Interlude: The Vice City
“Bazan! I found you!”
Her lovely red hair fluttering beneath her hooded black robe, the girl called out to the black-clad men who were running through the barren rocks.
“You again, Serena?”
Bazan told the other men with him to hurry on ahead and remained behind to face Serena.
Serena had noticed the oval-shaped cloth bundle that one of the men was carrying, but Bazan addressed her to stop her from intervening.
“What business do you have on Redsmoke Island? Didn’t the great sage put you in charge of Sherifardo State?”
They were indeed standing on Redsmoke Island, a volcanic island in the inlet sea of the western continent.
At the foot of the mountainous island was a criminal paradise known as Sibe, the vice city.
“I heard an unpleasant rumor.”
“…A rumor?”
As he echoed her words, Bazan slowly shifted his standing position.
“Yes. That you found the ‘Key.’”
“Heh-heh. I see. So one of his pupils put you in charge of the cleanup, eh?”
“So you really did get your hands on it, then…”
Serena could tell from Bazan’s tone and laughter that her fears had become reality.
“I swear on the name of our great teacher, Sorijeyro the Sage, that I will eliminate you.”
Serena drew the Magic Sword from her waist and held it in front of her like a staff.
Both of them were evidently students of Sorijeyro the Sage, a man who was being hotly discussed in Parion Province.
“Is that the fire Magic Sword Ganjero? What happened to the talisman techniques you love so much?”
“I’m not foolish enough to use such flashy magic right under the red dragon’s nose, even during his dormant season!”
The Magic Sword glowed red with Serena’s magic power, her red hair blowing in the resulting breeze like flames.
“Hmph, you coward. ”
“D-Destruction Magic? Are you out of your mind?!”
Serena swung her Magic Sword, shooting a fireball at Bazan to stop his chant.
There were several Firelight Pearls inlayed in Serena’s sword, allowing it to produce Fire Shots with the same principles as a Fire Rod.
But the Fire Shot scattered just before striking Bazan.
“Tch—a delay rune?!”
“ Ominous Ka!”
As Bazan finished his chant and spoke the invocation word, a maelstrom of destruction formed directly before Serena’s eyes.
“ Stack Tile Juukabefu!”
Serena produced several talismans from her pocket, which stacked on top of each other to create a wall, blocking the brunt of the Destruction Magic.
Still, it wasn’t enough to stop the spell completely. Serena was blown backward.
Even as she flew through the air, Serena unleashed another Fire Shot from her sword, but it disintegrated before reaching Bazan just like the first.
“How irritating. I suppose even Destruction Magic cannot pierce your talisman techniques with lesser spells…”
“Care to try intermediate spells, then? That would surely wake the red dragon from its slumber!”
“Heh-heh, it’s too late for that. The red dragon will awaken soon either way, no doubt.”
Bazan’s words confirmed Serena’s suspicions.
“So that cloth bundle really was…”
“If you realized that, why didn’t you give chase? It’ll be in Sibe by now.”
“You bastard! Do you realize what you’ve done?! If you invoke the red dragon’s wrath, a half-baked city with no city core of its own will be reduced to cinders in the blink of an eye!”
“So what? No one’s gonna mourn the loss of a den of criminals. In fact, I bet they’ll be clapping and cheering for the red dragon’s good deed.”
“Tch—”
Serena turned to run, only to find her path blocked by several monsters.
“Summoned beasts?!”
“Yep, I used the summoning spheres our dear master gave me.”
Cold sweat ran down Serena’s brow.
If she took too long getting rid of the monsters, Bazan would blast her with Destruction Magic from behind.
And it would be an intermediate spell capable of dealing a fatal wound, too.
“What the—?!”
The monsters went back into their spheres, and a bloodied, black-clad body was thrown down between Bazan and Serena.
It was one of the men who was working with Bazan.
“Kamusim!”
Serena’s face lit up.
The young man she called Kamusim glared at Bazan with an icy look to his handsome face.
“The rumors were true! Please, help me! Together we can stop Bazan!”
Without answering Serena, Kamusim readied his staff and spoke to Bazan coldly.
“Have you forgotten the sage’s teachings, Bazan?”
“Why should I worry myself about the words of some stupid monkey?”
“Sacrifices and cruelty can be necessary, yes. But only if they are the most effective means to achieve one’s goal.”
“That only applies to people who contribute to society. It doesn’t matter if a nest of thieves and pirates gets destroyed.”
“Bazan, don’t get your goal confused with the means of reaching it.”
“Kamusim…?”
Sensing something strange about the pair’s conversation, Serena called out to her fellow student.
“Serena, take the front line. I’ll start my chant while you hold him off.”
“Got it! I’ll make sure Bazan can’t finish any chants. You use Ice Magic to restrain him, please!”
Serena ran toward Bazan with flames forming around her Magic Sword.
“You fool. Bash Yaburu!”
