Chapter 402: Growth and Proof (3)

The rain-soaked night street.

Twenty figures stood with bowed heads, enduring the pouring rain on the empty asphalt, where not even a single car, let alone a person, dared to approach.

Whooosh!!!

They were scattered in a disorderly fashion without any formation, yet not one of them wavered amidst the torrential downpour.

“…It’s not too late. Should we proceed now?”

A voice from among the group spoke, and the man at the very front of the procession responded.

“I must have told you several times that we need to wait until the mana pattern observation is complete.”

Another voice, from behind the man, retorted as if protesting.

“But it’s almost five minutes since the signal was cut off. If someone as skilled as Adamant Thunder has been silent for more than five minutes, it’s highly likely…”

Snap!

There was no reply.

As the man snapped his fingers, a red glow emerged from the darkness, and the upper body of the voice that had spoken to him was diagonally split.

“H-Hyiiik…!”

While someone swallowed a scream at the sight of the instantly killed corpse, a massive body appeared right behind them, emitting a quiet whirring sound.

Click, click…!!

Glowing with crimson eyes in the dark night air, writhing was an eight-legged mechanical spider, about the size of a motorcycle.

The blood flowing from between its legs, which had pierced the road, clearly revealed what weapon had just severed the voice.

There was no proper presence, no reaction. Only dozens of crimson eyes, wandering in the dark rain, illuminated their surroundings.

Those dozens of crimson glows began to quietly shine one by one around the superhumans standing in the rain, occupying various spots on the street, building walls, under bridges, on garden rooftops, atop traffic lights, and next to streetlights, awaiting orders. They exuded an aura completely different from those gathered here now.

Hsssss…

“It seems you haven’t properly understood, so I’ll explain again. The moment we confirmed that you would have to face Adamant Thunder in this operation, your task was set.”

Trampling on the hot blood flowing onto his feet with the rainwater, the man spoke.

The man looked around at the people staring at him with cold eyes and mumbled.

“The reason we’ve been able to maintain security so far is because all of you are inmates whose personal information has been erased. It’s natural that it’s difficult to find traces, given that we’ve taken out erased individuals who should have spent the rest of their lives confined in solitary cells.”

Click, click.

Taking out a small terminal from his pocket and beginning to operate it, the man continued.

“Soon, a technical team dispatched from headquarters will establish a 7-level defense system across this area and freeze all of Adamant Thunder’s mana. Until then, you are to infiltrate the Dyke Corp. branch one by one, buy time, and once the program installation is complete, just capture Adamant Thunder and bring him before me. Do you understand?”

“…”

“No, it’s fine even if you don’t. I’ll explain it again and again. It was my fault.”

The lenses of the glasses the man pushed up in the darkness gleamed coldly.

“It’s useless to get angry and raise your voice at ignorant fools. My mental discipline is still lacking.”

Despite the man’s mocking tone, no one dared to speak back rashly.

It was because the man had just clearly shown them that the mechanical spiders, standing as if dead, could turn violent at any signal.

Mana control suppression chips embedded in their bodies prevented them from even attempting proper resistance.

If they didn’t want to die a dog’s death like the superhuman who had just talked back to the man, they had no choice but to silently obey his orders.

The fortunate thing, perhaps, was that once the 7-level defense system he’d mentioned was completed, even Adamant Thunder would find it difficult to hold out for long.

The culmination of a project ambitiously launched by Achilles headquarters as soon as the Prohibition Edict was lifted.

Having personally experienced its power, they deeply realized that Adamant Thunder could absolutely not win this battle.

The only important thing was to buy time until the defense system, being adjusted for a single sorcerer, was complete.

At that moment, as they silently waited for their turn, hoping to be alive until the system was complete, there was a loud crash.

Rumble!!

Immediately after, a heavy silhouette fell directly in front of the man, erupting with an enormous roar.

The man wiped away the rainwater obscuring his vision and poked at whatever had fallen in front of him with his foot.

“…What is this?”

“Ugh, ugh…”

What had fallen from a height of several tens of meters was, surprisingly, a writhing giant, still alive.

The figure, with thick rebar-like pillars embedded in both arms, was the vanguard that had moved with the word sorcerer Levi.

The assembled group fell silent at the bizarre sight of a superhuman, skilled enough to work in tandem with a specialized sorcerer like a word sorcerer, flailing like a child.

Only the man at the front poked the giant with his wet boot, an astonished expression on his face.

“Did he fight Adamant Thunder and then flee? But why is he in this state?”

“Ugh…!”

The giant groaned in pain, unable to even speak properly as he writhed.

“It’s a sealing ritual.”

Another figure, who had been watching the man, cautiously opened their mouth.

“A seal? Are such outdated rituals still passed down?”

“May I touch him for a moment?”

As soon as the man nodded, the figure stepped out from behind and cautiously touched the giant’s body.

“Undoubtedly. It’s a seal that restricts movement, as well as most of the body’s functions, to a minimum level.”

“Really?”

“The level of the ritual… It’s beyond my ability to even discuss. To be able to so thoroughly incapacitate a physical ability user, I can’t even guess at its principle.”

