protect Blanc!"
"That bastard is injured! If we push just a little!"
In an imminent situation, Bauer and Aubert shouted and rushed out first.
Now bloodied Sir Hansen and Noel stood guarding in front of Blanc.
Rakshar raised the fallen Blanc from the ground and wrapped him in his embrace.
Blanc tried not to lose consciousness by exerting superhuman mental strength until the end.
In his fading vision, dark red light flashed, and knights' screams were heard in the receding sound.
All senses were dulling, and his body was becoming heavy. It felt as if he was slowly being dragged underground.
However, there was a terrible sensation that forcibly pulled up Blanc, who was gradually losing consciousness.
"Kuaaaaaagh!"
What was in front of Blanc's eyes as he regained consciousness again was the Warlock shedding crimson glints.
"Little boy. Wake up."
"Th…… Uuuuuuuugh!"
Blanc couldn't endure the surging intense pain.
Because the Warlock shoved the red dagger that was stuck in himself into Blanc's shoulder.
It wasn't a simple dagger. Blanc was someone who had survived even after being slashed dozens of times in his past life.
If it was just a dagger being shoved in, he could laugh it off.
However, the dagger stuck in Blanc's shoulder now was piercing not only his flesh but also Blanc's soul.
"Through this dagger, I will enter your mental world! There, I will find your soul and tear it to shreds!"
Blanc looked at his own face reflected in the Warlock's bloodshot eyes soaked in madness.
"I will take everything of yours! Your body! Your soul! Even the whereabouts of the remaining Assinsao clan!"
The Warlock intended to discard Stefan's broken body and take Blanc's body instead.
Because that body was young and healthy, and would also possess information on the Assinsao clan, the natural enemies of Warlocks.
The Warlock put his weight into it once again and pushed the dagger stuck in Blanc even deeper.
"Hand over everything of yours!"
***
By plunging the dagger containing his essence into Blanc, the Warlock could instantly access Blanc's mental world.
White Thunderbolt was like poison to Warlocks, but that was only a story applicable when implemented in reality.
Of course, there would be Aura stretching out in the spiritual world too, but the Warlock was confident in dodging that much.
People of the current era might not know, but when the Warlock was active with a body, he was one of the symbols of fear.
Moreover, since Blanc had exhausted all his Aura and lost consciousness, this much was an easy task.
'No matter if he is of the Assinsao clan, devouring a fourteen-year-old kid is a simple task.'
Subjugating Stefan Tolome, the owner of the body he was currently using, was a very difficult task.
To dominate him, the Warlock had cast spells in his mental world for a whole week.
'Right. A young body would be good if possible. This guy has become crippled in his left arm anyway.'
Before he knew it, the Warlock had penetrated deep into the deepest part of Blanc's mental world.
'The kid's mental world is established quite concretely.'
It was a white mansion.
The three-story mansion wasn't very large, but it gave a neat feeling, and above all, it looked cozy.
'It must be in there.'
The spiritual ego of the boy named Blanc seemed to be inside this mansion.
The Warlock walked into the mansion with confident steps.
'On the third floor…… he is there!'
Identifying Blanc's location using his spells applicable even in the mental world, the Warlock climbed the stairs without hesitation.
Therefore, he didn't see.
The door of the mansion moving quietly and closing by itself.
The Warlock arrived at a room on the third floor with a proud expression.
'Huhu. Out of all the ones I've possessed, this will be the most plausible.'
The Warlock had seen Blanc's talent and potential with his own two eyes. He couldn't hide his joy at the thought of being able to take the Assinsao's secret technique along with the limitless potential the young boy possessed.
As a Warlock who had enjoyed immortality that wasn't quite immortality by switching bodies, he recognized the value Blanc possessed better than anyone.
'He is here.'
The Warlock stood in front of the room where Blanc was presumed to be.
Now, if he just tore the young boy inside this room to shreds and subjugated him as his own, Blanc's body would become the Warlock's.
Giggling, the Warlock roughly threw open Blanc's room and entered.
Since it was a cozy mansion, he thought the boy's room decorated in the mental world would also have such a feel, but.
'What is this?'
A dark room with no lighting.
Only the dark blue moonlight entering through the window illuminated the room.
