Ch.51Enemies of the Ten Towers (1)

Carisia, who was waiting for Ortes to return with Kine, heard a strange sound.

A cracking noise coming from the barrier that blocked the entrance to the award ceremony hall.

‘I thought the barrier was strong enough to block hosts without reason.’

Although Carisia hadn’t cast the barrier spell herself, it was simple for her to assess the quality of the magic formula in place.

This wasn’t a barrier that could be breached by the physical attacks of hosts who couldn’t do much beyond spreading the Silver Gift.

‘Is someone disabling the barrier?’

Carisia channeled magical power into her gauntlet. If possible, she wanted to leave the award ceremony hall without drawing attention.

‘But…’

Carisia’s eyes moved.

At the end of her gaze was the Lampades Magic Tower. The people of Lampades, mostly research mages, seemed unlikely to withstand a large-scale attack capable of breaking through barriers.

‘Since Ortes said he would help with our goal, I should probably protect them.’

Carisia’s ultimate goal was the destruction of the Ten Circles of White Light. Sometimes it was expressed as the collapse of the White Light Tower, but ultimately what maintained the name “White Light” was the Ten Circles.

To erase White Light from the world, she would eventually have to destroy the Ten Circles.

Putting more and more effort into creating an artificial Ten Circles—which initially was merely a cover operation to hide her true purpose of destroying White Light—was an extension of this plan.

Carisia’s occasional suggestion to Ortes about “using the artificial Ten Circles as a bomb to destroy White Light” was half a joke.

In other words, it was half serious.

The artificial Ten Circles, compressed with magical power that Kaicle had accumulated over the years by exploiting the intellectual resources of Etna City, had the potential to become the world’s largest bomb.

Carisia kept a close eye on this possibility.

No one in this world knew the minimum threshold of power needed to destroy the Ten Circles.

Because no one had ever attempted it. Therefore, Carisia had always reserved the maximum firepower she could mobilize—the mutual annihilation of White Light through the runaway of the artificial Ten Circles—as one of the means at her disposal.

It was in this context that she appointed Ortes, the person she trusted most, as the head of the “Divine Investigation” aimed at improving the completion of the artificial Ten Circles.

If by chance all her magical abilities proved insufficient to destroy the Ten Circles, the only means available would be the explosion of the artificial Ten Circles.

A final move to reverse the situation in one stroke when all plans failed.

Moreover, the artificial Ten Circles had uses beyond its role as a bomb.

Tower Masters backed by the Ten Circles could demonstrate truly semi-divine capabilities within the magical field of the Ten Circles.

The two potentials hidden in the Ten Circles: magical power and formulas. In a fight against a Tower Master who could unleash ancient high magic with unlimited magical power, Carisia wasn’t entirely confident in her victory.

‘If the premise is fighting alongside Ortes, the odds of winning would increase significantly, but…’

The possibility that either she or Ortes would suffer irreversible injuries was extremely high. No, “high” wasn’t the right expression. “Certain future” would be closer to the essence.

That wasn’t the outcome she desired.

Normally, magical fields repel and cancel each other out. The artificial Ten Circles was also effective as a tool to suppress the magical field of the Ten Circles and seal the powers of the Ten Tower Masters.

The artificial Ten Circles, which began as a cover operation, had now become a core project directly connected to Hydra Company’s true purpose.

Losing talents who could greatly contribute to the completion of the artificial Ten Circles to terrorist attacks by Infiltrators would be too great a loss.

“Everyone, step back.”

A quiet voice. The mages in the award ceremony hall unconsciously complied with those words.

Crack-crack-crack!

The cracking sound from the barrier became clearer. Questions and fear began to fill people’s eyes. How could a Silver Gift host possibly break through magic?

Those with quick minds considered an ominous possibility.

While Silver Gift hosts couldn’t breach barriers, what about the Infiltrator mages who called themselves Arguirion?

———!

The magical power forming the barrier was completely destroyed. A sound similar to breaking glass but much more intense swept through the area. Several mages who had participated in creating the barrier collapsed, bleeding.

“So here you all are! Future comrades!”

The voice was different from the terrorist who had made the announcement. But this person was clearly also a member of Arguirion.

