Lying there, pinned to the ground, Marcos felt like gravity had suddenly been cranked up, pressing him down. As he lay there, he managed to move his head just enough to catch a glimpse of the figure in front of him while hearing Mia whisper a name.
Did she just say, Lord Azer? The Master Mage, Azer? But I thought he was killed when the 20th Company was declared wiped out. That's why we were sent on this mission...
As he had that thought, Mia's eyes were locked on the old man before her, and she chose her words carefully.
"You- You're Lord Azer, aren't you? No... no, that's not right." Mia had met Azer before; after all, she was the captain of the 23rd Company.
Despite being a mage of Takerth Academy, Mia considered him an honorable man who had dedicated his life to the arcane and deserved respect.
Even now, as she looked at him, he still wore his signature blue robe that covered him from head to toe, except for his hands and face. But the regal-like clothing, once made of high-quality material, was now torn and tattered in multiple places, with old bloodstains marring its fabric.
His once-elegant beard was a mess, and his eyes, which had sunken into his skull, seemed lifeless as they remained unmoved. The most striking thing about him now was his body, which, despite leaning on a damaged staff, seemed inhumanely crooked.
He's alive, that's for sure. But that's not Lord Azer anymore. It's like something's controlling his body.
Coming to that realization, Mia drew back her bow with greater force and shouted at Azer—or whatever was posing as him.
"I won't ask again! Who are you, and why are you using Lord Azer's body?"
To Mia's threat, Azer stood in silence for a moment, until the sphere in the center of the fleshy pillar pulsed again, and a single phrase left the old man's mouth.
"Zyronth..."
The old, scratchy voice sounded blood-curdling as if it belonged to a being trying to mimic human speech for the first time.
Mia pondered the strange word for a moment before she saw Gerald leap down from a cavity in the wall where he had been slammed. Unlike Mia, Gerald wore no armor; he believed his aura and body were more effective than any plates of metal.
Still, his shirt in particular was well-made, adorned with leather to support the weight of his greatsword. Now, however, that clothing had been ripped and torn thanks to Azer's sudden attack.
Gerald ripped the leather sword scabbard from his body, along with his tattered clothes, and tossed them aside. This revealed his scar-covered physique, a testament to years of dedicated service.
Seeing Gerald ready to attack, Mia shouted a warning: "Gerald, be careful! It's Azer! Something is using his body, but he still has the strength of a Master-level mage!"
She didn't know if Gerald had heard her as he crouched low and then shot forward. The fleshy ground beneath his feet crunched as he charged like a wild bull toward Azer. Without the greatsword weighing him down, Gerald was even faster than before.
In less than two seconds, he was already in front of the old man's body.
The difference in height made Gerald look like a giant, as his entire body was engulfed in his aura, and he raised his fist. He wasn't holding back, not against an enemy like this.
As he swung his right arm down, a shockwave reverberated through the chamber, and blood splattered from the ground as the surrounding flesh was scraped away. An invisible force met his attack as if he were hitting an unseen wall.
"Oh, now I remember! I forgot that all of you Master-level mages have titles! They called you Azer, the Kinetic Artisan, right? I've heard that you have quite the mastery over psychokinesis!" Azer didn't reply to Gerald as he loomed over him. Instead, his psychokinesis suddenly wrapped around Gerald's legs, yanking him into the air before slamming him down to the ground.
The impact was so powerful that Gerald became embedded in the rock beneath the Kryle Hive's walls of flesh. In the next instant, Azer's psychokinesis took control of the fragmented rocks around Gerald's body, surrounding and crushing him simultaneously.
Looking over at the battle, Mia began to think to herself.
Even Gerald won't be able to handle Azer on his own. I don't know how, but clearly this has something to do with the Kryle, and the best way to deal with them is to destroy the central link.
Mia reached for her quiver but realized she was completely out of arrows. Clicking her tongue in frustration, she opted for the next best thing, condensing arrows out of compressed wind as she aimed at the sphere in the center of the muscle tissue-formed pillar.
Before she could release the shot, Azer seemed to immediately lock onto Mia's intentions. His psychokinetic grasp around the rocks surrounding Gerald vanished and fell upon Mia instead, enveloping her entirely and disrupting the flow of air around her.
It's already figured out how I mobilize the wind?
Her compressed arrow was forcefully dissipated, but Azer's focus had been taken off everyone else.
"So, you can't focus on two targets at once using your psychokinesis, huh?" Marcos's voice echoed out as he appeared behind the old man. An aura enveloped his left arm as he thrust it forward like a spear. At the same time, Gerald's hulking figure broke free from the cocoon of rock surrounding him, and he aimed a strike at the old man's face with his fist.
In the face of two simultaneous attacks, Azer didn't show any reactions at all; it was as if he were blind to the world. Instead, the old man simply spoke again, his voice still carrying its unusual, fractured quality.
