Chương 32: Chapter 31: Gluttony

The air in the banquet hall and the ether within it, blackened. The ether, which had already been polluted from the way that it had been extracted, had changed again, though the black mages had no idea from what.

"Wh-what in the world?!" one of them cried. The ether was becoming uncontrollable. They were skilled enough at magic that they could not possibly lose control of ether under any circumstances. But that unlikely outcome was becoming a reality as they spoke. The ether ran amok, flowing as if it had a will of its own toward Yuto and the Void Scythe that was at his back. The scythe, still trembling weirdly, took the ether and fed on it. It began to grow, growing bigger and taller.

From that point onward, it took within itself not only the ether in the air, but even other forms of it, which had been magically refined. The sticky, red blood that had swamped the banquet hall flowed backward into the scythe. The wandering flames in the air lost their light and fused with it. The magic circle that the black mages had installed with great effort fell apart little by little and was absorbed as well.

"My god...!" Rivian exclaimed. She held on tightly to Flokai's mane. The air and the ether—in fact, the very fabric of space—were shaking. Just as the black mages had noticed, Rivian already knew that whatever power Yuto was using, it was far higher than just magic, and probably came from some mysterious Constellation. But what was happening was just too hard to believe. The sovereign power of a Constellation was a blessing offered to humans that they favored. It was just borrowed strength, and nothing more.

But what Yuto was doing now felt much too powerful to be granted to any human. As the mages and Rivian watched in astonishment, Yuto was seeing a status window message in front of his blackened eyes. [Core unsealed.] ["Gluttony," a special skill of the Void Scythe, has been unlocked.] Yuto felt intense pain. It was as if somebody had grabbed his heart and was squeezing as hard as they could. The resentful spirits were screaming in his ears and making his brain rattle.

Yuto's eyes were staring right at the black mages through the terrible chaos around him. He maintained control of his sanity. Even now, he remained cool-headed and considered how best to kill the mages. This wish aligned with what the spirits in his core wanted, which had allowed the core to be unsealed and share its power with him. All magic in the banquet hall had been extinguished in a heartbeat and made a part of the Void Scythe. Yuto took a step forward.

All the blood had evaporated now, revealing the cracked marble floor. He ambled slowly towards his enemy, who could no longer even float. They had tried to use their flight magic, but they couldn't control their ether.

"No... Impossible!" screamed the leader. His human-bone staff twisted eerily and spewed black smoke. Even the ominous ether from the staff was being sucked away by the Void Scythe.

"All of you... focus your minds! Gain control of your ether! Give up on trying to capture that monster! Kill him. Just kill him!" he cried. The terrified black mages raised their staffs all at once. A resounding vibration shook them, and dark smoke billowed from their weapons. All ten of the mages had put their minds together to gain control of the ether back and chant a forbidden spell.

"Dark Explosion!" Every bit of ether they had left, compressed into a single point. Soon it became a spiral of darkness that shot out at Yuto. A storm of shadow overtook him, but the Void Scythe had already grown to a massive size. It descended slowly, and the tempest vanished like water down the drain. It was the last of their ether, and it vanished without having accomplished a thing. The scythe only grew bigger, and darkness wafted from the blade, making it look more ominous than ever.

"Thank you. You sharpened the edge for me," Yuto said coldly. His voice seemed to freeze the scene inside the banquet hall. He slowly approached the black mages without even using Void Steps. The scythe was almost touching the ceiling now, and it leaned slightly to the side, the blade gleaming. Nothing was touching it, but every time he walked, it made a sound as if it were grinding against or cutting something. The mages were all out and did not even have the energy to move anymore. They sank to the floor.

They were terrified, so much so, in fact, that they felt as if their souls were being sucked right out of them.

"W-wait. Wait!" The leader put his hands in the air, shaking all over.

"We surrender. We do. Please, spare our lives—" He didn't get to finish. The scythe split the air, and five black mages on his left crumpled without even a scream. The scythe had halved them at the hip as easily as if they were paper dolls. Stolen novel; please report. The air itself seemed to tear along the swing and pulsing darkness flowed from the weapon. It devoured the corpses until there was nothing left. The shock had sent the leader reeling. He now looked up, pale in the face.

He had polluted countless souls and turned them into accursed, resentful things. He knew instinctively that the souls of the black mages who had just died had been imprisoned within the weapon. Something told him that this would be a punishment far worse than death. The four on his right screamed and began to crawl away. They wished they could run, but the fact that they had no energy left, coupled with the fear that consumed their minds, prevented them from even exercising basic motor control.

They did all they could, which was to crawl like bugs. The scythe slammed against the floor, pecking at it like a bird's beak. Each peck hit one of them, and their bodies exploded on contact. Not a single thread from their robes remained after the scythe was done, nor a speck of blood. Their bodies vanished as if they had been erased from existence. Their souls would be locked inside forever, doomed to pain more terrible than hell itself.

