Casey Selmore, floating high in the air, looked down.
The night sky seemed much brighter than usual. It was partly because they moved away from the city where the light on the ground was strong, but it was also because the moon in the sky was exceptionally huge.
It was a full moon night today.
Under the moonlight pouring like a spotlight on the stage, Casey stared where her opponent would be hiding under the ground. Perhaps he was also aware of her presence.
Casey knew where this was.
An abandoned coal mine where she first noticed the crimes of James Moriarty.
At that time, he escaped because of a sudden explosion, but she didn't know there was a secret laboratory deeper down.
'How can I capture James Moriarty here?'
He would immediately notice and run away from another exit, no matter what passage she came from and he also showed a new movement spell a while ago.
In addition, it was unreasonable to rush from the entrance unless she knew what he was up to in there.
Casey Selmore thought that taking it slowly would be meaningless so she decided to act quickly.
At the moment of judgment, a huge mass of water gathered under Casey Selmore's feet.
Water on the floor, moisture in the atmosphere, and clouds in the sky enough to fill several water tanks was floating in the air.
The moon became clearer as the cast clouds disappeared and Casey casted a spell.
The water collected in the air began to change in response to her mana and the massive volume of water slowly began to rotate clockwise, like a whirlwind coming down from the sky.
The end of the terrible vortex began to sharpen like an awl, and then slowly descended and touched the ground.
The tunnel began to be drilled hundreds of meters below ground. The incredible weight of water spun at high speed as stone and rock were grounded.
The super-large perforator used high-pressure water flow drilled all the way underground without any resistance.
Casey went underground through the huge passage through which she drilled. Then, the road that had been blocked for a moment opened, and a wide open space appeared.
Casey stopped the rotating drill as soon as she felt a familiar mana wavelength, and slowly came down and landed in the open space.
The water that made up the drill was torn down and spread widely around.
Looking ahead, there was the man, the criminal of the century who she must capture.
He didn't have a crow mask, but he still wore a shadow cape below his shoulders, and he looked intimidating.
"……."
James Moriarty looked up at the path Casey came down.
The brilliant full moon was seen over a huge hole leading to the ground. Perhaps because of that, the underground space, which had been dark, was filled with bluish moonlight and felt dreamy.
"It's quite barbaric."
James Moriarty lowered his raised head and made eye contact with Casey.
"Do you not know how to knock?"
"What were you going to do by digging such a deep ant hole?"
The two stared at each other. On the other side, with a calm look and the other had eyes full of hostility, a sense of challenge, and anger.
"Since you come this early it means that Ludwig is not dead."
"Yes, you failed."
Rudger shook his head at the remark.
"You always interrupt me."
"Then do you think detectives should stop criminals or leave them alone?"
Casey got to the point right away.
"That's not why you were waiting for me to talk to each other comfortably, what's your purpose?"
"Don't you think I'm going to turn myself in now?"
"You?"
Casey laughed as if she had heard a funny joke.
"A person who doesn't know how many people he's killed so far is suddenly turning himself in? Don't say things you don't mean."
James Moriarty shrugged at her words.
"Well, I'm just saying."
"Why do you say that all of a sudden?"
"To make a suggestion."
"Suggestion? What suggestion all of a sudden?"
"Isn't it time to stop this pointless chase?"
"……What?"
Casey was under the illusion that a huge lump of iron hit her head. Otherwise she couldn't understand what this man was saying.
"Casey Selmore, you can't capture me no matter what you do. The difference between you and me is obvious, so let's finish it. There's nothing more meaningless than trying to get something you can't hold onto."
"……Meaningless?"
Casey Selmore tried to vent his anger by twisting her face, but soon cooled down as if she had realized something.
"You're dragging your feet."
"……."
Did she notice?
Rudger intentionally tried to provoke the other person's anger to focus her attention on this, but Casey immediately noticed.
"Why are you trying to waste time by provoking me?"
Casey squinted his eyes and looked around, and soon looked down.
"There must be something down here, right?"
"……Tch."
Rudger kicked his tongue.
Casey felt like she was drawing something in her head.
"Kidnapped child. Experiment. Yeah…….This is it."
Now that Casey noticed, this was the end of buying time.
Rudger calculated how much time he had earned.
Hans and Seridan would have gotten out of here long ago but he couldn't confirm if Arte soul synchronization was over yet. Although he intended to take that chance and take Arte out of here.
'Looking at her reaction now, I don't think even that will work.'
Casey Selmore, who had raised her vigilance to the extreme, did not show any more gaps.
In addition, the large amount of water that had been dragged down surrounded him.
"We have no choice but to fight, right?"
Rudger raised his right hand and swept it slowly from forehead to chin.
A shadow was cast along the hand, and a crow-shaped mask was put on his face.
'I used up too much mana and mental strength on my way here.'
And now his opponent is stronger than anyone he fought in the Delica Kingdom.
If he was not in the best condition, the possibility of losing could not be ruled out but on the bright side, he was not necessarily at a disadvantage.
Casey Selmore was also busy these days, so she couldn't sleep well, and she used up a lot of mana while dragging a large amount of water to this place.
In other words, Casey, like him, has been pushed to her limit.
After all, both of them were in the worst condition.
