Tosho Meikyuu:Volume1 Chapter1

Library Labyrinth

You're running.

“Haa…! Haaa…!”

You're running away.

You're in the hexagonal reading room, surrounded by bookshelves on three sides. It's a labyrinth of unlimited archives, like a beehive. With much desperation, you continue to run within the depths of the historical library called the ‘Library Labyrinth’.

“Haa, haa…ugh, ha, haa!”

To simply summarize, your life is in danger.

From the darkness of the labyrinth, a stone spear suddenly shoots out, opening a massive vent in the flank.

You can feel the blood oozing out from the wound, soaking her coat and undergarments. The long silver hair was dyed with reddish black spots, and a slight quivering breathing rang at your ear.

“Haa, I have to run away, run away…!!”

Carrying the dying girl on your back, you continue to run aimlessly in the depths of the library labyrinth, dozens of meters beneath the ‘Library Capital Alexandria’. With the lives of the girl and yours at stake, it is literally a game of tag.

“—Ugh, kahh!”

The blood dripping from the tips of the hair cause the soles of your boots to slide. slipped. You exert your right foot to regain footing, and give a blood curdling scream due to the excessive lactic acid formed.

You are at your limits. You are already gasping for breath, your brain completely devoid of oxygen. Your heart is beating to the point of ripping apart. Despite so, you have to run. If you don't, you will be slaughtered.

By the terrifying demon, the murderer of the Library Labyrinth.

“Are…you? Are you, still there…?”

Perhaps realizing that you’re nearing your physical limit, the girl calls you over your shoulder. The voice is scratchy and feeble, and you can certainly hear the terrifying of death.

“L-leave me be. Here. You can just go, alone…ack, ack!!"

The girl says in a timeworn tone, “Let me be killed.” She wants to use her own life as bait and let you escape alone.

…If you abandon her, you may be able to shake off the killer's pursuit.

"Quiet, haa! Don't talk. You'll open, a wound…!"

But your conviction doesn’t allow you to survive at the expense of others. Even if your life ends, you can never let someone else die for the sake of surviving.

Because five years ago, you lost your beloved parents in this Library Labyrinth.

“Enough, just seeing you, just knowing that you remember me, I shall be content. I-if this continues, you too shall will be killed…ack, ack!!”

The girl is gasping for breath while worrying about your safety. For this reason, you can’t abandon the kind-hearted girl.

“Yo-you? I can't see well anymore…”

“Just be quiet and grab onto me! I’ll get you to the ‘Apothecary's Deep Magic Treatment Room! You’ll be saved there!”

You encourage the girl…but in fact, you don’t know the way back to the surface, let alone the ‘Apothecary’. You lost your direction while being pursued by the murderer.

As the name implies, the structure of the Library Labyrinth is intricate, and it’s not easy to escape once you get lost. If you don't find the elevator that leads to the ground…

You two will die.

"Damn…itttttt!"

You even have the urge to put your trust in God. The girl's life is in peril. At this rate, you’ll be witnessing another death.

Someone is hurt and dying, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

You can only watch helplessly watching from the sidelines as they die, their lives wilting to an end.

Just as you saw you father die.

" …,No…!"

Absolutely not, you think.

You don’t want to experience such loss, such helplessness, such despair again.

“I'll never give up…! I won’t let you kill me! I don't want a repeat of what happened five years ago!”

Yes, that's why you're here.

To obtain the power to transcend the past, you decided to study abroad in the ‘Apothecary’, visited the Library City, and ventured into the Library Labyrinth, the archives where all kinds of books are said to lie.

You wish to transcend your abominable memories and become someone who can save others—the ‘Doctor Magna’.

“This time, this time, I'll save you! I swore that!”

Your thoughts are,

“A cold stone bite shall pierce the entrails.”

Unfortunately, ended simply.

“Execute, stone serpent fang.”

A high-pitched chanting echoes, whoosh! And the sound of the wind follows.

From the faint darkness of the Library Labyrinth, a rock spear flies in rapidly,

And strikes you directly in the leg.

“G—gyyaaaaaaaaaa!!!?”

A sharp hexagonal stone pillar pierces the center of your calf.

The granite spear, as thick as your arm, gouges deep into your bones and muscles, destroying your leg.

Your body loses support, and you fall down with the same momentum you are running with. Your vision spins, and the strong centrifugal force separates you from the girl. You try to hug the body that is moving away from you, thud! and your back slams into the floorboard, breaking your ribs. Despite that, you can’t slow down completely, so you crash hard into the bookshelf.

“Gabbu!? Haaaa…!!?”

The pain is so intense that you can't breathe. You see fireworks before your eyes, the taste of blood spreading through your mouth, and an electric current-like pain surges from your torn leg.

“…I can’t, let you, die…!”

You grab tightly onto the talisman before your chest, and hold together the consciousness that’s being ripped by the pain.

