5th Iteration (2)
5th Iteration (2)
'How the hell did they talk this kid into it... Was he brainwashed?'
The man sent flying backward had that fleeting thought. It was a rational deduction.
Snapping like a poisoned blowfish just because someone talked behind his back—that was exactly what it looked like.
The Tower Master of Knowledge was still the world's greatest mage. Brainwashing or controlling someone on the level of a mental-type unique ability would be well within his power.
'...No, that probably isn't it.'
The man soon denied the thought. It hadn't been a serious deduction anyway. He himself was a mage who had been granted the rank of Mage, though he considered it a mess.
He knew the current Lee Ha-yul wasn't being controlled.
In fact, when the man was knocked away, Lee Ha-yul also flinched and belatedly showed a hint of apology. Of course, he hardened his expression again, considering they were in combat.
Back when he was alive, he would have been more suspicious. The Tower Masters he knew were damn bastards who only cared about rationality.
They would have seriously suspected that the real one had been brainwashed, all in the name of rationality.
Now it was a bit different.
After hearing the circumstances, the Tower Masters... were less at fault than he'd thought. It was unintended, just a variable no one could have predicted.
And he himself was a creature born from that variable.
'Ah, shit.'
The man scowled. For a moment he had an existential crisis, wondering why his fate had to be this miserable.
Even knowing he was a fake, he had tried to resist. He'd suffered like a dog and finally died. That alone was fucking awful, but it was absurd that even after death he was still racking his brain like this.
'As I thought, necromancy is a useless technique.'
He had always felt uneasy about it, but now that he'd become something like an undead himself, it was more fucking awful than he'd ever imagined.
Even after death, the man gained a new understanding and flicked his hands open. Crackle! Mana sparks flew from the circuits revealed on the surface of his arms.
With a single motion, hundreds of spells poured out.
Boom! Their spells collided in the center, causing a series of explosions.
Two figures kicked off the ground from the explosion. Hong Yeon-hwa and Lee Ji-yeon. They felt the explosions ringing overhead, their eyes trembling faintly.
'Ha, Ha-yul cursed...'
More than the violent explosions, the voice that Lee Ha-yul's necklace had just spat out lingered in her ears.
Whatever conversation he'd had with that helmet guy, Lee Ha-yul suddenly turned vicious and spewed curses.
Hong Yeon-hwa understood why Lee Ha-yul had told her not to curse.
Mirror therapy or something? Even if it had not come from the real one's own mouth, hearing Lee Ha-yul spout such flippant curses was more shocking than she had imagined.
Calamity Flame Expansion Ability
Flame Advance
Taesan Expansion Ability
Golden Mountain Iron Wall
The two manifested their expansion abilities simultaneously.
The Calamity Flame that had been flickering outside Hong Yeon-hwa's body now burned inside her, amplifying her physical abilities.
Lee Ji-yeon wrapped the rocks pulled from the ground around herself like armor. It was a technique she had used before, but now that it was incorporated into an expansion ability, its strength had increased exponentially.
'First, get close and strike.'
They weren't mages, but they knew how to fight mages.
Giving a mage distance was a bad idea. Mages who hadn't yet built a spell workshop were especially vulnerable in close combat.
'I know that too.'
Mages know that weakness best. There's no way someone getting pummeled at close range wouldn't know. They'd devised plenty of countermeasures to compensate.
The man pulled his fist back. Crackle! The circuits on the surface of his arm sparked again.
His circuits were anomalous.
Just as blood flows through veins, his bizarre body manifested magic simply by letting mana flow through his circuits.
A defective body that would have burst from pouring out spells at every moment, if not for the unique ability 'Advanced Mana Manipulation'.
An artificial creation produced by the artifact Order of Regression—something that could never appear naturally.
'Manifest.'
The Order of Regression melted into the man's body after use and became a unique ability. He possessed an anomalous body that could modify its circuits at any time.
'Expand.'
Order of Regression Expansion Ability
Reversal
Crack! The sparks became flames. The circuits modified and twisted in real time.
