Chapter 120 – Reunion

Reunion

The metal that made up the restraints could be obtained by refining a mana stone called Deep Jade and the minerals around it.

The metal obtained in that way was named Deep Jade Steel (), which was a substance completely separate from the mana stone, Deep Jade.

Kane was able to obtain this Deep Jade Steel through transmutation rather than refining.

And it was also possible to replace the surrounding space with Deep Jade Steel.

‘I must prevent him from handling mana.’

The opponent’s skill in handling mana was far superior to his own.

In this situation, could allowing mana really be considered a good judgment?

Therefore, to replace the entire surrounding space with Deep Jade Steel, Kane placed both of his palms on the floor and unfolded a transmutation circle.

‘What is he doing?’

Rashid questioned Kane’s actions.

‘Could it be?’

That nagging doubt soon became a reality, and before long, all the surrounding materials were replaced with Deep Jade Steel.

In fact, he was trapped in a space made of restraints.

Rashid felt the vanished mana.

“Did you transmute the surroundings into Deep Jade Steel? It seems that way.”

Kane wore a fishy smile on his lips.

“You seem to have noticed. Yes, the surroundings have all been transmuted into Deep Jade Steel. Now, there is no one who can handle mana in this space.”

Rashid smiled as if Kane had made a mistake.

“You did something foolish. In this case, you won’t be able to handle magic or mana either, will you?”

Kane did not deny it.

Because it was the truth.

But Kane did not think that he was at a great disadvantage.

“Do you think this is a foolish thing?”

Earlier, he had transformed his constitution.

His skeleton had become like steel, and his skin had also been raised to a level similar to the exoskeleton of mana armor.

And that wasn’t all.

His muscles harbored explosive power like the muscle fibers of an ogre.

He had transformed into a so-called monster.

“Even without mana, my physical abilities have surpassed the human category. It is almost at the level of a monster. I can tear and kill monsters too, so I will tear and kill someone like you like a sheet of paper.”

Rashid’s mana armor was no longer driven by the power of the mana stone.

However, since it had authorized the user, it was still possible to move with pure physical strength alone.

‘It’s not that I can’t move, but if it just feels like simple armor, it would be better to take off the mana armor.’

Since his identity had also been revealed anyway.

Rashid’s appearance changed in an instant.

He had returned to the appearance of the inquisitor who had shed his mana armor.

Seeing this, Kane was astonished.

“Amazing. To take off the mana armor in an instant.”

“Why be surprised by something like this? It is something a Player can obviously do.”

Kane sneered at him.

“Do you think you can defeat me even without mana armor?”

“Why do you think I can’t defeat you? Even without mana armor, there is no problem catching you. I will prove it soon.”

He himself was from a cleric background who had even lived with restrictions.

He had nothing to fear just because he could not handle mana, nor was it particularly awkward.

Because he had always lived like this in the past.

Moreover, the opponent could not handle mana either.

In other words, it meant that the previous solidity had disappeared.

Bang!

With a single gunshot, a bullet bounced off Kane’s outer skin.

He had taken out the gun from his inventory and aimed, which was for the purpose of checking the opponent’s solidity.

Before they knew it, both of their gazes fell upon the vinyl-like skin that had been torn by the bullet.

If it had been in its previous state, it would not have even been scratched.

But it was different in a world where all mana was stripped away.

Their joy and sorrow diverged slightly.

Rashid, pulling up one corner of his mouth, said.

“See that? Your body is now one that is affected even by bullets.”

Kane brushed off his broken outer skin with his hand and fixed his gaze on Rashid.

As if it were ridiculous.

Kane curled the corners of his mouth.

“Before that, you will be crushed.”

His whole body’s muscles tightened firmly in an instant, and the tendons and muscle fibers beneath his skin were pulled taut.

His blood boiled and power overflowed.

Losing here was an unacceptable future.

‘I will finish you as quickly as possible.’

Kane, who had become a beast itself, rushed forward recklessly.

But as if to mock this.

Rashid’s body, bouncing off like a bullet, agilely kicked off the ground and began to sprint.

Astonishment spread across Kane’s face, who had intended to crush him in an instant with uncontrollable power.

‘What? Mana… should be excluded right now?’

Kane could not even imagine that someone could achieve such speed through simple physical ability alone.

On the other hand, Rashid took this situation for granted.

‘When I carried restrictions, I always played like this.’

Adding the additional physical stats from the Blood Sword of the Founding (Physical +3).

His physical stats alone reached 18, so his overall physical abilities, including strength, were six times that of an ordinary person.

In addition, the sensory stats reaching 20 granted him extrasensory intuition, allowing him to read almost all of Kane’s intentions when attacking.

Thus, even without mana, there was no problem in hunting Kane.

‘Excluding mana in this space was a mistake. It is no different from an own goal.’

Bullets began to rain down, and Rashid closed the distance in an instant with an unmatched agility.

He accumulated sword wounds on Kane’s body one after another.

On the other hand, Kane could only be ravaged like a foolish beast.

Despair eroded his complexion.

At the same time, he blamed himself for his mistake.

He had thought that no matter how hard a human wielding a sword struck, they would not be able to inflict a single wound on him, who was wrapped in an exoskeleton.

However, that conviction crumbled to pieces in front of the blood sword swung by Rashid.

His exoskeleton broke, the flesh protected inside was torn away, and blood splattered dreadfully.

The monstrous regeneration ability he originally possessed also failed to exert its power in the space where mana was excluded.

