Saikyou Mahoushi no Inton Keikaku (LN) - Volume 16 - Chapter 93

Ninety-Third Chapter

She Who Reaps Souls

Within Alpha, only the richest could afford to live relatively close to Babel, and only a few nobles received territory directly from the ruler. Many other nobles maintained mansions in this prime location, not due to the ruler’s influence but rather by their lineage.

This mansion was where one such noble lived.

It had a huge gate that was surrounded by a thick grove of trees, and in this season, the wind blowing through them was enough for anyone lightly clothed to feel chilly. Even so, the human domain protected by the walls of Babel was relatively warm.

In the Outer World there probably weren’t many animals around in this season. However, the trees here didn’t seem to lose their leaves in the cold. In fact, they seemed full of life. Around this mansion there seemed to be a lot of plants that deviated from the natural world.

Next to the greenery was a long tile-paved road. Ahead was a sturdy gate, and past that, a mansion the size of ten ordinary houses awaiting visitors.

Security patrolled the garden of the massive building at all times. The guards had a quirk or two, but they clearly displayed skills they had honed as Magicmasters. If any trespassers stepped inside, they would find themselves surrounded and restrained.

And now, two figures were standing in the study on the second floor of the mansion the size of a small mountain.

The first was a man... He was in the process of receiving a report from the beautiful girl before him. And then, as usual, he found a flaw in the report and reprimanded her before heading for the basement with her.

The round man had a vulgar taste. Just like smokers smoked daily or workers drank to relieve the day’s frustrations...he enjoyed and loved bullying. At some point, it had become a habit that he just couldn’t quit.

Leaving the study, the man walked down the stairs with light steps betraying his unsightly, overweight physique. Everyone aside from him and the girl were forbidden from entering, so only two pairs of footsteps clacked against the stone steps, and they arrived at a soundproofed, dimly lit stone room.

The walls were covered in repulsive tools. Each covered in red stains and rust as proof of their use.

Following the man, the girl showed no signs of agitation upon entering the room and simply presented herself to him. He reached out to the wall and grabbed handcuffs, which he clasped around her arms.

At the same time, he pulled on the end of chains hanging from the ceiling, causing the iron rings to clank as he pulled the chain through the handcuffs, and pulled the girl’s supple body up into the air.

The girl was lifted to the height where her toes just barely touched the ground. She then turned to the man and spoke out in an expressionless manner.

“Your Excellency, preparations are complete.”

“Good, a lot of things happened today.”

“Yes, now you can do as you please...”

Morwald, the fat man she had called His Excellency, took a step closer with a distorted smile and ecstatic expression on his greasy face. He spun the girl’s body around by force, turning her back to him, then grabbed hold of her collar and tore a rip in her clothes.

The exposed milky white skin had a fresh youthfulness. However, the girl showed no shame, and Morwald showed no concern for her. Instead, he looked at the scene in front of him like a painter confirming his work. And after rubbing his cheek against her back, a sadistic grin crept up on his face.

He had just spotted the wounds carved into her white canvas. Each spoke of the months and years that the girl had served as a toy for Morwald’s sadistic desires.

He felt pleasure in destroying something beautiful. He no longer explained the difference between lofty nobles and the riffraff like when he’d first gotten his hand on her.

To him, others, especially commoners, were nothing more than bugs crawling at his feet, and he could crush them whenever he felt like it. That was all he thought of them, and that was what the difference in status was. If they upset Morwald, commoners would need to stake their lives to please him—in fact, they should be doing so from the beginning. Nobles were an absolute existence and it was the proof of their exalted status.

Morwald slowly traced his finger across the wounds on the girl’s back.

“What wound was this again? It’s pretty deep,” he asked.

“Your Excellency, that is from the steel whip,” she said.

“Ah, I see. Then today’s punishment will be the steel whip.”

“As you wish.”

In high spirits, Morwald selected one of the many whips on the wall. A steel whip was a whip reinforced by wrapping steel around it, but it was flawed in that it was heavy and inflexible.

