How a Wizard Survives (40)
How a Wizard Survives (40)
I did as I was told and stepped outside in the mask. A chilly night breeze greeted me.
Strolling across the rooftops with Ulysses, a question belatedly surfaced.
Ash was still back at the forge, same as always.
She'd said she'd explain the mask in detail, but what was there left to do at this point?
Had she just fobbed the job off on my teacher?
Fortunately, the answer came quickly.
Ash's voice rang out from inside the mask I was wearing.
[Ah, you hear me all right?]
"Uh, Miss Ash?"
[There are two main additions. The first is this communication function. I doubt you'll need it often, but it's better than not having it.]
So Ash and Ulysses could make things like this.
Recalling the recent spate of unscheduled outings, it seemed handy enough.
Ash moved straight to the second function.
[The second one's the main feature. If you look closely at the outer surface, you'll see magic script engraved on it. Roughly just below the earring...]
"Ah, yes, I feel it."
As I promptly reached to rub the script, Ulysses lightly snagged my hand.
He pressed me with a thoroughly exasperated look.
"Jaeger. You must listen to a magic explanation all the way through."
"Ah, sorry..."
[Tried to use it already? Unbelievable. That's a self-destruct mechanism. It doesn't actually explode, it just vanishes... but it'll be more useful than it looks.]
"Self-destruct?"
My face lit up at a feature I hadn't dared hope for.
Simply possessing a magical tool like this could get me judged a heretic... and now I could dispose of it easily if it ever came to that.
A gimmick so useful it made the communication function look trivial.
[If you trigger it, it vanishes without a trace. And no mana residue either. Your teacher and I worked ourselves half to death over it.]
"Not even mana residue? Really?"
At this rate, I could even carry it with me to and from work.
While I was marveling, Ulysses smiled and pointed to an alley in the slums.
A charming little place, clearly designed for sharing with rats.
"A tavern, further in."
"Do people actually crawl all the way back here for a drink?"
"They don't. That makes it a perfect venue for a secret mage conference, wouldn't you say?"
I chuckled and hopped down from the roof.
True to Ulysses's word, the tavern seemed to have closed long ago.
Today it had a few customers.
"..."
The sentry guarding the entrance glowered at us without a word.
In this light, the place looked a bit like a violent gang's hideout.
The next moment, the sentry abruptly thrust a cross at us.
Magic already wreathed his empty right arm.
'So if we aren't mages, he attacks.'
He'd likely obtained the cross from a Heretic Inquisitor.
Reasoning thus, I drew up a trickle of mana.
The cross quivered in response to my mana, and only then did the sentry's wariness subside.
"Go on in."
"Much obliged."
I gave a brief nod and entered, discovering an underground space far larger than I'd expected.
Perhaps this place had never truly been a tavern.
Inside, quite a few people had arrived before us.
Presumably only mages who'd deciphered the invitation had come...
To think there were this many mages in Reshutal.
I'd been hunting them as diligently as I could, and still there was no end to them.
The atmosphere was fairly relaxed, and they were chattering about familiar topics.
"The new commander they posted here is no joke..."
"Our faction got hit too."
"The commander is one thing, but his newly appointed squire is insane. Last time, he sniffed out a suicide attack like a damned ghost."
Ah, so that was your doing?
I was already suppressing the urge to flip the table, and Ulysses gave me a look that seemed almost proud.
"... Who are those fellows?"
"Dunno. It's not just one or two unfamiliar mages..."
"Anyway, is Ulysses really coming?"
"Dunno. The invitation was definitely out of the ordinary..."
Exactly what kind of invitation had drawn so many mages to gather so willingly?
I was making a mental note to ask later when the appointed time finally arrived.
Surprisingly, the culprit emerged the very moment the hour struck.
Though he wore a large, pitch-black hood, I could tell he was a powerful mage.
He made not the slightest effort to hide his mana.
"All of you have come a long way. I thank you for your trouble."
A build roughly on par with Ulysses, and a slightly rough voice.
Sensing his unusual mana, every mage in the room tensed up.
The real Ulysses beside me also looked faintly surprised.