You recall the prayer you used to etch in your heart. For the sake of inheriting the will your father placed in this crystal talisman. You must transcend your past and become ‘Doctor Magna’.

“…I want, to become, someone who, can save other humans…!"

You drag your body, creaking with intense pain, towards the collapsed girl…

“Let’s put an end to this ugly escapade, shall me?”

The cold, clear, icy voice sends a chill down your spine.

Cantera lights flicker in the darkness of the Library Labyrinth. The lights glowed suspiciously as they approach, echoing with the sound of footsteps, and eventually the golden figure of a girl…

No, the murderer's figure came into view.

“Good day, vampire assassin.”

It’s a beautiful demon.

Its flowing hair swirls with gold, cascading down from the top of her head, scattering light across her chest.

The shimmering eyes are a deep sea color. Her piercing blue gaze at you like sapphire.

The tips of its hair, brushed by white fingers, float softly in the air.

"Looks like I've won the game of tag."

She lands on the ominous goat-like horns and stops quietly.

A pair of huge, horrifying horns resembling a great demon splits the golden torrent.

The pair of horns split from the side of her head, pointing their shiny, sharp tips at you.

It's a beautiful—beautiful murderer.

"Kuu…!"

"Now, the monster that trampled on that person’s tombstone must die."

The murderer raised its right arm with terrifying grace. Between its slender fingers, it grasps the pale, luminous gray spine of the book.

This is the legacy of the gods that lies in the Library Labyrinth, ‘a grimoire’—a magic book that can transform reality into the unrealistic- the Grimoire.

“Rest assured. At the very least, I'll send you to the underworld with a single blow so that you won't suffer.”

The ‘book’ roars. It emits a gray light. The caster absorbs the mana permeating the atmosphere, compresses it, and inserts it into the grimoire.

All to weave a terrible magic that shall slaughter you and the girl.

“—Activate key Jc102k, chant start!”

In response to the chant that resembles singing, bak! the floors of the labyrinth shatter. Countless stone spears appear through the gaps of the cracked floor, writhing like tentacles seeking their prey.

(…I can’t let myself… get killed in a place like this…!)

“O little king, Eight-footed lizard, Lord of the crowned serpent.”

Facing the fear of the looming death, you clutch onto the crystal talisman.

(…I've sworn to overcome this helpless me, to overcome the despair of five years ago. …!)

In the face of a wounded girl, a terrifying murderer, a looming doom and demise—

“—I swore I would become ‘Doctor Magna’!”

You pull out a page from the gap between the sheet metal armor on your right shoulder.

“—Activate key Lg100b, Veins On!!”

The incantation on the page glows a blueish white as it connects to the ‘Magitzkveins’ based on your nervous system.

You clasp the crystal talisman like a prayer, inhale deeply, and scream,

“Pillar of heaven, foundation of the kingdom!

“That the serpents whose name he controls may be,”

The two overlapping chants echo together in the darkness of the labyrinth.

In magical combat, spellspeed is the quickdraw. If you can finish yours before the murderer, you may be able to defeat the enemy’s magic, and protect the injured girl!

(I'll use magic here! I have to save this girl!)

“O Goddess of Storms who guards the Dragon Field!”

“Become my arm and do as I command.”

The rush of mana through your body scatters a faint light in the darkness filling the labyrinth. You sharpen your mind, trying to control the magical power flowing into the Magitzkveins—

“My sacrifice to thee and…argh, ugh!”

You feel a pain in your nerves.

“G-aaaah!?”

The pain that seems to burn your brain from the inside prevents you from chanting further.

The Magitzkveins based on the nervous system is in a mess due to mental misconduct, and overheats due to loss of magic control.

(I lost control of the, Magitzkveins…, damn it, my magic is…!)

You try to fight the pain that's trying to reap your consciousness, and you want to continue chanting.

“Farewell, assassin—Execute, servant of the stone serpent.”

The murderer's magic lunges towards you in the form of a stone spear waterfall..

“No, no—gyyyaaaahhhh!”

You can’t shield the attack for the girl, and end up devoured by the waterfall of stone spears.

Countless stone edges strike, gnawing at you as they pass you by.

The intense pain that pierces your skin, flesh, bones, brain, and soul burns through your consciousness.

“Kaf…ack!”

Lots of blood gushes up from deep within your throat.

Sparks of various colors suddenly scatter before your eyes, and your vision begins to fade rapidly,

This is the end of your existence—your imminent death.

(…If I have, magic (power))

Your consciousness sinks into the darkness, you’re on the verge of death, and all you can think about is such regret.

The ‘Doctor Magna’ will reveal the mysterious power buried in the Library Labyrinth, and sae people. If there is such a power, you might have been able to save them, indeed.

You could have healed her wounds, fought off a terrible demon, and find a way back to the surface, saving yourself along with the girl.

…But that is a mere pointless fantasy.

For you can't use magic.