C169: The hottest festival (2)
In the dark warehouse Crollo Fabius, who was desperately running in the natural maze made by the equipment piled high on the ceiling, suddenly felt skeptical.
'What am I doing now?'
He's running away now.
From what?
From the witch.
Naturally, one question emerged.
'How long do I have to live like this?'
How long can he just run away like this? He may be able to escape danger once but the witch will chase him to the end of hell and kill him.
There is a limit to running away because she'll never let him go.
Crollo Fabius felt despair. He had a splendid mansion, soldiers following his orders and employees who bowed their heads in awe of him. His past felt like a dream.
"I, why would I?"
Crollo's legs slowed down and soon he stopped running.
"Sigh."
He was tired of running away and he saw Esmeralda creeping toward him from beyond the darkness of the warehouse. She was walking slowly but her figure stimulated Crollo's fear from the deepest part of his soul.
"Hmm?"
Esmeralda tilted her head as she looked at Crollo, who stopped running.
"Why won't you run anymore? Did you give up now?"
Crollo twitched his lips and Esmeralda had a hunch that he had something to say.
"You must have something you want to say. Then say it, there's no reason why I can't listen to you for the last time. I'll let you leave a will."
Crollo shouted at her provocation.
"That's enough!"
"What?"
It was a cry that Esmeralda didn't expect.
Enough? Why is he saying it's enough?
"How much do you have to break me to be satisfied? It's working now! The Fabius family has already fallen because of you!"
Is it because of the upcoming stress of fear and death? Ironically, the emotion that came to the mind of Crollo Fabius, who was driven to the limit, was anger, not sadness.
'Why do I have to be treated like this?'
Looking at the difference between his gorgeous past self and his miserable present he was going crazy.
He couldn't eat properly, sleep well, and had nightmares every day. His brilliant blonde hair became dry, and intelligent eyes were full of dark circles, along with the dark beard that covered his thin cheeks. He looked like a scoundrel.
'Is this me, the lord of the great Fabius family?'
Crowe clenched his teeth.
'Why? Why do I have to be so tired?'
He killed a lot of people but so what? They were just commoners. He only gave the right punishment to those who tried to stand up to him.
'If she had just listened to me properly in the first place, if the bloody commoners hadn't resisted me. This would've never happened in the first place.'
When he thought so, all the pain he's been through so far sublimated into anger and engulfed his reason.
"All because of you!"
Crollo didn't even realize what he was saying now.
"If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have been like this!"
Esmeralda's expression hardened at his cry.
"Because of me, this happened?"
Esmeralda couldn't ignore the words Crollo Fabius exclaimed.
"How dare you…."
Why would he say that to her?
-It's because of you.
Esmeralda kept hearing those words in her nightmares.
-Because of you!
-Everyone died because of you! The cursed words she heard many times in her dreams and the bloodied villagers that poured out complaints against her.
The words overlapped with Crollo Fabius' cry and rang her head.
"No…"
Esmeralda grabbed her head with both hands.
Crollo, noticing that Esmeralda's condition was strange, stepped back without realizing it.
"No way!"
"───!!!"
At the same time, a huge fire erupted from Esmeralda's back and engulfed the whole area.
* * *
'It's serious.'
Rudger frowned in the flames blazing everywhere. Water was steadily dripping from the sprinklers on the ceiling, but the spreading flames showed no signs of being easily quenched. Rather, they were burning more intensely.
Rudger led the steam golem DT-3000 into the depths of the warehouse and found a fainted Crollo Fabius filled with burns.
"………Esmeralda."
Esmeralda was sitting down and shaking her shoulders but there was an overwhelming presence beyond that.
The burning flames swirled in one place, eventually forming the form of a fire giant, an ugly spirit of fire, full of flesh and curved back.
"Quasimodo."
As if responding to Rudger's call, Quasimodo stared at him with his red magma eyes.
The air heated up just from his look and Rudger felt like the heat that touched his skin permeated his lungs.
'Esmeralda doesn't look very well.'
