The Truth

***

Thankfully, this compound was huge.

'Wonder how many of those Demons there are..'

Now that his magic was essentially sealed due to a barrier, Arata had limited options available to him.

Fortunately, this was supposed to be a Magic School, which meant there were at least some weapons he could use.

Unlike Mages who needed to activate magic, weapons crafted out through magic and pure magic existences like Lemegeton, a Grimoire, would not be affected by the surrounding barrier.

Arata continued surveying his surroundings as he entered from room to room. Unfortunately, he didn't find anything of suitable interest. After half an hour, Arata reached a staircase that descended to the floor below. This was the first staircase he had found that led to a floor below where he currently was.

The bottom of the staircase opened up into a massive open room, empty save for the pillars that dotted the area. Each pillar had a spiral pattern engraved into its stone face. It gave off the impression that each pillar was a tree with vines entwined around its trunk. The pillars were all spread evenly apart from each other, and extended all the way to the ceiling. In a way, it felt like a Dungeon. The ground was unnaturally smooth, as if it had been paved. All in all, it was a very majestic room.

The moment Arata took a step forward, the pillars in front of him began glowing faintly. He warily observed his surroundings as the pillars began glowing one after the other. After about a hundred meters of walking, he found himself staring at the opposite wall. Set within it was a massive set of doors.

Although Arata was behind the door, he could sense a faint trace of magic emitting from behind the door.

Now that he had already reached this far, how could he turn around?

Arata pushed the door open.

It was...

A living room.

A pretty large one as well. There was a couch, a kitchen, a fireplace with no fire, tables and chairs...

Although it was a huge room, it felt empty as well. Rather than an inhabited dwelling, it felt more like a house someone simply managed. Several rooms carved directly out of the rocks walls could also be seen as Arata entered one of them.

He couldn't sense any trace of life, so just like what happened above, there shouldn't be any living souls down here. Unless they were Demons. What he entered into, was a mini library.

As Arata scanned through the pages, he found that most of these books were empty. There were no words written on them. Just empty pages. However, he was unperturbed and simply continued searching through. He was hoping for some clue that might tell him where he really was.

His search finally bore results. There was one book which emitted a faint amount of magic power.

Arata took out the book. Blowing away the dust which had collected, he started scanning through the pages. The book was pretty worn out, the leather felt soft and delicate as Arata ran his fingers over the faded blue bindings. There were various inscriptions and symbolic writing on the cover of the book.

'This is...'

It wasn't the language spoken commonly by humans, no...the pages were written in an unknown language. They resembled patterns, strange numbers, and various sorts of letters engraved on each page. However, Arata could make out the words as if they were Japanese, although he couldn't find any mention of the author's name or identity.

*The concept that revolves around a world isn't as simple as being just an existence.*

Arata had stumbled upon someone's personal dairy. Some of the pages had also been torn off partially as well. But Arata could roughly make out what was written.

*In many worlds, magic is abundant and the people who research it, are known as Magicians. Magic is both an energy and an art form that magicians utilize to achieve a desired effect. Every mage will research and dream of one day reaching one place...'Akashic'. It is said that it contains all chaos, wisdom, all beginnings and endings.*

*There exists an Infinite number of worlds, with each world connected by something called 'Karma.' Worlds begin and end over and over, they are born, disappear, reborn and disappear again. The system of beginning and end. The one who brings about this cycle, is also known as the Magic King.*

*Under normal circumstances, a Magic King is born human, a mere baby with a secret unlimited magic power. What happens next depends on the baby's upbringing, where one may be brought up to be a genuine Magic King, while in another world, the people fear his magic and is killed soon after birth. Some might be born and raised as a mage, while some will be raised like a normal person.*

*But regardless of the circumstances, there is only one goal of a Magic King. To destroy the world. As a result, the world is reduced to 'Nothingness' and a new one is born from the destruction. Just like what happened to this world. As a result of the Magic King, the Breakdown Phenomenon began to occur as well. The complete destruction of this world.*

*I shall now rest in the Farthest Realm, the Library of Demise.*

Arata closed his eyes for a moment, trying to absorb and process the information. After a few seconds, he opened his eyes again.

