Game Opportunity in Reality Episode 128
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Game Opportunity in Reality Episode 128
32. The Crazy One Appears (3)
The Black Mage is a completely unknown territory.
From what I hear, they're far stronger than mages or knights of the same rank, so it'd be best to treat him as near-8th Circle.
Honestly, even back when we were Aura Masters and 7th Circle, we could take down enemies a rank above us, so it shouldn't be hard to deal with him, but there's nothing wrong with being careful.
So instead of rushing in recklessly, we held our ground against him.
"I've seen plenty of people strut around calling themselves Aura Masters and 7th Circle Grand Mages, you know? But in terms of both magic and aura power, you two are the strongest I've ever seen. How can there be such a gap in skill?"
He didn't seem to think that we, known to be in our early 20s, were actually 8th Circle and Grandmaster.
I curled the corner of my mouth into a smirk at the Black Mage's question.
"Because our level is different."
"Haha, so you're what they call geniuses, is that it? How amusing. Amusing."
Villains of this sort always seem to share a common trait.
And that is they talk too much.
I sent a signal to Arcia, and she immediately raised her Holy Sword.
"Ex!"
"You don't need to do that."
"Hah!"
I stopped her when she tried to use the incantation Ibril had shouted at the previous Saintess contest.
Then, the Holy Sword that had been radiating brilliant light converted and amplified Arcia's Aura into a Saint Blade, releasing it.
Against that attack, which shot out in a straight line like a laser beam, he tried to block it using black smoke.
-BOOM!
But there's such a thing as compatibility, isn't there.
Before the Saint Blade, his defense was far too feeble, and the white ray pierced through everything in its straight path, including the black smoke.
At the same time, a black flame carrying a terrifying force surged toward us like a counterattack, but it was cleanly canceled out by Arcia's sword strike, which never let its guard down.
"Haah... We're really out of luck. What are the odds of running into people like you in a place like this? And on top of that, you even have a Holy Sword it's as if the goddess sent a judge just for me."
Arcia's first attack cost Michael Gale his right arm.
Even so, he didn't lose his composed expression.
Smoke kept rising from the right arm torn off by the Holy Sword's attack, making it look like a troll using rapid regeneration.
However, his arm never regenerated whether that was due to the Holy Sword's properties or just visual effects, I couldn't tell.
We had only exchanged a single strike, but it was enough to confirm the difference in power.
-Gulp.
The faces of the people who had been frightened by the Black Mage's appearance brightened.
Though these were people who'd be executed later anyway, even if they survived now.
"But I can't die here. I have too much to do."
As if saying she had no intention of listening any longer, Arcia swung the Holy Sword again and unleashed Saint Blades in succession, and I also used a 7th Circle high-level spell of light attribute with its power pushed to the limit.
"As expected, the power is anything but ordinary! I want to dissect you!"
But our strikes didn't reach him.
-CRASH!
Because something black suddenly burst through the ceiling of the royal great hall and shielded him, taking our attacks.
"Tch!"
It was a Vanguard.
Ten Vanguards of immense size.
The attacks were powerful enough to break through a Vanguard's defense, yet they blocked them that was no ordinary feat.
So, with a look of "What are you people now," I checked the Myriad Mirror's information.
[Transplant-Type Reinforced Vanguard]
-By extracting a High Knight's spine, brain, Aura points, and Aura rods and transplanting them into Vanguard equipment, high-purity Aura is reinforced into Force without delay, granting exceptional reflexes.
-Displays 50% higher output and 30% faster reaction speed than a High Knight wearing armor-type Vanguard equipment.
But the absurd content made me doubt my eyes, and I was left speechless.
They dissected humans and implanted them into Vanguard equipment?
That wasn't something a sane person would think of.
"You insane bastard."
Now under the guard of ten Transplant-Type Reinforced Vanguards, Michael Gale spoke with even greater pride and swagger.
"Wow, you've got sharp eyes. You noticed that too? Haha, how about it? Unlike the armor worn over a human body, the sense of unity is incredible, right? Isn't this the final form of a Vanguard? Just five of these could easily take down an Aura Master. This changes the paradigm of war."