Repulsive force. The reversed mana clashed and surged wildly.
Normally, the circuits would tear apart at once, and the reversed mana would slam into the core—turning you into a cripple if you were lucky, or causing your body to explode and kill you if you were slightly unlucky.
But the man's circuits were built precisely for this phenomenon.
They fully contained that mana and made it his own for use.
The man's fist, drawn back, vanished in an instant. Hong Yeon-hwa reflexively crossed her arms.
—Bang!
"Kgh!?"
The aura enveloping her arms shattered. Her body shot backward from the tremendous impact. Hong Yeon-hwa's eyes flew wide open.
'Fucking fast...!'
She could barely see the punch. She blocked it reflexively, but even with her physical abilities amplified by Flame Advance, she was pushed back heavily.
The man turned. Crack! This time, mana flames erupted from his leg. His leg, leaving an afterimage, kicked the approaching Lee Ji-yeon.
—Booom!
Ears rang from the fierce explosion. The shockwave split the ground. The man's eyes went wide.
The rocks broke. Fragments clattered to the ground.
He hadn't completely broken through. Lee Ji-yeon, her legs planted firmly on the ground and blocking the kick with her forearm, was pushed back but not sent flying.
'What the—why is she so tough?'
Lee Ji-yeon. Successor of Taesan.
It was true that Taesan was disgustingly tough in defense, and the man had indeed held back his strength, but he hadn't expected Lee Ji-yeon to be this tough.
He acknowledged her potential, but he didn't remember her being this tough at the end of the first year.
Had she already overcome her temperament and brought her potential into bloom? What happened?
—Smack!
Lee Ji-yeon, her eyes sharp, reached out. The massive hand covered in rock seized the man's leg that had stopped her.
Taesan Expansion Ability
Strength to Uproot Mountains
Crack!! The rocks trembled. The vitality drawn fully from the earth was consumed in her body. The rocky hand squeezed the man's leg as if to crush it.
'Whoa.'
The man twisted his body. Both feet left the ground. Immediately, he swung his free leg.
Putting more strength into it than before. And manifesting magic on top of it.
Boom! This time Lee Ji-yeon was knocked away. Bouncing off the ground from the magic mixed into the kick, she sprang back to her feet.
Having shaken off the two for a moment, the man reached toward Lee Ha-yul.
Even during the brief engagement, the man's body was unleashing magic. One arm and leg were 'Reversed,' but the rest were still 'Forward.'
The Forward circuits poured spells without pause under the man's control.
Lee Ha-yul had been engaging the man in a magical battle since earlier. Surprisingly, the situation was in Lee Ha-yul's favor.
'His mana's broken as hell.'
The spell output was exceptional. The man quickly realized the cause.
The difference in mana. Though he had built up deep and highly pure mana with Advanced Mana Manipulation, it couldn't compare to that mana.
On top of that, his spell formulas were just as bizarre. He was unleashing hundreds of spells so dangerous that a single mistake would force you to hand in your mage's title.
'So the real one is a nutcase too.'
A feat that ordinary courage couldn't attempt. The man let out a hollow laugh and reached out.
'Monstrous Breaching Spear Arrow.'
He opened the Forward circuit he had kept closed. Mana flowed and the spell naturally manifested. A massive black spear condensed above his head and fired.
A high-grade attack spell created for sieges. Facing it, Lee Ha-yul held Jeonghwa backwards and drew his arm back.
An unmistakable throwing stance. Compared to the black spear, Jeonghwa was as small as a toothpick.
Jeonghwa's crystal orb shone brightly. Whoosh! Then a golden blade suddenly surged forth.
A radiance that in that instant pushed back not only the darkness but even the light from the mana explosions.
Brilliant, wild White Night formed the blade. Lee Ha-yul gritted his teeth and flung his arm.
Bang! A golden line pierced the black spear. The shattered black spear melted into the night sky. The thrown spear shot toward the man without losing any momentum.
