Pendragon's Infinity Gauntlet

Page 183

Accompanied by this sound, a yellow flamethrower shot straight towards them. Ten meters ahead, flames suddenly appeared in the empty air.

Just as Jing Shen was about to extend his right hand, a strong, highly compressed wind, like a hoe, attacked from the gap between the two buses.

"!?"

Before Kiyokami could react, Tsuchimikado grabbed her collar. Kiyokami was pulled along, dodging hoes that attacked from the left and right, and navigating an arc-shaped path to avoid the flames ahead. Tsuchimikado released Kiyokami's collar and said:

"Pure God, you don't need to take everything seriously! This is a trap set by the enemy to buy time. If you take everything seriously, they will definitely escape!!"

"Even though you say that...!!"

Five ice blocks, each the size of an advertising balloon, descended from the ceiling. Jing Shen desperately resisted the urge to use her right hand and sprinted forward. Behind her, she heard the deafening roar and vibration of the massive ice blocks shattering, and a sudden chill ran down her back.

Passing through a corner of the automated bus fleet, you can see large bus wash machines lined up side by side. These machines are about the height of a two-story building, their interiors filled with washing equipment. Not the large, roller-like brushes found at gas stations, but huge, flat sponges that use ultrasonic vibrations.

Oriana seemed to have hidden in the shadows, and her long blond hair could be seen swaying slightly.

"There it is!!"

As Jing Shen leaped out from the shadows of the automated bus, the ground rose up in a row, as if to block the space between him and the large car wash machine. The earthen wall, about five meters high, collapsed towards Jing Shen and the others like a tsunami.

The earthen wall extends from one end of the maintenance yard to the other. This was an unavoidable situation; even if the bus were hidden in the shadows, its entire body would collapse under the weight. Even more dangerously, if the metal pillars supporting the ceiling were breached, the entire maintenance yard could potentially collapse.

Chapter 323 Tracking Magic

Chapter 323

"Purifying God, I beg you. It's a provisional substance, similar to ectoplasm. You can definitely handle it!!"

When Tsuchimikado shouted that, Jōjin flew forward. Faced with such a massive target, her teeth chattered uncontrollably. But now was not the time to run away crying. She reached the bottom of the collapsed earth and sand and struck down without hesitation with her right hand.

"Crack!!"

With a sound like shattering glass, the five-meter-high earthen wall crumbled into powder. After the wall seemed to melt into the air and disappear, nothing changed, and the asphalt ground at his feet returned to its original state.

Just as Kiyokami was about to retract her outstretched right hand, Tsuchimikado ran past her and disappeared opposite the large car wash machine. Kiyokami chased after him, circling around to the front of the cover in one breath.

The footsteps stopped.

Oriana wasn't there.

The car wash machine was covered with thick sheets of paper, about the size of chewing gum used for flashcards. Jingshen followed Tsuchimikado, who was standing there, and looked around. There was a small back door hidden in the shadows of the car wash machine. But the manhole covers a little further away were also open, and the glass windows of the buildings on the left and right walls were broken. In short, it was impossible to tell which route he had actually taken.

"'Tracking and Blocking' Oriana Townsend, is that it... Are you kidding me?!"

Tsuchimikado frantically tore off the thick paper from the wall. His frantic behavior made even the ordinary Jōjin realize how serious the situation was.

"Ara ara. I wonder if I can shake them off..."

Oriana Townsend glanced back a few times and walked down the main road.

From the moment he could no longer see his pursuers, he stopped running. Since they had lost him, avoiding being spotted was more important than widening the gap. Sprinting at full speed was actually more effective at making him stand out in a crowd.

Even so, he was still quite concerned. Oriana held the signboard wrapped in white cloth and checked the area behind him again.

"...Even if we shake them off for now, it doesn't mean the matter is over. It seems best to quickly devise the next move."

