Anomaly

I'd imagined it in grandiose terms, but in the end the method was simple.

I connected my Magic Power to the sword's Magic Power like a puppeteer's string, then connected that now-maneuverable sword Magic Power to the bastard. Whether that alone would send his head rocketing skyward like a winning spin on pirate roulette was an unknown... but in a situation with no other bright ideas, it was worth a shot.

But things that are simple on paper never stayed simple in practice.

"I'll tear you apart alive just like that bitch!!"

"Oh? You've completely lost it, haven't you? The firewood's burning a lot longer this time."

By my feel, the bastard had been regaining his composure roughly every three to five minutes, but after the veins bulged in his eyes it had already been over ten minutes and he still remained in a state of pure rage. Even so, he stubbornly stuck to a piercing-type magic, but I'd gotten so familiar with those spells that I now had leeway to dodge them while conserving Magic Power.

"Why!! Won't!! They hit!!"

Yet the bastard couldn't modify his magic. And I could now tell that was his limit.

Drawing strength from the sight of him, which looked like he'd froth at the mouth if I scratched just a bit more, I refocused on the sword.

Could it be possible? Once I'd thought that, synchronization with the sword had been a breeze.

Enough that I could maintain the connection while running all over the damn place. After linking my right hand to the scabbard and my left hand to the sword, I could feel the sword trying to draw itself from the scabbard with just a slight movement of my left hand. Thanks to that, I grew certain that my theory was more or less on the mark.

Whoa. Wait, come to think of it, once I got the hang of this, wouldn't it basically be telekinetic swordsmanship? Unrelated to the situation, my heart started pounding just as hard as it did the day I first managed to strengthen my body with Magic Power.

At the same time, an anxiety flickered through me—the thought that if I could do this, then among those Demonfolk bastards there must be someone else who could do it too—but I shook my head immediately and cast the thought aside.

That's a problem for later. I can barely keep my wits about me just focusing on the one in front of me, so why the hell was I worrying about that now?

"The problem is linking this to that bastard..."

That was the most critical danger I'd sensed while connecting my Magic Power to the sword.

The sword was something I held and ran with, so it didn't matter, but I became certain that if both the bastard and I were moving, I wouldn't be able to complete the connection even if I died and woke up. At the bare minimum, one of us ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had to be completely, utterly still for the link to even have a chance.

Naturally, there was no fucking way that bastard would just stand still because I wanted him to, so I was the one forced to stand still.

But if I suddenly jumped out, stood dead still while glaring at him and striking some weird-ass pose, would the bastard just stand there gawking? Fuck no. He'd enthusiastically blast air-holes through my body.

I had to link it fast and kill him before that.

Completely dodging his attacks was utter nonsense in the current situation, so I'd protect my vitals as much as possible, try it in wide-open ground where I could evade the Magic Power-laced trees and focus solely on him.

And I'd have to buy as much time as possible by creating a situation where he'd drop his guard.

Once I'd thought that far, the outline took shape and I decided to execute it right away.

"Hey! I think you were right!"

"What...?"

"Running away seems like the better call! Never mind that your curse makes you unkillable, there's no way a has-been fucker like you could catch me anyway! So long!"

Using the final taunt as my signal, I took off running again.

"Aaaaaaagh! I'll kill you! Forget the questions and bullshit, I'll just kill you and erase youuuuu!"

Now that I knew he used Mana, I had absolutely no reason to fear him suddenly appearing like he did that first time. Because really, he was probably just tracking me with flight magic like any ordinary human mage and then dropped right down.

"Running away like a rat won't change a thing from before, I'll show you!"

Sure enough, the bastard immediately rose into the air and began looking down at me as I dashed through the trees.

His pursuit continued at a steady interval but that wasn't exactly because my running was slow.

Honestly, running this fast through a dense forest, even the elves would praise me as 'pretty good for a human', right? It's just that the bastard casually flying toward me with no obstacles in his way was at a massive advantage. Meanwhile, he was firing off attacks as best he could, but because he was in the air he kept getting obscured by the trees, and naturally the accuracy was even more pathetic than when he was shooting normally. The escape itself was far more stable and easier than when I first came out of the gate.

Just in case he gave up the pursuit, I threw out taunts every so often while running, and before I knew it I had arrived at the open-ground-ish place I'd aimed for.

"Fuck."

Except it turned out to be ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the edge of a cliff with no path behind it, which I really didn't like. Should I be happy that I could jump off if things went south?

Since I'd already arrived, there was no other choice, so I turned my body, confirmed the bastard's position in the sky, and attempted the Magic Power synchronization just as I'd diligently planned while running.

At the same time, I didn't forget to pray to God that he'd drop his guard, and deliberately stuck my leg into one of the spells he hurled.

Maybe because I actually saw the magic burrowing into my thigh in real-time, it somehow felt even more painful than before!

"Ssshhit...!"

"Ha! This is as far as you go!"

Still, seeing the bastard burst into scornful laughter and lower his altitude made gritting my teeth and taking that hit feel worth it. The Magic Power threads extending from my sword reaching him also went smooth...

"Urgh?"

Suddenly all strength drained from my body and I collapsed to one knee, involuntarily planting my sword into the ground. The moment I wondered if the magic I'd just tanked had pulled some trick, the bastard, gradually coming back down from his madness, spoke.

