Silence descended. Gorgopf turned to Danao.
“Ah, so you were in on it, Danao! What a schemer you are!”
It was closer to a scream than a shout, a conspiracy spit forth from the self-righteousness of deep betrayal.
In truth, it was hard to call it just a conspiracy theory. Danao had indeed been tipped off about this situation.
‘Using a relic as bait to gather Argyrion’s traitors…’
However, he never expected such a simple bait operation would lead to this kind of outcome. Without needing to see the traitor trembling with betrayal, he thought he would swiftly deal with the situation and restore stability to the Mage Tower.
Danao’s mind only echoed the empty scenery of Amimone Tower. Only Gorgopf had applied to access the Mage Tower Core, and Gorgopf was the only one Danao had allowed to register as a temporary user.
But what that ‘agent’, that Argyrion called ‘foe’, was doing inside the tower was completely beyond his imagination.
To officially use the Mage Core, permission from the tower master was needed, but had out-of-bounds tactics like hacking developed differently?
As a Apex Tower, there would undoubtedly be high-level security measures in place, yet if it were a secret organization like Blasphemia, they might have prepared means to bypass the security of the current generation.
‘…No.’
Could he truly believe that guy was an agent of Blasphemia? Danao couldn’t help but dive into that fundamental question.
The only proof the agent had provided was a single identity card stating he was affiliated with Panoptes. Anything written there must be a deceptive facade considering he was supposed to be a Blasphemia agent.
In fact, Danao had never seen that card. At the time, the gatekeeper, a mage, testified that he had seen the Panoptes ID, and he only accepted when that guy began his entrance claiming he was with Panoptes.
‘More accurately, he must be a Blasphemia agent hiding behind that huge organization called Panoptes.’
But now, he had to doubt everything.
That the leadership of Argyrion were former agents of Blasphemia was something the tower master of the Apex Tower would come to learn clandestinely.
However, could someone who doesn’t even call them by name and refers to them with the proper noun ‘foe’ truly be a member of Blasphemia?
Amid escalating confusion, Gorgopf attempted to charge at Danao. Despite some misunderstandings, he trusted Argyrion, with whom he could fight together, and the safety of his comrades left behind in the tower rang alarm bells in his mind, leading to his choice.
Danao hastily evaded. Typical evasive maneuvers wouldn’t work against an attack at this distance. He needed to use Amimone’s Vision Magic to momentarily transform parts of the mage’s body into Poison Water.
But it was a blunder.
“Water!”
Roots emerging from the underground pierced through Danao’s body and greedily absorbed his liquefied form. He hurriedly reverted his body, but a large mark remained on him.
‘I’m low on blood. Is my liver suffering too?’
Since he handled poison, raising the ratio of body transformation would have been a more stable choice for safety. However, Danao believed that his blood was the best catalyst, so the transformation ratio wasn’t that high.
In a close-range combat situation, freely transforming biological parts into Poison Water was his forte, yet ironically, given the current situation where his body was being absorbed, it turned out to be a bad move.
His vision blurred. He tried to refill his blood with alchemy, but even forcefully pulled, the shards of silver roots embedded like barbs disrupted the circulation.
Just as Danao was gasping for breath, curiously clear footsteps resonated.
Thud, thud.
With his body unresponsive, he forced himself to lift his head. In the midst of a landscape that swayed as though alcohol was poured directly into his cortex. A silhouette appeared, entirely black.
No, a strangely faint face. Only the blue eyes and the corners of the mouth gleamed blue.
“You…”
It was unclear whether it was Gorgopf or Danao himself who muttered that.
The man’s lips seemed to twitch. That sinister smile was the last thing Danao saw before he lost consciousness.
*
“Traitor─!”
Gorgopf shouted loudly. He released the limiter of all his combat machinery and prepared an all-out spell aimed at the target. However, it was strange.