Oriana, preoccupied with what was behind him, suddenly bumped into someone walking in front of him. The sensation from his exposed navel wasn't human skin, but metal. Two male students who looked like members of the Daihasei Festival's operations committee were carrying horizontally placed pitching cages when he accidentally bumped into them.

"Oh, oh dear, I'm so sorry."

After offering a soft apology, Oriana left. The female students stared at Oriana's well-proportioned figure for a moment, then awkwardly responded.

"So naive," he said softly, suppressing a laugh.

"We've already prepared for the next move; we should teach those guys a lesson."

Tsuchimikado took out her phone, seemingly contacting someone. The person appeared to be Tyr. Although both were magicians, Tsuchimikado couldn't use magic. Strictly speaking, she could, but as a psychic, using magic would cause a rejection reaction, posing a risk of a small-scale explosion within her body.

After saying "Come here quickly," Tsuchimikado stuffed his phone into his pocket.

Jōjin looked at the thick paper in Tsuchimikado's hand.

"Hey, what exactly is that?"

"Huh? This is the spirit dress that Orianna uses, meow."

Tsuchimikado spoke in a slightly impatient voice, gesturing for Jōjin to look at the thick paper. On it, written in illegible handwriting, were the words "Soil Symbol" in blue. Jōjin, whose English was terrible, couldn't understand what it meant. "It means... a symbol of earth. You've probably heard of the five elements in RPGs, right? Fire, water, earth, wind, and stuff like that, that's what it refers to."

"...So this is the 'Earth Direction Card'? I don't really understand."

"No, not only that. The attribute of earth is 'green,' but it's written in blue here, isn't it?"

Tsuchimikado twirled the thick paper, saying, "'Blue' is the color of water. It's not usually used in earth magic. If earth is used, it's usually superimposed with a compatible symbol like 'green' or 'disc.' Just like Tyr uses red cards to manipulate fire."

"...Did that man make a mistake?"

"How could that be? He did it on purpose. He deliberately set up a color scheme that didn't match the intended tone, turning a negative force into an aggressive one. In terms of the Five Elements, this is obviously a clash. In other words, a bad tone will produce a bad effect."

As she said these words, Tyr ran over from the other end of the preparation yard.

Tsuchimikado shook the thick paper and said:

"I've found his magical artifact. If Oriana manipulates it remotely while escaping, he might be able to receive magical energy like a cell phone. I want to use this to perform a reverse probe spell. Can you help me, meow?"

Haruka Tsuchimikado's body cannot use magic.

Strictly speaking, if used, the body will enter a state of out of control. Since the human body isn't numerically quantifiable like a video game, it's impossible to determine how many times it can withstand the strain. It's possible to endure four or five uses, or it's possible to die after just one.

Like playing Russian roulette, a single blow could decide life or death, and Tsuchimikado avoids using magic whenever he's uncertain. On the battlefield, if one is rendered immobile, one can imagine what will happen next.

Therefore, Tsuchimikado cannot use "Reverse Probe Magic".

Tsuchimikado placed the thick card Orianna had left on the ground, deftly drew a circle around it, and then arranged various colored shikishi (artificial colored paper). That was all. Actually, activating the spell was Tyr's job.

"The spell's name is 'The Four Arrays of Reason'—'Angel's Fall.' If I had used this back then, it would have been so easy, meow... Back then, to avoid any negative impact, I only used a protective spell once and was already injured like that. Boss Kanzaki isn't good at setting up barriers, so it was really troublesome. Of course, I couldn't possibly teach this spell to an important figure in the Russian Cult..."

"Stop talking and doing nothing. I heard the detection range is a three-kilometer radius?"

"Oh, you're really being sarcastic. Ah, Jing Shen, step back a bit. What if your right hand destroys the 'Four Formations of Reason'?"

Startled by Tsuchimikado's words, Jōjin hurriedly backed away. After marking various spots on the ground, Tsuchimikado also backed away and stood beside Jōjin.

