Fwoosh.
Sparks scattered wide in the air.
The sight of a black skeleton burning in green flames made one’s spine chill on its own.
“Mana that uses its master’s corpse... Since it stems from mana, should it be called a magic beast?”
He hadn’t known hellfire mana carried such a trait.
It likely wouldn’t have happened without a black mage of such high rank.
That explained why there had been almost no prior examples.
And now, of all times, it had to erupt.
Through the heat prickling against his skin, Ludger gauged the creature’s strength.
‘And this is without any will of its own yet?’
It might be more dangerous than Kaloto himself.
Kaloto had restrained the power to avoid being consumed by it, but this thing had no need for such concerns.
Fortunately, the black skeleton merely glanced at Ludger, then slowly turned its head elsewhere.
‘Ignoring me?’
Perhaps because Ludger had freed it by interfering, it was willing to overlook him this once.
The black skeleton began walking forward.
With each step, blazing green footprints remained behind.
Its destination was the magic circle into which Kaloto’s two disciples were pouring mana.
Focused on channeling as instructed, the two hadn’t even noticed the slow approach of the skeleton.
‘That is...’
Ludger’s eyes narrowed.
In a flash, an uneasy thought crossed his mind about what the creature wanted.
‘If Kaloto tried so desperately to activate that circle, then it must be crucial to this operation.’
Considering the nature of hellfire mana, there was only one result such a magic circle could produce.
A massive explosion of hellfire.
Kaloto must have planned to delay the Bureau agents at the decoy hideout, then trigger this trap here.
Ludger had interrupted that plan—yet the skeleton seemed intent on finishing it anyway.
‘It isn’t Kaloto’s will, but hellfire mana’s own will driving it.’
If Kaloto had wanted to kill the agents, the black skeleton was different.
Its behavior was instinctive, far more primal.
It simply sought to overflow with more of its own hellfire.
In truth, it was kin to that twisted fire wraith, Quasimodo.
A dreadful monster, burning everything around it with nothing but its pure will.
‘A massive explosion at the harbor warehouses... there was something similar in my previous life on Earth.’
The Halifax Explosion.
That incident had been caused by a cargo ship loaded with explosives detonating.
The sheer gunpowder alone created one-tenth the power of a nuclear blast.
Its point of comparison had been nothing less than an atomic bomb.
And Halifax had been before the nuclear age, recorded as the largest man-made non-nuclear explosion.
‘If something similar happens here...’
And not mere explosives, but hellfire mana, far more volatile.
The scale, range, destruction—
It could easily exceed Halifax several times over.
Perhaps even rival a nuclear detonation.
“I tried to take it easy, and now it looks like I’ll be the one to carry the blame.”
With a short sigh, Ludger pulled out Pascha’s spirit stone again.
“Devour it.”
After all, the black skeleton itself was nothing but a body of hellfire.
If Pascha consumed it all, the fight would end quickly.
That °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° was Ludger’s thought as he gave the command—yet Pascha gave no response.
Instead, the jewel merely glowed faintly as if in refusal, then went dormant.
“...What are you doing?”
Pascha had already tasted hellfire.
And he was saying he had no desire to eat such foul flames again.
“Damn insolent creature. Utterly self-willed.”
The fact that he would only fight when he felt like it was vexing, but Ludger had no way to force him out.
‘If only I’d studied how to handle spirits properly.’
But whenever spirits encountered him—more precisely, the divine power within him—they either fled in fear or kept their distance. He had never had the chance.
‘When I return to Seorn, I’ll have to ask Instructor Selina for guidance.’
For now, the priority was stopping the black skeleton.
Ludger shoved the stone back into his pocket and conjured a pillar of ice in midair, hurling it forward.
The siege weapon–like projectile shot toward the skeleton, but the heat melted it before it could touch, leaving only steam.
The black skeleton halted its steps and turned to him.
