Adopt 199
by Cristae199
When I forced myself to look away from that ominous sight, it happened.
“We have to kill the Red Tower Master right now.”
As if he had realized something crucial, Giuseppe instantly summoned several spears, leveling them at the rubble of the building—as if he expected something horrific to emerge from within at any moment.
“I may not know exactly what that black magic circle signifies, but I do know what their aim is.”
What the black magicians desired: Make the Red Tower Master immortal.
But that goal had already gone astray.
“That’s impossible.”
I tried to speak with conviction, but my voice trembled despite myself.
I too felt a strange, persistent unease.
Hadn’t Cheshire said it? To achieve immortality, hundreds of lives must be sacrificed.
But we had removed the explosive magical artifact and prevented any casualties.
That meant the price had not been paid, and the black magic for immortality could not be completed.
Yet instead of explaining this, I found myself helping Giuseppe and Sir Cherry sift through the debris to locate the Red Tower Master.
“Cerberus.”
I even called for Cerberus, who had not yet fully recovered, to join the search. It wasn’t long before we uncovered the Red Tower Master, unconscious and pinned beneath a massive column.
Giuseppe raised his spear at the Master’s exposed back, defenseless as a child.
Ignoring Cheshire’s request to secure the Red Tower Master alive, he prepared to strike—but I did not stop him.
At the very moment Giuseppe’s spear was about to pierce the Red Tower Master—
Rumble, crash!
A sound like thunder echoed overhead, and from the slowly spinning black magic circle, a bolt of black lightning struck down.
I could not tell whether Giuseppe’s spear or the lightning struck first.
Crack!
It was only when Giuseppe’s spear clattered harmlessly to the empty ground that I realized we had failed.
“Where did the Tower Master…?”
As I stood staring blankly, a reply echoed from above.
“Ah… finally, at last!”
Only moments before, the Tower Master had seemed on the brink of death, pinned by a column. Now he wheezed with rapture, his face contorted in delirious joy.
Creak, snap.
His grotesquely bent limbs moved with snapping sounds, returning to proper form.
Instinctively, I understood.
The Red Tower Master had achieved his goal.
“You must step back,” Sir Cherry urged, guiding me backward, step by careful step.
My heart pounded with a sense of foreboding, but I struggled to interpret the situation optimistically.
After all, Sir Cherry had already subdued the Red Tower Master once, and Giuseppe was here as well.
Surely, it would not be so difficult to overcome him again—or so I thought.
“Wretched worms… I will make you pay for looking down on me.”
The Red Tower Master was even more deranged than I’d imagined.
Multiple black magic circles materialized around him, a sinister violet light flickering in his eyes.
On the surface, it seemed he had summoned black magic circle after circle with no offering at all.
Crackle.
But when I saw his body collapse and re-form like a castle of sand, I understood.
The Red Tower Master was offering his own body as the price for the spell.
Yet the immortal body that black magic had granted him was perfectly restored each time it was lost.
Only then did I realize why Cheshire had called the immortal Red Tower Master a calamity.
“…Sir! Sir Ru!”
Someone’s urgent shouting roused Cheshire’s consciousness.
Cheshire awoke to a splitting headache.
“You’re awake!”
The first thing he saw was the tearful, wrinkled face of an old magician peering down at him.
Cheshire took a moment to recall the situation.
That damn black magician had hurled an explosive magical device, which detonated in the air.
It had all happened so fast that he hadn’t even had time to draw a proper magic circle. He’d simply flared his magic, enveloping the nearby magicians to shield them.
He’d poured out so much power so quickly that he’d emptied his own magical core, then lost consciousness entirely…
‘At least I saved the old men’s skins.’
Relieved, Cheshire struggled to sit up—only to fall silent at the scene before him.
Most of the priests, who had not been protected by his barrier, lay sprawled helplessly across the ground.
Though the temple and the tower had always been enemies, seeing those priests lose their lives without even the chance to scream was more tragedy than triumph.
At least the corpses had been moved under shelter and covered with the Tower’s capes by the magicians.
Rubbing his forehead, Cheshire snapped irritably, “The black magician?”
“We have him over there, bound… but I doubt he’ll survive.”
“Hah, not even fanatics.”
What had they been so desperate for?
‘They babbled about the end of the world, if I recall.’
Cheshire and the magicians’ only goal had been to capture the Red Tower Master.
They had little interest in these so-called ‘Veilwalkers of the World.’
Yet suddenly Cheshire realized he could not take this black magic cult lightly.
“More importantly, Sir Ru—you should see this.”
The magician pointed toward the sky.
Cheshire followed his finger—and his expression froze.
In his ashen eyes was reflected the massive black magic circle, layered fourfold.
He held his breath as he began interpreting the patterns displayed in the sky.
He had never seen such a magic circle before, yet it was not difficult to infer its purpose.
“The black magic circle of immortality…”
At Cheshire’s words, the magicians gasped in astonishment.
“But—that’s impossible! The only ones sacrificed for it were a handful of priests here.”
A magician immediately objected, and he was right.
A spell of true immortality demanded a sacrifice of hundreds of lives.
“If it were true, perfect immortality, yes.”
“Pardon?”
“That spell…”
Cheshire paused, furrowing his brow.
Whoever had created this black magic circle deserved admiration. It was so sophisticated, so robust, so ingenious, that he almost wanted to pay his respects.
And yet, he could not fathom it.
Based on his understanding, there was an intentional trap embedded in that spell.
Narrowing his eyes to examine it more closely, Cheshire watched as the magic circle suddenly spewed lightning, then, as if its duty were fulfilled, slowly dissipated into smoke.
Cheshire spotted the direction the lightning had struck and, ignoring his injuries, sprang to his feet.
“Master!”
“Yes?”
If he was correct, the lightning had struck the plaza.
Every time the whip-like appendages extending from the Red Tower Master lashed across the plaza floor, shards of stone scattered.
They targeted Giuseppe and Cheshire, but could not breach their sword and spear.
At a glance, the battle seemed to favor us, but in truth it was one we could not win.
Because the Red Tower Master could never die.
‘When the typhoon finally passes, people will come out again.’
If that happened, casualties would be inevitable.
Sheltered within the barrier Giuseppe had erected, I racked my brain in search of any possible solution.
Just then, two children came running from an alley that led into the plaza.
Unaware of the danger, they dashed out—only to freeze in horror when they finally took in the scene before them.