Eighty-Third Chapter
Unwelcome Pick-up and Drop-off
It was the day after Berwick’s call, which had left a bad taste in Alus’s mouth. Even though it was an urgent matter, there was no word from Vizaist. Alus knew from past experience that he’d be contacted in a few hours at most.
And since when dealing with the escaped convicts hiding in the nation, the faster the better, Alus knew that the silence meant even Vizaist couldn’t find out where they were hiding.
The more he thought about it, the more bitterness welled up within him. Just what kind of twisted fate was responsible for the mission of eliminating the worst of the worst escaped convicts falling to him, a Single Digit Magicmaster?
But with no message regarding the details coming his way, nothing could come from fretting about it. Wanting to use his time effectively, Alus decided to improve the Fire Ikazuchi’s magic formula. But as he was running through the vast notes on magic formulas, his eyes opened wide and he got up from his chair.
“Loki, get ready.” Alus was abrupt, but Loki didn’t miss a beat.
Her preparations were already finished. Loki and Alus had already memorized the list of names of prisoners, as well as erasing all of the top secret material. Alus had even donned his disguise, with only the mask left to put on. But for some reason, Alus took just his AWR and moved over to the window.
“You standby for a while,” he said.
Loki’s eyes opened wide in confused surprise. Alus had promised to always allow Loki to accompany him on his missions unless some circumstances didn’t permit it.
“I’m not trying to leave you behind. I just want you to see me off for a moment,” he explained.
Loki narrowed her eyes at the meaningful reply and joined Alus to look out the window. She saw a luxury magic car coming to a stop beneath the laboratory. It was the kind of car used to escort dignitaries, something rare at the academy. It was armored enough to withstand any impact and had doors more than twenty centimeters thick. The magic car was also fully equipped with all kinds of functions.
Eventually a group of four men and women in suits and sunglasses stepped out. They were well groomed and their clothes free of wrinkles, the very picture of professional bodyguards, with no openings in their movements.
They’re carrying concealed AWRs, thought Alus.
Even from Alus’s point of view, they were first-rate bodyguards, but he narrowed his eyes further.
“That’s quite the VIP treatment, even if it happened to be the Governor-General. Talk about a waste of taxpayer money,” he said.
“I think that’s how it’s supposed to be,” said Loki.
As Alus and Loki spoke, the group of four moved. Three of them lined up in front of the door, while the last entered the building. From the looks of it, they weren’t the Governor-General’s bodyguards escorting him here to see Alus but guards sent to fetch Alus himself.
One of the three by the car looked up at the window on the top floor, where Alus was. He could see their emotionless eyes through the light-colored sunglasses. He didn’t know if they were soldiers or not, but he could sense a quiet and strong will, faithful to their duty.
“What might they be here for?” asked Loki.
“Who knows. It’s probably some of Berwick’s unwanted attention,” said Alus.
“You jest,” Loki said lightheartedly.
Before long, the intercom rang.
Alus wasn’t some nobleman, and he wasn’t a fan of anything too extravagant. So just having someone so gloomy and stiff coming to his place was uninteresting to him. Looking at the monitor, Alus saw a tall, slightly skinny man on the other side of the screen. For just a moment, he removed his sunglasses and gave a light bow.
“We have come to get you,” he said politely.
With a sigh, Alus turned his head and opened the door, his AWR still hanging by his waist. “Good work. Then let’s go.”
After giving Loki a quick look, he left her behind and walked off with the man. The man’s leather shoes clacked as he walked down the stairs. His steps were strangely orderly, and in spite of his height, they were surprisingly soft and light.
“This kind of thing must be demanding for you too. Is this by the Governor-General’s instructions? Or Lord Vizaist’s kindness?” Alus casually began.
The man glanced over, smiled, and said after a moment, “It is the Governor-General’s consideration. Naturally, we will take the utmost precautions and guarantee a safe journey.”
“Well, thanks.”
Since it was still morning, they didn’t pass anyone on their way. Once they reached the entrance, the remaining three lowered their heads at the same time in a smooth and flowing motion.
The back of the car was spacious, with seats facing each other. Considering the extravagant leather seats and the heavy impact-resistance armor, chartering a car like this must have been an expensive venture.
As soon as he was ushered into the car, a man and a woman sat down on either side of Alus, with the man who’d guided him sitting on the opposite side. The last person to get in was a woman with long hair, who sat down at the driver’s seat after putting on white gloves.
Alus removed the AWR from his waist and placed it next to him before leaning back against the seat. As he put his weight against it, he could feel the softness of the specially made cushion against his back.
With that, the car drove off. In no time at all, they were out of the Institute and headed in a straight course where the Tower of Babel rose in the distance. The magic car gradually picked up speed as the Institute and surrounding city were left behind.
Thanks to the establishment of Circle Ports, there were few people on the road. Suddenly, the woman driving the car reached out to manipulate a virtual screen with one of her hands. With an affirmative beep that indicated that something had completed, the screen disappeared. At the same time, the interior became dimmer. The morning light slipped in from the tops of the obscured windows. Shadows cast by the trees flickered inside of the car as they sped by them.
“By the way, what’s the destination? The military headquarters?” asked Alus.
“We have only been told to bring you to the designated point,” the man in front of Alus answered with a fake smile pasted on his emotionless face.
Suddenly, the mana engine let out a scream as the car suddenly braked. The man’s smile disappeared. In contrast, Alus looked at the man with a relaxed, albeit slightly exasperated manner.
“We’re almost at the outskirts of the city. Couldn’t you be a little more patient?” Alus asked, and there was a flash of silver on either side of him.
