Ch.84Chapter 84: Eradicating the Criminal Organization (4)

At that moment.

Valt’s friends felt bewildered.

Especially Lisa’s group, who were not far from Valt, had confused expressions.

Kuguuuuu-

The tremendous roar and vibration that could be heard from afar had finally subsided.

“W-wait a minute…? Isn’t that where Valt went?”

At Lisa’s words, everyone looked stunned.

They were currently tracking Thorn Swamp to gather information.

Thorn Swamp was definitely more secretive than the Buddha organization.

Unlike the Buddha organization, they didn’t flaunt themselves, and the main mission was to identify their funding sources, but there was a high possibility they wouldn’t discover anything without entering the main building.

It was natural that criminal organizations’ funding would mainly come from criminal enterprises, but despite Thorn Swamp not running particularly large operations compared to other organizations, rumors circulated that they were the most financially abundant among the five criminal organizations.

This clearly raised suspicions about a backer funding Thorn Swamp, and Lisa’s group intended to retrieve evidence of this.

Though Solphin might appear reckless, he was clearly a 5th Circle magician.

This meant he could infiltrate Thorn Swamp’s headquarters without being detected.

Moreover, there were stories that Thorn Swamp had a smaller but elite force compared to the other four organizations.

While they were contemplating how to infiltrate Thorn Swamp’s quiet headquarters…

That tremendous roar and vibration had erupted from where Valt was.

“A-abort mission! Retreat! Let’s retreat for now!”

At Lisa’s command, Solphin, Victor, and Robin, who were on the roof of Thorn Swamp’s headquarters, quickly moved elsewhere.

Sure enough, Thorn Swamp members were all coming outside after hearing the vibration and noise.

They seemed to have quite a few magicians as they were thoroughly reinforcing the area’s defenses.

Naturally, they were searching even the spots where Lisa’s group had just been.

“That was close! What on earth is Valt doing?”

Solphin, trying desperately to hold back his laughter, activates a spell.

“Kuk, kuuk… S-Silence!!”

As soon as he activates the sound-blocking spell, Solphin bursts into uproarious laughter.

“Puhahahahaha!! He’s trying to completely annihilate Buddha’s headquarters, isn’t he?! Right?!”

While Solphin laughs, Victor, Robin, and Lisa wear worried expressions.

“No! This isn’t funny! Our job today was just information gathering!! I said let’s do this safely, was that so difficult?! Even with Arias there, why?!”

Victor also chimes in with Lisa’s concerns.

“Haah… No matter how strong Brother Valt is, facing an entire organization head-on… is that even possible?”

Robin seems worried too.

“Shouldn’t we join them now? Even if Valt might be fine, couldn’t Arias be in danger?”

Solphin, who had been laughing so hard he was crying, finally addresses his companions.

“Ah~ This is driving me crazy! It’s too attractive. This might actually work out better.”

Everyone looks dumbfounded at Solphin’s words.

No matter how they thought about it, facing an entire organization head-on seemed absurd.

But from Solphin’s mouth, who was dying of amusement, came information they didn’t know.

“Well, you probably don’t know this, but… have you ever seen Valt’s fusion magic?”

At the mention of fusion magic, everyone’s expressions showed question marks might as well have appeared above their heads.

“F-fusion magic? What’s being fused? You mean combining spells?”

“Yes, and it’s an incredibly powerful fusion magic. Let’s say a prepared 8th Circle magician attacked Buddha’s headquarters. What would happen?”

After thinking for a moment, Lisa answers Solphin’s question.

“If they used an 8th Circle spell like Hellfire… they could inflict devastating, near-annihilating damage, right?”

Solphin nods at Lisa’s words.

“Right, but why is that difficult to do?”

Robin answers this question.

“First, finding someone of that caliber is a problem, and secondly, a single 8th Circle magician would struggle to handle all the enemies swarming in.”

“Exactly, unless they’re 9th Circle. Even with 8th Circle magic, there are clear limitations. If the range increases, power decreases; if power increases, range decreases. That’s invariable.”

Everyone seems to agree with Solphin’s explanation. Then Victor shouts:

“Then we should hurry and help them! What are we doing here?!”

