"I'm the Magic Tower Master of somewhere."
Magic Tower Master.
Pale could not understand what those words meant.
At first, he wondered if it was the name of a Megacorp he didn't know. A hidden research institute, a classified combat unit... or perhaps slang used in place of a corporate name.
Even though the young man before him spoke as if making a joke, he uttered that particular word with strange naturalness. As if it were the most obvious term to describe where he belonged.
Kael did not miss that brief opening.
"Shouldn't you be focusing on me right now?"
Kael lowered his stance.
"You're awfully relaxed."
The moment he saw him, Pale reflexively raised his Defense Formula, but his reaction was already too late.
Kael's foot slammed into his flank.
"Khhk...!"
Boom!
The impact tore through the protective suit, digging deep inside.
Pale's body was sent flying sideways, his back slamming against the wall. Shattering broken pipes and bouncing across the floor several times, he finally managed to slow his momentum by digging his fingers into the ground.
Pale swallowed hard on one knee, but with blood steadily trickling from his mouth, it wasn't easy.
The auxiliary circuit inside his protective suit displayed the damaged areas. Three broken ribs, a ruptured right shoulder joint. As countless more injuries followed, he swiped the notifications away.
He gritted his teeth and stood, but his heavy body made it difficult to hold out.
While the strain of the Overclock gnawed at his nerves, the recoil of high-tier magic struck.
Yet amid such an urgent situation, Pale noticed something odd.
The question of why he was still alive.
If the opponent had intended to kill him, there had been countless opportunities. At least, had Pale been in his shoes.
Just now, and even before that, Kael had seized multiple moments where he could have finished him off. He could have crushed his neck, severed his ACU connections, or slammed his head into the wall and crushed it to pieces.
But he hadn't.
No.
'Could it be that he couldn't?'
Pale's eyes narrowed.
His opponent was at least 7th Tier.
Judging solely by instantaneous output and combat instincts, that had to be the case. Even when Pale had engaged his Overclock, Kael matched his reaction speed and manipulated the flow of the Body Reinforcement formula with effortless grace.
Looking at him, his eyes held no hesitation toward killing, either.
Those accustomed to killing without a second thought when necessary.
The young man before him was undoubtedly of the same breed.
In that case, there was only one conclusion.
'A restriction.'
Such overwhelming power had to come with conditions.
Pale had seen countless battlefields until now.
Before becoming the Head of Security at Seraph, he was a mercenary—a veteran who had weathered all of a Megacorp's dirty work, from outer-district conflicts and lower-level suppressions to the recovery of unauthorized test subjects. He knew how to survive when facing someone stronger than him. In truth, Magiterra was overflowing with people far stronger than him.
The way to defeat someone strong is simple: pinpoint their weakness. Of course, that assumes a weakness exists in the first place.
Pale recalled Kael's movements.
When they first clashed upon arriving on the 15th floor. To be sure, his movements had been remarkably well-trained, but that was where it ended.
There are limits to the movements a purely human body can produce without cyberware installed.
Yet suddenly, the moment he deployed reinforcement magic, the gap widened drastically.
Then when did he cast the magic?
Right after crushing the ACU.
Pale's eyes wavered violently.
'Could it be?'
Through the dust and smoke, Kael strode leisurely.
Unbroken ACUs still remained in his hand.
Watching him, Pale caught his breath and began laughing like a madman.
"Hahaha."
"..."
When Kael didn't stop in his tracks, Pale wiped his bloody mouth and spoke.
"To think you can only cast magic by crushing an ACU."
His red eyes shifted toward Kael's hand.
"Just how terrible is your fuel efficiency as a magician?"
At those words, Kael paused for a moment and stared steadily at him. The corner of Kael's mouth curled slightly upward.
"Oh."
A nonchalant exclamation.
"Aren't you smart?"
Kael provoked him with mockery, but Pale didn't take the bait.
The information he had just gained was far too crucial to lose himself to rage.
He counted the ACUs remaining in Kael's hand.
"Four left."
Spitting blood little by little, Pale continued.
"If I just hold out, victory is mine."
At his words, the corners of Kael's lips curled up further.
"Hold out?"
He slowly tilted his head.
"You?"
Pale didn't bother to reply.
Crunch, crunch.
Kael stepped across the broken corridor floor, advancing toward him. As if death itself had taken physical form.
"Do you really think that's possible?"
"...More than enough."
As Pale spread his fingers, threads of blue mana stretched out once more.
After all, he had no intention of clashing head-on this time.
He would pour everything into holding out. If he opened up distance and stalled for time, the remaining ACUs would eventually run out. Then, victory would indisputably be his.
It was a simple and surefire method, but...
As if seeing right through him, Kael clicked his tongue and laughed.
"Look at the sorry state you're in."
He continued calmly.
"You're all talk."
"..."
"Are all 6th Tiers just all bluster like you?"
Offhand.
One remark.
Offhand.
Another remark.
Words tossed out so casually because he truly believed them. That very fact irked Pale all the more.
Pale gritted his teeth.
'Don't let it get to you.'
Just then, Kael slotted a third ACU between his fingers.
"Now then."
He murmured in a low voice.
"Shall we start round two?"
***
Inside Harun's stall.
Rin was curled up in the corner beneath the workbench.
Her hood was pulled down low, and she hadn't taken off her black mask. While partly because Kael had told her to keep it on, she currently lacked the courage to show her face.
Her fingertips trembled uncontrollably. She tried to make them stop, but it was in vain.
Harun stood near the entrance of the stall, keeping watch just in case.