The figure, who had flowed mana into the hardened giant’s scapula to assess the situation, continuously let out exclamations of admiration.

“Given the bullet wounds on his body, it seems to have used bullets as a medium, but how can it be so precise… At this level, proper thought would even be impossible.”

The figure who casually examined and admired their horrifically defeated and fallen comrade was also not in their right mind.

But the man, upon hearing those words, finally seemed to understand and nodded.

“I see… He cared far more about performance than I thought.”

“Huh?”

“What do you mean?”

The others, oblivious, continued to question the man.

But this time, instead of snapping his fingers again, the man quirked his lips with an amused expression.

“Why would a wizard who’s supposedly killed every challenger go to such lengths? He’s telling us to wait, because he’ll turn us all into this.”

“…”

“What a charming idea… As expected of someone who crawled through the underground, his thoughts are utterly sinister.”

Only then did the figures understand the man’s words and fall silent.

Less than five minutes had passed since Levi and the giant’s signals were cut.

In that brief moment, they realized why the wizard who had killed the word sorcerer and left the giant in this state had acted this way.

It wasn’t to show off his power to the superhumans who had crawled through this city.

It was simply a remarkably calm declaration: ‘I will turn all of you into this and display you in front of the branch office.’

The man, lost in thought, glanced up at the building soaring above him and then spoke.

“Plan change. Everyone, prepare for immediate assault.”

“Y-Yes?”

Unlike the slightly flustered voice of one figure, the others silently checked their equipment and began to gather their mana.

These were individuals more than accustomed to killing and committing crimes.

Under the cleanly organized logic of power, most of them were highly skilled individuals who showed no hesitation.

The man looked over them and nodded.

“I sent the two smartest ones first, and they couldn’t even last five minutes, could they?”

“…”

“Sending them up one or two at a time would be nothing more than child’s play. In that case, we’ll have to overwhelm them with sheer numbers.”

Whoosh!!

With his words, the spiders, which had stood as if dead, uniformly began to writhe, furiously thrashing their legs hidden in the darkness.

The spiders glided across the rain-soaked street, instantly scuttling up the wall of the Dyke Corp. branch building.

The man, leaving behind those who flinched at the terrifying sight, looked up at the building with sharp eyes and licked his lips.

“This is the sixth demonstration of Ethereal Weapon 71-Araneia, specialized for anti-magic combat. Let’s see how long it can last.”

“I always think…”

Lennok, glancing out the window, mumbled, wiggling his hands.

“This city seems to churn out an endless supply of crazies, doesn’t it?”

[Master, I’ve successfully hacked into a part of Kertritz’s prisoner database.]

Davi, wriggling inside his coat, said.

[Compared to the inmates confined within the facility, data on escaped prisoners is relatively easier to access, likely due to their wanted status. Levio Mortensen, 85 years old. A Level 7 word sorcerer. He was a cult leader who was charged with attempting to establish a new nation with 5,000 followers.]

“…This man was the leader of a cult?”

Lennok looked down at Levi’s headless corpse with an incredulous expression.

[He was planning to enthrall people through incantations and settle them in a satellite city. Due to his unique magical ritual, he received a life sentence instead of execution through a plea bargain, and occasionally cooperated with the City Government under a special pardon. He escaped during a terrorist incident five years ago and has been missing ever since.]

“A Level 7 criminal has quite the extravagant charges, doesn’t he?”

The bigger problem, perhaps, was that individuals with such grand criminal records had started to roam these streets as if it were nothing.

With the lifting of the Prohibition Edict, even Level 7 Archmages who had subtly restricted their activities had begun to actively pursue their own interests.

Until now, it was rare for anyone short of a major figure in the underworld to encounter Archmages, but this was proof that the city was becoming even more chaotic.

“As far as I know, there are quite a few madmen confined in those facilities… If these guys keep getting released one by one, that’ll be a problem in itself.”

[It seems to have been an open secret that the City Council conveniently exploited the power and magic of death row inmates. Dyke Corp.’s strategy team predicts that this trend will likely worsen.]

“When did you get Dyke Corp.’s information?”

[I subtly swiped the security code during your meeting with Panua. The old code was updated once, making it difficult to access, but I couldn’t resist this time.]

Lennok chuckled at Davi, who swiped her paw as if stealing something.

“Good job. If what you say is true, these incidents will become far more frequent in the future.”

[If you have time, it would be good to also look at this data. It’s a document protected with the highest level of security in the strategy room, and it shows that the increasing trend of mana users’ skill, based on decades of observation and statistics, has been exponentially accelerating—]

“I’ll hear it later.”

Lennok interrupted Davi, stood up, and held up the object in his hand.

Click!

With that gesture, a revolver instantly assembled in Lennok’s hand, beginning to leak streams of bright blue mana light.

Lennok quietly inhaled the scent of the bullets in the revolver’s cylinder and mumbled.

“You’re much later than I thought.”

Whoosh!!

Immediately after, a harpoon surged towards Lennok’s solar plexus.

The moment he extended a shield to deflect it, the harpoon head exploded like a bomb, scattering its contents wildly in all directions.

Dudududu!!

