Chapter 94: But Dark Magic Sure Is

[3rd Person POV]

In a certain tavern, on the outskirts of a certain city, a lady was staring at nothingness while she downed the whole mug of beer that was bigger than her face in one go, she slammed the empty mug so suddenly, her purple eyes then became sharp, her bangs that are tucked in her ear fluttered as a result of her motion, Hebi Tsukaiza sighed.

"I have to hurry."

And without even the whole tavern noticing it, the lady who emptied three large mugs of beers disappeared from her seat with a purple flash.

She did not pay.

[Sophia's POV]

I looked at the head which was also looking at me with reverence, but somehow someway, I felt like retching every time I saw him, I wonder why is that and even [Guide] would not interject on my thoughts, well, it is not like he is very reliable and mostly keeps his wit to himself, so that's fine.

[I really don't know, maybe it was upset because of street foods.]

That is just impossible.

Anyway, I did not argue any further with the unique skill of mine and started to interrogate the devil (Really, somehow I don't want to classify him, as my undead).

"Well, are you ready?" I asked to which the head responded with heavy nods, making his head almost fall off as he shouted: "YES MASTER!"

I did not dawdle then and immediately asked: "Who sent you to tail me and my subordinate?"

The devil remained smiling, not even hesitating to answer.

"It is my former captain, Hebi Tsukaiza!"

I squinted my eyes a little to endure the large waves of sound coming from the severed head, I wondered if devils were all rowdy people. Anyway, with a nod, I immediately followed with the next inquiry.

"You are from Valentine, correct?"

The head nodded once more, I did not need to verify if he was lying or not because I made him one of us, and anyone made by me is loyal to me with all their heart and soul, such is the convenience of being a necromancer.

"I see, I see, then why are the soldiers of Valentine inside the place where I am in, is it just a coincidence or what?"

This time, the head paused for a bit as if to contemplate, but then his face became a little sad, it seemed like he would come up with a negative answer, and surely he did.

"Well, even though it shames me to admit it, I am not that of a high ranker, so I am not privy to the orders directly given by Loki unless, of course, it was ordered to me by the lady or lord of Valentine."

I nodded, however, given that it is Valentine, the country said by the prophet for me to be careful of, I already have an idea of why they are here, though I have to keep it to myself for now.

"Any information you want to divulge?"

The head seemed to cheer up because I was not angry that he could not provide me with information, his face brightened and once again smiled and nodded, for a person without a neck, he sure nods a lot.

"Yes, we came here 51 in total, including our leader, Hebi Tsukaiza, but because of my death, they only have 50 including the leader and 49 if not, Hebi Tsukaiza is also known as the strongest soldier of Valentine and the most trusted subordinate of Loki, she is the third hero of Valentine alongside Eris and Loki Darkbringer, her skills or abilities are unknown, other than having a very, very good knife skills, she is known as 'The Bearer of a Hundred Serpent.'"

I stared at the head as I contemplated, I wonder what that title meant, because I am surely planning to fight Hebi Tsukaiza, and her name means Ophiuchus (The serpent Bearer) in nihongo, so the serpent she is "bearing" must be the following: One, a lot of knives, maybe she can throw them or use magic to create them and use them at will, well very orthodox, Second, maybe that means weapons, Space magic too perhaps, well I mean it is not particularly hard to store things in the 4th dimension right, this place has mana and all after all.

_Hmm..._

I continued to stare at the head who was still expectantly looking at me as if asking me to use him as I saw fit. I am sure I will be able to use him quite well if I am a guy, but a head doesn't have a use for a lady like me, more so I feel nauseated with his presence, I wonder why, so instead, I will use him as a whack-a-mole.

"Last question, how durable are you?"

I raised my hand as I asked him that question, the head looked at the hand, confused but still smiling, oh how innocent he is, as he replied.

"Well, I wouldn't kno- Ahk!"

Without letting him finish his sentence, I clenched my fist and then smashed it into the head, causing a large explosion of fluid brains and black fluid that seemed to be blood, his eyeballs popped as his caved-in skull remained in the now dirty table, I lifted my hand and saw some maggots in it, I squinted my eyes, a little disgusted.

"This is the insides of an undeads brain? Ugh."

I splashed it all over, good thing is that, as all of you already know, I am the only one who can kill undeads for good, so he immediately started to evaporate into nothingness in the form of gray fog, I watched it silently and after about 5 seconds, the evaporation was finally over, I sat down on the sofa, now that I think about it, it is a good thing that there are no maids around huh, they would have fainted.

_And I can't borrow Urduja's dungeons without her permission._

Anyway, I sighed as I let go of those thoughts for my interrogation implies one thing, well, even though I am pretty sure this will happen, I didn't know that it will happen this soon.

_I am being targeted by this Loki and Eris._

And if they really are targeting me, the queen of undeads, then there is only one thing they want to achieve, however, I have to inquire to Urduja to confirm my conjecture, after all, the prophet doesn't want me to learn everything about Valentine even though he knew a lot about it. For my development and all that, I feel like he is just lazy so he became a librarian in there, sigh.

_I have to wait for Urduja, I wonder if Momoiro already informed her mom, she locked herself up in her room and seemed to be down._

Hey [Guide], do you have any way of knowing?

