CHAPTER 111**
Ganibal and Morbid. With the two Sins tied down, two thoughts must have crossed their minds.
Return and help their comrades.
Or prioritize the abduction of me, the user of Resurrection magic.

"W-What should we do?"
"Don't ask me!"
In that moment of confusion, Anastasia stomped on the ground and instantly appeared before Ganibal.
She was the one who had pierced his body with a single blow.
Just as she was about to smash him again, a Gluttony Zombie lunged at her.

"Support Lieutenant General Anastasia!"
"Fire!"
Regular Army soldiers holding magically crafted guns loaded with magic bullets began to fire.
It was the Regular Army's prized Magic Rifle Squad.
Their volley of fire blew off the zombies' arms and burst their heads.
But these were different from the zombies Transferees were used to.
They kept moving, whether their heads were blown off or not.
Anastasia shook off the zombies and closed the distance with Ganibal.
A conversation passed between Ganibal and Morbid.
They were clearly debating whether to retreat or prioritize their objective.

Our goal was to prevent them from retreating. So, I laid the Horizon in my arms down on the ground.
With the upper half of her torso blown away, Horizon was already long dead.
Moreover, the Gluttony Ability was activating in her body.
In a little while, she would become Ganibal's zombie and attack us.
If so, I just needed to use Resurrection magic before that happened.
Ganibal had merely infused his Ability into her.
He couldn't affect Horizon any more than that.
It was the same as with the Apostles.
As long as the Apostle himself wasn't present, there was no way to resist Resurrection magic being poured in from right beside the target.

A pure white light began to gather in my palm.
The light flowed directly into Horizon.
Horizon's body, which had been torn apart by Ganibal, began to regenerate.
Naturally, the gazes of Ganibal and Morbid were drawn to me.
As the cluster of light filled the area, shining brightly...
"Ugh, hnn..."
Horizon's eyelids slowly fluttered open.
She looked up at me with a dazed expression, then covered her mouth and sat up.
"Keuk, hack."
Blood poured from her mouth.
It seemed the blood that had flowed back when her torso was torn had remained in her esophagus.

Ganibal and Morbid were staring at me with wide eyes.
I gave them a smirk.
That's right, you bastards.
Look at me.
I really do have Resurrection magic.
I had just confirmed its existence for them.

"Morbid!"
With that, they made their decision.
If they failed to abduct me here, it would mean Black Dawn's defeat.
The moment they realized this, Morbid's form dissolved into shadow and vanished.

"Ah, you really are something else!" Babiyen shouted as she cast defensive spells one after another. She had realized that I had just drawn all the aggro.
The Regular Army was busy dealing with Ganibal and his zombie army.
We didn't need to worry about Ganibal.
Morbid, on the other hand, being of the Amyeong Tribe, could move freely through shadows.
Although the light magic was suppressing his movements to some extent, it wasn't very effective.
Ultimately, it meant Morbid's level was higher than the mages here.

"Horizon!"
"Y-Yes!"
The successfully resurrected Horizon wiped her mouth and answered in a loud voice.
"Morbid is coming! You're the only one who can find his location!"
"Ah, y-yes!"
Horizon is a mutant Amyeong, just like Morbid.
She should be able to find Morbid's location within the shadows.
Following my instructions, Horizon hurriedly began to move her own shadow.
A cold sweat immediately formed on her forehead.
It was clear she needed time.

"The Amyeong Tribe's weakness is their mask, right?"
"Th-That's right."
I had also gathered a lot of information to fight the Sins.
The weakness of the Amyeong Tribe was the mask that appeared when they entered a shadow.
That mask was the key to their shadow movement.
Destroying the mask meant neutralizing the shadow.
It meant Morbid's defeat.

