Chapter 202 – Disgusting
Tension filled the air.
In terms of numbers, and in terms of individual level, it was obvious that the two court mages were at a disadvantage. Yet despite that, their expressions did not change.
On the contrary, faint sneers tugged at the corners of their mouths.
"I don't know how you managed to find this place... but deal with us? Ha, I'm so dumbfounded I'm lost for words. An unknown brat, flaunting power with a washed-up magus at his back, what a sight."
"...Huh? Washed, washed-up?"
Edmon lifted his head.
No, out of nowhere, washed-up? At his flustered stammer, Herian sneered.
"The Headwind Magus. I've heard well of how that reputation once spread through the kingdom. But that was more than ten years ago, nearly twenty, was it not? In that time you've sat idle in the marquisate, wasting away useless years. But I, a court mage, am different."
Herian laid a hand upon his chest.
"The court mages of our Royal Family of Estiria, through endless effort, advance and advance────"
A spear of earth ripped apart the conversation.
"...?!"
"Herian!"
Its trajectory targeted the court mage.
Startled, Herian hastily raised two ice walls.
Crackkk!
The solid rock pierced straight through.
The power shattered ice reinforced by a magic item. The sharp spearhead stopped just shy of Herian's abdomen.
A mere inch deeper and it would have been a grave wound.
Any further, it would have been fatal, perhaps instant death.
Only after realizing that did cold sweat trickle down.
'Besides, this magic isn't Edmon's.'
Herian's eyes darted forward.
Through the crack in the ice wall, he saw a gray-haired mage.
Verden's blue eyes tilted sideways.
"Sir Edmon, this is no time for idle conversation."
"Get a hold of yourself, human mage."
"Ah, s-sorry. It's just, being called washed-up for the first time, I couldn't help myself..."
Edmon bowed his head, ashamed.
That was enough.
Turning his gaze back, Herian glared, seething.
"You bastard...! In the middle of a conversation, you launch an ambush! Do you not even know the proper etiquette a mage should keep?!"
For a mage who conducts human experiments to spout about etiquette.
A shell of appearances, while the inside rots in filth. No different from the magicians of the magic tower drunk on power and authority.
Not even worth a reply.
'It's now clear there are no test subjects left.'
For none other than a court mage himself had testified so.
There was no longer any business with them.
There was no time for interrogation either, and besides, the necessary information was in Linus's mind.
The task was set.
Double Casting.
Thunder roared through the laboratory.
With it, a spear of lightning surged toward the court mage.
***
How many court mages were here, it was uncertain.
But one thing was clear: Leonil was not among them.
If he had been, the explosion Linus caused would have been suppressed beforehand. Moreover, he would long since have noticed Verden's group.
With the ability of a 6th-tier magus, that was more than possible.
'And yet he still hasn't appeared.'
That could only mean absence.
So all they needed was to cut the pursuit.
No need to annihilate every last one in the laboratory. Merely sweep aside the obstacles and escape.
Such a thing was second nature to Verden.
And the opponents before them numbered only two.
Divide and conquer, and it would be over in a moment.
No matter if they were court mages.
Unless they had reached the upper 5th tier, or the rank of magus, they were no match for Verden. He had already the experience and strength of overwhelming a black magician alone.
As was being shown now.
A straight streak of crackling current.
Herian judged it too late to block, and rolled along the floor to barely dodge.
"Urgh...!"
His robe was smeared with dust and soot.
A wretched sight, unfitting of a court mage's dignity, but he had no leisure for pride.
From the floor, he felt magic power.
When he cast flight, sharp thorns burst upward.
A graze across his face left red blood dripping. Immediately after, a fiery explosion in the air slammed him against a wall.
Herian gasped, supporting himself on the ground.
'What is happening?'
His mind couldn't keep up.
He thought he only had to watch for Edmon. Outwardly he had mocked him as washed-up, but inwardly he acknowledged the gap.
The plan was to stall somehow, and wait for his superior, Brick.
'But instead of Edmon, I'm being overwhelmed by some fresh-faced young mage.'
Various elemental attributes.
Insane casting speed.
And the power and range of magic enhanced by magic items.
There was no way to regain composure.
If he tried to counter, he felt he would be swallowed whole by that magical bombardment.
'A mage like this existed in the kingdom?'
Having spent recent years shuttling only between the royal castle and laboratory, Herian could hardly believe it.
Then, a death cry rang out.
A familiar voice.
Another court mage's. Herian's eyes widened at the sight.
"Ghhhk... ghhhk..."
A body shredded by Edmon's wind.
Two arrows lodged in the torso, roots from the ground binding the limbs. And a steel dagger skewered the court mage's throat.
There was no surviving that.
The death of a comrade, yet hardly shocking. He had expected Edmon would not let him last.
What shook Herian was beside him.
The robe torn by battle's aftermath, revealing the face of a test subject he had himself transported not long ago.
"A guardian elf?! You were supposed to be dead!"
"Shut your mouth, human."
Crunch!
Karans twisted the court mage's head.
The wretched corpse collapsed limply. Meeting those green glowing eyes, Herian shuddered.
"Wh-what is this...."
The laboratory in the 1st Prince's castle had been burned to ash by a flame golem.
Drevus, who handled the recycling of test subjects, was dead, and everything, including the guardian elf, had turned to cinders.
That was the report he had received.
Yet the reality was the opposite.
The guardian elf had survived, and killed a court mage.
