The First Dimensional Rift (6)
“Tower Master! Chief Roimdel and the mages are visible over there!”
I checked their condition with long-range detection magic.
Blood stained the corner of Roimdel’s mouth, and the mages were stumbling as they supported one another. Their faces were filled with despair.
The magic circle has collapsed.
Behind them, the Crystal Golem was still coming on, slow but relentless.
“Ride at full speed and link up with them! Hurry!”
I dug my heels into the horse’s flanks.
After about five minutes of racing at full speed, I shouted, “Chief Roimdel!”
Roimdel, who had been retreating, turned at the sound of my voice.
“Grace…?”
He looked stunned. The fatigue on his bloodied face made his confusion all the more obvious.
“I was watching the situation. Genesis Flash… it was indeed an incredible display of power, but—”
I let the rest trail off.
Everyone here already knew what had happened after that.
“...Why did you come all the way here? You didn’t flee to safety. Is that why you used your unilateral command authority?”
“No. I didn’t use it just to ensure our own Magic Tower survived.”
I met Roimdel’s eyes directly.
“I only bought time with Mana Block. If we can’t stop that golem, the entire empire will be in danger. Running away won’t solve anything.”
“...So that’s why you came here?”
Roimdel’s gaze wavered.
“To help us?”
“Not so much to help as to—”
I glanced at the Crystal Golem.
“We’re going to attack. We’ll focus all our power on the crack in its chest that the Chief Mage created.”
“That’s insane!”
Roimdel shook his head.
“My Genesis Flash barely made a single crack. That was the result of a three-attribute fusion spell cast by a 6th-circle grand mage! And you’re saying a 4th-circle mage can somehow—”
“I’ve thought of a way. The one and only way to bring down that Crystal Golem.”
“A way? You mean there is one? A way to defeat it!”
At my words, Roimdel reacted with startling intensity.
“Yes. There is.”
“What is it? What on earth is this method? Tell me at once.”
“I’ll graft a Fire Concentration Cannon into a magic circle and target the golem’s core.”
“...What?”
Roimdel stared at me, dumbfounded.
“Graft a Fire Concentration Cannon into a magic circle? What does that even—”
He stopped mid-sentence and looked at me again. His eyes changed.
“Don’t tell me you mean to fuse it with a magic circle the way you fused Mana Block with one?”
“Exactly.”
I nodded.
“We’ll disassemble Biz and reconstruct it as part of the circle. Then the senior mages here will pour in their mana, and the circle will amplify the power of the Fire Concentration Cannon.”
“Madness... Are you saying that’s possible?”
A mage from Blue Rose muttered under his breath.
“I believe it’s possible in theory. But no one has ever succeeded, not even once.”
Roimdel spoke slowly.
“What? Not even once?”
“That’s right. Fusing an offensive spell with a magic circle is on an entirely different level from a defensive one. The direction of mana is the exact opposite. You can’t circulate it inward; you have to detonate it outward. Grace.”
Roimdel called my name.
“Yes.”
“...I see. If it’s you, perhaps it really is possible. But we have one problem. Time.”
Roimdel turned to look back at the Crystal Golem.
Thud—. Thud—.
The footsteps were drawing closer.
“It took us more than two hours to hastily put together that defensive magic circle earlier. And that was with ten senior mages working on it. An offensive circle is more complex, more difficult. Do we have that kind of time?”
“...One hour. I only need one hour.”
It had taken forty minutes to construct Mana Block. I figured an hour should be enough.
“One hour? But we don’t even have that much time.”
“That’s why I’m asking for your help. Please buy me time with Vilheim Magic Tower’s defensive magic circle.”
“...What?”
Roimdel’s face hardened.
“Buy time with Vilheim Magic Tower’s defensive circle? That would mean...”
He broke off and let out a long sigh.
Vilheim Magic Tower’s defensive magic circle was the heart of the tower, built over the course of centuries.
To sacrifice it would, in effect, mean abandoning the tower itself.
“I know. I know it’s an unreasonable request.”
Roimdel seemed ready to return to Vilheim Magic Tower and throw himself into a bloody battle. Yet here I was asking him to devote everything to defense instead.
“But there is no other way.”
I spoke firmly.
“Your Genesis Flash only managed to create a small crack. Even if you hold with Vilheim’s barrier, it will eventually collapse—just like Blue Rose Magic Tower. Or do you have some other way to destroy that golem? If not, why not trust me?”
Roimdel fell into a long silence.
“...Can you really do it?”
“To be honest, I can’t promise success. But... right now, isn’t that the only method we have?”
“......”
Roimdel still said nothing.
Meanwhile, one of the Blue Rose mages who had been listening to our exchange stepped forward.
“Chief Mage, no! Even if the Tower Master of Fusion Magic is extraordinary, it won’t work. It would be far more effective for Chief Mage Roimdel to cast Genesis Flash one more time while Vilheim’s defensive circle holds. At the same time, we can all unleash attacks on the golem’s heart. Then... we’ll have a chance.”
