Chapter 43
Raul felt a chill for an instant. More precisely, someone's gaze. He had spent all this time observing countless targets, so the intuition of being watched was not something he could dismiss.
He turned around, but there was nothing there.
“…?”
Sensing something strange, he immediately locked onto the signal from the Last Round again.
The second-floor office in an old building in Graveblock Block.
Kael's Tier 5 ACU signal was still there. Weak, but clearly matching the ACU signal pattern registered to his freelancer license.
Kael was barely moving inside the office.
Raul brought up several screens at once: an advertising panel in the alley in front of the building and surveillance cameras near the entrance.
Based on his continued watch, without missing a thing, they were still in the office.
..
..
After some time passed with no change in their movements, Raul drew a conclusion.
Were they planning to hole up while guarding Silas Volt?
The corners of Raul's mouth lifted.
Good.
A siege was Raul's preferred form of combat.
People holed up inside a box usually believed themselves safe, but all he had to do was slowly shake the box from outside.
However, Raul did not want to kill Kael so easily.
He usually made a living digging into corporate secrets. It seemed he could not shake the habit; he wanted to dig into Kael's secrets as well.
It was at that moment.
KWAANG!
A dull explosion erupted on the floor below the communications relay room.
It was the sound of a land mine Raul had planted in preparation for such a situation.
“…?”
Raul's expression hardened at the inexplicable situation that had unfolded in an instant.
Dust fell from the ceiling, and several screens shook simultaneously.
Raul's lenses narrowed.
He immediately opened the camera feed for the lower passage.
In the violently shaking footage, smoke from the explosion lay low, and part of a rusty metal staircase had been torn away.
But no one was visible.
Chiriririk!
This time, a sharp burst of sound came from somewhere else.
The wire trap he had installed had activated normally, but it had failed to cut the target.
Something had either twisted the wire's anchor point first, or its direction had shifted when it deployed.
Raul opened the camera feed for the western auxiliary passage.
Kzzzt.
The screen shook with static for a moment before showing a dark passage.
A person stood beneath an old emergency light that blinked red.
A young man with black hair and a lean build.
It was Kael.
“Huh…?”
For the first time, Raul stood completely still and stared at him for a long while.
Raul said nothing.
The only thought that came to mind was how.
How are you here?
He checked Kael's ACU signal again, but Kael's location had not changed.
Only then did Raul realize.
‘No way.’
He had removed his ACU and come here with nothing but his body. How he had found this place was already outside Raul's concern.
Because he had taken the bait.
Like prey.
“….”
The ACU at the back of Raul's neck began to tremble erratically.
He focused once more on Kael's movements in the camera feed.
“What is this….”
He was certainly quick for a human with no cyberware, but the traps Raul had installed should have been difficult to break through with speed alone.
However, before long, Raul learned something shocking.
It was so subtle that it was difficult to notice, but Kael was definitely using magic.
The question Raul had asked himself returned to its starting point.
How.
How was he using magic without an ACU?
He was only pushing a metal component aside for an instant, twisting a wire's anchor point by a fraction, or changing the direction of falling debris.
But, conversely, that meant he was capable of controlling things with that much delicacy.
He was dismantling Raul's traps using nothing but basic magic.
KWAANG!
Another explosion brought him back to his senses.
And Raul made a choice.
He would put some distance between himself and that incomprehensible young man for now.
***
Kael waited for the low-lying black smoke to settle.
In the meantime, he caught his breath.
Raul had prepared quite meticulously against intruders.
Kael had lost count of how many land mines and wire traps he had broken or evaded.
‘He really dressed the building up as a hunting ground, just like a ranger.’
Kael did not like that, but he could understand it.
He would have done the same.
Those accustomed to being chased usually prepared an escape route first, but those accustomed to tracking and hunting were different.
They created a space where only they could move freely, like a spider.
Raul Kesk was that sort.
“Hoo….”
Kael quieted his breathing.
