Otherworld TRPG Game Master

264 – Tail Catching -4

“⋯⋯⋯⋯.”

There was no sensation in my ankle. Even though the skeletal hand was crushing it, I couldn’t perceive it until I looked down to confirm. It seemed to have a paralyzing effect.

Can the red-flavored assassin command even bones? No. The direction of the ability is different. This is the power of a third party.

Ssssh.

The skeletal hand silently blossomed, one by one. It surged from the ground, snatching and pulling at the ankles of Benet and Cissel, slowly revealing its form.

My danger sense tingled sharply. I immediately warned them.

“Watch the ground! It’s a skeleton!”

“A skeleton? Where… Huh?! What is this?!”

In the midst of it all, I found it amusing how much Cissel resembled her sister in her startled expression.

“⋯⋯A necromancy imbued with cold, damn it. This is the magic of ‘Corpse Flower’!”

Benet shouted as she swung her hoe, severing the bones that bound her. If it’s ‘Corpse Flower’… that’s the identifying name of the named dark sorcerer who has taken over Benet’s sister’s body.

The image of the “Pleasure-Drinking Virgin,” the succubus queen, came to mind. If this ‘Corpse Flower’ is on par with the queen, then they must be an extremely formidable opponent.

“Benet, what should we be careful of?”

“First, get off the ground. Climb up into the trees!”

Whoosh, crack-!

I wrapped flames around my legs, stomping down to shatter the skeletal hand, and scooped up Selvier, who was standing dumbfounded beside me, and jumped.

Then I dashed up the trunk of the tree. I saw Benet and Cissel leap onto the branches in a single bound.

Clatter, thud. Thud-thud-thud-thud-!

The sound of countless hands scratching and tearing at the ground erupted. The mound of dirt heaved, and one by one, skeletons rose from the earth.

No, they surged up.

Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud──!

From every surface I could see, bones erupted simultaneously. Continuously, endlessly. It was almost too much to believe.

Soon, a sea of bones about a meter deep formed.

And it began to wave. The bones, which should have been solid, appeared to undulate like a liquid due to their overwhelming quantity.

I felt dizzy from the insane scale.

“Crazy⋯⋯.”

“Is this, is this all human bones? How⋯⋯?”

Selvier, cradled in my arms, was also aghast. It was clear what would have happened had we remained on the ground. But it was still far too early to feel relieved.

The sea of bones, created in an instant, was steadily rising in level.

“Flame Serpent!”

Shaaak──!

I wondered if I could evaporate the sea of bones to escape the threat, so I deployed the Flame Serpent. It twisted its body, melting and burning the bones, but the chill emanating from the bones themselves cooled it down, sapping its strength.

And after about ten seconds, I was swept away by the waves of bones, leaving nothing behind. I made a quick judgment. It would be a loss to confront this unless I had firepower on the level of Kim Lulu.

Thud, thud, thud!

Trees began to tilt and gnaw at their bases. I had to do something, whether it was moving or devising a plan. Before I drowned in the sea of bones.

“I can’t expect the spell to be interrupted halfway due to lack of power, can I…?”

“If the ‘Corpse Flower’ has appeared, it must have brought a heap of souls to replenish its magic. We’ll be swept away by that wave long before we can react.”

“Then we have no choice but to eliminate the caster. Let’s go, Cissel, Bennett! There’s a response coming from the direction of the screams! Bennett, carry me, and Cissel, please take care of Selvier!”

“Yes. I will.”

Thud.

Balancing on the collapsing tree, I had to leap to the next one, and the condition of not being swept away by the sea of bones throughout this entire process… was far too harsh for a magician.

Even if the calculations were right, my physical abilities couldn’t keep up. Selvier and I raced through the crumbling forest, borrowing the strength of the two in the front. Bennett had a surprisingly pleasant ride.

In the meantime, I racked my brain.

This place, it wasn’t just a land where a brutal human execution festival had taken place. Unless it was a massive human burial ground of an ancient cannibal empire… such a quantity of bones was impossible.

It felt as if something was being created from nothing. This very sentence felt oddly familiar. Somehow, I felt I might know the secret of this magic.

As I headed toward the place where the red-flavored assassin’s scream had echoed, the reaction with the elven relic grew closer by the moment. At the same time, a cool, sticky voice resonated through the forest.

