"The world map?"

Instinctively, Ronald opened the original text as soon as he got it.

There wasn't actually that much content inside—mainly several ancient maps, crudely drawn in an old style, with some interspersed written descriptions and related notes that showed what maps of that era looked like.

And every Spell those Nine Commandments Secret Society Casters had used before—

All came from the annotations on these pages.

Water Elementalization belonged to a section describing water fairies; the octopus-like sea monster was directly a marine beast recorded on the map. Because people's understanding of the world was limited at the time, content related to the ocean took up quite a large portion of the maps.

Ronald flipped through a few pages.

Then, making use of his universal language comprehension, he immediately obtained the usage permissions for this original text.

The Spells in it fit its "map" theme quite well.

To use the Spells of this grimoire, the condition to be met was that the holder had to personally survey the land and create their own maps. Depending on the type of map drawn, they could then activate the corresponding pages of the original, and thereby gain the related Spell abilities.

"That is kind of interesting…"

At a time like this, Ronald definitely didn't have the leisure to sit down and draw maps.

So he put the map grimoire away, turned his head, and looked toward where Costate was.

After this stretch of fighting and the tremors caused by the sea monster's fall, the maid had firmly seized the upper hand. With the battle now stabilized, it wouldn't take her more than a few minutes to completely defeat the enemy.

Nothing to worry about on that side.

Which meant the ones he had to deal with were the new enemies.

Confirming that Costate didn't need his attention, Ronald turned toward the exact center of the island and started moving in again.

When he made his move earlier, the commotion might have been too small to really set the enemy on edge.

But once that Nine Commandments Secret Society Caster used the sea-chart ability to turn into a giant sea monster, the noise from Ronald's clash with it could no longer be brushed aside. So at the location where the two grimoire holders had appeared, more enemies were now rushing up to the surface.

And because they'd realized how powerful the intruder was, the Nine Commandments Secret Society Casters hiding underground had basically come out in full force.

Aside from leaving just one person below—apparently focused on some kind of work—the other four grimoire holders moved together, all coming up to the surface, ready to take down the invading enemy.

Ronald was actually rather optimistic about that:

"One against four… should be about the same as one against three, right?"

While readying Spells to greet the enemy, Ronald was also running calculations in his head. Of all his clashes with the Nine Commandments, the most troublesome battle was definitely the one at the Rachimont Ruins.

That time, the Casters had come specifically for combat.

Their lineup and power were both top-tier, and they had indeed caused Ronald quite a bit of trouble.

But this time was different.

Ronald was the one launching a surprise attack, going after the Nine Commandments personnel sent to develop and guard the ruins. With the actual situation completely reversed, even if their numbers were one higher than last time, and even if they were elites all the same, the difficulty of the fight shouldn't increase by much.

With that in mind, the pitch-black Hell fog around Ronald surged upward all at once, spreading out across the island's ground.

By the time Ronald crossed that not-so-short distance and reached the entrance to the island ruins—

The Hellish black fog he had summoned had already built up into a sky-darkening, sun-blotting presence!

Large swathes of earth were seized by the power of Hell, and even the sky above was swallowed by the black shroud. Anyone standing here would be instantly plunged into a fear of the dark.

In the lightless, sunless environment—

Ronald stood still, quietly watching for the enemy to appear.

The four Nine Commandments Secret Society Casters he sensed emerged from the tunnel leading underground.

When they saw the sky and the ground around them, three of them all showed wary, tense expressions. Clearly, they had already realized that the entire battlefield had been turned into Ronald's own territory.

Among the four, only the Caster walking in front was different.

This middle-aged man, wearing a traditional Wizard's robe, didn't cast his gaze at the intimidating Hell fog around them. Instead, with unnerving sharpness, his eyes locked straight onto the enemy standing opposite him at the very first moment.

He recognized Ronald's identity immediately:

"So it's you…"

"The monster from another world."

Just from hearing that, Ronald was sure this man's status was definitely higher than that of the other Casters.

Because in the eyes of an ordinary Nine Commandments Secret Society Caster, Ronald was merely a powerful enemy; only those who'd reached a certain rank could gain access to the most confidential information—like the previous assessment of Ronald's identity: a monster from another world.

"Don't make it sound so nasty, will you?" Being called that, Ronald's tone naturally turned nasty as well. "At least in terms of being human, I'd say I'm doing a better job than you lot."

As he spoke, the Magic Fluctuation around Ronald began to manifest.

Power far beyond common sense, together with the overwhelming Hellish black fog, turned the environment into something stifling and terrifying. Just seeing this scene, the three grimoire holders standing behind the leader already realized they weren't his match, even instinctively taking a few steps back.

But the man at their head showed no sign of wavering.

Noticing his companions' reactions, he calmly gestured for them to focus on protecting themselves. Then, with no trace of fear on his face, the man walked straight toward Ronald:

"You lackey of tyranny!"

"I've long heard of your conspiracies and vile deeds in Springs!"

"I didn't expect that after getting a taste of success, you still refuse to repent. With the global order shifting and civilized society on the brink of disaster, you actually choose such a critical moment to attack men of justice like this. It is honestly sickening!"

"..."

"Huh?"

Ronald almost thought he'd misheard.

The Nine Commandments Secret Society Caster opposite him was speaking with such righteous indignation, it made it sound like Ronald was the villain here.

"You lunatics seriously think the path you're leading the world down is the right one? Are you really blind to the suffering that ordinary people are going through in your own countries?"

Ronald let out a furious, bitter laugh as he questioned him.

But the Nine Commandments Caster simply ignored Ronald's rebuttal.

He kept advancing as he shouted,

Not hiding his hostile intent in the slightest, and right in front of Ronald, he openly revealed the original text in his hand:

"Fool! We are guiding history onto the correct course, onto the road humanity ought to tread!"

"You evil monster that defies the proper way, be enlightened!"

"Here and now shall be your final resting place!"