Chapter 62

Surprise Attack (2)

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

A loud bell rang through the manor. Amid its incessant clamor—

CRASH! BANG!

CRUNCH! CRACK!

Deafening crashes and the sickening, spine-chilling sounds of flesh being torn apart erupted in all directions. Anyone who failed to wake through this commotion was either unconscious or dead.

Viscount Veneron, however, was neither.

"... What is this?"

He looked out the window to find utter chaos. The manor's front gate lay smashed, its walls had collapsed, and guards lay scattered around them in pools of blood.

CRAAACK!

Another crash rang out.

BOOM!

... No, an explosion.

Just as he was wondering what on earth was happening—

"M-my lord!!"

Someone flung the door open hard enough to nearly break it and rushed breathlessly inside. It was the steward who managed the manor, his face stricken with confusion and fear.

"What in the world is going on?"

"Intruders are attacking the manor!"

"... Intruders?"

"There's no time for this! You must flee, my lord! Quickly!"

The steward urged him on as though disaster had struck. Admittedly, it had, but the viscount tilted his head to the left at the questions that sprang unbidden to mind.

Intruders? Who on earth could they be? And why now, so suddenly, out of nowhere?

"Who are the attackers? Have you identified them?"

"I-I don't know. All we've established so far is that there are two of them!"

"... Two?"

Viscount Veneron's head, tilted left, now tipped to the right.

"Are you telling me this entire mess is because you couldn't stop a mere two men?"

"Y-yes, my lord!!"

The steward's confirmation left him dumbfounded. With security this tight, how could the manor's defenses fall so helplessly to just two people? Had a Master knight attacked them?

No, even that made no sense. After all, every guard in the manor was—

It happened then.

BOOM!

An entire wall of the room crumbled with an enormous explosion. A thick cloud of dust billowed up, briefly obscuring his vision before quickly settling.

It revealed a man drenched in blood. Clearly, he was one of the intruders attacking the manor, but a mask hid his face.

"Who the hell are you?"

"A wastrel."

"A wastrel?"

A wastrel...?

"Adrian Whitewolf?"

"Huh. You know me?"

A sigh came from one side. Another man appeared beside Adrian, equally drenched in blood. His hair was stained red, but gold showed through between the bloody strands.

The golden-haired man heaved another deep sigh and pulled off his mask, revealing an undeniably handsome face. But the look he gave Adrian—

"Didn't you say we were infiltrating?"

...suggested that, however he looked at it, he could only conclude that Adrian was insane.

* * *

Kai sighed and pulled off his mask.

"Didn't you say we were infiltrating?"

His question sounded distinctly accusatory.

"Why wear a mask if you were going to reveal your identity?"

"I didn't think he'd recognize me if I just said I was a wastrel."

"There are very few nobles in the Kingdom of Battenberg who haven't heard of 'the wastrel.'"

"Am I that famous?"

Those memories were so old they had grown hazy. Not that I'd cared much to begin with. But judging by Kai's expression, which said that hardly needed an answer, I really was famous.

Still, that aside...

'A homunculus shouldn't recognize me, should it?'

Even a replica-type homunculus inherited only thirty percent of its original's memories. It shouldn't know that "the wastrel" meant me.

The same applied even if he was Avarus. No, especially if he was Avarus. He was a Devotee of the Fallen Souls, not a noble of the Kingdom of Battenberg. There was no way he'd know rumors about some count's wastrel son—nothing more than idle gossip.

'Did I get this wrong?'

Swallowing that doubt, I activated Predatory Instincts[S]. Information about the man before me appeared in a neatly organized display.

==<Character Information>==

Name : Evolutas de Veneron

Classification : Kingdom Animalia, Class Mammalia, Family Hominidae, Human

Sex : Male

Age : 42

Traits : Transmog

The information before my eyes said that Viscount Veneron wasn't a homunculus. Nor was he Avarus. It unequivocally identified him as Viscount Veneron.

Could I really have gotten it wrong?

The thought briefly crossed my mind, but I soon shook my head. There was Transmog, listed under his traits. I activated Predatory Instincts[S] again, and information about it appeared.

◆Transmog

: A spell of transformation and reconstruction. The user can transform into a perfect imitation of a designated target's appearance, traits, abilities, and even mind.