The man and woman on either side of him swung their arms in a semicircle and fired a knife towards his face. Alus grabbed both by the wrist and twisted his hands. While racked with pain from their twisted wrists, the two would-be assassins floated up.
Still, they were within a car. They propped themselves up by thrusting their free hands at the roof and added force to try to push their knives further in.
Sensing that, Alus quickly spun, dodging the man on the left’s knife, and snapping the wrist of the short-haired woman on the right. She dropped her knife, and the man stabbed the headrest. In that opening, Alus pulled on the woman’s arm. Using the momentum, he shifted his center of gravity and slipped out of the situation.
Alus bent his right index finger, and Night Mist wildly jumped up. It spun in the air, and once it leaped out of its sheath, the black blade mercilessly pierced the back of the young man who’d attacked him. Blood splattered, dyeing the roof red. Meanwhile, the man seated opposite Alus pulled out an AWR and thrust it at him.
Suddenly, a long needle shot out from its tip. Alus sensed the surprise attack, and kicked the man’s arm up. Just then, Night Mist brought the body of the young man, which it was still stabbed through, over to Alus like a well-trained hunting dog. Grabbing him by the collar, Alus threw him at the man as a makeshift wall, blocking any follow-up attacks.
Alus glanced over at the rear-view mirror, meeting the eyes of the driver. From the movements of her eyes, and how she was holding the gas pedal down, Alus could see what was going on. The needle attack of the man who’d had his arm kicked up was just a decoy, as he’d already finished preparing his spell.
Alus clicked his tongue in his mind and curled up. He felt a presence from the sky...
A huge stake-shaped rock suddenly pierced the ground in front of the magic car, causing a high-speed crash. The rock stake dug into the front of the car, and the powerful impact shook the car.
Even through all that, Alus remained vigilant of his enemies. While supporting his body through the chaos, he predicted what his opponents would do next.
The impact with the rock stake lifted the back of the car as the front bumper drove into the ground. The doors on either side blew open, and the man and two women, driver included, jumped out, leaving only Alus and the man who’d been stabbed through the back inside.
Having braced for impact, Alus’s reaction was delayed.
Some magic must have been used as the car was lifted up the moment the sound of it breaking rang out. The armored car’s relatively soft undercarriage was completely exposed as it stood upright. As it was the part where the defense was thinnest, compressed magic was fired at it. The tremendous energy caused an explosion that easily tossed the magic car up, engulfing the area in blinding white light.
Standing on a slightly elevated part of the roadside was a new figure, a man with a hawklike stare. He vigilantly watched the explosion, then quietly poured strength into his arm again. He held a massive bow in his hands. It had a light glow from the remnants of a recently used magic formula.
“The first arrow was straight on the mark. But just in case,” the man muttered and nocked a second arrow.
His back muscles bulged and his chest rose as the bow creaked when its string was pulled back. The magic formula on the bow’s surface began glowing faintly once more. The string began to quiver as the bow and arrow were imbued with mana.
As the light of mana reached the arrowhead, a complex geometric pattern appeared on the arrow, as did feathers made from magic.
Once he was ready to loose, the air around the man froze... In the next moment, he let go with his fingers. The arrow soared, covered in white light as if it had been set on fire by friction. It was reminiscent of a shooting star. It seemed to be sucked into the undercarriage of the overturned magic car, carving out a huge hole.
A moment later, the edges of the hole seemed to melt when the magic car suddenly exploded into flames. A roar shook the air as black smoke rose from the flames.
Aside from the one who’d lost his life and the target, every one of his allies had fortunately escaped, but the archer himself didn’t care if they lived or not.
“That makes one... How simple,” the man muttered plainly. His magic arrows allowed him to kill from vast distances, so there was no way that he was going to miss from a mere hundred meters.
If he’d had a long-distance viewing spell cast on his eyes, he would have noticed immediately if the target had left the car. However—
“You should have hid your mana until the last moment,” Alus said.
Before the man could even turn around, he felt someone’s hand reach for his chin. He could hear the sickening sound of his own neck twisting and breaking, but only for a moment. As the bones in his neck were forced beyond their range of motion, he let out a last gasp and fell to his knees. The man’s expression of disbelief remained on his face until his death.
“As long as I know that I’m being seen, I can guess what’ll come next. You saved me the trouble of having to look for the archer.”
Alus had thrown up a barrier in preparation for a long-range attack. And in the intense heat and light, Alus had a number of ways to escape any watchful eyes. He couldn’t identify the man who’d died with the anguished look, but since he’d caught him red-handed, Alus didn’t anticipate a problem.
Well, I imagine he’s some hit man from the underworld. It seemed like he had a fair number of kills under his belt, so I wonder if he’s related to those escaped prisoners, Alus thought.
His way of using magic with the bow had been quite ingenious. The formula was similar to Alice’s Sirislate, but the intense heat ray didn’t lose power over distance, seemingly having the power to pierce anything in its line of fire with the same amount of power as from its point of origin. By firing a real arrow with the magic imbued in it, the man had been able to make up for the decay of mana.
“Now then.” Alus cracked his knuckles, looking over the area around the blown-up magic car.
Oh? To think they still haven’t run away. They must be very zealous in their duties, he thought.
Fastening his AWR to his waist again, Alus bent down. The feeling from killing with his bare hands for the first time in a while scraped away at his psyche.
The attackers who had escaped the magic car spread out, still out for Alus’s life. Judging by how the one on the left was nursing an injury to the wrist, Alus knew that must be the short-haired woman. In front of him was the remaining man, and to the right was the long-haired woman.