– Necromancy, and indeed all schools of magic, will eventually face a limit. That limit is ‘finitude.’ Without corpses, without souls, how can one possibly fight?

Clatter, clatter, clatter, clatter!

With the sound of bones intertwining and colliding, a massive serpent surged forth from the sea of bones. It opened its mouth wide to swallow me whole. The sharp, well-ground ribs inside its mouth spun in a spiral.

“Bennett, jump!”

“…Does jumping here mean I’m asking to be eaten?”

“I’ll evade with three-dimensional movement, so just jump!”

Without a word, Bennett leaped into the air. I immediately activated my magic.

“Booster!”

I used fire magic as a propellant to move Bennett. We executed an acrobatic flight, tracing a descending curve like a swallow.

Kagagagagak!

We slipped through a very narrow gap between the bone serpent and the sea of bones, dodging the attack. The serpent instantly ground up the unfortunate trees in its path.

A drop of cold sweat trickled down Bennett’s nape. It must have been dizzying. I was a bit scared too.

—

-So I thought. Human emotions are infinite, and to transcend the limits of magic, one must── learn ‘how to handle emotions.’ Just like the gods in the sky.

“Oppa, what on earth are you talking about?!”

“Uh, well, that is…”

Taaat.

Avoiding the waves of massive bones, we reached our destination, a beautiful clearing adorned with blooming white bone flowers. In the center, a woman sat on a throne of bones.

Beside her, a red-flavored assassin glared at us, clutching her hollow waist.

Her ashen hair, dyed a deep green from the influence of magic. A foreboding color that seemed addictive just to look at. And her features, strikingly similar to Benet’s.

Benet muttered, as if chewing and swallowing his words, in a voice filled with malice.

“The ‘Corpse Flower of Fear’…”

“It’s been a while, Benet. I heard you were enjoying a happy life, leaving your sister behind? If I had known you had such coldness in you, I would have put a leash on you in a different way.”

“You’ve come here with heavy steps. I didn’t expect to meet you here. ‘Corpse Flower.’ Now, I will take back my sister’s body──!!”

“Do you really think that’s possible? No. Let me explain why, so listen closely. Where was I… Ah, yes. It was about the extremes of magic.”

Swish.

With a light gesture, the dead soldiers rise. From behind, the sound of the sea of bones writhing can be heard. It’s a chilling noise that scratches at the nerves.

My indirect connection with that dark sorceress began the moment I was assigned to the academy. In a secret facility located beneath the academy, she had set up a magic circle to amplify emotions and was waiting for the right moment.

Now, it has been modified into a useless auxiliary battery for sessions, but looking back now…

The fact that she installed a magic circle that amplifies only emotions, rather than squeezing souls or siphoning magic, is significant.

From noble mtl dot com

And the dark sorcerers’ behind-the-scenes maneuvers at the academy. She sought to obtain a massive amount of fear through this.

“As a result of 300 years of death and resurrection research, I have finally reached the realm of the gods. ‘Materialization of Fear’… creating corpses without bodies, igniting souls without souls.”

The ‘Corpse Flower’ looked down at the red-flavored assassin, monologuing as if to boast about her achievement.

“That’s why I didn’t bother to create a dark deity statue; I could achieve it myself without borrowing the power of a dark god.”

In other words.

My holographic technology, which transforms faith into physical power, and the necromancy of the ‘Corpse Flower,’ which uses fear as strength… are on the same level.

—-

I have never once thought that I would lose in a magical battle against someone purely based on skill.

My high-performance brain is, objectively speaking, close to monstrous, and even the geniuses I’ve encountered so far have fallen short in computational ability compared to me. Only someone like Yuna could stand up to me.

But now, even considering that I am weakened and shattered into dozens of pieces──

“‘Corpse Explosion,’ ‘Bone Spear.'”

“‘Flame Javelin,’ damn it… why do you keep using such filthy and petty trajectories?!”

I am being pushed back little by little.

—

The incantations of *Corpse Flower* flew at me with pinpoint accuracy, tightening around my neck as they shattered the spells I cast one by one.

Three hundred years of dedication to necromancy had built up my experience, and my talent was such that I could harness emotions as a source of power… My intuition pierced my vulnerabilities with a precision that transcended mere strategy.

Gooo──

“*Academic Radiance*…!”

“Brother, did you steal my fable too?!”

Even when I was about to unleash my own mini sun, arranged in my own way.

