[V12C24] Devoured by the Abyss

Samuel Throth, under the control of Gluttonous Zoe, had sealed off the gates of Sazandol. The largest of these gates was the central one, which was also the target of their operation.

Melissa Roseberg the Fourth Thorn Witch and Ray Albright the Third Abyss Shaman arrived almost simultaneously with the sunrise.

The other members of the Mage Association were stationed throughout Sazandol, ready to evacuate the citizens at any moment.

“Time to begin,” Melissa said, striking the ground with her staff.

She had changed into mage robes rather than her usual dress. Meanwhile, Ray was in his Sage robes, chanting with his staff at the ready.

The massive pile of debris covering the gate was far too heavy for Melissa’s vines to handle. In which case, her options were limited.

——Either way, it was always best to kick off a battle with your most flashy spell.

This technique was generally not advised for urban areas, but Melissa pointed at the debris and began chanting regardless.

“O King of Radiance. He who sleeps within the hills of Vezelda. Heed my call, and reveal a glimpse of your power.”

Orange particles of light gathered in front of Melissa to form a small gate.

If all she wanted was to destroy the debris, then she could minimize the power to conserve mana. But Melissa wasn’t that kind of person. She put everything she had on the next verse.

“In the name of the Fourth Thorn Witch, Melissa Roseberg… Open the gate!”

The sparkling gate swung open its doors, spilling particles of light into the ground. A row of lights stretched forward from the gate like an extended carpet.

The land swelled up to collapse the pile of debris.

“Rise from the ruptured depths, Spirit King of Earth, Arclayd!”

With an ear-splitting roar, the debris was grinded into clumps of dirt and sand, before finally scattering to the winds.

Spirit King Summoning was a powerful technique that allows the caster to manipulate mana with immense precision. If desired, Melissa could easily remove all the debris without making a single sound.

And yet, she deliberately chose to smash it into tiny pieces.

Ray paused his chanting to mutter “…Did you really have to be this flashy?”

“Of course. Because we’re the diversion.”

“Half if it is definitely you venting frustration…”

“Shut up. Here he comes.”

Melissa glared diagonally to the right without turning her head.

In that direction, they could see dozens of bricks floating through the air.

Melissa dispelled her Spirit King Gate, tore off a rose ornament from her hair, then uttered a short chant.

Rows of vines extended from her hands to shield them from the flying bricks.

Meanwhile, an emaciated man emerged from an alleyway, dragging his feet.

This was Samuel Throth, a master of imbuement magic from the Kingdom of Randall. However, he was quite literally a shadow of his former shelf.

His clothes had been reduced to nothing more than rags, and about seventy percent of his scrawny body was engulfed by shadows.

“You look pitiful, third-rate. I almost mistook you for a walking human-shaped piece of trash.”

Melissa Roseberg had no pity for the man controlled by Gluttonous Zoe. She had never been the type to sympathize with the fools who dared to stand in her path.

In fact, the pathetic figure of her former enemy had her smiling. Melissa contorted her red lips into a malicious grin.

“Now kneel before me!”

Right as Melissa sent her rose vines forward, Throth raised his right arm, which was as thin as a stick.

However, Throth was not using his favored imbuement magic to launch additional bricks; he attacked with the black shadows crawling across his right arm. They transformed into spears in mid-air, flying right at Melissa and Ray.

(…As expected.)

Gluttonous Zoe had the power to exercise the abilities of the people it dominated.

Control over Carla Maxwell allowed it to invoke the Starspear. Control over Samuel Throth gave it access to his imbuement magic for manipulating objects.

However, a certain someone put forward the idea that the dominated person could also manipulate a portion of Gluttonous Zoe’s shadows. It was none other than the Barrier Mage, Louis Miller, who suggested this.

After all, Louis had witnessed how Theodore attached one of the shadows to himself.

The shadows contained within Gluttonous Zoe were made from high-density dark magic. Most spells did not have the power to nullify or block them.

As a result, they could easily cut right through Melissa’s vines.

That was why she prepared a countermeasure beforehand.

She looked over at Ray and shouted, “Do it, Abyss!”


Upon hearing the shout from Melissa, Ray nodded and raised his right hand.

The purple curse marks engraved all over his body crawled into the air, extending like the thin roots of a plant. Those tendrils quickly entwined themselves around the shadow spears.

(All I can do is curse…)

Curses did not have the power to directly intercept or neutralize offensive spells.

To truly nullify a spell, his only option was to perform a curse overload, similar to what Adeline did. However, this was a technique that could not be repeated.

That was why Ray Albright devised a curse based on records left by his grandmother.

The shadows employed by Gluttonous Zoe were a form of dark magic. Curses and dark magic shared many common characteristics.

By utilizing those similarities, it was possible to convert dark magic into a curse. This was, in essence, a curse placed on the spell itself.

“Be it darkness or shadows, I’ll curse them all.”

