Chapter 117. The Forgotten Royal Social Gathering (2)
Seraphia’s body stiffened, leaving her unable to do anything.
Chilling shrieks erupted from every direction. All kinds of grotesque creatures covered the tea-party venue.
Figures with twisted limbs crawled across the ground while screaming. They possessed human faces, but things that weren’t human writhed before her.
The previously elegant tea-party venue—
It had transformed into a landscape of horrific terror in an instant.
“A-Aah...!!”
She was terrified.
She was truly, overwhelmingly terrified.
……
Fear and terror paralyzed even her mind.
She couldn’t move a single step. In the end, she tightly closed her eyes.
That was when it happened.
“Don’t look away. Face it. Fear can be suppressed once it is visualized.”
Adrian’s voice reached her once again.
Seraphia slowly opened her eyes.
She saw Adrian’s back.
Adrian stood in front of Seraphia and confronted the grotesque creatures.
Seraphia stared at his back with her mouth slightly open.
It appeared so broad—
That no one would dare attempt to cross it.
It also appeared so strong—
That nothing could ever break Adrian.
His back was broader than any fortress wall on the continent and stronger than any shield.
At that moment, the grotesque creatures charged from every direction.
Their speed surpassed imagination.
However, an even faster and more tremendous force exploded from Adrian’s fingertips.
Crack—!!
Sharp wind pressure swept across the landscape.
Sk-Screech!
Chilling screams echoed around them. The grotesque creatures were swept away in an instant.
After that, they no longer charged. They couldn’t charge. Instead, as though terrified of Adrian, they began hesitantly retreating.
He was incredible. He was truly incredible.
Before Seraphia realized it—
She no longer felt any fear or terror.
‘Brother is protecting me….’
Nothing frightened her. She wasn’t afraid of anything.
Seraphia swallowed once.
Whiiiiine—!
Ink-black lines of cold spread in every direction with Seraphia at their center.
The lines of cold became increasingly colder and more intense. Then Seraphia’s eyes flashed with pure-white light—
Crackle—!!
An explosion of cold erupted and instantly silenced the entire tea-party venue.
The explosion of cold swallowed the venue.
* * *
I lowered Dragon’s Claw [A], which I had sharpened and extended.
‘It’s over.’
As expected, the grotesque creatures had all been engulfed and frozen by the explosion.
Even the screams inside the tea-party venue were frozen.
Everything had stopped.
“Haaaaah...!”
I heard Seraphia release a breath as her tension faded.
Exhausted, she collapsed onto the ground.
Seraphia had awakened the Authority of Frost.
‘She clearly can’t control the Authority properly yet.’
She was still inexperienced.
Come to think of it, she had only recently begun wielding the Authority. She was literally at the stage immediately following her awakening.
Perhaps because of that, the explosion of cold hadn’t been properly controlled. The air had frozen irregularly, and ice had erupted from entirely unrelated places.
Its power was also absurdly weak compared to her previous life. Compared to the Monarch of Frost, she couldn’t even be called a novice.
In the first place, how could the Monarch of Frost possibly feel afraid of mere Gremlins?
Nevertheless, Seraphia was growing stronger.
She had grown since the incident with the Shameleon and had improved even further since the disturbance at the royal palace.
‘The Monarch of Frost is still the Monarch of Frost.’
She hadn’t been called the [Coalition Forces’ Greatest Enemy] for nothing.
....In any case—
I calmly organized my thoughts.
First were the grotesque creatures that had covered the tea-party venue.
They weren’t nobles. They weren’t even human.
According to the information I obtained through Predatory Instinct [S], their true identities were….
‘She controlled Gremlins.’
Gremlins were cunning and malicious demons.
They generated fear and terror within living beings before devouring their minds.
Only an immensely powerful and dangerous entity capable of controlling their malice and chaos could command such Gremlins.
In other words—
‘Was it Luseria?’
Luseria, the Seductress of Lust.
This was her doing.
Formless—the Gremlins’ defining trait.
Gremlins possessed no true ‘appearance’. Because they lacked a fixed form, they could transform into anything.
However, it wasn’t a particularly beneficial ability.
Their lack of form meant they also lacked physical substance. Because they lacked physical substance, they couldn’t define themselves.
They could become anything, yet ultimately could never become anything.
In that sense, Formless wasn’t an ‘ability’. It was more like….a fundamental property.
That was why it possessed no rank.
Consequently, there was nothing I could acquire from it through Predation [S+].
