“The kin of Ochan have appeared again.”
“…What are you suddenly talking about, Dunamis?”
Sargasso of Water, the chief of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Ivory Tower, wanted to clutch the back of his neck as he watched the child spout nonsense out of nowhere.
Surely the body the great Eibon had made for him was composed of elemental mana, so there was no reason he should suffer from an adult disease like high blood pressure, yet whenever he heard those brats talk rubbish, he felt as if his blood pressure were rising.
“They were exterminated in the old era. Why are you looking for the dregs of an age that have all died of old age now?”
“I just came back from fighting the shadow mage. It seems that fellow’s true identity is an Ochanja.”
Sargasso let out a great sigh. How could a child who had never even seen an Ochanja dare to put that name in her mouth so carelessly?
“Do you understand what you are saying right now? The Ochanja were weapons of destruction that even those wicked fairies found too difficult to handle, and so erased from the surface. If such a thing had appeared, the fairies would already be dancing with blades.”
“Stop spouting nothing but denial bias and listen for once, old man. What is the defining trait of an Ochanja?”
“A body transformed from consuming too many contaminants.”
“The shadow mage I witnessed was a truly hideously twisted monstrosity. So much so that I wondered how something like that could be walking around in this world.”
Dunamis shuddered the moment she recalled the shadow mage’s horrific appearance. A body made only of blood vessels, with body parts sprouting from it at random. She wondered if even a horror that had crawled up from hell would look like that.
Sargasso held his head. The fact that a newly appeared enemy looked somewhat strange was no proof that it was a weapon of destruction from the old era.
“Ochanja, huh. I’ve heard of them too.”
“Salamandine? What business took you outside?”
“You slowpoke. You didn’t come help quickly, so I had no choice but to deal with it myself.”
“Shut up. You let the shadow bastard get away in the end. How is that the fastest? You’re a slug.”
The Ochanja were a race that absorbed and broke down the contaminants covering Earth—that is, warped mana. In other words, the Four Heavenly Kings, with their absurdly high mana density, were targets for elimination by the Ochanja.
Dunamis lightly ignored Salamandine’s slander and emphasized that fact.
“And he called us beings that defy the providence of nature and tried to kill us. He has a hideous appearance like the Ochanja, and he follows the same behavioral principles as the Ochanja. On top of that, do you know what he said when I pressed him about his identity?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“Be quiet, Salamandine. The child went to a human school and came back having learned nothing but strange things. He said to ask the fairies about his identity. It seems either someone survived the fairies’ extermination campaign, or those who disappeared long ago have reactivated.”
“Hmm…”
Only then did Sargasso take the situation seriously. The horrific form, well, he could roughly understand if some monster inhabiting an outer dimension had crawled out.
But add to that hostility toward the fairies and the same principles of action as the former Ochanja. If there were three points in common, it was worth suspecting at least once.
“In that case, we shall lay a trap. There is bait an Ochanja would never dare pass by.”
“What is it? Are you going to get inspired and dance or something, old man?”
“Do you think I would do something so undignified? There is a mana crystal Lord Eibon left behind for us. A relic preserving the mana of the old era. To the Ochanja, it is a target that must be erased from this world.”
The old era.
Salamandine rolled the words around in her mouth. Of the Ivory Tower, only Sargasso had experienced that ancient age of chaos before the guardian fairies seized supremacy.
Though Sargasso called that era “the glorious age when Lord Eibon personally guided me,” he was reluctant to testify in detail about what the times had been like.
‘They said Earth back then was truly horrific.’
A desire for victory boiled up inside Salamandine. If magical girls were the military force the guardian fairies, the rulers of the current age, could put forward, then the Ochanja were the symbol of the old era’s military might.
Salamandine of Fire, the most destructive element in this world, wanted to defeat every other strong foe. A fighting instinct blazing like flame.
“Come to think of it, Salamandine. What is that box in your hand?”
“Ah. This is a set of cake slices I bought at a café. Everyone come eat.”
Dunamis shook her head. No wonder she had been strangely late to arrive as reinforcement. Had she been getting that packed?
“Bah, food these days is all too sweet.”
“Then I’m confiscating yours, old man.”
“Silence! Have you no respect for your elders?”
Grata of Earth, who had been sleeping behind Sargasso, crawled out. Seeing her nostrils twitch, it seemed she had woken after smelling the cake wafting from the opened box.
“Oh. This shop’s cakes are good.”
“Damn it, Grata! I bought four so each of us could have one, what the hell are you doing!”
Salamandine’s fighting instinct was first brought to bear in defense of her own cake.
***
For several days after Na Ihyeon’s abrupt counseling session, Raban’s daily life was peaceful.
The students who had suddenly crowded in had quieted down somewhat, the Ivory Tower made no particular move, and the mascots likewise did not do anything stupid.
In the quiet counseling room, it was perfectly fine to simply lounge about and read a book.
