Chapter 415: Riot

“You should go, Xenon.”

Yareli said it, telling him to go help Jane. It was unexpected, but she was sincere.

Oliver asked, almost automatically.

“What did you say?”

“Go help Jane… She’s your friend, isn’t she?”

Yareli thought of how Oliver acted at their first meeting at Millieu. Normally, he was overly peaceful, but his true self came through.

Both sides seemed genuine to her. Sending Oliver seemed better.

“Staying here will just make you worried, won’t it? Why not go yourself? One less outsider won’t be a big deal.”

Yareli said that and looked to Kevin, seeking his approval.

Oliver also looked at Kevin, who, after a moment’s thought, nodded.

“Go ahead. You’re not urgently needed here.”

Oliver had been torn between his duty and his friend, but Kevin’s words cleared up his confusion.

Honestly, someone as strong as Jane might not need Oliver’s direct help, but it still felt wrong not to go.

Oliver first thanked Yareli for her suggestion and Kevin for granting permission, then also Terence for watching over the situation.

Terence responded to the thanks.

“First time I’ve been thanked for just standing still, but it does feel nice.”

“I’m sincere… If it’s alright, would you accept this?”

Oliver took out three sheets of paper embedded with portal magic, handing one each to Kevin, Terence, and Yareli.

All of them, being excellent wizards, immediately discerned the magic embedded in the paper.

“Portal magic? …A scroll? This is strange. I’ve never seen one like this before.”

Terence, knowledgeable about scrolls and magical items, asked quickly.

“It’s similar… I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

***

After saying that, Oliver received Lucien’s communication device from Terence and immediately left the university.

Each building in the university was already surrounded by a semi-spherical magical barrier. Going out was just as hard as coming in.

Oliver touched the barrier, like when he moved with Yareli earlier, along with understanding the magical formula flowing through. By channeling the magic stored in his body into the barrier, he made a small hole to exit.

Fortunately, the hole sealed itself just after Oliver passed through.

Once outside the barrier, Oliver pulled a vial from his pocket, extracted some emotions, processed them first into threads, then into fabric, and finally wrapped it around himself before covering it with Black Armor, which matched his muscle structure.

With his preparations complete, Oliver bent his knees slightly and jumped.

Bang━!!

The highly compressed emotional armor maximized its effectiveness through extremely advanced magical formulas.

The ground beneath Oliver caved in as he shot over the wall, leaving the university in the blink of an eye.

Boom!

With just one leap, Oliver moved from within the university to land against the wall of a three-story tavern.

The wall cracked due to the powerful jump, but it didn’t seem to be a big problem.

However, looking out from the cracked wall, everything outside the university—and more precisely, the Capital of Gallos in Ravely—was far from normal.

Including the three-story tavern where Oliver stood, the nearby area that served the university had been partially destroyed by the giant footfalls, and the buildings that hadn’t collapsed were instead engulfed in flames or transformed into battlegrounds.

“Grrr… Why is this happening?”

“Die! Die!”

Oliver looked beyond a collapsed roof, seeing people fighting.

Some of them were driven mad by black magic, attacking everyone around them like wild beasts.

Those unaffected by black magic fought to protect themselves, spreading violence everywhere.

And with the violence came chaos, fear, dread, anger, hostility—intense emotions that boiled over in the city, gradually sinking down.

“…”

After surveying all the emotions and their sources from the chaos, Oliver snapped back to his purpose for leaving the university.

There were many concerning things, but something more important required his attention.

Jane, Murphy, and assisting Lucien Murat, who had cooperated until now.

Oliver turned his body toward District 10, where the Murat Family was, bent his knees again like before, and kicked off the building.

Bang!! The air shredded with a sharp sound as Oliver leaped through a burning rooftop in one breath.

***

“Ah… So that’s the monster.”

Using the Black Suit to leap between buildings, Oliver arrived near Dix Castle in District 10, whispering to himself.

