Count’s Youngest Son is a Warlock

Chapter 186: Got caught (2)

“What could possibly be inside that makes you say such things?” Kran couldn’t hold back and asked.

Apart from the discomfort that set it apart from other places, there was nothing else he could discern.

Why were only the two of them going in?

Lucion turned his head slightly in response to the concentrated gaze upon him.

There were too many listeners.

Lucion refrained from speaking because he believed not everyone needed to know the truth.

“I know. I’m doing this because I know.”

There were undying soldiers inside.

Or perhaps corrupted ones.

Because the priests and those blessed with light dismissed warlocks as mere evil, they didn’t know that death wasn’t the end.

Lucion looked at Kran.

“Well then, I request your assistance.”

His request held many implications.

Lucion has already asked Kran to gather all the data in the mansion through the communication device.

After finishing speaking, Lucion went down the stairs toward the basement and let out the darkness.

―No matter how much Ratta enjoys secret places, Ratta doesn’t like this place.

Ratta suddenly came out of the shadows and walked down the stairs next to Lucion.

“Me too.”

Lucion felt a certain gaze fixated on him.

It wasn’t as oppressive and ruthless as the feeling he had in the Sea of Death, but it made his hair stand on end.

His breathing became slightly constricted, but he was relieved to find that the underground space wasn’t as narrow as he had imagined. 

If it had been, they wouldn’t have been able to make it this far.

[Be careful, Lucion. As you may have noticed in the Sea of Death, they instinctively target you and Ratta.]

Ratta’s ears perked up at Russell’s words.

―Ratta wants to go back in!

Ratta retreated back into Lucion’s shadow.

―When those black hands reached out, Ratta was really scared! …But Ratta also felt really sad.

Ratta’s round eyes turned to Lucion.

She didn’t say it out loud, but Lucion could tell that she wanted to purify.

“Let’s see how many corrupted ones there are.”

Even though his darkness had grown several times since then, there were still limits to it.

Sending them into the darkness was the only option.

“…Argh!”

A scream was heard from below.

Hume tried to move hastily, but Russell blocked his path.

[There’s no need to be alarmed. It’s because the control failed.]

“Is it because the warlocks are dead?” Lucion asked.

[Yes. Nothing can suppress the corruption except for the same darkness. Why didn’t it disappear when they scattered light across the Sea of Death? It’s only a temporary solution, and the corruption keeps multiplying. Since you too have been caught by the black hand, you must have noticed the increase in negativity.]

“…Yes.”

Lucion was once again consumed by a bitter feeling.

But he pushed his emotions aside and followed Hume down the stairs.

Upon opening the door, he saw people holding a man captive behind iron bars, all of them blindfolded with black cloth.

[He was caught trying to escape.]

Bethel said.

‘A warlock?’

Lucion saw the darkness surrounding the man’s body.

‘And those are the undying soldiers.’

Lucion knew exactly who they were.

Clang, clang.

The iron bars shook violently, as if they were about to break.

Creak.

Black smoke flowed from their mouths, along with strange sounds.

When the man’s hand dissolved into the darkness Lucion had wielded, the undying soldiers grabbed him, displaying an intense fixation on him.

‘There are too many of them.’

Lucion felt irritated by the unexpectedly large number of undying soldiers.

“P-Please, save me!”

The man looked at Lucion and Hume, immediately pleading for help.

[He’s still alive. He’ll hold on for a while. There’s no need to waste time; just ask him.]

Lucion chuckled at Russell’s remark and proceeded to ask.

Just as that thought crossed his mind,

“Who is the head manager here?”

In other words, the warlock in the basement was someone who held many secrets within this mansion.

Moreover, the fact that he survived alone among uncontrolled, undying soldiers indicated that he was in a position close to the person in charge.

As if to confirm it, scattered documents surrounded him.

The man’s face contorted.

He had an expression that made him want to curse immediately, but his voice sounded submissive.

“T-Twilo Sprikado, sir!”

Lucion showed no signs of surprise, as it was too predictable.

He calmly asked.

He needed to extract everything without putting himself in a life-threatening situation.

“Where did you hide the data?”

“If you go inside over there, at the far left of the wall, there, there.”