Lowering his posture, Alus ran like the wind. By the time he’d closed the distance, Alus had already decided on a hunting plan. Night Mist silently slid out of its sheath, attacking the enemies to the left and center. The speed kept the short-haired woman and man in check, as Alus himself pressed close to the long-haired woman, who he’d judged to be the weakest.
It was a fierce assault, mixing in feints by stepping to the left and right. The woman was only able to react reflexively to his extremely rapid movements, and she lost her balance in the process. She pulled out a thirty-centimeter-long dagger she’d kept hidden and tried to intercept him.
Alus dodged the dagger, and in passing, he put his palm on her elbow. That alone was enough to instantly freeze everything from her elbow and down. The end of her arm, which had turned into an ice sculpture, cracked and fell off.
However, the woman was seemingly unfazed, pulling back her leg and flashing a blade on the heel of her shoe. She spun around, launching a roundhouse kick at Alus’s neck. The woman felt the sensation of her blade digging into flesh, and smiled, sure she’d gotten him.
In the next moment, her eyes shot wide open in astonishment. Her blade had run into the neck of her ally, the remaining man.
She felt that was impossible. After all, he’d only just jumped away from Night Mist’s preemptive attack some distance away. But the sight in front of her was reality. The man was just as surprised as the woman, unable to voice anything but a groan before gurgling blood and collapsing. Past the man’s shoulder, the woman could see Alus in the same place where the man had been, as if they’d traded places.
Now, despite the long-haired woman freezing out of surprise, Alus ignored her to go for the short-haired woman. Even if she tried to warn her last ally, it wouldn’t be in time. The short-haired woman had a confused expression on her face as she was grabbed by the head and slammed into the ground with all of her weight behind it. There was a heavy and blunt sound, and the woman lost consciousness and didn’t move any more.
“Who the hell is this guy...? I didn’t hear about this!” The remaining woman spat out and turned around. She took a step to make her escape at full speed.
However, in the blink of an eye her vision spun as she was knocked to the ground. Before she knew it, there was a chain wrapped around her ankle. Alus pulled on the chain extending from Night Mist, drawing the woman closer. She reached out to the fallen man to resist, but with a pull from Alus she was ripped away from him.
She continued to resist, raising her body and looking directly into the eyes of the Magicmaster who had been her target. Alus’s eyes were devoid of emotion, and they frightened even this woman, who’d killed many people without a care.
Now as she realized her target was a cold and mighty hunter, the fear of him reeling her in made her struggle in panic. She dug into the ground with her nails, but the pull of the chain tore them off. She pulled at the chain, but that wouldn’t free her.
Her bloodshot eyes suddenly stopped on the nearby fallen dagger next to the frozen arm. She struggled and reached out with her hand, picking up the weapon. But having lost all reason from fear, she turned it towards her own chained-up ankle rather than at Alus.
Even if she did cut off her own ankle, her situation wouldn’t change. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to escape from Alus.
Her first stab pierced deep into her ankle, and she screamed out in pain. The second stab was unexpectedly shallow, with only the tip going in. By the third, she could no longer swing down, and she had been pulled all the way over to Alus.
Her long hair was dirty with mud, and she looked miserably up at Alus. Pointing the dagger towards Alus was all she could manage, so she shouldn’t have bothered thinking about cutting her leg off in the beginning.
Alus quietly spoke to the woman who was bereft of any reason. “Tsk, what an awful face. Well, I’m not really good at torturing, and even I’d feel daunted tormenting a woman in the middle of the day. You’ll have to give up on your arm, but if you want to survive...you know what you have to do, don’t you?”
However, the woman shook her head, face pale. Maybe it was a code or resolve, or perhaps she’d already been cornered to the point of being unable to make the decision to have her life spared.
Next, she appeared to open her mouth, but followed by biting down hard. With a gulp, she swallowed something.
Poison?!
At first, Alus thought the woman had chosen to take her life, but the unexpected effects of the drugs became apparent immediately. Her body shook back and forth in small movements, and blood trickled from the edge of her mouth.
Eventually she swung her long hair up and raised her head to look at Alus. Her pupils were contracted, similar to that of a cat’s. It was a change that deserved to be called a mutation.
Next, the blood vessels on the back of her hand swelled. And of all things, she stood up with her injured leg and attacked Alus with frightening strength. Just a moment ago, she had been dispirited and pale. Now her body was overflowing with mana, giving off the air of a wild beast.
It almost seemed like her soul or spirit was running rampant.
Alus pulled on the chain still wrapped around the leg, but rather than being pulled down, she raised her other leg and stomped on the chain. The impact ripped the skin off the leg and Alus heard the sound of her ankle bones breaking. The woman showed no concern for her bleeding ankle, glaring straight at Alus with beastly eyes.
Yet Alus didn’t show any particular concern either. She was displaying extraordinary strength, but the chain was still attached, so Alus was ultimately in control of her movements. Her dagger wouldn’t reach him.
Alus calmly observed the woman, wondering what he would learn from her.
Suddenly, her head snapped back as if it had bounced off something. There was a small burst of sound, and blood splattered on Alus’s cheek and neck. A faint sensation of mana residue drifted in on the wind from far away. Whatever had come flying had gone cleanly through one temple and out the other.
The woman collapsed on the spot, blood pouring from the holes in her head. It was clear to anyone that she’d died instantly.
Alus immediately read the trajectory of the attack and tried to find where it had come from. However, he found it difficult to get a grasp of the sniper’s location, so it seemed to have been from very far away. Even so, he squinted and was able to see the faintest hint of a person moving.
So they came from toys as a form of nostalgia, he thought.
