The bodies constructed by the swarm of worms were easily pierced, burned, and then turned to ashes.
The aftershocks swept across the ceiling and walls, causing a violent explosion that shook the basement.
Once everything calmed down, the basement was filled with scorching heat and a nauseating smell of burning flesh.
"Damn, this magic is so troublesome every time I use it. If only I had Ais's wind."
Noah almost vomited up when he smelled the burnt worms.
However, seeing the unharmed girl in his arms, Noah nodded in satisfaction.
Noah's lightning magic might seem like simple enhancement magic, but its versatility depended entirely on his own application.
And now, I can manage to clear out the surrounding enemies without harming the person in my arms.
...Although it seemed like she was stunned.
Noah glanced at a corner of the basement, then, carrying the girl, began to climb the stairs.
"Hmm, let's find a place to rest first."
More than ten minutes after the footsteps faded away, a faint sound suddenly rang out from a corner of the dimly lit basement.
Beneath the debris, a worm appeared and quickly crawled toward a pipe.
How awful! How awful! How awful!
After being severely injured once again, Zouken's remaining consciousness weakened further, and he was almost completely reduced to the instincts.
When I get back, I'm definitely going to kill that bastard!
But for now, it's best to run out of here as soon as possible!
I want to live!
No matter what, I must live!
The moment he passed through the dark and narrow pipe, Zouken even felt a sense of joy at escaping from danger.
But before he could even feel the fresh air, he heard laughter coming from behind him.
"...Found you!"
As a beam of silver light fell, Zouken felt intense pain, and his consciousness quickly slid into darkness.
In the instant he was engulfed by death, his consciousness broke free from the extreme distortion of survival and scattered in all directions.
The scattered fragments of consciousness allowed Zouken to see things from the past that had remained deep within his memories but had never been noticed.
'I hereby swear that I will accomplish all good in the world, and I will eradicate all evil in the world…'
But more than becoming an ally of justice, what I want is you...
The world is so cruel, making me understand what I truly wanted only in my last moments before death.
...
After killing the worm, Noah stood there for a moment to sense that there was no other breathing activity in the entire house before returning inside.
Oh, no, if we're talking about breathing, there was one.
However, in Noah's perception, this should be a very ordinary person, so he subconsciously ignored it.
What puzzled Noah was that although he had restrained himself a bit, the commotion should still have been quite significant. Why was this person sitting still in one place as if he were dead?
A little confused, Noah arrived at the room and gently knocked on the door.
"Hello? May I come in? If you don't say anything, I'll take that as a yes!"
After asking, Noah paused for a few seconds, then lifted his foot—
With a loud BANG, the door was kicked open completely.
At the same time, the person lying on the bed in the room jumped up as if electrocuted.
"Who? What happened?"
Noah frowned at the strong smell of alcohol in the air and quickly stepped back.
Okay, now I know why this guy looks like a dead man.
This was a middle aged man. He looked to be only in his thirties or forties, but his face was already full of wrinkles, and he had deep eye bags.
His facial features were actually quite regular, but he exuded a strong sense of decadence and languor.
No matter how hard Noah tried to sense it, he couldn't feel any threat from this person.
The finally sobered up and looked at Noah in a daze.
"Who... who are you?"
Is this a cosplayer who ran out of a convention?
No, that's not right.
After rubbing his eyes and taking another look, Matou Byakuya sensed a different aura emanating from the boy in front of him.
The suffocating feeling, as if a huge rock was pressing on one's chest, could not be simply described as the fear a living being experiences when encountering a powerful enemy.
It was more like the fear and trembling of realizing one's own insignificance when standing in front of a towering mountain or under the vast aurora borealis.
The other party did not show any malice toward him; it was just that the huge gap between their existences was intimidating.
Although he was not involved in the world of magi due to a lack of Magic Circuits, Byakuya still had some discernment.
Therefore, he immediately realized that the boy in front of him was probably not human.
Upon seeing the girl being held in Noah's arms, Byakuya formed a guess in his mind.
After all, given that old monster's personality, if he had any other choice, he would absolutely not allow such a being to enter the Matou household.
So, has that old monster finally been defeated?
Given his status, if Zouken is being attacked, there's a high possibility that he himself will be treated as an accomplice and disposed of.
However, Byakuya couldn't suppress the intense joy that welled up inside him.
"Excuse me, may I ask who you are? And where is the old gentleman?"
"I'm just a passing Heroic Spirit. As for the old man in the basement, he died a quick and painless death."
Gripping the sword hilt, Noah observed the expression on the man's face, analyzing whether or not to send him down to join his family.
However, even though Noah had considered many possible scenarios, the expression on the man's face was still somewhat beyond his expectations.
His eyes widened, his lips curled up, and the muscles on his cheekbones trembled repeatedly.
