ARPG: City of the Dead Mage (5)
It seemed the recent commotion had woken Lucy from her sleep.
As Mary’s own little sister, the girl looked just like her, staring at Kasian with eyes full of wariness.
Of course, Kasian was the one who had saved her, but she’d slept through the entire fight.
And no bond forms in that short time.
So Kasian stood up from his seat. Partly to regain his composure as well.
“Hoo……”
He slipped out of the house like he was fleeing, then let out a deep breath.
‘Of all things, damn it.’
Trauma.
He had no choice but to dredge up old memories.
Something he’d never do under normal circumstances, but he couldn’t help it.
Once they surfaced, there was no brushing them off lightly.
— Father, I’m sorry. It’s all my fault. But at least I’m glad it ended like this.
His daughter, Claudia, had taken her own life.
Along with the child in her womb.
The Great War of 30 years ago was a horrific chapter of history stained with countless deaths and rivers of blood.
Innumerable people killed and were killed.
Kasian Valerius, field mage, was no exception. If anything, he’d killed far more than most.
His moniker back then was “Scorching Fire”.
The empire’s flame that incinerated battlefields.
He racked up achievements great enough to be hailed an imperial hero later on, but he also earned plenty of grudges in the process.
Among those grudge-holders was the “Liberation Front,” still harassing the empire even decades after the war.
They cloaked themselves in the grand cause of revolution, but in truth, they were mad rebels who wanted to shatter order and build their own twisted world.
Back then, Kasian hadn’t given them a second thought, of course. Just rabble.
Criminals, deserters, and ideologues cobbled together into a ragtag band of thieves.
His real foes were the enemy mages clashing head-on at the border forts anyway.
But who could’ve foreseen that the Liberation Front would survive to the end and weave an unimaginable grudge into his life?
Fifteen years ago, Kasian had seized a border fortress and been dispatched south to mop up Liberation Front remnants stirring unrest.
The war had ended in imperial victory, but pockets of resistance lingered.
Even the coalition kingdoms, crushed in their bold assault, ran guerrilla ops and partisans separate from the truce, inflicting minor wounds on the empire.
At the time, his only daughter Claudia—after several miscarriages—had finally gotten pregnant and left the capital for the southern border to share the joyful news with her weary father.
The father-daughter pair had always been close, so this was meant to lift his spirits during the grueling deployment.
The problem was running smack into a Liberation Front pack along the way.
No telling where the intel leaked from. Or maybe pure chance.
The “revolutionaries” were little more than an organized rebel force—a massive, brutal bandit horde.
A fancy carriage heading to the front with light escorts? Prime prey for them.
The guards fought desperately, but it wasn’t enough.
This was a force that warranted deploying a 7th Circle mage for extermination.
The momentum had already shifted, and Claudia could easily sense her end was near.
The commander’s daughter, come to wipe them out.
They probably wouldn’t kill her right away.
Just holding her was leverage enough.
But even that was uncertain. They might toy with her first, then kill her in the most agonizing way at a crucial moment.
Her unborn child could meet a horrific fate too.
— Miss, please run— Gahk!
In the end, Claudia had no choice but to decide.
Using the magic scroll her father himself had made—“Scorching Fire”—she took out the Liberation Front commander in mutual destruction.
By the time Kasian got word and rushed there, all that remained in the burning carriage was unidentifiable ash.
From that day on, no one called Kasian by his moniker.
No one could withstand the full wrath of a 7th Circle mage under the emperor’s protection.
“……Claudia.”
He murmured the name after so long.
He’d thought he was over it, but maybe he’d just been avoiding the memories.
Kasian wandered outside in a daze for a while longer before heading back in.
Inside, Lucy was snug in Mary’s arms, fast asleep, while Mary—cradling her and apparently waiting—dozed off with a nod.
“……”
Kasian used magic to lay them in bed without waking them.
Whatever the case, he had to see this world’s end.
At dawn, Phaeton summoned everyone to headquarters except minimal staff.
“Mary, you’re sitting this out. With the main force deploying, the city needs a battle-hardened defender.”
Mary, who would’ve thrown a fit to join in the old days, exchanged a glance with Kasian and backed off without protest.
She still couldn’t read Phaeton’s intentions, and there was no ruling out that Maleks—the one who kidnapped Lucy—was backed by real Legion Command stragglers.
Unlike the sporadic clashes with Scavengers, this could be a full-scale invasion.
“Don’t worry. You know my skills.”
“……Shut up. I wasn’t worried!”
Kasian flashed Mary a sly smile before following the Scavengers out.
Haganelle Industrial Complex B Sector had an insanely convoluted layout.
The Sanctuary’s underground waterways looked like a joke by comparison.
Brass buildings blotting out the sky, towering smokestacks thrusting upward.
‘Heard Sanctuary was just a slice of the complex. This must be the real heart.’
