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Chapter 9 : Seriously, She’s Light
I picked the Night of School episode for our first real encounter because the enemies here have a clear weakness.
Shadows spawned by a Void look scary, but they don’t hit hard. They don’t have claws or fangs like other monsters; they just inch along like worms.
Not that they’re harmless.
If they were, Yoo Eun-hye wouldn’t have quit teaching after the shadows grabbed her. Voids feed on the mind. The moment a shadow catches you, it shoves you into a nightmare and gorges itself on whatever fear and despair you make. Give it enough time and your brain trips its own breaker. The body keeps breathing, but the mind withers. A living vegetable.
“Hold up.”
W е b̂ n̈ӧv̇ ë l Е n um̂a
I caught Unibel’s shoulder and scanned the floor. At a glance it looked no different from the rest of the hallway, but that was the shadow’s lie. Step there and you drop straight through a hole.
A Corrupted space is basically a dungeon. There’s a final boss—the monster that caused the Corruption—and the road to it is never clean. With the Void, the obstacles are its “leftovers.”
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Residue: bits of the minds the Void ate, made manifest. They move according to memory, and their behavior patterns vary. Most just wander and mutter like the brain-dead. But some take initiative—set traps, herd enemies.
This one was the latter. A Residue made to keep intruders out. A Leader.
A Leader is a commander-type shadow that marshals the rest, using its living memories as a rough map. It’s got limits—it can dig traps, redirect a crowd—but that’s about it.
If that’s the trap, then the Leader’s probably waiting under it with a pack.
Еň ü m̈ӓ. i d
“Detour around it.”
“Okay.”
We doubled back. The swell of shadows that had been blocking the way was gone. Looked like the Leader pulled them to set the trap.
“Why aren’t there any over here?” Unibel asked, frowning.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
“They hate light. They look random, but they follow rules. If I’m right, the stairs should be clear.”
I considered explaining the Leader, then let it go. Too fussy—and knowing too much about the enemy would raise questions. I hand-waved it.
Ě ṅūm̈ å. îd̀
“Ah.”
She nodded without a hint of doubt. She’d even agreed when I said we should turn back right at the stairwell earlier. Naive, or… does she trust me that much?
Teacher instincts kicked in. I took her hand and led her up the empty stairs.
The Leader was camped on the third floor. The roof was on five. One more level and we’d reach the Void.
It won’t be easy, though.
Unlike the other floors that teemed with shadow, the fourth was mostly intact. If not for the tentacles of darkness draped along the walls like limp vines, it could’ve been a normal school day.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
“Something ahead?” Unibel whispered behind me.
I realized I was blocking her view and edged aside.
“That looks… really bad,” she said.
Fair. The thing in front of us wasn’t like the other Residues at all.
It cried—one thin, shivering note.
Harvester.
W̊еb́n о v е l Е̄nú ḿ ã
In a dictionary, a machine that gathers crops. Hidden meaning: an angel of death. The one who sends lost lambs back where they belong. The final gatekeeper.
A Harvester.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
“Should we… go around?”
Her eyes trembled for a second. Understandable. The Harvester’s presence pressed on the air: towering mass that took up half the hallway, a silhouette like a movie Reaper, and—just to be dramatic—a massive axe of solid shadow in its hands.
Even I flinched for a heartbeat, and I knew it was coming. But Unibel surprised me. Tense, sure. Afraid? Not really. Calm enough.
So she really is the protagonist.
E̊ ń u m а̄
“Not gonna be easy,” I said. “Everything about it says, ‘No one passes.’”
“I figured…”
It stood right in front of the stairs to the roof—the only path up from the fourth floor. If we wanted the boss, we had to break through.
“There is one piece of good news.”
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
“What is it?”
“You can use magic here.”
Е n̈u̇m̀ а
Her eyes lit up.
The Harvester eats any nearby shadows at random to bulk up. That very trait kept the usual swarm away. No swarm, no instant dogpile on her spells.
“Then it’s my turn to shine!”
A pink magic circle flashed under her feet. She kicked off the floor like a comet and dove straight into the Harvester’s guard.
***
All right. How do we do this?
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
The fight began. Power-wise, they were close. The Harvester’s axe couldn’t keep up with her speed; her fire couldn’t pierce its dense shadow. Exactly as expected.
A boom ripped the hallway and concrete sprayed, but she’d already moved. Leaving only an afterimage, she sprang up and drove a flaming kick at its shoulder. The bulk didn’t even twitch.
So she can’t solo it.
In the original timeline, Unibel didn’t have this much time. She blundered into the third-floor trap, wasted minutes fighting the Leader, and worst of all—there was a casualty, Yoo Eun-hye. The pressure to finish it now made her choice: run. Ignore the slower Harvester and go crack the Void’s core first.
