Dark Fantasy’s Extra Chapter 226

In the Order, mages are considered highly valuable personnel.

Though they have a strong image of providing fire support on the battlefield, strictly speaking, such roles could be replaced by heavy weapons.

Of course, unlike heavy weapons which are just chunks of metal, mages have the advantage of being able to think and move on their own, but their main work generally involves researching various subjects.

The reason Ozwald is considered one of history’s greatest mages is not just his skill, but because he broke down the tendency to see field work and mages as completely separate, achieving structural reforms.

The overall quality of Beast hunting improved with his arrival alone, as he developed magic that even lower-ranked hunters could use like [Acceleration] and spells to erase footsteps, as well as magic suitable for field use by pure mages like [Magical Power Blade].

Thanks to the trend of emphasizing practicality for mages, those with talent quickly receive high treatment wherever they go.

However, the situation completely reverses just one step outside that mage framework.

Since it’s a profession that overworks the head, specifically the brain, mages occasionally fall into madness.

Moreover, since they retain their firepower, there’s no telling what kind of damage they might cause at any time.

Especially since the more severe their madness becomes, the more their firepower tends to increase proportionally, there have been occasional incidents where those who were called sages would erase an entire village from the map along with their own life in a single day, or cause catastrophic damage to cities.

Because such incidents have repeated throughout history, treatment of those who transcend ordinary mages is not good.

However, among those mad mages, an extremely small number awaken again, controlling their madness and being reborn as something completely different.

Their name is magus – those who cause magical power distortions in their surroundings just by existing.

And from the perspective of a god who creates worlds, they are something alien that makes you wonder where exactly such beings came from – simultaneously transcendent beings yet not transcendent beings.

“So, why did you come here?”

Magus Dorothy asked me.

Those were the first words after I explained that I was the god who created the world and had now reclaimed that position.

I’m not sure if he believed me or not, and he doesn’t seem particularly concerned either.

It seems like he barely even listened.

“How does this world look to you?”

“How? It’s just a world.”

“Well, what I mean is…”

This world must have been created by Noah like the previous worlds.

If that weren’t the case, I couldn’t have created Blue Paper Moon which contained a significant portion of this world’s fate.

But I don’t remember anything.

Whether it’s because of imperfections in my memories, or whether I erased them myself, I have no idea how this world was created or what it was meant for.

Of course, I might be able to know for certain if I asked Ryu or Karen.

But what I want to know isn’t how this world was created.

“From your perspective, does this world seem alright?”

“Yeah, it’s fine.”

“Really? Then that’s enough.”

I struggled to stand up from my chair.

As I tried to rise, Hilde and Sephira supported me from both sides.

I wish I could at least stand up by myself.

“I hope we can meet in the next world too. It seems like it’ll be an interesting era.”

Maia declared she would make the next world an era of witches.

Given her abilities, it will undoubtedly be possible.

She could probably manage somehow with her own power even without my help.

“It doesn’t matter to me. Wherever I am is my world.”

“As expected of a magus. See you next time.”

I left those words and exited the Magic Research and Development Department basement.

“Was that really enough?”

Hilde asked as we were leaving.

That conversation just now was all I had with Dorothy.

It might seem strange since it wasn’t even 5 minutes.

“That was enough.”

A magus’s mind is completely unfathomable.

But there’s no doubt that sometimes they possess something that can surprise even divine beings.

For example, when Oscar had just become Dorothy, he spent several weeks, even months with his mouth shut.

He maintained an emotionless state without showing the slightest reaction even when all sorts of terrible things happened before his eyes.

The reason was just one – to think about his new name.

It was truly absurd…

But that’s precisely why I wanted to hear a magus’s thoughts.

They were suitable to ask whether the world was fine as it is.

I wanted to ask my questions to and hear answers from a completely external existence that I don’t understand.

“This world was certainly created with Noah’s power. That much is undoubtedly true. But probably… it contains not even a bit of will or intention.”

“What does that mean?”

“This world was created on its own, by itself. That’s probably it.”

I believe this world was created that way.

The world completely vanished without a trace in Vasilisa’s era.

But even after that, the world continued to exist.

No, rather than continue, it was naturally recreated and born again.

That must have been one of the reasons why I, when I was Noah, wanted to quit being the Creator of my own accord.

The world goes on by itself even without me particularly doing anything.

Of course, since it contains no intention, it must be full of uncertainty and chaos… but in the end, even the worlds I created with clear purposes all failed.

In that case, even if this world perishes, it might not be bad to let the next world create itself.

The reason I took this position again is simply because the Creator’s seat cannot be left vacant.

It’s not that I have any firm sense of purpose, I’m just holding onto it until my next successor appears.

