Chapter 45 - Doppelganger

They didn't specifically tell the villagers that they were leaving for subjugation right away. Following Warren's opinion, they judged there was no need to inform those who felt somehow unsettling about their schedule.

There was no possibility that they were colluding with doppelgangers incapable of proper communication, but still, there was no harm in being cautious.

"It's this way."

The compass pointed west. The group moved following the compass needle, raising their tension to be able to react anytime, anywhere.

-Kyaaaak!

On the way, strangely shaped magic beasts suddenly poked their heads out.

Creatures never seen before, with heads long like caterpillars but anuses shaped like human heads. Even Acel, who had read quite a few magic beast encyclopedias in Wyheim, couldn't grasp what these creatures attacking the group were. Acel reflexively drove an impact spell into the creature's body.

Thud!

The creature's body was vertically slammed into the ground. It flailed its long limbs to resist the pressing force, but that alone wasn't enough to escape Acel's magic. Acel drove a lightning formula into the head of the creature writhing like a worm, then closely observed the fallen corpse.

The answer came quickly. 

He muttered with his brow slightly furrowed, "A creature created by synthesis formula. They transplanted human organs and heads onto ordinary magic beasts. As a result, it couldn't accept the intelligence of either side and became a monster with only appetite remaining."

"...Why is something like that here?" Warren said with a disgusted expression. 

Acel shook his head and straightened his bent back.

"We'll have to find out. More importantly, we should be careful."

"..."

"The fact that something like this is here means the doppelganger might also be in an 'assembled' state from someone's synthesis formula. It might not be in the form we know anymore."

As Acel finished speaking, Warren swallowed hard. Tension also swirled on Saya's face. Only Quill, who had hunted magic beasts a few times while working as a mercenary, was relatively calm. He put his arm around Acel's shoulder and smiled brightly.

"I'm counting on you for backup."

"...Sure."

A statement mixing sincerity and jest, deliberately uttered to lighten the mood. Acel smiled slightly and answered.

"..."

They continued moving after that. As they went deeper into the mountain, more and more magic beasts assembled by someone's hand poked their heads out. Thanks to the group dealing with them promptly, there was no damage, but their nerves became increasingly frayed by the fact that monsters targeting them were swarming around.

In this situation, unnecessarily opening their mouths would only cause quarrels among group members. So they kept their mouths shut and moved forward relying only on Saya's voice guiding the compass direction. Acel stood at the very back and launched a wide-area magic once towards the gazes staring at him.

[Lightning Extinction Sweep]

Violent lightning wielded destruction.

The moment lightning blooming from Acel's fingertips flashes, light dashed through space, completely burning all the creatures crawling around the group. A belated sound echoed following the light of the lightning.

Boom!!

An ear-splitting roar. But no one reacted to it. They glanced at Acel shaking off residual electricity from his fingertips, then continued forward.

How much time passed like that? Suddenly, Saya stopped the group. She showed the compass to everyone and pointed to a cave pierced straight ahead.

"It's there."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. The needle is pointing to that cave."

"Let's go right away."

Quill gripped his spear shaft tightly with a fierce expression.

"Let's quickly deal with it and get out of here. Like the bookworm said, this isn't an ordinary mountain. I don't want to stay long."

"I sense about dozens of life responses inside," Acel said. 

The group's gazes turned towards him. Acel received their gazes with a calm expression while glaring at the cave.

His pupils shimmered with blue light.

"Many responses similar to those we killed. One that feels like a doppelganger."

"...Seems this was their den. What are you thinking of doing? Are we going to directly raid in there, or lure them out?" Warren asked Saya. 

Saya thought for a moment, then made a decision.

"Let's go in. It would take too long to deal with them one by one by drawing them out. There's no guarantee they'll come out one by one in the first place. If they suddenly pour out all at once, it'll be hard to identify the doppelganger among them."

"..."

"And... I'd like to finish before night falls, if possible," Saya said while vertically slitting her pupils. 

A mysterious yokai power began to flow from her body.

Sorcery, a power allowed only to an extremely small portion of fox beastkin. She swished her tails, now increased to five, and lit up blue fox-fire.

Seeing this, Warren drew up magical power, and Quill exhaled deeply while surrounding his spear shaft with aura. Acel approached Saya's side and closely observed one of her fox-fires.

"A flame that lowers the spatial perception ability of surrounding creatures and burns what it touches? It's my first time seeing sorcery, but it's more elaborate than I thought."

"I've never seen someone like you before. Strangely, when you have to use magic like this, your speech becomes stiff. Should I say authoritative? Anyway, usually you're gentle, but at times like this, it flips amazingly."

"...Me?"

"Yes. Didn't you know?"

He didn't know. His speech becoming authoritative, was it an unconscious manifestation of habits from living in the slums? Or was there another reason?

It was hard to tell for now. He unnecessarily shifted his gaze towards the cave to change the subject.

"There are no intelligent life forms among the creatures inside. However, the doppelganger seems to have a bit of intelligence. It seems to have lived for at least several decades."

