Many different areas existed on the outer circumference of Academy City.
The city possessed one-third of the area of the Tokyo Metropolis. The scenery and characteristics of the areas it bordered could change greatly depending on whether it was Eastern Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, or Yamanashi.
Tsuchimikado Motoharu was running through an area that was halfway between an urban area and a forested area. Several large abandoned factories had been overgrown by a thick forest of coniferous trees. Extremely fertile weeds and ivies had grown all over the concrete walls and mercilessly remade the manmade structures into a portion of nature.
Tsuchimikado Motoharu suddenly skidded to a stop within one of those buildings.
It may have originally been a bus maintenance building for a transportation company.
The concrete space was a bit smaller than a school gym. All valuable equipment had been removed so nothing but useless rusted hunks of metal remained. That made the building feel completely empty, but walkways that were nothing more than steel scaffolding still remained on the 2nd and 3rd floors. The floors of the upper passageways were made of a metal mesh, so holes had opened in places where the rust had grown too bad.
About half of the roof had collapsed and the rain was mercilessly pouring in. One entire wall had been made up of a giant metal shutter, but it too had rusted and fallen away.
(This is it.)
He was looking at a single wooden stake sticking up from the floor.
It was gigantic. It had a diameter of fifteen centimeters and was over three meters long. The point that was roughly sharpened like a pencil was sticking straight up. Countless raindrops fell on it and flowed down the surface of the stake like it was bleeding.
It was a magical item.
It was likely made of windmill palm wood.
"What a surreal sight."
As soon as the edges of Tsuchimikado's mouth twisted up in a smile, identical three meter stakes shot forcefully out of the side of the original one 360 degrees around it. It was no longer a wooden stake; it was a stake tree. After Tsuchimikado back stepped out of the way of the tips of those stakes, stakes began growing one after another from the floor, the walkways on the second floor, and the piles of rusted equipment. They all tried to stab into Tsuchimikado.
He continued to back step on a path reminiscent of an undulating eel. Someone must have realized the stakes were not going to reach him because a few of them exploded from within. With a great roar, hundreds of fragments flew toward Tsuchimikado.
By sometimes crouching down and sometimes hiding behind machinery, Tsuchimikado managed to avoid it all.
In just a few seconds, the area had transformed into an execution ground covered by thousands of stakes.
Those giant pencils had grown over everything.
(I see. So they were planning to attack Academy City like this. All of the unmoving people would have been skewered.)
"Don't underestimate us," spat out Tsuchimikado as he darted about the area and thought.
The enemy could likely grow the stakes outside this maintenance building as well.
(Was I being led into here as a trap? …No. This is too large scale for that. I probably just so happened to run right into the center of it.)
Windmill palm was a wood that represented "blessings". Using that characteristic, it was possible to give it the ability to slip past defenses that would otherwise hold it back or repel it. If Tsuchimikado had carelessly used defensive magic, the attack would have been recognized as a "blessing" and easily passed through his defenses. He would have been skewered from every angle.
He was surprised they had been able to prepare thousands of those spears, but…
"Heh. You're trying to trick me with these overwhelming numbers."
As soon as Tsuchimikado said that, the explosive appearance of the stakes suddenly stopped.
A white figure appeared from supposedly empty darkness.
It was like seeing the exit of a tunnel. The spell user seemed like the single missing puzzle piece of the darkness. Because he alone was glowing, twelve shadows spread out from his feet at even intervals around him. It looked like an analog clock.
The shadows may have been the key to activating the magic because each of them was continually growing and contracting according to some kind of instructions.
"…"
Tsuchimikado took a step forward, but he grew no closer.
The man had shown no sign of moving, but he somehow kept his distance.
It was as if he was saying Tsuchimikado would never make it any closer.
(Not good…)
On top of it all, he sensed more than one presence
He sensed several people both inside and outside the building. It was a few dozen people all told and it was possible similar groups were deployed to other spots around the outer circumference of Academy City.
Tsuchimikado calmly spoke to his silent enemy.
"Three indicates the heavens, four indicates the earth, and twelve indicates the world. You did not have to prepare all of these stakes. By giving meaning to a certain number, you are able to work in units of 'vast amounts'."
Basically, if Tsuchimikado found the seven stakes acting as the core of the spell, he could seal his enemy's magic by destroying one of them.
He had to find the main seven among all of these.
He had to find them amid the thousands that existed and the many more that were sure to come.
Tsuchimikado grinned and said, "It's a nice spell…but it is not Christian. This is the theory of the Pythagorean Order from BC Greece. Since when did you accept the world before the birth of the Son of God?"
His words must have angered his enemy.
The vague figure roared.
A tremendous noise burst out as the wooden stakes exploded and the entire maintenance building shook. Rust fell from the walkways on the second and third floors and the half-collapsed ceiling. Power filled those falling rust fragments and new stakes grew from them to attack Tsuchimikado from every direction.
The wooden stakes sealed up all space in every direction. They crashed into each other and destroyed each other.
However, Tsuchimikado was no longer there.
He was standing on a steel third floor walkway at the top of the maintenance building.
Cold, inhuman eyes locked on to him from far below.
The countless stakes filling the concrete floor exploded from within, one after another. The fragments shot toward him like antiaircraft fire. Tsuchimikado jumped along the walkway that had holes rusted in it at places. As soon as he passed over a point on the walkway, it would shatter, break, and collapse.
Red blood slowly trailed from the corner of Tsuchimikado's mouth.
This was not due to the magical attack. He had used magic to jump to the third floor walkway.
He was both an esper and a magician.
And when an esper used magic, a rejection reaction damaged the esper's body.
(Tch. I gain nothing from extending this battle.)
He wiped away the blood as he thought.
He could feel no sense of distance with that figure. It was as if he was being chased by an afterimage burned in his eyes. The more he approached it, the more it would move away. The more he moved away, the more it would approach. That was the slippery type of existence this was. While this was not enough to say directly defeating this enemy would be impossible, it was going to take some doing.
If he was going to stick around, it would be best to destroy the stake spell first.
He could take his time on this enemy once he could not use his weapon.
"Such a shame."
As the rusty walkway was smashed to pieces, Tsuchimikado jumped over one of the holes in it and ran toward a specific spot.
"I'd rather not destroy a spell as delicately put together as this!!"
He was heading for a single wooden stake that stood buried beneath countless other stakes.
It was one of the seven core stakes that controlled all the others. It was the spell's weak point.