The man tightly shut his eyes, then opened them.

Whether the corruption was spreading faster or the summoned darkness was suppressing it, Lucion shook the darkness he had conjured, giving the man a glimmer of hope.

Look, see?

I’m a warlock too.

“There’s a room. A secret room! The password to open the door is 84217.”

‘A secret room?’

Lucion found those words incredibly tempting.

Why would there be a secret room in the underground?

The answer was simple.

This was because people who should never be discovered frequented this place.

“Did the Fourth Prince come here by any chance?”

Lucion casually threw out the question.

“Yes! Yes! He did come!”

The words that came out of the man’s mouth were very satisfying.

Indeed, he held a high-ranking position close to that of the person in charge.

Lucion directed his darkness towards the man.

Witnessing a glimmer of hope on the man’s face, Lucion gathered the papers he had dropped and placed them in front of Hume.

The man simply stared at Lucion, as if questioning his actions.

“Collect them all.”

Whether he wanted to or not, Lucion gave Hume instructions.

“Well, wait a moment. I have answered everything, right? I have answered everything!”

“Oh, I forgot one thing.”

Lucion responded as if recalling something important.

The man’s eyes once again sparkled with anticipation.

“Is the curse complete?”

“I-I know everything about this place! Everything, if you save me! I’ll reveal everything!”

The curse was not yet complete.

If it were, the man would have nodded.

“That’ll make things easier. Thank you.”

It was fortunate that the curse had not yet been completed.

Lucion’s darkness engulfed the man.

Unlike a little while ago, he didn’t need to manipulate the darkness intricately; a single strike was enough.

“Ugh!”

As the man let out a scream, the darkness dissipated.

Instantly, the undying soldiers attacked him.

The screams grew louder, and the man’s gaze towards Lucion was filled with hatred.

But what did it matter if he stared like that?

“As a warlock, you know that death is not the end, right?”

Lucion’s mask turned yellow.

There were plenty of ways to torture the dead.

But there was no mercy to be shown to enemies.

The man, with an intense expression and vigorously flailing limbs, shouted sharply as a final act.

“You, you bastard…!”

As black veins reached the man’s eyes, he slumped down.

Thud.

The undying soldiers tore at him, gnawing fingers and ripping off limbs.

As if they were trying to fill the hole in their hearts.

Only then did Lucion shape the darkness into sharp spears, matching the number of holes in the iron bars.

‘I can’t let him be corrupted, too.’

He had a lot of information to dig up.

He had to overpower the man and force him to confess.

Behind Lucion, dozens of spears waited.

At his gesture, as if they were one entity, the spears flew into the holes of the iron bars.

Thud!

Splat!

Wherever the darkness pierced, whether in the head or abdomen, the undying soldiers writhed in agony.

‘Burst.’

Lucion commanded the darkness.

Simultaneously, Ratta’s tail, hidden in the shadows, stood up straight.

A series of silent explosions occurred.

Rattle.

The cloth covering their eyes vanished.

As the red glow in their eyes subsided, they smiled.

Thank you.

Lucion’s heart trembled at those words.

Their flesh melted away.

Their bones turned to ash.

Everything became so quiet that Lucion could hear his own breathing loudly.

“…Open the door.”

Lucion turned to Hume and spoke.

His chest felt tight.

Although it was a black magic he hadn’t learned yet, if he sought consent from the deceased, he could summon them into the world of the living.

At that moment, the deceased possessed the freedom to return to the realm of the living if they wished, unlike the ghosts, who chose to remain in the world of the living.

Ghosts were those who could accept death and escape the grasp of the warlock’s hands, yet they chose not to. 

Rather, they are resilient and willingly remain in the world of the living, even as they submit to the warlock.

But the undying soldiers were different.

They had already embraced death, but they were pitiful beings, chained to their bodies, deprived of the freedom to return, and forced to listen to orders.

‘That sucks.’

Lucion was displeased that he had to feel this way.

Russell, understanding those sentiments, spoke to Lucion, who appeared perplexed.

[It can’t be helped, Lucion. By using your darkness to free them from the corruption that bound them and sending them back to the world of death, it’s natural for you to experience what they feel.]

