Chapter 89

Restraint (1)

Renok also cast a floating spell on his shoes and launched his body downward.

BOOM!!

As soon as he landed on the dimly lit floor, a wide corridor came into view.

Unlike the dilapidated scenery above ground, the corridor inside the crack was neatly maintained, and the walls were firmly constructed with steel plates.

It was clear at a glance that this place was an artificial facility.

Nodding his head at the thick traces of dark magic he felt as soon as he descended, Renok thought,

'They must have set up a barrier to prevent the magic from leaking from below to above ground.'

Looking at the charred corpses scattered around, it seemed they had been hit directly by Renok's fireball while defending the entrance to the main base...

There was no time to indulge in thoughts.

Rat-a-tat-tat!!

The members of the Palzion organization, who had confirmed the intruders entering through the giant crack in the road, immediately started firing bullets at them.

"Damn it!!"

Even if they were superhumans who could enhance their bodies with magic, they would inevitably be injured if exposed to bullets without protection.

However, as if to prove that they were experienced, the freelancers around Renok quickly destroyed nearby walls and floors to create cover and began evading the barrage of bullets.

"Fan, come this way!!"

"There's no need."

Crackle!!

[Thunder Flower]

The bundle of lightning that Renok threw into the air swept through the underground corridor and shot forward in one go.

The lump of lightning stopped at the fork in the corridor, which split into three directions, and began to spin, blooming with a bright blue current.

Crack!!

BOOM!!

"Ah!!"

"It's a magic user!! Request support!"

The two freelancers moving with Renok had their shoulders splattered with blood, and one of them had his head cleanly cut off and flew into the air.

The remaining three quickly gathered around Renok, but they were helpless against the lightning-fast flashes moving by bouncing off the walls and ceiling of the corridor.

"......"

Renok frowned and carefully observed the movement.

Thud-thud-thud-thud!!

Five leaps, without any regard for direction or reaction, the speed only increased with each step.

The moment the flash flipped its head after three more turns, a sharp blade appeared behind Renok.

"Fan!!"

BOOM!!

As if waiting for this moment, Renok cast an anti-gravity spell and unleashed shock magic on both sides, creating a massive wave, but the man with the sword easily slipped through the gap and charged at Renok.

Renok raised a shield and drew his revolver, but the swordsman instantly changed direction, as if he had been waiting for this moment.

'He...!'

Realizing the man's intention, Renok faintly frowned, but the remaining freelancers were already dead.

Staring at the swordsman slowly backing away, Renok muttered,

"You never intended to target me from the start."

"I was waiting for the day we would meet again."

The swordsman, who had calmly adjusted his grip on his sword, was the same man who had fled with the key code, wiping away tears, after the incident with the mage at the Trade Center.

Renok checked the effectiveness of the Feather Fall potion in his body and slowly gathered his magic, asking,

"Your running skills have improved since then. Do you have any special secrets?"

The swordsman was silent for a moment before replying,

"How did Debon die?"

"Debon? You mean the mage?"

".....Yes."

"Quite a tenacious friendship."

"Tell me!!"

"Like you, he was kidnapped and sold. His organs were twisted out of his gut and all his internal organs were sold off."

Renok chuckled faintly, smoke billowing from his mouth.

"Surely. Did you expect a peaceful death while being loyal to a terrorist organization?"

"Argh....!!"

The swordsman's eyes turned pitch black, and the veins around his face began to bulge.

At the same time, Renok felt an abnormal surge of magic power from the man's body, raising his eyebrows.

'Doping.....'

He had seen a similar phenomenon somewhere before.

During the operation to reclaim a building occupied by scavengers with Drey Crimgal.

The branch leader of the scavengers in Sector 50, a former military officer, had used a drug to achieve a similar effect.

Considering that the drug was also a black magic doping agent, it was likely that the swordsman was using a similar method.

Given that they were working with Craig, a practical black magic user, it wasn't surprising.

The abnormal increase in agility could also be explained by this.

As Renok thought this, he was about to strike the floor with a current he had drawn between his fingers.

Suddenly, the swordsman's body vanished from in front of him.

Whoosh!!

"......!!"

Though he couldn't follow the movement with his eyes, Renok, who was observing with magic sensing, was startled by the speed.

Clang!!

The sword blade that the swordsman struck at Renok's shield quickly pierced through and aimed for Renok's neck.

[Upground]

Stepping back, Renok lifted the ground under the swordsman's feet, causing the blade to glance off into the air.

Squish!!

The steel corridor was indiscriminately sliced, and metal fragments rained down from the ceiling.

Reaching out to the metal fragments falling above his head, Renok immediately cast a spell.

[Magnetic Control]

[Metal Tempo]

Swish!!

Catching the metal fragments in mid-air, he scattered them.

The fragments, like invisible hands scattering seeds, flashed and filled the corridor in an instant.

Amidst them, Renok's lightning flashed and pierced through.

[Chain Lightning]

Crackle!!!!

The resonance of metal and lightning.

The lightning, which would have split into dozens of streams, transformed into a dense net of hundreds of streams, traveling through the small metal fragments.

No matter how fast the swordsman moved, he couldn't avoid this attack unless he reduced his body to smaller than a fingernail.

Or, if he had honed his magic manipulation skills beyond just swordsmanship, but if he had that level of skill, he wouldn't have relied on drugs.

Crackle!!

"Ugh..!!"

The way he used magic was the same as before, but the power was worlds apart from when Renok first learned Chain Lightning.

Surrounded by the net of lightning, the swordsman, whose body was scorched by the intense firepower, convulsed and twisted.

"I, I can't...!!"

From his expression, it seemed the drug's effect was numbing his pain, but he couldn't handle the accumulating physical strain.

Forcing his unresponsive arm to swing, he threw his sword at Renok.

Clang!!

The sword, unable to penetrate even a single layer of the shield, bounced back. Renok caught it with telekinesis, grabbed the handle, and walked towards the swordsman.

Looking down at the swordsman, who was lying on the ground bleeding profusely, Renok silently raised his sword.

Accepting the man's hate-filled gaze, he brought the blade down.

The swordsman, whose body was already in tatters, made no resistance and allowed his own weapon to pierce his heart.

Thud!

"Ugh!"

With a thick groan, the swordsman, who had trembled and glared at Renok until the end, slowly lost focus in his eyes.

His eyes were pitch black, and veins bulged across his face.

With that speed, he could have easily fled.

But he chose to meet his end here.

Renok, therefore, had no regrets.

Leaving behind only the emotions he had cherished, he continued forward.

"......"

Just as he was about to leave, Renok, for some reason, picked up a few of the metal fragments he had used to subdue the swordsman and put them in his coat pocket.

Feeling the dark magic growing stronger, Renok continued deeper into the underground.

Through magic sensing, he felt the life signals rapidly decreasing.

This was an operation that couldn't and shouldn't be prolonged from the beginning.