(If they both got serious, a whole city might disappear...)
The monster transformed into an angel. The change was so vivid it evoked such a banal impression in Tatsuya's mind.
Her hair, once reminiscent of the abyss itself, turned into shimmering gold even under the weak light of the streetlamps. Her ominous golden eyes transformed into the color of a clear azure sky. The lines of her cheeks softened, her physique became slighter, and she even appeared slightly shorter. It was a beauty that a small mask could never hope to conceal.
If even her physique appeared different, it made sense how she had managed to deceive the eyes of the world until now. If Tatsuya hadn't already piled up various pieces of evidence, even he likely wouldn't have realized the truth.
Independent of his thoughts, his hands and his unconscious calculation area were already moving.
Five bullets were fired in rapid succession from the hands of the brilliant blonde, blue-eyed girl. All of them turned to dust and vanished before reaching Tatsuya. Then, just before the seventh shot could be fired, the slide of the girl's handgun flew off, and the barrel dropped to the ground.
Her shooting had been forcibly stopped. Moreover, her device had been destroyed by magic while in use—an impossible phenomenon that caused the masked girl to freeze.
"Stop it, Lina! I have no intention of being your enemy."
Aiming for that moment of hesitation, Tatsuya attempted to shift the situation.
His goal for the day was to restrain the vampire. To capture it and ascertain its true identity. That was why he had gone through the trouble of procuring a break-action single-shot gun loaded with anesthetic rounds—complex gimmicks that deployed needles upon impact.
Combat with the masked magician—with Lina—was unnecessary. It was superfluous. His words were meant to draw the curtain on this fight, but...
"Tch!"
It had the opposite effect.
A sharp, harsh light ignited in the blue eyes behind the mask. Lina returned the broken, integrated-type CAD to the holster at her waist and instantly gripped a small throwing dagger in her right hand instead.
It was an established theory that USNA magicians preferred weapon-integrated CADs. This dagger, too, was likely not just a knife but some form of armed device. Her short boots kicked against the soft dirt of the park. The speed she generated was far beyond that of a teenage girl, though not yet exceeding the limits of a normal human.
Tatsuya took a lead ball from his pocket and flicked it with his finger. The lead ball sliced through the air, flying toward Lina's right hand—and passed straight through it.
There was no spray of blood. He hadn't shot through flesh; he had passed through a phantom.
Lina swung her arm. The dagger came flying from a point about one meter away from where Tatsuya's naked eyes perceived her to be. As he leaped sideways to dodge, his eyes traced the trajectory. Where he looked, a phantom was once again readying a throwing dagger. His physical eyes perceived the figure of a girl in a small mask, but his "Mind's Eye" confirmed an empty hologram.
(Troublesome!)
He cursed in his heart. Knowing about it as knowledge and experiencing it in reality were two very different things. The elements described in the information body created by the Parade spell were "Color," "Shape," "Sound," "Heat," and "Position." It was identical to Yakumo's illusion technique, "Cloak."
(If it's similar to Master's technique, I can manage something...)
While analyzing the trivial differences between Parade and Cloak, Tatsuya began to calculate how to capture Lina. Taking a few injuries was not a problem for him.
(It's a bit rough, but I have no choice.)
After dodging the fifth dagger, Tatsuya made his decision. He wouldn't try to find the main body before a new phantom was formed, nor would he try to locate her Eidos directly in the information dimension. He decided to use a different method.
He pulled a cylinder, small enough to fit in one hand, from his jacket pocket and tossed it into the air. Lina wore a suspicious expression for a split second before her eyes went wide as she realized the true identity of the "can."
—A compact shrapnel grenade.
"Je—"
Perhaps she wanted to say "Jesus." But Lina couldn't finish the phrase. Begrudging even the time it took to speak a short word, she deployed an anti-material barrier.
(Fixed-Rate Deceleration.)
Simultaneously, Tatsuya activated an area-of-effect spell via Flash Cast to reduce the velocity of objects by a fixed percentage.
With the weak interference strength of a barrier created by the Virtual Magic Calculation Area, it was impossible to completely nullify the shrapnel grenade he had used himself. A "Stop" spell to reduce velocity to zero might lose to the kinetic energy of the shrapnel, causing the event alteration to fail. Hence, Fixed-Rate Deceleration. Even then, a large-scale alteration like reducing it to one-hundredth or one-thousandth was beyond his current capacity in this mode.
Weighing the specs of his self-prepared weapon against the interference power of his Virtual Magic Area, he released the spell at the very limit where success was guaranteed.
Fixed-Rate Deceleration could not stop the shrapnel. It wasn't that kind of magic to begin with.
Turning his body sideways and dropping to one knee, Tatsuya took the brunt of the attack. Fine shrapnel assaulted his shoulder, flank, thigh, and the arm he raised to protect his head. Almost none penetrated the artificial leather fabric reinforced with simple ballistic functions, but more than ten fragments dug shallowly into his unprotected legs and arms.
『Self-Restoration Sequence / Auto-Start』
(Self-Restoration Forced Stop)
Using the power of his will to halt the auto-repair that tried to activate automatically, Tatsuya immediately lunged at Lina, who had deployed a barrier to completely block the shrapnel.
He neutralized the new anti-material barrier Lina tried to form with decomposition magic. Taken completely by surprise, even Lina could offer no further resistance.
—No, she didn't offer resistance.
Seeing the shrapnel embedded in the arms and legs of Tatsuya as he leaped at her, she prioritized Tatsuya's condition over her own situation.
"Wait, Tatsuya! Are you okay!?"
"No particular problem."
"Don't lie! They're dug in like that, there's no way you're okay!"
"Injuries of this level will heal immediately. More importantly, Lina, shouldn't you prioritize grasping your own situation right now?"
Is this really the time to be worried about me? Tatsuya implied silently. Even for him, this development was unexpected; he had assumed Lina would resist the moment things turned out this way.
(Author's Note)
Lina got pushed back a little...
-------------------------------
I've already uploaded 40 chapters of this story on Patreon!
If you enjoy it, come check out the latest chapters in advance.
Here's the link:
[pat*eon*com/DaoistRoeoNQ]
Thank you so much for your support!!!