The memories after that point were hazy.
All he could remember was charging at Ludger like a madman, shining with berserk light, only to be subdued in an instant.
Gariel had wanted to pour out his resentment and rage, but he couldn’t.
The moment he saw Ludger’s expression, he lost the ability to speak.
Under the moonlight, that young man’s face was filled with sorrow deeper than anyone else’s. Even amid the chaos, that sight had burned itself into Gariel’s mind.
Perhaps that was why.
Even now, ten years later, he still remained tied to that man he hated so much, still moving alongside him.
“...That is why I must save Rine, the daughter of the woman I loved. This is all I have left now.”
“To live not for yourself... you truly were born under a complicated fate.”
Cravat said that, then suddenly lifted his head.
A crow was perched outside the window, staring straight at them.
“My. It seems we’ve been found.”
“Huh? Found? What do you mean?”
As Gariel stammered in confusion, the inner door opened and Phyron strode out.
“You ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ noticed too?”
“Yes. With such thick killing intent approaching, how could I not?”
Phyron flexed one arm, proudly showing off his bicep.
“My muscles are trembling. Proof that enemies are drawing near.”
Gariel couldn’t tell whether that was some kind of superstition or if Phyron had actually sensed the enemy with his muscles.
But what did it matter?
The important thing was that the enemies had already tracked them to the vicinity of this hideout.
Caw!
The crow flapped its wings and took off.
From inside, Ludger, who had been working on his research, emerged fully prepared.
“Gariel.”
“......”
“Take Rine to a safe place.”
“...Got it.”
Cravat felt something strange and uneasy in the relationship between those two men speaking so briefly yet with such weight.
At Ludger’s words, Gariel vanished from sight.
So did Rine, who had been inside the room.
One could not directly touch others within stopped time, but there were many ways to transport a person without physical contact.
Now only Ludger, Phyron, and Cravat remained.
“They really aren’t giving us a single moment to rest.”
Cravat clicked his tongue at Nicolai’s relentlessness.
He had thought they’d at least have a day’s reprieve, but never imagined the pursuers would arrive this fast.
It was probably as Berom had warned — Nicolai had gained control over most of the island’s surveillance systems.
No matter where they ran or hid, as long as those devices existed, hiding was impossible.
And in Isla Machia, a place made of machines, searching for somewhere without surveillance was absurd.
Even down in the sewers, there would be at least one or two devices installed.
‘Still, we can’t exactly treat the wounded in a sewer, can we?’
They needed a basic sanitary environment at minimum — and every such place was under surveillance.
That meant the battle would inevitably start with their side at a disadvantage.
“Hm. My muscles are trembling harder now.”
Phyron said that with a serious expression, though the words themselves were bizarre.
Yet it wasn’t a lie — his muscles really were quivering.
Cravat couldn’t help but ask,
“What even is that? Some kind of magic?”
“Hah. It’s a new spell I developed — the Muscle of Danger Detection.”
So it was actual magic.
Ludger and Cravat stared at him in disbelief.
But Phyron, excited, began explaining the theory behind it.
“Human intuition — that mysterious sixth sense — I deliberately amplify it through the muscles. My mental waves stimulate the muscle fibers, causing them to resonate according to threat proximity. It might look simple, but it’s a complex compound spell that—”
“That’s enough.”
Seeing the explanation was about to drag on, Ludger cut him off.
“They’re coming.”
No sooner had he said that than the window shattered and a red shadow burst inside.
One of Nicolai’s pale-skinned experimental subjects.
Creatures forged by combining human, chimera, and World Tree cells.
These ones were different again — steel masks over their jaws, red bloodlust glowing in their eyes.
Kraaaagh!
They screamed through the metal masks, rushing at Ludger’s group.
“Hmph. What are these things?”
Phyron snorted and threw a light jab.
A “jab” — though his fist blurred out of sight and the air exploded several times in succession.
The five charging subjects lost their heads cleanly in an instant.
Close-range combat enhanced to superhuman extremes.
Even with reflexes beyond human limits, the experimental creatures couldn’t react.
Headless bodies dropped with dull thuds—
—and then twitched and started rising again.
“What the—?”
Phyron was stunned.
Taking advantage of his shock, a headless one lunged.
Long claws had sprouted from its fingers, glowing faintly red.
It was Ludger’s lightning barrier that deflected the blow.
“Don’t get careless. These ones are far stronger than before.”
He’d fought headless foes before and reacted instantly.
‘Feels similar to the Bug Brothers. Their bodies are grotesquely modified— even decapitated, they can still move.’
Meaning their heads weren’t command centers, merely body parts.
To test a theory, Ludger fired a light spell through one creature’s chest.
Pshoo!
A fist-sized hole pierced its heart. The wound blackened and smoked, but the creature didn’t fall.
“To move without a brain or heart... what the hell did he make?”
Cravat clicked his tongue in disgust.
