‘I am glad I learned at least one basic teleportation spell from Shedia.’
Being a dark mage did not mean one could use only dark magic.
Since they substituted lifespan for mana, they could use other forms of magic as much as they wished, so long as they learned them.
Who in the world would be foolish enough to enter a tiger’s den openly and go hunting without making any preparations?
It had been a victory of calculation. Rud steadied his breathing solemnly.
“Were you after me from the very beginning?”
After a brief silence, Fran spoke to him in a sharp tone. Rud refuted him as though the question were absurd.
“Why would you think that? You invited me into your house intending to kill me anyway, did you not?”
Fran had never had the slightest intention of working with Rud from the start.
He had merely intended to steal the drug Rud claimed to have newly developed and monopolize the profits, then lured him to his house so he could dispose of him cleanly.
After all, at Fran’s house, he could deal with a corpse without leaving a single witness behind.
“So that is why you brought cold medicine here?”
“Be grateful it was not headache medicine.”
Fran’s brow twisted savagely.
How long had it been since his pride had been trampled so thoroughly into rags?
He had been completely taken in.
The snare he had lightly set up, as he always did, had turned into a self-defeating move that harmed him instead.
On top of that, the lifespans of the clones he had been able to feel so clearly only moments ago were rapidly disappearing.
He did not know who it was, but the only people capable of doing something like that were the PMI, the Praid Magic Investigation Agency.
‘Did the two of them plan this together? The timing fits too well.’
No, that could not be.
Fran hurriedly brushed away the unpleasant suspicion that had suddenly surfaced.
‘A dark mage and the police on the same side? Even I think that is an absurd idea.’
He took his stance.
The mage seemed to still be pursuing his clones, so there was plenty of distance for now.
But that, too, was only a matter of time.
The number of clones was decreasing rapidly. At this rate, the mage would probably reach this place in only a few minutes.
He had to strike first before that happened.
TAP!!
Fran kicked off the ground hard and closed the distance in a single breath.
It was a comparatively quick speed, suited to his scrawny build. He had cast Maktamin on his body and temporarily enhanced his physical abilities.
Fran approached within striking distance in an instant and fiercely thrust out his arm.
The movement was plainly visible.
Rud tilted his head and lightly avoided the palm that came flying toward him like a spear.
Fran’s entire body was exposed.
There was no way Rud would fail to see that. He drove his fist into Fran’s abdomen and released a shockwave at the same time.
CRACK, BOOM!!
“Guh……!!”
Fran’s upper body bent strangely as he flew backward at high speed and struck his back against the wall of the building behind him.
BOOM!!
A small crash echoed through the alley. Fran’s body, which had been hanging against the building, fell downward under the force of gravity.
CRASH, THUD!!
Rud went down to the place where Fran had fallen and examined his condition.
Dark-red blood flowed down his head. Perhaps he had lost consciousness, because his eyes were closed, and there was not even a sign that his finger joints would move.
He was breathing faintly. Even so, Rud had no intention of leaving Fran alive like this.
‘As Gared’s information said, it seems he has almost no real combat experience.’
Rud carefully reached toward Fran’s body, which lay collapsed faceup.
He had to replenish the lifespan consumed during this operation.
Ordinarily, this too would be illegal, but Rud had been granted permission on the condition that he could steal only the lifespans of dark mages, not ordinary people.
‘With this, the mission is complete.’
Just as Rud was about to absorb Fran’s lifespan,
FLASH!!!
A rectangular shape identical to the one from earlier suddenly rose from beneath his feet and trapped Rud as if locking him in a cage.
“What is this……?”
“Did you think I would die from something as paltry as that?!”
Fran opened his eyes wide and shouted in an agitated voice.
He had deliberately pretended to have lost consciousness. Rud’s pupils shook greatly.
Fran slowly raised his fallen body. However, perhaps the impact from earlier remained intact, because his legs wobbled badly.
Barely steadying his shaking lower body, he breathed roughly and glared murderously at Rud, who was trapped inside the rectangular frame.
“I do not know how you found my location, but consider that your greatest misfortune.”
This made the last one.
Shedia adjusted her grip on the sword in her hand and carefully looked at Fran, who stood before her.
It was fortunate that Rud’s lifespan detection ability was superior to that of other dark mages.
She had been slightly surprised when Rud came to her while she was hiding inside a building through teleportation magic, but thanks to that, she had obtained useful information.
‘To think he was operating by creating five clones almost identical to himself.’
Shedia felt she finally understood why the houses his subordinates entered had constantly changed.
No wonder he had not been caught.
He had placed one clone in each house and operated by rotating them so the police would not notice.
“Were you the one who killed all my subordinates……?”
Fran, who had a deep wound on his bicep, frowned severely.
Shedia’s brow narrowed coldly.
The thing before her was certainly a clone, yet the sensation it gave off was almost no different from that of a living person.
‘Is this also a kind of dark magic?’
“Yes, it was me.”
Shedia continued in a probing tone.
“I captured the ones inside the house for interrogation. Their lives were spared, but they will not last long.”
“Hmph. Do you think I would be shaken by something like that?!”
TAP!
Fran closed the distance recklessly with a movement that seemed close to desperation.
