#049. Where Malice Gathers (6)
“Huh…?”
Understanding dawned slowly but steadily.
The man’s twisted face gradually smoothed, shifting from blankness to dark delight.
“Kuhahahahaha!”
His maniacal laughter boomed through the abandoned factory.
Now everything clicked.
He finally understood the entire situation.
The surrounding flames thrashed wildly, making the eerie smile on his face appear and vanish with each flicker.
The laughter cut off abruptly.
“Executioner. It’s you. You set this whole trap to eliminate me.”
The man’s entire being seethed with violent rage and killing intent.
“Since when? When did you start playing with me?”
Ray remained silent.
“Huh? Since I approached Cedric? Or since our fight in the basement?”
There was no point engaging someone already half-mad.
“Tell meeeee──!!!”
The man’s self-fueled misunderstanding only amplified his fury.
“Silent to the end? Keh! Fine! Better this way - a mage makes better material than worthless brats!”
Red mana erupted violently from his feet.
Bang!
He vanished and reappeared before Ray.
“Die!”
A curved blade arced toward Ray’s head.
Already channeling mana, Ray twisted aside.
The blade grazed his shoulder and embedded vertically in the floor tiles.
Whoosh──! Crack!
“Executioner! Do you understand?!”
The split tiles revealed Ray darting toward the factory center as the man adjusted his stance.
The boy’s vision trembled wildly.
His eyes locked onto the scattered flames.
Extinguish them.
Use this advantage.
Unlike the man’s ordinary sight, Ray could track him in total darkness.
“─I’m multiple times stronger than in the organization!”
The man’s beast-like roar echoed behind Ray.
Thundering footsteps closed the gap instantly.
The man’s panting breaths hissed in Ray’s ears.
‘Bad matchup.’
Ray recalled his earlier spinning kick to the abdomen.
Even at full strength, it felt like striking steel.
Blades and blunt force wouldn’t work.
Fire attacks likely ineffective too against his flame armor.
All primary methods nullified.
‘The magic circle plan remains.’
Whoom─!
Ray gathered atmospheric mana around each flame.
Multicolored energies swirled into a single chilling blue.
Water spheres formed and devoured the flames.
Darkness fell.
Two events coincided:
Swoosh─! of water hitting concrete.
“DIE──!!”
The man’s scream as killing intent spiked behind Ray.
He lunged right.
Sssshhh──!
Another near-miss.
Rolling to his feet, Ray saw only a human-shaped red mana mass in the dark.
“Rat! Keep running?!”
The figure scattered red mana like paint.
Tiny fires bloomed midair.
“There!”
The man’s eyes glittered under firelight.
Thud!
Both moved.
The man swung horizontally. Ray ducked, slashing his ankle with a knife.
Any normal foe would collapse bleeding.
Clang!
The blade bounced harmlessly.
‘Useless.’
Two confirmations sufficed.
Focus on defense.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Sparks flew as steel clashed.
Frantic footsteps and metallic echoes filled the factory.
“Die! Die! Dieeee──!!”
The man’s shouts hammered Ray’s ears.
The knife strained - cracking inevitable.
Miraculous it lasted this long against the man’s quality blade versus Ray’s scavenged junk.
‘Can he metalize objects too?’
The thought flashed as─
Crack!
The knife shattered.
“Keh! The end! Die!”
The descending blade left no escape.
Decision made.
Whoom─!
Gray mana coalesced in Ray’s palm.
Crack! Thud!
Stone fragments formed a new knife coated with extracted metal mana.
‘This’ll work.’
Full power unleashed.
Clang──!
The deflected blade whipped backward.
“What?!”
Shock filled the man’s face.
Ray shot past his unbalanced form.
As he closed the distance to where the fireball hovered, he performed the same color manipulation as before.
Whoosh—!
A sphere of water appeared, swallowing the fireball and plunging his vision back into darkness.
"You fucking bastard! Stop your tricks!"
The man reignited his flames and resumed his pursuit, while Ray continued to dodge attacks and snuff out the newly kindled fires.
This cycle repeated several times in the frantic battle.
"Executioner—aaaaah! How long will you keep running?!"
The man’s vision kept being obstructed.
His prey slipped through every attack like smoke.
Rage festered in the man’s heart.