"Lemegeton, did you know about this? Your previous contractor..."

[...Yes Master. My previous contractor, King Solomon, was a Magic King as well. However, a Grimoire has to listen to it's Master, regardless of the actions taken. Even if it means the very destruction of the world. There are certain things I was forbidden from speaking of but now that Master has learnt about this matter by yourself, it seems I can also speak a little about it.]

Arata nodded his head slightly. He wasn't angry about her past, he simply wanted to confirm his thoughts. The truth about this world...it seems that after getting this power, the things that he thought he knew all this time seemed so minuscule in comparison. Arata had already known the matter of another world when he died, but to think that so many worlds had actually been destroyed by such an existence. Regardless, any small amount of Information was still useful. This power of his...Arata had a feeling that his journey from now would involve something even beyond just the affairs of his own world.

Arata continued flipping through the pages and as he came across a certain section...

Arata's eyes widened slightly as he started reading through some of the content. Particularly, his eyes were focused on one part.

'This is interesting.'

"Lemegeton, I'm taking this book with me. Is it possible to keep it with you for the time being?"

Just this book alone was worth coming here.

[Yes Master.]

The ring around Arata's neck started shining and the book vanished from his hand.

As he stood up...

Arata noticed something else.

'Is that a katana?'

Resting atop a reading table was a pure obsidian katana. Although it eluded an elegant and prestigious color, it was really atypical of a regular Japanese katana. However, Arata could sense the magic energy emanating from the sword itself.

Now that his magic was sealed, a magic weapon would no doubt be useful. And this katana wasn't a weapon he was unfamiliar with. Arata had practiced swordsmanship by himself through reading tutorial books borrowed from the library ever since he became a Hunter, although the swords he used constantly broke. There wasn't much an E rank could buy, much less a good weapon. He was pretty adept fighting with a sword but because of the quality, skills were useless as his sword constantly broke during Dungeon Raids.

When he ran his fingers over the blade, the texture felt like the pure alloy was breathing as Arata held the katana. However, he didn't know if this weapon belonged to the same person who wrote that book.

"Lemegeton. The Barrier Linchpin. Where would you put something like that in this building?"

[Well, you'd either put a single one in the middle or several at different points to form a Magic circle.]

"I see. So it means we have to either try the middle of this school or it's perimeter."

After confirming his objective, Arata grasped the katana in his right hand as he prepared to head back up.

***

It wasn't long before Arata spotted the Demons again. His goal was to either head around the perimeter or to the center of this school but his path was naturally blocked.

A large number of Demons had gathered. A group of sword-wielding Demons approached first.

One of them approached Arata with a stance that made it easier to immediately swing down the sword that bet everything on a single strike.

Arata read the trajectory as he clashed his own blade against.

*GIIN!* Such sound rang out. Matching the bearing of strength, Arata immediately parried away the enemy's blade. Having its blade parried away, the Demon's stance became disordered. Arata wasted no time and reversed his blade, slashing in a side sweep.

Since this Katana was a weapon crafted and imbued with Magic itself, it could work just fine against the Demons.

Arata cut the next enemy, dodged the downswing coming from the side with paper-thin difference and slashed the second enemy in a counterattack, and then he leaped back quickly to dodge the third enemy's downswing.

Arata, who splendidly conducted himself in this narrow hallway was constantly moving an instant faster than the enemy.

Arata looked to his back to find even more Demons materialized, which meant most of his escape path was blocked, except for...

He had finally cut a path towards another exit.

'There!'

After cutting through another Demon, Arata ran straight through the glass window as it shattered apart into pieces and he landed on the soft grass patch below.

As he looked back up, he didn't find any of the Demons following him.

***

Now that he was outside the school compound, his only option was to search the perimeter of the building first.