Ch. 134

I don’t want to live a good life.

Rumble.

“Why the hell is it suddenly raining? Damn it…”

[Watch your language!]

Crash!

“What? I wasn’t swearing.”

[You can fool others, but you can’t fool Rai, Master!]

Rain was pouring so hard it was deafening.

Just a few hours ago, the weather had been so nice, and now that I was on my way to rescue Annie, this chaos.

Maybe nothing ever goes right for me? It’s not like I committed any major sins in a past life…

With the thunder crashing around me, floating in the sky was getting a little scary.

“Think Ador could act as a lightning rod if I summon him?”

[How much more of your hair are you planning to burn off?]

I decided to look on the bright side.

This much rain meant there was plenty of water available for battle, which could be a good thing for a [Water Spirit Mage].

Though having zero visibility because of it was pretty unfortunate.

“Ugh, I can’t see anything. Rai, can you?”

[I can’t see well either.]

“How are we supposed to know where to go like this?”

Flying above the hills and locating the Blood Wing base had gone fine, but I couldn’t find any sign of Annie because the rain was so heavy it obscured everything.

I couldn’t make a rescue plan unless I could actually see something.

The only upside was that the enemy likely couldn’t see me floating in the sky either.

After soaking in the rain for a while, I summoned Undine to block the water around me and evaporated the moisture from my body.

Though it was raining, I stayed dry and warm as I did a quick circuit around their base.

One thing was clear—there were around twenty buildings, several visible entrances to underground tunnels, and the entire property was surrounded by a high wall like a fortress.

“They’ve got quite the setup. About the size of a small mountain village.”

[Must be a profitable business.]

“Slavery probably doesn’t cost much to run. They just kidnap people and sell them, right? Scum.”

Should we call this creative capitalism?

I could forgive thieves and liars, but there was one thing I could never tolerate: slavers.

That was the vilest thing a person could do.

The worst kind of crime.

[There seems to be only one entrance. An iron gate.]

“Which means…”

[It’s perfect for me to slurp-chomp right through!]

“We have a perfectly good name for it, you know. [Absorption].”

[Yeah, but it just ‘feels’ like slurp-chomp when I eat them.]

Right, I shouldn’t expect anything classy from Rai. He’d been unusually competent lately, and I almost forgot.

“Rai, how’s the mana?”

[Fully recharged! Already recovered what I used earlier!]

The reason I could confidently storm into a criminal stronghold like Blood Wing alone was because I trusted Rai.

More specifically, I trusted the infinite supply of mana he held.

Rai was my spirit, and his power was my power.

And that’s when it hit me—if that’s true, then I should be able to control the [Dragon Heart] mana inside Rai too.

So I tested it, just to be sure—and to my surprise, Rai now came with an external battery function.

In short, I could draw and use the mana from the [Dragon Heart] he absorbed.

This was a big deal. If the Spirit Council found out, they wouldn’t hesitate to dissect both me and Rai out of curiosity.

‘Not that it matters how kind and harmless those old men act. This is revolutionary.’

Spirits summoned to the middle realm from the spirit realm didn’t carry [Mana]. They couldn’t absorb the middle realm’s [Mana] either, so they had to rely entirely on the summoner.

But Rai was special. He had a “middle realm body,” didn’t need to return to the spirit realm, and his metal body, which normally couldn’t contain [Mana], absorbed a [Dragon Heart].

A special spirit like Rai experienced an even more special transformation.

The [Dragon Heart] was a natural crystal that condensed [Mana], and since Rai absorbed it, he naturally gained that same trait.

He now held massive amounts of [Mana].

Even better—he could regenerate [Mana] on his own.

The speed at which [Mana] regenerated finally helped me understand how dragons could recklessly throw around magic.

And this was the most important part:

After multiple experiments, I discovered that as long as Rai was in physical contact with me, I could draw [Mana] from the [Dragon Heart] freely.

I only had to endure the physical and mental fatigue that came with using it.

“Hehehe…”

[…Why are you laughing like that? You sound evil.]

The [Dragon’s Mana] combined with my genius-level spirit magic… made me invincible.

I was now untouchable.

In a human body, no matter how hard you tried, [Mana] gathering was limited by time.