On his way there, he’d already seen werewolves, giants shorter than 10 meters, griffins, human-pig or human-chicken hybrids, and zombie soldiers armed with guns. But the monsters around the castle were of a different kind.

There were monstrous birds with a woman’s face, insect wings, and a man’s body mixed with a chick’s head, and monkeys clashing cymbals that were more grotesque than the monsters rampaging in the city.

But what caught Oliver’s attention more than their bizarre appearance was the malice emanating from the creatures and the fact that they were, without a doubt, Creatures.

These were artificial life forms, like Oliver’s Child.

Except they felt different somehow. Though Oliver couldn’t explain it in detail.

‘Maybe that makes sense…’

Oliver thought, considering that Creature-type black magic was the most difficult and obscure branch of black magic.

The fact that these were the least-described in the black magic books he had read proved this.

From those books, Oliver learned that creating Creature-type black magic didn’t just require skill, but also creativity, imagination, sincerity, and certain talents or aptitudes that couldn’t be precisely defined.

‘It was something you think you understand, but also complicated… By the way, was the Flesh Cook a Creature specialist?’

Oliver wondered, watching the monsters flying around the castle and feasting on human flesh.

If he recalled, the Flesh Cook specialized in accumulating strength through consumption and enhancing the body through disease-type techniques.

‘Maybe there’s a black magician specialized in Creature-type magic.’

Oliver thought back to fighting the mutant black magician under the Flesh Cook who specialized in manipulation magic.

The one who appeared suddenly when Oliver was working with Pinkman.

He had used his massive life force and emotions to summon a zombie army in an instant.

‘But that’s not the point right now.’

Having sorted out his priorities, Oliver stopped being distracted by the sights and began to act.

He descended to the ground, knelt on one knee on the deserted sidewalk, touched the ground with his hand, and channeled his stored magic into it, changing the nature of the surface and sinking beneath it.

Clad in the Black Suit, Oliver sank gracefully into the ground, reaching the sewers below.

[Light.]

Immediately upon descending, Oliver gathered and focused his stored magic to create light.

The purpose of this wasn’t just to see better.

There was a more fundamental reason: to spot an enemy targeting him from the dark.

Sssch!—!

As soon as the light appeared and chased away the darkness, Oliver saw a shadow lunging at him with a dagger.

‘A shadow? …Manipulation-type black magic? No. It’s a Creature.’

Oliver observed as the shadow lashed out with the dagger.

The shadow, which had been large enough to fill the passage when it first appeared, shrank under the light, allowing Oliver to block the attack relatively easily.

However, he couldn’t afford to relax.

“Heeheehahahahaaa!!”

Just as Oliver deflected the dagger, a clown-like figure dropped from the sewer ceiling, swinging a toy-like scythe.

At first glance, it looked human, but Oliver could tell that this clown was also a Creature.

It was impressive how much it resembled a person.

“Hah! Hahahahaha!!”

The clown jabbered as it swayed its upper body from side to side, looking for an opening to slash with its toy scythe.

Despite the scythe’s silly appearance, it was sharp enough to cut deep into the concrete walls and sever steel pipes, but its clumsy handling made it easy for Oliver, trained in close combat by Kevin, Terence, and Yareli, to evade and counterattack.

Squish.

Oliver struck the clown’s chest with his Quarterstaff, sinking deep into its fat chest, making a deflating noise.

The Creature-clown laughed.

“Hohohohoo!!!”

[Grind.]

As Oliver chanted the spell, a piercing noise mixed with the Creature’s grotesque laughter echoed throughout the sewer.

“Gyahaha!! Hahaha!!”

Even as a large hole opened in its chest and it rolled on the ground in pain, the clown Creature kept laughing.

Its strange, ill-fitting form made Oliver tilt his head quizzically. Just then, the shadow, still hidden in the remaining darkness, extended the dagger and elongated its arm, stabbing through the clown Creature and absorbing it.

Gulp!

