C171: The Flower of Remnant Fire (1)
The fire in the warehouse burned hot and was about to spread to trees and bushes near the warehouse. That could lead to a major fire.
'Brother, are you okay?'
Hans, who was waiting outside, hesitated. Rather, he was seriously considering whether to use the Beast of Gévaudan power to intervene.
Then a mouse shouted at Hans. It was a sign that someone was fast approaching his way.
"Hide!"
As soon as Hans and the swarm of mice hurriedly hid themselves from the scene, Casey Selmore appeared.
"Fire?"
Casey Selmore shot water as soon as she saw the fire but the fire didn't go out even after pouring water. The flame shrank once and soon burned again fiercely.
"What fire….?"
Casey immediately spread the shroud of water and surrounded the warehouse. The shaking fire was trying to go outside, but was blocked by the tent of water and shrank.
Casey narrowed her eyes.
'This is not a normal fire.'
Casey could tell after using her mana to keep the flames under control. This fire had a will and it was escaping outside and trying to burn everything.
'It's not even a fire caused by ordinary magic. Judging from the will of fire, this should be at least the level of a Colour wizard.'
When it comes to fire with will, there is one thing that came to her mind, a spirit that controls fire.
'Maybe a spirit? But there is no way a spirit can use such terrible power.'
Casey had just arrived in Leathervelk and had read past newspaper articles about the events in the city. In her memory, an article came to mind that a giant of fire appeared in the city's banquet hall. And now, the Black Dawn that hid in Theon at the festival.
It was clear that there was some connection between the two.
'Mr. Rudger Chelici must be in there right now.'
A fire broke out in the distance, and it was enough to infer the direction in which he suddenly disappeared.
'What the hell is going on…….'
Casey thought about using water to go inside, but if she picks up the curtain a little, the fire will spread out of control.
'Did he call me because he expected this?'
At that moment, a huge wave of mana was felt in the burning warehouse and the raging flames quickly died down as if they were being sucked inside.
After a while, foggy steam billowed through the cracks in the ceiling and outer walls of the collapsed warehouse.
"Magic? At least 5th-rank."
The blazing fire faded once. Casey, who was holding out the fire close by, could feel it. There's a huge amount of magic unfolding in the warehouse right now.
'What the hell's going on inside?!'
* * *
Quasimodo took a significant hit from Rudger's sixth-rank magic [Heavenly Icebreaker] but wasn't beaten yet.
He gathered the flames of the warehouse around him and resisted Rudger's magic. A blazing fire from hell and cold ice from the North Sea collided among the steam in the warehouse.
In the steam, a small flame rose in the air. The flame grew in size and became a fireball. As the remaining fire spread around it slowly gathered and got bigger and bigger. An ugly-looking giant of fire that had arms and legs, soon appeared.
[Human!]
Quasimodo was not dead. Even after being hit directly with that level of magic, his summon was not undone, but instead he restored his body with unbelievable vitality.
However his size decreased by half after the damage he took but that was only temporary because Quasimodo will regain his original strength as the flames in the warehouse gather together.
A human would need to rest for days to recover from that damage but as a spirit Quasimodo recovered quickly.
[I'll kill you!]
Furthermore, Quasimodo burned with anger and hatred as he was quickly recovering.
[I'll kill you!]
Quasimodo looked around and tried to find Rudger but the steam obstructed his vision.
Soon Quasimodo found a black shadow running inside the steam. Quasimodo smiled and punched at the shadow.
[You will die!]
The flames that spread instantaneously hit the black shadow. Quasimodo, who was about to shout victoriously at the thought of finally killing the loach, was surprised when he saw the lifted steam.
[Human, no?]
He didn't hit Rudger but Aether Nocturnus. If so where was Rudger now? Quasimodo hurriedly turned his head and looked where Esmeralda was.
[You…!]
He saw Rudger holding Esmeralda in his arms with one hand.
[Rudger Chelici!]
At Quasimodo's vicious cry, Rudger responded with a cold smile.
"You called my name for the first time Quasimodo."
[Aaaarg!]
"But it's over."