“Hmm...” After grabbing the whip, Morwald groaned and threw it away before selecting another one. Thinking back to the humiliation he’d suffered recently, he smiled creepily as if he was feeling elated.

“HOW DARE MERE TRASH LIKE YOU BOTHER MEEE!!!”

Swinging the whip as he turned around, it sliced through the air and whipped the girl’s back. Instantly, her body jerked.

“How dare that Berwick... Who does he think I am! I am sure he’s laughing as he watches me put out the fires! Hah, well, no matter. He’ll come to know his foolishness eventually. No, I’ll show him myself! Isn’t that right, Noir?” he asked.

The girl’s ashen-colored hair swayed as she answered in a clear voice as if not feeling any pain. “It is just as you say, Your Excellency.”

Having carved a fresh wound into her smooth white back, Morwald smiled sadistically.

“I’m sorry about that. Doing the same thing every day would get boring. So that was a little surprise. How was it?”

“Yes, I could strongly feel your love,” the girl answered.

“I see. Good girl. This is a multijointed steel whip. I saw a Magicmaster using something similar and wanted one for myself. I added it to the order of new torture tools. You see the little spines sticking out of the joint parts that overlap like skin? When you pull the whip like this they catch on the skin,” Morwald explained.

“What a wonderful invention.”

“It is, isn’t it? But the scraps of clothes on your body got in the way a little.”

“I am sorry. I should have worn soft silk fabric.”

“Don’t worry. This is entertainment in its own way. Still...when I think about those people getting lured out without realizing, I feel more satisfied. They don’t know a thing, Noir,” said Morwald.

“It is just as you say,” answered Noir.

“Law and order are simply to control the fools. They can’t bind someone of noble blood like me,” Morwald said and swung the whip at the girl’s slender waist. He forcibly pulled it back, causing the plates and spines to tear more of the cloth.

Before long the girl’s clothes had been ripped away and fresh wounds started to appear. Blood flowed out from the red scars that carved into her at regular intervals.

“That should help alleviate my stress. Everything is going well, and how did things go for you?” Morwald asked.

“The preparations are proceeding smoothly. Three families were destroyed...but there was interference at the fourth,” said Noir.

“Oh, it’s rare for you to blunder. But it’s good to hear that three houses were destroyed. I’ll need to give you a reward. So how about—this!” The whip raged even more and fresh blood splattered across the stone room like red roses, and the remaining scraps of clothes absorbed the blood dripping onto the girl’s waist.

“Thank you very much.”

Morwald listened to the detached words of gratitude with an ecstatic expression. He approached her naked body and rubbed his cheek against her, not caring about the blood.

“Good girl, Noir...I am truly glad I took you in.”

“Thank you very much. It is thanks to Your Excellency that I was able to become full strength. I belong to Your Excellency, down to the last drop of blood and last scrap of flesh.”

“You are the perfect girl. You used to cry cuter when you first came, but the way you are now is quite enjoyable as well,” said Morwald.

“I will be anything you desire, Your Excellency...” the girl said, vacantly staring at the cold stone wall.

For that she was rewarded with even more pain running up her back. Or was it even pain... Noir could suppress it to its limit and rewrite it into a sense of nothingness.

Still, she liked to believe that she had felt real pain in the past. A painless world was simply too boring.

At first the torture had been so painful, but eventually she got so used to it that it didn’t even show on her face, and eventually she found herself feeling nothing. She struggled to remember what pain had felt like.

Even now she just felt the sobering heat and flat impact she was so accustomed to. Besides, she had been saved, and as someone still living she had nothing to complain about.

She felt a sort of resignation and enlightenment. In fact, she believed that was the best way to deal with the incomprehensible thing that was life. So she purposefully let out moans of rapture to delight the man.

Suddenly, the impact and heat that burned her back stopped.

“Hmph, how boring. Did you think that acting would please me?” Morwald asked and grabbed her hair, pulling her head back.

“I am sorry, Your Excellency.”

“Hmm, I might have pulled a little too hard...or did you want more?”

“I would have loved more, but there is an intruder,” said Noir.

“Hmm?! Who is it?”

