Book Eater

Chapter 137: The Goal is the Port (3)

Of course, the Doom Wight wasn’t the same as other common evil spirits. It had been refined from thousands of souls and stuffed to the brim with malice. Despite being a disposable summons, it was difficult for anyone below master level to survive against the Doom Wight.

Unfortunately, it had encountered the wrong person.

Jjeok.

The tongue emerged from the hole in Theo’s left hand. On the other hand, the image of terror, the Doom Wight, was astonished to see the greedy tongue. The greedy tongue was the door to the abyss, the storage place of the grimoire which ate grimoires, where Death's Worship was kept. Anything which fell into the category of magic was a gift for it to devour.

... Krr.

Long forgotten emotions arose in the evil spirit that had been born for the sole purpose of slaughter. It was the primal instinct of prey in front of a predator, a recognition of a being on a higher tier of the food chain.

Fear.

Kiaaaaaaaaa―!?

The shadow retreated. It continued retreating desperately, even refusing the warlock’s command. However, it was already caught. If not, it would’ve escaped to the horizon at lightning speed. As a shadow of pure malice, it knew what it was facing.

Goblins and ogres? Orcs and dragons? Ants and elephants? There was no analogy which the despairing Doom Wight could use to express the difference it felt. As Gluttony looked at the fearful Doom Wight, it praised the evil spirit’s quick reaction.

- Hoh, you can grasp what is happening? It seems you’re better than a flea. However, that enlightenment can only make you unhappy.

A flea wouldn’t understand what was going on, but a beast that could grasp the concept of a hierarchy would feel fear. The warlock’s orders had tied down the Doom Wight to the point that it couldn’t even run away. Gluttony ridiculed the Doom Wight as it stretched out its tongue…

Kwack!

… and captured the miserable Doom Wight.

[You have consumed the Doom Wight, a collection of grudges.]

[Your vessel has become slightly fuller.]

[Gluttony has removed the curse left in the Doom Wight.]

“... Hah.” Theo could only smile as he watched.

His senses had given off an alarm, as if it was dangerous for him. Despite that, the Doom Wight had been taken care of in one bite, making Theo wonder about Gluttony’s limits. However, Theo’s surprise was nothing compared to the person who had summoned Doom Wight, the warlock.

“W-What? What happened to my Doom Wight?!”

The warlock panicked, as his trump card had just vanished. He stared at Theo in dumbfounded fear. However, the warlock didn’t know what a big gap that meaningless action had caused.

Theo gazed at the warlock with cold eyes and flicked two fingers.

Piing!

There were two flashes of light, and the warlock’s thighs were pierced through.

“Kuaack!”

A fool without practical battlefield experience wouldn’t be able to endure this. The warlock fell to his knees with a wail. It was a bonus that his forehead was injured as he struck the hard ground.

The ghoul worm belatedly responded to its master’s pain, but Theo’s spellcasting was faster. He cast a large fire attack spell which could crush even large monsters.

Blaze Burst.

Unlike ordinary magicians, he didn’t need to chant, and the formula calculations were completed ten times faster. Theo completed the 5th Circle magic in just a few seconds.

Kukukung...!

This was the masterpiece of his teacher, Vince Haidel. The fire pillar emerging from the ground instantly turned a part of the ghoul worm’s body and head into ashes. Even a ghoul undead would not be able to recover from this kind of damage. Fire spells would normally not be fatal to undead, but Theo’s magic power output was several times higher than normal.

Hence, the ghoul worm collapsed after losing half its body.

Kuwuong.

The aftershock caused the warlock to regain consciousness. The warlock tried to scramble away, but…

“Where are you going?”

Randolph’s double swords rested on the warlock’s neck. If the warlock tried to chant even one syllable, the swords would cut his carotid artery. Theo might’ve intended it, but Randolph had been caught off guard and his employer had almost paid for it. So, Randolph was reflecting on his mistake, making his swords seem sharper than usual.

Theo approached serenely.

“What the hell are you?” the warlock asked frantically. “I don’t know what you did, but you annihilated a Doom Wight! You are also a 5th Circle magician?! A person like you can’t live in obscurity!”

“... You seem to be misunderstanding something,” Theo replied coldly and kicked the thighs of the warlock which had been pierced by Magic Bullet. Blood spurted out as the warlock screamed in sudden anguish.

“K-Kuooooock...!”

However, Theo didn’t stop at just one kick.

Bam!

The warlock could only scream as the pain mounted. Once Theo’s shoes were speckled with blood, he stopped.

“My role is the questioner, and your role is to answer. Do you understand?”

“... Don’t make me laugh.”

“What?”

The warlock should’ve been in significant pain, but he just sneered as he glanced between Theo and Randolph.

“A warlock explores the boundaries of death and indulges in pain. Did you think your amateurish efforts at torture would open my mouth? You might have a few tricks up your sleeve, but you’re still a kid.”

The timbre of his voice gave away his confidence. Warlocks were often tortured severely to obtain information about their organization, so they were methodically trained to handle torture, including a procedure which allowed the nervous system to tolerate magic attacks.

Even a professional torturer couldn’t open this warlock’s mouth.

Theo knew this, since subjugating warlocks was one of the duties of a war magician. He also knew that torture magic had been rendered useless by warlocks long ago. They could paralyze their own nervous system, and numb any pain below a certain level.

