An arrogant brat had appeared out of the shadows.
No, that wasn't right. Looking at her, "brat" was a far too charitable description for whatever lived inside that small frame. My Telekinesis was screaming—labeling her a threat of the highest magnitude—yet my eyes saw nothing but a pint-sized girl. The dissonance was jarring.
What was my play here? My condition was, to put it mildly, pathetic. I had just finished absorbing three distinct skills, and the strain was pushing me toward the brink of collapse. If I could just deploy the Glowsaver—or hell, even a Guarlion—this would be over in seconds. But my spatial hangar was empty of heavy ordinance; I'd left all my mobile weapons back at the White Star. All I had were a few specialized firearms and gadgets I'd scavenged from various mafiosos and terrorists over the years. Could those even scratch someone like her?
"Evangeline?! Is that you?" Ayaka's voice cracked the silence of the night.
"Good evening, Chizuru Naba. Ayaka Yukihiro," the girl replied coolly.
"Chachamaru too...?" Chizuru added, her eyes widening.
I glanced at Chizuru. "You know them?"
"Yes. They're our classmates. That's Evangeline A.K. McDowell, and the girl behind her is Chachamaru Karakuri."
"...What? You're telling me that kid is a middle-schooler?"
I stared at the one called Evangeline. She looked like she barely belonged in primary school, let alone middle school. And yet, my instincts continued to howl, warning me that she was a predator.
"You!" Evangeline snapped, her eyes flashing with irritation. "Did you just call me a kid?"
"Now, now, Master," Chachamaru interjected, her voice strangely flat. "It is unwise to point out the physical flaws of others."
"Indeed," Chizuru added with a slight smirk. "Master has quite the complex regarding her stature."
I turned my attention to the girl named Chachamaru. Girl? No. Looking at the mechanical joints protruding from her ears, she was clearly a cyborg or an android. But this was Japan in the early 2000s; cyborg technology this advanced shouldn't exist. This confirmed it—I was in a world of fiction I didn't recognize.
"Gah! Whose side are you on, you bucket of bolts?!" Evangeline barked.
"I am your loyal servant, Master. Naturally."
"Hmph. Fine." Evangeline sighed, turning her piercing gaze back to me. "You. If you consider yourself a mage, surely you've heard the titles. The Dark Evangel. The Doll Master. The Immortal Mage. The Bad News. The Apostle of Calamity. The Child-like Dark Lord."
I blinked. "No. Never heard of a single one of 'em."
I had literally just arrived in this world. Did she expect me to have her fan-club newsletter?
"...What?" Her jaw dropped slightly. "You possess a mana pool larger than even the Thousand Master, yet you claim ignorance of my name? What backwater hole did you crawl out of?"
"Mana pool?"
If she was using that term, she was talking about the energy required for magic. In RPG terms: MP, or Intelligence. I hadn't known magic existed until thirty minutes ago, and I'd only possessed it myself for ten. And yet, she claimed I had an enormous amount.
Wait. One of the "perks" of my reincarnation was an innate talent for magic. Since I'd landed in the Super Robot Wars universe first, that talent had manifested as my SP Boost skill and a massive SP pool. Was SP effectively the same as mana in this world?
I flicked my eyes toward her, pulling up her Status Window.
SP: 58.
That was... incredibly low. Was my theory wrong? I scanned her skill list: Magic (Ice), Magic (Dark), Magic (Shadow), Doll Master, Dark Magic. It was an impressive repertoire. I wasn't sure what the difference between "Dark Magic" and "Magic (Dark)" was yet, but her titles were clearly backed by raw versatility.
Her stats, however, were abysmal. All of them—except for her Skill stat. At 259, her technical proficiency was nearly on par with my own. Beyond that, she looked weak.
"So, you truly do not know me?"
Evangeline sounded genuinely deflated. I simply gave her a small, silent nod.
"...Very well. Regardless, any mage who illegally infiltrates Mahora Academy must be apprehended and turned over to the old man. Consider it a mercy that you'll learn of your foolishness from me. Chachamaru, stay out of this. This boorish brat needs an education in worldly affairs."
"Understood, Master."
So, it was coming to blows. I grit my teeth. How much could I handle in this state? To hell with keeping a low profile; if I didn't go all out, I was going to get buried.
"Wait, Evangeline!" Ayaka stepped between us, shielding me. "What do you think you're doing to Axel?!"
"She's right," Chizuru added, stepping up beside Ayaka. "I won't stand by and watch you bully a child."
"...Fools," Evangeline hissed. "Do you really think this creature is what he appears to be? Chachamaru, restrain them."
"Acknowledged."
The cyborg girl's thrusters hissed as she blurred, appearing behind the girls in a flash.
"Not so fast!" Ayaka spun, her stance shifting instantly. "Yukihiro-style Aikijujutsu—Sekkanka!"
Ayaka reached out to intercept Chachamaru's hand, but the android anticipated the move, catching Ayaka's wrist in a crushing grip.
"My apologies," Chachamaru said tonelessly. "But my database contains the combat data for every martial art known to man."