A black circle, about fifty centimeters in diameter, was drawn on the ground. In the center was a thick piece of paper that Oriana had stuck to the car wash machine. The new colored paper—blue, white, red, and black—seemed to divide the 360-degree circle into four equal parts, each positioned at a 90-degree angle. It appeared to be a division of east, west, south, and north.

Tyr knelt before the circle drawn by Tsuchimikado, her hands clasped together as if in prayer, her eyes closed. A bead of sweat rolled down her forehead.

"—Transmitting the will on the spot, not through the air, but through the wind."

Chapter 324 Counterattack Magic

Chapter 324

As she recited this, the four shikishi (colored paper) suddenly began to move. They stood up unsteadily, like clumsy puppets pulled by invisible threads. Once the four shikishi were upright, the movement abruptly stopped. The edges of the shikishi were reminiscent of the sharpness of swords.

“So-called runes are just magic for dyeing and bleaching.” Tsuchimikado looked at the circle on the ground and said, “First, meaningful words are engraved, then power is used to dye the grooves to activate the spell, and finally, the bleaching is used to turn off the switch. Take Tyr for example, she uses a pre-printed ‘pre-dyed’ card, so the activation of the spell is exceptionally fast. When the card is ‘burned,’ the bleaching process is also completed in an instant, meow. Therefore, usually only ‘pre-dyed’ spells are used…”

Four colored sheets of paper were used to draw circles on the circle. As the colored sheets slid along, they drew lines, creating curves on the ground that matched the colors of the sheets. The curves drew closer and closer, making the circle smaller and smaller, and it kept moving towards the card left by Oriana in the center.

"As long as the basic rules of 'dyeing and bleaching' are followed, even Norse futhark letters that deviate from the standard rune script can still be used to activate rune magic. In fact, 'rune script' itself can evolve into several forms depending on the era."

—The shrinking circle is 15 centimeters away from the center point.

Jingshen stared at the four sheets of colored paper spinning rapidly.

"If we use this, will we be able to pinpoint Oriana's exact location?"

"Well, if it's within a three-kilometer radius, I should be able to spot it. But if it's outside that range, I won't be able to catch anything."

"...Three kilometers. That's a bit far. But if we find them exactly three kilometers away, won't they just move to another location by the time we give chase?"

"One more thing. Activating the 'Four Formations of Reason' once will require about fifteen minutes of preparation time for the next one, meow. But as long as it succeeds on the first try, it'll be fine, meow."

Tsuchimikado said that, but if they fail,

"It will take fifteen minutes. It sounds short, but what if they use a tram or bus?"

"I don't care where he runs off to. Pure God, have you forgotten? I'm a magician too. Don't I still have the 'Red Style' when I have to resort to it? Although I can only unleash one."

—The circle is 10 centimeters away from the center point.

The spirit of purity showed a look of disgust and said:

"You mean... that thing that bombarded my house from the seaside hotel when the 'Angels Fall,' right? If we could use that long-range artillery, it would definitely be a solution... Wait a minute, if the open use of magic in Academy City were exposed, wouldn't all the magicians lurking outside have an excuse to invade this place?"

"No, they won't. Purifying God, because their excuse is 'protecting ordinary people from the evil magicians invading the city.' We can solve the problem with one strike, just declare with the remains of the 'Thrusting Sword': 'The crisis is over. So we don't need your help,' right?"

—The circle is only five centimeters away from the center.

Tsuchimikado grinned at Jōjin:

"Even so, it's inconvenient for me to stand on the stage as a magician to resolve the incident. That's why I used the 'Red Style' instead of my preferred water magic style, the 'Black Style,' meow. If anyone asks who used the magic, I can just lie and say that Tyr, who is good at using fire, was the one who launched the bombardment."

"...This...this is really bold. To think you could fool someone so easily?"

"Sure. Because the Church of Necessary Evil holds knowledge from 103,000 books of magic. It's not surprising that they would learn spells outside of Christianity, meow. Tyr's runes are spells unrelated to Christianity. But of course, the method of cultivating magic cannot be the Eastern way; it must be adapted to the Western style, meow."

