Dark Fantasy’s Extra Chapter 187

I led the group to where Oscar might be.

“What is this…?”

“The smell!”

“Hmm….”

First, we passed through a room where dozens of skinned cats were hanging from hooks.

Vile had created this storage room because he enjoyed the stewed cat dish from Cheshire Village.

However, unlike in Blue Paper Moon where they were kept refrigerated, all the cat meat here had severely rotted.

According to the lore, he had kidnapped a chef from Cheshire Village to manage this – perhaps even that chef had disappeared.

Either Vile’s taste had changed, or he’d lost interest in eating altogether… either way, it was equally disturbing.

After the rotten cat storage came the rare sample storage.

It was where he ‘stored’ those among his kidnapped humans who had potential to become high-tier Beasts or above.

There was a horrific setting where they could be kept stable long-term by cutting off their limbs, suspending them in midair, and feeding them nutrients through tubes from mouth to stomach.

But this place was empty too, with only traces showing someone had been bound here before.

Of course, this was just on the way – not my actual target location.

The most suspicious place would be…

“Probably here.” 

I said, pointing to the door leading to Vile’s library.

Though there were no signposts or nameplates, I knew with certainty from my past life knowledge that this was it.

The library was also where you fought the boss battle with Raging Bandersnatch.

“Then, I’ll open it.”

When the library door opened, we saw a massive cavern with huge holes above and below.

The walls had wide spiral ramps going up, with bookshelves on each level.

In Blue Paper Moon, this room had special gimmicks where all those bookshelves acted as obstacle objects.

Raging Bandersnatch’s main pattern was to ambush players from behind those bookshelves while moving between the cavern’s levels.

But this place wasn’t exactly the same as I remembered from Blue Paper Moon either.

First, most of the bookshelves were gone.

Only a few had fallen over or left fragments, with most appearing to have burned away.

If we end up fighting Raging Bandersnatch, the situation might be slightly better.

And at the very bottom…

“Oscar!”

Ozwald leaned over to look down and shouted.

At the bottom floor was a large transparent crystal, and Oscar could be seen inside it.

He seemed to be sealed by some special method… could we release it ourselves?

“…! Sir Ozwald!”

Hilde urgently grabbed Ozwald from behind and pulled him back.

Just as Ozwald retreated, a gray mass swiftly passed through where his head had been and fell downward.

“Was that just-?!”

“That was the one we saw before!”

Ozwald said.

“Its name was… Bandersnatch, wasn’t it? A terrifying creature…. I owe you one, Hilde.”

“Something’s coming!”

Gerda shouted.

Even without her warning, we could feel something approaching with thundering steps.

“Let’s retreat for now!”

“But Oscar is still-!”

Ozwald hesitated.

“Vile wouldn’t let Oscar get hurt! Please fall back so we can make a plan!”

I pulled on Ozwald’s wrist.

“Dodge!”

Hilde stepped forward holding her Executioner’s Axe.

At the same time, Bandersnatch swiftly extended its body from below and swung its foreleg at us.

Bandersnatch’s leg stretched like a whip and instantly clashed with Hilde’s axe.

“Kyaah!?”

Hilde was sent flying backward, and we all tumbled outside the doorway.

With a thundering slam, the library door closed.

“Ugh….”

Hilde trembled, having dropped her axe.

I quickly and roughly massaged Hilde’s arm.

“Hic!”

“Bear with it! It’ll swell up if we don’t treat it quickly!”

“Yes…!”

After giving Hilde’s arm some emergency treatment, we let out a sigh of relief.

“Haah, it’s fine now. I can handle the rest.”

Hilde clenched and unclenched her fist to loosen it up.

“That power was truly unbelievable….”

“I’m sorry…. I was blinded for a moment….”

Ozwald said.

“N-no, it’s fine.”

Hilde waved her hand.

“No, it’s not. I fought that thing before, so I know. It must have had incredible strength, yet you managed to block it….”

“…But for such a creature, it’s not following us?”

Gerda said.

“It probably has orders to protect Oscar as the top priority. It even deliberately closed the door just now. Telling us not to come in.”

I pointed at the door.

“Then what should we do?”

“Obviously we go in and kill it. Our job from the start was to save Oscar. Maia’s side is the one buying time.”

Of course, Maia might completely finish off Vile instead, but only fools base their actions on optimistic assumptions.

“Sir Ozwald, you said you fought Bandersnatch before?”

“Yes. It was the one that burned Vale territory and kidnapped Oscar. Even surviving the combined attack from it and Vile wasn’t easy.”

Not just ‘not easy’ – surviving itself was a miracle.

The very fact that he survived an attack from two behemoths proves Ozwald’s capabilities.

“Then first, please tell us its attack patterns in as much detail as possible. Let’s make a new plan.”

* * *

Tweedledum and Tweedledee emerged from Vile’s pages and simultaneously fired red beams.

Though the beams were thicker and larger than Maia’s height, they deflected to the sides with her light gesture.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee vanished like mirages as Vile’s page turned with a rustle.

