Thirteenth Chapter
Appalling
With Alice abducted, the three quickly went into action to retrieve her.
The group made their way toward Godma’s hideout in the forest with Alus in the lead. Tesfia was being carried by him, with her arms wrapped around his neck. Behind those two was Loki.
On the way, Tesfia shared what she knew about the girl that had met with Alice, giving as many details as she could, including tidbits Alice had told her before.
Melissa, which was the name Alice had muttered when they reunited on the Institute grounds, was a girl who had been in the same facility as Alice when they were young. Both were test subjects that had been gathered there to research the light attribute. Alice had always longed to meet with her again.
But as time passed, Alice locked away her horrible memories of her time in the facility deep inside, and her memories of the girl had been locked away with them.
And when Alus began to research the light attribute, that caused Alice’s memories from that time to surface.
When Alus heard about those circumstances, the first thought he had as for why Melissa had appeared and taken Alice away was because she was one of Godma’s Dolls. Since she had a connection to Godma from being a test subject in the past, the chances of that were high. He didn’t know why she’d ended up by his side again, but it was possible she was being forced in some way.
Behind them, Loki listened in, with no expression as always, but Alus could see her biting her lip from time to time as Alice’s loneliness was revealed.
Either way, the situation was constantly changing. And the plan for Godma’s extermination was now no longer recognizable from the original one.
Loki had spoken to Felinella, and according to her the plan was set to start once Alus went into action; but the details were unclear, the reason being that Felinella couldn’t make such a decision on her own.
Soon, the license in Alus’ chest pocket rang out as he got a call. “Take it,” Alus said, looking at his pocket and then at Tesfia.
“What?! How am I supposed to do that at this speed?!”
“If you can’t do it, I’ll just throw you off and take it myself.”
“Fine, I’ll get it.”
Alus jumped to avoid an obstacle, causing the bouncing from his running to momentarily abate. In that opening, Tesfia pulled out his license and used her thumb to make it project a translucent screen. She then set it to audio only, so the only thing on the screen was the symbol for a call. She held it against Alus’ mouth.
“Feli, how’d it go?”
“That’s awfully sudden, Alus. You really are lacking in manners and sociability.”
“—! So it was you, Lord Vizaist.” Alus now slightly regretted not checking who the caller was first.
The voice on the other end was deep and well-articulated. “Isn’t this the first time you’ve screwed up?”
“I’m sorry about that, but your investigation was lacking as well. A student at the Institute, Alice Tilake, was once one of Godma’s test subjects. Now another test subject from back then has infiltrated the school and abducted her. On top of that—it seems neither the Institute nor the military’s security noticed her infiltration, despite what happened just yesterday. Does the name Melissa sound familiar to you?”
“—!! She was one of the ones Godma performed human experiments on, and was taken into custody. The details about her are unknown as she was supposedly an orphan, but her real name is Melissa Laness.”
“It appears she’s still under Godma’s control. Moreover, I believe Godma’s research is still incomplete. I don’t know why Alice would be necessary to him all of a sudden, but either he didn’t know her whereabouts, or he missed her qualities and has since realized it through some means. At the very least, it’s clear that Godma needs Alice for something.”
“So the taboo spell unleashed on the Institute was a diversion. One of the Institute’s students might have been abducted, but she’s still a civilian, so she’ll be a high priority for us. We might be a bit delayed, but preparations have been made ahead of time, so he won’t be able to escape that easily.”
“I appreciate it. There’s also one more thing on my mind.”
“I assume you want to know how that Melissa infiltrated the Institute.”
“Yes. There’s no sign of security granting her access. There’s a chance that there’s a big hole in the Institute’s security. And if she came from Godma’s hideout, she must have broken through the encirclement somehow.”
“We’ve got eyes on Godma’s hideout round the clock, and our surveillance is perfect... he doesn’t seem to have any allies or another hideout. Maybe they’ve dug a hole through the ground,” Vizaist said jokingly, but Alus furrowed his brows.
“In that case—the entire plan might be pointless,” Alus said, but Vizaist likely already had an idea of what was going on, and since he didn’t have any solid evidence he didn’t want to give Alus any mistaken preconceptions.
Alus believed he had a good grasp on his former superior’s personality. And since he trusted him, he didn’t pursue the matter any further.
“It seems this’ll be a night battle, then.” That was Alus’ second worry. Light attribute users had an advantage during the day, but the military wouldn’t fall behind in a magic battle.
However, ambushes were an effective means of counterattacks in a dark forest. Considering the physical capabilities of the experiments, the average Magicmaster would be hard pressed to stand against them.
“Don’t worry about that, we’ve got the numbers for it. It likely won’t even be a battle. Even if something unexpected happens, this is a battle of extermination. The procedure is simple.”
“I understand.” Just having his worries acknowledged was good enough for Alus. This was a battle of extermination... in other words, all the experiments were to be destroyed.
Suddenly, Alice’s old friend appeared in Alus’ mind. He didn’t know if she was one of the experiments based on Tesfia’s description, but... he might have to confirm it. Either way, he felt a heavy weight when he thought about Alice’s feelings.
“Besides, it’s not like the enemy will be the only one with an advantage at night.”
“By which you mean...?”
“You’re stronger at night!”
“Only by a little.”
“Ha! You’re full of crap.”
From Alus’ experience, if Vizaist was acting like this, he had nothing to worry about.
“The encirclement is 70 percent complete. It’ll be done in another thirty minutes.”