“Kuk.” However, Theo laughed at his confidence. “Hey.”

“... W-What?”

Theo mourned the misfortune of the warlock he caught.

“Have you ever heard of Separating Muscles, Reforming Bones?”

***

According to Lee Yoonsung, who had been born in the East, this technique hadn’t originally been used for torture. Unlike the continent where all sorts of recovery magic and potions were developed, there was no way for practitioners to heal wounds rapidly, so they focused on detailed research of the human body. They studied bones, muscles, nerves, and even how magic power flowed through the blood.

Separating Muscles, Reforming Bones was a treatment that was born from that research. Separating Muscle meant literally separating the muscle fibers, while Reforming Bones meant mixing up the framework. It was a technique which loosened the muscle fibers and restored broken bones to their original states. It was used to treat internal wounds which weren’t seen on the surface, and it became a must for any healer in the East to learn.

Although, it had one drawback that couldn’t be removed.

The technique caused a truly horrifying amount of pain. The pain that shot through the body once muscles and bones were moved around wasn’t at a level that anyone could endure. Therefore, it was common practice to use anesthetic or paralyze the spinal cord when Separating Muscles, Reforming Bones was used.

However, there were those who exploited the technique maliciously.

“―――――!”

The warlock couldn’t even scream. Whenever Theo’s fingers twisted the warlock’s muscles, the warlock’s body would spasm. His vocal cords had locked up from extreme pain, and he could only rasp weakly.

It was a ‘humane’ torture because it was treating the victim.

“Ah, that’s the wrong location.”

The warlock’s eyes bulged. “―――――――?!?”

Of course, mistakes could happen. Fortunately, the warlock’s organs were sturdy, and the unfortunate warlock could only try to endure as tears streamed down his face.

After just thirty minutes, the warlock gave up all resistance.

“Agent Isaac sent you?”

“... Yes, that’s right.”

“You are just the vanguard, and there’s another team on the way?”

“... Inde... Ed.”

“What is the name of your organization?”

“... I… don’t… know.”

It didn’t take long to finish the interrogation. The warlock answered whatever Theo asked. Whenever he hesitated, Theo would raise a finger, and the warlock would reply in a flash. It seemed the warlock named Oldun was too low ranked to know anything about the organization.

Theo asked one final question, “The black magic you used, can you use it one more time?”

“... Doom... Wight... Is that correct?”

“Is it a spell that calls evil spirits?”

“Yes… but… it’s disposable… magic…”

If so, he couldn’t use it again. Theo’s finger rose without hesitation.

Piing!

The tortured warlock’s body instantly relaxed as he collapsed. Theo cast a quick fire spell to incinerate the body to remove the possibility that a necromancer would get any information from the corpse.

Randolph clicked his tongue as he watched from the side. “Hah, I didn’t know Young Master would use such a cruel method.”

Torture hurt both the tortured and the torturer, although in different ways. Theo wasn’t born with that type of desire in him. Still, he hadn’t hesitated to torture and kill the warlock. It seemed he had grown while they had been apart. However, Randolph couldn’t help feeling some regret as he remembered the past.

Theo shook his head with a wry smile. “Randolph, do you know the 10 Commandments of the Red Tower?”

“What? Of course, I don’t know.”

“Then I will use this opportunity to tell you a little bit about them.”

The 3rd commandment was that trash could sometimes be recycled, but human trash was generally not recyclable. The 8th commandment was that the only good warlock was a dead warlock. Last, the 9th commandment was that the method of death didn’t matter as they were still going to die.

Randolph shook his head with a stunned expression. The Red Tower was infamous among mercenaries for many reasons, but he hadn’t imagined that they would work with such cutthroat guidelines. It was fairly crude, but it wasn’t a bad creed for Theo to follow.

The atmosphere had grown tense, so Theo changed the topic. “They still don’t know my identity but if they’re sending out these kinds of troops… It seems like the Orcus Company is quite high up in the organization.”

“I think so as well. This warlock might’ve fallen easily, but they aren’t simple opponents. We can’t ignore them if they start popping up every day.”

“That’s right. So, I was thinking..." Theo pulled out a map and traced a line as Randolph came to his side. “We need to change our destination.”

Randolph looked at the dot that Theo’s finger had stopped at.

“Ramos?”

“Yes, it’s one of the few port cities in Kargas.”

“... Ah, I understand. Rather than sticking to land, we should take a ship?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

Randolph grinned as the implications became clear. Theo almost smiled while rolling up the map.

The undead were vulnerable to sunlight as well as to the sea. Unlike the predator free environment under the ground, the ocean was rife with marine predators. The undead would also be buffeted by the waves of the sea, weakening their bodies. Theo’s choice of transport would create serious problems for his enemies who utilized sand worms to move quickly.

.

Randolph jumped into the driver’s seat. “Then which direction is Ramos?”

Theo gauged the distance for a second, “If we run all day and night… then it’ll take a day?”

“Okay, a day is good. Hiyah!” Randolph snapped the reins of the two horses and started the carriage. They rumbled away from the deserted plains, which had been filled with undead minutes ago.

This time, the carriage ride wasn’t interrupted as they headed for a distant city, doing their best to outpace their pursuers.