It's just that she didn't kill Crollo and Rudger had a hunch that something was wrong.
'She hasn't killed Crollo yet and seeing that she's sitting with the objective of revenge in front of her, she must have been traumatized by something.'
Esmeralda sank in the burning flames and her past, which he saw as a painting magic, overlapped with the situation before him.
A word flashed past Rudger's head like a flash.
'Trauma.'
Esmeralda was now in a trauma.
'Then.'
Rudger got off the steam golem and approached her carefully. In order not to alarm Quasimodo, he paid attention to each step.
'Quasimodo, the fire spirit. No, he's not a spirit, it's an existence close to a spirit.'
As he approached Esmeralda, Rudger thought.
Even though the owner is in that state, the spirit is full of hatred. He has already gone far beyond ordinary spirits.
The heat became much stronger as he narrowed the distance.
Quasimodo stopped him but Rudger opened his mouth cautiously.
"Quasimodo. Do you know about me?"
[Human…]
"I'm sorry for that time but I couldn't help it because of the situation."
He wanted to persuade him so Rudger continued his words as carefully as possible so as not to offend him.
"I am a colleague of your master. I don't mean to fight."
[…….]
Quasimodo did not answer but instead he smiled. Did he accept it?
'You have a dirty, scary face.'
Perhaps because his face was made of magma and flames, the level of brutality was different. Even Rudger, who had met many bad-looking people, felt a chill on his spine from the smile.
'I see the response, it's favorable to me.'
Rudger naturally activated the machine in his left hand, a device that can shoot a micro anesthetic needle made by Seridan.
After naturally aiming it at Esmeralda he shot so secretly that no one noticed.
It was the moment when a very small needle flew towards Esmeralda's neck a huge fire hand appeared and stopped it.
'What the…'
Rudger looked up at Quasimodo with an incredulous stare. He noticed that he was going to launch a surprise attack?
'Since when?'
Quasimodo was still looking at him with a smile that was full of alienation.
'This guy. He didn't believe me from the beginning.'
His act of smiling at Rudger was only an act in order to deceive him. How could he act like that on his own even without the owner's orders?
Quasimodo's smiling face quickly twisted into anger.
'Danger…!'
Rudger immediately stepped back and Quasimodo's fist fell like a hammer where he was a while ago spreading shock waves and flames.
The hot heat passed by his body like a back blast and Rudger, who stepped back and posed, shook off the embers on his outer clothes.
Even though he was equipped with all kinds of items resistant to fire, and wore heat-resistant magic clothes, the heat penetrated his body.
'I felt it then, but he's beyond my imagination.'
At that time, Quasimodo was recalled by directly eliminating the medium that summoned him, but this time it was different. As long as Esmeralda was present Quasimodo wouldn't be recalled recklessly. He knew the fact, so he was guarding Esmeralda.
'Then this time…….'
[Coordinate designation.]
When Rudger used his mana, Quasimodo responded immediately. He opened his mouth wide, and a furnace-like flame wriggled in it.
[Aether Nocturnus]
The shadow surrounded Rudger's body and soon spread black wings behind his back.
Rudger flew into the sky in an instant while flames flashed under his feet.
Quasimodo reached for Rudger and the flames around him moved and followed Quasimodo's will and rushed into Rudger. As the tentacles of wriggling flames approached from all sides, Rudger focused on avoiding them.
'He doesn't want to give me time to use magic.'
He learned how to counter his magic from the last time they fought.
Shortly afterwards, a huge fist flew straight to Rudger but as Aether Nocturnus moved, it turned into a large shield, blocking Quasimodo's fist. The shadow could not stand the scorching heat and was pushed away. Rudger retreated back from the recoil and landed on the ground.
'It's not a good match.'
Aether Nocturnus uses shadows and as a result, he was infinitely weak against fire and light.
Aether Nocturnus shook his body as if whining to Rudger.
"……I get it."
Rudger was forced to take a pill out of his inner pocket and put it in his mouth. Then, his quickly consumed mana quickly filled up.