“I don’t know, but I believe they are very skilled.”

“I take it they’ve already gotten wind of it.”

The girl was the strongest Magicmaster Morwald had, so if she said someone was there, there was no doubt. He also had an idea of who it may be.

“I can guess who it is. I went out of my way to invite them, but this insolent fool has terrible timing,” he said.

“Shall I kill them?” the girl asked.

“Of course. Finish it already. Bring me his corpse. I have a long history with him, so perhaps I will raise a toast in front of his corpse,” Morwald said, regretfully hanging the whip back up on the wall and yanking the chain back down.

This man thought he was smarter and more special than anyone, so he had a desire to make others submit. He wanted to control everything. Nobody else in this world was as valuable as he was.

However, that wasn’t what reality was like, which was why his irritation and frustration built up. In order to vent, and to satisfy his self-esteem, he tortured someone helpless.

Because he had the right, authority, and power to do so.

“There’s no need for healing magic,” he said.

“Understood.”

The girl removed her handcuffs on her own and made no attempt to hide her exposed chest as she accepted the thin cloth from Morwald and put on a robe on top of that.

◇◇◇

Intruders had infiltrated the garden and blended in with the darkness. They settled into the shadows and looked at the brightly lit mansion. They’d all been eagerly awaiting this moment. However, their primary job was information gathering, and not being able to directly wield their power was frustrating.

The owner of that large mansion had an extraordinary connection to Vizaist Socalent, the leader of the intelligence unit.

Since Berwick had taken his position, a gap that couldn’t be filled had formed between the two factions. On one side were Morwald and the old noble faction, and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that they were the embodiment of the corruption within the military and political world.

No matter how optimistic one might be, a few days serving at the military command would let them know how deep the gap was and that a clash was inevitable.

“Still, why not take a few days off, Captain? This might be a golden opportunity, but your daughter was taken to the hospital, wasn’t she?”

“Don’t speak unless necessary,” said the captain in a reprimanding tone to the worried team member.

Normally that would silence him, but he resisted this time. “But Lady Felinella is an important comrade of ours too.”

Vizaist had only let Felinella join the intelligence unit at her own request, but she’d already become an irreplaceable member. Even though she was working while also attending the Institute, her skills and achievements were impressive.

“So why don’t you...?”

“That’s enough.” Another reprimand flew at a different member who spoke up.

“If that’s what you think, just finish this job quickly. In fact, think of our job here as making time for the captain to visit his daughter.”

The first intelligence operative who’d spoken out of place shrugged his shoulders. Things had gone as everyone had expected. That was why his colleague spoke in a flat tone.

While they didn’t say it out loud, they all shared the same consideration for Vizaist, whose daughter had been injured. So it had only been a matter of who’d bring up the topic first. Depending on the circumstances, the roles between the team members might have been reversed.

Knowing that, he quickly apologized and that was the end of it.

“Excuse me... Team B, nothing to report.”

“Team C, nothing to report. They haven’t caught onto us.”

“Good, maintain this distance. Any closer and they might notice,” Vizaist instructed the team over the Consensor.

According to the information they had, the enemy Magicmasters were primarily focused on combat, so they shouldn’t know about their whereabouts yet. Everyone working under Vizaist were expert intelligence operatives. Their skills were focused on stealth operations over combat.

Even so, this time was different. The guards weren’t much of a concern, but the presence of Morwald’s own shadows, the Kruelsaith, concerned them.

Aware of them or not, Vizaist’s subordinates felt that his orders were uncharacteristically cautious. Normally, they would have been within fifty meters of the mansion. However, in Vizaist’s mind, staying two hundred and ten meters from the mansion was the optimal range based on risk and return.

If the intelligence operatives’ mission was to watch the enemy’s movements, they couldn’t just stay far away. At times they would need to attempt to close in as much as possible and steal even the smallest piece of information.

Normally, Vizaist had faith in his team and gave more aggressive orders. This time, however, they were only allowed to act on their own judgment up until the garden. Once inside, Vizaist was giving out specific orders, a sign of how careful he was being.

Vizaist called for his men to stay vigilant while looking down at the mansion from a tree.

