One thousand years ago, there was a war with the Abyss.
However, can one be certain that it was the first?
What if a war with the Abyss had already occurred once before, and the place now called the World’s End was its primary battlefield?
It would certainly make sense.
This place was the World’s End.
It was a world that had already fallen to ruin before the current world, known as the Verden Continent, was even recorded.
If one were to imagine it, the gods themselves must have stepped forward here.
They might have descended upon this land in person, manifested themselves, or perhaps created their own Great Warriors.
In one way or another, they would have extended their immense power across this continent to oppose the Abyss.
The result was this.
They may have held back the Abyss, but the continent was destroyed.
Their massive power was far too much for fragile living creatures to bear. Civilizations and many other things must have crumbled and vanished in an instant.
That was what Kreutzvalt speculated.
Hio shared a similar thought.
Otherwise, how could such a horrific world even exist?
“Right? Don’t you agree?”
An answer came to his nonchalant question.
*Ge-ge-ge-gek!*
The source of the answer was a Strange Entity that resembled a crab.
It was a crab with multiple legs on its sides, just like the ones commonly seen at the beach.
The only problem was that its height easily exceeded 2 meters, and it could move freely in any direction — forward, backward, or sideways.
And it was incredibly fast.
*Tatap!*
Despite moving like that, the sound of its footsteps was so faint that it could only be heard if one listened closely.
If one were not prepared for its attack, their body would be sliced apart by its blade-like legs before they even realized they were dying.
However, Hio was already aware of the creature, knew its attack patterns, and was fully prepared for it.
*Whoosh!*
Since he had used Blink to leap through space, the creature’s legs only sliced through the empty air.
That was not the end of it.
*Sizzle—*
Flames ignited in the spot where Hio had vanished, and then…
*K-boom!*
A massive explosion erupted.
The explosion occurred the moment Hio’s previous position was swiped, so the Strange Entity should not have had time to dodge. Even so, the creature must have felt something was wrong, as it twisted its torso to avoid the blast as much as possible.
Nevertheless, the explosion’s placement was exquisite. It took a hit from an Enhanced Explosion right at its side. As a result, its two most threatening pincers were blown far away.
“Ah, no! Those delicious claws!” Hio shouted in dismay. “I… I messed up.”
He was not talking about failing the kill.
His original goal had been to detonate the Explosion inside the creature’s body.
If he had done that, the delicious crab meat in its torso would have been completely charred and inedible, but since the creature was larger than a person and had a high meat yield, there would still have been plenty to eat.
…No, that was not it.
The best course of action was to finish it quickly without making a scene, and he had failed at that.
The creature was so fast that it was difficult to hit, and its shell was so hard that it could withstand several hits from an Enhanced Explosion.
Most importantly, if he did not finish it quickly, other Strange Entities in the vicinity would notice and swarm the area.
It was night, and the surroundings would be crawling with them.
There was only one way.
‘I have to finish this as quickly as possible and run back inside the barrier.’
*Ge-ge-ge-gek!*
“Yeah, I know you’re a crab, you bastard.”
Hio used Blink again to get behind the creature as it lunged once more.
When using complex magic like Blink, he was limited to using only two spells simultaneously.
Therefore, his plan was to first widen the gap and then prepare two other spells at the same time.
*Ge-ge-ge?*
The Strange Entity let out a dumbfounded sound as Hio vanished into its blind spot again, but that confusion would not last long.
He immediately prepared his next spells without rest.
*Ge-ge-ge-gek!*
Sure enough, the creature sensed Hio’s presence and turned to charge at him.
Unfortunately for it, Hio’s magic was already complete.
He prepared two spells again.
First was Entangle, a 4th Circle spell that used grass and trees to bind the target.
Then, there was the 5th Circle wind-attribute spell, Wind Blade… specifically, the Wind Blade that now had even greater cutting power thanks to Kreutzvalt’s teachings.
“Let’s hurry this up. I’m hungry.”
*Ge-ge-ge-gek!*
Suddenly, tree trunks and vines sprouted from the ground, halting the creature’s movement for a moment.
Of course, it was only for a split second before they were torn to shreds by the creature’s sharp legs, but that moment was all he needed.
The Wind Blades were flying toward the legs the creature was using to brace itself against the ground.
With a chilling *slice*, one of its legs was severed.
The blades would not work on the shell, so he had aimed for the gaps — the joints.
*Ge-ge-ge-ge?*
The creature’s body tilted toward the side with the severed leg.
Before he could even process the result, Hio prepared his next spells.
He could now manifest up to three relatively simple spells simultaneously.
Magic Power poured out violently.
Five rings rotated frantically.
Three spells were created by drawing out the Power of the Crest to its limit.
All of them were 5th Circle Wind Blades with their cutting power maximized.
*Swish!*
Leaving only a faint sound of cutting through the air, the three blades fired simultaneously and began to butcher the Strange Entity’s body.
To be precise, they precisely targeted and sliced through the joints.
*Ge-gek! Ge-ge-ge-gek!*
The creature shrieked, but to Hio, it only sounded like the sound of a large crab being steamed deliciously.
Only after three more Wind Blades struck the Strange Entity were all its legs severed.
Having lost all its legs, the creature lay there, its eyes blinking over its delicious-looking torso.
A crab that had lost its mobility and was just lying still.
Where else could one find such a delicious… no, such an easy prey?
“Farewell.”
Since the creature could not dodge, Hio aimed directly inside its torso and activated Explosion.
*K-boom!*
Hio swallowed hard as he stared blankly at the crab meat scattering in the air.
‘……I’m hungry.’
He was famished.
There was nothing to eat in this godforsaken World’s End.
