Chapter 148
Chapter 148
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 148
Chapter Title: Forceful Breakthrough (3)
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“Heehee, still, I’m glad you made it this far. Right, Yuna? I’m just dying to see the look on that little brat’s face when he sees me.”
“Please, let me live. Please let me go home.”
Yuna knelt before Marsha and begged. She could tell from the subordinates’ attitudes that this woman was the leader of the organization.
“It’s okay, don’t be scared.”
“Then… will you let me go home?”
“Of course. It’s a bit chaotic outside right now, so I’ll send you home once everything is sorted out. So, could your big sister ask for just one little favor?”
“Huh? What favor?”
Marsha approached Yuna and stroked her hair. Gradually, Yuna’s eyes began to close, her focus blurring.
“Huh? Huh?”
Yuna didn’t even realize her eyes were closed. A ringing filled her eardrums, and before she knew it, she lost consciousness.
Catching Yuna as she pitched forward, Marsha looked down at her affectionately, then turned her head with a chilling smile.
“Heehee, we’re about to start a very fun game.”
* * *
Falcoa’s men were savage and violent. As if fear was a concept they’d never known, they took minor attacks with their bodies as they swung their swords.
“Attack with the Thunderclap Formation! Charge!”
Their main strategy was guerrilla warfare. They conserved stamina by taking turns, alternating between offense and defense in a zigzag pattern. For Shirone’s group, who had never experienced war, it was a horrifying ordeal.
But the key to guerrilla warfare was not the assault, but the retreat. The enemy had no intention of engaging in an all-out battle.
“Disengage the Thunderclap Formation! Retreat for now!”
“Where do you think you’re going?!”
Amy hurriedly fired off a series of Flame Strikes. At that moment, the enemies’ bodies glowed, transforming into flashes of light that shot up into the sky. A high-pitched, air-tearing sound embroidered the heavens.
“Ugh, so annoying! They got away again.”
As Amy stomped her foot in frustration, Rian placed a hand on her shoulder to console her.
“But this means they’re giving it their all, too. Their numbers are increasing, so Yuna should be safe for now. That’s a good thing for us.”
Shirone looked back at his friends and said.
“First, let’s check our condition. Is anyone injured?”
Injuries had to be confirmed by sight. In a neighborhood scuffle, a bloody nose was obvious, but in a life-or-death battle, the endorphins released to counter the adrenaline could numb the pain.
The four of them checked each other over before sighing in relief, confirming there were no serious issues.
However, the same was true for the enemy. No matter how hard they pressed, the enemy would vanish like ghosts at the critical moment.
“We haven’t taken down a single one. This could put us at a disadvantage in future battles.”
Amy shared the facts she had analyzed so far.
“I’ve been watching, and the secret must be in the bracelets they’re wearing. They have to be magical devices that activate spatial movement.”
Shirone asked with a skeptical expression.
“Is that even possible? It’s different from a magic crystal bullet. Spatial movement is magic that moves a mage. Without a Spirit Zone, you can’t set a destination, and it shouldn’t even be possible to activate.”
Amy had her doubts about that as well. But strictly speaking, it wasn’t completely impossible.
“It might… be linked to a magic circle.”
A magic circle was a diagram that imprinted a special image onto a space, causing it to emit mana on its own. By borrowing the power of a magic circle, it was possible for even non-mages to use magic.
“Of course, you can’t cast spatial movement with a magical tool alone. But if you link it to a magic circle inscribed at a specific location, it’s theoretically possible.”
Understanding the concept of magic, Shirone nodded. But Tess was worried about something else.
“Is that something a fallen mercenary group could pull off? From what I know, magic circles require a huge amount of manpower and funds. Besides, isn’t spatial movement a high-level magic?”
“That’s right. It’s probably an intermediate-level magic circle. Just to draw one circle requires the labor of at least five mages working for a whole day. But for them, it’s possible. Falcoa has a monopoly on Loop. Remember what those mercenaries we met at the ruins said? The profit margin on Loop is enormous. They basically sold drugs to fortify their base. If so, this whole situation makes sense.”
“Just how much did those bastards make selling drugs? A single magic circle wouldn’t cover this kind of area, not by a long shot.”
Tess had a point. Based on her question, Shirone reviewed the battles they’d had so far.
The enemy first fled during their initial fight in the valley. They retreated in the forest as well, and here they had used spatial movement yet again.
“I think, considering the distance we still have to cover, there must be at least several hundred magic circles drawn.”
“S-Several hundred?”
Tess’s jaw dropped. An intermediate magic circle that took five mages a full day to complete. If there were hundreds of them, just how many gold coins had they scattered across this land?
“No way they blew that much money, right? Based on the distance, a few dozen should be enough. If there really are hundreds of magic circles, we’ll never be able to catch them, no matter the situation.”
At that moment, Tess realized something from her own words and slapped her palm.
“Ah! That’s it!”
“Exactly. See it now? Just as you said, they’ve set it up so we can never catch them, no matter the situation. They’ve networked the entire northern forest. If we keep fighting like this, we, the ones with fewer numbers, will be the first to tire. We’ll collapse before we even reach the summit.”
Their animosity toward the group that fortified its base by selling drugs grew even stronger. But now was the time for cold calculation, not emotion.
