A floating city was still a city, classification-wise. And if it was a city, it was bound to have some means of defense for when enemies invaded. That held true even for an impregnable floating city.
True to its name, the capital of the Magic Federation possessed magical means of defense. The five magic towers positioned at the vertices of a pentagram were aiming an enormous force capable of bringing down a mountain.
But that force was aimed at us? Why on earth?
Lankart answered my question.
“I was editing the scroll and ended up riding onto a forbidden trajectory. Falling vertically from a trajectory far above the floating city is prohibited.”
“You bastard. This is all because of you!”
“Whew, don’t worry. I bear at least some responsibility for how this happened, so I’ll handle it.”
“Don’t say something so obvious with such confidence…. More importantly, how are you going to handle it?”
“Well.”
Before Lankart could finish speaking, the magic towers began to emit light. First, trajectories made of light stretched out across the sky, and then a raging torrent of power surged along those paths.
Flames, wind, lightning, steam, vibration. Lights of mana imbued with different elements were fired. The elongated projectiles streaked across the sky and slammed into us.
Magic capable of changing the course of a battle on its own was called tactical-grade magic. Magic capable of overturning the strategy of an entire war was called strategic-grade magic. Each of the five beams fired from the magic towers contained enough power to reshape the terrain.
We were in a situation where even moving through the air was difficult.
At that hair-trigger moment, Lankart raised his right hand.
“A Right-Handed World.”
Lankart’s unique magic replaced every straight line with a curve.
The five beams of light, each tracing a different trajectory, veered away in every direction. They had not collided with anything, nor had their directions been forcibly altered. They simply missed us naturally, each drawing a different curve around Lankart as its axis, as though that were the path they had truly been meant to take.
Compared to such overwhelming power, the result was absurdly futile.
Detecting their shots had missed, the magic towers changed the beams’ direction. As though swinging a gigantic sword made of rays across the sky, the light bent in a broad arc and swept toward us.
But the result was the same no matter what they did. As though Lankart were enclosed in a transparent glass marble, whether they were swords of light or simple beams, every attack curved around him and passed by.
“How conventional. Things like that.”
Lankart continued falling, ignoring the floating city’s defensive magic, as though it posed no obstacle whatsoever.
“They only increased the magnitude of the force. There’s nothing innovative about it. It might be useful against idiots…. But against people like you or me, people who overturn the rules themselves, it’s completely useless.”
“Why am I suddenly included in that? I find that plenty terrifying.”
Lankart could call it conventional because he possessed unique magic approaching absolute defense. If it had been me, I would have died as a pile of ashes. The attack possessed magical properties beyond mere physical force. Even Sheira at full strength could not have broken through it as easily as Lankart had.
The beams of light gradually died down. Lankart muttered quietly.
“They’ve decided to stop wasting mana too. Still, being mages, they at least have enough intelligence to stop doing something pointless.”
Perhaps the floating city had realized that its defensive bombardment was useless—or perhaps it had learned that Lankart was here. Either way, the bombardment stopped, and the city lowered its defenses.
We fell straight toward the floating city, which had now finished preparing to receive us…. Huh, wait a moment.
“Hold on. We’re falling?”
We had been unable to feel our speed while suspended in the air, but our approach toward the floating city was alarmingly fast. The floating city that had been far away suddenly filled our vision. A massive building that had clearly been in the distance came rushing right up before our eyes.
“We’re going to crash!”
That was when it happened. Just before we reached the floating city, an immense force quietly enveloped us without the slightest impact. We, who should have fallen at meteor-like speed and been smashed to pieces, landed lightly upon it as though stepping onto the summit of a mountain.
“Is this… Reverse Gravity?”
“An Equilibrium Gravity Field. It applies different gravity according to one’s speed, causing anything—be it people or air—to converge upon this floating city. Through it, the floating city holds both air and people fast in this lofty sky.”
“They’ve got every kind of magic here.”
