Chapter 1254 – 1254. Dark Moon
17.
That was the number of soldiers I had killed by the time I reached the lab entrance. Two of them were instructors. I had no choice but to use magic against the instructors. If I hadn’t had that split-second advantage, I would have been in quite a predicament.
More than half of the soldiers I killed were faces I knew. But even killing them directly didn’t evoke any emotion. I was a little surprised by my own ruthlessness.
At the lab entrance, I encountered another familiar face.
A sturdy man with a left eye that was slightly crossed. Room 202, from the same dorm room.
His face was contorted with anger and betrayal.
“Room 211! I never dreamed you’d do this! Why the hell did you betray us?!”
Room 202 roared, taking a fighting stance.
“I’m sorry for betraying you guys. But I don’t regret it. Get out of my way, Room 202. I’m going to kill Instructor Venus and shut down the Battle Mage Project. That’ll be better for your future too.”
“Damn it! What the hell is your problem?! Weren’t you supposed to be assigned to the Capital Defense Force?! Why is a guy with a guaranteed elite future crawling into the abyss?!”
“That future is my abyss. Get out of my way, Room 202. I don’t want to kill you.”
Room 202 let out a hollow laugh.
“You’re still keeping up that attitude. Do you think I’m a joke? Do you think you can kill me anytime you want?”
I could feel the mana surging from Room 202.
“You’re too agitated. It’s not too late yet, Room 202. Get out of my way.”
“I’m calm. What you said about it not being too late applies to you too. Go back and deal with the attackers. You’ll be punished, but you won’t die.”
“…You’re not listening.”
I walked forward. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to argue with Room 202.
“That’s what I should be saying. You probably think you’re so great. But when it comes to close combat, I’m superior.”
Room 202 clenched his knuckles and stomped on the ground. He knew that I was the worst at close combat among our cohort. My close combat skills were infamous among my peers, so it was nothing new.
In contrast to me, Room 202 was a close combat specialist. He was an infighter who enhanced his physical abilities with auxiliary magic and used enchant magic to imbue his knuckles with attributes.
Room 202’s fist flew at me.
[Barrier]
I extended my right hand towards his fist. His fist was blocked by my hand. His knuckles blazed with a fiery red light, but they didn’t do any damage to me.
“…You minimized the barrier on your right hand to block my fist…?!”
“I increased the strength of the barrier instead of expanding its range. It’s not that difficult.”
“……You saw me throwing my fist here?”
“Just as you know me well, I know you too. You always start with a straight punch when you make a preemptive attack.”
“Damn it!”
Room 202’s right leg moved. But before that, my attribute sword moved from my side. The attribute sword, moved silently by telekinesis, pierced his knee precisely.
“Ugh?!”
Room 202 gritted his teeth and stepped back.
I wouldn’t allow it.
[Gravity]
Gravity pressed down on Room 202’s body. Room 202’s mana surged violently. He pulled the attribute sword out of his knee with his hand and used enhancement magic to the point of straining his body. His muscles swelled, and blood vessels appeared in his eyes. Flames swirled around his left knuckle, and wind swirled around his right knuckle.
“Don’t act so cocky, Room 211! I have a few trump cards too!”
“Trump cards? Oh, are you talking about the attribute sword? You’re mistaken. That’s not a trump card or anything. It was just a normal counterattack.”
“You bastard. I’ve always hated your smug attitude!”
He threw a punch. I wrapped myself in telekinesis and dodged all of his punches. It wasn’t hard to dodge what I could see.
“How is this…! Have you been hiding your strength all this time?!”
“Room 202. We’re mages. No matter how much you train your fists, you can’t match a true warrior. And…”
“What?”
“You came too close to me with an injured leg.”
[Frost]
“Aaaaargh!”
Room 202 screamed and collapsed. His injured knee had frozen instantly. The cold of the fourth-level spell, Frost, had seeped in instantly while he was bleeding, so his right leg was as good as gone.
I flicked my finger. The attribute sword, connected to my telekinesis, flew and pierced Room 202’s back. Room 202 coughed up blood.
“Room 202. I told you I was sorry last time, remember?”
“…I remember. It was a meaningless apology. Were you predicting this situation when you said that?”
“No. There’s no way I could predict the future a few months ahead. Back then, I had a relationship with your beloved Room 99. Did you know? Room 99 has a mole next to her anus. …No. There’s no way you’d know.”
“You son of a bitch…”
Room 202 trembled. He pushed his astral to the limit, weaving a magic formula. He had excellent concentration.
I waved my finger. The attribute sword pierced into his back rotated once.
“Aaaaargh!”
Room 202’s last magic casting was canceled. Blood gushed from his mouth.
“Actually, I wasn’t sorry at all back then. I thought Room 99 was too good for you. When I said I was sorry, it was meant as a taunt. It would be good if you realized the meaning, and if you didn’t, it didn’t matter.”
