Chapter 50: The Special Task Force’s Close Battle (2)

While continuously casting magic, Thrall realized a few things about Ray.

One was that her actual combat ability wasn’t all that strong.

Even if you brought in just one of the Special Task Force’s Murfin or Beatrice, the girl named Ray that Thrall was facing could be subdued in no time.

The problem was her Regeneration.

Even if her arm was blown off, or half her body, or even her head—she would instantly restore herself to her original state.

‘She’s already regenerated over thirty times, but her regeneration speed hasn’t changed at all.’

Maintaining a cool-headed judgment, Thrall kept a close eye on Ray’s situation.

Her combat power was weaker compared to Murfin and Beatrice, but in reality, her might was in no way inferior to theirs.

Is it easy to split the earth and upend the ground with a single punch?

Even seasoned knights probably wouldn’t last ten seconds if she were placed before them.

But on top of that, she regenerates at high speed, making it seem impossible to find an answer.

If Thrall hadn’t been a Dragon, the outcome would have been decided long ago.

‘I can’t drag this out any longer.’

With that conclusion, Thrall turned and began to flee.

“Huh? Running away all of a sudden?”

Ray ran toward Thrall with a bewildered expression.

“Hey! Where are you going?! Come back here! The Captain said not to leave any witnesses! Hey!”

Shouting something so brutal in a friendly tone, Ray chased after Thrall like mad, weaving around trees and rocks.

How long did they run like that?

‘This should be far enough.’

Thrall stopped running.

“What, it’s already over? I thought you were going to run way farther than this.”

“The Special Task Force was in the middle of training.”

Thrall turned to look at Ray.

“I never got permission to leave the area during training.”

“…Ha. You stopped here just for that?”

“That’s right.”

Thrall reached out a hand toward Ray.

A lump of Mana formed in an instant and shot forward at high speed.

“Oh?!”

Boom!

Ray quickly twisted her body out of the way, and the aftershock of the Mana blast devastated the area behind her.

“That’s pretty…”

Boom!

Just as she tried to regain her stance, Thrall’s magic struck Ray square in the face.

It was even faster and more powerful than before.

Watching Ray’s head regenerate, Thrall frowned.

“It seems that as long as any part of your body remains, you regenerate right away.”

“Jeez, that startled me. Hey~ Could you not aim for my head? It messes up the taste when I eat.”

“That’s not my concern.”

Thrall fired off another spell at Ray.

But maybe because she’d already been hit once, Ray evaded with only minimal movement and charged at Thrall.

Without moving even a single step from the spot, Thrall continued to send out lumps of Mana with his outstretched hand.

In the end, Thrall let Ray close in and grabbed her by the collar without resistance.

“Hm, why aren’t you dodging?”

Sensing something off, Ray questioned him, and Thrall answered with a flat expression.

“No reason to.”

Creak. Creak.

At the same time, the scarecrows wandering nearby appeared.

Ray’s eyes twitched.

“This is what you were after?”

“No. I expected the scarecrows to show up, but this isn’t what I was aiming for.”

Thrall, still held by the collar, thrust his hand into Ray’s shoulder.

“…Ugh?! Wh-What? Why are you so strong? Aren’t you in human form right now?”

“You don’t seem to know much about magic. Polymorph only changes your appearance; it doesn’t change your body’s toughness. The physical strength is the same as when I’m in Dragon form.”

“Wh-What? I’ve never heard that before!”

“Well, that’s understandable. Polymorph is an Eighth-Tier Magic, after all.”

Among humans, a mage who reaches Sixth-Tier is called an Archmage.

Seventh-Tier is uncharted; no one has reached it. The Great Sage, Ryuk, was the only Eighth-Tier mage.

Polymorph is a transformation magic that, aside from Ryuk, no one among humanity can use, so it’s no wonder it’s not widely known.

Unaware of this, the moment Ray recklessly approached Thrall—

She had already cut off her own escape.

Creak!

Before she knew it, five scarecrows had gathered around them.

It seemed that, upon discovering Thrall, a scarecrow had immediately called for backup.

There was nowhere to escape now.

“From the looks of it, as long as any part of your body remains, you regenerate. Right?”

“Ugh, let me go!”

Thrall hugged the struggling Ray tightly, pouring Mana into his right hand.

Creak! Creak!

At the same time, the scarecrows all lunged at once.

“Then… if I turn your body to dust, you won’t be able to regenerate, right?”

Mana surged ominously from Thrall’s hand.

The amount gathered was on a whole different level from before.

Feeling this, Ray muttered with a pale face.

“I-If you fire at this distance, you won’t be okay either!”

“It’s fine. In the Nest… to become a perfect Dragon, you had to withstand Seventh-Tier Magic with your bare body. Thanks to that, even among Dragons, my magic resistance is quite high.”

At Thrall’s muttered words, Ray’s eyes filled with tears.

“S-Save me…”

“No.”

Wham! KABOOM!

In a corner of the Special Task Force’s Training Grounds, a huge explosion erupted.

After a tremor that shook the ground, at the center of the now-cleared dust cloud and massive crater, Thrall murmured in his battered body.