"No, no, no... H-help!" Now only the leader remained, and he flattened himself on his belly against the floor. The powerful mage who had stood among the will-o'-the-wisps and mocked Yuto was nowhere to be seen. In his place was an insignificant insect who had abandoned his pride as a desperate ploy to save his own life, beaten and put down.

"Talk," Yuto said, standing in front of the mage. His blackened eyes glistened. The scythe that had done away with nine black mages now hovered near the leader's head. It made Yuto look like a Grim Reaper, ready to collect.

"Tell me everything you did in Velkyne. Do not leave out a single detail." The leader felt stifled by the pure dread and horror he felt. He knew in his gut that he could not lie. Not even the head of Dark Star, despite being such a powerful man, had been this frightening.

"W-we... we simply did as our leader, the leader of Dark Star, commanded. He wanted to use the souls of the dead here in Velkyne to pollute the ether..."

"And who does your organization support?" Yuto whispered. The leader trembled. This kid had claimed that he was the master of this castle. He could not even begin to guess who he was. This absurdly strong sovereign power had been given to him by a Constellation, no doubt. But this did not explain how the boy knew of the person who controlled the leader of Dark Star.

"H-he... I know that he reports to someone and obeys their commands... but I don't know who it is. We simply did as we were told, nothing more..." he stammered.

"I-it's the truth. Even the orc warriors. It was the head of Dark Star who brought them to us. We didn't hire them. And the slaves as well..."

"Slaves?" Yuto said, scowling. The old man leading the group flinched, quivered, and bowed so that his forehead touched the floor.

"In the castle... Or rather, under the castle, there is a secret passageway... It leads to a prison... a laboratory where slaves have been confined."

"A... laboratory?"

"W-we were experimenting whether living humans could be induced to pollute ether by scaring them," the leader said, swallowing nervously. He glanced up at Yuto.

"You... I don't know who you are, but that power... It's obviously... evil." The wrinkles on his face twitched and formed an obsequious smile.

"Far more so than our own magic... L-l-let me make you an offer. If you will let me live, and if you will have me, I will devote my life to you to the end of my days. You understand what I mean, right? I-I will betray Dark Star. Every bit of ether collected from this city is stored in tanks underground. All of it, including the results from the experiments. I will make sure that you can use them..." His servile smile distorted strangely in the cool air of the banquet hall.

He had jumped to his own incorrect conclusion after seeing Yuto's black eyes and just how much destruction his scythe could wreak. This was a power that was much deeper and sourced from a much more fundamental evil than what even the Dark Star sought. This was why he believed he could still live.

"I promise you, you will find many uses for me. If you accept, I—""You seem to be mistaken about something," Yuto rasped. He slowly shook his head and squatted down, making eye contact with the man. His eyes contained nothing but abyssal darkness—no sympathy or interest. And there was no reflection of the leader's cowardly face inside them, either.

"Do you think I am like one of you?" The only things that were there were overwhelming hatred and the desire to kill.

"W-well... I've seen what you can do! That ability you control, it's sinister and malign! You are like one of us, we who control souls and make destruction our main—""This power..." Yuto said. The Void Scythe descended slowly, approaching the top of the black mage's head. The leader balked. He tried to get away, but Yuto had gripped both shoulders.

"It is the plaintive cry of those betrayed by the Constellations, the seething hatred of those trampled by disgusting men like you." The scythe slowly came closer, reverberating strangely. The souls in the core were enraged by the leader's nonsense.

"The ether that you have 'refined' is the blood and tears of my people." The man's eyes distorted with terror. He still had no idea who Yuto was. He could not even begin to understand. But what he did see was that Yuto's rage was a hundred percent pure.

"You asked me to spare you." Yuto gave a dark grin.

"I'm sorry, but I can't honor that request. You will die. And when you die, you will leave no trace of your body behind in this world. Your soul will be doomed to a place worse than hell for all eternity."

"W-wait! Wait, I still have more to say—""I don't want to hear it." The Void Scythe plunged into the crown of the black mage's head. He screamed, and his body fell apart, turning into black ashes from the top of his head. A terror worse than the pain of his body crumbling came over him. His soul was fed to the scythe and absorbed into the core. Along with his companions, he would wallow till the end of time in the unending abyss. The final black mage in the banquet hall was dead.

The silence that followed was as terrible as it was complete. Yuto stood up unsteadily. The gigantic weapon fell apart, disintegrating into black fog. Then Yuto felt the consequences of activating a core when he was not ready. He groaned. Agony worse than death came fairly to Yuto as well. The black mages had been right about one thing. The power he had just exercised wasn't something a human had any right to be using. Yuto felt the torment tear him apart. He sank to the floor.

"Y-Yuto!" Rivian said. She and Flokai rushed over to him, but he couldn't say a word to them. He hugged his own body, slumped over, and tried not to scream.