- Inside the Mage Tower
“It worked! Ren did it. The lizardmen are back to normal.”
Gil whispered to Cheon Danbi.
Cheon Danbi looked back at Gil and rejoiced as well.
“What a relief. Ren really is amazing! A dragon—so cool!”
“I know. I was truly surprised.”
While the two of them whispered, the lizardmen were still kneeling, and the dragon scattered golden particles as it soared high into the sky.
It looked as if Ren was about to leave, so Cheon Danbi and Gil quickly raised their heads and looked up.
Then a voice transmission reached them. This time, perhaps because it was meant only for Cheon Danbi and Gil, the voice spoke in Ren’s usual tone.
[I’m going to move somewhere else now. Lizardmen have spread not only here but to many other places as well. Please take care of the aftermath with the lizardmen here.]
Cheon Danbi and Gil wanted to answer Ren, but they could not.
The dragon had already flown so high that it was no longer visible.
“He’s gone already. I wanted to tell him he was really amazing…”
“You can tell him when you meet him later.”
Gil immediately turned around and approached the lizardmen.
At first, he hesitated for a moment, but soon he stepped outside the barrier with an unwavering stride.
First, he sent out concentric waves of mana and loaded detection magic onto them.
Unlike before, the detection naturally reached the lizardmen and penetrated into their bodies.
It was just as expected. The lizardmen had now returned to their original state.
The anti-mana they had harbored had completely vanished, and the bodily organs at their fingertips that had been weaponized by mutation had also withered away before anyone knew it, turning into vestigial organs.
They were now safe beings.
“Everyone, lizardmen! I’m truly glad you’ve returned to your original forms.”
When Gil spoke, the lizardmen, who had been bowing their heads, lifted them and searched this way and that across the sky.
They were surely looking for the enormous dragon, but the dragon had already left.
“The dragon has gone elsewhere. He left to rescue other lizardmen. I believe you will no longer harm people, but you must take responsibility for what you have already done. Now, stand up. I will restrain you with a light magical snare.”
When Gil spread both arms wide, concentric waves of mana spread out along with a bright light.
“Understood, Mage.”
“We should rightly take responsibility.”
“We submit.”
The lizardmen had changed as if they were gentle sheep.
It seemed there was no need to restrain them with magic, but the formality was still necessary.
Gil’s magical snare bound the many lizardmen together as one group.
‘Oh! Gil’s got quite a bit of dignity now, doesn’t he?’
Cheon Danbi, who had been watching, marveled inwardly.
He was now a proper mage in his own right. He was not swayed only by emotion, he knew how to keep his balance, and he properly did what had to be done.
Gil soon took communication equipment out of his pocket and reported the situation here to the Bureau.
“The Bureau mages and police will come this way now and take them away. Our work here is done.”
Gil approached Cheon Danbi and spoke.
“Then shall we move somewhere else now too?”
“Yes. Let’s go.”
Gil took one last look around and then started walking.
Cheon Danbi followed behind him, surveying their surroundings.
There were no people lying collapsed on the street, but they moved while carefully checking to see whether anyone might have collapsed in an alley.
As they walked, the people who had taken shelter inside the buildings began coming out one by one. They looked around, then saw the two of them and applauded.
“Wow! The mage did it!”
“He restrained all the lizardmen!”
“You’re amazing, mages!”
Even if they had been inside the buildings, they could look outside through the windows as much as they wanted.
A barrier had been put up, but that did not mean it blocked their vision as well.
In other words, they must have seen the dragon too.
But not a single one of the people spoke about the dragon.
Seeing Gil tilt his head in puzzlement, Cheon Danbi approached him and whispered into his ear.
“They’ve probably forgotten all their memories of seeing the dragon. That’s the majesty of a dragon. Ren must have made it happen.”
“Ah, I see. We ended up taking the credit for nothing.”
“It’s what Ren wanted. And it’s not like you didn’t do anything, Gil.”
Cheon Danbi withdrew the barriers she had placed around the buildings and people, and instead sent abundant life force flowing into them.
Ordinary people could have had all their strength drained simply from being in the presence of a dragon. Even if they did not remember it.
There was no dense forest nearby, yet Cheon Danbi’s life force was extremely plentiful. There was no shortage of it.
It always felt full to the brim. It had been that way ever since she had met Bruno in the magical space last time.
‘As expected, all of our abilities have improved. Maybe I’ve been underestimating myself too much. In any case, it’s true for me and for Gil too, but the greatest among us was Ren.’
Just then, a pure white light flashed in the sky up ahead. It seemed Ren was subduing the lizardmen once again.
“He’s really cool, isn’t he?”
“Totally cool!”
Cheon Danbi and Gil said this, then looked at each other and laughed.
* * *
“Now then, we’re infiltrating the Mage Tower. Is everyone ready?”
After completing the route into the Mage Tower, I looked back at my companions one last time before opening the portal and asked.
