Leo had always felt that there was something deeply wrong with Koliver's mental state.
It was probably a side effect of becoming a Fallen Mage, causing him to lose control of his soul to some extent.
Leo had to kill Koliver as quickly as possible if he wanted enough time to save his family.
Leo had suffered for looking Koliver in the eyes that morning on Mount Morn. This time, he would not make the same mistake.
He kept his head lowered, watching the ground and Koliver's movements below the shoulders as he searched for a way to defeat him.
Koliver's feverishly excited voice rang out once more.
“Don't look down, my little brother's adorable classmate. Let me see your eyes...
“Are they filled with hatred?
“We're the same. You and I are both Disciples of Desire.
“Kozmo said you were a Cipher Mage. Clearly, he rushed into action without even understanding his target. No wonder he died at your hands.
“On Mount Morn this morning, you clearly possessed a means of counterattacking that went far beyond what an ordinary Disciple of Desire could do.
“You can understand me. Can't you?”
Leo frowned.
Koliver had mistaken the Calamity Bell's counterattack for an ability of the Disciples of Desire.
Leo had no patience for a madman's nonsense.
He moved.
He charged straight at Koliver!
A leather cord emerged from Koliver's right sleeve.
Keeping his head lowered, Leo pulled a dagger from his lower leg. It was his only weapon.
There had been too many eyes at the festival for him to carry a weapon such as a cruciform sword, so he had hidden a dagger on himself beforehand.
The leather cord lashed viciously at Leo's feet, trying to sweep them out from under him.
Twice...
This was Koliver's second spell. He had already used the first one inside the church.
Leo repeatedly darted sideways, dodging the leather cord without ever taking his eyes off the ground.
Acolytes spent their days gently chanting the Passion Scriptures and rarely engaged in much strenuous activity outside the bed.
As a Cadet Officer who trained regularly, Leo was agile enough to make Koliver frown.
The seventh time...
In that brief span, Koliver had already used his spell seven times.
Just as Leo had suspected, Koliver was another novice D-grade mage like him.
Every lash of the leather cord missed as Leo nimbly slipped aside.
Instructor Willy had said that mages should use their more powerful souls and stronger nerves to control their muscles.
Concentrating on the muscle groups that needed to exert force during each movement really did make those movements more explosive.
Even without relying on spells, a mage's body was stronger than an ordinary person's.
Koliver's eighth attack whipped toward Leo's waist, the center of his balance.
Leo gave the ground one final confirming glance.
This was the position he had chosen.
He made no attempt to dodge. Holding the dagger in a reverse grip, he slashed sharply upward.
A soul wave flooded the dagger.
The E-grade Cipher spell, 2x Critical Strike spell, doubled the dagger's power.
Unfortunately, it failed to sever the leather cord. It only knocked it aside.
Having gauged the cord's toughness, Leo knew that even the D-grade Cipher spell, 4x Critical Strike spell, could not cut through it in a single blow with such a featherlight dagger.
The eighth attack was over...
Koliver had been attacking with the leather cord the entire time, repeatedly using D-grade Form Magic.
For a low-level D-grade mage, the best combat strategy was to use E-grade and D-grade spells in combination.
Leo, for example, had used only a single E-grade Cipher spell so far, and merely as a test when he swung his dagger moments ago.
After the cord was struck, Koliver swiftly retracted it.
He lowered his head to inspect it, then relaxed when he saw that the nick would not interfere with the fight.
When it came to being deranged, Koliver had Leo thoroughly outclassed.
When it came to being a fighter, however, he fell far short.
For one thing, Koliver had never worked out why Leo kept his head lowered.
He assumed Leo was trying to avoid the Bone-Chilling Gaze spell he had used that morning.
It was an out-of-body soul-probing ability of the Disciples of Desire. Besides detecting the strength of its target's spells, it could also leave the victim briefly dazed.
The instant Leo saw Koliver retract the leather cord, he hurled his dagger at him.
Koliver himself had yet to react, but the leather cord moved first, instinctively sweeping wildly across the space in front of him.
The ninth time...
What a shame.
The leather cord struck the dagger and knocked it off course.
