Ludwig laughed at Rudger's words.
"It seems you don't understand the situation. Do you think you're in a position to do something just because you're angry?"
Rudger did not respond to that and Ludwig beckoned to end it because there was nothing else to hear.
The knights who received the signal drew their swords and slowly approached Rudger. Without saying a word, they tried to swing their swords at Rudger.
Even in the midst of this, Rudger's gaze remained fixed on Ludwig.
'Is it his last outburst right before his death? At least he's not begging.'
Ordinary people, no matter how strong they pretend to be, are bound to collapse ugly in the face of death. Even so, Rudger remained tenacious.
'I felt it from the fact that he came to this place, but isn't he a really strong man?'
It was strangely regrettable to think that such a figure would soon become a cold body and disappear from history but considering that it was the price of ruining their plan, it was a natural return.
The important thing now is to calculate how long it will take to restore the great work that Rudger ruined.
It was then.
"What?"
"What are you doing? Do it properly."
"You do it yourself!"
Immediately, Ludwig heard the surprise of the knights who should have killed Rudger.
Ludwig, who was free from his thoughts, squinted his eyes and examined the situation beyond the barrier.
Rudger, who should have definitely died, was still standing still as if nothing had happened.
"What is this?"
His men must have cut him with their swords, but Rudger was fine.
Whenever the sword wrapped passed through his body, Rudger's figure scattered like a virtual image and repeatedly returned to its original state.
There was one thing that came to mind at the sight.
"……magic?"
But what magic is that?
At that time, Ludwig made eye contact with Rudger, who was staring at him from the beginning.
"What…"
Ludwig felt an indescribable fear while looking at his red eyes.
"Vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas."
"What?"
Ludwig unknowingly asked back at the unknown words coming out of Rudger's mouth.
"In vain, everything is in vain."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"It's a Latin word for emptiness. It's written in Chapter 1:2 of the Vulgata evangelist."
"What do you mean……?"
Ludwig, who faced an incomprehensible and mysterious situation, distorted his face for the first time. He didn't like the fact that he was scared in an advantageous situation.
"Professor James Moriarty, what the hell was that magic?"
"You saw it as magic?"
"Is it not?"
"It's magic. Yes, my 'real' magic that you will never know."
Vanitas, as the meaning of the word was emptiness, has the characteristic of making the user himself unaffected by any attack. It was the same even if it was a sword or magic.
Known from the word of Solomon, this was the magic that Rudger came to this world and created individually.
"I didn't want to use it because it consumes too much mana and I don't feel very good about making my own body look like a goblin. If I think about the future, it's a magic I should never use."
As if the body were not his own. The feeling that one's five senses disappeared as if they had been bleached and that only the mind remained and floated in the air was not tolerable with a sober head.
It was a dangerous magic that if used by a regular wizard his spirit would dissipate so Rudger didn't want to use it.
"But when I heard what you said."
In embarrassment, Ludwig's escorts widened the distance slightly from Rudger.
Rudger, who released the magic at that timing, took the magic recovery medicine out of his pocket and quickly poured it into his mouth.
"I decided not to think about the future."
The redness of Rudger's eyes became stronger with the freshness of the magic medicine breaking in his mouth.
"Even if I fall down."
"……what are you doing now? Go ahead and kill him!"
Ludwig, noticing the suspicious feeling, shouted.
His subordinates, who were perplexed, regained their sanity in response to the order and tried to launch an attack but it was already too late.
The magic that Rudger used was faster than their attack.
"Ars Goetia."
Goetia, is the name of the first chapter of Clavicula Salomonis Regis, a sorcery book written by Solomon, who was called the 'King of Wisdom'.
Its ability was close to magic that summons the 72 demons inscribed in books. Of course, it doesn't summon an actual demon. It is nothing more than imitating the demon through magical imagery and miracles.
And yet the power was enough to sweep away all the enemies here.
"Shuhua! Argh!"
The shadow cape fluttered roughly, and from there countless black ghosts poured out and swept the area.
The demons approached the people, grabbed them with their hands and bit them with their mouths. Neither the knights holding swords nor the wizards doing magic were exceptions.
"Argh! What the hell! What the hell!"
"The attack doesn't work! Help me!"
There were screams everywhere as the drawing room was stained with blood.
For the first time, Ludwig's face, beyond the barrier, collapsed as all the guards of his family were killed.
"You demon."
This is a dream. He was having some kind of nightmare.
Cruelly, however, the owner of the nightmare began to slowly approach Ludwig.
Rudger, who was approaching Ludwig, stopped in front of the barrier and Ludwig laughed at Rudger when he saw it.
"Ha, ha ha! Yes! Even you can't break through the barrier that blocks sixth rank magic!"
"……."
"If all the family guards come in like this, you're dead!"
Rudger did not respond to Ludwig's comments. Instead, he only extended his arms and brought them to the barrier.
"So no matter what you do, you can't get through……!"
Ludwig's expression, who was about to shout like that, hardened as the evil spirits who ate all their prey and wandered around the room flocked to Rudger.
The ghosts clumped together in Rudger's arms and cast a black shadow covering his fingertips to his forearms.
The black hand, sharpened like that of an animal or devil, soon tore the mana barrier completely.
Ludwig could not tell whether this was a dream or a reality at the fact that the barrier was gone. It was such an unrealistic sight.
"Is this a dream?"
Even so, he wanted to deny the tragedy in front of him but Rudger who walked straight at him meant that it was real.
"Let's talk for a moment….."
Before Ludwig could shout anything Rudger grabbed him by the neck and pushed him to the window.
"Whoo!"
