Dark Moon
Seventeen.
That was the number of soldiers I had killed by the time I reached the research lab entrance. Two of them had been instructors. Against the instructors, I had no choice but to use magic. Without Charna, I would have struggled quite a bit.
More than half the soldiers I killed were faces I knew. Yet killing them myself stirred nothing in me. I was a little surprised by my own ruthlessness.
At the research lab entrance I ran into another familiar face.
A sturdy man with a crossed left eye. No. 202, who shared the same barracks as me.
His face was twisted with rage and betrayal.
“No. 211! I never dreamed you’d do something like this! Why the hell did you betray us?!”
No. 202 bellowed as he dropped into a combat stance.
“I’m sorry for betraying you. But I don’t regret it. Step aside, No. 202. I’m going to kill Instructor Vinous and end the Battle Mage Project. That’ll be better for your futures too.”
“Fuck! What the hell are you so unhappy about?! Weren’t you getting posted to the Capital Defense Force?! Why’s an elite with a guaranteed future crawling down into hell?!”
“To me, that future is hell. Step aside, No. 202. I don’t want to kill you.”
No. 202 let out a hollow laugh.
“Still putting on that act even now. You think I’m a joke? Like you can kill me whenever you feel like it?”
I felt his mana begin to churn violently.
“You’re too worked up. It’s not too late. No. 202. Move.”
“I’m perfectly calm. That ‘not too late’ line applies to you. Go back and deal with the attackers. You’ll be punished, but you won’t die.”
“…Talking’s useless.”
I walked forward. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to waste bickering with No. 202.
“That’s my line. You probably think you’re hot shit. But when it comes to close combat, I’m better.”
No. 202 clenched his knuckles and kicked off the ground. He knew I was the worst at close quarters among our cohort. My hand-to-hand skill was infamous among the others, so it was nothing new.
In contrast, No. 202 specialized in close combat. An in-fighter who boosted his physical abilities with body-enhancement support magic and enchanted his knuckles with elemental attributes.
His fist came flying.
Barrier
I thrust out my right hand and met his fist. His punch stopped dead against my palm. His knuckles blazed with searing red fire, yet they did me no damage at all.
“…You minimized a Barrier onto your right hand and blocked my punch…?!”
“I narrowed the Barrier’s range and raised its density instead. It’s not difficult.”
“……You saw me throwing the punch this way?”
“Just like you know me well, I know you. When you open with a first strike, you always start with a straight.”
“Goddamn it!”
No. 202’s right leg moved. But before it could, the elemental blade from my coat moved first. Propelled silently by telekinesis, the blade punched clean through his knee.
“Ghhhk?!”
No. 202 gritted his teeth and staggered back.
I didn’t allow it.
Gravity
Gravity crushed down on No. 202’s body. His mana surged violently. He grabbed the elemental blade buried in his knee and yanked it free, then forced enhancement magic through his body far past its limits. Muscles swelled; blood vessels spiderwebbed across his eyes. Flames whirled around his left knuckle, wind around his right.
“Don’t act so fucking superior, No. 211! I’ve got one or two trump cards of my own!”
“Trump cards? Ah, you mean the elemental blade. You’re mistaken. That wasn’t a trump card or anything special. Just an ordinary counter.”
“You piece of shit. I’ve always hated that smug attitude of yours!”
He threw punches. I wrapped my body in telekinesis and slipped every single one. As long as I could see them, dodging wasn’t hard.
“How the hell…! Have you been hiding your strength this whole time?!”
“No. 202. We’re mages. No matter how much you train your fists, you’ll never match a real warrior. And…”
“What?”
“You got too close to me on that wounded leg.”
Frost
“Aaaaaaagh!”
No. 202 screamed and collapsed. His wounded knee had frozen solid in an instant. With an open wound, the cold of a 4-Class spell like Frost had flooded straight in; his right leg was finished.
I flicked a finger. The elemental blade linked to my telekinesis flew and buried itself in No. 202’s back. He coughed up blood.
“No. 202. Last time I told you I was sorry. Remember?”
“…I remember. A meaningless apology. Did you say it because you already foresaw this?”
“No. Even I can’t predict the future months ahead. Back then… I slept with No. 99, the one you liked. Did you know? There’s a mole right next to her asshole. …No. Of course you wouldn’t.”
“You son of a bitch…”
No. 202 trembled. He forced his astral to the limit and began weaving a spell formula. Impressive focus.
I waved a finger. The elemental blade in his back spun once.
“Aaaaaaagh!”
No. 202’s final casting canceled. Blood gushed from his mouth in thick spurts.
“Truth is, I wasn’t even a little sorry back then. I thought No. 99 was too good for you. When I said I was sorry, it was pure mockery. If you figured it out, great. If you never noticed, that was fine too.”
