Saikyou Mahoushi no Inton Keikaku (LN) - Volume 7 - Chapter 39

Thirty-Ninth Chapter 

What Stirs in the Depths 

The squad members all focused intently on that one point. 

Normally, it would be something to rejoice over. But they couldn’t help but feel how wrong it was for him to still be alive in the Outer World. 

Hearing his name from Lettie, Alus asked, “Duncal is Balmes’ Single, isn’t he?” 

“Yeah. I’ve only seen him a few times, but take a look at his chest.” 

At Lettie’s urging, Alus strained his eyes. She was pointing at the chest of the torn dark green coat he was wearing. The coat was somewhat similar to Alpha’s uniform, and on the chest were three dirtied medals. 

“They don’t look so good right now, but those are the medals you get in Balmes for your achievements. They’re the equivalent to Alpha’s Wilhelm Medal. And if he’s wearing those...” 

“It means he’s rather accomplished.” 

“Yeah. And a show-off.” 

He must have been planning to bring medals with him to go fight Fiends, but with that cynical comeback, Alus got a glimpse of Lettie’s impression of Duncal. He didn’t bother to press the point further, but it was likely that this was Duncal himself. The Wilhelm Medal was Alpha’s highest honor, awarded for great contributions in protecting the nation, reclaiming territory, and the like. 

Of course, both Alus and Lettie had received the decoration, an honor for any Magicmaster. But when it came to Balmes, its medals didn’t hold as much value as those of other nations. Balmes didn’t achieve much on a national level in the battle against Fiends, and they had somewhat of an inferiority complex, wanting to be seen as equal to the other nations. As a result, because their Singles were rumored to not be up to par, Balmes tended to award them with medals for even lesser contributions. 

“Then I guess we’ll have to confirm it,” Alus said. If it was a trap, the quickest way would be to throw in some bait and draw out their target. 

The problem was who to choose. It’s not like I can use Lettie’s squad members as sacrificial pawns. Alus quickly decided that it would be easier for he himself to go. 

First, he used a small magic bullet to probe for a response. With a soft sound, the small bullet flew straight into Duncal’s shoulder. But as expected, there was no reaction. 

Furrowing his brows, Alus looked over at Rinne as if to ask if he was really alive. She nodded back at him, her expression showing no doubt. 

“Fine... Just stay on guard,” he said to Lettie and Rinne, and boldly walked out of the bushes, making his way to Duncal. 

The squad watched with tense expressions. A normal survivor would have reacted to getting shot in some way. And with Rinne saying he was alive, it was very likely that this was a trap as Alus said. Some of them clenched their fists at the thought of the captain getting hurt. 

With his hand on the handle of his AWR hidden under his cloak, Alus approached Duncal. “I’m a Magicmaster from Alpha. I found you in the middle of an extermination mission. You’re Duncal, the commander of the first extermination force, is that correct?” 

But maybe Duncal didn’t hear him, as there was no reaction. 

Moving even closer, to the point where he could touch him if he really reached for it, Alus could hear a strange sound. 

He thought at first it was the sound of breathing. If it had been hoarse breathing, he could understand it. Duncal would be reacting to the bullet wound. But what he heard was a very deep and low sound. It was hard to imagine that coming from a weakened human. 

The next moment, Alus’ sharpened senses rang a warning bell. In the same moment as he drew his AWR— 

Duncal’s neck twisted unnaturally. His empty eyes turned to Alus. 

“—! Tsk!” 

His sunk-in eye sockets opened. But instead of eyeballs, there were pools of pitch-black liquid. The same liquid flowed from his mouth. The flow showed no signs of stopping, and Duncal’s mouth spread out into a crescent-shaped smile. 

Seeing that, Alus turned back and shouted, “I thought as much—everyone, get ready!” 

At the same time, Rinne also picked up on the abnormality. At the site of the battle where the squad members watched over Alus and Duncal was a massive tree, and roughly halfway up it, some thirty meters above them, something rose from the surface of the trunk. 

Having quickly started her search for the origin of that abnormality, Rinne could clearly see it with her magic eye. It was something that had appeared out of nowhere, from above them of all places. I messed up. To think it disguised itself as a tree... 

That something—a Fiend—revealed itself at the same time Alus shouted his warning, and jumped down. 

“Above us!!” Rinne shouted, and tried to nock an arrow onto her bow, but before she could, someone’s arm wrapped around her abdomen. 

“That’d be stupid. We’re getting out of the way first.” Lettie put her slender arms around Rinne and pulled her away. The other squad members also moved away from the Fiend’s landing spot in an experienced manner. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Alus could see a different Fiend attacking him. Whatever was disguised as Duncal’s body attacked him from behind. It appeared there were two enemies, but before Rinne could warn him, Alus spun around and cut off the head of the Fiend disguised as Duncal. 

Immediately after that, a strange pipe-like object rose from the ground and began to move. The end of the pipe attached itself to Duncal’s arm. And in an instant, Duncal’s headless body flew up into the air as if pulled by something. 

By that time, Duncal’s clothes and body had turned black. Duncal’s head was only part of the disguised Fiend, and losing it didn’t amount to much damage. The black mass that was once Duncal flew over to the right arm of the huge shadow that had landed next to Rinne and the others, changing shape as it did, and turning into a four-fingered hand. 

Rinne had mistakenly assumed there were two enemies, but the Fiend that had jumped down from above was the main body, with its right hand having been disguised as Duncal. 

If it wasn’t for the situation they were in, they would have stared in astonishment. Not only did it come with the ability to disguise itself, it was also intelligent enough to lay advanced traps. Hunting Fiends observed their prey—humans—made conjectures, and came up with effective ways to hunt them. 

The Fiend had transformed into a large, dark monkey, and it unleashed an attack on the surprised squad. Bringing its massive arms together, it swung down at them like a sledgehammer. With a roaring sound, the heavy blow cratered the ground and created a shockwave. 

Having dodged out of danger, Lettie, Rinne, and the rest of the squad recovered their postures and took a good look at the Fiend. 

It had a dark, cracked outer shell, and stood some five or six meters tall. It had a thick-looking chest from either muscles or some unknown organ, and an ominous swell at its abdomen. Its back was abnormally bent over, and its long arms were extremely well-developed, with the four fingers having sharp claws. 

The Fiend had the physique of an ape man. Its face was twisted, with its almond eyes wide open as if it couldn’t focus on anything. Its nose was a set of two simple holes. And inside its gaping mouth were two rows packed full of blade-like teeth that were stained dark red. 

Oddly enough, it was an ogre type, just like Alus and Lettie had talked about. It was a type of Fiend that was typically an A-class, known for their camaraderie and their tendency to form groups. It was also known as a Roscarg. For Magicmasters, it was a relatively familiar Fiend. 

“Allie, it might be an ogre after all. Well, let’s just go at it as usual! Obstruction and binding magic!!” 

Reacting to Lettie’s order, the squad swung into action. The ground rose up, and rock faces approached the Roscarg from all directions, obscuring it from view. It was sealed away tightly inside a giant rock box. On top of that, ten branches stretched down from trees that appeared from nowhere, and pierced the giant box. 

It was like the classic magic trick with a person in a box and swords that was popular several generations ago, and in addition, a translucent barrier fixed the wooden swords and rock box in place. 

“See how skilled they are?!” Lettie said to Rinne, as she released her and pointed to the rock box. 

A muffled explosion rang out, and the rock box began to turn red from being heated up. The walls were soon blown away, but the translucent barrier held back the shock and the heat and the rock fragments. 

This was the usual combination Lettie and her squad used to eliminate Fiends. To finish it off, Lettie cast Crimson Eyes to burn the target to nothingness. “Looks like we get a bonus this time, too,” she said, prompting Rinne to glance up and spot Alus, who’d jumped high into the air. 

As Alus descended, he created a massive sword of ice with his AWR in hand. Strangely enough, it was Tesfia’s specialty, Icicle Sword. It was a simple spell he’d concocted after seeing Tesfia’s spell construction. Though it was simple, it involved high-classed magic, making it not exactly easy to use. 

However, it was suitable for this situation. The damage would be focused on a single spot, so it wouldn’t harm any of the squad. But it wasn’t a spell engraved on Alus’ chain, so he couldn’t hold back its strength, nor could he make adjustments to the sculpture. Not that he had any intention of doing so anyways, against a Fiend. 

As a result, he produced a rugged sword, far from the beautiful craftsmanship that Tesfia could display, but it was more than enough for Alus, who put his focus on practicality. With its massive size, it was more than large and heavy enough to cut the Fiend in half, along with the box. 

Before long, the ice sword easily pierced through the enveloping barrier, crushing the rock box. 

As dirt and mana remnants were kicked up into the air, Alus used the recoil of the massive sword crashing into the ground to recover his posture and land soundlessly next to Lettie and Rinne. 

“Did you notice...?” 

Lettie answered Alus in the affirmative, with a bitter tone, “Of course I did. How long do you think I’ve been a Magicmaster? Looks like it’s not just stupidly strong, but smart too. Not to mention... that disgusting mana leaking out of its body had contrary qualities. It’s like some kinda patchwork.” 

