The Philosopher's Stone and the Flying Sword
Just as every major city tends to have at least one slum, Arca—itself the equal of a nation—has a notorious underbelly of its own.
The back alleys, or the string of districts that go by that name.
The industrial zone is one of them. Anywhere that feels desolate, or where people rarely go, generally falls under the heading of "back alley."
Peace is hard to find in those streets.
There is never a quiet moment. Someone is always shouting, always fighting.
It is where the penniless, the undocumented, and those who have already committed crimes gather to live among their own.
A district made up entirely of people commonly called the dregs of society, so individual greed and resentment keep conflict simmering without end.
At least, that had been the case until now.
"They rushed me bold as brass at first, but after that they vanished."
I scanned my surroundings with wide eyes.
The industrial zone, darkened by the setting sun, was lined with abandoned buildings and rusted shipping containers.
Naturally, those structures made excellent cover—and good cover meant concealment and escape routes, which usually forced an intruder into a disadvantageous fight.
Which was why, until a few moments ago, the back-alley thugs had been exploiting that advantage for all it was worth.
One had tried an ambush from behind a container; another had smashed through a half-collapsed wall and come charging out.
"Maybe I should just level the whole area…"
I sighed, torn.
The ones who had charged in so cockily had stopped showing themselves after I thrashed them a few times.
I couldn't tell whether they were still hiding or had already run for it, which only made things more awkward.
If I could have used James's Imitation Reproduction properly, things would have been easier—but the Gift that had passed to me was empty, as though it had been reset.
All the abilities James had copied were gone. I would have to collect them from scratch myself.
"Tch. Only thirty people's worth of Philosopher's Stones so far."
I had planned to hit a clean hundred and head home, but I had run into an unexpected snag.
I thought if I wandered around looking flush with cash and leaving openings, they would come running—only for them to turn tail the moment things got ugly.
Were the idiots who charge in thinking they can overwhelm with numbers, or wait until you tire out, really that rare a species—found only in novels?
That was when it happened.
"Making quite the racket, aren't you? For a human whose head hasn't even dried yet."
"…Ha."
From the dim interior of a building where visibility was already poor, a single elf strolled out at a leisurely pace.
He looked like a middle-aged man—neither particularly young nor old—but his face was twisted as though he had dirt in his mouth.
An elf appearing in Arca's back alleys was an uncommon sight.
Elves, with their longer lifespans, tended to live far from poverty. You only ran into them in a place like this if they had taken a wrong turn.
Most people would have found it strange and slipped away for a moment. I, on the other hand, let out a dry laugh of surprise.
"What an honor. A personage of such distinction gracing us with his presence."
"So the brat has that much sense, at least."
Well—any elf wandering a place like this could be identified on the spot.
The industrial zone was where I had first met Jerie, and back then she had belonged to the Green Forest Dawn Society.
Which meant the Society had a foothold somewhere in this zone as well.
Of course, I had recognized him at a glance for a different reason entirely.
I had seen that face on a monitor until I was sick of it. Forgetting it would have been the hard part.
"What change of heart brings a pointy-ear who's been hiding this whole time out into the open so boldly?"
Erix, Elder of the Green Forest Dawn Society.
I sneered at him with open contempt.
The elf-supremacist was easy to provoke. Scrape him the right way and he would spill every scrap of information.
"What did you say?"
Just as expected, Erix could not stomach the insult for even a second.
"Didn't catch that? Well—with ears that big, I suppose you hear so much worthless noise you miss what actually matters."
"You dare—!"
This time, though, Erix moved his hands before his mouth.
He slipped a hand deep into the robes draped around him, flashed a nasty smile, and fired mana at me.
What's his angle?
On the surface it looked like an ordinary mana bolt.
Nothing unusual in the mana I could sense, and a bolt like that wouldn't do much damage even if it hit.
Not that I'm dumb enough to just take it.
Thinking that, I coated my skin in carbon armor.
I armored my right arm until the skin went black with woven carbon nanotubes, slightly boosted my physical abilities with James's mana, and swatted the incoming bolt aside like batting away a fly.
"Got you!"
"…?!"
Got me?
The moment the question crossed my mind, the mana bolt I had struck flared with a violent flash.
My vision was blocked in an instant, and Erix's footsteps closed the distance at a sprint.
From the start he had planned to blind me and close in. He seemed focused solely on reaching me.
Just as his footsteps reached my nose, the light that had blinded me faded.
When I could see the world again, I understood at a glance what Erix's trump card was supposed to be.
Ha. Is luck on my side or what?
I had wondered what this reclusive elf was banking on to swagger out like this—and the answer was so ridiculous I almost laughed out loud.
"Did you think you could just seduce the princess away and our great cause would somehow take care of itself?"
Erix's face twisted with the sneer of a man looking down on an idiot.
I didn't bother answering.