It was a surreal sight, almost like a scene from a comic strip. Oliver watched quietly.

He observed to understand what made such a thing possible.

After fully digesting the Creature, the shadow beckoned, causing an alligator to emerge from the stagnant sewer water.

The alligator was slightly different from a real one, with larger eyes and a mouth that resembled a human’s.

Intriguingly, when the alligator opened its jaws, a parrot appeared inside it.

[Are you! Dave?]

The parrot spoke as it opened its beak.

The voice, somewhere between human and beast, was as grating as nails on a chalkboard, but Oliver replied respectfully.

“I am Xenon now. An employee of the Tower of Magic. May I ask your name?”

[I am! Fen!]”

Fen. Oliver instinctively realized that this was the Eternal Child, Fen.

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Fen. If you don’t mind, may I ask you a question?”

[You’re exactly like I heard! What do you want to know?!]

“Did you attack the castle up there, Mr. Fen?”

[Yes!]”

“May I ask why?”

[To lure you out!]”

This was not the answer Oliver expected, so Fen continued.

[The Flesh Cook! That old man promised! He said if I helped him, he’d let me catch you!]”

“I see… Catch me?”

[Yeah! But I’ve changed my mind! I don’t want to act according to the old man’s desires!]”

So Fen had attacked suddenly and then changed his mind… Oliver wondered what he was talking about. It didn’t seem like he was joking.

Oliver focused his vision, opening the Warlock’s Eye.

All around Oliver, his normal sight vanished into darkness, replaced with the distant emotions of Jane, Murphy, and the Creatures. What he saw about the Creatures was… quite fascinating.

“…If you’ve changed your mind, could we part peacefully?”

[Are you worried about the people you came to save?!]

Fen asked, pinpointing the core of the matter, and Oliver nodded.

[Why’re you worried!?]

“Hmm… They have helped me before. I know them. Plus, they’re my friends.”

[Friends!?]”

“Yes, friends.”

Hearing this, the parrot’s expression somehow seemed to smile.

***

After finishing his conversation with Fen, Oliver immediately ran toward the direction he’d seen with the Warlock’s Eye.

Fortunately, Fen had no interest in helping the Flesh Cook, so he let Oliver go without resistance. Thanks to that, Oliver soon met Lucien Murat, the Murat Family, the Kimbel Family, and Jane, who had managed to escape through a secret tunnel in Dix Castle and were hiding in the sewers.

They all looked shocked to see Oliver, especially Jane.

“D—No, Xenon… How are you here?”

Jane seemed like she didn’t expect Oliver to come, but she quickly understood the situation and looked at Lucien.

Lucien shrugged as if it couldn’t be helped, then spoke to Oliver.

“Thank you for coming, Mr. Xenon. You saved us.”

“There’s no need to thank me. But the monsters attacked you?”

Oliver asked, thinking about Fen’s Creatures.

“Yes, suddenly they attacked my castle. They were so strong that our forces crumbled instantly, and we had to run straight here. Though in the end, even here we were quickly surrounded.”

“At least you’re safe now.”

Murphy interjected.

“For some reason, even though they completely surrounded us and could have destroyed us, they suddenly stopped and just left. This, after they attacked us as if they meant to kill everyone.”

Oliver recalled his recent conversation with Fen. He was curious whether Fen really just lost interest in helping the Flesh Cook, or if there was another reason.

However, thinking alone wouldn’t reveal the answer.

“In any case, it should be safe even if the monsters return now that Mr. Xenon is here.”

Lucien spoke sincerely, appearing to trust Oliver. While Oliver appreciated the confidence, he shook his head.

“I wouldn’t be so sure.”

“What? Why?”

Without answering, Oliver turned his head toward one of the tunnels.

“Puppet…”

At that word, everyone froze, and then, an old man emerged from the shadows.

He was dressed in rags like a beggar.

“It’s been a while.”

The beggar—or rather, Puppet—replied.