However, maintaining the transformation for too long may cause it to become permanent.

Transmog—a spell that transformed the caster into a perfect imitation of a target. Unlike Polymorph, which merely altered appearance, it could copy someone down to their very genes. To do so, it required the genes of the intended target.

Transmog scraped those genes from its target to create a perfect imitation.

That required grinding up the target's entire body. The real Evolutas de Veneron was dead.

The man before me was Avarus, the Caster of Greed.

'He nearly fooled me.'

He would have, if not for Predatory Instincts[S].

I extended my razor-sharp Dragon's Claw[A].

Avarus, a Devotee of the Fallen Souls, was an alchemist. A lunatic alchemist who used human beings as materials to synthesize homunculi.

People often treated alchemists and mages as separate things. They thought alchemists were merely potion peddlers incapable of casting magic.

That was a grave misconception.

Alchemy was a branch of magical studies to begin with. Without understanding magic, you couldn't even learn it. An alchemist was simply a mage with more extensive knowledge of alchemy.

Not every mage was an alchemist. But every alchemist was a mage.

Avarus, therefore, was also a mage. He was simply more obsessed with alchemy.

There were several ironclad rules you had to follow when facing a mage.

The first: never give a mage time.

◆Activating combination skill 'Metabolic Overdrive[U]'!

◆Calories Consumed - 50,000Kcal

◆All player stats increase by [+50%] for [500 seconds]!

THUMP!!

Hormones instantly surged through my endocrine system. I kicked off the ground.

BANG!

The floor cratered beneath me as I shot forward.

"What the—!"

Avarus panicked. He was far too late to react to my speed, yet layer upon layer of translucent barriers formed before him.

A Shield spell.

But Avarus was currently Viscount Veneron. Transmog had altered him down to his genes, leaving him in a body incapable of using magic. It was probably a magical artifact that activated in emergencies.

The bastard was as meticulous as ever.

Without hesitation, I drove Dragon's Claw[A] into the layered shields. It was an ability imprinted with dragon genetic material. Its attack power rivaled a dragon's, and it ignored [-35%] of the target's defense on top of that.

A few stacked Shield spells weren't going to stop it.

CRACK!

The layers of shielding shattered like cookie crumbs.

SPLURT!

Avarus's chest ripped open, spraying blood.

I felt the unmistakable impact through my fingertips. But he wasn't dead. For one thing, no message announcing his defeat had appeared. Even without that, one look at his grotesque appearance dispelled any such notion.

GURGLE!

The flesh all over his body seemed to melt and slough off in a grotesque mass. Then Avarus's true form emerged.

His body was hunched and twisted, his frame as gaunt as a withered branch. The legs supporting him swayed with a strange rhythm.

His fingertips were blackened by countless experiments, and several fingers had been replaced with metal prosthetics—evidence that he had experimented on himself. Perhaps that explained the burns and scars on his exposed skin, and the patches of flesh that bulged or caved in unnaturally.

Unidentifiable devices were plastered all over his body. Some had fused with living tissue, circulating their contents along with his blood. Others protruded from his hunched frame, continuously supplying unknown drugs and fluids.

His eyes darted erratically, unfocused yet filled with endless curiosity and crazed obsession.

That was the Avarus I remembered.

Kai's eyes widened in shock.

"What...?"

They were open so wide they looked ready to split. He was clearly more than a little startled.

Understandably so. Transmog was the ultimate transformation spell, perfectly altering even the caster's genes. Not even a Master's senses could discern it. It evaded every form of magical detection.

"... How did you know?"

Avarus, too, was baffled for that very reason.

"Detection shielding should have concealed every magical trace. Did you identify my unique mana signature? ... Impossible."

Avarus rambled on, but I didn't know anything about that crap. He simply hadn't been able to fool Predatory Instincts[S].

It was an ability I had acquired by consuming the lycanthrope with Predation[S+], and one of the Authorities held by the Sovereign of Beasts.

Put simply, Predatory Instincts[S] was the "survival instinct" that living creatures in this world had evolved to stay alive.

To survive their natural enemies. To avoid being eaten by fellow predators.

