And in the brief exchange of attack and defense, Shane's gaze never left the boar. The red glow in his eyes flickered uncertainly, steady and cold.
From what he could see, the boar's belly wasn't sunken at all. It clearly wasn't starving.
"So it's this aggressive… and it's not even hunting for food?" Shane frowned.
He swept his eyes over its features again—massive build, and it wasn't a sow with offspring. There was no scent of piglets nearby.
"And it's not defending territory or young either…" He paused, deadpan. "It's a boar, so it definitely isn't pregnant."
With the usual biological triggers ruled out, only one possibility remained.
Something is affecting it.
Shane immediately thought of that man they'd encountered before—the one who used Human Subordination.
Could it be a similar spell? He propped his chin on his hand, thinking.
But under the Eye of Karma, aside from the boar's own karmic red lines, there were no other causal threads wrapped around it.
No tether. No link to any human will. No magical connection.
"So it isn't man-made?"
A conclusion began to take shape in Shane's mind.
Right then, a dull thump sounded ahead.
Ultear didn't give the boar any chance to recover. Several crystal spheres hovered in midair; magic surged—and the unlucky monster finally stopped moving, completely knocked out.
She exhaled softly, tidied her slightly messy hair, and shot Shane an annoyed look over her shoulder. "Satisfied? See anything interesting?"
"Clap, clap, clap."
Shane gave her three lazy claps and stepped out from behind the tree. "Beautiful work. Let's go. That 'Super Magic' thing… I think we've got a lead."
"That fast?" Ultear blinked.
She'd always known Shane's eyes were ridiculous, but this was a bit much.
He'd literally just stood there watching. Didn't lift a finger. And he already had a lead?
"What did you see?" she demanded.
Shane casually tapped his temple. "Didn't see it. I deduced it."
Ultear's expression remained puzzled, so Shane stepped over the boar's huge body and explained as he walked:
"I checked carefully. It didn't go berserk from hunger, and it wasn't driven by breeding instincts. Most importantly—there aren't any 'human' lines on it."
"If its abnormal state wasn't caused by a person, then once you eliminate every impossible explanation, whatever's left—no matter how ridiculous—is the truth."
He crouched beside a patch of soil that had been gouged up by the boar's hooves and pinched a bit of black dirt between his fingers.
"It was probably forced into that state by something naturally existing—more like… the environment itself leaking something that messed with its mind."
Ultear's eyes sharpened. She understood instantly.
"You mean… the 'Super Magic' is influencing it? Its magic is leaking out and making creatures violent?"
"I don't know," Shane said, standing and brushing the dirt off his hands. "But it's a strong possibility."
Ever since he'd confidently guessed a Servant's true name as "Masamune" and gotten brutally slapped by reality, he'd learned to stop speaking in absolutes.
From there, the next step was straightforward.
Shane opened his far-sight again and traced the boar's charge route backward.
If the boar had come from that direction and been affected, then following its path should lead them closer to the source of contamination.
"Stay close," Shane called.
They followed the trail. The deeper they went, the more oppressive it became.
What had been scattered black patches among green foliage turned into wide stretches of dead, ink-dark growth.
At the end of the trail was a sunken area wedged between several massive boulders.
Shane stood at the edge, eyes sharp as he surveyed the wreckage.
Deep hoofprints stamped into the mud. Bristles scattered around, reeking of animal stink. Several thick trees snapped at the waist, their breaks jagged and fresh.
This was clearly the boar's territory.
"The breaks are new—sap's still seeping," Shane said, wiping a finger across a splintered trunk and turning back to Ultear. "Our guess was right. It turned hyper-aggressive suddenly."
"…Yeah." Ultear nodded, scanning the area. The faint hope in her eyes dimmed.
"So it only affects the mind…"
She murmured it under her breath, disappointment slipping through. A berserk/mental pollution effect might be strong, but it wasn't the kind of power she wanted—the kind that could change the past.
It did nothing for her rotting, unhealing wish.
"What a waste," Shane shrugged. His face wasn't particularly bothered, though. "Looks like we came for nothing."
"No."
Ultear drew a steady breath and reassembled her composure. Her dark eyes cleared again.
"We're already here. We search outward from this point. The boar probably got close by accident while charging around. The source doesn't have to be right here."
Shane nodded, neither for nor against. With boar tracks everywhere, far-sight wasn't very useful. Splitting up made more sense.
They separated and searched in different directions.
The blackened forest seemed endless. Time moved strangely slowly in that place.
Shane wandered for most of the day. Aside from a few smaller monsters with the same edgy aggression, he found nothing.
Just as he kicked a pebble away in boredom, he heard Ultear's voice—faint and slightly distorted through layers of trees, but unmistakably urgent:
"Shane! Over here!"
Shane raised an eyebrow, a faintly amused feeling rising in his chest.
He had far-sight like a cheat code and still found nothing—yet Ultear, without any special eyes, hit the trail first.
"Guess finding things really is about fate sometimes," he muttered with a grin.
He darted toward her voice.
After pushing through a dense thorn thicket, he saw Ultear standing in front of a hidden cave entrance.
Hanging vines covered most of it; if you weren't looking carefully, you'd mistake it for an ordinary crack in the rock.
"It should be in there," Ultear said, pointing into the darkness.
They exchanged a look and didn't hesitate. One after the other, they slipped inside.
At first the tunnel was narrow and cramped, damp earth stinking in the air.
But as they went deeper, the passage widened. The ground leveled out.
And ahead, in the darkness, a strange glow began to shimmer.
"Looks like we're finally in the right place," Shane narrowed his eyes and quickened his pace.
When the last band of darkness fell away, both of them stopped without meaning to.
They'd entered a massive underground cavern—so vast the ceiling wasn't even fully sealed. A huge natural opening yawned overhead.
And at the very center stood a gigantic tree, towering up like it was trying to pierce the sky.
It wasn't like the dead black trees outside. It was breathtaking.
Thick iron chains wrapped around the trunk. A soft violet glow seeped from it—like flowing mist—spreading outward and tinting the whole area in a hazy blue-purple dreamlight.
Compared to the black, dying forest above, this felt like a different world entirely.
Beneath that tree, they were no bigger than ants.
"There's a place like this hidden in the Worth Woodsea?" Shane stared up at the canopy, purple light reflected in his eyes, clicking his tongue in amazement.
"Just from the look of it… yeah. This actually does deserve to be called 'Super Magic.'"