Chapter 6 – The Broken World (One)

“What, what in the world is that.”

“That’s definitely not a car or gunshot.”

Pale’s sleep vanished in an instant.

A sound he had never heard in his life made his entire body tense up.

The only saving grace was that the sound wasn’t too loud, so his younger siblings hadn’t woken up.

Groooan──

The more the sound repeated, the faster his heart raced.

And then, gunshots and shouts began to mix in.

“It… seems the war has started.”

Countless wars he had experienced.

Countless gunshots and shouts he had heard.

Ironically, Pale felt relieved that the war that had ‘begun’ was one he ‘knew.’

Unlike Pale, who swallowed nervously, Ray remained still, lost in thought.

Something was strange.

Something was going wrong.

The voices of people he heard now weren’t shouts from an equal battle but closer to screams from a one-sided slaughter.

‘Could it be.’

The scene he had witnessed a few hours ago replayed in Ray’s mind.

「Creeeak─.」

It was near 18th Street.

He saw a man getting out of a luxury sedan walking down the street with Hector.

「This way… waiting… here… for you.」

The words weren’t clear.

But he could clearly see Hector bowing and scraping to the young man wearing a monocle.

…And then.

An enormous amount of Mana was swirling in the man’s chest.

A blue so dark it was nearly black.

A sticky, gloomy feeling, like oil spilled in the sea.

It was similar to the color formed when Mana gathered as a Golem moved.

But that wasn’t the surprising part.

The Vessel containing the man’s Mana was shaped entirely differently from others’.

It was a wide Ring shape encircling his heart.

Not just one, but multiple Rings flowed with a massive amount of Mana.

Mana of colors other than dark blue also existed, but their proportion wasn’t high.

What in the world was it?

For other people, Mana dissipated from their Vessel as emotions were released.

But the man’s Mana didn’t disappear; it merely flowed leisurely through the Rings.

As if the Mana was trapped inside the Rings, prevented from leaking out.

A strong curiosity arose.

At the same time, instinct sounded a warning.

This is dangerous.

I need to tell Niles.

Ray immediately turned and ran toward 17th Street.

「Have you seen Niles?」

「Haven’t seen him lately. Seems he’s busy as hell preparing for the war.」

He ran through 17th Street and several others, but Niles was nowhere to be seen.

He did speak to Operatives he met along the way, but he had no way of knowing if the message properly reached Niles.

Grooooooan──

“Th-the sound is getting louder?”

Pale, too, realized something was off.

Screams and shouts.

And that bizarre resonance.

The faint, dull noise of various sounds mixed together repeated, growing closer then farther away.

Like the flickering shadows of flames.

As if it would engulf the underpass at any moment.

Amplifying the boy’s anxiety.

“…I’ll go out and come back.”

Ray said as he grabbed his raincoat and mask.

“I-I’ll come too.”

“No. You stay and protect your siblings.”

Pale looked back at his siblings, fast asleep, oblivious to the world.

“O-okay. Don’t go far; just check the situation and come back.”

Ray nodded.

He put on the mask and pulled the raincoat hood low, covering his eyebrows.

Creeeak―

He went outside and closed the tent flap.

Turning his head outside the underpass, he saw a dark world obscured by pouring rain.

Wrapping a thin film of multicolored Mana around his entire body, he began climbing the riverbank.

Heading toward the direction the sound was coming from.

An unidentified roar.

War cries. Shouts. Gunshots. Occasional screams.

It was strange.

His heart, which had remained calm through everything until now, was beginning to beat harder and harder.

The boy didn’t know.

The one year spent with the underpass kids.

The various attempts to feel emotions.

At the end of it, a small crack had formed in his own heart.

Crack.

Nor did he know that the crack was slowly splitting apart under the impact of a strong external shock.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Ray quickened his pace.

His vision, once only darkness, gradually began to tinge red.

“…….”

The street was burning.

Amid collapsed buildings, acrid smoke billowed and soared.

Undeterred by the rain, flames swayed and danced.

In life, two kinds of situations often arrived.

Either incomprehensible.

Or something one didn’t want to comprehend.

The situation before his eyes fell into both categories for Ray.

A situation utterly incomprehensible.

And one he didn’t even want to understand.

Squelch! Squelch!

Mud-caked boots busily splashed through puddles.

Ray approached a figure slumped against a Wall, crouching down.

He created a small flame to illuminate the person’s face.

