Finally understanding the situation, each of Noctus’s apprentices stood poised with their weapons at the ready, preparing to attack; the Thief, too, was tensed in anticipation. They’d only hesitated to attack Sitri—even though she was giving them plenty of opportunities to—because they were still unsure of where her allegiance lay. After all, someone like her surely had no place in a reputable society.
“Sadly, our time together has come to an end,” said Sitri ruefully. “I wish...we could’ve continued our research a while longer.”
She remained unfazed even as one of the apprentices was pointing his staff at her despite knowing how powerful a Magus they each were.
“Noctus, you said you didn’t understand the Thousand Tricks’s intentions, why Krai had come so close to our hideout then as if he was sending a warning. It’s simple,” she said as she smiled. “He was sending a warning—for me to wrap things up and return to him before I find myself in too much danger.”
“I-Impossible,” muttered Noctus.
He couldn’t imagine a Level 8 hunter allowing one of his party members to pursue forbidden research under any circumstances.
“But I do swear on my honor, Noctus,” said Sitri, “that I haven’t betrayed your trust. I haven’t told a soul about me joining your research...and to be fair, no one can keep a secret from Krai.”
All life drained from her face as Talia listened to her colleague’s confession.
“I just didn’t expect this moment to come while I was away,” continued Sitri. “Everything was all set by the time I’d returned. Noctus, I hope you see how...generous Krai has been.” She blushed like a girl in love speaking of the virtues of her beau. “He gave me—and all of us—a wonderful opportunity to test the products of our research against a whole battalion of skilled hunters. Can you imagine how disappointed we would’ve been to see our research extinguished without ever being able to test it?”
Everything made sense now. Noctus recalled how passionately Sophia had advocated for taking on the hunters head-on.
“Y-You are mad...” he muttered.
Sitri’s excitement grew as if she’d been given the best compliment she could’ve hoped for.
“The results speak for themselves. There were many surprises along the way, and, oh, how I wish we could’ve continued our field test much, much longer... The transmogrified phantoms, the Malice Eaters, and Akasha each overwhelmed a band of nearly a hundred hunters—with Obsidian Cross and Gark Welter among them! That was a great, great success! So much so that I struggled to rein them in from killing anyone!”
In hindsight, it was strange that their overwhelming forces hadn’t killed a single hunter. It also didn’t make sense how Sitri had so easily discovered their hideout and so easily found the weaknesses of every threat along the way. This was because the entire conflict had been staged by Sitri playing both sides.
“Oh, don’t worry, Noctus,” she said. “Akasha functioned wonderfully. The only thing I wanted was an area attack to deal with nimble hunters like my sister. Even its durability—which had been my number one concern going in—was more than sufficient. It only looked like Krai had taken Akasha out in a single blow because I’d controlled Akasha to jump away on its own. I would’ve liked to continue testing it, but Sven could’ve damaged it with his Stormstrike had the battle dragged on any longer. Maybe it was for the best after all!”
“A-Are you finished?!” shouted Noctus miserably.
He’d been made a fool all because he’d put his faith in the passion he’d witnessed in Sophia. With wrath overpowering his fear, Noctus raised his staff at his former first apprentice.
“Don’t worry. After your results are confiscated and you’re arrested for being the worst criminal in empire history, I’ll carry on your research. Your dutiful apprentice will pass on your life’s work to the future generation; what more could you hope for?” said Sitri with utmost sincerity. All the subtle signs Sophia had displayed that showed how unhinged she’d been under her mask came flooding back to Noctus, who connected the dots.
“Um...Sitri? But why did you make yourself...look like me?”
“Because, Talia, I’ve learned from my mistake,” answered Sitri as if she was explaining the workings of a natural phenomenon, “that if you wear your name around like a badge, there’ll be no escape when push comes to shove because there’s only so much one can do. That’s why I’ve borrowed your look for a bit while I was working with Noctus: because your hair and eyes are so beautiful...and recognizable. Sorry.”
A tear streaked down Talia’s cheek, but even that had no effect on Sitri’s expression. She was a pursuer of truth, a slave to the stars who’d turned her back on morality without even realizing it. Her extreme philosophy reminded Noctus of the moniker that had been stripped from her.
The Prodigy had been an Alchemist who’d produced remarkable results through her research at the Primus Institute, just as Noctus had done. Her fame and level had grown like a stoked flame until it’d been suddenly extinguished over a certain incident, leaving her reputation an ashy puddle.
News of the incident had shaken the entire empire when an unprecedented mass breakout had taken place at the great prison of South Isteria, the largest and most secure prison in the empire, which had housed high-level hunters and lethally powerful Magi. There had been clear signs of outside help for the breakout, and the Alchemist who had been frequenting the prison shortly before the breakout had become the number one suspect due to circumstantial evidence. While she hadn’t been convicted of the crime, Sitri had been demoted to a negative level and was forced to use an incriminating moniker.