The jet-black shadows entwined by Ray’s curse marks changed color to a shade of purple. This was proof that he had cursed Gluttonous Zoe’s shadows.

And once there was a curse in front of his eyes, the Abyss Shaman could simply absorb it into his own body.

The curse marks swelled slightly, having consumed the cursed shadows. Then, they returned to Ray, getting absorbed right back into him.

The sudden injection of high-density mana gave Ray nausea. It felt like an intense poison, despite the resistance Ray possessed due to having over two hundreds curses carved into his body.

However, Ray gritted his teeth, gripped his staff, and stood firmly on both legs.

He closed his eyes, envisioning the spring deep within his chest. He consciously submerged the curses he had absorbed into depths of that bottomless swamp.

Ray’s pink eyes flung opening, gleaming underneath his purple bangs.

“I am the Abyss Shaman…! There is no curse that can kill me…!”

As a shaman, Ray could not do anything except for cursing. He lacked the ability to fight directly like the other Sages.

But those curses were enough to defeat any enemy standing before him, especially if it was to reclaim what was stolen from him.

“I’ll curse you, again and again and again… Then devour everything into my abyss!”


To Melissa, the clash between the shadows and curses seemed practically evenly matched.

Converting the shadows into curses and absorbing them was honestly close to a brute force approach. Regardless of Ray’s innate resistance to curses, there was a limit to the amount a human body could handle.

On the other hand, the shadows clinging to Samuel Throth were simply the portion that Gluttonous Zoe had bestowed him. This was not infinite either.

At this rate, the clash might end with both Throth and Ray collapsing. That said, Melissa never had any intention of letting this dull stalemate play out.

If you’re going to beat the crap out of someone you hate, doing it with flair was undoubtedly more satisfying.

Melissa plucked another rose from her hair and spawned additional vines.

“Curse these, Abyss!”

Ray extended the curse marks from his left hand towards Melissa’s vines, which quickly swelled in size due to the curse. Now they were covered in purple specks and even sharper thorns.

As a form of offensive magic, Melissa’s vines had never been particularly powerful. After all, they were far inferior to Raul’s Rose Fortress in all areas, be it power, speed, precision, or range.

That’s why she decided to enhance them with Ray’s curses. Her cursed roses began diving at Throth as if they had a will of their own——much like the Man-Eating Rose Fortress.

Of course, the cursed roses did not possess the Rose Fortress’s ability to empower itself by absorbing the enemy’s blood and mana. Nevertheless, their strength was multiplied several times over.

Ray continued devouring the shadows with his curse marks, as Melissa’s vines knocked down any bricks sent by Throth’s imbuement magic.

However, each swing of her vines caused a few of the purple roses to wither and die.

Throth was a formidable opponent. Melissa could sense the copious amount of the shadows and mana granted to him.

(…This is fine.)

Because the more power Gluttonous Zoe diverted to Throth, the more successful their diversion became.

Melissa turned her gaze north, towards the harbor.

(You guys had the gall to make me the diversion, so you better do your jobs properly.)

＊　＊　＊

Silas Page the Dragon Slayer Mage glanced at his dragon detector and spoke with a stern look on face.

“The response remains unchanged… Let’s go, Ike.”

Isaac nodded, and the two ran through the city under the light of the morning sun.

They had already pinpointed Theodore’s location. That said, launching an all-out attack on Theodore could result in a total defeat if they got blindsided by his servant Throth.

Thus, the plan was to lure out Throth first by having Melissa and Ray attack the gate.

Now there was no risk of an ambush. In addition, the artifact would need to allocate a significant amount of mana and awareness to control Throth remotely.

While Theodore and Gluttonous Zoe were focused on Throth, Silas and Isaac would launch a surprise attack and reclaim Gluttonous Zoe. Or at least, that was the plan.

However, the two went speechless once they reached Theodore’s hiding spot, the first port of Sazandol.

There was a man with reddish-brown hair standing in an open space right in front of the docks.

They had found Theodore, and he looked completely defenseless, simply observing the sea and the water dragons gathered there.

Meanwhile, the artifact in Theodore’s hands was spewing out a black mist that covered the ground in a shroud of darkness.

“Ike, what do you think?”

“That mist could have the same properties as the shadows. We need to keep our guard up if we get close to that.”

At first glance, the best approach seemed to be splitting up and launching a synchronized attack from two directions.

However, the shadows of Gluttonous Zoe possessed immense range and area of effect. Even a pincer attack came with a high risk of failure.

In which case, one of them needed to act as a decoy to grab Theodore’s attention, while the other readied a surprise attack. This was more likely to succeed.

Silas had access to flight magic and powerful spells, so he was clearly more suited for the ambush role.

“Silas-niisan, I’ll grab Theodore’s attention. You dive in and reclaim Gluttonous Zoe when you see an opening.”

Without waiting for a response, Isaac began walking forward.

He sensed Wildianu moving in his pocket, so he gave his partner a light tap.

It was time to get some answers.

View the latest chapters at seeker142.github.io