Alus suddenly recalled that his class had had a shooting stall for the campus festival that had used air guns that were getting popular in Clevideet. In the modern society where even non-Magicmasters could use everyday magic, guns were a relic of the past. Even the security forces only had a limited number of them. And since they didn’t work against Fiends, no first-rate Magicmaster would choose to use one.
Were they worried I was going to get information from this woman? Alus looked down at the long-haired woman with blood and brain matter scattered around her and sighed.
But there was still the short-haired woman he’d slammed into the ground that he could question. As he turned around to secure her—“Sir Alus...!”—his dependable silver-haired partner appeared.
“So it is just as I thought,” Loki muttered looking at the scene before her. Her body was covered by a cloak, and in her hand was Ulhava’s mask. Alus had asked her to bring it.
“Yeah, just as expected. Seems they were after me,” Alus confirmed.
“So are they some of those escaped prisoners?” asked Loki. “Perhaps they suspected you would stand in their way if they tried anything in Alpha.”
“It’d be strange for it to be someone related to Kurama after all this time,” said Alus. “Moreover, it’s just after we spoke with Berwick, so it’s probably those escaped prisoners. Unfortunately, I never got her name. Their looks don’t match the appearance of anyone we know of either... Still, I don’t remember doing anything for them to hold a grudge against me about.”
Of course, Alus couldn’t remember the details of each and everyone he’d ever dealt with. There was Nox, whom he had a connection to, but she was already dead. But now it made sense that Berwick had told him to hide his face. It seemed he’d become quite well-known in the underworld.
“It’s getting really bothersome. Nothing good ever comes from moving without hearing from Lord Vizaist,” Alus bitterly complained, reminiscing about the past.
“Don’t worry. That’s why we have this,” Loki said with a smile, holding up the mask. But that only made Alus more depressed.
“Cut it out, that’s not comforting in any way.”
Pulling himself together, Alus headed for the surviving short-haired woman. Once he reached her, he grabbed her by the collar as if to tell her to wake up. But he didn’t lift her up because the moment he grabbed her, blood from her hair dripped to the ground. This woman had been shot through the head by the mysterious sniper as well.
Alus hadn’t even heard the second shot. They must have fired twice when disposing of the long-haired woman, finishing the other one off as well.
“Tsk, they’re thorough.” Alus clicked his tongue in annoyance, but he had to acknowledge their skill. The long-haired woman was one thing, but accurately hitting the woman on the ground must have been extremely difficult.
Judging by this sniper and the previous archer, it seems they have some skilled people working for them. Their looks don’t match the appearance of anyone at Trojan Prison.
Loki saw Alus’s displeased sour look and called out to him.
“Is something the matter? It was quite a battle, so I’m sure that somebody will come along shortly,” she said.
“I’ve already received an invitation,” Alus said after a moment. “I’m interested in seeing what kind of a force the enemy has, so I think I’ll prod them a little. We’re giving chase.”
“Okay.” Loki answered with resolve and passed the mask to Alus. But instead of putting it on, he put it away. It was in the middle of the day, and unless something happened he’d like to avoid wearing it.
With that, the two of them took off.
The problem at hand was the mysterious sniper, who was still just within Alus’s range of detection. If Alus tried to leave, they pursued. If he tried to close in, they ran. Alus wasn’t a big fan of this game of cat and mouse, so he decided to turn the table and corner this cunning enemy.
Alus and Loki started running, becoming one with the wind. They were faster than any magic car, but they kept a watchful eye on their surroundings.
“There’s still no contact from Lord Vizaist. We’ll see if we can get them to give themselves away, but we’re not chasing too far, got it?” Alus continued after Loki nodded. “I think you already know, but they’re pretty good. If it comes down to it, don’t hesitate.”
“Understood.” Loki nodded once more with a serious expression.
She could still remember her bitter defeat against the red-haired snow man they had encountered in Vanalis and her inability to do anything against him. She would never repeat that blunder. As Alus had shown when he’d decapitated the snow man, if pressed for it, the ability to make a decision and carry it out was everything. At the same time, she felt like she had seen the face Alus made during his work behind the scenes. The judgment of what was good and evil was unnecessary in a true battle to the death.
But there was something that bothered Loki about that moment of decision that would surely come one day. While pursuing escaped prisoners might not be the time to have this conversation, Loki couldn’t help but ask Alus a question. “Sir Alus. If one of the enemies is cornered and begs for their life, what should I do?”
Alus curtly answered. “If that happens, you will have to believe in yourself. There’s no need for you to do things my way. But typically, the people we’re going to run into are hopeless scum.” He quietly added, eyes still looking forward, “There are extremely few exceptions to that. Some will grovel before you to create an opening.”
It wasn’t so much advice meant for Loki as it was his own experience telling himself.
“Then are there times when you have not killed the enemy?” Loki asked.
“Yeah, there have been some who have surrendered without resisting. What do you think happened to them afterwards?” asked Alus.
“Redeemed by Sir Alus’s mercy, they started living a righteous life?” Loki asked, furrowing her brows.
“No. One guy escaped and killed several pursuers when I took my eyes off of him. Once I was ordered to eliminate someone I once spared several years before. In the end, they’d gone back to their wicked ways and killed people. In that sense, there’s not a single person who started living a righteous life. In the best case, you can just neutralize them.”
There was a resigned silence from Alus after that. The rate of recidivism of magic-related crimes was overwhelmingly high. The power to overwhelm others just changed people.
“There’s no saving foolishness in particular. We’re not gods,” he finally said.
“I understand,” said Loki.
“Just imagine that all of the targets that come to us via Lord Vizaist are like that.”
This was the perfect example. As soon as the escaped convicts had made an attempt on Alus’s life, it was clear as day they couldn’t just live out their lives peacefully in the Inner World. They were wild beasts that would never get along with society. If left be, their powers would no doubt allow them to leave a mountain of bodies in their wake.
