Volume 7Chapter 3

Chapter 3 – The Great Mage Balthazar

When the fighting was over, Sasha turned to me with a grave look.

“So the Earth God Emperor… or rather Balthazar, means to be our enemy.”

“It certainly looks that way.”

“And… what will you do, Ephthal?”

I thought it over, then shook my head and put the question back to him.

“What do you make of the Nine-Headed Dragon’s appearance, master?”

“Hm…?”

“The documents the Earth God Emperor gave us say it’s ten years off. But…”

“True. Do you suspect the documents themselves?”

“No. I just want to confirm it properly.”

The fate of the world was at stake. If we were going to be Balthazar’s enemies, we couldn’t leave that question hanging. He knew more than we did, and if we killed him and that somehow set the Nine-Headed Dragon loose, it would be a disaster beyond words.

“You know the booklet is with me. I’ve been staring at it ever since…” Sasha said.

He frowned, troubled, brows drawn together. Then he nodded firmly.

“I still don’t think that formula in it is a bluff.”

“What about the mana measurements? That’s what really bothers me…”

He stopped me with a wave of his hand.

“They match a number of natural phenomena from the same period. I can’t call them false either.”

“Then…”

“Right. We’d better act on the assumption that they’re accurate.”

“Then let’s plan for the worst and move. With this much at stake, we can’t afford to waste time.”

I clicked my tongue before I could stop myself. I hadn’t known which side they were on, but handing Bridget over had been a blunder.

“You say we move, but do you have somewhere in mind?”

“Yes, though it’s a bit of a dangerous bridge to cross.”

“Hm? A dangerous bridge, you say?”

“I want to head for the Lirabel region now.”

Sasha looked puzzled.

“Lirabel? You mean the great forest where I live?”

That is where Sasha lives, but it wasn’t what I was after.

“More precisely, near the elven forest where Maria was born.”

“What do you mean?”

“We don’t have enough information. We have to hear from someone who knows what’s going on… or we’re stuck.”

“Hold on… If that were easy, nobody would be struggling.”

It would be a dangerous bridge, sure. But it was also a bridge I’d been meaning to cross one way or another.

I grinned at Merlin.

“We got lucky this time. Where we’re going is one of Cliff’s hideouts.”

Put on the spot, Merlin gave a start.

“Ah! I see, Ephthal-sama. In that case… certainly.”

Sasha tilted his head.

“What’s this? Explain it so I can follow too.”

“When I had Merlin trace Cliff’s movements, she found a cabin… And something interesting turned up in it.”

“Interesting how?”

“The Demon Lord’s head.”

Sasha’s eyes flew wide.

“So let’s go and meet the Demon Lord.”

“What on earth are you saying?”

Sasha stood there, dumbstruck. No wonder. Without the background, it would sound like a wild idea.

“The Demon Lord…? The one you four killed four hundred years ago?”

“Yes,” I said. “He’ll know more about all this than we do.”

“You have grounds for that?”

“I met him once… as a soul, before the fight with Cliff.”

He’d dropped all sorts of loaded hints back then. So, first things first: I’d drag that corpse awake. If I could get him talking, we could check a lot of things about where we stood.

“He’s the Demon Lord, though. Four hundred years ago you four fought to the death.”

Sasha had a point. If I hadn’t met him in the astral world before the fight with Cliff, I wouldn’t be thinking this way myself.

“From how he was then, there’s a very good chance he’s no longer gripped by the urge to destroy. And Cliff talked with him too, apparently…”

“Hm… I do admit there are parts of the Fire God Emperor’s power-ups even I can’t explain. If the Demon Lord was the source of that knowledge… he might know a lot. Even so…”

“Of course, I can’t rule out the danger. That’s why it’s a dangerous bridge.”

Sasha put a hand to his chin and thought for a while. Then he gave a short nod.

“Very well. If it comes to a fight, with you as strong as you are now, the two of us should manage.”

“That’s how I see it.”

“Truth be told, even I can’t make out the lay of things. There’s nothing else for it.”

“Then it’s decided.”

⁂

Two days later.

We parted ways with Svetlana, who had an errand to run for us, bought a carriage in a run-down village, and went on by changing horses.

It was a forced march. We rode each horse into the ground, and the moment we reached a settlement we swapped it for a fresh one. Horses aren’t cheap, so the cost mounted. But Sasha and Merlin had deep purses, so that was no problem. A good part of Merlin’s money is my inheritance, as it happens.

And so we reached the edge of the great elven forest.

The cabin we were after stood about a hundred meters ahead.

Cliff’s hideout is shielded with perception-blocking magic. An ordinary mage would slip right past it at a glance. But Merlin had found it in a single look, I’d heard. That’s Merlin for you.

Sasha and I got down from the carriage. When Merlin began to follow, I stopped her.

“Merlin, stay here with Anastasia and the others.”

“Wait here…?”

“From how he was when I met him, I doubt the Demon Lord will go berserk.”

“Yes, I was told as much.”

“But if I’m wrong and he attacks us—”

I glanced at Anastasia and the others. After all our years together, that was enough for Merlin to read me.

“I will keep a defensive formula ready at all times.”

“That would help a lot.”

“Yes. If he used a wide-area attack, those brats would be cinders in one blow.”

Sasha and I should be able to handle the Demon Lord ourselves. But if he hit us by surprise, I couldn’t promise we could cover Anastasia and the others. From here, though, there was some distance, and with Merlin shielding them they should be safe.

“Shall we, master?”

I led the way toward the cabin.

It looked long abandoned. Weeds had run wild, and thick moss clung to the walls. In places the boards had rotted and fallen in.