He used a monocle to look through the gaps in the foliage and observed key spots. As the other party might be sensitive, he avoided using magic means.

Berwick was worried that Morwald might have a Magicmaster that rivals a Single. His hunches always hit the marks when it hurts the most, thought Vizaist.

Being allowed to keep a private force capable of using magic was a privilege of nobles. Nobles had an obligation to contribute to the military, and many employed mercenaries in addition to their relatives.

Furthermore, once one becomes a high-ranking military officer with a proven record, they could form their own unit in the military. But Morwald, the leader of the old noble faction, had his own private army separate from that unit.

Although Vizaist’s usual activities were both domestic and international, his focus was on magical criminals, and until now, noble society had been outside of his scope of activities. But this time, he’d made full use of his connections to practically steal this mission from Aferka. This was no doubt a big chance to put an end to his relationship with them.

Recently, nobles with a connection to Morwald had been slaughtered, and Vizaist suspected that Morwald had had it done to purge or silence them, which meant he must be in quite a hurry. And the mansion in the distance was eerily quiet.

Rotten or not, he was a high-ranking noble and the vast mansion had security on the same level as a military facility. It was all a sign of the cowardice he hid behind arrogance. But he was still a Major General, and he wouldn’t be so easy to get.

In addition to the troops under Berwick’s command, he also had Alus and Lettie, two Singles. And since Morwald was after the governor-general position, there was no way he wouldn’t prepare. And when he’d looked into Morwald’s forces, the suspicious group called Kruelsaith had been popping up lately.

The slaughter of three noble families had been executed disturbingly well. They were finished quickly and with no hesitation. Having come to the sites personally, Vizaist strongly believed it was the Kruelsaith that was responsible for it, which made him even more cautious.

Aside from the security before them, if Kruelsaith came forward, it could develop into a flashy battle of magic. Although troublesome, Vizaist had more or less prepared for that since the moment he took control of this operation.

I wonder how good Kruelsaith really is. I would like to at least get a good read on their numbers. 

Normally Vizaist took charge and gave orders from the rear, but this time he was coming on-site himself, thoroughly prepared. Before they began, he put on a mask.

However, in the moment that the moon was covered by clouds, the shadows surrounding the treetop became even darker, closing off his senses. It only lasted a few seconds, but Vizaist, who’d survived countless battles in the Outer World, got serious goose bumps. His muscles involuntarily stiffened, and a chill ran down his neck. He sensed danger.

Whenever that happened, Vizaist always trusted his intuition. His experience told him as much. The moment he felt that chill, his body moved spontaneously without any delay. He strongly kicked off of the tree he was hiding in, with no regard for being discovered, and made his way directly to the ground.

When he looked up at the treetop where he’d been hiding, it slid to the side and fell down. It was a terrifying scene, as if the space itself had been cut to pieces.

Leaves and sliced twigs fell from above.

When he saw that, Vizaist knew he had been right to trust his intuition. He touched his neck with his fingers and found them wet with blood. Using his usual footwork, he landed without his large body making a sound. He caught a glimpse of something long and narrow in the corner of his eyes.

He only just vaguely saw the black staff-like object in the darkness, but he sensed the countdown to his death and quickly brought his upper body down at the last moment. As he felt a sharp blade on his neck, he jumped backward with all of his might.

Ugh, I’ve gotten rusty... If I’d been a split second slower, my head would have flown off. 

The first attack had left a superficial wound on his neck, and the follow-up attack when he’d been retreating had been a truly chilling experience. As a specialist in intelligence operations, Vizaist found it hard to believe that he’d even allowed such a fearsome foe to get this close.

Then, belatedly, the leaves finally fell to the ground.

In the next moment, he saw the figure of his enemy appear before him without making a sound. Despite being so careful, Vizaist realized he’d deeply underestimated his enemy.

“Kruelsaith,” he said, proud to believe that at least he wouldn’t end up beaten by mere guards.

Their face was hidden by their hood, and their robe was slightly open in the front. They were the very image of a shadow. However, the thin clothes visible through the gap in the robe appeared to belong to a woman.