"Now I see why Black Mages must be killed."
They were beings that trampled on the dignity of humanity.
"What's the problem? You were just gleefully killing people a moment ago, weren't you?"
"We only fought them as enemies with our lives on the line. That's not the same as toying with them like playthings for your own satisfaction."
Originally, since I knew little about Black Mages and couldn't predict what they might do, I intended to avoid close combat and eliminate them with ranged attacks only.
But that would never end.
Trusting our own abilities, Arcia and I hurled ourselves into the midst of the Reinforced Vanguards.
-BOOM! CRASH! CRASH!
And as if to say we didn't care whether the enemy had grown stronger or not, we mercilessly destroyed the Reinforced Vanguards one after another.
"What the hell are these people!"
As the ten Reinforced Vanguards failed to last even a single minute and tumbled across the floor in pieces, the smile vanished from that smug bastard's face, replaced by a look of utter disbelief.
They certainly were faster and more powerful than ordinary Vanguards.
But perhaps it was because they had lost their humanity and become mere parts of a machine?
They had the weakness of lacking the unpredictable movements unique to humans, with overly simplistic responses.
"This is supposed to replace humans? Not a chance."
Arcia and I strode forward.
The cocky bastard, seeing us closing the distance, instinctively backed away.
"Where do you think you're going!"
Michael Gale shoved his hand into the wound where his arm had been severed, and a tremendous amount of blood gushed out.
That blood soon took the shape of a bizarre spear...
-SHWACK!
"Gahk!"
Arcia swung the Holy Sword, cleaving through both the spear and his heart in one stroke.
Furthermore, I burned the Black Mage who had dropped to his knees from the shock entirely with fire magic.
"Kheuk! Kkeueuk!"
With his heart pierced and body burning, it was unclear whether he was laughing or groaning in agony.
[In the midst of rampage...]
[In the midst of rampage...]
[In the midst of rampage...]
And at the same time, the statuses of all the fallen Reinforced Vanguards around us changed simultaneously.
A scene similar to what I had witnessed in the past war against the Croysen Empire.
Though the scale was small, it was unmistakably a Mana rampage.
-BOOOOOOM!
The time between realizing the anomaly and the explosions was a tenth of a second.
The power of each self-destruction rivaled 7th Circle magic.
The Robert Kingdom's Royal Palace shook, and a blinding blue light consumed the royal family's great hall.
"..."
A fearsome force that rattled the Royal Palace as if threshing it.
Yet despite the devastating suicide attack, there was no change in the great hall where we stood.
Because I had reversed an 8th Circle Excellent Shield I'd Memorized at the last moment, suppressing the explosion.
"What the...?"
Even reduced to a state barely recognizable as his original form, the Black Mage Michael Gale still writhed, refusing to die.
"You... don't tell me..."
-BOOM!
And as the bastard, who had been reacting with confusion, seemed to realize something and opened his mouth to speak.
With a crack, Arcia drove the Holy Sword into his head.
"This won't be the end..."
-THUD!
He had kept moving even with his heart pierced and his body burned to charcoal, but with his head destroyed, there was nothing he could do he finally stopped.
"Does that mean there are more of his comrades?"
I couldn't help but click my tongue at that final, ominous line "This won't be the end."
I killed him on the spot because such a threat couldn't be left alive, but it made me think that perhaps he was merely a pawn of something greater.
'Even if I've become a noble with immense power, the world is vast, and there's still so much I don't know.'
I should probably conduct a thorough investigation into this matter through the Blue Moon.
"W-we survived."
While I was struggling with the Black Mage, Grand Marquis Dal who had been holding his breath along with the ministers and guards who followed him, let out a collective sigh of relief.
I let out a hollow laugh at the sight of them.
"What's there to be happy about? A Black Mage came out from among your ranks."
With this, they were now in a situation where they could hardly die in peace.
It was an unexpected outcome for both me and Princess Shia.
I froze the Black Mage's charred corpse solid and stored it in one of my empty spare subspace rings.
I couldn't bring myself to put that thing into the subspace ring I use as my main storage.
