Chapter 511: Counterattack (2)
"Did he notice?"
The man clad in a steel helmet and magitech armor reacted to Oliver's greeting.
It was Eli, the branch chief of the Nopton office.
"Even with my helmet and magitech armor on, you’re quite perceptive."
"Thank you for the compliment. I tend to assess people based on emotions rather than appearances."
"That's a bit unsettling."
"It's a habit. I can distinguish better now, but it used to be hard to identify people based solely on looks."
Underneath his steel helmet, Eli frowned. It wasn’t an offensive comment, yet he felt an inexplicable sense of unease.
"Why betray the Crime Firm?"
"Is that what you're curious about in this situation?"
"Yes. When I return to Landa, I think I'll have to explain it to Mr. Gordon… After all, we were in a position to receive your help."
"You speak as if you’re certain you’ll make it back to Landa alive."
"Oh, I’m sorry if that came off wrong. But doesn’t it sound odd to plan under the assumption of death?"
"No offense taken. Running this hotel has taught me a lot about the arrogance of wizards and dark magicians. However, your companions are dead. And you won’t be any different."
Eli's words were punctuated by the gang members outfitted with magitech weapons and armor, cranking up the power on their gear, making the engines hiss as they roared to life.
A legion of steel filled the confined space.
At that moment, Oliver raised his index finger.
"My companions… They’re probably not dead."
"What are you saying—"
"Branch Chief."
At that very moment, a gang member wearing an invisibility cloak stepped out from among the steel-clad soldiers and whispered into Eli's ear.
It was likely a report revealing that what they thought were the bodies of Derek, Yareli, and Ünner were actually just decoys made using corpses.
And Eli's suspicions proved correct.
"So they were just corpses?"
"Yes… Fake bodies imbued with magic and life force."
Eli looked at Oliver with a perplexed expression as his subordinate nodded awkwardly.
"Did you know from the start that we betrayed you?"
"Rather than knowing, I anticipated that betrayal was likely."
Oliver recalled the spatial magic shot that pierced through Hog.
The green magic array that had appeared midair held a peculiar familiarity and sparked an inexplicable sense of trust.
Not just the path there, but also that the destination city would be prepared for them accordingly.
"So, I simply made moves in advance, anticipating you would betray us as well."
"This is embarrassing. All the training to deceive a dark magician’s senses with honesty, the expensive dark magic items to mask our emotions—all useless... And where are your other companions?"
"They’re probably on their way to the Skadi School wizards by now, having slipped out of the hotel quietly."
Oliver responded, having scanned the entire city with his dark magician's senses while moving around the city.
It was an absurdly large range, and though it drained his mental and physical energy considerably, it yielded results worthy of the effort.
When wizards wielding ice magic, similar to Yareli's magic manipulation, and space-magic projectiles appeared, he was able to trace their main sources of power.
Interestingly, their locations were subtly misaligned with the data Eli had provided.
"Luckily, I searched ahead and was able to identify them. They should be arriving nearby around now."
"Ha! I knew you were a monstrous figure who gained fame instantly in Landa, but you’re not just a brute. The rumors that you formed a power base while playing the fool weren’t lies!!"
At that shout, one of Eli's gang members, armed with a magitech hammer and armor, surged forward at full power.
The force of his charge made the building shake as if it would collapse. Oliver countered by lightly throwing his quarterstaff, imbued with magic, at the attacker.
━━━!
A shockwave, similar to when he faced off with Hog, exploded, resounding with a deafening roar.
The windows shattered. Most gang members would have been paralyzed with shock at such a wave, but Eli’s men, clad in steel, instead took it as a sign that their magitech weapons were effective and charged at Oliver en masse.
Their aim was to crush him with overwhelming numbers and weight.
It wasn’t a bad idea. If they had been equipped with poor-quality gear, such a tightly-packed assault would have made them easy targets for magic. But with powerful magitech weaponry, it was a different story.
Instead of deploying defensive or offensive magic, Oliver pulled out a miniaturized magitech hammer from his pocket.
