As if ignoring the rules of the world, countless black lines were drawn across space.
Each of them became a single black blade and mercilessly carved through Miguel’s body.
“What is this...?”
Ron cried out, more than a little shocked by the high-tier magic he was seeing for the first time, but Gale, watching the scene, clenched his teeth.
Not yet.
It was an obvious fact that his magic had struck Miguel.
The tangled black lines were enough to create countless cuts across Miguel’s body, but that was all.
Miguel’s obsession with his twisted justice was far greater than expected, and the artifact that had swallowed his bluff resisted Gale’s magic to the very end.
As a result.
“...How astonishing.”
Miguel stood firmly in place despite the countless wounds gouged deep enough to expose bone.
He took one step toward Gale and said,
“Move.”
At that, Ron, who had been beside him, was sent flying in an instant and slammed into a corner.
“Kgh...!”
As if Ron no longer mattered in the slightest, Miguel swept him aside in one move and flashed his black eyes while giving off a thick aura.
Seeing that, Gale felt his heart pound.
Life or death.
Under the merciless condition that a single wrong judgment could cost him his life, Gale smiled.
It was not because he was enjoying himself.
In a situation where fleeing was not an option, he felt that if he did not do at least this much, he would be swallowed by the madness of the man standing before him.
Miguel looked at the smiling Gale and said,
“Smile more. That will be the last time you can.”
With those words, Gale and Miguel clashed once again.
“Dark Severance!”
“Something like this cannot even make me itch!!”
Miguel continued swinging his sword, and Gale kept firing magic while avoiding and blocking it.
Even as he moved his body nimbly, he recalled the formula for his next spell in his mind, deployed it according to the situation, and repeated the process without end.
If not for the mana circle he had gained through his deal with Deus, he would likely have lost his life already.
“Kgh...!”
His brain burned hot enough to feel as though it might scorch at any moment from the continuous battle.
The blood streaming from his nose told him to stop immediately, but Gale’s thoughts only accelerated further, and Miguel did not stop his sword either.
Even the time spent chanting felt wasteful.
He had to pour out magic faster.
Holding back power was arrogance, and even the smallest mistake would lead directly to death.
Rather than perceive, he relied on intuition.
Rather than calculate, he moved by instinct.
Gale continued pouring out more than five spells at once through multi-casting, and Miguel, with his body in tatters, cut every one of them down.
Before he knew it, Miguel’s sword was before his eyes.
When Gale unfolded a Barrier to block it, “In the end, you have returned to where you began.”
Miguel’s sword, loaded heavily with aura, cut through the Barrier in an instant, and his foot swung fiercely toward Gale right after.
CRASH—!
Gale was sent flying, scraping across the floor, and vomited blood amid the enormous pain crushing his body.
“Kgh...!”
“...There was another Barrier?”
Gale had predicted from the start that the Barrier would be broken and had deployed two Barriers.
However, the inner Barrier had only been hastily made, so it could not fully block the impact from moments ago, and the intense shock that followed was enough to wreck Gale’s body.
“But that must be over now as well.”
“Hah... hah....”
Miguel slowly walked toward Gale.
He too staggered, as though the aftereffects of the battle moments ago still lingered.
“I have walked this far by trampling down everything that blocked my path.”
Gale’s heart beat in time with the sound of his footsteps.
“Do you think there were no bastards like you among them? Not at all. I killed every one of them and rose.”
As Gale’s gaze followed the blade Miguel aimed at him,
“Rejoice. You too will be crushed beneath those glorious footsteps.”
Miguel’s distorted smile was reflected in Gale’s eyes.
It was the same sight as back then.
The final moment of his previous life.
The sight of himself collapsed beneath the twisted smile of an evil man.
The situation was just as hopeless, but he did not want to end even this life like that.
Just as Gale was desperately trying to think of a way out.
“Miguel!”
“...!”
Ron, who had been unconscious in a corner for a while, threw his aura-filled sword with all his remaining strength as his blood-soaked white hair whipped around him.
The moment Miguel’s gaze was stolen to block that sword lasted less than a second, but,
“Dark Severance.”
It was enough time for the black blade drawn by Gale’s gesture to cut through Miguel’s neck.
“Ro...on....”
With that faint death cry, Miguel’s head fell to the floor.
A heavy silence settled over Moon Shadow Pavilion.
[The contract has ended.]
As the contract with Deus ended, all the mana inside Gale’s mana heart evaporated.
“Urgh...!”
The pain of mana depletion burned his vision black, and just as his consciousness began to blur, the door to Moon Shadow Pavilion opened roughly, and a voice rang out.
“Stop where you are. As of this moment, this place is under the control of the 1st Military Police.”
A woman with long navy-blue hair fluttering behind her and blue eyes shining.
Lieutenant Barania.
Together with the other military police officers, she looked inside Moon Shadow Pavilion, where the tragedy had occurred, and muttered, “...or so I would say, but it seems we are already too late.”
She ordered the other officers to investigate, then soon approached Gale, who had collapsed on the floor and was groaning.
Gale barely lifted his head and said, “Are you not... too late?”
She sighed.
“Judging by the state of you, I suppose so. I did come running as soon as I received the Lieutenant Colonel’s order, you know.”
“I see....”
At her words, Gale smiled awkwardly.
When Gale had escaped the holding cell with Anesia’s help, he had stopped by Ron’s office, handed Anesia the River Lethe plan and the powder he had taken from the phantom grass farm, and asked her to find Deren of the Military Police.