Rudger and Casey thought at the same time about the strange equality. Nevertheless, the one who lets their guard down, will lose.
The two used magic against each other without saying a word.
Casey Selmore used the water around him to pressure Rudger from all sides.
In the action, he felt a willingness to capture him somehow without killing him. However, the huge water mass became a deadly weapon in itself.
Although her purpose is to capture Rudger in the process, one or two bones will definitely break.
'It's impossible to stop it.'
He had to reduce the amount of mana used as much as possible so blocking attacks from all sides was impossible. Knowing that, Rudger responded by avoiding all the incoming attacks.
Rudger's body, integrated with the shadow, darted around the space and approached Casey.
The huge streams of water launched by Casey Selmore turned into hands to capture him, but Rudger moved shrewdly as if to fool her.
A huge water hand passed through his body but it was only an extremely trick by a piece of paper.
"What!?"
Casey Selmore clenched his teeth at the move that doesn't seem like something a wizard would do.
Rudger freely roams through space like a swallow that travels fast through a dark forest.
Rudger unfolded his magic as he moved and with the spell completed in the air, a white fog spread around.
He used the third rank magic [Ice queen's breath] and the stream of water approaching Rudger began to freeze rapidly as soon as it touched the fog.
Casey drew the unfrozen water back since she couldn't handle the frozen water recklessly due to a kind of 'perception' power.
Casey Selmore handles water, but she could also handle something that could be called liquid if she recognizes it as 'water'.
Ice, on the other hand, was another form of water, down below the freezing point. In her perception 'ice' is not 'water'.
Of course, if she forced herself she could do it but her mana consumption would increase the speed of handling would be considerably slower.
Above all, she didn't think the person in front of her would ever wait for it.
Casey boldly hit the ice since there was still a lot of water here considering the amount she brought and no matter what Rudger couldn't freeze all the water here because he knew that she could still use it even if it's frozen.
'I have no choice but to aim for her body quickly.'
Rudger concentrated his mind by quickly replenishing his lack of mana with mana pills. Then he casted a spell but Casey noticed it and quickly defended herself.
Shortly after, Rudger spell was done. He used the 5th rank lightning spell [Thunderbolt Ballista].
A huge arrow was shot like a cannon, made by twisting five giant lightning stems into the form of a pentagon spiral and to counter it a huge knight of water lifted his round shield.
The two spells clashed in the air and a huge shock wave spread beyond the underground space to the entire laboratory and even further.
The situation was unstable because Casey touched several supports as she penetrated the ground. In addition, the magic of the two wizards collided, and the underground base could not withstand it.
Screws of pipe pipes installed everywhere bounced off and strong steam poured out.
Mechanical parts started to cause problems and caught fire, and huge vibrations caused debris from the ceiling to fall.
Most seriously, the extra booby traps Seridan had set up to stop the cleaners were triggered in the aftermath of the crash.
"Kwagwagwagwagwagwagwagwagwagwang!"
Rudger looked back unconsciously at the sound of explosions ringing everywhere.
'Arte!'
Rudger left Casey and ran away.
Casey, who blocked the debris falling from the ceiling, saw that Rudger disappeared and clenched his lips then followed him.
Rudger, who was running through an underground laboratory that was beginning to shake, quickly looked at the situation.
Debris slowly started to fall apart, fumes rose through broken pipes everywhere, and explosions occurred one after another.
The precarious interior began to collapse in the aftermath of the fight.
At this rate the underground laboratory would collapse soon.
'Arte!'
Arte was still inside since the stabilization process wasn't over.
'Maybe the wreckage caused Arte…….'
Rudger spurred his running speed by shaking off negative thoughts. Some debris fell and hit Rudger's body, but he didn't care.
Rudger managed to reach the deepest part of the laboratory.
"Beep!"
Inside, a red emergency warning light was on and ringing loudly.
"……."
Fortunately, Arte's sleeping glass tube and automaton Alpha capsule were intact.
'……Is the stabilization over?'
The machine no longer worked so that meant that the process was over.
Rudger looked at the capsule containing Arte, or now Alpha, and put his hand on it.
"……let's go."
Moving shadows began to cover the capsule.
In the process, Rudger looked at the glass tube next to him. The boy's body which has now lost even his soul was empty.
Rudger, who was looking at it with a gloomy and heavy gaze, slowly put his hand on the capsule.
Rudger smacked his lips, but no words were heard.
In this place where he didn't know when it was going to collapse he didn't have to say anything but he couldn't stop himself.
"I'm sorry."
Soon Rudger's body was covered in shadow along with the capsule and they disappeared.
Shortly after Rudger disappeared, the burning ceiling collapsed.
* * *
Casey, who followed Rudger's footsteps, frowned at the collapsed wreckage.
'This is…'
There were fires everywhere, but Casey noticed that some kind of experiment happened here.
What did James Moriarty hide here so that he left in a hurry during the fight?
"What about James Moriarty?"
Casey, who was trying to find a clue somehow, looked around and found something strange.
"What is this?"
Originally it was hidden inside the wall, but the wall collapsed after the explosions and reflected the contents inside.
It was a huge capsule.
And in it, a yellow-haired girl had her eyes closed as if she were dead.