Chapter 224

#224 Episode: The Tin Knight and the Tower of Greed (4)

Mombi decided to abandon the act.

‘I’m not sure about the exact means, but it seems my identity has already been discovered.’

If the opponent was still uncertain, she could have continued the ruse to further confuse them. However, Mombi believed that this possibility was slim.

Which madman would threaten and attack the Grandmaster of the Magical Kingdom without solid grounds or certainty? If things went awry, how would they handle the fallout?

Logically speaking, the enemies must have already known about her ‘for sure.’

Mombi was a rational being and didn’t even consider the possibility that the Tin Knight had just taken a shot at her on a whim. That was closer to delusion than reasoning.

She was cunning and knew that the most important thing before toying with the opponent was information.

Thus, she tried to provoke the enemies into revealing their methods.

“Answer me, was there a flaw in my actions or speech? Or—tch!”

However, Mombi had to immediately reconsider her plan.

The Tin Knight’s blade flew straight at her head without any hesitation.

Mombi quickly twisted her body to evade the attack, but the blade cleverly contorted its path, continuing to pursue her.

Drip drip drip drip!

While blood didn’t flow, her defensive magic wrapped around her was whittled away instead.

Mombi frowned.

The damage to her defensive magic was a mere fraction of its total, but the fact that she had taken even a small hit was significant.

That meant if she continued to receive attacks, eventually her defense would break.

“Ha! Foolish knight! Do you even know what you’re doing? This body belongs to Olin! If I die, that fool goes down with me!”

Slash! Shing! Slash!

“Attacking me is tantamount to aiming a sword at your own Grandmaster!”

Slash! Clang! Boom!

“—You better listen!!”

Boom!

Ultimately, the wicked witch’s patience exploded.

The Tin Knight’s colleagues heard the Tin Knight’s bravado and yelled, “The boss is blabbering too much!”

Mombi was utterly fed up with the assailing Tin Knight, who was launching attacks without a second thought.

What made her even angrier was that not just the Tin Knight but also others were beginning to wear a look that seemed to say, “Let’s just hit first and think about the complicated stuff later, right?”

No, logically speaking, if an ally’s body had fallen to the enemy, wouldn’t they show some more thoughtfulness or hesitation? Why were these lunatics so eager to skip the conversation and just start swinging their swords? Barbarians?

To turn the tide, she used her transformation skill to absorb the Tin Knight’s attack with her bare body and charged straight at the enemies.

The fingertips of Mombi’s transformed body sliced through the clothes of the green-haired woman and made the slightest, almost imperceptible contact with her bare skin.

That was all it took.

Boom!

The green-haired woman’s body exploded in an instant.

Mombi was a master of transformation.

Although she had the restriction of not being able to touch inanimate objects and had to make contact with the living, she could freely alter her shape when it came to living beings.

It was effectively a kill shot.

Mombi reached out toward her next target, Dorothea—

Ka-boom!

—and in the next moment, she was sent flying backward as if she had been struck by a giant’s hammer.

The impact was immense, as if the very essence of her being was pummeled to a pulp had she not had magical defenses. Mombi looked straight at the source.

A radiant blonde girl was glaring at her with a fierce gaze while emitting both golden flames and purple lightning from her body.

Moreover, at that moment, the blade of the Tin Knight and the spear of the White Knight once again stabbed right through Mombi.

Taking another blow with her transformed body, Mombi conceded to her disadvantage.

The two opponents who appeared the strongest among the enemies were those to whom her specialty didn’t apply, and even if she continued to fight by force, delaying here would only worsen her situation.

She simultaneously drew attention with a massive attack while disbanding the magic she had placed on the Gray Old Man.

“──!”

The man who dreamed of becoming king was meticulous and thorough.

As soon as he reverted to human form, he unleashed area-wide magic indiscriminately, as if he had expected Mombi to act this way.

In the split second that it took to blink, the surrounding area was engulfed in a fierce blizzard.

While the attack was insufficient to turn the unfavorable situation around, it provided just enough of a gap for Mombi’s prepared move to trigger.

More precisely, it was enough to issue a command to ‘Olin’s barrier’, the original owner of this body.

Clatter, clatter.

Magic circles like a mandala intertwined, altering shapes.

In went the outside, out went the inside.

As the spaces mixed together, Mombi and the Gray Old Man escaped to safety, trapping the Tin Knight’s party.

However, they had underestimated their opponent too much.

[The Tin Knight insists that the scene where he forcefully loses to the enemy is the worst!]

The Tin Knight’s magical power surged.

That energy poured forth like a river in flood, yet somehow not a single drop was wasted or misdirected—it was perfectly aligned with the swing of the Tin Knight’s sword.

What shouldn’t be cut was cut.

What couldn’t be reached was reached.

Right after something flickered—

The Tin Knight’s striking blow, transcending space itself, cleanly severed the waist of the fleeing wizard and witch.

“Ugh!”

While Mombi, with her remaining defensive magic, managed to withstand that strike, the Gray Old Man did not.