“—! That’s Lord Vizaist for you.” They’d only contacted Lord Vizaist around thirty minutes ago, so this speed was worthy of applause.
“There were some strange movements, after all. Preparations were made ahead of time in case something like this happened.” He said it like it was simple, but this reaction speed was nothing short of incredible.
“Well then, let’s meet again after the mission,” Vizaist continued.
“After the mission...”
This was a pair of catchphrases they’d used when Alus was in Vizaist’s squad. It was meant to replace “best of luck.” Supposedly, it was intended to be a prayer for the safe completion of the mission, and that everyone would be able to meet face to face again afterwards.
Thinking the call was over, Tesfia moved to hang up.
“... Also, I’m entrusting my daughter to you, Alus.” Vizaist spoke out again, not as a military commander this time but as a father.
“I’ll borrow her for a while.”
“Good. Make sure to work her hard.”
In reality, Alus had already asked Felinella to take care of something else. And with that, the call ended.
“That’s that for now.” With this, the responsibility would fall squarely on Alus’ shoulders if the mission were to fail. The military would almost certainly demand his reinstatement.
Eventually, Alus and the others reached an undeveloped area in the middle part of the nation. The sun was already starting to set. Not only did undeveloped refer to a lack of human touch, but it was also a way of saying an area where inhuman experiments had taken place.
“We’re speeding up. Loki, from here on it won’t matter if the enemy finds us out.”
“I understand.” Loki was already running out of breath, but Alus showed no concern as he sped up even more.
When they reached the part of the forest they were heading toward, they gradually slowed down until they stopped right before their destination.
They hid in the darkness, scanning their surroundings.
The abandoned building up ahead was Godma’s stronghold.
Alus had already memorized the terrain in this area. It was at times like these that a preliminary look came in handy. “No traces of fighting. I guess it hasn’t started yet.”
He approached the abandoned building. As he landed, he put Tesfia down, and Loki quietly came to his side. “There’s nobody inside the building. They’re probably underground.”
The effectiveness of Loki’s detection was drastically decreased if the target was underground. If there was a corridor there she could send her mana sonar into, she could get a more accurate reading, but it was due to this that not even the intelligence department had an accurate count of the experiments.
That said, it seemed certain that the elimination target was lurking underground like the information had said.
This building was rather old, but according to the blueprints it didn’t originally have floors underground. Godma must’ve expanded the facility for his research. Or maybe the underground floors had already existed as part of an illegal laboratory that was hidden from the public.
Steel girders were exposed on the building. Glass shards were scattered across the floor, and the entire place was caked in a layer of dust.
Unlike the route Alus used on his preliminary look, they went in through the front, their guard high, because of the lack of time.
Tesfia and Loki held their breaths and looked around themselves, as they followed Alus, who was searching for an entrance to the underground floor.
“Here it is,” Alus declared before long, as he stood in front of a section of wall.
At first glance it was just a normal wall. “What’s with you and this wall? We need to find the stairs.”
“Are you stupid? If the enemy was that straightforward, this mission wouldn’t have come to me,” Alus replied, curtly brushing aside Tesfia’s doubts.
“I see. It’s magic.” It seemed Loki saw through the spell upon touching the wall. However, surprise showed on her face. The reality aside, it felt just like any other wall.
“It’s well made,” Alus noted, and pushed with his hand.
This kind of elaborate spell required a high level of technique. It was similar to Real Trace, which Alus used to expand the chain for his AWR, Night Mist.
But it was difficult to create something this accurate. One idea Alus had was that it used the dark attribute to influence the mind. Alternatively...
For now, he put his hand against the wall to perceive the actual coordinates. He put the information in a space in his consciousness, and overlapped the coordinates with a mock Real Trace.
It was a brute force move, but mana would likely bounce back at the user if the spell was undone normally.
Soon, a lightning-like crack formed in the wall, and mana light leaked out from the gap. The next moment, the wall dispersed like mist as if it had been a hologram all along.
“—!!” Loki and Tesfia both had their breaths taken away by the sight behind it.
“... He sure is good at desecrating life.”
Facing them was a single woman sitting in a wheelchair. She had been put in white clothes similar to a straitjacket. Her hands were clasped together as if in prayer, and she was secured to the wheelchair.
Her closed eyes showed no reaction to Alus and the others.
When the spell that made up the wall completely disappeared, the strength left her neck and her head bent down, causing the wheelchair to shake from the recoil.
A fragment of wall stained red fell through a gap in her hands. At a closer look, the woman had scars from an operation on her neck.
“It must have been light attribute magic, using this woman’s blood as a catalyst.”
“Wha—?!”
Alus reached out with his hand to check on the woman, and found a thin tube on the back of her arm. It was probably used to slowly gather the blood used as a catalyst.
“So it’s a taboo,” Loki said with a sorrowful voice, looking with downhearted eyes at the woman.
“Is this person... dead?” Tesfia timidly asked.
“She’s still barely... no, she’s dead.”
Alus hesitated because—while she was still alive—it was already too late for her. Not only was she weakened, but she’d also been drained of blood, meaning she could no longer be saved. Having served as the source of a semi-permanent spell, now that it was gone she was forced to pay its price. That was how taboos worked.
He sympathized with the woman whose life had been used for the sole sake of concealing a door. It’d be better for her if she passed away quickly instead of regaining consciousness for her final moments. “Let’s move on, we’ve got to hurry.”
