Chapter 863: Handover (31)
WHOOSH!!!
An overcast sky. A dark, rain-slicked back alley.
A construction tunnel, where materials wrapped in old vinyl lay strewn about.
The downpour outside was so torrential it was nearly deafening.
Only the filthy rainwater flowing like a stream beneath their feet suggested the tunnel was open at both ends.
“This will really be okay, won’t it?”
And there, in the center of that tunnel, a middle-aged man in a suit was pacing with an anxious air.
He clutched a briefcase in one hand, constantly checking the watch on his wrist while glancing around nervously.
Unable to stand still, he shifted his feet, avoiding the puddles that had formed all around.
Observing him, an intelligent-looking young man sighed and shook his head.
“The success of this appointment is not for us to decide. It would be best for you to calm down.”
“Easy for Balitz Corp. to say. You’re not the ones with your neck on the line.”
“…”
At the man’s sharp retort, the young man fell silent and simply shrugged.
As if this reaction only fueled his anxiety, the older man’s pacing quickened.
“I never should have entrusted this to a necromancer. To think, after all the trouble of meeting Adamant Thunder, the only message delivered was about a ‘meeting’…!!”
“Mares the Coroner is hopelessly inept at that sort of communication. His personality caused several problems when he worked with our headquarters as well.”
“He moves corpses around for a living, so he doesn’t know how to fear the living or watch his mouth. Typical for those who hide behind the scenes.”
The man muttered, stamping his foot with a grim expression.
“Adamant Thunder is not in his right mind. How he receives the same information depends entirely on the method of delivery. We should have been indirectly inquiring about his willingness to attend and preparing the venue, but instead, we left it to that tactless fool…”
“You speak as if you know the wizard well.”
“The Central Council has been observing Adamant Thunder’s existence for years. Did you think we wouldn’t have prepared a response manual for dealing with a Level 8 Archmage?”
The man snapped his head around, irritated by the young man’s peculiar question.
“He’s a madman who can communicate perfectly well, yet his mind operates on a completely different plane. The best approach isn’t just to deliver a message and be done with it; it’s to meet him face-to-face and gauge his reaction. The higher-ups can’t possibly be unaware of that…”
“Well, I understand. Wasn’t it right after the Vylun Research Institute incident that Mares the Coroner delivered the message?”
The young man said with a wry smile.
“It would be stranger if a wizard of Adamant Thunder’s temperament generously overlooked what happened at the institute. Who could recklessly approach such an enraged monster?”
“And now we’re the ones cleaning up the mess.”
The man said in a sharp voice.
He’d been talking to calm his nerves, but the more they spoke, the more on edge he felt.
That was likely because the person they were about to meet was a grandmaster of magic, capable of deciding their fate with a single gesture.
A superhuman in the developed megacity of Vulcan, a place inhabited by tens of millions, who had transcended the limits of his species through his own power.
Yet, few who hadn’t reached that state themselves could truly grasp his status and significance.
How dangerous and powerful a monster a high-level entity who transcended the hierarchy was. A living weapon whose movements alone could bring about disasters comparable to a state of war.
“When Adamant Thunder speaks with other humans, he sees things others cannot.”
The man said quietly.
“He doesn’t act randomly because he has no standards or is capricious. There is a consistent standard within him; it’s just a concept that lower-level mana users like us cannot comprehend.”
“Hmm, that sounds like…”
The young man pondered for a moment before muttering.
“What people say after they’ve met Ascendants and returned.”
“It’s the other way around.”
The man let out a short, scoffing laugh.
“Only the monsters who go completely mad and see it through to the end become Ascendants.”
“…”
“That wizard is the superhuman most likely to cross over next, in the entire continent.”
Biting his nails with boundless anxiety, the man muttered grimly.
“If Adamant Thunder misunderstands this summons and causes a problem, I swear I won’t let it go…”
“You can rest assured. I am here from headquarters’ planning department precisely to prepare for such a contingency.”
The young man replied, taking out his phone and refreshing the company messenger.
“Balitz Corp. has an optimal system in place to prepare for any potential unfortunate incidents.”
“…A system, you say.”
The man paused and turned, his eyes narrowing strangely.
“Come to think of it, there was a rumor that the successor bloodline of Balitz Corp. inherits a precognitive ability.”
“…”
“Is your helping me here now part of that precognitive ability?”
“I am merely an employee of the headquarters’ planning department and have no connection whatsoever to the executive board.”
The young man said with a mechanical smile.
“How the system works is not something I can discuss with outsiders. I ask for your understanding.”
“Is that so?”