Quasimodo rushed to protect Esmeralda in an urgent manner but Rudger put a pre-prepared drug injection into Esmeralda's neck.
[……!]
Quasimodo, who was running, stopped and curled up, clutching his head as if he were in pain.
Rudger breathed a sigh of relief.
'No matter how great the spirits are, if the summoner takes damage, they will inevitably suffer as well.'
The drug Rudger injected into Esmeralda was a kind of antipsychotic anesthetic.
Originally, summoners communicate with the spirits of nature and establish a contract through their minds. No matter how powerful the spirit is, if the summoner mind is affected, the spirit's power is also weakened.
'I couldn't cancel the summoning, but this is enough.'
He had to move the fainted Esmeralda out of the eyes of people and after he seals her spirit Selina will remain alone. At that time, Esmeralda, whom he thought was asleep after getting the anesthetic, opened her mouth.
"Oh, no."
"… … Are you still awake?"
As Rudger was about to ignore her, Esmeralda grabbed his collar.
"What are you doing?"
"Hurry up and run away, I can't control it anymore."
"Control?"
It took him a while to understand Esmeralda's words when he felt a twitch in his back bone. It was a danger warning sent by his instincts.
Even before he knew it, Rudger instinctively squeezed his remaining mana to create a mana barrier.
Shortly thereafter, a large fist hit the Mana barrier and as the barrier cracked, the shock was delivered to Rudger. Withstanding the pain in his body, Rudger stared at the one who punched.
"………Quasimodo."
Quasimodo, who had been suffering until a while ago, was smiling creepily.
[What a bummer.]
He was alive and well as if it was a lie that he suffered.
[I could've killed you.]
"You…"
Only then did Rudger realize that something was wrong.
Why is Quasimodo fine? Why hasn't Esmeralda, the one who summoned him, lost her sanity?
Rudger's thoughts did not last long as he felt an eerie touch on his cheek and his hands instinctively moved first.
He grabbed Esmeralda's wrist, which was about to be swung toward him with a sharp dagger in her hand. If he had been a little late, he would have been stabbed.
"What are you doing in this situation….?"
Rudger, who was trying to argue with Esmeralda, couldn't bear to do that and closed his mouth because she was in tears.
"No, I didn't mean to do this. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry."
Like a person out of her mind, she kept muttering strange things.
It wasn't Rudger that he apologized to. Esmeralda was looking at something else now.
"From a little while ago, what the hell……."
Rudger was about to say something, but he stopped. Instead, he concentrated mana on his eyes to improve his eyesight. Then, what used to be blurred by the steam began to become clear.
It was a red thread. A bright red thread from Quasimodo was tying Esmeralda's wrist and her whole body like a marionette that's easy to control.
A fuzzy red thread fluttering in the air touched Rudger's body. As soon as I felt it, a completely different scene unfolded in front of Rudger's eyes.
– I hate you.
In the burning town of Roteng Esmeralda was in tears and suffering, with Quasimodo standing behind her.
"Is this a memory storm?"
Rudger stared at Quasimodo in the vivid scene as if he had experienced it in person. At first glance, Quasimodo seemed to protect Esmeralda, but it was the opposite.
[Burn your hatred. Hate humans.]
The hidden story of the event that was not revealed by painting magic. It was him who continued to instill in Esmeralda her madness and hatred.
The landscape has changed. It was the scene after Esmeralda's first revenge.
– This is amazing.
On a dark night, a man stood with his back against the rising full moon. He wore a mask on his face to hide his identity, but that could not hide the momentum of a unique strong man.
-I didn't know that there was a great person who killed a nobleman. The Fabius family has always been our goal, but now I've found someone with the same purpose.
He said so and then shook his head.
-No. Not a person but something else.
The man looking at Quasimodo, not Esmeralda, from the beginning was Zero Order of the Black Dawn Society.
– Join us and we'll help you do what you want. What do you say?
Quasimodo did not reject Zero Order's offer as the woman was in tears of anguish, but no one cared about her.
* * *
After the memory storm, he came back to reality.
"It was you."
Rudger had a headache because of the information that came all at once. He frowned at the headache and looked at Quasimodo.
