"With this, both your toughness and the limits your body can reach have risen greatly. Do not fear the explosion."
Eska held a hand suffused with blue light against Haseol's body.
"Be careful of speed. Excessive speed is always the problem with a mage's magic."
At Bisan's warning, Haseol nodded.
"Open your eyes wide."
Myun was fitting Haseol with a contact lens.
"If you wear this, ability gear will be glowing purple. Bring it back."
"Okay."
"Give me the knife and cloak, then take this umbrella."
Myun handed Haseol a pitch-black umbrella.
"Why an umbrella?"
"It's a Terrorist, so it's not like you will be fighting with knives. Block and stab with the umbrella."
"Will it withstand flames?"
"It will."
"What about pressure?"
"Endure it with your body."
"Okay."
"If you turn it at the right time, you can knock away whatever comes at you from the front, but......"
Myun looked at Haseol, then turned his head away.
"Your talent is, well, a little...... You know."
His attitude held sympathy.
"That is right, isn't it?"
Haseol smiled.
"Everything we have given you now is focused on things that are easy and simple to understand, so only focus on those. Understood?"
"Okay."
Teaching him more and giving him more things would only make his head more complicated.
"Next."
Myun stepped away from Haseol, and Bisan approached.
"After you deal with the Terrorist, if the supermarket collapses and the loop begins again, that would be a shame, right?"
"It would."
"So even if it is inside a collapsing supermarket, if you find something that must be saved, jump in."
"Into the flames?"
"Yes. There should be a little leeway."
With a pleasant smile, Bisan made an unreasonable demand.
"What if I die buried in the building?"
"You can get out."
"How?"
"You have wings on your back."
"......"
Haseol stared fixedly at Bisan.
"Could you not teach me how to bring out my wings and fly......?"
"Think it is possible."
"Possible......"
"It is something you can do already. Just use it."
"I will try. If I get hurt and it only ends there, I am the only one who loses out."
Haseol nodded.
"Start getting ready."
Myun pushed Haseol's back and brought him before Rootstream.
"I think it might be good for me to try a challenge in this loop as well."
Eska spoke regretfully.
"What challenge?"
Haseol answered as though he was willing to hear it out.
"Capture the ghost alive, or let the loop execute several times. There is much we need to test."
As Haseol was about to respond, Bisan stepped in front of Eska.
"If the loop keeps executing, there is a possibility that the Terrorist will realize it. So we target the point after the next loop executes, when the Terrorist is unprepared. We have already failed twice this time, so we must succeed for certain."
Bisan rapidly laid out his case to Eska.
"Had we not already reached that conclusion?"
"Hmmmmmm."
"You lost the vote, so could you please step aside?"
"All right."
Eska took a step back.
Haseol stood before Rootstream.
Holding the umbrella out before him, he readied himself to run.
Shura approached Haseol with a cigarette in her mouth.
"Hold the umbrella like this, and lower your waist a little more."
Shura corrected Haseol's posture.
"You can run lower."
"Okay."
"Even if it feels like your face will hit the ground, you can run if you move your two legs."
"Okay."
"Go and come back."
"Okay."
Haseol nodded.
"If your speed becomes too fast, it will be hard to react to our words. Trust your senses."
"Okay!"
"Haseol."
Eska spoke as she floated in the sky.
"Set off."
Rootstream became even more blackened.
That must mean the loop had executed once more.
Haseol kicked off the ground and ran inside Rootstream.
Inside Rootstream.
Haseol ran.
Gripping the umbrella, he entered the snow-filled place where there were no people.
Each time he kicked off the ground, pure-white snow burst behind him.
He was fast.
When he kicked off the ground once more in that state, even more snow burst behind him.
He was gaining speed.
He was already impossibly fast.
Yet he was becoming faster.
He could become faster.
As he saw the rest area rapidly draw near, Haseol understood.
Why Bisan had said not to place additional physical-enhancement magic on him.
He could not control it.
Neither his direction nor how he was supposed to stop.
However, it was all right for now.
Because the target was clear.
Because he only needed to run in a straight line.
It was dark because he had not made light with a scroll, but he could at least faintly see the target.
He closed the distance to the rest area in an instant.
Haseol opened the umbrella and jumped.
Looking beneath his feet, Haseol confirmed his position.
An impact struck the umbrella.
The impact traveled through it to his hands.
Rumble!
Haseol broke through the building's wall and charged inside.
The umbrella was sturdy.
Beneath his feet, he could see part of a wall that had not collapsed.
Fragments of wall flew forward.
Haseol lowered the umbrella a little and checked ahead.
In the rest area were only empty display stands.
And far away, a ghost stood there.
Haseol's feet still had not touched the floor.
That was because he had jumped at such tremendous speed.
He lowered his feet to accelerate further with both legs.
Tap!
His feet wavered.
Landing at high speed and starting to run again were themselves unfamiliar acts to him.
It was like landing badly after parachuting, or getting off a motorcycle that was speeding along.
Crunch.
Haseol gritted his teeth and braced a hand against the floor.
He braced himself and ran.
It felt as though his face would hit the ground.
Yet he moved both legs and his hand, advancing forward.
He pushed aside with the umbrella the display stands that blocked his path.
"What?!"
The Terrorist raised its switch in shock.
An explosion.
The ceiling began to collapse along with the flames.
A display stand flew in from the side.
Haseol ignored the flying display stand.
He simply ran forward.
And stabbed the Terrorist in the chest with the umbrella.
"Guhak?!"
[Good! That did it!]
Myun's voice.
Crraaaash!
Driving everything before them.
BOOM!
They burst through the wall of the rest area.
