Central Front Border Zone (2)
“State your affiliation and name, mage.”
Thud!!
Lennok was dragged out from inside the old truck overflowing with blood and corpses.
The woman who twisted Lennok’s arms behind his back and locked thick chains around them spoke.
“If you’re really an apprentice from a mage tower, handing you over as a hostage should make us good money. We’ll ask your master about your whereabouts and collect a ransom.”
“......”
But Lennok merely stared blankly at the woman without answering.
At the same time the woman’s expression twisted, the rough-looking man standing beside her shoved the muzzle of his shotgun forward.
Clack!!
“Didn’t you hear me? Don’t tell me you actually thought there was some other reason you’re still alive?”
“No. I can tell you anything you want.”
Lennok smiled.
“It’s just that there’s one thing I’m curious about.”
“......What?”
“If I follow you like this, will I be able to reach the First Gate?”
Knowing what kind of hellhole the Central Front was, Lennok had no intention of blaming Angel for having his plan derail from the very beginning.
Still, at this rate, the plan to blend in with smugglers and head toward the Gate was inevitably ruined.
Now that things had turned out this way, he needed a new alternative somehow.
If traveling together with this bandit group that wanted to squeeze a little more profit out of him as a hostage would make things easier, there was no reason to act right now.
Lennok, his hands bound behind his back with chains, calmly opened his mouth while surrounded by dozens of superhumans.
“I have personal business at the Gate. If you can take me there, I’ll cooperate as much as possible. And while we’re at it, I’d also like to hear what kind of rumors are circulating in the center. If you have useful information about the Gate, I’m willing to pay for it.”
“Payment, huh. Payment.”
“Yubia. This isn’t the time for—”
“Mallen, stay quiet for a second.”
The young man holding the bone saw, Mallen, tried to stop the woman called Yubia, but she did not stop.
Standing there with her arms folded, staring directly at Lennok, she snickered.
“At least you’re not completely incapable of judging the situation. If you can talk, then there’s room to negotiate. I’ll let you say exactly one more thing. Go ahead and tell me what kind of payment you can offer.”
Yubia dragged the barrel of the revolver in her hand beneath Lennok’s chin as she spoke.
“Your next answer will decide whether you spend the next few months in our house or in a garbage dump.”
“Captain Yubia............!!”
At that moment, a man awkwardly standing behind them hurriedly shouted.
“T-The Hedro Warlord force is coming this way. Looks like they’re fighting the Gate Search Unit...............!!”
“What?”
Dududududu!!!
At that moment, a tank battalion charging across the horizon while scattering pale dust revealed itself.
Veins and internal organs wriggled between the rusted cannon barrels and caterpillar tracks.
As if they were alive, the tanks writhed their gun barrels and spewed purple liquid.
Knights riding massive mechanical bikes chased after the tanks.
The tank division covered in blood vessels was the Hedro Warlord force. The knights on the mechanical bikes must be the Gate Search Unit.
Ironically, the direction in which the two factions were colliding was right toward the wasteland where Lennok and the bandits stood facing one another.
“Boss, hurry!!!”
“Start the engine. We’re taking this mage bastard and running!!”
Forgetting the conversation from moments ago, Yubia roughly grabbed Lennok by the collar.
Though they were a decently sized plunderer organization, it seemed they had no desire to get caught in a clash between the Hedro Warlord force and the Gate Search Unit.
“Move. If you hesitate, I’ll kill you right here—!!”
“You said the Hedro Warlord force and the Gate Search Unit?”
But even while his collar was clenched in Yubia’s hand, Lennok merely stared at the tanks and search unit rapidly approaching from afar.
“Good. If it’s the Gate Search Unit, I can ask them for directions.”
Slowly cracking his neck, Lennok turned his gaze and muttered,
“Then I just need to kill everyone except the search unit.”
“What the fuck is this bastard saying~?!!”
Yubia cursed and swung her hand toward Lennok’s face.
But suddenly she felt emptiness beneath her wrist and lowered her gaze.
The hand that had been gripping Lennok’s collar until just moments ago had vanished from below the wrist.
Sizzle!!
