The Arena (5)
"A guest?"
A man with a cigarette between his lips. A slightly lean frame, a white coat, white gloves. A familiar face.
The bishop who led the heretic remnants. The Second Finger — Dexter. One of the strongest firepower specialists among the heretics. Had he fled to the Kingdom of Demacia?
Grrrrrrr—
The monsters bared their fangs. They didn't rush him recklessly, as if they somehow knew just how strong he was. The feverish puppy still couldn't even open its eyes, whimpering softly.
Click.
"Doesn't seem like a guest to me."
The man lit his cigarette with a blood-red flame and scowled.
"Not after what you've done to my precious business partner."
"…Dexter."
Don Quixote hung in midair like a cocoon, his entire body wound tight in threads. He glared at Dexter through ragged, failing breaths.
Dexter looked at him and smirked.
"You're a mess, Don Quixote."
"You… son of a… this is your fault, Dexter."
"Why are you taking it out on me? You're the one who screwed up."
"That drug you made!"
Don Quixote thrashed as he shouted.
"It didn't work at all—!"
"…"
Dexter froze. The hand that had been casually bringing the cigarette to his lips stopped mid-motion. A suffocating silence settled over them, as if time itself had stopped. Only Dexter's eyes rolled slowly in their sockets.
"What did you just say?"
"That drug you made… that so-called Grace of God or whatever the hell it was… none of it worked! Because of that one man!"
Don Quixote's hands had long since been sealed inside the cocoon. He used his whole body just to point at Evan.
"You bastard, what the hell did you sell me?! I paid you good money for that cheap garbage—"
Click!
"Gyaaaaah!"
"You're loud."
Dexter ground out his cigarette with a scowl. His eyes were thick with displeasure — even a faint trace of disgust.
"How dare a worm like you blaspheme the god?"
"Kh… kuhhh…"
Sizzle—
Dexter crushed the cigarette and spat on the floor.
"I went out of my way to grant you Grace because you were using nothing but the spit of worthless demons, and you dare doubt it?"
"You bastard… it didn't… work…"
"Ha! What a joke."
Dexter turned.
"Number Eleven! Get out here now!"
K-krrrk.
The monster called Number Eleven flinched. It seemed to be one of the experimental subjects they normally used. Instinctively it tried to lunge forward — then forced its own legs to hold still. The monster didn't move. Realizing a moment later that there was no compulsion driving it, it even took a step back.
"…Haa?"
Only then did Dexter truly understand that it hadn't worked. He fixed his gaze on Evan's group. In the pitch-dark underground chamber, with not a single light burning, Dexter's eyes burned a deep, smoldering red.
"How dare you ruin my precious merchandise?"
"…Merchandise?"
"I was going to sell them for a fortune. Or I could've just drained their blood. And you wrecked it?"
These pieces of trash. Dexter twisted his lips into a sneer.
Tick—!
At the same moment, he flicked the fingers holding his cigarette.
Fwoooosh!
K-kieeeek!
"I'll burn every last one of you right here."
The underground chamber gradually brightened with flame as the heat began to climb. The Second Finger, Dexter — a pyromancer who used blood as fuel for his fire. He consumed blood instead of mana, and because he could wield divine power, he could heal himself.
"…Tch."
Lapis scowled. For someone who fought with magic threads, fire was a troublesome opponent. Threads were naturally weak against flame. Well, there was a solution for that. If she taught him, he'd pick it up in no time.
The real problem is that if we stay like this, we might suffocate.
This was an underground sealed chamber. Stay too long and the smoke alone could choke them to death.
Better finish this fast, right?
Gulp!
I-I can do this!
Finish it before the fire even touches skin. Wasn't burning pain supposed to be the worst kind? Left the ugliest scars, too. A cold sweat beaded on his brow. He was absolutely not scared. It was just a little warm, that was all.
"Evan."
Then Aegis stepped forward. She looked properly furious. Her eyes flashed with a murderous light.
"I'll handle this."
"A mage, are you? If it's water magic, you'd best not bother."