Glass fragments, gray chunks of stone, scattering dust, and tumbling display stands.
Through all of it.
Thump, crash, tumble!
Haseol and the ghost rolled.
Haseol and the ghost rolled through countless fragments.
Snow scattered in every direction and flew upward.
Red blood and black blood splattered everywhere.
Then Haseol and the ghost came to a stop.
"Ah, ahhhhhh."
Haseol shook snow off his whole body and got to his feet.
"Grrk, grk, grh."
The ghost lay sprawled on the ground, vomiting black blood.
Holding the umbrella, Haseol walked toward the ghost.
"I will finish it."
[Do so.]
Haseol drove the umbrella down toward the ghost's head.
Fwoooosh!
The ghost sprayed black blood like black smoke.
"......"
Then it disappeared.
Haseol slowly raised his head, his face mixed with black and red blood.
"Rootstream has not disappeared."
[Hmm, the ghost is dead, yet Rootstream has not disappeared. There must be something else.]
[First, take a close look at the rest area. Can you see anything?]
At Myun's words, Haseol looked at the supermarket burning in flames.
Perhaps not every explosive had detonated properly, as the building had not completely collapsed.
However, just a few explosions had left the building burning fiercely.
"There is."
[A person?]
"No. I can see something in the shape of a person's hand......"
[Is it purple?]
"Yes."
[Then it is ability gear. A glove.]
"If it is ability gear......"
[Bring it.]
"I should, right?"
Haseol let out a breath.
[We still do not know exactly what course Rootstream follows, but we should stop the enemy's objective first.]
"Okay. Then I will go get the ability gear."
Haseol looked at the rest area burning fiercely.
"Why is it burning so fiercely when there is nothing to burn?"
He muttered as though he could not understand it.
[It seems to be the Terrorist's ability. If possible, I would have liked to examine the ability a little more.]
"No. I will finish it this time."
After saying that, Haseol took a deep breath.
[Looking at Rootstream's color, it seems we may still have about one more attempt.]
"The flames really...... Hah. They make me not want to go in."
They were each saying only what they wanted to say.
Haseol stared fixedly at the burning building.
"I am a moth, I am a moth."
He muttered as he looked at the blazing flames.
"I am a moth that loves fire. A moth that loves leaping into flames......"
Gritting his teeth.
"A moth."
He ran.
Toward the purple light in his sight.
In a straight line.
He broke through the side opposite the one he had broken through earlier.
WOOOSH!
Flames touched his body.
They were hot.
Even without breathing, it felt as though his lungs were hot.
Even so, Haseol ran forward.
Crash!
He shoved aside display stands as he ran toward the purple light.
The thing suffused with purple light was a black leather glove.
Haseol reached his hand toward the glove.
Tap.
He caught it and went farther in.
"Hah."
He took a brief breath.
He was dizzy.
His vision quickly blurred.
Thud.
His foot caught on a fallen chunk of stone.
He fell.
His head struck the floor first, and he rolled across it.
His vision spun round and round.
Then.
Rumble!
His body struck the collapsed ceiling.
He crashed bodily into the piled-up chunks of stone.
"Ah."
With a groan, Haseol instinctively raised the umbrella.
Rumble!
The ceiling collapsed.
Vibrations hammered against the umbrella.
"Ngh, ngh."
The thick smoke made it impossible to breathe.
The burning flames pricked at his skin.
The collapsed building was dark.
He could not see properly in any direction.
"I have to finish this time......"
Pinned beneath the building, Haseol gritted his teeth.
"I cannot do this again......!"
He was enduring, gritting his teeth.
He had to get out.
Where?
If the building had collapsed, where would be the thinnest place?
The ceiling.
Haseol.
"I."
He muttered.
He put strength into both legs.
Rumble.
Still enduring the weight pressing down on the umbrella.
"Am a moth."
He moved both legs, but he could not push it away.
He had enough strength.
However, the legs that had to produce that strength were damaged.
"I am!"
He shouted as he put strength into both legs again.
"A moth!"
Upward.
Fwoosh!
Black wings burst out of his back, striking both air and ground.
Rumble!
Pushing aside the entire pile of building, he rose into the sky.
Smoke and flames followed.
Haseol instinctively spun the umbrella.
Flames and smoke flew in every direction, as though they had been sucked into the umbrella.
[Oh! He did it!]
BOOM!
Haseol burst through the rest area.
The building collapsed completely.
Open air.
Beyond it, flames spread like fireworks.
The sight was certainly beautiful.
The flames and smoke spreading in a circle were beautiful enough to make anyone applaud.
And Haseol, who held the umbrella that had made those flames.
"Kh, haak, haak."
Was breathing heavily in midair, eyes half closed.
He was falling in that state.
Even as he fell, he kept a tight grip on the black leather glove and umbrella.
Tap.
Shura caught Haseol.
She had moved in an instant at an absurd speed from the entrance to Rootstream to this place.
WHOOOOSH!
The aftereffect burst out in the opposite direction.
A wind blew.
Like the wind an automobile creates when it comes to an abrupt stop in front of someone.
A speed many times faster and more intense than a car's had vanished in an instant.
The wind blew away all the smoke and flames Haseol had made.
Shura landed on the ground with Haseol in her arms.
"King of the Night. Release Si Haseol's Bloodline State."
Holding Haseol, Shura spoke to Bisan.
"King of Mages, treat Si Haseol."
She spoke to Eska, who was flying over.
"Fairy King, find out what this is."
With her foot, Shura kicked the black leather glove lying on the ground toward Myun.
"First put out your cigarette in front of a patient."
Eska approached Shura, and half of Shura's cigarette was cut away and dropped to the ground.