episode_0103

Lucian and his team ran through the passage with all their might. Beyond the dark passage they had just come from, a small gate shimmered.

“I didn’t see wrong, did I? That, it was the Student Council President who did it, right?”

Granite, his usual gruff demeanor gone from fear, asked Lucian.

“Are you asking because you don’t know? That crazy bastard Kroshel is definitely the one who did it!”

“Ugh, uwaaaah… he’s crazy. The Student Council President, he, he killed a student!”

Levi whimpered in terror.

-Bang bang! Bang!

Bullets rained down from behind. Lucian hastily threw a few spells behind him, but the pursuit didn’t break.

“Hey! If you have time to whine, run faster!”

“Alright! Uwaah, uwaahng!”

His back and arm ached from the sword wound. Even after exiting the gate, the pursuit was relentless. A guard with a sword tried to strike Levi, who had fallen behind, on the head.

“Oh, a shriek!”

-Bang!

The guard’s head disappeared, struck by a combat rifle. Soon, a voice amplified by a megaphone echoed from within the forest.

“Everyone, get down!”

Hearing that sound, Lucian and his group instinctively threw themselves to the ground.

A barrage of fire passed over their heads. The pursuing guards collapsed under a hail of bullets and bolts flying from the forest. As the pursuers were gunned down, unidentified soldiers wearing camouflage cloaks revealed themselves.

“Who are you?”

“It’s me, Violet!”

Irene, who had walked out from among the Violet company, cast her gaze towards the guards’ corpses and the distant gate. She gritted her teeth.

“To think they’d openly try to harm us now. These trash bastards!”

The tension drained from Lucian, and he groaned in pain as he collapsed to the ground.

“Ow! Damn it… it hurts like hell.”

“Stay still. Before the wound opens further!”

While Daphne examined Lucian’s wound, Irene quickly exchanged words with the Violets.

“So, Nathan’s team was also in there?”

“That’s right. By the time I found them, they had already been dead for a long time.”

Irene couldn’t hide her conflicted feelings after hearing my words.

“Let’s get out of here first. I’m stalling for time inside, but we don’t know when they’ll resume the pursuit!”

“But, we still don’t know where the newly generated gate is, do we?”

As Irene expressed her doubt, Violet 387 shook her head and pointed to one side.

“Not quite. One of our search team members found the new gate just a little while ago.”

“Already?”

“Of course, we’ve been looking for it all day! It hasn’t opened yet, but it’s closer than we thought. We’ve already called the kids from the clearing and taken them there, so we just need to go!”

She kept staring intently in the direction of the small gate, as if uneasy, but soon turned her head as if having made up her mind.

“…Alright. Getting out is the priority right now. Let’s move.”

Once Lucian’s injury was treated, Violet and her group moved without hesitation to the location of the new gate.

***

Violet had currently died 21 times.

“Screech!”

To deceive and distract them, I actively utilized the characteristic of my clone magic, which allows clones to be created beyond walls. If Clone Unit 32 was running hard and about to be caught, I would immediately create a new Violet behind a nearby wall or under the floor and self-destruct.

Outwardly, it looked as if a person had teleported to another location after an explosion. In other words, it could make them mistake me for a teleporter!

Furthermore, this research facility currently had poor lighting due to some incident, making the surroundings dark. This added to the potential for confusion.

-Boom!

“371! Run faster!”

“I’m trying!”

Currently, dozens of Magnabis guards, Student Council President Kroshel, and Treasurer Kaim were chasing behind me.

I only had one fault. While running away, I just played a few small pranks, like throwing molotovs in various parts of the facility and shooting researchers with a gun!

“Long live the Obsidian Legion! Filthy Clan bastards, I will purify you all with fire!”

“You crazy terrorist bastard!”

When I shouted at the top of my lungs with a distorted voice, the surrounding people responded by raising their voices. Truly, Violet, the popular star! Although there was a minor issue of people requesting autographs with guns and knives.

Of course, my operational goal wasn’t just to buy time. Lucian’s group’s safety was secured.

My true objective was to destroy this facility. It clearly looked like an evil and suspicious place, so it had to be eliminated.

To that end, while one Violet drew attention, another Violet squad that had been secretly created was installing bombs throughout this suspicious facility.

“This kind of facility, we have to blow it all up!”

“Burn it all down!”

If I had time, I would have packed some documents, but there was no time for that.

And this was all I could do for the ones who died earlier. I didn’t know why they killed the students, but it was too much.

In a mix of anger and tension, Unit 371 fired the pistols in both her hands.

Kroshel’s psychokinetic swords swirled ferociously around like piranhas. His psychokinetic control ability was more precise than expected. The destructive power was also no joke.

“Even sword energy is imbued! How did he do that?”

Now that I think about it, it’s a good thing I didn’t choose the option of simply overwhelming them with numbers.