And there was a person standing with hands behind his back like a stone statue, looking out the window.
Even though the Warlock roughly threw the door open, he didn't even turn his head, let alone move, just staring out the window.
"Who are you?"
This was the mental world of the boy named Blanc. And the deepest part at that.
If one came down this far, the only thing that could exist was one's own ego.
However, the person standing in front of the Warlock wasn't a fourteen-year-old boy but someone who looked to be forty.
"You ask who I am?"
At the Warlock's question, the middle-aged man covered in scars finally turned his head slowly.
"I am Blanc."
"Blanc Scar."
'……!'
The Warlock couldn't understand the current situation.
He was someone well-versed in mental dark magic even among Warlocks.
When he was active 200 years ago, he reigned as a symbol of fear.
However, such a person, like a nightmare of the era.
Was feeling fear towards the scar-covered man of unknown identity before his eyes.
'What kind of eyes are that!'
The eyes of the man the Warlock faced were void.
Even when selling his soul to sign a contract with a demon, he hadn't felt this level of fear.
Fear of a different class.
Noticing something was wrong, the Warlock tried to leave the room, but.
Click.
The door behind him was already locked.
There had never been a case like this. While switching hundreds of human bodies, swore to oath, there had never been a single case like this.
Among the owners of the bodies he switched to, there were those praised as heroes, clergymen respected by people, and excellent scholars acknowledged by everyone.
Even those who wouldn't be strange to be called heroes eventually knelt before him.
However, the fourteen-year-old boy, no, the one introducing himself as Blanc Scar was different.
His mental strength had already surpassed the level of being described as firm and strong. It would be correct to say the rank of his soul had already surpassed the human level.
However, a mortal human cannot possess a soul surpassing rank.
He possessed a twisted soul.
A twisted soul that had surpassed the rules of this world.
Even to the Warlock himself, such a terribly twisted soul.
"Wh, who are you?"
The Warlock, who had lived for hundreds of years, unknowingly spat out honorifics.
The middle-aged man, staring at such a Warlock, quietly brought a chair from a corner of the room and placed it in front of the window.
Then he gestured to the Warlock to sit.
'…….'
There was no way for the Warlock. There was nowhere to run, and the figure before his eyes was already overwhelming his soul.
The Warlock swallowed dry saliva and had no choice but to sit on the chair as the scar-covered middle-aged man offered.
And naturally, his gaze moved to the garden beyond the window.
In the middle of the garden was a tree of massive size.
A massive tree stretching mercilessly toward the sky.
"What is this……."
The color of that tree was black.
Blacker than black.
Darker than darkness.
It was an ominous tree that seemed like it would suck in everything in this world.
"Kua…… Uaaaaaaagh!"
As soon as the Warlock saw that tree, he couldn't endure the surging displeasure and fear.
Any existence with a soul would not be able to help but scream upon seeing that tree. It was an instinctive cry that even a Warlock who had lived hundreds of years couldn't endure.
"Wh, what on earth is this!"
Blanc Cadmus. Just what was the identity of this boy.
How could he maintain a human form while keeping such a terrible and evil thing locked in his soul?
Seeing the existence that far surpassed human cognition, the Warlock felt strong nausea. However, he tried to stop the retching by instinctively covering his mouth.
If he vomited here, it felt like he would spew out everything in his soul.
"Let's watch together."
Blanc Scar approached the Warlock sitting on the chair.
"Until now, I was watching alone."
"Wh, who are you?"
"The people who watched together from the side died one by one or became void. Now it's just me."
"Please, please……."
"Now it seems it's just me. The one watching that and preparing to stop it."
The Warlock tried to turn his head somehow, but Blanc's hand, which was already on the Warlock's head, didn't allow it.
If he couldn't turn his head, he just had to close his eyes.
If he did that, he wouldn't have to see that terrible thing.
'My eyes, my eyes…… why won't they close?'
The Warlock tried to lower his eyelids to close his eyes, but for some reason, his eyes wouldn't close.
The Warlock turned his gaze to look not outside the window but at his own reflection in the window.
"Uaa! Uaaaaaaaaaa!"
In his reflection there, he had no eyes.
Inside the eye sockets sunken because the eyeballs had disappeared.
There was only an empty Void.