The official’s attitude, not even bothering to deny the existence of precognition, made the man’s expression turn cynical.
The young man spoke in a slightly softer, placating tone.
“You are being overly wary of us. Hasn’t our headquarters prepared various measures to sponsor this meeting?”
“…”
“The cost of the jamming field around this tunnel, the security forces, the emergency escape equipment, and the artifacts combined is more than enough to cover an entire area.”
The young man smiled, lifting the phone that was vibrating faintly in his hand.
“Even if all our plans go awry, it will be more than sufficient for us to escape with our lives…”
The young man’s words trailed off as he looked down at his phone, his smile freezing on his face.
“What? What is it? Why did you stop talking?”
“…All security units, prepare for combat.”
CHK-CHK!!
In that instant, the sound of dozens of weapons being loaded echoed simultaneously from all around the tunnel where the two stood.
Dozens of thick wires descended and were set in place, while a brilliant radiance of mana pulsed from beneath their feet.
FWOOOSH!!
Hundreds of overlapping magic circles inscribed throughout the rain-soaked tunnel activated simultaneously.
They began to flood the tunnel with brilliant light.
“Whoaah!!”
As the man flailed, blinded by the sudden flash of light, the young man grabbed him by the collar, his face hard.
“We’re getting out of here right now! Get the artifact out!!”
“Is-is this the precognition?!!”
“This is the worst-case scenario…!!!”
Despite the young man’s aggressive actions, the older man didn’t waste time getting angry or demanding reasons.
Instead, he simply pulled an old pencil hidden in his sleeve and thrust it into the center of the magic circle the young man pointed to.
The moment the pencil, etched with complex characters, was embedded in the magic circle, the sigil wrapped around the man’s body began to rotate and levitate.
[Enakphil’s five fingers, 1 unit confirmed. Preparing activation of forced spatial transfer amplification magic circle.]
FWOOSH!!
Beside him, the young man was also enveloped in an identical magic circle, preparing for spatial transfer.
No matter how dangerous or powerful the wizard, tracking them after they’d successfully escaped across space was no easy task.
An extravagant escape plan, only possible for executives of an organization under the direct jurisdiction of the Central Council, and one sponsored by Balitz Corp. at that.
Just as the two men canceled all their plans on the spot and tried to activate the magic circle to escape through space—
Click!
With the strange sound of grinding gears, the magic circles enveloping their bodies shuddered to a halt.
A low, telepathic voice echoed in the ears of the two wide-eyed men.
[A support magic circle to enhance an artifact’s performance?]
“…!!!”
[A method that rewrites the output value immediately after the spellcraft’s activation. It must be quite a cumbersome and inefficient process, yet you’ve miniaturized it into a circle of this size.]
Not even two seconds had passed between them embedding the artifact and waiting for it to activate.
In that brief moment, had he already deciphered all their plans and was now speaking to them?
The two men, frozen as if struck by lightning, had just managed to move their necks when—
[Simplifying the process for miniaturization is standard. But that’s what makes it easier to analyze.]
In that instant, the support magic circle with the old pencil embedded in it began to slowly rotate in reverse.
KRRRRR…!!
As if the magic circle were dismantling itself, it broke down all its hieroglyphs and designs, spitting out the old pencil that had been stuck in its center.
[Reverse calculation complete. Wait there.]
“Wh-What…”
[I’m coming myself.]
Lightning struck.
The glare of the thunderbolt bleached their vision white.
Even in this downpour, the acrid, terrible smell of something burnt was unmistakable.
At the far end of the tunnel, dozens of meters away, a shadow stood motionless, taking the full force of the rain.
FLASH!!
When lightning flashed a second time, the shadow had vanished from the end of the tunnel.
“No!! Stop!!”
The young man, finally snapping back to his senses, roared.
“Don’t engage. It’s usele—!!”
Armed response was practically impossible. Once the escape had failed, resistance was meaningless.
The young man tried to shout to the security troops to stop them, but it was already too late.
ZWIIIIP!!
Dozens of security troops, hidden all around the tunnel in full combat gear, descended with their built-in firearms deployed.
The pre-installed wires pulled taut, blocking the path and densely occupying the narrow space of the tunnel.
The mana particle interference spellcraft installed densely on the tunnel ceiling and walls activated.
Just as the powerful jamming was meant to delay the activation of all spellcraft, including magic, in the dark, damp space—
CRACKLE!!
A brilliant blue flame flickered amidst the shadows.
A blue flash traversed the ceiling and walls of the tunnel at a speed that surpassed the limits of perception.
KKKKKKKK!!!