Days when he hunted these creatures that tasted exactly like crabs were better, but yesterday was truly…
“This isn’t the time for this!”
Numerous presences were being picked up by the detection magic he had spread out.
All the Strange Entities in the area that had sensed Hio were flocking to this spot.
“Time to run!”
He had to run without looking back.
‘But I’m taking the claws!’
Hio let out a faint chuckle as he repeatedly cast Blink toward the direction where the pincers had flown.
“Hehehe… I’ll go back, throw them straight into the fire, and scoop the meat out with my hands…”
The thought of the pearly-white, plump claw meat made his mouth water.
A single claw was as big as his own torso, so he wouldn’t have to go hungry for at least today.
As he ran, a moment of self-reflection suddenly hit him.
“What am I even doing…?”
It felt less like he was training hard to improve his skills and more like he was training frantically just to eat.
On days he failed to hunt, he had to starve. To avoid starving, he had to work hard to improve his skills.
His godforsaken third master would never do something as bothersome as hunting for his only disciple.
Of course, those thoughts vanished as soon as he held a claw leg in each hand.
“Ehehehe… *slurp*. Just wait a little longer, my crab meat.”
One month had already passed since he arrived at the World’s End.
Hio’s obsession with eating was beyond imagination, and he had already grown enough to manifest three spells at the same time.
*Crackle, crack-crackle.*
A fire burned high in the yard of Kreutzvalt’s old house.
Even so, the light could not reach far, barely illuminating the immediate surroundings.
The sky and everything else in this world were dyed in pitch black.
The old house standing in the middle of it and its surroundings were the only places one could call habitable for a human.
Hio had blown away all the ash on the ground and had even deployed a barrier to prevent the ash floating in the air from approaching.
This was also the result of Hio using magic himself.
Maintaining the bonfire that reached almost to the roof, as well as the barrier that blocked the ash, were both tasks for the disciple.
Clearing the ash from the ground, bringing back those delicious claw legs, purifying and preparing them to be eaten — Hio had done all of it.
Inside the house-sized bonfire Hio was watching, the spoils he had just captured were cooking.
The most delicious, plump claw meat in the world.
” *Slurp*... I can’t wait any longer!”
The savory and salty aroma began to spread.
Just as Hio was about to rush forward, unable to hold back, his body suddenly came to a halt.
“Let it cook in the fire a bit longer.”
It was because of Kreutzvalt, who was leisurely reading a book right next to him.
In his hand was a wooden staff — he must have picked it up at some point — and it was pointed directly at Hio.
Unlike Hio, who was crouching on the ground and drooling while staring into the fire, the man who had been sitting in a rocking chair and relaxed while looking at a book had stepped in to stop him.
For Hio, who had starved for a whole day, it didn’t matter if he was his master or not; it was natural for him to lose his temper.
“Hey, old man.”
“…”
“I mean, Master. Your disciple wants to fill his stomach, so why don’t you let me go?”
“In my opinion as your master, it needs to cook longer.”
“I’m telling you, it’s perfect right now!”
“If it’s undercooked, it might upset your stomach.”
‘……Is he planning to eat some?’
‘Could it be that he really intended to eat it?’
‘Would this shameless, one-thousand-three-hundred-year-old monster of a Necromancer and Dark Mage really do that?’
In response to Hio’s very suspicious look, Kreutzvalt quietly turned a page of his book instead of answering.
It was a godforsakenly old book that Hio had no idea where he had found.
“No, excuse me. I starved all day yesterday and barely managed to get two claws today, so what gives? I did the hunting, I started the fire, I did the cleaning, and I did the purification. Right? And now you’re saying you’re going to eat it with me? You’re someone who doesn’t even need nutrients in the first place!”
Kreutzvalt spoke lightly, as if tossing the words toward the fuming Hio.
“Was it not done using the magic you learned from me?”
“…”
Hio was at a loss for words.
Come to think of it, he was right.
The blazing fire in front of them was actually the First Circle spell, Fire.
The reason why a flame that was originally only the size of a fist could burn so high and large was also thanks to Kreutzvalt’s teaching.
It was a magical modification that increased the range without touching the power of the basic formula.
When he first learned this, it had come as a fresh shock to Hio that magic could be modified so easily.
That wasn’t all.
‘Was he not currently maintaining Fire while also keeping a wide barrier around them?’
The fact that he could be so composed while manifesting and maintaining two spells at once was also thanks to what he had learned from him.
The same went for developing the skills to hunt Strange Entities using only magic.
Even if he didn’t like him, it meant he was fulfilling his role as a master better than anyone else.
“……Well, then I guess one claw is… I can’t eat two by myself anyway.”
“It seems raising a disciple was worth it.”
Only then did the energy binding Hio’s body suddenly release.
It had not been a magical binding.
Hio knew because he had been caught by it several times already.
This was pure Magic Power.
It was not something modified by drawing out the Power of the Crest.
It was something moved by weaving pure Magic Power together like a rope.
It could be considered terribly inefficient and a waste, but since it was pure Magic Power, it was nearly impossible to dispel even with magic. And since it didn’t require any tedious processes, it was an eerie power that manifested almost simultaneously with a thought.
And well, for that monster who was over a thousand years old, this much waste of Magic Power was probably just a joke.
“Your expression is very disrespectful. What are you thinking about?”
“Huh? It’s nothing. Please, eat, Master.”
“Tsk, tsk… Let’s do that.”
Finally, the claw legs were pulled out of the fire.
Steam rose from the white meat visible underneath.
As Hio reached his hand deep into that delicious crab meat, he made a vow once again.
“Fuck, it’s hot!”
One day, he would definitely surpass this monster of a master.
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