“*Bone Needle*.”

“No, I—ugh…!”

When I precisely struck the trigger for the constructed spell’s impact-explosion, causing it to disintegrate in mid-air, even I couldn’t help but be left dumbfounded.

In the midst of the gunfight, it felt like I was shooting needles at the opponent’s bullets, detonating them from within the gun.

I didn’t know where the straws were inserted, but the infinitely multiplying skeletal buckets were still advancing. To sweep away that volume, I needed a massive blow accompanied by casting.

“If I use *Flame Angel* at level 3…!”

“No, Selvier. Turn off the Flame Angel!”

“*Rafflesia of the Battlefield*.”

Puhahh──! The poison gas spread with the wind. I quickly erected a wall of flames to incinerate the toxins.

Right. They wouldn’t give me a moment to cast a spell like that. That’s why I had to turn off the Flame Angel too.

While its destructive power increased, the Flame Angel’s defense dropped to zero, meaning a single effective hit could lead to death. Against an opponent capable of such intricate attacks, it was tantamount to asking to be killed.

“*Living Restraint – I shall bind you with a leash*!”

Shisel was holding back the sea of skeletons surging from the rear. He was using gravity to press them down, preventing their advance, but that alone was exhausting all his strength. He had no capacity to assist us.

And then there was Bennett.

“You’ve made a hole in my side—!!”

“Get out of the way. I don’t have time to waste on you.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, you’re going to die here, ugh?!”

Kaaang, clang!

I was engaged in battle with a red-flavored assassin, whose bone club was wrapped in crimson magic. His ferocity was unlike anything I had seen before.

As if he could sacrifice his life just to move forward for his sister, Bennett fought without looking back. He was pushing back the red-flavored assassin’s momentum.

“I told you to move aside.”

“…You think you can ignore me?!”

However, it didn’t seem like the battle would be resolved quickly.

If we were to untangle this fight, it would be best to center around Bennett. Whether it was the power of his burning spirit or something else, he was fighting better than ever.

Bennett’s strange awakening was a boon, but it was still a damn difficult fight. Shouldn’t a necromancer be unable to do anything without corpses? If you conjure emotions to summon them, aren’t you no longer a necromancer?

It’s not like I’m in a position to talk, doing all sorts of things with illusion magic.

“I’ve heard a lot about you. The mad wizard. You even wrecked the precious magic circle I set up at the academy, didn’t you?”

“Well, when I saw the magic circle, there were just too many inefficiencies, so I fixed it up a bit!”

“Thanks. Can I take it now? ‘The Funeral of the Insects.'”

“Who do you think you are… Selvier, to the right!”

That nonchalant voice from ‘Corpse Flower.’ It’s annoying. It’s the voice of someone who knows they have the upper hand.

Even thinking positively, it’s a crisis. I can’t think of a way to break through with fire magic. If it were illusion magic, I might have been able to do something!

But does that mean there’s no hope at all? No.

We had a trump card!

I dodged the flying bone spear with a quick arm-retraction, using the time I gained to shout at Bennett. I sent a fireball flying at the red-flavored assassin.

“Bennett, use that!”

“…Got it.”

Bennett pulled out the wish ticket from his pocket. About half a year had passed, but the ticket was pristine, without a single crease.

And without hesitation, he tore it in half.

A burst of light erupted from the ticket, releasing an intangible signal into the sky. Yuna would be coming soon. At that moment, the tide of battle would change dramatically.

From now on, it was a battle against time again. We just had to hold out until Yuna arrived, no matter what. If we focused solely on defense, it was not impossible.

Soon.

Crack—snap.

A fissure appeared in the air. Through that gap, Yuna’s enlarged eyes quietly peered outside. Illusions swirled, mixed with the cries of various animals.

It was a distinctly cosmic horror scene.

“…W-What is that?!”

“No, don’t worry! That’s Yuna, the Purple Mage Lord!”

I reassured the panicking Selvier.

Yuna’s sublimation, ‘Illusion Realm: Open Door.’

Using the power that blurs the boundary between illusion and reality, it seemed she was casting a spatial transfer to this marked location. Since she was coming through the land of illusions, her visual appearance was distorted by her psychological state.

This battle was won. There was no way we couldn’t hold out during that time, and if they attempted to flee, we had the capacity to catch them.

How about that? I checked the expression of ‘Corpse Flower.’ But then.