"It was all you."
Esmeralda moved for revenge. She also entered the Black Dawn and burned and killed the people of the Fabius family, later becoming known as the Fire Witch.
Esmeralda didn't sign a contract with Quasimodo but instead he was using her as a host.
He was a monster born in response to the despair of a powerful soul in a place marked with death, fire, hatred and anger. Not a spirit, nor a normal soul, but something terribly twisted. He was no longer a spirit but a cryptid.
Quasimodo laughed at his words.
[You got me.]
He didn't sound surprised, but he seemed to enjoy the situation and was laughing at Rudger.
[It's too late now!]
His gloomy way of speaking also gradually changed.
Esmeralda was rather playing the role of a suppressor that prevented Quasimodo from running wild but now that he injected the anesthetic, Quasimodo has more freedom ever.
[The game is over now!]
Quasimodo's size gradually began to swell like a balloon. As his size grew, the flames intensified, and the water vapor that was scattered around was completely washed away.
The hot heat stung Rudger's skin and he felt his skin ripening even though he was protecting his body with magic. Sweat was running through his forehead but it evaporated and disappeared.
[You're going to die now!]
He grabbed Esmeralda and hurriedly left.
[It's no use running away!]
Behind him came the voice of Quasimodo. Quasimodo, who regained his original size, chased him at a frightening pace.
Rudger immediately connected the rope to the ceiling with the wire launcher on his left hand and jumped over the pile of materials and immediately after that, the floor under him burst into flames.
'What should I do?'
He almost used up the means he had. Even though he found that the real identity of the First Order was Quasimodo that was all.
'Then should I leave Esmeralda here and run away alone?'
He looked down at Esmeralda as her black hair had spread all over and turned pink. Her pale purple eyes, whose red color had disappeared, were looking up at him.
Is it because Esmeralda's character has subsided that Selina's character was awakened?
"Mr. Rudger?"
He couldn't easily answer the voice. No, it was more likely he didn't know how to deal with Selina's personality right here.
Selina was half of Esmeralda's soul, a personality created by her. If Esmeralda was real, Selina was fake.
Then Selina smiled at him. It was a weak smile like a falling petal.
"It's all right."
"……."
"I'm fine, so leave me. You don't have to do this."
At that, he stopped running away. He had no choice but to stop even though the monster was chasing him.
"But so far, I've had enough fun."
In Selina's helpless smile, Esmeralda's crying in agony overlapped.
– I'm sorry, everyone, I'm so sorry.
He remembered her past, which he had just seen.
Roteng was dazzlingly bright like the summer sun. It was a warm place to the depths of his heart like a meadow in spring.
He tried to imagine what if the place was still there. The people there were alive and there would have been no grief or distress. Esmeralda would have lived there happily.
'Maybe, if I settled down one day, I would go there.'
Maybe if they didn't meet like this.
'It's all meaningless assumptions.'
There is no more Roteng because it was burned and trampled by others. Nevertheless, Esmeralda dreamed about the happiness of that day and the despair of that day.
She cries sorry and apologizes, but she cannot abandon the hell of that day from her mind. The real monster was not even Quasimodo but the nightmare that bound her past.
"Haha."
She laughed out of frustration.
"You have to wake up from your nightmare."
"Mr. Rudger, what is it?"
"If you wake up after a nap, it'll all be over."
He put Selina to sleep with a simple spell. Normally, she wouldn't have even felt it, but now she couldn't even resist.
Looking at the sleeping Selina he put her on the floor as a shadow rose and caught her.
"Keep it safe."
He looked back as the giant of fire was slowly approaching.
[Why? Can't you run away?]
"I changed my mind."
He loosened his necktie roughly. Now that he saw that, he couldn't just go.
"Since I came all the way here, I should see the end."
Compassion and sympathy are swords that one hurts himself with, how could he not know that? He felt it more than anyone else.
'But so what?'
If kindness toward someone is a knife that cuts him he'll cut himself. His body is full of scars anyway. What's the difference if he added a scar to this?
"Bring it on ugly."
He poured the remaining medicine into his mouth.
"I'll show you what real magic is."