The Former Child Prodigy Meets The Undead Ii Cherni

“H-hyaaaaaaaaaaaah!? I-I-I-Ilvis-san!?”

Fiona’s scream rang out.

Above the eye-like part of the red gemstone she was holding, a dark red sphere had appeared. Its boundaries were vague, its shape wavered, and it was unstable. But something was definitely trying to emerge there. A grating creaking sound, like something being forced open, scraped at my ears.

At first, the dark red sphere had only been about the size of a child’s fist, but it steadily swelled. To the size of an adult’s fist, to the size of a melon—

Then, something slithered out from that sphere.

An arm— a skeletal arm, with no flesh on it.

“Eek!”

Letting out a scream, Fiona staggered backward and fell onto her rear.

I closed the distance to Fiona in a single leap. Scooping up her small body, I activated Air Ladder, a spell that created footholds in midair, and ascended in one go to the top of a tall nearby tree, landing on one of its thick branches.

“W-what… w-what is happening…?”

I had no answer.

Something was about to happen—something even I could not understand.

The dark red sphere had already grown to the size of a house. It did not seem like it would get any bigger now, but— then things started pouring out of it in droves.

They were the lifeless dead.

Skeletons, zombies, and ghosts crawled out. It truly felt like a flood of the dead, and in no time at all the entire view below us was filled.

“Th-this feels kind of bad, does it not?”

“Yes, it does.”

For now, I should at least do what I could.

“Enchant—‘Holy Blade.’”

A white radiance lit up my dagger. Just as the name implied, it amplified its power against undead.

Now then, as I wondered what to do—

“Hey, you! We’ll help too, so untie this rope!”

A voice like a scream came from below.

It was the five-man group who had attacked us, the ones I had tied to the tree. A horde of undead was approaching them as well. In just another moment, they would have been swallowed up with no way to resist.

That was my mistake.

I snapped my fingers.

The ropes I had created with magic power vanished as though dissolving into the air.

“All right!”

The men easily kicked down the approaching zombies and skeletons. Apparently, they had trained decently well—if their enemies were the kind of generally weak monsters everyone knew, they could scatter them barehanded without much trouble.

Since they said they would help, this gave us at least a bit of fighting power— or so I thought, but before I knew it, the men turned their backs and ran like startled rabbits.

Whaaaaaaaaaat!?

“See you! We’ll figure things out on our own!”

Saying that, the men disappeared into the darkness. Fast beast-type zombies and ghosts chased after them from behind.

…Would they manage to escape?

Well, that was the path they had chosen. There was not much I could say.

“They ran away…”

“I am sorry. I fell for their trick.”

…Though even if they had said nothing, I probably would have released the ropes anyway. Leaving them tied there to be gnawed on by zombies would have left a bad taste in my mouth.

“! Get down!”

The moment I shouted it, I pushed Fiona’s head down. I swung my dagger, and in a single strike I cut down the ghost that had rushed in from the other side.

Before I could even breathe easy, I felt the tree shake. Looking down, I saw zombies beginning to climb up the trunk.

…Good grief. So they had locked onto us…

“Um, Ilvis-san, d-do you think… this might be useful for something?”

As she said that, Fiona held out the red gemstone. It was no longer giving off the same light as before and had returned to normal.

“…Perhaps.”

To be honest, I had no idea how to use it, but for the time being I accepted it from Fiona. I had no way of knowing what might become the key.

“I am sorry, Fiona-san. This is going to feel a bit rude, so please forgive me.”

“Huh, wh-wh-what do you mean—wahiiiiiiiiii!?”

I hoisted Fiona up onto my left shoulder. She was draped over it almost like a towel.

“W-w-w-what are you doing, Ilvis-san!?”

A protesting voice came from behind me.

“I am sorry, but I need to keep one hand free if I am going to fight—and if I am carrying you in that situation, this is what it comes to.”

“U-uh, uuuuh… I-I understand! That is fine!”

While we were having that exchange, flying ghosts and bird-shaped skeletons attacked us.

I swung my dagger in every direction and cut them down.

The zombies climbing the tree were nearly upon us now as well.

I stabbed my dagger into the tree and pointed my right hand downward.

“Magic Spear.”

The moment I spoke, a white spear shot from my hand. The zombies climbing the tree were blown away in an instant. But of course that was not the end. More and more new zombies approached the tree one after another.

Good grief… There is no end to this.

That dark red sphere—the man had called it a gate. We would have to do something about that. The undead were pouring out from there.

But how was I supposed to deal with that thing?

“Magic Arrow.”

The white arrow I fired struck the sphere— but then simply vanished into it.

Was it erased? No, that was not it. It felt more like it had been swallowed. …If that truly was a gate to another world, then I supposed that reaction did make sense.

I let out a sigh.

All right, I have decided.

We are running.

I do not know any reliable way to close that gate. This honestly feels like a national-level crisis. The important thing is to survive and report what happened.

“I am about to move dramatically. Please keep your mouth shut so you do not bite your tongue.”

As soon as I said that, I jumped down from the branch.

Before gravity could fully seize my feet, I activated Air Ladder. Kicking off one transparent foothold after another, I ran through the sky.

This made it wonderfully easy, since I could ignore all the undead clogging up the ground.

“OOOOOAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!”

As for the ghosts flying through the air—

Slash!

Cutting them down was effortless.

If all I had to do was escape, it was not that difficult. For now, I just needed to get out of here as fast as possible.

But it seemed my thinking had been too optimistic.

—Hm!?

Without warning, my footing suddenly slipped out from under me. That should have been impossible. I was supposed to have Air Ladder deployed.

But that was not what happened.

My body kept falling lower and lower, dragged down by the chains of gravity. Not happening! I immediately redeployed Air Ladder. I tried to run through the sky once more, but again the footholds vanished almost at once.

What is happening!?

Even so, they functioned as footholds for just a brief moment and reduced my falling speed. At the very least, I had to soften the impact of the fall.

But that alone would not solve the problem.

Because below us was a horde of undead reaching up toward us.

“Get out of the way!”

I thrust my right hand straight downward and shouted.

“Wide Explosion!”

A massive blast erupted around the point I had designated. It was a bombardment spell that swept away a wide area—more than powerful enough for fodder undead like these.

I landed quietly in the space it had cleared.

Phew…

“W-w-w-what happened!? Ilvis-san!? There was some huge explosion just now!?”

“I changed the plan a little. But it is fine. It is not a serious probl—”

I was about to say it was nothing, when a shiver ran through me.

I felt a terrible sensation, the kind that froze my spine. That presence was coming from the red sphere.

The sphere had been wavering the whole time, and now something new crawled out from within it.

It was a giant pure-white figure. It was about five meters tall, perhaps. Its body was humanoid, but its entire surface was smooth and white. It had no face. No eyes, no nose, no mouth. Even its head was just a smooth white sphere.

I had no idea where its voice was coming from— but the mysterious being spoke in a solemn voice.

“Interesting. There is an amusing one among you… This Undead, Ii Cherni, shall be your opponent.”