“To them, the brain and heart are meaningless organs.”
They were practically living single-cell organisms.
Then how to kill them?
Phyron found the answer first.
“How about this!”
He threw a heavier punch this time — not a jab, but a straight.
His muscles surged, generating a storm of compressed air.
The mana-infused shockwave shredded the creatures into dust, leaving no trace.
An attack strong enough to shatter war mages’ defenses and even artifacts.
The dismembered remains never moved again.
They had figured out how to destroy them — but no one looked relieved.
Beyond the shattered window, red eyes lit up across the surrounding metal structures — dozens, maybe hundreds.
“Great. Looks like there are a few too many to deal with.”
Even as Phyron spoke, the red-eyed monsters charged.
Crrrk.
Their jaw-masks split open, revealing rows of long, serrated teeth like deep-sea predators.
A grotesque sight— impossible to believe such fangs could fit inside a human-shaped mouth.
Phyron swatted them aside like flies, while Cravat unleashed black smoke-like curses to repel them.
But their fragile movements puzzled Ludger.
‘No... newly sent specimens shouldn’t be this weak.’
Decapitated or heartless, they were still dangerous— yet something felt off.
If Nicolai was truly this obsessive, there had to be more.
His unease proved right.
Sshhk!
Something white sliced through the air toward Phyron.
Before he could even warn him, the projectile struck.
Ting! Crack!
Phyron’s iron-like muscles deflected most attacks, his body sheathed in constant mana reinforcement—
—but this time, a fragment had pierced his skin.
He looked down at his forearm in disbelief.
“A bone?”
The projectile was a sharpened piece of bone.
He plucked it out— only as long as a pinky joint, yet it had broken his defense.
“This... isn’t that black magic?”
He glanced around, but no black mage was visible — only the red-eyed subjects.
Then more white shards shot out between them like bullets.
Larger this time. Phyron knocked them aside with his fist.
“Experimental subjects using black magic...?”
Cravat had realized the same.
“And bone magic at that? That’s a spell from the long-extinct Black Mage School.”
Just as that dreadful thought crossed their minds, the monsters prepared their next attack.
Flames rippled and rose like living waves.
Ludger, Phyron, and Cravat all leapt back instinctively — they couldn’t take that head-on.
“That flame...”
Ludger spread his cloak of shadows like wings and rose into the air, narrowing his eyes at the flickering crimson blaze.
“Hellfire Mana.”
Ordinary fire burned orange, but this one was as red as fresh blood.
Different from the green flames of the Hellfire School, yet unmistakably similar in form and movement.
‘Wait— then that means...’
Before he could finish warning them, the monsters unleashed black magic.
The blood-red flames came alive, surging forward.
Sulfurous rain poured from above, corroding everything it touched, while sharp bone spears targeted their vital spots.
“They all can use black magic?!”
Phyron threw up a mana barrier, shouting in shock.
These inhuman creatures could all wield dark arts.
“That bastard Nicolai... so this is what he did with the Black Mage School he devoured.”
He had either used the black mages as material or applied their knowledge to his experiments.
They weren’t inferior to the previous special types — they were the next stage.
Two 6th-Circle mages and a black-magic master weren’t enough to treat this lightly.
“But it doesn’t matter.”
Ludger extended his hand, and countless steel spears materialized, piercing the monsters.
Even their swift movements couldn’t escape.
Tatatatatat!
A storm of steel spears rained down, enclosing the enemy in a massive fence.
When some tried to slip through the gaps, Cravat stepped forward.
“Nowhere to run.”
[Curse of Cat’s Cradle]
Black threads of curse energy stretched from his hands like a weaver’s loom, wrapping the entire steel enclosure in a dense web.
The ones who touched it melted instantly from the point of contact.
Realizing the danger, the subjects began casting spells of their own, dozens at once, attempting to break through.
They might have succeeded— if not for Phyron.
“Wahahaha! I’ll crush you all at once!”
Laughing uproariously, he clenched his fist.
Air compressed around it, swirling inward like a vortex.
His fist blazed with brilliant blue mana, growing denser and denser until it shone almost sky-blue.
He punched forward, releasing all the gathered power at once.
A colossal fist — vastly larger than his own — descended like a meteor upon the trapped creatures.
Even those trying to escape the fence froze, realizing it was unavoidable.
Kwoooom!
The sky-blue meteor slammed into the ground, erupting into a hemispherical explosion that swept the entire area.
It was a massive mana detonation. No creature could have survived it.
“Ha! Now that was satisfying!”
Phyron laughed in triumph — but Ludger’s sharp warning cut through the air.
“They’re not gone yet!”
Not gone?
Phyron turned toward the crater.
There was nothing but shredded flesh scattered around— and then, impossibly, it happened.
Blood-red flames of hellish mana began to writhe and rise, shaping themselves into human forms.
Within those crimson fires stood black skeletons glaring straight at Phyron.
Five of them.