“Where do you think you’re going? Sorry, but you’ll have to die here by my hand.”
Fwoosh.
The flames spilling from it grew fiercer.
It had planned to ignore him, but realizing Ludger meant to interfere, it changed its mind.
Even when there had been no hostility, its heat was intense. Now, recognizing him as an enemy, its force grew all the stronger.
‘Stronger than Kaloto. Pure power... sixth circle?’
The black skeleton extended its hand toward Ludger.
That hand, wreathed in green fire, stirred—
Flash!
A cross-shaped burst of light exploded from its fingertips.
───!!
Ludger twisted his head aside just in time.
The green beam scraped past the spot where his forehead had been.
It blasted through the warehouse wall and struck another building beyond.
Then—
Kwooooom!
With a tremendous explosion, the entire warehouse was blown apart.
“Absurd.”
Ludger gave a hollow laugh at the titanic blast behind him.
“Because it is hellfire mana itself, its speed and accuracy surpass Kaloto by far.”
Had his reaction been even a little slower, his skull would have been pierced.
Compressed fire shot out so precisely, so swiftly.
‘Even quick reactions aren’t enough. Ordinary magic barriers would’ve been pierced instantly.’
Indeed, most mages, trained to raise shields instinctively, would have fallen to it nine times out of ten.
An unblockable attack.
The only defense was evasion.
At that moment, a bolt of lightning struck the black skeleton from afar.
Its body shuddered slightly just as it raised its arm toward Ludger again.
Ludger turned.
It was the agents of the Magic Information Bureau, who had just arrived on the scene.
Among them he recognized a familiar young mage—the one who had warned him earlier to stay back.
“There! That thing is Kaloto!”
“The form is different, but that mana... it can only be Kaloto!”
“Everyone, be careful! Whatever trick he’s pulled, we end it here!”
The agents were certainly skilled.
They unleashed spells on the black skeleton without pause.
Since it was wreathed in flames, their focus was on water and ice attributes.
And whenever it tried to counterattack, they raised earth to shield or obscure its view.
‘As expected of Bureau agents. Their teamwork is flawless—like the interlocking gears of a complex machine.’
It wasn’t something built in a day.
They struck at its elemental weakness, divided clearly into offense and defense, each fulfilling their role.
No wasted effort, no overexertion—just precise coordination.
But their opponent was ill-matched.
No matter how much magic they poured, the black skeleton—already transcended into another level—wouldn’t fall.
Worse, the stronger its flames grew, the more their spells fizzled against the heat, erased as if they had never been.
“Wh-what....”
Their attacks failing and the enemy growing stronger, the Bureau agents’ faces darkened.
In that unexpected turn, a small but dangerous gap opened.
The black skeleton did not miss its chance.
Its finger rose.
And the one it pointed to was the most inexperienced-looking of the young mages.
By instinct, it had chosen the weakest link in the group.
At the instant the mana gathered at its fingertip reached the threshold—
Flash!
A cross-shaped brilliance spun, and a green beam shot forth.
The young mage, seeing the attack racing toward him, hastily unfolded a defensive spell formula.
It was proof enough of his skill: he wasn’t some child who had entered the Bureau by nepotism. His barrier was precise and swift.
The very fact he had even managed to react to such a strike testified to his talent.
And then, someone yanked him sharply aside by the scruff of his neck.
“Uh—w-whoa?!”
The young mage felt his back grow damp as the green ray pierced through his barrier as though it were nothing and sliced through the air where his head had been.
If not for the one who had pulled him, nothing would have been left above his shoulders.
“Wh-who?”
Falling back onto his rear, he looked up at the one who had saved him.
His eyes widened.
“Y-you’re...”
“Don’t get in the way. Move aside.”
Ludger left the man’s stammering behind and strode slowly toward the black skeleton.
The creature, perhaps irritated that its strike had been foiled again, fixed its hollow gaze squarely on him.
