Chapter 234

We drew our wands at the same time.

Kwaaaaang—! Jjaenggeurang—!

“…?!”

“Eek!”

The space magic on the left, the mana I had installed at various angles shattered and fell. As soon as the original roadside view became visible, pitch-black smoke rushed in. Along with the sound of glass breaking, the students hurriedly covered their fronts with their arms.

There wouldn’t have been a need for that. Because we had already blocked the front of the four high schoolers who were ahead. The moment I swung my wand to repel the mana debris, a brown semi-transparent mana that someone had unconsciously installed suddenly appeared on the left. At the same time, heavy impact sounds came from outside.

Kwaang—! Kwang!

“Remove the barrier!”

“…?!”

I didn’t expect a quick response. I stomped my foot and shattered the barrier outward. Along with the broken barrier mana, an attack presumed to be Vitriol suddenly appeared in my view.

Heike and I flicked our wrists and reflected the attack as it was. Worried that we might not be able to block the indiscriminately fired black lumps, startled sounds of flinching came from behind.

If you ask why not just lay a barrier….

If it breaks, there’s a risk of secondary damage, so it’s better to repel directly if possible. The worst is a barrier unconsciously laid reflexively like earlier, without calculation.

That said, we can’t not use it at all, so when we must, we need to secure a safe distance and properly recite the formula to lay it solidly.

Kwang— Kwagwang—

Even while I swung my wand for the last time and stepped back one step, the impact sounds continued. Heike, who had been swinging her wand beside me, glanced at me and stepped forward one step.

I spun the wand between my fingers to change it into a staff, then stared ahead.

‘First, analyze the situation.’

It wasn’t a difficult situation. Seeing the air darkened, someone was berserking. Though not visible now, the victim must have sensed mana in the air and attacked us to absorb it.

Since no berserker report came through the artifact, we were the first witnesses. We had to determine their danger level.

‘The degree of air pollution is… the worst I’ve seen so far. But the attacks aren’t precise. It wasn’t hard to block either.’

Seeing as they couldn’t launch precise attacks and lacked power, it was probably a low-risk berserker. Unlike high-risk berserkers who retain consciousness during berserk, low-risk ones lose consciousness, so their attacks are relatively sloppy.

But why was the air pollution so severe? It polluted this place densely enough that objects couldn’t be distinguished. If we stayed long, we’d berserk too.

How on earth?

How could such power come from a low-risk berserker?

Finding the answer wasn’t hard.

“Heike. It’s not one.”

“…….”

Heike bit the inside of her lip.

There were two or more victims here.

I drew mana from my core. The sound of flames surging and pushing out the air was loud. The mana flowing through my hand dyed the staff red up and down and rushed toward the sky.

To lay the mana, I swung the staff once around, and the students standing behind retreated in panic. As the darkness lifted in the light of the mana, giving the illusion of being in flames, I grabbed the staff with both hands and slammed it into the ground. And immediately opened my mouth.

Kwaaaaang—!!

[Fear not. For I am with you.]

*  *  *

Antoine Gramont fell into panic.

He knew that fact himself but had no way to do anything about it.

‘…This….’

This was now….

Gramont tried to steady his wildly shaking vision.

The world that suddenly turned completely black after the abrupt attack and the space magic shattered.

No matter how he looked, it was a berserk situation. The berserker he had only heard about was around here. Unfortunately, one of the 30 daily Brandenburg berserk cases hit us. He should have thought to flee or attack, but his head wasn’t working at all and had been blank for a while.

Kwaaaaang—!!

[Fear not. For I am with you.]

Antoine Gramont, who had been watching the flames climbing the black eagle decoration of the staff, squeezed his eyes shut and blocked his face with his arms as soon as the explosion sounded. Fierce wind spread in all directions, and mana burning like the sun hit his face and eyes.

It was the mana of that Pleroma Askanian whose power he had wanted to verify at least once. Contrary to the rumor of being Pleroma, his mana gave an overwhelming feeling like divine power. He had never expected such mana.

Moreover….

‘I didn’t think I’d see that person’s mana like this.’

He didn’t mean he wanted to see it this way. Who would want to be in a crisis of dying a dog’s death in a foreign country!

Unable to breathe due to Askanian’s mana added to the Vitriol, Gramont pressed his nose with his hand to block the mana and struggled to open his eyes.

The black fog presumed to be Vitriol cleared a bit, securing vision. A barrier curved like a red dome enveloped where we stood and spread roundly far away.

