I boarded the elevator using wind magic in pursuit of Sererassie.
“How many floors?”
“The Flame School is on the 80th floor, and the Obsidian School is on the 10th.”
“Which one should we go to?”
Sererassie tightly closed her eyes and opened them.
“80th floor.”
“Why? Isn’t it likely that they would proceed from the Obsidian School since it’s knowledge of the ancients?”
“That’s exactly it. Those cunning guys wouldn’t take the risk of total failure if they could help it.”
“Ah.”
Dark magic was still looked down upon, and the fields of study were few.
If this incident led to a major uproar, the Church could again designate it as heresy.
However, the Flame School was involved in everything from major undertakings like wars and land reclamation led by Great Lords to small magic tools like lighters used by tobacco smokers.
Even if it took a hit, it would never face ruin.
“Quite bold.”
I bitterly smiled, contemplating how far I’d have to negotiate.
At that moment, a male magician with long crimson cream-colored hair, Gestarte’s current disciple, tried to rush into the elevator.
Sererassie looked down at her and harshly pushed her away.
“We’ve come from outside the Ivory Tower this time. We’re using the Duke’s status, so you can’t come with us.”
“!”
She stepped back, emitting a low sound.
As the elevator ascended, I asked.
“Older sister, isn’t that too harsh?”
“It’s the truth. Moreover, she’s the one you chose over me. It’s hard to feel favorably about that, you understand?”
“Of course. Still… it’s not my place to say.”
“Right. Everyone needs an opportunity. But it doesn’t have to be now, does it?”
Upon arriving on the 80th floor, the door opened.
I half-expected to see a room full of magicians cloaked in red robes, but there wasn’t a single shadow of a person.
“Where did everyone go?”
“It seems they’re gathered over at the lab. Let’s go. I can strongly feel mana coming from that direction.”
“Yeah. Maybe they’re planning to handle things on a smaller covert scale than expected.”
“Huh? What do you mean by that?”
“I mean that it’s still only in the experimental stage. Logically speaking, wouldn’t that make sense? Even when you create an incantation, you start by finding new words and syllables.”
“If we just jump in, we’ll lose a lot of our justification. They still haven’t done anything dangerous, and they’ve got the excuse that they’re researching to control the risks.”
I shook my head as if to say that didn’t make sense.
“I’m going to jump in outright.”
“What?”
A tremor ran through Sererassie’s indignant face.
“Did you bring me along for this? You needed someone to make a mess while you just hold back. You don’t have to say anything. I’ll take care of everything and just come in a beat late to slap my face and say, ‘What the hell are you doing?’”
She gaped in surprise.
“Is that how you live your life? What are you growing in that brain of yours?”
I smiled and ignited the power of incantation.
The golden pupils reflected in the window split vertically like a reptile.
“There!”
They were at the end of the hallway, towards the lab connected to the elevator.
It looked like they intended to proceed quietly, as there were only two magicians blocking the lab door.
Two magicians in red robes, wielding jeweled metallic staves.
I dashed forward, leaving Sererassie behind.
Upon seeing my face, the two magicians made faces like they had bitten into a bug.
“Duke Valenciaunos! This is a dangerous explosive reagent experiment currently underway!”
“Am I supposed to believe that?”
I didn’t slow my pace as I charged in.
“Stop!”
“Really? You’re just a Duke!”
“Do you want to get thrown out?”
For a moment, the two magicians exchanged glances and recited incantations.
“Sharp, piercing flames!”
“Sticky, adhering flames!”
Twelve blue flames, slightly larger than two fists, flew in raucously, and spear-like flames shot toward me.
Thud, I kicked off the ground and charged straight ahead.
Whoosh, bang!
The spear-like flames struck me first.
It was an opportunity to test the results of the Incarnate Mind.
I didn’t raise my guard with my arms; I took it head-on with my body.
The magical force that accompanied it tried to push me back, but I held my ground and brushed the fire off my shoulders with my bare hands.
“Not bad!”
Rather than feeling hot, it felt invigorating.
Immediately afterward, guiding blue flames stuck to my body.
I had no intention of dodging.
“How many circles did you cast that with?”
“Fourth circle! But why are you unscathed? It looks like you don’t even have any decent magic tools!”
I stood before them, my body enveloped in blue flames.
“Right. You must be curious. I’m starting to wonder something too. While I can withstand your attacks just fine, can you withstand mine?”
“Wait!”
“You’re violating the autonomy of the Ivory Tower—!”
“Autonomy isn’t guaranteed by anyone; it must be fiercely protected!”
I landed a punch on one’s jaw and tripped the other one before snatching the staff and raising it high.
