Chapter 195 – What You Lose When You Become an Adult (Three)

The boy had never imagined anything before.

To be precise, he had no freedom.

Even when recalling situations and words, they existed solely as concepts and letters.

They had never once taken on any clear form.

What occupied the boy’s mind was clearly a blank sheet of paper on which nothing could be drawn.

But now.

────.

Multicolored lines were racing across that pure white paper.

The lines of various colors, formed of brilliant hues like the murals in the underground ruins, also looked like the cracks beginning to appear on an egg just before hatching.

「If I too were to break free from the laws and handle Mana freely.」

Then indeed.

What would that look like?

The opponent’s method of utilizing Mana engraved intense curiosity and a desire for inquiry into the boy’s mind.

It made him attempt to recall the scene beyond his limits.

And that constant stimulation.

─────!

Breathed deep life into a certain power trapped deep within his unconscious.

It was imagination.

An image clearer than ever before was being drawn in the boy’s mind.

The image of himself, breaking the laws and handling Mana freely.

Instantly, the boy felt the Mana of the Ring and the Gem become incomparably smoother than before.

It was like paint perfectly prepared for use.

─Thump.

Feeling his heartbeat, he shifted the direction of his senses to his surroundings.

On the deck, damp with despair.

Rael Row’s top combatants were all lying down with severe injuries, groaning.

And not far ahead.

An enemy, completely unharmed.

The enemy, closing the distance, stared intently at him.

He transformed the whip he had been madly swinging into a longsword and likewise planted his stance facing him.

Beyond the lenses of the goggles and gas mask.

The reflections of each other charging toward one another were visible in the two pairs of eyes.

─Thump.

It was instantaneous that Ray’s thoughts began to spin violently.

What picture could he paint using the Mana that had loosened like paint?

How could he deal damage to an enemy against whom ordinary Magic was ineffective?

His thoughts gradually grew more heated.

As the object of his focus narrowed to just the single enemy, the surrounding scenery faded, and only what was before his eyes began to sharpen.

Only two things existed in the world.

Me, and the opponent.

The next moment, the two boys’ figures crossed each other, creating distance.

During the flowing silence, the two boys showed not even a twitch of movement.

Then.

Sssch─

The first movement occurred on Ray’s face.

The gas mask, split in half, fell to the floor and rolled away.

Thud!

Hearing the sound, the enemy turned to look at Ray, the corner of his mouth lifting.

“Wow, you dodged that. I could have split your face in ha─.”

The words didn’t reach their end.

Because the next moment, he witnessed his own right arm being sliced diagonally and sliding off.

Thump!

“What is this….”

The enemy wore an extremely bewildered expression, alternating his gaze between the spurting severed surface and his fallen right arm.

Then, stiffening his expression at the instinctive warning he felt in that instant, he turned to look at Ray.

His vision momentarily furrowed.

In Ray’s hand was a single sword formed of yellow radiance.

That sword, possessing a clear material form, had high-purity Mana flowing along its blade.

Simultaneously, it emitted an immense light, tearing through the darkness within the storm.

Witnessing Ray’s white hair and the Light Sword, the enemy’s face showed sudden realization, and he burst into mad laughter as he spoke.

“You…! You’re the one Father mentioned…! It was you! It was you! Why didn’t I realize it sooner!”

Ray did not answer.

He merely gazed at the opponent with indifferent eyes.

“Kehehe! He told me to avoid you, but since we’ve met, there’s no choice. You, you’ll have to die. Then Father will be glad to have that thorn in his side removed! Right!”

Instantly, Crimson Mana surged and gushed from the enemy’s shoulder.

It stopped the bleeding from the severed shoulder surface, then extended and began to take the shape of an arm.

But that too was brief.

Aaaaaaah──!

A terrible scream echoed at the center of the raging storm.

The bright yellow flames blooming from the severed surface were burning and devouring all the gushing Crimson Mana.

─────.

The silently flickering Light Flame.

That wondrous spectacle made even the dwarves, familiar with fire from crafting equipment and smelting, lose their wits and hold their breath.

The bright yellow flames were not satisfied with just devouring the gushing Mana.

They began to expand their domain toward the Crimson Mana that had already completed its materialization into the shape of an arm and armor.

“Kgh…! Kguuuugh…!”

The enemy desperately increased the output of the Crimson Mana, sweating cold sweat.

But the yellow flames showed no sign of falling, only quietly engraving terrible pain.

“Kyaaaah─!”

“…….”

What Ray thought of when he saw the Crimson Mana was darkness.

What chases away darkness is light.

What persistently pursues a target and ultimately severs its breath is fire.

So the boy imagined.

A flame made of pure light.

“Kyaaaaaah──!”

That was why.

Even though the current sword and flame were clearly formed from the Mana of the Ring and the Gem, the combination of internal elements did not follow any ordinary laws at all.

The combination formula was solely the boy’s imagination.

There was no complex or elaborate calculation.

The boy simply imagined, and the elements transformed their properties and changed their positions accordingly.

But it wasn’t easy.

Maintaining the imagination engraved extreme fatigue into the boy’s mind.

‘…But it’s okay.’

It was a fatigue born of not unpleasant feelings.

Ray watched the opponent without loosening the string of vigilance.

Several dwarves struggled to pull themselves together and staggered to their feet.

“I, is it over…?”

“H, he can’t even move….”

Shock and awe toward the boy.

Relief toward the fallen intruder.

These were the emotions commonly held by the dwarves on the deck now.

“Not yet.”

But the warning that followed instantly made them grab hold of the slackening string of tension again.

Ray judged that the battle was not yet over.

“Kyaaaaaah──!”