“According to the report, master, the Demon Lord’s head should be inside.”

“Yes. So we were told.”

“Cliff probably got his knowledge by pulling it out of that head.”

Four hundred years ago, Cliff and I had known the same things. Merlin’s report said there were traces of necromancy in this cabin, so it was nearly certain Cliff had pulled his knowledge from the Demon Lord there.

“But… that’s a four-hundred-year-old Demon Lord’s head.”

“Right.”

“How do you get anything out of a dead man? Ordinary necromancy won’t do it.”

“You’re the necromancy specialist, though, master.”

I smiled at him, and Sasha’s jaw dropped.

“So you’re leaving it to someone else,” Sasha said.

“Why not? As the saying goes, in a pinch you use whoever’s standing there, even your own parents.”

“Ho. Use even your parents, is it…”

Hm? What was that about?

Sasha suddenly looked displeased.

No, not displeased… It was the face of a man with a bone to pick.

“You can’t be saying Cliff managed necromancy and you can’t, master?”

“Don’t insult me. It depends on the damage and how much time has passed, but… if that whelp could do it, there’s no reason I can’t.”

“That’s my master.”

At that, Sasha’s eyes narrowed, and he pushed his lips out like a duck’s bill.

He’d been looking put out for a while now. Something was clearly on his mind.

“Come to think of it, you…”

“Yes? What is it?”

“I’ve been wondering for a long time… You don’t respect me, do you? Not one bit! You smack your master on the head. You order me around… Haven’t you got the whole thing backward?”

Where had that come from?

Well… now that he mentioned it, I could think of a few things.

His cheeks were swelling more and more.

This was going to be a pain. For now, the thing to do was humor him.

“Come on, I really do look up to your strength.”

That was true. It was the rest of him I found pretty off.

“But you’re stronger than I am now, aren’t you? You know it.”

“You said so yourself, last time.”

“Which means I’ve lost the one advantage I had. Strength.”

“…”

“So let me ask you again. You don’t respect me… at all, do you?”

By now his cheeks were so puffed they looked ready to split. Then he turned his face away, sulking.

Don’t tell me. Was he sulking because his disciple had passed him?

“Truth is… until recently I thought…”

“Thought what?”

“Even when you were insolent, I told myself, ‘Frankly, I’m the stronger one.’”

“…Got it.”

“Well, I was at ease about it. I forgave all sorts of things with a big heart. But… now it’s different, isn’t it!?”

How was I supposed to react to that?

It was true I’d looked up to Sasha’s strength, whatever I thought of his personality. But I’d never have guessed he was this small-minded.

“A master’s dignity is gone! My pride is in tatters!”

He began stamping his feet in a huff. And this was…

What a pain.

No, I mean it. This was a pain, honest to God.

If he’d been the girl he looked like, it would at least have been cute. But he’s a girl only on the outside. Inside, he’s an old man.

“No, I do respect you as my master. Really…”

“No! Just now you were treating me like a handy magic tool, using me as it suited you!”

“Wait!”

“Wait for what!?”

“What I said just now was… that there are things I can’t do, and that you’re amazing enough to do anything… so this is exactly where we should use you, as our Ephthal party’s ultimate weapon…”

“There! You just said it!”

“What?”

“You did it again just now! ‘The Ephthal party’! If you thought of me properly as your master, you’d have said ‘the Sasha party’!”

Oh, come on… This was seriously, truly…

What a pain.

All right, saying ‘the Ephthal party’ had been a slip.

“Anyway, master, I’ll buy you some rare sweets, so let’s calm down.”

He glared at me through tears. Then he dropped his eyes to the ground, and his shoulders began to shake.

He was seething. I’d known for years what the standard treatment for Sasha’s bad moods was, and I’d used it often. Sweets. If even that didn’t work…

“…fuku.”

He muttered something with his head down.

“What was that, master?”

“Sweet bean daifuku and matcha! Imported straight from the East, with proper preservation magic on them, understood? After making me this angry, I won’t accept anything else!”

Good. The bait had worked.

But it struck me, watching him: master and student though we were, we did get along. I enjoyed talking with him, and I never got bored. A pain, sure, but I didn’t dislike that part either.

“Hm? Why are you grinning, Ephthal?”

“Nothing, master.”

“Good! Then let’s go!”

Just like that, Sasha broke into a smile. Crisis averted.

“Demon Lord or Demon God, leave it to me! I’ll revive him by force, brainwash him if I have to, and make him talk!”

“Please do.”

Brainwashing wasn’t necessary, though.

I sighed, worn out.

“Hmm… but if that’s how it is, I might as well… bring out my best.”

“Your best?”

“I think I’ll use Level 11: Reborn Soul. A master’s dignity is at stake, after all.”

I was speechless for a moment.

“Um, master…?”

“Hm? What?”

“You just casually said you can use a Level 11 I’ve never even heard of…”

“Of course. I haven’t lived this long for nothing.”

“Am I… really stronger than you?”

“Hmm… That depends on what you’re good at.”

“What I’m good at…?”

“Yes. In fine work I can still beat you, but in combat I have to raise the white flag. Take heart.”

Hmm.

Even hearing that, I still think of Sasha as a kind of giant monster. He keeps his own techniques very close to his chest, too.

We reached the door.

“Shall we?”

I put my hand on the knob and opened it. And the man inside left me speechless.

“It has been a long time. I sensed a strong magic power, and it was you… Thunder God Emperor.”

Sasha and I froze at the same moment, then dropped into fighting stances.

Ready to strike at a moment’s notice, I called out to the man.

