“Let me say this first: this isn’t a magical duel, it’s a magical spar. Lethal magic is forbidden.”
Behind the temple. Ian and David stood facing each other in a clearing made by artificially leveling a stretch of flat ground. The rest of the group watched from a short distance away.
Sohee and Uhyeon were bickering among themselves, and Amelia was stamping her feet with a worried expression. Lee Seo-a, one of the people who knew exactly what Ian’s grimoire was, sat in a chair with a broad smile on her face, gazing at Ian.
Feeling that gaze, Ian slipped open the inside of his coat to show David.
“Then are firearms forbidden too? Axes?”
“……Hah. You really carry all sorts of things around. Where did you leave a mage’s pride?”
“It’s not like that crap would protect my life. I threw it all in the trash before I even became a mage.”
Ian tilted his head and let out a small laugh. David clicked his tongue.
“Firearms and weapons are obviously forbidden. You can’t move, either. We stand still and use only magic.”
“Hmm.”
“As I said, this isn’t a magical duel, it’s a spar. We’re not the ones fighting; our magic is. We use magic step by step, and when spell clashes against spell, we score the reactions that appear.”
“Sounds like a sport.”
“It actually is one of the sports practiced at the Clock Tower. Its history goes deeper than you might think.”
David took a glove engraved with a magic circle out of his pocket. Ian stared at him with eyes that settled coldly.
“The first to win two rounds takes the victory, and the rules say we wait for things like incantations or the time it takes to draw magic circles, so don’t worry too much.”
“How fair and square. I’m surprised.”
“Magic used to be the exclusive property of nobles, after all. Those bastards are the sort who die for glory and live for glory, aren’t they?”
That was true. Ian took out a cigarette, put it between his lips, and also drew out a grimoire.
A pure-white grimoire, the Touch of Re-Creation. Among the grimoires Ian owned, it was the most well-balanced, all-rounder type.
Of course, this one also had a conditional instant-death spell, but he wasn’t going to use it in a spar anyway, so there should be no problem. It was far better than the Deep-Sea Travelogue, whose spells were mostly aggressive.
Chk.
He lit the end of his cigarette and turned a page. Seeing a mage with a grimoire for the first time, David’s eyes gleamed.
“Is that your grimoire? It’s incredibly beautiful.”
“Thanks for the compliment, but this one only likes compliments from me. If someone else says it’s pretty or whatever, it only gets annoyed.”
Ian chuckled and waggled the grimoire. David shook his head.
“You two really found each other, didn’t you.”
“More importantly, if this is a magical spar, what’s a magical duel? Fighting like you’re trying to kill each other?”
“Exactly. Just think of old-fashioned duels, literally. You use any means necessary and kill your opponent through magic.”
“Sounds good. Want to do that instead?”
Ian tossed it out as a joke. David recoiled in disgust and took a step back.
“Fuck, don’t say insane shit. I’m not crazy enough to fight a one-on-one duel with the bastard who took down Mariang alone.”
“Scared?”
“I’m fucking scared, you son of a bitch.”
At David’s honest answer, Ian burst out laughing. He picked up a branch lying nearby, opened his grimoire, and exhaled cigarette smoke.
“Let’s end the small talk here. Shall we start?”
The page rustled as it turned, revealing the basic spells written in the grimoire. David put on the glove and snapped his fingers.
Bzzzz……!
At the same time, insects of every kind flew in from deeper within the mountain.
Most of them were insects Ian had never seen before. They were probably what David had called “aberrant insects” or whatever.
Not ordinary insects, but new species born from being tainted by Mystery.
Among them were even several cockroaches the size of a human fist. Amelia’s face twisted violently, and Ian narrowed his eyes.
It was Ian’s first time seeing aberrant insects in person as well.
He had heard they had a tendency to swarm to the corpses of mages beginning to rot, but every mage he had killed so far had had their corpse damaged before it could decay, leaving no chance for aberrant insects to gather.
Eddie? He had been crushed to death by re-creation magic.
Irene? Before she could rot, her body had warped into a giant mass of a womb and she died. Far from rotting, she had died horribly after no longer even being human.
