The Steel Raven cut across the sky.
The shockwave that tore through the air slammed against the atmosphere, resounding with a thunderous roar.
Those already thrown into chaos by the battles erupting across the island all flinched at the booming noise rolling through the dark night sky.
Even when they looked up, there was nothing to see.
A hazy gray fog, a pitch-dark sky, a thick, colorless world where no starlight existed.
Even if a single black line sliced through it, no human eye could catch sight of it.
Riding upon the Steel Raven, Ludger flew straight toward the center of the third layer.
Isla Machia, composed of five layers in total, was generally conical in shape—one could call it a mountain of steel rising high into the sky.
If most people lived upon a mountain, they would build their homes along its ridges, but Isla Machia was different.
Just as a mountain might be filled with caves and mines within, Isla Machia contained countless internal passages and tunnels leading inward.
Ludger headed toward the one that would bring him to Nikolai as quickly as possible.
The passageway visible in the distance was sealed by a massive bulkhead.
A thirty-meter-high alloy gate at least several meters thick.
Ordinarily, it would have stood open, but Nikolai, aware that Ludger was coming, had closed the bulkhead in advance.
Even upon seeing it, Ludger did not stop or veer away.
Instead, he accelerated the Steel Raven even faster, as if to show off.
Fwoooosh!
The Steel Raven’s shape sharpened, growing even sleeker and deadlier.
Its beak elongated, stretching forward until it resembled the blade of a sword.
The enormous shadow-blade of the Steel Raven sliced through the air and plunged straight into the bulkhead.
The gate was made of a special alloy—resistant to both explosions and magic, reinforced through specialized treatment.
Even for Ludger, charging into it head-on was a reckless and dangerous move.
Yet contrary to what one might expect, there was no deafening sound of impact.
Boom!
Such a sound only erupted when two forces of similar strength clashed head-on.
When one simply pierced through the other, the story changed.
A round hole opened in the massive alloy bulkhead as if a tunnel had been bored straight through it.
Nikolai’s subordinates, waiting in ambush near the entrance, gaped at the sight.
The Steel Raven, having breached the fortress gate with ease, did not stop.
As it flew swiftly through the large, dim passageway, hidden devices along the walls activated.
Clack.
Gun barrels extended from the floors, walls, and ceiling alike, all aiming at Ludger and the Steel Raven as they unleashed fire.
Tututututututu!!
Tracer rounds flared in the darkness, stringing together into bright streaks that illuminated the tunnel in bursts of flickering light.
The narrow, dark space seemed to glitter as if filled with starlight.
What could be seen by eye were only the glowing tracers—the invisible bullets numbered at least twice as many.
Even the Steel Raven, moving at such speed, could not dodge them all.
If I don’t avoid them, then I just won’t need to.
Ludger poured even more mana into the Steel Raven, and the shadow shrouding its body ignited like black fire.
The mana-born darkness devoured every bullet that flew toward it.
Each round swallowed by the shadow was broken down into fragments.
The dismantled metal was absorbed into Ludger’s own shadow, layer by layer.
The endless rain of bullets finally ceased. Yet before there was even time to feel relief, a new obstruction arose.
Crackle!
Violent currents burst from the walls, spreading into a vast net of electricity that filled the entire passageway with humming energy.
Kreeee!
For the first time since flight began, the Steel Raven reacted violently.
Its speed dropped, and it was suddenly ensnared, caught as though in a spider’s web of current.
Ludger ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) leapt down urgently from its back, narrowing his eyes.
A magnetic field? Don’t tell me they hid Tesla coils inside the passage itself?
The Steel Raven, made of metal, was inevitably vulnerable to magnetism.
But a mere Tesla coil could never have trapped it like this.
Judging by the nature of that electric web, this too was a fusion of magic and machinery—true magitech.
Still, the Steel Raven would not simply endure it.
Infuriated at being bound, even for a moment, it thrashed its wings violently and tore through the net by sheer force.
Scattered sparks burst in the air.
The Tesla coils roared back to life, releasing an even stronger magnetic field and current web.
The Steel Raven spread its shadow wide, engulfing the surrounding space in darkness.
Crackle!
The two forces collided, erupting with violent energy midair.
Kreeee!
Spreading its wings wide, the Steel Raven gathered all its power into its body and shot forward like a missile.
Now carrying energy beyond its critical limit, the Steel Raven had become a bomb in itself.
The moment the electric net reacted to its metal body to bind it again—
—its condensed power detonated outward in a massive explosion.
KWA-A-A-ANG!!!
The blast reverberated through the surrounding passages.
Sections of the metal tunnel warped under the shock, and the island itself quaked with tremors.
The defensive systems embedded along the corridor went dead from the collision’s aftershock, and the Tesla coils within the walls melted down under the surge.
The passage’s defense network was completely disabled.
But the Steel Raven was no longer intact.
Having forced itself beyond its limit, its steel body was torn apart, unable to maintain its form.
Ludger retrieved the Steel Raven’s shadow, wrapped himself in Ater Nocturnus, and absorbed the remaining steel fragments into his darkness.
“You did well.”
Now, he had to move forward by his own strength.
Ludger walked slowly down the passageway.
There was only dense darkness ahead, yet he could feel instinctively that his destination was near.
Wiiiiiiing!
Perhaps because of the recent explosion, red emergency lights flickered to life throughout the passage.