Rinne said, “No, the word patchwork isn’t enough to describe the mana I sensed. That’s no normal Roscarg! It has a high intellect, can split up its body, control the individual parts, and also disguise itself. Not to mention how much mana it has. Its base form might have been an ogre, but this isn’t normal, even for a Variant.” 

“Yeah, I can sense it too. The Devourer we’re after should be a Variant... but this thing is too unnatural,” Alus said. 

Fiends could take on all sorts of natures depending on the mana they absorbed. As a result, Variants would sometimes be born, but if they took in too much mana or if they took in more mana information than they could process, even their appearance would transform. It was a form of evolution that turned the body into a suitable vessel for the mana it contained. 

Conversely, it meant that a Fiend couldn’t avoid transforming if it took in more mana than its body could handle. Yet the Fiend before them maintained its form as a Roscarg, despite its complex and unusual mana. That gave Alus and the others a real sense of discomfort. 

“—!! It’s coming!” Rinne picked up on the change the quickest and warned the others. Upon a closer look, she saw a crack running along the ice sword that pierced the rock box. 

“I expected as much,” Alus said. “Don’t let your guards down... We’re treating this as an S-class!” 

The ground shook. The tip of the ice sword disintegrated, making the sword lean over as the glowing mana remnants dispersed. 

This strange torrent of mana bothers me. It seems the construction strength of Icicle Sword can be interfered with. The faint mana from when Lettie had cast Crimson Eyes could be sensed more clearly now. The Fiend had likely either unleashed its mana to block it, or had used some kind of spell. 

The next moment—dozens of thin arms attacked from underground. 

“—Damn monster!” Alus had had a bad feeling about this ever since he’d seen the right arm change shape so freely. It was impossible for a normal Roscarg. It was like its body was made out of black sludge... the Fiend had probably transformed into something else entirely, its body included. 

While dodging the countless arms, Alus cut them off with his knife, but each time he did so, the thing would bubble and sprout out another arm with four fingers. There was no end to it no matter how many arms he cut. 

Alus came to that realization as he kicked off from a tree, spinning his body around to dodge all of the arms reaching out to him. From what he could see, the squad was also struggling to deal with the countless arms. 

Lettie was burning the arms, along with the ground itself, but they weren’t reducing in number at all. Overwhelmed, even she was starting to slowly fall back. 

It wasn’t clear if it was some kind of extreme regeneration or division, but it was surely the result of an abnormal evolution. It was completely unheard of for a normal Variant to turn out like that. And Rinne, who lacked experience in fighting Fiends, probably wasn’t going to be able to keep up. 

Before anyone died, Alus shouted out, “Jump!” Grabbing hold of his AWR’s chain, he spun around with Night Mist, slashing all of the black arms around him in a circle, and then immediately reined it in. Night Mist’s blade stabbed into the ground, as if making to pull Alus in after it. 

Of course, Alus wasn’t pulled in. At the same time that it hit the ground, Alus stepped on the handle and pushed it deeper in. The squad members all realized what he was intending to do, and jumped high up to avoid touching the ground. 

“‹‹Niflheim››” 

With the AWR at its center, the scenery rapidly turned into a world of ice. Only frozen statues of the black arms remained, like some kind of avant-garde art sculpture. 

Alus planned on using one of his standard combinations, crushing the Fiend with Railpine, but there was no need for that. The squad members who jumped up realized what he was doing, and unleashed spells at full force ahead of him to crush the frozen arms. 

That’s an elite squad for you. They were all skilled Magicmasters, and already knew about the properties of the expert-level spell Niflheim. That’s how they were so quick to follow up on it. 

This was a refreshing feeling for Alus, who’d primarily been fighting alone. This way he’d be able to save his own mana and avoid all kinds of extra work. “Change to delta formation.” 

Delta formation was one of the military’s basic formations. It was typically used by a company or more, and took on the form of a triangle. It worked well for retreating battles and for protecting VIPs. 

For example, if there was a risk of the entire squad being wiped out, the highest-ranking person would be put in the rear to keep the damage to a bare minimum. And the members at the end of the triangle would serve as the rear guard, buying as much time as possible. When guarding someone, that person would end up in the back of the pack. 

In this case, they clearly weren’t retreating. In other words, they were to protect their charge, and the squad members nodded in midair before rushing to take positions when they landed. As Alus had wanted, they formed a wall with Rinne in the rear. 

“Good. Sajik, Mujir, you’re hunting this thing with me and Lettie.” 

“Finally, the time to show my stuff has come!” Sajik rolled up his sleeves and flashed a fearless smile. From the looks of it, he was a powerful veteran, but to Alus, he seemed to project more style than substance. 

“Don’t mess it up, Sajik. We’re going to support them to keep it from getting past us.” Mujir had accurately grasped Alus’ intention and reminded Sajik of his job. 

“You got it!” Sajik replied with gusto, but Alus couldn’t help but smile wryly, seeing as he was still letting his mana flow freely. Sajik’s AWRs were boorish gauntlets he wore over his fists, while Mujir’s were silver tonfas with pointed ends. 

“It’s a Variant Roscarg, but I more or less get its nature. So let’s wrap this up quick.” Lettie was stroking her thin bracelet, while moving her wrist around to loosen it up. 

“What’s that? Did you have an AWR like that?” Alus asked, since it wasn’t the usual rings she used. 

“Hee hee, I’m not really good at group battles, so I use something like this instead.” At Lettie’s laugh, all four of them suddenly focused on a point in front of them. 

The next moment, the frozen ground rose up, shattering the thin wall of ice, as the Roscarg revealed itself. 

Its sludge-like body had been hiding underground, but with the numerous hands that had sprouted out of its two arms having been frozen, it had come out in a fit of anger. Now it had no arms, apparently having torn them off for getting in the way. 

Despite its arms being cut off, it showed no signs of anguish. But without its arms, its balance was shot and it staggered as it moved, making for an almost laughable sight. 

“What’s with that? Does it think it can fight like that?” Lettie held back a snicker. 

The area around the lost arms began to bubble. And in the next moment it rippled, as the Fiend’s sludge-like body welled up and new arms were regenerated. 

“It really does look like a monster when you see it do that... how disgusting,” Lettie said, wrinkling her nose. 

“Cut the chatter and let’s get to work. We don’t have much time, either.” Alus readied Night Mist, but was stopped by Lettie’s hand on his arm. 

“I’ll go first. It’d be faster to see this with your own eyes... The rest of you get that too?” On Lettie’s arm was a bracelet emitting a faint platinum light. It appeared to be engraved with a minimal mana formula. Alus didn’t know what metal it was made of. 

Following that, Lettie thrust forth both hands, and the rings on her thumb and middle finger began glowing brightly. Sparks flew, and in the next moment there was a large explosion around the Roscarg’s chest. 

It was a point-blank attack from Crimson Eyes. Even if it had a monstrous amount of stamina, it shouldn’t be able to get out of this in one piece. 

Of course, Crimson Eyes being a wide area attack spell, the explosion ran the risk of hurting allies. 

Despite the explosion hitting the Fiend’s chest, the shockwave and flames were approaching Alus and the others... but nobody who called himself a Single would fail to take that into account. Assuming Lettie had a plan, Alus simply looked on. 

In a fraction of a second—the explosion stopped its expansion. And instead, it started shrinking back to its origin point as if it were reversing through time. 

The body of the Fiend at the center of the explosion was burned, with a portion being carbonized, and an unpleasant smell blew towards them with a scorching hot wind. 

The spell’s construct is being rewound... which means... “Meteor metal, huh.” 

“That’s my Allie for you! I guess I don’t need to explain,” Lettie said, exhaling. 

“Yeah, there’re some details I’d like to ask about, but I more or less understand after seeing that.” The AWR on her bracelet reversed the magic formula after a spell was cast, rather than disassembling it. With that, the range of the spell could be controlled, which prevented allies from getting caught up in the spell. This was only made possible because it was meteor metal. 

“But it seems it wasn’t enough to fatally damage it.” From what Alus could see, the Fiend was hurt, but the damage wasn’t decisive. 

“The coordinate designation is pretty severe, but I guess that’s not an excuse...?” Lettie scratched her cheek, but from what Alus could tell, that wasn’t the essence of it. She might have called the designation severe, but she hadn’t made any mistakes. 

The reason probably lay with the overwhelming amounts of mana within the Fiend. Crimson Eyes used a special formula to designate coordinates inside of the target to explode. Those coordinates were added in a separate part from the construction process. 

In other words, it was a spell that was activated by putting the construction of the spell itself together with the coordinate designation. In a sense, it was a fusion of two spells. Because of that characteristic, the coordinate information of the target was important for the effective use of the spell, but... 

“It has the ability to harden its body... and it was crushed by its overwhelming mana,” Alus noted. In a space that was filled with someone else’s mana, the constructions were much more rigid, and the more dense the mana was, the more it interfered with others’ spells. 