A spoil from his battle with Hog, Oliver restored the magitech hammer to its original size in a matter of seconds, then poured his magic into the weapon, adding it to the magic already present within.
As the additional magic flowed in, the magitech hammer went into overdrive, but Oliver didn’t stop there, altering the nature of the magic as well.
The intense change in a short time caused the magitech weapon to emit blue steam and crackle with electricity, trembling with terrifying power.
Hiss!! Hiss!! Hiss!!
"Don’t be scared! There’s a limit to its output! At this rate, it’ll overload and shut down!"
"Oh, you’re absolutely right."
Oliver responded absent-mindedly to Eli’s rallying call for his subordinates.
After all, it was rare for an enemy he’d just met to correctly guess his intentions, so how could he not be impressed?
Oliver swung the overheated and electrically charged hammer with all his might, using his left hand.
Not at a person, but at the opponent’s magitech weapon.
The engine spun wildly, and the gang member hesitated at the sight of the weapon’s fierce, electrifying glow. Naturally, the magitech weapons collided.
Bang━!
Steel clashed with steel.
Everyone expected a massive shockwave, but the impact was surprisingly less intense than anticipated.
Instead, the electricity from Oliver’s hammer and the gang member’s hammer began to resonate, dividing the charge between them.
Crackle!!!
The unspent shockwave and electric current merged into a transparent, spherical wave.
Like a soap bubble, it seemed ready to burst at the slightest touch.
Without missing the timing, Oliver infused more magic, causing the wave of electricity, stretched to its limits, to explode, discharging electricity in every direction.
An electric shockwave spread outward in a radial pattern.
The gang members were confronted with a dangerous blue current and instinctively raised their magitech weapons to shield themselves. It was a fatal mistake.
The burst of electricity and shockwave hadn’t been aimed at people—it had been aimed at the magitech weapons.
Starting from the hammer Oliver wielded, the magitech weapons connected by the current increased their output and altered their nature, radiating electricity and forming an interconnected web.
In an instant, a web of current formed.
The magitech weapons spun wildly, no longer under their users’ control, heating rapidly. The engines began to shut down from the overload...
"It’s… it’s so hot!"
One gang member shouted in a panic. It was the same man who had first confronted Oliver, and he dropped his magitech weapon as it became unbearably hot.
"...Oh dear. He shouldn’t have dropped it."
Oliver murmured. Ideally, he would have liked to hold on to it with his other hand, but it was impossible due to the burns on his hands.
Because of that, the magitech weapon, now overheated to the extreme, crashed onto the ground right in front of Oliver and exploded on impact.
The weapon burst into a bright blue-and-red explosion, powerful enough to instantly incinerate and obliterate a person. Yet this was only the beginning.
Magitech weapons connected by the electric current shared the force of the explosion, triggering a chain reaction like a row of dynamite sticks linked by a fuse.
The rapidly spinning gears, the groaning springs, the gauges pushed to their limits...
The once-precise magitech weapons turned into expensive bombs, quickly detonating in sequence, ultimately merging into one massive explosion that obliterated an entire floor of the hotel.
“Arrgh…!"
Eli, barely clinging to life amid the red-and-blue flames, acrid smoke, and the relentless shock, made a sound somewhere between a scream and a gasp as he emerged from the shattered glass and cement debris.
Fortunately, he had positioned his subordinates in front of him and thus had avoided the full impact of the electrical explosion, barely managing to survive.
The magitech armor he wore had shut down entirely, leaving him encased in a heavy shell of steel, but he took it as a hopeful sign.
After an explosion of that scale, surely even that monster wouldn’t be unscathed.
Eli pulled himself up, clinging to that faint hope.
No matter how powerful a wizard or dark magician was, in the end, they were human, limited by the frailties of the human body.
While there were rumors of some transcending their human bodies, no one had ever spoken of such feats in connection to Dave.
Surviving such an explosion would have been unthinkable, and even if he had, he couldn’t have escaped unharmed.
This would mean the contract was fulfilled.
“I can get support…! I can get support. I’ll rise again! I’ll sever ties with those Landa bastards who shoved me into this pit and build my own..."
