This Is How You Kidnap (5)
This Is How You Kidnap (5)
"Should've listened when you had the chance."
"Shut... up!"
Lloyd's face was rotting away by the second. What good was a Mana Stone endlessly supplying him with mana?
He was burning far more than he took in!
The instant he started to recover any mana, she sniffed it out like a ghost and slammed a higher-tier spell into him. He couldn't let his focus slip for a moment. His concentration was grinding down steadily.
But if that were all, he wouldn't have been this shaken.
"Come on, attack already. Waiting's getting tiring."
Behind Olivia as she spoke, countless shards of ice drifted in the air. There was only one reason she kept them floating beside her instead of firing them.
She was going easy on him.
"How dare you!"
Lloyd's eyes shot through with blood. This insult—he hadn't suffered anything like it since becoming Tower Lord. No. It was the first of his entire life.
"I'll take you seriously, witch."
"Ah weeww tak-oo sewiouswy."
"Shut that mouth!"
Fwoooosh!
Lloyd's staff began devouring the surrounding light with an overwhelming intensity. The condensed radiance rippled outward slowly, then, at some point, shaped itself into a sword-wielding angel.
Wooooong—!
The angel raised its blade of light toward the sky. Soaring as if to pierce the ceiling, the sword-force slammed down on the air around it.
The Evil-Destroying Sword that burned demons to nothing.
Its tip slowly turned toward Olivia.
"Everyone, fall back!"
Horror burst from the elders who had been watching the battle from behind the barrier.
"Judgment—here?!"
"That witch is on that level?!"
Some people believed White Tower magic was not the magic of humans but divine judgment.
In truth, it had zero connection to any god. But the angels that manifested when the magic reached a certain realm were more than enough to create that illusion.
The angel that swung a condemning sword with its eyes shut.
Honestly, not falling for the illusion after seeing that would've been stranger.
Boom!
Lloyd brought his staff crashing down. As if it had been waiting, the angel's sword shot forth at terrifying speed.
Crrrrrrr-unch—!
Sparks sprayed madly where sword met barrier.
A pitched struggle between the one trying to pierce and the one holding the line.
Mages clenched their fists with sweat-slick hands. Even Aramis couldn't tear her gaze away.
Wooooong!
'This isn't over yet!'
Lloyd's staff swallowed light once more. It drew in the radiance with a force far more fearsome than before, and in the end, it produced a second angel.
Simultaneous high-tier incantation. A realm every mage dreamed of—and an absurdity possible only for the Tower Lord, the master of the Tower.
"Tower Lord! Kill that bitch dead!"
"Waaaaah!"
Forgetting entirely what she herself had been trying to do, Jeina clenched her fist and screamed. Ro, and the mages beside her, weren't much different.
But Aramis saw it.
'...This attack is the last one.'
The Tower Lord was already at his limit.
His eyes quaked like an aspen leaf. His arms trembled, unable even to bear the weight of his staff.
If this attack killed the witch, none of that would matter. Mana exhaustion could be cured with treatment, and a mage who'd reached the Tower Lord's realm wouldn't die that easily.
But... but...
Aramis's eyes flew wide with shock.
'She's smiling?'
The witch—was still smiling.
A bluff? Impossible.
Even if that witch were a genius actor, maintaining a smile under that appalling pressure was impossible.
'It genuinely means nothing to her.'
This pressure that made skin crawl just from standing nearby. That force.
To the witch, it wasn't even a threat.
Aramis clenched her teeth and looked around. The place already felt like a festival. They hadn't even clashed yet, but everyone was prematurely assuming victory just from the surface situation.
The elders were no different.
How had these so-called mages ended up with such pitiful insight?
'If this keeps up, everyone dies.'
Aramis accelerated her thinking.
At this rate, the plan to disrupt the witch's mana using the ambient residual mana in the surroundings would also fall apart.
"There's no time. Follow me."
Aramis grabbed Jeina with one hand and Ro with the other and dragged them into the corner.
"Hey—hey! Let go of me right now!"
"Wha—!"
There was no time to explain. At best, only a few dozen seconds remained until the next collision.
Jeina Eculein and Ro Fernandi.
They lacked a discerning 'eye' just like the rest, but when it came to instinct and situational judgment alone, they surpassed most elders.
That was why Aramis kept them around.
And partly why she'd let them speak casually to her, too.
"What the hell are you suddenly—"
"Help me."
Without further explanation, Aramis dropped straight down and began drawing a Magic Circle on the floor.
