Ch. 301
This shouldn’t be happening. Theatrazen, who had been completely under the dominion of water, vanished along with the Shield.
Even Endairon was flustered, searching the surroundings.
“Where did he go!”
The loss was sudden.
When the Shield that had been pressing down so hard vanished from my sphere of influence in an instant, I was struck by the same bewilderment as having a piece of meat snatched right out of my mouth.
Before I could even properly grasp what had happened, the oppressive presence consuming the area suddenly halved.
Even Silairon had returned to the Spirit Realm.
Only a sudden emptiness remained all around.
I couldn’t possibly accept this. Victory had been right in front of my eyes.
[He’s not here.]
[Not here, either.]
Endairon and Grufain quickly scanned the area for any presence and reported back, but that wasn’t the answer I wanted.
“He’s not a mage, but it’s as if he… warped…”
That old man… don’t tell me?
My premonitions tended to be more accurate the more ominous they were.
It was then that an unseasonal wind blew inside Undaine’s Shield, and an eerie chill grazed the back of my neck.
My left hand was yanked backward by an urgent force.
Then, a sharp clang! rang in my ears, and a stinging pain shot up from my wrist to my shoulder.
“……!”
My body twisted halfway to the side against my will, and the only thing I could tell in that moment was that the one who had swung my left hand to block the arrow of wind was Rai, wrapped around my wrist.
And why was Theatrazen appearing behind me?!
[Are you all right, Master!]
[Master!]
[My friend.]
Theatrazen, floating in the air using the lesser Wind Spirit, Sillaphe, looked just as surprised as I was.
It must have been his own finishing blow, but when it was blocked by a piece of metal that had sprouted from my body, he couldn’t tear his eyes away from it.
The ugly shield tightly wrapped from the back of my hand to my elbow was still growing, subtly shifting its shape.
Literally, as if it were alive.
Instead of immediately coming to blows, the old man—his mouth stained with blood—and I exchanged glances filled with countless questions in the silence.
And as if someone had finally let out the breath they’d been holding, we unleashed questions instead of attacks.
“Is that the Protection Spirit!??”
“You… you have a contract with the Space Spirit!”
“Where did you find the Ice Spirit and the Electricity Spirit!”
“How did you get inside the Shield!”
To our mutual surprise, we were both just blurting out whatever we wanted.
For a while, Theatrazen and I were busy glaring at each other with faces that couldn’t comprehend what we were seeing.
‘A Spirit Mage can’t use Magic. It might be possible with a Warp scroll… but that must be the power of the ‘Space Spirit’ mentioned in the book.’
If so, could there be a connection between the missing pages and Theatrazen?
For two people crazy about Spirits to be in the same space, smelling the scent of an unfamiliar Spirit, was the greatest torture imaginable.
I was dying of curiosity.
[……Master?]
I had to give some kind of order to Endairon, who was anxiously coiling around the Shield and worrying about me, and to Undaine, who was moving streams of water to capture Theatrazen but hesitating, knowing I had no immediate intention of attacking.
But the questions were too intense for that.
If I couldn’t make a decision, the Spirits could do nothing.
“You! Seeing that shield, there’s no doubt…! You found the Protection Spirit!”
“……Protection?”
What is he talking about?
It seemed he meant Rai… and suddenly, a passage I’d read not long ago flashed through my mind.
「I have discovered traces of the eighth non-attribute spirit. I could not specify what kind of power it possesses, but I was able to determine that it is a spirit with a ‘protective nature.’」
Could he be talking about that?
If so, that would mean the identity of the eighth non-attribute spirit was the ‘Protection Spirit,’ and given the current situation, it was plausible to mistake Rai for it.
Theatrazen began to look even more suspicious.
He knew the contents of that book in detail, and he even wielded the Space Spirit.
My thoughts went as far as to consider that Theatrazen might be the one who damaged the book to hide its contents.
As a high-ranking noble of this country and a Wind Spirit Mage, sneaking into the library would have been a piece of cake for him.
The fact that he had immediately recognized Ador and Grufain was reason enough for suspicion.
“Where did you find the Spirit Stone! I searched the entire continent for the Electricity Spirit…!”
“Where else… I picked it up off the street!”
“You wicked thing! Do you seek to insult me with such absurd lies… and you’re a woman?”
Theatrazen seemed to have only just realized that my voice was high, smooth, and in any case, far from that of a man.
Not missing the moment the old man’s face—stiff with tension—crumpled in confusion, I shouted.
“Undaine!”
