Chapter 481: The Ceremony Site

‘This is… unexpected.’

Oliver thought this as he arrived at the deepest part of the abandoned mine. The farthest end of the tunnel.

According to the mine’s map, this should have been the end, yet there was a strange unmarked passage here.

A massive tunnel that looked like it had been dug out by hand from the solid rock walls.

Its size was such that it posed no problem for movement.

“How could this…?”

Someone questioned it. The tunnel extended deep below, hidden from the Governor’s office. Digging through such solid rock to such a size without detection, it was a natural reaction.

‘That creature must have dug it.’

Oliver inspected the marks in the rock and speculated. Twisted handprints. Surely, the creature they called ‘BoogleBoogle’ had dug it out.

Considering the creature’s strength, it was entirely possible.

“It must have been dug by that creature we fought earlier… If you look at these handprints, there’s no other explanation,” Ricky, the Pinkman leader, said as he slung his magical firearm over his shoulder and pointed at the marks in the rock.

Although he wasn’t a wizard, his keen observation had pierced through the mystery in one glance. However, that wasn’t the end of it.

“The question isn’t how they dug this tunnel but which direction it was dug towards,” the Holy Knight responded.

“Direction?”

“Yes… The tunnel heads south, in the direction of First Step.”

Ricky pointed towards the tunnel. The other Pinkman and the Holy Knights verified what he said using their maps, compasses, and landmarks. Ricky was right.

“It could be a coincidence, but personally, I don’t believe in coincidences in matters like this. This enormous, seemingly endless tunnel heads straight for First Step.”

Oliver nodded silently in agreement with Ricky’s words.

Indeed, Ricky had become a leader at such a young age for a reason.

However, there was no time to be impressed. Regardless of how remarkable Ricky was, the situation had already reached its worst.

The Red One dark wizards and Fen were conducting the ritual, the water had turned red, and a massive tunnel had been secretly dug towards the City. There was no other explanation; the ritual was taking place beneath the City.

Either to offer sacrifices for the ritual or to summon demons right in the middle of the City, or perhaps both.

Whatever it was, the end result was sure to be a catastrophic disaster.

“Hah… This is bad. If this thing stretches all the way to the City, the distance must be considerable,” Anselm remarked, clutching his wound. As he said, the distance between the abandoned mine and First Step was quite far.

After all, even those here had to take a vehicle to reach this place.

Of course, it wasn’t a distance they couldn’t run, but the problem was time and stamina.

Even with superhuman physical abilities, they were unsure if they could arrive in time on foot, and even less sure if they’d be in any condition to face Fen and the Red One dark wizards afterward.

Above all, the intense aura of dark magic emanating from within the tunnel made them hesitant to enter recklessly.

As they all hesitated, Oliver raised his hand slightly.

“I think I can handle this. Could you let me take care of it for a moment?”

All eyes turned towards Oliver.

“Do you have a plan?”

“Yes, but I’m not certain it will work.”

Although it wasn’t the most professional of answers, Anselm readily told him to go ahead.

There weren’t many other options, and more importantly, they’d seen what Oliver was capable of.

Given permission, Oliver tapped his Quarterstaff on the ground as he proceeded forward and suddenly reached into the darkness of the tunnel.

As soon as his hand entered, the darkness within the tunnel, as expected, wrapped around Oliver’s hand, trying to swallow it like paint.

Faintly detectable was a pull. Fen’s shadow still had power. It was impressive.

Despite being cut and stabbed six times by the Blood-Stained Dagger, imbued with Disease-Weakness Death Magic, Fen’s shadow still had this much power. But what was even more impressive was the shadow’s loyalty.

Creatures were often unstable, and artificial ones possessed some qualities of a living being. Sometimes they acted on their own or even turned on their master, yet Fen’s shadow displayed unyielding loyalty despite its master’s declining health.

Oliver could sense it indirectly through the darkness.

Books said such a case only had two explanations.

Either the master’s power was overwhelmingly stronger than that of the creature, or the creature had been well-tamed.

Either way, it spoke volumes about the wizard’s ability.

Apart from the demon summoning ritual, Oliver found himself increasingly curious to meet Fen, the one responsible for all of this.