"B-But the shadows are all tangled up. I-I don't know if I can find him like this. And even if I do, he might just... just run away..."
"Leave that to us. And I know you can find him."
Either way, if Horizon couldn't find him, neutralizing Morbid would be impossible.
We had no choice but to believe in Horizon.
Horizon bit her lip and shouted with all her might.
"I'll try. No, I'll do it!"
She too had lost her biological parents to Morbid.
Parents who had to abandon her to save her.
She couldn't remember their faces, but they were her parents all the same.
Horizon's eyes darted around frantically as she began her search.
She was our team's ace scout.
I knew she would find him.

"Lululio, can you draw Morbid's attention on the ground? You need to wear him down as much as possible. Make him squeeze out every last bit of his strength."
"It's not a matter of can, I have to do it, sir."
Lululio's body began to glow with light.
Her Ability was well-suited for fighting Morbid.
But that was only against the shadows themselves; it was a different story once inside them.
Lululio lacked the power to deal a fatal blow to Morbid.
And the same went for Babiyen.
Shadows have properties similar to water.
Flame magic cannot exert its full power inside a shadow.
In the end, there was only one person who could defeat Morbid.

"Aranseol."
It was Aranseol, with her lightning attribute.
If shadows were of the water family, then Aranseol's lightning was their weakness.
"Right, I understand."
Aranseol read my thoughts without me having to explain.
An electric current slowly began to gather on her sword.
Aranseol had also entered a state of concentration for a single, powerful strike.
I could feel the magic surging around her body.
It looked like it would be a devastatingly powerful attack.

THUD!
At that moment, a shadow shot up from the ground.
The shadow soared into the sky, forming a colossal shape.
It was a giant of staggering size, with dozens of arms.
I couldn't believe he could do something like this with shadows.
I was momentarily stunned, but this was a Sin.
The Sins of Black Dawn were a collection of monsters like Cosmic Jac.
There was nothing to be surprised about.

"If you're going to make it that big..." Lululio stomped the ground, her entire body glowing.
"Then I'll just have to smash it to pieces, sir!"
The moment Lululio kicked off the ground, her figure blurred.
As she shot up into the sky, the giant swung its numerous fists at her.
Even in mid-air, Lululio became light and scattered, evading the fists.
The giant's movements were too slow to follow hers.
But the giant was a monster made of shadow.
As Lululio brushed past one of the giant's arms, the arm split into dozens of hands.
Just as Lululio was about to be caught by the hands...

FWOOSH-
A crackling sound erupted from beside me.
KABOOOOOOOOOOOM!
A mass of flames launched by Babiyen directly hit the shadow giant.
The shadow giant staggered back, momentarily thrown off balance, which allowed Lululio to easily evade.
Inside the shadow might be a different story, but from the outside, flame magic was a weakness.
"What's the point of being big!" Babiyen shouted, preparing her next spell.
Whatever else she might be, Babiyen's magical firepower was exceptional.
Unless her opponent was the Red Flame Lord himself, most fire mages wouldn't even be able to hold a candle to her.
And I soon realized why.

"Babiyen, that staff..."
The staff Babiyen was aiming at the shadow giant was clearly exuding a different level of performance than before.
It looked far more luxurious, and the size of the magic stone embedded in it was enormous.
"Took you long enough to notice! Did you think I returned to my family with no conditions? Of course, I demanded a high-performance staff!"
This tenacious girl.
She really cleaned out the Asteria barony, didn't she?
"This staff was made with the magic stone of a Magical Beast worth an entire fiefdom! My firepower is now double, no, triple what it was!"
Babiyen was very excited.
Well, you can't resist testing out new gear.
With such a huge target, it was the perfect opportunity for her to go wild.

KABOOOOOOOOOOOM!
At that moment, Lululio finally reached the giant's head and pierced it.
The shadow giant lost its balance and staggered.
Then, it began to collapse to the ground, turning back into shadow.
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!

The only problem was that all of that shadow was now pouring down on top of us.
A shadow avalanche from the sky.
"You can blow it all away, right, Babiyen?"
"Uhm."
Babiyen, who had been gleefully firing off spells, began to tremble, along with her staff.