‘That’s exactly the problem.’
No, Na Ihyeon was supposed to come for counseling! Why on earth?
Raban rubbed the back of his neck in distress. Could it be that the “friend” he had heard about during the last counseling session had somehow relieved her inner anxiety through some sort of emotional exchange?
To think she was living such an exemplary school life. He couldn’t stand it.
‘Kuh, as expected, even if I have to take a risk, perhaps a slight wedge between them… No. No, that’s still not it. If that destroys the relationship of trust, there’ll be no coming back.’
Raban complained about his peaceful daily life as he prepared to leave work. The student peer counselor had already gone home long ago, so all he had to do was tidy up appropriately and lock the door.
It was right then. Something was detected by the blood vessels he had planted throughout every corner of Hikarius.
‘What the hell is this crazy negative thought energy?!’
It was extremely, extremely pure negative thought energy. Qualitatively, it was on an entirely different level from the monsters of the Ivory Tower. A negativity so pure it was no different from the otherworld he had drifted into, that world full of super-dimensional madmen calling themselves Archdukes of the Demon Realm and whatnot!
‘Such a muddied mental landscape—this must surely be an opportunity bestowed by heaven for a black mage…’
Raban immediately realized that his thought was wrong.
Because heaven did not give opportunities to shut-in degenerates like black mages. If it arranged anything, there was a ninety-nine percent chance it would be the sort of arrangement that screwed over black mages, and the remaining one percent was an arrangement to evaporate them.
‘Then is it a trap?’
He thought they might well have discovered that he was obsessed with negative thought energy.
He had left no clear clues, but strangely, everyone who saw his magic always seemed to think, ‘That guy uses negative thought energy as a catalyst for his magic. We need to beat him down as soon as possible.’
No matter how many times he thought it over, it was an abnormal phenomenon whose cause he could not understand, but if the same thing happened periodically, one could prepare countermeasures.
Raban decided to simply resign himself to it and accept it. It was not as if a black mage being treated unfairly was anything new.
If he stepped back and thought about it for a moment, it was clearly a trap. What he had to do now was simple.
‘I’ll just take the bait and run!’
That was how he had lived in the otherworld. If he did not stick his head into danger, he could not survive.
‘One out of three times, I got caught doing that, but in any case, I succeeded more often than I failed, so all’s well that ends well!’
Having rapidly completed his self-justification, Raban began gathering the bundles of blood vessels spread throughout Hikarius.
Toward the place where that highly nutritious negative thought energy was located.
***
[Mohu?! Why is this aura in the current age, mohu…!]
Papirun was bewildered upon sensing the mana of the old era. That mana, possessing such overwhelming wickedness, should no longer have existed in this world.
How much effort had Mother put into eradicating that black mana? Since it had not shown itself after this world took on its current form, she had thought it had vanished completely….
‘Sargasso?’
If he was one of the Four Heavenly Kings old enough to have directly assisted Eibon, it would not be strange for him to have kept black mana from the old era in storage.
If so, she could also guess why he had taken out that mana. The shadow mage. It was likely bait meant to draw out that being suspected to be an Ochanja.
But that was burning down the house to kill a bedbug. That mana was energy sought not only by the Ochanja, but also by the terrifying demons beyond the dimensional barrier.
[This is an emergency, mohu! We need the Magilist immediately, mohu!]
Papirun summoned the magical girls. They had to purify that power at once.
***
[Can you feel it? That fairy’s bewilderment?]
Schnee did not answer.
[That power originates from the old era the fairies have made taboo. Put another way, it is also a power capable of opposing the fairies….]
Shut up. She snapped at the voice chattering chaotically inside her head.
[Devour it. They fear that power and call it black mana, but that is mere exaggeration. Mana is mana. It can be used. Do you not have more than enough qualification and capacity to seize power?]
But the voice continued in an even more excited tone.
[You must make what the fairies fear into your own weapon. So that when they bare their fangs at you, you can use it as a dagger of counterattack. Within you already lies the ability to do so.]
“Schu—no. White! What’s wrong! We’ll be arriving at the site of the mana anomaly soon!”
“Ah. I was wondering if the shadow mage would come again this time. About how we might be able to defeat him…”
She was still a cheerful friend. She did not even know she was being deceived by the fairies.
‘I have to… I have to save her.’
Ihyeon thought, ‘She was already thinking in advance about how to deal with the shadow mage—Schnee really is smart!’ and was impressed. She tried thinking along with her, but as expected, she had no confidence when it came to using her head, so the only idea she managed to come up with was to borrow someone else’s strength.
“Uuuuumm. Since our magic doesn’t seem to be a good match against him. It would be nice if Salamandine came.”
Upon hearing that answer, the voice inside Schnee’s head murmured.
[Feeble homunculi. They, too, will become nourishment for you. One day, when the time comes‥‥‥.]