Who could they be to possess such skills, successfully perform such an unstable demon-summoning ritual, and why did they want to summon a demon at all? He wanted to know everything.

Driven by his curiosity, Oliver tightened his grip.

“Did you… catch the darkness?”

One of the Pinkman watching Oliver asked in surprise. Indeed, as he said, Oliver had gripped the formless darkness as if he was grabbing someone by the collar.

Indeed, in that state, he injected his will into the darkness, exerting control and using the darkness still under the shadow’s influence as a medium to explore inside the tunnel, finding the farthest point and marking it with coordinates.

Fen’s shadow, which had been dominating the darkness, tried its hardest to stop him. But Oliver, with his unique grasp, ignored it and, with a quick yank, tore open the space within the darkness.

Rip!

As the darkness was torn apart, a gap appeared in the void, and through it came another darkness, different in texture and nature from that within the tunnel.

With a calm demeanor, Oliver stepped into that darkness.

“…You can all come in now.”

After entering alone, Oliver poked his head back out and spoke, then the others followed him inside.

***

“Where is this…?”

“It’s the innermost part of the tunnel,” Oliver replied, creating a black light source by mixing magic and emotions.

The black light, paradoxically, dispersed the surrounding darkness, illuminating the area.

However, it only covered a radius of about 10 meters.

Beyond that distance, it was difficult to secure visibility as a dark curtain seemed to cover everything. Even Oliver’s perception, enhanced by using human souls, had its limits.

“It’s pitch black all around. Hard to say where we should go.”

The Pinkman muttered as they struggled with their sense of direction. Some of them, instead of complaining, took out compasses to check the direction, but strangely enough, the compasses all malfunctioned.

They spun around aimlessly, like dogs chasing their own tails.

And that wasn’t the only strange thing.

Something knocked from inside Oliver’s canteen.

Oliver, curious, reflexively opened the canteen, and frogs jumped out.

Ribbit. Ribbit. Ribbit.

When frogs emerged from the canteen, which had been sealed shut, everyone around him was startled.

Only Oliver silently observed the frogs spilling from his canteen.

‘Second Omen: The Frogs Swarm.’

As Oliver recalled the content of the book on demons, he locked eyes with a frog that had climbed up to the canteen’s mouth.

Dogs, cats, horses, even chimeras usually had seizures when meeting Oliver’s gaze, yet the frog tilted its head, then placed one front paw over its chest and lowered its head as if bowing.

Snap!

Seeing that gesture, Oliver, intrigued, quickly closed the canteen, preventing the frog from escaping.

To study it later.

“We need to hurry,” Oliver said while securing the canteen, speaking to the Holy Knights.

The Holy Knights, realizing the gravity of the situation, used Holy Power to brighten the surroundings, trying to pinpoint the direction. At that moment, the surrounding darkness parted like a curtain, revealing a path.

At the end of the path, there was a faint light.

Although they couldn’t be sure what the light was, Oliver and the others instinctively knew it was their destination, and so they proceeded forward in silence.

“Oh, my god…”

One of them gasped in shock when they arrived at the source of the light.

The scene before them was so bizarre and blasphemous.

At least a hundred people were burning like firewood in a huge bonfire, while others who seemed neither alive nor dead circled it, beating drums and dancing.

The dance was so strange and mechanical that it didn’t seem like it was humans doing it, and indeed it wasn’t.

Above the dancers’ heads were vaguely defined entities that grabbed their hair and arms, forcing them to dance.

The Pinkman and Holy Knights couldn’t see these entities, but Oliver could faintly make them out.

Normally, Oliver would have been curious about what they were, but his attention was soon captured by something even more compelling.

It was the figure standing at the center of the ritual.

A girl with a skeletal face, emaciated limbs, and an unnaturally swollen belly. A Red One girl.

“Isn’t it beautiful?”

Amidst the nightmarish spectacle, a child’s voice rang out.

Following the sound, Oliver turned his head and saw a boy.

The boy had orange hair, wore an oversized Warbonnet, and sat on a large, ornate throne that didn’t fit his body.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

“Congratulations on making it this far. To be honest, I thought you’d only arrive much later, but I’ll commend you.”

***

The boy clapped his hands as he spoke.

As if an adult was praising a child, or as if a haughty child was praising an adult.

