Ian sat on a bench outside city hall, staring at the main building, now stained with flowers. The structure, covered in snow-white spider lilies, gave off a mystical feeling and, at the same time, an extremely grotesque atmosphere.
[Aaaah—]
The spider lilies densely carpeting the outer walls played a beautiful music-box song. A bizarre song of the moon that caused temptation and delirium only in Reptilians. It was an application of magic that the Reconstruction of All Things had obtained while dealing with the Outer God that had devoured the moon.
It was far less efficient and had a much narrower range than playing the song through an item created with alchemy, but its effect alone was outstanding. Ian looked down at the Reptilian corpse lying forlornly at his feet and the magic circle drawn with the creature’s blood, then sank deep into the bench’s backrest.
Rustle.
He opened the grimoire. He quietly stared at the page on which the magic he had used was described.
[Grave of Flowers]
[Causes spider lilies to bloom that induce hallucinations and auditory hallucinations only in a specific race. The range of the magic is limited to about one building, and targets that enter the range will take their own lives and become nutrients for new spider lilies. If a building is designated as the target, only up to the fourth floor falls within the magic’s range. The duration of the magic is 10 minutes.]
[Materials required for the magic: A body organ of the race you wish to designate as the target, blood, 5 pure-white flowers, 15 pieces of aberration flesh, a small amount of sugar, a small amount of the caster’s blood.]
[Warning: Once this magic is activated, the caster cannot leave the magic circle for 10 minutes. The moment they do, the caster will also be caught within the magic’s range.]
Grave of Flowers.
While most other spells usually had intuitive names like “magic that makes learning foreign languages easier” or “magic that tells you the location of a lost object,” the names of spells created by absorbing Outer Gods were rather vague. It was extremely difficult to infer what sort of effect it might have from the name Grave of Flowers.
The process of activating the magic was not very intuitive either.
First, one had to choose the race to be targeted by the magic, pull out one of its organs, and place it nearby. If one wanted to target humans, one would use a human organ; if one wanted to target Reptilians, one would use a Reptilian organ. Naturally, Ian had chosen the latter.
The collected organ was placed at the center of the magic circle drawn in blood. A single flower was gently set atop it, and flowers were also placed above, below, to the left, and to the right. Here, the flowers absolutely had to be white.
Next, the white flowers were dyed red with the caster’s blood.
Blood had to be poured until the petals turned red. There was no need to worry about it flowing away. The flowers would absorb the blood on their own anyway. Once the flowers turned red, sugar was sprinkled over them.
Finally, once the 15 pieces of aberration flesh were placed in the blank spaces of the magic circle, the preparations for the magic were complete.
The moment the incantation was recited, the magic would activate and cause a single white spider lily to bloom inside the space the magician desired.
The spider lily lured and devoured the race designated as the target of the magic one by one, slowly multiplying. The lured “prey,” unaware that they had been chosen as sacrifices, became intoxicated by the flower’s beauty and turned themselves into nutrients. In other words, they committed suicide.
Once every target inside the space had died, a giant spider lily bloomed on each outer wall of the building, accompanied by a sound like a heavenly song.
Yes, just like now.
[Laaah—]
Sweet music drifted from inside the city hall building, and the flowers covering the outer walls gathered together to form one enormous spider lily.
In an instant, colossal pure-white petals covered every exterior wall.
Ian watched the sight in silence for a while, then took out a cigarette, put it between his lips, and exhaled at length.
“It’s over.”
As soon as he said it, the building where the stationed soldiers had been staying split in half and came crashing down. The Circulator trampled over it on all fours and roared fiercely. The air trembled at the sound, loud enough to tear eardrums apart. Of course, to Ian’s ears, it was only a brief vibration, just as before.
Ruuuumble!
The moment the building completely collapsed, air filled with stone dust billowed outward. Ian narrowed his eyes and waved the grimoire like a fan, while the Circulator rummaged through the concrete debris and chewed up the remaining Reptilian corpses, swallowing them down.
He considered stopping it, but since it seemed like the thing would soon be full and clock out anyway, he decided to just leave it be.
The situation was already over to begin with, so he no longer needed its help. It would not be a major problem if it disappeared.
He did not even entertain the assumption that there might be Reptilian remnants left. That was only natural, since he trusted his own magic absolutely. Otherwise, he could not call himself a magician.
Of course, he did not let his guard down completely.
Even if all the Reptilians were dead, the remaining humans might come charging at him, might they not? It was only right to maintain at least the minimum level of defense in order to fend off their attacks.
He had used magic instead of releasing the Circulator so as not to touch the humans separately, but that did not mean he intended to spare those who resisted. He had no desire to try talking to them in an attempt to persuade them, only to end up with a kitchen knife buried in his belly.
Well, it was not as though he had any particular intention of going inside city hall anyway, so it did not seem like anything terribly dangerous would happen.
“Whew……”
Ian blew out smoke and silently stared toward city hall.
As he did, the Circulator, having finished its meal, returned with several Reptilian corpses. They were badly damaged, but there was no issue using them as materials. He gave a small laugh and stroked the head of the Circulator, which had flopped down beside him.
“Thanks. I’ll put them to good use.”
[Growl!]
The Circulator let out a short roar and opened its mouth wide. Then black seawater poured from its throat in torrents.
Seawater from the outer cosmos that encroached upon everything it touched. As though it was now about to leave, it bowed its head toward Ian and shoved that head into the seawater pooled on the ground. The puddle, which clearly should have had no depth at all, greedily devoured the Circulator’s body.