Compared to the barrier Gramont himself had unconsciously installed earlier, it was much more stable. At this distance, even if the barrier broke, we wouldn’t get hurt easily.

Only now did Gramont look at the two mages standing in front of him.

“…….”

Both, especially Askanian, were calm unlike us. He had clearly said he had been deployed to report processing from a few days ago, and his face looked like he had experienced such situations dozens of times.

Kwang—… Kwagwang—….

Sounds of the berserker’s attacks hitting the barrier came from afar. Askanian, who had been continuously flowing mana into the staff fixed on the ground, glanced back. Seeing Gramont’s pale face, he smiled with a strange expression.

“Why so scared.”

“…!”

“Hahaha!”

Askanian annoyingly burst into clear laughter and smiled while gesturing to Ainsidel with his eyes. Ainsidel nodded.

As Ainsidel blocked Askanian’s front and looked beyond the barrier, Askanian fully turned around and stood in front of us.

He felt heat rising to his face due to the annoying provocation. Even now, his chin was trembling because of the urge to defend himself.

Askanian just gazed at him with a leisurely smile as if this was some good spectacle. The moment he was about to ask why he was looking like that, Askanian pointed behind Gramont.

“Go.”

“…Yes?”

“Run straight back this way. Don’t turn left or right to another path, just go straight.”

A few peers looked back with dazed faces. Gramont himself creakily turned his neck to look back. A narrow path was between residential areas, and a park was visible beyond.

Askanian took out a warp coordinate booklet for tourists from his clutch and placed it in Gramont’s frozen hand.

“If you reach a dead-end building or forest, don’t change direction, don’t hide, just warp straight to Berlin. Go to the police bureau or fire department, anywhere, they’ll help.”

He reached out his hand, then raised his eyebrows like someone newly realizing we were dazed. He slightly lifted his hat brim and said.

“I’ll be going now.”

He left the blankly frozen Gramont behind and led Ainsidel forward.

Gramont didn’t move his feet. The other three were the same.

*  *  *

“Heike.”

I took Heike and walked to the front of the barrier.

I looked around, but no warp coordinates were visible. I tapped the artifact and poured out words.

“This is Eszett Lucas Askanian. Coordinates unknown, multiple berserk in the vicinity of Brandenburg Tis Hotel, two occurred.”

[Beep—]

When victims are estimated to be several, we roughly use the term multiple, but we also need to say how many estimated.

Now, support personnel would come to transport about three to the hospital generously.

Of course, since coordinates are unknown, it would take a bit.

I lightly swept the staff upward. The barrier’s mana returned to the staff and moved behind where I stood to form a new barrier. It wasn’t a barrier for us to use, but to defend so Vitriol doesn’t enter the civilian retreat path.

Kwaang—!

I repelled the black attack coming at me with the staff and extended my hand to Heike.

“Heike.”

Heike lightly slapped my hand and regripped her wand.

Though I had played with her until now, I had never stood on the field with her. Since Eszett’s formation, my field partners so far had only been Ulrike and Tsheringen.

‘I hope we match well.’

Since we don’t know where the victims are.

I chanted the spell while holding the staff.

[In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.]

I slammed the staff into the ground. The red mana surged out at fierce speed. The Vitriol that had been filling the air black seemed to turn red, then disappeared with my mana.

Heike widened her eyes and looked far away.

“…Is it divine power…?”

“No way. Why think that?”

Kwaaaaang—!

I answered roughly and blocked the attack.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen it clear this far.”

I nodded and examined the direction the attack came from.

After vision cleared, it was meaningless for the opponent to launch attacks. No, rather beneficial to me. Since suppression was imminent.

‘Ah, it would have been convenient if Leo was here.’

I looked at an Old Human crashing his body against the window railing on the top floor of the building.

It was fortunate he hadn’t gone up to the roof. A victim before the report even came in had a slight chance of survival if sent to the hospital. It was possible because our technology advanced after Pleroma’s new drug development.

“Lucas. I’ll draw attention.”

Heike said that and rushed to the front of the building.

As if the victim unconsciously knew I was the key, when I jumped toward the side of the building, attacks rushed at me.

Kwagwagwang— Kwagwang—!

‘Whew.’

The victim’s attacks were falling behind me. If I ran a bit slower, I’d die.

Entering the back door and looking right, stairs were immediately visible.

‘It’s a 5-story building.’

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