"Ah—!"
With a swift, clinical motion, Chachamaru pinned both Ayaka and Chizuru to the ground.
"Hmph. That's better," Evangeline muttered, stepping toward me.
"What do you plan to do with them?" I asked, my voice dropping.
"Don't worry. Once I've dealt with you, I'll simply use a memory-erasure spell to wipe the last few hours. They'll wake up tomorrow to their ordinary lives."
"I won't let you!" Ayaka shouted from the ground.
"Quiet," Evangeline snapped. "You have neither the need nor the ability to step into our world."
She wasn't lying. I could see the cold sincerity in her eyes. Fine. As long as I won, they'd be safe.
"You're holding back, aren't you?" I provoked.
The gap between the lethal intent my Telekinesis sensed and the physical threat she was currently projecting was too large. Her stats had to be suppressed somehow—a seal, perhaps?
Then again, I wasn't exactly at peak performance either. My body was still screaming from the skill absorption, and I was still adjusting to this tiny, shrunken frame.
"Hoh? You noticed?" Evangeline's eyes sharpened, as if trying to look through me. "But I could say the same for you. You look like you're about to collapse."
We began to circle each other, the distance closing inch by inch.
"Accel! Focus!"
The Spirit Commands surged. My speed doubled; my perception narrowed until the world seemed to slow down. I blurred into motion, appearing behind Evangeline and bringing my hand down in a lethal strike toward her neck—
Cling.
I pulled back at the last possible microsecond. My instincts flared as I caught the faint, silvery glint of something in the moonlight.
"Impressive. You noticed my strings."
"Strings? Ah... the Doll Master skill."
Evangeline smirked. "So you don't know me, but you recognize my craft. You're becoming quite interesting. But tell me... are you sure you want to stay right there?"
I scanned the area. Nothing. Wait—there.
"Another facet of the Doll Master," she whispered.
I was standing in the center of a spiderweb. Razor-thin wires had been woven around me during our brief exchange. They weren't ordinary thread; they were likely high-tensile steel or mana-infused fiber. They were exactly like the Gleipnir wires on my Glowsaver—deadly, invisible, and ready to shred anything they touched.
"Now, what will you do? If you've run out of tricks, it's time to take you to the old man."
I didn't know who this "old man" was—likely her superior—but if I went with her, Chizuru and Ayaka would lose their memories. These two had risked their lives to protect me. I wasn't about to pay them back by letting someone rewrite their minds.
"Sorry, kid. I'm not going anywhere. Chizuru, Ayaka—close your eyes again."
"What? But—"
"Just do it!"
They squeezed their eyes shut. I focused, ignoring the wires, and snapped my fingers.
"What are you—?"
Evangeline's smirk faltered as a rift tore open in the air beside me.
"A shadow-storage spell?" she muttered, her brow furrowing. "No... this feels different."
"Let's see if you've seen this one. Slime!"
A torrent of silver mercury erupted from the spatial hangar. The slime didn't just emerge; it exploded outward, its tentacles lashing out like whips in every direction. It tore through the magic-infused wires, absorbing the mana and shredding the steel as if it were wet paper.
"Impossible!" Evangeline gasped, leaping backward. "Those wires were reinforced with my own mana! Even under the seal, they shouldn't be that easy to break!"
"My turn. Dance, Slime!"
"A slime?! A no-chant summoning?!" She gritted her teeth, narrowly dodging a liquid-silver lash that cracked the pavement where she'd been standing a moment before.
I was holding back. I didn't want to kill a classmate of the girls, but I needed to end this.
"Magic Archer—Ten Ice Arrows!"
Evangeline reached into her cloak, smashed a glass vial on the ground, and chanted in a tongue that sounded like ancient Latin. Ten bolts of frozen death materialized and screamed toward me.
I didn't even move.
The slime surged in front of me, flattening into a shimmering, reflective wall. The ice arrows slammed into the silver surface and were instantly neutralized, their energy absorbed into the mass.
As the silver wall receded, I saw Evangeline standing there, her composure finally shattered, staring at the slime in utter disbelief.
[STATUS WINDOW]
Name: Axel Almar
Level: 38
PP: 625
Stats: Melee: 262 | Ranged: 282 | Skill: 272 | Defense: 272 | Evasion: 302 | Hit: 322
SP: 462
Ace Bonus: SP Boost (Spend SP to increase Slime performance)
Spirit Commands: Accel (4), Effort (8), Focus (16), Strike (30), Zeal (32), Love (48)
Skills:
EXP Up
SP Boost (SP Up Lv.9, SP Regen, Concentration)
Telekinesis Lv.10
Attacker
Gunfight Lv.9
Infight Lv.9
Morale Limit Break
Geass (Grey)
Magic (Fire)
Magic (Shadow)
Magic (Summoning)
???
???
Kills: 376
-------------------------------
I've already uploaded 70 chapters of this story on Patreon!
If you enjoy it, come check out the latest chapters in advance.
Here's the link:
[patreon.com/Greyhounds]
Thank you so much for your support!!
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"