Beyond the woman was a straight path leading underground. It appeared to be slightly offset from the abandoned building.
As they arrived at a somewhat bright open space, they could smell the thick scent of drugs.
The space was large, and it was packed full of scientific equipment. The ceiling was high, and despite the machinery it seemed more like a storage room. White lighting illuminated the room, and while that was like a research facility, it gave off a desolate and cold impression.
“Alice!!”
The instant Tesfia looked towards the wall ahead of them, she saw a sight that made her scream out loud.
Amidst the devices, there was a clear area, and Alice was there. Her head drooped and two experiments, Dolls, were holding her up, which barely kept her standing. She seemed to be passed out, with the Dolls forcibly keeping her up. Tesfia’s voice didn’t seem to reach her.
There was someone next to Alice. A slim man wearing a lab coat. He had a syringe in his hand, and seemed to have just finished his work as he stepped away from Alice. The syringe was dyed a deep red color, which appeared to be blood.
Ignoring Alus and the others, the man held the syringe up in the light to admire it. His lips curled upwards, and he flicked at the syringe with his fingers.
With a self-satisfied smile, the man finally looked at the group through his glasses. Even Tesfia could tell from his atmosphere that this madman was Godma Barhong.
“I thought you’d show up, Alus Reigin... you fucking army dog.” He narrowed his eyes and stared at them, as he spoke out with an irritating voice.
“Let go of Alice!!” Succumbing to her fury, Tesfia drew her katana and made a beeline for Alice. Making her way past the equipment in the room, she was just one step away from Alice as Godma grinned at her reckless charge.
Tesfia had made a sudden move, but even that had been taken into account. At the very least, it served as a signal to start the battle.
“Sir Alus! There are four of them in the shadows.”
“It really was a trap. She served as a good decoy. I’ll deal with them.”
As Tesfia leapt upon the Dolls holding Alice captive, more Dolls hiding in the shadows of the machinery sprang their ambush from every direction just as she raised her katana to strike.
“—!!”
In the next instant, Alus, who’d made it to Tesfia’s side, grabbed hold of her collar and pulled her down to the floor, evading the ambush.
The Dolls around them numbered four in total. In their hands were thin swords.
The moment Alus identified this, the Dolls launched their attack at him in the same moment without any kind of signal.
“—!!”
Alus’ reaction was a moment late. He pulled Night Mist from his waist and slashed in a circle. Chains followed after his blade, and stood in the way of the Dolls’ swords. But he didn’t intend on knocking them away with the blade itself.
The next moment—the chains stopped in mid-air, their coordinates fixed in place by space manipulation.
It was some quick-wittedness on his part. At first, he was going to use a spell on the ground to lock the four Dolls in place. But having recognized the materials that the surface of the wall was made of, he changed the spell he was going to use in a split-second. That was the reason for the minor delay in his reaction.
Three of the Dolls had their swords blocked by the chains, but the fourth one slipped past due to Alus’ delayed reaction and sliced at his shoulder.
“How interesting,” Godma said, adjusting his glasses, having repositioned himself somewhere safe to observe the fight.
It was a bizarre sight, as the swords stuck in the chains’ rings couldn’t move, as if they had hit a wall.
Alus swung his short sword once more, cutting deeply into three of the Dolls.
Red blood stained their dark clothing an even darker color. But they still jumped backward to distance themselves as if nothing had happened, readying a new attack with their swords that they’d pulled out of the chains. Once again, their swords were pointed toward Alus.
Seeing Loki making her way towards him in the corner of his eyes, Alus casually threw Alice’s shortened naginata to Tesfia who was getting up.
By the time the sound of metal clanging against the floor rang out, Alus had already jumped over to one of the Dolls holding Alice and delivered a knee blow to its chest. The Dolls were tough, but he could feel and hear that the blow had an effect.
He then grabbed the Doll’s head, as the Doll started to lift up from where it had fallen down, and mercilessly slammed it against the floor.
At the same moment, Loki threw her knives at the Doll on the other side of Alice. The knives bore through the Doll’s shoulder. As its hand holding Alice eased in its grip, Loki spun in the air and unleashed a heel kick on top of the Doll’s head, knocking it down to the ground.
Without the Doll’s support, Alice began to crumple down, but Loki caught and supported her.
Tesfia was captivated by Alus’ and Loki’s movements, before returning to her senses and getting up, picking up the shortened naginata Alus had thrown her way. She ran to Alice. “Alice, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”
“... Fia?” The light finally returned to Alice’s eyes. “Why are you here, Fia?” She was still a little out of it, but didn’t appear to have any visible injuries. She spoke in a frail voice, but that was because her consciousness was muddled.
“We came to save you! I was so worried!”
“...!!” It was then that Alice finally realized that Alus and Loki were there too. “Al... and Loki...?” Still sitting down, Alice looked at Alus with a worried expression and somewhat vacant eyes.
“... You don’t seem to be hurt. Probably because you didn’t struggle, because you were unconscious.”
“... Yes.”
“I’m at fault for being duped so easily, but you shouldn’t go allowing yourself to be abducted so easily, either,” Alus said.
Alice instinctively flinched as Alus’ hand came down from above; she was sure that he would hit her. However, he only somewhat roughly put it on top of her head. “You can make up for it by helping out.”
Alus exchanged glances with Tesfia, prompting her to nod and return the naginata to its usual length.