[I will try, wait a second.]

[She already did, but Urduja is still having a date with Eleanor, if you want, you can go and fetch them.]

Eh... But it's noon already, what are they doing out there, I'll just wait here.

After deciding that I was lazy, so I wouldn't go and fetch them, I leaned my back on the sofa and sighed, not knowing what should I do.

_Ah, actually, I know what should I do while I am waiting._

As I said earlier, I have to practice dark magic and maybe learn the more complicated or must I say "limitations" of space magic, because surely with my knowledge, I cannot just snap this world in half using it, scaling, you know, scaling.

I put my hand up and let a stickman materialize, I waved at it and it waved back at me, however, because he is in 2d, he cannot affect the place, meaning no matter how much power I give him, he cannot put a dent on the walls, doors or anything, I then put some mana in my breath and then blew some air in front of him, I almost choked the stick man to death when he jokingly put his sticky hand on his non-existent mouth, but anyway, now, the stick anatomy of the stickman I will name John has 3 dimensions, so if I gave him a very muscular build and fangs and wings and sharp nails, he will be able to destroy things that I want him to destroy.

_Hmm... He still cannot talk._

[Well, it seems like you need to perfectly learn how a function works to bestow it to John, or any other creation of that regard, however, I advise you to refrain from creating living creatures, you have a lot of ideas and were exposed to entertainment regarding monsters, you don't want to imagine an eldritch in the offset when you are mad, right?]

That makes sense, but how can he be still alive, I mean the only system I can say that I grasp the full function is the skeletal system.

[His energy, or his "organism" is you, but if that is the case, maybe you can give him a bigger brain so that he can talk.]

Oh, I see, nice idea, I did what [Guide] suggested, I imagined giving him a big brain until his cranium bulged.

"Hara na siyang gumabay sa aking pag-usbong, ihahandog ko ang aking mga kamay para sa iyong kagustuhan, ang aking katawan para sa iyong kaharian, at ang aking buhay para sa iyong kaligayahan." (T/L: Lady whom I owned my conception with, I shall offer my fist for you will, my body for your glory and my life for you pleasure.)

Eyy! He became a Filipino! HAHAHAHA!

[Stop playing around.]

Alright sorry, for now, let's set him up as an undead so he doesn't need to breathe.

[Hey, don't you dare...]

"Sa ngayon, tanging kapayapaan lamang ang nais ko para sa iyo. Pumunta ka sa aking sagradong lugar, at bantayan mo ito laban sa sinumang mangahas na pumasok." (T/L: My child, for now, I only wish for your peace, go to my sanctuary and there guard it against anyone who dares to enter)

This is fun.

[Like I said...!]

After that, the amalgamation of my random bullshit made an affirmative answer as I make it fly towards the 4th dimension, I looked at him and seem to be alright there, well I don't want my "son" to just die because of me. Anyway, that is the strength and limitation of Space magic. It can create things from scratch but it is in the limit of my magic power and imagination, as well as understanding. Also, one thing that I noticed is that it takes time, so it is not suitable for battle.

_Meaning I can't create AK-47 or AR-15, what a bummer._

I then looked at dark magic, yes this is the hardest one, in my past life, darkness did not exist when light was present, meaning that it could not be used as a source of energy because it cannot sustain its existence alone, however, in this world, it is very well alive and is the polar opposite of light.

What does that mean? It means that I don't have any basic knowledge of how this "energy" works, all I know is that it can destroy a lot of things if used raw, it can be injected in swords and my shadow, and it can also be fused with other magic and can amplify their effects, most notable is with sand magic and fire.

[It also has some illusion property so you can use it too, unfortunately, that is also all I know because the originator of the magic is particularly stingy about the information on how to use it.]

Eh... Well, that gives me a lot of ideas, and it is not like I am blank about it, but I always scientifically approach things, maybe I can use it for stirring emotions or some shit, though I cannot really test that.

"You shouldn't experiment with such destructive magic in my house you know."

Urduja finally came as I was just thinking as such, Eleanor also smiled at me and tacitly left the sofa, the maids who seem to be robots and want to tend to the needs of their lady also magically disappear, though my cross-wise maids are certainly better, hehe. Anyway, Urduja who is in a dress slumped herself in front of me and then opened her legs.

For some reason, I got some urges to bend down, but of course, I suppressed it for the sake of my tact and my dignity. I just silently watched her be comfortable in her house.

"Done already?"

I asked and then she nodded and pressed on with her earlier question.

"So why are you playing with dark magic inside my house? You will pay for it when you destroy this mansion again, you know."

"Yeah, yeah, anyway I have a question, apparently people from the devil race are here, in Gjallarhorn at the same time as I am here, I do not believe this is any coincidence, so, like, is there anything of importance to me that they want to beat me into getting?"

Urduja went silent for a second or so before nodding.

"Well, I guess you already know this but let me still confirm it for you, the undeads and Valentine don't have a good relationship and since the war between elves and undead, several artifacts from your race have been scattered to delay your reemergence."

"And one is in Gjallarhorn?"

Urduja nodded and added.

"If I were to choose, according to the logic of it being safe against the devil, vampire, and my grasp in terms of distance, then it is in the Capital of Gjallarhorn, Heimdall."