Blending In
Blending In
Tch.
My long-range aim was still unskilled.
By the way, there was a surviving researcher.
I don't know how much he knows about my identity, but simply knowing that I exist is irritating.
Plus, I've already shown Hati's abilities to some extent, so it's over.
I can't let him live and send him back.
After turning the spear back into blood, I aimed at the man again.
At the same time, Hati moved to the side, waiting for the timing to coordinate with my attack.
Kwang!!!
This time, I increased the number of spears to five.
The man created a barrier in an instant again, but the barrier shattered into pieces the moment the third spear touched it, sending up dust.
'...It's not dust.'
A red flash was detected inside the smoke screen.
I flapped my wings and moved to the sky, and a pitch-black flame shot up at the spot where I had been just a moment ago.
Black Flame.
I remembered seeing it in the book that Zenon had.
That flame which uses only pure mana refined within the body as energy, supposedly an indicator of a mage's rank or something.
Seeing it directly, I understood clearly.
At the spot where the flames had blazed, an 'alien void' remained.
A non-physical space where neither air nor natural mana exists.
The flames that created such a space aimed at me once more.
Hwareuk
The Black Flame that appeared in the air spread toward me at high speed.
I swung my wings as fast as possible and entered acrobatic flight.
It was a fairly persistent pursuit, but this was my opponent's mistake.
Peok!
The sound of a strike reaching all the way here.
Right after, the black flames chasing me disappeared.
Looking down at the ground, Hati was grabbing the man by the collar.
Hati spun around once and threw the man.
The man flew toward me, spitting blood.
'Nice pass.'
Thinking I should buy a gift for Hati soon, I gathered blood in my right arm.
My arm, now bright red, soon became transparent like a ruby.
In that state, I extended my fingernails.
'With this, I'll be able to get through most barriers, right?'
I secretly hoped the man would put up a last-ditch struggle.
I hoped he would brace for death, gather all his mana, and envelop his skin with the strongest barrier he could create.
Because then I could measure my attack power.
But unfortunately,
"You."
Just as I heard the man's voice up close and flinched for a moment,
"Don't get caught by the wrong guy."
The man, who glared at me and said that at the last moment, disappeared as if blinking out.
It was so instantaneous that I didn't even register it properly.
Only after waving my hand in the air and looking around did I realize what had happened.
'Spatial Magic?'
I was dumbfounded.
I had learned that spatial magic is forbidden by law and that its mana efficiency is so abysmal that practical use is impossible.
It's not a matter of skill; it's fundamentally difficult.
'Where did he get the energy?'
The natural mana was flowing peacefully.
I didn't even sense any sign of mana deployment from the man's body.
Then there was only one possibility left.
'Could this also be a Mana Stone?'
It seemed that Mana Stones were a more valuable resource than I had thought.
An energy source that makes teleportation possible.
In the other world where I lived, the only thing like that was a black hole.
The eldest son of the Billiwords Ducal House, 'Leon', was the captain of the Rehingel Union's state-of-the-art ship 'Lord Tania', but he occasionally commanded operations on land as well.
"Colonel-nim. Should we report to the navy side as well?"
A plaza that had been swept through by a tank.
At the question from a security forces unit member, Leon, who had been pacing around, stopped walking.
His appearance was often evaluated as exactly the same as his father's younger days.
Sharp eyes.
Sturdy build.
A bright blonde hair and a fresh curve of the mouth that seemed to embrace those fierce elements.
Leon, who exactly resembled his father's appearance that one artist praised as 'the embodiment of harmony,' was also loved by many people around him.
Naturally, his subordinates liked him too.
"Do as you please. You don't have any duty to report anyway, right?"
When he said that playfully, his subordinate laughed awkwardly and saluted.
Right after, gunshots rang out.
Tadatadatadatadang
When Leon turned around, the reactionary elements who had been lined up against the wall were collapsing in a heap.
Tch tch
Leon clicked his tongue and grumbled.
"That's why I told you not to ignore the warning. Did you think the Council would play games with the war or something?"
The subordinate, who hadn't left yet, laughed bitterly and chimed in.
"They seemed to have genuinely thought they could win. I just obtained a notebook where those guys wrote down all their operation details. Would you like to check it?"
Leon smiled brightly and nodded.
"Sounds interesting? Bring it over."
Internally, he muttered coldly.
'You should report that first, you idiot.'
The eyes looking at the back of the subordinate's head as he ran off excited were also extremely cold.
It was a situation of great luck for the subordinate that an anomaly occurred just before his cold heart lowered the temperature even further and he made a ruthless decision.
Dung—
A resonance of mana that ordinary people couldn't feel spread in all directions.
Startled, Leon looked back at the air where the resonance had begun.
A mage wearing a pure white robe.
A comrade of his father and his own love-hate senior was falling, battered and broken.