“That aside, it seems this gun user is quite shrewd,” said Alus.
Loki had probably noticed as well: Despite sensing Alus’s pursuit, they showed no signs of shooting back in panic or stopping to fight. Moreover, they were faster than Alus had anticipated, as it seemed like he would be unable to catch up even when running at full speed.
Alus had given chase to put an end to the cat-and-mouse game, but it seemed the other party didn’t care, which meant only the speed of the game would change. The chase continued for ten, twenty minutes and longer. The shooter maintained their distance while continuing moving as if luring Alus and Loki in.
“This is getting us nowhere,” said Alus.
“What should we do? Should I drown them in my mana sonar to sort of pressure them?” asked Loki.
“No, it might be effective against Fiends, but against someone of this caliber it might work against us. They could read and remember your mana and use it against us.”
Meanwhile, Alus’s field of view ability had no danger of being detected. It wasn’t as accurate as Loki’s, but its properties were well suited for this situation.
The sky gradually began to change from a beautiful blue to a dusky twilight color. At this time of year, it didn’t take long for night to set.
The chase continued for a while longer, and eventually they had left the middle district. Their surroundings had changed quite dramatically. They were now in a remote area, far from any city, where there were no signs of people. Alus looked like he was about to lose his temper when something finally happened.
Alus and Loki both suddenly checked ahead of them. Something suddenly came flying at high speeds, aimed between the two of them. Alus immediately recognized that it was a magic bullet being camouflaged and concealed by a weak mana, and he told Loki as much.
Alus and Loki jumped to the left and right to dodge it, but of all things, the bullet came to a stop between them. It was an impossible feat for a normal bullet.
The bullet froze in the air and began rotating before it burst. A strange wave of mana spread over 300 meters, washing over Alus and Loki as well, before dispersing and disappearing.
“It wasn’t an attack. They spread out a special barrier through the mana. That said, I can’t tell what the purpose was,” said Alus.
When fighting Rayleigh, he had used an anti-magic barrier, but this seemed to function on a different principle. But because it wasn’t as powerful, it covered a large range.
Suddenly realizing something, Alus pulled out his license and tried using it. “As I thought, it doesn’t work.”
The barrier was creating a disturbance that interfered with the circuitry of magical devices. And since it was disrupting information, including the mana in the air, it was affecting Alus’s field of view as well.
“I see, so rather than nullifying magic, it uses the transformative effect of mana. It completely destroys detection magic, so it’s surprisingly troublesome. To think that Millimore Mazain would be made practical,” said Alus.
Several kinds of spells to nullify magic had been researched as a way to fight against it. That, of course, included the method Alus occasionally used of interfering with the magic formula directly and preventing it from manifesting, which was a rather forceful method and often only worked on those below him.
In comparison, Millimore Mazain wasn’t a legitimate spell that used a magic formula but rather used the more heretical approach of using the transformative effect of mana. But because it worked on such a special theory, not even Alus had managed to make it practical yet, so if the enemy had made the theory practical and realized it with the magic bullet, then they had surpassed Alus in that respect.
And that meant this was truly someone they couldn’t let their guard down around. Even if the enemy didn’t know about Alus’s field of view, they had still figured out that he and Loki were using some sort of detection method, and they’d used the bullet to conceal themselves.
Still, Alus and Loki couldn’t figure out the reason they had chosen to hide after all this time. Then, several more dome-shaped barriers spread out before Alus and Loki, causing them to furrow their brow.
“Not again! This time it’s...ten, no...almost twenty?!” Loki exclaimed, looking pale.
“We’re going to completely lose them at this rate. This’ll be a little forceful, but we need to eliminate this guy right now,” said Alus.
Since it wasn’t a direct attack using magic, it was harder to deal with, thought Alus.
If the spell was used against the military headquarters, it would shut down all systems. The headquarters, of course, had means in place to prevent interference, but against this unexpected method and these numbers, the defense was far from perfect. It would definitely have some impact. It would be too big of a blow against the military, whose first priority was to protect the nation from the threats of the Outer World.
Having decided to not pursue but to eliminate the enemy without fail, Alus racked his brain. I guess it decided to not pursue, thought Alus.
Blending in with the darkness, Alus put on his mask, and Loki pulled a hood over her head and face. As they rapidly accelerated, Alus told Loki the plan: He only needed to locate and stop the enemy for a moment. In that moment, Loki would use Force to take off and cut the enemy off.
Alus ran between the trees. Before long, a wide-open area stretched out beyond him. As soon as he was in a place where he could see, he would take off.
A flash of light burst around him as he poured mana into the chain in his right hand. Just before the swelling mana began to construct a magic formula, he left the trees and his view opened up. He saw it...
“A trap! Just as I thought!”
A suspicious group had somehow appeared next to Alus. Because of the interfering barriers, the encounter had come as a surprise, even to Alus. Like him, the group members were covering their bodies in cloaks.
In the spur of the moment, Alus slashed Night Mist at the front of the rapidly approaching group. Sensing his intent, the front of the group countered. They rapidly closed in on him, as though they had planned it all out ahead of time.
There was a heavy metallic sound, and sparks flew; their weapons repelled each other. Alus and the opponent pushed each other away.
Looking at his opponents, Alus found them surprisingly few. The mysterious group of six slowed down and assumed a triangle formation with the small figure making up the front point.
More escaped prisoners? Alus strained his eyes in the dim light.
The delicate chin of the small figure peeked out beneath the hood of their cloak. Now that they had slowed down, their wisteria-colored hair tied on either side had swayed to the sides. And in their hand was...
