Finral lay sprawled on the ground, his entire body limp and weak.
That hit was way too heavy…!
"C-Captain, he—"
Drawing in a deep breath, Finral opened his mouth and was just about to shout at the top of his lungs. But after barely three words left his mouth, a sudden force struck his chest, cutting his voice off mid-cry.
Yuuki, cloaked in invisibility, stood before the Finral he had just knocked unconscious. He raised an eyebrow slightly.
"Now isn't the time for your captain to make an appearance."
"Honestly, that was easy."
With a quiet sigh, Yuuki grabbed the unconscious Finral and dragged him into a nearby alley.
It had to be said—despite being members of the same Magic Knight squads, the disparity in strength between individuals could sometimes be enormous. And this wasn't merely a matter of raw mana. The nature of one's magic itself could have a decisive impact on combat ability.
Finral's Spatial Magic was limited purely to transportation. It possessed no offensive capabilities whatsoever. That made him well-suited for logistics and support roles within the Black Bulls.
Under normal circumstances, even if he encountered a powerful enemy, Finral could simply escape with ease thanks to Spatial Magic.
However, once he ran into a mage capable of countering or interfering with Spatial Magic, someone like Finral—who lacked any offensive spells—was completely helpless.
Yuuki was a perfect example. As someone who also wielded Spatial Magic, he could directly interfere with Finral's control over his own spells. Under such conditions, Finral was nothing more than an ordinary person with a large mana pool and no means of attack.
Yuuki had long been curious about this: why did mages who were aware of the weaknesses of their own magic never purchase offensive magic tools to compensate and expand their options?
…Was it because they were broke?
Shaking his head, Yuuki tossed Finral into the alley, then casually picked up Finral's grimoire and placed it atop his own.
"An unexpected gain," Yuuki murmured with a smile. "I've been using Spatial techniques for a while now, but this time I've finally mastered Spatial Magic completely."
With a thought—
Perfect Replication!
Whoosh!
Silver mana instantly wrapped around Finral's grimoire, swallowing it whole.
Magic Catalog:
Fire Magic (Scorching Flame) Water Magic (Flowing Body, Narrow River's Flow) Ice Magic (Heaven-Piercing Ice Fang, Crystal Ice Spike, Crystallized Ice Shield) Mist Magic (Illusory Mist Vortex, Lost Boundary) Mineral Magic (Sword of Victory, Talos's Puppet, Nemean Armor, Titan's Heavy Mail, Scimitar) Spatial Magic (Fallen Angel's Corridor, Fallen Angel's Wings, Spatial Transfer, Subspace) Plant Magic (Mandrake's Cradle, Thorn Whip) Hunting Magic (Encirclement) Positioning Magic (Observation) Wind Magic — Tower of Storms Chain Magic — Magic-Binding Iron Lock Formation Flame Recovery Magic — Phoenix Feather Robe 「Blank」 「Blank」
...
After finishing the replication, Yuuki tore out a page from his own grimoire, reshaped it into a new grimoire, and tossed it back beside Finral.
Among his spells, Spatial Magic had now been formally added as a distinct category, along with two newly acquired spells:
Fallen Angel's Corridor and Fallen Angel's Wings.
The former was similar to Spatial Transfer, but could generate dozens of spatial gateways at once—a support-oriented spell, almost like a deadly game of whack-a-mole.
The latter created tracking spatial orbs. Once a target was struck, the object or person would be forcibly teleported away.
Additionally, the previously replicated spells Spatial Transfer and Subspace were now consolidated under the Spatial Magic category, freeing up two blank pages in the grimoire.
Spells of the same type could be grouped under a single magical attribute—such as Spatial Magic. However, Fire Magic and Flame Magic, despite their similarities, were judged by the grimoire as entirely different systems.
That said, spells were spells—but mana sources were another matter entirely.
Every mage possessed a unique and independent mana source. At present, even mana sources of the same attribute showed no possibility of fusion. This, Yuuki suspected, was closely tied to the individuality of the soul.
One detail did catch his attention.
