Storming the Blood Wing
Rumble.
"Why the hell is it raining like this all of a sudden? This damn—"
[Foot!]
BOOM!
"What was that? I was trying not to swear, you know."
[I can see right through you, Master!]
The downpour hammered down so hard it hurt my ears.
Just a few hours ago the weather had been perfect. The moment I set out to rescue Einy, everything went to hell.
Maybe nothing ever goes right for me. I don't even remember doing anything that bad in my past life…
Lightning flashed across the sky, making it slightly terrifying to stay airborne.
"If I summon Adore, would he act as a lightning rod?"
[How much more of your hair are you planning to burn off?]
I decided to look on the bright side.
Heavy rain meant plenty of water to work with in battle. For a Spirit Master like me, that could actually be an advantage.
The fact that visibility was practically zero was still pretty unfortunate, though.
"Ugh, I can't see a thing. Rai, can you?"
[Not very well either.]
"Hard to make plans when you don't know where anything is."
Flying to the mountain behind their base and claiming the airspace had been easy enough. The problem was the torrential rain made it impossible to spot any trace of Einy.
I needed to see something before I could even start planning a rescue.
At least the rain meant they couldn't see me floating up here either. That was the only silver lining.
I let the rain soak me for a while, then called Undine to block the water around me and evaporate the moisture from my clothes.
Staying dry despite the storm, I circled the Blood Wing compound once.
What I could make out was roughly twenty buildings of various sizes, several entrances leading underground, and a high wall completely encircling the entire grounds.
"Pretty big operation. It's like a small mountain village."
[Business must be good.]
"Slave trading doesn't exactly require massive startup capital. They just kidnap people and sell them. Tch. Scum."
Even I could forgive thieves and liars, but there was one thing I could never tolerate—slave traders.
It was the vilest thing a person could do.
The worst crime imaginable.
[There's only one entrance. Iron gate.]
"Which means…"
[Perfect for me to slurp it right up!]
"We have a perfectly respectable skill name, you know. It's called Absorption."
[True, but it feels more like slurp-chomp when I do it. Slurp-chomp!]
Right. I shouldn't expect anything cool from Rai. I'd almost forgotten because he'd been useful lately.
"Rai, how's your mana?"
[Plenty! I already recovered what I used earlier!]
The only reason I could confidently fly solo into the heart of the notorious criminal organization Blood Wing was because I trusted Rai completely.
More precisely, I trusted the infinite mana he possessed.
Rai was my spirit, so his power was my power.
And then it hit me—what that really meant was that I should be able to use the dragon's mana inside him as well.
After some hesitant experiments, I discovered something astonishing: Rai had gained an external battery function.
In other words, I could draw on the mana from the Dragon Heart he'd absorbed and use it myself.
If the Spirit Society ever found out, they'd probably line Rai and me up for dissection without a second thought.
'Not that those old geezers are particularly kind or harmless. That's exactly why this is such a big deal.'
Spirits summoned from the spirit realm to the middle realm had no mana in their spiritual form, and since they had to return eventually, they couldn't hold middle-realm mana either.
That meant they had to rely entirely on their summoner's mana in this world.
But Rai was special. He had a physical body suited for the middle realm, didn't need to return to the spirit realm, and had absorbed a Dragon Heart into a body that should have been nothing but metal.
Something extraordinary had happened to an already extraordinary spirit.
A Dragon Heart was a natural gem that condensed mana on its own. By absorbing it, the metal spirit Rai had naturally inherited that property.
He now held an enormous amount of mana.
He could even recover it automatically after using it.
The speed of his recovery made me understand how dragons could fling magic around so recklessly.
Most importantly, repeated tests showed that as long as I was in physical contact with Rai, I could freely draw on the Dragon Heart's mana.
All I had to do was endure the physical fatigue and mental strain that came with channeling it through my own body.
"Heh heh heh."
[…Why are you laughing like that? It's creepy.]
With a dragon's mana combined with my genius-level spirit magic, I was practically invincible.
There was nothing left for me to fear.
A human body, no matter how hard it tried to gather mana, would always be bound by time. Mana could only be increased through long, consistent accumulation—there was no other way.