“Why… are you alive…?”

I’d been told he was only a head. Now he was whole, every part of him. Even the cloak and the armor were identical to what he’d worn in the decisive battle at the Demon Lord’s castle.

Now this was getting really strange. The Demon Lord’s gear should be locked up under heavy guard in some great nation’s treasure vault.

“I see. You are startled that I was restored, though it was inevitable.”

“Inevitable? What does that mean?”

“It seems we must begin with why a reincarnator can be the core of the Nine-Headed Dragon.”

“The core… of the Nine-Headed Dragon?”

“Just so. Or perhaps we should start with why Maria is Bridget’s reincarnation?”

At that, the Demon Lord, seated in a chair at the far end of the table, grinned.

Merlin’s Perspective

In the forest.

The open back of the carriage, in the warmth of early afternoon.

Having watched Ephthal-sama go into the cabin, I looked up at the sky and stretched.

“It is a fine day.”

The Ten Sages, the Nine-Headed Dragon: nature carries on as usual, indifferent to all of it.

Anastasia, beside me, sat with her head down and a gloomy face, in odd contrast to the weather.

“What is the matter, Anastasia?”

“Master… has blown away everything in his path so far.”

“Yes. He has not changed in four hundred years. He has always been like this.”

“But this time… it feels dangerous.”

“…”

“But the Nine-Headed Dragon… destroys planets, right? Is it really going to be all right?”

“That…” My lips tightened. “I do not know. I will only follow Ephthal-sama.”

Perhaps Anastasia had wanted me to say it would be all right. But what I do not know, I do not know.

She fell silent, deflated.

Then Sheryl spoke, her voice low.

“…Ephthal will be fine. Whatever the enemy is, he blows it away.”

“Right, Merlin-sama,” Maria added. “That guy… always flips the situation in one shot, no matter what. I know it.”

Sheryl and Maria spoke without a trace of doubt.

I envied them a little.

At their age I handed everything to Ephthal-sama and trusted him almost blindly. I am no longer that age. Looking back now on those days four hundred years ago… I think some of Ephthal-sama’s fights were close. But he never let it show. He kept a calm face, and I never noticed.

Perhaps it was to steady himself. Perhaps it was so that those who followed him would not worry. I cannot say.

At the very least, blind faith would not do now. What I must offer is calm, clear-headed support. I understand that much.

“I trust Ephthal-sama too. But blind faith and trust are different things. This time you three also—”

I was in the middle of saying it when I sensed someone unfamiliar behind me.

I rose with a click of my tongue and spun around.

“What’s wrong, Merlin-sama!?”

Seeing nothing out of place, I answered Maria with a sigh.

“Just my imagination, it seems. My senses are keyed up.”

The Demon Lord was somewhere ahead of us. A little extra caution did no harm.

Still, for just an instant… I had sensed something… A small animal, perhaps, a rabbit or a squirrel.

Settling on that, I was about to sit again when a man was suddenly there, and my breath caught.

“…What?”

It felt as though a hand had seized my heart.

He had come this close to me, and I had not noticed?

A white-haired man stood right beside me. He looked to be in his twenties, handsome as a sculpture.

“Impossible… This cannot be…”

As I stood frozen, he stepped forward and held out his right hand to Maria.

“Bridget. I have come for you.”

“Wha… Bridget…?”

“No. This individual goes by Maria, I believe.”

I was not the only one who froze. Maria, Anastasia, and Sheryl did too. All of them stared at the man, stunned, fear in their faces.

All of us could feel the strength radiating from him.

This was bad.

I wove a formula in an instant and went at him with it.

“Level 7: Hell’s Nail!”

Hellfire wrapped my fist.

It is a technique that carries a spell on the fist. It gives up range to concentrate on power, and it is a useful option in close combat.

“What!?”

The moment my flaming fist reached his face, the formula scattered and the flame went out.

“Level 12: Magic Cancel.”

What… was this!?

It was neither a defense formula nor interference with my spell’s formula. The flame touched his body and vanished, as though it had never been there.

And more than that… what had he just said?

“Level… twelve?”

“You look pale. Is something wrong, Merlin?”

He knew my name, too… Which meant he belonged to the Earth God Emperor’s side.

“Level 12 is a bold claim. As a bluff, it is not even amusing.”

Whoever he was, he was no ordinary man. But Level 12 was simply beyond reason, and I could hardly believe it.

“I see. Then I must make you understand the difference in strength first.”

“Who are you, exactly?”

“My name is Balthazar.”

That made sense.

So he was not one of the Earth God Emperor’s men… He was the one behind the whole affair.

He pointed to a spot some distance away.

“Balthazar… you want to move this fight elsewhere?”

“For our part, we cannot afford to harm Maria.”

We both cast flight magic, sprang into the air, and drifted toward a spot a little way off.

Even so, he was only one man. There was no reason to play along with a one-on-one duel. First I should warn Ephthal-sama. With Sasha-sama as well, the three of us could deal with him. It would not be impossible to beat him.

I tried to cast a spell, but it would not take.

A barrier severing space had been laid down in a radius of about fifty meters. At this rate, even if I leveled the whole area with explosive magic, neither sound nor tremor would reach the other side, where Ephthal-sama was.

Then I touched down on the ground with a light tap.

Ten meters apart, I faced Balthazar.

Level 12 had to be a bluff, but this man was dangerous. My instincts, honed in long years of battle, said so.

What to do, then?

“Level 8: Thor Hammer!”

My only choice was to decide it in one stroke with everything I had.

I launched three more Thor Hammers at once. Lightning wrapped my limbs, and I shouted at the top of my lungs.