Immediately afterward,
FLASH!!
When he struck his palm violently downward through the air, a thick cloud of dust surged high into the sky.
It was a kind of dark magic that turned everything his hand touched into dust.
It was magic punishable by five years in prison for merely using it, but it was far too insufficient to reach Shedia.
“I was not expecting anything anyway.”
Along with the brief farewell that came from directly behind Fran’s back,
SLASH!!
A pure-white line was quickly drawn through space, and the clone’s head separated from its torso before falling helplessly to the ground.
She had avoided the dark magic in a single movement with teleportation magic, then cut off his neck with her sword as if beheading a criminal.
She had memorized the locations of all the clone corpses.
Now, all she had to do was call the police and have them perform autopsies, but—
“I heard noise from here!”
“Team 1, here! Team 2, head northwest!”
A commotion came from below.
When she hurriedly looked down, police officers in navy-blue uniforms were moving busily with rifles slung over their shoulders.
“Oh no…… They have already started moving!”
The reason Rud’s identity as a secret police officer had not been disclosed to the local police was to prevent information from leaking outside.
In society, the image of a dark mage was nothing more than that of a criminal scum.
If it became known that such a person had been placed in the secret police, how would people react?
The whole country would be turned upside down, and trust in the police would hit rock bottom.
Rud had already achieved results by catching an infiltrator hidden within the police.
Though it had not been announced publicly, from the perspective of the public, who did not know this fact, Rud’s existence would never be welcome.
“Die……!”
CRACK!!
Before Fran could clench his fist, the rectangular frame that had trapped Rud shattered with a loud noise.
It happened in the blink of an eye. Fran’s body stiffened like stone.
The magic that had imprisoned Rud was sturdy enough that even being struck by a machine gun would not pierce it.
On top of that, it had never once been broken from the inside, and yet he had shattered it to pieces with nothing more than a single shockwave?
“What exactly are you……!”
Fran’s words once again did not continue to the end.
Rud seized his face with his hand and absorbed his lifespan all at once.
This was definitely the main body.
It was an extremely subtle difference.
All the other clones possessed lifespans so nearly identical that it was like placing water on a scale.
But only this one possessed a slightly smaller amount of lifespan.
An ordinary person would think the one with the greater amount was the main body.
But Fran had thought that would instead make him easier to suspect, so he had deliberately lowered the number.
A lifespan worth 168 years.
Considering the other clones had been around 180 years, it was certainly a smaller amount.
The lifespan a dark mage consumed to use a single spell was usually about one or two years.
On top of that, Rud consumed an average of five to ten years of lifespan whenever he fought, so this amount would disappear quickly, like water through a breached embankment.
“There he is!”
A fierce voice struck his eardrums from the far side of the alley.
Startled, Rud hurriedly turned his head and saw local police officers in navy-blue uniforms running quickly toward him.
‘This is bad!’
He had already absorbed the lifespan.
Fran’s body had also shriveled like a mummy.
The suspicion was clear. Even if he explained the situation, there would be no way out of it.
Saying he was secret police would not work either.
If that fact reached other dark mages, Rud would end up in a position where his life was targeted from every direction.
‘I have no choice but to run!’
BANG BANG BANG BANG!!!
The local police aimed their rifles at Rud and pulled their triggers without even issuing a warning.
Flames flashed from the muzzles as shots burst out one after another. Bullets moving near the speed of sound barely grazed past Rud’s body.
Maktamin’s effect was still continuing.
Rud climbed back up onto a rooftop and fled toward the town entrance.
“He is running! Hurry and chase him!!”
“Did you see his face?”
“No, it was too dark to see clearly.”
“Hurry and request backup! We are pursuing a dark mage!”
The local police were an organization made up of ordinary people, not mages.
There was no way they could pursue him, a dark mage, but if they came after him in earnest, there was nothing more troublesome.
Rud fled to the mountain on the outskirts of town and briefly hid behind a tree to catch his breath.
“Hah, hah. Ugh……!”
Maktamin raised physical abilities, but in exchange, once its effect ended, the whole body suffered muscle pain as a side effect.
Because of that, after using it, one could not move properly for several minutes, but he had no time for this right now.
Gritting his teeth against the pain of his stiffening muscles, Rud went deeper into the mountain.
His speed had slowed considerably compared to before. Still, it was far better than simply sitting still.
“Hurry and chase him!”
“There are footprints! He must be nearby!”
Flashlights shone from behind him.
Rud hurriedly hid his body behind a tree. He had not thought they would catch up this far already.
The light drew closer. Rud pressed himself tighter against the tree.
‘Damn it. What should I do?’
At this rate, he would be completely surrounded.
His hesitation deepened. Should he simply reveal that he was a secret police officer?
His heart felt as if it would burst out of his chest. His rapidly dropping skin temperature turned as cold as ice.
The light of a flashlight swept past right beside him.
Perhaps sensing someone’s presence, a police officer slowly approached the tree where Rud was hiding.
The distance shrank.
The lifespans he could feel nearby numbered almost in the dozens. Rud bit his lip hard and clenched his fist tightly.
‘Damn it. Do I have no choice?’