As Lettie had attempted to set the coordinates of Crimson Eyes inside of the Fiend, the abnormal amount of mana inside of it had thrown the coordinate designation off. As a result, Lettie’s spell hadn’t gone off deep within the Fiend as intended, but rather near its skin, not dealing any effective damage to it. 

However, it seemed the spell had still exploded somewhat inside of the Fiend, as a portion of its chest had burst open. Its posture was also slightly off-balance, which stopped its movements for a moment. But even though black smoke was rising from its wound, it had already begun regenerating. 

Suddenly, Sajik clanked the gauntlets covering his arms together. When he did, electric sparks shot out, creating a field, which he used to cover his fists with electricity. 

At the same time, Mujir readied his tonfa AWRs, and signaled Sajik with his eyes. 

Deciding to launch a second attack before the injury could be fully healed, they took off, and in an instant they split to the left and to the right, closing in fast. 

“—!!” As Sajik took quick strides forward, a massive red eyeball-like globe appeared before him. Immediately identifying what it was, he crossed his gauntlets in front of his face to protect himself. 

And moments later the red globe exploded without warning. It created red flames and black smoke, covering his entire surroundings in a second. At the same time, the shockwave easily sent Sajik’s massive frame flying. 

Alus was the first to realize what had happened. It was a spell that the Fiend had used. But it wasn’t like Sajik had let his guard down either. It was simply that Fiends showed next to no signs when they used magic, because they used their bodies to fulfill the same functions as AWRs. They could do spells without constructing magic formulas. 

In fact, in the sense that they could employ spells freely without AWRs, Fiends were closer to achieving perfected magic. The reason humanity had been able to create attack spells was because they’d researched what Fiends did, and turned it into weapons they could use. Fiends were the original masters of magic. 

Sajik had been sent flying, but thanks to his quick reflexes, he’d protected himself from the worst of it. 

Alus clicked his tongue in frustration. “Hey, Lettie. It’s stealing your moves.” 

“Looks like it... It’s adapting magic way too fast.” Surprisingly enough, the spell Sajik had been hit by was the same Crimson Eyes that Lettie had used. Fortunately, it hadn’t set its coordinates as accurately as Lettie had, making its activation incomplete, which prevented the mimicked spell from exhibiting full power. 

As smoke rose from its mouth, the Roscarg’s lips distorted into what looked like a twisted smile. If this Fiend had feelings, it was surely smiling sadistically at being able to lord its power over the weak. Even as it did, its cells were regrowing at a visible pace, flesh covering its wounded chest before finally hardening over. 

The Roscarg’s jaw shook as it opened its mouth wide. It roared with scorn at the weak, boasting of its fully recovered body. With the intent of enjoying the hunt, the Fiend attempted to slowly move towards Alus and the others... but it couldn’t budge. 

“‹‹Restriction Marsh››” 

Mujir had cast a spell. It was a limiting type spell that converted an area into a marsh, which was especially effective against large opponents. He’d glanced over when Sajik was getting blown away, but understood what he had to do and fulfilled his mission without hesitation. 

With its legs caught in the terrain, the Roscarg’s body began to tilt over. Because of its weight, it slowly sank into the ground. 

Seeing the Fiend stopped in its tracks, Sajik ran over and leapt over the magical marshland. Faint smoke still rose from his body, but he was more or less fine, as one might expect from him. 

In front of the Roscarg’s face, Sajik swung down his fists, which were draped in lightning. 

“Begone—‹‹Thunderbolt Fist››” 

The thunderbolt let out a monstrous sound, and Sajik also shouted at the same time. His fists had the power to pulverize boulders... yet despite hitting the human equivalent of the solar plexus, his fists bounced off of the Fiend like he’d hit solid rock. 

He clicked his tongue, kicking off from the Fiend’s chest, and using the recoil to retreat backward. “It’s harder than I thought!” he said with irritation, though seeing how he’d managed to shatter its outer shell again, Alus muttered words of admiration. 

Sajik’s affinity was for lightning, but his specialty was physical enhancement. He could even use Force, as he’d shown when jumping, so he was rather dexterous despite his rugged appearance. 

Meanwhile, Mujir was a pretty interesting Magicmaster. Alus had wondered why he was part of this elite squad when he first saw his details, but he understood after seeing his movements just now. 

Mujir had an affinity for water and for earth. There were quite a few capable Magicmasters that could use two attributes. But just being able to use them wasn’t worth much in actual combat. Mediocre to the lower end of the higher ranks in terms of results was usually as good as they got. 

Not only was Mujir skilled, but he was blessed with talent as well. He could combine liquids to create acids or poisons. And by combining the water and earth attributes—while others before him could create marshlands, in Alus’ eyes, his was a rare existence. 

He’d expected Lettie’s right-hand men to have a trick or two up their sleeves, but their combination was rather unexpected. They were both Double Digits, so these probably weren’t the only tricks they had, but at the moment all they needed to do was to stall the Fiend. 

The Roscarg, bent backwards from Sajik’s fists, quickly righted itself. Fury burned in its eyes, its mouth wide open, and it faced the first thing to enter its sight, which was Alus. 

“—!!” By the time Alus saw light deep in its mouth, it was already flying towards him at high speed. In a moment, he threw his hand forward and raised five layers of translucent anti-magic barriers along the line of its travel. 

The light was blindingly bright. This was most likely a high-energy ray of light. The ray quickly reached the barriers, which stopped it, dispersing it into particles. 

An ear-splittingly loud noise rang out as the ray grew weaker, and eventually disappeared. 

Considering his position, if Alus had dodged it, the ray could have turned Rinne and the others into ash. Though it appeared that three of the five barriers Alus threw up had been pierced. 

This was the most troublesome part of battling a dangerous Fiend. The ray of light wasn’t so much magic as it was mana converted into heat and expelled. So missing any signs of attack would put one at a severe disadvantage. One needed to be constantly aware of the flow of mana around a Fiend, and deal immediately with any changes. 

Taking into account all of the moves and abilities of the Fiends he’d fought, Alus muttered, “This is it.” 

Rinne, behind him, nodded, and Lettie agreed as well. “It’s got far greater specs than normal Variants. This has gotta be that Devourer, huh?” 

“Yeah. Seeing the way its body has changed, how quickly it adapts to magic, and most of all—this amount of mana. There’s still something that bothers me, though...” 

A Roscarg’s body was too small of a vessel for the amount of mana and density of information this one had. To be honest, this was the biggest question on Alus’ mind, but fortunately it seemed the Devourer hadn’t fully absorbed all of the mana it had taken in. 

“It’s now or never. Our magic might get stolen, so we need to finish this fast.” 

“Gotcha!!” Lettie’s answer felt lacking in sincerity, but the mana she was exuding made it clear she was in her serious combat mode. When it came to Singles, they had an almost monstrous amount of mana themselves, regardless of what spells they knew. The dense amounts of mana being emitted had a glow that could practically be seen with the naked eye, and Lettie’s was filled with her fighting spirit. 

Alus’ own mana had no such glow, and was closer to a freezing cold. Some Magicmasters even got shivers from what felt like an infinite amount of mana welling up from a bottomless abyss. 

Mana contained a lot of information. Be it emotions, temperament, or disposition, in a sense it was a direct projection of the Magicmaster. That’s why void was the only expression that could describe the mana Alus wielded. It was mana that completely lacked anything one would expect from a human. 

“You guys are backup. We’ll clean this up.” 

“Understood!” 

“Got it!” 

Mujir saluted Alus by reflex, and Sajik nodded firmly. Both were breaking out in a cold sweat from the mana Lettie and Alus were clad in. 

And it wasn’t just on the surface, either... a quick glance at that mana was enough to tell that these two Singles had vast amounts of power. 

“They’re terrifying people,” Mujir unconsciously blurted out, but he couldn’t help himself. He and Sajik were both Doubles, so there really shouldn’t be such a big gap between them. But when faced with this overwhelming difference in strength, what could they do...? 

Seeing Mujir stiffen up, Sajik casually called out to him, “Don’t space out, Mujir!” 

“I don’t need you telling me that. I’ll hit any openings perfectly so as not to get in their way.” 

Before long, Alus’ and Lettie’s combination attack began. The extreme atmosphere around them kept the tense squad members from doing anything. An intense close combat fight between Single Digit Magicmasters and the Fiend was taking place before them. 

“You say that, but how are we gonna do anything like this?” Sajik asked, admiring the two, and Mujir completely agreed. 

“I thought you specialized in close combat,” Mujir said. “In fact, that’s the only thing you got going for you, so why don’t you go help them out?” 

“Don’t be stupid. I fall behind when coordinating with the captain. And I can’t believe that now she’s the one who looks like she’s falling behind. I’d just get in the way if I went in there,” Sajik retorted. 

That said, it was their job to support the Singles if there was an opening. So they kept their eyes fixed on the target and on full alert, even as they exchanged insults. 

Several minutes had passed since Alus and Lettie began fighting the Roscarg. If they took the Fiend’s attack head on, it would be fatal, but neither acted like they were in danger. 