I looked at Room 202. He was already dying, unable to even answer. His life had about 30 seconds left at most.
Old memories came to mind. Memories related to Room 202. He was a guy who annoyed me to the point where I sometimes wanted to kill him, but I didn’t hate him to the point of disgust.
“I was serious when I said I didn’t want to kill you. …It’s sad. I felt this way when I killed Number 88 too. I’ll probably be sad for the next three days.”
“Grrr…”
Room 202 glared at me with bloodshot eyes, as if he wanted to kill me. I watched him die until the very end to eliminate any possibility.
“Oh, and lastly, Room 99, whom you had a crush on, was a good woman. Her voluptuous breasts were the best, not to mention her hot… she’s dead.”
I pulled the attribute sword out of his back and headed towards the lab.
[Material Conversion]
I changed the metal door blocking the entrance into wood. Fortunately, the door didn’t have very high mana resistance. I kicked the wooden door open and went inside. The broken wooden door turned back into metal.
I went a little further into the lab. Before entering the office, I encountered Instructor Venus sitting in the lounge.
“Room 211. Why did you start a rebellion?”
“Do you really not know?”
I checked my condition. I had used up more than half of my mana getting here. This was a significant issue.
“No matter how much I think about it, I don’t understand. You were an excellent guy. You were skilled, and you were smart. And you were loyal. …That’s what I thought. You were a guy who was going to rise to the top. I was going to make it happen. Why the hell did you betray me?”
“Betray? What betrayal? I knew from the start that you never trusted me. Rise to the top? Sure, I’d rise. But I’d still be groveling under you like a dog. I’m done cleaning up after you.”
“You fool.”
Venus took out a bead from his pocket. It was a magic tool that controlled the slave seal. The bead glowed in response to his mana, but nothing happened.
“…You released the slave seal?”
“It was quite a struggle. I had to decipher the encrypted formula, interpret the magic circle’s formula one by one, reverse the process, and even introduce a new formula. I wanted to give up halfway through because it was so frustrating, but… I finally solved it.”
“You solved it? Don’t make me laugh! This is a magic circle created by an 8th-level Archmage!”
“I spent two years going crazy trying to solve this. If I couldn’t solve it after investing that much time into one magic circle, I’d be even more frustrated.”
Venus’s face turned bright red. Venus wasn’t just feeling anger. I read the inferiority that flashed across his face.
Zzzzzzt.
Static came from the radio on Venus’s shoulder.
-Instructor Venus! The command center and armory have been seized! We’ve lost contact with the outside! We’re engaging the enemy in the third conference room! We need backup! Instructor Venus!
Venus didn’t answer the radio. He glared at me and slowly opened his mouth.
“Room 211. I’ll overlook what happened so far. Surrender. And kill the enemy.”
He took out an ampule from his pocket and stabbed it into his thigh.
Thwack!
“Screw you. You’re my enemy.”
The ampule’s liquid entered his body and seeped in.
[Overload]
My astral surged, and my senses expanded. The amount of information my brain processed increased more than threefold in an instant. My mana also surged violently. Fifty mana rods activated at once and began to overload.
[Electric Field]
I stomped my right foot. Starting with me, electricity spread in all directions. It didn’t take long for the lounge to be filled with blue electricity.
The stage was set, now it was time to use it.
As if sensing something, Venus layered barriers to cover his body. At the same time, he created ice spears and threw them at me to keep me in check. I twisted my body to avoid the ice spears and continued the spell.
The overloaded mana rods screamed and caused pain. I gritted my teeth. I was prepared for this much.
[Thunderbolt]
The electricity that had filled the lounge gathered at the ceiling and compressed. Then, in the moment when I felt as if everything had suddenly stopped, a huge lightning bolt fell from the ceiling.
KABOOM!
It hit directly!
But Venus was fine. His face, distorted with rage, could be seen through the melted barrier.
“The preparation time was too long. I clearly taught you before that large-scale magic that you prepare openly isn’t threatening.”
“Of course, I remember. How could I forget what you taught me?”
Crack.
Blue sparks flew from the cooled ceiling.
Venus’s eyes widened as he sensed the premonition.
And the second Thunderbolt, which had been prepared above the ceiling, shattered the ceiling and fell on Venus.
“Huuuuuuh!”
Venus reacted. In that short moment, he raised his left hand and reduced the barrier to the size of his palm, blocking the Thunderbolt.
It was a shockingly fast reaction, but it wasn’t perfect. His left arm was charred black. It looked impossible for his left arm to recover.
‘It’s a shame I couldn’t kill him instantly… but I’ve crippled his left arm. I have the advantage.’
Kiiiiiiiiing.
I prepared a spell while listening to the mana rods wailing.