The sound seemed to bring Alice fully back to her senses. Receiving the naginata from Tesfia, she took a deep breath and stood up. At the same time, her memories from before she’d passed out came back, and she bowed with a serious expression.
“Al... Loki dear... Thank you for coming to save me.”
“A-Al... I’m sorry too,” Tesfia said. She understood that she’d be dead if Alus hadn’t stepped in.
“Hmph, how about you say thanks before you apologize. And just so you know, that’s the last protective move you’ll get. You bothered to come too, so next time try to do a little better so you can get some experience, Fia.”
“Y-Yeah... thank you.” Tesfia nodded with a bitter smile. But there was some happiness mixed in with her expression. She... No, they were actually a little happy to be counted as useful to Alus in this fight. But that was something probably only she and Alice would understand. It was a difference in recognizing and being recognized.
After that back and forth, Loki called out to Alus. “Sir Alus, are you hurt?”
“I’m fine.” He’d taken a stab, but he’d moved his body so that only his robe got cut.
Loki still had a worried look on her face, but that was because she was wondering why Alus hadn’t been able to evade an attack on that level. She worried that he might be feeling off.
But Alus’ next words revealed why his reaction had been delayed. “The walls in this facility are made of a similar material to the training grounds at the Institute, but only more developed... they absorb mana.”
In other words, there was a restriction on what kind of spells he could use. The entire facility was probably affected. It was very possible that there was a device set up somewhere that buffered the mana that was absorbed.
Considering that the speed of mana being poured into a spell needed to outpace the speed at which the walls absorbed mana, magic would also be very ineffective in terms of mileage here as well. Tesfia’s Freeze might not even activate at all.
“That explains why it was so difficult to get any decent results from detection-type spells. He might be crazy, but he’s not stupid.”
“Of course not. Failure is an essential part of research. This is also intended to deal with any accidental rampant mana. It’s been designed to put an additional burden on any attributes that are not part of the elements.”
Godma’s grating voice interrupted Alus. He spread his arms wide and continued in an exaggerated fashion, “I’d expect nothing less from the one called the greatest Magicmaster. That was an interesting move you showed just now. Noticing the properties of these walls and expertly changing the spell you were about to use was very impressive.”
He’d started off in a sarcastic tone, but it quickly changed to an excited one, as he pointed with his finger. “But that aside... I’d like to have that back. It still has uses,” he casually said, indicating Alice.
Having Godma direct his attention at her, Alice’s shoulders trembled in response.
“Well, I’d be able to go on for a while with this, of course.” Godma had extracted the blood from the syringe and inserted it into a test tube.
It was clear that Godma had composure and confidence beneath his dramatic behavior. However, Alus forcibly put an end to this farce. “Sorry, but I don’t have time to play with you. There’s an order for your elimination.”
“Unfortunately, it is you who are going to die,” Godma quipped, and grinned again.
“Sir Alus, the total number of Dolls is...” Having caught on to Godma’s intentions, Loki spoke out, but before she could finish—
Godma put the test tube down on a large desk, and quickly pressed the button for the lights.
As the room grew brighter, hidden partitions of the walls came loose. Eventually the entirety of the large facility was lit up.
“—!!” Tesfia and Alice gasped.
“There’s 100, 150... No, almost 200!”
“...” Alus saw a number of Dolls that far exceeded the estimates, standing in orderly lines.
The three girls were astonished, but seeing Alus looking unfazed, Godma furrowed his brow, unamused. He began speaking as if trying to push them into the depths of despair. “That’s 200 exactly, little lady. I prefer to keep my numbers and data round. I doubt the military expected this kind of number, did they? Alus Reigin, you might be ranked No. 1, but not even you could take on more than 30 of these in a room like this where magic is restricted. Your chances of survival... are at zero percent!”
Godma’s body trembled, as he tried to hold his laughter in. That was due to a sense of superiority and pride born from the conviction that his research results far exceeded the power of the greatest Magicmaster.
“Is that so,” Alus said shortly, with no emotion in his voice.
He had not even the slightest amount of interest in Godma’s pride. There had never been anything to gain from human experiments to begin with.
When Alus first realized what Godma was researching, he’d thought of it as twisted, but justifiable, even thinking it had some meaning to it... but now he considered himself short-sighted for having thought even that.
Alus had no worries. He’d protect Tesfia, Alice and Loki.
His only cause for concern was the situation outside the facility. If this number of Dolls were to face off against the Magicmasters outside, where it was quantity over quality, the Magicmasters would get massacred. Moreover, darkness was the Dolls’ ally.
Alus whispered to Loki, telling her to contact command headquarters, and he got an immediate answer.
“I can’t connect to them. We’re being jammed.”
The encirclement might not even be complete—meaning that Alus had no choice but to lower their numbers.
“The military won’t amount to anything no matter how much they try. I’ll make my escape with leisure... I have no further need for this nation that can’t even appreciate my superb research.”
“You call that superb...” Alice said, not able to let those words slip by. She firmly grasped her AWR in her hands. “Your research could never be called superb. All you’ve done is brought misfortune upon people for the sake of your own desire. Something like that could never be accepted as research.”
“Alice...” Godma’s smile turned into a frown, and he coldly spoke while rubbing his neck. “Things don’t speak. You are nothing but a vessel that happened to contain the factor necessary for my research.”
“...!” There was no longer any trace left of the faintly kind impression he’d shown Alice when she was young. This was probably the true form of the insane researcher.