Oddly enough, their abdomen was already stained red.

Moonlight coming between gaps in the clouds shone down on the two. Beneath the hood, Vizaist saw gray hair with the luster of a young woman’s. He vigilantly observed her, memorizing any information he could get.

She carried a great scythe that didn’t suit her slim body. Its tip was held at the height of his neck and drew a cold crescent shape against the night sky. Upon closer inspection, he saw slight quantities of blood on the scythe’s blade. Likely remnants from cutting into his neck.

The woman heard his estimation of where she belonged and answered in a calm tone.

“Indeed. But how will knowing that help you? Neither you nor your comrades will leave alive.”

It was a slightly provocative and indecent tone of voice, but Vizaist’s impression was that she was younger than he’d expected.

However, her words held a surprise for him: not only had she so easily discovered him, she’d even caught on to the existence of the rest of his unit. It was a failure of a covert mission.

Only a few options remained available. Before he was fully exposed, he would deal with her with all of his strength.

Now, I’d like to hope that this one is exceptional...but how many more are there I wonder, Vizaist thought.

First he’d consider putting down the enemy in front of him in order to continue the mission. He’d gotten no reports from the rest of the team members, so this could be considered the actions of a lone operative.

It took him only a moment to make a decision. His numerous experiences led him to his answer. Without taking his eyes off of his opponent, he used one hand to tap his ear three times with his nail.

Naturally, there was no answer from the Consensor.

He’d made the sign for an emergency situation... Two taps meant a tactical retreat; three meant to get away no matter what. Incidentally, four taps meant to kill themselves and leave no evidence behind; it was meant for the worst possible situations.

But with the elites Vizaist had gathered, there had only been a few times when there had been more than three taps in the past. The situation wasn’t bad enough to call for that.

The subordinates that received the message should have already blended in with the darkness to make their escape, but it was a horribly bitter pill for Vizaist to swallow when the girl spoke to him.

“Are you done? I hope they can all make their escape.”

She’d seen through his intentions, and she sarcastically wished his subordinates good luck. As she toyed around with him, her lips twisted.

Vizaist caught a glimpse of her moist eyes peeking through the darkness of her hood. She then tilted her scythe back to bring the tip closer to her mouth, licking off the blood.

Vizaist concluded that she was seeing right through him, but his heart was awfully calm. He had a resolve different from that of a Magicmaster and lived in the shadow of his nation, which meant he’d always known that eventually the time would come when he would die in secret.

For some, that might end up being on their first mission.

Intelligence operatives staked their lives in work that was different from the heroics of fighting Fiends. But those resolved to do so lied about their existence to complete their mission in this unit.

Some among them weren’t even recognizable as Magicmasters. They pretended to be normal citizens, with normal families, but they all concealed their job from the public.

In that sense, Vizaist was the only one who publicly acknowledged his job and stood in the light of day. Even if his methods or subordinates were never revealed, as the leader of the shadows, he always had to maintain his pride and resolve.

“It seems my skills have dulled,” Vizaist blurted out in a muffled voice under his mask and decided to see what his opponent would do first. It would likely be difficult to escape from the girl before him.

The girl was already wounded for some reason, but there was just so much he didn’t know about her. Her age might not be all that different from Alus’s, and at the same time, she reminded him of how he’d been in the past because of the dangerous air hanging over her.

No, I suppose that’s out of the question, thought Vizaist. He’s too overwhelming. Not to mention that this girl seems to look down on her opponents. She probably lacks experience. Most of all, she doesn’t understand the fear of a battle between Magicmasters. 

And if she was letting her guard down, there were still openings for Vizaist to abuse.

“Well, let’s begin, then. I can’t keep my lord waiting forever,” she said.

Mana darker than the dark of night ran through the blade of the great scythe, and the magic formula on the blade glowed faintly.

“Unexpected as it may be, now that it’s come to this I will just have to destroy Kruelsaith,” said Vizaist.

“Well, sorry to say this when you’re so hyped up, but you won’t be able to satisfy me,” the girl responded.