If I handed that corpse over to the Holy See, an investigation would be launched into the Kingdom of Roberto.
It's good that the kingdom was reclaimed, but Princess Sia Rin is going to be hassled for a while.
"Y-Your Majesty! Are you alright!?"
Troops meant to protect Grand Marquis Dal rushed in belatedly, but with the Grand Marquis and the ministers in my grasp, there was nothing they could do.
All that's left now is the cleanup.
* * *
[With the bold operation of breaking into the Royal Palace with a small elite force, Duke Adrian El Lawrence and Marquis Arcia Klein have turned back the Kingdom of Roberto's rebellion.]
[The Kingdom of Roberto, which had been thrown into chaos, is quickly recovering with the return of Princess Sia Rin.]
[The rebels' domains and titles have been confiscated, all becoming direct royal holdings. The emergence of royal authority unprecedented in the history of the Kingdom of Roberto.]
[Rebels being sent to the Holy See without execution? What exactly happened?]
[A Black Mage was hiding among the rebels? Is there any truth to the rumors?]
Originally, the ending I had envisioned for the civil war in the Kingdom of Roberto was to cleanly take off the heads of Grand Marquis Dal and the other higher-ups.
Furthermore, I judged that if the royal family confiscated everything the lords held their wealth, lands, titles, and all it would strengthen the Shia dynasty, even if managing it all would be a headache for a while.
Though things got tangled and it would take time, Princess Sia Rin was nonetheless able to return to the Royal Palace she had wanted, and she began to take control of the interior.
"Thank you so much. If it weren't for you, Adrian, I would have had to just watch this kingdom be defiled by the Black Mage's hands, let alone reclaim the throne."
While having tea and browsing online news, I waved off Princess Shia's thanks.
"I gained something from this too."
I had been granted the island she promised me.
But being constantly summoned to the Holy See and having priests come looking for me from all over made it hard to simply rejoice that I'd achieved what I wanted.
"At the very least, I'm relieved that no traces of Black Mages besides Michael Gale have been found."
Given the circumstances, it was possible that Black Mage had allies, so the Holy See combed through the Kingdom of Roberto with a fine-tooth comb.
The fortunate part was that the Black Mage had been among the rebel ranks if it had been someone with even the slightest connection to the princess, she would have been investigated too.
The story that a Black Mage had been among Grand Marquis Dal's people leaked out and spread by word of mouth, and thanks to that, she became a hero who saved her people from the Black Mage's hands.
"You'll be returning to the Kingdom of Rhinehearts?"
"Yes, I plan to take a brief look around Ophelia Island today and head straight back."
She doesn't say it, but she looks quite anxious.
Well, that makes sense she lacks trustworthy people within the kingdom.
After all, the only ones who reached out to help her in her time of need were the common folk.
"Lady Iena."
"You called?"
"Gasp!"
So I thought I'd assign her a Guard for a while.
At my call, a woman dressed in a typical assassin's attire appeared, along with black smoke.
She was one of the assassins who had infiltrated the Royal Palace with me to capture Grand Marquis Dal.
At her sudden appearance, Princess Sia Rin swallowed air and scooted backward in her chair.
At that, I wore an apologetic expression and introduced the woman named Iena.
"For the time being, I'll have her and a few shadows serve as your Guard. Rest assured she's an Aura Master."
At my words, she wore a bewildered expression but bowed her head in thanks.
"The world is in an uproar trying to find the faction the Black Mage belonged to, but it seems you, Adrian, have just as many secrets as they do."
An Aura Master isn't exactly a dime a dozen, so her reaction was only natural.
"I trust you'll keep my secrets."
"Of course. I will carry the grace you've shown me for the rest of my life, and treasure everything I've witnessed as my own private memory."
When I nodded in satisfaction, she bowed her head once more.
"Thank you so much."
A King, or one who would become King, should not bow their head so easily.
I quickly raised her up.
"Please, call on me whenever you need my help. I'll come running without hesitation."
"That's reassuring. Then I won't hesitate to ask for help whenever I need it."
And so, the affair of the Kingdom of Roberto came to a close.
All that remains now is to put the reward she gave me to use.
'Tourmaline....'