“Four purple bolts of Level 8, closing from every direction at once! You cannot easily dodge them!”

“I see. Passable, for a mage of the weakened age. I will praise you for it. But, Merlin, do you realize?”

“Realize what?”

At my question, he smiled and pointed at the sky.

“Above you.”

I am not so foolish as to take my eyes off an enemy in battle. I did not look straight up, only glanced at the sky.

“Wha…!?”

About ten enormous magic circles had been drawn in the sky.

Judging from the formulas on them, they were… Level 10?

No… Of all things, these were…

“That is correct, Merlin. Level 10: Thunder God Emperor Ephthal, and Level 10: Fire God Emperor Cliff.”

“…Impossible… That is impossible!”

I sagged and dropped to my knees.

He could use Level 10 without passing it through his palm, or any limb at all? And fix the formulas in space itself, like mines?

“I have never seen or heard of such a technique.”

“And yet it exists here. Accept the difference in strength.”

“…Tch.”

“As you see, I have fixed formulas in ten places in space. They are aimed at you, and they fire when I snap my fingers.”

Not merely a step above me… A different dimension. I had to admit it.

“I have no wish to catch Maria in Level 10 and kill her. I recommend surrender.”

“…”

“If you insist, I have no objection to disposing of only you here… What will it be?”

“…Have you truly reached the realm of Level 12?”

“I am the Great Mage who has lived since the age of the Ten Sages. I had the Earth God Emperor introduce me to you as such, did I not?”

So this was Balthazar. One who had lived since the age of the Ten Sages.

Again I was left speechless: the Earth God Emperor stood beside Balthazar, and I had not seen him come.

He had appeared exactly as Balthazar had, without letting me sense a thing.

The magic theory Anastasia and the others learned in class was enough to show how outrageous that was. Even long-distance teleportation leaves a ripple of mana at the arrival point, and that lag gives you time to prepare some countermeasure. But there was no disturbance at all in the teleportation of these two. Which meant they could slip up behind me whenever they pleased and cut my throat with a knife, without using any magic.

“What are you? You certainly know how to trample the pride of someone who lives on a battlefield!”

Things had at last turned truly bad.

Between Balthazar and me there seemed to be a gap wider than that between a child and an adult. Fighting him was no longer realistic. More than that, this time…

Even Ephthal-sama was in danger.

At that thought, cold sweat ran down my back and would not stop.

“You understand the difference in strength, I trust. Show me you will surrender and I will not kill you.”

But still… I had a duty, as one able to fight, to protect these three children. And Ephthal-sama was just over there. If I could buy time even at the cost of my life…

No, that was wrong.

I shook my head.

My premise, that I had the power to fight, was wrong. At this moment I had nothing at all with which to fight Balthazar. To him, Anastasia and the others and I were equally powerless. If I resisted, I would be swatted away like a fly and killed without having done anything.

Throwing my life away here was not the right move. If I were to die, now was not the time.

I released the lightning formulas around my limbs.

“…I have no choice. I surrender.”

“A wise choice. Then sleep for a while.”

Balthazar snapped his fingers.

I heard Anastasia collapse onto the carriage bed. Then Maria. Then Sheryl.

And soon my own consciousness went dark.

⁂

When I woke, I was in a dim room.

I cracked my eyes open, barely turned my head, and took stock of my surroundings.

A cell.

There was no immediate danger.

I sat up and checked myself. No injuries. My clothes were undisturbed. It seemed I had been neither hurt nor violated… but there were wooden shackles on my wrists.

A private cell. The bars looked sturdy. I could not see Anastasia, Maria, or Sheryl, nor sense them anywhere near.

I tried to cast a search spell, but nothing came of it. The shackles blocked magic.

No way out.

I sighed and looked up at the ceiling, its four corners furred with mold.

“I am sorry, Ephthal-sama,” I murmured weakly, to no one at all.

Maria’s Perspective

The Magic Society headquarters.

According to Balthazar, that was where I was now.

If I remembered right, the headquarters sat in the middle of Magic Academy City.

Despite the name, Magic Academy City has no school for people our age. It’s a city of graduate schools of magic and research institutes. It’s the mecca of magic, and every mage dreams of it. Only the chosen get in, so normally it’s no place for a nobody like me.

Of course, a few years in this city were part of my big success story. But I never imagined I’d get here like this.

And right in the middle of thinking that, I was standing in front of a mirror in my underwear.

Maids crowded around me, which was a weird sight. They were politely dressing me up: dress, makeup, hair.

When the dressing was done, I gave the expressionless maids a little bow.

“I don’t know what this is about, but I’ll thank you, at least. You did a beautiful job.”

“…”

No answer, as usual. Their eyes were empty, and their faces showed no emotion at all. Brainwashed… or artificial beings, like homunculi?

In fact they’d opened their mouths exactly once, when they first said, “We will change your clothes, so please undress.”

The maids filed out of the room.

“But what is going on here?”

I sat on the edge of the needlessly luxurious guest-room bed and tilted my head.

Balthazar had told me Merlin-sama and the others had been put in a cell. Yet I was being treated strangely well. They’d put me in a princess dress… The sweets on the table were obviously top quality at a glance. The pitcher held fruit juice instead of water. The rest of the room was amazing too, fitted out as if to welcome royalty. That is, if you ignored the barrier on the door and windows that kept me from going out.

Then someone knocked.

I said nothing. Exactly twenty seconds later, Balthazar came in.

He doesn’t just barge in. So he really is going out of his way to be considerate…

Confused, I turned to him.

“Where are Merlin-sama and Anastasia and the others?”

