-Bloom
At that moment, something strange happened.
The tentacle shot out. It lengthened tremendously, as if it would pierce the sky, and stretched straight up out of the sinkhole. Soon, tentacles began sprouting from all over its body.
The pitch-black tentacles reached toward the mages attacking it.
An immense wave of mana was sweeping over the area like a gigantic tide.
‘What kind of mana wave is this……!’
I quickly wrapped a barrier around my body. The tentacle’s screams of pain were gradually beginning to take on the color of rage.
“Aaaagh! What is this?”
“Hurry and activate fire magic!”
“It’s no good. Fire magic isn’t working!”
Screams burst from the mages.
The tentacle monster’s flexible body was crashing down on the mages as if it were liquid.
The fire magic went out as though doused with water. In truth, it was not a battle between fire and water. It was a difference in the amount of mana.
The tentacle monster’s mana was so immense that even the mages could not handle it.
“Use lightning magic!”
“It’s no use. Lightning magic doesn’t work either. That thing’s body itself is creating disruptive waves!”
“Defend! If that monster gets loose outside, we’re finished!”
“Aaagh! Mage!”
The mages desperately tried to hold back the tentacle monster, but they were becoming the tentacles’ first victims.
Crushed, beaten, and melted, they collapsed helplessly beneath the ends of the pitch-black tentacles.
Dozens of mages were unable to escape and were sacrificed.
I advanced through the mages who were being swept back and forth and sent tumbling like seaweed caught in seawater.
Staring straight at the tentacle monster as it surged like a viscous liquid and stretched its tentacles in every direction, I focused my mind and drew up the mana inside my body.
Then Gil’s voice reached me again.
“Mage! Please save the tentacle! Don’t kill it!”
I did not look back.
There was nothing more to be done now. The tentacle monster was already harming people.
The tentacle was also suffering, but now that it had become humanity’s enemy, I had no choice but to stand on humanity’s side.
It was no easy opponent.
I analyzed the disruptive waves the tentacle monster was emitting and found an opening. At the same time, I gathered not only the mana within me, but also the scattered mana of the surrounding mages.
Just as I was about to extend the mana I had prepared through my fingertips—
“Mage! Please!”
Before I knew it, Gil had come right up behind me.
“Gil! Get back! It’s dangerous here.”
“Mage, just a moment. I’ll try to calm that tentacle down. Please give me just one chance.”
“Calm it down? That’s impossible. That thing is furious right now.”
At that moment, the tentacle monster once again stretched its body straight upward. It was retracting the tentacles it had extended like side branches.
Instead, as it grew astonishingly long, the thick trunk of its lower body was revealed.
Shuuuuk, shuuuuk!
Its slippery black body soared upward as if to stab the sky. Mana waves raged like a whirlwind.
“Aaagh! The monster’s getting longer again!”
“Run! If the tentacle comes down on us, we’re done for!”
“Oh, God! Save us!”
People screamed in terror and began fleeing. The mages were no exception.
The tentacle monster’s massive body, which looked as though it might come crashing down over their heads at any moment, inspired endless fear.
“Gil! Hurry and get away!”
Now only two people remained near the monster—Gil and me.
I looked back at Gil. I had to get this child to safety, even if I had to shove him away.
But before I knew it, a unique mana wave was spreading out from Gil in concentric circles.
It was a mana wave far more powerful than anything I had seen until now.
“I’ll try.”
Gil said calmly.
The concentric waves extending from him reached the tentacle monster.
At that moment, the tentacle monster’s mana waves intertwined gently with Gil’s, as if answering them.
[Save me! Send me back to where I originally was…….]
The tentacle monster’s scream and plea echoed inside my head. Gil must have been hearing the same thing.
Judging by what it said, the black mage had not created or transformed this life-form, but seemed to have summoned it from somewhere.
If they had the ability to do that, this was no ordinary problem.
“I’ll save you. Give me your mana. We have to show them you’re not dangerous.”
Gil spoke as if whispering. The volume did not matter in this conversation anyway.
Fortunately, I was the only one here watching the exchange of waves between Gil and the tentacle monster and listening to their conversation.
The surroundings were chaos itself, and everyone was occupied with putting distance between themselves and the tentacle monster.
“Gil, what are you trying to do? It’s dangerous. Step back!”
“Please wait just a moment.”
Gil quietly spread both hands toward the tentacle monster.
Then something astonishing happened. The tentacle monster’s mana flowed into Gil as if being sucked through a funnel.
Just as Gil had said, the tentacle monster handed its mana over to him.
An enormous amount of mana energy was being absorbed into Gil’s body.
“Gil! Are you all right?”
When I asked in alarm, Gil answered in an unperturbed voice.
“Yes. I’m fine. The tentacle will calm down now.”
Now I saw that Gil already knew his own ability. He understood the nature of the concentric circles that interacted with other life-forms’ mana waves, and he understood his own unique mana trait.
But the level of ability he was displaying now was on an entirely different scale from before.
Drawing in such an immense amount of mana and storing it within himself was no ordinary feat.
Gil’s trait was blooming wide open at this very moment.
‘Truly astonishing! But can he handle it?’