'What the hell is that.'
The man, seeing White Night for the first time, was horrified.
Its intensity was no less than Calamity Flame. In fact, its instantaneous output surpassed it.
There was another unique ability as batshit insane as Calamity Flame? It was a shocking scene for him.
Attribute unique abilities are sometimes correlated with the user's personality. He couldn't begin to guess how insane the personality of that unique ability's user must be...
He stretched both hands forward. The circuits modified and mana flowed. Dozens of protective barriers he wove blocked the trajectory of the thrown spear.
Whoosh! Before the spear, ice skewers rained down. An attack launched from a much closer position than the spear.
The man frowned. As expected, the Azure Sea's cold energy that infiltrated the spell formulas partially disrupted his magic.
Only then did the thrown spear detonate. Crack! The spear tip, finding only gaps to pierce, crushed the barriers in succession.
At some point, Jeonghwa was blocked. But the man's frown didn't ease.
The straight, golden blade shone brightly.
—Booom!
The man was caught in the White Night explosion with its blinding radiance. The shockwave from the blast sent a few cadets staggering in the distance tumbling across the ground.
"Whoa, that's vicious..."
When the bright radiance faded, the man revealed was perfectly fine. He muttered with a wry expression, checking the singed edge of his robe, and turned his head.
Lee Ha-yul also knew the man would be fine. So he had already kicked off the ground and closed in. Three pairs of wings fluttered, pushing Lee Ha-yul's body forward.
Lee Ha-yul reached out. The man stared intently at him.
'Still a first-year... but with this, it's only natural to pin hopes on him.'
He'd shown an absurd number of techniques in just that brief fight, and each skill was insanely polished.
And this was a first-year. The man was even curious what he'd become by his second, third, and fourth years.
He didn't know what trick he'd pull now. But first, he'd confirm it...
Creak! The circuits twisted. The screeching circuits took the shape of a spell formula...
"You crazy bastard."
The man cursed out loud. The cross-section of the circuits revealed on Lee Ha-yul's arm. Monstrous Breaching Spear Arrow. A pure white spear burst forth right in front of the man's nose.
The man, startled, swung both arms.
Boom! The spear slammed into the ground upside down with a thunderous noise. The earth's surface heaved like a wave, and soil shot into the sky.
"Wow..."
A spot a little removed from where the Monstrous Breaching Spear Arrow had struck. The man massaged his sore arms, his mouth agape. Lee Ha-yul also grimaced and rubbed his right arm, where a light cluster flickered.
"That bastard is seriously insane."
He had processed and used his circuits as a spell formula.
It was an act the man did as naturally as breathing, but obviously not for anyone else.
Rather, it was something that shouldn't be done, and couldn't be done.
Doing it turns you into a cripple. Doing it is insane. It's a madman's act.
There are plenty of better methods in the world; there's no need to do that.
The man knew that.
If it weren't for the Order of Regression, if it weren't for the mage's help, he wouldn't have even dreamed of attempting it.
But that bastard was pulling that bullshit by himself, without an artifact.
Having needed help himself, the man could only stare in horror at the sheer madness before him.
"...So that's why they called me."
He realized the Tower Master's intention.
Rather than leaving the kid to perform those illegal procedures, they'd sent him to a competent and legal place to get it done.
The man's technique wasn't that great, but since he was like this, he could at least offer a plausible answer and solution.
'Yeah, rather than using it dangerously, it's better to learn it properly. Watch closely... watch? Observe well and learn.'
Whatever. He was already dead and done for. Shouldn't he at least help the real one overcome this?
The man smiled bitterly and spread his arms wide. The circuits in his body twisted greatly. Crunch! Blue lines protruded from his shoulder blades.
The circuits within his body surged outside.
Unique Magic Path — Foolish Straight Twin Wheels
—Screech!
The circuits twisted and connected like a cartwheel.
[Unique Ability 「Mana Affinity」 grows.]
[Unique Ability 「All-Rounder」 grows.]