His decision to leave a dummy ACU in the office had been correct.
Because Raul believed that signal was revealing his location, Kael had bought himself at least a little time.
That brief amount of time was enough.
Kael had quickly crossed a considerable distance to get here while avoiding the surveillance cameras.
This was possible because he was accustomed to wandering through the alleys.
Using that method, he had entered the building where Raul was and reached this point.
Kael took another step.
Just before his foot touched the floor, he saw something below and stopped moving.
There was a tiny metal plate on the floor.
It was small enough for an ordinary person to overlook.
Kael whispered very softly.
Motus
[Telekinesis]
Then, from beneath the metal plate on the floor, there was a small click, and a latch slid inward.
That should deal with the traps in this passage for now.
Kael fell into thought for a moment.
Raul would have realized by now that Kael had entered without his ACU and could use magic.
If he had noticed that fact, Raul did not have many choices.
He could remain here and confront Kael with the traps and equipment he had set up.
Or he could put some distance between them.
Then.
Somewhere, a dull sound rang out as a bulkhead closed.
‘He's running.’
Kael came to that conclusion.
He did not run. Instead, he walked slowly.
It would be foolish to blindly pursue Raul simply because he was trying to create distance.
It was common for someone to pretend to flee in order to lure an opponent into deeper traps.
Especially someone like Raul, who had prepared the entire board in advance.
Kael entered the communications relay room.
Traces that someone had been there until just moments ago remained everywhere.
Raul had been here, but he had fled by now.
Kael slowly surveyed the room.
Several screens were off, while one was still displaying static.
The wall retained a record of surveillance screens from various areas rapidly closing.
Raul had hurried out, but he probably had not simply fled.
He was likely preparing to catch Kael somewhere else nearby.
Then the speaker turned on again.
Kzzzt.
Kzzzzzt.
A low, cracked voice flowed through the relay room.
-Kael.
Kael raised his head.
It was Raul's voice.
-What are you?
Kael did not answer.
-How can you use magic without an ACU?
“….”
-But that changes nothing. You would have been better off abandoning him and hiding as well.
Kael stopped at the doorway.
“Aren't you the one hiding right now?”
The static beyond the speaker briefly grew harsher at his reply.
Then Kael muttered to himself.
“Not far.”
And he took a step forward.
***
Raul Kesk fled. But he did not want to admit that he was running away.
His opponent had approached in an unexpected manner, so he was merely drawing him deeper in to deal with him from a more advantageous position.
That was what Raul tried to tell himself.
Raul realized that his fingers were trembling.
His ACU was pulsing hotly inside the back of his neck, and.
He already held control over the old relay lines, surveillance cameras, speakers, and turrets, but.
He felt as though he were strangely going blind.
Because he could not see Kael.
Raul gritted his teeth and retreated deeper inside.
The auxiliary relay room had originally been a small room built to inspect the city's network.
Raul had converted it into a temporary refuge.
Wire traps were hidden inside the walls, electric shock devices were installed beneath the floor, and the entrance was protected by three layers of locks and an old defensive turret.
He activated all those devices at once.
The screens rose again, and Raul watched them all simultaneously, but Kael was nowhere to be seen.
Nowhere.
However, footsteps could be heard.
Thud.
Thud.
The sound of someone approaching as though he already knew where his prey was and had no need to hurry.
Thud.
Thud.
At that sound, Raul's lenses grew unstable, and he eventually turned on the speakers.
“Where are you?”
His voice spread in several directions through the old speakers.
“Where are you, Kael?”
There was no answer.
Instead, another sound came back.
Kzzzt.
Kzzzzzt.
Amid the static, a low, calm voice flowed out.
-Can you hear me?
The voice of the person he feared.
-You said.
Kael's voice continued from another speaker.
-You said you'd let the entire city hear the moment Silas's voice cut out within seventy-two hours.
Raul struck the console and tried to force the speakers off.
But the lines were old, so his efforts were futile.
-Then this time, I'll speak.