Lettie was unarmed aside from her rings, but whenever she saw an opening she’d damage the Fiend’s body and outer shell through strikes and small explosions. 

Meanwhile, Alus was wielding his Night Mist, and using a mana blade on top of it to extend its reach to tear apart the enemy’s shell. 

Despite that, the Fiend’s regenerative strength was frightening. The damage it took healed up in the blink of an eye. 

“... A Devourer’s a terrifying thing. Not only is its shell stupidly hard, but if it’s going to wildly use magic like that, even those two will have a hard time attacking it,” Mujir said. 

“... I don’t even want to think about how many Magicmasters that thing’s eaten,” Sajik replied. 

Just as Lettie was about to drive her fist into the Fiend, its shell sprouted thorns to attack her. She’d have preferred to use an explosion to blow them away, but she knew that would only end up in a draw at best. 

Instead, the two took it a step further. Before Lettie was impaled on the thorns, Alus grabbed her hand and pulled her over to him. 

Changing her posture in midair, Lettie used the centrifugal force to spin around Alus, and with that momentum she drove a powerful kick into the Roscarg’s flank. 

She used the recoil to get away, and as her foot left its body, the impact location exploded, pushing the Fiend’s body backwards. 

But even that damage healed after a mere moment. As they expected, the Fiend’s regenerative powers were too strong for regular attacks. It seemed it also picked up resistance for every time it healed, as Lettie’s explosions were becoming less effective over time. 

“There’s no end to this,” Lettie complained. 

“I’ve cut off its arms at least a dozen times. It’ll be a war of attrition at this rate.” 

The two didn’t even get a break to speak, as the Fiend angrily roared and rushed towards Lettie. The rough breaths coming from its nose weren’t a sign of exhaustion, but visible frustration. 

Typically, the only effective way to eliminate a Fiend was to destroy its core. Ever since they’d encountered it, Rinne had been searching for the core that was supposed to be inside its body. And yet, even with her abilities, its location remained hidden. Its form was indeterminate to begin with, and its body was filled with dense mana, getting in the way of detection. 

Alus and Lettie were both striking with the intent of destroying that core, but with its location obscured, a certain hypothesis occurred to them. 

“It might be the type that can freely move the core around its body,” Alus said. 

“Or it might be somewhere way underneath. Either way, we haven’t dealt any damage that really goes deep.” 

“That’s true. So, who goes first?” 

Realizing Alus’ intentions, Lettie grinned. “I wouldn’t mind going,” she said, with an out-of-place mischievous look. 

Seeing that, Alus sighed. She really loved being flashy. At any rate—After fighting it, the only thing I’d call worthy of an S-class is its amount of mana. Though that regeneration deserves a special mention... To be honest, he felt this assessment was somehow incomplete, though. 

Meanwhile, the Roscarg suddenly took a big step forward, slamming its foot down. Sharp thorns of ice the size of swords were created by its foot, spreading out at a frightening speed. 

Alus took note of them, but immediately understood that they weren’t all that powerful. At the very least, they were at a far smaller scale than he’d anticipated when he’d first heard he’d be going up against a Devourer. 

For the time being, Alus and Lettie quickly reacted to the approaching thorns of ice. Lettie jumped back, leaving Alus behind. He didn’t show any signs of dodging, as the chain from his AWR bundled up into a clump and floated in front of him. 

“‹‹Railpine››” 

On top of that, he casually swung his AWR. The shockwave created by the swing flew towards the ice thorns. This was pretty much a side effect of the original spell that was meant to target a wide area. 

But thanks to Alus’ precise control, he used only a portion of its effect, unleashing it as a wave. Even though he was holding back his strength, it easily broke through the approaching ice. 

The sound of breaking glass rang out. Soon it could no longer maintain its physical form, and the ice covering the area disappeared. 

The spell the Fiend had cast was yet another imitation... an inferior version of Niflheim. It had managed to take in a lot of mana information, but it wasn’t able to properly construct the spell. A Fiend’s perfect magic attempting to replicate a human’s imperfect magic resulted in a degraded and thus inferior form of it. 

The shards of ice hailed down in front of Alus, turning into mana remnants. Swinging Night Mist, he rushed through the falling light of mana remnants, an instant later reaching the Roscarg. His AWR, still in midswing, cut into the Roscarg’s thick chest. 

A moment later, the Roscarg swung its massive arm in response, but Alus used his chain to wrap around and constrict it. It tried to use its other arm to crush him, but Alus’ chain quickly wrapped around that arm as well, fixing it in place behind its back. 

Deprived of its freedom, the more the Fiend struggled to break free, the deeper the chain dug into it. As it violently shook its body, unsettling green blood spilled from the wound in its chest. 

With the Roscarg bound, Lettie put her hand on Alus’ shoulder and jumped over him. “This is gonna get a little hot.” Using mana focused in her finger, she drew characters in the air, and unleashed them at the Roscarg’s chest. As she did, the mark was burned into its chest like a brand. 

Meanwhile, having carved his blade into the Roscarg, Alus’ sense that something was off grew even stronger. No matter how much mana a Fiend might have, it would consume some of it whenever it used magic. But he felt something strange was happening in that process. 

More specifically, there was a fraction of a second’s delay between when mana was consumed and when it used magic. If one assumed there was an additional step in the construction process, though, it would make more sense. However, he didn’t know why that would be. 

Variants were already almost beyond human understanding, but Alus’ instincts told him there was something even more unsettling about this enemy. It was like he wasn’t fighting the Roscarg in front of him, but something unknown beyond it. 

That doubt only lasted for a moment. Shaking the thoughts off, he called out to Lettie. “Think you can do it?” 

“Sure thing!” 

Contrary to Lettie’s cheerful tone, her expression when she glanced over her shoulder was serious. The next moment, her eyes began to glow as dense mana welled up. Her braid danced in the air and she put her hands together. How many seconds can I restrain it for...? 

Realizing what Lettie was going to do, Alus undid the chains and switched to space manipulation magic to restrain the Roscarg instead. He shifted his AWR to his other hand, and held out his right hand as if holding something. 

As if linked to his actions, an invisible force squeezed the Roscarg’s arms to its body, like an unseen giant hand holding the Roscarg down. The Roscarg was putting up a fierce struggle, so Alus put more strength into his hand. 

Next to him, Lettie constructed her spell with a smooth voice. Her face was expressionless due to the intense focus needed to put together the strongest class of spell she could use. 

“Great Spirit of Blue Flames, through the flames of hell, return all that is named to ash...” Her voice was clear and powerful, each word reverberating with strength and firmly building up the spell. 

Finally she wrapped up the spell by incanting the trigger. “Make their body tremble in the fires of the end...!!” 

“—Oh shit!!” Hearing the incantation, Sajik realized what spell Lettie was going to use, and a terrified expression appeared on his face. 

Mujir also tensed up, but both relaxed as Alus put up a barrier in front of them. Rinne and the other squad members guarding her all put up barriers of their own, with Alus’ barrier covering them completely. 

In the next instant, six ferociously burning azure flames appeared like will o’ wisps around Lettie. All of the rings on Lettie’s fingers glowed, her palms touching one another were sweaty, and the six flames in a half-circle around her were wavering in the wind. They were like the spirits of the dead coming out of the underworld. 

“‹‹Kagatsuchi››” 

The Lost Spell on the Roscarg’s chest rose up like a target, with sparks scattering about. 

“One...” As if responding to her voice, one of the will o’ wisps flared up and then disappeared. At the same time, a blue flame rose up from the Lost Spell, covering the huge body. 

“Two... three...” The blue flame flared up even more, looking like the temperature was rising. 

But strangely enough, the fire didn’t spread elsewhere. It targeted only the Roscarg, a magic flame that existed solely to burn it to ash. 

After seeing it through to the end, Alus released his clenched hand and removed the restraints from the Roscarg. His hand was sweating from having put so much force into it, but there was no point in binding it anymore. 

The Roscarg, embraced by the flames, closed its eyes and painfully put its hands over its face. It shrank back as if trying to escape the fire, but that was impossible. Eventually, the blue flames wrapped around its body like a snake. 

“It’s no use. There’s no escaping that flame.” Like Lettie said, the engraved Lost Spell was the origin of the flame. It was as if the Fiend’s body itself was the firewood that fueled the fire. And the blue flame wouldn’t go out until all six will o’ wisps had disappeared. 

“Four... five...” 

A pillar of fire extended into the sky, and the heated atmosphere became a current that mixed in with the surrounding air and soon turned into a storm. 

The Fiend’s body began to dissolve and gradually turned red. Its arm was already hanging down and carbonized, and each time the flames flared up, more dripped off. But no matter how carbonized it got, it never reached the ground. It turned to dust and disappeared. Soon, blue flames even rose from the Fiend’s lifeless eyes. 

With a deep breath, Lettie released her clasped hands, reaching one hand forward. 

“And... six!” 

