Editor 120

Against the Darkness (7)

With Taetherton’s strength, the duke could be killed with a single touch, and after that, Cleio could be lawfully punished.

That is, if he failed to heal Melchior.

‘I’m only level 4. If a level 7 knight attacks for real, I can’t stop him.’

The duke’s bedroom was past several thick doors from the hallway. Even if Cleio shouted for help, it would only echo in the empty corridor, where not even a single guard was posted.

‘Right. The reason I was brought all the way here was because it’s a sealed room with no eyes watching.’

The last person in this room couldn’t even open his eyes, so it was the perfect place for anything that must not be seen by others.

That meant Cleio’s words would not escape this place either.

“Your Highness, are you in much pain?”

“…It feels as if shards of glass are circulating in my veins.”

Melchior’s honest answer trailed off. Even his noble patience clearly couldn’t block out the pain he was in now.

Cleio recalled the message from ‘Promise’ he had seen earlier.

‘The restriction on this guy’s unique skill increases the penalty if it’s used more than a certain number of times. If you keep using it and even trigger a collision, you end up like half a corpse?’

Seeing someone so inhuman completely collapse, he must really be in pain.

“…Understood. I will cast the spell. I hope I never find out in this lifetime what punishment the Duke of Armorique can mete out.”

Cleio drew a circle just big enough to envelop only himself and the target.

Even in pain, the crown prince did not stop watching Cleio’s dazzling circle.

It was the first time he had witnessed Cleio’s magic directly.

With his defenses lowered, the crown prince’s face looked oddly dazed, even helpless.

It was unimaginable how terrible the pain must have been for someone like Melchior to lose his self-control.

Truthfully, he would have treated him even without the threat.

‘It would be a disaster if a main character like the crown prince died suddenly or went mad because of a skill penalty.’

Cleio wanted the future to proceed as close to the manuscript as possible.

Melchior was a person who had to exit the stage eventually, but that moment was not now.

‘If he’s removed from the board now, Aslan will become the crown prince immediately, and that would be the worst development.’

Even amidst these stray thoughts, the four magic formulas overlapped perfectly in the same pattern.

The crown prince and the mage were wrapped in a magic formula as clear as if cast in gold.

In the flash of light that overpowered the dim gaslight, Melchior’s platinum hair seemed to turn white.

At that moment, the man’s face looked like a ten-year-old, or like an ancestor (statue) that had survived a thousand years.

It was just after Cleio had modified Zebedi’s incantation and recited it. He suddenly felt a dizzying sensation as if his intestines were being squeezed.

A tremendous amount of ether was being drained. Even with his expanded ether vessel, it was hard to handle the consumption.

‘This is almost… like last summer, when Arthur nearly died and came back… Damn.’

The light healed the crown prince.

The veins that had stood out on his white forehead subsided, and the tension in his clenched jaw relaxed. The prince, barely freed from physical pain, couldn’t even hide his expression.

With “Separation” maximized, even time seemed to slow.

Thoughts.

Thoughts seeped into the gap of time.

He doubted the author intended for him to observe such a miraculous being from such close proximity.

‘In that sense, have I joined in giving the author a hard time… How did things end up like this?’

Melchior was the strongest person in this world, yet the one fighting the most hopeless battle.

The opponent he wanted to challenge was not a king, emperor, revolutionary, or politician.

It was the author, a being outside of their time. The god of this world—‘the author’—was also the one who had shaken Cleio’s own fate.

Was that why?

Such an ill-fitting question slipped out.

“How many times has this pain repeated for you, Your Highness?”

Cleio remembered the crown prince speaking of the repetition of history, with the dead he had killed lying behind him.

If the dungeon hadn’t opened at that moment, what would this man have said?

For the first time that night, Melchior showed an expression close to a smile.

On a face where gender was almost indiscernible, the innocent smile of a child held no purpose of seduction.

But it lasted only an instant. Melchior gradually regained the expression of ‘the crown prince.’ What returned was a cold answer.

“Double-cast the spell. If you succeed, I’ll answer.”

Cleio simply followed orders and initiated the double casting.

A faint smell of blood brushed his throat.