“In a cell, as I told you. I will not kill them. Beyond their staying alive, I guarantee nothing.”

“Nothing… What does that mean?”

“You are all prisoners. I would rather you did not mistake your position.”

I pressed my lips together and glared at him.

“…You think Ephthal’s going to sit still after this?”

Balthazar snorted at my question.

“My analysis of the Thunder God Emperor’s strength is finished. I believe I was excessively cautious, but he is no obstacle. There is no problem.”

“…”

Honestly, I’d seen this guy’s Level 10 circles myself. Merlin-sama had been shocked too, and that midair deployment, all at once, was nothing I could call human. Even so, I thought Ephthal could knock him flat.

“Hey, why am I the only one who gets special treatment?”

“Because you are special, in the plainest sense.”

“I’m… special?”

“In any case, the pieces are all in place. With these, at last, I can see the plan through.”

What plan?

Just then the door opened, and the Earth God Emperor came in.

“…It is time.”

His eyes were empty too, like the maids’.

Which meant… just as I’d suspected? Wondering if that was it, I tried speaking to him anyway.

“Um… you’re… one of Ephthal’s old companions, aren’t you?”

“…”

“It is useless to talk to it. This thing is my puppet.”

…I knew it. Then those maids had to have been brainwashed or something too.

“But what’s going on? When I met him… on the island, he was normal. The Earth God Emperor didn’t have eyes like dead fish.”

“It is simply troublesome to operate it.”

“…Operate?”

“To make him able to converse, I have to control him directly, and every time he speaks I have to check the necessary memories in the Earth God Emperor’s brain.”

Then Balthazar came close and reached out.

“What are you doing? Are you interested in my body or something?”

“I need your body. That is why I took you.”

“…What!?”

I was sitting on the bed. If he pushed me down… I had no way to resist. I was about to burst into tears and scream when Balthazar shrugged. “Tiresome.”

“Do not misunderstand. I became a stranger to sexual desire long ago.”

Then he took my right hand, drew me to my feet, and led me slowly toward the door.

“Come, Maria. Tonight is a celebration.”

⁂

The room he took me to was a party hall.

About a hundred people filled it. All in formal dress, and not a server among them. A stand-up buffet, and the decor and food were much like the party the Earth God Emperor had thrown on the island.

So that was what the dress was for: to bring me here.

Still, to prepare a hall like this inside the Magic Society headquarters… Well, the Earth God Emperor is a heavyweight in the Society. My guess was that this was a gathering of the faction Balthazar had built up with the headquarters as its base.

But why had I been brought here? Balthazar himself had stepped out, but the Earth God Emperor stood next to me, whether as a bodyguard or a watcher to keep me from escaping. And hostage or not, why was I getting such super-VIP treatment? Puppet or not, the Earth God Emperor had to be the highest-ranking piece Balthazar had, and he was the one guarding me.

I had no idea what was going on.

Then Balthazar and Bridget-chan appeared on the platform at the front, Balthazar with a wine glass in hand. The noisy crowd went dead silent.

“Now then. Thanks to your efforts, we have confirmed a drop in the mana concentration in the atmosphere, our original goal. It is all thanks to you and to Bridget.”

Thunderous applause filled the hall.

Well, that matched what I’d heard.

But it wasn’t good. Bridget-chan’s eyes looked like the Earth God Emperor’s now.

“The urgent danger has passed. Now only power remains to us. The power of human-monster fusion, made possible by my secret art, will from now on be used not for the world but for ourselves.”

Human-monster fusion? That was what the guys calling themselves the Five Magic Emperors used.

“The strong eat the weak. It is a law of nature. Against a humanity weakened as it has been these four hundred years, conquering the whole continent will be easy for our power.”

Suddenly this smelled bad. Was the plan Balthazar had mentioned world conquest or something? But if so, it was too small-minded, too ordinary.

“Tonight marks a milestone in the plan. For now, let us celebrate that the threat of the Nine-Headed Dragon has passed.”

He raised his glass high with one hand.

“Cheers.”

Everyone answered “Cheers” and lifted their glasses, and heads burst apart all over the hall.

Brains splattered. Blood sprayed. Red blooms opened everywhere. Pieces of flesh rained down, and a moment later, without a scream, people just fell, one after another.

The Earth God Emperor, standing next to me, was no exception.

“Ah, ah… Kyaaaah!”

Warm blood from his head had sprayed across my cheek.

“The Earth God Emperor, at least, is tough. The others died instantly, and yet… his stubbornness is the genuine article.”

In the silent hall… the only one still moving was the Earth God Emperor. He had lost his head, but his arms and legs jerked and twitched.

Balthazar snapped his fingers. The Earth God Emperor’s body was instantly wrapped in blue flame.

“Wha… Y-you, what are you doing!?”

“Carrying out the plan.”

He looked perfectly calm. I shouted at the top of my voice, nearly lunging at him.

“These are your underlings, aren’t they!?”

“The objective has already been achieved.”

“Achieved… what!? Weren’t you about to do something with them!?”

“Assembling a hundred human-monster fusions. Gathering that number was the objective itself.”

“Balthazar, what are you thinking?”

He didn’t answer. Instead he reached for the slender neck of Bridget-chan, who stood beside him. He took it in both hands, as if to strangle her…

“What do you think you’re doing!?”

As I started to run, there was a horrible snap.

Then the sound of Bridget-chan collapsing to the floor echoed through the hall.

“You…”

I felt the blood drain from my head. The shock nearly dropped me where I stood.

What is this?

I had no idea what was happening, and I didn’t even want to understand why people were dying one after another.