Blue flames burst out from inside of the Roscarg, and it slumped to its knees like a ragdoll. Both arms had already been burned to cinders. The impact from collapsing to its knees knocked odd ends off of its blackened body. It just barely maintained its original form, likely due to its S-class outer shell. 

“Did that get it?!” A bead of sweat ran down Lettie’s chin, and of course it would. Kagatsuchi had severe conditions to be met before it could be cast, but it had exceptional power among the expert level spells. And to make up for that, it cost just as much in mana. Its power alone rivaled even vertex magic. 

After all, in order to activate a spell, she needed to come in contact with the target’s body and engrave a complex magic formula. Because of that, she couldn’t afford to waste any mana, and was left practically defenseless when casting it. 

“I’m not so sure... you should step back a little. Those two can finish up for you,” Alus said. 

“Sorry ’bout that. But I can’t imagine that wouldn’t kill it.” 

“That would be nice... but considering what we’re up against, it’s hard to tell.” 

“Good work out there, Captain,” Mujir said. “Leave the cleanup to us.” 

Without waiting for Alus to finish, Sajik and Mujir stepped up, Mujir with his tonfas ready and Sajik clanking his gauntlets together. 

“But if you’re going to do something like that, could you give us a warning next time?” Sajik complained. 

“You knew that you wouldn’t get hurt, right?” Lettie asked. 

“Of course! But even if the flames don’t touch us, the heat’s enough to give us a burn. Unlike you and Sir Alus, we can’t use mana control alone to protect us from the heat,” Mujir told her. 

Calling them unskilled would be cruel. It was common for mana control to be low on the list of priorities for most Magicmasters, so unless they were Singles, their skills would be inferior. 

“Oh well, it’s been a while since I last used it, so I kinda forgot, ha ha ha.” 

Sajik and Mujir stared at her with some resentment, but soon shrugged in resignation. “Fortunately, nobody’s hurt, so hurry up and get some rest,” Sajik said, pointing behind himself with his thumb. 

Just after Lettie walked away and started wiping her sweat on her sleeve— 

“Sir Alus!! It’s not over yet!” Rinne’s panicked voice immediately froze the relaxed atmosphere. 

With tense expressions, they all stared at the burnt Roscarg’s body. Even Lettie stiffened up as she looked on in disbelief. 

There was no way it could still move after that. Its body had been turned to ash. And even if it was a Fiend, its body was no longer capable of being a vessel for mana. It shouldn’t be anything other than ‘what was once a Fiend.’ 

Yet everyone could see the inexplicable mystery taking place before them. They rejected what was happening in front of them, their bodies frozen in place. 

The Roscarg’s body, which shouldn’t even have been able to stand, had made its move... it grew four arms of ice from the edge of its body. Without giving the group any time to react, dragon-like heads sprouted from the ends of the arms, and assaulted Alus and the others with great force. 

“Allie!! That’s Gileada’s Mizuchi!” Lettie cried. 

“Tsk!” Alus, being the closest, had two of the heads attack him, while the remaining heads went around him to go after Sajik and Mujir. 

Even as they approached, the dragon heads grew bigger and bigger, and were now already large enough to swallow a person whole. 

With a crunching sound of ice, the heads bit down on Alus from above in an instant. Dirt was kicked up as they crashed into each other and gouged out the ground. The necks must have been exuding an intense cold as the cloud of dirt froze over and turned into ice crystals. 

Alus jumped back, but the wild ice dragons froze everything in their path as they chased after him. While dodging backwards, he pulled the chain on his AWR. Finding the ring he was after, he immediately poured mana into it. 

As they hunted Alus with their mouths wide open, the ice dragons crashed and tangled with each other as they kept growing bigger. 

The next moment, several rock walls rose up from the ground, standing in between Alus and the ice dragons. However... as he expected, Mizuchi was a far higher level spell and the walls didn’t even serve to slow them down. The rocks froze in an instant and the ice dragons crashed through them. 

As to be expected from Gileada’s specialty, it was an expert level spell and its power was overwhelming. Not only had the Roscarg not been killed, it could even use spells at this level. Unlike the inferior Crimson Eyes and Niflheim copies, this was almost a perfect replica. 

On top of that—it was using four spells of this scale at the same time. Only Fiends could cast perfected magic like this... we’re no match when it comes to the strength of the construct. 

Despite the situation, Alus wasn’t panicking in the slightest. In fact, he wore a composed smile. Approaching him were spells beyond the capability of humans in their true perfected form. That’s why he couldn’t help but find them beautiful. 

Alus was elated. He pulled the chain with all his might and swung Night Mist at full speed. Stretching out wasn’t the usual mana blade, but a vibrating and invisible wave. Most who witnessed the sight would’ve doubted their eyes, as the ice dragons made from expert level magic were torn apart like paper. 

The cut itself was also abnormal. After all, space itself had been cut and shifted. 

However, the ferocious Mizuchi bodies had been easily shattered into pieces as proof that it wasn’t an illusion or hallucination. 

As they turned into glowing mana remnants, only Alus remained standing. But for now, his attention had shifted elsewhere. “Are you okay?” he called out to Sajik and Mujir, turning to them. 

Alus had only cut down two of the Mizuchi. And he’d seen the two other heads go after Sajik and Mujir out of the corner of his eye. He was thinking that it wasn’t too serious, but Mujir at least seemed to have been caught off guard. 

“I’m sorry, Sir Alus. It got the better of me,” Mujir said with ragged breathing, as he pressed against his bleeding abdomen. 

“I misread the situation,” Alus replied, with some bitterness. A perfected expert level spell had attacked them with precise timing and they weren’t skilled enough to handle that. Having them take to the front in Lettie’s place had backfired. Perhaps he should’ve just had them focus on dodging. 

“Hah, you’re getting sloppy, Mujir.” Sajik cracked a joke, despite being covered in wounds from the Mizuchi’s attack himself. Blood was dripping from all over, and his arms, legs, chest, and face had frost covering them. He’d used Force in conjunction with offensive magic, while fighting back the ice dragon heads with his bare hands. Grabbing both dragon heads’ chins, he’d been unable to hold his ground. 

And seeing that, Mujir said, exasperated, “You’re far worse off. Those arms and legs are a mess, aren’t they?” 

“This is nothing!” Sajik said. But it seemed he’d taken a lot of damage from Force’s side effects as well as from the Mizuchi. 

As for the Roscarg who could use that kind of spell... it was still collapsed on its knees and in a charred form... yet it hadn’t turned to ash like Fiends with their cores destroyed did. Rinne could sense it with her detection, and worst of all, it could still cast spells. 

However, there was no way Alus would’ve overlooked it if it had so much as twitched. What’s going on...? There was no time to bask in victory as these thoughts ran through his mind. 

When Alus took another look at the Roscarg, it still looked dead. No matter where its core had been, it should have been burned away by Lettie’s Kagatsuchi. 

The Fiend’s body was slowly turning to ash and being blown away by the wind. It looked deceased to anyone watching, the signs were all there... but it was impossible for a dead Fiend to use magic. 

Which meant that Rinne wasn’t sensing the Fiend itself, but a vast amount of mana still within its body for some reason, even though there weren’t any visible leaks of mana. 

And the answer that could be concluded from that... was... 

Before Alus could finish the thought, he sensed everything from Rinne’s pale expression and swallowed his words. 

There was no doubt. The Fiend was still alive. And once he was convinced of that, Alus caught sight of a slight movement from the corner of his eye. 

“You guys fall back and focus on healing!” Noticing the change, Alus immediately ordered Sajik and Mujir to retreat. The Fiend had been turning to ash, but the process had abruptly stopped, and it still had more than half of its torso. 

A strange sound came from the Roscarg’s swelling abdomen. Its outer shell cracked and spread out in all directions like a spider’s web. Something was moving inside of it... and before long a piece of the outer shell fell to the ground, kicking up soot. 

The Roscarg’s outer shell was falling to pieces, like some kind of abnormal chicken was being hatched from an ashen egg. 

It was a bizarre sight. Everyone was motionless as they watched what was happening. 

As a particularly large piece of the shell fell, they caught a glimpse of something... or rather, it caught a glimpse of them through an ominous glowing point. All froze and held their breaths as they stared. 

“Wha—!! No way!” Lettie unconsciously shouted, shrinking back a step. 

A strange creature was clearly about to emerge from the Roscarg’s crumpled stomach. Something was peeking out from a hollow void that was darker than shadows. White spots of light, like eyes, flickered inside the void egg of what was once the Roscarg. 

And finally— 

“Wuuu...” 

A guttural vibrating sound that didn’t come from the throat, but rather some weird kind of membrane, roared and made the air tremble. 

Mujir huddled up in surprise, almost letting go of his tonfa AWRs. 

“This has to be some kind of joke. W-What is that...?” Rinne said. 

“This is bad. Ms. Rinne...” Cold sweat ran down Lettie’s back, and she turned to Rinne in the hope that she could at least designate a rank for it. 

“N-N... Nooo!! No, no, no... ah... ah... ah... urk.” Rinne’s skin was already pale as it was, but now she was white as a corpse. She gasped for air, hyperventilating, and was on the verge of throwing up. Even her eyes were blurring. 