Along with violent thrashing, the malice contained in the Vessel was rapidly expanding.

The Vessel’s anger had long since been swept up in the malice, becoming completely a part of it.

All that was visible was black emotion.

──────.

The gushing Crimson Mana also subsequently turned completely black.

Instantly, the explosively strengthened output of the black Mana began to push back the yellow flames little by little.

Aaaaaaah──!

Kill! I’ll kill!

I’ll kill you!

The venom and malice gushing out along with the shriek instantly sent a chill down everyone’s spine.

The enemy couldn’t completely drive out the yellow flames.

But he rose to his feet as if having sufficiently recovered his energy.

And at that moment, Ray had reached before the enemy and was swinging his sword.

Ggrrrrrrr─!

Instantly, a pitch-black sphere enveloping the body blocked Ray’s sword.

The interlocked light and darkness gnawed at each other, repeating generation and annihilation.

Within the endlessly flickering world, Ray could sense intuitively.

It wasn’t a matter of Mana output.

To tear through this malice-filled darkness, Mana of a higher purity was needed.

Ggrrr─!

Using the repulsive force of the black sphere, Ray drew a parabola in the air and landed at a distant position.

The next moment.

What appeared in the place where the sphere vanished was a giant black wolf enveloped in yellow flames.

A body undulating like a shadow.

Torn eyes filled with malice.

Black breath spewing out like smoke.

Ray cast Enhancement Magic on Is, who was collapsed beside him, at maximum output, and said.

“I’m going to the power room.”

“Huh…?”

There was no time to question the meaning.

Because Ray had disappeared straight into the interior of Rael Row via the stairs.

Grrrrrr──!

Immediately after, the wolf charged.

Is, who had thrown his body aside, barely avoided the collision, and when he turned his head, he confirmed that the wolf had also disappeared via the stairs.

“…….”

All that remained on the deck was utter confusion and groans.

The Elders or high-ranking personnel who could give orders were all unconscious.

Is gritted his teeth, endured the pain, and rose from his spot.

Move. Think.

Do what you can do.

‘The power room… in the power room, there’s only that thing… Ah.’

The moment Is realized something, he threw his body toward the stairs.

The complex passages branched into dozens of paths, but his legs ran unhesitatingly toward only one place.

The place he arrived at was the control room.

Before the wall covered with CCTV monitors showing every corner of Rael Row stood Elder Parun and the crew on duty.

“Elder! We must open all passages of Rael Row immediately!”

“Appearing out of nowhere and spouting such nonsense…! Are you saying we should open the doors so that monster can rampage through our space as it pleases?”

“Ray, Ray can defeat the intruder! We must create a path so he can reach the power room!”

Parun shouted with a flushed face.

“Spouting nonsense in an emergency like this! Step back and go to the medical bay to recover! Now! We will handle that monster according to wartime protocol by manipulating the passages to trap it in one place and then dispatching combatants!”

No, that will only increase casualties.

“That’s not it. The best judgment is─.”

“Is! Are you thinking of disobeying orders! Judgment is the Elders’ role, not something for you to interfere with! Leave the control room immediately! That’s the regulation!”

Is felt dizzy.

His stomach churned.

It was stifling, suffocating.

Yes, what usually pressed down on me, making it hard to breathe, was this inflexible, utterly rigid regulation that allowed no flexibility.

“Didn’t I tell you to leave! You have no right to be here now!”

Protocol, regulation, authority.

That’s really noisy.

The feeling of something snapping in his head.

Simultaneously, someone’s advice flickered.

「Cause trouble.」

“…….”

I’m not following your advice.

It’s just that I feel like it.

The moment he decided to cause trouble, his fist was already flying toward Parun’s solar plexus.

Is’s fist was bare-handed, as his gauntlet had been destroyed in battle, and Parun was wearing protective gear on his abdomen.

But Ray’s Enhancement Magic changed the situation in an instant.

Crack!

Is’s fist shattered the protective gear and landed precisely on Parun’s solar plexus.

“Keheok…!”

Caught by the sudden sneak attack, Parun collapsed without even properly letting out a single groan.

Is shook his broken-fisted hand in the air and growled at the crew on duty.

“Scram if you don’t want to die.”

Descending the stairs and entering the corridor, Ray encountered two people with urgent expressions.

Veronica and Grine.

“Both of you, return to the guest rooms and protect the rest of the party. The intruder probably won’t come down that far, but the upper area is enough for me alone.

“Are you really okay alone?”

“The situation isn’t clear yet, but I understand.”

The two disappeared down the far end of the corridor following Ray’s instruction.

Ray watched them go, then turned his head in the opposite direction.

In the distance, he could see the wolf surging forward.

The yellow flames attached to its body, according to Ray’s imagination, were not burning anything around it except the wolf.

Thump!

Ray explosively released the Red Mana in his legs and powerfully pushed off the floor.

The chase unfolded with a dangerously narrow gap, the wolf’s panting audible right behind him.

‘Have they evacuated? I don’t see any dwarf residents.’

At a glance, Ray’s path seemed to have no rules, but in fact, that wasn’t true at all.

Because the yellow gem held to his chest was acting as a Compass, telling him where to go.

The Resonance of the gem, which had been continuous since the moment he entered Rael Row, grew uncontrollably stronger the more he ran through the corridors.

Of course, since he didn’t know the complete structure of Rael Row, there were times he had to turn or got lost.

But that was only in the beginning.

At some point, as he followed his path, security devices were deactivated, passages opened to create a way, and blinking lights on the walls indicated the correct direction.

Thus, Ray arrived at the power room and opened the door.

The yellow gem, which had left its other half across from it, was trembling with rough excitement.