Even before I called her name, the ground beneath me gave way and my body dropped below the Shield, where I landed lightly on Endairon’s tail, which had been waiting for me.
The purpose of the quadruple Shield was originally to protect me, but now that Theatrazen had entered it, it needed to be turned into a prison.
I looked up at the spherical Shield to see if he’d been caught… but I knew instinctively it was empty.
My senses registered it faster than my eyes could.
[He disappeared again!]
“Damned old man… is he an eel, or what?”
He’s fast. Getting hit with a kind of speed I couldn’t do anything about reminded me of Rovenin.
That’s how the book described the Space Spirit.
‘It’s something I can declare… as the most peculiar for a Spirit Mage to obtain. Indeed, that seems to be true.’
Calling Undaine back to my side, I had Endairon cast a powerful Shield this time.
There was no way Theatrazen would disappear and leave it at that.
Given his cantankerous nature, I was certain he’d reappear and aim for my back.
Even with a Shield up, it was clear he’d enter it again to threaten me.
While staying vigilant, I was swallowed by questions.
“Does this make any sense? How can he teleport inside a Shield?”
[Because it’s the Space Spirit!]
“……It’s impossible according to magical theory! Why do you think a Shield is a Shield! The essence of a Shield is to block external threats. But to allow outside intervention…!”
[Of course, it’s impossible for a mage like Bright to Warp inside a Shield. But Master, a Spirit’s Magic is above artificially ‘created’ Magic. It’s a natural act.]
I also knew that while a Shield created by a mage and a Shield created by a Spirit have the same function, their essence is different.
“That’s why I’m saying it’s strange! Undaine’s Shield is also a natural act! What kind of cheat breaks through that!”
[If it’s a fight between natural acts, it ultimately comes down to a battle of essence, right? The Space Spirit, as its name implies, rules over space. If it warps space, it doesn’t matter whether its opponent is water, fire, or a defensive power… none of that matters!]
“That sounds like I’m at a disadvantage…”
[Fire or water can’t exist as an essence superior to space, can they? A Shield can’t stop it from moving. It’s qualitatively different from some human mage’s Warp.]
The Space Spirit was such an unfamiliar entity that it was difficult to even grasp what kind of threat it posed.
For now, I understood that it could ignore all essences and teleport to a desired location. ‘I’m screwed.’
“But Rai, you… how do you know so much about the Space Spirit?”
[My previous master had one.]
“……You should’ve said so sooner!”
[Seeing Theatrazen teleport, it doesn’t seem like he’s gotten very close to the Spirit yet! There’s a long interval between his movements. Look now—he’s not showing up, is he? That’s proof he’s still inexperienced at handling it.]
Now that he mentioned it, there was indeed an unnatural gap between his movements.
It was the same earlier.
It took about ten seconds for him to escape Endairon’s pressure and enter my Shield. Maybe even longer…
[The Space Spirit is quite tricky to sync up with.]
“Hoh? Any other useful information?”
[Um… that Rai is very knowledgeable and smart…?]
“Stop showing off. This isn’t the time for that.”
[It’s called showing off because timing doesn’t matter, isn’t it?]
Rai never missed a chance to be cheeky. I could feel him getting noticeably more brazen just from blocking one of Theatrazen’s surprise attacks.
Having an excuse to flaunt his knowledge was enough to make him cocky.
“Never mind. If the interval is like before, he should show up again soon—so stay sharp.”
[Yep! And he won’t be able to teleport continuously. Doing it often puts a huge strain on the body.]
“Really? That’s good news for me.”
[Teleporting in succession within a few minutes like this is just digging his own grave.]
Come to think of it, even Warps or teleports using Magic have a gap of a few seconds when moving through space.
If there’s other matter or a disruptive flow of Mana at the destination, the interval becomes even longer, and surprisingly many trivial things can interfere with movement.
I didn’t know how teleportation using a Spirit worked, but if the principle was even slightly similar, then the method to block it should be the same.
I clenched and unclenched my fists, sharpening my senses and focusing all my attention on the presences around me.
“Come on, come… on.”
With Rai watching my left and back, and me watching my right and front, I had the strange feeling of having two heads.
I didn’t know from which direction Theatrazen would appear, but if he was aiming for me, he would have to come inside the Shield.
Keeping that in mind, I made the Shield as small as possible.
And I waited for the old man, drunk on his title as the continent’s strongest Spirit Mage, to trust in the Space Spirit and enter my space.
“How long are you going to keep me waiting! Come at me!”
Whoosh.
[To the right, Master!]