Ch.90The Great Chaos (7)

A soft, seemingly serene whisper. Yet the implication it carried was devastating.

Though Talo appeared to be floating alone without any escort, a closer look revealed an intricate web of fire designed to shoot down anyone who approached him.

Most of the aerial batteries not currently bombarding the ground were positioned to protect Talo himself.

There was a reason why Arguirion’s angels weren’t unleashing all their magic at once but were preparing another gate to recharge their magical power. They lacked sufficient magic to eliminate the countless weapons deployed within the barrier.

I immediately tried to shake my body to remove the creature, but Ortes’ hand was faster than the angel’s wings.

Crack!

He gripped the handle of the blade embedded in the shoulder joint and twisted it to the right. The sound of the angel’s bones and muscles tearing apart could be heard. As the angel writhed in pain, magic flew toward the spot where it had been flapping its wings just moments ago.

This wasn’t automatic targeting fire from pre-established weaponry, but magic directly aimed and incanted by a magician of the Ten Towers.

The radiance of the magic that missed the angel flew far away and swept across the ground.

Arguirion had no time to look at the ground, but Ortes was different. He examined the land swept by the magic.

‘…Flowers?’

The earth, bathed in magical radiance, swelled strangely. The ground rose and congealed oddly, resembling steel roses cast from a mold.

Ortes’ eyes interpreted the principle of the magic. It multiplied metallic elements like iron inside the target, causing it to explode from within.

If an ordinary human had been hit, their entire body would have been skewered like meat on iron skewers.

For a magician of the Silver-Iron Tower who manipulated metals, this was an exquisitely refined technique. One could say it was useful for both killing and subduing, as it could be controlled to tear apart only specific limbs if desired.

‘Can I counter this?’

Ortes twisted the knife handle embedded in the shoulder joint once more. The angel screamed and twisted its body as if falling. It took remarkable mental strength not to lose hold of the gate.

‘If the blade gets hit, its structure would be ruined…’

The problem was that even if he responded with formula overwriting, it wouldn’t nullify the magic itself.

If he tried to defend against that magic with his blade, the metal components of the blade would abnormally proliferate and distort its shape. Even if he countered with formula overwriting, it would only mix other elements into the proliferating structure without stopping the proliferation itself.

‘It would be better to get close and interfere with the direction before the formula is completed.’

His eyes sent a warning. He could see the trajectory lines of magic aimed at him. Not fire from the batteries alchemized by Talo, but lethal magic being prepared by Arguirion’s angels.

‘This is as far as I go.’

Ortes’ eyes read the information from the battlefield.

While Talo showed interest in Ortes himself and maintained a somewhat observational attitude, preparations for opening the second gate were complete.

The angels were determined to kill Ortes even if it meant sacrificing their comrade. The densely drawn trajectory lines in all directions proved their resolve.

Of course, Ortes had no intention of dying.

He drew his high-frequency blade and jumped down. During his fall, he swung the blade toward the gate that the angel was firmly holding.

Arguirion realized that the attack failed to destroy the gate and mocked Ortes.

However, Ortes never aimed for destruction in the first place. He had inserted the formula for the basic light-attribute magic “Luminescence” into the formula constructing the gate.

The silver radiance pouring from the gate began to grow increasingly bright.

A luminosity that made the word “brilliant” seem inadequate. When something is too bright, one can’t see anything at all. In this blinding radiance, only Ortes’ vision remained clear.

Ortes didn’t expect this diversion to last long. A magician of Talo’s caliber might have already modified his eyes with infrared vision or something similar, and Arguirion, whose mind had been warped by extradimensional forces, likely didn’t rely solely on the visible light spectrum to sense his surroundings.

But there was time needed to switch the mechanism of perception. Ortes, using the “Growth” Drive once more to summon vines, grabbed the angel’s wings.

The angel was pulled down to the ground. With the opposite reaction, Ortes soared high.

For the moment, he occupied the highest altitude in this place.

He activated the Drive for the third time. “Gust.” Riding the swirling wind, he descended toward Talo.

And Talo saw Ortes.

“He only uses magic imprint Drives… Judging by the lack of proper magical energy, his magical achievement is mediocre. Then, is his extraordinary physical ability due to fighting spirit?”