Alarms blared in shrill repetition, the flashing crimson light painting everything in ominous shades as if blood had been splattered across the walls.
Shrouded in his cloak of shadow, Ludger walked steadily through that blood-tinged chaos.
* * *
Wiiiiiiing!
The ceaseless, shrieking alarm was enough to drive Nikolai’s men insane.
“Hey. Someone shut that damn noise off.”
“Sir, the system’s completely fried from the blast—we can’t.”
“Damn it. This way, both sides are fighting half-blind.”
Without the red light flooding their eyes, they could’ve used their new night-vision goggles to spot the enemy even from afar.
But with this glare distorting their vision, using the goggles now would only leave them blind.
“Stay focused. Even if there’s only one of him, his power equals that of an army.”
“Still, is it even possible for someone to break through that bulkhead? I heard mages tested it dozens of times and barely left scratches.”
“I don’t know.”
“And we set up the entire passage with defense systems, didn’t we? Those alone could wipe out a battalion—or annihilate a War Mage unit in seconds.”
The subordinate hesitated, then suggested, “Maybe that explosion killed the intruder, sir?”
The commander wanted to bark at him to stop talking nonsense, but couldn’t.
Because, deep down, he wished it were true.
Anyone capable of storming this place alone was a monster—and no matter how perfectly prepared they were, casualties would be inevitable.
He didn’t think they would lose.
But the thought that someone might die here—that he might be the one—gnawed at their hearts like worms of fear.
Huff... Huff...
Ragged breaths slipped between the wails of the siren.
“Hey. Shut that guy up.”
The commander’s voice snapped irritably, but there was no response.
Instead, the heavy breathing grew harsher, spreading unease like an infection.
“You bastards, get a grip!”
He shouted, only to realize something was wrong with his own body.
Shiver.
His fingertips trembled without his will.
What... what is this?
It wasn’t from cold—the place was sweltering from the heat of pressurized steam pipes running nearby.
Yet his lips went pale, and his body began to shake.
Something was wrong. Deeply wrong.
“You’re sharp for a commander, at least.”
A whisper brushed against his ear. His heart dropped.
He didn’t scream—he’d survived too many battles for that.
His reflexes made him whip up his special-issue firearm, aiming toward the voice.
The bullets used special powder unaffected by [Silence of Fire]; if he pulled the trigger, even a mage would die in an instant at this range.
“Ah... Aah.”
But he couldn’t pull it.
Beneath the crimson lights, the black shadow standing before him made his whole body go limp.
Just meeting its gaze overwhelmed him.
His mind screamed to fire, but his body would not move.
The shadow’s arm lifted.
“Huh?”
The last thing he saw was his vision spinning upside down.
With the commander’s corpse hitting the floor, the suffocating silence shattered.
“It—it’s him! He’s here!”
“The commander’s dead!”
“Shoot! Kill him! Kill him now!”
Normally, they would have surrounded Ludger, forming a web of fire and deploying multiple devices to attack in formation.
But in this chaos and fear, reason was gone.
These were not inexperienced soldiers—
—they were simply overwhelmed.
Not only by the pressure of the atmosphere, but by the suffocating mana Ludger radiated, powerful enough to blur their senses and conjure hallucinations.
It meant Ludger was serious—and furious.
Tututututu!
Gunfire flashed in all directions.
The emergency lights flickered on and off in intervals.
Explosions, alarms, screams—hell itself seemed to unfold around them.
Wrapped in black shadows, Ludger appeared whenever the light returned, vanishing back into darkness as it dimmed.
Flash.
A fleeting silhouette. Then, another flash—and nothing remained where it stood.
The moment one’s gaze lingered in awe, death descended.
Ludger slipped effortlessly between enemies, carving through them, leaving behind only fallen bodies forming a trail of corpses.
Clank, clank.
Then came the automata.
They had overridden their standard limitations, their hulking frames now matching steam golems in size.
Every limiter disabled, every weapon mounted—these were no longer machines, but killing engines.
A mannequin-like automaton thrust forward the blade protruding from its forearm.
But even as it lunged, its body disintegrated.
Ludger’s released mana cannon didn’t stop there; it vaporized the rows of automaton soldiers lined behind it.
Drawn by the commotion, the experimental subjects came swarming in as well.
Kiieeeek!
Pale-skinned humans crawled along the walls and ceilings on all fours, rushing at him like an infestation of insects.
Ludger did not stop.
Dark trails slashed through the air, painting the surroundings in destruction and despair.
Every creature that charged him was torn apart, burned, frozen, or crushed.
Some melted into sludge, others were impaled by countless blades of steel or buried and pressed into the ground.
Their forms differed, but the end was the same—
—a silent death.
At last, Ludger spotted a door far ahead. He raised his hand and blasted it away.
* * *
Bang!
The massive door, like one from a bunker, flew off its hinges with ease.
Nikolai clicked his tongue.
“I even filled this place with obstacles to buy time, and they couldn’t delay him for a second.”
Though he knew his loyal subordinates were all dead, his expression didn’t change.
As if their lives had nothing to do with him.
Then, from beyond the smoke and darkness, a pair of blue eyes appeared.
Their owner stepped inside.
Unlike the dark corridor, the chamber ahead was bright—a vast, spherical space.
Nikolai spread his arms wide in mock welcome, smiling.
“Welcome, John Doe. To Isla Machia’s core—
the Central Reactor.”