No matter how I looked at it, that pale, water-bloated, armless upper body was human. It was soaked through, dripping what seemed like tears from its eyes, and shrouded in a billowing, dark red mist—an utterly nauseating sight.
“Ahh... Ugh... P-Please...forgive...me...” it begged the pope. Its voice was muffled, and it sounded as if it was struggling to form words.
The pope’s cool smile vanished instantly. Hatred boiled in his eyes. “If you want forgiveness,” he said coldly, “bring the princess back to life. If not... No, even if you did, I wouldn’t forgive you. You have no right to beg. Shut your filthy mouth and eat your leftovers.”
At these harsh words, the sucker-tipped foot moved, deftly picking up the decayed remains of the fish.
“No, stop... Ugh... Uuugh...” The arm forced the rotten fish into the mouth of the struggling, recoiling human form.
“Ha ha ha! Is this not the former pope who once behaved as if he were a god himself?! Why not cease this pitiful attempt to flee?” There was cruelty in the pope’s black eyes, his gentle, kind-seeming face twisted in delight. Who exactly was this man, the pope?
“You mean the previous pope?” said Regulus skeptically. “Didn’t he die of illness?” It seemed his first-love obsession had finally faded. Like me, he was dripping cold sweat, struggling against the lingering charm that still attacked him even with its power weakened by the barrier.
I truly felt relieved that my sister wasn’t here. Unlike me and Regulus, who’d long participated in the Mage Corps and Knight Corps’ monster hunts and witnessed countless horrific scenes, witnessing something like this would surely scar her soul...even if she did cling to her individualism with such determination that it made me want to ask if it was an ironclad rule she kept for herself.
“Yes,” the pope replied. “We made it appear as if he died of illness, ended his life once, and then resurrected him like this, as a chimera. Now then, don’t just stand there eating. Attack.” The pope flicked his wrist, and countless droplets of water sprayed toward us from the waterfalls on either side. Had they struck us directly, they would likely have pierced our bodies.
Regulus instantly focused his attention on maintaining the barrier.
As if blending into the spray, writhing, suction-cupped legs clung to the barrier, tightening to try and break it. Worse still, the face of the previous pope, twisted in bitter agony, rubbed against the barrier with his forehead, attempting to interfere and break it.
I recalled that, during my head-of-household training, one instructor had mentioned that the previous pope’s magical power had only been average among the popes. However, his skill in analyzing, breaking, or nullifying magic had been unparalleled.
The barrier surrounding us required far more concentration and mana than usual to maintain. At this rate, it was only a matter of time before it dissolved.
I raised my left knee and braced my right hand against the ground. Channeling holy-attribute mana, I interfered with the waterfall flowing outside the barrier to prevent any more chimeras from being summoned. But for some reason, I struggled to draw out the holy magic from within me. What was going on? I focused my awareness on the magic within my body...and froze in shock.
I didn’t naturally possess a particularly high proportion of holy magic. My healing spells primarily used water magic, with holy magic serving as a secondary component. Without my intention, dark magic power was now concentrating, and being consumed, within my pupils. Was this related to my dark-attribute aptitude increasing, while my holy-attribute aptitude—the opposite of dark—decreased?
All the while, the pope stood there with a smug smile. It irritated me to no end. I forced holy magic power through myself, and the light in the left magic circle wavered. Success. Now, summoning anything from that magic circle would be impossible.
Using the droplets wetting the barrier’s exterior, I mediated water magic to temper the holy magic, and poured holy magic into the clinging, monstrous form of the previous pope.
If this was the previous pope’s fate...what on earth had this man done to the current pope?
“Help...me...” The upper body had been mumbling this whole time, still pleading for help. The barrier-dissolving force it had been exerting began to slacken, though, and so did the strength of the countless clinging legs.
I thought the crimson-black mist might be demonic power. As I’d suspected, the holy magic seemed to be effective against the monstrous body. If I’d gotten that hint from the crude magical device my sister had used to counter the magic curse we’d faced last summer, that was a secret I intended to keep to myself.
Just as a ray of hope seemed to pierce through, Jabi clapped her hands together sharply, as if she’d timed it perfectly. “Come to think of it, I just remembered something.”
“What do you intend to do?” The pope looked at Jabi suspiciously, and she deepened the curve of her lips.
The countless magic circles on the right side began to glow a sickening, dull crimson black. They merged into one massive magic circle. Jabi had apparently interfered.
First to emerge from the magic circle were a pair of long green limbs with fingers and sharp claws extending from them. Several flying fish were impaled on the claws. As the hind legs stood and took a step forward, the front legs and torso followed. A basilisk?
After the tall body emerged, the head that had been tilted back at the very end suddenly jerked forward with force. Then, before I could react, it began devouring the impaled fish with single-minded ferocity.
The head was human. I was certain this was also a chimera. Long black hair hung over its face, obscuring its features, but the head itself was remarkably small. It resembled a woman’s head. Was its self-awareness dominated by appetite? This was truly gruesome. Wait... Through the parting of the hair, a face peered out for an instant.
“Mother...?” I gasped, forgetting I’d taken to calling her “that woman.”
“We should let it properly meet its family, don’t you think?” Jabi said. “It seems pitiful otherwise.”
I thought Regulus suddenly looked at me.
Mother slowly lifted her face from the fish she’d been gnawing on. She was covered in wounds—not surprising, since she’d bitten into a magical beast with her human mouth.
Even though I understood it intellectually, her utterly transformed appearance left me speechless, unable to contain my shock. The enchantment I’d resisted all this time overcame me, seeping into my very being in an instant.
“I’m hungry... I need...more food...” That voice, tinged with awkwardness, was still my mother’s...
“Mother...”
Forgetting to channel magic, I stood and took a step toward her, but Regulus grabbed my shoulder to stop me. “Mihail.”
“Jabi, don’t be selfish,” tutted the pope.
“You wouldn’t say something so pathetic as ‘I never meant for a son to see his mother like this,’ would you?” she smirked. “Besides, if she takes him, wouldn’t that be a mother’s greatest wish?”
“What about her body, anyway? I thought you’d find more use for the body of a high-ranking noble than that useless, lightweight head you have?”
The pope seemed aware Jabi had planned to do something to my mother. Yet his tone of reproach suggested he hadn’t anticipated her being transformed into this monstrous form. I assessed the situation with my cloudy mind.
“Ah, that had a separate purpose. I merely connected the useless head with the junk-bound body to grant both pieces of trash a pointless extension of life. If I’m just playing with corpses, I don’t have many restrictions. But look, it worked out to our advantage.”
My anger had been relatively small when I’d been confronted with the appearance of the previous pope—anger questioning what Jabi thought human dignity was. Now it surged. I felt the sensation of Regulus shaking my shoulder hard. “Tch, Mihail!”
Yet my body wouldn’t obey. It was a miracle I could even stand; no strength flowed through my limbs. Only my eyes burned unbearably. Simultaneously, magic surged through my body with heat, forcing the enchantment particles back out.
My vision distorted, afterimages blurred, the scenery shifting.