An umbrella? Is that what they used to repel Night Mist, Alus wondered. The response and texture suggested that it was an AWR, but what a strange choice for a weapon.
“Tsk, it’s not even the gun user. I don’t have the time to deal with small fry, but—”
Before Alus could finish, the small figure stamped their foot and leaped forward, closing in on Alus in an instant and swinging down their umbrella without hesitation. Alus dodged, but realized he’d have to stay on guard, whether he liked it or not, when he saw the ground burst open. The umbrella looked frail, but there was no doubt tremendous mana behind it.
Counterattacking without a moment’s reprieve, Alus pulled on the chain and formed a mana blade, further infusing it with Lightning Blade. He slashed sideways without emotion, but it was repelled by the spinning umbrella. Even the follow-up lightning was swept away, scattering and disappearing into the surrounding area.
So they can repel spells with just mana, he thought. It was a brute-force move that Alus used from time to time as well, but it couldn’t be done without quite a lot of mana.
Sensing that, Alus threw Night Mist and deployed Oboro Hien overhead. In an instant, dozens of mana blades modeled after Night Mist were fired. As the opponent dodged Night Mist with a backflip, Oboro Hien rained down to finish them off.
After quickly removing its clasp, they opened the umbrella. A powerful barrier was deployed, blocking the Oboro Hien. A great many blades crashed against the barrier, making it sound like rain was pouring down.
A few seconds later, the surrounding area was silent once again, and from what Alus could see, the opponent was unharmed. They stood with a fearless posture.
“Oh? Interesting,” Alus said, mana pouring out of his body. The amount and intensity could fill up the forest. It was enough that just glancing at it would leave a typical Magicmaster shocked.
Seeing Alus like that, Loki no longer intended to hinder him, deciding to leave it up to him. Meanwhile, the small figure raised a hand to stop their five allies, whose bloodlust showed plainly. Then as if to compete with him, the small figure let out a vast amount of mana too. Like Alus, it was an aberrant amount of mana.
The gust of wind created by that made the figure’s cloak flutter, exposing the wisteria-colored hair tied on either side.
A woman? And her cloak fluttering...? Alus was surprised.
Sensing that the interfering barrier had weakened from his own and the opponent’s mana, Alus whispered to his partner, “Loki, now! Use your detection to cast a net.”
“Okay.” Loki immediately replied and used her mana sonar in an attempt to mark the escaping shooter. However, it was all for naught. Something interfered with her mana and sealed it before she could fully unleash it.
Alus said nothing, but he moved his eyes from the girl with the umbrella to a tall, slender figure holding a finger up to their lips. Based on their glossy lips, white slender fingers, and rich curves visible even through their cloak, it all suggested that she was a woman.
So she can interfere with the normally unrecognizable realm of mana, she’s a pain in the ass too...huh?! thought Alus.
By the time he realized he’d lost the initiative, there were three layers of translucent rings around him. As the woman with the umbrella poured mana into it, the restraining rings closed in. It was no doubt restraining magic, but it seemed to be based on barrier magic.
However, Alus didn’t panic as he lightly slashed Night Mist at the rings. If he assumed that it was the same barrier that blocked Oboro Hien, he could estimate its strength. The blade of his sword formed a different blade from the previous mana blade. It cut through the target, space and all.
Space was displaced by his Dimension Thrust, and the remains of the three rings were extinguished as space repaired itself. But he’d only bought himself a moment’s reprieve. As soon as the rings were gone, a rectangular barrier appeared and surrounded Alus, as if to box him in.
It was likely the girl with the umbrella again. Next, the box-formed barrier began to shrink. She was probably not just trying to restrain him but to also use the air compressed by the barrier. Who knew how far a human being could be compressed, but at the very least once it proceeded past a certain point, there wouldn’t be remnants of flesh nor blood, let alone their original shape.
Alus’s eyes beneath his mask turned darker. As they lost their light, Alus’s thoughts became more levelheaded, and eventually his brain fully entered combat mode.
It was like even his blood was cooling down.
‹‹Memeriant Orga›› Alus quietly spoke the name.
Suddenly, three massive black horns sprouted out from the ground by the feet of the girl with the umbrella. Memeriant Orga, also called “the devil’s horns,” was said to have a hardness that surpassed anything that existed. They had a dark luster, as if they were made from compressing all minerals found underground, and the three fang-like black horns attacked the girl with the umbrella. In a moment, she spun that umbrella, folding it and transforming it into a blunt weapon, which she used against the horns. However, the umbrella was only able to block it for a moment as she was unable to kill the momentum.
Alus bent his fingers, and the three black horns twisted their points, spiraling up towards the girl with the umbrella. As she once again blocked with her umbrella, the small girl was lifted and blown upward.
The more she blocked it, the further up she was blown. She wanted to try to alter their trajectory, but the horns didn’t give her a chance.
Sensing her disadvantage, she poured mana into her umbrella to resist with all her might. She built another box-shaped barrier. The three horns, now blocked by the box-shaped carrier, couldn’t be destroyed, but their rotation could be stopped.
Having slowed down the black horns enough allowed her to escape. She opened her umbrella and slowly fell towards the ground, together with the mana remnants of her shattered barrier. Her cloak and skirt fluttered in the air. Simultaneously, her eyes turned sharp and she shouted.
“What’s with this magic?! I can’t believe it’s transforming here!” the girl spat out as she changed the way she held her umbrella.
By that time, Memeriant Orga had transformed from three black horns into the same number of thick ice tentacles. They were covered in thorns like they were tendrils of a massive rose.