"What kind of bullshit are you trying to pull now—"
Jeina caught sight of Aramis's face and shut her mouth. Aramis's expression was locked rigid, cold sweat streaming down her face.
Aramis, of all people!
'What kind of face is that...'
Having grasped the gravity of the situation, Jeina silently knelt beside her and began copying the Magic Circle. Fortunately, it was a circle she knew.
In theory, at least.
"Jeina? What is this all of a sudden—"
"Ro, shut up, sit down, and copy it."
"Uh, uh..."
When a mage drew a Magic Circle, it meant one of only two things.
Using a spell one tier above their ability.
And.
'This is spatial magic. How the hell does this bastard know—'
Using a spell of another attribute.
The past, when magic had no structured system, might have been different. But the current trend was, 'Don't mess with other attributes unless absolutely necessary.'
A high-tier mage who'd built their own personal magic system might be an exception. For mages below that threshold, other-attribute magic was just greed.
Thoroughly mastering one was far more efficient than half-knowing two or three. That was why, even if they took an interest in other attributes, most people—like Jeina—only poked at the theory.
Today, Jeina found Aramis looking more monstrous than ever.
'No one would've taught her this!'
But now wasn't the time to question it.
Wooooooong—!
The three of them combined their efforts, and the Magic Circle completed in an instant.
Sensing the mana turbulence beyond the barrier surge, Aramis lifted her head to assess the situation.
The moment the angels thrust their swords at Olivia, Aramis extended her hand and activated the Magic Circle.
Shoooooom—!
A golden aura erupted from the Magic Circle and flew toward the swords at terrifying speed.
The instant the swords met that golden aura, space itself warped, and the tips were refracted into a blind spot outside the barrier's coverage.
Crunch!
A different sound echoed than before.
"It worked!"
Aramis clenched her fist and shouted. She saw it clearly—the Evil-Destroying Sword boring into the gap in the barrier.
'No matter what kind of monster she is, from here...'
But the moment the dust cleared, the sight before her eyes was far removed from Aramis's expectations.
First of all, it wasn't Olivia's body that had broken.
The sword? Why the sword...
Aramis stared at the Evil-Destroying Sword as it dissolved into flecks of light, then slowly raised her gaze.
Olivia's mouth was forming words.
You...
You would be dead soon...?
"...Huh?"
The next moment, Lloyd lost his grip on his staff. He lunged for it, trying to grab it again somehow, but his strength had given out, and he collapsed in a heap.
"Already tired, old man?"
"I-I can still—!"
Thwack—!
Olivia brought the edge of her hand down on Lloyd's neck.
"Guuurgh—!"
Lloyd didn't pass out. He groaned and staggered.
"Huh. Always works in the movies."
"Y-you... barbaric—!"
Bzzzzzzt!
"Grrrrrr-rgh!"
It seemed the Electric Shock was a bit much for him.
The Tower was instantly steeped in silence. Not the elders, not the senior mages—no one dared open their mouth.
No matter how blind they were, they knew the person who'd reduced the White Tower Lord to a twitching worm was Olivia.
"S-stop!"
"You want to get knocked out too?"
Blue current rippled around Olivia's hand. The First Elder, having confirmed the mana contained within it, swallowed dryly.
"Th-that's not what I—"
"Then what is it?"
"It's, that is... well..."
The First Elder, who'd been playing for time, raised his staff.
"Diiiie!"
A sneak attack was underhanded, but against a witch there was no need to pick and choose—
Huh? Wait, why was the ground getting closer?
At this rate he was going to crash—
"Grrrr-rgh! Grgh!"
Olivia pointed at the twitching First Elder and spoke.
"If you're coming at me, come now."
After watching the first and second in line of the White Tower get obliterated, no one had the mental vacancy left to try attacking.
If the Tower Lord and the First Elder had died—well. They could probably have managed something through sheer rage, somehow...
"Grrrrrr-rgh."
...From every angle, they did not look dead.
"No one? Then from this moment on, any bastard who comes at me dies. Understood?"
"..."
The mages averted their eyes with every fiber of their being.
If you meet her eyes, you die!
Unconditional Electric Shock!
Just as that eerily charged silence stretched out, Olivia broke it.
"One minute. Three bastards who think it's them, step forward."
"..."
You think we'd step forward knowing what'll happen?!
At least tell us what we did wrong, you insane bitch of a witch!
The mages had been busy glancing sidelong at each other, but now their gazes all snapped to one direction at once.
"Ah..."
The three mages who'd failed to flee to the upper floor sighed quietly.