Running over quickly and catching him was a reflexive action.
Throwing him to the ground with a sour face was an emotional action.
"Kkeok!"
Morgan, whose wounds had opened due to the rough handling, let out a groan.
"Hey... a patient..."
Leon put on a bright expression again, but he couldn't seem to prevent his tone from becoming brusque.
"What is it. Suddenly."
Then he signaled the approaching subordinates to back off.
The scene, which had been paused by Morgan's sudden appearance, began to move again.
The executed reactionaries were loaded onto stretchers, and the next batch of reactionaries to be executed lined up against the wall.
Morgan cast recovery magic on himself while forcing his upper body up.
"It's nothing. Ehusyka is indeed strong. To get a hole punched in my body just from a momentary mistake."
He spoke as if he were relaxed, but Leon could tell.
'He was on the verge of death, wasn't he?'
One of Morgan's specialties was recovery magic.
A world-class mage can only sustain his life by fully using his own specialty?
It was no ordinary matter.
"Isn't it the entity that lived on the west coast? Was it that strong?"
"I told you. It was my mistake."
Morgan took a deep breath and stood up from his spot.
"Kkeueung..."
The wounds didn't seem to have healed yet, but Leon didn't bother to stop him.
'If it's hard, he'll back out on his own.'
Thinking only that, he explained the situation.
"The ones holed up in the factory seem to be the leadership. We're killing all the rest."
Gunshots rang out again.
Tadatadatadatadang
Morgan looked at the falling reactionaries and asked.
"Don't you think Ehusyka migrated too out of the blue?"
To Leon, who frowned in confusion, Morgan suggested.
"Try not killing them for now. I think these guys might also be connected to black magic."
Leon's eyes widened.
"Hoo?"
Curling his lips as if amused, he praised Morgan.
"You've grown too, sunbae. The mindset as a 'Dominant Species'."
Morgan snorted and walked away.
Leon grinned and called his subordinates, spreading the word about the changed handling method.
Perhaps it was because the first space I encountered in this world was a cave.
Surprisingly, it was comfortable.
It was even cozy.
Water droplets falling from the stalactites created a clear sound.
Ddong— ddonggeureureureu
The leisurely flapping of bats' wings was quite still and rhythmic.
I had been lying on my side, propping my head with my hand for over two hours, and was gradually feeling uncomfortable in that posture.
Wriggling to turn the other way to take the same posture, Hati had already taken the spot.
I looked down at Hati's head, which I had pressed with my back while turning.
She was sleeping in a bread-baking posture like a cat, so it seemed difficult to move just a part of her body.
I took the original posture again and scratched my butt.
'Late...'
It has been two days since Helsi went to the village.
Even subtracting the travel time, it was past the point where she should have finished the tasks I assigned.
'Is it time to consider betrayal?'
I had already considered that and chose a cave with multiple entrances as a base.
But I was captivated by the atmosphere of my hometown (the second one) and my mind had become lax.
If I were attacked by 'guys who know how to fight' like the mage I met a few days ago, there was a non-zero chance of facing a second game over for negligence.
Poljjag
It was just after I got up and was about to set up a position.
A response came from the sensor I had installed at the cave entrance.
To an ordinary person, it would just look like a shallow puddle formed by water flowing out of the cave.
The footsteps that created small waves in that place mixed with my blood were Helsi's.
'Is she alone?'
I concentrated and analyzed the waves.
'She's alone.'
Only after reaching that conclusion did I turn the stalactite-shaped blood mass that had been aimed at Helsi back into a surveillance device.
A moment later.
Helsi appeared and said as she set down a bulging bag.
"I got everything."
With the feeling of welcoming a delivery driver, I ran over happily.
"Good. Very well done."
I jumped up and patted her head as if touching it, and opened the bag while asking a courtesy question.
"Was there any trouble?"
Helsi grinned widely and rattled off information I wasn't particularly curious about.
"It was so amazing that I didn't even feel tired. The people outside really seem like characters from a novel. Some lady even gave me something called 'Krito' for free. Do you know it? It's a round bread with really delicious vegetables inside..."
With a habitual sympathetic response, I kept nodding and saying "Uh-huh, uh-huh."
Internally, I evaluated Helsi's work ability.
'It seems she didn't negotiate at all, and the quantity is wrong. A bit disappointing.'
It didn't seem necessary to point it out.
I didn't plan to train her anyway.
It's a hassle.
Rather than touching on it and making her lose confidence, lowering her efficiency, it was better to let her give 100% of her original low specs.
"Excellent. I'll count on you next time as well."
When I complimented her with a smile, Helsi blushed shyly.
'Now, what I need to do from now on...'
I took out a golden silk from the bag.
The core material used in the clothes Helsi was currently wearing.
Using this to improve Hati's clothes was the experiment and practice I was going to do this time.