A crude grin appeared on Godma’s face as he snapped his fingers. A silhouette jumped out from the orderly line of Dolls.
“—!! Melissa!!”
Melissa didn’t react to Alice’s voice. Her eyes were empty and she walked forward with robotic movements. And of all the things she could do—she moved to Godma’s side.
Seeing Alice frozen in place and at a loss for words, Alus knitted his eyebrows. The young woman called Melissa had two knife AWRs at her waist. It was clear that her self was disintegrated like the other Dolls, and that her mind was under Godma’s control.
“Melissa, Melissa!!”
“...”
Alice’s sorrowful voice echoed through the room, but Melissa didn’t so much as move a muscle in response.
Perhaps in an attempt to work Alice up, Godma scooped up Melissa’s hair and moved it behind her ear. “She’s a failure from the early days, but I thought you’d remember this one. Alice, I believe this one should be good enough to shut you up. Melissa really was a miserable little thing. But even something like this, with no family and abandoned by the world, has an affinity to the light element and can be used like this. The world truly is full of mysteries.”
“What did you do to Melissa?!”
However, like a real machine, Melissa showed no reaction. The girl that Alice knew would never want to stay by Godma’s side, the man who’d stolen everything from her. She’d gone through such horrible things after all, and Alice believed she and Melissa had overcome it together.
“Hah, haha, you really don’t know anything. Even an onlooker could see the two of you got along abnormally well. It was like you were true sisters.”
Alice strengthened her grip on her AWR as Godma sneered at her. However, his next words made her grip weaken.
“You really are an amusing one, Alice. Melissa never even had a shred of love for you. She would have been fine with anyone. As long as she could play house, she’d settle for whoever happened to be there. Truly, how passionate could one be towards someone unrelated by blood? How disgusting,” Godma scornfully laughed at Alice.
And Alice raised her voice at him in response. “That’s not true! It can’t be! She was always by my side, protecting me! Melissa... Melissa is special...!” She couldn’t be anything else. Driven by her feelings, Alice spat out the words of how she truly felt.
She’d raised her voice so she could drown out the words she didn’t want to hear or accept. When she’d heard Godma’s voice, her heart had started hurting as dark memories resurfaced. She shouldn’t have had a clue of what he was talking about, but when the two had parted ways, Alice hadn’t heard what Melissa said at the end. The unease from that started to cast a dark cloud on her belief, and shook her mind.
Seeing Alice’s resistance, Godma triumphantly continued, as if looking down on her, “But it IS true. That’s why Melissa returned to me, desperate for a sense of family. Even after leaving my side, there was no place in the world for this thing. Did you know that she has a condition of being dependent on someone to the point of it being an abnormal attachment? In other words, an extreme fear of loneliness. Alice, you were only ever used to fill up Melissa’s loneliness. All I had to do was make some Dolls to help with that loneliness, in exchange for messing with her body.”
“No...”
“Melissa leaving my side and heading over to you was all accounted for. I purposefully showed her some footage of you before explaining your importance and my goals... though she seems to think I hadn’t noticed. Well, I figured that you’d gladly follow after her.”
“No, that’s...”
“I’m a cautious man. It was because she has those uncertain things called emotions that I constantly monitored her with the device I secretly implanted in her. And once I saw my chance after your heartfelt reunion, I flipped the switch. All so I could have you kidnapped without anyone getting in the way. And the two of you looked to be enjoying yourselves so much, too... feelings really are nothing but harmful. This thing was driven by emotion to the point of even trying to betray me, after all.”
With her heart beaten, Alice’s grip on her AWR slackened. The naginata fell to the floor with a dull sound.
“You scum!” Tesfia shouted out, her body tingling with anger as she ground her teeth.
That’s when Godma turned to face Tesfia and loudly mocked her. “Ha! What does some little brat know? I’ve managed to take these failures of Magicmasters that only had the affinity and make them this strong. They feel no pain or fear... they’ll far more effectively take care of Fiends than the likes of you ever will. You’ll never see any research contribute more to humanity than this.”
Her anger having reached its limit, Tesfia didn’t say another word. Instead, a torrent of mana flowed out from her body.
Alus, who’d been keeping quiet, finally retorted, “Hmph, those are some big words for research you haven’t even completed yet. I can’t imagine puppets without a sense of self could ever best humans. Isn’t that why you’re so desperate for Alice’s factor now, after all this time?”
“So you noticed. Don’t you think that was a good plan on my part? Nobody would imagine that a taboo spell would be used as a diversion. That said, I expected that abominable Institute to be destroyed. Well, not that it matters, Melissa did some fine work for me... haha. I wonder what kind of expression she’d make if she finds out that she’s the one who brought Alice back to me. Not that I’d give her sense of self back ever again.”
Godma trampled on something with his foot. It was a device that had fallen out of his lab coat pocket, and no one apart from him had any way of knowing this was the mental manipulation terminal used to return Melissa’s sense of self.
Seeing how proud Godma looked, Alus called out to him in a sarcastic tone, “You seem to be quite happy with yourself, but your separation of the element factor was just a coincidence, wasn’t it?”
Alice’s lack of factor wasn’t because Godma had tried to take it out. It was definitely the outcome of some kind of attempt, but the result had been more of an accident than anything. That’s why he hadn’t been able to repeat the success again and had come for Alice.
“You’re even destroying your experiments’ sense of self so that there’s no transplant rejection.”
“Hmph, and thanks to that I was able to create Magicmasters that are absolutely obedient.”