‘Still, since I’m not casting it outside the circle, it’s using less ether. Is it because I’m using the ether from the magic stone? It’s a waste of money, but at least I’m saving ether.’

Cleio left a small amount of ether at the bottom of his vessel and fully projected the fifth [Mitigation] formula onto the magic stone in his hand.

As he reached out to transfer the formula to the crown prince, a hand with a faint warmth grabbed Cleio, who held the stone. It was the touch of someone desperate.

With the double-casting of the Onyx of Submersion, the stone turned to ash between their tightly entwined fingers.

Gradually, Melchior’s eyes cleared transparently. The teal rim around his central gaze became vivid once more.

Cleio thought,

‘Now that the confusion has passed, he probably won’t answer after all. Huh? But why is he… losing strength…?’

The always upright Melchior seemed to sway, then collapsed. It was impossible for Cleio to support the tall crown prince.

He heard Taetherton gasp behind him. The magic was still ongoing, so he clearly couldn’t intervene.

Cleio, dragged down by the unconscious crown prince, fell to the floor.

At the same time, all the magic formulas completed their roles.

With his ether drained, Cleio had no strength to get up. There was no room for formality.

Taetherton, moving swiftly, ignored Cleio lying on the floor and, with utmost courtesy, helped Melchior to sit by the bed.

Then he drew his sword.

[Level 7 Swordsman
Title: Knight of the Lake]

‘What the— I save him and he doesn’t even thank me…!’

Was this what emergency room staff felt like when grabbed by the collar?

Vwoom!

Taetherton suddenly unleashed sword energy with [Circle of Assault].

Cleio, unable even to activate a defensive spell, gasped. Even with “Separation” on, the hair on his body stood up. The sword energy fired by a level 7 swordsman came at him at unavoidable speed.

Just grazing it would break bones and sever organs, yet the sword energy passed right by Cleio’s ear and toward the narrow window behind him.

Kiiiiiiiek!

A familiar grassy stench, a familiar magical beast’s screech.

Cleio reflexively looked back.

Flutter.

A black magical beast, driven away by sword energy, flapped its wings.

Though wounded by Taetherton’s attack, the beast didn’t fly far and circled the area around the duke’s bedroom.

[Python
?Category: Magical Beast
?Level: 6]

The commotion arrived a moment after the shock.

Bwooooooo—!

Bwooooo!

A trumpet blared throughout the entire Tristain ducal residence.

The sound of weapons clashing, armor rattling, and soldiers shouting was detected by “Perception.” Even though it was an ambush during a banquet, Rotan issued swift orders and the soldiers responded quickly.

‘It’s a pack of magical beasts! They’re trying to breach the front gate.’

‘We’re detecting attacks from the air. It’s a python!’

‘Lyssa, you take the front gate! Trude’s unit is authorized to use magic stone silver arrows. All knights, to your assigned sectors!’

‘Understood!’

‘Orders received!’

‘Light more fires! Shadow beasts fear fire!’

‘Light the fires!’

Cleio forced his trembling knees to stand and ran to the window shattered by Taetherton’s attack.

The biting winter wind blew the boy’s loosened hair wildly.

From the high floor where the duke’s bedroom was located, the castle and mountain range were visible at a glance.

At first, he thought the mountains were moving.

But what was really moving were magical beasts—an enormous number of them.

To Cleio’s eyes, it looked as if the entire mountain was lit up with lanterns. It was because of the ‘Promise’ messages announcing the appearance of magical beasts. The item quickly overheated from the overload.

‘It’s because there are too many magical beasts…!’

Small magical beasts with thin, long legs densely covered the cliffs, climbing up the castle walls.

[Shadow Tripod Spider
—Category: Magical Beast
—Level: 2]

The beasts were low level, but there were far too many.

Ordinary soldiers poured oil and set fires to drive the beasts away, but to completely annihilate magical beasts, ether was essential.

‘Shit. Of course. There’s no way this damn author would let the magical beast incident end with an easier development than the previous draft!’

He still had two editor rights left, but he had no idea where or how to edit to make these magical beasts disappear.

Besides, if he interfered with the entangled issues of Arthur, who became a time bomb with editor rights, and Melchior, who was a time bomb by himself, who knew what bigger problems might arise?