What emerged from the new page was Biting Jabberwock’s head.

When Jabberwock opened its maw, it spewed hellfire that could instantly melt even steel.

“Not bad!”

Maia fluttered her wings slightly and dodged the flames like an acrobat.

“Boom!”

When Maia pointed her index finger at Vile, an explosion erupted on one side of Jabberwock’s head.

Though Jabberwock’s head swayed heavily from the impact, the wound wasn’t quite fatal.

“Roooar!!!”

As Jabberwock regained its posture and let out a curse-infused scream, the shockwave engulfed Maia.

“Waaah!!!”

But Maia also screamed with curse power at the same time, causing the shockwaves to cancel each other out as the surrounding air violently vibrated.

“You’re really amazing?! I’ve never seen a Beast as powerful as you!”

The battle between the two most inhumane beings in the world easily surpassed even reality itself.

Like myth or fairy tale, tactics that shattered perception and common sense flew back and forth.

“Kyaaah!!”

Vile didn’t respond.

Instead, a massive illusion identical to Jabberwock’s maw filled the entire room they were fighting in, with the ceiling becoming the upper jaw and the floor the lower jaw.

It was [Marchen Bite], Biting Jabberwock’s most powerful pattern.

In Blue Paper Moon it was a gimmick skill that dealt almost instant-death damage but had safe zones in the field you could dodge to, but there were no such places here.

Just raw power clashing against power in the wide open cavern.

“…!”

Sensing the extraordinary power, Maia pulled up swamp from the ground to create a defensive barrier around herself.

Just as the barrier completed, Jabberwock’s illusion bit down on the entire room.

With the sound of something breaking, space itself distorted momentarily as Maia’s barrier exploded, spraying mud everywhere.

But Maia was already gone from where the barrier had disappeared.

“Ooooh…!?”

Maia’s hand shot up from the swamp directly below Vile, holding a spear that wasn’t there before, and stabbed Jabberwock’s eye.

Vile’s pages instantly closed as he retreated far back.

“Hehe, this is quite effective.”

Maia said while twirling the spear.

Maia was originally a character who collected items in her own unique space and exchanged them.

She had entered that space while dodging Jabberwock’s attack and came back out with a weapon.

What Maia was holding was [Dragon Hunter’s Spear].

As the name suggests, it deals additional damage to dragons.

Of course, there’s an overwhelming difference between a player using it and a witch like her using it.

“Haah, really….”

The mouth attached to Vile’s cover spoke.

“Where did a monster like you come from? Are you really a witch?”

“Of course! I am a witch? Though it’s not like I particularly wanted to become one.”

“I’ve identified six witches so far… could you be Vasilisa? I haven’t met her yet.”

“Who knows? Maybe I am, maybe I’m not? Does a dead man need to know?”

Maia bent her waist slightly backward before throwing the Dragon Hunter’s Spear.

But the spear, shot like a missile, bounced off new wings that emerged from the book.

They were wings made of Snatching Jubjub Bird’s bones.

“You said you’re helping someone who wants me dead.”

“Right. Nothing strange about that. There must be plenty of people who hate you.”

“Could it be Eugene?”

“Huh?”

“When something strange happens beyond my understanding, it’s usually that human. Just what is his identity? Why are you witches so bound to such a thing?”

“Because he’s completely charming?!”

Maia pulled out a new weapon, [Sun’s Great Bow].

Though it was much taller than her height, she easily drew its string.

However, there was no arrow nocked.

“Ahaha, that was a bit funny.”

When she released the drawn string, an arrow made of flames appeared and flew toward Vile.

Vile flapped his wings to blow wind that extinguished the flaming arrow before it could reach him, then soared upward.

“It must be some kind of reality manipulation… or perhaps a type of system. Could Eugene be Noah’s herald or fragment?”

“Oh? You figured out that much? You really are amazing. Way smarter than that Ozwald. Are you sure you were originally human? Ah, maybe I shouldn’t talk….”

“Are you, no, are all of you okay with that?”

“With what?”

“That favor and affection you hold arose independently of your own will. You could say it’s an artificially implanted instinct.”

All witches are drawn to Noah.

It could be called mind control, a safety measure to prevent the created witches from rebelling against their creator Noah.

But the scale was an advanced and sophisticated system incomparable to mere hypnosis or brainwashing.

Of course, no ordinary human who could notice such a system exists.

“I don’t care! I’ve already received his grace several times anyway! It’s too late to hate him…!”

“But that’s just your thinking, right? How would the other witches react if they knew?”

“It’s fine. Only the White Witch and I know anyway. We just have to not tell the others. Then time and the system will naturally make all the other witches Eugene’s….”

Maia smiled sweetly.

“…slaves.”

“Hahaha! What an incredible plan!! You’ll make all your own kind into slaves?!”

“Yes! And I… I…!”

Maia’s pupils turned black.

“I’ll become the protagonist of the next world, and make him happy!”