Damn Academy chapter 155

155 – Taming the Madman (15)

A baboon’s voice echoes in the dim marsh. A woman’s sad tune resonated in this gloomy place, and it felt as if her nightmares were wandering inside her.

After finishing one of her songs, Bibi said, looking around the bog, which had become calm again.

“The atmosphere… It seems a little different.”

“I feel the same way.”

“You think that you are thinking of going directly to the god of this land, but you are different from others.”

“It’s the difference between meeting sooner or later.”

Her face is briefly dark.

Our drift was now approaching its end.

Both Bibi and I know that the end will never be smooth.

Maybe it ends with someone’s death.

“You also go through hardships with the cursed princess.”

“Again, this is my choice. I have no intention of blaming the princess.”

“….”

I didn’t know anything about Bibi, but I knew that things would get messy and went with her. So she had no intention of blaming her.

Babe moved forward again without a word. And she started to sing the sad lyrics again.

It must have been about thirty minutes. Her voice began to wither.

“Her widowed wife begged the goddess-“

[The widow… done… Phosphorus… To the goddess… It was.]

Then she cut off the song and looked back at me.

“Did you hear… ?”

I heard that too.

Somewhere someone is singing along to Vivi’s song. Low and gloomy… It was a voice that was different from that of a normal human being.

When the baboon stopped her song, the singing along stopped exactly. There is nothing around and only the dreary air lingers. The source of the sound was not clear.

The baboon closed and opened her eyes and brushed the chicken skin that had grown on her arm.

“It is true that even the soul cannot escape from this place. It is a terrible land.”

And the laughter of children echoed behind us. The baboon jumped in surprise, shaking her body.

This is a place where children can never be. She was certain there was something inhuman.

“I’m sure they are watching us.”

In the Circle of Soderton, the spirits used to play tricks like this. Ghosts seemed to fill that role here.

“Can I keep singing?”

I nodded. Bibi took a deep breath and started singing again.

About two bars later, something sings along again. It’s still a faint, low, gloomy tone.

Bibi closed her eyes and finished her song.

I pulled out my wooden sword and strengthened the perimeter.

It’s almost noon, but the sky is getting darker. The gloomy environment, the atmosphere, the ghost’s voice, and the ominous omens all harmonized together, causing Vivi to recoil.

Then she stopped her song again and said.

“You whisper to me. Did you hear it again?”

“No, I didn’t hear this time.”

She said, “She told me to stop singing along and throw you away. It gives me goosebumps.”

“Are you dumping me?”

“Yes. He told me to leave you and go with him.”

“… Come closer to me.”

“Good idea. I just wanted to do that too.”

Bibi, who moved in front of her, closed the gap between her and held onto the sleeve of her dress.

“I didn’t expect to come into contact with the souls of the dead so vividly. Aren’t you scared?”

“I’m used to it now”

“….”

Then the baboon flinched at her body again.

“I can hear you again.”

Then he turned her to the right and pointed at her hand. There was a mist of water and a dingy swamp.

“Over there. I can hear it over there.”

I untied Vivi’s hand from holding the sleeve and put on the pod. Her hands tremble slightly.

“Prepare… Are you?”

“…… I can go anywhere with you Let’s go.”

Holding her wooden sword in one hand and her baboon in the other, she moved slowly to where she pointed.

With every step, her feet sink all the way to her shins.

As I progressed that way, I could hear something.

“Black… uhhh, uhhhhh”

It was a long, thin sob.

A boy was crying under the shade of dead branches.

Bibi’s hands tremble. We had already been beaten by the old woman, so I stopped thinking that it was real even when I saw people.

“uuu”

Bibi asked.

“What are you doing in a place like this?”

The boy stopped crying and looked back at us.

“…… I want to go home, but I’m scared and I can’t move.”

Looking at my face, Bibi asks what she will do.

I nodded her head and checked the baboon, then she said to the child.

“We will accompany you to your house.”

“No…. Leave that person next to your sister and go with me.”

“This is my friend. Why not?”

“I don’t like it. I hate him.”

“This man will go with me.”

Looking closely, I saw the boy squatting on top of the swamp, but his feet didn’t budge at all.

“If you go with that man, everyone will be angry.”

Then he jumped up and ran away into the dark marsh.

Bibi just stared at the place where her child had passed. She knew her too. That she left no footprints there.

“Let’s follow.”

“… Okay.”

We held our breath and followed where the child had fled.

The sky is getting darker even though it’s broad daylight. As if a total solar eclipse had occurred. The expression swallowing the sun was not a simple metaphor.

And as I went deeper, I saw traces of people one by one in the vicinity.

A frayed dress hanging from a tree branch. Seeing this, the baboon must have been frightened, so she leaned on me and said,

“This dress… It’s the style of the empire. I wonder why it got stuck in a foreign land so far away.”

Going further, you can see the remains of someone who died while wearing thick armor. Judging from the long sword held in his hand, he looked like a knight.

“The interest is…… You are wearing the armor of the principality.”

A bone of someone’s hand that rose like a lotus flower from a swamp. Skeletons sitting with their shoulder blades gone.

