'Should I?'
Hans was at a crossroad. He thought over and over again about what he should do, but he couldn't come up with a clear answer.
He hesitated again and again.
The anxiety he'd been feeling for a while now rose to the top of his head.
Finally, unable to hold it in, Hans plucked up the courage to speak.
"You're not going?"
"What?"
Grander, lying on the couch, turned her head slightly to stare at Hans.
Meeting those red eyes with a hint of annoyance, Hans felt a sense of dread, like he was falling off an endless cliff.
Hans swallowed hard and opened his mouth.
"Why aren't you going to help your brother?" he asked.
"There you go again. I thought I'd already answered that."
"Yes, you did, but you know."
"Know what?"
"You told me there was something underground, and when I checked it out, I found that warlocks were secretly experimenting with demonic powers."
Grander smiled wryly at the word demon.
"Hmm. I did drop a hint, but you're quicker than I thought. But so what, the power is sealed away in a shell anyway."
"For now, yes, but the warlocks and the Liberation Army are conducting some sort of experiment. Maybe that sealed power will be awakened."
"What makes you think that?"
Grander didn't dismiss Hans' words, instead she asked him with curiosity in her carnelian eyes.
"What?"
"I asked you why you think that."
"That, that……."
Hans didn't know what to say. To be honest, it wasn't something he'd racked his brain to come up with rationally. It was more like a gut feeling, like an animal instinct.
But he couldn't just come out and say, "It's my gut," right?
Grander stared at Hans.
He looked into those eyes and, for some reason, said what he knew he shouldn't have said.
"It's a hunch."
"Huh?"
Hans wished he hadn't said it.
He wondered why he'd said it, and felt a rush of anxiety.
He was not surprised when Grander glared at him, mocking him; however, contrary to Hans's fears, she didn't get angry. Instead, she pushed herself up off the couch and asked with interest.
"Hmm? A hunch. What did you feel with that hunch?"
"What? Well, what did I feel? I just felt…… that something was going to happen if I kept going like this……."
"You just felt like something was going to happen?"
"……Yes."
"Hmm. That's an ability I'm not fully aware of yet. My student picked up something interesting."
"What?"
Hans was about to ask what the hell was wrong when Grander said.
"I was actually going to make a move even if you hadn't told me."
"Really?"
"After all, I felt what you felt, and I'm the one who told you that something was underground."
'But why didn't you move?'
He didn't ask, but the look in her eyes said it all, and she crossed her arms in frustration as she leaned back against the couch's backrest.
"There's only one reason I don't go. I don't feel the need to move. "No, I was going to move, but I didn't feel the need."
"You don't feel it?"
Grander shook her head.
"Apparently, your instincts are overly developed in the direction of crisis detection."
"No, what the hell is that…….?"
"Forget it. I don't need you to see it or to do anything about it. Just watch."
Grander's lips curled into a smile at the surge of power she felt underground. It was the smile of a mother proud of her accomplished child.
"I'm sure he can do it."
* * *
Louispold tried to pull himself up by straining his arms. But his arms wouldn't budge, as if there was a heavy lead weight on his back.
Strange, his demonic power far surpassed that of the Master.
He had the strength to lift a boulder the size of a house, but now he could barely steady himself.
"What, what did you do?"
He could barely breathe, but he managed to get the words out.
Rudger must have done something to create this enormous pressure, but he had no idea what it was and an uneasy thought flashed through his mind.
Could this be real magic?
Magic that he didn't know about, that only a gifted one could use?
No, no.
It couldn't be.
He'd never heard of such magic.
Let alone a mere human…….
"A mere human can't generate this kind of power, you thought."
"……."
Louispold fell silent as he realized his thoughts had been read. In truth, he didn't need to be read since it was a natural reaction.
From what Rudger had said, it was obvious that he was right about the attack which made it all the more difficult for Louispold to understand.
Water magic was already obsolete.
More precise and reliable magic would be harder to cast without the aid of a ritual, and its power would be much weaker.
Besides, what's up with those simple hand gestures?
To cast magic with your hands, you had to be busy moving them around. Just holding out his hand like that wasn't going to cut it.
"I told you. It's real magic."
"Nonsense! I've never heard of such magic!"
Louispold exclaimed through clenched teeth, but somewhere in the back of his mind, he realized it might be true.
'The backslash of the demonic power.'
Even more alarming to Louispold was the golden aura that enveloped his entire body since the demonic power was unable to resist the golden energy.
'I'm trying to get up with all my might, and a mere hand gesture forces me to lie flat like a frog?'
This is ridiculous.
What kind of power is that?
That's not even divine power.
"It's painful."
Rudger turned to face Louispold, who lay flat on the floor.
"By the look on your face, you feel far more shame than physical pain."
"You, you, asshole……."
Rudger's words made Louispold bite his lip. The other man's downward gaze seemed to intensify his own bitterness.
He saw in Rudger a reflection of the others. How they looked down on him and his limitations.
The sneers of those who said, "You'll never make it."
I wanted to kill them all.
His whole body stood up with a jolt as black blood trickled from his lips and nose.
"I will kill you. No, I won't just kill you, I'll make you suffer as much as I can, I'll make you beg me to kill you!"
"You have a pretty good mouth for a stuffed specimen."
"Shut up!!!"
Louispold shouted but Rudger squeezed his body even harder.
The demonic power was certainly intimidating. But it was useless in the face of what he was dealing with.
'What is it?'
Suddenly, Rudger had the impression that there was a hand on Louispold's back.
No, it wasn't an illusion. It was a black shadow in the shape of a human being, leaning in to whisper something in Louispold's ear.
It lifted its head, looked at Rudger, and cackled.