“…Why… did you kill her?”

“It is a necessary step to release into the atmosphere the mana Bridget stored in her soul vessel.”

As he spoke, black particles began to pour from Bridget-chan’s body. Darkness spread through the room at a terrifying speed.

Release the mana? These guys, and Ephthal, had been fixing the atmosphere’s mana in place by killing monsters, right? And having Bridget-chan absorb it, right? That was supposed to keep the Nine-Headed Dragon from appearing, and… no, in the first place…

“Doesn’t a reincarnator’s soul go back to her home planet, so the mana doesn’t flow into the atmosphere even when she dies? And… if you do this, the Nine-Headed Dragon will…”

“Yes. The Nine-Headed Dragon will appear. I would like you to cooperate, once you understand the situation. Earlier you asked me why you alone are treated as special. And just now you objected that a reincarnator’s soul goes back to her home planet.”

“…”

“The answer to both is very simple. You are… half of Bridget. Therefore the impurities return to the atmosphere, and Bridget’s soul returns to the vessel it was meant for: you.”

“I’m… half of Bridget-chan?”

Balthazar vanished from the platform. He teleported in front of me and seized my head in his right hand.

“It is troublesome to explain each point. I will show you part of my memory…”

Merlin’s Perspective

“I am sorry, Ephthal-sama,” I murmured weakly, to no one at all.

“Even so, giving up here would be lacking in style.”

The first priority was Anastasia and Sheryl. For some reason, Maria was their target. Even if I went to retrieve her alone… I had little hope of getting her back. Balthazar commanded Level 12 magic. On top of that, he had extraordinary skill at building formulas, and apparently he could fire Level 10 spells in multiples at once.

“The Nine-Headed Dragon, Balthazar… the ancient magic civilization is full of things off the charts.”

But we had Ephthal-sama and Sasha-sama, who were off the charts too. And… though I hated to admit it, Svetlana probably stood in the same realm as those two. Strictly speaking, Svetlana’s skill at magic was not far from mine, but she could transform into a dragon, an unfair advantage. Even so, head-on, I honestly could not see even the three of them winning.

But since four hundred years ago, Ephthal-sama had always overturned hopeless situations. A man whose way of living was to force a path through and send reason packing would surely manage something. Then I would do what I could, one thing at a time.

First, secure the girls. That would at least rule out their being used as hostages.

I had just decided that when a man spoke to me from outside the cell.

“Heh. Some hero of the demon race. Look at you now.”

He was a stout man in his forties. His stubble was filthy, and his hair looked as if it had not been cut in ages.

“I take it you are the jailer?”

“Yeah, you can say that.”

“But to imprison someone openly in the Magic Society headquarters… Fine for the Earth God Emperor’s faction, but surely the other Society leaders will not stay silent?”

The man gave a sleazy grin and answered.

“This is Earth God Emperor-sama’s private floor. Nobody outside our circle knows what this room is for.”

“I see.”

“Damn, though, what a body you’ve got.”

His tongue flicked over his lips, which I found revolting. His leering gaze was fixed on my chest without any attempt to hide it.

“One question. Are you the only jailer?”

“No, we work in pairs. There are two more over there watching the kids. Four in all.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“Pairs, yet you came here alone. Why?”

“Like I said. What a body.”

With that, he took a cell key from inside his coat. The door opened, and he came toward me, fumbling with his belt.

“What do you intend to do?”

There was no need to ask. But on the off chance, I asked anyway.

“You’ve got magic-sealing shackles on you now. Which means there’s a body here I can do anything I want with, and it can’t put up a fight.”

“Every organization has its scum.”

“So how does it feel to have a piece of scum do what he likes? With a body like this in front of me, no way I can hold back.”

“Still, you came alone, which means this is forbidden among your fellows… or close to it. What happens if I shout and call someone?”

His face split in a grin.

“It’s not that big a deal. Balthazar-sama just dislikes vulgarity, that’s all.”

“He dislikes vulgarity…”

Kidnapping women was already the lowest of the low. I could not help laughing.

“And I’ve been told to rough you up if needed… even if I end up forcing myself on you, they’ll just say, ‘That guy, what can you do,’ and drop it.”

“Very well. I understand the situation well enough.”

“Besides, getting to have Merlin of the Flashing Chains… I’m one lucky bastard.”

I gave a small nod.

“Indeed, these shackles are excellent magic tools. They seal even my magic power flow completely, and I cannot cast at all. I am entirely helpless.”

“Damn right. They’ve been in use since four hundred years ago. They were made special to bind the strong ones back then. Even your master, the Thunder God Emperor, couldn’t do a thing about them.”

“…”

He took out a knife and pointed it at my chest.

“Hehehe…”

I heard him gulp. He cut my clothes open, baring my chest.

“Ah, what a body…”

“By the way, jailer?”

“Huh? What?”

“I beat those shackles a moment ago.”

I smiled, and astonishment filled his face.

“What!?”

At the same moment the shackles came off and clattered to the floor.

Then came the uppercut.

I had not used physical enhancement. But a blow with all my strength behind it had clipped his jaw all the same. Bone cracked. The concussion buckled his knees, as it had to.

“Impos… sible…?”

As he dropped to his knees, I told him coldly.

“Unfortunately for you, Ephthal-sama has always been a brawler. He has drilled this kind of escape into me more times than I can count.”

“But… how did you…?”

“Anastasia would say it like this, I suppose: ‘Every maiden keeps a bit of wire in her underwear, obviously!’”

Of course, wire was not all I used. Without magic knowledge, those shackles could not be beaten. Taking a leaf from that girl’s book, I had lately prepared in many ways, and it had paid off.