With circumstances like that, Ian had never had any particular reason to run into aberrant insects. Thanks to that, all he knew about them were their common traits.
‘They like human flesh, they form groups and hierarchies regardless of species, and their intelligence is about that of a hunting dog. Is that everything?’
In battle, lacking information was extremely disadvantageous. But this was not a fight where they killed and were killed; it was nothing more than a simple clash of magic. And just as Ian knew nothing about aberrant insects, David knew nothing about Ian’s magic.
The same conditions. In that case, he couldn’t lose even if he wanted to.
“Phew…….”
Ian lightly loosened his body and set the tip of the branch against the ground. Then David spoke in a serious voice.
“Then shall we start with basic magic?”
Skritch, skritch.
From the glove he wore came a sound like insects crawling. A noise like dozens, hundreds of centipedes writhing all at once. It was a sound that naturally sent chills down the spine, but Ian’s expression did not change at all as he exhaled cigarette smoke and looked down at his grimoire.
‘This should do.’
Unlike ordinary magic, the magic of Outer Gods did not actually have a separate concept of “basic magic.” Various spells were simply recorded without distinction of level.
Even so, there were many among them that required almost no materials and whose effects were meager compared to other spells. Ian chose one of those spells and swiftly drew a magic circle on the ground. David waited for him.
One minute later, after finishing a simple magic circle, Ian placed two pieces of aberration flesh he carried in his bag at the center, then poured his own blood in a circle around them.
With that, the preparations were complete. He grinned, put his finished cigarette into the ashtray, and brought the hand that was not holding the grimoire over the magic circle.
“Here I go.”
No answer came back. Instead, the sound of the two of them chanting at the same time rang out quietly.
“I am that One’s servant and consort. O countless arms, let a portion of yourselves fall here.”
“Let the lowest devour the highest. Know that this is the cycle.”
Skritch!
Three of David’s fingernails vanished, and droplets of blood gathered at the end of the glove fell to the ground.
[Kkiiiiek!]
The droplets of blood transformed into thirty centipedes. They soon swelled in size and fused, forming a single giant centipede. The centipede bared its sharp teeth and charged straight at Ian.
Drip, drip.
The magic circle Ian had drawn shone, greedily devouring the aberration flesh and Ian’s blood. At that moment, from a tiny circle engraved in the center of the magic circle, a single pure-white finger rose up. The finger bent slightly at the last joint and aimed precisely at the centipede.
At the same time, with a splitting crack, the finger divided in half. From within it, pure-white liquid dripped down.
The liquid pooled on the ground and formed a small puddle. It soon trembled, slowly rose up, and created three new fingers. The three fingers that were made split just like before, blooming nine fingers like a flower.
“Hah.”
At the bizarre magic he was seeing for the first time in his life, David let out a hollow laugh. At that moment, part of the multiplying fingers collided with the charging centipede.
The reaction was immediate.
Like digging into tofu, the three newly formed fingers pierced through the centipede’s abdomen without the slightest resistance. In that state, they melted down, scattering pure-white blood inside the centipede’s body. That soon became new fingers.
[Kkieek.]
The centipede gave a short groan. As if its body had been fixed in place by great spikes, the centipede stopped exactly where the fingers had lodged themselves and shuddered all over. Dozens of legs trembled grotesquely with a skritching sound.
“…….”
Ian quietly watched the sight and turned another page of the grimoire. It was at that moment that the fingers growing inside the centipede’s body surged madly up through its carapace.
Crunch!
From the centipede’s abdomen, back, mouth, eyes, legs—every organ that formed its body—fingers shot out like thorns. In an instant, the centipede’s color was dyed white, and green bodily fluids gushed out.
Before long, the centipede’s movements stopped completely. With its entire body overrun by pure-white fingers, it scattered into pure-white dust the moment the fingers disappeared.
“……Uh.”
David stared blankly at the remains. Ian, searching for a spell with a little more power, tossed out indifferently.
“Does that make it 1–0?”
The corners of his mouth curved into an arc. David roughly shook off his hand, which was dripping blood, and burst into a hearty laugh.
“Well, would you look at this batshit crazy bastard.”
At the absurd performance and power for a basic spell, he spat out a curse.