It was a black, bare face with no features and Rudger felt an inexplicable chill at the sight.
Just as he was about to do something about it, it vanished like a mirage but immediately afterward, a change came over him.
The sound of muscles and bones contorting echoed through Louispold's body as he lay on the ground.
Louispold, who had never felt pain from any attack, screamed in agony. The faces of the wizards implanted in his body also screamed in unison, eyes wide and mouths agape.
As the screams echoed, the changes continued and instead of returning to its original size, the bulging arm pierced through both shoulders and sprouted another arm.
Four arms slowly pushed his body off the ground.
To Rudger's astonishment, Louispold slowly pulled himself up, resisting Rudger's pressure.
'He's getting stronger.'
Rudger frowned at the change.
He kept his outstretched right hand, but pointed his capital left hand, index and middle finger raised, at Louispold.
A mist of magic swirled around him, forming an incantation. The ground shuddered as a sharp rock awl pierced Louispold's palm, immobilizing him. But what came next was astonishing.
The stone pillar that had pierced his palm and protruded from the back of his hand began to gnaw away at his hand.
The hole had turned into a mouth, crushing the rock awl.
"You."
Rudger said, looking back at Andrei, who was watching from a distance.
"Do you know what the hell is wrong with him?"
"Why would you ask me…….?"
"You made him that way, don't you think you should know why he's like that?"
Andrei was dumbfounded by his words.
They had just been fighting to the death, and he hadn't expected Rudger to ask him this question here.
Normally, Andrei wouldn't have even responded. But he couldn't help but feel a sense of crisis at the sight of Louispold grotesque form.
"I don't know."
"Are you kidding……?"
Rudger was about to ask, but then he refocused his mind and held Louispold down.
He was losing ground in real time, but if he didn't stay focused, Louispold would break free and go on a rampage.
He had to buy time by holding him back as much as possible.
"Any guesses?"
"That……."
Rudger clicked his tongue as Andrei hesitated to answer.
"I asked the wrong person. I expected too much from a man who was nearly killed by his own test subject."
Rudger's sarcasm made Andrei cringe, but he couldn't get angry since he was right.
He had been beaten by his own guinea pig, and some of his demonic powers had been taken from him.
And what could be more humiliating than to have his past, the one thing he'd kept hidden, come out of his mouth?
"Perhaps he's being consumed by demonic power……."
The taunt worked, and he responded.
"Go ahead."
"I don't know if all demonic powers are like this. But I do know that the demon sealed in that dead World Tree root reacts to negative emotions."
Indeed, the black wavelengths of the demon's power penetrated the human psyche and incapacitated them in an instant.
"……It's not just about affecting others, is it?"
"Negative emotions also affect him. Unless you're a demon, your power is nothing more than borrowed power."
"Yeah. I get that he's running amok because of some inferiority complex, but is there any way to stop him?"
"I don't know about that. What I was trying to create in the first place was essentially an ultimate life form."
"You're lying. You don't want me to realize that he's a test subject, too."
Andrei's eyes widened. He couldn't understand how a mere teacher could see through that.
It didn't make any sense, not with the power Rudger was displaying right now.
Since he had come this far, he had nothing to hide, so he spoke up.
"The demonic power is inherently at odds with the life force of the World Tree."
"It's at odds with it?"
"The whole point of the experiment was to fuse them. The life force of the World Tree and the demonic power were repulsive to each other, but the human body was not. It was a great neutralizer."
Andrei wanted to make the human flesh a bridge that could fuse the World Tree life force and demonic power like a surfactant that allows water and oil to mix.
Human flesh could embrace both the life force of the World Tree and the demonic power and it was through countless trials and errors that Experiment Three, the current Louispold, was created.
"I thought that if I could do that, I would be able to handle the power of demons and the life force of the World Tree in a human body. If I could do that, I would be able to evolve into a greater being, a human being with no physical defects and no incurable diseases…… a perfect body."
As he mumbled helplessly, Andrei's expression turned slightly grim as he remembered something from his past. Perhaps it was because he had been stripped of some of his demonic power but his eyes, filled with brilliance, were even clearer than before.
"But by the looks of it, it must have been the other way around. The demonic power we thought we could control was actually controlling us."
"Does that mean the demonic power is now uncontrolled and on the rampage?"
"It's not rampaging. It's moving with a will."
"What does that mean…….?"
[Kaaaaaah!]
Just as Rudger was about to argue, Louispold completely shook off the force holding him back.
The intense release of energy created a storm that made it difficult to open his eyes.
By now, Louispold had grown four arms and a horn on top of his head.
He felt as if he were submerged in the black depths of the ocean, as if something cold and massive was crushing his entire body.
Louispold, now fully demonized, raised a hand and pointed it at the base of the World Tree.
The tree moved and like worms crawling inside the roots, the things that had been wriggling and shifting began to gather in one place.
It was the same for Andrei.
Andrei's eyes widened and he coughed up black blood. It was so much that he wondered if it was draining all the blood out of his body.
In fact, Andrei's skin was puffy and his cheeks were hollow but as he looked at his body he panicked.
"What the hell."
At the same time, the roots of the World Tree swelled beneath him.
Rudger's eyes focused on the boil-like swelling.
"That's……."
When he first entered this underground facility, there was something in the shape of a human protruding from the tip of the World Tree's root.
Something similar, but much stronger and larger, was now trying to break through the root.
One of the roots of the swollen World Tree exploded, sending a cascade of black liquid down.
The black liquid seemed to swallow Louispold whole.
'If it's the demonic power that's been trapped inside the World Tree.'
Rudger's head was throbbing from his crazy thoughts since he knew what the black shadow that smiled earlier was.