Despite both being Spatial Magic, Finral's spells manifested as silver mana, while Valtos's Spatial Magic appeared pitch black.
Anything involving the soul was still beyond Yuuki's current understanding.
As for the color of magic?
That was a trivial issue. His replicated mana could already mimic different spell structures and colors. A bit of disguise was more than enough to prevent anyone from noticing anything amiss.
"Not bad," Yuuki muttered after sensing the changes within his body. "As expected of a noble—quite a boost in mana. Though for someone at the Three-Domain level, the increase isn't all that significant."
With Finral dealt with, Yuuki estimated that after this much time, the corpses Rades had been controlling across the city should be nearly wiped out by the Magic Knights.
"Let's hope nothing goes wrong over there."
He turned and swiftly left the alley, heading toward the location where he had previously spotted Yuno.
At the same time, another presence was quietly observing the battlefield from the shadows.
Valtos, disguised to resemble one of the corpses, lay hidden among a pile of defeated undead. His eyes were closed as he sensed the situation across multiple locations.
"Rades is getting a little carried away," he said, a trace of dissatisfaction in his voice.
He then activated a small magic tool hidden inside his ear.
"That should be enough."
"Defeating a Magic Knight Captain isn't something you can accomplish on your own. No matter how large your mana pool is, there are opponents you simply can't beat. My mana is already close to its limit."
"Unauthorized actions end here. From now on, follow the original plan."
Elsewhere, upon hearing Valtos's words, Rades clenched his teeth, his face twisted with frustration and resentment.
Standing opposite him was Fuegoleon Vermillion, his entire body wreathed in roaring flames, radiating overwhelming power.
Unlike the suffocating helplessness Rades had felt when Yuuki sealed his mana with chains, this was pure, unadulterated suppression by strength alone.
The powerful corpses Rades had kept as his trump cards were dispatched effortlessly—without any chance to resist.
Northern Sector
Yuuki stood atop a rooftop just outside the edge of a teleportation magic circle. From less than a hundred meters away, he could already see Yuno and the members of the Golden Dawn.
Corpses littered the ground around them—clear evidence that all of Rades's undead in this area had been completely dealt with.
"So everyone's been guided into the pre-marked zones," Yuuki thought as he surveyed the scene, his gaze settling firmly on Yuno.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Suddenly—
A massive surge of black Spatial mana erupted from beneath the ground. Before the Magic Knights could react, it shot skyward, enveloping them all and vanishing in the blink of an eye.
Under Yuuki's watchful eye, Yuno reacted instantly, escaping the teleportation circle at the very last moment.
Seeing this, Yuuki narrowed his eyes slightly.
He knew full well that this wasn't Yuno's own doing.
"Let me see the power of the wind spirit for myself," Yuuki said calmly. "Yuno."
He had witnessed that power before in the anime—but that had been fiction.
This was reality.
On the battlefield, Yuno stared at the spot where his comrades had vanished, momentarily stunned. He realized that had his reaction been even a fraction slower, he would have been taken as well.
Before he could fully relax, a playful, mocking voice rang out from the sky nearby.
"For Magic Knights to fall for something that simple… how utterly stupid."
A mage with tawny curls braided into long plaits sat atop a flying broom. Dressed like a witch, she grinned mockingly as she spoke.
Yuuki glanced at her from afar.
Catherine—one of the Eye of the Midnight Sun. A native of the Witches' Forest, and far from weak.
She looked young, but in truth was extremely old, maintaining her appearance by absorbing the essence of others' mana.
"Ash Curse Magic — Ash-Devouring Array!"
With Catherine's mocking laughter, a wave of gray-black mana surged downward toward the people below.
Anyone touched by it visibly aged at an alarming rate.
"Not a bad spell," Yuuki mused as he observed.
The ability to absorb others' mana reminded him of another individual—the Diamond Kingdom's Eight Shining Generals member, Ladros.
Both possessed exceedingly rare magic capable of directly strengthening oneself by draining others.
At that moment, Yuno had already engaged Catherine in battle.
(End of Chapter)
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