Chapter 110 – The Start of the War (Four)

Mercread’s intermediate combatants.

Malik and Stony.

They rapped on the barrier that had appeared before their eyes, expressing rare surprise.

“Quite sturdy.”

“I saw it from afar earlier, but this is no ordinary skill.”

Then they turned their heads slightly toward Ray.

“You said to drive him to the brink of death.”

“Allerger-nim will be pleased.”

Bang—!

A gunshot-like sound erupted from beneath their feet, and the figures of Malik and Stony vanished.

In an instant, the two men who had closed in on either side of Ray switched their kukris from reverse grip to forward grip and slashed down in an X-formation.

Swoosh——!

The crushed air let out an eerie shriek.

“Fast.”

“Agile.”

The two men’s gazes shifted to the left.

There, the boy who had somehow slipped away and created a few steps of distance was clutching a crackling blue current of lightning in his hand.

Crackle!

The lightning flashed. It shot forth.

A wall rose before the two men.

But it couldn’t keep up with the lightning’s speed.

Seeing the eerie blue light reaching their eyes, the two men twisted their heads with all their might.

Fwip—!

“…….”

“…….”

Malik and Stony each touched their right and left ears.

More than half of their ears, including the earlobes, were gone.

Plop——!

The moment the dripping blood touched the ground.

Bang——!

The two men charged toward the boy.

Clang! Clang-clang! Clang-clang-clang!

Five blades, strengthened with mana, danced chaotically in the air.

Their edges gleamed, ready to sever the opponent’s breath the moment any opening appeared.

Ray blocked the enemies’ combined assault while sensing the presence behind the barrier.

─Hyung! The swap is complete!

─Hurry and get on! Us staying here will only be a hindrance!

Soon, the sound of the container door closing and the vehicle starting up could be heard.

─Ray! Make sure you come back unhurt!

The trembling voice of a girl, filled with anxiety.

Clang-clang! Clang! Clang-clang-clang!

Ray recalled Veronica’s face, the last thing he saw the moment the barrier was created.

The expression Veronica had on her face at that time… honestly, he couldn’t remember.

He hadn’t had the leisure to focus enough to read her expression.

The boy had been concentrating all his mind on creating the barrier.

‘Using only the Ring’s Mana had its limits in mass-producing Gray Mana.’

While McCully bought time with his gunfire, Ray drew mana from the atmosphere to produce a large amount of Gray Mana.

Most of that Gray Mana was used to create the barrier.

The remainder.

Was still bound within his body.

Thud——!

As Ray stepped back and stomped the ground, Gray Mana raced along his leg.

The mana that reached the sole of his foot spread across the ground, arriving right beneath the feet of the enemies before him.

Crrrrunch!

A two-meter-tall cylindrical pillar erupted from beneath the two men’s feet.

“……!”

“……!”

Their postures momentarily disrupted, the two men floated into the air, and Ray generated blue lightning to aim at his targets.

Among Natural Magic, the Lightning Magic series had the fastest casting speed but the weakest destructive power.

However, by increasing the output and targeting vital points, it was sufficient to inflict fatal wounds.

Moreover, the opponents seemed to have no White Mana and couldn’t use Wards.

The moment before firing the lightning.

Whoosh!

Long flames spewed from the mouths of the two men, engulfing Ray.

Evading wasn’t difficult, but it disrupted his aim.

Thud—

Thud—

The lightning and flames subsided, and Malik and Stony landed on the ground with both feet.

This time, they touched their opposite ears.

Again, more than half was gone.

Dripping blood from both ears, Malik spoke.

“He’s persistently aiming for the eyes. If we hadn’t dodged, we’d be blind.”

“Sorry. My ears are ringing, so I can’t hear well.”

“It seems we need to go all out.”

“Lightning?”

“All out.”

“Right, let’s be careful of Lightning Magic.”

The two men planted their stances.

The boy also planted his stance.

Vroooom──!