There was no shortcut; you had to gather it slowly over a long period.

But now I had bypassed all of that—thanks to the combo of Rai and the [Dragon Heart]…

“Ha! I might be the strongest on the continent.”

I couldn’t help but shake my head at my own overwhelming strength.

Though, of course, Rai had to ruin the mood.

[You still have to beat Rovenin first.]

“Shut up.”

[And Rovenin doesn’t have an external battery like you. That’s basically cheating—]

“It is NOT! I’m a Spirit Mage, and you’re my spirit, so it doesn’t count as cheating! It’s not!”

[Ohh, strong denial equals hidden truth, huh? You wanna say that again with your hand on your heart?]

“Both hands, even!”

[But Master, you ‘did’ say you wanted to beat him fair and square.]

“I’ll start by wiping out this slave syndicate fair and square first.”

I had always been curious about my limits.

What could I do using [Dragon Heart] mana?

I couldn’t just go on a monster massacre to test it, so it remained an unanswered question—until now. Blood Wing kindly offered themselves as test subjects.

I’d make sure to return the favor.

“Hehe, they’re showing me such pure malice—it’d be rude not to respond. I’ll take them on.”

[We’re… doomed…]

“I said shut up!”

[You know, we ‘do’ kind of seem like the villains sometimes. Like, pretty often.]

…Hard to argue with that.

“Undine, drop us behind that building—the one at the far end, see it?”

[Yes, Master.]

From above, I’d seen that Blood Wing members patrolled around the wall at regular intervals.

Maybe they thought I’d sneak in over the wall.

Poor things. Spirit Mages can fly. Not all of us, sure, but still.

[Isn’t it safer to stay in the sky? Why are we going down?]

“Need intel. Gonna nab one of them and squeeze it out of him.”

[Villain! You really are a villain!]

“…Should I say ‘interrogate’? Squeeze is a little much, huh?”

[That’s the same thing!]

“Hmm. Tricky.”

[People on the side of justice don’t use that kind of language.]

I wasn’t aiming to be a hero, so I didn’t care.

Once I dismounted from Undine, I pressed myself against the building wall and signaled her.

“Thanks for the ride. You can go back now, Undine.”

[Please be careful.]

“Aww, so sweet. Unlike a certain metal spirit I know.”

If Rai were even half as polite as the water spirits…

[Master, someone’s coming.]

As Undine vanished, Rai—still coiled on my shoulder—raised his tail and pointed ahead.

I quickly ducked behind a stack of crates beside the building.

I held my breath and waited. I could hear footsteps.

Sounded like only one person, judging by the lack of overlapping steps.

My plan was simple.

Find Annie. Kill Grak. If the rest of Blood Wing got in my way, I’d kill them too.

I wasn’t dead set on wiping them all out, but if they got in my line of sight, I wouldn’t hesitate.

Still, the base was larger than I thought, with many buildings. Finding Annie required caution.

If I was spotted, it could make things messy. So I decided to be careful.

“Who’s there?!”

The patroller spotted me quickly—but that was intentional.

I slowly stepped out with my hands raised in surrender.

I waved lightly to show I had no weapons.

Rumble…

Rain fell steadily, lightning flashing in the distance.

Thick drops veiled my smirking face from his view.

“What are you do—ugh!”

The large man approached cautiously, not noticing the golden snake at his feet.

Nor did he realize his throat was being coiled until he was slammed into the muddy ground.

It all happened in a blink.

Once Rai wrapped around your neck, death came swiftly. Imagine your neck being twisted grotesquely by overwhelming force.

A little more pressure and the spine would snap.

“Guh! Let me g—”

“Another twist and you die. Instantly.”

For Rai, breaking someone’s neck was as easy as taking candy from a baby.

Maybe it was the cheerfulness in my voice…

The man, struggling and writhing on the ground, looked up at me with desperate eyes.

He couldn’t speak with Rai’s long body choking him.

But his eyes were clearly begging for mercy.

I stepped closer.

The fact that rain wasn’t touching me must’ve looked very strange to him.

“I’ll loosen it just a bit. No screaming, okay?”

“Kh… huh…”

“Promise? If you scream, you die.”

Even I had to admit, that was a pretty villainous line.

But it suited me.