"That means it can't imitate you. That's fortunate."

"You never know. It's better to be prepared," Acel said while slowly loosening up his body. 

He pumped the magical core he had heated up long ago to flow magical power throughout his body, and walked towards the cave with big strides while turning his neck. The group formed a formation centered on him.

Crackle, crackle!!

Electricity sparked around his body. Magical power with transformed properties manifested outwardly, grabbing and twisting the air. Due to overflowing magical power, his eyes glowed, and lightning mixed with his exhaled breath. A sensation as if his whole body had become one lightning bolt, freely controlling the electrical signals throughout his body.

A lightning mage with their magical core fully activated became a strategic weapon in itself.

It wasn't for nothing that Ena was active on numerous battlefields and received courtship. Even for Acel, it was the first time since the battle with Fernan that he handled lightning-natured magical power with full power like this.

Not a bad sensation and feeling. It might seem excessive just to kill one doppelganger, but Acel was wary not of the doppelganger but of the owner of the synthesis formula that might be behind it.

A meticulous and elaborate formula that can't be detected until getting close. Clearly a mage above my level.

It wasn’t about talent. A mage whose essence of years and experience built up as a mage was overwhelmingly higher. An apostate with the bad taste of combining magic beasts and humans, nestled in this mountain for unknown reasons. Acel activated his magical power at full power from the start, wary of such a person.

Anyway, there was no meaninglessly consumed magical power with just this. Only the shield protecting his body and mental barrier magic were maintained constantly.

The magical power consumed by these two magics was recovered just by breathing.

It was the same now. Acel put his index and middle fingers together straight and swung them widely horizontally.

[Annihilation Lightning]

Crackle!!!

Lightning streams followed where his fingertips moved. As they entered the cave, the synthetic beings that revealed themselves were directly hit by lightning and turned to ashes. Synthetic beings that twisted their joints oddly to avoid the lightning were either pierced to death by Quill's spear or crushed by Warren's spirit formulas.

-Grrrrrr!

-Kieeeeeeek!!

Creatures that noticed their companions' deaths began to spring out from deep inside the cave. Warren formed a hand seal while meeting eyes with the largest among them. At the same time, his spirit began to emit light, and the earth resonated with his will.

[Sinkhole]

Rumble!!

With the manifestation of magic, the ground centered where the synthetic beings were running from sank as if carved out. The creatures lost their balance for a moment and floundered, and Quill dashed through the gap.

A body and spear blade enhanced with aura. Practical sense honed while living as a mercenary. All of these combine to form Quill's spearmanship.

Thwack!

Every time his shoulder moved, the heads of synthetic beings flew into the air. Blood and entrails splattered, and he burst into hearty laughter, covered in unidentifiable bodily fluids. Acel watched this scene and extended his right hand, then bent his knuckles as if crushing something.

[Lightning Explosion]

Boom!!

Lightning mixed in the air responds to Acel's will. It exploded right in the stomachs of the magic beasts still alive. Terrible screams disappeared, buried under the thunder. Corpses that died in quite a hideous state were buried under the sinkhole.

Overwhelming massacre. However, no one felt any particular impression about this. Because everyone knew they hadn't come to kill these synthetic beings in the first place.

The group swept away the synthetic beings swarming again while walking across the bridge connecting the center of the sinkhole Warren had created.

Then the synthetic beings no longer mindlessly charged but began to circle around the group as if tightening their breath. It looked as if a leader had started directing them. Acel crushed the head of one creature with telekinesis magic while concentrating magical power in his vision.

Insight that had reached the level of expanding or contracting space beyond the limits of eyesight. In his view, a being that looked like a young girl was captured giving some instructions to the synthetic beings.

As soon as he recognized this, Acel extended magical power threads at the speed of sound to tie them to a pillar near the girl, and also tied threads to fix the bodies of the rest of the group including himself.

"Hey, what's thisㅡ"

"...!"

The group members who felt a sudden sense of restraint turned their heads with surprised expressions. Acel looked at them and grinned.

"Hold your breath. We're going right now."

"What are you sayiiiing!!??"

Before Quill's words ended, Acel drastically shortened the length of his extended magical power threads. As a reaction, the bodies of the tied group members moved at high speed following the shrinking magical power threads.

Acel added wind resistance magic and telekinesis magic simultaneously on top of that. He doubled the movement speed.

"Kyaaaah!"

"Shit, we're gonna crash!!"

"Acel, Acel!"

Thanks to this, it took less than 3 seconds to reach where the girl was. Acel created a descending air current to gently settle them on the ground before the group could be crushed by crashing into the wall.

"Hey, you bastard!"

As soon as he landed on the ground, Quill shouted while rushing towards the girl.

"Tell us in advance when you're going to do something like this!"

"I did," Acel replied with a slight smile, then snapped his fingers while staring at the girl who still hadn't grasped the situation.

[Lightning Bow]

Crackle!!

An arrow of lightning that bloomed behind Acel's back precisely pierced between the girl's eyebrows.