Chapter 26 – Intruder

This chapter is told from the enemy’s point of view.

The deepest part of the underground dungeon in Almana.

In the test site where first-class mages made preparations for their ‘project’, an alarm started blaring too.

Six, the one in charge of this place, operated the control panel, and reports started coming from the communications equipment.

“Hey, what…”

“M-Mister Six… We are under attack…!”

“…What?”

It was an unexpected report, so Six was taken aback.

“Ahh… So there is someone that foolish out there.”

He paid no attention to the desperation in the voice of the person on the other side, and smiled without a care.

After all, this dungeon had an impenetrable magic defense system.

Endless traps, rigid locks, guard mages…

There were even powerful chimera roaming around.

Even an army couldn’t hope to break through these defenses.

“I guess I should at least ask exactly what organization is attacking.”

“W-we don’t know…! Everyone who engaged the attackers probably died. We’ve lost contact with the fifth floor and above…! T-the sixth floor… No, the sixth floor has been breached! Now the seventh…!!”

“What about the seventh…?”

Six opened his eyes wide, like cold water had been dumped on him.

This dungeon with a test site had twelve floors, and these intruders were already pretty deep, considering the alarm just started ringing.

“T-the intruder is one person! Just one person!”

And then, the communication was cut, but similar screaming reports started coming.

All of them said the same thing as the first one.

“Mister Six, help…”

“Instructions…”

“This floor has been breached… Uwaaah!”

“W-what is going on…?”

Six stood next to the communication device with a dumbfounded look on his face.

He had to give instructions, but didn’t understand anything. What was happening? Who did they antagonize?

Six was gradually becoming scared about being attacked by a monster he knew nothing about.

“One intruder…? It can’t be… This place is a base of the Sorcerer Association, and has the latest magic defense system…”

It couldn’t be true.

Even if it was just a regular dungeon, conquering a dungeon alone was too much. It was unreasonable for someone to detect enemies, carry things, and also fight.

But at the very least, whatever it was, it was pretty deep into the dungeon.

Six operated the control panel to project the status of the dungeon in the air.

(…?)

The images showed most mages were just standing in place.

For a second, Six started thinking it was all a false alarm, but…

Something was off.

Everyone was perfectly still, like they were frozen in place.

“W-what happened…?”

He cut to one of the deeper floors… And saw a flash of lighting running through.

No, it wasn’t just a flash of lighting.

“…Is that a human shadow I see?”

It was too fast to show up clearly, but it appeared to be the shadow of a boy wearing a hood.

This shadow approached the mages in battle positions too fast to really see.

“““‘Nine flame’.”””

A ritual spell was prepared in anticipation of the enemy’s arrival, and was fired against the shadow.

The incredibly powerful flames quickly engulfed him.

The image was shaking due to the smoke and noise, but it did show the attack was a direct hit.

“A-ah… So he was just fast, but nothing much aside from that.”

Six sighed heavily, but…

When the smoke cleared, the shadow stood unharmed.

“What?”

The shadow formulated a technique with a method Six had never seen, and all the mages suddenly stopped moving, as though they were frozen in place.

“W-wha…”

Six had no idea what was happening.

Even a first-class mage like himself had never seen magic like this.

“W-what is this intruder…?”

Did the intruder feel Six’s gaze?

The shadow suddenly looked at the surveillance device from beneath the hood, and locked eyes with Six for a moment.

I’m coming for you now, was what Six felt the intruder was saying. The intense bloodlust was felt even through this projection.

“…Eek.”

Six shrunk back without thinking, as static filled the image before it was cut.

“W-what was that… Thing? Was it human…?”

This person moved at lightning speed, took a direct hit of a ritual spell and came out unharmed, and continuously used powerful magic Six had never seen.

The unconquerable base was very quickly being taken over by one person.

“…‘Hero’…”

This word suddenly popped up in the back of Six’s brain.

Surely this shadow was the rumored ‘hero’ seen during the monster stampede.

But why would a ‘hero’ be attacking a place like this?

How did this person even locate it?

It was all a mystery.

“Dammit, right when Mister Cradle isn’t here…! Right when I was left in charge of this place!”

Six yelled with irritation.

If it was known that he allowed someone to invade despite the very strong defensive system, he would no doubt lose his position.

“Did this person cross paths with Fuse’s group?”

The trio that was sent to Almana to take down that ‘hero’.

Did the intruder find out about this base after fighting those three… No, the timing didn’t match.