It was instinct built up and refined over hundreds of millions of years, telling them which mushrooms were poisonous, which places were safe, and what would benefit them.

Information accumulated by countless living things struggling to survive in countless natural environments. Through it, I could innately know information about every organism, environment, and target—a priori.

Besides, I knew more about Avarus than anyone. Every piece of information on the Dark Merchant Company I had gathered as Chief of Covert Operations in the special warfare unit was still in my head.

"You bastard. How did you discover my identity?"

No matter what tricks Avarus tried...

"What would knowing do for you? Buy you time?"

...he was in the palm of my hand.

Sure enough, he flinched. I'd hit the nail on the head.

Still, I couldn't recklessly charge him.

"I don't know how you discovered my identity..."

Because there was a second ironclad rule to follow when facing a mage.

"But it was already too late the moment you set foot in here!!"

Never enter a mage's domain.

EEEEEEEE!!

An earsplitting whine rang out as magical power vibrated around Avarus. Hexagram-shaped magic circles of inscrutable meaning inscribed themselves in every direction. Then the entire room was cut off from the outside world, as though covered in a transparent veil.

A distorted silence followed. The wind, our breathing, our heartbeats—their sounds stretched out and wavered. Everything happening within this space felt out of step with reality.

'A barrier.'

I activated Predatory Instincts[S], and information about it appeared before me.

◆Infinite Silence

: The flow of mana within this barrier is completely halted. All beings within the barrier are unable to use their mana.

This barrier is maintained infinitely, regardless of the passage of time.

Reading the description alone made me wonder how the hell a barrier like this could exist. It was outrageously overpowered.

'Even the Archmage was taken aback.'

And not just the Archmage. The Spirit Mage, another hero of the allied army, had been bewildered by Avarus's barrier too. It was so overpowered that even the heroes couldn't counter it.

Of course, activating it was equally difficult. It could only be used in a particular location, and even then, constructing it required tremendous time and effort. That was precisely why the rule against entering a mage's domain existed.

It was also why Avarus hadn't fled despite all the chaos.

'I didn't expect him to activate it right away.'

That was something of a surprise. Apparently, watching Kai and me slaughter the combat-type homunculi guarding the manor had convinced him he stood no chance.

"Urgh...!"

Kai suddenly staggered.

Naturally. The power he used was aura, which was ultimately mana converted into usable energy. Once the flow of mana stopped completely, his access to aura was cut off too.

But the same was true of Avarus. He was a mage, and he used magical power—another form of mana converted into usable energy. Halting the flow of mana cut off magical power as well.

From the looks of it, he intended to fight a purely physical battle in this space where mana had been completely blocked. He couldn't use magic, but his opponents couldn't use aura either.

That would make it a fight between ordinary humans.

But Avarus was both a mage and an alchemist. He had ways of enhancing his body with drugs.

Sure enough, the unidentified devices attached all over his body sprang into vigorous action. Those fused with his flesh and circulating their contents with his blood began to bubble. With each surge, his body underwent grotesque changes.

Now it was a fight between a monster and humans. Its outcome was obvious—

Except for one variable.

I was the exception.

I couldn't use mana at all. Consequently, none of my abilities were based on it. They were powers of biological evolution.

Even if mana stopped flowing, Dragon's Claw[A] was still Dragon's Claw[A]. Regeneration[B+] was still Regeneration[B+]. Toughened Skin[B], Nutrient Synthesis[B], Promote Metabolism[C+], and even my combination skills all remained unchanged.

I was Avarus's perfect counter. And I knew exactly what sort of mage he was. I hadn't walked into a mage's domain—straight into Avarus's own room—for no reason.

Avarus, on the other hand, knew nothing about me. More precisely, he thought I was merely a count's wastrel son. Apparently, he believed all he needed to do was cut off Kai's aura...

"Heh heh heh...!"

Avarus began snickering.

"What utter fools."

He evidently thought he had victory in the bag. Come to think of it, he'd been the same in my previous life. Watching the allied army's heroes panic in a space where the flow of mana was controlled, he hadn't just snickered—he'd laughed his damn head off.

And then...

"To think you'd come crawling into my domain of your own accord. Heh heh heh...!"

... I'd ripped his heart out and killed the bastard.