Raul bared his teeth.
“Shut up.”
-No matter how far you run.
Kzzzt.
This time, the voice came from the ceiling speaker.
-I'll find you.
Raul overloaded the ceiling speaker.
Pop!
One of the speakers burst, sending sparks flying.
But Kael's voice continued from the wall right beside it.
-Just as you found Silas.
Pop!
Raul blew up another one.
-Just as you found Nicolas.
Pop!
-Now it's your turn, Raul.
Raul drove his fingers into the console.
“Stop.”
His voice cracked.
“Stop talking.”
But despite his plea, Kael did not stop.
-Found you.
Thud.
Thud.
As the footsteps drew closer, Raul breathed raggedly.
He activated every defensive device in the auxiliary relay room.
Then Raul began releasing the restrictions on his ACU one by one.
Severine-6 was already far from normal, but.
Raul was not in a state to worry about that now.
He had to stop Kael before he reached the door.
Thud.
When the footsteps stopped outside the door, Raul turned off all the speakers and closed all the screens.
Then Kael's voice came from beyond the door.
It was an actual voice, not one carried through a speaker.
“There you are.”
Raul smiled bitterly.
“Come in.”
Before the door opened, two defensive turrets sprang from the walls on either side of the entrance.
However, Kael did not open the door head-on.
He had already entered beneath a half-torn wall panel.
Following the structure of the old control room, he pushed his body through the ventilation duct beside the entrance and into the room.
Raul's eyes widened.
“You….”
Bang!
At the same time as Kael's gunshot, the rotating shaft of one turret shattered.
Raul immediately turned the remaining turret, but Kael had already moved.
He ducked low and slipped into the relay room.
A second gunshot rang out.
Bang!
The lens of the remaining turret shattered.
Then Raul raised a hand and swung a bundle of thin wires.
The electrified wires lashed toward Kael like a whip, but Kael did not step back.
Instead, he drove farther inside.
The wire grazed his shoulder, tore his coat, and sent blood spraying, but.
It was not a fatal injury.
Kael threw his bloodstained coat toward Raul.
When Raul's lens was momentarily obscured, Kael reached out through that brief opening.
Vinculum
[Binding]
If this had been the old Kael, he would have bound Raul's entire body, but.
He could not do that now, so he grabbed only one strand of the external cooling line on Raul's ACU.
Exactly one strand. That was enough.
When the cooling line came loose, Raul's ACU began to overheat.
“Ghk!”
The heat, like a burn, made Raul swing his arm wildly.
Every device in the room reacted simultaneously.
The lights burst, the console spat sparks, and.
An ear-splitting burst of static erupted from the speakers.
Kael stepped across the sparking floor and aimed his pistol not at Raul's head, but at the auxiliary circuit below his right shoulder.
Bang!
Sparks flew between metal and flesh, and Raul's right arm went limp.
Raul screamed.
Even through the pain, he tried to grab Kael's neck with his left hand.
Kael stepped inside the arc of his elbow, pushed that wrist aside, and destroyed Raul's center of gravity.
Crash!
Raul's body slammed into the floor.
Kael reached behind Raul's neck and checked the state of his ACU.
Raul began twisting his body.
“Don't touch me!”
Kael did not answer.
He saw a small auxiliary device blinking at the back of Raul's neck.
“….”
It was a self-destruct device that would burn out the ACU and overload every nearby circuit if the overheating exceeded a certain threshold.
Kael gathered a tiny amount of force at his fingertips.
Motus
[Telekinesis]
Click.
The retaining pin inside the auxiliary device was pushed aside, and the blinking red light went out.
Raul still tried to move.
When his metal fingers scraped across the floor with a harsh rattle, Kael stepped on his wrist.
Then he pressed the pistol against the connection port at the back of his neck.
“Enough.”
Raul bared his teeth.
“What… are you?”
Kael looked down at him for a moment.
He had heard that question so many times that he answered briefly.
“Just a mage.”