“Hmph, what a thing for a little lady so wet behind the ears to say.”

“Don’t tell me you came here empty-handed?” she asked.

“You’re lucky. I came fully prepared, with weapons on both my arms...!”

“So both arms, then.” The girl narrowed her eyes as she smiled.

It took a while for Vizaist to understand what he’d blurted out. Keeping weapons hidden from the enemy in combat was common sense. Everything from strategies to range was hidden, and even the shape of an AWR could reveal its attribute.

Of course, as a veteran with countless years of experience under his belt, that was all basic knowledge to Vizaist. So why had he made such a mistake at a critical juncture. It was like he understood it was a fatal blunder yet had failed to realize it for some reason.

Vizaist intuitively understood the abnormality. This is bizarre. She merely used simple words without an underlying motive to bait me. And despite knowing that, I... 

His thoughts were perfectly normal. Yet the brand of enemy he’d marked the girl as gradually felt like it was fading.

He glared at his opponent.

What did you do?! he wanted to ask but couldn’t put it into words.

His experience made him realize that he’d made a mistake. Being shaken led to the enemy realizing your weakness, which would lead to disastrous results. He should assume that he was already entangled in some sort of trap.

Then there’s no way to untangle myself but to fight, Vizaist concluded and unleashed his mana.

In an instant, an overwhelming storm started blowing. He thrust out his muscular, cudgel-like arms, and the sleeves from the elbow up were blown away. Beneath were thin arm guards that reached up to the elbow like gloves.

A dense whirlwind covered his arms, sucking in the surrounding air. The surface of his arm guard AWRs were covered in a whirlwind of blades so dense that the faint glowing of the magic formulas were invisible. And as they spun they sounded like powerful grinders roaring.

The girl held down her fluttering robe to keep it from getting sucked in as she spoke. “Storm Armor... No. Cyclone Edge.”

“Good eye. Cyclone Edge is a pretty boring spell, but when you restrain it to just your arms, it becomes easy to use. It’s more than enough to tear you apart.”

It was as if his mouth was talking on its own. Vizaist couldn’t help but feel deeply confused by his body moving without his consent. Again...why am I just prattling on?! 

“My! How exactly?” Noir asked.

“...Then take this.”

Before his mouth would say anything more, Vizaist pulled his arms back. In reality, this spell put a lot of strain on the caster. The power in the spell was so dense that if he slipped up with his mana control for even a moment it would tear off his arms.

It also relied on brute strength to control, so it put a physical strain on him, but as long as he could deal with that, Vizaist’s power would explosively increase. Moreover, since the spell was always on standby to be activated, he could omit part of the process to simplify it.

Against a Magicmaster with a normal AWR, he would always be several fractions of a second faster. He pulled back his arms to the point that they might burst, and after crossing them for an instant to build up even more power, shot them forward.

And from his arms, two cyclones shot out. They roared and sucked in the surrounding leaves as they headed for the girl. They caught everything in their paths, pulling trees out from the roots and cutting them to pieces as the cyclones grew larger.

Although they appeared to be raging wildly, both cyclones were under Vizaist’s control. Rather than changing the process, he used his muscles to forcibly change their trajectory. Even if his enemy dodged, he would be able to easily bend the trajectory to some degree.

However, the girl didn’t even seem to be trying to dodge.

He’d talked about destroying Kruelsaith, but there was naturally a large risk with that. Once done, there was a chance that if he didn’t find any clear evidence against Morwald, Vizaist would find himself in trouble.

The same would be true if one of his subordinates were caught and confessed to illegal activities. In that sense, this battle might not have been the best move.

The wavering thoughts in Vizaist’s mind were not something he’d intended.

He’d resolved himself to fight since he’d realized he wouldn’t be able to escape. But for some reason, he felt a strange lapse in judgment due to his conscious and subconscious not meshing properly.

The scene playing out in front of Vizaist made his expression stiffen in astonishment. He felt a cold chill run down his spine.

“Oh how gentle,” came a cool, mocking voice from the shadow of the night.