"Adept Class Magic, Aegis of Repulsion." As those words left his lips, mana surged from Azer's body, coursing through the intricate and mystical pathways of the spell in an instant.
Just as quickly as that occurred, an enchanting azure barrier enveloped him completely.
The moment the auras of both Gerald and Marcos brushed against the barrier, it was as if water had collided with oil. The barrier rippled violently, unleashing a complex interplay of shockwaves that radiated into the airspace around the trio.
The auras surrounding Marcos and Gerald instinctively recoiled, trying to repel the very essence of this magic. Simultaneously, the barrier deflected the force they had unleashed with their strikes and their own auras repulsion, creating an unending battle of endurance.
Ultimately, after a few seconds, the two knights had no choice but to yield, letting themselves be propelled backward until they landed on their feet, skidding across the ground. Meanwhile, Mia felt the telekinetic force exerted by Azer dissipate as he shifted his focus.
Recognizing this, Mia took a deep breath. While Azer had control over the air around her, he was also making it difficult for her to breathe, even with her communication with the wind spirits.
As she caught her breath, she took a moment to review the situation in her head.
From what I remember, Azer was an unusual mage, dedicating himself mostly to a single type of offensive magic—a rarity among mages. Yet, his specialization had allowed him to attain an extraordinary level of mastery over psychokinesis. Even though he can only focus on one primary target at a time, he possesses the ability to switch his focus almost instantly and has multiple defensive techniques at his disposal.
Clenching her fist, Mia couldn't help but realize the kind of predicament they were in.
We need to neutralize the central link in order to deal with him. But to do that, we have to take him out of the equation first. It's a paradox. In that case, we need something to break the balance. Even if it's just temporarily...
Mia's eyes grew firm with resolve as she took another deep breath and steeled herself. At the same time, while she contemplated her plan, Marcos and Gerald remained locked in battle.
Azer had lifted some of the rocks that had previously encased Gerald and used his psychokinesis to crush them together in the air in front of him. Then, like a machine gun, he fired off small sections of the massive rock clump in the shape of needles.
Gerald quickly raised his guard and aura as the needles hurtled toward him. They easily tore through the flesh of the Kryle Hive and even penetrated deep into the rock beneath the topmost layer. However, they only left minor bruises and cuts on Gerald's skin.
Meanwhile, Marcos had no choice but to dodge, moving as swiftly as he could to evade the hail of needle-shaped projectiles trailing his every step. His body left a blur, and his snake-like movements destroyed everything he had passed seconds earlier due to Azer's attack. However, Azer soon ran out of ammunition, leaving him seemingly open.
Just as they were preparing to launch another attack on the old man directly, they halted when they heard Mia's voice.
"We're initiating Plan MK, Marcos; get over here!" They both almost froze at Mia's words, looking at her as if questioning the seriousness of her command. However, when they saw the unwavering determination on her face, they gave hesitant nods in response.
Gerald's aura intensified even further, reaching its limits and forming an incorporeal shell around his body. The next moment, he rushed at Azer, forgoing the use of any type of Aura Style and relying on a continuous barrage of attacks.
From the right, he struck. When his attack was blocked, a violent shock wave shook the ground as he swiftly moved to launch another strike from behind. He hammered Azer's psychokinesis barrier relentlessly, not giving him a moment to counter.
"Gerald won't be able to sustain his aura at that rate for long; we need to hurry," Mia said to Marcos as she began taking off the top half of her armor, metal and all.
"Are you sure about this, Mia? We might still be able to—" Marcos started with concern, but Mia cut him off.
"No, even now, the Kryle are trying to dig their way in here. Even if the three of us can defeat Azer by going all out, we'll be too exhausted to deal with the swarm and central link afterward. Plus, that thing, whatever it is, is still learning how to properly control Azer's body and abilities, from what I can see. That means we need to act before it catches on and makes this situation irreversible," Marcos wanted to argue, but she was right; they needed to deal with this, and fast.
"Alright… Let me get ready. Just make sure you don't move; you know how risky this can be."
Marcos extended his right hand as his aura began to flow. Each finger gradually became coated in a controlled vortex of aura, sharpening to the point that they resembled the claws of a wild beast. As Marcos prepared himself, Gerald continued his relentless assault on Azer, who was struggling to control his rapidly fluctuating mana flow and was unable to keep up with Gerald's relentless attacks from every direction.
However, this one-sided assault didn't last long. Whatever was controlling Azer's body appeared to begin to adapt to the increased levels of speed Gerald was reaching, and fast.
Soon, without bothering to turn around, Azer's psychokinesis predicted Gerald's movements and locked him in place as he attempted to strike Azer from behind. In a moment, Gerald let out a pained groan.
"Gah!"
The moment it grabbed him, the pressure from Azer's grip increased by the second, slowly causing Gerald's ribs to crack as he coughed up blood. Without pausing, the psychokinetic grip threw Gerald violently, sending him flying like a cannonball into the ceiling.