“You’re wrong there, they really are just dolls. Seeing how you’ve even cut off their nervous systems, there really was a rejection issue, wasn’t there?”
“...!!” Godma gritted his teeth.
Having battled one of the Dolls, Loki recalled how they moved seemingly unperturbed by their injuries. “What do you mean, Sir Alus?”
“It’s an impossible prospect to begin with. Mana is what dictates affinity, and that’s generated by the heart. That won’t change even if you overwrite the factor. There’s no way that there wouldn’t be a rejection when a body is forced to use a contrary attribute.”
A Magicmaster’s affinity was determined through their disposition, or what kind of information they had the most of inside their body. By forcibly overwriting that, it meant that, for example, despite the heart creating mana that leaned toward the fire attribute, it would immediately afterwards be forcefully converted toward an affinity to the light attribute.
There was no way that wouldn’t cause a massive strain on the body. It was a system that was unstable and chaotic.
“But in the end, it becomes possible to use light magic... though an extreme stress is put on the body because of the overwriting process. Just thinking of how many have been sacrificed for an insane experiment like this makes me sick.”
“They were a necessary price to pay. It’s only natural that the completion of research comes at a great cost,” Godma said proudly, with no trace of regret in his voice.
“It’s not completed. Your research is faulty. You shut off their nervous systems and destroyed their sense of self because you couldn’t control the rejection.”
“That’s true. I didn’t turn off their sensations for the sake of battle. It was simply needed to create element Magicmasters. And their minds needed to be limited so they wouldn’t recognize the rejection, and so that I could give them absolute orders.”
“Then...” Alus could understand why Alice was biting her lip in frustration.
“Indeed, these experiments are a fragile existence. Once the symptoms for transplant rejection appear, they don’t have long to live,” Godma confirmed coldly.
“No...!” Alice put a hand to her mouth, her shoulders shaking. Realizing how much Melissa was a victim of this evil made her eyes tear up. She looked ready to collapse at any moment, when Alus touched her shoulder.
“Alice, let me confirm something. Did she, Melissa, lack her conscious self like the other Dolls from the very beginning?”
Alice didn’t even need to think about the meaning behind the question, as she shook her head. “No, we were even talking at first, and she remembered about our past, too.”
If she had a sense of self, even if it was temporary, that made her different from the other experiments. Perhaps she’d avoided the collapse of self due to her having an affinity for the light attribute.
If Godma had destroyed the experiments’ sense of self to make them capable of using the light attribute, then it might not be too late for her. But Alus didn’t say this out loud.
“Either way, there are no problems. As long as I have you, Alice, I can elevate my experiments to the next level.” Godma shoved his face, with a sadistic smile plastered on it, toward Alice.
“Godma, it’s impossible for you... no, for anyone,” Alus said coldly.
“Oh, that’s not true. In reality, the nobility crawl to me to get their hands on my experiments... now, everyone can equally get their hands on power. Even the powerless can become useful. It truly is a joyful thing to be able to bring forth power surpassing that of high-level Magicmasters. Surely, there’s no pleasure that’s greater than this, right, Alus Reigin?”
That was the theme of Godma’s research. Anyways, now that Alus understood just about everything he wanted to about this man, he had nothing more he wanted to hear. Nor did he need to buy time.
One thing was clear—the two were decisively different.
Alus whispered to the three girls to close their eyes. As they were in a hostile situation, they were apprehensive about this... but when he ordered them to once more, they resigned themselves and closed their eyes. “Don’t open your eyes until I say so.”
He thrust his arms forward. A gloomy, dark mana began seeping out from his body for the first time in a while.
Soon it had taken shape, making it easily visible to the naked eye. It compressed itself, like smoke with a will of its own, gradually increasing in volume, coiling around itself in the air. The way it wriggled was too unnatural to call it mana.
The atmosphere changed, giving the three girls goosebumps. They were taken aback, but forced their eyes to remain shut. Closing one’s eyes before the enemy was abnormal, that much was clear. But the girls felt that it wasn’t the many Dolls that were the biggest threat, but Alus.
“W-What the hell is that...?!”
Godma had stayed behind to see just how Alus would struggle to survive, and it was only natural that he’d goggle at what Alus had done. Even a veteran Magicmaster wouldn’t be able to understand the phenomenon before him.
The dark mana around Alus began crawling like worms. They looked like jet-black serpents, and at the same time felt like unnatural existences—demons—given form.
Meanwhile, the eyes of the master that had brought them forth reflected nihility and the endless abyss. Before long, as if his entire consciousness had been transferred to the wriggling mana... he muttered its name.
“Devour, Gluttonous Predator ‹‹Gra Eater››”
The black mana immediately headed towards the crowds of Dolls.
The rounded end of it opened up into a creepy mouth, with mana pouring forth from there, which in turn opened up yet another mouth. In order to fulfill its desire of predation, it would continuously extend its body toward its prey until the poor victims were devoured.
“—!! Scatter!!” Godma shouted out at the same time as Alus’ mana was unleashed, and he ordered Melissa to protect him. Of course, by then it was too late.
The gigantic mouth swallowed the Dolls trying to evade its charge, one after another. Dolls that touched the black mana fell flat onto the floor. Their eyes rolled back, as if their souls had been drained from them.
Several of the attacked Dolls took to flight in an attempt to escape, but that too was pointless. Appendages extended out from the body of the black mana like branches, and when they touched the Dolls, the Dolls lost their strength and slammed onto the floor with the others. Even the ones that safely managed to escape were in no condition to counterattack.
