The vicious spear aimed precisely at Terlo and Hook embedded itself in the ground and split the floor apart.
It was an attack that would have struck them had they moved even a little later.
Hook’s eyes blazed as he began searching for the attacker.
Terlo, however, stared at the unfamiliar black magic with shining eyes.
‘Oh. That looks pretty impressive.’
Just then, Terlo heard something slicing through the air.
When he turned toward the sound, he saw a black spear flying at him.
“To the right!”
At Terlo’s shout, the organization member whose position had been exposed attempted to teleport.
But Hook was slightly faster.
A whip shot rapidly from his hand and caught the man by the wrist.
The distance was not especially great, but it was still an impressive technique.
As Terlo watched in admiration, he teleported in front of the organization member.
“Damn it.”
The man muttered a curse and created a spear with the hand opposite the one Hook had caught.
But instead of throwing it at Terlo as expected, he drove it into the whip.
The whip snapped, and the organization member vanished at the same moment.
He had teleported somewhere else.
It had all happened within a few seconds, yet to Terlo, the movements had appeared remarkably slow.
‘This is fun.’
Terlo could have attacked the moment he appeared before the organization member.
But he had waited because he wanted to see how the man used black magic.
The sight of him creating the spear had made the wait worthwhile.
His judgment in using it to sever the whip also gave Terlo plenty to learn from.
If he had been free to act as he wished, Terlo would have tried imitating Hook’s whip and catching the man just as he attempted to teleport.
But with Hook watching, he could only suppress the urge.
‘I can’t ruin the act I’ve maintained all this time.’
As Terlo smacked his lips in disappointment, Hook appeared beside him.
With a grave expression, he whispered into Terlo’s ear.
“Young Master, judging from that man, the core members appear to be more capable than expected. Rather than recklessly closing the distance, it would be best to keep our distance and attack. He seems to have gone to an upper floor, so let us head upstairs.”
“Do they? Very well.”
Terlo had thought the man weaker than expected, but he kept that opinion to himself.
When they moved to the floor above, an otherwise ordinary corridor stretched before them.
Due to the building’s structure, only the central section ran straight, while the corridors on either side angled inward.
Because of that, the entire floor was clearly visible from any position.
They were about to move to the next floor, thinking this was not the right one, when—
SWISH—!
A spear flew down from above.
Sensing it, Terlo and Hook moved apart from the point where it was aimed.
The spear struck between them and shattered the floor.
CRAAAAASH—!
Something shot toward them at tremendous speed through the resulting cloud of dust.
SPLAT! SPLAT!
The objects clung fiercely to the shield the instant it appeared.
‘Spiderwebs?’
He was given no time to think.
Attacks continued without pause.
Spears, spiderwebs, pillars suddenly erupting from the floor, and even flames.
Dodging them demanded so much effort that Terlo could not determine where the attacks were coming from.
All he could do was avoid them and continue forward.
Hook appeared to be in the same situation.
His shout came from quite far away.
“We should move separately for now! Be careful!”
The same situation continued afterward.
Dodging was not a problem, but the lack of an opportunity to attack was.
Even if Terlo summoned skeletons, the area was open on every side. They would be struck the moment they rose.
And because the enemies continued destroying the floor behind him, Terlo had no choice but to advance.
‘Something’s strange.’
For some reason, they were pouring their attacks only at Terlo’s current position.
As a result, only the floor along the path he had already crossed was being destroyed, while the area ahead remained intact.
If their objective was to attack him, they should have pressured him by destroying the floor both behind and ahead of him.
Instead, it seemed as though their true goal was to force him forward.
Terlo’s intuition proved correct.
‘I knew they were plotting something.’
At the end of the pursuit, he entered the final room.
A magic beast stood inside as though it had been waiting for him.
GRRRRRR.
The wolf-shaped magic beast had an abnormally long snout and claws.
Its elongated snout resembled that of a crocodile and was packed with large, vicious fangs.
Its claws looked as though several swords had been embedded in each paw.
‘If even one attack lands, there won’t be enough of me left to recover my bones.’
Despite that thought, a smile appeared on Terlo’s face.