“What in the world is happening….”

The moment he checked the person’s condition, Ray swallowed the rest of his words.

An Operative from Niles’s organization he knew.

Half of their upper body was gone.

Only then did he realize the liquid pooled around wasn’t rainwater but blood.

Wondering if they were still breathing, the person struggled to open their mouth.

“Ray… is that you…?”

“What happened?”

“Those bastards… brought… a Golem… Gah!”

He partly understood the situation now.

Guns or blades couldn’t blow away half a person’s upper body.

“The man with glasses… released the Golem and left… Gack!”

The Niles Operative, coughing up blood, moved no more.

Ray closed their eyes for them.

Exiting the alley, he cautiously but swiftly advanced, scanning his surroundings.

Whoosh! Whoossh!

Fierce flames illuminated corpses scattered everywhere.

All had large holes in their bodies or some body part blown away over a wide area.

It was one of two groups.

Niles Operatives or street residents.

He’d seen human corpses more than once or twice, but this was the first time he’d seen them damaged in such a horrific state.

‘Did the Golem collapse all the buildings too?’

Ray looked up at the buildings reduced to ruins.

Golems moved with Mana.

Though only about 2 meters tall, the power they exerted couldn’t possibly be human.

…Probably the monocle-wearing man from 18th Street was controlling the Golem.

No, definitely.

It must be that.

Before long, gunshots began to mix in.

Rat-tat-tat-tat─!

Maybe Niles and his Operatives were fighting the Golem.

He had to help.

Niles had done many things for him.

Also, if Niles’s organization fell, life on 17th Street in the future couldn’t be guaranteed.

It was an open secret that Hector captured street orphans and sold them as slaves.

Squelch! Squelch! Squelch!

A knife in one hand.

A blue electric current clenched in the other, he ran.

Then, at some point, the gunfire stopped.

Ray, breathing heavily, arrived at the central square.

Haa─ Haa─

He was too late.

The square was filled with Niles Operatives’ corpses.

The only silver lining was that Niles’s body wasn’t among them.

Grooo─

The roar that followed.

It was moving away, toward the underpass.

“……!”

That was the moment.

The crack in his chest split open once more.

An emotion he had never felt in his life constricted the boy’s entire body.

His heart sinking, Ray ran with all his might.

Why was it heading toward the underpass?

Only Pale and the younger siblings were there.

Was it programmed to seek out and kill all living beings?

His mind went blank white.

His heart pounding, he ran, but the distance to the roar wasn’t easily closed.

Amid many fleeting thoughts, Ray finally reached the riverbank.

Dim moonlight shone.

The shape of the Golem visible inside the underpass.

The collapsed tent and the pool of blood spreading beneath it.

“Ah.”

The blood in his veins turned cold.

Something in his mind snapped with a thud.

It felt as if the world, which had always been gray, was beginning to regain its original colors.

In an instant, Ray, rooted to the spot, sprinted down the riverbank slope.

Snap! Thud! Sccrreech!

Sharp thorns from bushes scratched his raincoat, but he paid no mind.

Reaching the bottom of the riverbank in an instant, Ray charged toward the Golem, knife in hand.

Whiiir─

The Golem, turning its head toward Ray, flashed red Eye Light and swung its arm.

A speed too fast to even react.

Unbelievable for the usually sluggish Golem.

“……!

Thud!

Ray was sent flying in his charging posture, crashing into the riverbank below.

Overwhelming pain wracked his entire body, and he spat blood from his mouth.

“Pale…! Josephine…! Miles…!”

Gritting his teeth, he squeezed out his voice and shouted.

Only the blood pool beneath the tent grew darker; no response came.

The boy could sense it.

That no one inside the tent was alive.

The 2-meter-tall inanimate object brimming with malice, as if to prove that fact, paid no more attention to the tent.

It merely moved toward him, as if searching for the next task to handle.

Thud― Thud―

The ground shook with the Golem’s advance.

The boy’s heart, pushed to a state of extreme excitement, beat incessantly.

Due to the impact of the Golem’s earlier blow, he couldn’t move his body.

No.

From the start, the boy hadn’t even considered dodging.

Grrind.

His mind was fixated on a single thought: he must kill the Golem.

The usually calm, rational boy was not here.

Ooooh─!

All the red Mana existing in the surroundings began to be sucked into the boy’s grasp.

Ooooooh──!