"Heh. So that's what it comes down to when using Magic Power in a human body. Seems your body has reached its limit as well."

No? That sensation was totally different, though?

Still, thanks to that, it became certain that this situation wasn't his scheme.

If so, then this feeling of exhaustion was ultimately caused by trying to interfere with his Magic Power, and it wasn't just like adding one person's body weight—it genuinely felt like a fucking boulder was pressing down on me, to the point where just keeping the Magic Power connected to him from severing was a monumental struggle.

Guess a person's life doesn't pop off as easy as twisting a bottle cap? This shit's brutal.

Above all, it felt like my Magic Power was being sucked out in one long draw, so much that I almost wondered if I wasn't breathing life into him instead.

"I still feel some anger lingering... but I've calmed down, so I'll give you a chance. How did you dodge my magic?"

"You're gonna die anyway, why the fuck would I tell you?"

"It's the difference between dying painfully and dying cleanly with your head severed. Isn't that reason enough to talk?"

I was talking about your death, not mine.

My hand trembled and shook as I barely kept hold of my sword, and doubt crept into the bastard's gaze as he looked at me.

"You're going to fight in that body?"

"Fuuuck. Don't talk to me. This is fucking exhausting."

A sensation akin to numbness in my limbs flowed over from the tips of my Magic Power and spread throughout my entire body. I instinctively realized it. That through that sensation, I was now connected to the bastard's Magic Power.

But at the same time, unlike before, drawing the sword from its scabbard had become incredibly difficult.

As if the sword I held was the bastard's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠own body.

"Hm...? I feel some kind of foreign sensation."

As I focused on the connection and stared at him, I could see him stroking his own neck with his left hand. Never mind the difficulty, I couldn't help but smile at the fact that my hypothesis had hit the mark exactly. Smiling when I was about to kill a person—maybe I was slowly going crazy after all.

"Come to think of it, I never asked your name."

"I have no name to give a human. If you're thinking of stalling..."

"I don't really want to know your name either. Just saying."

Even if he looked at me like 'what the hell are you trying to say', all I had to offer was a farewell.

"It was disgusting meeting you, and let's never meet again."

Without a second's hesitation, I poured all my Magic Power into both arms to strengthen them and used every ounce of strength to draw the sword.

"Kh, urgh?!"

But the sword didn't budge a single millimeter from its scabbard. Still, it wasn't without effect. The bastard's eyes filled with horror as he frantically clutched at his own throat.

"Wh, what?! What's, what's happening ggh?!"

It would've been nice if he'd stayed oblivious just a bit longer, but his bulging eyes, rolling frantically in the air, turned toward me. And as he looked back and forth between me and my sword, he instantly grasped the situation. Just goes to show, nothing ever goes the way you want.

"Eeeeeek! What kind of filthy trick is this!!"

Spheres materialized around the bastard but I could smile. If he'd brought out blades, jumping off the cliff right then might've been the better move, but those were different.

If I just protected my vitals from those, I could endure right here.

"Die! I said die!!"

Watching the ten-plus spheres fire all at once alongside a roar that was starting to reek of madness again, I crouched as low as I could, twisted sideways, and protected my head and vitals with my extended arms and legs.

I wanted to tear my gaze away from that brutal attack, but I had to somehow dodge the ones aimed squarely at my head, so I glared straight at him and poured strength back into the sword.

Scriick. This time, the sword moved, only a little but definitely.

And with every millimeter the sword was drawn, the urgency in the bastard's actions and gaze overflowed.

"Kuaaaaagh! Just what! What the hell are you doing?!"

An attack he'd never experienced before. A pain he hadn't felt in 80 years. And a threat to his life he hadn't expected at all. Maybe because these synergized with the complacency and delusion he'd held until just moments ago, the bastard simply fired magic indiscriminately.

In his heart, he probably wanted to rush in and tackle me right away, but just as I hadn't been able to touch him, he probably couldn't touch my body either and so didn't even bother to try. In the end, that magic of his was his only desperate struggle.

At the very moment when that struggle grew so fierce that I genuinely wondered if air-holes were about to be punched all over my body.

I felt the resistance from the sword suddenly get cut in half for an instant.

I didn't know why, but the bastard who met my eyes seemed to notice it too, glaring with his eyes bulging as if they might pop out.

A desperately urgent expression and cry were about to burst forth from him, something so stark I could never even imagine this was the same person who had reacted so nonchalantly when I targeted his neck.

Pity? For a bastard trying to kill me? I felt no such thing. Instead, I sneered with all my might.

"Do you feel it? Your death?"

"Eldmiaaaaaa!!"

"Yeah. That's me. You fucker."

Certain of victory, I drew the sword. Even though it was just drawing the sword, something like an unknown wind pressure rippled from the Magic Power, but fortunately it didn't become a problem.

In that brief moment where the sword was drawn halfway through, I saw one of the spells the bastard fired strike the fluctuating Magic Power along the blade, scattering and dispersing instantly.

Amidst that, I thought I glimpsed the light Yekaterina and the others had mentioned back then... but I'd lost so much blood I couldn't tell if it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was just a hallucination or what.

But regardless of that, the bastard's head most definitely rocketed skyward.