[81] A Mage's Battle (2)
Nade and Iruki, having teleported, appeared at the cliff by the impassable bridge. Their eyes, which had watched Shiina's humiliation, were blazing.
"How dare you lay a hand on my teacher—"
"What the hell, there were perfectly fine ones too, right? Honestly, mages..."
Lucas was equally put out. For someone bearing the title of archmage to miss his target—it was outrageous. And all the sane people had been his responsibility to handle.
"She was your teacher? My apologies. By now she should be almost there. On the ground. Heh heh heh."
At the last syllable, Shirone—who had caught Shiina down below—teleported up. His gaze matched his friends'. How depraved did someone have to be to push another off a cliff?
"I won't forgive you."
Lucas didn't even bother to listen. He was merely annoyed that the job was getting messier.
"Hey. What are you going to do? Was this in the contract?"
Lucas pressed for clarity—there could be questions when the final payment came. Kanis didn't dodge. With Arkein absent, he was the leader.
"Arin, stand down."
"But Kanis—"
"You don't need to act. Focus on controlling the people. I'll handle this."
Trying to fight while keeping mental domination over hundreds of people would be impossible. When Arin slipped back into the crowd, Kanis relaxed and stepped toward Shirone's group.
"Who are you? How did you get free from the mind control?"
Iruki asked.
"Dark magic—already obsolete, right? There are countermeasures galore."
"Nonsense. If it were that easy, the ones behind you wouldn't have been caught either."
'Fair enough...'
Kanis lifted his head to check the sun. On the mountain peak the light was still strong. A mere student wouldn't haggle over conditions with a pupil of an archmage.
Lucas, arms folded and watching, called out.
"Hey, what're you gonna do? This wasn't in the contract. Double the pay and maybe I'll take care of it."
"No help needed. I'll handle it myself."
"Suit yourself then."
Lucas clicked his tongue and stepped back. He acted like he wouldn't intervene, but his true intent was the opposite: feign disinterest, wait for the fight to start, then strike from behind. That would finish it.
"Get on with it. I'm busy."
Shirone and Kanis closed the distance slowly. Through synesthesia Shirone felt Kanis's Spirit Zone as a roughly fifty-meter-diameter sphere, similar to his own.
"I'll take this side. You lot stop that swordsman."
At Shirone's words, Iruki glanced at Lucas.
"That man? He doesn't look like he'll step in."
"You never know how he'll act when it comes down to it. He's vicious enough to throw Teacher Shiina off a cliff."
Shirone turned with cold eyes. "Don't trust a word he says."
Iruki swallowed. Shirone's mental circuits had flipped to combat mode; even his gaze was different.
Shirone began timing his move. Photon Output is among the fastest activation magics, but the dark arts aren't slow either.
There was no readable signal in Kanis's eyes—only an uncertain future, like the black pupil of an orangutan.
Not human. An animal gaze earned only through countless fights for survival.
What sort of life gives you eyes like that?
They twitched their fingers. At the instant a bird flapped and rose, they moved together. Photon Output and the power of darkness dazzled and blurred the vision.
Shirone teleported upward. The darkness that had been trailing vertically dissolved under the sunlight.
Kanis sneered. He'd aimed not at Shirone's body but at the shadow clinging to the ground. Remembering the nature of dark magic, Shirone leaped clear of the cliff. When the shadow vanished a thousand meters below, the darkness lost its target and vanished like a blaze.
Photon Output shot out like a gatling. Kanis cast Shadow Wall. A thick wall of shadow sprang up and absorbed all the photons.
'Huge force. Using darkness to stop light.'
A power of darkness that seemed to defy natural order. Shirone, who had amplified his photons through thousands of rebounds, now had a sense of how strong Kanis's mental sinew was.
'Then how about this?'
Concentrating photons in his palm, Shirone bit his lip and hurled them. The Photon Cannon fired; Kanis maximized the wall's thickness. The corner of his mouth lifted for a moment, then the Shadow Wall detonated and a blinding flash surged through.
'What—?'
Chilled, Kanis instinctively cast Dark Skin. His body blackened just as the Photon Cannon struck his abdomen.
"Gah—!"
Dark Skin's capacity to absorb impact had already been exceeded at the moment of collision; the shockwave rattled his innards. Kanis's body flew, legs up, and slammed into the forest.
"Kanis!"
Arin couldn't believe it. Light carrying physical force—light is pure energy. If it carried even a fraction of physicality, every planet with a sun would be shattered.
Lucas's expression went serious for the first time. A beam of light fast enough to hit an opponent—if he'd been in Kanis's place, his chance of dodging would have been fifty-fifty.
'This isn't just bad luck; he's stepped in something worse than that.'
