Ambush on the Rooftop
A sudden commotion erupted in the corridors of Aeven Hospital. Professors sprinted down the hallway at full speed from the entrance. In a hospital where everyone moved with caution, someone running frantically was never a good sign. People stepped aside to clear a path, startled by their urgent expressions. Without pausing to acknowledge the gestures, the professors burst into the room where Andy was staying.
"Huh?"
Scape was the first to enter, having prepared for the possibility of danger in the private room Aeven Hospital had set aside. He quickly scanned the surroundings while Hemming and Anna rose from their seats in surprise at the sudden arrival of the professors.
This is strange.
He had sensed it on the way here as well—the hospital was far too quiet. If a dark mage had appeared, there should have been chaos.
"Uncle!"
Togun pushed through the professors and rushed straight to Hemming.
"Are you all right?"
"Y-yeah."
"Thank goodness……"
Seeing Andy and Hemming unharmed, Togun collapsed to the floor as if his legs had given out. What on earth was going on?
"Hemming, may I take a look at your smartphone for a moment?"
Magnus approached the flustered Hemming and politely asked for permission. Taking the device, he opened it—unlike most people these days, it had no lock screen—and checked the contents.
"……"
His brow furrowed. The Mana Up app, which had been functioning normally that morning, now appeared dim, as though locked. No matter how many times he tapped it, there was no response.
"This isn't the exit. There was another one."
Though he couldn't explain why, one thing was certain: the dark mage hadn't escaped through this location.
"The dark mage fled through a different route! Notify the other branches and search everywhere! Don't let him get away!"
At Magnus's command, the police officers who had followed quickly grasped the situation and raised their radios.
"It's all right. Everything will be resolved soon."
Hemming gently pulled his worried wife into his arms as the shouting police officer left the room. The incident wasn't over yet. His gaze remained fixed on the unconscious Andy.
Under a clear, cloudless sky, a faint smile spread across the dark mage's face as he rose from the sun-warmed concrete. He had successfully escaped the academy. Feeling the strong wind on what appeared to be a rooftop, he savored a brief moment of freedom.
"……"
But it didn't last. Quickly composing himself, he turned his head and scanned his surroundings. Pursuit would come soon. He needed to get as far away as possible—ideally heading out of the capital.
"Dark mage Intel."
"……!"
At the unfamiliar voice from behind, he spun around. A woman stood there, staring at him with an expressionless face. He took a wary step back.
"Your reaction tells me I'm right. No need to dig into the past for confirmation."
She had pink hair that fell to her shoulders and an alluring appearance that would turn heads on the street. Yet the masculine voice that came from her lips felt distinctly out of place. Paying him no attention, the woman twirled a lock of her wavy hair and looked elsewhere.
"Who are you?"
"You don't need to know."
Jealousy, wearing Clara's face, finally met the man's eyes and smiled.
"I won't kill you."
It happened in the blink of an eye. Before Intel knew it, he was slammed into the rooftop water tank. His body had driven deep into the hole punched through it. Water trickled from the small gap, and pressure pressed against his back. The pain hit a moment later. What he saw was a slipper-clad leg pressing firmly against his abdomen, trying to push him out with the force of the water.
"I learned a long time ago—never wear expensive shoes when you're about to step on someone."
People really did learn and grow, didn't they? Jealousy praised his own improvement compared to the past.
"Hard to believe it's only five-star level. This Inner World is quite something."
It created bombs of endless power by accumulating others' mana. Of course, if it grew too strong, even the user couldn't control it, but the limit was virtually infinite. In theory, it could produce eight-star level power. It would take time to gather that much, but that wasn't necessarily a drawback. Even at six or seven stars, it was like carrying a massive weapon that only required a smartphone. Most remarkably, as long as the user had their connected smartphone, they could teleport anywhere. Considering how complex spatial magic was—something even mages avoided—it was nearly a revolutionary achievement. At least within the Ellemental Kingdom, where smartphones and internet networks were commonplace, there was no better Inner World.
"But what good is an excellent ability if the user is this hopeless trash?"
Karlsen destroying the Inner World was understandable. It would have been better if Intel had noticed his approach beforehand and blocked it with the students' polygons, but by then he had already been swept up in the accelerating flow and gone berserk.
"Even after realizing there was another exit here, he was too slow to notice the mana being pulled from the negative dimension. And when he finally did, he nearly got caught by a mere six-star professor."
In the end, Jealousy had to step in personally to get him this far. As he spoke, he casually pulled a smartphone from his pocket.
"I was quite busy luring you here, you know."
