Ch#12
Hot heat rushed at her face.
Unlike Tiye frozen stiff, Grandpa Nordix moved quickly.
He grabbed his bag and staff, then shouted.
“Run!”
Then he shoved Tiye’s back hard.
Her mind went blank, but Tiye started running.
Because she’d glimpsed the mana beast emerging from behind Grandpa.
The ground was slippery with wet dirt, fallen leaves, and jutting tree roots, but Tiye clutched her bag and ran for dear life.
‘Uncle Basto was right.’
Her heart pounded wildly.
The mana beast chasing her really did resemble a T-Rex.
“Keep running! Faster! I’ll lure it away!”
Dad’s words overlapped the Diviner grandpa’s voice.
‘Never let your guard down.’
Now she finally understood what that meant.
The forest had been so quiet not even birdsong could be heard.
Grandpa Nordix had been dozing, stars twinkling overhead just moments ago.
Suddenly a fireball crashed into the tent, and a dinosaur-like mana beast chased after Tiye!
Fear made her whole body go rigid.
Only after noticing the mana beast’s footsteps fade did Tiye finally duck behind a large tree.
Then she swiftly hid in nearby bushes.
In the distance, the elm tree where they’d pitched the tent blazed fiercely.
Weird cries echoed from all around, but Grandpa was nowhere in sight.
Tiye peered fearfully in the opposite direction.
She’d unwittingly run toward the cave—Basto and Veil’s entrance wasn’t far.
As she scanned it, Tiye’s lips parted slightly.
The surroundings lit by wildfire glow.
Someone was escaping the cave.
It was Basto, clutching his bleeding shoulder.
Then another figure burst from the cave.
‘Veil oppa?’
Veil fought something pursuing him as he fled.
Smaller than the one that chased Tiye earlier, but several dinosaur-like mana beasts all the same.
Her mouth went dry.
‘No, no…….’
The situation was dire.
Basto was injured.
Veil, battling the mana beasts, kept getting pushed back.
Tiye’s face paled further.
“Urk—!”
Because Veil screamed, struck by a mana beast’s attack.
His thigh gashed by its claw and staining red—Tiye burst from the bushes without thinking.
Fear shook her green eyes finely.
Everything seemed to slow in that instant.
Basto collapsing mid-run.
Mana beasts charging at him like they’d been waiting.
They looked unlike anything Tiye had ever seen.
Maybe a hundred times scarier than dinosaurs in books.
Flaming eyes reflecting firelight.
Sharp teeth in gaping maws.
Long, glinting claws too.
‘……Uncle Basto’s gonna die.’
She swallowed hard.
Maybe Veil oppa and the missing Diviner grandpa too.
Dad’s Relics Box from Jongno-gu flashed before her eyes.
Death tears everything apart.
Makes you unable to see loved ones again, dyes all happy memories sad.
And in that, Tiye thought,
‘Always can’t do anything, nothing…….’
Tears fell unwittingly down her cheeks.
Tiye squeezed her eyes shut.
‘Please, please, I beg you.’
If there’s a god, hear Tiye’s prayer.
I don’t want to part with anyone else.
Tiye just wanted to see Dad again, even once…….
That instant.
Woooong—
A cold energy rippled from her chest.
Opening her eyes, pure white light filled her surroundings.
“Th-this moji……?”
The light streamed from Tiye’s body and hands.
* * *
Veil gritted his teeth against the pain piercing his thigh.
Behind him, Basto battled mana beasts while down.
“Damn bastards—!”
Basto jammed his hammer into a mana beast’s maw to hold it off, but victory seemed impossible.
Veil was the same.
“Kuh!”
Another attack poured at him in that brief moment.
Breath to block it rose to his throat.
The mana beasts showed no fatigue.
Block one side, another targeted his vitals.
‘Limit.’
His legs shook.
Just days ago, Tenebraum cave had only small Mana Stones.
Who’d guess a medium one sprouted overnight.
And right behind the one he and Basto targeted.
Veil swung his sword while rummaging inside his collar with his other hand.
A small vial touched his fingers.
Instant heart-stop poison.
Better than being torn alive—he’d chosen clean death when
Clatter—
A strange sound darkened the sky abruptly.
The mana beasts lunging at Veil halted simultaneously.
Their gazes turned inexplicably behind him.
Before he could furrow his brows at the baffling scene—
“……!”
Something whooshed over his head.
“Kiaaaak—!!!”
A roar exploded right in his face.
Veil froze at the sight.
Something pale binding the mana beast.
Bones, unmistakably.
* * *
A Skeleton bound the mana beast’s neck.
From the small mana beast Belios’s mouth came a shrill scream.
“Kieek—!!”
It thrashed to shake off the Skeleton, to no avail.
Veil staggered back and collapsed.
“Kyak—!”
Other Belios charged to rescue their kin, but
“Kiek— kieek!”
Skeletons rising from the earth ensnared their ankles too.
Bones caked in dirt.
Dead, yet alive—paradoxical beings.
Undoubtedly…….
“Veil.”
A low whisper came from behind.
Basto had somehow reached right behind him.
“You……”
“Get up, now!”
Basto yanked Veil roughly.
Led him away from the Skeletons, face grim.
“You…… a mage?”
Veil froze, uncomprehending.
Then replied incredulously.
“What nonsense! A mage?”
They stared entranced at the scene.
Fallen Belios.
A massive Rikellops that fled to the forest but lay dead at the edge.
Dozens of bones clinging to its skin chilled the spine.
“I-I thought you……”
Veil trailed off.
He realized.
Neither he nor Basto summoned the Skeletons.
Gaze dropped.
Blood-soaked thigh.
The Belios claw graze still burned.
‘Ten seconds later…….’
He’d be a lifeless hunk of meat for sure.
“But how?”
He muttered.
Skeletons had only existed in name till now.
Inevitably so.
Magic moving the dead had no substance.
Dark attribute magic, Necromancy—passed down only in legends.
“Who the hell……”
Bones from the earth.
Skeletons dragging only mana beasts—not humans—to death’s mire.
Shaking eyes scanned around.
The dark creation’s controller must be near.
The mana beasts’ cries from underground proved it.
And likely no ordinary person.
Probably history’s first terrifying wielder of dark magic.
So find them.
Where…….
“Uncle Basto! Veil oppa—!”
Sudden footsteps rushed near.
Turning, Veil and Basto froze stiff.
“Y-you’re safe! Whaaa……!”
Tears streaming down her face, Tiye stopped before them.
The child cradled something preciously in both hands.
“Tiye thought you both died, whaa—!”
It was…… a skull.
“Thank goodness, really!”
As the child wiped her tears, something clattered from the skull to the ground.
Rolling to Veil’s feet: a jawbone.
A human jawbone, fully skeletal.
