[149] Forceful Breakthrough (4)
Just as they were about to start the operation in earnest, Tess, who had been staring off for a moment, suddenly spoke up.
"Wait. Before we go, there's one thing I need to check."
"Huh? Check what?"
"If this operation succeeds, there's a good chance we'll be dragged into an all-out fight with the enemy. So there's something I want to confirm with Rian."
"What is it? Is there something wrong with me?"
Rian looked puzzled. Tess turned to him with a seriousness she hadn't shown before and asked, "Rian, have you ever killed anyone?"
Silence fell. Rian stood with his sword at his side, blinking.
Honestly, he'd never really thought about it. Or rather—did he have to?
Any knight carries a vague vow. A sword is a tool meant to cut people. If you're prepared to wield such a tool for your life, you don't bother with other trivial concerns.
"No. I haven't. You?"
"A few times. When I went with my father to root out bandits."
"Oh? But what's the problem with that?"
"Telling yourself you're ready to die and telling yourself you're ready to kill are completely different. It's the same for mages, but for us it's especially true—we have to cut people down with our own hands."
The enemies Shirone's group faced weren't local thugs. They were the Parrot Mercenary Corps, renowned across nations—professionals steeped in war.
"Of course I trust your courage. It's absurd to think a swordsman would go through life without ever staining his blade. But if today's your first time, you might waver in the heat of battle."
Rian exhaled and thought it over.
Wavering in battle. Killing someone isn't pleasant. Still, part of him felt it didn't matter.
"Tess, killing is a dangerous, complicated thing. I understand why you're worried. But I won't waver."
"You fool. That's exactly what I mean—it's not that simple. To kill someone—"
"I've always killed."
Tess's eyes flickered. Rian looked at his reflection in the blade and continued.
"And… I've been killed countless times, too."
He turned to Tess with fierce eyes. "When they said I had no talent, when they told me to give up the sword, even when I truly wanted to give up—I still swung. In that process I killed countless enemies, and was killed by countless enemies."
Rian's blade pointed north. If he'd been a statue, the weight might have toppled him forward, but he stood rooted as if his legs were anchored to the earth.
"Tess, understand? I've never held a sword half-heartedly. Whether there's an enemy before me or not, I've always swung with everything I had."
Everyone could read the resolve in his words. As if nothing had happened, Rian smiled and sheathed his sword behind his back.
That was it—the reason Tess had chosen Rian over many talented swordsmen. Rian was blunt, which was why he still hadn't unlocked his schema. But the resolve born from the weight of life itself isn't something talent or skill can produce.
Tess watched him for a moment, then smiled with satisfaction and looked around.
"Good! My worry's gone. Let's begin."
At Tess's words, Shirone and Amy fired up. Rian's declaration had stoked their fighting spirit.
"All right, Amy, we'll go first."
Shirone grabbed Rian and cast a photonization spell. A flash lit up, and the two vanished into the woods; Amy and Tess immediately followed.
Two streaks of light tearing through the dense forest made a dazzling spectacle. Like reflections off a mirror, they cut through at sharp and obtuse angles in irregular, unpredictable arcs.
They didn't know the exact locations of every magic circle, but by estimating enemy patrol routes they could approximate where to search.
After about ten minutes wandering through the woods, they found the first magic circle.
A magic circle is itself a magical construct, and if you enter a Spirit Zone's radius you can clearly sense its presence.
Of course, if stealth magic had been applied, detection would be far more difficult. But no mercenary corps, however wealthy, would bother to outfit that level of concealment.
Even the combined cost of all the mages needed to set up a mid-level magic circle wouldn't reach a tenth of hiring a stealth mage, so it would be an outrageously wasteful expense.
Rian slashed through thick bushes, clearing a path, and they came upon a magic circle on a grassy clearing.
Shirone, seeing a magic circle in reality for the first time, was surprised at how much larger it was than he'd imagined.
Amy examined it and nodded. "As expected, a mid-level magic circle. Someone put a lot of work into this."
The circle, with a radius over five meters, pulsed an ominous red as if responding to the Spirit Zone.
Various concentric rings, like ripples, bore intricate diagrams—patterns so beautiful they could be called works of art.
"Hold up. Let me take a look."
Having learned a fair amount in her final year, Amy studied the circle closely.
A magic circle's evaluation falls into three main criteria. First is the color, indicating magical intensity. Second is the density of embedded functions. Third is the connectivity between the inner circles.
To Amy, this circle's color and density were a bit lacking, but its connectivity was excellent. In short, it likely had the backing of an accredited organization.
"This is a pain. Looks like a licensed magic firm made this. I thought they'd have hired shadow mages since they got the money illegally."