The attack Vizaist had unleashed most definitely had enough power to kill. And just before the cyclones reached their target, he crossed his arms again so that they would overlap on top of her. Yet for some reason they crossed before her and both cyclones ended up missing the target.

It was clear from looking at the grooves carved into the ground. Before merging into one and crashing into the girl, they split up to the sides for some reason, harmlessly passing by either side of the girl.

It was like she had some kind of protection that prevented her alone from being harmed.

“What?!” Vizaist groaned bitterly but hastily analyzed the situation.

Did she block it?! No, it doesn’t look like it. It was like my magic dodged out of her way. 

Interpreting things that way made the most sense. He had definitely been the one in control of the cyclones. They relied on arm strength to begin with, so it should have been impossible to synchronize with the magic like Alus did and steal control of it.

“So next is my turn...!” the girl shouted and spun her scythe.

Just before she leaped at Vizaist, he slammed his thick arm into the ground. A blast shot out in all directions, forcefully slamming into the girl’s body and causing it to tilt.

“Don’t take this personally, but this isn’t a game,” he yelled.

He repositioned his arm and blew a wind from below his opponent. In the process, her hood was blown off, exposing her face. He’d already anticipated that she’d be young, but it still made the deepest recess of his mind buzz. After all, she looked even younger than his own daughter.

But as an experienced veteran, he forced down his instantaneous hesitation with an iron will. Once the girl was in the air, he sent another blast of wind to hit her like a hammer.

I can’t waste time! I’m finishing this with Downburst. 

The girl was immediately dropped to the ground with a loud thud, her limbs splayed. She seemed to have caught her fall and not taken any real damage, but the pressure kept her from getting up right away.

While it looked overpowering, the spell’s power was less than half of what Vizaist had intended. However, he wasn’t aware of that.

Timing it with the magic to dissipate, Vizaist thrust his left hand forward. The fingers on his hand spread out, and he grabbed the first joint of the middle finger with the fingers on his right hand to pull it back like a bow.

The AWR glowed with a beam of light, and mana gathered in the middle finger on his left hand.

“How awful... What are you...?” asked Noir, coughing.

When the pressure weakened enough, the girl jumped up and readied her great scythe. Suddenly she sensed something wrong with her voice and put her hand on her neck. For some reason she couldn’t breathe or speak like normal.

Just as she had that realization, Vizaist flicked the finger toward her.

“‹‹Clearance Hazard››”

Assuming that his attack finished her, Vizaist slowly walked toward the girl. This wasn’t the behavior of a winner. Normally, if he’d defeated her, he would swiftly leave the scene.

Even so, his legs and lips continued to move on their own. “When a gale of wind rushes against you, you find it hard to breathe. This is similar to that. The airflow around your mouth was changed to reduce the air pressure. You’ll suffocate soon enough.”

When he declared that she would die, Vizaist felt a pain in his chest. Having gone this far, he started to feel an aversion to killing.

The girl in front of him held her throat and struggled, finally losing her balance and falling to the ground. She tried her best to breathe, but she opened and closed her mouth like a fish on land, unable to suck in any air.

As if to witness the girl’s final moments, Vizaist moved even closer to her.

A lock of gray hair fell over her face, and the limp girl’s face turned pale. The movements of her lips slowed down...and in the next moment, Vizaist saw it. Her lips were twisted into an eerie smile.

Vizaist snapped back to his senses and realized his blunder in approaching the enemy, but it was already too late.

Like faithful servants of the Lord, a light-purple ethereal body appeared right beside him, wavering in the edges of his vision. There were two of them, looking like grim reapers, swinging down their scythes from either side of him.

Vizaist ran mana through his leg and jumped back, but the two scythes gouged into his belly like cursed fangs, and fresh blood splashed into the air. He fell to the ground. He only stopped rolling once his body crashed into the tree behind him.

Vizaist slowly raised his head. The girl who had been moments from suffocating stood before him as if nothing had happened.

“I messed up. I’m getting too old for this,” said Vizaist.

“How did you like my acting? I’m pretty good if I say so myself,” said Noir.

“You used the dark element. So how are you fine?”