For a mere charlatan, his caliber was far too high.
"A-are you... Ulysses, the Wizard of Change?"
One of the mages posed the question on behalf of the room.
The fake Ulysses gave a light nod, then proceeded to prove his claim in person.
"Behold. I was a commoner, a king, a dragon, and I shall become a mage."
Fwababat!
With every word he spoke, the mage altered his own form.
A high-speed transformation that most mages wouldn't even dare attempt.
What he used was unmistakably Transformation Magic.
'Wait. Aside from myself and my teacher right now, there shouldn't be a Transformation Mage who's reached that level...'
I could tell, having faced the Wall of Shame every single day.
As with Ash, there was a slim chance that a mage of that caliber could be completely unknown, but...
Someone with such a cautious nature wouldn't choose a place like this for a debut.
His magic was so deeply impressive.
Mages all around the room let out exclamations of awe.
"Tr-Transformation Magic... it really is Ulysses!"
"Hold on. There can't be more than one Wizard of Change called Ulysses..."
"Who else but Ulysses could be a mage of that caliber?"
"W-we've been waiting! Please, give us your orders..."
What a spectacle.
With my head spinning, I struggled to deduce his true identity.
First, it was true that no other Transformation Mage had reached that level.
But the real Ulysses was standing beside me...
That left only one possible conclusion.
'That bastard isn't a mage.'
If he wasn't a mage, the possibilities broadened.
Ash, having reached the same conclusion moments before me, murmured softly through the mask.
[Don't tell me... a Demon Thrall?]
Correct.
Still, a demon wouldn't have infiltrated Reshutal itself directly...
The viable hypotheses were one of two: a Demon Thrall, or an Awakened One.
But the latter still had a low probability.
'It isn't as if a sudden bumper crop of Awakened Ones has sprung up after three hundred years...'
While we were racking our brains.
He steadily turned our suspicions closer to certainty.
"Mages have been oppressed for far too long. Is it a crime to possess power and talent that others lack? Here in Reshutal, we shall rise up..."
Lines that the real Ulysses would never have uttered.
I could infer the Demon Thrall's intent without much difficulty.
'My teacher's presence in Reshutal was revealed during the last battle. Once the mages learned of it, word would naturally have reached the demons' ears as well...'
The demons likely still knew next to nothing about my teacher's plans.
But they knew perfectly well how to wreck them.
'I don't know what Ulysses, the Wizard of Change, is scheming, but let's just flip the whole board.'
The demons had come to that conclusion and sent a Demon Thrall here.
If things went as they intended, Ulysses would be placed in a very difficult position.
The mages in the room looked hesitant, yet responded with considerable fervor.
Opportunities to insert themselves into a scheme by a mage of Ulysses's stature were rare.
If they treasured their lives, they'd have left Reshutal long ago.
"C-can we really land a blow on those nobles?"
"Rumor has it Ulysses aided the royal family..."
"That is false. My goal is to destroy the palace and cast Reshutal into chaos."
The Demon Thrall spouted drivel, inciting the mages.
Ulysses stepped forward as if he'd tolerated enough.
He'd judged that leaving this unchecked would only worsen the situation.
"If you are Ulysses, then what am I?"
Fwaaash!
Ulysses's body, as he slowly walked forth, transformed far faster and more violently than before.
The highest level of Transformation Magic, beyond any doubt.
The mages in the room plunged into panic.
"Wh-what! There too..."
"Then that bastard... could he be a demon?"
"All of you, get out. Reshutal is my territory."
"..."
At Ulysses's brief warning, the mages scrambled out in a mass exodus.
An escape so swift the Demon Thrall had no opening to stop them!
Confronted by the real Ulysses, the Demon Thrall let out a low laugh.
"Ulysses. So you were in Reshutal after all. Come. The great Demon King, Sitri of Transformation, awaits. Fulfill the contract you made with my master!"
"I'm not dead yet, you know."
Ulysses, uncharacteristically irate, launched a preemptive strike.
The Demon Thrall transformed without hesitation and counterattacked.
The fairly expansive underground space crumbled under the force of his transformations.
