NOVPUBHuff! Huff!
Inside the dark warehouse—
Krolro Febius, desperately running through the natural maze formed by the stacked supplies piled to the ceiling, was suddenly struck by a wave of doubt.
‘What... am I even doing right now?’
He was running.
But from what?
From her—the witch.
And with that thought, another question began to take root.
‘Am I supposed to live like this forever?’
Could he really go on, fleeing endlessly?
Maybe he’d escape danger this time.
But that witch—she would chase him to the very ends of hell to kill him.
There was a limit to how far one could run.
In his nightmares, she never stopped. She never let him go.
Despair.
That was the emotion Krolro Febius felt.
How... had it come to this?
The grand mansion. The soldiers who obeyed his every command. The servants who bowed their heads in reverence.
All of that now felt like a dream.
‘Why? Why did it all come to this?’
Krolro’s legs slowed, and finally, he came to a complete stop.
“Haa... haa...”
He was too exhausted to keep running.
He looked toward the darkness beyond the warehouse—at Esmeralda, who was slowly approaching him.
Her pace was unhurried, her steps calm.
Slowly.
Very slowly.
She didn’t scream in rage or curse him.
But that calmness—that composed, inevitable approach—struck fear deeper into Krolro’s soul than anything else.
“Huh?”
Esmeralda tilted her head as she saw him standing still.
“Why aren’t you running? Don’t tell me... you’ve given up now?”
Krolro’s lips twitched.
Esmeralda sensed he had something to say.
“Looks like you’ve got some final words? Then go ahead. I don’t see why I shouldn’t let you speak. I’ll allow a last will, at least.”
At her blatant provocation, Krolro raised his voice with veins bulging in his neck.
“Isn’t this enough already?!”
“What?”
Even Esmeralda hadn’t expected that outburst.
Enough? What the hell was he talking about?
“How far do you plan to go to destroy me?! Isn’t it enough already?! The Febius family has already fallen! Because of you!”
Was it the stress of facing death and terror?
The emotion welling up in Krolro Febius at the edge of sanity was not sorrow, but rage.
‘Why do I have to suffer like this?’
Look at what he had once been—and what he was now.
He barely ate. He couldn’t sleep. Every night was a nightmare.
His once-golden hair had dulled and frayed. The sharp gleam in his eyes was buried in dark circles.
His cheeks were sunken, his stubble unshaven, his eyelids hollow.
He was the very picture of ruin.
‘Is this... me? Me, the head of the great House Febius?’
Krolro clenched his teeth.
‘Why? Why do I have to suffer like this?!’
He had driven countless people to their deaths?
So what?
They were mere commoners.
He had only delivered the punishment they deserved for opposing him.
‘If only that bitch had listened properly. If those filthy commoners hadn’t resisted me. None of this would have happened!’
As that thought took hold, all the pain he’d endured boiled over into fury.
His rage smothered what little reason he had left.
“It’s all your fault.”
He didn’t even realize what he was saying anymore.
“If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have ended up like this!”
At those words, Esmeralda’s expression stiffened.
“Because of me... this happened?”
Krolro Febius’s shrieking accusations.
Words so absurd they could’ve been dismissed outright—yet Esmeralda couldn’t ignore them.
“...How dare you.”
You—say that to me?
She was about to fire back—
—when she heard it.
It’s your fault.
A quiet whisper, echoing in her ear.
It wasn’t Krolro speaking.
It was the voice from her nightmares.
It’s your fault!
Everyone died because of you!
She had heard those cursed words over and over again in her dreams.
Villagers covered in blood, screaming blame at her.
Those voices overlapped with Krolro’s.
“No...”
Esmeralda grabbed her head with both hands.
No. No. That’s not true.
It wasn’t me.
Not me.
Krolro seemed to notice something was wrong.
He instinctively took a step back, retreating.
“It’s not true!!!”
───!!!
At that moment, a massive flame erupted behind Esmeralda and swallowed the area whole.
* * *
‘This is bad.’
Within the blazing inferno, Ludger furrowed his brow.
Despite the overhead sprinklers raining water from the ceiling, the flames showed no sign of dying down.
In fact, they seemed to burn even fiercer in defiance.
A veritable hellfire, descended upon the human world.
Ludger urged the steam golem DT-3000 deeper into the warehouse.
And at last—he saw them.
Krolro Febius, unconscious and burned.
“...Esmeralda.”
Esmeralda, collapsed on her knees, her shoulders trembling.
But even more overpowering was something else.
Fwooooosh!
The swirling flames gathered into one place and began to take shape—a massive fire giant.
A hulking, hunched spirit of flame, grotesque in form.
“Quasimodo.”
As if responding to his call, Quasimodo stared down at Ludger with eyes dripping molten magma.
