Chapter 625: The Sound of the Flute (4)
Crackle! Crackle!! Pop…! Pop-pop!! Crack—!
A road transformed into a battlefield.
At the sound of an eerie flute, plump rats began pouring out from the cracks in the ruined road. These rats, all black-furred, moved together in a mass, resembling a flowing river of flesh.
Wriggle. Wriggle. Wriggle.
Hundreds of armed soldiers at the scene widened their eyes, pupils constricting, each one silently screaming at the horrifying sight.
"…!!"
Regardless of individual strength or resilience, the scene provoked a deep-seated human aversion.
However, the problem was not just the grotesque and repulsive nature of the sight.
The horde of rats moving in sync with the flute’s tune was also a physical threat.
Proof of that was clear: the rats surged like an overflowing river, emitting a chilling squeak as they scattered in all directions. Then, they started gathering around the wounded soldiers in the battle.
“Ugh, ugh—what the hell?! Aaaagh!!”
Bruises, stab wounds, burns, abrasions—the severity of injuries didn’t matter. Regardless of the extent of the wound, the rats swarmed indiscriminately, biting into the injured areas.
“Damn it! It hurts! Damn it!”
“Get them off! Get these damn things off of me!!”
“Aaaaargh!!”
The wounded soldiers cursed and screamed, struggling against the rats.
Ratatat!
A Defense Force soldier fired lead bullets, bursting the rats as they advanced.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!!
Meanwhile, a Security Bureau agent wielded an enchanted melee weapon, sweeping away the surrounding rats with powerful strokes.
Zap! Whoosh!
A mage of the New Class summoned flames and lightning, scorching and charring hundreds of rats at once.
However, these efforts were insufficient to stem the tide of rats that continued to pour forth.
It was like trying to stop a flowing river with a bare hand—utterly futile.
And so, as if to prove this, the endless swarm of rats persistently attacked, gnawing at the wounded soldiers' injuries, severing Achilles tendons, devouring intestines, and gnawing at ears.
"Aaaah! Aaaagh!!”
“Uurgh!!”
“Mother! Mother!!”
The battlefield was filled with the desperate and dying cries of soldiers, a sight of terror beyond just physical pain.
But the horror did not end there.
Those who perished, their bodies left on the ground, were not simply left behind; they revived as zombies, their bodies blackened.
“Uuuaaah…”
“Ooouuuh…”
“Grrr…”
The resurrected corpses joined the rat swarm, indiscriminately attacking those around them, and those who suffered injuries from the zombie attacks saw their wounds turn black. They fell to the ground, coughing.
“Cough…!”
The rats devoured these fallen individuals, creating new zombies, perpetuating a vicious cycle of death.
Only then did Oliver realize the meaning of the shadow puppet show that the Sleeping Princess had presented.
It was no wonder the united army, an alliance of nations like the United Kingdom, Gallos, and the smaller central kingdoms, had failed to bring down a single Piper.
This was a force that couldn’t be countered by armies alone, similar to how floods, typhoons, tsunamis, and earthquakes couldn’t be stopped by soldiers.
If anything, the massive number of soldiers only served as prey for the Piper.
Fence of Flames
Divine Protection
Holy Light
Lightning Shower
However, many of those gathered here were superhumans who had attained achievements even capable of facing disasters.
Against the overwhelming swarm of rats, each person began their own efforts to resist.
A military mage from the Defense Force reorganized his troops to create a massive wall of fire, encircling the Defense Force to block the advancing rats.
A Security Bureau agent used holy relics from the Pater Church, creating holy barriers and light to repel the rats.
A New Class mage from the Traditional Mjölnir School manipulated the surrounding streetlights to rain electricity down on the rats, electrocuting them indiscriminately and sealing the holes from which the rats emerged with a powerful current.
Each superhuman desperately fought to hold the front line against the endless tide of rats.
'But this is just a delay.'
Oliver observed the entirety of Landa through the eyes of a black magician.
From his vantage point, he could see rats emerging and corpses rising across the city, like tendrils extending outward from his location.
The Piper’s black magic influence stretched across an astonishingly vast range.
The threat to kill every person in Landa if the prince was not surrendered was not an empty promise.
The Piper truly possessed both the power and the will to kill everyone. All because they refused to hand over one boy.
Oliver now understood why the Piper was regarded as a living catastrophe.
“Retreat for now!”
“Retreat? What are you talking about?!”
“Don’t you get it?! That guy isn’t even scratched!!”
“Damn it… He’s really unharmed…!”
Those who barely escaped the rats raised their voices in argument, while someone pointed toward the Piper.