I don’t know how many swords he can control, but the fact that he can launch a large-scale offensive means he’s not a good match for us. If we get close, our limbs will be twisted by his psychokinesis, and if we create distance, he’ll launch sword-controlling attacks, making him difficult to deal with.

“Maximize distance! His range isn’t that long!”

At least the distance he could control his swords didn’t feel that long. He couldn’t reach beyond a certain range.

“Screech!”

“Oh, looks like you let your guard down, huh? Haha!”

The moment my attention was drawn to the swords, a bolt fired by Kaim struck my side. That damned guy was incredibly agile, always firing bullets or bolts from the blind spot if my concentration slipped even a little.

“That’s strange! He definitely died! I saw his head blown off with my own two eyes!”

“Unit 406! Stop talking nonsense and stay still!”

It seemed Unit 371’s operations would end here.

A homemade smoke bomb appeared in my hand. Thick smoke billowed up. While the pursuers hesitated to approach, Unit 371 exploded within the smoke. Unit 120, created beyond the ceiling, ran frantically, causing a ruckus.

“Freedom! Revolution! Violence!”

“The intruder teleported upstairs!”

“Have the explosives not been fully installed yet?”

“Just a little more! Just need to install this one more!”

Swords flew beneath Unit 120, who was running on the roof of the structure. In an instant, the foothold was severed, and Unit 120 plummeted to the ground.

“Ugh!”

As the fallen Unit 120 raised her head, Kroshel, who had flown in with psychokinesis, landed in front of me and leisurely walked over. The moment I tried to stand up, swords were impaled into each of my legs.

“Eek!”

“You rat-like bastard, try running away more. What, your magic seems to have run out, huh?”

He snarled in anger. The veins on his face were bulging, visible even from here. Just as I was about to self-destruct and end it, a large metal tank behind Kroshel caught my eye. The tank had “NO OPEN FLAMES” written on it.

I found something good to blow up.

“Will it explode if I shoot it with a gun or a bow?”

“He’ll block it with swords or psychokinesis!”

As opinions rapidly went back and forth, Unit 1 of the temporary command made a bold decision.

“Let’s use the Hand of Fate! He won’t be able to stop a magic beam!”

“It’s a 5-star artifact. What if we lose it?!”

“We might even be able to kill him here. It’s a gamble worth taking!”

Other Violets were persuaded by Unit 1’s argument. Unit 120 equipped the Hand of Fate.

“What’s that gauntlet? Ha, pointless resistance. Why don’t you just give up?”

I didn’t care what the Student Council President said. I gathered all my magic, preparing a powerful strike.

The Hand of Fate began draining my magic until the very last drop. Immense power condensed in my palm.

A dizzy spell came over me from the rapid decrease in magic power. Our clones usually sustain themselves just by eating, but a lack of magic power was unpleasant.

But if I land this one blow properly!

“Beware of our power!”

“Violet’s Light!”

A dazzling yellow magic beam shot out from the gauntlet’s palm. Just before the straight-flying beam hit, Kroshel twisted his body into an impossible trajectory, dodging the beam. He had pushed himself away with psychokinesis.

“Damn psychokinetic movement!”

As soon as I fired the beam, I immediately recalled the gauntlet to my inventory.

“Ack!”

I felt excruciating pain. Seven swords he had sent pierced through my body.

Had I been defeated? Perhaps. If my target had been the Student Council President! Hitting him would have been good, but even if I missed, there was no loss.

“You fell for it!”

From the very beginning, my target was the fuel tank behind him!

The moment the beam touched the fuel tank, a violent explosion erupted.

“Damn it!”

He was swept away by the explosion. Unit 120 smiled as she disintegrated.

“We did it!”

“He might not be dead.”

Seeing the fuel tank explode violently, the Violet squad also activated the bombs they had installed in the facility.

“Haha! It’s exploding!”

In the blink of an eye, the entire area became an inferno. The Violet squad chuckled and reverse-generated.

***

Violet’s sabotage succeeded. The large and small homemade bombs installed throughout the facility rendered it irreparable, and also brought peace to the miserable experimental subjects suffering inside.

However, if Violet had possessed enough knowledge and advice, she would have attempted to destroy the subspace itself.

The existence of the subspace, which formed Research Lab A13, still persisted. This was a cancerous mass accelerating spatiotemporal imbalance. The gate disturbance phenomenon that swept up Violet’s group and the rapid expansion of the dungeon originated from this subspace.

In the already unstable Chloris Great Forest, three phenomena occurred soon after. First, the dungeon’s space began to destabilize. This repercussion led to earthquakes.

“Earthquake!”

“Don’t stop, run!”

Violet and her group, who were hurrying towards the gate, repeatedly fell and got up again due to the sudden earthquake.

The second repercussion was somewhat positive. The newly generated gate rapidly stabilized, connecting with its original entrance. Thanks to this, the students Violet had called beforehand were able to escape quickly.

“It’s real? The gate is stabilized.”

“Run fast!”