Together with Ulysses, I slipped out through the debris.
"Y-you mean to fight it out here!"
"Yes. From his perspective, reducing Reshutal to rubble would be more reassuring!"
Amid the dense clouds of dust and stone shards, razor-sharp tentacles flew at us.
After we barely dodged and deflected them, a small figure fled the scene.
[That bastard plans to run!]
"Clever, isn't he?"
Ulysses chuckled and blocked the Thrall's escape route, but...
Our opponent was far from ordinary.
He fluidly overcame obstacles and even struck back at us.
An opponent far beyond the Low-Rank Demons I'd clashed with on the Front Lines.
'This is a bit dangerous...'
He still couldn't match Ulysses, but at this rate, civilian casualties would spiral endlessly.
He might even be able to storm the royal palace.
I didn't hesitate, snaring him with Gravity Magic.
Bound fast by the powerful Gravity Chains, he could no longer widen the gap.
"Ghk! What are you! Why is an Einhold with Ulysses..."
Transforming into all manner of shapes was useless.
Sufficiently potent gravity has the property of trapping all matter... even massless light.
A thuggish power that can seize the advantage in nearly every matchup.
"Well done, Jaeger!"
"Go to hell!"
Abandoning any pretense of facing Ulysses, the Demon Thrall began scattering flames in every direction.
They were mere imitations via Transformation Magic, lacking much in power...
But if the fires properly caught, they'd rage beyond control.
"This is..."
[Ulysses, what do we do?]
Ash was stomping her feet in the workshop, afraid Reshutal would be reduced to ruin.
After a moment's consideration, Ulysses made an unexpected decision.
"Jaeger, you handle it."
"M-me, sir?"
"Yes. I'll prevent any damage to the city. You focus on nothing else and finish that bastard off!"
Ah, so that's how it was.
To be sure... I lacked the confidence to perfectly prevent collateral damage the way my teacher could.
But could I really do this?
If I could use my adamantite sword as usual, that would be another matter.
But it was too conspicuous; I hadn't dared bring it along.
Swinging a thing like that around at night would be as good as advertising my identity.
There couldn't be three such precious weapons in all of Reshutal.
As if reading my hesitation, Ulysses spoke firmly.
"I won't ask you to do something you can't."
"Understood. Here I go!"
I drew an ordinary sword and charged the Demon Thrall.
I used Gravity Magic to instantly collapse the distance between us to zero.
Since this opponent was a Transformation Mage, I'd anticipated a few of his tricks.
The Demon Thrall used every trick I'd anticipated, all at the same time.
Clang! Crunch!
"D-damn it!"
I sliced through the collar tightening around my neck, hurled away the sword that had morphed into a snake, and rolled clear of the terrifyingly lunging Stone Fist.
Each individual attack wasn't lethal, but they were immensely troublesome.
An opponent where a single misstep could tip the battle in an instant.
Worse, he kept launching destructive attacks against the city in every spare moment.
'This bastard is too strong! He's at least Mid-Rank Demon level!'
By my estimation, he was somewhat weaker than Chainfist.
If only I had at least my adamantite sword...
While I was inwardly grumbling, the Demon Thrall before me curled his lips in a sneer.
"Are you serious, Ulysses? You'd pit a whelp like this against me?"
Ulysses cleanly ignored the jeer and barked at me instead.
"Pull yourself together, Jaeger."
"What more am I supposed to do here..."
"You haven't grasped the situation. I told you, I will prevent all damage to the city! You may give it your full power this time. Your limits are not nearly this low."
"..."
As Ulysses instructed, I concentrated my mind.
I needed to shatter my preconceptions.
Until now, I'd unconsciously reined in my own power... but this wasn't an opponent for that.
I took a brief moment to steady my breathing, then unleashed every drop of mana within my body.
Fwaaash!
"Wh-what... you bastard, are you truly human!"
The Demon Thrall facing me felt his hairs stand on end.
"You truly must block everything, sir?"
"...I may need to take this seriously myself."
"Aaaargh!"
Pretending I hadn't heard him, I clenched my fist tight.
The demon, already bristling with tension, let out an agonized howl.