Admiration rose in me on its own, but I could not help but worry.
I quickly checked Gil out of the corner of my eye, then turned my gaze back to the tentacle monster.
The tentacle monster’s body was slowly beginning to sag. As though it had lost its elasticity, it was creeping downward.
Even if it had lost its mana, the monster’s body itself was still a threat. If that huge mass merely collapsed, the surrounding area would be destroyed.
Now it was time for me to step in.
I extended the mana wave I had already prepared through my fingertips.
To activate the magic, will alone would have been enough, but I deliberately made a large hand motion and shouted the incantation aloud.
“Freeze!”
I did it in case anyone was watching us.
There were countless eyes here right now. There were mages from the Hall of Magic, police officers, soldiers, and people from the government.
I felt that I had to protect Gil from them.
Gil, who was not yet officially registered as a mage and was not even an adult, possessed a unique trait and an astonishing ability.
He had all the conditions that would draw anyone’s attention.
But I did not want Gil to end up in the same position as Ren. I wanted to protect him, at least for a while, so he could choose his own path for himself.
Let’s make it look as if I dealt with the tentacle monster.
Shwaaaaaa!
A frost-like chill spread at the speed of light. In an instant, bluish ice froze over the tentacle monster’s glossy black body.
Under the force of the freezing magic that wrapped around it in layer after layer, the tentacle monster could not move. Gradually, it turned into a gigantic tower of ice.
“It’s done. Everyone is safe now.”
I said to Gil.
The reason I had chosen freezing magic was so that Gil’s efforts would not go to waste. I kept Gil’s request not to kill the tentacle monster.
At the same time, it was also for the sake of what would come afterward.
If the tentacle monster was a life-form the black mage had summoned from another dimension, it would be better to keep it alive for investigation.
For some reason, everything around us had gone quiet.
It felt as if the surrounding air had frozen, and even time itself had frozen with it. The people who had been fleeing from the tentacle monster had stopped at a distance and were standing completely still.
“Gil, are you okay?”
“Phew…….”
Gil let out a deep sigh and plopped down onto the ground.
I quickly used detection magic to check Gil’s condition.
As expected, he was overloaded. Too much mana had flowed into him all at once, and his body was struggling to handle it.
“Tell me how you feel.”
“I’m a little dizzy. But I’m okay.”
Having a large amount of mana was a condition for using high-level magic, but that alone did not make someone an excellent mage.
A mage’s vessel had to be large enough to contain that much mana, and they needed the ability to control it.
It was only natural that Gil, who had accepted this much mana for the first time in his life, was having a hard time.
Even so, this was remarkably stable.
“Is the monster dead?”
“It’s completely frozen!”
“Wow! The mage succeeded in conquering the monster!”
“We’re alive. We’re alive now!”
Voices suddenly poured out.
As if time that had stopped had begun flowing again, the people who had been standing motionless slowly began to move.
Seeing that the tentacle monster was completely frozen, the people cheered.
The soldiers who had retreated far beyond the control line hesitantly returned and began rescuing the injured, while the police once again controlled the people and organized the area.
“Let’s go over there.”
I helped Gil to his feet and supported him as we walked.
As we passed, people surrounded us, clapping, cheering, and reaching out their hands.
“Mage! You really are the best.”
“He’s a hero!”
“Thank you, Mage!”
“Please shake my hand just once!”
As we were barely making our way through the crowd in a daze, someone called my name.
“Oudin! That was incredible!”
I turned my head toward the voice and saw Loki approaching.
But at that instant, a gray aura seemed to brush past the surroundings. Faintly, I also detected traces of an infinite pentagon.
‘Where is it? Where are you?’
I quickly looked around. The black mage I had been searching for had to be nearby.
But the traces of the infinite pentagon vanished in no time. The gray aura also spread thinly, then disappeared without a trace.
‘Damn it! Where did they disappear to?’
It was infuriating for a trace to appear and then immediately vanish like smoke.
But in truth, the black mage had probably left this place long ago. I hadn’t sensed any circuit traces for a while now.
Then why had it appeared again, even if only for a moment?
“What’s wrong? Why are you looking around like that? Is something there?”
A cheerful voice snapped me back to my senses.
Loki, who had come up in front of me, was staring intently at me with his blue eyes.
“Loki, when did you get here? I didn’t see you among the mages earlier. You didn’t take part in the subjugation?”
“I arrived a little late. By the time I got here, the situation was already over, wasn’t it? But I didn’t miss the sight of you freezing that monster solid. It was impressive.”
Loki lightly tapped my arm as if praising me, then turned his gaze to Gil.
“This kid is the one who was with the zombies last time, right? You brought him somewhere dangerous.”
“We were just passing nearby.”
I did not welcome Loki’s interest. I answered as though it were nothing and secretly activated magic.
I wrapped a barrier around Gil so the mana he held could not be detected by others.
Loki looked at me with a strange expression. He was not especially skilled at detection magic, but Loki was no mediocre mage either. Had he already sensed something?
“He’s not feeling well. He almost got hurt.”
I said, putting an arm around Gil’s shoulders. Then I met Loki’s gaze head-on.