Due to the rat infestation, the bombardment had ceased, allowing a clear view of the Piper.
The Piper stood serenely on ground riddled with countless craters, not even the hem of his clothes singed or soiled, casually playing his flute.
“This… this is impossible.”
“Oh, my god…”
“Are you serious?”
All those who witnessed this scene fell silent in despair.
After all, the bombardment directed at the Piper had been on the scale of a military attack—an act of state-level violence. And yet, it had no effect? That meant that the attacks of most of those present would be ineffective as well.
A swarm of zombie-making rats and invulnerable defense against even bombardment—he was practically a walking calamity.
Only now, seeing the situation unfold before them, did people begin to feel a vague terror that Landa could indeed be destroyed by this one individual.
Their eyes trembled, cold sweat ran down their backs, and their hands and legs began to shake.
A prelude to fear.
And fear, as contagious as any plague, quickly spread from person to person, expanding rapidly, uniting them all in shared dread.
Perhaps it was natural. Fear is essential for survival. It must be sensed well and spread well.
Of course, in this case, the situation was different...
...
Suddenly, the sound of the flute changed dramatically.
An indescribable melody—sounding both furious, like a scream, and mournful like a dirge—emanated from the flute, releasing black and hazy soundwaves that spread in all directions, intensifying the emotion of fear and shaking people's minds.
“Ugh…”
The first to react were those who had maintained their composure, now complaining of dizziness, nausea, and headaches.
They were the fortunate ones.
The real problem lay with the next group. Those who had succumbed to fear rolled their eyes, frothing at the mouth, and some weaker individuals even died on the spot.
Those who were neither composed nor weak, unable to keep their sanity yet too strong to die, began drooling as they rose to attack their own allies indiscriminately.
This was Wahnsinn, one of the manipulation-type black magic spells, and its terrifying nature lay in its capacity to erase one’s ability to distinguish friend from foe, while still allowing the use of weapons and skills.
“Wait, hold on!!”
“This maniac—!”
Boom…!!
The result was massive explosions and slashes breaking out in the midst of formations where soldiers were sheltering from the rat and zombie hordes, causing significant damage and collapsing the defensive line.
Crackle!
Seizing the opportunity, the swarming rats launched another assault.
“Graaaaah…!!”
The blackened zombie horde joined in, spreading disease as they charged alongside the rats.
“Die! Just die!!”
In the midst of this chaos were the maddened individuals under the influence of Wahnsinn, mindlessly attacking their own allies.
It was a display of manipulation-type black magic at its finest.
However, there was something even more alarming than the Piper’s skill—his unique ability.
It was none other than his immunity to even holy artifacts.
It was uncanny. Though the Piper’s black magic was purely dark and contained neither mana nor natural forces, it somehow bypassed holy protections entirely.
This defied all logical understanding. Yet, Oliver felt a faint sense of relief, as though the looming disaster had somehow missed its mark.
And, perhaps because of this, despite the overwhelming disparity in strength, Oliver remained hopeful, determined to keep moving.
Oliver assessed the chaotic battlefield, organizing in his mind the actions he could take, and started with the first—snapping Arthur, who had barely resisted Wahnsinn, back to his senses with the black magic spell Awake.
“Grr...! My head feels like it's going to explode…!”
Arthur had withstood Wahnsinn, but he clutched his head in agony from the lingering mental strain.
Oliver spoke to him urgently.
“Arthur, I apologize, but if I create an opening, could you retreat, taking as many people as possible with you? Numbers mean nothing against the Piper.”
Without questioning Oliver’s plan, Arthur nodded, glancing at the rat-infested field, the zombies within it, and those allies turned into berserk threats under Wahnsinn. Even Arthur saw that the Piper was impervious to the strength of numbers; they were only feeding his power.
The Piper had thrown everything into chaos in mere minutes, and it was clear only individuals on par with him could match his level.
But whether anyone like that even existed was uncertain.
As Arthur pondered this momentarily—
Swoosh!
Oliver drew a blood-red dagger and slashed his own palm.
Arthur froze at the sudden action, while Oliver invoked disease-based black magic, mixing blood and emotions to create a dark red smoke that spread over the ground, sweeping through the rats.
Hisssss…
The wrathful rats stopped momentarily at the ominous sound before turning and attacking each other.
Crackle!
Crunch!!
Snap...
Thousands upon thousands of rats began devouring one another.
Even the most hardened superhumans, veterans of wars and street battles, were horrified by the scene.
With his hand extended toward the rats, Oliver absorbed the feelings of madness emanating from them, then retrieved a batch of wooden rods, hurling them in all directions.