“This is the Magic Federation, after all. The nation that handles magic better than any other in the world. It’s on an entirely different level from the Militarist Empire. Even you, Hwi, would need to study for a year to master all the magic here.”
In any case, thanks to that, we landed safely on the floating city. A floating city—the castle that drifted through the heavens, something I had only ever heard of in legends. It was certainly mysterious… but somewhat different from what I had expected.
When I heard “floating city,” I imagined a castle literally floating in the sky, drifting loftily while looking down upon the world below.
But the ground was so far beneath us that nothing could be seen. All that was visible was the endless sky and the clouds spread out far below. It was far too distant from the earth to rule or govern anyone. It felt as though it belonged to an entirely different world.
“…More importantly. Is it really all right for us to have fallen in like this?”
Shey, who had fallen after us, asked worriedly. Lankart answered.
“Are you experiencing any abnormalities in gravity?”
“No. Not that. You know that light from the magic towers that attacked us earlier.”
“The floating city’s defensive magic? It’s nothing special. A product of convention cannot overcome my Right-Handed World.”
“That’s not the problem! Using defensive magic means they intended to exclude us! Even if we broke through the defensive magic, what happens when the Federation Defense Forces come looking for us…!”
Ah, this pattern again. The pattern where Shey warned us of danger belatedly, and then it arrived. Sensing déjà vu, I looked around and took a step back.
And sure enough, it came again.
Step. Step. Step.
People wearing enormous cloaks began flying in from the magic towers like bats. Each carried a staff set with jewels. They clung tightly to the walls and aimed their weapons at us. Amid the flash of hundreds of magical lights, a woman in a green dress approached from the center of the group, leaning on an umbrella with an ill-tempered expression.
“Good grief. Lankart Spendry. It’s you again?”
The five magic towers guarding the floating city. Only the most powerful mage guarding each tower could become its master.
In other words, the Tower Master standing before us was one of the five most powerful mages in this floating city.
“Green Tower Master? What brings you here?”
“You’re asking why? You, a Federation Investigator?”
The Green Tower Master tapped the ground with her umbrella as she spoke.
“Landing on a floating city from an altitude of Zone Seven or higher at an angle of incidence exceeding forty-five degrees is prohibited. It is impossible to distinguish you from meteor fragments falling from space. The magic towers cannot distinguish them either, so they fire their defensive magic.”
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No wonder it seemed far too powerful for something fired at a person. The magic tower’s bombardment must have been intended for intercepting meteors. Did they see meteors often enough to require interception? That was remarkable in its own way.
“It doesn’t matter. Defensive magic follows the right-hand rule in the end.”
“That you’re unharmed isn’t the issue, Federation Investigator. What about the mana wasted because of you? Five exions of mana is a loss your salary can’t possibly make up.”
Even when facing one of the five Tower Masters of the floating city, Lankart’s attitude did not change. He spoke shamelessly and self-centeredly, as though he were the center of the world.
“You shouldn’t have fired it in the first place. It wasn’t useful anyway.”
Crack. A wrinkle formed between the Green Tower Master’s brows. Her face twisted horribly as she pressed down her green wide-brimmed hat.
“You… Having obtained powerful unique magic through sheer luck, you’re rampaging around without even knowing your place.”
“Luck? Is that something you can say, when you’ve benefited from your unique magic more than anyone?”
“That is true of you, Lankart Spendry. For someone like you, who obtained unique magic by chance as a child and has rampaged around as though you possessed the whole world, the acquisition of such power can only be called misfortune.”
If one had to choose the most useless item in a floating city, it would be an umbrella. Above the clouds, where the floating city was located, neither rain nor snow fell. There was no reason to stop someone from using one as a parasol… but even that was somewhat difficult to understand.
Because the residential district of the floating city lay below us, inside the floating city itself.
That was why the umbrella held by the Green Tower Master was not a practical implement. It was closer to a weapon.