Russell placed his hand on Lucion’s head, applying gentle pressure before releasing it with a snap.

[The darkness instinctively desires to eliminate corruption, but it’s natural for you to feel confused since you were once one with the darkness.]

―Ratta is saddened. I feel like crying.

Lucion could already sense Ratta’s tears welling up.

Perhaps because she was a divine beast of darkness, Ratta might have been more sensitive.

“So, how does this differ from purification?” Lucion asked quietly before Hume opened the door.

It was often said that corruption could only be eliminated with light, but it couldn’t be completely eradicated.

Hadn’t Russell mentioned that darkness was the only force capable of eradicating corruption?

[You saw Bethel, didn’t you? She doesn’t forcibly send people to the boundary between life and death like you do. It simply removes corruption.]

‘So, it just removes corruption?’

Lucion turned his gaze forward in response to the sound that soon followed.

Clank.

“May I take the lead?” Hume asked.

But the response Lucion gave was firm.

“No.”

Lucion recalled Hume’s state of corruption when they first encountered the corrupted warlock.

He hadn’t realized it then, but now, with the warlock’s recent death, it became clear.

Hume was very weak to corruption.

No, it seemed like beings like Ravien were weak to corruption.

“Ratta,” Lucion called out to Ratta.

―Yes?

“Do you want to summon that guy?” Lucion pointed to the warlock who had just died.

Only Ratta’s front paw emerged from the shadows.

“… Ratta?”

Upon Lucion’s urging, Ratta finally peeked her face out.

Her ears were folded.

―Ratta is scared and doesn’t want to come out here. Lucion, you go over to that side.

Although hesitant, Lucion approached the body as per Ratta’s wish.

Ratta lightly touched the body with her front paw before quickly retracting her face back into the shadows.

―Done. Ratta did it!

As Ratta said, the ghost came out, and Lucion grabbed its face with his hand veiled in darkness, as if he had been waiting.

“Will you obey me?”

―Will you obey me?

Even though she said it was scary, Ratta followed suit, smiling in the shadows as if she had never done that before.

After asserting that he would be obeyed, Lucion sent the ghost outside.

What if he made a mistake while using the darkness and accidentally sent the ghost away?

[There are no undying soldiers connected to that door.]

Russell observed through the wall before speaking up.

Pop!

Hume forcefully broke down one of the doors.

Whether it was an automatic door or not, since it was closed, Hume had no choice but to break it, allowing Lucion to pass through comfortably.

Hume’s eyes suddenly widened.

“What’s that thing in the corner?”

In the corner, there was something shapeless, devouring an unknown substance, resembling a fragment of the Sea of Death.

[You saw it in the Sea of Death, right? It’s identical to that. I’ve been curious about it, but it appears that the darkness itself has become corrupted.]

Russell responded and turned his gaze towards Lucion.

“Are you saying it’s just like the Sea of Death?”

Lucion reacted with disbelief.

[Yes. I don’t know if the Hand of the Void created it or brought it from the Sea of Death, but it’s madness. It’s not just madness; it’s utterly and completely insane.]

“Permission granted.”

Lucion allowed Russell to use his darkness in cases of danger.

It was faster and more certain this way.

[Be careful, Lucion.]

Russell mentioned it one more time.

“Yes. I will be careful.”

Lucion felt Bethel on high alert and stepped beyond the door.

Wiggle.

The corrupted darkness that was chewing something reacted.

Save.

Save us

They spoke to him.

Lucion stood still.

Their emotionless words sent chills down his spine, devoid of any feeling.

You won’t abandon us, will you?

We waited. We waited for so long.

We waited, and suddenly everything turned pitch black before us.

They approached Lucion, whispering.

Don’t abandon us.

Save us. We don’t want to remain like this.

Ah. His body refused to move as he desired.

They poured something out on the path they had walked.

Blood-like black water.

It looked like tears.

―Lucion!

In that moment, Ratta called out to Lucion, her voice trembling.

―Ratta wants to purify. Ratta wants to remove the bad things. That being is crying. Ratta, Ratta can’t stand it anymore.

Ratta, despite her fear, came out of the shadows.