Listening to the sound of the vehicle’s engine fading into the distance, the boy poured his fully dispersed focus entirely into the battle.

Clang-clang! Clang! Clang-clang-clang!

Blades rushing in without a moment to breathe.

Resounding noise and sparks.

The boy danced within it all.

His blood boiled.

Initially, his goal was to buy time for his allies to evacuate and to test his own strength.

But the more immersed he became in the battle, the more the boy could feel the corners of his mouth rising.

‘It’s been a while.’

Since the fierce battle with Walter.

Fighting like this, using his body properly.

The Red Mana from the Ring and the ring raced through his entire body, evoking endless exhilaration and bloodlust.

Twitching muscles and dilated pupils.

Energy overflowing between every joint.

Perhaps his own body had been longing for such a situation.

And.

‘I have to kill them.’

The more he immersed himself in the anger he had summoned.

‘Stab their hearts.’

The Red Mana caused an even greater surge.

‘Make them bleed.’

As waves of anger surged fiercely, the momentum of the battle began to rapidly tilt toward the boy.

Then, at a certain moment.

“……!”

The startled boy hurriedly suppressed part of the anger he had summoned.

A momentary pause in his movements.

The enemy didn’t miss the opening.

Switching from defense to offense, they began fiercely pressing Ray.

Clang-clang! Clang! Clang!

Defending wasn’t difficult.

The mana flashing within the enemies’ bodies informed him of their next moves.

However, the reason Ray had paused was.

‘That was dangerous.’

Because he had almost been swallowed by anger.

Perhaps it was because the consecutive large-scale magic had consumed quite a bit of his mental strength.

…No. Still, it wasn’t as extremely depleted as during Sector 49.

Clang—!

The point was that he had been enjoying the anger just now.

He hadn’t intentionally leashed the wolf named anger.

‘…No.’

At first, he had leashed it.

But he had let go midway.

Even though he knew that the moment he let his guard down, it would sink its teeth into its master’s neck.

It was truly dangerous.

With Veronica not here now, if he were swallowed by anger, he would surely end up in a dizzying situation like in the past.

Clang-clang—!

Amid the fierce exchange of attacks and defenses.

The enemy’s Gray Mana crawling along the ground like a snake.

Crunch!

A palm-sized stone spike erupted.

Having read the movement of the mana, Ray evaded the spike with only a slight movement.

‘Gray Mana.’

Graham came to mind.

Veronica’s benefactor, the person who taught me magic, and.

‘A 3rd Circle Wizard.’

His third Ring, likely formed in the latter half of his life, was filled with Gray Mana.

It was said that the disposition and temperament Graham possessed at the time of constructing his Circle were deeply related to Gray Mana.

…And.

Gray was one of the colors for which Ray hadn’t been able to identify the associated emotion.

That was understandable, as Gray Mana never seeped into people’s Vessels alone.

‘It always seeped into the Vessel alongside other emotions.’

That’s why it was difficult to precisely deduce the associated emotion.

There was one observed fact.

Due to the Gray Mana residing inside the Vessel, the other emotions present couldn’t move freely.

Usually, emotions tended to mix like blended paints, clinging to each other, pushing and being pushed, interacting.

But Gray Mana was different.

It never mixed.

Nor was it pushed.

It simply occupied that space.

Like hardened paint.

Like a heavy rock.

A mass of Gray Mana always resided right in the center of Graham’s Vessel as well.

「What on earth is it?」

The boy was intensely curious about what emotion was associated with Gray Mana.

Every time he received lessons from the old man and helped nurse him, he persistently observed his actions.

But there was no gain.

The old man was a person who almost never displayed actions driven by emotion.

A slight frustration and impatience arose.

「…How.」

「Do you have something you want to ask?」

He asked, looking straight into his eyes.

「How can you be so calm? Always, no matter what. Even knowing death is right before you. It’s not like you can’t feel emotions like me, Grandpa.」

It was the conversation the old man and the boy shared in their final moments.