His red mana, reacting to the torrent of emotions, surged through his veins at inhuman speeds, spiraling out of control.
Pop!
Blood vessels burst one by one in the man’s eyes, staining his whites crimson as if injected with dye.
What he gained was overwhelming destructive fury.
Clang! Clang! Clash!
The mana in Ray’s ring dwindled rapidly as it deflected attacks.
His body glistened with sweat from relentless movement and searing heat.
Yet the man wasn’t the only one reaching heightened states during this fight.
Clang!
The battle’s desperate intensity.
Clang!
Primal excitement coursing through his nerves.
Clang!
And boiling euphoria.
Each element ruthlessly awakened the predator’s instincts buried deep within the boy’s flesh—a thrill beyond anything street brawls could offer.
His movements accelerated in sync with the man’s assaults, his reactions to flames growing equally sharp.
Soon, the man couldn’t ignite flames at all.
Wherever red mana gathered, Ray’s blue mana already lay in wait.
"Rraaaaagh—!!"
The man’s enraged roar echoed as Ray used shadows to widen their distance.
Ray focused on the man’s vessel—anger, irritation, frustration, murderous intent—all churning into a grotesque shape.
"What’s your game? Hide-and-seek? Weren’t you sent to kill me? Executioner! Answer! What trickery is this?!"
Silence.
The abandoned factory fell quiet save for the man’s ragged breathing.
And...
Tick.
The faint click of a watch’s second hand.
The wide-eyed man hurled a dagger toward the sound.
Swish—!
"There you are!"
Ray conjured a spark of light.
He checked the time and flung his watch at the incoming blade.
Crash—!
The timepiece shattered, deflecting the dagger’s path.
Amidst the cacophony, Ray relocated safely.
The man chuckled darkly.
"Kheh. I see. Planning to die here with me? You’ve finished analyzing the magic circle, haven’t you?"
Ray remained silent.
"You’d need mastery of both combat and theory to become an Executioner. What kind of circle is it? When does it activate?"
While monitoring the man, Ray recalled the time his watch had shown earlier:
‘2:22:32 PM.’
He’d been counting internally since entering the factory—an exact match to the destroyed watch.
A precaution.
Maintaining precise timekeeping during combat was normally impossible.
But Ray was different.
His emotional void meant unshakable focus—the ability to partition his mind reliably.
‘2:22:41 PM.’
42 seconds. 43. 44.
Five minutes remained until the circle’s activation.
"You felt our power gap in the basement." The man’s voice cut through the silence. "No chance in direct combat. So you’ll use this circle to kill us both. Mission complete at any cost."
He mistook Ray’s silence for confirmation.
"But you’ll die alone here. Only I’ll walk out. You’ll just become crimson stone fertilizer."
Flames erupted across the man’s body.
Fire raced along his limbs, engulfing him completely.
"Try extinguishing this! If you dare!"
Inferno breath tore through the darkness, far surpassing the basement’s flames.
The conflagration shredded shadows, bathing the area in blinding light.
‘Ignition.’
Ray tensed every muscle, flooding his legs with mana.
The man inhaled deeply—
—and Ray’s instincts screamed.
He kicked off the ground, fleeing as searing heat licked his back.
Kwaaaah—!
A fiery serpent vomited from the man’s maw surged forward, fanged jaws snapping at Ray’s heels.
The distance vanished.
Ray’s back blistered—numb to pain, but moments from being vaporized.
A fleeting thought surfaced as he tested his ring’s mana:
‘What if I cloak myself in flames too?’
Mimicking the man’s technique seemed simple—he’d memorized the mana flow.
But Veronica’s warning echoed:
"Fire-cloaking magic? Yeah, Ignition. Grandpa taught me. It’s thick protective layers set ablaze. Core elements: fire, sustainment, amplification. Blocking heat requires..."
Like dousing fireproof gear in oil before lighting it.
"Even same-element magic isn’t immune. One flame can devour another, growing stronger."
Twisting through corridors to evade the serpent, Ray understood:
Had he not known this, he’d have mirrored the man’s technique—
—and paid dearly.
‘Proceeding as predicted.’
His acquired knowledge now sparked alternative solutions.
The man stood immobilized, controlling the flames.
Decision made, Ray pivoted sharply—
—and sprinted straight toward the inferno’s heart.
