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*****
"What incredible mana!"
Heath, who had been planning to press his advantage, felt a surge of apprehension as he saw the sky filled with water spheres hurtling toward him. A grim expression settled on his face.
"It's that royal girl. Dammit."
He hadn't expected the royal brat, who had seemed utterly powerless in the back, to erupt with such a massive reservoir of mana at the critical moment. If this continued, his mission was headed for failure.
"Ice-Mist Composite Magic: Infinite Icicle Prison!"
Heath retreated to stand in line with his three subordinates. Together, the four of them unleashed a high-tier composite spell. Sharp icicles began to condense rapidly within the thick mist, launching a 360-degree assault on the entire plaza.
Their targets were no longer just Asta's trio, but every single villager.
Noelle scrambled to intercept the ice with her water spheres, while the Village Chief released his own magic, manifesting weapons to parry the shards. Asta, Magna, and Lumiere were forced to pull back from their offensive to shield the civilians.
The composite magic was devastating; the icicles formed from the mist were several times stronger than Heath's individual spells, and their numbers were seemingly infinite, regenerating as fast as they were destroyed. Even with the combined efforts of the Knights, they were barely holding the line.
"Let's see how long you can last!" Heath sneered. The hallmark of this composite spell was its endurance. He was betting that everyone—aside from the royal girl—would run dry on mana soon. Once a single link in their defense broke, the slaughter would be a mere matter of time.
"It seems I'll have to reveal a bit more strength," Lumiere thought. Seeing Magna's mana hitting rock bottom and the defensive line wavering, he prepared to drop his facade and neutralize the four attackers.
But just then, George's voice rang out in Noelle's ear once more:
"Noelle, your power goes far beyond this. Believe in yourself. You are the strongest!"
At George's words, Noelle's eyes flashed with newfound light. Her grimoire flipped pages at a blurring speed as a new spell manifested:
"Water Creation Magic: Sea Dragon's Lair!"
A massive torrent of water swirled into a hemispherical dome, encasing all the villagers. The endless rain of icicles crashed against the rotating current and was washed away.
"Asta!"
George flicked his wrist, and a spatial portal snapped open in front of Asta. The exit point? Directly behind Heath and his team.
Asta, now wielding two of his black swords, stepped through. With a powerful, dual-wielding swing reminiscent of a home-run hit, he sent all four enemies hurtling through the air.
"Flame Restraint Magic: Soul-Binding Fire Rope!"
Magna used the dregs of his mana to manifest flaming cords, binding the four attackers like cocoons. He stood over them, hands on his hips, panting heavily.
"Who the hell are you people? Why attack Saussy Village? Start talking!"
"Our magic has been sealed?" Heath muttered, feeling the flame ropes suppressing his mana. A look of calm resignation crossed his face as he looked up at the group and smiled. "I refuse. Ice Magic: Glacial Burial!"
Ice blossoms erupted from within the four men. In the blink of an eye, they shattered into fine, frozen powder.
The sight made the pupils of Magna and the others contract in horror. "Suicide? What kind of fanaticism is this?"
"They had special magic tools hidden inside their bodies," Lumiere noted, his expression clouded with confusion. "They could be triggered even with their magic sealed."
He recognized the base design of the tools; they were actually based on an invention of his own from five centuries ago. However, he had designed them for commoners to create ice for drinks during hot summers, not for self-destruction. After his "death," those designs should have been lost.
Why does this man have a modified version of my invention? Lumiere wondered.
"Recovery."
While the others stood stunned by the mass suicide, George walked over and opened his grimoire. A white magic circle rose from the spot where the four had vanished. Time seemed to spool backward; the ice powder swirled and reconstructed, and the four dead men were suddenly standing there, alive and well.
"What?! You can do that too?!"
Everyone, including Lumiere, stared in disbelief. They knew George was a healer, capable of mending wounds or fixing broken walls. But to bring people back after they had literally been turned into powder?
This wasn't just magic; it was a miracle. It implied that as long as George was around, death itself was optional.
The revived attackers were equally shell-shocked. They had felt their souls departing—how were they back in their bodies?
"The souls were still lingering since they just died, so I could bring them back. If they'd been dead longer, I couldn't do it," George explained with a casual smile.
In reality, as long as a soul hadn't reincarnated, he could retrieve it. However, doing so might alert the "Creator" of this world. For now, he had simply used a touch of Time Magic to reverse their personal timelines.
As he spoke, George placed his hand on Heath's head, rapidly scanning his memories.
"Memory locks? It seems this goes deeper than I thought."