And in the distant future, when someone else appears to inherit this position, wouldn’t it be good to pass on a pure world containing no intentions?

Even if by some chance I’m confined or fall into a vegetative state from confronting Belle whom I’m about to meet, I met Dorothy to confirm that the remaining world would somehow survive well, and received a positive answer.

“Now this is enough. Shall we go? To Belle.”

“Finally…”

“Ah, and you two don’t need to follow me anymore from here. It’ll be fine even if I’m defeated.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Wait…!”

“Senior!”

With a snap of my fingers, I sent them back to the mansion.

From the beginning, I who could go back and forth between here and there in the blink of an eye brought them along because there was a possibility that something bad might happen to me and the world would be abandoned without safely transitioning to the next world.

I needed escorts to return when Belle tried to restrain me, to prevent such things from happening.

However, thanks to Dorothy, I realized the world would somehow roll along decently even without me.

So now they don’t need to follow me for protection.

“As expected, you pull this kind of backstab at the end?”

Maia’s voice was heard from somewhere.

She hasn’t come here herself, probably speaking through a familiar she attached to my body.

“Do you know what chaos broke out? As soon as Hilde and Sephira arrived, they started screaming like crazy and rushed out of the mansion with tremendous force.”

Even if they run at full speed, it would take them days to get here.

By then, no, I plan to settle things right now so it doesn’t matter.

“What about you? Aren’t you going to follow them?”

“Me? Of course I’m not just going to sit still, but I don’t plan to rush in recklessly either. If you do get captured, I’ll thoroughly plan out a strategy to crush that great eldest sister and get you back. So don’t worry.”

“There’s no need for that. The world will keep turning fine even without me.”

“I don’t care about the world. I’m worried about you, so of course I’d do that. Learn to read the mood a bit.”

“Sorry.”

“How can such a great god be so dense? Anyway, you’re prepared to face tremendous resentment later, right?”

“Yeah. Later, or rather, they must be furious even now.”

“Well, at least for now I don’t plan to do anything with this familiar either. I’ll just watch as a simple spectator how you settle this final confrontation.”

“Thank you.”

I entered a dark alley at the Order headquarters.

One of the Order’s secret passages that I learned about through Blue Paper Moon.

But the moment the presence of people around disappeared, someone was already behind me.

A 1st-rank hunter in a white mask and white attire.

“I can go alone.”

“…”

They gave no response.

They must already know who I am.

Perhaps they’re nervous?

“It’s alright. I won’t do anything. I just… came to meet someone I know.”

“…”

I gently pushed several bricks simultaneously on the wall in front of me.

The bricks moved on their own, revealing a space large enough for a person to pass through.

A thick scent of roses and blood wafts from inside.

I walked in while leaning on my staff.

The 1st-rank hunter silently followed behind me.

And the deeper we went, the more hunters gathered around me.

Probably all the 1st-rank hunters in the Order had assembled.

And after walking straight through the complex secret passages without any confusion, we arrived at Belle’s room where all passages finally converge.

“…”

I reached out and knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

I opened the door at that response.

A flower fragrance so thick it made me dizzy, and a heavy smell of blood.

No, the two could no longer be distinguished.

Because this blood scent is now the flower’s fragrance.

“Welcome.”

“Hello, Belle.”

Belle was still barefoot, but now she wasn’t even wearing her veil, showing her bare face.

But there was not a hint of vitality or strength in those jewel-like blue eyes and pitiful golden hair.

Well, that’s to be expected.

She must have had to make considerable sacrifices herself to prepare something like this.

“This is amazing. Even I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

I sat in a nearby chair entwined with rose vines.

Though the rose thorns dug into my body, I didn’t particularly mind.

“These are the true reason why I created the Order.”

“As I thought, you plan to seal me away? Like you did to your sisters?”

“Yes. That too was all just preparation for today.”

“I see… At this level, it might be possible. Bari would be quite surprised if she saw this. To think you would bloom the Flower of Destruction.”

The Flower of Destruction, also called the Asura’s Evil Heart Flower of Destruction,

While the Flower of Reincarnation that Bari desperately cultivated was, true to its name, a flower for driving away death in a distorted way, the Flower of Destruction conversely draws in death.

To be precise, it imposes the concept of death on its target using system authority.

That must have been the secret technique that allowed her to seal her sisters who each possessed a share of system authority.

Those were things I created in the early days to manage the world, so the other children probably didn’t even know they existed.

“Were you careless because you have Noah’s authority?”

“I didn’t expect the Flower of Destruction, but I wasn’t being careless.”

“Then how do you plan to escape from here? You won’t even be able to use spatial movement since the coordinates themselves are unstable here?”

“That doesn’t matter. You can seal me if you want.”