The Bureau agents, unaware of the strange tension in the air, muttered.
“What’s with this atmosphere?”
“To him, we don’t even exist.”
The black skeleton opened its jaw.
Haaa.
A sigh-like exhalation escaped, carrying hellfire in a surging wave.
“D-dodge it!”
“Everyone fall back!”
They had just seen the youngest nearly lose his head even behind a barrier.
That attack was death itself.
So the Bureau agents withdrew quickly.
But Ludger... stepped forward.
Boldly.
“That lunatic—what is he doing?!”
They shouted in alarm, but their cries died when they saw the impossible.
The tide of green flames split cleanly in two—parting left and right, with Ludger standing firm at the center.
“What... what just...?”
“Wasn’t that supposed to be an unstoppable attack?”
“How in the world...?”
Their disbelieving eyes locked on Ludger.
They had thought him nothing more than a teacher brought by Marias. Someone like Casey Selmore was supposed to be the real help, even if she acted on her own whims.
At best, they had only hoped Ludger wouldn’t be a burden.
But the reality was the complete opposite.
He wasn’t there just because he was Casey’s fiancé.
He had the skill.
And Marias Selmore had known it—that was why she’d brought him as an external agent.
“How can a mere instructor... Are all Seorn’s teachers such monsters?”
Ludger ignored their murmurs, lowering his eyes to the spirit stone in his hand.
“So it can be used this way too.”
Just before the green fire reached him, he had raised Pascha’s stone against it.
He hadn’t expected it to absorb the flames again. And indeed, it hadn’t.
Like a child refusing foul food, Pascha had pushed the hellfire away.
That was how the torrent had split around him.
Woom.
Pascha buzzed angrily in protest—what kind of stunt was this?
“You should’ve helped when I asked. That would’ve been better for both of us.”
Pascha’s response was sheer disbelief.
“Well, never mind. I’ll overlook your childish sulking since you deflected that attack just now.”
Pascha flickered, surprised.
Why the sudden leniency?
“It’s nothing.”
Ludger’s gaze lifted upward.
“Because I don’t need your help anymore.”
What reflected in his eyes was a massive downpour crashing from above.
Not a drizzle, but a torrent, like a localized flood, descending upon the black skeleton.
Hissss!
A thick fog of steam billowed, spreading across the area.
“You’re late. What were you doing all this time?”
“Oh, please. I’ve been busy too, you know?”
At Ludger’s complaint, Casey appeared at his side, lips jutting in a pout.
“Trying to hog all the fun without me?”
“I only handled the one you left behind.”
“I didn’t ‘leave’ it. I was fighting another target and planned to chase this one afterward!”
“That kind of carelessness is why someone else has to take your share.”
“Hmph. Doesn’t matter. I’m the one who just took it down, so this fight’s mine.”
“I don’t remember us ever betting on such a thing.”
At Ludger’s cryptic reply, Casey shot him a look as if to ask what he meant.
Instead of answering, Ludger pointed forward with his chin.
Casey followed his gaze—and raised her brows.
“What the hell is that?”
The fog lifted. Green flames burned within.
And rising at its center—
The black skeleton, still wreathed in fire.
They had assumed dousing it with water would end it. But apparently, not.
“That thing. It’s Kaloto.”
“What?”
“More precisely, his corpse. Now it’s been seized by the hellfire mana he once controlled—turned into a puppet.”
“Then that means... the mana itself has a will?”
“If you had to name it, call it a corrupted magic beast. That makes it all the more dangerous. Unlike Kaloto’s flesh, it has no limits.”
The black skeleton turned its burning gaze on Casey.
The green flames, fed by its killing intent, roared skyward.
“Heh.”
Casey’s lips curved into a crooked grin.
That boasting blaze of hellfire ignited her own spirit in return.
“Fire is fire. Nothing more.”
Clutching her staff, Casey summoned her mana.
“Just wait. I’ll put you out in no time.”