The spell had transformed from its earth attribute to its ice attribute... Changing a spell of this level after manifestation required an unbelievable amount of technique, and the girl’s agitated expression said it all.
The air froze as the thorns of ice closed in on the girl. They could move more flexibly than the black horns. But when the girl saw them, she thrust the tip of her umbrella at them, and the tentacles became encased by a solid barrier and noisily shattered.
The girl with the umbrella, Clevideet’s Single Digit Magicmaster Fanon Trooper, was unable to hide the irritation she felt. Gordon and Suzar were strong, but this person was on a different level. She’d never expected to face an enemy this skilled.
If she brought her subordinates into this fight, they’d be killed. All five of them would die just to create an opening. And that was something she couldn’t permit, so she would need to endure on her own.
She’d been chasing after Gordon and Suzar with perfect preparations, but now she’d fallen into a trap. Moreover, the opponent was controlling the flow of the battle. He was certainly very skilled at fighting people. If not, she wouldn’t have so easily been put in a disadvantage.
However, Fanon’s specialty was eradicating Fiends and defensive battles. A sudden encounter fighting against a fellow human was out of her area of expertise. But as a Single, she couldn’t afford to back down. And with the life of her subordinates in her hands, she was driven by a need to take down this formidable foe.
Fanon ground her teeth as the chilly air reformed the ice thorns. They once again reached out towards her, but Fanon crushed them again and she allowed herself to fall. She glared at the opponent below her.
A tempest of wind blew up from below, but Fanon didn’t so much as blink as she fixed her stare at one point.
Glimpses of the combat uniform beneath her cloak could be seen, and she showed no care that the bandage on her forehead was falling off as she let her emotions out.
“Don’t underestimate me!” she shouted, pointing the tip of her umbrella at the masked man.
A small ball formed that immediately expanded into a massive sphere. Inside the huge sphere-shaped barrier was a sharp, rotating blade. Nothing but blood would remain of a human caught up in that giant blender.
‹‹Juggernaut››
Just as she finished casting that spell, an unexpected figure appeared in her sight: the woman who could move fastest among the subordinates she’d brought with her. While Fanon’s attention was on the masked man, the subordinate seemed to have gone after his follower.
Perhaps it was lack of experience, but it was a terrible move. She didn’t have a good read on the enemy’s capabilities. And Fanon couldn’t imagine the masked man would overlook such a thing.
Or perhaps she’d read the situation and was staking her body to create an opportunity for Fanon to counterattack.
Ah, why are they always like this! she grumbled in her mind.
Fanon released her mana before even reaching the ground. She placed a huge barrier in front of the masked man to block his sight and turned her attention to the man’s partner, a hooded figure watching the battle.
They certainly seemed to be easier to deal with than the masked man. So in that sense, her subordinate’s actions were correct. After all, nothing would change unless they could break the current deadlock.
Fanon glanced at Exceles, the best Spotter in the world, and her face said it all. They were already in unfamiliar territory, with political restrictions placed on them. But with the strange interfering barriers and unexpected ambush, they were at a clear disadvantage.
Fanon considered taking the smaller figure hostage and using them as a bargaining chip. Capturing them would at least limit the enemy’s options, and the enemy might move to protect his partner, so it wasn’t a bad idea when it came to creating an opening.
With that in mind, Fanon watched uneasily as the masked man dealt with the barrier blocking his sight and her female subordinate approached the smaller enemy.
It was a reckless move, but she had reached the same conclusion as Fanon, so she moved to restrain the smaller enemy. Seizing the initiative, the woman deftly moved around her and grabbed her wrist, but in the next moment a small flash of lightning flickered before her eyes.
The small figure disappeared, even though she thought that she had grabbed their wrist, and in the next moment, the subordinate felt a tremendous impact on the left side of her head. She had underestimated the small opponent, who’d moved at super high speeds using an explosive acceleration, far exceeding the subordinate’s perception to move behind her and unleash a powerful kick.
She blocked it with her left arm, but was blown away. She recovered midair and tried to keep her balance by thrusting her feet into the ground. Even so, she couldn’t fully stop her momentum and was about to fall over when Exceles supported her back with a hand.
“Thank you very much. I-I let my guard down.”
She felt like the bones in her arm had been fractured when she’d used it to block the kick. The only reason it hadn’t been worse was because she was one of Fanon’s strongest subordinates. But she’d been careless, and now she could no longer afford to make another move. Her opponent had stopped attacking and taken a defensive stance.
“Talk about reckless. In the end, you ended up getting in Lady Fanon’s way!” Exceles complained, then suddenly looked behind her.
The masked man had dealt with the barrier blocking his sight, with ease as expected, but as soon as he did, Fanon used her expert-level spell, Juggernaut. The rapidly spinning sphere was hard to counter with just magic as the blade had been turned into a hard barrier. It closely resembled some wind-attribute spells, but it was Fanon’s original arrangement of barrier magic, making it far more durable.
In other words, it possessed properties that made it superior to any magical countermeasures.
Despite knowing that, Exceles couldn’t help but feel a chill run down her spine. She could see everything it touched ground up and crushed into material finer than sand. The masked man was also covered up, but...
“Exceles!” Fanon’s angry voice came from above. The dismantled umbrella cloth and frame pierced the ground in front of Exceles. Only the handle and shaft remained in Fanon’s hand.
The moment she realized that, Exceles understood Fanon’s intentions.
Who could have expected that they would be using the spare parts they’d brought with them so soon. But Exceles understood the necessity. At this moment, it was kill or be killed.
The next moment, the chill that Exceles had felt was justified. The Juggernaut sphere let out a howl as the masked man pierced the sphere from all directions with countless thin stakes extended from the air.