A trail of brilliant blue light followed the small flame’s trajectory, etching itself onto the cement walls and glowing brightly.
It pierced through all the prepared magic circles, jamming fields, countermeasures, and formations.
“…!!!”
In an instant too short to even scream.
A small bolt of lightning grazed dozens of superhumans who were flailing as if time had stopped.
Just facing the thunderlight that shone from an impossibly transcendent distance created the illusion that perceived time was slowing down.
Immediately after, a deafening roar erupted, shattering everything inside the tunnel as if they were toys.
KRA-KOOOOM!!!
“Th-this…”
Just as the ashen-faced man, hands trembling, tried to push himself up from the ground—
“For all your grand justifications, your actions are worse than an insect’s.”
A low voice spoke from behind him.
“A-Adamant Thunder…!!”
A black-haired young man with sharp features was looking down at them, leaning on a silver staff.
His expression was subtle, looking somewhat tired, yet at the same time, infinitely sensitive.
Before the two men could even register that this was the Archmage’s unique way of expressing his displeasure—
Both the young man and the older man were slammed into the rain-streaked ground as if crumpled.
CRACK!!
“Gahk… Hngh!!”
A scream burst out involuntarily from the pain of a dislocated shoulder and a backward-bent elbow.
But both men gritted their teeth, suppressing any further outcry.
‘We had hundreds of layers of mana particle interference and jamming, and yet he made no mistakes…!’
The only thing Lennok had used to subdue this tunnel was a single bolt of lightning smaller than a fist.
In this narrow tunnel filled with all sorts of mana interference and jamming, upon coordinates distorted by spatial transfer magic, he hadn’t lost control even once.
It was the pinnacle of exquisitely delicate mana control, which felt far more bizarre and terrifying than simply crushing them with brute force.
SPLASH!!
“I’m in a very bad mood right now.”
Lennok said, walking slowly between the two men, whose faces were pressed into the rainwater.
“So if you have something to say, you’d better spit it out before I accidentally burst your heads.”
“…”
Through his black hair, the brilliant blue light in Lennok’s eyes flashed.
“You didn’t bring up a meeting just to ‘see my face,’ did you?”
“Of-of course… not.”
With a violently trembling hand, the man pulled a drenched business card from his breast pocket.
Despite being crushed by the mana Lennok was emitting thoughtlessly, he lifted his broken arm and managed to place the card down near his head.
“Struss Eshmel, 1st-class administrator of the Central Council…!! It is an honor to meet the Archmage.”
“…”
Now he understood why the employee from Balitz Corp.’s planning department had tried to flee with him immediately.
This wasn’t a time to worry that Adamant Thunder might merely be displeased.
They had encountered the worst possible situation: summoning the wizard at a time when his mood was far fouler than they could have imagined.
“Normally, we would never have dreamed of summoning you for a private matter before the meeting, but regrettably—”
CRUNCH!!
All five fingers on the man’s right hand were snapped backward and broken.
“Regrettably?”
Ignoring the man who was gritting his teeth against the pain, Lennok glanced at the fallen security guards and asked.
“You prepared this pathetic welcome, and that’s all you have to say?”
“…!!!”
“I’ll ask one more time. Get to the point.”
Lennok said, stomping on the man’s neck.
“Why did you call me?”
“The meeting is about to be canceled because of a VIP coming to Vulcan…!!”
The pale-faced man gasped, forcing out the words.
“Because of this VIP’s presence, most of the agenda items we planned to discuss at the meeting are likely to be nullified. We have something to discuss with you regarding how to handle that…!!”
“So you were planning to ask me to stop this so-called VIP.”
Lennok cut him off and replied.
“Even if not to kill, you called me because you wanted them restrained or neutralized?”
“…”
Seeing the silent man, Lennok let out a short, mocking laugh.
“That’s enough. I don’t need to hear any more.”
FZZZZT!!
A blue light flared above his head, and a sound like the twisting of the very atmosphere echoed out.
Just as the man and the young man gave up all hope and squeezed their eyes shut—
As if by a lie, Lennok’s foot stopped.
“…”
Lennok stood in silence, as if deep in thought.
A suffocating silence filled the rainy tunnel.
Just as everyone, collapsed and unconscious, held their breath, straining to hear Lennok’s response—
“You said a VIP was coming to Vulcan?”
“…Yes.”
“Their name?”
Why was he suddenly asking for the VIP’s name?
Knowing it might be meaningless at this point, the man squeezed his eyes shut and answered.
“The Lighthouse Keeper who leads the Eyes of Blue, Lapis Falcia…”