How long had he hoped to encounter another magic beast while carrying out the plan?
Terlo almost felt like giving something to the people who had led him to it.
He calmed his excitement and checked his surroundings.
He wanted to make sure there was no possibility of anyone watching.
But the room was firmly sealed on every side.
There was a reason they had driven him here.
‘What a convenient room.’
While he was distracted, the wolf bared its trembling lips in warning and kicked off the floor with both paws.
It swung its sword-like claws toward Terlo.
SKREEEE—!
But the sharp claws did not touch so much as a hair on his head.
<Connect.>
SKREE?
Terlo had connected himself to the black form beside the wolf magic beast and changed the direction of its paw.
The wolf magic beast tilted its head after its claws sliced through empty air.
‘It really works.’
Even while chanting the spell, Terlo had not been certain.
He had never truly believed that he could control a magic beast as well.
Goosebumps rose across his skin at an ability that surpassed his expectations.
The wolf magic beast soon recovered and lunged at him again.
Apparently realizing something was wrong with its paw, it opened its long jaws wide.
Terlo examined the vicious fangs.
<Teleport.>
He teleported behind the magic beast.
Then, as it closed its mouth, he bent its paw and forced it between its own jaws.
The trapped claws were bitten cleanly through and fell to the floor one after another.
SKREEEEEE—!!
Having lost its weapons in an instant, the wolf magic beast lost all reason and began thrashing wildly.
It continued charging with its jaws open and its paws swinging, as though desperate to tear Terlo apart.
The room was narrow enough to make dodging difficult.
Terlo considered ending the battle, but decided to test his ability a little more.
In the end,
GRRRAAAGH….
The magic beast collapsed to the floor, its body torn to shreds by its own sharp claws.
“I’d like to keep playing, but it can’t be helped.”
I still have work to do.
Terlo offered the dying magic beast a regretful farewell as it gasped for breath.
Then he opened the door while remaining wary of another barrage of attacks.
But no one was outside, making his caution seem almost foolish.
‘Where did everyone go?’
After looking around, Terlo teleported down to the first floor, which was clearly visible through the holes in the floor.
The entire floor had been destroyed.
Judging from the situation, Hook was probably fighting a magic beast as well.
Terlo briefly considered going to help, then quickly changed his mind.
He could not reveal his ability in front of Hook anyway, and someone of Hook’s skill should have been more than capable of escaping.
‘Now then, where is their leader hiding?’
Terlo left the building and looked upward.
The spacious room on the top floor was the first thing to catch his eye.
Its windows were unusually large, making it obvious that it was no ordinary room.
As Terlo wondered whether that was the place, something he had mistaken for an object’s shadow abruptly disappeared from the window.
‘That’s the one.’
The sight practically shouted, I’m right here.
A faint laugh escaped Terlo.
Then he vanished with a swirl of black smoke.
***
A spacious room on the top floor of the long building.
The leader of More, dressed in a robe that looked ready to burst, sipped alcohol as he watched the situation outside approach its conclusion.
“Ah. That tastes good. I shouldn’t be doing this. I need to finish quickly and enjoy a proper drink.”
He glanced at the bottle in his hand and smacked his lips as he imagined a lavish feast.
The insects he had been waiting for had suddenly invaded earlier.
Because the members stationed outside had been defeated before they could communicate, the situation had almost become dangerous….
“But who do they think I am?”
In the end, everything had proceeded exactly as he intended.
There were the large number of people stationed outside the building, eight core members assigned to defend the interior, and four magic beasts released to finish the matter without casualties.
“Pfft. Heh-heh-heh.”
He had spent a great deal of money, but the result had been equally successful.
Only two intruders had entered the building, and he had already received a report that both had been driven into the rooms where the magic beasts had been released.
No matter how capable they were, they could not defeat wolf magic beasts inside such confined rooms.
He had prepared special magic beasts for his special guests.
By now, their bodies had surely been torn to pieces.
“They shouldn’t have meddled in something they couldn’t handle. Yes, precisely.”
Just then, he saw a robed figure walk out in front of the building.
His eyes widened, and he stared at the figure.