A killing intent glinted in Lucas's eyes. It might not be a lucrative job, but the payment still had to be made. His paired swords trembled as he fixed his gaze on Shirone.
* * *
Etella stood somewhere in the mountain range about eight hundred meters from the impassable bridge. Before her was Arkein, who had unofficially attained third-rank archmage forty years ago.
Arkein was not pleased with his guest. Even if he'd rested, the mental power he spent casting Abyss Nova had recovered to only about sixty percent.
But that thought was brief. Arkein narrowed his eyes as he recognized the woman's true worth.
'Oh ho. What's this?'
She wore large, slightly goofy glasses, and her ample bust and gentle appearance made her look like a sheep who'd never seen combat.
Yet it was palpable. Merely by standing there, every current of energy in his body met no resistance.
Her eyes were the crowning touch. From her pupils radiated the calm of someone who had transcended the eight passions—anger, joy, sorrow, love, desire—the spirit of a sage.
A seeker.
And far too exceptional to be merely a teacher at a magic academy.
'She could counter Abyss Nova.'
Etella too felt tension facing the dark-magic authority famed as an archmage since before she was born.
"I've heard of your renown."
"From which order are you?"
Arkein had guessed Etella was a nun even before she spoke. Her answer exceeded his expectations.
"I'm Bishop Etella of the Karsis Order. How could someone famed for dark magic commit such a monstrous act?"
"Bishop, huh."
Arkein laughed incredulously. Holding a bishopric before thirty would have been unthinkable in his prime.
Especially Karsis—the order was one of the continent's foremost, with two thousand dioceses. A bishop responsible for a diocese was at least equivalent to a city head.
"Where is Alpheas?"
Etella stayed silent. She didn't know either, but even that ignorance could be information for the enemy.
"I can hear the gears turning in your head. Be honest. I never expected that crafty brat would yield to my magic easily."
Calling Alpheas a "crafty brat" when the man was over sixty only underscored how long the archmage standing before her had lived.
"Why come looking for the headmaster? If it's a matter of debts or grudges, meeting directly would be proper. Free the students from the mind control and withdraw, and I'll arrange the meeting."
"Ha ha ha! So the brat built a reputation while I was gone. But child, Alpheas is not who you think. He's the most stubborn, arrogant fool in the world."
"No matter his past. The current headmaster has his students' respect."
"Oh? Is that so?"
Arkein rubbed his chin playfully. In his memory Alpheas was frozen as the hot-blooded youngster of his twenties.
"I'm curious. What did that brat do to earn such respect? Tell me."
Etella understood Arkein's ploy. The sun would set soon; he was stalling to wait for night, when dark magic would be most potent.
"If you're waiting for darkness, stop. As a teacher, I won't stand by and let any more evil pass."
"What did you say?"
Arkein frowned. A child a hundred and twenty years his junior daring to treat him like a time-wasting mage—
He cast his dark power and his shadow swallowed the trees. Branches shook and trunks bent toward a single point.
"Did you think a rising sun would scare me off? Then you've made a grave error about Arkein."
Etella looked up. Trees within a several-hundred-meter radius tilted in unison, forming a giant dome of interlaced branches like a net. When the sky closed, the light grew darker than night.
"Die, you wretch."
Arkein slipped into his shadow—Dark Port, the specialty of dark magic. By harmonizing with darkness and erasing the sense of distance, one can instantly move to any place the shadow reaches.
The ability to approach without a hint of presence was Dark Port's greatest strength. As Arkein, having seized the rear, cast his power, Etella's body flashed and slipped away. Dozens of shadow-hands slashed the air.
When Arkein resumed Dark Port, an ultra-high-speed duel began. It was as if dozens of Arkeins and Etellas faced off. Cornered into a tight radius, Etella chained teleportations at extreme speed from her current position. Her torso seemed to overlap countless times as shadow-hands tore through the immaterial afterimages.
'Bishop of the Karsis Order. Quite impressive.'
Even the irate Arkein couldn't help admiring. Her mind might not match his in scale, but her technique and senses were far beyond her years.
"Then I'll aim for a weak spot."
Etella's pupils trembled with resolve. As the darkness intensified, thousands upon thousands of hands flew.
A seemingly endless tide of magic.
Joner's scouting ability was itself like a magic, but even that couldn't avoid thousands of hands.
When a branch-shadow grabbed her wrist, Etella halted. If she teleported in that state, her arm would be torn off.
"Ugh—!"
The shadow's tensile strength was rubbery. Etella's physical strength was considerable; she bit her teeth and pulled, and the middle of the shadow tore with a grating sound.
'She knows unarmed combat? A sturdy child.'
Arkein said with a bitter smile.
"If that's your taste, I'll accommodate."