He had hacked the app with spirits, analyzed the formula, and installed the Mana Up app on his own phone. Then, disguised as a nurse, he had approached Hemming and locked the app on his smartphone to block the other entrance. Creating and altering entrances to an Inner World was only possible after fully analyzing the opponent's Inner World—the second method Karlsen had explained to Xeon for destroying one.
"Ah, but cutting off your arm in one go wasn't bad."
Even while criticizing his incompetence, Jealousy gave credit where it was due. Cutting off his own arm had been a decent move. Most people hesitated when forced to give up a limb, even if they had made up their mind. If he had wavered even for a moment, his mana would have been completely sealed and the amputation would have failed.
"What were you so terrified of?"
The source of that immediate action was a deep-seated fear of someone. It was a look Jealousy recognized all too well from the underworld.
"Was the reason you caused trouble at Benedict Academy also because of someone's orders?"
There was one thing he didn't understand. This coward had hidden carefully to avoid even the professors. Why would someone like that choose to operate at Benedict Academy, directly managed by the Majoan, instead of some rural backwater?
Jealousy nodded, his curiosity partially satisfied, without sparing a glance at Intel squirming beneath his foot.
"Ah, no need to explain everything to me. There's someone else who should hear it. I'm just here to catch you."
Hands and feet weren't necessary for talking, were they? Jealousy sneered as he glanced at Intel wiggling his fingers, clearly trying to pull something.
"Aaaaargh!"
Intel screamed. Just like before, his arms and legs had been severed without him noticing. Red blood mixed with the flowing water, staining the floor beneath them crimson.
"Can't have you dying from blood loss, so I'll treat you. Even if it doesn't look like it, I can manage decent healing as a professor at the academy's infirmary."
Of course, destruction was his specialty, not healing. During his time as an assassin in the Fan Empire, he had to treat his own wounds, so he had studied that field quite a bit. Jealousy healed the wounds just enough for the skin to close and stop the bleeding. Thanks to that, the severed limbs couldn't be reattached without prosthetics—but that wasn't his concern.
"Who the hell are you?!"
Intel screamed at his opponent. The ruthless cruelty of severing limbs without hesitation proved this wasn't an academy professor. He had to be from the underworld, just like Intel himself.
"I already told you, you don't need to know. Ah, done."
After fiddling with his smartphone for a while, Jealousy casually showed him the screen.
"Inner World collapse confirmed. All shared connections with the other kids have been removed. Mana Up app completely erased from this world. The other kids should be coming to their senses soon. With this, the incident you caused is fully resolved."
Insane. He had solved everything with just a smartphone? That level of ability was beyond even skilled hackers.
"Why? Did you think cyber terrorism was your exclusive domain?"
To survive, one had to handle anything perfectly and with versatility. That had been true during his days as an assassin in the Fan Empire, and even earlier, when he lived as a slave in the nature-rich nation of Yggdrasil. Manipulating electronic devices was child's play for someone specialized in infiltration and assassination.
"You'll have to rebuild the digital domain from scratch if you want to use an Inner World again."
"……"
"Aside from the Inner World, your curses, necromancy, and dark magic are far inferior to other dark mages of the same level."
"……"
"If you have any more tricks, go ahead and try them. I've already sent word, so I'll play with you until the retrieval team arrives."
The pressure against his back had disappeared at some point—the water tank was empty. Intel slumped forward weakly as the leg moved away from his abdomen.
"Kuh, kuh-kuh, kwahahahaha!"
Intel, who had been lying motionless in the blood-mixed water, burst into loud laughter. Had the pain driven him mad?
That won't do.
If he lost his mind, Pride wouldn't have anything to extract information from. As Jealousy looked down at the man writhing like a worm, the laughter turned into a shriek. Intel glared up at him with a vicious expression.
"You monstrous bastard!"
There was no mercy from this opponent. Only mockery and contempt. It was foolish to expect survival by begging for one's life.
A mistake.
He was going to be caught anyway. If he had known someone like this was waiting, he should have let the academy professors catch him instead.
"A monster? How disappointing. You haven't even seen a real monster."
Did this man realize how fortunate he was to be caught by Jealousy instead of being dragged before the master?
"And there's no need to regret it so much. Even if the academy professors had caught you there, I would have extracted you somehow."
It would have been more troublesome, but there wouldn't have been any real problems—as long as the headmaster or the Majoan didn't intervene personally. The moment he had been spotted and Pride issued the capture order, Intel's future had been decided.
"Well, time's up. Have a nice dream. When you wake up, someone else will be waiting for you."
The woman's mocking smile. Intel's consciousness cut off as he caught a final glimpse of mysterious figures appearing as if they had dropped from the sky, and his vision went black.