“And that, more or less, is how matters stand.”

I circled behind him and kicked him in the back.

“Gyaah!”

“Stand up.”

When he got to his feet, I kicked him in the rear for good measure.

“Guh…!”

“What an ugly scream.”

I took his knife and set it against his neck.

“D-don’t kill me! Please don’t kill me!”

“Take me to Anastasia and Sheryl.”

“All right! All right!”

We went out of the cell. There was nobody in the corridor, and none of the cells within sight held anyone. At least I would be able to reunite with Anastasia and the others.

After that, I would first have to confirm Maria’s situation. If Balthazar and the Earth God Emperor were not interfering, I would secure her and leave the Society headquarters. If not, I would take only Anastasia and the others and escape, then join Ephthal-sama, tell him what had happened, and work out a fallback plan.

I had started down the corridor when a dizziness close to a fainting spell hit me.

“…Hm?”

“What’s wrong?”

“…”

For an answer, I drove my elbow into his back.

“Agyah…!”

But… this was bad. My vision was darkening and my footing wavering. What was this sudden change? Had I been given poison at some point?

If he learned of my state… it would be dangerous. But my hands and feet were growing less and less obedient, and my consciousness was fading. If I lost consciousness here, he could do as he pleased with me… or rather, there was a higher chance he would kill me first.

I ran a detox spell, but it had no effect at all. My head was spinning, my vision narrowing. My mind would not work… and everything before my eyes went black…

“…What!?”

Before I knew it, I was standing in a pure white space. Thought and vision cleared together.

What… was this? What was happening?

No, I knew this place. This was… the Reincarnation Chamber.

“This is the first time since the Fire God Emperor business. What are you up to, Goddess?”

When I asked the Goddess of Reincarnation, who had appeared before me, she gave me a faint smile.

Maria’s Dream – Flashback: Balthazar

A moonlit night.

A colossal building over four thousand meters tall.

On its roof, above the clouds, I saw an absurd sight that night.

It began when Scathach-sama, one of the Ten Sages, whom I served as an attendant, started speaking to me.

“Balthazar-san, this lovely moonlit night has inspired me.”

He looked to be in his mid-twenties. A beautiful man with narrow, single-lidded eyes. If no one told you, you would never guess that this gentle-faced man was one of the Ten Sages, beings regarded as all-powerful gods.

“Inspired? If I may ask, what do you mean by that?”

At my question, Scathach-sama clapped his hands, pleased.

“I thought I might show you a little of the magic of the Ten Sages today.”

“To be shown the secret arts of the Ten Sages…”

I went to my knees and bowed my head.

“I am honored beyond words.”

“It’s only a little entertainment. No need to be so overawed.”

Scathach-sama laughed lightly, looked up at the sky, and pointed at the moon.

“Balthazar-san, do you know about perspective?”

“You mean drawing distant things small and near things large?”

“Yes, that’s it.”

Scathach-sama held his left hand out toward the moon. Then he made a pinching motion, as if to pick something up.

“May I ask what you are doing?”

At my puzzled question, Scathach-sama gave a small nod.

“A big moon looks small from here.”

“Yes, it does.”

“Ignore the distance, and you could pinch the moon between two fingers… You understand?”

“Yes, I see that… But what of it?”

I followed his example and held my hand toward the moon, pinching. I could see what he meant. Ignore perspective, and it looked as if you really could pinch it.

“Well, I’m in an inspired mood, so I thought I’d break the moon.”

“…Pardon?”

What was he saying?

A few moments later, my doubt would give way to astonishment.

“From here the moon is about the size of a muscat grape, I’d say.”

This time Scathach-sama raised his open right hand toward the moon, and then… closed it into a fist.

“The moon… is gone?”

“Yes, I broke it. Don’t worry. I only interfered with the natural law of distance.”

“…”

What on earth was he saying? He had broken the moon? As entertainment? Just by closing his hand?

A cold sweat ran down my back, my skin crawled, my breath came short, and my pulse ran so ragged I nearly could not stand.

“Why are you so surprised? With a little magic, you could crush a pebble, couldn’t you?”

Scathach-sama smiled.

I could only stand there, rooted.

“Don’t worry. No fragments will fall to the surface. I put a barrier around the planet’s entire atmosphere.”

“…”

“Fufu. Honestly, you locals are a nuisance. You die out over every little thing.”

I managed to answer that smile.

“…Thank you for your consideration.”

“No need for thanks. It would inconvenience us if you went extinct, after all.”

“But… if you break the moon for amusement… it may affect the natural environment…”

“Oh, that.”

Scathach-sama pressed his palms together and went on, still smiling.

“We’re leaving this planet soon anyway. What happens after is none of our concern.”

He was so breezy about it that all I could do was nod in silence. I could not stop picturing another attendant who had displeased him and been reduced to scraps of flesh with a snap of his fingers.

“By the way, Balthazar-san, there’s something I was going to tell you alone. Will you listen?”

“Y-yes… What might that be?”

“This planet’s mana is already exhausted. To the point where it’s no longer a suitable environment for our research.”

“I have heard so. I understand that the Ten Sages are to move to another planet…”

Scathach-sama patted my shoulder.

“So I have a request for you.”

“…A request?”

“Once we, the absolute beings, are gone, with nearly one hundred percent probability the humans who remain will fight among themselves for the top. I don’t see what a world hegemony is worth, but the statistics so far say it ends in destruction on a scale civilization can’t survive… That’s our standard course.”

“What do you mean?”

“Giving civilization to local monkeys and seeing what happens is part of our research.”

