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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Night]
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Chapter 101
Slash!
Without hesitation, I slit his throat and ended his life.
Even though it was his own death, his expression looked incredibly peaceful.
Leaving the dead cultist behind, I fixed my gaze on the woman from the Moon Watchers.
"Do you know anything about this situation?"
"I don’t know anything."
"Really?"
I gave a sly smile, and she returned it awkwardly.
"That won’t do."
"Wha... what?!"
"Come on. Whether it’s a cult or a murder group, it’s all the same, isn’t it?"
As I drew my black spear and stepped forward, she screamed in terror.
"Aaaah!! There’s a crazy murderer here!!"
For someone who killed their targets without hesitation, she had a surprisingly human air about her.
If things had gone as usual, I would have tortured her to extract information since I couldn’t get anything from the cultist.
However, if she was willing to cooperate, there was no need to go that far.
Based on what the cultist said, neither group seemed to be directly related to this incident.
If the cultist’s words were true, she was probably in the same situation.
Ultimately, the suspects I was lucky to come across weren’t the real culprits.
There was no helping it.
When I put away the black spear, she looked at me blankly, then quickly realized she’d been tricked.
Her face flushed red.
But she didn’t lose her temper or lash out.
There was no choice but to continue searching.
Just as I was about to leave, she called out to me.
"Wait a minute."
"What is it?"
"Are you... trying to resolve this situation?"
I shook my head at her question.
Resolving the situation would be great if possible, but finding Luna and Melissa was far more important.
"If I come across anything, I’ll deal with it, but it’s not my priority. I need to find my sister."
She quietly closed her eyes for a moment before opening them again.
"I actually have a bit of skill."
She produced a black spirit in the palm of her hand.
"This is a special spirit that can be contracted under rare circumstances. Its power allows me to read the fog and quickly find whoever I’m looking for."
However, she was the only one who could handle the spirit.
"You’re looking for your sister, so I’ll help you."
"What’s in it for you?"
She chuckled.
"Mutual aid. We don’t have a reason to be enemies, do we? We both want to solve this situation. Plus, you helped me by eliminating that person."
She cast a cold glance at the cultist’s lifeless corpse.
"Fine."
After I described Luna and Melissa’s appearances, she began communing with the spirit.
Soon, dark tendrils extended rapidly in all directions from the spirit’s body.
Its form and energy were distinctly different from typical natural spirits.
About ten minutes later, she opened her eyes.
"I found her. Luna is currently in a safe zone with other survivors. You don’t need to worry too much about her."
Luna was quick-witted.
She could probably handle a monster or two on her own.
"What about Melissa?"
When I asked, she closed her eyes again and communed with the spirit.
She quickly reopened them.
"She’s not far from here."
There was no need to worry about deception.
If it was a lie... then I’d kill her.
Fortunately, Melissa didn’t seem to be seriously injured.
Good.
After all the brutal training with the Heavenly Demon Sword, if she got taken out here, I’d close the Cascadia family for good.
And until Melissa reached the highest level of Expert, I’d stop her from any outside activities.
"Do you know what’s causing this phenomenon?"
The surroundings shifted rapidly.
If you took even a slightly wrong turn, you’d end up back in the same place, like a maze.
However, the Moon Watcher woman’s spirit found a path through the maze with incredible speed.
Several monsters appeared along the way, but they didn’t slow us down.
These monsters didn’t have any strategy or teamwork.
They just wandered around and charged at any living thing they saw.
"This phenomenon?"
"Yes."
"I thought it was caused by the cult, but if not, we’ll have to investigate further."
After a brief moment of consideration, she increased her pace and began to reveal information.
"This phenomenon is caused by a monster thought to be extinct in ancient times."
"An ancient monster?"
"Yes. It’s called a Mist."
"Mist... That’s strange. The Mist shouldn’t be powerful enough to create such a massive phenomenon."
I remembered the familiar creature I had encountered in Labyrinthos—one known as Mist.
It was a monster that spread fog, creating its domain like a spider web.
But it wasn’t particularly strong.
"I didn’t expect you to know about ancient monsters. This land, where the Berner estate is located, experienced a mysterious event hundreds of years ago. All the monsters from that time were sucked into an alternate dimension."
A Mist that devoured a corrupted spirit had gone berserk.
Against all odds, it fused with the corrupted spirit and began creating this massive fog phenomenon.