In another place, skeletal remains are seen hanging from the neck and fingers with lavish accessories.

Various types of people died and were left unattended here.

It was like entering an ant hell that attracts and devours wanderers.

“Looks like you came to the right place.”

“Yes, it feels like passing through the underworld.”

For a while, what we faced at the end was a lake.

The bottom of the water was stained black as if ink had been poured into it.

The stench stung her nose, and the baboon covered her nose, frowning. And air bubbles were constantly rising from the bottom.

“… This must be hell.”

The boy we met earlier walked out on the shore and shouted at us.

“You can’t bring that man here.”

“….”

“I can’t bring you here. No. No. No way!”

The child couldn’t stop shouting, so he burst into a scream that made his ears hurt. The baboon was startled and covered her ears.

“The princess is our sacrifice!!”

The child’s face gradually decays and becomes watery. And in an instant, she turned to smoke and disappeared. We hurriedly ran to where he was.

In the place were the remains of a young child who seemed to have been neglected for a long time.

I feel the baboon tremble in her clasped hands.

“You like to scare people.”

“Oh, that’s not the point…. Something, something is coming.”

“… ?”

“No, I don’t know what it is. However… Too much magic is coming upon us.”

Her body began to tremble like an aspen. Soon, the focus of her eyes disappeared. Bibi looked up at me and she shouted hastily.

“No. This, this is something we cannot deal with.”

Then the whole world gradually began to darken. Soon, complete darkness covered everything, not even a single light shining.

***

A small spirit appeared from Damian’s hand.

“Beep!”

The spirit’s wings continuously emit flames. It is the only light shining in this place completely immersed in darkness.

Bibi began to breathe heavily, probably because she was overly nervous. She was on the verge of panic.

The light of the spirits was not enough. Darkness came and it was impossible to know where or what would come.

Damian whispered something softly, and the spirit left his hand and flew somewhere.

Then they set fire to the withered trees around them.

Soon after, a fire started to spread nearby along with acrid smoke. And thanks to the trees that were slowly burning in the humidity, the surroundings began to come into view.

“Are you okay?”

“It’s coming…. This is the first time in my life that I have experienced such a mass of magical power.”

In the direction of Vivi’s gaze, Damian also turned her eyes. The blazing lights reflected in the black lake, and something huge was moving over the rolling waters.

In the meantime, something grabbed Vivi’s ankle.

“Wow!”

Her hand bones, which had been buried in the ground, suddenly popped out and restrained her.

Damian saw this and immediately cut it off with a wooden sword.

“What is this?”

Soon after, I hear the sound of bones colliding around me.

Damian hurriedly began to look around.

The ashes left unattended near the lakeside began to rise slowly.

[Give me back my body.]

[The child died of starvation.]

[You have to go back to her wife.]

Then the ashes began to surround Vivi and Damian, muttering to each other.

A few guys lazily tried to grab Vivi, but Damian swung her sword and shattered her.

Damian looked at the lake again. Something huge was rapidly approaching, cutting through the water. It was a dilemma.

The first priority was to get rid of all the skeletons before dealing with him.

Damian stepped in first and started cutting off the walking remains. It wasn’t difficult to deal with them because they were slow.

The problem was that even after pruning, it continued to spring up from the ground.

“… sh*t.”

It was then.

A blue light shone in the direction of the back road that Damian had passed. The skeletons that were aiming for the baboon looked back in surprise and were wary.

Soon after that, a blue deer started running out.

“… !”

[Koo oh oh]

As the deer approached, the living remains covered their faces and began to flee.

The deer headbutted the fleeing guys, cutting through the path and stopping in front of Damian.

When Bibi saw the deer, her eyes widened.

“This, this….”

“He is a friend who helps me. We will tell you more later.”

The deer looked at the baboon and lowered her.

“… !”

“I don’t have time. You must get on.”

Damian hurriedly put Bibi on the deer’s back. Then he cut the ropes that bound his wrists.

Seeing this, she shouted.

“What are you doing!”

“You know the decoy operation, don’t you? You are welcome to go, as Princess has served as the decoy well.”

“No! You too must go. I, I will not allow it!”

Damian shook her head and tugged at Vivi’s left hand. Then he kissed the back of her hand.

Seeing this, Vivi’s eyes widened. He slowly opens her mouth and looks up at her baboon.

Fire gradually sweeps through the forest, and heat rises into the sky. The world was literally a hellscape. And, the dark red world was reflected in Damian’s eyes and shimmered red.

And his eyes were the same as when I first met him on Eternia.

This man had the eyes of a madman.

“I am not here to die.”

“….”

Her lips quivered.

Damian let go of Vivi’s hand, and his deer started running behind him.

Bibi couldn’t take her eyes off Damian as he walked away.

Soon after that, a huge shape appeared across the lake.

A snout so huge that it could swallow a horse in one bite. Eyes glowing red. Long body.

It was the same shape as the basilisk that only existed in mythology.

Damian faced the giant monster and slowly moved forward.

After a while, a brilliant white light began to emanate from his body. Bibi had to cover her eyelids with her hands because her eyes were dazzling.