Mosaz Cartel (4)
“Is that boss guy still holed up on the tenth floor?”
“Cough… you… what the…”
I crouched down, looking down at the executive dying on the floor.
The bastard was done for anyway, and he showed no signs of spilling any info to the end.
“Hmph, whatever. Guess I’ll just ask him myself.”
“…Kuh… ugh…”
He didn’t even look like he had the strength to talk properly anyway.
I shrugged and stepped past him.
Now all that was left was the boss room.
“Up we go.”
I straightened my clothes and climbed the spiral staircase to the top floor.
10th floor.
The door to the penthouse on the top floor was already open.
An implicit symbol that he’d been waiting for me.
Seems like the boss wanted to face me one-on-one without running. Good attitude. Saved me the hassle of playing hide-and-seek.
I stepped quietly into the penthouse.
As expected of the boss’s lair, it was a world apart from the relatively ordinary scenes up to the ninth floor.
Not just the luxury furniture and expensive artwork scattered everywhere—the real standout was the floor-to-ceiling window taking up an entire wall.
Looking down through the glass at the chaotic, grimy neon-lit streets of F Block was quite the sight.
In front of the window sat an antique sofa, and on it lounged a middle-aged man.
Gray streaks in his hair here and there. A slate-gray blazer draped over his upper body.
A man with bulging veins on his hands, downing a glass of whiskey while scanning me with sharp eyes.
The boss.
I approached him slowly and spoke.
“Hey, mister. Heard you wanted to see me?”
“…”
The boss stared straight through me without a word, then set down his whiskey glass.
Clink.
He began to speak in his characteristic low voice.
“Indeed. I wanted to have a chat with you. How could I ignore someone like you? Especially as a fellow mage.”
And then, the next words out of his mouth were completely out of left field.
“I have no intention of fighting you. Quite the opposite—I’d like to collaborate.”
“…?”
What?
I tilted my head and replied.
“…Wouldn’t it have been smarter to act friendly from the start if you wanted to team up? You went all out like you were trying to kill me.”
The boss chuckled dryly.
“No matter how talented someone is, they have to prove it in real combat, don’t they? That’s why I set the stage for you to cut loose. So you could unleash your magic to your heart’s content.”
“…”
“Your magical talent was truly astounding. Far too exceptional for a talent from the underbelly like this… magnificent.”
“I see.”
But if I took him at his word, there was one thing that didn’t add up.
“…But what about all your underlings? Weren’t they with you for years? They died brutally by my hand—don’t you feel any guilt or regret?”
His answer was clear—and brutal.
“That’s how all mages are, isn’t it? To reach transcendence, we discard everything but ourselves.”
“…”
“Truth be told, trash like that can always be replaced… They’re just pawns to be discarded without hesitation when needed. Ordinary folk with no talent or special qualities. Extras who don’t even get a step on the path to transcendence.”
Tough crowd. At the same time, I started to understand why mages had such a notorious reputation.
“Don’t waste meaning on fleeting connections. Especially we mages, who live such long lives.”
The boss took another swig of whiskey and continued.
“So, let me propose it formally once more. Join hands with me? We could make excellent partners.”
“Sounds decent on paper.”
But.
I wasn’t tempted by his offer, nor did I want an alliance.
“…I’ll pass. No real upside for me.”
Purely pragmatic reasons.
He didn’t know it, but I was on the run right now. Until I got stronger, I had to keep hopping between spots in the city—no time to sit around researching magic.
And most importantly.
A kind of hyper-sense born from merging with my Grimoire was warning me not to join hands with this guy.
Just a gut feeling I couldn’t explain logically, but sometimes those instincts were more accurate than anything.
My response must’ve thrown him way off, because the boss furrowed his brow, his eye wrinkles twisting in frustration.
“You’re thinking too short-term. No merit? Because I’m the head of some filthy third-rate gang? No—if the talents of a once-promising prospect like me and you combined, we’d surely reach the heights. I guarantee it.”
I replied indifferently to his rant.
“That’s exactly my point. I’ll grow just fine on my own without you… No reason to bother teaming up.”
I extended my hand to the side.
“…Besides.”
As I summoned my glowing purple Grimoire, I continued.
“You’re not my type, mister. If you were a cute girl, maybe I’d reconsider?”
“Hah… what nonsense…”
The boss sighed and ran a hand down his face.
When he opened his eyes again, they blazed with crimson fury.
“Then I have no choice but to show you. That I’m no ordinary man either.”
The boss clasped his hands in a mudra. I flipped the pages of my Grimoire.
The battle began in an instant.
"Ignition"
⟨ Ignition ⟩
Eight spheres of flame blazing like suns appeared around the boss as he chanted.
Inferno-level heat.
Even with Stone Skin active, taking those head-on would be risky.
But this was a sealed high-rise. Limited space to dodge.
So there was only one counter.
I immediately drew out a soul flame.
I’d burned through them climbing to the tenth floor—only one left now.
But this was the final boss fight. To claim victory, I needed resolve.
