'Just how vile does one need to be to allow such a thing to happen?'
Lukas, as a man of a modern world, thought he saw it all.
Vile crimes, war-time massacres, terrorist attacks…
For all the white gloves that the modern world liked to dress in, it was actually filled with brutality on a scale that less advanced civilizations often couldn't fathom.
That's what Lukas believed anyway, while retaining full knowledge of just how bloody a man's history really was, once one shed away the political correctness and the popular misconceptions about the past.
After all, the modern world had orders of magnitude more people and weapons than the ancestors simply couldn't fathom existing, leading to a situation where a single terror attack or a small-scale war could claim more lives than would be lost in a full-fledged battle of the past.
Today, however, as he inspected the inner workings of the spell he took over deeper and deeper, this belief was challenged.
Because it was one thing to kill people during times of war. It was another thing for some groups to propagate terror against those who they deemed to oppress them.
But what he saw?
A hundred thousand souls.
That's how many lives had to be sacrificed to power up the structure of this spell, to give it enough power to launch. And throughout the entire existence of this place, the number of people that fell prey to this spell hardly even approached half that number.
'A hundred thousand innocent people,' Lukas thought, his face no longer relaxed, his eyes no longer calm.
Before today, Lukas thought he saw the ugly side of human nature. But the inner workings of this spell proved he merely glanced at it, while the people of this world openly reveled in cruelty.
'Now I think I'm starting to understand why there's a massive rebellion against Plenaria right at the moment we were summoned to this world,' he thought while physically relaxing while laying down on this blood-soaked ground.
A few tens of meters away, Ume still erratically swung his sword around, desperate to hit something with it even if his blade could only ever reach air or the ground below his feet.
The cost of activating this spell aside, it clearly did its job. And now that it was up for Lukas to control it, Ume lost all chances of ever getting a single step closer to him.
In fact, with the confusion spell muddling his mind, he was physically incapable of moving closer towards Lukas.
Every step he took during his wild swings only brought him further and further away from his target, making it one hell of an unproductive if not outright pointless attempt at reaching him.
'This man really doesn't get tired at all, does he?' Lukas looked over, giving the man some credit where it was due.
Still, after watching his former drill sergeant keep swinging his blade over and over again while only ever getting further away from him, he couldn't help but shake his head.
'Yeah, after watching him for a few moments, rather than impressive it quickly turns pathetic.'
Turning his eyes away from the man, Lukas focused on the inner workings of the spell again.
Without the influence of the system that would force his mana to work in certain, well-established ways, dissecting the structure, dismantling how the mana swirled in the air and permeated through the space itself… All of it would be a night-impossible task.
But without the system interference?
It was almost too easy.
Just as easy as it was for Lukas to detect it when a small group of people suddenly entered the spell's range.
They were way too far to enter the area where the spell was active… But still, someone left the fortress and entered the kill zone of the no man's land. At night. And there was enough mana within that group to nearly trip the spell's automatic activation, causing it to activate all over the place without Lukas actively turning it on.
'Wait, isn't it Peter?'
It didn't take him long to figure out the culprit behind the warnings that rang in his mind. And with the man's shouts now spreading through the air as he cheered on his men to push further into the unknown, Lukas didn't even need to use his tricks to figure the identity of the intruding group.
'That preferential treatment really got to his head, didn't it?' Lukas rolled his eyes before breathing out a sigh and then standing up, dusting his knees and throwing Ume one last look.
Then, once again, his eyelids moved up as his impression of the man improved once again.
The spell had Ume in its hold. And no matter how hard the man tried to resist it, he wouldn't be able to do so.
It would take a whole army just to dilute the spell's effects and likely the population of the entire continent to push this spell beyond the limit of the number of invaders it could handle.
Despite all of that, however, after spending quite some time only ever gaining distance from Lukas, Ume has now found a way to turn around, face Lukas' general direction and then, slowly, step by step, start to decrease the distance between the two.
'Hmm?'
Puzzled, Lukas ignored the noises Peter's group made as they scoured the no man's land, too interested in Ume's method to just leave it alone. And as it turned out, Ume figured out a solution that was genius in its simplicity.