As Kasian scanned the area, a barking growl echoed from a factory corner.
Emerging from the shadows: something the size of a large dog.
Eight single eyes like a spider’s, massive fangs, but it loped on four legs at high speed like a hound—even scaling walls. A real pain.
“Chief! It’s them!”
“Five hostiles ahead!”
“Watch the rear! They crawl ceilings for ambushes!”
Bang, bang-bang!!
The Scavengers’ mana rifles spat mana bullets.
Lead slugs slammed into the monster pack at high velocity.
Of course, if a couple shots killed them, the core sector wouldn’t have fallen so easily.
One unlucky vital hit aside, the rest scattered with shrill cries, rustling away.
“They’re coming!”
“Form up!”
“Two more at 5 o’clock!”
“Four at 11 o’clock too!”
Another trait of Venom Spider Hounds: pack hunting.
The thin spider silk trailing from their rears doubled as comms.
They roamed the area, weaving a dense sensor web, picking victims via vibrations.
The Scavengers were surrounded in seconds.
“Hold positions!”
“Fire at my signal—free-for-all!”
But that was part of the plan.
Exploiting the beasts’ pack assaults, they’d form a hasty defensive line and concentrate fire to wipe them out at once.
The kill zone took shape.
As a veteran field mage, Kasian instantly clocked it.
‘Tight formation, sequential volleys.’
Damn effective tactic.
The monsters dropped like flies.
Rushing from six passages, but helpless before Phaeton’s kill zone.
Phaeton might be shady, but he didn’t lead the city’s last holdouts on voice and build alone.
Bang-bang! Bang! Bang!
To Kasian, though, it was just mildly interesting—not efficient.
Monsters weren’t dumb. Shooters weren’t infinite stamina.
The line crept forward. Fatigue showed on the gunners.
“Make way.”
“……Mage?”
Finally, Kasian Valerius stepped up.
“Hot Wind.”
Heat bloomed from his hands in an instant.
The scorching gale racing like wind filled the passages—then he clenched his fists.
Explosions roared in its wake.
Kwaaang! Boom!! Pop!!
Already narrow corridors. The clustered Venom Spiders charging the main group charred to black husks.
Dozens of nonstop shooters barely holding them—gone in a blink.
“……My god.”
Even Phaeton gawked, eyes wide. He’d never seen magic like that.
“Didn’t you come here low on ammo? At this rate, it’ll run dry before we scavenge.”
“……”
“Just guide me. I’ll handle them.”
“Y-Yes……”
After that, it was straightforward.
Phaeton’s rousing sendoff rang hollow; the Sanctuary Scavengers were mere spectators to Kasian’s overwhelming firepower.
Even the sector’s boss, the Steam Golem, fell easily.
“Steam Golem!”
“Target the mana core! Rifles won’t cut it—designated marksmen, handle it……”
“White Flame Spear. Single Point Burst.”
Kwaang!
“Krgggghhh… guuuguuu……”
And so, they effortlessly reclaimed Haganelle Industrial Complex B Sector.
“Uh, um.”
Results were results, right?
“Jackpot! Haganelle high-penetration rounds!”
“Large-caliber rifles too!? Grab ’em quick!”
“Wait… can we even carry all this? Looks like three years’ stockpile.”
“Shoulda brought a steam truck.”
Phaeton and the Scavengers started looting.
Most resources, prepped for final evac, had piled up in the central factory after the workers got monster chow—easy to divvy.
Kasian eyed the chattering crew with an odd look, then cracked open a fancy-decorated case.
Inside: a rifle like Mary’s, but far pricier and superior.
“……Hm.”
Mary would’ve loved it.
Kasian grabbed the gun and case as spoils.
For Mary. And maybe gifts for the kids—he poked around.
“?!”
In the main factory basement, Kasian sensed something off.
Mana.
Wasn’t this a world stripped of mana?
“Incredible purity. Where’s it coming from?”
Having felt none till now made it hit harder.
Kasian Valerius traced it like a moth to flame.
Soon, a passage delving deeper.
Sealed originally, but something had burst out—massive iron door wrecked.
—Somewhere in B Sector, a weapon that terrified even archmages might sleep.
Kasian recalled last night’s chat with Mary.
Heavily sealed underground facility.
Suspicious as hell.
Might house something beyond the Steam Golem, but he could solo it.
He descended into the dark basement.
Mana thickened the deeper he went—now rivaling his old world’s atmosphere.
At the passage’s end: giant test tubes crammed full.
Like a nightmarish bio-lab.
Kasian froze at the bizarre sight, but then recognized the figure in one tube.
“Lucy……?”
The girl he’d rescued last night—stark naked, sealed inside.
“What the hell……”
Not just one.
Beyond count, dozens more Lucys slumbered in tubes filling his view.