He put his hand on his stomach, but it wasn’t enough to stop the blood from flowing out. As he checked his wound, he also checked to see if he could still move his body.

The two ethereal bodies on either side of the girl had faded considerably, so much that they blended perfectly into the darkness and couldn’t be seen if one wasn’t right next to them.

“Why indeed? I don’t have such a loose tongue that I’d say anything important even if I knew the other person was about to die...like you,” responded Noir.

“That’s a shame,” answered Vizaist.

“But as thanks for entertaining me, I’ll cut your head clean off. And I’ll let it rest on the scythe too.” The girl’s cheeks turned red in what seemed like ecstasy.

With a sarcastic frown, Vizaist complained between his rough breaths. “There’s so many youngsters with a screw loose lately.”

“You have a large body, so I really only have to bring your head back. Now, goodbye.”

Noir dexterously swung her scythe through the ethereal bodies, which dissolved into the darkness. The scythe spun as if dancing and soon reached speeds that made it impossible to see. Mana that looked like purple flames floated about, and in the blink of an eye, she’d closed in on Vizaist and swung her great scythe.

However, before the blade could reach him, Vizaist unleashed a powerful blast of wind from both of his arms with no regard for his own survival. In an instant, a fierce wall of wind and a cloud of dust covered the surrounding area.

“Wh-What is this?!”

The girl swung her weapon anyways, but she felt no response. She peered at her scythe, which was lit up by the moonlight, and naturally there was no head on it either.

Only a few seconds passed, but they were critical. The moonlight had blinded her. She’d quickly used the sleeve of her robe to cover her eyes, but it was already too late.

Furrowing her brows, she gave up and spun around to leave. In the distance she could see the mansion’s guards finally running over.

She quickened her pace with no regard for their appearance. Her cheerful expression gave no indication of what she thought of the fools that couldn’t even complete the task assigned to them.

◇◇◇

His large frame was supported by the hands of two of his subordinates. Feeling that, Vizaist continued to push through the darkness. They were currently moving as fast as they could toward their base of operations.

When he took a break to catch his breath, Vizaist weakly glared at the two lending their shoulders.

“You’re ignoring orders,” he said.

“Whatever you say...but it was really cutting it close,” said one subordinate.

“It’d be cool to say we did it because we’re the ones who would have to face your angry daughter, but we’d pretty much given up on running away,” said the other. “And while we’d hidden to try to give our pursuers the slip, we sensed the aftermath of your wind magic.”

It must really have been a coincidence. When escaping proved difficult, there was an unspoken rule to destroy any devices that could be used to locate the rest and erase any trace of mana.

However, Vizaist had secretly used wind magic so that if there were any nearby allies, they would be able to discern his location. In the worst case, any lost subordinates could use that as a guide.

As a result, Vizaist had known that two of his subordinates were sneaking closer and used the last of his strength to struggle. He’d kicked up a cloud of dust against that frightening girl.

“It’s worth harsh punishment, but I honestly should thank you. We still can’t let our guard down, though. If things look bad, leave me behind.”

“Understood,” the two answered in unison. Seeing how they seemed to listen this time, Vizaist felt relieved, despite his expression twisting in pain from his stomach injury.

Earlier, he’d used the aftermath of the detection spell Air Map to launch a surprise attack, but if they had a pursuer that could use the earth attribute, they could track them using the same method. For the time being, they would have to use their intuition and years of experience to flee while using up the last of their stamina and worrying about the darkness behind them.

A few hours later...

Vizaist and his loyal subordinates had safely made their return.

Either the troublesome girl was indifferent, or she was a rationalist who hated to waste time, but she had not pursued them.

They were lucky to have escaped with their lives.

Once they arrived at their hideout, Vizaist was rushed into the ICU. They had only given him basic first aid, and he’d lost so much blood that he needed blood transfusion immediately.

Of course, he couldn’t be entrusted to normal military surgeons and had to be treated by trusted people, so it took some time to gather them. As such, proper healing from healing Magicmasters didn’t begin until he was brought to the hospital in the city of Beliza in the middle layer.