No meaningful words came out of his open mouth, only a few long "Heh... ah..." sounds.
His expression showed a mix of bewilderment, sadness, and disbelief, but more than anything, it conveyed relief and ecstasy.
If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, Noah would never have imagined that a human face could make such distorted and complex expressions.
"Finally... finally dead!!! That old thing!!"
Just like his appearance, the world's evaluation of Matou Byakuya was basically that he was a decadent, and useless, but he himself didn't care about this at all.
Compared to the fear of living under the control of a monster, the humiliation of being labeled as trash was nothing!
Around the age when he was old enough to remember things, Byakuya was told that the Matou family was a Magus lineage that had been passed down for hundreds of years.
However, before he could even rejoice at the prospect of possessing supernatural powers like the protagonists in fairy tales, he was told the cruel truth after the test: he had no aptitude for practicing Magecraft.
The only purpose of Matou Byakuya was to mate with a woman chosen by Zouken who had relatively good maternal qualities, hoping to win the genetic lottery and give birth to a worthy offspring.
The heir of the Matou family was confirmed to be his younger brother, Matou Kariya.
Although Kariya's aptitude was also quite low, with effort, he could still become a Magus.
Even if it was the worst kind.
This sense of loss lasted only a short time. When Byakuya realized that Matou Zouken, a name that appeared in the Matou family genealogy every hundred years, was actually an immortal and extremely twisted monster, he felt relieved.
When the woman he didn't have a deep relationship with..but who ultimately bore him a child, was thrown into the worm pit by Zouken, Byakuya's heart became completely twisted.
Fear, hatred, pain, dread... these emotions gnawed at his heart like the worms in the basement.
However, when Kariya left and Zouken offered to let him succeed as the nominal head of the Matou family on the condition that he manage the family's substantial assets, Byakuya chose to agree.
Although Byakuya used wealth and luxury to numb himself, he also vaguely sensed that perhaps he had lost the courage to resist Zouken from the bottom of his heart.
But this old thing, which had already robbed him of the courage to resist, was dead today!
He is Dead!
Is there anything in this world more joyful than losing him?!
Intense emotions erupted, impacting Byakuya's consciousness.
The alcohol he had just suppressed after being startled awake surged back up, causing his eyelids to roll back and him to faint again.
"...Are you out of your mind?"
Looking at the man laughing wildly before collapsing to the ground, Noah shook his head and turned to leave the room.
He could tell that this family was full of lunatics.
The only difference was that one went mad voluntarily, while the other was driven mad by others.
The moment Noah was born into this world, a wealth of knowledge flooded his mind.
For example, the country's language and writing system, how to use technological products such as mobile phones, gas stoves, and electric lights, and the role of organizations such as hospitals in society.
Noah felt that the purpose of this knowledge was probably to prevent himself from standing out and attracting attention.
Therefore, without wasting too much attention on various places, Noah found a room that resembled a study after briefly confirming the layout of the house.
Noah placed the still unconscious girl on the sofa and began searching the bookshelves.
Just like when he first arrived in Orario, he spent three days immersed in the library. Noah spent this night browsing through the notebooks and books on the shelves.
Perhaps due to the preferences and habits of the bookshelf's owner, these books and notes contained little general history; they mainly focused on the history of Magecraft, various studies, and personal reflections.
By compiling the records from these books, Noah roughly analyzed the development of this world...
In ancient times, this world was inhabited by gods, spirits, phantasmal species, True Magic, and other such things.
However, about two thousand years later, for some unknown reason, the power of gods and Mystery began to fade, and the world gradually transitioned from the Age of Gods to the Age of Man. Humanity began to move toward the path of technology centered on manipulating the laws of physics.
As Mystery faded, the magical laws that were prevalent in the Age of Gods gradually and uncontrollably disappeared, becoming anomalies.
Magecraft is what can be replicated by human technology, while the five miracles that even technology cannot replicate are called the Five True Magics.
Noah didn't understand the Five Magics, but in his opinion, the Magecraft here was somewhat similar to the magic in Orario.
In Orario, one draws upon mana from nature or within their body, channeling it into their falna to activate various spells.
Then, just like in Orario, where some areas have a high concentration of mana that makes spells more powerful, different regions of this world have different concentrations of Mana and different attributes.
Magi, through years of modification in regions that are compatible with their elemental affinities, inscribe Magic Circles into the land, forming their own magical foundation...Leylines.
In Noah's view, the main difference between the two systems is the total amount of Mana available; the way it is used is a minor detail.
Noah glanced at those offensive spells once and then forgot about them.
No matter how many tricks there are, they all boil down to the use of Mana. To be precise, it's about how to make the most of limited Mana in a modern world where Mystery is fading.
Noah believed that if the divinity and Mystery of this world were powerful enough, it would also develop in orario's direction.