Scores of wires, shot like bullets, were installed across the room, blocking Lennok’s path,

And simultaneously, several mechanical spiders crashed through the window and rushed towards Lennok all at once.

Kiriririk!!

Dozens of wires filled the vast lobby on the 7th floor of the building where Lennok stood.

The mechanical spiders, having entered by traversing these wires like a spiderweb, moved in perfect coordination, charging towards Lennok.

The first spiders to enter closed the distance and pressed in, while the following spiders pulled out machine guns and all sorts of mana weapons from inside their bodies, warming them up.

The ethereal weapons, occupying Lennok’s surroundings—above, below, left, and right—by climbing the wires that stretched everywhere, launched a perfectly synchronized preemptive strike as if they were one body.

Kaa-aa-ang!!

No sooner had the barrage ended than the door at the end of the opposite corridor was shattered, and a swordsman wielding two blades squeezed through the spiders and dashed forward.

A sword strike swiftly削ed away the already tattered shield. The mechanical spiders’ suppressing fire followed suit, not losing pace.

Before Lennok could react, a man with a cold expression, who had smashed through the opposite wall, swung the scythe in his hand.

Saaaaak!!

The scythe cleanly cut through the already tattered shield from the previous exchange, and passed through the shell-like armor as if it were a ghost.

An attack using an ethereal body. And a sorcerer of considerable skill.

Lennok also moved without hesitation.

[Spatial Jump coordinates designated. Jump distance 5m. Casting time 0.25 seconds. Mana injection complete.]

Paaat!!

Expending 30% of his mana in an instant, he jumped forward five meters.

He then directly impaled the spine of the man, who was flailing in empty air, with surging lightning.

[Antithunder (沆雷)]

Paa-aa-ang!!

Exploding from within the man’s back, a brilliant flower of lightning bloomed in the center of his spine.

Leaving behind the man, who turned into a pool of blood without even a struggle, Lennok immediately swung his hand.

As the shell-like armor above his head moved, the shape of a massive hammer smashed down, breaking through the ceiling.

Kwoo-oong!!

Lennok smirked, seeing rocket-like flames erupting from the other side of the hammer.

“I’ve seen something similar before.”

[System control complete. Too easy!]

Kwaaaaaaa!!!

Davi’s hacking ability instantly took over the hammer’s functions,

Overloading the residual mana within the weapon and increasing the flames spouting from the hammer’s opposite end.

Pwoooong!!

Amidst the hammer, which exploded unable to withstand its own output, he thrust a blade of ice into the bewildered giant’s face.

[Crushing Ice Drill (碎氷錐): Burst Freeze (結爆)]

[White Ghost Snow Halberd (白鬼雪戟)]

The blade, honed like an awl, pierced and exploded simultaneously. Immediately after, the burst ice blades raged into a sharp blizzard.

Dududududuk!!

The chilling sound of flesh and muscle being torn through whole. A moment later, the heavy body fell backward with a thud.

Ignoring the corpse slumped behind him, Lennok grabbed a single dangling wire with his gloved hand and unleashed his mana.

An intricate ritual, combining three distinct attributes and systems—unique magic, alchemy, and barrier magic—assembled within his body as if breathing.

Lightning-type unique magic: Alchemy application

Barrier formation: Imbuing magnetism

[Magnetized Cohesion: Homogeneous Swarm]

Pazzzzzzzit!!!

The barrier magic, which normally required prior preparation, was instantly created as a catalyst through alchemy, and its fruition was manifested based on unique magic.

Finally, feeding on the sorcerer’s falling intent, it instantly warped reality and revealed itself.

The violet lightning extending from Lennok’s fingertips transferred along the wires installed throughout the lobby, reaching the spiders on them.

Kiriririk!!!

A technique that simultaneously targeted and pierced the mechanical spiders that had been meticulously diverting Lennok’s attention and sharing his time.

It didn’t just stop at their functions being halted the moment they were pierced.

The spiders, connected by different, powerful magnetic forces, began to clump together due to immense attraction.

Dudududuk!!!

The heavy bodies of the mechanical spiders, unable to resist the immense attraction pulling from all directions, began to converge into one spot.

In that violent surge, even the superhumans who had been exchanging blows at close range with Lennok were helplessly entangled, their flesh beginning to be crushed.

“Kuaaaak!!!”

“Get awayyyy!!”

The bodies of the superhumans, fallen at Lennok’s feet, were squeezed and crushed into one, caught between the massing mechanical spiders.

The force relentlessly shattered the superhumans’ joints and bones, pulling them together as if to form a single lump of meat.

Unable to resist the tremendous attraction, others also let out fear-filled screams.

Kiriririk!!

“N-No!!”

“This isn’t right, this…!!”

“Aaaaah!!”

Woo-du-du-du-duk!!!

Dozens of mechanical spiders, writhing hideously as they clumped together, along with the flesh and blood that burst forth from the pressure they couldn’t withstand.

Lennok looked down at those who had massed together and ceased breathing, then began to walk out of the room.

The giant he had thrown down earlier was a sample of the ones he would display alive.

This was a sample of the ones he would kill from now on.