The severed cross-section of the wrist had been completely cooked, crushed so thoroughly that not even blood flowed out.
“Everyone fall back right now!!!”
Yubia stared blankly at her wrist before screaming harshly, and the rough-looking man beside her reacted immediately.
Clack!!
The moment he turned the shotgun toward Lennok’s head and pulled the trigger without hesitation—
Fwoosh!!
The shotgun wielder’s head vanished.
As though everything above his neck had simply been erased.
Only the burned and charred remains of the cut surface proved that ultra-high heat had swept through that spot.
“Y-You crazy.......”
“Good judgment even after losing your wrist. Your subordinates are quick-witted too.”
Yubia, her expression twisted as she watched the scene, stiffly turned her neck toward Lennok’s voice below.
At some point, Lennok had already removed the thick chains binding his arms and was slowly stretching while looking around at the bandits surrounding him.
“Pretty calm for a bunch of raiders. Are all the outlaws in the center like this?”
“Y-You, don’t tell me.......”
“You asked for my affiliation and name earlier, didn’t you?”
Lennok spoke while looking at the bandits whose expressions were distorted with fear, or disbelief at what was happening.
“My name is Evan Martinez.”
The very same name they had just insisted he could not possibly be came out of Lennok’s mouth.
At that instant, Mallen, holding the bone saw, charged toward Lennok at terrifying speed.
Kwaaaaaang!!
The moment Mallen swung his arm with full force, the cargo truck split vertically and the loading compartment exploded apart.
Dozens of superhumans rushed simultaneously toward Lennok as he descended through the wreckage.
“Uwaaaaaak!!!”
Shock and confusion at the completely unexpected turn of events transformed entirely into rage directed at the mage before them.
They had to kill this man to survive.
Sharing that baseless certainty all at once, dozens of people wildly swung their weapons.
But amidst the bandits charging as if to crush Lennok to death, blazing heat rays flickered in all directions.
Pyrokinetic Attribute Unique Magic
[Red Shift]
[Spectral Division]
Pububububung!!
The dozens of branching heat rays rotated, brushing across the superhumans’ bodies and vaporizing them.
“Kuaaaagh!!”
“My arm, my arm’s gone!!”
The heat burned through limbs while simultaneously cauterizing the severed surfaces shut.
Even superhumans who had wandered battlefields for years rolled their eyes back and collapsed screaming under the agony that rattled their brains.
“N-No!! This really won’t work!!”
“I’m done here. I quit, so please spare me!!”
Amidst his collapsing comrades, Mallen dropped directly before Lennok with the bone saw in hand.
A breakthrough that twisted through the air like a flash of light, changing direction and speed over a dozen times to pierce through gaps.
But the bone saw, which should have pierced and carved into vital points, was blocked by the solid metal bracer mounted on Lennok’s arm.
Kaaang!!
Mallen glared at Lennok through the scattering sparks and grinned.
“That smuggler bastard who was spewing nonsense in the truck earlier. I should’ve killed him more painfully.”
“Really?”
“If he hadn’t interfered saying you weren’t Treadburn, I would’ve just let it pass. Turns out my eyes weren’t wrong after all.”
Several metal pipes combined into a structure resembling an exhaust manifold.
The dedicated pyrokinesis combustion array device Lennok had previously acquired as Evan’s personal weapon.
Sizzle!
Intense steam erupted from inside the exhaust and poured over Mallen’s shoulder, instantly cooking the flesh.
“. . . . . . !!!”
Mallen’s expression twisted like a demon under the agony of his burning arm.
Lennok burned away the corpse of a fallen bandit beneath his feet and smiled while watching him.
“You endure pain well. Is it because you’re an ability user who pulls out your own bones to use as weapons?”
“Kh....…”
Mallen gasped.
“The rumors…. lies................”
“Rumors?”
“I don’t know what rumors you heard about me, but what happened in Vulcan wasn’t a lie.”
Lennok replied casually and glanced upward.
“I fought for the Eyes of the Blue, and I lost. I don’t care what kind of stories spread afterward. But.......”
Stretching one hand toward the sky, Lennok smiled coldly.
