Chapter 17: Illegal Alien (15)
"…I'm the master of some Magic Tower."
Pale couldn't make sense of the words.
At first, he wondered if it was the name of a MegaCorp he'd never heard of.
A hidden research institute, a covert combat unit… or maybe slang used in place of a corporate name.
Even though the young man said it like a joke, the term slipped from his lips too naturally—as if it were simply the truth of where he belonged.
Kael didn't miss that split-second opening.
"Shouldn't your eyes be on me right now?"
Staying low, Kael closed the distance instantly.
"You're awfully relaxed."
Pale reflexively raised a defensive spell, but his reaction was a fraction of a second too late.
Kael's foot slammed into his side.
"Kgh!"
The impact tore right through his protective suit and dug deep inside.
Pale flew sideways, shattering rusted pipes before crashing into the wall.
Bouncing across the concrete, he only managed to arrest his momentum by digging his gloved fingers into the floor.
Dropping to one knee, Pale choked down a breath.
But it was not easy with blood welling up in his throat.
The auxiliary circuits inside his suit displayed the damaged areas.
Three broken ribs, a ruptured right shoulder joint.
As more areas flashed red on the screen, he dismissed the display.
Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to stand, but his body felt impossibly heavy.
The lingering strain of neural overclocking gnawed at his nervous system, compounding the heavy backlash of high-tier magic.
Yet through the haze of pain, Pale noticed something odd.
Why am I still alive?
If his opponent had intended to kill him, the opportunity had presented itself half a dozen times already.
At least, if the roles had been reversed, Pale wouldn't have hesitated.
Just a moment ago, and even before that, Kael had clear openings to finish the job.
He could have snapped his neck, severed his ACU connection, or crushed his skull against the wall.
But he hadn't.
No… Could he not?
Pale's eyes narrowed.
His opponent was Tier 7 or higher.
Judging purely by instantaneous output and combat senses, that was the only logical conclusion.
Even while Pale was overclocked, Kael had matched his reaction speed effortlessly and controlled the flow of body enhancement with absolute fluidity.
Nor did he have the eyes of a man who hesitated.
He had the cold, practiced gaze of someone who killed without a second thought when deemed necessary.
In that regard, the young man was cut from the exact same cloth as himself.
Then there was only one answer.
A restriction.
That overwhelming power had conditions attached.
Pale had survived countless battlefields over the years.
Long before becoming the Chief of Security for Seraph Industries, he'd been a mercenary.
A battle-hardened asset who handled every piece of corporate dirty work, from fringe proxy wars and Lower Level crackdowns to illegal test subject retrievals.
He knew how to survive against stronger foes.
After all, Magiterra was crawling with monsters far stronger than him.
Taking down such an opponent was simple: exploit a weakness.
Provided, of course, that they had one to begin with.
Pale mentally replayed Kael's movements from their initial clash on LL-15.
Sure, they were remarkably well-trained movements, but that was all.
Without cyberware, an unaugmented body had hard physical limits.
Yet Kael had suddenly deployed enhancement magic, and the gap between them had widened drastically.
When did he cast it? Was it… right after destroying an ACU?!
Pale's pupils dilated in realization.
It can't be.
Through the dust and smoke, Kael walked forward casually.
He still held a few intact ACUs in his hand.
Watching him approach, Pale swallowed hard, then burst into hysterical laughter.
"Hahaha!"
"…"
When Kael kept advancing, Pale wiped the blood from his mouth and spoke.
"To think you have to break an ACU to use magic."
His red eyes locked onto Kael's hand.
"Just how inefficient of a mage are you?"
At those words, Kael paused for a moment and looked down at him quietly.
A faint smile curled the corners of his mouth.
"Oh?"
A casual exclamation.
"Aren't you smart?"
It was a blatant provocation, but Pale didn't take the bait.
The intelligence he had just wrung from the brink of death was far too vital to drown in anger.
He counted the remaining ACUs in Kael's hand.
"Four left."
Spitting up bits of blood, Pale grinned.
"If I just hold out, it's my win."
At that, Kael's smirk widened.
"Hold out?"
He slowly tilted his head.
"You?"
Pale didn't bother responding.
Kael advanced across the ruined corridor, walking toward him like death personified.
"Think you can last?"
"…Long enough."
As Pale flexed his fingers, blue mana threads extended once again.
This time, he had no intention of taking his opponent head-on.
He would pour every ounce of energy into defense—keep his distance, buy time, and wait for the remaining ACUs to run out.
Then, victory would indisputably be his.
It was a simple, pragmatic plan.
Foolproof, no less.
Except Kael clicked his tongue and let out a dry snicker.
"Look at you."
He continued nonchalantly.
"All talk."
"…"
"Are all Tier 6 mages this delusional, or did I knock a screw loose along with those ribs?"
Step by step, Kael closed the distance, throwing out insults with careless ease—as if merely stating undeniable facts.
That fact made Pale even more annoyed.
Don't fall for it.
Pale told himself, grinding his teeth together.
As if reading his thoughts, Kael slipped a third ACU between his fingers.
"Now then."
He spoke softly.
"Shall we begin round two?"
* * *
Inside Harune's stall, Rin huddled beneath the workbench, curled into a tight ball.
She pulled her hood low, leaving her black mask firmly in place—partly because Kael had ordered her to keep it on, but mostly because she lacked the courage to show her face.
Her fingertips trembled uncontrollably.
No matter how tightly she clenched her hands, she couldn't stop the shaking.
Harune stood near the entrance of the stall, keeping watch just in case.
He held an old shotgun in one hand.