Regardless—
Because Gremlins lacked physical substance, their nature made them easily subordinate to the Authority of dream demons.
Luseria, the Seductress of Lust.
She was a Cambion who had inherited the Authority of a dream demon.
She was also a Black Mage capable of wielding powerful Black Magic.
Black Magic used dark magical power. However, in truth, it wasn’t actually dark ‘magical power’.
By the same logic, Black ‘Magic’ wasn’t truly magic either.
According to Iliana, the Coalition Forces’ Archmage—
“It is Sorcery.”
Sorcery.
It was the power to borrow mystical forces, produce various phenomena, and bring about inexplicable transformations.
In other words, it was classified as a transformed form of Aura energy—
“It will be easier to understand if you think about the Logistics Commander’s spirits.”
The power wielded by the Spirit Wielder, a Hero of the Coalition Forces, was also Sorcery.
“To explain the power of Sorcery in detail....”
Something about the Law of Sympathy.
Something about the Laws of Similarity and Contact.
Homeopathic Sorcery, Imitative Sorcery, Contagious Sorcery, and other such things.
....Anything beyond that made my head hurt, so I stopped listening.
There was only one thing I managed to understand.
“For these reasons, Sorcery is generally mysterious, occasionally grotesque, and often overwhelming.”
....That was all I understood.
In any case—
Luseria was probably observing this Royal Social Gathering from somewhere even now.
‘Even the Spirit Wielder had difficulty fighting Luseria.’
Cambions were born possessing immense power.
More importantly, there was the Abyssal Entity that would eventually choose Luseria.
The queen who was born within the void of the Abyss and subjugated the Abyss itself—
The Abyssal She-Spider Carrying Fifty Thousand Young.
The Spirit Wielder’s spirits embodied the power of nature, yet they struggled against the Abyssal young carried by the Abyssal She-Spider.
Fortunately, Luseria hadn’t been chosen yet.
Nevertheless, she was already a powerful Black Mage.
Therefore, if Luseria was involved in this Royal Social Gathering….
◆ Error: Inventory is not responding.
I could now uncover every truth concealed within this Royal Social Gathering.
My Inventory wasn’t responding.
Judging from my experience inside the Infinite Labyrinth, this place was a separate space isolated from reality.
‘That means this is a barrier space.’
Of course, a barrier couldn’t be installed instantaneously.
It required extensive preparation at a specific location over a prolonged period.
There was no possibility that someone could secretly establish a barrier within the heavily guarded royal palace.
But what if Queen Marceline had been bribed?
‘Then establishing a barrier inside the royal palace would have been entirely possible.’
In other words, the entire royal palace was the ‘domain of a Black Mage’.
I slowly sharpened my senses.
Instead of limiting my perception to the tea-party venue, I expanded it throughout the entire royal palace and activated Predatory Instinct [S]—
◆ The Vanished Social Club : You have become trapped within a social gathering that is endlessly forgotten. Carefully familiarize yourself with the [Rules] below and reach the final day.
==[Rules]===
[Rule 1] — Restore your memories of the original Royal Social Gathering. They are your only guide for identifying the Anomalies occurring within the Vanished Social Club.
[Rule 2] — Anomalies that didn’t occur during the original Royal Social Gathering will appear within the Vanished Social Club. Do not overlook even one.
[Rule 3] — If an Anomaly is discovered, eliminate it immediately before proceeding to the next event of the Royal Social Gathering.
[Rule 4] — If no Anomaly is discovered, proceed to the next event of the Royal Social Gathering.
[Rule 5] — If you eliminate something that isn’t an Anomaly, everything will return to its initial state. Exercise caution with your actions.
[Rule 6] — If the next event of the Royal Social Gathering begins before every Anomaly has been eliminated, KiWio WKS will devour your memories and soul. You must eliminate every Anomaly.
[Rule 7] — The Vanished Social Club will repeat infinitely until you escape.
[Rule 8] — Carefully follow the Rules above and reach the final Ball.
What remained was simple.
I would destroy the plan one step at a time and completely overturn the intended outcome.
Then—
‘He won’t be able to remain hidden in the darkness forever—’
◆ Successor’s Will [EX] is resisting the Fragmented Self!!
◆ 110 Sanity points have been accumulated.
As I returned to the royal palace’s guest chamber, I became lost in thought.
‘I’ve figured out the entire plan.’
Queen Marceline had been completely seen through by me.