I looked at No. 202. He was already dying too far gone to answer. Thirty seconds of life left at most.
Old memories surfaced—memories of No. 202. He’d been irritating enough that I’d sometimes wanted to kill him, but I’d never hated him enough to make my teeth grind.
“When I said I didn’t want to kill you, I meant it. …This is sad. I felt the same when I killed No. 88. I’ll be sad for about three days.”
“Grrrrrk…”
No. 202 glared at me with bloody tears, as if he wanted to murder me. I watched him die all the way to the end, just to erase any one-in-a-million chance.
“Ah, one last thing. The No. 99 you had a crush on was a good woman. Those full breasts were the best, no question, and her pussy was hot too. She liked pulling my head into her chest… She’s dead now.”
I pulled the elemental blade from his back and headed for the research lab.
Matter Conversion
I turned the metal door blocking the entrance into wood. Fortunately its mana resistance wasn’t high. I kicked the wooden door to pieces and stepped inside. The shattered wood reverted to metal behind me.
I moved a little deeper into the lab. Before I reached the office, I came face to face with Instructor Vinous sitting in the break room.
“No. 211. Why did you start a rebellion?”
“You’re asking because you don’t know?”
I checked my condition. Getting here had burned through more than half my mana. That was a serious problem.
“No matter how hard I think, I can’t figure it out. You were an excellent one. Skill, brains, and loyalty… or so I thought. You were going to rise. I was going to make sure of it. Why the hell did you betray me?”
“Betrayal? Please. I knew from the start you never trusted me. Rise? Sure, I’d rise. But I’d still be running around like a dog under you. I’m done cleaning up after you.”
“You idiot.”
Vinous pulled a sphere from his pocket—the magic tool that controlled the slave seal. The sphere glowed in response to his mana, yet nothing happened.
“…You released the slave seal?”
“It was a pain in the ass. Decrypting the formula, analyzing every line of the magic circle and reversing them one by one, then inserting a new formula on top. I wanted to quit halfway so many times it made me sick… but I finished it.”
“You broke it? Don’t make me laugh! This is a magic circle created by an 8th Class archmage!”
“I spent two years going completely insane trying to crack this thing. After investing that much time in a single circle, not solving it would’ve pissed me off more.”
Vinous’s face turned bright red. He wasn’t only feeling rage. I read the flash of inferiority that crossed his features.
Static crackled from the radio on Vinous’s shoulder.
—Instructor Vinous! The command center and armory have been seized! Contact with the outside is cut! We’re engaging the enemy in Conference Room 3! We need support! Instructor Vinous!
Vinous didn’t answer the radio. He stared at me and slowly opened his mouth.
“No. 211. Everything up to now will be forgotten. Surrender. Then kill the enemies.”
I pulled an ampule from my coat and jammed it into my thigh.
Thud!
“Fuck off. My enemy is you.”
The drug flooded into my body.
Overload
My astral convulsed; my senses expanded. The volume of information my brain processed more than tripled in an instant. Mana boiled violently. All fifty mana roads activated at once and began to overload.
Electric Field
I stomped my right foot. Current radiated outward from me in every direction. It didn’t take long for the break room to fill with crackling blue electricity.
The board was set. Now I would use it.
Vinous seemed to sense something; he layered Barriers around himself while creating ice spears and hurling them to keep me in check. I twisted my body, dodged the spears, and continued the formula.
The overloaded mana roads screamed, flooding me with pain. I clenched my teeth. I had prepared for this much.
Thunderbolt
The current filling the break room gathered and compressed against the ceiling. Then, in the instant everything seemed to freeze, a massive bolt of lightning crashed down from above.
KRAAAAAANG!
Direct hit!
Yet Vinous was unharmed. Through the melting barriers I saw his face twisted into a savage snarl.
“Your preparation time was far too long. I clearly taught you once that a grand magic prepared so openly is not a threat.”
“Of course I remember. How could I forget whose teaching it was?”
Crackle.
Blue sparks jumped from the now-cooled ceiling.
Vinous’s eyes widened as he sensed the precursor.
Then the second Thunderbolt that had been preparing above the ceiling smashed through it and fell on him.
“Huuuup!”
Vinous reacted. In that tiny window he raised his left hand, shrunk a Barrier to the size of his palm, and blocked the Thunderbolt.
It was an astonishingly fast reaction, yet not perfect. His left arm was charred black. By any measure, regenerating that arm looked impossible.
Failing to kill him instantly is a shame, but… I finished off his left arm. I have the advantage.
Whiiiiine.
Listening to the howling of the mana roads, I prepared the next spell.