The mana recovery medicine that had a high effect that was incomparable to the previous one. Arthur Nocturnus swallowed Rudger's magic to his heart's content, as if he had never complained.
"Work as much as you eat."
Aether Nocturnus swelled up roughly. Like Quasimodo, who protected Esmeralda, a giant black shadow monster rose behind Rudger's back and stared at Quasimodo.
As the two clashed Rudger tried to fire an anesthetic needle at Esmeralda's again, aiming for the gap but the hot flames revolved around her distorted the air and his vision.
'Are you trying to make it impossible for me to specify the coordinates by making her invisible to my eyes?'
He never imagined that Quasimodo would be so sly and even smart.
'This is the power of a First Order of the Black Dawn Society.'
Boom! Boom!
Every time Aether Nocturnus and Quasimodo collided, shock waves exploded one after another. At the same time, the fire spreading around the warehouse was growing out of control.
'Should I borrow the power of God again?'
Rudger thought that far and shook his head. To use that force, the preparation stage will be long, and once the reins are released, the entire area will be devastated.
In a situation where every minute and second counted he didn't want to make more innocent victims.
'Abandon the operation to surprise Esmeralda.'
The fight between the two monsters was decided in an instant. No matter how much mana he injected, he couldn't overcome the power of Quasimodo, and Aether Nocturnus returned to Rudger with a shrunken body.
"Can't you last a minute?"
Aether Nocturnus trembled once, perhaps because he felt it was unfair.
Rudger sighed but he didn't have time to get annoyed because Quasimodo wanted to kill Rudger as soon as possible just in case he was going to do anything else.
A sticky fire sprang from Quasimodo's mouth.
"Start DT-3000."
The steam golem, who was waiting in the form of a horse, was ordered and moved. The horse grazed and eventually turned into a human form.
"Boom! Boom!"
The golem strode and stood in front of Rudger, crossing his big arms and taking a defensive posture. Soon after, a hot fire hit the golem directly.
The surface of the golem was red-hot from the heat but Rudger touched the golem's back.
"Enhance durability. Increased heat resistance. Shape recovery. Material reinforcement."
{Transformation} and {Alchemy} magic of the implementation system, not the manifestation system, was used and the golem, which collapsed as it melted down, returned to its original state.
The half-collapsed golem stood tall again and Rudger put a pill back into his mouth.
He poured the filled mana back into the golem and used reinforcement magic but the fire was never-ending. As the golem collapsed and was repaired endlessly the breath of fire, which seemed endless, ended.
The fire spread and the warehouse equipment became ash and scattered like powder.
Everything around Quasimodo had melted away. The center of the warehouse was wider than before as it melted down to the steel structure.
Quasimodo was gazing at Rudger.
"Oh, my."
Rudger sighed at Quasimodo's action to kill him sincerely. It is virtually impossible to target Esmeralda from a distance. However, it is also difficult to knock down Quasimodo itself.
'Is it just a frontal breakthrough?'
Somehow, if the special anesthetic would be administered to Esmeralda, he would be able suppress Quasimodo.
'The remaining pills…….'
Rudger smiled and shook his head as he tried to check how much mana recovery medicine was left.
'I'll do my best.'
With that said, Rudger took an object out of his chest. Quasimodo raised his guard because he thought Rudger was doing something else.
"Don't panic. Can't you afford to be relaxed?"
What Rudger took out was a pipe cigarette that harmonized black and gold. The inside of the cigarette was filled with the poison that remained from when he made the mana recovery medicine.
Rudger, who was about to start the pipe cigarette, smiled when he realized the situation around him and reached out his hand holding the pipe cigarette to his side.
"Let me borrow a light."
With a sharp grin the flames floating in the air settled on the poisonous pipe and lit it.
Rudger took a light breath with the pipe that was emitting white smoke in his mouth. He even closed his eyes, so he looked like a drowsy person enjoying leisure but when he opened them his eyes were tinged with a deep blue color of expansive magical power.