It was a reverse summoning quite befitting the Circulator. Ian stared quietly at the place where it had vanished, then looked back at Mariang, who had dropped from midair, and put the cigarette in his mouth. She had fallen because she had been clinging to the Circulator’s back until just now. Fortunately, it seemed she had not been abducted into the Outer Sea.
“Uuugh……! That hurt……”
“Stop exaggerating when nothing’s broken.”
Ian spoke coldly, inhaled smoke, and blew it out. A sweet lemon fragrance spread through his mouth.
“How far has your recovery progressed?”
“It’s still hard to move. But I’ve restored the magic on my clothes to some extent.”
Whine, whine.
Mariang somehow crawled across the ground and lay down at Ian’s feet. Ian’s face was reflected in her blue eyes.
“I probably won’t get hurt from moving now.”
“You just said it hurt when you fell.”
“I was exaggerating.”
“……”
Ian leaned back against the bench, seriously contemplating whether he should put a bullet hole through Mariang’s abdomen.
As he did, the tightly shut doors of city hall opened, and a group of humans walked out from inside.
A group of various races, ages, and genders. Among them were people whose bellies bulged as if they were pregnant, and people who had lost their arms and legs. The only weapons they gripped were homemade spears made by taping kitchen knives to mop handles.
They were crude weapons that made one wonder whether they could even catch beasts, let alone Reptilians. But for them, that was probably the best they could do.
“Hiss…… Whew……”
Ian inhaled and exhaled smoke one last time, then tossed the burned-out cigarette nearby. Mariang stared at the group of survivors looking around and asked Ian,
“Shall I kill them, Master?”
“Kill what? Stay still. If they’re to be killed, I’ll handle it.”
“Keh!”
Ian lightly kicked Mariang in the side and drew his revolver. Just then, the leader of the group discovered him, spotted the gun in Ian’s hand, and widened his eyes. It was only natural, since he himself was using a mop handle with a kitchen knife attached, while his opponent was holding a gun.
No matter how much of a Zhao Zilong one might be, one could not perform the feat of deflecting bullets with a plastic spear shaft. In that case, could a human who had been ruled by Reptilians charge at a human with a gun and survive?
Fortunately, the leader seemed to have reached a similar judgment, for instead of rolling his eyes back and charging, he swallowed hard and began saying something to his group. Then he walked toward Ian alone.
“……”
The distance gradually closed. Ian waited silently until the man spoke first.
The man also seemed to realize that Ian had no intention of attacking, but he did not come too close and opened his mouth while keeping some distance.
“Are you the one who saved us?”
“You could say that.”
“……Are you, by any chance, a psychic? Or an awakened one? A hunter? Something like that?”
An awakened one.
It was a concept that often appeared in fiction. Naturally, it was a word unrelated to Ian, and he gave a small laugh as he waggled the revolver.
“No. I’m a magician.”
“……A magician?”
“Yes.”
“……Haa. Well, with aliens around, I suppose there’s no law saying magicians can’t exist.”
The man scratched his shaggy hair as he answered, then bent at the waist in a right angle toward Ian.
“Thank you for saving us. Thanks to you, we were able to get free.”
“Do you have anywhere to go?”
“We’ll have to start looking now. Would it be possible for us to accompany—”
“I refuse. I have business of my own.”
“I understand. Then we’ll be on our way. I hope everything goes well for you too, Mr. Magician.”
As though he had expected Ian’s refusal, the man answered without lingering attachment and turned away. Ian stared quietly at the back of his head, then took a knife that killed primates from his bag.
“Wait.”
Ian called the man to a stop. The man, who had been returning to his companions, looked back at him.
“Yes?”
“It’s a gift. Take it.”
Ian threw the bandage-wrapped knife to the man. The man was startled out of his wits.
“Uh, uuh……! Agh! Wh-what are you doing, suddenly throwing a knife at me?”
“The blade’s wrapped in bandages anyway, so it doesn’t matter. In any case, as long as you have that, you can instantly kill a fellow human just by lightly stabbing them, so keep it with you. People are scarier than Reptilians, after all.”
Ian smiled faintly and rose to his feet. In one corner of his vision, he saw a black horse galloping toward him from afar, with Yuna and Eunha riding atop it.
Given that they had arrived despite not that much time having passed, it seemed they had not been summoned from somewhere far away to begin with. Ian waved back at Yuna, who was waving at him, and spoke.
“How you use that is up to you. Use it however you like.”
“……Is that really all right?”
“Just be careful not to stab yourself by mistake.”
With those words, Ian turned toward the two people coming his way. The man stood there blankly, looking down at the hilt of the knife, then bowed to Ian and returned to his group.
A short while later, the group of survivors began moving somewhere. Yuna and Eunha, who had come riding down the road, immediately dismounted and checked Ian’s condition.
“Mr. Ian, are you all right? Are you hurt anywhere? The Reptilians didn’t do anything to you, did they?”
“I-Ian! Are you okay?! Ah, wait. Now that I’m down, I feel sick…… U-uurgh……!”
The two women, each showing a different reaction, stared at Ian’s face, then naturally lowered their gazes to his feet.
And so the eyes of the three met.
“……”
“……”
“U-uurgh!”
Mint-colored eyes, blue eyes, and black eyes tangled in the air. Eunha, having instantly grasped the other party’s identity, pulled Ian back and opened the grimoire, while Yuna staggered and then stomped on the face of Mariang, who was lying on the ground.
Crack!
With a fairly brutal sound, the magic of the dress she had just barely managed to restore shattered, and Mariang took the full impact.
Twin streams of blood burst from her nose and flowed down her cheeks.