Chapter 515: The Sniper’s True Worth (5)

At Lennok’s low question, Logier scoffed.

“Ha, I wondered what you’d say next…”

As Logier lowered his body, the train’s coupling was severed as if sliced, twisting the passenger compartment diagonally.

Slice!

“If you thought you could buy time by spouting nonsense, you’re wrong!!!”

The collapsing passenger compartment. Amidst the scattered seats and luggage rack fragments, a dazzling light exploded.

Lennok, spinning in place, grappling and pulling everything around him with mana strings, and…

Logier, charging forward, continuously unleashing spells onto his heated forearm.

The swirling trajectory of the mana strings and the linear flashes of light incessantly intersected, slicing and exploding.

Thud-thud-thud-thud!!!!

Lennok’s body, reinforced with shields on his limbs, swayed, avoiding the torrent of spells and strikes, while simultaneously flinging mana strings in all directions from his fingertips.

A somewhat awkward sensation of ducking his head and twisting his shoulder.

But the waves of killing intent, narrowly missing his eyes, Adam’s apple, collarbone, and the underside of his joints, were no illusion.

Close-quarters combat, unfolding in the confined space of a train, a type of fighting Lennok wasn’t particularly accustomed to.

He manipulated his limbs by pulling mana strings with his will, and with his moving body, he manipulated mana strings again to suppress the onslaught erupting from all directions.

The threads unraveling from beneath his feet bound Logier’s kicks, and several mana strings that spun from his back tautly pulled, slicing into flesh.

Whoosh!!

A checkered net rose from Lennok’s fingertips, splitting the spells erupting from the front.

He hooked the fragments and residual mana scattering in the air onto the ends of his mana strings and pulled, like shaking a pulley.

As if gauging a line on the mana strings, which were invisible to the naked eye, he drew endless parallel lines over the killing intent that brushed past his nose.

A torrent of mana, frictioning and fading dozens of times in the fleeting moments of manipulating mana strings.

By the time one perceives and reacts with the five senses, it’s already too late.

Hand-to-hand combat against a high-tier superhuman or above far transcends the realm where human senses and intuition can respond.

Immediately after sensing with mana perception, one throws a gambit akin to a prediction to maintain balance, and through a gamble akin to precognition, one turns the tables and seizes the initiative.

A complex and incredibly precise tightrope walk that Lennok had never failed, and could not afford to fail.

Whoosh!!

Two new figures shot out, piercing through the train connections multiple times, leaving the instantly collapsing compartment behind them.

A dozen mana strings and flashes of magical light stormed around them, sparkling and sequentially distorting.

Boom!!

Forcibly dulling his sense of balance, Lennok fought by purely supporting his body through mana string manipulation.

It was as if he were controlling a puppet from a third-person perspective, completely setting aside his own five senses as he charged.

Lennok’s body, caught between the train seats, spun as if yanked backward, sliding back, with the blue-visored Logier pursuing him.

Lennok’s and Logier’s mana intersected dozens of times between the shredded and scattering seat cushions and chairs.

Through them, dozens of sharp black arrows poured down, narrowly brushing past the two at close range.

As the arrows embedded themselves, the tracks and body of the train twisted from the impact, throwing them to the ground then bouncing them up.

Thunk!!

Using that force, Lennok manipulated his body like a doll with mana strings, escaping through a hole in the ceiling.

But Logier, appearing right behind him, grabbed his shadowy hood and slammed him against the train wall.

Boom!!

“Ugh…!!”

Clinging to the window at the very end of the speeding train, the two glared at each other.

Their faces were obscured by masks, yet they unmistakably read the direction of each other’s gaze, understanding their intentions.

“That last move wasn’t bad. You’re far more skilled in combat than I thought.”

Crackle!!

Logier, gripping Lennok’s collar, lifted one of Lennok’s arms and smashed it into the train wall.

With one arm embedded in the wall, Logier, who had bound Lennok as if hanging him precariously, stared at him with cold, glowing eyes.

“Still, you’re no match for me.”

“Hmph…”

“If you promise to stay still, I can stop at just severing the tendons in your limbs. If you swear a Geas to tell me the secrets of the spell, I’ll spare your life.”

Whoosh!!

Logier, bringing his hand close as if to shatter Lennok’s mask at any moment, threatened him.

“Otherwise, know that I don’t mind smashing your head here and taking just your brain.”

“…”

“No answer, then.”

Bang!

“Then you die.”

The moment Lennok said nothing, Logier tightened his grip.

The obsidian mask draped within the robe crumbled into dust, flowing away.

Immediately, what was revealed beyond the mask was a hollow void within the empty robe.

“…!!!!”

The moment Logier flinched, realizing what that fact meant, a calm voice came from above his head.

“So it takes even a beast’s intuition a while to realize, huh?”

Kwagwagwa!!!

The end of the train swayed precariously, as if about to derail at any moment.

Lennok, who had somehow crouched on the roof, looked down at the man clinging to the rear window.

The hem of the robe, which had been in Logier’s hand, was now nothing but a handful of shadow.

Lennok looked down at Logier through his intact mask and spoke.

“Even so, direct manipulation is still a bit awkward. I need to refine it with more real-world practice.”

He had spontaneously attempted hand-to-hand combat mixed with mana string manipulation, but he was very unprepared to properly use it in a real fight.

