"Hey, wake up!"
"How is he?"
Moor was examining the fallen telekinetic. He was clearly still breathing, but he wasn't coming around.
Moor immediately applied the Benediction Arts to check the man's condition.
"This is maddening. His heart's gone."
For a sorcerer, the heart is generally the output circuit and the brain the control circuit.
It's true for anyone, of course, but a ruined heart was fatal for a sorcerer.
"It seems this potion... puts a strain on the heart."
Moor tried to patch him up enough with the Benediction Arts for an interrogation, but the heart was already too far gone.
"So now what?"
"Good question."
Frustrated, Moor drew a cigarette from his coat and set it between his lips.
The body search was already finished. No remains had turned up. Helpless as the man had been against Ran, there was no denying his volume of mana was considerable.
The problem was Depth.
The reason a man with that much mana had put up no resistance at all against Ran was that the Depth of the sorcery he used was low. He hammered an excessive quantity of mana into low-Depth sorcery, so the output never matched the investment.
'Being a telekinetic... even that much would flatten your average nobody.'
The result of forcing more mana than his heart could handle through it was lying at Moor's feet.
"Looks like people are arriving over there — shall we go?"
"Hm? Go where, all of a sudden?"
Moor had been smoking in silence, and the sudden words startled Ran.
"The enemy's main camp, obviously. Ease off the silver energy. I'll talk with them briefly and then we teleport straight there."
Moor waved at the group of people visible in the distance.
With the situation more or less concluded, Moor had contacted headquarters, and in time four Trier Guild members arrived at the site where Ran and Moor were.
"We'll be heading to the enemy's main camp, where the fighting is. I've stabilized the ones still breathing with the Benediction Arts. I leave the rest to you."
Moor briefed the guild members on the situation and asked them to handle the site.
"Thank you, paladin. But do be careful. Word is it's chaos over there."
"Chaos?"
The guild members who had heard Moor out went to their assigned tasks — all but the one who seemed to be their leader.
He stayed behind and told Ran and Moor how things stood.
"Yes. The Benediction Arts you laid on us — on our weapons, that is — vanished the moment the fighting started. And there wasn't just one telekinetic."
"What did you say?"
The words out of his mouth were rather shocking. Feeling there was no time to lose, Moor began preparing a teleport at once.
When Moor rolled up his right sleeve, the formula inscribed on his arm slowly began to glow.
"It happened just before they engaged, so retreat was impossible. The thin-bladed weapons all shattered not long after the fighting began, and the ones using great axes and maces are barely holding on, as I understand it."
The guild member kept explaining right up until Ran and Moor departed.
"Thank you. We'll see you at headquarters when this is over."
"I hope so."
Once the teleport was ready, Moor thanked the man for the information.
The teleport triggered, and the two of them came down a little way from where the fighting was.
A safe zone. They had clearly teleported well clear of it, and yet the screams, the clash of weapons, and the sound of bombardment all came through to their ears with perfect clarity.
"It really is chaos."
Ran studied the battle from a distance. On the ground it was a full frontal engagement, with the Imperial Army encircled by the illegal guild, while overhead telekinetics intercepted the imperial troops.
The sorcerers of the Imperial Army and the Laican Domain were putting up some resistance of their own in the air, of course, but it didn't look to be doing much good.
Behind the imperial lines stood a makeshift headquarters, and behind the illegal guild's lines stood a building so large you had to wonder what it was doing in a place this remote. It sat somewhere between a castle and a mansion.
"So why did we come here instead of joining up with the Imperial Army's main force?"
Having watched the fighting a long while, Ran seemed to hit on the question and put it to Moor.
"At first, I paid no attention to the enhancement potion at all. I thought the problem was the rare metal. But the real problem was this."
Moor drew an empty bottle from his coat and shook it. Ran recognized it as the enhancement potion they had been discussing.
"It was strange from the start. However large the illegal guild's forces and however foul the things they've done, I have never once heard of a coalition assembled like this. And on top of that — look over there."
Moor pointed at the battlefield.
"How many imperial soldiers would you say are involved?"
"Mm... five thousand at the least?"
Ran counted not only where Moor was pointing but the forces at the rear as well.
"Right. A company averages two thousand, so this is an operation with at least two companies committed. Which makes 'we're short-handed because of the Far East War, so we're taking help wherever we can get it' pure nonsense."
At a glance the terrain and shape of the battle made the Imperial Army look badly disadvantaged, which made it hard to notice — but in fact their numbers far exceeded the enemy's.
"The rare metal was solved by the Order and the Laican Domain. The telekinetic we all assumed was one man was solved by us. And even the remaining forces are being handled by Trier..."
"So what are you trying to say?"
Moor still hadn't answered his question and was talking about something else, and Ran got irritated.
"I suspect the Imperial Army's objective isn't arresting the illegal guild at all — it's the alchemist behind them. Just like with the doctor last time. Which is to say, their objective is the same as ours."
"They're after the Sage too?"
Ran's face brightened as though he'd finally understood Moor's point.
"But they're trying to take a Sage with only that much force?"
"Well, alchemists are generally thought to be weak. They probably assumed all they had to do was clear away the bodyguards. Absurd, of course."
The same situation as last time. Ran nodded as though he had understood it completely.
Moor did not, in fact, think Ran had understood. The situation wasn't as clear-cut as it looked.
What he had learned since the doctor's case was that some part of the Imperial Army knows Sages exist.
The reason eluded him. But one thing was certain: someone was using the Imperial Army to secure a Sage.
"Right! It sounds like things have heated up over there, so shall we go in ourselves?"
Moor concentrated mana in his right arm once more and readied a teleport.
