Dark Fantasy’s Extra Chapter 186

A hand like a rotten tree branch emerged from the forest.

Following the hand came an arm, then shoulders, and finally the entire body was revealed under the moonlight.

“Disgusting…”

Gerda recoiled in disgust.

Even Hilde, who had built up quite a bit of experience, frowned.

The snark was a humanoid Beast about 3m tall.

But being humanoid only meant it had arms, legs, and a head and walked upright – its appearance was far from human.

While its legs and torso had almost exactly the same proportions as a normal human, its arms were unnaturally long, dragging on the ground.

Its skin was like black tree bark, with moss and weed-like hairs sticking out between the cracks.

But the most grotesque part was its head.

Excluding the head, the body’s height was at most under 2m.

The rest was all head, making it extremely top-heavy, with no nose, mouth, or ears – just large eyes scattered all over.

And most importantly, the shape of the pupils determined whether it was a snark or mutation – vertical slits for snarks, horizontal for mutations.

And the one before us… had horizontal pupils.

“…!”

The mutation sat down, wrapping its long arms around its body like ropes.

It was taking the preparatory stance for its special skill that could delete health itself.

“Let-“

A clear, crisp snap of fingers.

At the same time, the ground beneath the mutation turned into a swamp, surging up from both sides like a creature’s maw and swallowing it whole.

The ground that swallowed the mutation sank back down, leaving nothing behind.

It seemed to be a sorcery called [Swamp Fangs], though the original [Swamp Fangs] was much smaller and at most a binding skill that could trap feet.

But what Maia used…

“…”

“…”

Everyone stared blankly at Maia.

“It was obviously going to use a dangerous technique, so there was no need to let it.”

“That was amazing…”

“You can praise me more.”

Maia puffed out her chest.

It reminded me nostalgically of the Maia I first met.

“Right. You really are incredible.”

We searched around Snark Island for traces of Vile.

Meanwhile, any snarks that appeared could be hunted easily with Maia’s help.

“Could you perhaps also sense where Vile’s hideout is hidden?”

Ozwald asked.

“I can’t sense much on this island besides those hideous Beasts. But I can’t definitively say there’s nothing here.”

I had already told Maia everything about Vile’s base.

Now that I knew my past life’s game knowledge was real and some kind of prophecy about the current era, I could share that knowledge with anyone I trusted.

And at this point, there was no one more reliable than Maia who had become a witch.

The beings called witches in this era were each originally protagonists of various worlds I had created long ago.

Though Maia wasn’t the protagonist of this world nor directly created by me, I was involved in her becoming a witch, and since she recognized me as the creator god Noah, she at least wouldn’t be hostile to me.

Creating worlds wasn’t like magic where things just happened with a poof – it used a system…

…Huh?

Since when did I remember things like that?

Could my memories be returning bit by bit?

“…What’s wrong? Did you remember something?”

Gerda asked.

“Ah… it’s nothing. Don’t worry about it for now.”

“Okay.”

As I said, there’s no need to focus too much on the fact that I used to be a god or whatever.

I am who I am.

Being Noah was in the past – now I’m Eugene.

I have no desire to become a god again.

“Over there!”

Maia pointed toward the center of the island.

Going that way, we found an empty clearing in the middle of the forest that was completely surrounded by trees.

This was also the location of the secret door leading to Vile’s base in Blue Paper Moon.

“…Indeed.”

Ozwald knelt down and carefully examined the ground.

“There are some unnatural traces.”

He noticed that already?

“Unnatural traces?”

Hilde asked.

“Yes. The footprint traces suddenly disappear at this boundary. Not just here, but in a square pattern around…”

Just as Ozwald said, there was a rectangular boundary where footprints and other traces of passage abruptly ended.

“Then this must be the hidden passage! But how do we open it?”

“Well, we could just blast it open.”

“What? But wouldn’t that give us away?”

“We’ve already been discovered.”

“What…?”

“Do you think Vile doesn’t know we’re here?”

I explained further to Hilde.

“Someone of Vile’s level probably knew before we even set foot on the island. It would be stranger if he didn’t notice us searching all over an island where his base is located.”

“Ah… th-then what should we do?”

“Like Sir Ozwald said earlier. We have to blast our way in.”

“But traps…”

“A frontal assault is our only option. We don’t know any other way in, and he already know we’re here anyway. This isn’t infiltration. It’s a forceful invasion.”

“…What about calling for reinforcements?”

“He wouldn’t wait for that either.”

“I see…”

“It’s fine. We have Maia on our side.”

“Ahem.”

Maia crossed her arms and lifted her chin.

“I don’t know how impressive this Vile person is, but he can’t be more impressive than me.”

“You bet.”

“…Still, we must be careful.”

Ozwald said.

“Vile… is different from before. He give off a dangerous aura.”

“Of course it won’t be an easy fight. But we’ll win. Just worry about staying alive.”

“…I hope it turns out that way.”