She was now in the palm of my hand.
…….
The messages suddenly appeared before me.
At the same time, the memories of my fragmented self were joined together once more.
My memories had been forgotten again.
It was a truly terrifying Authority.
Nevertheless, I resisted it.
Fragments of my memories were consequently restored.
‘....Was there another Anomaly?’
It seemed there had been another Anomaly besides the Gremlins.
Then again, the [Rules] only stated that Anomalies ‘existed’.
They never stated that there would be ‘only one’ Anomaly.
‘How cunning.’
Ultimately, I had overlooked an Anomaly.
Because of [Rule 7], I had apparently returned to the beginning.
[Rule 7] — The Vanished Social Club will repeat infinitely until you escape.
Therefore, the Royal Social Gathering had yet to begin.
In other words, this was the point in time before the Anomalies appeared.
◆ Error: Inventory is not responding.
My Inventory still wasn’t responding.
‘That means the Inventory’s failure to respond wasn’t an Anomaly.’
There had definitely been another Anomaly besides the Gremlins.
This confirmed that the space was a barrier isolated from reality.
However—
‘Luseria shouldn’t be capable of creating a barrier like this.’
As a powerful Black Mage, she could use barriers. However, she couldn’t use this particular kind of barrier.
It wasn’t that she chose not to use it. She was incapable of using it.
The erasure of memories—
Oblivion on this scale was beyond Luseria’s power.
Before being chosen, Luseria’s limit was commanding Gremlins and wielding powerful Black Magic.
Frankly, even Iliana from my previous life couldn’t accomplish something like this.
Only one person could.
One of the Six Monarchs who served the Emperor.
‘Did the Monarch of Darkness finally intervene?’
After I blocked every scheme at the Royal Social Gathering, he had ultimately been forced to act.
Therefore, this barrier space had been created by Luseria through the Authority of the Monarch of Darkness.
In other words, this wasn’t the domain of a Black Mage.
It was a ‘Domain of Darkness’ in which every phenomenon had been thoroughly distorted.
This was a space that even Ian couldn’t resist and from which no one could escape—
But that no longer applied to me.
Successor’s Will [EX].
The pressure from the Authority undeniably existed, but it could never corrode me.
I alone had completely escaped his domination.
That brought me back to [Rule 6].
[Rule 6] — If the next event of the Royal Social Gathering begins before every Anomaly has been eliminated, KiWio WKS will devour your memories and soul. You must eliminate every Anomaly.
Even though I had overlooked an Anomaly, my memories and soul hadn’t been devoured.
That was because of Successor’s Will [EX].
The limit of my mental capacity was Aleph-Null.
In other words, it was Infinite.
In fact, whenever my memories and soul were devoured, I accumulated Sanity points instead.
I had just gained 110 points.
That brought my current accumulated Sanity to an astonishing 682.
‘Should I raise it to 9,999 before leaving?’
I seriously considered it.
Until now, Predation [S+] had been my only method of accumulating Sanity points.
On average, I accumulated three to five Sanity points per monster.
Sanity determined the power of the Transcendent Skill Berserk [?].
It was good that Successor’s Will [EX] had removed my limit.
However, my Sanity points increased far too slowly. As a result, I had been unable to properly understand Berserk [?].
That was why so many things remained unknown.
What other Super-Combination Skills could I obtain by transcending skills besides Promote Metabolism [C+]?
How many Sanity points were required for each rank?
How many Sanity points would I need to reach [A] Rank?
How many would I need to reach [S] Rank?
Could I transcend a skill to a rank beyond [S+]?
What would happen if I transcended the rank of Predation [S+]?
Furthermore, could I transcend two skills simultaneously?
If so, would it cause side effects?
And if there were side effects, what would they be?
I wanted to test everything personally and determine the answers.
However, I couldn’t.
Accumulating the Sanity points that determined the power of Berserk [?] was far too difficult.
But with a single activation of the Authority of Oblivion—
I immediately accumulated an astonishing 110 Sanity points.
The efficiency was overwhelming.
Here, I could use, test, and experiment with Berserk [?] endlessly.
Thanks to Successor’s Will [EX], I could accumulate an Infinite number of Sanity points.
That would allow me to create new, overwhelmingly powerful Super-Combination Skills and Combination Skills.
I didn’t know what this KiWio WKS that devoured my memories and soul actually was—
‘Do I need to escape from this place?’
....Was there really any need to leave?
story is gettin good!~