Then he teleported into the interior of the illegal guild's stronghold in front of them.
"Huh?"
"Hm? What? Weren't we going straight inside?"
Moor had clearly aimed for the inside of the building, but they landed in a forest some considerable distance away.
Looking up and ahead, they could see the castle that had been their target.
"It seems there's a ward here I didn't anticipate. They must have a rather excellent sorcerer."
"Moor... you did say we were going to catch a Sage, didn't you?"
Moor realized how absurd his own remark had been.
Neither one could have said who started it; both of them laughed at once.
"Right. Shall we try it seriously this time?"
Moor and Ran began approaching the castle carefully.
With most of the forces out fighting, there were very few defenders.
Moor turned his body into black fog in an instant and rode it up the castle wall.
Then he shot the soldiers guarding it with his Glock.
"This side's clear. Come up."
Moor beckoned casually from the top of the wall to Ran below.
"Is it really all right to just fire away like that? Weren't we infiltrating?"
Ran cleared the wall in a single leap and landed beside Moor.
"With that racket going on over there? Of course it's fine. I doubt anyone even heard it."
Moor explained it while setting a cigarette between his lips.
"From here on, help me search."
The two of them dropped down inside the wall together.
Ran by free fall, Moor easing himself down with sorcery.
After that they began the search, using Ran's senses and Moor's detection sorcery. Twice along the way they ran into patrols moving in fours, and Moor put them down in a stroke.
"All of it's rare metal. Can I take one?"
"Oh? Didn't know you cared about weapons. Go ahead."
Ran picked up a sword similar to the one he used from among the fallen.
"Right, let's go."
"No — no need for that."
For a moment Moor couldn't follow. Then he understood.
"Coming to us in person, no less."
"Brace yourself. That one's real."
Ran's expression had shifted entirely from a moment ago, and he was growling.
A woman with long red hair was walking toward them, her front hair long enough to hang over her eyes. Behind her came three swordsmen armed with rare metal, and one boy.
That boy resembled the telekinetic Ran had just put down.
"Well, well... trying to avoid a fox and running into a tiger."
A voice reached their ears, quite high in pitch but steady. Ran went straight into a combat stance, and the other side matched him, drawing weapons and readying themselves.
"You seem to know who we are, so a long conversation is unnecessary. Wouldn't you agree?"
At Moor's question, the Sage gave a faint smile. In the same moment Ran let his silver energy loose and raised his sword.
"Your reputations already reach me. My teacher, in particular, never runs out of praise for you."
"Teacher?"
"Moor, out of the way!"
Moor wanted an answer to the Sage's ambiguous remark. But the instant Ran confirmed she was a Sage, he had no intention whatsoever of talking.
Ran took the sword he had just acquired and charged her.
CLANG.
Ran drove straight in and swung at the Sage — and one of her bodyguards blocked it with his blade.
"Move!"
Silver energy — deploy.
Ran deployed the silver energy at once and used its force to hurl his blade-locked opponent bodily away.
Instantly, the other two swordsmen swung at Ran as though to bury him.
But Ran slipped their blades at speed and moved to counter.
Then, without warning, a rectangular wall shot up out of the ground and slammed into his flank.
The impact tore a grunt out of him as he was flung back, rolling across the ground.
"Hmm... I certainly meant to make it larger. What happened?"
The Sage looked between her own palm and the structure that had struck Ran, puzzled.
"You—!"
Ran charged her again at once, and her bodyguards moved to match.
Marcel-Style Glacier Cleave.
Ran packed the sword in his hand with silver energy to its limit. And swung.
A blade-wind carrying silver energy fell on his enemies like a frost-laden typhoon.
"Phew... what a dangerous power you have. Hm?"
The Sage stepped forward slightly and, before the slash laden with silver energy could arrive, raised a great wall out of the ground to block it.
But that too was a structure made of mana. The moment the silver energy touched it, it collapsed.
Ran seemed to have anticipated exactly that; he was already within arm's reach of the Sage, blade swinging.
CRASH—!
"Ugh..."
A dull sound, and the Sage was flung a long way.
She had reinforced her left arm to block Ran's sword. Everything below her elbow was shattered, and blood began to run from her mouth.
Realizing it belatedly, the Sage's four bodyguards charged Ran as one.
BANG BANG BANG BANG
From a distance, cigarette between his lips, Moor used 'Jaka' to take all four heads off.
"Did you think I was going to just stand there?"
"Nnngh!"
The Sage, composed until moments ago, faltered when her subordinates fell.
And she began firing sorcery wildly.
Metals of every shape started erupting from the ground all around.
Moor flew straight up to avoid them.
Ran moved at speed, slipping the attacks. And swung a fist at the Sage's face.
She tried to escape by teleport. But between Ran's silver energy and her own panic, the sorcery refused to trigger, and her head snapped violently around as she went out.
"That was easier than I expected."
Ran shook out the wrist of his punching hand as he spoke. Having realized this wasn't the Sage he was looking for, his interest had evaporated, and he didn't look back.
"Well, she's an alchemist. Her real strength is out there being used."
Moor jerked a thumb toward the outside of the castle as he spoke.
Enhancement potions, rare metal produced and forged into weapons, and the nullification of the enemy army's weapon enhancement on top of that. She had given every kind of support one can give from behind a war — and it still wasn't enough to protect her own body.
As he spoke, Moor formed a black sphere in his palm.
The sphere shuddered slightly, then swallowed all five fallen bodies.
"Right! By the sound of things outside, the Imperial Army has lost. Let's get out before the illegal guild's people come back."
Ran nodded, stopped releasing his silver energy, and finished preparing the teleport with Moor.