Rather than relying on his senses, trying to invoke some sort of spell or even manifesting some sort of a sword technique, he went for a different approach.
His swings, as it turned out, weren't as wild and pointless as Lukas initially assumed. And while they achieved absolutely no effect of harming Lukas… Every now and then, one of the man's attacks would reach far enough and be pointed at just the right angle to leave a barely noticeable mark on the ground.
Ume would then allow his body to drift along the direction the spell was pushing him to, only to then turn around, take a look at the markings he left while executing a much simpler swinging routine and then take a step in the right direction.
Then, the whole process would repeat, ending with Ume taking yet another step closer to Lukas, even if he had to retreat five steps first before he could make six steps in the correct direction.
"That's smart," Lukas said out loud, caring not if the man heard him or not.
Because for all his efforts, Ume's exercise was bound to fail.
Not because there was something inherently wrong with the man's method. In fact, by skimping around the rules according to which this place operated, he could slowly do what no man was supposed to and overcome the confusing effects of the spell to get closer to his objective.
It was simply because his method wasn't efficient enough. It wasn't fast enough. And by the time Lukas noticed what was going on, he had also found out everything there was to find out about this disgusting place.
'Upon my name I swear, a day will come when I will arrive to soothe all the souls trapped in this devious place,' Lukas whispered as he leaned down on one knee and reached out with his hand to touch the ground, giving himself a moment to contemplate the situation.
Then, with a solemn look on his face, Lukas stood up.
This place turned out to be a bust.
Sure, it made him as unkillable as it made it easy for the man to claim the lives of anyone who dared to step upon this accursed land. But, at the same time…?
This land held no value for him in terms of magic he could absorb. Not when it was based on the spilling blood of countless people guilty only of the fact they lived in this place's proximity, thus becoming the prime targets for the group that hunted people to turn them into living sacrifices.
It was still possible for him to latch onto the magic flowing through this blood-soaked ground… But doing so would be no less dangerous than picking a random needle dropped by a junkie and then happily inserting it in his own vein. But while there was a small chance the needle wouldn't be contaminated… No matter how hard Lukas would try to purify the mana of this place, he would never be able to fully do so.
And to fill himself with mana born out of hate, grudge and terror?
'Yeah, I would rather not do that,' Lukas thought, watching how Ume has now reached merely ten steps away from where he himself stood.
Out in the distance, one of Peter's men appeared. Then another one. Then, right behind their backs, Peter himself came out, his eyes scanning the whole area yet unable to land on where Lukas stood.
Now that he got close enough, the active part of the spell has already enveloped him, making it rather questionable whether he would be able to ever return to where he was supposed to be garrisoned at…
Unless Lukas allowed him to do so, that is.
'You are working really hard to make yourself look like a protagonist of this story, aren't you?' Lukas thought after sparing his former classmate just a single look.
That look of determination in his eyes, a sense of mission plastered all over his face, recklessness necessary to push his men into the ground openly known to be a trap for the invaders…
Those weren't the actions of a main character, but a stupid extra who didn't know his place!
'It's a pity I shouldn't really interfere with them,' Lukas thought as he leaned back to avoid Ume's blade that came dangerously close to his chest. 'It would be really funny to show that idiot his place,' Lukas smiled to his own thoughts before taking a step back, giving himself a few more moments before Ume could reach him.
Then, he retreated another step. Then, he just turned around and walked away, leaving behind the network of strongholds, his unit, the drill sergeant and all of his classmates.
Leaving behind the confines the local powers at play tried to chain him with, only to step into the world of no further boundaries. And as he continued to move away from what was effectively a prison to the rest of his former classmates, Lukas smiled.
'Should I look for Theo right away…' he thought, looking up to the dark sky of the night as if it could hold some answers, 'or should I give him some more time to get used to this place?'
For a moment, Lukas seriously gave this question a thought.
Then, with a shake of his head, he lowered his gaze down, to a singular point in the distance where he sensed an unnatural movement of much, MUCH more than just a single silhouette.
'I guess the world answered that question for me,' Lukas thought, grinning a little as he realized what he just saw creeping towards the severely underprepared fortress, now deprived of its greatest defensive asset. 'For now, should I find out just what exactly made those so-called heretics rise up to stand against the empire?'