Heath didn't just have suicide tools; his mind was shielded by a specialized spell to prevent telepaths from extracting intel. But George wasn't a standard mental mage. Using his Authority as a "Spectator," he bypassed the locks entirely and absorbed Heath's life history in an instant.
"Re, seal the magic tools inside him."
As Secre used her sealing magic to prevent another suicide attempt, George kept the intelligence he'd gathered to himself for a moment. Heath's group didn't serve the Diamond Kingdom. They belonged to an organization called the Eye of the Midnight Sun.
Their goal was the total destruction of the Clover Kingdom to establish a new order. Their leader, a charismatic white-haired youth named Licht, possessed overwhelming power. Heath and the others were true believers in his cause. They had been sent to Saussy because of a lead on a Magic Stone. Licht believed that by collecting all the stones, they could overthrow the Wizard King and the nine squads.
"Asta and I will take them back to report to the Captain," Magna decided, quickly organizing the aftermath. "The rest of you stay here and help the Chief settle the villagers."
George nodded and opened a portal back to the castle. Once Magna and the others had left, George caught Lumiere's eye and found a private moment to share what he had learned.
"I suspect the Eye of the Midnight Sun is the 'back-up plan' for that Word Soul Devil. Collecting the stones likely isn't just about the kingdom; it's about breaking his seal."
The Word Soul Devil had been trapped by Secre using the stones; it stood to reason he'd need them to get out. This new group of high-level mages seeking the stones was too much of a coincidence. Furthermore, George knew from Secre's memories that "Licht" was the name of the Elf leader from five hundred years ago.
"Licht? That's impossible!" Lumiere's brow furrowed. He had personally slain Licht to prevent the devil from taking his body.
"Perhaps," George mused. "But remember the reincarnation spell the devil forced Licht to cast. If those souls truly reincarnated, their first instinct would be revenge against the humans they believe betrayed them. As for the leader, he might be using the name 'Licht' out of respect for their fallen chief."
George paused. "Or, Licht truly was revived but has been manipulated or had his memories altered. Either way, the stones are the key."
"Do you know where their base is? I want to meet this leader," Lumiere said, his resolve hardening.
But after a moment, he reconsidered. "No, let's wait. Give me two weeks."
Thanks to his exchanges with George, Lumiere's magical theory had evolved to the point where he was even more efficient than in his prime. However, his mana reserves still needed about fifteen days to fully recharge from the centuries of being sealed. Charging into the enemy's nest without full power—especially if a revived Licht was involved—was unwise.
"As you wish," George smiled. He was perfectly happy to let Lumiere handle the heavy lifting.
After finishing the cleanup in Saussy, George shared a meal with his "parents" and left them a generous sum of money. Then, taking the Magic Stone Secre had found, he returned to the Black Bulls.
That night, George studied the stone in his room. This thing is remarkably similar to an Infinity Stone, he thought. It was a dense battery of energy and fundamental laws. Collecting them all would indeed grant someone "Single Universe" level power—nothing compared to George's True Self, but significant for this world.
More importantly, the stones contained the "blueprints" of this world's laws. If George could decode them, he could replicate the world template much faster. He decided it would be worth collecting them, but figured the Eye of the Midnight Sun had probably done most of the legwork already. He would just wait for Lumiere to be ready and then harvest the lot from their base.
I should probably give everyone a power boost, George decided. His previous method of teaching advanced theory was too slow for the non-geniuses in the squad. He needed a shortcut.
The next day, George gathered everyone in the hall—including a hungover Captain Yami.
"George, this better be important," Yami grumbled, nursing a headache. He'd come back late from a losing streak at the casino and hadn't slept.
"I've developed a method to rapidly increase everyone's combat power. Are you interested?" George asked.
"Increase our power?" Magna, Asta, and Luck practically jumped out of their seats.
"Tell us more," Yami said, suddenly more alert. He knew George was a genius researcher who could already replicate his Dark Magic. If George said he had a way, it wasn't a joke.
"I've engineered a specific type of energy," George said, a swirling orb of power forming in his palm. "I call it Dragon Force. If I graft a corresponding element of this force into your bodies, it will fuse with your natural attributes to create a vastly superior mana.
This new mana will make your spells far more potent. More importantly, it allows you to 'consume' your own element to replenish your mana. If an enemy hits you with a fire spell, for example, you can just eat it to get stronger. It also grants massive physical reinforcement and rapid healing. And finally, if you master it to the limit... you can transform into a dragon."
(End of Chapter)