The old man spoke with a faint smile on his lips.

「It’s not that I don’t feel emotions.」

「Then?」

「Yes, since you said you’re studying words with a dictionary… this word would be fitting.」

Control.

That was the word the old man uttered.

The old man said it wasn’t that he didn’t feel emotions, but that he was merely controlling the emotions that welled up in his heart.

「What people commonly refer to as composure.」

Truthfully, at the time, he didn’t understand well.

The difference between having no emotions at all.

And having emotions but suppressing them.

But now, he vaguely understood what that meant.

‘I must control my emotions.’

And also what role Gray Mana played within the Vessel.

Clang-clang! Clang!

Ray continued fighting while deliberately adjusting the amount of anger he summoned.

Burning hostility toward the enemy, but only to the extent necessary for the battle at hand.

And whenever anger surged in response to the enemy’s attacks, he firmly pulled on the leash.

‘That’s it. I can perfectly control this level of anger now.’

The anger, realizing it couldn’t move as it pleased, became relatively docile.

Ray repeatedly stimulated the anger and pulled the leash, taming it.

And as he did, the ‘stable’ level of anger gradually rose.

Hummm—!

The change wasn’t limited to that.

The mass of Gray Mana he was clutching in his hand suddenly felt softer.

‘Melting…?’

As if hardened paint had melted.

Though he couldn’t precisely know why this phenomenon occurred, what it implied was clear nonetheless.

That was.

Crrrrunch───!

He could manifest magic using Gray Mana with an ease incomparable to before.

“……!”

“……!”

Thin, elongated stone spikes rising from the ground aimed at Malik and Stony’s chins.

The two men hastily flung their bodies backward.

Clang—!

The boy followed.

At that moment, offense and defense switched again.

“Guh…!”

“Kuh…!”

Malik and Stony groaned.

The boy’s attacks were clearly weaker in momentum compared to when they first clashed.

But the footholds and spikes constantly generated beneath their feet prevented them from even breathing properly.

It felt like fighting while surrounded by dozens of enemies.

Clang! Clang-clang!

Crunch—!

They too used Gray Mana to manifest magic, but the boy evaded every attack as if reading the future.

Moreover.

“…….”

“…….”

Malik and Stony exchanged strained glances.

‘His skill is increasing.’

‘He’s absorbing our techniques.’

The boy’s prowess was growing.

And in real-time, rapidly.

Seeing the scale of the initial barrier, they thought the boy must have handled petrification magic before.

But that wasn’t the case.

The pillar the boy created during battle was certainly threatening, but it had an unrefined, raw feel.

The same went for the subsequent magic.

Sufficiently high in completion, but immature for combat.

It was the intuition of two long-time users of petrification magic.

‘So we concluded.’

‘That the barrier was created with the help of an artifact.’

That he wasn’t someone who utilized petrification magic in combat, and that he was clumsily imitating our techniques.

Clang-clang! Clang! Clang!

“Huff…!”

“Guh…!”

But now, the boy’s petrification magic was near perfection.

It’s chilling. Dangerous.

Instincts sound the alarm.

If this young being is left alone, there exists the possibility he will become a great calamity for the organization.

He must not be left alone.

He must be killed here.

‘Allerger-nim said to only bring him to the brink of death and let him live…!’

‘But this place is beyond Allerger-nim’s sight…!’

That was the moment they thought so.

Whoosh──!

The clash of blades stopped.

Ray flung his body backward, creating a few steps of distance.

The two men looked down at their chests with disbelief.

“…….”

“…….”

Sharp stone spikes protruding from their chests like spears.

With great effort, they turned their heads back.

They could see two spikes extending from the ground, easily dozens of meters away.

“Guh-luk!”

“Kuh-rup!”

Taking in that sight as their last, the two men’s bodies leaned forward.

And they thought.

Manifesting magic from that distance.

Even we can’t….

The composure of the two men shattered.

Groooan──!