Maybe her best call then. In practice? A disaster. The Harvester and the Void pincered her to protect the core, and she almost got crushed between them.
So we had to take the Harvester down here.
Ѐn̄ um_а . і̃d̄
But how?
No clear weak point. A rare shadow with light resistance. Exceptional detection. And a tank—even Unibel’s full-power flames didn’t rattle it. A true iron wall. A last gatekeeper worthy of the name.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
“Doesn’t mean it can’t be cracked,” I muttered.
I’d spent the most prep time on the Harvester. If even the original couldn’t beat this Residue, how was I supposed to?
I looked at the tentacles of shadow waving along the wall.
Something didn’t add up. If the Harvester absorbed any nearby shadows at random, why were these fine?
W̄е̃ b́ ńо̀v̇ ӗ ľ Ěn u m̂ а
Most shadows were slime-like blobs. The ones that held other shapes had roles. Residues only.
So what were the tentacles for?
Observer.
A watcher that feeds information to other Residues with its developed senses—the eyes and ears shadows normally don’t have.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
That would also explain how the Harvester tracked Unibel so well.
I grabbed a strand. It writhed but didn’t strike back.
Е̇ṅ um̆а.і̄d̂
If I tore down every tentacle along the wall, I could blind the Harvester.
Wait…
A thought hit. My hand stopped.
What if we do the opposite? If I’m right, I can one-shot that thing.
“Magical girl!”
“Yes? What is it?”
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
“I’ve got an idea. Can you lead it to me?”
“I’ll try!”
She drew the Harvester’s attention while I ran.
The fourth floor was laid out like this: the stairs to the roof—and the Harvester blocking them. Observers plastered the walls around it, acting as its eyes. The other floors’ shadow mobs were already absorbed by the Harvester’s habit of eating anything nearby. Which left the Observers.
Observers are still shadows. Different shapes, same essence.
And the placement… is weird.
Еn̈.u m̌ă . і̇ d
Up close, the walls right by the stairwell were missing Observers. At first I chalked it up to avoiding traffic. But what if it was actually to stay out of the Harvester’s absorption range?
So what happens if I slam the Harvester into a wall packed with Observers?
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
I sprint-scanned the corridor. As predicted, the further from the stairs I got, the denser the Observers became. Peak density was the far end, opposite the Harvester—walls, floor, ceiling, all carpeted in them.
I glanced back. Unibel was kiting the Harvester my way.
“Now! All-out sprint!”
“…Got it!”
Е ǹ u m а̃. id
She didn’t sprint.
I blinked—then the Harvester obligingly swung its axe. With a bone-deep crunch and whistle of air, the blade hurtled toward her—and this time she didn’t dodge.
“’Scuse me!”
Calm as you please, she stepped onto the flat of the axe mid-swing and vaulted high. She twisted in the air like a cat, planted both feet on the low ceiling, and kicked—rocket-fast—over the Harvester’s back.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Okay, that’s new.
I knew transformation boosted her physical ability, but I didn’t know she could do that.
Ě ń umа_.і d̃
“Hyah!”
Her cheerful shout, then the Harvester’s torso lurched. I couldn’t see through the shadow, but it looked like she’d condensed mana into a punch and buried it.
The Harvester stumbled. Unibel’s body floated behind it for an instant.
Move—
I dove aside.
A blink later, the Harvester—dozens of meters away—smashed into the wall right next to me.
Baca cerita ini hanya di situs resmi Enuma.id!
The Observers writhed. With a sound like a thousand mouths breathing, the carpet of eyes-and-ears surged—wall, floor, and ceiling—crashing over the fallen Harvester like a tide.
“Not exactly what I pictured…”
I’d planned to force-feed it Observers to bloat its body on purpose, neutralize the watchers, and then pin the oversized lump in the narrow hall.
It was absorbing them at random—just like I wanted—but the Harvester wasn’t getting bigger. It was shrinking.
Right. Of course.
Mindless shadows get eaten. Residues have will. Of course they’d resist being absorbed.
Еṅu ṁа̊ . і d
The hulking Harvester that had filled half the hall dwindled. Shrunk. Until it was only a little larger than a normal person.
“…?”
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
It thrashed, trying to pull free, but the Observers pushed back from the inside, smothering it.
Inside the Harvester, something dark flickered—darker than the rest of the shadow. A core.
“Magical girl—”
—is out cold.
Ĕ ǹ.u ḿ а
I turned to call Unibel and saw her sprawled where she’d bounced off the wall, unconscious from the recoil. Figures. Guess this part’s on me.
I shoved a hand through the writhing mass, found the core, and ripped it out. The Harvester sagged and lost its shape.
“Troublesome to the very end, huh.”
I checked that it was gone, then crouched and hoisted Unibel onto my back.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
The magical girl who would one day save the world weighed a lot less than I expected. Lighter than air.
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