The moment their gazes met, the air itself seemed to boil.
The oppressive heat sank into his lungs like molten iron.
‘Esmeralda doesn’t look well.’
She hadn’t killed Krolro.
Which meant something had gone wrong.
‘She’s sitting there, unable to move, even with her target for revenge right in front of her. Something must’ve shaken her to her core.’
Esmeralda, unmoving in the midst of a raging blaze—
The image overlapped with what Ludger had seen before through memory magic.
A single word flashed through his mind.
Trauma.
Esmeralda was trapped in her trauma.
In that case...
Ludger dismounted the steam golem and approached slowly.
He paid careful attention to each step, wary not to provoke Quasimodo.
‘The fire spirit Quasimodo... no, more like a wraith than a spirit. This thing isn’t just a summoned entity.’
As he drew closer to Esmeralda, Ludger thought:
This being acted on its own, even when its master was in such a state.
Its very essence was soaked in hatred—this was no ordinary familiar.
He advanced carefully.
The heat grew even more intense.
Quasimodo was warning him not to approach further.
Ludger spoke cautiously.
“Quasimodo. You know who I am, don’t you?”
[...Human...]
“I’m sorry for what happened back then. It couldn’t be helped.”
If it could talk, that meant it could be reasoned with.
Ludger chose his words with great care.
“I’m your master’s ally. I have no intention of fighting you.”
[...]
Quasimodo didn’t reply.
Instead, it grinned—a horrifying smile.
Did that mean it accepted his words?
‘What a terrifying face.’
Perhaps because its face was made of magma and flame, its menace was on another level.
Even Ludger, who had faced countless monstrous beings, felt a chill run down his spine.
‘Still... it seems to be showing no hostility toward me for now.’
Silently, Ludger activated the device on his left leg.
A machine built into his greave—designed by Seridan—capable of firing a miniature tranquilizer dart.
Click.
He carefully wound the mechanism, drawing it to full tension.
With practiced precision, he aimed it at Esmeralda.
Pssht!
He fired the dart—so small and silent that no one could’ve noticed.
It flew straight toward the back of Esmeralda’s neck—
Fwoosh!
A massive flaming hand appeared and smacked it away.
What—?!
Ludger looked up at Quasimodo in disbelief.
It had anticipated the attack?
‘Since when...?’
Quasimodo still wore that same wicked smile as it looked down at him.
And Ludger realized in that moment—
‘This thing never trusted me to begin with.’
The understanding words, the placid grin—it had all been an act.
From the start, it had been performing, deceiving him.
Acting on its own, without orders from its master?
Unthinkably cunning—for a spirit.
Or rather... for a wraith.
Quasimodo’s twisted smile contorted in an instant into seething rage.
‘Danger—!’
Ludger immediately leapt backward.
A massive fist from Quasimodo came crashing down like a hammer exactly where he had just stood.
A blast of force exploded outward, fire surging in all directions.
The scorching heat swept over Ludger like a fiery shockwave.
He landed on his feet, brushing off the embers clinging to his coat.
Despite all the flame resistance, defensive wards, and heat-nullifying spells he’d cast, the heat still pierced through.
‘Just like before... This thing is beyond reason.’
Last time, he’d dispelled Quasimodo by destroying the summoning medium directly.
But this time was different.
As long as the spirit mage Esmeralda remained, Quasimodo couldn’t be forcibly unsummoned.
And the spirit knew it—so it was guarding her.
‘Then, this time—’
Coordinate targeting.
The moment Ludger manipulated his mana, Quasimodo reacted.
Crack.
Its mouth opened wide, a molten furnace churning within.
Ludger kicked off the ground.
[Ater Nocturnus]
Shadow wrapped around his body and spread into vast black wings behind him.
In a flash, Ludger soared into the air, the flames grazing just below his feet.
Quasimodo reached toward him.
The surrounding fire twisted and surged, responding to Quasimodo’s will, chasing after Ludger.
As tendrils of flame coiled toward him from every direction, Ludger focused solely on evasion.
‘It won’t give me a moment to cast.’
It had learned.
It knew he possessed spatial magic—and how to disrupt it.
Whooosh!
A massive fist flew straight toward him.
Ater Nocturnus shifted, transforming into a large shield to block the blow.
Ssssssht!
The shadow wavered and buckled under the heat.
Driven back by the impact, Ludger landed on the ground.
‘This isn’t a good matchup.’
Ater Nocturnus was a spellbeast formed of shadows.
That made it inherently weak to fire and light elements.
Quiver.
Ater Nocturnus writhed slightly, as if whining.
“...I know.”
Ludger reluctantly reached into his inner pocket and pulled out a pill, swallowing it.
Instantly, his depleted mana surged back.
This was a far more potent mana recovery drug than any he’d used before.