While everyone murmured about the boy’s sudden appearance, Ricky, the leader of the Pinkman, muttered as he looked at the throne the boy was sitting on.

“That’s… the throne of the Kingdom of Fragan?”

“Do you know something about it?”

“It was a small kingdom in the center of the continent, destroyed about 40 years ago. When the kingdom fell, the throne vanished as well. I had only heard rumors that it was circulating the black markets…”

“Ohhh… As expected of a Pinkman! Involved in shady things, you’re well-versed in shady business. I’ll clap for you again,” the boy sneered.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

The boy clapped with arrogance that seemed almost overbearing.

As the boy clapped, monkey dolls holding cymbals emerged from the surrounding darkness, making creaking noises as they followed Fen and began to play the cymbals.

Clang. Clang. Clang. Clang…

Despite the cymbals’ enormous size, they weren’t particularly grating on the ears.

“Are you Fen?”

Anselm, the Holy Knight who saw the creature, aimed his sword at the boy and asked.

“Yes, old man. I’m Fen, the eternal child Fen. Also, I’m a finger of the Black Hand, the master of Neverland, and last but not least, a prince. If you feel like bowing, go ahead.”

“Stop the ritual now.”

Anselm ignored Fen’s long-winded introduction and cut straight to the point. Fen just muttered in complaint.

“This is why I hate old people… They don’t listen to others properly and only say what they want. Even that, though, is unreasonable. Try using that antiquated brain of yours. If I intended to stop, would I have gone to all this trouble?”

It was a valid point. But the following words were somewhat harder to agree with.

“Instead of babbling nonsense, why don’t you just enjoy watching the ritual? As a reward for coming all the way here, I’ll let you witness the summoning of a demon with me. It’s too beautiful of a sight to see alone, isn’t it?”

Oliver looked around at the giant bonfire, the dance, and the emaciated girl, all part of the ceremony.

The scene was interesting, but to say it was beautiful seemed a stretch.

Well, value was relative after all.

‘Did they use the Red Ones as sacrifices?’

Oliver thought calmly. If they intended to summon a demon, such a risk should have been expected.

Even so, it was strange. Demon summoning wasn’t something that could be easily accomplished simply by meeting the conditions.

“Liam!”

Anselm suddenly called out his comrade’s name. In response, the red-haired Holy Knight drew his axe and charged in the direction of the ritual.

He intended to destroy the ritual physically with his axe imbued with Holy Power. It wasn’t a bad idea, but Fen made no effort to stop him. It wasn’t necessary.

Whooosh!

As the Holy Power-imbued axe tried to destroy the ritual, the void distorted, and black smoke emerged, hissing as it stopped the axe.

The Holy Knight activated Holy Power to push back, but the smoke easily brushed him aside as if swatting away an annoying fly.

All of them instinctively knew, seeing this, that stopping the ritual by force wasn’t possible.

The Holy Knights immediately moved to attack Fen, and just then, monkeys behind Fen started screeching and loudly clashing their cymbals.

Clang!

The enormous cymbals resonated with each other, and the jarring sound made the Holy Knights and Pinkman stop and cover their ears.

Clang!

The second clang caused some of them to lose their balance. They stumbled and fell.

Clang!

With the third, their bones, flesh, and blood vessels trembled, and just before the fourth and final clang could resonate, Oliver manipulated his shadow to form a giant mouth that let out a horrifying screech.

He timed it to match the monkey’s clang.

…!!

The invisible sound waves reverberated through the air, canceling out the sound of the cymbals.

Not wasting the moment, Oliver’s shadow manipulated the giant mouth to swallow the monkey doll behind Fen.

“Heh… Why didn’t you target me directly? Are you really not into killing kids, even if you’re just a hired gun?”

“No, it’s not like that. It was just a reflex back then… besides, it wouldn’t have worked anyway.”

“Oh, you know?”

As Fen tilted his head curiously and replied, the shadow mouth split open, and out of it burst a giant gorilla.

The furious expression on its face, its neck adorned with a chain of monkey heads, and eight arms attached to it.

It was the combined form of all the monkeys wielding the cymbals.

“What? Did you think you could defeat me with a hastily made creature like that?”

“No.”

Oliver responded, unfazed by Fen’s provocation.