“We’re ready!”
“Anytime.”
“I’m so eager to get inside there I can hardly stand it.”
“Let’s go.”
The mages of the investigation team had already finished all their preparations and were waiting, so none of them hesitated.
“Good. Then I’ll open the portal.”
A bluish portal opened immediately.
Beyond the portal was enemy territory in its entirety. It was the land of a dark mage, no different from the Demon Realm.
That being the case, we infiltrated the Mage Tower according to the plan we had prepared thoroughly.
Everyone was wrapped in stealth magic and barriers that were close to perfect. It was magic deployed through circuits Han Dosu and Balder had painstakingly devised.
We had also carefully decided the order of entry.
Heimdall entered at the very front and took charge of scouting, while Thor and I followed behind him.
Heimdall checked for the presence of enemies, and Thor and I took charge of overall detection.
Yantu stuck close behind us.
Yantu would use detection equipment to check whether there were any areas the detection magic might miss.
Behind him came Han Dosu and Balder, and Yu Jaeseon was to take charge of the rear at the very back.
The formation seeped into the interior of the Mage Tower as silently and smoothly as flowing water.
Since we had also activated sound-blocking magic on the barriers, it would not have mattered even if we talked among ourselves, but no one in the group made a sound.
Everyone only focused all their nerves on examining their surroundings.
We had set foot in the stronghold of the dark mages. It was only natural to be even more tense than if we had entered an unfamiliar, pitch-black forest.
The place we entered through the portal was one of the lower floors among the layered buildings of the Mage Tower, and its interior looked like a machine room.
Large cylindrical plastic water tanks, or things like metal fuel tanks, stood lined up one after another, and pipes were connected between them. There were also equipment machines for things like heating.
Fortunately, there was not a single person in sight. Only the steady hum of machinery rang out.
I had not deliberately aimed for this place when opening the portal.
I had merely chosen the spot where the spatial magic’s junction was loosest, making it easy to split open a gap.
‘A machine room? Is the entire Mage Tower not being operated through spatial magic?’
That was the first question that came to mind.
But thinking about it, it was only natural.
Even if the entire Mage Tower had been created and was maintained through spatial magic, it could be too much to operate even the internal facilities of every building inside it with spatial magic as well.
It would consume mana endlessly.
To begin with, it was a question why the Mage Tower had been made in a form that defied the laws of physics like this.
In real space, the buildings were precariously stacked in layers in a form that would never be possible.
It was an unstable structure in which no sense of balance could be found at all.
‘If they had made it in a stable form like Bruno’s magical space, it would consume far less mana to maintain. So why did they make such an inefficient space?’
There was probably a reason. Or perhaps it simply reflected Samir’s twisted mental world as it was.
In any case, once we completed a full investigation, we would learn the reason.
We carefully crossed the machine room.
I extended detection magic toward the water tanks, the fuel tanks, and the various complicated machines connected to them inside the machine room.
No particular mana was detected. They seemed to be machines simply for internal facilities.
Yantu was also diligently scanning the inside of the machine room with his detection equipment.
“How is it? Anything special?”
When I approached behind Yantu and spoke, Yantu flinched in surprise and turned to look at me.
“You startled me! I thought…”
I wondered why he was so surprised, but come to think of it, I was the first one to open my mouth after we entered the Mage Tower.
Everyone really was tense and concentrating to the utmost.
“Ah! Right, you said we could talk. There doesn’t seem to be anything here. It’s just internal facility machinery. I thought it would be impressive because it’s a Mage Tower, but there’s nothing particularly special. It’s not even as good as the dwarf village.”
It seemed that was indeed the case. We could probably just pass through the machine room.
“Let’s just pass through here. There’s no one guarding it, so let’s move quickly.”
When I spoke, the mages nodded.
It was a little amusing that still no one tried to make a sound.
We were wrapped in thorough stealth magic and barriers that prevented not only sound but even mana from leaking outside.
The long, rectangular machine room had no windows at all, and there was a single entrance at the far end.
Soon, we reached that entrance.
This time as well, Heimdall, who was in charge of scouting, took the lead.
Heimdall carefully opened the door, poked his head out, examined the outside, and then nodded. It meant it was safe.
Heimdall stepped outside the door, and the rest of us followed in the same order as before.
Outside the machine room was a narrow corridor. The corridor continued for about ten meters, and at the end, a dead-end wall could be seen. From there, the path turned around a corner.
Since there were no windows or anything else on either side of the narrow corridor, Heimdall moved forward at a brisk pace.
I sent my detection ahead in advance.
I did not detect any human presence. However, I detected a gray aura.
It seemed there was something beyond the dead-end wall, or perhaps in the place we would face after turning the corner.
Thor and Yantu, who had apparently detected the same aura, hesitated in their steps.
Heimdall, who reached the end of the corridor first, once again poked his head out and looked beyond the corner, then let out an exclamation.
“Gasp! What in the world…?”