The rods, charged with mana, scattered across the ground, walls, and air.
Oliver then focused, condensing extracted emotions of fear, insanity, hunger, and greed into one fingertip and aimed at the Piper.
The highly concentrated bullet of dark emotion was about to fire when Oliver adjusted his aim slightly, shooting into empty air instead.
Bang!!
The dense black bullet tore through the air, causing an explosion and a shockwave that distorted the space, revealing the Piper, who had been cloaked. At the same time, the figure standing in the crater disappeared like a mirage.
The Piper had used black magic to manipulate perception, tricking the eye when he summoned the rat swarm. Oliver had nearly fallen for it himself, but his refined black magician’s vision allowed him to see through it just in time.
Now, the Piper, on the verge of pursuing Prince Albert, halted, his gaze shifting to Oliver.
Oliver noticed a subtle change in the Piper's eyes—eyes that had been devoid of joy or satisfaction even after wreaking havoc. They now faintly glimmered with interest.
It was clear: the Piper had taken an interest in him.
And that knowledge stung Oliver’s heart.
But setting his emotions aside, Oliver reminded himself of his mission.
He activated the black magic spell inscribed on one of the wooden rods embedded in the ground near the Piper, enhancing his fist with natural power and striking with all his might.
Boom━━!!
This was an attempt to stall him, to stop him from pursuing the prince. Using a conventional spell would only be countered, so Oliver tried an unusual approach.
Yet, as in their first encounter, the Piper casually caught Oliver’s fist with one hand.
Though he had anticipated this, the shock was still profound.
Even with the enhanced physical strength from the Flesh Chef's flesh, natural energy reinforcement, and spatial acceleration, the blow was blocked.
The Piper tilted his head slightly and remarked, “You should’ve realized by now that brute force won’t work.”
“I do.”
In response, Oliver unleashed all the natural energy he had concentrated within his body at once.
Breath of Nature
The spell of the druids spread out in vibrant green energy centered on Oliver. Simultaneously, several of the wooden rods he had thrown earlier embedded themselves into the ground, absorbing the natural energy.
Rumble…
The rods, enchanted with spatial magic, reverted to their natural form, rooting themselves in the earth and instantly sprouting into towering trees, filling the air with fresh earth, greenery, and blooming flowers.
A vast forest of green suddenly arose in the grey, desolate city of Landa.
Realizing that he couldn’t easily overcome the Piper’s magic in direct combat, Oliver had chosen to counter with the sheer force of nature.
Controlling the newly created forest, Oliver manipulated the trees to encircle the Piper, assaulting him with sharp leaves and blades of grass imbued with natural energy. His plan was to use Parasit, black magic, to plant parasites in any resulting wounds.
But just then, another note sounded from the Piper’s flute.
Strangely, he hadn’t even put his lips to the instrument.
‘It’s not a black magic item…?’
Oliver thought, scrutinizing the flute with his black magician’s vision. It was an ordinary flute.
And yet, even as he fortified his control over the forest, the Piper wrenched it from him, reclaiming dominance.
Despite Oliver’s desperate defense, he was outmatched.
The towering trees and razor-sharp leaves and grass that had been attacking the Piper now turned toward Oliver.
Rrrip…
The entire forest, as if it were a living entity, closed in on Oliver. He raised shields around himself, holding them against the crushing force.
Thanks to his wealth of emotions and skillful control, he managed to hold out, but against the sheer mass of the forest, his shield gradually compressed.
An overwhelming predicament. And yet, he was unfazed. This, too, had been anticipated.
To prove it, he had already drawn a mixture of greed-fueled emotions and mana into his hand, forming a black flame.
“What are you?”
The Piper suddenly asked.
In his once-cold, indifferent eyes now gleamed a faint light, like someone meeting another being in a world of mere animals.
...
“Greedy Flame.”
Oliver spoke within the crumbling shield, releasing his spell.
Bonfire
The combined spell of emotion and mana ignited, using the essence of nature as fuel.
The small black flame in Oliver’s hand fell to the ground, and the entire forest around him—trees, grass, flowers—burst into furious black flames, rapidly consuming everything within.
Whooosh━━━!!!
The green forest that had filled the grey city was now engulfed in a sinister black blaze, turning it into a death zone.
Nothing survived the flames, neither within nor near it.
Only two remained unharmed amid the scorching inferno consuming all in its path: Oliver, resistant to flames thanks to the Burnt One, and the Piper, who stood calmly amidst the flames.
The Piper spoke once more.
“Once again, I ask—what are you?”