And a magus of House Esperanza had come here with a strange, monstrous mage. Given the circumstances, it was undeniable that the marquisate was involved with the 1st Prince's castle.
'Something has gone wrong.'
And not just slightly, but gravely.
There was no way to tell when their trail had first been discovered.
Herian's eyes shook violently, then he steadied his thoughts.
'I must, somehow, report this truth to Lord Leonil Bertanas.'
That alone was the only means of escape.
And to contact Leonil, the presence of Brick was indispensable. More precisely, the 'spatial teleportation coordinates' he held.
If he wished to live, that was the only path.
Herian clenched his teeth, releasing magic power.
"Out of the way!"
A triple casting of 5th-tier spells.
His mana plummeted, his head burned from the excessive calculations. The consumption paid no heed to what came after, but there was no other option.
A massive ice boulder toward Edmon.
Countless ice spikes toward Verden.
And a frigid wave froze the surroundings.
A pathetic struggle.
Verden struck the ground with the Oculus.
Crackkk. From the fissures, pillars of flame surged up to clash against the cold. Steam spread thick through the passage, blurring all sight.
'Now!'
Herian made his escape.
With such a commotion, Brick would surely be coming. Life hanging by a thread, he only looked forward.
Whoooosh!
A sudden gale blew fierce.
He blinked against it, and the steam vanished. Before him, a wall of wind barred his path.
"Did you truly think you could shake me off with that level of magic? Ha, ha, it seems the court mage's judgment is even duller than mine, a washed-up magus."
"Rodliner...!"
"Ah, and do mind above."
"?!"
Herian instantly lifted his head.
A spirit of blue light.
Blue's
An arrow followed immediately after, loosed by Karans.
The arrowhead, carrying the strength of a forest spirit, pierced Herian's leg, vines sprouting forth to bind both his arms. Karans approached, crushing the court mage beneath his foot, bowstring drawn tight.
"This is vengeance, for my kin."
A suffocating killing intent.
Death loomed before a scream could even form.
At that moment.
From afar, a beam of fire shot forth.
Power enough to shatter Edmon's wall of wind. A direct hit would be perilous.
Karans swiftly withdrew his bow, nimbly evading.
Widening the distance, his glowing eyes searched for the enemy.
Then, Herian cried out in a flushed voice.
"B, Brick, sir!"
"Herian, what in blazes is this commotion?"
The 4th Seat, Brick Medwor.
Emerging from the darkness, he strode toward Herian.
***
Another court mage had appeared.
Judging by Herian's reaction, he was the superior, perhaps even the one in charge of this laboratory. If so, at least a mid-5th-tier powerhouse... no, by the feel of it, upper 5th-tier.
'On a different level from the others before.'
Not an opponent to underestimate.
Verden carefully watched the man's every move.
"..."
Brick's eyes swept the area.
Karans, Verden, Edmon, Blue, the forest spirit, Linus — his gaze passed over each. Barely seconds had passed since he arrived, and yet he nodded as if understanding all.
"I see, so that's how it is. Never would I have imagined House Esperanza trailing us. And you, Edmon, to come in person, even less so."
"Ha, ha. It's been a long while, Brick. The Royal Family engaging in things forbidden... as one of the marquisate, and as a man of the kingdom, of course I must stop it, must I not? That is why I came."
"Things forbidden, you say.... Yes, from the eyes of the world, certainly so. And I, too, am well aware of that."
But.
"A court mage lives by loyalty to the Royal Family of Estiria and to Lord Leonil. Their will is our creed and duty. We live beneath them, in a world far different from the paltry lives of the common."
Brick raised a staff, set with a crimson magic stone.
Flames burst forth from him, burning away the vines.
Barely freed from his bonds, Herian collapsed, bowing his head.
"Th-thank you, Lord Brick!"
"Stay behind me. I will protect you."
Brick stepped forward.
Like a man of lofty loyalty, shielding his subordinate, a figure out of some fable.
Seeing him, Verden thought.
'To think such disgust exists.'
A man who conducts human experiments, pretending nobility.
If it were mere acting, perhaps, but his face showed he truly believed it.
Vile, to the core.
Sickening enough to make his stomach churn. It had been long since he so strongly wished to crush something.
"Hm? You..."
Whoooosh!
Ignoring Edmon's call, Verden surged forward. Gripping the Oculus with both hands, he poured in magic power.
"A mage charging in? How utterly foolish."
Brick swung his staff.
Fangs of flame barred the way.
A heat no mana barrier could stop, but it mattered not.
Mage's Regret.
The three imbued spells it held activated.
Enhancement of physical ability and durability.
And a focus enchantment that granted immense elemental resistance against up to two impacts. Not to mention the resistance of the equipment itself.
In this moment, Verden was a fortress.
He tore through the Crimson Fangs at once.
Brick, unprepared, faced the Oculus swung down. Gathered magic converted into a shockwave, layered with the attribute of gravity.
Kwoooom!
"Khk?!"
Brick gritted his teeth, shoved backward.
In a split second, he had blocked with his staff, but the shock could not be negated.
Withstanding the recoil, Brick smirked.
"Impressive...?"
He faltered.
Verden, empty-handed, pointed at Herian.
"B, Brick────"
Crimson flames devoured Herian.
Not only his body, but his scream burned away, flames dripping down to the ground.
Verden looked at Brick, and asked.
"Who was it you said you would protect?"
"Y-you, insolent...!!"
Veins bulged on Brick's forehead.
From behind, Edmon muttered.
"...I can't tell, which side are the villains."
"Indeed", Linus agreed.