Chapter 41

Eliza was conducting a sex education seminar for girls. They often fell in with bad crowds. Nowadays, it was crucial that they knew how to protect themselves and take proper care of their bodies. This was a scheduled seminar with an already established group of young women. They showed promise and could expect an improvement in their citizenship status after graduation and certification.

"Miss Donovan, I apologize. Emergency—Anji is practicing necromancy." Muro contacted Eliza via the infonet right in the middle of the seminar, projecting a screen in the classroom.

"What, raising corpses?"

"I wouldn’t bother you over something so trivial."

"Then what’s the problem? Another mass sacrifice?" She caught herself immediately. "Wait, no—you’d have led with that. Spit it out."

"Anji has drawn a pentagram covering over a square kilometer. Blood magic and necromancy are involved. The outcome is unpredictable."

"But we banned sacrificial rituals! What is he trying to accomplish on that scale?"

"The outcome is unpredictable. I’ve counted 2,500 corpses being used as an energy source."

"Jesus, did he slaughter an entire town?! Summon him here immediately!"

"I can’t—the ritual has already begun. It took me a long time to piece it together. The sigil was just too large."

"Ugh—" Eliza clutched her head as if struck by a sudden migraine. "Just show me already."

The boy sat at the center of the massive sigil, drenched in blood. Part of the seal covered his body. His hands were pressed against a bracelet on his right arm as he remained at the heart of the pentagram.

The corpses crumbled to dust, transforming into a black mist that surged toward the next segment of the seal, gathering the energy of death from circle to circle until it all converged at the center. There was so much energy that the blood-drawn sigil began to burn away, disintegrating into ash. Then, all at once, the energy was absorbed into the markings etched directly onto the boy’s skin.