Dark Library (2)
Nox Biblio.
The moment that word was mentioned, it was no coincidence that Tilion’s complexion froze pale like a corpse.
‘The Dark Library……’
Wasn’t it said to be an archive that collected all heterodox sorcery not belonging to this world?
If that was the case, it became clear why Olivera had brought Lennok to this dungeon.
A subspace that stored and recorded all kinds of spells from the old world, operating through sinister intent among its sorceries.
Olivera must have believed that the method to reach the Outer Fear City had to be found there.
But the fact that the one guarding such an archive was none other than Tilion was unexpected.
Although he had participated in the meeting of high-order ability users held in the satellite city Etanok, he was the dark mage who had been struck down by the Executioner and exited early right after Anathema’s manifestation.
Yet seeing him alive here like this meant that what he had shown back then was not his full power.
“To crawl barefoot into my workshop… you’ve lost your mind, Maize.”
The dark mage Tilion, glaring at Olivera, roared in an aged voice.
The grotesque dissonance of an elderly man’s voice coming from the body of a young infant.
“For the past dozen years, I have not interfered in Cartel matters at all, and yet you dare to invade and defile my domain…!!”
[That statement is flawed, Shandorei.]
Olivera replied, arms crossed over her splendid robe.
[If we are to trace who started it, we would have to go back several decades.]
“Don’t be ridiculous. A coward who didn’t even attend the meeting dares to spout nonsense at me!!”
Boom!!
As Tilion slammed his hand down, the dark mana surrounding him surged heavily and violently.
As if his very existence served as the heart of this massive dungeon, his intent was vivid and weighty. As with all mages, his power would grow exponentially within this dungeon.
Tilion, aware of that fact, glared at Olivera while exuding a murderous aura.
“I’d already hesitate to let you in even if you came alone, and yet you dare to bring that young mage along as well?”
[I brought Bolt because I heard about the meeting. I hope you do not misunderstand.]
Olivera asked with a mocking tone.
[You yourself once said that for the meeting, the insight of an apostle slayer was necessary.]
[Though the order of events differed, in the end, this man became an apostle slayer. Since I have brought the expert you so desired, shouldn’t I receive your gratitude?]
During the meeting, Tilion had provoked Lennok once, saying that it should have been Treadburn, the apostle slayer, rather than Bolt who came.
Even though Olivera had not attended the meeting herself, she brought up that fact to mock Tilion.
Tilion, who clearly hadn’t forgotten the events of the meeting, trembled with rage.
“Ugh… are you trying to humiliate me…!!”
[Shandorei, did you think I wouldn’t notice your tricks during this meeting?]
Olivera cut off his shout sharply, her Mystic Eye gleaming beyond the veil.
[For a cunning mage like you to be so easily defeated by a brute is absurd. You simply didn’t want to get entangled in useless matters right after Anathema’s manifestation, so you left.]
……
[More importantly, while the cult’s lackeys crawled their way into the satellite city, can you truly say that you—who were hiding in this burrow—did not know?]
As Olivera’s interrogation continued, Lennok understood why she was pressing Tilion.
Although Tilion had been struck down by the Executioner and exited early during the meeting, Olivera believed that even that had been intentional.
She was also claiming that the cult’s forces entering the satellite city had happened under Tilion’s tacit approval.
“How absurd. Then should my dungeon have become a beacon protecting Vulcan?”
Tilion, not entirely without a retort, calmed his expression and replied.
“Even if it were your request, that would be impossible. Absolutely impossible. I’d rather have destroyed the satellite city with my own hands.”
Tilion’s face twisted darkly as he looked down at the two of them.
The face of the giant infant collapsed grotesquely, casting shadows like a vicious demon.
“Krrr……!!!”
“Don’t provoke me too much, Maize.”
[······.]
“It may not be like the days when we shared and researched spells together, but you should at least help me leave those decades-old memories as memories.”
“His mana……”
Watching Tilion’s swelling intent, Lennok tilted his head with interest.
During the meeting, things had been too urgent to notice, but the level of completion in his spells was beyond imagination.
A form of dark magic that differed from standard systems, yet had branched and evolved into its own independent structure.
It must also be related to why Tilion existed in the form of a giant infant.
Above all, the surname Tilion.
Did it not align with the name of Craig Tilion, the dark mage Lennok had once faced long ago?
At the very least, it was certain that the giant infant sitting in that obsidian coffin was related to Craig, who had once opposed the city council.
Even after hearing Tilion’s words, Olivera scoffed.
[After so much time has passed, you still make me repeat the same thing again and again…… what you were learning was not proper dark magic.]