“What the hell is going on?!” Godma struggled to understand the phenomenon that was happening before his eyes.
Its identity was Alus’ second type of mana. It had a mind of its own and it devoured the target’s mana. Indeed, it could devour a Magicmaster’s mana just by touching it.
The mana born from the heart was in a sense a person’s life force, and having all of that drained in an instant would leave anyone on the brink of death.
Normally, Alus could make the absorbed mana his own, but right now he was using this power for another purpose.
If he wanted to take out the Dolls he could have used another spell, too. However, he didn’t know how the mana-draining wall would influence the spell, and if he used too flashy of a spell underground there was a chance he might bring the ceiling down on them.
Moreover, this was a sort of mercy for the victims of Godma’s experiments, and out of consideration for the three girls. Making them witness body parts exploded in every direction, or burnt to cinders, or the entire room covered in blood would be too cruel.
While Alus showed no mercy to his enemies, he didn’t want the three girls with bright futures ahead of them to see that kind of scene. The reason he’d chosen Gra Eater was because he suspected it would be rather effective. It was the first time he’d used it on humans, but it seemed to work just fine.
That said, he had the girls close their eyes because he wasn’t sure this could be considered brutal or not, and because he couldn’t let anyone witness this ace up his sleeve.
“... Rest in peace.”
In the end, Gra Eater crashed into the wall and burst into pieces, once almost nothing was left moving in the room.
Despite its head being cracked open, the black serpents kept looking for more victims, until Alus used his full focus and managed to bring them under control. The black mana faded away and disappeared.
“It’s over. You can open your eyes now.”
“—!!!”
The three opened their eyes at his words, and immediately made the same expression.
When Godma and Alus had been talking, they could hear the Dolls moving. But after that, they didn’t hear any sounds of battle, only the quiet sounds of bodies collapsing onto the floor. The collapsed Dolls seemingly had no external wounds, looking as if they’d inhaled a poison gas that took their lives, their souls ripped away from them.
“What happened?!”
“...” If Alus could answer Tesfia’s hysterical question, he wouldn’t have had them close their eyes in the first place.
Loki realized that, so she suppressed her urge to ask the same question and held her tongue.
In total, about 100 Dolls had collapsed, around half of them.
“Did you kill them...?” Alice cautiously asked Alus from behind him. She wasn’t asking out of disgust or fear, just to confirm the truth.
Only Godma and Melissa seemed to have not been targeted by Gra Eater, as they were left unharmed.
He’d left Godma alive so that Alice could face her past and overcome it. Melissa happened to be next to him, leaving her alive... moreover, she was Alice’s friend, so Alus was hesitant to take her life. She was also clearly different from the other Dolls.
To Alus, any Doll, aside from Melissa who was capable of having a conversation with Alice, was just a puppet made of flesh. They’d been stripped of their emotions, and with no way of getting them back, the only way to save them was to end their lives.
Alus had seen Magicmasters who were brain-dead or suffered mortal injuries on the battlefield. That’s why... “Yeah, I killed them.” He didn’t bother to mince his words as he reported on the results.
“...” Alice didn’t touch on the matter any more than that. Seeing as how there didn’t seem to be any blood spilled, Alice had an idea of what kind of intentions Alus had when he’d made that choice.
“A... Aluuuss Reiiigiiin... What did you dooo?!” Godma screamed at Alus, spittle flying out of his mouth everywhere, his face distorted with fear. His shriek was a mix of fear from the attack he couldn’t understand, and a loss of composure from his overwhelming advantage having disappeared in an instant.
“You were talking about me not being able to handle 30, but not even 100 were a match for me,” Alus said, acting casual, but in reality the attack had taken a toll on him mentally.
He’d started his training on how to suppress his own mana for the sake of being able to control Gra Eater. This condensed form of mana with the desire to predate was like a primitive magical being with its own instincts and sense of self. That’s why it would devour anything with mana if it couldn’t be controlled, just like a Fiend.
Alus had spent quite a lot of time trying to control this double-edged sword, but at best he could only keep it from raging out of control for a short while. It wasn’t the kind of trump card that could be used two or three times a day.
Moreover, because it had a sense of self, it could get too powerful from absorbing all the mana and not only refuse to give it to Alus, but even oppose him.
Even now, it was converting the mana it absorbed into its own, making it overflow, which induced pain in the back of Alus’ eyes. That’s why the spell also had the restriction of having to wait for the absorbed mana to disperse before being usable again.
Alus forced away the exhaustion he was feeling through sheer willpower, and grinned as if he was trying to provoke Godma. “What’s the matter? Are you done playing with your Dolls?”
“Fuck!!” Godma grinded his teeth, his true nature on full display.
With Godma so shaken, around 60 or so of the Dolls that evaded Alus’ attack were now running rampant and trying to get outside, leaving only some 40 Dolls that he barely managed to control.
There’s still a lot of them.
Roughly 500 Magicmasters were outside, but Alus had heard that many of them lacked strength. So he wanted to hurry up after them, but there were still plenty of Dolls left here as well. It would be one thing if it were just one or two, but there was no way Loki would stand a chance against 40 of them.
“It’s not over yet! I can still kill you all!”
That was just a calculation based on the numbers. Even though Alus had proven that Godma’s calculations were pointless and overly optimistic, Godma foolishly clung on to them.
