Miserable Reincarnation

52 – Fifth Realm (1)

It was quiet. Eerily quiet.

“….”

But Rashaq couldn’t utter a word. Just before the blue light completely covered his vision, Rashaq stopped breathing.

There was mana, filled with electricity.

He could understand that much. It was rare, but there were humans who could imbue attributes into mana. But Rian didn’t stop there.

One, two, three, four… After condensing dozens of bolts of lightning.

Simultaneously, it erupted like fireworks.

It wasn’t aimed at people. The direction of the lightning was none other than the levitating stones. The levitating stones, in contact with magic power far beyond their limits, couldn’t withstand it for a moment and corroded away.

The next to be thrown off was the woman with shark teeth. She wasn’t idle either. Quickly, she took out a protective barrier as if covering her entire body. It might have been judgment born from countless battle experiences, but unfortunately, it was a futile effort.

If she hadn’t brought out the barrier, Lianne would have adjusted the force.

Kwagwagwak!

The condensed atmosphere exploded, and the woman was slammed against the concrete wall. Her body burst out like mosquitoes. Oil-mixed blood smeared the wall, and the malfunctioning implants squirmed like rags.

She didn’t die. Yeah, she didn’t die.

If this wasn’t the academy, the woman would have already died and remained.

Rashark felt fear. He had an excellent understanding of magic power compared to most wizards, and because of that, he understood how absurd Lianne’s actions were.

Controlling dozens of lightning bolts running wild, he commanded them completely, as if they were his own limbs.

Unbelievable computational speed. And the overwhelming mastery of magic power backing him up. How could someone with physical abilities be like that?

A wizard. He must be a wizard.

“…Unbelievable.”

Rashark couldn’t accept the fact that Lianne was in the same 4th rank as him. It was incomprehensible. All twisted emotions overwhelmed Rashark’s inner self.

“You…”

Inferiority.

Before giving up on honing his skills and coming out to the secular world, back then, he felt the same emotions. When he was overtaken by those who came in later than him, Rashark felt the limits of his own talent. Although to others, he seemed to possess overflowing talent, to him, it was different.

So, he came out to the secular world. No matter how much he honed his skills throughout his life, he realized that he couldn’t catch up with them.

And now, he faced talents surpassing even that.

“With your skills… Can’t you climb higher even without elixirs?”

Quaaa!

With a scream that pierced through, Rashaek drew upon his magical power. The air pressure surged, pushing back the electric currents.

This was no longer a mere test, at least according to Rashaek. It was about proving to himself that he wasn’t falling behind. And ridding himself of this dreadful emotion, even if only a little.

Wooong…!

Magic gathered in his right hand. The tattoos engraved all over his body rippled like tiger stripes. As the magical power intensified, the tattoos expanded in size accordingly.

“Much more grotesque than I imagined.”

Lian spoke with a deep voice, staring at Rashaek.

From the moment the potion was concocted, he had roughly anticipated it would come to this. Even if a fight didn’t break out right here, it would undoubtedly happen sooner or later.

Whether through a surprise attack at night or poisoning the food.

In some way, he would have tried to attack, aiming to steal the potion.

So, he firmly planted his feet here. To make sure it wouldn’t happen again.

He focused on his breath, pulling out the determination deeply rooted within him and wrapping it around his magical power. Then, the magical power began to take the form of electric currents. Not true electric currents in the literal sense; it was merely an imitation. Lian still hadn’t mastered the ability to dominate the surroundings with his magical power.

But for now, it was enough.

“Kraaa!”

Rashaek roared and lunged at Lian. The storm raged as the fur all over his body bristled eerily.

Lian slowly raised his fist. As he summoned his aura, the electric currents, previously wandering in the air, eagerly rushed into a single point.

Crack!

Lightning flames flickered in his right hand. A thrilling sensation, unprecedented to him, caused the corners of his mouth to involuntarily rise.

Thunk.

He took a step forward. The correct technique would be to draw power from the lower body, but that wasn’t what he did now. It was enough if he could hold his ground reasonably. As long as it was enough to make the guy kneel, it was sufficient.