The sound of the spinning blade changed to a crushing sound, as if the blade had been caught by something incredibly hard. And then...
Preposterous.
Impossible.
The squad members turned pale at the scene, their thoughts left unexpressed. Juggernaut was an advanced application of barrier magic that only Fanon could use, yet its spinning had come to a complete stop because of all of the stakes piercing it. They wondered just how hard the stakes were to accomplish that.
Among the cowering squad members, only Exceles remained calm, a frown on her beautiful face. She accepted what was happening before her and gently touched her waist.
“Give me Aegis!” Fanon exclaimed.
“Okay!” responded Exceles. She had expected Fanon to say as much and moved smoothly, unclasping a large cylinder from her waist and holding it out. She then suddenly kicked it up. The replacement AWR flew right to Fanon with tremendous speed.
As an expert of defensive battles capable of defending against both magical and physical attacks, Fanon could raise barriers and protective walls. In other nations, she was called untouchable, but in reality, the Magicmasters in Clevideet had a slightly different perception of her. In a sense, it was the complete opposite of the other nations.
In Clevideet, they respectfully referred to Fanon Trooper as the Greatest Contradiction, and they called her three AWRs the Three Precept Contradiction. The AWRs were overwhelmingly powerful, and unleashing their full capabilities was not allowed without the ruler’s or head of the military’s permission. Aegis, which Fanon had just received, was one of those AWRs, and she was only allowed to use it with Exceles’s permission.
After confirming it had reached Fanon, Exceles realized why Fanon had wanted Aegis in that moment. The night sky was dark, and in it, she could see a large undulation like a snake, as swirling black clouds seemed to hang overhead and cover everything.
After Juggernaut disappeared, Fanon finally landed in front of her squad and hurriedly used the replacement AWR to cast Aegis System.
As if laughing at her efforts, the masked man—who had easily dealt with Fanon’s Juggernaut spell—pointed the tip of his short sword into the sky, its chains dancing around him. His lips quietly spoke a name.
‹‹Black Ikazuchi››
“Okay, stop right there,” a woman said, appearing out of nowhere. She clapped her hands, stopping the masked man.
She stood between the masked man and Fanon, then walked forward with elegant steps. She adorably tilted her head and briefly asked, “So...what is going on here?”
With the appearance of this unexpected visitor, Alus canceled Black Ikazuchi and Fanon lowered her umbrella. The mere appearance of the woman was enough to end the battle and ease the tension. It would be fair to say that her very existence determined the course of a battle that could have twisted the future of both Alpha and Clevideet.
“Feli,” Alus looked at her and said.
“Uhm...Ms. Felinella, what is the meaning of this?!” Exceles asked, removing her hood and revealing her blond hair, her expression perplexed.
“Eh, Felinella?! That’s her all right, but what’s going on?!” asked Fanon.
Exceles glanced at Fanon to gently rebuke her, but she looked just as confused. But she also felt relieved. After all, the battle was a completely extraordinary situation that had started out of the blue—an unexpected encounter between two Singles was truly unfortunate for both nations.
“Ms. Exceles, I don’t fully understand the situation either... For starters, Mr. Alus, could you please remove the mask for a moment?”
At Felinella’s urging, Alus slowly began to understand what was happening and nonchalantly removed his mask. Likewise, Loki lowered her hood. He let out a soft breath and tried to tell himself that at least there hadn’t been any unfortunate accidents. Of course, the other party had made the first move.
Alus and Loki, Exceles and Fanon...after glancing at their faces, Felinella cleared her throat. “Uhm...I believe introductions are in order. This here is Sir Alus Reigin and his partner, Ms. Loki,” she said to Fanon and Exceles before turning around to face Alus.
“And, Mr. Alus, this is Clevideet’s Single Digit Magicmaster, Lady Fanon Trooper, and part of her squad. We are working together with them for this incident.”
Fanon’s squad members reacted with a comical twitch of their cheeks; Fanon alone glared at Alus.
“Alpha’s Single Digit Magicmaster, the rank 1...” Exceles put into words what the silent Fanon was thinking.
He was above even Fanon. The rank 1. The person who stood at the top of all Magicmasters. As far as Exceles knew, he was an enigmatic Magicmaster whose identity had been kept hidden all this time. However, Exceles recalled hearing that the rank 1 had appeared during the ruler’s conference as Cicelnia’s bodyguard. So that naturally meant that one among them should know what the rank 1 looked like.
“Lady Fanon...did you realize?” Exceles asked.
“How am I supposed to know who a guy wearing a weird mask is?” Fanon asked.
She did have a point. It would be impossible to match the appearance of someone she had only met once with the masked man before her. That said, the two had just been in a deadly struggle, and there was a part that didn’t make sense to Exceles.
Alus kept quiet, and Fanon looked like she wanted to say something. That was when Felinella intervened with a bright smile, making a suggestion to smooth things over. “For starters, why don’t we change location?”
Her smile was a bit forced, but at least the situation was under control. Exceles looked back up to the sky where the eerie black clouds had been. However, they had already disappeared, replaced with the familiar artificial night sky.
Alus Reigin had surely been seriously trying to kill them. The black clouds had been an omen of a powerful spell, and she doubted that Fanon would have been able to activate Aegis System in time. With her sharp intuition, Exceles had felt death coming for her. She couldn’t shake away the feeling of an ominous ending.
Fortunately, they had avoided the worst outcome.
Relieved that her life had been saved by Felinella’s appearance, Exceles took a deep breath to forcibly calm down. With that, the sudden close encounter between Singles ended, and in effect, a minor military conflict came to a peaceful conclusion.
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