[You tried to conceal that fact and teach me magic, and I refused. That should have been the end of it.]
“And yet, here you are, coming to find me first like this.”
Tilion muttered in a gloomy voice, his eyes flashing.
“I helped you gain access to Nox Biblio, yet you abandoned me and sided with Kaiser.”
……
Tilion raised his trembling hand and pointed at Lennok and Olivera.
“Neither of you are qualified. Those who are not heterodox sorcerers have no right to access the Dark Library……!!”
[No. As the key bearer, you have no choice.]
Olivera’s reply was cold.
[Enough. Bring the key. We will enter Nox Biblio.]
“This is not… a request.”
Tilion said, his face twisted as he stretched out his hand.
“This isn’t what I wanted to hear. I……!”
Whoosh!!
At that moment, Tilion’s hand sank into the darkness and retrieved a key drenched in black oil.
A key emitting a sinister intent, as if it would rot and decay merely by being held. He handed it to Olivera with trembling hands.
His body shook violently, as if the act itself was not of his own will.
From that forced restraint, Lennok realized what Olivera had done.
‘Tilion cannot refuse the act of handing over the key when someone requests access to the library.’
For some reason, Tilion was compelled to give the key to anyone who requested to access the library.
The trigger was likely the mention of “Nox Biblio” along with a request for access.
Olivera had known that, and from the start, she knew Tilion would be unable to refuse.
[Bolt, take it.]
But the moment Olivera received the oil-dripping black key, she tossed it to Lennok.
Turning away from Tilion without hesitation, she immediately exited the cradle.
[We don’t have time, so I’ll explain quickly. The key is a consumable artifact. Once the library is opened, it will be destroyed on the spot.]
As she retraced her steps through the dark corridor, Olivera spoke.
[Therefore, the one to enter the library must be you, not me. Once inside Nox Biblio, there is only one thing you must do.]
Swish!
The sheer cliff at the dungeon’s entrance.
Stopping before the wall of skeletons densely hanging along the cliff, Olivera turned around.
[You must ‘borrow’ a celestial spell that can arbitrarily alter the orbital cycle of the Central Front’s veil.]
“No. I don’t understand.”
[……What?]
Olivera turned with irritation, then stopped upon seeing Lennok’s cold expression.
His reaction carried a faint killing intent, as if he were facing an enemy rather than an ally.
Whoooooo!!
A chilling wind swept across the cliff, shaking the skeletons hanging along the walls.
Hundreds of worn and eroded skulls swayed as if dancing.
At the edge of the cliff, Lennok and Olivera stood facing each other.
“Explain it properly, Olivera. We can’t work together like this.”
Lennok’s eyes sank coldly.
“You’re not planning to keep this up all the way until we reach Kundara, are you?”
It wouldn’t be strange for their cooperation to collapse just hours after beginning.
But if Olivera intended to solve things like this, Lennok thought it would be better not to work together at all.
Being dragged along without fully understanding the situation was something he detested the most.
It would be better to hear everything here and abandon cooperation.
“If you plan to stay silent using the Prohibitive Edict as an excuse, we end it here. The deal is off—I’ll find my own way.”
Hearing Lennok’s words, Olivera stood there in silence for a long while.
As if it took her time to accept his firm refusal.
Only after several minutes did her transmission sound again.
[……Very well.]
[I admit that I was somewhat hasty regarding Kundara.]
Olivera spoke slowly as she slightly lifted her veil.
Her pale cheek glowed faintly beyond it.
[Nox Biblio is a subspace archive created by a powerful transcendent whose origin is unknown.]
[Holding the belief that knowledge should be freely shared without restriction, they made all the knowledge and spell information they had gathered openly accessible.]
“They shared spell information with other mages?”
[If someone who knows of the library requests access, the librarians must hand over the key according to the will of the library’s owner. That was the condition I demanded of Tilion……]
Glancing briefly at the cliff, Olivera continued.
[This dungeon is structured as a relatively suitable environment for accessing the library. Shandorei Tilion himself serves as an external librarian and created this dungeon to access the spell data of Nox Biblio.]
[The number of times one can enter the library is limited. What information you can view and ‘borrow’ depends entirely on your own capability.]
Olivera looked at Lennok calmly through her veil.
[I have already used all my chances. So now, I have no choice but to entrust this to you.]
“…I see.”
After hearing her rapid explanation, Lennok finally nodded.
The brief silence before her answer had likely been to ensure that what she was about to say would not violate the Prohibitive Edict.
Even so, the existence of Nox Biblio that she described was incredibly fascinating.
An archive of heterodox sorcery created by a transcendent who valued the sharing and transmission of knowledge.