This place, trapped in Deep Jade Steel, was

no different from a hunting ground where he became the prey.

‘This is the end!’

Rashid, who had been gradually accumulating damage, finally spotted a gap and dug in.

He ruthlessly drove the blood sword into the gap of the torn outer skin.

It was the bastard’s vital point identified by the trait, Crit Hunter.

Kane’s body, having suffered a fatal wound, collapsed just like that.

In a space where mana was excluded.

His eyelids remained still, but his consciousness was slowly sinking into darkness.

“Professor.”

A familiar auditory hallucination was heard from somewhere.

Replacing his blurred vision was an illusion spreading like a dream.

He was clearly looking at the floor, but what unfolded before his eyes now was his laboratory that he had looked at for half his life.

Before he knew it, he was sitting at his desk looking into a thesis, and beyond that stood the woman he missed.

‘…Luna?’

No, it was not that child.

The laboratory was in its past state, and she stood exactly as he remembered her.

“I think you’re wrong, Professor.”

“I am wrong?”

As Kane frowned, she reached out her hand and pointed to a formula in the thesis he was holding.

“Here. You put the source term as a constant.”

“What about it?”

“The source term is not a constant. Because the value fluctuates according to the phase change of the base field. You ignored that and closed the transmutation formula.”

She smiled and continued.

“If you run the transmutation circle in that state, the result goes to self-collapse, not stabilization.”

Kane adjusted his glasses and looked over the contents of the thesis once again.

Just as she said, the part where he made a mistake caught his eye.

He had mistakenly input as a constant what should have been a variable.

With a bitter smile, Kane asked.

“You, what is your name?”

She was a student who remained in Kane’s memory because she was exceptionally enthusiastic even during class.

“Sophia. I am Sophia Lazaro.”

At that moment.

His consciousness was completely cut off.

At the same time as pulling out the magic sword he had driven into the nape of his neck, Rashid drove several bullets into his temple.

It was to finish him off for sure.

-You have completed the main quest ‘The Witch Leader’s Request’.

-You have obtained ‘Mana +2’ as a reward.

Simultaneously with confirming the reward message, Rashid’s cold gaze landed on Kane.

‘It is over.’

He was a truly foolish professor.

To think he tried to exchange everyone in the world for his dead lover.

Still, since there was romance,

he decided not to swear at him, at least for his end.

Instead, he offered his sincere condolences.

‘I hope you are together with that woman in the afterlife.’

* * *

After cleaning up Kane, Rashid came out of the building.

Then, the waiting clerics caught up, and Rashid asked about what he had instructed.

“Did you send everyone inside out?”

“Yes, we sent everyone out, including the last student who was detained inside.”

Rashid reacted.

“There was a detained student inside?”

“Yes, they were detained on the floor below the chairman’s office, bound in restraints.”

He could tell who that was without even having to ask.

“What about other people?”

“There was no one else besides that. The building is completely empty.”

“It will blow up soon. Evacuate everyone so they don’t get caught in the explosion.”

“Yes.”

The clerics who received the order moved busily, and Rashid left them and soon stood next to her.

“The building will blow up soon. If you don’t want to get caught in the explosion, you should move too.”

She voiced her concern.

“Are you really planning to blow up that university building? It is clearly the property of the Magic Tower, and it is a symbolic building in its own right, so apart from the professor’s business, there will definitely be talk.”

Rashid reacted calmly.

“It’s not like I am blowing it up, so what does it matter?”

Many words came to mind, but.

She did not reply and began to move quickly.

Because if it really collapsed as he said, that would be a problem in its own right.

The place where she had left.

Rashid stood on the spot for a moment and looked at the towering Magic Tower Academy.

‘I can’t let Zodiac use it.’

It was the core building of the Great Transmutation Circle.

Although other Magic Tower buildings can just be rebuilt,

the core building here wasn’t something that could be done just by rebuilding.

Since it had the mana source to drive the Great Transmutation Circle, redesign was impossible without Kane.

‘With this, Kane is also finished. Is Zodiac the only one left now?’

It was at that moment.

That her voice was heard.

“Inquisitor!”

It was Luna.

She was still bound in restraints.

There were clerics nearby trying to restrain her, but they could not stop her from clinging to Rashid.

“What about the Professor? What happened to the Professor?”

Rashid sent back the clerics who were trying to restrain her and stood facing her.

“Professor Kane.”

Did he need to beat around the bush?

“He was stopped by me while driving the Great Transmutation Circle and was summarily judged. I killed him for sure, so there’s no point in looking for him.”

Luna collapsed to the ground.

She began to cry miserably.

Since he couldn’t wait forever,

Rashid urged her.

“I heard there is a mana bomb inside. If you stay here, you will get caught in that explosion.”

Wiping her tears and standing up sorrowfully, she asked Rashid.

“Did the Professor… not say anything until the end?”

There was no way such a thing existed.

“Ah, before dying to me, he told me to deliver these words.”

“Yes? Did he leave some words for me?”

An earnest expectation was formed within her teary eyes.

“That he loved you. It felt more like something left to family rather than a lover. And he also told me to deliver the words that he was sorry.”

Leaving those words behind,

Rashid walked away without even looking back.

Left alone, she looked up at the Magic Tower Academy for a long time, thinking of him who had left those words for her.

After standing for a long while, she soon turned her steps and began to head outside.

And a short while later,

a huge blue flower bloomed.