“Ow… that hurts.”

In his hand, the bit of Ray’s clothes he’d been holding just a moment before scattered as ash.

A quiet slicing sound echoed through the forest.

But unlike the calmness of the slicing, the Mana flowing in the air was violent and turbulent.

“Huff, huff.”

Elena Redburn caught her breath, casting Spatial Magic with her hands and throwing it at the approaching El.

“You’ve been using the same pattern over and over. Aren’t you bored yet?”

El, deflecting Elena’s spell with the same Spatial Magic in both hands, smirked as he approached.

“I thought you’d use a bit more variety.”

“Haa, haa. Aren’t you the same, only using one pattern?”

“Haha, what can I do? I’m more of a brawler than a mage.”

Swinging his arm at rapid speed as he closed in on Elena, El cut down a nearby tree and rock in a single blow.

“Spatial Magic is nice. It doesn’t have tiers like the other elemental magics. No wonder the Magic Tower keeps it to themselves.”

“…”

Elena kept silent, observing El closely.

Then, coming to a conclusion, she opened her mouth.

“You… What’s your connection to the Magic Tower?”

“No connection at all.”

“Liar.”

Elena’s expression hardened with certainty.

“That bone staff you’re holding—I’ve seen it in old records. It’s supposed to be an ancient relic of the Magic Tower.”

“Oh? You know this?”

Elena sighed.

“I know a bit. It’s the Staff of Talent, right? Greatly enhances potential, but you have to pay with blood, so it was supposed to have been discarded.”

“But it wasn’t thrown away. We’re using it just fine.”

“Looks like it.”

For any relic of the Magic Tower to be discarded, the upper echelons of the Tower must directly oversee the process.

But for such a relic to not only not be discarded but leaked outside?

It could mean only one thing.

‘There’s… a traitor inside the Magic Tower. And not just anyone—one of the upper ranks.’

Elena’s mind spun.

She gathered together the surrounding information, public knowledge, and certain incidents reported throughout human territories.

Adding all the information she’d obtained from the Capital Slums King.

A single conclusion took shape in her mind.

“You people… You’re Cultists, aren’t you?”

El confirmed this with silence and a smile.

“Haa, no wonder things felt off.”

Elena frowned deeply and sighed.

“They say all Cultists have something wrong in the head… I guess you’re one of them, too.”

“Really? I think I’m fairly sane, in my own way.”

“Calling it ‘in your own way’ means you don’t think you’re really sane.”

El shrugged.

“In a way, you’re right. Sometimes, for no reason… I get this odd feeling, like I’m slowly losing myself. So I put in a lot of effort.”

“What kind of effort?”

“Trying to understand others.”

El gripped the bone staff slung across his back.

“Who are you, what’s your name, who’s your teacher, what’s your relationship to the Magic Tower… By understanding my opponent, and comparing them to myself, I can define myself. Hmm, saying it out loud makes it sound pretty convoluted. Do you get it?”

“Seeking to understand yourself by understanding your opponent… That’s something Priests of the Holy Nation’s Confessional would say.”

“Well, I did work in the Confessional in the old days.”

Elena made a dumbfounded face.

“…What a world. A Priest of the Holy Nation becomes a Cultist.”

“You’re dropping the formal speech now?”

“Yeah. Once I’m sure the other side is truly an enemy, there’s no need to keep up the pretense.”

El looked puzzled.

“You still hesitated, even after hearing about our plans to terrorize the Capital?”

“Our Captain may seem crazy on the surface, but she’s quite rational. I wanted to allow for the possibility she’d sent in a highly skilled actor.”

Mana began to surge around Elena.

“That way… I could end this without killing.”

Thwack!

“…?”

El, who had been raising his guard as Elena’s Mana suddenly spiked, suddenly felt a searing pain in his chest and looked down.

A tree root had pierced straight through his chest.

“Gah!”

He hadn’t felt any magic being cast.

But magic had definitely been used.

If so… what kind of spell was all that overwhelming Mana for?

The answer revealed itself as El’s vision flipped.

As he tumbled upside down, El saw his limbs severed without warning, and made a judgment.

‘Simultaneous use of Spatial and Psychokinetic Magic?’

Dual casting.

And with no incantation.

Every spell Elena was using now was Ancient Magic, fundamentally different from modern magic.

Even in the Magic Tower, Ancient Magic research was incomplete.

But for a mage not from the Magic Tower to use it in dual-cast form could mean only one thing.

‘Hahaha. So that’s… how it is.’

El closed his eyes, realizing how unfair the world was.

‘She has the pioneer of Ancient Magic as her teacher.’

It was something he himself never had.

With that fact seared into his memory, El’s consciousness fell into the abyss.

“I thought you’d keep changing locations and snipe from afar.”

While all the Cultists were being taken down in their own ways,

Jun muttered, half exasperated, as he looked at Laila Stroper, who was pointing a sniper rifle at his head.

“I didn’t expect you to get this close. And with something that heavy, too.”

Laila, covered in wounds and catching her breath, finally spoke.

“You say that after never giving me the chance. You monster.”