Tenkei Shiomi pushed open the iron door to the 32nd floor emergency stairwell and stepped into the corridor, immediately sensing the signs of magical reconstruction throughout the entire level.
This was unmistakably Magus territory now.
With every step he took, the mana fluctuations from the layered barriers rippled against his senses.
"Twenty-three…" Shiomi muttered. "No—twenty-four barriers. Is Kayneth trying to turn this place into the Japanese branch of the Mage's Association?"
As if in response, unstable magical energy slithered along the walls and ceiling, converging on him from every direction.
It was an automatic magical attack, triggered by an intruder breaching the ward.
Dark red lightning flared, surrounding Shiomi in a crackling storm of noise.
Snap!
With a snap of his fingers, the currents vanished completely.
"Are you seriously underestimating me, Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald?" Shiomi said, continuing forward while tracing Rune characters in the air.
Each completed Rune shimmered briefly before vanishing into nothing.
Shiomi didn't mind precision work, but he had no intention of wasting time dismantling all twenty-four barriers one by one.
Better to crush them in a single sweep.
Kayneth, a certified genius, had of course prepared countermeasures to retaliate when the wards were destroyed—but the resulting magical attacks were far too flimsy for Shiomi.
Not enough. Nowhere near enough.
This level of mana output didn't even compare to the practical combat training he'd received under his mentor, Scáthach, in the Land of Shadows. Every spell here reeked of that overly refined, textbook flair unique to Clock Tower instructors.
Every step was by-the-book. Every trap, perfectly timed with the destruction of a barrier.
And that's exactly why it didn't work. Shiomi dismissed it entirely.
He wasn't a researcher. He had no interest in magical theory or dissecting spell constructs.
From the very moment he'd first encountered Magecraft, what he learned was how to fight with it.
Using the divine-age Rune Magecraft in a battle against modern Magi might seem like overkill, but Shiomi had always wanted to test how far he could push it.
Someone as brilliant and prepared as Kayneth—surely he could handle it.
With a grin of excitement he didn't even realize had crept onto his face, Shiomi extended a hand, gently grasped the air—then clenched.
The very space around him cracked, shattered, and then stitched itself back together as if reality itself had been momentarily torn apart.
"No... no way…"
Kayneth stared through the barrier, watching Tenkei Shiomi's movements via his familiars. He had been full of confidence—planning a textbook defensive counterattack, ready to defeat Shiomi and prove his strength to Sola-Ui, his ever-distant fiancée.
But the twenty-four layered barriers he had so carefully prepared, meant to drain a significant portion of Shiomi's mana, had all been shattered in an instant.
The top floor's defenses vanished without a trace, leaving Kayneth with no chance to repair them or even engage in a war of attrition.
"In that case—"
He swallowed his frustration and resumed his usual composed demeanor, raising his hand with deliberate calm.
Dozens of demonic spirits surged from the shadows, brimming with magic—his watchdogs now unleashed.
Shiomi raised an eyebrow. Their numbers were impressive, and their magical power far too high to be sustained by Kayneth and Sola-Ui alone.
"So that's it… You even brought a mana Magical Energy Reactor from the Clock Tower for the Holy Grail War?"
He muttered to himself.
Well, of course. The Archibalds of the El-Melloi lineage—prestige and wealth to match. Bringing a priceless artifact like that was just another advantage of being from such a house.
While Shiomi was lost in thought, a hulking demon hound lunged at him. The beast, over three meters tall, bared its black fangs as it snapped its jaws at him.
But familiars lacked true cognition—they couldn't comprehend why they suddenly couldn't move. Only Kayneth saw it clearly.
Shiomi had simply raised his hand and caught the hound's upper jaw mid-strike. He looked up slowly, a deadly glint flashing in his eyes.
With a twist of his body, he swung the captured beast like a club, slamming it into another that had tried to ambush him from behind.
In an instant, the hallway had turned into a bestial battlefield. Demon hounds, wolves, lions, leopards, tigers… the spirits had taken on the forms of vicious predators, each one brimming with speed and power.
A single claw swipe could tear through reinforced concrete. Even a ten-meter gap was nothing to them—one pounce was all it took to close the distance. Those that had been knocked away quickly regrouped, encircling Shiomi with slow, calculated steps.
Magus weren't suited for close-quarters combat, which was exactly why Kayneth had prepared these familiars as a contingency.
Then came another snap of Shiomi's fingers.
The signal triggered the beasts to strike—but before they could even leap, they were swallowed by a sudden iceberg that had erupted out of nowhere, their bodies crushed within it.
Shiomi spun and swept his hand outward. Five streaks of lightning lashed out from around him, entangling the spirits that had dodged the ice.
The moment they were struck, the familiars lost all strength, dropped to the ground, and dissolved into dark mist.
Shiomi watched it all with quiet indifference. He stepped forward, boots crunching over shattered ice as he made his way toward Kayneth's location.
Of course, things wouldn't go that smoothly. The familiars weren't truly destroyed—just repelled. More awaited him up ahead.
In the dim corridor, the next wave of monsters began to rise, shifting from beast forms into humanoid ones.
"Oh? So they've got more than one form. That's a nice twist."
Shiomi slipped back with sharp reflexes to avoid a flurry of claws, then pivoted and delivered a straight kick with his right leg, connecting squarely.
Amid the melee, the monsters began casting spells—wind blades, water swords, magical projectiles. The elegantly decorated corridor of the Hyatt's top floor had become a ruined battleground in seconds.
From the shadows, Kayneth was enhancing the familiars with his Magecraft and coordinating their attacks.
"Still not showing yourself, Kayneth!" Shiomi shouted.
After dodging several beasts, he landed at the far end of the hall.
"If you're that capable, then break through your familiars and come face me yourself. A Sealing Designation Executor's power should be more than this."
Kayneth's voice echoed from the corridor, transmitted via Magecraft.
"Is that so? Then I suppose... I won't hold back."
Shiomi's voice dropped low, though in truth, he hadn't held back from the start.
The monsters lunged from all sides, their charge reinforced by a flurry of long-range magical attacks. It formed a perfect trap—walls closing in from every direction. Kayneth's heart pounded with excitement. This time, escape seemed impossible.
Shhhk—
The sharp sound of something being sliced snapped Kayneth out of his thoughts.
The familiars were gone—completely annihilated.
Standing where he was, Shiomi held a long spear in his hand. Its design bore a faint resemblance to "Gáe Dearg: Crimson Rose of Exorcism."
...
(40 Chapters Ahead)
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