“Ignoble, did your demotion drive you to madness?!” asked Noctus.
The Ignoble laughed as if she’d been told a clever joke. “I really hate that moniker. It’s a horrible one, don’t you think? No one calls me that anymore...but still, that has always been the mark of my failure—until today. Master, from this day on—” said Sitri as she laced her fingers together and adopted a tone as if she was blessing the worthy with a knighthood, “you will be known as ‘Ignoble.’”
“You won’t get a chance, Sophia!” screamed Flick, his face the color of fresh blood.
In the blink of an eye, Flick sent a fireball that could easily engulf Sitri flying at her.
“Patience, Flick,” said Sitri, almost exasperated. She hadn’t so much as taken a half step to defend herself. “That was always your problem: you’re too emotional.”
The Malice Eater ran into the path of the spell, defending Sitri from the ball of fire with its body. Showing no sign of pain nor injury, the chimera bared its fangs at Noctus and his apprentices, its eyes full of animosity—Malice Eaters were trained to obey their master’s every order.
Gently stroking the chimera’s mane, Sitri said, “You need to give them love; living beings can’t be moved by logic alone. Malice Eaters are very intelligent, but they’re not machines. That’s why they protect me over anyone else. ‘Love and peace,’ by the way, is one of Krai’s mottos.”
Another apprentice fired a spell from behind her, but the Malice Eater whipped its tail to knock it off course.
Even as a juvenile, this Malice Eater moved far faster than any human here could hope to. Noctus’s final line of defense had become his most dangerous foe all of a sudden. Knowledge of the chimera’s capabilities glued Noctus and his apprentices to the floor.
“Calm down, Noctus,” said Sitri. “It has taken me so long to come here because...I didn’t come just to say my farewells.”
“Enough of your soliloquy!” howled Noctus.
Their relationship—the years they’d spent as mentor and apprentice—had crumbled to dust, and Sitri’s confession was the nail in the coffin. If her involvement ever came to light, Sitri would be indicted more harshly than Noctus himself. Her honesty meant she had no intention of letting Noctus nor the apprentices out alive. And by the same token, they could afford no mercy for their former colleague.
Coming here alone, thought Noctus, either out of arrogance or not expecting all of us to be assembled will be your downfall, traitor!
Noctus and each of his apprentices were powerful Magi in their own right in addition to capable researchers. A Magus casting a powerful spell could cause as much damage as an entire squad of soldiers. There were five Magi of that caliber here, and they were not going to be mere sheep for slaughter.
What makes her so confident? wondered Noctus.
The first rule of fighting a Magus was to not give them enough time to prepare a powerful spell. And yet, Sitri didn’t take even a step while the Magi spent ten or so seconds chanting their incantations. Just as Sitri opened her mouth to speak, Noctus fired his spell.
“Infernal Kaiser!” exclaimed the former Master of Magi.
At his incantation, flames of the advanced spell ravaged a medium-sized area. Waves of golden flames, burning hot enough to melt metal, swallowed up the Malice Eater and Sitri.
A throbbing sensation shot through Noctus’s head as he cast the attacking spell, something he hadn’t done in a long time. Remaining in control of the inferno, he contained its flames and heat at a safe distance away from himself. The flames licked a portion of the wall and the door and reduced them to ashes in an instant.
Talia cried out at the ruthless flames as Noctus’s apprentices cheered in triumph.
As the tide of fire gradually receded, a charred Malice Eater was revealed. If even a chimera with resistance to magic couldn’t withstand the fire, Noctus had no doubt that the frail Alchemist was now nothing but a pile of ashes. When the flames finally cleared, however, a chilling sensation ran through Noctus’s bones.
“Please hear me out, Noctus,” said Sitri.
She stood there without so much as a blister. The walls, the floor, the Malice Eater, and even her wig on the floor, however, had been incinerated.
“I-Impossible...!” muttered Noctus. “How are you alive?!”
By measure of destructiveness, this spell was even more powerful than Flick’s magnum opus.
Sitri sighed, then pouted and said, “Listen to me because we’ll never see each other again!”
Sitri held a large jar in her hands, its open lid revealing an empty space within.
“You’ve given me so much, Master,” she said. “As a token of my thanks, I want to show you something, something that I’ve wanted to show you for a long time. It’s a little dangerous so I’d entrusted it in Krai’s care. But then he must’ve known I’d wanted to show it to you before we parted ways forever so he guided me to it—it took me a while to find it in the sewers before I could make it here.”
What is she babbling about? What could she have possibly brought? thought Noctus as he watched the charred and half-dead Malice Eater trying to tear itself away from Sitri.