The group hastily threw themselves through the gate. When they looked up, the familiar scenery from three days ago greeted them.

“We’re out…”

Instructor Frederick, who had been checking on the students, brightened up and ran towards Violet and her group.

“Thank goodness! You lot have returned too. But…”

The instructor’s face fell as he counted the number of people, as if something was missing.

“Why haven’t the other eight arrived yet?”

Violet and Irene’s faces crumpled upon hearing that. As they deliberated what to say, the gate began to expand rapidly.

“Damn it! Evacuate quickly! What in the world is this chaos?!”

People nearby began to flee in a hurry.

The last phenomenon that occurred in the dungeon was collapse. The unstable space temporarily tore open, and things from inside the dungeon began to pour out.

When people had regained some composure, hundreds of monsters began pouring out endlessly from within the expanded gate.

“Eh…?”

Violet, who was watching the situation from the road near the gate entrance, gaped.

“We need to evacuate!”

“No, what in the world happened?”

Violet’s heart sank. Could it be that the bombs I detonated had wrecked the dungeon?

“Violet, what are you doing! Let’s evacuate!”

She was pulled by her friends and ran quickly. Hordes of monsters continued to pour out from inside the gate.

It was around that time that people noticed a massive airship approaching.

A man who had been observing everything from the sky gazed at the gate. He lightly drew a straight line with his finger.

For everyone below, the result it brought was truly grand.

“Huh?”

Massive magic circles appeared above the gate. The condensed light from the magic circles gathered into one.

Soon, a colossal beam of light struck the ground. The countless hordes of monsters that had been pouring out like a flood from the expanded gate evaporated in an instant.

The beam melted the earth, emitting immense heat, and the resulting aftermath swept through the surroundings in a matter of seconds.

“Whoa!”

A startled Violet fell. She was helped up, but she found herself involuntarily trembling.

If Violet had been able to see the story after Part 1, her fear would have been less than it was now, as fear stems from the unknown. Of course, the shock itself would have been unavoidable.

It was the feat of grand magic that the being, who adorned the climax of the second narrative among the five story knots surrounding the academy city, could display.

“The sky…!”

Lucian, who usually maintained an arrogant posture despite his injuries, froze. His gaze was fixed on the sky. The young male student, momentarily aware of his insignificant position, pointed to the sky with trembling hands.

Daphne, who turned her gaze in the direction his fingertip pointed, gasped and covered her mouth. She froze like a statue.

“What’s wrong?”

“Y-you idiot! Can’t you see th-that?!”

Violet, who was about to question why she was imitating Levi’s way of speaking, was astounded when she saw the massive formula densely adorning the sky.

In the sight of a novice mage who had just awakened to magic, the immense form of a magical formula densely filling the sky above where the dungeon gate was located became visible.

Its intricacy was comparable to the integration density of a semiconductor, and its scale brought an industrial complex to mind. The power contained within the lines and dots of the formula delivered an overwhelming pressure capable of tearing the sky and overturning the earth.

“How can a person use magic like that?”

Before long, the ramp door of the airship that had arrived near the gate opened, and the being who had just unleashed the immense cataclysm slowly walked down from mid-air.

“It’s the Chairman.”

Someone spoke.

People’s gazes turned to the man who had led the group down to the ground. He was a man in an old-fashioned suit with long, ash-gray hair tied back. With each step the man, wearing a gleaming monocle, exuded overwhelming confidence and gravitas. Behind him followed men in black robes wearing sealed helmets that obscured their faces.

Noctis Caldwell Valefor, humanity’s oldest and greatest mage, had descended with his retainers.

Violet, who had barely calmed her pounding heart and emerged from the shock, opened her mouth.

“What in the world are those fishbowl heads?”

Irene, who had been frozen with a bewildered expression, barely managed to answer.

“Those are the Magnabis Vanguard.”

“What’s that?”

“They’re Magnabis’s elite unit. But why are they here? The Chairman isn’t the Clan Head right now. That’s strange. Why?”

Irene’s words were almost incoherent. The scene of ruthless violence created by a single archmage was enough to send the usually composed girl halfway into terror.

As the Chairman stepped back, the Vanguard members began a sweep against the remaining monsters. Giant bolts of lightning swept the ground, and a storm of flames… Violet trembled. She felt a power even stronger than the Student Council President’s.

While everyone was overwhelmed by the seemingly unstoppable power, Unit 123 suddenly appeared, driving a car.

“Kids! Get in quickly!”

“Why suddenly? No, wait. Are you a clone? Or the main body?”

“That doesn’t matter. Let’s just get out of here first!”

Lucian and his team climbed into the back seat of the truck in a daze. Other team members got into the passenger seat. Unit 123 quickly stepped on the pedal and accelerated.

In the rearview mirror, the place that used to be the dungeon was burning. Violet sped violently down the road. She felt like she couldn’t think straight until she got away from that place.

“Ugh, I just want to rest.”

“I’m sleepy…”