Behind the Arguirion mage stood numerous automatons. These automatons had no skin, exposing their internal frames and artificial muscles.

And every fiber of muscle seemed to be made of the familiar Silver Gift. As these silver artificial humans gradually walked into the award ceremony hall, the Arguirion mage spoke.

“Together, let us escape the evil clutches of the Ten Towers and pursue the great cause—”

The mage’s eyes became fixed on Carisia. Memories of old fear, blurred by extra-dimensional baptism, came back to life.

“You…”

Carisia snapped her fingers. Her metal gauntlet rang with a sharp sound.

And a hemispherical light barrier rose up, enveloping the entrance to the award ceremony hall.

***

A survivor of the Golden Desert Operation. Iobate, one of the two mages dispatched by Arguirion for this operation, spewed forth rage upon seeing his great enemy from the past.

“How can you be here!”

And Carisia didn’t particularly enjoy such verbal exchanges.

It was a judgment based on combat theory learned from Ortes.

A dense magic circle formed in the empty space at the tip of her index finger aimed at Iobate. The charged beam was given targeting and tracking capabilities.

Fire.

The series of processes from Carisia aiming her index finger to releasing light was so quiet it could hardly be considered an attack. In battles between mages, detecting an attack meant detecting the flow of magical power, the precursor to magic.

However, Carisia’s magic had the flow of magical power extremely suppressed.

It was an attack without precursors, learned during her long game of tag with Blasphemia.

Iobate did not dodge the strike. He had seen many colleagues fall victim to this technique. This was not magic he could avoid with his skills.

Instead, he deployed layers of magical barriers. The tracking beam refracted between the barriers as it flew toward him.

“Haaah!”

The beam’s trajectory bent to break through the magical barriers, which bought him time. Just enough time for Iobate to pull in a Silver Gift automaton with his telekinetic magic.

Iobate collided one automaton with the killing beam. The automaton’s body melted instantly, crushing even the magic stone inside.

As the beam disappeared after destroying one automaton, Iobate hurriedly threw himself among the automatons.

It was time gained by sacrificing one Silver Gift automaton. Iobate assessed his forces.

‘The number of automatons isolated with me inside this barrier is about twenty. I can’t connect with the automatons outside. Can I defeat that monster with these?’

Realistically, it was impossible. That monster had defeated all the agents deployed in the Golden Desert Operation, despite some unexpected variables. Unless Commander Haltos were here, this wasn’t an opponent he could face alone.

The best choice available to him was to escape and report news of the monster to Arguirion.

Having made his decision, Iobate looked at Carisia. He was trying to find a clue to disable the barrier.

And that was the end.

***

Iobate’s brain was cooked.

It was the effect of a curse prepared by Carisia.

The act of seeing something means recognizing its existence. This is why monstrosities that can curse others just by being seen can exist.

Because by witnessing the curse, its concept takes root within the observer. Carisia crafted her curse by adding her magical attribute to this mechanism of “witnessing.”

The act of witnessing, or “seeing,” strictly speaking, belonged to the realm of light.

Isn’t visible light called so because it’s the form of light that the human eye can perceive? Most illusion magic belongs to the light attribute category because it manipulates visible light.

The principle of Carisia’s curse was simple. She extremely intensified the output of visible light entering the eyes of those who witnessed her.

As a result, Iobate died. Without putting up any meaningful resistance.

‘This would be difficult against a Tower Master.’

That was Carisia’s self-assessment. Right now, several conditions had aligned to make her magical control overwhelmingly superior to her opponent’s. That’s why her magic to amplify light output inside the brain, penetrating the opponent’s magical field, had succeeded.

A curse rendered meaningless if it couldn’t penetrate the magical field.

It seemed difficult to deliver a fatal blow to high-level Infiltrators who wouldn’t die even from brain destruction.

‘Well, I’ll discuss specific improvements when Ortes returns.’

Carisia leisurely dismantled the automatons that had lost their controller. She was preparing to welcome Ortes.

***

Ah, damn it.

“You Blasphemia scum! Where are the members of our order that you kidnapped!”

How did the Order of the Vanished God crawl all the way here?