Seeing her reaction, anyone would understand that what was hiding inside of the Roscarg, or what was perhaps disguising itself as it—was the real Devourer. 

Being able to accurately sense mana, Rinne could feel the overwhelming difference in power between them. Having eaten hundreds of Magicmasters, its terrifying pressure was being directly applied to her senses. 

Seeing Rinne like this, Lettie realized it was her fault. She’d gotten carried away, thinking she’d eliminated it. “Al... Captain,” she said with a serious expression. 

She was prepared for death. The next move would likely decide the fate of everyone here. Her eyes made that clear enough. 

“Yeah, there’s no doubt. That’s an SS-class for sure,” Alus said. The twisted mana was so dense and overpowering he could feel it on his skin. This Fiend was clearly different from any he’d fought before, which made his heart pound. 

“But... what do we do? We can’t handle that with just us!” Lettie exclaimed. 

“C-Captain, Lettie’s right. This isn’t something a single nation can handle...” 

“H... Hey, Mujir, it’s Sir Alus who decides that, not us,” Sajik cut in to interrupt Mujir’s timid reaction, though even his voice was trembling. But he did have a point. Sajik didn’t think this was something a single nation’s elites could handle. 

But they were already beyond that. Alus knew what to do. There had never been any other choice to begin with. Even now, the Roscarg’s cavity expanded, and three fingers appeared around the edge as if to pull it open further. 

“I-If we’re going to retreat, it has to be now... if we can buy even a second of time...” Mujir said with what vigor he could muster, but Alus didn’t react. As if to urge him on, he spoke again with a timid voice, “S-Sir Alus!!” 

Could even the ranked No. 1 have been befuddled by this irregularity? Mujir wondered, peeking at his face. In the next moment, his own face turned pale with shock. “—!!” 

Alus had ferocious eyes. The eyes of a hunter, without a trace of fear. Like he was waiting for his prey to come out of its nest... There was even a smile on his face. 

“Allie?” Lettie said in a questioning voice. 

Finally, as if returning to his senses at last, Alus turned his attention to his subordinates. “Yeah, you guys can go ahead and retreat.” 

“—!!” Lettie, Mujir, and Sajik reacted. Mujir said, “Sir Alus, you don’t mean... you’re going to fight it alone?!” 

“Obviously. You don’t come across an SS-class every day. What better opponent could I ask for when going all out?” In a seemingly satisfied gesture, Alus pulled his chin back, with a fearless smile on his lips. In his eyes was an almost innocent light, like a child who had found a new toy. Depending on the person, they might even question if he was sane. “Even if it’s a mission, I’ll need to fight someone with a backbone every once in a while, or my skills will dull. Not to mention this is my first time seeing this type. I don’t know if it’s a parasite or if it disguised itself, but it’s clear that this thing was waiting inside of the Roscarg for a strong prey.” 

Alus looked like he’d finally figured out the mystery behind the Fiend’s massive amount of mana in spite of its lacking vessel, and why there had been a delay when it cast magic. The answer to all of his doubts had taken form in front of his eyes. “If we run here, that thing is going to give chase. In that case, there’ll be more casualties than expected. Especially against that kind of thing.” 

“Can you take it, Allie?” 

“I wonder. But at least I don’t feel like I’ll lose.” 

“—!! Sir Alus, the risk is too high! We don’t know how strong the enemy is either...” Mujir gave a logical and sound argument, but Sajik put his hand on his shoulder and shook his head. 

Sajik spread his feet out shoulder-width apart, and stood in a very militaristic straight posture with his arms behind his back, unlike his usual behavior. It looked like he’d braced himself and was about to make a proposal to Alus. Seeing him posing like that, Alus decided to at least hear him out. 

“Sir Alus, we are proud Magicmasters of Alpha. We could ask for nothing more than to stand at your and Lettie’s sides. I am well aware that we lack strength, but I cannot imagine retreating and leaving you behind.” 

Mujir finally understood. As a subordinate, instead of second-guessing everything, he should have faith in his commander... Sajik stood as a model of the ideal embodiment of the soldier before him. 

To think he beat me to the punch. Mujir wore a self-deprecating smile as he lined up next to Sajik with a respectful bow, as if he’d completely forgotten about the Fiend. “Forgive me for stepping out of bounds before. I share the same sentiment as Sajik... as do the rest of the squad here.” 

The squad members nodded one after another. Seeing that, Lettie muttered, “This is why men are so stupid...” with a wry smile. 

She then changed her expression to that of a leader. “Right! In that case, we’ll take it down even if it kills us!” she said, encouraging her motivated squad. 

“Hey! You can be as passionate as you want, but don’t touch it.” 

“Huh?” 

The squad had been getting fired up, but Alus’ words felt like having a bucket of cold water dumped over them. Lettie froze, while Sajik and Mujir were equally flabbergasted. 

“... But if you’re that enthusiastic, I can at least let you look on.” Alus flashed the three a smile and continued, “You guys don’t know why I’ve fought on my own all this time, do you? Well, now you’ll get to see it with your own eyes.” He pointed to the top of the deposit, which looked like a rocky mountain some distance away. 

The damage shouldn’t reach that far. It would be within eyeshot of the enemy, but Alus was confident that he’d be able to keep it from attacking them. On top of that, if this Devourer was waiting for worthy prey, it wasn’t going to settle for anyone aside from someone with vast mana like Alus. 

“Go on, get going before it comes out. I want to see what a legendary SS-class is really like to handle!” 

Reluctantly accepting Alus’ order, the squad cautiously began to retreat. And a moment later— 

“Wuuwuuuu...” 

The Devourer stuck its feet out of the still small hole, breaking the shell apart, and finally appeared in its full glory. It reached its arm out and rubbed the four fingers of its hand together, getting a feel for its movement. Its entire body was covered in lustrous black skin, and it was on the relatively small side, reaching three meters high. The tail forked off into two at its end, and on each tip was a monstrous gaping mouth. 

The face was flat with some kind of mucus forming a film on it, making it glisten. It had eye sockets like holes reflecting light, giving them the appearance of eyes. Running across the width of its face was a massive mouth, and it almost looked like it was smiling. 

On its head was a deformed horn that extended backwards, making it look like a strange reptilian creature. 

While odd, its form had a kind of simplicity and elegance to it. Not even Alus had seen such a perfected evolutionary form. He’d seen a lot of Fiends before, and he got a certain impression after seeing this one. And that was that perhaps all of the fantastical and fictional creatures in the stories of legends and myths had really originated from Fiends. 

When Fiends ate humans, the mana information they took in included the victim’s memories. His theory was that maybe the Fiends changed shape into those mythical creatures based on those memories. 

There was also a theory that Fiends had existed in this world long before their emergence in massive numbers. For example, in the forms of supernatural beings such as devils, angels, gods and spirits, and so on. They didn’t exist in reality, but perhaps people at the time had interpreted the Fiends as such. 

That was, however, a bit of a leap. Scholars tended to lean towards the former theory. However, among believers were some heretics that supported the latter. That meant that Fiends were older than human history, and thus higher beings of existence. 

In fact, during the chaotic period in history when Fiends had first made their appearance in earnest, there had even been some who claimed they were creatures to be worshipped, and offered themselves or other sacrifices up to them. Even in the present day, there were cults that regarded Fiends as sacred, though their activities were typically prohibited and suppressed by the various nations. 

But to Alus, such claims were delusions that hardly deserved a second thought. It wasn’t as though he couldn’t understand the desire to seek salvation in this world of despair from creatures that exceeded human knowledge. But if that was the case, why were they eating humans? 

Considering the Magicmasters who fought and died in battle against Fiends, as well as the grief of the families left behind, gods that could only create suffering and offered up no salvation at all would be worthless in Alus’ eyes. Showing them reverence was the last thing he would do. In fact, those kinds of ideas were nothing short of blasphemous towards the Magicmasters who had lost their lives. 

Right now, the Devourer before him might have had the form of a devil, but he still saw it as nothing more than an abnormal monster to be put down. 

Will it really be able to tell where I am without eyes or a nose? Alus threw off his cloak and unleashed his mana. He stared at the Fiend that was reacting to the mana torrent, as if to provoke it. 

The Devourer’s mouth tore open, revealing rows of teeth reaching all the way down to its throat. At the same time, it got down on all fours, raising its forked tail in the air. It brought its head low to the ground, as drool dripped out. 

At the very moment Alus got ready to engage, the Devourer suddenly took off. With each step, it gouged out the earth, sending dirt and pebbles flying. And in the blink of an eye it closed the distance. 

However—its target wasn’t Alus. Instead, it was going after the squad that was retreating to the top of the mineral deposit. 

Alus had figured the Devourer would prioritize him, seeing as how he had the most mana, but maybe it was chasing after the escaping prey out of bestial instinct. He quickly got in its way by stretching out his chain, but the Devourer seemed to have seen this coming, as it jumped up to a nearby branch and used it as a springboard to jump further. 