The magic civilization, at that time in its full glory on the twin wheels of magic and science. When the Ten Sages first descended here, I was told, humans used stone tools and clay pots. Then the Ten Sages gave them wisdom, and it took only a few hundred years for civilization to reach its present level.

“You know we’re building the reincarnation system right now, to restore the planet’s mana?”

“Yes. My people are carrying out your instructions without delay.”

“Well… I’m sorry, this is a bit further off. It’s about what comes after civilization collapses, once the mana has recovered.”

Thousands of years, or tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands?

These beings’ yardstick for time was entirely different from ours. How was I to react to ‘a bit further off’?

“And… what would that involve, if I may ask?”

“Frankly, it’s a nuisance. In most cases, by the time the mana recovers the locals have multiplied and half-built a magic civilization…”

Scathach-sama gave a shrug of exasperation.

“Our observation records are, after all, records of charming contact between uncivilized monkeys and ourselves.”

“…”

“If we step in when it’s only half-developed, it sort of misses the point.”

“…”

“So, a bit further off, when the atmosphere is full of mana, I’d like you to take care of cleaning out the locals.”

There was one thing that had been bothering me. Scathach-sama was talking about the slaughter of humanity, yet his way of speaking had not changed at all. He was always like this, smiling, but still…

I swallowed.

When we discuss the future treatment of lab mice, we mix no emotion into our tone either. Probably… no, certainly, the reason Scathach-sama did not change was the same.

“Of course, Balthazar-san, I’ll give you something in return.”

Scathach-sama snapped his fingers, and a pain split my head. My vision whited out, and a flood of light poured into my mind.

“What is this…?”

What flowed in with the light, like a lifetime flashing by, was… an enormous… knowledge of magic?

“Knowledge of magic up to Level 12, plus the specifications of the Nine-Headed Dragon and the system around it. I’ve also given you a secret art for stopping your own time and surviving millions of years with your sanity intact.”

“Level… twelve?”

“Yes. If you finish the job without a hitch, I might teach you something a bit more advanced, as an assistant instead of an attendant.”

I had no idea what theory explained what had just happened to my body. I had never seen or heard of Level 12 magic, or of the Nine-Headed Dragon. And yet there it was in my head, as if it had always been there.

“I see…”

The Nine-Headed Dragon was, in short… the foremost of the biological weapons the Ten Sages had made.

At present the Nine-Headed Dragon and the biological weapons were registered in the Akashic Records. The Akashic Records use the planet itself as an information terminal to store all kinds of information… a kind of vault for the Ten Sages. I was to take the information from it, and with a reincarnator as the medium, summon the Nine-Headed Dragon into this world. That seemed to be the job I had been given.

“Yes. Use the enormous soul power of the reincarnators as the core and build the Nine-Headed Dragon’s body.”

“Without fail.”

“Before we arrive, please clean everything up nicely.”

But one thing bothered me. Among the information just planted in my head was a plan to convert the strong people who would be born on this planet in the future into data and keep them.

“Why do we plan to register this planet’s strong people in the Akashic Records?”

“That’s the whole point of observing the locals we’ve given wisdom to.”

“…?”

“Our goal is self-improvement through the pursuit of truth. There must be hints on the road to strength in the process of humanity’s evolution. So we turn it into data and study it in aggregate… That’s about it.”

Scathach-sama clapped my shoulder.

“Then I’ll leave it to you.”

“…Leave it to me.”

After that, as Scathach-sama had predicted, once the Ten Sages left, humanity brought about a great destruction with its own hands. It had only been handed a civilization… weapons of mass magic destruction among them, and it was far too immature to wield such overpowering force.

Civilization collapsed, humans went back to living in caves with stone tools, and an unimaginable span of years passed.

And as I spent my time alone, I noticed that a small craving in me was growing day by day.

It was a craving for power.

The sight of Scathach-sama destroying the moon just by closing his hand seared itself into my mind and would not leave, and I came to crave nothing but power.

I had gained Level 12, a realm fit only for devils, and still it was not enough.

I wanted to see the view from a realm of power where humans looked like nothing but guinea pigs.

I wanted to understand even one edge of the deepest depths of magic.

I wanted to know the laws of the world.

For that, I needed to raise the mana concentration as fast as possible and prepare the conditions for the Ten Sages’ return to this planet.

There were only two conditions: that the Nine-Headed Dragon appear, and that the civilization of the time be destroyed. If both were met, those beings would choose this planet as their next destination.

An eternity passed. By the time the people of this planet had raised their magic civilization to the medieval level, I had run into a problem. Only a few hundred years remained until the target concentration, but the pace at which the atmosphere’s mana rose had slowed. The reason was that the magic civilization had advanced a stage, and the locals were using more mana in daily life.

At this rate, no one could say when the Ten Sages would return.

While I was troubled, I met the Fire God Emperor, still young. And when I taught him a way to weaken humanity, the pace of the mana’s rise sped up dramatically.

Four hundred years passed from then, and finally I had come within reach of my heart’s desire.

Even if I simply waited, it was only a few decades off. But… because it was so close, I could not wait. And so, to welcome those beings back even a day sooner, I put the plan into action.

The Nine-Headed Dragon’s conditions of appearance were simple. The mana only had to reach the standard value, even for an instant. Just one more push… a quiet shove at its back would do it.

First, kill powerful monsters and have Bridget’s soul absorb the mana. Then, when the time came, release all of it at once. What is more, I had made seeds through the Akashic Records and implanted them in people. If I killed those people at one stroke, the mana concentration would spike for that moment.

And so I took it upon myself to move the clock forward.