Kiiiiii!

The python, having circled the castle, again stuck its snout through the shattered window.

The python, not young, was the size of a small boat. The black-winged serpent even blotted out the last threads of moonlight.

Taetherton, blocking the spot by the window, grabbed Cleio by the scruff and shoved him back inside. Cleio, who fell onto the carpet, quickly raised his head.

Taetherton, who had crouched, stood up and activated [Circle of Assault] once more.

Vwoooong.

The sword hummed.

The sword energy, now with a blue tint and closer to silver than gold, cut through the night sky.

The python, unable to dodge the rapidly fired sword energy, spattered blood.

Kieeeek!

Even as it thrashed, the python seemed possessed, endlessly trying to invade the duke’s bedroom.

As Cleio watched the fierce battle between the magical beast and Taetherton, he noticed something strange.

‘What is that tangled on the python’s back…?’

Because the beast’s scales were black, it was hard to spot.

A dust-like shadow was wrapped around the python’s nape and wing roots, constantly pushing the bleeding beast forward into the sword energy.

Taetherton’s precise and stern swordsmanship looked as though it would sever the python’s life at any moment.

Even as the prince relentlessly continued his assault, the python’s forepaws kept scratching the outer wall of the bedroom.

With even more momentum, Taetherton drew out a longer sword energy. The bolt-like attack pierced straight through the beast’s gaping jaws.

The magical beast flailed its sharp forepaws, clawing at Taetherton’s arms and shoulders. But the knight, intent on severing the beast’s life, didn’t retreat an inch.

Kieeeeeeek!

At last, the beast drove its claws into the castle wall, spraying blood everywhere in a frenzy. The struggle was so intense that the entire bedroom shook.

Crash!

A bedpost snapped and collapsed onto the duke’s withered body. Cleio reflexively reached out, but the defensive spell didn’t activate in time.

Taetherton’s sword tore the beast’s throat and gutted its insides.

The elongated sword energy broke the python’s heart, and the beast began to turn to ash from the tips of its wings.

The black shadow tangled with the python slithered across the floor like a many-legged bug, then vanished.

Cleio, who was about to chase it, could only look outside at the shattered wall as a world-shaking shriek erupted.

Beyond the fragments of the vanishing python, two even larger black serpents shot down from the distant sky toward the fortress.

Queeeeeek!

Kiiiiit!

As the wings of the two rampaging beasts brushed the tower that sounded the warning bell, it exploded, and two turrets that had fired shells from the fortress wall collapsed at once.

Outside the walls, shadow spiders; in the air, two pythons invaded Tristain’s castle.

Even in the chaos, Taetherton snatched up the onyx from the vanishing beast and checked on Melchior’s safety.

“Your Highness. Are you safe?”

In the midst of the castle’s total upheaval, the crown prince, unable to stand on his own and sitting against the bed, was solitary and dignified.

Even the aftermath of pain and exhaustion seemed to be nothing more than a mode of expression for that man.

It was the man Cleio knew well.

The crown prince spoke in a voice devoid of the slightest regret.

“I am fine. But it seems your father does not have much time left.”

The duke’s body, tangled in the collapsed bed curtains, revealed only his head and hand.

From the half-opened lips, breath had left, and the mummy-like fingertips did not move.

Taetherton crossed the room and pulled his father’s body from the wreckage.

As he placed his father’s head on his lap, the duke’s eyelids fluttered halfway open, then stopped.

At that moment.

A shadow in the corner of the room swelled, then instantly spread to cover the entire space.

Taetherton’s sword quickly slashed at the darkness, but a part of the severed shadow nevertheless sucked into the duke’s emaciated body.

‘Promise’ flashed a warning.

[Grendel
—Category: Magical Beast
—Level: —
*Level depends on the host body]

The duke’s corpse leapt from Taetherton’s arms at an impossible angle for a human, then grabbed a ceremonial sword displayed on one wall.

Vwoooong!

The intricate ceremonial knot on the sword, unable to withstand the pitch-black ether wrapping the blade, burned to ashes.

Cleio’s face turned deathly pale.

‘Level depends on the host body…!’

In life, Duke Theo Tristain had been one of only four swordmasters in the kingdom.