“Don’t!”
“Do!”
And I swung the gem at the end of it down hard onto their heads.
Whack!
“Now, let’s see how many of you there are!”
* * *
Bang!
The lab door burst open.
An old man with white hair and golden eyes swaggered in, his body wrapped in blue flames, chin held high.
He held the stolen staff in one hand.
The gazes of the magicians gathered in the lab all turned toward him.
Yet, Valenciaunos found himself regretting that he hadn’t opened the door a bit more gently.
‘It’s unexpectedly large, isn’t it?’
Almost no new magicians from the academy were present.
Around ten magicians, seemingly around thirty, from both the Obsidian and Flame Schools.
Another ten magicians who looked like they had gathered from various schools.
There were even three elder magicians exuding a remarkable amount of mana just by looking.
Those three each stood before a promising-looking apprentice, surrounding a large grimoire.
The power difference was one that could not be overcome purely by firepower.
However, upon seeing the cover of the grimoire, Valenciaunos’s anger ignited his courage.
It was one of the grimoires that had turned the autonomous special district of the Ivory Tower into a hell of burning souls before his reincarnation.
“How did you get in here?”
Normally, he would have recognized and avoided the elder dark magician Blahon, even in a drunken state.
With his question, Valenciaunos answered by raising the metallic staff.
“This is Valenciaunos, here to punish those brats who dare violate the imperial decree and conduct wicked experiments that destroy the empire’s territory and lives. Those guilty souls will now bow down and present their necks!”
Thud, his mana-enhanced body slammed into the ground like a rocket.
The pace was something that magicians who spent all day just sitting with parchment could never match.
“What the hell are you doing? A no-name brat who can’t even find a proper spot to stick a spear!”
The black magician Blahon, who could kill a hundred with a breath and induce nightmares from a thousand kilometers away, screamed.
That scream itself turned into a curse and flew toward Valenciaunos like mist.
But—
Clang!
His golden eyes flashed, and the sound of breaking glass echoed as the curse shattered.
The body that had undergone the Incarnate Mind transformation could no longer be referred to as human.
“If you’re asking because you don’t know, allow me to respond!”
Whack!
The metallic staff struck the old man’s ankle directly.
“Argh!”
“I’m currently punishing the brats who dare to conduct wicked experiments that destroy the empire’s territory and lives!”
Blahon grabbed his ankle, and Valenciaunos brought down his fist onto the back of his head.
Bang!
The elder of the Obsidian School sprawled on the floor, twitching and trembling.
For a moment, silence fell over the lab.
And then—
“You damn worthless bandit prince!”
“We must formally protest to the imperial palace!”
“Prepare the binding and stunning spells!”
The magicians began to gather mana.
Valenciaunos smiled coldly as he raised his staff.
“Who would fall for that?”
He was a veteran with experience in more melee brawls than anyone else.
The first move was to strike the head of the magician at the front.
Whack! With a sound, the magician in the red robe fell like a puppet with its strings cut.
He overturned a workbench, hurled a metal cage containing a lab rabbit, poked at the eyes of an opponent with his fingers, and grabbed their hair to trip them.
Magicians were not originally a physical class.
The combat doctrine of battle magicians prioritized mobility and power over rapid casting.
Having approached this close after practicing imperial swordsmanship to the fifth level, no magician would ever win against Valenciaunos.
“Make that crazy brat kid kneel down… cough!”
He struck the neck of a chanting magician with the edge of his hand, grabbed him by the nape, and kneed him in the gut.
“Rise and surge, spread like waves!”
Sometimes, he caused flames to erupt, startling the magicians.
“Sharp, piercing flames!”
“Sticky, adhering flames!”
“Burst, now!”
“Wherever you go, let it become a swamp! Catena!”
“Your vision shall dim, your head shall throb, and your fever shall rise! Nenium!”
Dozens of incantations flew toward him, but—
“I, who fights for justice, will not fall for your wicked tricks!”
The initial power was insufficient to kill; that amount of power couldn’t penetrate Valenciaunos’s magical resistance granted by the Incarnate Mind.
“Ride the winds, carried by…!”
“That’s a fifth-circle spell. You can’t use it against a person. You’re facing the Elder Brother!”
“Thanks for the good advice!”
Clang!
At times, those who frantically prepared truly powerful spells were struck down with a metallic staff.
“I’ll take care of the grimoire!”
“Take my sword!”
“Eek!”
He intimidated the young apprentice, who was trying to flee with the grimoire alongside their master, by pointing a sharpened sword at them.
Finally, when Sererassie set foot in the lab—
“Older sister, you’re here?”
He was sitting atop a pile of moaning magicians, smiling like an evil lord.