But I'd transcended that limitation with the combination of Rai and the Dragon Heart…
"Ha. Maybe I'm the strongest on the continent now."
I shook my head, genuinely impressed by my own overwhelming power.
Rai, as usual, had to ruin the moment.
[You still have to beat Robenin first.]
"Shut up."
[And Robenin doesn't have that external battery thing you keep talking about. So you're basically cheating…]
"I am not! I'm a Spirit Master and you're my spirit, so it's not cheating! It's not!"
[Hmm, they say strong denial is actually confirmation… Can you say that with your hand on your heart?]
"I could say it with both hands up!"
[But you're the one who said you'd beat him fair and square.]
"I'll think about that after I wipe out these slave traders today, fair and square."
I'd been curious about my own limits anyway.
What could I accomplish if I used the Dragon Heart's mana?
I hadn't been able to test it with mass monster slaughter, so I'd left it as an unknown. Now the Blood Wing bastards were about to answer that question for me.
Volunteering for my experiment like this—they deserved proper thanks.
"Heh. It's not every day I get to show pure malice. It'd be rude to refuse. I'll play along."
[We're… so… screwed…]
"I told you to shut up!"
[Sometimes—actually, pretty often—we really do sound like villains.]
I couldn't argue with that.
"Undain, drop us behind that building over there. See the one at the very end? Head for that."
[Yes, Master.]
Watching from above, I'd noticed Blood Wing members patrolling the walls at regular intervals.
Did they think I'd climb over the wall to get in?
Kids, Spirit Masters can fly. Not all of them, but still.
[Wouldn't it be safer to stay in the sky? Why are we going down?]
"I need information. I'm planning to grab one of them and beat some answers out."
[You're a villain! You really are a villain!]
"…Should I call it torture? 'Beat some answers out' sounds a bit much, doesn't it?"
[It's the same thing!]
"Hmm. Tricky."
[I don't think the side of justice would use that kind of language.]
I wasn't particularly interested in being on the side of justice anyway, so it didn't matter.
I dismounted from Undain and pressed myself against the building wall, gesturing with my hand.
"Good work. You can go back now, Undain."
[Please be careful.]
"My, how polite. Unlike a certain metal spirit."
It'd be nice if Rai could be even half as well-mannered as the water spirits.
[Master, someone's coming.]
The moment Undain vanished, Rai, still perched on my shoulder, raised his tail and pointed.
I quickly ducked behind a pile of crates stacked beside the building.
Holding my breath, I heard footsteps approaching.
From the sound, it seemed like only one person.
My plan was simple.
First, find Einy. Then kill Grack. If they got in my way, I'd wipe out the rest of Blood Wing too.
I didn't have a burning desire to leave no one alive, but if they crossed my path, they were dead.
The compound was larger than expected, though, with plenty of buildings. Finding Einy inside would require caution.
If I moved recklessly and got caught, things would get complicated. So for now, I'd stay careful.
"Who's there!"
The patrolling member spotted me quickly, but that was intentional.
I raised both hands in surrender and slowly stepped forward, wiggling my fingers to show I had no weapons.
Rumble.
Thunder rolled as fat raindrops fell.
The heavy drops hid the smile spreading across my lips from the guard.
"What are you doing here—urk!"
The burly guard had been too busy watching me to notice the golden snake at his feet.
Before he could react, something coiled around his neck and dragged him down into the muddy ground.
It happened in the blink of an eye.
Once Rai wrapped around your neck, death came fast. Imagine your throat being twisted in an unnatural direction by overwhelming force.
One more twist and your spine would snap.
"Hrk! Help—"
"One more twist and you're dead. Instant kill."
Snapping a human neck was as easy for Rai as stealing candy from a child.
Maybe it was the cheerful tone in my voice.
The man thrashing on the ground, desperately trying to pry Rai off, looked up at me with despair in his eyes.
Rai had his neck squeezed so tight he couldn't speak properly.
But his eyes were begging for mercy.
I took a step closer.
The fact that rain wasn't falling around me must have looked bizarre to him.
"I'll loosen up a bit, so don't scream, okay?"
"Kgh… hah…"
"Promise? Scream and you die."
Even I had to admit that line sounded pretty villainous.
But it suited me.