Of course, Alus wasn’t just going to watch that happen. He readied his AWR and aimed for where the Devourer would land— 

—But... “—!!” With Night Mist’s black blade at the ready, Alus swung at the Fiend. But faster than even Alus could notice, a figure abruptly appeared in front of him. 

And it was Rinne, even though she was supposed to be in the rear of the delta formation some distance away. 

The blade was stopped just before it could cut into her neck. Just what exactly had happened? 

Rinne had tears in her eyes, showing how confused she was by this happening. 

One beat later, the Fiend closed in on Alus and Rinne, its mouth wide open. If a person fell victim to that ferocious jaw, there wouldn’t be much left of them. 

“Shit!!” As the Devourer’s mouth brushed against his body and he felt the mana remnants running along its skin, Alus understood what had happened to Rinne. Space domination magic. It was the kind of magic Alus was best at, magic that interfered with an object’s existence, positional energy, and coordinate axis. 

Why the hell can this thing use Shuffle?! Strictly speaking, the Devourer had used a spell that exceeded even that. It hadn’t exchanged the coordinates and positional energy of two objects, but instead had forcibly moved Rinne through space. 

Shocking as it was, Fiends were more adept at using magic than humans. As he thought about that, Alus was able to calm himself after losing his composure for a moment. 

At the same time, he realized why the Fiend hadn’t used it against himself, and immediately took measures against it. Space domination magic or not, it couldn’t use it against Alus, who fixed his existence in place with magic. That’s why it had targeted Rinne, who hadn’t undergone special combat training. 

While his brain ran at full speed, his body was making the optimal moves. His arm flashed, and Night Mist swung upwards. 

“‹‹Dimension Thrust››” 

Alus didn’t hesitate to use the same spell that had cut through Mizuchi, and swung his AWR. Yet it didn’t cut the Fiend, but the space before him. Following the blade’s trajectory, a line cut through space itself, shifting the scenery. 

Sensing the danger, the Fiend slammed its forked tail into the ground to brake, and jumped to the side. 

The shifted space soon repaired itself and returned to normal, but being able to fend off the Fiend for a second meant a lot. In that short break, Alus appeared in front of the frightened Rinne with his AWR ready. 

Suddenly, countless blades of mana spinning around appeared. At the same time, he muttered the spell name as if whispering it into her ear. “‹‹Hazy Swallow››” 

The 100 blades of mana pointed towards the Fiend were sent flying, Alus firing blade after blade without a break. The flashes of light mercilessly rained down on the Fiend. 

Rinne was taken aback by the sight of countless small meteors descending on a single point, when she suddenly felt Alus’ arm wrap around her waist. “Eek?!” 

After the rain of light, Rinne was slowly lowered to the ground. And the arm tightly wrapped around her waist was removed. “Sorry, I never imagined it would be able to use Shuffle.” 

“T-Thank you...” 

“Considering how coordinates are designated, once you’re some way out of sight, it probably won’t be able to use that spell again. And let the squad know that they should continuously release their mana to fix their position in space. You should be able to resist it to a degree if you keep rewriting your position information.” 

“I-I understand.” 

“Now go, hurry!” 

Rinne bowed to Alus and took off for the deposit at full speed. Frustrating as it might be, there was nothing she could do if high-level spells were being exchanged. If she really slipped up, she’d be used by the Devourer and just end up as a burden. 

Alus faced the Devourer once more, his back turned to Rinne. 

As she anxiously looked back at Alus as she ran, a figure appeared at her side. It was Mujir, who’d gone looking for her. 

Having finally found her, he exhaled and called out to her. “This way!” Mujir moved behind Rinne to shield her and apologized for his failure as the two of them ran, but she shook her head, giving him a brief explanation of what had happened. 

When Rinne had suddenly disappeared, the squad had just barely spotted some remnants of magic and split up to search for her when Mujir, who’d been on his way to report to Alus, had happened upon her. 

Mujir’s expression grew stiff when he heard of the frightening magic the Devourer had used. It wasn’t so much out of fear of becoming a victim of the spell, but rather worry for Alus who’d stayed behind. 

Rinne spoke up to alleviate his concerns. “Don’t worry. Sir Alus is the greatest Magicmaster. If he were to lose, humanity wouldn’t stand a chance. The only difference would be how fast we’d face ruination. So we should watch over him from afar and pray that he’ll be able to fight at full power.” 

“...! If that is what you say, I’m sure it is so... Forgive me, I’m sure being protected by someone so timid is worrisome. Please forget what you just heard.” 

“That’s not true... but if that’s what you want, I didn’t hear anything.” 

Mujir was the type to err on the side of caution, and even in battle he would measure the difference in ability and calmly calculate his odds of victory, so it was no wonder he’d been so hesitant. 

Rinne’s words were those of a spotter whose job was to accurately search out information on the enemy, and guide Magicmasters to victory. The battle between Alus and the Devourer was already beyond the realm of even Alpha’s best spotter to estimate, and seeing this was almost refreshing for Mujir. Their commander stood at the heights of what may as well be called sacred ground, well beyond human knowledge. 

He decided to believe in him. That was all he could really do. And if it came down to it—the entire squad would be prepared to strike back at the monster even if it killed them... 

Before long, the two of them regrouped with Lettie and the others. It wasn’t much farther to go until reaching the deposit. But the fierce sounds and signs of fighting behind them gave them the willies. 

“I’m glad you’re safe, Ms. Rinne! We’re gonna hurry on over to the deposit.” 

Rinne nodded at Lettie’s words, as she ran as fast as she could one step behind her. Even here there were signs of fighting, with claw marks and mowed-down trees, the ground upheaved and gouged out with holes. 

Rinne scowled at the sight, while telling Lettie and the others how to counteract the Fiend’s magic. 

“I see... so that really was a spell it used...” 

“So it seems. Sir Alus called it Shuffle.” 

“And now it’s even using Shuffle! Doesn’t seem like it’s specializing in anything. It might not even have any affinities anymore...” Lettie mused. 

“Captain, when you were using Kagatsuchi, the restraining magic that Sir Alus used on the Roscarg wasn’t...” Mujir said, having noticed something. 

Everyone soon realized what he was saying. None of them had ever seen or heard anything about a spell like that. 

“Lady Lettie, Sir Alus is also a leading researcher on magic. I hear that he is almost solely responsible for the theory behind transfer gates as well.” 

“... Right. So maybe Allie doesn’t have any affinity either... like he’s attribute-less.” 

“...” Rinne silently pondered this, feeling it was very likely. When he’d saved her, he’d used a spell called Dimension Thrust. That one didn’t belong to any of the attributes either. Cutting space... it was probably just what it sounded like. No matter how she viewed it, its power was overwhelming. Even the Devourer had hesitated to touch that cut, and it had also easily cut through the Mizuchi the Devourer had used before. 

“But it seems even that Fiend can use attribute-less magic... it might be difficult to fight it even if all the Magicmasters came together. I feel bad for Allie, but we need to bring this information home or we’ll be in trouble.” 

Rinne agreed with Lettie. Even if it was a previously unknown concept like Alus had said, so long as it was based on magic, there must be a means to resist it. But if they were to engage with it while unaware of it, even Singles might get killed immediately. 

Lettie picked one of her fastest squad members and gave him orders to return to base no matter what. The information on this new magic and the threat of the Fiend that used it needed to reach the Governor-General as soon as possible. 

Meanwhile, Rinne was thinking of something else. An attribute only Sir Alus can use... my guess as to why he took on missions by himself wasn’t too far off the mark. It’s probably an attribute we didn’t know about before. 

She recalled how the magic that humanity used was something originally used by Fiends. But a number of Fiends clearly know about it, because they are the kings of magic. Not even Fiends, though, can so easily use the power of attribute-less magic... Fortunately there haven’t been many Fiends of the same class as the calamity... 

Fiends were usually fixed in their established classes, but they could overcome that through eating. By absorbing mana and the information it contained, a Fiend might be able to use spells a Magicmaster knew through knowledge and experience. Of course, not all of them could. But that was why they were constantly a threat to humanity. 

However, this could mean that the Devourer had eaten a user of attribute-less magic before... 

But Rinne rejected the idea. After all, it was unknown territory even for a Single like Lettie. Indeed, Alus was the only exception. 

Having come that far in her thoughts, she reconsidered it. What if I think about it the other way? Why can Sir Alus use magic on the level that only the highest class of Fiends can use...? Did he simply reach that realm through his research? 

What stopped Rinne from thinking further was a shockwave, most likely the aftermath of an exchange of attacks between Alus and the Devourer, assaulting her from behind. 

“They sure are going at it.” Jumping sideways and covering Rinne, Lettie twirled around in the air, kicking off a nearby tree trunk and landing on a branch. 

She put her hand over her narrowed eyes. That gesture wasn’t so that she could peer far away. Something microscopic carried by the shockwave was blowing onto her. 

“Huh? Sand?” Below the branch Lettie was on, Rinne rubbed the back of her hand and muttered in confusion. They were very fine grains of sand. The sensation was smooth and dry, making it something you wouldn’t expect to see in a place filled with greenery. 