Not only was the existence of such a being astonishing, but the fact that Shandorei Tilion had been chosen as a librarian was equally unusual.
It suggested a transcendent who had gone beyond even the distinction between good and evil.
“So when you said you researched spells with Shandorei Tilion, it was to gain access to Nox Biblio.”
Lennok asked.
“Did you use him to adjust your hierarchy to match your Mystic Eye?”
[I have no intention of justifying past matters for the sake of your curiosity.]
At that moment, Olivera’s voice sank low.
[The only reason I am bringing up matters buried decades ago is because I am granting your request to go to Kundara.]
[What matters is finding a way to the Outer Fear City. Among that, the act of twisting the veil to reveal Kundara itself.]
With that, Olivera slowly lowered her veil, completely covering her face.
[If you understand, insert the key into the cliff. If the time and place are right, the library will welcome its reader at any time.]
“…Alright.”
Long ago, Olivera had said she wandered the continent and mage towers, learning and researching various forms of magic.
That she once learned dark magic from Tilion and tried to incorporate it into her path was not strange.
If she had discovered Nox Biblio during that process and entered it, it made sense why she sought a solution here.
But more importantly, Lennok had confirmed that Olivera was at least willing to cooperate with him in this matter.
Unlike Lennok, who had even considered cutting off cooperation, she was not participating unwillingly.
At least until they reached the Outer Fear City, he could consider her an ally.
With that thought, Lennok slowly inserted the oil-dripping key into the cliff.
Click!!
As he drove the key into the solid rock, a metallic sound rang out, as if a lock had been opened.
The black oil flowing from the key expanded explosively, instantly covering the entire cliff.
Shhhhhhk!!
The massive cliff was dyed in darkness.
Countless skeletons hanging from it danced against the writhing blackness.
A chilling sense of solitude, as if standing alone before the entrance to a vast cradle of darkness.
Lennok turned his back.
“What will you do?”
[I have something to settle with him.]
Olivera, arms crossed, glanced aside.
[I will take care of it before you return from the library.]
“He seemed to have lingering feelings toward you.”
Even while speaking with Olivera, Tilion had shown signs of lingering attachment to the time when he taught her magic.
Even Lennok, merely watching, had noticed it—there was no way Olivera hadn’t.
But Olivera scoffed immediately.
[Being bound by such trivial emotions is nothing but foolishness.]
[Enough. It is not something you need to concern yourself with. Just go.]
Her Mystic Eye gleamed sharply through the veil.
[If you fail to borrow the celestial spell from the library, you will have to be prepared.]
Whoosh!!
Leaving behind Olivera, who vanished like the wind, Lennok turned his head.
Darkness flickered all around, skeletons dancing atop the cliff.
As he exhaled softly and took a step forward—
The world twisted as if overturned, and a void spread before him.
Flash!!!
It wasn’t that the surroundings had changed.
Everything visible simply sank slowly, dyed in black.
The blackened cliff stood before him, and the skeletons hanging from it were still visible.
The only difference—countless books, numbering in the tens of thousands, now filled the cliff.
Rumble!!!
As if the cliff itself had become a massive bookshelf, an endless library stretched before Lennok.
“……”
Grimoires and parchments emitting all kinds of sinister energies were embedded throughout, asserting their presence.
Clatter, clatter!!
The skeletons hanging from the cliff moved, organizing and transporting the books.
Those countless skeletons functioned as librarians managing this archive.
Only then did Lennok understand what it meant that this dungeon had been designed as an environment for accessing Nox Biblio.
The vast and deep cliff, the piles of bones hanging upon it—
All of it had been part of the environment for accessing and maintaining this Dark Library.
Rumble……!!
The towering shelves above Lennok warped and bent as he moved.
Width and height lost meaning, twisting as new shelves emerged within shelves.
Three-dimensional perception lost its direction here, drawing axes beyond time itself.
Countless grimoires and parchments slowly drifted past Lennok as he stood in the middle of the library.
After standing at the entrance for a while, just as he was about to step forward—
[Welcome.]
Someone spoke from behind him.
One of the skeleton librarians carrying books between the shelves.
The skeleton, its jaw clacking as dim light flickered in its eyes, spoke.
[It has been a while.]
“…A while?”
Lennok tilted his head.
“This is my first time here.”
[No.]
The skeleton let out a broken laugh.
[You have certainly been here once before.]
Who exactly was this skeleton librarian referring to, speaking of the past?
Ignoring Lennok’s cold gaze, the skeleton turned its back with a smile.
[Come. I will guide you to the section of spell archives you always visited…….]