If he didn’t endure the after-effects of mana addiction, he would have to individually deploy shields and directly absorb the offense and defense during collisions.

That process would consume a significant amount of mana and concentration unnecessarily.

The recoil from impacts during direct combat and the problems of stamina and durability that couldn’t be resolved with mana string manipulation alone.

While second nature to physical powerhouses, for Lennok, it was a method that lacked practicality unless he could meet conditions far below his standards.

For now, he could only be satisfied with being able to hold his own against a high-tier physical powerhouse.

All that remained was to shatter Logier’s visor and confirm Lennok’s conjecture.

“You bastard, since when…!!!!”

“Still don’t know?”

Lennok sharply cut off his words, shaking himself off and standing up.

“Of course, since the beginning.”

Screech!!!

The unbalanced train swayed endlessly, then scattered insane roars and sparks in all directions.

The moment the blue-visored Logier gritted his teeth and rapidly climbed the train wall to charge at Lennok again.

Another train, appearing from a nearby intersection, slammed into Logier’s back, unleashing a tremendous shockwave.

KWAANG!!!

A horrifying sound of bones and muscles shattering and tearing.

“Aghhhh!!!”

But even that sound was nothing compared to the impact of a train hitting a human.

Lennok extended a mana string from the collapsing train and boarded the newly arrived train.

A man, barely clinging to the train roof, painfully spitting up blood.

“Cough…!!”

His suited limbs were covered in blood, and all his joints were twisted, with bones protruding in a grotesque shape.

The blue visor he had been wearing moments before was utterly shattered, its fragments strewn about carelessly.

“It’s not easy living as an Aegis operative, is it?”

Lennok slowly turned to the fallen man’s back and smiled.

“I can’t imagine how many senses you have to suppress to pretend to be human among humans, but what’s it actually like?”

“Damn it…!!”

“I haven’t worked with many werewolves, you see. So I can’t quite imagine what it feels like.”

The blue visor was shattered, revealing the man’s bare face.

The man, spitting blood and sharply turning his head, surprisingly had a face familiar to Lennok.

It was Logier, the muscular werewolf covered in unknown tattoos on his entire body, who had participated in Pandemonium’s interim settlement as a member, now appearing before Lennok as an Aegis operative.

Clack, clack!

The train shook incessantly, even the tracks beneath them wobbling.

But Lennok and Logier paid no mind to their surroundings, silently observing each other’s faces.

“So, you already knew, huh…”

Logier, who had been staring at Lennok, spat out the blood in his mouth and slowly stood up.

Snap, snap, snap!!

As he stood, resetting his joints and setting his bones, his entire body’s skin rapidly regenerated.

Wiping the blood from his face and unzipping his suit, he asked.

“Since when?”

“I told you. Since the beginning.”

Lennok replied in an unconcerned tone.

“Chevyen’s ability as a puppeteer and Vernon’s attitude made it easy to suspect them, but once you exclude a few candidates, isn’t it obvious who the culprit is anyway?”

“…”

“Someone who is a powerful physical powerhouse themselves, but uses spells they originally couldn’t through spell engraving…”

Lennok scratched the edge of his mask and chuckled.

“They were exactly like the Aegis operatives I’ve faced.”

“Hmph…”

“Covering your whole body with a visor and suit is probably for a similar reason, right? Because you’ve got engravings all over your body, or some equivalent distinguishing feature.”

The Aegis operatives who had held Lennok back possessed both powerful spells and combat abilities, yet they weren’t proficient in how they actually used their spells.

If that was a common characteristic among Aegis operatives, then it would be possible to deduce the mole’s identity through it.

Logier’s existence was obscured only by his characteristic as a werewolf, but he didn’t understand and use spells; rather, he had them imprinted and triggered their activation through his actions.

Regardless of the opponent’s rough and fierce demeanor, the answer had been clear from the start, derived from his abilities.

Even though Logier didn’t answer, Lennok continued speaking.

“I’m not interested in how you got involved with both Pandemonium and Aegis. I’m more curious about your motive.”

“Motive…?”

“You don’t think The Doctor was unaware of this, do you?”

Lennok’s cold gaze choked Logier.

“Knowing that, why did you choose to reveal your identity at this point? Let me guess.”

Lennok nodded, his voice laced with amusement.

“Collecting Old World artifacts didn’t go as planned. But you wanted to keep participating in the settlement, didn’t you?”

The interim settlement run by The Doctor wasn’t just an accounting process where Old World artifacts were simply collected and handed over.

During that process, it was also possible to receive information or knowledge of the Old World back, proportional to the adjustments one had accumulated.

It was clear how much benefit there was to obtaining information about forgotten techniques or abilities that no longer remained in this world.

Logier had been collecting Old World information with the help of Aegis to participate in the settlement.

Seeing Logier’s eyes slowly change, Lennok continued.

“Leaking information about the settlement and receiving help from Aegis explains this situation. You probably thought that once The Doctor disappeared, information about the mole would just fade away.”

“…”

“As for what happened next, well, there’s no need to say it. Pretending to suspect Chevyen and leaving the scene first wasn’t a bad move.”

Lennok chuckled.

“But if you really wanted to avoid suspicion, you should have left Bailuts instead of wearing that ridiculous helmet.”