Rinne wanted to use her magic eye to confirm what had happened, but quickly reined herself in. She’d determined that using it now would only serve to distract Alus. 

Meanwhile, Lettie, who’d jumped up to an even taller tree, confirmed what was going on behind them, letting out a voice of wonder. “W-What is that... ha ha ha, to think I’d see a sand dune in the Outer World!” 

“A-A sand dune?” Rinne asked. 

“Yeah. The place where Allie is has turned into a full-on desert.” 

Reacting to Lettie’s words, the squad members moved to see the sight for themselves. 

“...!! T-That’s Helheim!” Mujir shouted out. In contrast with his usual calm demeanor, he was looking bewildered now. 

“You know about it?” Lettie asked him. 

“The complete version of it probably isn’t recorded in the spell encyclopedia. I’ve only ever heard rumors of it myself. Incidentally, the name comes from a fairy tale my mother read to me when I was young. It was a place created by a devil who opposed the creator of the world, and used the sand as its arms and legs.” 

“I wonder who’s the real monster here...” Lettie said, smiling wryly. 

Sajik called out to her. “Captain Lettie, look up! That’s bad news. We should go to the deposit now!” 

Lettie’s cheek twitched at his words. It was noon, but the sky was turning dark as black clouds gathered above them. It was clear they weren’t natural. There were occasional flashes of lightning within them, but the lightning was far too dark to be called ‘light.’ The flickering dark lightning was no doubt born from powerful magic. 

Not only was it visually ominous, but if someone with an affinity for the lightning attribute like Sajik was warning them about it, it was definitely dangerous. His usual composure was gone, the look on his face one of serious panic. 

“This is my first time seeing black lightning. Could it be expert level lightning magic...? Something equal to the highest level of lightning?” Rinne surmised. 

Sajik confirmed it. “Yes, that’s the most powerful of the eight vertices, Black Ikazuchi, no doubt about it. I’ve never seen it with my own eyes before either... and more accurately speaking, it’s an ultimate level spell.” 

As if to back up his words, everyone was getting goosebumps. The air was becoming electrified even this far away. 

“Well, that’s bad. Let’s get to the deposit immediately!” Lettie told them. 

With a thunderclap urging them on, the party rushed to their destination at full speed. The top of the deposit looked low to the ground from a distance, but as they got closer, they saw the incline to the top was abnormally steep. It would be extremely challenging to reach for a normal person. 

However, the Magicmasters here were elites, and they climbed the rocky mountain by jumping up from small footholds jutting out from the surface. The area at the top of the deposit was small, but if they grouped together there would be enough space for all of them. 

Next, the squad put up several layers of barriers without even waiting for directions from Lettie. These were meant to deal with the aftermath of the spell they’d seen before. Together they created a massive barrier that covered the entirety of the top of the deposit. The preparations against the dark clouds weren’t perfect, but they’d at least created a solid defense. 

Rinne quietly watched on as the squad got to work. She specialized in detection, so she would only get in the way. “Will you not put up a barrier too, Lady Lettie?” she suddenly said, having noticed the absence of Lettie’s barrier. If they wanted it to be perfect, they couldn’t leave out a Single’s barrier. 

“I’m no good when it comes to that kind of thing.” 

“Excuse me?” 

Lettie laughed a little, and her shoulders slumped. She pushed her braid back from her face and shrugged. “Just so you know, don’t put me on the same level as Allie just because we’re both Singles. Not everyone’s almighty when it comes to magic.” 

“Ah! I-I’m sorry.” 

“It’s fine. I’m not petty enough to get jealous over that.” 

Rinne finally realized it. It was said that a spotter could spend half a lifetime polishing their skills in the Outer World, and in exchange, they had practically no opportunity to pick up attack spells. 

The same was true in the opposite sense for Magicmasters who specialized in combat. Major decisions were required when mastering magic. They had to take things into account like affinity, amount of mana, attributes they could use, disposition, proficiency in magic, and so on. 

Normally one would have to choose a single path out of a near infinite number, and train. The paths one could take were so numerous that even a lifetime wasn’t enough to go down all of them. 

Rinne might be the ranked No. 2 spotter, but when it came to her ranking as a normal Magicmaster, she was in the quadruple digits. Mastering something meant giving up something else. Life was nothing but a series of choices. And Rinne had forgotten something that was that obvious. Perhaps it was only natural since she’d been alongside the only Magicmaster that could make the impossible possible in this mission. 

That’s why Lettie had put her focus on explosive magic, reaching the heights of a Single by mastering that. Meanwhile, it wouldn’t be strange for her to be inferior to even a Double in other areas, even though reaching the rank of a Single through a single field of endeavor spoke volumes of her talent. 

That’s why they were a team—a unit. Lettie was far from all-powerful, and the other members of the squad supported her with their own specialties. Thinking about it, it was common sense and a universal and effective tactic. 

Rinne was embarrassed that this truth had slipped from her mind. The next moment, she realized why Alus always chose to fight alone. “In other words, he can do everything on his own... that’s why he doesn’t need a squad...” 

Lettie clearly overheard Rinne’s muttering. “I think that’s part of it, but...” As she stopped to think, a tremendous light welled up from within the dark clouds. 

“That’s Black Ikazuchi!” Rinne forgot what Lettie was saying, losing her words over the sight before her. It was like a black dragon, faster than the eye could see, running through the sky towards the ground. 

Some moments later, the sound of this display reached their ears. Countless black sparks surged up from the point of the lightning strike. Some even reached all the way up to the top of the deposit, disappearing after crashing into the barriers. 

Following that was silence. It was as though the loud sounds of combat had been erased by the lightning strike, leaving only an ominous calm. 

“... Anyways, as I was saying, I think it’s because if you’re alone, nobody will die along with you. Allie had us retreat when he saw that we weren’t in the perfect condition to fight, right?” 

“... Aren’t you just overthinking it?” 

“Not at all. He’s still only sixteen, you know. Not wanting anyone to die in the Outer World is just a child’s ideal... but he’s got the power to make it a reality.” 

Rinne felt like Lettie’s image of Alus clashed with her own, and couldn’t help but speak out. “Sir Alus doesn’t sound like that kind of person to me...” 

“Look at you talking! He’s an unflinching killing machine, isn’t he?” 

“—!! I-I wouldn’t go that far...” 

“Heh, it was just a joke. Well, it’s not that far off... everyone who knew Allie when he was in the military probably had that impression. But I’ve known him since he was younger.” 

Lettie smiled at Rinne with a slight sense of superiority. “The look on his face has changed though, quite a lot, since he enrolled at the Institute. Well, Allie was doing fine fighting on his own. No Fiend was a match against his overwhelming strength... but that’s why I’m worried now. There’s still limits to what one person can do. By the way, this is just my pet theory.” 

“But he has Ms. Loki at his side now.” 

“Right. She seems a little special, so maybe she’ll make a difference, who knows. Anyways, if Allie keeps taking missions on his own, he will slip up at some point. I’m sure of it.” 

Alus’ guardian and superior, Governor-General Berwick, had the same doubts as Lettie did. That’s why he’s elsewhere now, isn’t it? Lettie nodded to herself, having understood Berwick’s intention in sending Alus there. It was a means to recover what he was missing through everyday life at the Institute. 

“Well, that kind of power isolates people. It makes people believe their ideals are a reality. In a sense, his reason for fighting is just a dream. Not trusting your back to someone else on the battlefield, thinking you alone can keep anyone from dying... that’s ultimately just for the sake of self-satisfaction. I only hope it’s not too late by the time he realizes that.” 

Lettie had fought on the frontlines and seen subordinates and friends lose their lives countless times. 

Rinne understood that her words came from experience. You never knew when the unexpected would happen in the Outer World. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that only irregular events were the norm here, and without fail, situations arose where one person alone couldn’t handle it. No matter how overwhelming Alus’ strength was, there was no way a person wouldn’t make a mistake from birth to death. 

“Then why not tell him as much yourself, Lady Lettie?” 

“That’s no good. You still have a ways to go, huh? That kind of thing has to be realized on one’s own.” 

“That’s just cruel...” 

“I’d prefer it if you called it love.” 

“... Love,” Rinne said, with a confused look, having reflected on the word. 

“This is something he has to do alone... besides, he’s managed so far,” Lettie said with a forced, lonely smile. “Like I said, he’s changed after being at the Institute. It looks like Ms. Sisty is doing something interesting, so I’m expecting much from lil Loki and the others.” 

Rinne looked at Lettie and wondered if she’d hoped she would be the one to fulfill that role. But seeing the gloom hanging over Lettie’s expression, she couldn’t bring herself to say it. 

“But you can’t tell him about this! Allie can be really ignorant about that kind of thing. He’ll say he doesn’t need help, and put up walls by showing his strength, drawing a line he won’t let anyone cross... probably.” 

Rinne wore a mischievous expression, hearing this. “There’s no need to worry. I’m not that insensitive of a woman.”