The light on the staff had dimmed considerably.
You just got excited and fired everything off, didn't you.
I made a mental note to scold Babiyen later and immediately snatched Horizon, who was beside me.
“H-Huh?!”
Horizon, who had been concentrating, flailed her arms in surprise, but there was nothing she could do.
“Aranseol, grab Babiyen!”
Aranseol swung her mana-charged sword to one side and scooped Babiyen up.
The moment I saw that, I slammed Holy Magic into my legs with all my might.
As our physical abilities were pushed to their absolute limits, the two of us kicked off the ground with everything we had.
Kwwwwwaaaaaaaang!
A massive wave of shadows that had reached the ground surged forward, crashing over the landscape like a tidal wave.
And that wasn't all.
Chiiiiik!

The snow and earth the shadow touched corroded and melted away.
This was no ordinary shadow.
It was an acidic shadow that melted anything it touched.
Damn it, he can do something like that too?
More importantly, it seemed that bastard Morbid knew I could be resurrected.
He was trying to kill us without hesitation.
Aranseol and I ran for our lives, desperately trying to escape the shadow's radius.
If we were swept away by this shadow, it would be over.
As we fled, a light flashed in the distance.
Lululio was kicking off the sky, relentlessly throwing spears of light.
Thanks to her, the shadow wave faltered and was pushed back wherever a light spear struck.
But the shadow wave pursued us relentlessly.
It was determined to swallow us whole.
What’s more, shadow surfers in human form began to appear on top of the wave.
They rode the shadow wave and drew their bows on us.
“They’re pullin’ out all the stops-ssumda!”
Lululio took care of the shadow surfers, swinging her spear.
However, Morbid seemed to have made up his mind, unleashing a continuous barrage of shadows without conserving his mana.
Because of this, Lululio’s hands were completely full.
Lululio was fighting hard, but in the end, the shadows weren't Morbid's true body.
In the distance, I could see Anastasia locked in a fierce battle with Ganibal.
Ganibal was one of the Deadly Sins.
Even for a powerhouse like Anastasia, he wasn't an opponent she could finish off in a short time.
The Regular Army had also focused most of its forces on the Black Dawn headquarters.
In fact, I had told Lululio to have them do just that.
If we couldn't crush their headquarters this time, the Black Dawn bastards would only move more cunningly in the future.
Having fewer forces here was my intention from the start.
In the end, we had to solve this with our own hands.
“...Harua-ssi.”
Just then, Horizon, who was in my arms, called out to me.
When I looked down at her, she was staring at the shadow.
“That shadow… it’s connected to Morbid.”
She clenched her tiny fists and spoke with conviction.
“If I make contact, I can pinpoint Morbid’s exact location.”
The acidic shadow.
She was talking about going inside it.
It was practically suicide.
But if I, a Holy Mage, helped…
“Aranseol.”
“I think I know what you’re trying to do, and it makes me want to get angry.”
“You’re right. I know because I’ve watched Horizon’s shadow from the side. The inside of a shadow isn't some other dimension; it’s just a specific location where the shadow originates.”
We couldn't catch Morbid because he was constantly moving his shadow.
But if she could tell us his exact location, Aranseol could pierce him with her sword.
Ultimately, if we could just confirm his position, victory would be ours.
“Babiyen, you too. Get ready to squeeze out every last drop of mana you have.”
A straight path to connect Aranseol and Morbid.
To create it, we needed both Babiyen and me.
“Harua, you know you’re the bait, right?”
If I got caught by Morbid, it would be over.
“Of course, I know that well.”
I wasn't doing this recklessly.
I had a trump card even if I were captured.
A hidden ace I hadn't told anyone about yet.
“Horizon.”
I hugged Horizon tightly and activated Holy Magic throughout my entire body.
“Let’s go for one hell of a dive!”
“Yes!”

This was a shadow dive, one where we staked our lives.