And their assault didn't stop there.
Before gravity could do its work and cause Gerald to fall from his place on the ceiling, Azer's psychokinetic powers slammed into his body again and again, embedding him deeper each time. Every hit caused the crater on the ceiling to grow, making the entire chamber shake more and more violently.
The only interruption to this violent beating was a sudden, ear-piercing scream that came from Mia.
"Aaagh!" No words could capture the sheer agony in that scream. Marcos had stabbed her in the chest with his aura-covered fingers, blood staining the white clothes that she normally wore beneath her armor.
The hazy aura sent vibrations through her body, causing small tears to open up on a multitude of her multiple internal organs, and even her bones slowly began to fracture. There was nothing else to say other than the fact that the pain consumed her.
Yet, amidst the overwhelming pain, memories flooded Mia's mind before disappearing into a void. Some were vivid, recounting fond moments, while others were memories she wished would vanish for good. But in the end, as she endured the agony, one memory stood out—a memory from her childhood.
It was the moment when she first endured this torture and also the moment when she first reached this state. When her pain reached its peak and she felt as if she would die at any moment, that was the time her mind would reach the briefest state of calm.
The pain would vanish, and as she opened her eyes, the world slowed to a crawl.
Spirit naturalists were called by many names, but one, in particular, gave them their revered status. When their backs were against the wall, lives flickering on the brink of extinction, that was when the spirit naturalist's true potential was unleashed.
In a state of focus like no other, even the chaotic sounds originating from the spirits became orderly. In such moments, they were simply called, Mage Killers.
As Mia's gaze fell upon Azer's body, it was as if her eyes alone had set a homing beacon on an ant.
Every spirit she could contact, every spirit within her range, whether it was governing the material realm or that which was incorporeal, all of them suddenly shifted their focus to the abnormality that was Azer's magic. They were the cogs of the world, existing purely to set right; that which was wrong, that which went against the natural laws of the universe, and magic, was by far the greatest offender of their order.
Almost instantly, Azer's psychokinesis seemed to vanish, and the mana that was being released from his body was suppressed. It was as if his magic was suddenly banned from existence and erased without being given a chance to resist.
"Mia… Ca… You he… Mi…" As Mia slowly stood to her feet, blood poured from the wound in her stomach and seeped from her mouth.
Her vision blurred so much that, even with Marcos right in front of her, she could hardly make out his presence, let alone his words. However, guided solely by instinct, her attention shifted to the central link of the Krlye Hive. She raised her hand toward it, fingers splayed wide, before clenching them into a fist.
And as if the world obeyed her whim, the entire chamber suddenly shook violently. Without any warning, spires of earth burst through the hive's fleshy layers, skewering the sphere at the center of the pillar of muscle tissue.
The sphere was ripped to shreds, and just like that, the node of this Krlye Hive vanished. The Kryle, who had just managed to dig their way through the tons upon tons of rock blocking the entrance to the chamber, suddenly collapsed to the ground, like dolls cut from their strings. The same went for whatever was controlling Azer's body.
The pulsating flesh of the Kryle Hive slowly lost its rhythm before coming to a stop, and within a matter of seconds, every Kryle associated with this hive was dead, disconnected from the network they so relied on. After performing that last action, Mia collapsed, falling into a deep state of unconsciousness.
Gerald, who had fallen from the roof to the ground with a heavy thud, had fallen unconscious as well. His injury on top of his lack of aura had completely drained the brute, no matter how much his spirit wanted to go on.
In the end, the only person capable of moving was Marcos.
[After the central link's destruction, the entire Kryle Hive began to collapse. I made my escape, carrying the bodies of Mia Reiheim and Gerald Lerium.
Utilizing the surviving horses, I embarked on a search for the nearest settlement, eventually reaching Larter Village.
In Larter Village, I successfully established contact with the local military, who have been providing assistance in caring for both of my unconscious comrades.
I am now formally requesting any available support for this mission. It was during my time in this village that I also uncovered information that I believe may be connected to the anomaly responsible for the 20th Company's demise.
I have included these details in the second letter I sent to you.]
As Major General Arbarth finished reading the first letter, a sense of relief washed over him, even though he didn't let it show on his face. Although it had cost them their safety, both Mia and Gerald had successfully carried out their duty and managed to deal with the Kryle issue on their own, which was a major accomplishment.
Now, it was just a matter of him needing to send a report to the royal capital. As long as the new, seemingly intelligent Kryle weren't already within their borders, they still had a chance for the kingdom to react and minimize the damage before anything happened.
Still, even with that in mind, as he sat there, he couldn't relax too much; there was still a second unopened letter. Staring at it, he already had a gut feeling that this letter wouldn't have such a joyous and clear-cut ending as the one he had just read.
Information concerning the thing responsible for this entire mess? Is it too much to hope that it's not as big of an issue as the Kryle are about to be?