"Is that a big deal?"
"A registered firm designs by the book, so connectivity is strong. In other words, the circle's durability is high. Can we really handle this in ten minutes?"
"We have to try. Honestly, I don't know if we'll succeed."
"What? You say that now? This is your plan—you worked it out."
"Sorry. But I do have some confidence. And if it succeeds—"
"If it succeeds?"
Shirone lifted his head for a moment, ran some calculations through his mind, then offered a rough estimate. "Maybe not ten minutes. Maybe under a minute."
"What? One minute?"
Amy's eyes went wide. This was a mid-level magic circle. For anyone other than a professional dismantling team to neutralize one in under a minute was nearly impossible.
Circles laid by licensed firms prized durability. Even if you cast a powerful physical spell and smashed the ground into gravel, the underlying concept might remain. Amy thought you'd have to grind the ground down to something like mung-bean-sized fragments at minimum—she didn't know of any spell Shirone had that could do that.
"What are you planning? Are you sure? Partially breaking it won't help. If anything, wrong dismantling could fragment it and make things worse."
"Understood. I'll try."
Amy grew more uneasy. From his answer, it was clear Shirone hadn't worked everything out.
Could he really do it? If they failed here, it would only waste time.
Shirone took position in the center of the magic circle. Amy had expected a vertical strike from above, so she tilted her head at his unexpected stance.
"What are you gonna do from there? Create the shock in place?"
"Yes. But it's my first try, so it might be dangerous. Fall back beyond the radius."
At Shirone's words, the three of them stepped back.
They were anxious, but anticipation matched their nerves. If it worked, they could instantly turn the unfavorable situation around.
The more circles they destroyed, the more the enemies' operating radius would shrink.
With two mages, their firepower would be decisively superior—if they could finish quickly.
Shirone closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He spread his legs, bent at the waist, and aimed his fist at the ground.
At first, nothing visible happened. The calm was almost incongruous for a battlefield.
But Amy's reaction was different.
Her skeptical gaze at Shirone had shifted to shock; her shoulders trembled.
"Shirone… you—"
Tess glanced at Amy, puzzled. Nothing seemed visible to Tess, yet Amy's face was pale as if she'd seen a monster.
"Amy, what's wrong? What's Shirone doing right now?"
"You won't believe it if I just say it at first… No—wait. There was a way."
"What? Explain—we're curious."
"First, put more distance between us. This could be really dangerous."
When Amy stepped back, Rian and Tess followed. Even as they moved, the swordsmen felt puzzled—Amy had retreated twice as far as before.
"Now explain. What are you sensing?"
"I'm not seeing it, I'm feeling it. The change happening to Shirone."
"You feel it? What exactly?"
"The Spirit Zone. Shirone's Spirit Zone is moving at an incredible speed right now."
Amy herself could hardly believe it as she spoke. What sort of durability would be needed for a Spirit Zone to expand and contract that quickly?
"It's definitely a mental pulse. But it's way too fast—at this rate he's up to Teacher Etella levels."
The mental pulse Amy sensed from Shirone exceeded ten beats per second.
But Shirone wasn't satisfied.
In the Class Five mental pulse test he'd once scored 410 points—13.6 beats per second sustained for thirty seconds.
He believed he had to push it at least twice that speed now. The radius was different. If his previous maximum expansion had been twenty meters across, the magic circle's five-meter diameter now reduced the round trip; the pulse rate should increase accordingly.
The question was whether his psyche could endure it.
"I have to do this. I'll control it more precisely."
Shirone pinched his brow slightly. Amy, feeling the change at once, spoke in a trembling voice, "My god. It's getting faster. Much, much faster."
As the radius tightened, the mental pulse climbed past fifteen beats per second.
You couldn't count from one to fifteen in a single second—that gives some sense of the speed.
A normal mage's mind would collapse long before this.
But Shirone's endurance, bolstered by his adamantine resilience, was unmatched.
Finally, the Spirit Zone's maximum expansion radius matched the edge of the magic circle. All that remained was to cast the spell while keeping the rhythm.
Enduring both the mental pulses and the strain of spellcasting required extraordinary focus. Gritting his teeth, Shirone attempted the decisive spell he'd only conceived in his head.
"Photon Rampage!"
He filled the pulsing Spirit Zone with photons imbued with mass, and an astonishing phenomenon occurred.
Light tinted the Spirit Zone, and now Rian and Tess could finally see with their own eyes how Shirone's mind was moving.
KRAKAKAKAKAK!
As the spheres of light expanded and contracted, cracks began to spider across the ground. A massive boulder split cleanly—then shattered into thousands of fragments.