A relatively cheap enchantmentware that detects targets with thermal imaging recognized the usurper of Argyrion perfectly, while the high-end enchantmentware that distinguishes the subtle magic patterns of humans failed to recognize the usurper.
‘Is it due to interference from an abundance of artifacts? Or is it a suppression method unique to Blasphemia?’
No matter how much the magic waves were suppressed, there was a limit, so the artifact effect was likely the stronger possibility.
Gorgopf gritted his teeth and connected the aiming device directly to his brain, switching to manual targeting.
Thus, he aimed eight spells that could be launched immediately at the usurper.
But Gorgopf couldn’t start firing. A certain indescribable emotion held him back. Why did the one who deceived him come here, leaving the Amimone Tower unguarded?
Listening to the communications flowing from the Mage Core would surely reveal the usurper’s lies and expose the fact that he was an enemy of Argyrion to everyone.
‘…The Mage Core’s communication relay.’
The thought that he might have heard that made Gorgopf afraid.
In the tower master’s chamber where the Mage Core was kept, other comrades were present.
“What did you do to my comrades?”
“Oh. They’re just taking a short nap. They might have some nightmares, but their lives aren’t in danger, I assure you.”
With a calm expression, it whispered.
He wanted to shoot right away. But the moment the attack began, who knows what would happen to his incapacitated comrades?
Gorgopf glanced back. Sprigo, now oversized, seemed to reach the sky. Generally, a larger size increases the probability of being hit, but for Sprigo, who had turned himself into a plant, the risk offered sufficient returns.
The roots that had pierced Danao’s abdomen when he was transformed into Poison Water would stretch like countless others, absorbing extra-dimensional magic throughout Algoth City.
If an explosive amount of magic constructed from the vast amounts far beyond personal dimensions could erupt, it would evaporate whatever the usurper attempted before he even got a chance.
The words of the silver giant resonated through the air.
“This…”
*
Sprigo’s senses expanded throughout Algoth City. Thanks to the roots that grew minute by minute. Wherever the roots reached, he could accurately grasp movements.
Thus, it didn’t take long to realize that someone was approaching from the Amimone Tower.
However, Sprigo consciously chose not to pay attention to humanoid entities approaching. The foe was dangerous just by being seen.
He wasn’t spreading urban legend-like fears that one could die simply by witnessing it. There was a reason it revealed itself.
─At least that was true amidst the fragments of memory left among the Argyrion executives.
He needed to grow as fast as possible and secure an Extraordinary Ability Field strong enough to signal Argyrion’s main unit beyond the extra-dimensional storm.
‘There’s a foe. We need Halto.’
However, there was a limit even to ignoring it. The moment it approached right before his eyes and started babbling. Hundreds of eyes that glistened on the silver leaves reflexively moved. This was influenced by anger surging from his very marrow.
In that brief moment, where focus wasn’t fully established, Sprigo’s brain, along with countless small consciousnesses in the roots, began discussing.
How should they deal with that foe?
Of course, the optimal answer would be to attack without exchanging any words.
At the same time, that would be an act of rookieism. Since it revealed itself, there was no doubt it had that level of ‘confidence.’ Sprigo didn’t overestimate his abilities.
Only Halto could compete with that wicked wisdom and emerge victorious. What he should do was to buy time with a powerful biological relay that can break through the two-dimensional storm until he grows.
First, let’s flaunt a little nonchalance.
‘You stray dog of heresy, still wandering without a true face or name?’ That would be enough. At that level─
It was the moment when the eyes that bloomed instead of fruits captured the face of the foe.
*
“You fucking bastard─!!”
Fueled by a wave of anger, Sprigo unleashed raw, unrefined rage.
Considering the size of his emotions, it hinted that the curse expelled by Sprigo was merely on the level of suggesting genitalia or copulatory acts, which indicated his status as a societal intellectual.
Orthes shrugged his shoulders.
“Have we met before? I’m sorry if I didn’t recognize you.”
And calmly added,
“I’ll make sure we never meet again.”
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