The seasoned wizard’s upper and lower halves were cleaved apart, and substances that shouldn’t flow poured out.

Mombi clicked her tongue and used her transformation skill on what remained of the old man’s upper body.

The wound was instantly healed, and the severed surface was covered smoothly as if it had never existed.

Just before the gaps in the severed space were about to close,

Mombi and the Tin Knight’s gazes met.

“…You better not think it’ll be the same next time.”

The gap in space closed.

Large wings sprouted from Mombi’s back.

With one hand clutching the body of the Gray Old Man, Mombi soared high into the sky, addressing him.

“It’s time to prepare for combat. Modifying what Olin used to my taste will take too long; you’ll have to put in some work.”

A wizard is always one who prepares.

Mombi could massacre a typical knight or wizard even with her bare body, but thinking about the upcoming battles, that wouldn’t suffice.

To confront the Tin Knight’s party, she needed to show off her true abilities as well.

“…Do as you wish. I will do my utmost to assist you.”

Despite the unimaginable pain and shock of having half his body cut away, the old man maintained his composure and replied like that.

It was an utterly terrifying greed and obsession with the throne.

The wicked witch and the wizard soared towards the Tower of Control, and shortly thereafter, the Magical Kingdom was thrown into chaos.

***

“From the Tower of Control, we announce to the various wizards and citizens of the Aeolia Magical Kingdom.”

“The chaos that has recently unfolded within the Magical Kingdom was a scheme orchestrated by the Tower of Guardian, and its intention was to tarnish the honor and power of the other towers while seeking to take control of the entire Magical Kingdom for themselves.”

“Moreover, they shamelessly attempted to use poison and traps against the Guardian Witch, our Grandmaster Olin, intending to manipulate her like a puppet.”

“However, we rescued her at the Tower and succeeded in uncovering all the schemes the Tower of Guardian aimed to unfold.”

“To all the wizards affiliated with the Tower of Guardian, know that we regard this incident as the unilateral action of the power-obsessed higher-ups, not the will of the entire Tower. Additionally, the great Grandmaster has requested the forgiveness of all but those higher-ups directly involved in this matter. Hurry and gather around our Grandmaster, escaping that wicked tower.”

“Furthermore, to those higher-ups who led this incident, and to the disgusting Gale Elilraz who hopelessly betrayed the Grandmaster and attempted to poison her, if you still possess even a shred of pride as a wizard and decency as humans, you must promptly seek the Grandmaster’s forgiveness and receive the just punishment you deserve.”

As if vowing to repay the bone flute tactics used by Dorothea and her group, the Tower of Control utilized amplification magic, letters, and even summoned creatures to spread this information throughout the entire Magical Kingdom.

The reaction was explosive.

Voices condemning the Tower of Guardian and Gale swelled everywhere in the Magical Kingdom, and even within the Tower of Guardian, suspicions and unease circulated, though they didn’t openly express it.

The Tower of Guardian claimed that everything the Tower of Control said was false, but the overall public sentiment was not in their favor.

This was mainly because the North Witch openly supported the Tower of Control.

If there was any silver lining for the Tower of Guardian, it was that the towers of Divination and Annihilation seemed to adopt a watch-and-wait posture, not siding with the Tower of Control.

This was entirely due to the Tin Knight and his party quickly seeing through Mombi’s true identity.

Had the Tower of Control’s plan gone as intended, Olin would have been quietly following their wishes from within the Tower of Guardian, waiting for the right moment to strike them from behind, and had it played out that way, the Tower of Guardian would have suffered significant wounds without even having made any countermeasures.

But Mombi’s identity was discovered much earlier than expected, and the Tower of Control had to strike before this fact became widely known.

As they rushed into action, it was only natural that the detailed aspects of their operation became sloppy.

The higher-ups of each tower did not overlook those ‘sloppy parts’, and the Tower of Control failed to bring them over to their side.

Things were increasingly spiraling into a showdown between the Tower of Control and the Tower of Guardian, and while the Tower of Control held a slight edge in raw power, what was more crucial was where the battleground was located.

Wizards greatly increased their combat power within a battle, and towers were practically gigantic battlefields themselves.

If one side took on a siege while the other defended, the defending side would always win.

Thus, the conflict was bound to reach a standoff, but that was a clear route to failure for the Tower of Guardian.

For now, although the Towers of Annihilation and Divination weren’t moving, with the North Witch siding with the Tower of Control, they would also inevitably be pulled in that direction eventually.

Therefore, the Tower of Guardian needed to launch an offensive before another tower intervened.

It was an incredibly dire situation, having to bear the disadvantages of an away game against a clearly stronger opponent.

Waiting idly would lead to a game over.

Yet if they charged forward, they’d face game over due to being outnumbered.

Thus, they needed to flip the script.

“Hey, Golden Skull.”

“Oh? What do you need of me? You wretched witch.”

Dorothea replied to Captain Bill with a crooked posture.

“—Let’s make a deal.”