Dexter grinned crookedly and stoked the flames higher.
"My fire isn't ordinary."
"Yap, yap. You talk too much."
Aegis's eyes began to glow — the telltale sign of mana activation.
"Evan, I'll show you right here what the power of the Alchemist Tower really is."
"Shut up—!"
Dexter bellowed and hurled a torrent of flame at Aegis. The fire writhed like a dragon as it shot toward her — and just before it struck—
Clap!
Aegis clapped her hands. At the same instant — click! — the oncoming fire went out. She hadn't doused it with water. The flames simply vanished, as if they had evaporated.
"…!"
Dexter's eyes flew wide. He frantically conjured fire again and launched it — but this time she didn't even clap.
Click!
The flames died. Dexter hastily bit down on his own finger. Thick droplets of blood welled up, rose into the air one by one, and transformed into fireballs.
"[Fire Spear]"
⟨ 4th Circle Magic — Fire Spear ⟩
Not one, but three — each one larger than the last. Aegis clapped her hands without so much as a change of expression. Whoosh! — as if a gust of wind had swept them away, the Fire Spears evaporated on the spot.
"…W-what."
"Even if it burns on blood as fuel, it's still just fire."
Aegis flicked her fingers — tick, tick.
"If I erase the other conditions a flame needs to burn, what exactly can you do?"
"…!"
Ah! He understood how she'd done it.
She used Decomposition to remove the conditions for combustion.
As expected of a highly skilled alchemist. No wonder she was a named-tier character. A talent monster. At this level, he really was just ordinary, wasn't he?
"Y-you—!"
Dexter realized too late that something was wrong and tried to plant his hands on the ground — but Aegis was faster.
Clap! Boom!
She clapped and struck the earth. A blue light flashed and a burst of radiance exploded outward — bright enough, for a single instant, to blind Dexter completely.
"Gyaaaaah!"
Dexter screamed. Subduing him after that wasn't particularly difficult.
Clank-clank! Shrrrk!
The iron bars of a nearby cage were thoroughly Decomposed and Reconstructed, coiling around him like ropes and binding him tight. Dexter recovered his sight just enough to scowl.
"What kind of monster of a woman is this… You — what kind of mage are you?"
"A mage? Please. I'm not a mage — I'm an alchemist."
"…What? An alchemist?"
Alchemist. Dexter's voice grew strangely small, as if he were suddenly afraid.
"…Wait. Don't tell me—?"
Dexter's eyes flew wide. He forced blood out of himself and absorbed it straight into his eyes, restoring his vision. As his focus returned, his gaze locked with Evan's.
"…!!!!!"
The moment he saw Evan's face, Dexter's whole body convulsed. The reaction — as if he'd seen a ghost — left Evan feeling slightly offended. What was his problem?
"E-Evan Alcarte. W-why are you here?"
Trembling violently, Dexter tried to back away. Realizing again that he was bound, he thrashed wildly to free himself.
"D-don't tell me. You chased me all the way here?"
Excuse me?
"Y-you bastard! Wasn't it enough to control Arthur and hunt us down?! You came to kill me yourself? All the way to this distant kingdom?"
No.
Before Evan could even protest his innocence, he felt two pairs of eyes on him. Aegis and the priestess were both staring in open shock.
No.
I-it's not like that.
No!!
Before he could explain, Dexter started begging for his life.
"S-spare me. Please spare me."
"…"
"I-I'm completely at odds with Bishop Blake! A different faction entirely! Y-yeah! I'll give you anything you want. Experimental subjects? Sacrifices? Just name it!"
"…"
"A-about me playing around with your drugs? I-I didn't know! I had no idea they were yours! It just… kind of happened that way…!"
Honestly, this was not helping. Even Evan was starting to get annoyed. No matter how broad-minded and magnanimous a man he was, this was a bit much. A flicker of irritation rose. He could probably take Dexter, so maybe he could let a little of it show.
"If that's what you want, can you provide it?"
"…!"
All the color drained from Dexter's face until it was deathly pale. Evan felt thoroughly satisfied.