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Night]
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If it had been exterminated back then, there would have been no problem.
But instead, it was sealed.
The crazed Mist had been accumulating power for a long time and had now become a monster strong enough to cause this situation.
"What about the monsters here?"
"They must be the ones that were caught up in the event. In addition to finding artifacts, I’m also here on a secret mission from my leader. It’s an investigation into what’s happening here. I didn’t expect it to involve an ancient monster, though."
A murderous group concerned about such things?
How ironic.
"Why is this happening all of a sudden?"
"There are several theories, but the most likely one is..."
She paused and pointed in a direction.
“Someone must have tampered with the seal hidden somewhere in the territory. And they did it deliberately. It would have to be someone with access to high-level information to even know about this seal.”
Is there anyone in this city who could pull that off?
Just as that thought crossed my mind, something large began to appear through the fog.
It looked like a giant worm.
But unlike an ordinary worm, its massive mouth was wide open, and Melissa, whose body had been swallowed whole with only her head sticking out, wore a calm expression.
It was as if her head was just poking out of the worm’s compressed mouth.
“…What are you doing there?”
“I can’t move. It feels like I’m completely crushed.”
“What about the undead I assigned to you?”
“I… left it with a friend in the safe zone.”
She abandoned the undead I gave her for protection?
Her calm tone suggested she didn’t feel like she was in immediate danger.
Besides, it didn’t make sense that someone who had mastered the Heavenly Demon Sword could be taken down by just a worm.
I turned my head slowly and saw the corpse of a massive beast.
It was a type of monster I had encountered once before on my way here.
Based on its level, even Melissa’s current abilities would have been tested against it.
She must have been ambushed right after dealing with that thing.
While I felt a bit proud of her, seeing her current state made me sigh.
“So… why are you here?”
“What do you think? I came because I received a divine revelation.”
“A revelation? Don’t tell me it was the saintess’s revelation? What have you been up to this time…?”
I should probably explain the deal I made with the saintess, but that didn’t seem important right now.
“Forget that. Can you just help me out? I’m starting to have a hard time holding on.”
Melissa’s increasingly desperate expression made me think it would be fun to just leave her there for a while.
“What were you planning to do if I wasn’t here?”
She averted her gaze slightly and answered quietly.
“I was going to gather aura and blow it up.”
Well, that would work.
Of course, she’d have to swim around inside its stomach until then.
“Geez.”
Slash!
I drew my cursed sword and slashed down through the air, slicing the giant worm’s body in a clean line.
It burst open immediately.
“Ahh! That’s disgusting!”
Covered from head to toe in the worm’s bodily fluids, she screamed as she tried to approach me.
“Don’t come any closer. You smell.”
“…”
Sure, it’s festival season, and there are plenty of people around.
But when I heard “access to information,” only one person came to mind.
“No way. It couldn’t be him.”
“Do you have anyone in mind? If we leave this situation unattended, whoever did this will gain enormous power. The force from the rampaging mist has matured over the years of being sealed, and its density is close to that of a disaster.”
She seemed eager to hear who I had in mind, but I couldn’t definitively say, “It’s that bastard.”
[Based on all available data, the person most likely to be responsible is Prince Dorn Lu Pascallia.]
‘For someone like that, he sure was rescuing survivors.’
If his goal was to consume the power of the mist, he shouldn’t have been wasting time doing that.
He should’ve been absorbing the mist as quickly as possible.
“You seem to have someone in mind.”
“If it’s a member of the royal family, they’d at least have access to information like this.”
Her eyes narrowed at my answer.
“Royal family? In this territory? Wait….”
Her eyes widened.
“Don’t tell me you’re talking about Prince Dorn Lu Pascallia, a branch member of the royal family?!”
She asked me again in shock.
“Is there a problem?”
“There is! Prince Dorn would never do such a thing!”
Just as we were having this back-and-forth, Melissa, who had been shaking off the liquid on her body, sneaked up and grabbed my clothes to wipe her face.
“This fabric absorbs well… ouch!”
I flicked her forehead and looked back at the other woman.
“You sound like you know a lot about the prince.”
After contemplating briefly, she let out a sigh.
“I am Meryl Dyne, a knight who serves Prince Dorn.”
“I thought you were something else earlier.”
“My role as a knight is a cover identity.”
So, in the light, she serves as the prince’s knight, and in the shadows, she’s a member of the Moon Watchers?
Unbelievable.
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Night]
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