Ater Nocturnus greedily sucked up Ludger’s restored mana, like it hadn’t just been pouting moments ago.
“Earn your share, then.”
Ater Nocturnus swelled violently.
Just like Quasimodo, who stood guard over Esmeralda, a towering black beast of shadow rose behind Ludger, locking eyes with the fire giant.
And then—they clashed.
While the two monsters fought, Ludger once again attempted to shoot Esmeralda with a tranquilizer.
But Quasimodo wasn’t about to let that happen.
Fwoosh!
A barrier of roaring flame spiraled around Esmeralda.
The heat distorted the air, warping visibility.
‘He’s trying to obscure my line of sight—so I can’t set coordinates for teleportation magic.’
Clever. And calculating.
And this is supposed to be just a spirit?
He hadn’t imagined the entity Esmeralda commanded would be this powerful.
‘This is the power wielded by a First Order of the Black Dawn.’
Boom! Boom!
Every clash between Ater Nocturnus and Quasimodo sent out shockwaves.
Meanwhile, the warehouse fire grew uncontrollably worse.
At this rate, Ludger would be burned alive before anything else.
‘Do I have to borrow that divine power again?’
The thought crossed his mind, but Ludger shook his head.
That kind of power required time to invoke—and once unleashed, it would raze everything in the area indiscriminately.
In a situation where every second counted, and innocents might still be nearby, it was not an option.
‘Abandon the sneak attack plan on Esmeralda.’
The battle between the two ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) beasts reached its conclusion swiftly.
No matter how much mana he poured in, Ater Nocturnus couldn’t overcome the elemental disadvantage. Defeated, it slinked back to Ludger, diminished.
“You didn’t even last a full minute?”
Quiver.
The shadow beast trembled in protest, clearly frustrated.
Even after draining an entire high-grade mana potion, it hadn’t survived a minute.
Ludger sighed and rose to his feet.
He didn’t even have the time to scold his own spellbeast.
Quasimodo, wary of Ludger making any sudden moves, moved to kill him quickly.
Fwoosh!
Viscous fire spewed from Quasimodo’s mouth.
“DT-3000, activate.”
Responding to Ludger’s voice, the steam golem—until now in horse form—began to move.
With a shrill neigh, the metal steed transformed into humanoid form.
Thud. Thud.
It strode forward, placing itself between Ludger and Quasimodo, crossing its massive arms into a guard position.
Moments later, the flame breath struck the golem directly.
Ssssssht!
The metal glowed red from the heat, its body quaking.
As the flames continued to batter it, Ludger stepped forward and placed a hand on the golem’s back.
“Reinforcing durability. Heat resistance. Structural restoration. Material enhancement.”
Not manifestation-type, but conversion and alchemical magic.
The golem’s semi-melted, drooping form was restored in an instant.
The half-melted construct stood tall once more. n𝚘vp𝚞𝚋.com
Click.
Ludger downed another pill.
He poured the restored mana straight into the golem, forcing its reinforcement.
Endless flames.
The golem crumbled, rebuilt, and endured again and again.
Finally—the breath of fire ended.
Ash scattered. Storage crates reduced to cinders, vaporized to powder.
Everything around Quasimodo had melted.
Even steel structures had warped and liquefied, widening the warehouse floor.
Quasimodo stood, panting, glaring daggers at Ludger.
“Well, well.”
Faced with Quasimodo’s killing intent, Ludger sighed.
Attacking Esmeralda from a distance was no longer viable.
Defeating Quasimodo head-on was nearly impossible.
Which left only one path.
‘A direct breakthrough... is all that’s left.’
If he could just inject the specialized tranquilizer into Esmeralda, Quasimodo would collapse.
‘How many pills do I have left...?’
He considered how much mana recovery medicine he still had—then chuckled and shook his head.
Calculating things mid-battle wasn’t his style.
“If I’m doing this... I’ll go all in.”
With those words, Ludger pulled out a small item from inside his coat.
Quasimodo tensed immediately, ready to react.
Ludger gave him a sidelong glance.
“Don’t panic. Can’t I enjoy a little style?”
What he pulled out was a pipe—black and gold inlaid, elegant in design.
Inside the bowl was finely shredded toxic herb saturated with mana poison.
As he moved to light it, Ludger smirked at the absurdity of trying to use flame in this environment.
He extended the pipe outward.
“Mind lending me a light?”
Sssht.
A wandering ember drifted over and set the mixture ablaze.
Ssssss...
White smoke rose as Ludger placed the pipe in his mouth and drew in a slow breath.
He even closed his eyes.
For a moment, he looked like a man simply enjoying a peaceful moment in the middle of chaos.
Flash!
Then his eyes snapped open.
And in that instant, his pupils glowed with a deep, expanding blue hue of overwhelming mana.