Even so, the dagger sliced a gash across Koliver's face and split his ear into upper and lower halves.
His cheek and ear burned.
Trembling, Koliver reached up to touch the right side of his face. Blood covered his handsome features.
“Bastard! I'll kill you! How dare you cut my face!”
Now unarmed, Leo stood where he was with his head hanging, as though he had given up.
Then the leather cord shot out again and lashed viciously toward his neck.
The tenth time!
The last time!
This was the final D-grade Form Magic attack Koliver could launch with the leather cord!
The cord caught Leo as though he had been taken completely by surprise. His face went pale, every expression betraying his terror.
It struck his neck hard and wrapped all the way around it.
The cord did not merely burn against his skin. It left Leo unable to breathe.
Then it snapped back, dragging him toward Koliver.
Leo clutched the leather cord tightly with both hands and tried to wrench it loose.
He attempted to inject a soul wave into it, but soul waves of the same grade repelled one another. As the latecomer, his soul wave had no effect.
Leo's feet scrabbled uselessly against the ground, just like those of the recently deceased Bishop Notte Bonet.
Blood covered one half of Koliver's face.
The other half was smiling.
Leo gave up.
He stopped trying to pull the leather cord away.
He could no longer breathe, but he still had enough strength for one final struggle.
He dug both hands into the ground until his fingernails tore, leaving several bloody streaks behind.
The sight of Leo struggling excited Koliver even more.
Unfortunately, the wound across the right side of his face hurt too much for him to speak. Otherwise, he would have thoroughly mocked the villain who had killed his brother.
He also wanted to discuss just how wretchedly Leo's little sister would suffer as she burned alive...
With his free left hand, Koliver drew a thirteen-inch (thirty-five-centimeter) Silesian wheellock pistol from inside his coat.
This was the final judgment he had prepared for Leo.
It was an expensive treasure reserved for nobles of the West Empire. Its hammer and spring mechanisms were intricate, and it broke with the slightest mishandling.
Had Koliver not been an agent planted by the West Empire, the vice admiral who captained the West Empire warship would never have bestowed such a symbol of status upon him.
The wheellock pistol's gunpowder and lead ball had already been prepared. All that remained was the final pull of the trigger.
The pistol required no slow match.
Pulling the trigger made the spring drive the pyrite, igniting the gunpowder.
Koliver pointed the muzzle at the second person he wanted to kill most in the world!
That rapist Notte Bonet was, of course, the man Koliver had wanted to kill most.
Leo East was second!
Koliver could already see the despair on Leo East's face.
Leo really did panic a little when he saw the wheellock pistol.
This time, it was Leo's turn...
What greeted Leo was a thunderous roar!
Against the fading sound of fists pounding on the apartment door, the shot rang out with brazen abandon.
But!
There was always a but!
But the smile froze on Koliver's face!
His shot had struck a round piece of metal!
What was it?
It looked nothing like a shield. The round piece of metal was perfectly flat...
It even had decorative metal patterns across its surface...
It was a manhole cover!
The kind seen everywhere in the northern part of the city!
Leo had hooked the fingers of his left hand through a hole in the manhole cover and was holding it in front of himself.
At that moment, Koliver understood.
No wonder.
No wonder Leo East had kept staring at the ground...
But he had little time left.
The fingers of Leo's other hand, his right hand, were hooked through a hole in another manhole cover.
The second manhole cover descended from above, swinging viciously toward Koliver's head.
This, young man, was how a D-grade spell was meant to be used...
First came the D-grade Featherlight spell, reducing the metal manhole cover to thirty percent of its original weight and giving it tremendous speed in Leo's hands.
Choose the right moment.
Do not panic.
D-grade Cipher spell, 4x Critical Strike spell!
The manhole cover instantly became four times its original weight.
Koliver's head proved terribly fragile beneath that blow.
The manhole cover did not stop until it struck both his shoulders.
A Cipher Mage known as a weapon-wielding thug could bring out the full power of any weapon, even a pair of manhole covers.
The space between Leo's brows twitched.
The instant Koliver died, he seemed to hear Kozmo howl!
His Soul Sea began to change again!
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