“Was the Treadburn you heard about some kindhearted fool who even spared worms picking fights with him?”
“......Grrrk!!”
Mallen gripped a bone blade in his left hand and charged at Lennok while blood sprayed from his right shoulder.
At the same time, Yubia sprang up from among the corpses, transforming into the form of a werewolf and unleashing a savage roar.
The instant Mallen and Yubia attacked from both sides simultaneously, sinking blade and fangs toward Lennok’s back and neck—
“Summon combustion armament.”
A gigantic metal pillar descended from the sky and blasted the two away.
Kuuuuung!!!
“Keugh!!”
A massive metal pillar densely engraved with intricate spell formulas and runes.
With an ignition device embedded into the front and rotating endlessly, it resembled a flamethrower without a muzzle.
At the instant the immense weight—easily several hundred kilograms—twisted Mallen and Yubia’s footing,
Lennok grabbed the ignition device without hesitation and muttered,
“Begin ignition.”
Kiiiiing!!!
The moment Lennok recited the activation phrase, the front section of the ignition device opened and began unfolding.
Centered around the ignition device, a dark crimson barrier formation spread outward and engulfed the surroundings in scorching flames.
Hwarurururuk!!!
The curtain of fire rotated, vaporizing the bone saw before spreading onto the young man’s arm.
It should have torn into muscle and flesh, driven blades into blood vessels.
But the moment he moved his body, he felt nothing.
An emptiness as if he had lost control over his body the instant he attempted to attack.
Each time he collided with Lennok’s flame-covered hand like a clap, parts of his body evaporated and vanished as though erased.
Hwaruk!!
“Kraaaaaagh!!”
Yubia rolled across the ground with flames spread across her face, while Mallen, his flesh burned away, dropped to his knees.
The scorching heatwave violently pushed the two backward and incinerated the corpses beneath them into ash.
At that moment—
Hwaaaaaak!!
The pale fog parted within the heatwave, and the landscape beneath the wasteland finally appeared before Lennok’s eyes.
“Waaaaaaaah!!!!”
[In the name of God............!!]
“Manifestation of the Four Funerary Spirits. Forward!!”
Priests of the cult recited prayers while conducting rituals, and shamans counterattacked with spirit familiars at the forefront.
A fortress that appeared to be a forward operating base stood atop a hill built from piled human skeletons, flickering with lights.
Below it, armies marching in rigid formation advanced at rapid speed while scattering fierce battle cries.
“Advance, all forces!!”
Pishuuuuuuung!!
Dozens of missile trails streaked across the sky, while pillars of fire erupted endlessly from the ground.
Everywhere he turned his gaze, blood and death flowed from countless battlefields.
They had not even entered the area near the Gate, yet battlefields resembling hell itself unfolded simultaneously in all directions.
Even for Lennok, who had crossed countless warzones, this was a level of chaotic warfare he had rarely witnessed.
Was this the true face of the Central Front, called the continent’s greatest battlefield?
After observing the battles breaking out everywhere with interest, Lennok eventually turned while holding the ignition device.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to continue watching the devastation of the Central Front.
There was simply still work left to do.
The bizarre tank division approaching from afar through clouds of dust, and the search unit pursuing them.
The figures that had appeared faintly beyond the horizon were already right before him.
At a glance, that Hedro Warlord tank division was clearly not the type one could reason with.
If all he wanted was a guide, leaving only the search unit alive would be enough.
Chiiiiiiik!!
Each time he pulled the ignition device and started it, heat burst through the exhaust ports attached to his left arm to regulate his body temperature.
A weaponized pyromancy formula created through combining Jindun’s barrier techniques.
The expansion and amplification that formed the core traits of pyrokinetic magic were compressed to their utmost limit within the barrier formations engraved into the ignition device.
Combustion Domain Property Transformation
Pyrokinetic Shaping Gunpowder Alchemy
[Saturation Armament No. 88: Falling Flame Rain]
[Brilliant Shell Armament]
[Flame Jade Piercing Star]
The resulting army of bombardment possessed enough firepower and scale to deserve the title of a one-man army.
Manipulating both heat absorption and release simultaneously, Lennok slammed the combustion armament beneath his feet.
