“This is bad.”
After adding a spell to the priest as well, Shaye struggled to take out that small book again. Using it required a price, so Shaye did not dare write anything too excessive. Instead, he dipped his finger into his own spit-blood and wrote on the blank page
“Even if barbaric and evil forces plunge me into slumber, I shall be able to awaken at the appropriate time.”
He did this to prevent himself from passing out as well, which would leave no one left to lead the group to safety. Using such a precious relic this way was certainly wasteful, but this was the safest sentence he dared to write while recklessly using a Secret Keeper-level relic.
In truth, he could have written "Shaye defeats the evil god," but the price for such a thing would likely send him straight to meet Detective Spilo immediately.
At this moment, Doctor Schneider, who was currently engaged in combat with Madam Lasoya, retreated toward the entrance of the banquet hall just as Shaye struggled to stand up again. His boots stepped upon the red carpet, which had been shredded by explosions.
Behind the doctor, a brass-colored pentagonal metal ring was rotating at an unprecedented speed. Spiritual runes of four different colors drifted upon the Life Ring, but the doctor continued to stumble backward; he was also nearing his limit.
“Why are you here?”
Equally surprised by Shaye's appearance, and seeing that all his companions had fallen, the doctor gritted his teeth and used his body to block Shaye's view
“Shaye, I have never mentioned the strongest power of a Ringwarlock to you. Logically, you shouldn't know of it now. But there is no other way. Please, watch my power. After using this power, I might fall into a coma. If I succeed, remember to take us all...”
A silver flash erupted from inside the banquet hall. The doctor took a sudden step back, and a crack actually appeared on the Life Ring behind him.
“Watch closely, Detective! This is not a power that can be used lightly. The stage sublimation of a Ringwarlock is not that simple!”
Doctor Schneider suddenly shouted loudly. As the suppressed power erupted, a brand-new figure appeared within the scorching steam mist behind him.
Shaye's eyes widened
“This is...”
【...His 'other self'.】
“What is the doctor doing? Wait!”
By the wall, Shaye's nose twitched suddenly. Amidst the scent of the blood mist, he caught a very distinct smell of sulfur. He seemed to hear mad laughter, and he seemed to hear low sobbing, but he heard nothing else
“Sulfur? Wait, Professor Sanchez said there might be... in the doctor's heart...”
Shaye had not expected that his first contact with the truth would be at a time like this.
The figure emerging behind the doctor was obscured by the steam mist, making its appearance unclear. It stood behind the doctor, positioned almost symmetrically to him across the Life Ring.
Then, the blurred, tall silhouette in the steam and Doctor Schneider raised their right hands together. Their voices overlapped, but whether it was the doctor's Delarian or the tall figure's strange and evil language, Shaye understood it all.
A roaring wind rushed into the corridor, and the light seemed to dim at that very moment. A brand-new power surged within the doctor, and the space itself changed because of this power.
The two shouted in unison
“The Hound of Light...”
Shaye's eyes widened.
Behind Doctor Schneider, the golden Miracle Spiritual Rune [Light] and the brass Enlightenment Spiritual Rune [Hound] detached from the ring, drifting toward the center of the rotating brass ring.
The voice lowered, the final half-sentence sounding like a dying person's last whisper
“...Runs through the malicious dreams.”
The iron-black [Whisper], the silver [Profane], and the doctor's own core spiritual rune [Dream] gathered at the center of the Life Ring. The five spiritual runes connected into a single whole, subsequently emitting an identical silver light.
Within this sound, all surrounding light vanished. Darkness descended completely.
Shaye completely lost his vision, as if someone had dragged him from a bright corridor into an abyss. A chilling wind blew all around, and countless whispers and murmurs manifested in his ears; this was even more terrifying than the [Box of Darkness] losing control.
He felt as if he had fallen into a mire of darkness, and felt countless hands pulling at him from his sides. But a pure white light suddenly appeared, and he looked toward the doctor, who seemed to be standing in a pool of black sludge. That figure blurred; his eyes saw the doctor, but what was reflected in the doctor's pupils was a hound emitting a pure, holy white light.
“Is this the Language of Sublimation?”
The hound within the holy light charged forward along the path of darkness, pouncing upon enemies within this malicious dreamscape of mire.
The strength of this instant could not be described by a shallow-minded outsider, but at this moment, he actually felt an aura of decay extremely similar to that of the falling Old God, [The Creator of Innocence].
That aura was grand, yet it represented an end; this was not the power of a mortal.
“What exactly is the Ringwarlock's Language of Sublimation?”
That running Hound of Light seemed to draw power from the earth beneath its feet and the sky above its head. It tore through the darkness to charge forward. Madam Lasoya, who was also within this malicious dark dream, appeared and was struck head-on by the glowing, holy white hound
“Damn it, it's the Language of Sublimation! Where on earth did you madman come from?!”
The woman, whose makeup was already ruined, cursed loudly, but upon contact with the Hound of Light, her entire being vanished into the holy light, as if she had exploded from the inside.
The surrounding darkness retreated in the next moment, and the chilling wind, whispers, and murmurs departed along with it. Shaye once again smelled the thick, blood-like stench in the air and saw the blood mist drifting through the corridor like a curtain.
Looking ahead, the hound had disappeared, and the unconscious Doctor Schneider lay flat on his back in front of Shaye. Shaye had never seen this dignified psychologist in such a pathetic state. His eyes were tightly shut, and his face looked like Detective Spilo Hamilton's just before he died a week ago, but at least he was currently alive.
Thus, Shaye reached out to touch the doctor. He hadn't expected that his greatest contribution to this battle would be this.
“Why hasn't Miss Annette returned yet? Do I need to touch her in a moment too?”
If it weren't for the fact that the spell effects wouldn't be accepted by anyone who wasn't seriously injured, Shaye would certainly have touched himself first.
He struggled to stand up, wanting to move the doctor, the priest, and the female writer together so he could take them away once Miss Annette returned. But at that moment, from the entrance of the banquet hall, which was a mess of falling ash and peeling wall plaster, a sound rang out once again.
Shaye looked up. Madam Lasoya, covered in blood and appearing to have only one breath left, was actually crawling out from the wreckage of the banquet hall doors
“Your friends are truly madmen.”
She looked as if she were also at her limit, yet she still stared at the masked Shaye with a crazed gaze, her tone exceptionally frightening.
Then, Shaye saw that in the woman's scarred left hand, which was almost turned to charcoal, she held her own severed right hand.
She pressed the severed hand against her chin, used her left hand to take the cobblestone ring off the severed hand, and gave it a gentle kiss.
“Oh~ no!”
(End of Chapter)