“That one’s small…?”
A report suddenly flashed through his mind.
When he had asked what the two intruders looked like, an organization member had answered that one was gaunt while the other was as small as a child.
“No. That can’t be.”
Denying reality, he hurried to his desk and pressed the communicator.
The small robed figure had walked out from inside the building.
There had been no report of any additional intruders.
At the click, he spoke in an irritated voice.
“Did you properly take care of those two bastards from earlier?”
—W-We did, but I don’t know anymore! What’s happening over here makes no sense either…! Ghk!
“What? Speak properly, you—”
“Hmm. Am I one of those two?”
“…!”
His heavy-lidded eyes widened in shock.
The small robed figure who had been standing in front of the building was now beside the door.
It made no sense.
How had he survived the wolf magic beast?
Even the robe he wore did not have a single tear.
As the leader stared at his uninjured appearance in astonishment, the small robed figure tilted his head.
“Why? I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere before.”
The brat had the bizarre hobby of stealing another man’s face, yet his pretense of ignorance was utterly contemptible.
Dumbfounded, the leader used black magic against the small robed figure.
FWOOSH—!
Several black flames as large as his own body surged forward.
But—
FSSST.
The fiercely burning flames went out before they could even reach the small robed figure.
“…!”
A broad shield had spread around the small robed figure’s body.
Normally, the flames should have burned through the shield.
Their power was considerable, and there were far more than one or two of them.
Yet not only had the shield extinguished the flames, it remained completely intact.
‘How did he stop an attack that would defeat most mages…?!’
Shocked, the leader unleashed an even greater number of flames.
But as each was blocked, the once-enormous flames gradually shrank.
His mental strength wavered.
He tilted his head back and gulped down the alcohol.
Through the bottle, he saw the small mouth curl upward.
“How disappointing. I expected more from the leader, but this is the extent of your ability….”
“W-What?”
At those words, the liquor he had failed to swallow sprayed from his plump lips in every direction.
He was the leader of an organization destined to spread across the continent.
And yet some nobody whose origins he did not even know had dared to look down on him.
He could no longer tolerate it.
Regardless of whether the situation had gone wrong, it was time to bring out the weapon he had hidden if only to kill that small robed figure.
THUD!
He slammed the bottle onto the desk and pulled a box from a drawer.
Two spheres within it rippled with black energy.
Since they had been given to him by the client who commissioned the lucrative job, their effectiveness was guaranteed.
Following the client’s instructions, he picked up one sphere and infused it with dark mana.
Then—
HSSSSSSS—
Uncontrollable black energy erupted, and an enormous, unknown creature appeared.
ROOOOOOAR—!
The creature had the shape of a bear.
Its body was pitch-black, and black smoke billowed from it.
Joy filled the leader’s face at its overwhelming appearance.
‘So this is what it was?’
He had expected an impressive item, but this exceeded those expectations.
No, it went far beyond even that.
The client had insisted that both spheres be used at once, but one seemed more than sufficient.
Could he not save the other and use it later?
Filled with delight, he turned his head and saw the small robed figure standing completely rigid.
The brat who had spoken so arrogantly moments earlier had fallen silent.
“Gahahahaha! How pathetic! Die, you insect—?”
The leader had been laughing at the frightened robed figure when confusion entered his eyes.
The enormous bear suddenly turned to look at him.
For some reason, killing intent filled its gaze.
“Hey, what are you doing?! I’m the one who summoned—!”
He could not finish.
The enormous bear swung a forepaw at him.
The overwhelming force sent him flying along with the desk.
He struck the wall and fell to the floor.
“G-Ghk…….”
Experiencing the fear of death for the first time in his life, he muttered the word why.
Even then, the enormous bear continued approaching him with heavy steps.
Fear filled his eyes as he coughed up the blood flooding his mouth.
Then he understood.
The client’s instruction to use the spheres if the situation appeared likely to go wrong had included the intention of disposing of him as well.
‘I was blinded by money.’
Amid the regret flooding through him, the enormous bear reached him and raised its forepaw.
The last thing he saw was the small robed figure picking up the sphere that had rolled across the floor.