“ Tile Kabefu!”
Sneering despite being outnumbered, Bazan used his fastest Destruction Magic spell to force Serena to use a talisman technique, slowing her approach.
“… the chant is done. Move, Serena.”
“Got it! Fall Slip Rousoufu!”
Serena threw a talisman into the air, stopping Bazan in his tracks as she quickly retreated.
“…Damned fools!”
Unable to finish his chant in time, Bazan stopped and activated a magic device hidden in his cloak, protecting himself with a barrier.
“Freeze over all before me—”
The temperature suddenly dropped to extreme cold, creating diamond dust as Kamusim’s staff drew a white arc in the air.
“—Cocytus.”
Kamusim’s staff unleashed a highly advanced Ice Attack spell.
It created an icy hellscape, the torrent of extreme cold freezing the earth and even crystallizing the air itself.
Serena turned to watch the final moments of her former friend.
But Bazan was standing there utterly unharmed.
“Why—?”
The answer came in the form of icy hell that washed over her from the side.
Serena was swallowed up in an instant, like a candle before an avalanche.
“If only she were a little more flexible, she wouldn’t have had to die so young…”
“No, Serena has the Safety Hibernation skill the Holy Woman gave her. It’s a Unique Skill that can heal even fatal wounds by sleeping. She won’t die that easily.”
“Should we dig her up and cut her head off, then?”
“No, there’s no time right now.”
“GYZABBBBSZZZZZZZZ.”
As if to prove Kamusim’s words, a wrathful howl echoed from the peak.
“I guess the red dragon’s awake.”
“Sounds like it. Let’s get out of here before it comes to take its egg back.”
“Yes, we’d better.”
“This way. I hid a high-speed magi ship in the cove over there.”
It was in the opposite direction from the vice city of Sibe.
“Did you plan to sacrifice those men from the start?”
“They’re just hired hands. Needed someone to distract the red dragon… Got a problem with that?”
Kamusim didn’t answer. He activated a stealth skill and started sprinting toward the cove containing the high-speed magi ship.
Bazan shrugged, then used the same skill and followed him.
“GYZABBBBSZZZZZZZZ.”
The dragon emerged from the volcanic crater and unleashed a howl toward the heavens.
The volcanic ash that had burned out long ago burst into flame and rose into the sky, creating the smoke that gave Redsmoke Island its name.
At the base of the mountain, the pirate ships and other vessels anchored in the vice city of Sibe began preparing to set sail all at once, while the people who lived in the city jostled and shoved each other as they fled to the underground shelters.
Many of the low-income residents who couldn’t get into the shelters began to riot with desperation or despair, while others pressed against each other and trembled in dilapidated houses that looked like a breeze could knock them over.
“GZRURURURU.”
The dragon flared its nostrils, tracking the people with its own scent to the settlement at the foot of the mountain.
Its eyes burned with rage as it drew in a deep breath.
As it inhaled deeper, red lights danced around its jaw like fireflies.
“GYZABBBBSZZZZZZZZ.”
With a howl, the “Dragon Breath” poured across the ground and into the sturdy castle walls.
The walls were blasted away in seconds, and the flames licked through the city, burning the castle itself to a crisp as they blazed onward.
The black-clad men on the pirate ship desperately piled defense magic on top of the barriers of the ship, but it only delayed their deaths by a matter of seconds.
The ship went up in flames, and the heat from the evaporated seawater burst against the ship and the shore alike, the flames and impact reducing everything to charred rubble.
It was a terrible sight to witness.
“Like destruction incarnate…”
Standing on a rocky wall, a bald man known as the former Phantom Thief Pippin gazed up at the dragon standing atop the volcanic crater.
Watching the sky where the high-speed magi ship had taken off, the dragon spread its wings.
Evidently the red dragon wasn’t as foolish as the villains had assumed.
“I only came to investigate whether this place would cause any trouble for our trade or branch stores… I never expected the place to get burned to cinders.”
Pippin looked down grimly at the final moments of the vice city Sibe.
“…Nngh…”
A voice rose from beneath the ice and snow at his feet.
“I’m amazed anyone could survive advanced attack magic like that.”
Marveling that the world was full of surprises, Pippin hopped down with Short-Range Teleportation.
“You’re a pretty lady, but you could use a bit more meat on your bones.”
Pippin dug out the lovely Serena from the snow and put a magic potion to her lips.
A flush of color began to return to her deathly pale face.
“Better get you warmed up for now.”
Pippin picked Serena up and carried her away from the icy snow.
“Looks like I stuck my nose into trouble again…”
He removed Serena’s soaked outerwear and wrapped her in a blanket from his Magic Bag.
“I better get back to the branch office team leader so I can talk to Lord Kuro about this… Guess I should see if there are any lives left to save first, though.”
Still muttering to himself, Pippin left Serena with the blanket and walked toward the burning remains of the vice city Sibe.
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