"..."

"What's wrong with that expression? Anyway, as long as we can find Oriana's location correctly, we win. Ideally, we'll catch him first and then force him to reveal the details of Lidovia's deal with another person. Right now, our top priority is to stop the 'Thrusting Sword' deal, meow. That way, even if we blow the 'Thrusting Sword' away or blast Oriana's body into pieces, it doesn't matter."

—The distance between the circle and the center point is zero.

Four colored papers touched the thick cardboard left by Oriana. With a crisp "snap," the papers bounced around and then rapidly drew a precise map on the ground. At first, the image was blurry, like a camera with out of focus, but then it gradually came into focus.

From roads, buildings, street trees, benches, vending machines, wind turbines to an empty can on the ground, it is less a symbolic or simplified map and more like a high-resolution satellite photograph.

The place that finally appeared was...

Oriana suddenly raised her head.

He held a signboard-like object wrapped in white cloth in one hand, stood ramrod straight, and looked up at the sky.

In the blue sky of late September, white smoke from fireworks drifted across the sky, and a comfortable cool breeze blew through the lingering summer heat. Patches of white clouds drifted slowly in the same direction, and everything around seemed peaceful.

Even so, Oriana felt a tense sensation from the sharp spikes on her skin.

It was as if they were about to storm the building that the bank robbers were holding.

Oriana Townsend pondered for a moment what was approaching him.

"—Passing through the wind, but not through the air, conveying my will on the spot—and being heard by my older brother."

Then he grinned.

"Roar...Gah—!?"

Suddenly, Tyr bent his body into the shape of a shrimp as if he had been struck in the chest and abdomen.

With a "crack," the map being drawn on the ground scattered in all directions, as if a sneeze had blown away the sand painting. A cracking sound followed. For a moment, Jing Shen thought it was the sound of Tyr's bones breaking and gasped in fright.

"This is the sound of space warping caused by uncontrolled magic—it's just the sound of air hitting each other! Purifying God, quickly strike Tyr's body! That should stop it!!"

Hearing Tsuchimikado's words, Jōjin was startled. In short, the situation of "not knowing what happened" was quite terrifying. Jōjin ran into Tyr's arms, frantically patting her arched back. Prioritizing speed, she hadn't considered adjusting her strength at all.

Suddenly, there was a sound of air being sucked out.

Tyr collapsed to the ground, completely relaxed. The strange situation was finally over, and he could no longer hear the sounds from before. Tyr gasped for breath, finally managing to brush his sweat-dampened hair aside—

"What is this? This... seems to be some kind of anti-reverse detection technique...?"

Chapter 325 Mopu

Chapter 325

Tsuchimikado picked up a piece of colored paper that had stopped moving from the ground, held it between his fingers, placed his fingers on the paper, and folded it to make several creases.

“In that case, it should also affect me using the ‘Four Arrays of Reason’… but there’s no sign of that.” She waved a neatly folded shikishi (colored paper) and said, “Tyr’s magic power must have been read by the other side, and then they even performed a counter-attack spell that would react to Tyr’s personal magic power movements. That guy Oriana, I thought he suddenly switched to a counterattack, but it turns out that was his target. He wanted to force us to use magic, read our magic power, and then set up a magic circle to transmit signals, meow.”

Jōjin, puzzled by Tsuchimikado's words as he continued to fold the paper slips, reached out to Tyr. Tyr, annoyed, brushed Jōjin's hand away and wobbled to his feet.

Tyr spat on the ground.

"Is it a counter-attack technique that identifies my magic and seals it? Seriously, that guy actually used that move."

"...What is that? Does it mean that Tyr can attack primarily as the individual?"

Jing Shen said, seemingly understanding but not quite.

Tsuchimikado sighed:

"Magic power does vary in quality and quantity depending on the way a spellcaster trains... However, I don't think that alone is enough to create the perfect conditions for a counterattack, meow."