Of course, Gale had intended to deal with Miguel somehow here, but it was a small insurance policy he had set in place in case he failed.
In any case, he was alive, and Miguel was dead.
The moment he thought that was enough, terrible pain came over him once again, and Gale closed his eyes.
Through his fading consciousness, he heard Barania’s urgent voice.
“Gale...? Gale!”
***
When he opened his eyes, a pure white ceiling came into view.
As he raised his head slightly, golden hair entered his eyes.
The woman reading a book lifted her head and met Gale’s gaze.
“You’re awake.”
“Anesia?”
She nodded.
Gale grimaced at the pain he felt in his chest.
“They said you collapsed from mana depletion. They told you to rest for the time being.”
So I collapsed from mana depletion again in the end.
Gale circulated his mana and slowly restored his mana heart.
After sitting up, Gale spoke to Anesia.
“First... can you tell me what happened?”
Anesia closed the book she had been reading and began telling Gale what had happened while he was unconscious.
“To start with the conclusion, the practicum is over. We returned to the Imperial Army training camp.”
“Wait, then what happened to the rest?”
“You’re impatient. I’ll tell you everything, so calm down.”
To summarize her story, once the incident was settled, the 3rd Guard Unit immediately came under the jurisdiction of the Military Police, and a large-scale investigation began.
Everything was under investigation, from the River Lethe plan that Miguel Wiseburn had conspired on with the three major factions to the tragedy Ron had caused in Moon Shadow Pavilion, and Ron Howard had immediately been summoned as both a key witness and a defendant, with the investigation currently underway at headquarters.
“Is Deputy Commander Ron all right?”
“Of course not. Apparently, all the capable military surgeons affiliated with the Imperial Army have been assigned to treat him.”
So he did not die, at least.
Gale felt relieved and let out a small sigh of relief.
Anesia slowly continued.
“Since so many people died in Moon Shadow Pavilion, it will be difficult for him to have it acknowledged as self-defense.”
“Probably... yes.”
Gale recalled the scene that had unfolded when he first arrived at Moon Shadow Pavilion.
The sight of dozens of corpses tangled together had been like hell itself.
No matter how guilty they were, Ron, who had slaughtered them all on the spot, would be held responsible for it.
After finishing her explanation, Anesia rose from her seat.
“I’m sure you have many questions, but I’ll be going now. You’re one of the key witnesses too, so visiting hours are fixed.”
“Thank you, Anesia.”
“There’s no need to thank me. I’ll put it on your debt.”
“Ah... right.”
After Anesia left the hospital room, Gale sank into thought.
A key witness.
He had expected it to some extent after the Military Police became involved in the case, but actually hearing those words felt different.
Left alone, Gale rolled up his sleeve and looked down at his arm.
11,806 DAY
Seeing that his lifespan had decreased, it definitely had not been a dream.
On top of that, perhaps because he had been lying unconscious for another two days due to mana depletion, it was lower than the lifespan he remembered.
“Deus, huh....”
If this incident had made one thing clear, it was that his power was not omnipotent.
Of course, thanks to trading his lifespan, Gale had been able to fight to the very end and survive.
The fact that a 3rd Tier magician and a Sword Expert had fought evenly was itself an extremely astonishing story, but if not for Ron, would he not have ended up dead in the end?
At the dizzying moment that came back to him, Gale sighed and lay back on the bed.
When he cast his gaze out the window, the peaceful Imperial Army grounds came faintly into view.
Though there had been many twists and turns, after returning to the past, he had produced a meaningful result for the first time.
“Still, I somehow managed it....”
Looking back, it had been one dangerous moment after another.
He had supplemented the information he lacked through Nike and acted boldly, but that had only been luck in the end.
In particular, Miguel Wiseburn had been stronger than Gale expected, and Gale had been so lacking in information that he had not even grasped the artifact Miguel possessed.
The fact that he had defeated him under those circumstances could only be explained as good fortune.
Just as a history book full of holes held no value, if he moved based on uncertain information, the results that followed would be something completely separate from Gale’s efforts.
This will not do.
I have to grow stronger, investigate more thoroughly, and plan more meticulously.
The Golden Dawn Society was still alive and well, and this was only the first signal flare.
The things that would happen from now on would surely be filled with suffering far worse than this, but Gale had no intention of stopping.
Because he believed that if he changed things one by one like this, the ending would surely change.
As he looked out the window, lost in thought, he heard footsteps outside.
The infirmary door opened, and the person who appeared was Deren Armezia, the captain of the 1st Military Police.
Gale immediately sat up and saluted, and Deren approached with a good-natured smile and patted Gale on the back.
“It has been a while. How is your condition?”
“I have fully recovered now.”
“Save that line for when Yuria or Barania comes by later. I have no intention of taking you away right now.”
Deren crossed his arms and sat in the chair Anesia had occupied.
With his enormous build, the chair looked pitiful beneath him.
“Then what brings you here, sir?”
Deren shrugged and answered, “Well, it is just a simple sick visit. There are also a few things I want to ask.”
“Things you want to ask... sir?”
“Yes. While investigating this incident, I found quite an interesting point, but no matter how much I searched, I could not find an answer.”
When Gale nodded, Deren asked in an atmosphere quite different from moments ago, “The River Lethe plan. Where did you get it?”