Explaining with the same passion Sophia had shown when speaking about her experiments, she said, “It’s almost the polar opposite of a transmogrified phantom—it’s a revolutionary slime, extremely adaptive. A transmogrified phantom converts the mana material that makes up its body into a well of mana; this slime absorbs mana and mana material around it and grows by feeding on it. I’m really proud of it actually.”
“What...?!”
By Sitri’s feet, a translucent blob wriggled. Noctus finally spotted the golden slime, which looked about the right size to fit into the jar she was holding. Noctus had never heard so much as a theory about a creature like that, but his blood ran cold at the implications of Sitri’s description.
The world was full of mana material. Every living thing took in mana material and derived their energy from it. This same force gave rise to treasure vaults, phantoms, and Relics while also providing hunters with their superhuman abilities. If Sitri’s description was accurate, a slime that fed on others’ mana material could, by extension, devour the entire world—that golden blob posed a far greater threat to the world than a lifetime of Noctus’s research combined.
“Are you truly mad?” he asked Sitri. “An abomination like that would be far too dangerous!”
“But there is this one thing I couldn’t get right—its appetite remains insatiable no matter what I tried. I’ve managed to teach it that Krai and I are not food, but that’s about it. An uncontrollable monster isn’t a viable resource; it’s barely usable as a last resort. So I was hoping you could advise me on this matter before—well, I knew it was a long shot.”
Then the slime stretched itself over the quivering Malice Eater. And as soon it was enveloped by the slime, the chimera was immediately dissolved, mane and scales included. Quickly, the slime’s color shifted from gold to the same ash-gray the Malice Eater had been. Only then did Noctus realize that the slime had only been gold in color because it’d absorbed his spell.
Beaming at him, Sitri said, “All right, Noctus, this is the other reason why I’ve come. I invite you to help me test the Sitri Slime. How fortunate for me that I can test it against a Magus of your prowess.”
“Run, Master!” called Flick as he fired a spell.
Noctus’s apprentices were talented enough to warrant their pridefulness. Seeing that such an attacking spell had no effect on the slime, they’d switched gears entirely. Flick’s spell permeated the room with thick, blinding smoke as the Sitri Smile disappeared within it.
“If we let her live...she’ll prove a grave threat to Akashic Tower. We’ll...hold her off!”
“Flick... Me, a threat to Akashic Tower?” called Sitri despondently from beyond the smoke. “I am the embodiment of their philosophy.”
Ignoring her, Flick continued in a voice bolstered by resolve, “Sophia came alone. You can escape if you make it out of here. Contact headquarters. She’ll be done for!”
Noctus felt strength coursing through his body from the buffing spells his apprentices had cast on him.
The Sitri Slime was too powerful. Seeing how it’d absorbed Noctus’s spell with ease, it was clear that even five Magi together stood no chance against it.
“Are you sure, Flick?” said Sitri with a twinge of surprise in her voice. “Noctus favored Sophia over you when you’d served him much longer. He’s wounded your pride; why don’t you run instead of die to protect him?”
“Don’t you dare mock me! I’m not like you!” shouted Flick. “I respect Professor Noctus! I revere him! Even if he doesn’t find much use in me!”
Quick-witted and a genius in his own right in a different way than Sophia was, Flick was a more-than-capable apprentice. Noctus hadn’t seen his pridefulness as a flaw and suspected that Flick may one day surpass him in the art of spell casting. Now Noctus regretted propping up the new talent over his long-standing second apprentice. Still, Noctus’s pride in his own powers had made him weigh talent over seniority.
Having calculated numerous alternatives in a flickering moment, Noctus simply said, “I am counting on you, Flick.”
“Yes, sir!” answered Flick.
Noctus didn’t expect his apprentices to survive. But if Noctus were to perish in their places, the remaining apprentices would have no way to reach Akashic Tower. He wouldn’t let Flick’s sacrifice be in vain.
The small doorway had been expanded when Noctus’s spell had burned down a portion of the wall. He sprinted into the thick smoke. Following him was a quick succession of magic spells.
Then Sitri gasped.
“Wait—move!” she shouted.
Noctus’s gambit paid off as he made it out of the room without running into Sitri nor the slime. Casting a wind spell to sail himself faster, Noctus darted down the hall at a speed too fast for his old age.
No sign of pursuers.
Sprinting and panting, Noctus was reassured that Sitri’s forte lay in research. If she’d been as physically capable as full-time hunters in a Level 8 party, he would’ve never gotten past her. Now that he had, he knew Sitri couldn’t catch up to him. Still, Noctus refused to slow down.