“Ha ha… heh heh heh.”

Is she laughing?

I tightened the heart I had briefly loosened. It didn’t feel like I was putting on a show. Did I have some kind of trump card? Something strong enough to face Yuna?

He spoke calmly while unleashing all sorts of attacks.

“Bennett. Aren’t you curious about the ‘Nightmare Summoning’ that was delayed by your betrayal? This is a theoretical secret that the old Purple Tower was researching. Its effect is—quite literally—to summon the most horrific thing your opponent has ever experienced.”

“………”

“I’ve been preparing this magic for a very long time. If I use it now, it will take about a hundred years until I can cast it again. That’s why… I had to choose my target very carefully.”

If it’s truly magic that summons nightmares, then using it on Bennett means… the evil god within the session would manifest in reality? A being that manipulates the universe?

No way.

It can’t be that simple of a magic. If it were, then all I’d need to do is make a child imagine a planet-sized giant octopus and cast ‘Nightmare Summoning’—and that would be that.

I would need data. The more I knew about the target in detail, the more specific and realistic the nightmare would be.

Then…

“Crazy wizard, I’ve heard the stories about you and the boy knight… the conflict with the Empire’s Sword Saint. They say the tower was half-split?”

That was true. It was when Irid finished the first session.

I witnessed the clash between the tower lord and the boy knight.

“You must have found it very impressive. You were probably trembling in fear. Your genius mind must have analyzed and accepted just how powerful the Empire’s Sword Saint is.”

That’s right. With the increase in data about fables and sublimation, it’s even more so now. I could vividly imagine the boy knight’s strength.

A monster’s brain. Excluding the boy knight himself, I probably remembered the details better than anyone else in this world.

“The reason I accepted the Faceless’s request for salvation was partly because I coveted the elven relic… but it was also because I wanted to meet you. Crazy wizard. To pull the boy Sword Saint out of your head.”

His eyes, tinted with green, curved gently.

“Damn, the shadow cast at my feet, the darkness peering through the closet cracks…”

I immediately prepared for the Paradoxical Manifestation. It was to embed it in my head. If I completely erased my consciousness and data, I wouldn’t be able to use ‘Nightmare Summoning’ at all.

If the boy knight, now my enemy, were to be established, it would be a tough fight even if Yuna came. I had to stop it.

But…

“It’s already too late.”

Right. When the wizard starts to babble, it means all preparations are complete.

Looking back, Bennett’s moment of daze might have been a hint that the magic circle of ‘Corpse Flower’ was laid out in this forest.

An ominous black light shone from the hands of the ‘Corpse Flower.’

“‘Nightmare Summoning.'”

The magic was cast upon me.

—-

The world was instantly engulfed in darkness.

And then, magic and emotion swirled together.

This was the accumulation of a dark sorcerer who had lived and died for 300 years. The reagents used, the wealth amassed, were unfathomably vast. A purple light cluster spiraled, gathering at the center of darkness.

Yes. She had been waiting for this moment. The “Corpse Flower” was ready to welcome the clone of the imperial swordsman about to be born. It might be somewhat rebellious, and perhaps difficult to control, but—

She had meticulously prepared for that part as well. She would finally hold the sharpest blade in the world in her hands. Once she had the power, she would be able to achieve everything she desired.

Gradually, a shape began to form.

From the deepest recesses of the mad sorcerer’s heart, a terror etched so painfully that it could never be forgotten finally began to reveal itself.

A jagged body. A stature of less than one meter.

…For now, it was not a boy knight. The “Corpse Flower” bit her lip. She had naturally assumed it would be a swordsman. Though it deviated from her expectations, it was fine.

That madman, who shattered all of the dark sorcerer’s plans and was a powerful sorcerer in his own right, was genuinely afraid of this being. Therefore, it must be strong enough, even if not as powerful as the imperial swordsman.

It might even surpass the swordsman. The “Lamb” had suggested that perhaps the mad sorcerer was connected to a malevolent deity.

And finally, the mad sorcerer’s fear manifested.

As the darkness and fog lifted, the metallic, smooth body revealed itself to the world, causing the mad sorcerer to lose strength in his legs and collapse, trembling in terror and screaming.

“Ahhh──!!”

An emotionless, indifferent being, thoroughly and persistently wielding a duster.

It was a cleaning golem.

“?”