I didn't even raise a defense or take any special measure.
Because what he was doing was actually helping me.
"Taste the power of the Philosopher's Stone, and become a sacrifice for our great cause!"
The Hohenheim family was little more than Johar's limb.
A critical, indispensable part of the body.
Which raised a question.
Why had Johar chosen an alchemy house like Hohenheim as their limb?
Compared to other families they were weaker in combat, with less real influence.
They stood at the pinnacle of alchemy and everyone acknowledged that—but in practice they were rated as less of a fighting force than most magic schools or martial arts sects.
"Those Johar bastards sure know how to pick their brains."
"Y-you—how do you know of Them…?!"
The moment Johar's name left my mouth, Erix's swaggering face went deathly pale.
Someone might have asked if he had seen a ghost—but to the Green Forest Dawn Society and the Hohenheim family, Johar was exactly that: a ghost.
"The Hohenheim family funneled funds to Johar with Elixirs, and then used Philosopher's Stones to build up their forces."
Just like you.
As I said it, my hand was already reaching toward Erix and the Philosopher's Stone he held.
That was precisely why Johar had chosen Hohenheim over any other house.
The Green Forest Dawn Society was nothing more than an action squad inside Johar—a group that handled the dirty work.
"Ghk—!"
Deciding he couldn't stall any longer, Erix lunged.
As if touching me with the Philosopher's Stone alone would be enough, he poured mana into it and thrust it at my body.
Go ahead and try.
I met him by wrapping the carbon armor that had covered only my arm around my entire body.
"Die!"
The moment the Philosopher's Stone touched me, Erix pulled a dagger from his robes with a vicious grin and swung.
And that strike crumpled uselessly against the carbon armor I was wearing.
With a sharp crack the blade snapped. The broken tip hit the ground, and Erix froze.
"H-how…?"
I kicked the trembling, despairing Erix and smiled.
What he had been counting on was a Gift effect one of the "materials" used in the Philosopher's Stone had possessed.
"Mana Erasure, is it? If it hadn't been me, that would have been a genuine threat."
The instant the Philosopher's Stone made contact, James's mana in my body lost control and scattered.
The physical enhancement dropped away just as easily—but my body had protection far beyond mana, so it didn't matter.
Carbon nanotube performance: confirmed.
"Why hasn't the alchemy come undone?!"
"Why hasn't the alchemy come undone?"
For a moment I was so dumbfounded I couldn't speak.
Alchemy is a technique for shaping forms with mana, not for maintaining them.
Once you use it and something transforms, that's the end—unless it's a special case, you don't need a continuous supply of mana to keep it going.
Even a layperson knows that basic fact about alchemy.
I didn't think even Erix, however stupid he was, could be that ignorant of the fundamentals.
Maybe it wasn't simple Mana Erasure?
It might have been a forced cancellation of any phenomenon that used mana.
Rare, but abilities like that had shown up a few times.
If that were the case, ordinary alchemy powered by mana would have collapsed in an instant.
"Well, I don't owe you an explanation."
I could have been kind to a man who was about to die—but why bother?
Too much trouble. Waste of breath.
"I'll put that Philosopher's Stone of yours to good use."
I gathered the ether around me and focused it on Erix and the Philosopher's Stone in his hand.
Crackling—!
With a hair-raising sound, Erix's body began to break down from the extremities and the surface of his skin.
At the same time the Philosopher's Stone dissolved into tiny particles and, together with the fragments of Erix, streamed into my hand.
"No—this can't be!"
Dragged toward my hand as if sucked into a whirlwind, Erix thrashed.
The pain must have been unbearable, yet instead of screaming he twisted his whole body, muttering in despair.
Not that I cared. I shoved more ether into him, accelerating the breakdown.
"You… alchemist…!"
With those last words, Erix and the Philosopher's Stone he had carried merged with the one I already held.
I examined the Philosopher's Stone, which now radiated a clearly stronger aura, and checked how much power had accumulated in it.
"Roughly eighty-three people's worth?"
Even combining two Philosopher's Stones, I was still short of a hundred. A shame.
I decided I would have to be satisfied with this and turned away.
The Philosopher's Stone I had simply meant to use as a Homunculus core had ended up with a special Gift in it.
Even if the count was a little low, this was a result I could be more than happy with.
Time to head back.
I had taken care of one of the Green Forest Dawn Society's elders, made the Philosopher's Stone I had come for, and even picked up a useful Gift.
It was more than enough—overflowing, even.
And yet.
"What is going on here?"
"…How am I supposed to know if you don't?!"
When I got home, Jerie was locked in a desperate fight against a flying sword.
White and red energy scattering like lightning as it soared through the air.
And countless wooden trunks erupting from the ground.
Watching the scene, my face twisted in bewilderment.
That's Albedo's sword.
Why is it alive and moving?