To refine fighting spirit to that extent would require more than the haphazard training methods passed down among mercenaries. A more proper training method for fighting spirit would be necessary.

And Talo knew well where such “proper” training methods originally came from.

The most common fighting spirit seen in the current era was from combat application programs injected to enhance the performance of specialized close-combat droids.

As a magician of the Silver-Iron Tower, Talo was well-versed in the design and history of combat droids. The source of the fighting spirit techniques injected into droids was the secret knowledge sold by knights of old times.

“Remnants of outdated knights!”

Finally, the identity of those mysterious reinforcements, the third force, became clear.

While the Ten Towers actively suppressed divine power, there were other abilities that gradually became obsolete, pushed aside by magic.

Spirit summoners absorbed under the umbrella of magic, shamanism labeled as primitive magic and stripped of its mysteries, and the fighting spirit of knights who barely survived by selling their secrets before eventually being forgotten.

It seemed that one of these long-forgotten groups was seeking restoration amid the chaos.

“Yes. Hmph. If it’s one of the ancient knight families, they would have received at least one artifact.”

Now it all made sense. Even the identity of this ruin.

How could a relic of the ancient Mage King still remain? Not only magicians followed the Mage King. There were also many knights who were drawn to his overwhelming power.

While some swore allegiance out of admiration for the Mage King’s tyrannical path, others made nominal oaths of loyalty that were essentially surrenders.

The Mage King bestowed tokens of allegiance without distinguishing between loyal subjects and traitors. Gifts that were glory to some and humiliation to others.

This ruin was…

“It must have been a castle or manor bestowed by the Mage King. The signal transmitted to the Ten Towers was a magical beacon. A trap prepared by an ancient knight family.”

To think they still had the resources for such a scheme. He had believed that all knight families had fallen with the flow of time. Had they hidden underground like superstition followers?

Talo traced the history of magical society. The number of knight families that gradually disappeared, pushed aside by magic, was far too many. If that had been a disguised downfall, a kind of incorporation into an underground organization…

‘Their forces must be quite extensive. They could probably overwhelm a decent Magic Tower.’

The reason for trying to lure the Ten Towers by disguising it as Arguirion’s doing was also simple. This was an unprecedentedly chaotic time for the order led by the Ten Towers.

In such a situation, if an elder of the Ten Towers were to be assassinated, at least the standing of that elder’s Tower would suffer a significant blow.

‘There’s no guarantee that this plot is a one-time affair. They’ll probably continue their operations.’

The fate awaiting a fallen Tower was clear. A succession battle.

The remnants of the knight families likely planned to manipulate a Magic Tower that aspired to become one of the new Ten Towers, acting as the hidden mastermind.

Perhaps the order was reversed. Some Magic Tower seeking succession might have approached the knight remnants, offering a deal: “We’ll incorporate you into mainstream society if you help us.”

However, that plan went awry when the real Arguirion appeared, and their improvised attempt to disguise themselves as Arguirion’s reinforcements to assassinate the Ten Towers’ magician also failed.

Having completed his reasoning, Talo shook his head.

“As expected of a blade prepared by anachronistic outcasts, it’s quite sloppy. It was entertaining, though.”

Knights drawing swords to set traps? For those who supposedly uphold chivalry, this was truly a pathetic fall.

“A body that has mastered fighting spirit to the extreme. Whatever it becomes, it will be useful to take. I’ll need to see the memories too.”

Magical power gathered in Talo’s hand. He prepared to cast alchemy by directly touching Ortes’ charging body. Though he might resist somewhat due to his mastery of fighting spirit, it would be different if Talo poured his magical power directly.

‘I’ll process the limbs here, except for the brain and organs.’

Meanwhile, several layers of defensive magic unfolded. The core of this magic was an anti-fighting spirit field designed to block assassination-specialized droids.

It was magic that responded to fighting spirit by extremely increasing the magical density within the field, rendering attacks futile. Just as human movement is hindered in water, which is denser than air, it was a space that hindered the movement of all objects with latent fighting spirit.

Ortes’ dark blade touched the field. Talo predicted Ortes’ deceleration and reached out his hand. The moment even his fingertip made contact, that arm would turn into scrap metal.

Without any resistance, the anti-fighting spirit field was pierced, and Talo’s head was split in half.