"Stay still. If anyone tries to enter, I'll handle the talking. Don't answer. Just breathe."
Rin gave a small nod.
Peering through the gap in the canvas, Harune clicked his tongue.
"Whenever those surface bastards cause trouble, the whole market goes dead quiet. Even the rats hold their breath."
Rin couldn't bring herself to answer.
The Surface Level was where she was born and raised.
Pristine floors free of trash, fresh air without any stench.
Back then, she had taken all of it for granted.
After all, that was the only world she had ever known.
Rin had followed her grandfather around since she was little.
She only knew that he was a high-ranking executive at Seraph Industries.
The world bowed to his authority, but to Rin, he was just her grandfather.
He was the man who sat her on his lap to review meeting reports, patiently explaining every complex term along the way.
The man who constantly reminded her, "To run a corporation, you have to know how to manage people."
From a young age, she had learned directly from her grandfather how corporations operated.
But it was a reality confined to the ivory towers.
From behind reinforced glass high above the clouds, people were merely represented as numbers in reports.
She knew nothing of the world beneath her feet—or rather, she had never had the chance to know.
Until that day.
It had all started when she happened to hear about a place called the Lower Level.
Two executives were talking in hushed voices in the hallway outside a meeting room.
Lower Level, unregistered dwellers, organ harvesting, test subject transport.
Words she had never heard before.
To an overly curious girl, it sounded like a dark, forbidden frontier waiting to be explored.
A place within Magiterra itself, yet somewhere she had never seen.
A level that existed on maps, but no one ever explained in detail.
What aspiring explorer could resist?
That evening, Rin asked her grandfather what kind of place the Lower Level was.
Her grandfather fell silent for a moment before answering that she didn't need to know.
It was the first time he had ever dismissed her.
Until then, her grandfather had never dodged a question.
He had answered anything she asked.
If he didn't know, he suggested looking it up together, and if it was difficult, he told her they could take their time learning.
Yet that same grandfather refused to tell her about the Lower Level.
This only made Rin even more curious.
"Then can't I just visit once?"
When she brought that up, her grandfather yelled at her for the first time.
"Absolutely not! You will never step foot down there. That place is no place for you!"
Rin never forgot the look on his face that day.
Rather than anger, he looked afraid of something.
That sight weighed heavily on her heart.
Looking back now, she realized it was foolish curiosity.
But back then, Rin naively believed she understood how the world worked.
She thought that having her personal security chief by her side meant complete safety—that taking a quick trip down to the Lower Level and heading right back up would be harmless.
Pale had agreed to her request with an accommodating smile.
"If you are curious, my lady, I shall show you."
She could still remember those words.
That warm, polite smile.
And then, the terrifying instant that smile twisted into a mask of malice as he spat curses and lunged at her.
Barely holding back her terror, she had thrown herself into a drainage pipe and miraculously made it down to the Lower Level.
Grief swallowed Rin whole as she sat haunted by her own foolishness and the memory of her grandfather.
All she could do was quietly press her hands against her face.
"Grandpa…"
Her voice trembled.
She tried to hold it back, but hot tears spilled over, soaking into the fabric of her dust mask.
Harune glanced back at her from the entrance.
"Don't cry."
At his words, Rin raised her head, and—
"Don't cry so easily down here. The moment you show weakness, you die."
She bit her lip, swallowing a sob.
"Okay…"
"If you want to cry, do it later. Lock the door, turn off the lights, wait until no one's watching."
Harune continued, looking outside the tent.
"Do it after you survive."
He hesitated briefly before sliding a water canteen on the workbench toward her.
"Drink."
Rin stared at the canteen for a second before reaching out.
"Thank you."
"Don't mention it."
She took a careful sip.
It had a lukewarm metallic taste, but it relieved her dry throat a little.
Setting the canteen down, she asked cautiously.
"Is Kael… going to be okay?"
Harune didn't answer right away.
Instead, he worked the action on his shotgun with a heavy metallic clack.
"Who knows."
He spoke, peering past the gap in the tent.
"I still can't tell what that bastard actually is. A circuit tinkerer, a lunatic, or some walking disaster that accidentally got dropped into the Lower Level."
"…"
"Though."
Harune added.
"I don't get the feeling that bastard will die so easily."
Just then—
Bzzzt.
The magitech lamp hanging over the workbench flickered violently.
Harune's head snapped up instantly.
"…"
Bzzzt, bzzzt.
The light hummed violently, buzzing like a dying insect.
An inexplicable spike of dread shot down Rin's spine.
"Did the mana cut out…?"
"No."
Harune's expression turned grim.
"This isn't anything like that."
The next moment…
Thud.
RUMBLEEE—!!!!
The entire stall shook.
Stacked circuit boards crashed to the floor and the tent poles creaked under sudden, unnatural pressure.
Rin stifled a scream, throwing her arms around the thick leg of the workbench to anchor herself.
A deep, resonant roar echoed from the distance.
BOOM—!
The sharp crackle of thunder followed, twisting Harune's face into a grimace.
"Crazy son of a…"
Then came the second blast.
KABOOM!!!
Much closer this time.
Rin's heart pounded violently at the deafening roar—a sound she had never heard before.
"Kael…?"
A third blast tore through the air.
BOOM!
This time, the magitech lamp cut out entirely before switching back on.
After a moment of darkness, a blue residual glow flickered inside the stall.
Harune gripped his shotgun tightly and spoke quietly.
"This is…"
Rin swallowed dryly beneath her mask.
Harune muttered, staring out toward LL-15, where the sounds originated.
"Magic."
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