[Volcanic Divine Weight]
Kuooooooo!!!
A gigantic volcano erupted behind Lennok and began spewing blazing flames.
***
[Uluric, to the right!!]
The moment the tank cannon wrapped in pulsating blood vessels aimed this way, he violently twisted the bike’s handlebar with all his strength.
The vehicle tilted and changed direction instantly, rapidly losing speed.
Kwaaaaaang!!
A purple magic shell exploded before the bike, raising a pillar of sinister mana.
“Damn it....!!”
Central City Ars Nova subordinate Gate Search Battalion 12th Cavalry Division.
Uluric gritted his teeth while adjusting his helmet.
He had managed to avoid the shell, but without the warning, he might have been too late.
If even a single shot from those cursed warlords struck him, becoming a ghoul or wandering spirit on the spot would not be surprising.
“Vigor. This side’s done for. They’re trying to break away from the battlefield!!”
[Those remnants of the fallen warlords are becoming troublesome again............!!]
Leaving behind Uluric, whose bike had overturned, the other members of the search unit rushed after the retreating tanks.
Pulling hard on the throttles of their mechanical steeds, they aimed gunblades—hybrids of swords and firearms—with one hand.
Taaang!!
The instant the search unit’s bullets struck the tanks, the veins wrapped around the tank surfaces burst and poured streams of purple blood.
The massive tanks convulsed as if they felt pain from the impacts.
[Oooooooo!!!]
Yet even amidst that, the cursed tank division focused solely on escaping the battlefield while ignoring the search unit.
Uluric hurriedly righted his bike and lifted his communicator while watching them.
“We can’t let them reach the Gate. We stop them here!!”
[I know...!!]
The Hedro Warlord force was one of the major organizations of the Central Front that had met an especially bizarre end.
Defeated in the war against Deadrise and stripped apart by countless factions, the warlords were effectively destroyed.
But the generals of the Hedro Warlord force, driven to the edge of a cliff, touched forbidden rituals and became corrupted.
The entire warlord army under them suffered mental contamination and transformed into one gigantic collective organism.
Not only soldiers and officers, but even the war machines they controlled wandered the battlefield like living creatures devoted solely to killing humans.
Now the Hedro Warlord force was no longer considered a faction on the Central Front, but merely a cursed monstrous lifeform hunted down for extermination.
Yet even remnants of that warlord force were difficult for the Gate Search Unit protecting the Central Front to stop alone.
‘The search unit’s strength has become far too weak.............!!’
The Central City that once enjoyed brilliant prosperity had fallen, surrendering its place one by one to forces coveting its legacy and glory.
Even the Gate Search Unit, meant to protect the First Gate, now painfully felt its lack of power and had begun borrowing strength from other factions such as the Order and Union.
Even amidst the chaotic pursuit, Uluric swallowed bitterly and bit his lip.
At that moment—
A gigantic fireball dropped from the sky onto the leading tank.
Kwaaaaaaaang!!!
Flames blazing like a miniature sun rotated in place, crushing and burning the tank’s hatch.
A horrifying roar as though the tank was not merely being crushed, but incinerated and destroyed on the spot.
[Kkiiiiiik….!!!]
A scream like something dying echoed from inside the tank.
“What….?!”
Uluric froze in shock at the utterly unexpected bombardment.
At that moment, dozens of fireballs began falling from the sky, crushing the cursed warlord tanks one after another.
Kwagwagwagwagwa!!!!
Red meteors rained down from the cloudless sky, scorching the earth.
Every time a fireball struck and exploded, dark crimson pillars of flame surged upward and completely incinerated the impacted tanks.
[Kkiiiiiig!!]
The surviving tanks desperately resisted, frantically rotating their turrets in an attempt to intercept the falling meteors.
But someone standing atop the tanks tangled in blood vessels began burning the convulsing vehicles without leaving a single one behind.
[All forces halt. That is not an ally!!]
[Estimated to be a high-grade pyrokinesis user or a Saint-tier pyrokinetic mage!]
Ignoring the noisy search-unit communications, Uluric stopped his bike and stared blankly at the burning battlefield.
