Chapter 200
"Hahaha!! What's wrong, Silver!!"
"Tch!"
Ignat closed in, skillfully using feints to force me into close-quarters combat.
In response, I concentrated magic power in both hands, knocking aside Ignat's magic sword while trying to put some distance between us.
"You're completely on the defensive! Is that all an SS-class is capable of!?"
"You seem pretty relaxed, talking like that."
As I said that, I brought my hand down in a blade-hand strike. A wind blade sprang from it.
Ignat instinctively blocked it with his magic sword, but its force pushed him far backward.
"Tch! You think you can look down on a mage like me!!"
"For an S-class adventurer to be barely even with a mere mage in close combat... You've really fallen."
"You...! Those words! I'll make you regret them!!"
Ignat poured even more magic power into his magic sword.
The flames enveloping the blade swelled all at once, but soon subsided, merely cloaking the sword.
It wasn't a failure.
If that immense flame had been compressed, then the magic sword had only grown stronger.
"To reach SS-class, you need a special feat. The only thing you had that I didn't was encountering a monster capable of providing one!!"
"So you're saying you could have become an SS-class adventurer if only you'd had the chance?"
"That's right! And I'll prove it now!!"
With that, Ignat charged at me.
Since he was coming straight at me, I once again created a wind blade with a hand strike.
However, Ignat easily cut through the wind blade he had blocked earlier and continued straight toward me.
"You think something like that can stop me!!"
"Oh?"
As expected of an S-class adventurer, he was impressive.
He was quite capable.
I erected a sturdy barrier directly in front of me to block Ignat's magic sword. This was different from the first time I'd blocked it, when I was only testing it.
This was a proper barrier.
"So you weren't serious either, huh!?"
"Who knows?"
I tried to pierce Ignat's torso while his movements were halted, but he twisted his body to dodge, then caught my arm and threw me.
I righted myself in midair and landed, but Ignat took advantage of that opening to charge at me again.
He was relentlessly aiming for a decisive blow at close range. He probably had two objectives: he couldn't break through my defenses with attacks from a distance, and he didn't want to let me fight at the range where I excelled.
Whatever else could be said about him, he was an adventurer through and through.
"Got youuuuu!!"
"Urgh!"
I caught the magic sword thrust toward my chest between both palms.
Normally, grabbing a sword heated to such a temperature would burn my hands, so I had concentrated magic power in both palms as a precaution.
Even so, the fact that I could still feel the heat meant this was quite a troublesome magic sword.
"You don't even have time to put up a barrier anymore?"
"That's right... Close combat isn't my strong suit."
As I said that, I kicked at Ignat, but he instinctively released his grip on the magic sword and dodged the kick, then thrust at my abdomen as if returning the favor.
The thrust forced me backward, and I let go of the magic sword as well. Ignat caught it in midair.
"Guh..."
"A kick enhanced with magic power. The force is sufficient, but with such sloppy technique, you didn't really think you'd hit me, did you?"
No matter how much I enhanced myself with magic power, I had not a shred of talent to begin with.
Even if it made me somewhat better, comparing myself with a combat professional would be presumptuous.
With martial arts like mine, I couldn't surpass Ignat.
Well, I already knew that.
Holding my abdomen, I got back to my feet. I hadn't taken much damage. But in terms of skill, he had the upper hand. Sooner or later, I might take a serious hit.
Ignat wore a confident expression because he knew that.
"What's wrong? Use one of your powerful spells! Though if you use one underground in the Imperial Capital, it'll probably cause damage aboveground too!"
"You understand that quite well. That's why I won't use a powerful spell."
"For the people, huh? What a joke! If you weren't so concerned about that, this situation would never have happened! Are the people more important to you than your own life!?"
I didn't answer Ignat's question.
It was a question that didn't even need an answer.
An SS-class adventurer who wielded ancient magic—that was Silver, an aberrant individual tolerated only because he had acted as the Empire's guardian.
It was obvious what would happen if he broke the ironclad rule of putting the people first.
Silver could reign over the Empire precisely because he remained the ideal adventurer.
That was why Silver would never abandon the people of the Empire, even if it cost him his own life.
"Hah! Live by your ideals if you want, but if you keep this up, you won't live much longer!!"
With that, Ignat raised his magic sword overhead.
Was he preparing to unleash a powerful strike?
"I don't give names to every technique I use, but this is the only one I've named."
"So it's your trump card... As expected of an S-class adventurer. You have quite a few tricks up your sleeve."
"Will you still be so confident after this technique!?"
The magic sword became engulfed in a massive flame.
It was especially red and powerful, even compared to all the flames Ignat had shown me so far.
The brilliant flames blazed fiercely, growing smaller and smaller with each deep breath Ignat took. It seemed he was drawing the flames into himself and increasing his synchronization with the sword.
Finally, the flames enveloping the magic sword vanished completely.
But it was the calm before the storm.
"Final Cremation."
The moment Ignat whispered those words, his figure vanished.
And before I knew it, Ignat had slipped inside my guard.
Fast. It was on a completely different level from before. His speed, almost like teleportation, was probably the result of Ignat absorbing the flames produced by the magic sword.
His physical abilities had increased explosively.
Ignat had already possessed a high level of physical ability when he became an S-class adventurer as a magic swordsman. Now, those abilities had risen even further.
Without pause, Ignat followed with a thrust. I could feel an enormous amount of energy radiating from the magic sword.
With my abilities restricted, evading it was impossible.
As a mage, I couldn't fight at full strength in such a confined space to begin with. The distance at which I had been facing Ignat was one that I normally would never allow an opponent to enter.
Normally, I would either drive him away or create some distance.
But I couldn't do that here. I could have used teleportation magic to reset the fight, but doing so would have meant losing the valuable clue I'd worked so hard to find.
Even a powerful spell would have caused the basement to collapse, possibly damaging the Imperial Capital aboveground as well.
That left me completely cornered.
Therefore...
"Good work. I've been waiting for an attack like that."
"W-What...?"
The thrust Ignat unleashed was stopped by a barrier before it touched me.
But this was no ordinary barrier.
"My magic is too powerful to use freely in a confined space. Even holding back is difficult. So the easiest thing to do is use your attack against you."
"No way...!?"
"Yes. Don't worry. I was fighting seriously. I just wasn't using my full power."
"Guh!?"
Realizing what kind of barrier had appeared, Ignat tried to put some distance between us, but it was already too late.
This was a confined space to begin with. There was nowhere to run.
The barrier was called the Reflection Barrier. As its name suggested, it reflected the opponent's attacks.
Ignat's thrust released all the energy he had stored up at once, but every bit of it was first sucked into the barrier, then bounced back toward him.
"Gwaaaaaaaaaahhh!!??"
Ignat took the full brunt of his own trump card, but he had instinctively shielded his body with the right arm holding the magic sword. As a result, his body itself suffered only minor burns. However, since the burns covered his entire body, his condition could still be considered severe.
His right arm, meanwhile, had been charred to a cinder.
The arm crumbled away piece by piece, and Ignat lost consciousness.
After binding the unconscious Ignat with the barrier, I turned on my heel.
"Now, let's get back to the investigation."
Surely there was no guard stronger than Ignat.
All that remained was to arrest the executives.
I might as well finish this quickly. This place was getting on my nerves. Before long, I might accidentally fire off a spell from the stress.