“That won’t do for a slap.”
“I think so too. I might have gotten a bit too excited.”
“A bit?”
Valenciaunos looked around at the lab, filled with screams and moans all around.
“A bit.”
Sererassie grinned and, clearing her throat, shouted.
“What the hell are you doing? Strike hard and push them back!”
Four white rings spun within her staff, gathering power.
Flare!
Blue light stretched out like branches, causing Valenciaunos to stagger significantly.
‘He didn’t faint. His resistance has actually gotten much stronger.’
Leaving him behind, Sererassie rushed over to support the elder magician Ipije.
“Are you alright?”
* * *
Once again, magicians flowed back into the conference room on the 50th floor.
This time, it wasn’t to discuss anything worth taking notes on.
“Gestarte! No matter how much you opposed it, you cannot send your disciple and the royal family in to smash the lab! That’s a violation of the rules of the Ivory Tower!”
Blahon, adorned with bruises and lumps beneath his horns, shouted.
Gestarte smiled, raising the corners of her mouth.
“I warned you. But that child said she cannot let herself be ordered around by a Duke who expelled her from the academy.”
“What, what did you say?”
It wasn’t an incorrect statement.
The priest’s regulations were absolute, but that only applied when it came to their relationship.
“Right now, ‘I’ am a magician belonging to the imperial magic guild and have come as the envoy of Her Majesty Emperor Jayrilis. I was alerted to a horrifying occurrence about to happen at the Ivory Tower.”
Sererassie spat out the words a bit awkwardly.
To the elders and mid-level magicians, that was a shock.
“How could you…?”
“Sererassie. I truly apologize. We…”
“Enough. I understand.”
Ipije spoke coldly and ground her teeth as she looked at the brazenly smiling Valenciaunos.
She was a flame magician with a fiery temperament.
“I will, in front of you, conduct only the most basic experiments. Furthermore, every experiment conducted in connection with that grimoire will be done only before your eyes.”
Valenciaunos laughed.
“Are you planning to call for me every day?”
The half-high elf magician shook her head.
“Take as many years as you need. I took 180 years to explore. I only need to see the truth before I die.”
Valenciaunos and Sererassie exchanged glances for a moment and then nodded.
“Let’s move.”
Valenciaunos followed Ipije and the magicians to the public demonstration lab, thinking.
‘Ultimately, this will be an experiment that fails anyway. If we don’t even allow them to start, it will leave lingering regrets. The moment they sense the energy of the ancients, they won’t be able to counter any longer. The moment the hope of control vanishes, they’ll realize that it’s merely a trap of the ancients.’
The public lab was structured so that many people could look down from above.
Valenciaunos and Sererassie entered the public lab, following Ipije and several magicians.
The pages of the grimoire, which must have been made from human skin, turned over one by one, and a promising magician guided mana in a strange shape while reciting incantations.
“Ooooh!”
“There’s still no problem.”
Clear red mist swirled together with dry white bone-like particles.
It began reacting with various reagents, including silver powder, gradually stabilizing into a bead-like shape.
Valenciaunos felt a sense of unease rising and clenched his fists.
‘This isn’t right.’
He still couldn’t sense any energy from the ancients.
“Finally, feed it blood to complete and stabilize it.”
The last procedure to fully anchor with the matter of this world had begun.
The apprentice magician pricked his finger with a needle to draw blood.
The moment that one drop of blood fell onto the energy the size of a large bead,
Bang!
The red and white energy exploded outward.
The apprentice magician fell on his backside, screaming.
Kiiiiiiiiiiiiii—.
A violent mental wave swept over the defenseless magicians.
Even the elders and Valenciaunos had to close their eyes for a moment.
The energy inflated dozens of times, reaching a size almost as big as a person, soaring toward the sky.
“Damn it!”
Valenciaunos too found it difficult to keep pace.
It dashed across the audience and ran down the hallway, slowly taking on the form of a living creature.
The white energy became bones while the red energy became flesh.
But unlike the creatures of this world, it took the form of bones covered with flesh.
At this point, it was still impossible to distinguish whether it was human, individual, or fish; the white spine and red muscles stood out sharply.
“Block the elevator and the stairs!”
Crash!
Someone shouted in a panic, but it fell flat as the creature leaped out the window.
“World!”
A beat too late, Valenciaunos looked at the red and white shadow disappearing 250 meters below, cursing profusely.
“This is bad.”
![[TS] The End of Magical Girls Has Come](https://i3.wp.com/darkmtl.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/1737407792-8993-TS-The-end-of-magical-girls-has-come.png?resize=85,105 "[TS] The End of Magical Girls Has Come")