"Is that your reason?"
An emotionless yet strangely familiar voice cut through all his calculations and sent a chill down Eli’s spine as he creaked his head up in terror.
Standing there, his face torn, with shadows swirling ominously behind him, was Oliver.
He touched his face, forming a magic array midair, and produced a mechanical arm made of magic, stitching up his torn skin.
Beneath the shredded mask, there lay another face—a shockingly youthful one, almost that of a boy. Yet, with the shadows writhing behind him, he seemed anything but human.
"Mo… monster?"
Fixing the repaired leather mask, Oliver spoke.
“Oh, you saw? You really weren’t supposed to see that… What am I to do with you now?”
Oliver hesitated for a moment, then shrugged, lifting his now-repaired, immensely heavy hammer.
...
"Are we there yet?"
In a secluded part of Nopton’s outskirts, a man asked.
His name was Victor, a wizard of the Traditional Skadi School. He pressed a blonde woman seated before the World Tree.
With his formidable build and dignified face, he projected an intimidating aura, though it was lost on her.
"You know rushing me won’t make this end any sooner, right?"
Surprisingly, she responded to him while connected to the World Tree.
In this state, her consciousness should have been fully submerged in the World Tree, unable to interact.
It was an anomaly Victor couldn’t understand, though he wasn’t surprised.
After all, she was not human, but an Eve… more specifically, Lilith, the artificial intelligence of the World Tree.
One of the three Eves that had suddenly appeared in the world.
An Eve, yet one who strangely cooperated with the dark magician, the Eternal Puppet of Immortality, with no connection whatsoever to the World Tree.
Perhaps that was why? Even Victor, renowned within the Skadi School as a gifted talent, felt an undeniable sense of intimidation before her—a powerful allure that was impossible to resist.
Just then, an urgent voice crackled through his communicator.
"Victor…! Ch-chik!… We’re struggling to hold on!… Chik!… The traitors are stronger than we expected…!"
The voice, faint and broken over the communicator, was soon drowned out by the sinister sounds of flames scorching the air, an icy chill freezing it, and the sharp whistling of something cutting through it.
After that, all he heard were screams and the last breaths of the fallen.
Initially, the approaching group consisted only of Derek, Yareli, and Ünner, two students from the Tower and a staff member, three people in total.
Also, according to investigations conducted by Lilith and Victor, they shouldn’t have posed any significant threat. Based on their calculations, the wizards they’d sent should have been enough to fend them off.
Yet reality proved the opposite, a bitter humiliation for Victor, as if he were witnessing the fading glory of their once-proud traditional school in the shadow of the rising Tower.
Lilith chuckled as she observed him.
“Ha… Perhaps the rumors of the traditional school’s decline are true. Well, it makes sense why the Archive would establish the Tower as an independent entity.”
Victor and the other wizards present beside Lilith all glared and ground their teeth at her words.
The Archive’s decision to sever ties with their branches in Landa and establish them as independent entities was a wound that had yet to heal—a stinging reminder of their disgrace. Incensed, Victor shouted.
“When will you be able to fully subdue Eve?!”
“Well…? Eve is resisting fiercely, so it’s not easy, but I should manage it soon. Although, it seems the Tower wizards will likely arrive before then.”
"Then, there’s time. I’ll handle those bastards myself."
Victor announced this and moved to face the intruding Tower wizards, rallying his colleagues.
Even though Puppet had arranged for their cooperation, he hadn’t assigned any oversight, and Victor's mind, clouded with past glories and grievances, was too fogged by pride to make a clear decision.
In fact, Lilith had subtly manipulated him into that choice.
Left alone, Lilith continued her connection with the World Tree and spoke aloud.
“He’s coming to rescue you… Crushing people with a hammer, no less… Isn’t it funny? So reckless.”
As she watched Oliver through the World Tree, Lilith emanated an indistinct aura of malice, resentment, jealousy, and a hint of sadness.
Perhaps in response to these feelings, her beautiful golden hair flashed into a dazzling array of colors—blue, red, plum, and many others.