Holding an old shotgun in one hand.
"Don't move. If someone tries to come in, I'll do the talking. Don't answer—just breathe."
Rin gave a small nod.
"Yeah."
Harun peered outside through a gap in the tent and clicked his tongue.
"Whenever those upper-level bastards stir things up, the market always ends up like this. Even the rats hold their coughs, I swear."
Rin could not say a word in response.
Because the Surface Level was where she had been born and raised.
Clean floors free of trash and fresh, odorless air. Back then, she had taken it all for granted. That was simply the only world she had ever known.
Ever since she was little, Rin had followed her grandfather everywhere. All she knew was that he was a high-ranking executive at Seraph Industry.
People treated him with such deference, but to Rin, he was just her grandfather. The man who would seat her on his lap, show her meeting materials, and explain the difficult terms one by one. The man whose habit was to say, "To run a corporation, you must know how to handle people."
Despite her young age, Rin grew up learning from her grandfather how a company operated.
Yet that was strictly the world of those who ran corporations.
A city looked down upon from behind glass walls, and the real lives of people represented merely as numbers in reports.
She knew nothing of the world beyond that.
To be precise, she never had the chance to know.
Then, one day.
Rin happened to hear about a place called the Underground Level.
In the corridor outside the conference room, two executives were talking in hushed voices.
The Underground Level, illegal residents, organ harvesting, test subject transfer.
They were words she had never heard before. To an intensely curious girl, it seemed like an unknown world that stirred a sense of adventure.
A place inside the very same Magiterra, yet one she had never seen. A level that existed on maps, yet one nobody explained in detail. Wouldn't any explorer find it an irresistibly fascinating place?
That evening, Rin asked her grandfather what kind of place the Underground Level was.
Her grandfather fell silent for a moment before answering that she didn't need to know.
It was the first time Rin had ever heard those words from him.
Until then, her grandfather had never dodged any of Rin's questions. He had answered whatever she asked; if he didn't know, he would say they should look it up together, and if it was difficult, that she could take her time learning.
Yet that same grandfather refused to tell her anything about the Underground Level.
That only made Rin all the more curious.
"Then can't I just go visit once?"
When she said those words, her grandfather scolded her loudly for the very first time.
He told her no. Absolutely not. That it was no place for her to go.
Rin could never forget her grandfather's face that day.
Rather than angry, he looked as though he was afraid of something.
That realization weighed heavily on Rin's mind instead.
Looking back now, it had been foolish curiosity.
Yet back then, Rin deluded herself into thinking she knew quite a lot. And knowing just how capable the Head of Security assigned to her was, she believed everything would be fine.
Thinking she could just take the Head of Security with her, go down briefly, and come right back up.
Pale, at the time, had smiled and agreed.
"If there is anything you are curious about, I will show you."
She still remembered those words. That smile, too. And the moment his expression shifted as he lunged at her, spewing curses.
Barely suppressing her terror, she had jumped into a drainage pipe and miraculously made it down to the Underground Level.
Rin was submerged in sorrow over the recurring memories of her grandfather and her own foolish actions. All she could do was quietly bury her face in both hands.
"Grandfather...."
Her voice trembled.
She tried to hold back, but tears leaked out, dampening the inside of her mask.
Just then, Harun glanced at her and spoke up.
"Don't cry."
At his words, Rin raised her head.
"Don't cry so easily in this place. The moment you show weakness, you're dead."
She bit her lip.
"Yeah...."
"If you want to cry, cry later. Behind locked doors, with the lights out, where no one can see."
Harun continued, looking outside the tent.
"After you survive."
Harun hesitated for a moment, then slid the canteen on the workbench toward her.
"Drink."
Rin looked at the canteen.
"Thank you."
"Don't mention it."
Rin carefully took a drink of water.
It tasted metallic and lukewarm, but it still relieved her throat a little.
Setting the canteen down, she asked cautiously.
"Will Kael... be all right?"
Harun didn't answer, checking the shotgun's chamber instead.
Clack.
A worn metallic sound echoed.
"Who knows."
Harun spoke, looking past the gap in the tent.
"I still don't know what that bastard's deal is. A circuit tinkerer, a lunatic, or some catastrophe that dropped into the Underground Level by mistake."
"...."
"Still."
Harun added.
"I don't get the feeling that bastard's gonna kick the bucket easily."
It was then.
Bzzzt.
The Magic Lamp on the workbench flickered.
Harun immediately snapped his head up.
"...."
Bzzzt, bzzzt.
The Magic Lamp flickered once more.
Rin shrank back in inexplicable dread.
"Did the mana run out...?"
"No."
Harun's expression turned grim.
"That's not what this is."
The next moment.
Thud.
RUUUUUUUUMBLE————!!!!
The entire stall shook.
The stacked circuit boards collapsed in a heap, and the tent poles creaked. Rin swallowed a scream, clutching the legs of the workbench.
From the distance came the sound of something exploding.
KRR-BOOM—!
Harun's face twisted at a sound like lightning striking.
"Insane...."
A second sound followed.
KRR-BOOOOM!
This time it was closer. Rin's heart pounded wildly at the immense roar, unlike anything she had ever heard.
"Kael...?"
A third time.
KABOOOOM!
This time the Magic Lamp went completely dark before flickering back on. After a brief darkness, a blue afterglow wavered inside the stall.
Harun gripped his shotgun tightly, then quietly spoke.
"This is...."
Rin swallowed dryly beneath her mask.
Harun muttered, looking past the tent in the direction of Underground Level 15 where the sound had come from.
"Magic."