Blessing Reinforcement
I consumed the soul to complete the Blessing Reinforcement spell.
The overload technique I’d used back on the second floor.
"Clean"
⟨ Clean ⟩
A pure white light swept through the entire space with the chant.
The boss just sneered at the sight.
“A trick you’ve already used once. I won’t fall for such amateur tactics.”
Shatter!
A sharp, glass-breaking sound rang out.
The noise of a Shield spell shattering.
Fragments of the transparent mana shield scattered, refracting the space around them like a cracked mirror for a moment.
Mages gonna mage—he must’ve had defensive measures memorized in advance.
“Wasting a soul on an attack like that. Where’d that cunning witch go?”
The boss mocked me, but I calmly proceeded to the next step.
“…That wasn’t an attack on you. Clean’s real target was the ‘intent’.”
“…!”
That’s right.
The eight Ignition orbs that had been cast at me were now flickering unstably, on the verge of dispersal.
The Clean spell had reached out to the orbs themselves, erasing even the intent infused in them.
They were now just pure lumps of mana, ownerless.
I didn’t miss the moment.
"Fire"
⟨ Fire ⟩
The eight searing orbs were sucked toward my hand.
“Damn it.”
The boss hurriedly formed another mudra and chanted.
"Flame Bolt"
⟨ Flame Bolt ⟩
Keeeen!
A flash erupted from his fingertips, ready to unleash a heat ray.
Aimed right at my head.
I didn’t flinch, compressing the eight orbs into a massive fireball and firing it off.
"Fire Ball"
⟨ Fire Ball ⟩
KABOOOOOM——!!!
The boss’s heat ray clashed with my Fire Ball, unleashing a massive shockwave.
Even as the building shook violently, we were both preparing our next moves.
"Earth Spike"
⟨ Earth Spike ⟩
On my knees against the floor, I chanted an earth spell.
Rumble rumble rumble!
The concrete forming the building surged up, creating a wave of sharp spikes.
Crunch crunch crunch—
The rippling floor spread spikes outward like ripples in a pond, turning everywhere into a bed of thorns.
"Fire Wall"
⟨ Fire Wall ⟩
The boss’s calm counter.
Whoosh!
A wall of scorching flame rose up, melting the approaching spikes away.
Snap!
The boss switched mudras right after.
"Fire Arrow"
⟨ Fire Arrow ⟩
“…!”
I froze for a split second, vaguely understanding what he was doing. It was a trick I used often.
Like converting Aqua Ball into Water Jet, the boss dismantled his flame wall into dozens of fire arrows.
Once targeting locked on, a volley rained down on me.
Pew pew pew pew pew!
Stone Skin…!
KABOOOOOM!!
I barely threw up Stone Skin in time for defense, but it wasn’t enough against dozens of arrows bombarding me.
“Ugh…!”
The impact sent me flying back, slamming me into the penthouse entrance wall.
Step… step…
The boss approached through the dust cloud.
“Excellent at parlor tricks, but that’s all you are. Experience is something talent alone can’t overcome.”
He sneered coldly, condensing another fireball in his right hand for the finishing blow.
“…Good enough.”
Even with my clothes torn and blood trickling, I hadn’t lost my smile.
“…? What—”
I spoke to the boss, who scowled unpleasantly.
“Don’t you hear it? The building shaking.”
I brushed debris off my legs, stood fully, and met his eyes.
“Listen closely.”
Rumble rumble rumble rumble— down below.
A bizarre vibration starting from dozens of meters below ground level began shaking the entire structure.
Sound Control: Resonance
I chanted it like a song.
The popping of the boss’s fireballs. Our heartbeats. And the building’s vibrations—all unified into one frequency.
I furiously flipped the pages of my Grimoire.
The magic circle I’d set up on the first floor.
Using that as the base, the massive fragments of rituals engraved on each floor.
From the third to eighth floors, linking mana paths with Chain Lightning; on the ninth, bursting corpses to release conductive slime…
All my preparations to take down the top-floor boss were resonating now.
Purple lines of mana lit up from the penthouse floor downward, connecting everything.
From the first to ninth floors, every trace of the massacre I’d left behind functioned as components of a colossal magic circle.
The triggers were two signals.
First, the Fire Ball made by merging the eight Ignition orbs—with its unique frequency—reactivated the first-floor circle.
Second, the Earth Spike. Pretending to attack the boss, I’d secretly driven fragments down to the first floor, completing the final puzzle piece of the circle.
“Y-you mad…! You turned the whole building into a magic circle? With that precision… alone…!”
The boss realized my plan and spewed flames, but control was already mine.
I overloaded the layered magic circle and uttered the final incantation.
"Ritual Resonance" "Overload Entropy"
⟨ Ritual Resonance ⟩ ⟨ Overload Entropy ⟩
A magic circle of dizzying scale piercing the entire building began emitting blinding light.
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE—!!!
“Fire-element magic, after all… Let’s see how you block this, mister?”
I curled my lips into a smirk.