An overflowing huge force went beyond breaking the window and blew the whole wall but since Rudger did not intend to kill Ludwig easily, he kindly protected his body with magic.
"Ugh!"
Rudger grabbed Ludwig by the neck and pushed him out of the broken wall.
Ludwig struggled with his feet while fearing that Rudger might drop him down just by letting go of his hand and stared at Rudger with eager eyes.
His expression of looking down from above a while ago was nowhere to be seen.
"Your eyes have turned submissive. Did you think about having a proper conversation now?"
Ludwig tried desperately to nod.
"But what should I do because I'm mad? I don't want to have any more conversations."
Rudger slowly increased the force of his grip while Ludwig struggled to get away from Rudger, whose anger had already risen to the top of his head.
"Whoo"
Then the door of the drawing room behind his back was smashed and a water canon shot at Rudger.
Rudger didn't even look back. Instead, his cloak moved on its own as the black ghosts from the cloak united to form a wall.
The water cannon dispersed in vain without breaking through the black wall.
"James Moriarty!"
Casey Selmore, who changed into a detective costume, rushed in.
She saw a row of bodies around her, a broken wall, and Rudger holding Ludwig's neck.
"Let him go now!"
Casey Selmore had a similar situation at Ordo University. At that time, she couldn't stop Rudger from killing Dean Gord.
In order not to make the mistake again, Casey used a spell with all her senses on edge.
The water moved to her will but the scope did not simply stop at the surrounding area.
"This is…"
Rudger stared outside the broken wall. All the water from the artificial lake in the garden of Duke Venkanto surrounded the huge mansion.
Casey Selmore was showing her strength while moving a massive mass of close to several hundred tons, as if her previous appearance was nothing more than a child's prank.
Rudger said with pure admiration.
"That's incredible."
And at the same time he thought this might be a little dangerous since he consumed considerable mana and mental power a while ago.
As it stands, dealing with Casey Selmore, who is at her best, was pretty daunting. But Casey was also using quite a lot of power lifting the lake, and her expression caught in Rudger's view slightly collapsing.
"You're doing something exaggerated, Casey Selmore. You're having a hard time."
"I'm not going to let you escape this time."
"……."
"Hurry up and let him go.
Rudger pondered for a moment.
If he kills Ludwig here, Casey will come after him with all she's got and he wouldn't be able to escape easily.
'But if what Ludwig says is true.'
A cleaner sent by Ludwig might have arrived at the secret facility where Arte is now.
'There are Hans and Seridan inside, but the power of the two won't be enough to stop them.'
Rudger had to make a choice so he pulled Ludwig and whispered something in his ear.
'Don't be relieved. I'll be right back.'
Immediately, a dagger was pulled out of his left hand and stuffed into Ludwig's body. The Rudger threw Ludwig to Casey before she could react but she used water to easily catch him.
Casey, who saw the bleeding from Ludwig's abdomen, glared at Ludger with wide eyes.
"You…!"
"If you don't stop bleeding right away, he'll die within three minutes. But if you stay, you can save your life."
Will she pursue the criminal or save a person's life?
"The choice is yours."
Rudger said so and jumped out of the broken wall.
Casey gritted her teeth at the sight. Even if she wanted to chase him here, she couldn't do this or that because of Ludwig, who was injured.
"Ugh! That drawer over there……."
At that time, Ludwig pointed to the drawer while it was all falling down.
Casey noticed something and immediately opened the drawer and took out the stuff inside, it was a potion.
She didn't know why this stuff was in the drawing room, but Casey immediately poured the potion into Ludwig's wound. The wound recovered slowly, but it was not enough to move immediately.
"Catch him, please."
There was more to Ludwig's pleading gaze than simply wanting to catch the other man because he was a criminal. Casey knew it, but she couldn't bring herself to question him.
The important thing right now was to go after the fleeing James Moriarty but how was she supposed to know where he'd run off to?
No, there was someone so Casey's eyes were on Ludwig.
"You know where he went."
* * *
The "cleaners" sent by Ludwig arrived at a secret laboratory where the Steel Chapel project was underway.
Originally, the entrance to the abandoned coal mine, which could be entered, was blocked, but there were many other passages to the inside.
They teamed up and moved slowly just in case. However, they didn't feel anything special inside.
"Is there no one?"
The only thing they could see were the rats walking around.
The cleaners were called cleaners, but in reality they were more like fixers who handled the dirty work of the nobles. There were some quasi-knights and freelance wizards among them, each armed with a gun.
They were confident that they would not lose no matter how many opponents they had inside. However, the fact that there were no people inside cooled their excitement a little.
"Never mind. It's better for us if things end quickly anyway."
Those who nodded at the leader's words increased their speed a little.
"Wait. Stop."
At that time, when the leader raised his right hand and clenched his fist, all the subordinates who followed from behind stopped.
Ignoring the gaze of asking what the hell was going on, the leader pulled a dagger from his waist and touched the fine metal wire in front of him.
"I can't believe they set up a trap like this. But it's too crude."
The line ran up the wall and connected to the ceiling.
If they touch it by mistake, a bomb installed on the ceiling would have exploded and collapsed the passage.
"Instead of killing the intruders, they want to buy time?"
If so, they should act according to the other person's intentions.
"Speed up but be prepared for possible traps."
"Yes."
The cleaners moved at a faster pace and Hans, who heard the report through a mouse, crumpled his face.
"Damn, they speeded up. I expected them to come slowly because of the traps."
"Then what?"
Seridan, who installed the traps, was surprised because she didn't know this would happen.
Hans' eyes turned to the glass tube containing Arte.
"……we'll have to hold out somehow until brother comes."