Because he had fallen slightly behind the others, he could see the battlefield more clearly than the rest.
A man wielding a gigantic lighter-like weapon flew above the cursed tanks while detonating explosions of fire.
Scarlet flames wrapped around his back like wings as he burst through the tanks at terrifying speed.
Every swing of the ignition device in his hand unleashed flames that burned heaven and earth alike, annihilating the tank division.
Kwagwagwagwa!!!!
Unable to cope with both the meteor shower falling from the sky and the young man rampaging across the ground simultaneously, the remnants of the Hedro Warlord force exploded helplessly.
[Gwoooooo!!!]
Unable to endure the heat, the lids of the tanks burst open, and gray-skinned aberrant monsters flailed inside.
As though trying to curse the owner of this catastrophe, they let out horrific screams.
But even those screams burned away within the breath of the flames.
Hwarurururuk!!!
Only then did the search-unit members realize that the mage slaughtering the tank division was a transcendent powerhouse beyond imagination.
[Impossible. Did the Flame Lord of the Blaiver Magic Tower join the battle?!]
[No, this isn’t Flame Lord-level firepower. It resembles the might unleashed when the Witch of Bombardment uses her spell armaments.]
[Tatiana Chiglet is no longer part of the mage tower. Besides, she—]
At that moment, the young man holding the metal pillar descended at tremendous speed atop a burning tank.
Kwaaaaaaang!!
Folding the six-pronged flame wings behind his back, he unleashed a violent wave of heat downward.
That alone completely burned away the cursed will lingering inside the tanks, purifying the battlefield.
“......”
Everyone held their breath while looking up at the young man lowering his head against the metal pillar.
A powerhouse who had crushed dozens of cursed Hedro Warlord tanks in less than five minutes.
Every member there knew that if they accidentally offended him, they would end up just like those tanks.
“Hoo.......”
Exhaling quietly, he continuously vented heat and flames through the exhaust ports attached to his left arm.
It looked as though he forcibly regulated the temperature of his entire body through the exhaust system.
Clack!
The young man closed the front section of the ignition device and stood.
“......”
After silently staring at the search unit, the young man slung the ignition device over his shoulder and stepped down from the tank.
“If you’re the Gate Search Unit, then you should at least know the way back to the First Gate.”
The young man asked while handling the enormous metal device as lightly as a feather.
“Would this be enough payment in exchange for guiding me to the Gate?”
“......Before that, may we ask your identity?”
Each search-unit member sat atop their bikes, tightly gripping their gunblades in visible tension.
“Since the Blaiver Magic Tower withdrew from the Gate, we haven’t seen a pyrokinetic mage like you in the center.”
When Lennok silently stared at them, the search-unit members tightened their grips on their weapons little by little.
“If the mage tower intends to move toward the Gate once more................”
“That’s an interesting answer. From the search unit’s perspective, would it be better for the Union to control the Gate rather than the mage towers?”
“......Excuse me?”
“It seems the balance of power and public image in the Central Front differ quite a bit from what I expected.”
Casually reverse-summoning the ignition device, Lennok lightly dusted off his hands and stood before the search-unit members.
“I’d like to hear an explanation about that while we head to the Gate. That should be possible, right?”
“Ah, yes............... That is............”
So just who exactly was the mage standing before them now?
Reading the hesitant reactions of the search-unit members, Lennok gave a bitter smile and spoke.
“My name is Evan Martinez.”
“E-Evan?!!”
The search-unit members stared in shock before breaking into cold sweat and glancing nervously at one another.
“If it’s Treadburn, wasn’t there a rumor that he piled criminals like firewood and burned them alive to save the Lighthouse Keeper—”
“I heard he’s a taciturn man who never says a single word unless he’s killing someone.”
“Wasn’t Treadburn the secret weapon left behind by the Celestial Seer for the future Lighthouse Keeper?”
“This doesn’t seem like the right place to discuss such ridiculous rumors.”
Pressing a hand to his forehead with a dumbfounded expression, Lennok pointed at the search-unit members.
“Let’s talk while moving. I’d like to hear where exactly those rumors started spreading from too.”