There was no way someone could fight three first-class mages and leave without a scratch anyway.

Fuse could do some rash things, but he was powerful even among first-class mages. And with the skillful support of the other two, even a ‘hero’ would have trouble fighting them…

“Our precious fighting power is scattered…”

There was no time to call them back now.

They would have to deal with this strange opponent with what they had.

“…What should I do? Delay our plans and attack with everyone?”

Six mumbled with clenched teeth.

“No, I’ll be enough to deal with this ‘hero’.”

Said a veteran first-class mage.

His face was completely covered with a hood and a mask, but a first-class mage could tell who it was via the nature of the magic energy alone.

“Rains?”

A man known as the ‘Puppet Mage’, who excelled at enslavement magic.

And behind him, was a line of chimera chained together.

“Guarding the dungeon is my job anyway. Carry on with the ‘project’.”

“Are you sure you want to go alone? It could be the one who hunted the ancestral dragon.”

“Calm yourself Six. This ‘hero’ is only human.”

“…What?”

“I don’t know what kind of tricks are being used, but one person is successfully taking over this base. You’re not yourself because you’re struggling to understand the meaning of it all, right?”

“…! I see.”

Six started doing calculations very quickly in his mind.

Judging by that speed, this ‘hero’ was using physical strengthening of a level higher than six this whole time.

He also used defensive magic powerful enough to withstand a ritual spell, and used a weird spell on all the mages.

Using such great magic one after the other meant using a lot of magic energy, and assuming this ‘hero’ had the capacity of a human…

“…It should be running out soon.”

It took less than a second for Six to reach this conclusion, proof that his talent for arithmetic was exceptional.

“Yes. I imagine this ‘hero’ probably couldn’t have broken through this base’s defenses without using powerful spells, and neglecting to consider the consequences.”

“…Although a ‘hero’, this person is an amateur when it comes to this sort of calculation…”

No matter how mysterious he seemed, he was still just a human, and there was a limit to what humans could do.

This ‘hero’ probably started thinking of himself as the strongest being in the world after hunting the ancestral dragon, and this hubris led to going too deep into the enemy’s base. Too deep to be able to escape.

“…I’m sorry. I let panic take over me.”

Six’s carefree smile returned.

He operated the control panel again, cut the alarm, and shut down communications.

“And it won’t be a problem no matter how many low level mages are killed, as long as he doesn’t make it into the test site.”

“You have finally opened your eyes, Six.”

The magic barrier and magic lock on the door to the testing site were top-of-the-line.

It was possible to get through the door to the dungeon itself by threatening one of the guards, but this door was on another level in terms of how secure it was.

It was impossible to break through using current magic theory.

In short, even a ‘hero’ wouldn’t get in.

“It’s actually a good opportunity to take down this ‘hero’ at his weakest. Or rather, if I, the puppet mage, use my enslavement magic… Maybe I could make this ‘hero’ my own slave.”

“…! Yes, Rains, of course. Wonderful idea.”

Six grinned.

He allowed the dungeon to be invaded, but surely Mister Cradle will commend him on the great achievement that would be capturing the ‘hero’.

“In that case, I’ll leave this to you, Rains.”

Six operated the control panel, and teleportation magic circles appeared in the empty cultivation tanks around them.

This was the ‘transfer feature’ that was already in this dungeon.

These cultivation tanks were normally used to position monsters within the dungeon, but Six and the others had been using this transfer feature for many different purposes.

Sending the ancestral dragon and the monster stampede to the surface being one of them.

Even though this was a low level dungeon, they could use this sort of lost technology, and they couldn’t allow savages who didn’t understand its importance to get close to this test site.

“Well then, I’m sending you.”

“Yes, I will be right back.”

Rains and monsters under his control entered empty tanks, and disappeared after being enveloped in light.

Six then took out a syringe from his pocket, and turned around.

“Well then, let’s focus on the ‘project’.”

Six’s eyes were pointed towards the lined-up ‘demon king prospects’, and one sleeping girl in particular.

(…Everything is going well.)

They were making progress with the demon king prospects, and Mister Cradle was particularly interested in one vessel.

And the one thing that worried them, that ‘hero’ who defeated the ancestral dragon, was about to fall into their hands.

Six felt he was one step closer to securing a seat within the twelve sages.

“Fufufu… Fuhahahaha!”

Six let out a loud, triumphant laugh.

Little did he know the footsteps that signaled his destruction were drawing near.