“Ah, this muscle-head is always so impatient. I wasn’t finished speaking.”

At Solphin’s words, Lisa seems to realize something.

“Are you saying Valt can do it? Magic that increases both range and power?”

Solphin nods at Lisa’s question.

“Yes, I was dumbfounded too. When Valt, that Lilith, and Arias cast magic together, I excitedly stepped up to block it and even transformed into Dragon Form.”

Lisa, Victor, and Robin wear incredulous expressions.

“Block it? I thought my entire body was going to be torn apart. And I had already layered multiple defensive spells. If someone other than me had tried to block it, they probably would have died.”

“I-is it really that powerful?”

Solphin looks toward the source of the sound and speaks.

“Kuk kuk, that’s what I’m saying. It takes a while to cast, but I guarantee that when it comes to first strikes, Valt is the strongest among all Grovind Academy students.”

Solphin continues:

“Besides, do you think Valt would be exhausted after firing that one spell?”

“No way…”

“He wouldn’t be…”

“Impossible…”

As everyone nods, Solphin nods as well.

“Valt doesn’t have a magician’s weaknesses. He always goes around saying he’s a magician, but looking at his build, you’d think ‘What kind of magician is that?’ But when you see him cast spells, he really seems like a genuine magician, and then he even transforms into some strange golem-like thing. It’s incomprehensible.”

Everyone realizes this is true.

They knew Valt was strong, but he was different from ordinary magicians. Solphin was similar, but Valt and Solphin gave off different vibes.

“Even though he looks very similar to the dragon folk, he’s on a different level. I can’t use magic that precisely while moving my body like that. That’s why I use shortcuts like dragon combat techniques.”

There was nothing wrong with Solphin’s words.

The reason why battle mages were difficult to come by was obviously because magic required sophisticated formula calculations, and it was hard to perform accurate calculations while moving.

Of course, some of these concerns disappeared for 9th Circle magicians, but even a 9th Circle magician using 9th Circle magic while moving vigorously was nonsensical.

“We might be witnessing the birth of the world’s strongest, no, history’s strongest magician.”

As Lisa’s group was discussing Valt…

Several groups from Thorn Swamp’s formation began to move toward where Valt was fighting.

Since the Silence spell was still active, Lisa exclaims in surprise:

“Huh?! They’re heading toward Valt?!”

This seemed somewhat unexpected, as even Solphin’s face turned serious as he spoke to Lisa.

“Lisa, quickly send a message to Arias. I’m sure Arias isn’t participating in the fight. Probably supporting.”

“A-alright!”

Lisa urgently sends a message to Arias.

[This is Lisa. Arias, what’s happening? Are you okay!?]

As Solphin had predicted, a reply from Arias arrived immediately.

[V-Valt single-handedly annihilated Buddha’s headquarters….]

As everyone checked the message, only Solphin started chuckling again.

“Ah, t-this isn’t the time.”

Lisa’s hands move quickly as she sends another message to Arias.

[Thorn Swamp’s reinforcements are heading your way! I don’t know if it’s reconnaissance or what, but it’s dangerous!”]

[Ah, understood! I’ll alert Valt!]

After finishing the message communication, Lisa looks at everyone.

“W-what should we do?! I should contact the rest of our group too.”

Solphin, who had been laughing, strokes his chin and says to Lisa:

“Let’s contact them and decide. I don’t think it’ll be too late even after that.”

“Alright!”

***

As Lisa had expected, the rest of their friends were also monitoring the criminal organizations’ movements when suddenly some forces moved from the headquarters toward Valt’s location.

Upon seeing this message, Robin immediately says to everyone:

“There are too many! We need to help!”

They judge that even Valt would struggle to handle that many forces with just Arias.

But Lisa thinks carefully and then her eyes light up.

“No, those aren’t reinforcements.”

“What?”

Solphin also agrees with Lisa’s opinion.

“Right, how could those be reinforcements? They’re clearly scouts. Didn’t you say the five major organizations don’t cooperate with each other? They might be cooperating temporarily, but if the headquarters was annihilated, they have no reason to waste their forces.”

Lisa mutters while thinking about something.

“This… isn’t this an opportunity?”