“So what do we do now? What if we erase the magic circles as we go? If they can run away no matter where we fight, rushing in won’t do us any good.”
Amy shook her head. Tess’s opinion was logical, but there was another problem.
“That’s a difficult task. A magic circle is a record inscribed in space. To remove it, you can’t just erase the drawing; you have to completely obliterate that space. Doing that for hundreds of them could take days.”
Finally understanding the situation, Tess bit her lip. When a small group fought a large one, it was crucial to whittle down their numbers. But the enemy had blocked that method from the start.
Breaking with expectations, Shirone raised his hand in support of Tess’s idea.
“No, it’s worth a try. Let’s try to erase just one.”
“Try it? Erasing one out of hundreds won’t change anything.”
“That’s our perspective, but the enemy might think differently. If they put so much effort into building this network, wouldn’t they be reluctant to lose even a single magic circle? They might even swarm the location to protect it.”
“Aha, I see! It’s advanced psychological warfare!”
Tess quickly understood Shirone’s plan. War was often called a power game played with money, but the side with superior funds wasn’t always the victor. The complexities of human psychology played a major role in warfare.
The more one had to protect, the weaker their psyche became. For example, even if you spent a fortune of 100 gold to train one elite soldier, it was all for naught if you never deployed them.
Such situations actually happened in war.
Countless castles had fallen to cheap soldiers because their rulers, despite having poured money into preparing for war, were too afraid of losing their investment to deploy their elite troops.
Amy analyzed Shirone’s strategy. If they couldn’t chase the enemy, they would draw them in. It was, in fact, the most plausible strategy they could come up with in this situation. But that didn’t solve the original problem.
“This is a situation where we have to consider efficiency. I didn’t mention it because I didn't think destroying the magic circles was an option, but neutralizing a magic circle’s effect is far trickier than you’re imagining right now.”
Rian gripped his straight sword in a reverse hold and thrust it powerfully into the ground.
“Can’t I just tear up the ground with my sword? Until the magic circle is completely gone.”
“That won’t be nearly enough. The magic circle we see with our eyes is merely a symbol that embodies a concept.”
Shirone, grasping what Amy was trying to say, defined it clearly.
“So you’re saying that unless we destroy it to the point that the space itself is erased, the concept of the magic circle won’t disappear?”
“Exactly. That’s why there are two main ways to destroy a magic circle. Either you neutralize the concept itself with Clear magic, or you shatter the magic circle until the concept disintegrates. The former is impossible for us, and the latter is a matter of time.”
Tess now understood why Amy had expressed doubts about this method.
“So it comes down to this: the effort it takes to destroy one magic circle is less efficient than just pushing forward, right?”
“Right. If we can’t destroy one in under ten minutes, I think it’s better to just keep heading for our destination as we are. Of course, the basic intent of using the enemy’s psychology is a good idea.”
Once all the information needed for the operation was shared, the conversation dwindled. In times like these, it was best to follow one person’s lead. Rian looked to Shirone, asking for his decision.
“What’s the play, Shirone?”
Shirone, too, was conflicted. With a hostage involved, they needed to move as quickly as possible, but being too greedy about it could lead to failure in the rescue mission itself.
“Let’s destroy a magic circle. I’ll give it a try.”
When Shirone finally voiced his decision, Amy looked at him, surprised.
Shirone, whose strength was his insight, wasn’t one to be bound by probabilities, but he didn’t ignore the odds entirely either. In her estimation, the probability of destroying a magic circle in under ten minutes was less than ten percent.
“Are you sure? You don’t have a spell that can do it in time, do you?”
The most powerful magic Shirone currently wielded was undoubtedly Photon Cannon. But simply imbuing light with mass was not enough to overcome the weight of the earth.
Of course, if he fired it in rapid succession, he might be able to destroy one within ten minutes. However, the mental energy consumed in doing so would surely put them at a disadvantage in the battles to come.
Another possibility was his laser, but Amy was skeptical about that as well.
A spell that focused energy locally to induce molecular vibration had the advantage of destroying matter regardless of its durability, but its range was inherently limited.
“I’ll try. I have an idea.”
Amy couldn’t imagine how he planned to destroy the magic circle, but for now, it was best to follow Shirone’s lead. Shirone’s insight, which intuitively calculated various variables, was rarely wrong.
If they wanted a more accurate conclusion, they would need someone like Iruki, but since he wasn’t here, they had to consider it an act of God if Shirone’s prediction was off.
Having reached that conclusion, Amy nodded and said.
“Alright. Then Tess and I will move as one team, and Shirone and Rian will be another. We’ll maintain a fifty-meter distance between us. Let’s search the area with teleportation. We’re looking for a magic circle.”
“Got it. But be careful. If you only focus on the distance, you might run into other obstacles. Teleporting in a forest is dangerous.”
Even Shirone, a specialist in teleportation, needed immense concentration to traverse a forest. But Amy dismissed his concern with a blunt retort, as if his worrying was an insult.
“Who do you think you’re worrying about? Don’t tell me you think I’m on the same level as those kids from the Paranormal… whatever society.”
It was meant to ease Shirone’s worries, but it wasn’t an empty boast. Amy was also a graduating senior who had mastered the Uncrossable Bridge, and with her Red Eyes, the chance of an accidental collision was practically nonexistent.