“I may have been lucky, but you’re nothing but a product of luck. I’ll teach you some manners, brat!”
The Green Tower Master opened her umbrella. Jewels glittered and dangled from the tips of the pale green umbrella, which resembled a leaf. The ribs crossing between the multicolored jewels formed a magic circle in their own right.
“Emerald Parasol, Set.”
Mana coursed between the jewels. Light entered several dozen of the hundreds or thousands of umbrella ribs, forming a single geometric pattern.
This was the essence of white magic, which used jewels as its medium.
The Green Tower Master pointed the umbrella, its magic circle fully formed, at us and recited her spell.
“Pascal!”
The wind did not blow particularly hard on the floating city. Perhaps they had used some method to capture and contain the thin air.
Yet a gigantic wind began to whirl behind the Green Tower Master’s umbrella. There was nowhere to take shelter on the floating city. If we were careless, we would be blown away and fall beneath it. I flattened myself against the ground with Gongeegong, while Shey absorbed the flow of the wind with Cheon-aeng.
Having been attacked by a Tower Master the moment we arrived on the floating city, Shey and I cried out urgently.
“What the hell? Why are you suddenly attacking us?”
Even amid the raging storm, Lankart stood unharmed within his Right-Handed World and tilted his head.
“I’m not sure. Jealousy?”
“You think I feel jealous of you?! As if, brat!”
The Green Tower Master poked her head out from behind the umbrella and flew into a rage.
“Lankart. She says she doesn’t.”
“Then there’s no reason for her to throw a fit. Much less summon a wind that won’t even work.”
Lankart muttered to himself, seriously pondering the matter. Somehow, I thought I understood why the Green Tower Master was angry. They said mages were absorbed in their own worlds, but Lankart was so extreme that even to another mage, it was almost repulsive.
Someday, I would have to fix that temper of his. But first, I had to survive.
“It may not work on you. But it works on us! Do something!”
“There’s no point.”
“What?”
“I said there’s no point. The unique magic possessed by the Green Tower Master cannot be pierced by any means at my disposal. So there’s no reason to try.”
Lankart answered shamelessly.
“I don’t use meaningless magic. Unlike the Green Tower Master.”
“I was only trying to teach you a little manners…!”
And Lankart finally pushed the Green Tower Master’s button.
Mages were self-centered, though the degree varied. They had to possess the stubbornness to project their own mental image onto the world in order to awaken unique magic.
The Green Tower Master was also one of the most powerful mages in the floating city. In other words, she was just as stubborn and self-centered.
Self-centered enough to attack a mere Federation Investigator fresh from a mission without the slightest hesitation.
“You’re insolent to the very end. Die.”
At the final moment, the Green Tower Master’s anger broke through its limit. She declared it in a voice gone cold. And the laws of the world were overturned.
Unique Magic, One-Way Street.
The Green Tower Master’s unique magic was simple.
She erected an invisible, imaginary wall. That wall was one-way. It allowed passage from this side to the other, but did not permit passage from the other side back to this one.
It was a simple yet powerful force that fixed the direction of an entire area toward a single side.
And the true power of One-Way Street was not displayed when it blocked something, but when it… “stopped blocking.”
“Windbreak. Release.”
The Green Tower Master’s umbrella contained an imaginary sphere. Visible only within the Green Tower Master’s mental image, the sphere consisted of one-way walls that allowed things in but did not allow them out.
The wind summoned through white magic had unfortunately entered the sphere and become trapped within the unique magic.
Wind was the flow of countless gas particles. The particles that should have danced freely were trapped inside the one-way umbrella and gradually compressed. The wind accumulated, compressed until its form could be clearly seen, and began glowing as it reached its limit.
The force compressed merely by maintaining the unique magic had, by itself, surpassed strategic-grade magic.
The Green Tower Master moved her umbrella aside. The one-way wall facing us was released. The wind, transformed into light, burst free and engulfed me.