Hah! Yes. This is the good stuff.
"S-spare— ukh!"
"Lapis. Please restrain him."
"Yes! Should I kill him?"
Hmm, should he kill him? Nah. That felt a bit much.
"…Just subdue him for now. Completely."
"Yes!"
He'd be useful somehow. Evan could hand him over to Arthur or the Saintess — or even to Innocence.
Whoosh, whoosh!
Dexter's body, already bound by the iron bars, was wrapped layer upon layer in threads. His muscles were prodded and locked so he couldn't so much as twitch. A wad of thread filled his mouth, pinning his tongue firmly in place.
Tick, tick.
The extinguished lights came back on. In the newly brightened cavern, Don Quixote and Dexter were hauled off to a corner, bound tight. Evan would collect them later.
Ah, right. I should have asked where the kidnappers were.
But that wasn't the most important thing right now.
Gulp!
…A-alright then.
Evan swallowed dryly under the weight of the stares fixed on him.
"…Evan. What is this about?"
Aegis looked at him as if she couldn't believe it.
"Arthur — that has to mean the blood-crazed Holy Knight. If anyone's been hunting heretics, it's him. You're controlling him?"
"…It's a misunderstanding."
"The chasing part, fine… I can accept that. But the drug that addicted the monsters being your drug — what's that supposed to mean?"
That was… How was he supposed to explain this?
It wasn't a drug in the first place.
The original effect wasn't even supposed to be this.
It was an antidote to begin with…!
He'd just have to explain and hope for the best. Evan was about to open his mouth when—
"Elder Aegis."
The priestess spoke, her tone gentle as she soothed Aegis.
"Please, calm down for a moment."
"…I'm not worked up. I'm just asking. Making drugs is treated as a Taboo among our kind."
He knew that. He'd seen what happened to alchemists who went too far — how could he not know?
"Tell me clearly, Evan. As an Elder… I have a duty to know."
"…I did not make a drug."
Evan explained calmly. The full details would be too much, so he summarized only the important points.
"What I made was an antidote… but it seems the effect was different on monsters."
"…An antidote?"
"I made it to counteract drug addiction, but I only confirmed its effectiveness on humans. It may have applied differently to monsters — or they may have been modified separately."
"Then why did he say he used something you made?"
"…To frame me as the culprit, wouldn't you say?"
"Why bother? You specifically?"
"Evan is super famous in the underworld!"
Lapis chimed in from the side.
"He even has a reeeally scary epithet!"
"…I was forced into underworld activity because of His Excellency. I dislike criminals."
"Mm-hmm, I know. You're not going to tell us the epithet, right?"
"Yes."
"Why not?"
Evan kept his face as expressionless as possible.
"Because it's embarrassing."
"…Ah. Yeah. I get that. I hate hearing my old epithet too. So then — how did you get mixed up with the heretics?"
From here on, it was pure curiosity. The misunderstanding seemed to have cleared. Had he survived?
"…It was a coincidence. I saw a young child being captured and experimented on by heretics, and I stepped in to stop it. That was all."
Lapis nodded vigorously beside him. With a witness present, Aegis completely dropped her suspicion.
H-he was alive!
"…I see. Sorry. I was too suspicious."
"Not at all."
"I was out of line. I'll give you something good later. That golem in your shadow — I can enhance it for you."
The shadow trembled faintly. Satisfied, Evan nodded. He didn't know about anything else, but for now — he was alive! And his epithet hadn't been exposed. It was a nickname built from layer upon layer of misunderstandings, one he never wanted to hear again.
I need to get rid of these guys quickly too.
Evan shook his head vigorously. As he did, his eyes met the priestess's — and she smiled brightly. The complete opposite of her earlier demeanor.
What is this?
Had her affection level risen too high? Evan absently rubbed at his face. The numbness still hadn't worn off.
…As I thought.
The priestess watched Evan steadily. Even under suspicion, he hadn't panicked — his face remained as expressionless as ever. That alone was enough for her to be certain.
Evan… he had deliberately orchestrated this entire situation.