“A chance...”
At the Blue Rose mage’s words, Roimdel seemed to sink deeper into thought.
“If we devote ourselves solely to defense... then we won’t be able to attack.”
Roimdel said.
“Yes, that’s right. Nearly all our mana will have to go into maintaining the circle.”
“So we have to make a choice...”
Roimdel’s hesitation deepened.
***
Roimdel kept turning over the proposal Grace had made.
Could we really bring down that Crystal Golem by attacking it the way the Blue Rose mage suggested?
Even Genesis Flash had done no more than carve a tiny crack into it.
And that had been a strike unleashed with everything he had. Would a second cast really change anything?
No. If anything, the spell would likely be weaker now because his mana was already depleted.
But...
Roimdel looked at Grace.
A monster who had become 4th-circle in only a few months, who had completed the impossible art of mana amplification, who had created a four-attribute fusion magic circle in just forty minutes.
Should he gamble on this young tower master who had overturned every convention and every theory?
If we fail, then Vilheim Magic Tower...
A tower with five hundred years of history would fall. The legacy passed down since his master’s master would vanish in an instant.
Then Roimdel’s mind flashed back to the Blue Rose Tower Master’s final moment. The image of him standing alone, resisting to the very end, only to be shattered into pieces by the golem’s fist.
In the end, if we can’t stop it, won’t the result be the same?
No matter how powerful Vilheim’s barrier was, it could not stop that golem.
At best, it would buy them a little more time. Even if he cast Genesis Flash again during that window, with more than half his mana already gone, it would never match the earlier strike.
What about the other mages?
Could their attacks even scratch the golem?
Even the Blue Rose Tower Master’s 5th-circle Thunder of the Flaming Emperor had failed to damage the Crystal Golem at all.
As a 6th-circle mage, all Roimdel himself had managed with Genesis Flash was to produce a tiny crack.
Even if every mage from Blue Rose and all of Vilheim Magic Tower attacked at once...
He suspected it would still be impossible to bring the golem down.
But what if it were the Fire Concentration Cannon, with its power amplified by a magic circle?
Roimdel thought it might just be possible.
Then...
Roimdel looked at Grace once more.
This young man had made the impossible possible time and time again.
On top of that, he had taken the risk of coming here when he could have chosen safety. He could have used his unilateral command authority and fled, but he hadn’t.
He had finished sorting out his thoughts.
***
Roimdel remained silent for a long while, lost in thought.
I knew better than anyone how hard that decision must be. So I waited patiently for his answer.
About five minutes passed before Roimdel slowly spoke.
“...Very well, Grace. I’ll put my trust in you. We’ll buy you one hour with Vilheim Magic Tower’s barrier.”
“Thank you.”
“No, we’re the ones who should thank you. You used your unilateral command authority and could have fled to safety, but instead you came all this way to help us. And honestly...”
Roimdel gave a bitter smile.
“Right now, we don’t have any other choice. You’re right. Even if I cast Genesis Flash again, with more than half my mana already spent, it won’t have the same power as before.”
“Chief Mage!”
At that moment, one of the Blue Rose mages called out to Roimdel.
“Are you really going to entrust our fate to that young upstart?”
“An upstart...? That ‘upstart’ completed the mana amplification art that everyone said was impossible, and created a four-attribute fusion magic circle in forty minutes. He accomplished what neither you nor I could do.”
“Still...”
“Still? Say what you mean.”
At Roimdel’s sharp question, the Blue Rose mage fell silent.
“What became of your tower master? Even with a 5th-circle mage’s full-power attack, he couldn’t stop that golem. And the defensive circle we created collapsed as well. If you have another method in this situation, then speak.”
“...We don’t.”
The Blue Rose mage lowered his head.
“Then we can’t waste any more time.”
Roimdel said decisively.
“Everyone, move to Vilheim Magic Tower! Blue Rose mages, you’ll stay with us and focus entirely on defense. And Grace.”
Roimdel turned to me.
“You’ll establish the magic circle behind the tower. We’ll buy you time with the barrier.”
“Understood.”
I nodded.
“Alberte, Sophia, and Carlos, come with me. The rest of you, help Chief Roimdel with the defense.”
“Yes, Tower Master!”
My disciples answered in unison.
“One hour. We only need you to hold out for one hour.”
“One hour...”
Roimdel gave a wry smile.
“For a tower with five hundred years of history, to spend its final moment buying time. And yet...”
His eyes flashed.
“I promise you this. We’ll buy that hour, no matter what. So you’d better succeed.”
“Yes. I will.”
Thud—! Thud—!
The Crystal Golem’s footsteps were drawing even closer. We truly had no time left.
“Move out!”
At Roimdel’s shout, we raced at full speed toward Vilheim Magic Tower.
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