Crack! The furrow of Rashaq’s forehead contorted in an indescribable manner. In Liann’s posture, he realized how he was being treated.

“Dare!”

Ripping apart. He had to come to the window since he needed access to the lab, but he never took the physical training lightly.

Rashaq exploded his muscles and thrust his fist.

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Thunder clashed with the wind.

For a very brief moment.

-Kwaaa!

Hand, arm, and shoulder collapsed instantly. The impact didn’t stop there; it spread throughout his entire body in an instant.

‘What is this-.’

Rashaq helplessly witnessed his collapsing body. Sensation hadn’t reached his brain yet. The reason Rashaq could properly ‘think’ was all because of that.

Forced to kneel, the moment the balance of the body completely collapsed.

Rashaq sensed it.

It would have been better to die.

Thududududuk…!

Rashaq couldn’t even scream. Like someone whose soul had departed, he sat down with his mouth agape. Liann observed him like that and collected the magic.

Thududuk! At the same time, the floating stones in the air all crashed down.

A total of 300.

All of them were blue.

*****

Liann harnessed the magic, awaiting the appearance of Mikella.

There was no need to wait any longer. Mikelah swiftly opened the door to the testing room and entered. As if revealing her emotions, there were cracks in her sharp demeanor.

Although she could have shown a displeased expression at the messy state of the laboratory, her gaze was fixed solely on Lian.

“It would be better to take them to the hospital quickly.”

Mikelah said without even giving a glance to the fallen ones. She firmly grabbed Lian’s hands.

“You.”

Mikelah brought her face close, almost touching noses, and spoke.

“When can we start?”

“…Excuse me?”

“The research.”

Snap!

As Mikelah gestured with her hand, the bodies of the mercenaries, who were scattered haphazardly, were thrown out of the laboratory.

Baren quickly caught them and hurriedly ran out of the laboratory. Judging from the sound of sirens coming from not far away, it seemed that he had already called an ambulance before the collision.

“I will attach no blame to what happened today. The big corporations won’t just sit still, but I will take responsibility for that much.”

Mikelah muttered to herself and added, “Of course, they won’t regain their sanity. I played a little trick on their brains.”

“…”

Lian stared at Mikelah without immediately responding. In her eyes, a similar kind of madness to Aliana’s was flowing.

At first listen, it sounded eerie, but clearly, there was goodwill behind it.

And it was an overt goodwill, to the extent of openly challenging the big corporations.

Perhaps it was because Lian’s abilities had far exceeded the category that Mikelah had anticipated, rather than goodwill towards the final target.

The impatience evident in his tone was proof enough.

Mikella knew that something was off with her condition. She was much more excited than usual. But she didn’t care.

She had managed to levitate not just 100, but a whopping 300 floating stones. A talent even the Rayceir Matop had never seen before. Inferiority complex? Maybe if she were a mage, but there was no reason for her to feel inferior to a physical ability user.

The successful completion of the research. That was the most important thing to Mikella right now.

That’s why she had to capture Lian at all costs.

“If I catch this guy, I can definitely succeed. No, it has to be him.”

That’s all. The research period, which was expected to take over half a year, could be dramatically shortened. Lian was only one step away from Rank 5.

“There are conditions.”

“I’ll listen. If it’s something I can do.”

The fact that he eagerly nodded as soon as Lian finished speaking was also because of that.

“I have an acquaintance who is interested in magic power compatibility research, so I was wondering if-“

“If you just write a few oaths, I can create an access permit right away. Of course, you’ll have to reveal who your acquaintance is in advance.”

“….”

A response that seemed to be waiting. In other words…

“He already knew that there was a company behind me.”

He had known from the beginning that all the research subjects were related to a big company, yet he hadn’t shown any reaction until now.

Perhaps he had anticipated that the subjects would add access permits as an additional condition from the start.

He was a much more cunning person than she had thought.

“Is there anything else?”

“No, there isn’t.”

Michela nodded as Rian extended her hand for a handshake.

“All right. Let’s start as soon as possible, whenever it suits you.”

*****