Whoosh! Whoossh!

Mana swirling madly, drawing a vortex.

Above it, crimson flames began to bloom.

The Mana Flow grew increasingly violent.

The boy stretched his arm toward the Golem.

He had never shot flames at anyone before.

But he instinctively knew this was how to do it.

The Golem halted in place.

Staring at the gathering red Mana, it too raised its arm.

Dark Blue Mana sucked into the Golem’s palm began to form a vortex.

Grooooh──!

This was the source of the roar from the street.

The large holes in people’s bodies were traces left by the Magic the Golem fired.

Ooooh─!

Grooooh──!

A sound that felt like it would tear his eardrums.

The vortexes created by the two colors of Mana accelerated their rotation, racing toward the completion of their Magic.

And the moment the Golem’s was about to finish first.

Boom──!

A vehicle that appeared from outside the underpass rammed into the Golem’s side.

The vehicle didn’t stop there, continuing to push the Golem with its crumpled bumper.

Creeeak─!

The Golem flailed its arm toward the driver’s seat, but the distance was too far.

Pushed to the end of the passageway, the Golem’s back hit the railing.

Craaack!

The railing tore away, and the Golem’s body, losing its balance, fell into the river.

And did not resurface.

Silence descended upon the riverbank.

Only the sound of the overheated engine cooling and the creaking of metal expanded by heat could be heard.

The red Mana gathered in Ray’s grasp also dispersed into the atmosphere.

Creeeak─

A few seconds later.

A man got out, opening the car door.

It was Niles.

Whether he had already fought the Golem once on the street, his entire body was covered in blood, and one shoulder was slumped.

“……!”

Before Ray could speak.

Niles staggered toward Ray.

With movements on the verge of collapse, he examined Ray’s body and made a diagnosis.

“You’re okay. Your bones aren’t shattered. A few days’ rest, and these cracks will heal quickly.”

Ray couldn’t say anything.

He didn’t know what reaction to show.

All the emotions deferred for 16 years.

An immeasurable variety and intensity of emotions were crashing over his body and mind like a tidal wave.

Niles made a troubled face upon seeing the collapsed tent inside the underpass and the blood pool beneath it.

“I’m sorry. If only I’d arrived a little sooner.”

Ray managed to force out a single sentence.

“Why is that your fault?”

A faint tremble mixed into his voice.

“……!”

Noticing Ray’s state was different from usual, Niles looked surprised.

Then, as if organizing his thoughts, he quietly hugged Ray and patted his back.

Ray’s shoulders, trembling with anger and sorrow, and his ragged breathing gradually stabilized.

A few seconds passed.

Ray, pulling away, quietly asked.

“The people? Your subordinates?”

“The ones moving with me are all dead. Don’t know about the scattered ones.”

Niles’s expression twisted.

“Hector. That bastard I’ll tear to pieces. Didn’t know he’d bring in a Wizard from outside. Damn it. Where the hell did he get that kind of money.”

A look that could kill a person with just a glance, if possible.

“What will you do?”

“First, return to the street. Gather the survivors. Put out the fires. And then….”

Niles’s words were cut off.

Fzzzt!

By a fist-sized beam of light that flew from behind.

“Huh…?”

Niles looked down at the hole pierced through his chest with a shocked expression.

“Gah!”

The moment he saw Niles collapsing and the Golem crawling up from the river.

Ray felt an illusion as if time was flowing very slowly.

What in the world was happening?

If this is a dream, I wish I’d wake up soon.

It feels like the world is telling me a huge lie.

Tears and sweat.

Pitch-black rainwater and blood.

Liquids flowing from within and liquids falling from outside mixed into a sticky mess, trickling down his entire body.

The Golem, with a crumpled side, crawls across the ground, approaching.

Slowly raises its palm.

Sucks in surrounding Mana, making it rotate.

The colors gradually mix, turning into dark blue.

Ooooh.

The Mana begins to hum.

Watching the spectacle, Ray raised his hand as if entranced.

Ooooooh──!

Blood-red Mana sucked into his palm began to rotate.

A speed incomparably faster than before.

Snap! Snap-snap!

Crimson sparks trace trajectories.

A Ring formed of flames generates, emitting a sticky heat.

Soon, the Mana vortex ceases its rotation.

And when the ferocious flame that appears before it is fired.

Kwa-boooom──!

The boy’s time begins to flow rapidly again.