“Let’s at least form a rough strategy first. Even if we can’t make a detailed plan right now, we can decide how to handle different situations.”

After coming up with a simple but currently most realistic strategy where Maia would go after Vile alone while we searched for Oscar, we blew up the secret door with Maia’s sorcery and descended the stairs leading underground.

“Then I’ll go look for Vile alone.”

Maia said.

“Are you sure you’ll be alright?”

“Really, I’ll be fine.”

“Then I’ll trust you.”

“Trust me all you want.”

After Maia left alone, we carefully explored Vile’s base.

We could move separately despite being relatively weak because we calculated that Vile would have moved most of the forces in the base to deal with the sudden appearance of an irregular power.

But even considering that, there were too few Beasts in the base.

“It’s too quiet.”

Hilde said.

“Yes, I think so too. Could he’s sent all his forces after Ms. Maia?”

Ozwald said.

“Even then, he wouldn’t have sent everyone. He would have known from the start that there were several of us. He must have left minimal security.”

Though I felt strange about it too, I spoke cautiously.

“…Maybe there just aren’t many of them?”

Gerda said.

“Like he sent all his useful subordinates after that Maia person, and didn’t even bother with us?”

“Even so, surely not…”

When assaulting Vile’s base in Blue Paper Moon, there was an endless stream of Beasts.

There were even several gimmicks where you had to face endless waves of Beasts in a fixed space, almost like a defense game.

But now it was like the place was completely empty – not a single one appeared.

“…No, that might actually make sense.”

Ozwald said.

“Leaving mediocre forces would just reduce efficiency when spread out. Conversely, if he concentrated the remaining forces to guard Oscar, that would just give away the location. Rather, keeping an extremely small number of truly reliable forces nearby and removing everything else would force us to spend time searching.”

“Ah…!”

“So we need to hurry too. Vile wants to buy time. There’s no reason for us to play along with his intentions. But… it’s really hard to know where and how to search.”

The interior of Vile’s base looked like a modern hospital covered in white, similar to the old laboratory.

But unlike an actual hospital, there were no directional signs, making it difficult to find your way.

“…Could you trust and follow me here?”

Of course, I already knew the way.

“I’ve investigated Vile’s old base before, so I have this… how should I put it… a sense for it, I guess.”

Even I thought it was a flimsy justification.

Honestly, I felt a bit embarrassed saying it.

But I had no other plausible explanation I could give.

“Then I’ll follow you.”

“Okay.”

“Please lead the way.”

But all three agreed without a single objection.

“…Really?”

“Of course, it’s Senior saying it.”

“Because you’re Brother.”

Hilde and Gerda were one thing, but…

“Sir Ozwald…?”

“The instincts of someone with experience are still more reliable. Besides, it’s not like we have any better options. And it’s you, not just anyone. You must have something in mind.”

I felt even more embarrassed than before.

Still, it doesn’t feel bad to be trusted.

“Then follow me.”

* * *

Vile waited quietly.

All possible preparations had been made.

Hundreds of Beasts, with the number of high-tier Beasts easily reaching double digits.

Of course, they would only buy time.

Except for Raging Bandersnatch, even the few snarks and mutations on the surface might be stronger than all the Beasts inside the base combined.

The assets depleted to intentionally break the moon’s veil and draw in the magical phenomenon hadn’t even recovered 10%.

It couldn’t be helped.

Since spending time with Alice was far more important than that, proper work wasn’t done.

No, research into meeting Alice and making fairy tales reality was far more important work than gathering forces.

Time was spent on more important things.

That’s all there was to it.

“But… this is a bit much.”

Vile stood up from the chair.

“Just where did a being like you come from? Just what are you?”

And as the door shattered into pieces, a small green being walked in.

“I’m Maia. The world’s greatest genius sorcerer from Swamp Island.”

“Maia? Swamp Island? Hmm… doesn’t ring a bell.”

Vile tilted his head, still wrapped in bandages.

“That’s fine. You don’t need to know. Because you’ll die here.”

Swamps spread out from beneath Maia’s feet, consuming the surroundings.

“Hmm… not a Beast? A sorcerer? With that level of power, you could even be called a witch.”

“I’m already a witch.”

“Could you be the Frog Princess?”

“…Thumbelina. But just call me Maia.”

“Hmm. This is the critical point. If I kill you, I could recover most of my lost forces.”

Vile’s body began to writhe and twist out of shape.

“Try if you can.”

Their distance gradually decreased.

“Ah, but… could I hear why you suddenly invaded?”

“There’s someone who hates you. I’m here to help them.”

“I see. Well, it doesn’t particularly matter. It’s natural.”

“Hehe, truly a behemoth.”

“…Thank you.”

Vile’s body twisted more and more until finally transforming into a rectangular book shape.

The book-shaped Vile opened, and all sorts of monsters poured out from its pages, charging toward Maia.

“How fun.”

Maia also spread her wings and flew toward the army of monsters.