“Don’t let him use magic!”
Responding to Godma’s scream, the Dolls began heading towards Alus with robotic movements. “Kil... Kill...” “D-D-D-D-D... Die?” “All? Him... them...”
Tesfia and Alice were frightened by the unnatural bloodlust coming from the army of Dolls, but that only lasted for a moment.
“Here they come! Hesitation will get your friends killed, so brace yourselves!”
Steeling themselves, the two ran mana through their AWRs and nodded at Alus’ words.
After a short pause, Alus said one more thing. “Alice, you won’t be able to protect something without abandoning something else. Keep that to heart, because a choice will come to you eventually. And when that time comes, you might not end up being the only one to pay the price. But it’s not like there aren’t ways to protect everyone. So don’t look for the right answer. It might be hard, but you’ll have to pick your own path... Can you do that?”
Alice nodded at his admonishment. She’d braced herself since the battle began... so she could more or less understand what he was saying.
Saving Melissa meant putting her friends in danger. But Alice’s feelings were still pulling at her. That’s why Alus had told her to choose. That’s why he’d told her not to hesitate over the possibilities of her choice, and to steel herself to seize the outcome she desired.
“Tesfia, Alice, you two fight together. Don’t even think about moving on your own.”
Tesfia had the tendency to move on impulse, so Alus had said that as a warning, but also to make sure the two kept cool. Taking their combat capabilities into account, the two of them could likely only take on a single Doll at best. Attempts at using magic would be weakened by the walls, and they weren’t fighting the kind of opponent that would be so easily hit.
“Okay!!” Both girls responded in the affirmative.
“Loki, don’t stray too far away from those two.”
“Understood.”
The Dolls that had spread out had no waste in their movements. Alus figured that Godma wasn’t controlling everything they did, but instead that he gave them general instructions and left them to carry them out with some degree of autonomy. Perhaps that was why they weren’t moving as a unit, but each seemed to have a grasp of the others’ positions, giving them flexibility and preventing friendly fire. It was clear though that those movements weren’t due to experience, from looking at them.
“Don’t hate me for this,” Alus said. He wouldn’t be able to go as kindly on them as before.
In an instant, the color disappeared from his eyes, being replaced by a deep nihility. That was the signal of his mind switching into combat mode.
That said, it wasn’t like he was going into a frenzy. Cold, rational thinking dominated his mind, and his thoughts turned logical, choosing the most optimal way of eliminating the enemy.
Alus threw Night Mist at one of the Dolls coming at them, piercing its chest. The experiment fell forward, blood pooling on the floor.
That made one.
He pulled on the chain to take out the blade, and poured mana through the chain. Countless coordinates were fixed in space, replicating as many Night Mists through Real Trace. The mana-draining walls had an effect on the spell, but for a Magicmaster on Alus’ level it only slightly increased the amount of mana required.
Small distortions appeared around Alus. Suddenly, another Night Mist made from mana appeared from nowhere, its peculiar black blade on full display. And then another... and another...
They were magical copies of Night Mist without the chain. It was a composite spell used in parallel with space manipulation.
“‹‹Oboro Hien››”
The thirty or so black blades around Alus flew in straight lines toward their targets.
Perhaps due to a lack of a developed sense of self, or perhaps Godma’s instructions were late, but not a single Doll threw itself down to avoid the attack. Instead they readied their AWRs to block the blades.
However, each and every one of them were crushed by the sheer force of the black blades. The Dolls that had their chests pierced all lost their lives, despite having their nervous systems shut off.
Not paying any heed to their fallen allies, the remaining Dolls continued to close the distance to Alus.
“Amazing!” Tesfia said, seeing Alus’ attack.
Alice’s jaw dropped to the floor, and Loki being Loki was captivated by his excellence.
That’s when Alus saw the shadows that had broken through his line of defense in the corners of his eyes.
Turning in a ninety-degree angle, the Dolls charged at Alus from either side with short swords in their hands. The tips of their blades were accurately aimed at his neck, and they had him in a position that was in the center of their attacks.
In the moment before they hit, Alus dodged with the bare minimum of necessary movements, and the short swords passed in front of his nose.
The swords ended up clashing with each other right in front of him.
But in the next instant, Alus chopped at the Dolls’ wrists with a mana-infused fist, crushing them. Of course, he knew they wouldn’t flinch from something like that.
So he followed up by cutting the jugular of the Doll to his left, and kicking it in the abdomen. Its body bent in an unnatural shape, and moments later slammed into the ceiling with tremendous force. As a result, debris came falling down.
Not giving them time to recover, Alus swept the legs of the Doll on his right, unleashing a palm strike at its chest. Its body was sent flying in a straight line and slammed into another Doll.
As if chasing after the Doll sent flying, Night Mist pierced the chest of the Doll it crashed into.
However, the remaining Dolls didn’t so much as glance at their killed allies, and moved to attack Alus.
“‹‹Auto Chase››”
Suddenly, the Night Mist embedded in the chest of a Doll began shaking. Working itself free from where it had gouged into the now-dead Doll’s chest, it began chasing after the other Dolls targeting Alus, dragging the chain along with it.
The short sword stabbed them from behind one after the other, like a hunting dog attacking a pack of wolves that were chasing its hunter.
However, some of them didn’t seem to have been after Alus. A couple of them slipped past him on both sides.
“They’re coming your way,” Alus said to Alice and Tesfia, while dealing with the ones Night Mist hadn’t taken down.
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