As any proper hideout should, this one had two exits. Making for the one that’d spit him out in a dark alleyway, Noctus bounded up the stairs. Once he was outdoors, he could fly away using magic, and even the heightened presence of patrolling knights wouldn’t be able to stop him.
As long as he could successfully warn Akashic Tower of Sitri’s betrayal, she’d be as good as dead. She could blame that on her desire to stroke her ego by revealing herself.
Noctus made it aboveground into the seedy alley lined with a cracked pavement. Several paces away sat a vagabond cloaked in a heavy coat.
Still no pursuers.
Without a second to waste, Noctus crafted a spell of flight. His body was lifted into the air, and his heart was solid with determination to avenge his apprentices and make Sitri pay for making a fool out of Akashic Tower—a feeling unlike the obsession that had driven him to continue his research after his exile.
But just as he felt the surge of wind that’d take him to the skies, a violent impact struck him from the side, and his world toppled as he crashed down the flight of stairs he’d just ascended. Pain shot through his back and arms as he tumbled step after step. Though once he reached the bottom, Noctus, staff still in hand, forced himself to rise to his feet.
Atop the stairs stood the same vagabond from the alley. A dingy overcoat concealed his face and upper body as the figure towered above the stairs in the opening.
Almost on reflex, Noctus fired a spell at a casting speed attainable only through decades of dedication. A swarm of fireballs assaulted the vagabond and set the overcoat ablaze, but the figure didn’t so much as make a sound. Still on fire, the vagabond charged down the steps.
“What?!”
Fighting through his confusion, Noctus unleashed a chain of spells: blades of wind, lances of water, bolts of lightning... He threw spells of every element he could cast at his mysterious assailant. Yet, his attacker showed no sign of slowing down.
Noctus’s mind was boggled.
Eventually, his spells tore off the assailant’s coat to reveal the figure beneath—an enormous, nearly naked humanoid for all Noctus could tell. It had muscles bulging beyond the limits of the human body and ashen skin that distinguished it from an ordinary human; it wore no clothes except for a bright-red banana hammock covering its loins and a paper bag covering its head. Noctus had never seen anything like it.
“Oh, good,” called a voice from behind. “That’s another one of my pieces I wanted you to see, Noctus. To protect the integrity of our experiment, I couldn’t very well bring it to White Wolf’s Den, so I didn’t get a chance to show it to you. Now I have no regrets.”
Noctus couldn’t tear his eyes away. The emotionless gaze stared back at him through the holes cut into the paper bag on its head. Despite its humanoid appearance, Sitri’s “piece” exuded an inhuman aura as if it was a manifestation of unadulterated violence.
“Noctus, I believe the downside of Akasha lies in its cost and incompleteness. As powerful as it is, we couldn’t have created it without the limitless funds of Akashic Tower and its advanced technology. Besides, Akasha would be outmatched eventually if the treasure vault’s level gets high enough. This is the solution I came up with—what do you think?”
The mysterious monster slowly approached Noctus, his brilliant mind now completely befuddled. He had no way to explain the creature now approaching him.
Sitri continued, “This is a bit embarrassing, but I needed power—fast. That was why I’d given up on researching golems on my own and decided to focus on chimeras.”
“Chimeras...?” Noctus was shaking. Impossible. What creatures did she combine to make such an abomination? This is insanity.
His mind knew the answer, but his humanity refused to accept it. The durability to withstand a barrage of spells without a scratch, the enormous energy thrumming from it...
This has to be—
“I...really wanted the right ingredients. Did you know, Noctus, that I’m the weakest member of Grieving Souls? If I let moral quandary hold me back, I’ll never keep up with them.”
Suddenly, all the dots connected in Noctus’s mind. The inmates who’d escaped in the breakout at the great prison were all high-level hunters who couldn’t be contained in ordinary prisons, and most of the escapees remained at-large even now, several years later.
Slowly, almost as if a giant puppeteer was pulling his strings, Noctus turned around. The sight of Sitri nearly knocked the wind out of him.
“You were...guilty of it after all?” he squeaked out.
“I made a mistake. But I learned a lot from it. There were only enough usable parts to make one, but you have to admire how it turned out. I called it—Killiam,” said Sitri as her eyes moved over Noctus’s shoulder. “Say ‘hi.’”
“Kill...” came a shrill voice incongruent with Killiam’s stature from within the paper bag.
Noctus shook at the vileness of the creature and even more so at the fact that Sitri Smart was a free woman, barely held accountable for her crimes, while he himself was exiled for his pursuits.
“Ignoble...!”
“Don’t worry; I won’t kill you. I’m still a hunter,” said Sitri. “Your memories though...I’ll have to get rid of those.”
Lifting his staff in desperation, Noctus began an incantation. Before it all went black, Noctus saw the smiling skull mask and heard the shriek “Kill...” in his ear.
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