Mariano had originally been a Demon Swordsman from the Southern Kingdom. After being persecuted by the Holy See, he relocated to the Empire and found work with the Empire Council. He was, of course, a Mage, but his combat prowess was far beyond that of the glass cannon Mages of the north who could only sling projectiles and beams.

His cloak billowed as he moved. The rapier, typically disguised as a walking stick, was imbued with condensed Magic Power, granting it an indestructible property. Ether was converted into Wind Blades under his control, vibrating around the rapier at a supersonic frequency.

Yet, as he lunged toward the mysterious woman, his target vanished. The porcelain shards bursting through the air suddenly changed direction and shot toward him instead.

Mariano twisted his thrust into a sweep, deflecting all the dangerous shards. The deep, feminine voice spoke again, and turning his head, he finally got a clear look at his opponent.

’An Elf? No, a Half-Elf. And there’s something else interfering with this fight.’ Mariano could clearly pinpoint her position with both his eyes and ears, yet his rapier and his Magic both swung at empty air.

"I’d rather not do this here. Let’s make a deal. You consume this Forgetfulness Grass and hand over all the materials you’ve gathered. In return, I’ll spare your life. How about it?" The Half-Elf radiated absolute confidence.

She swung her curved saber in a wide arc, then launched herself forward, her long, slender legs propelling her with explosive force.

The old saying "villains die from monologuing" didn’t apply here. In the thick of battle, Mariano’s windpipe was slit open. Although he could cast without incantations, the excruciating pain made it impossible for him to focus his mind and channel his Magic Power. A moment later, his chest was sliced open, the tip of her blade missing his heart by a mere inch.

In a last, desperate struggle, Mariano twisted his body to pull the blade away from his heart.

A gurgling sound escaped his lips.

He quickly realized blood was flooding his airway. Even though his heart was intact, he wasn’t going to make it.

’Healing... a Potion. Useless. Against an enemy determined to kill me, there’s no time to heal!’ Mariano made a final, desperate decision. ’If I fall from the Mage Tower, my body will be discovered, and there’s still a chance the materials will be made public! This woman is likely an assassin—she can’t risk being witnessed!’

The dying man threw himself out of the nearest observation window, tumbling backward into the open air as his blood sketched a crimson arc.

Rorschach watched Mariano plummet. His first thought was that it was Bart, but the figure’s cloak obscured their build. In that split second, he used the Feather Fall Skill to catch the man. Mariano, his consciousness fading fast, pointed upward.

’Up? Is there danger up there?’

Rorschach understood the man’s meaning. By now, the head of his magic staff bore his own custom Runes. He gave it a twist with the thumb of his left hand, activating the stored Mirror Flower Water Moon. A thick vapor erupted from the staff.

To the dazed pedestrians below, Rorschach and Mariano seemed to melt into the mist at the base of the tower. When the mist cleared, they had vanished.

Rorschach didn’t relax his guard. His Mirror Flower Water Moon created a mere illusion to the naked eye, but under Arcane Vision, the Magic Aura clinging to the countless water droplets created the effect of a smoke bomb.

’I have to save him...’ The man’s injuries were far worse than Rorschach had imagined. A blue fluorescent light erupted from his hand, knitting the sundered windpipe back together before the remaining glow settled over the wound’s surface.

Rorschach had no time to worry about bacteria; he applied potent "Activation" and "Su Sheng" effects to Mariano’s chest.

SPLAT. After coughing up a mouthful of clotted blood, Mariano briefly regained consciousness and rasped, "Upstairs... female Half-Elf... curved saber... Mage Bart is in danger..."

Rorschach hadn’t shut the Mage Tower’s main doors completely. Peeking through the crack, he saw a curved saber spin through the air and embed itself in the ground where they had just been. An instant later, the Half-Elf appeared in front of the blade and yanked it free.

’First, I need to hide him...’ There was a space at an angle between the spiral staircase and the floor. Rorschach used his Mage’s Hand to push the man inside, then sealed the opening with the Stone Shaping Skill. At a glance, it looked as if the staircase had been built that way all along.

"His trace is still here... and where did this young man come from?"

Rorschach observed the newcomer. She wore a long skirt and a headscarf, the fabric a riot of intricate, brightly colored patterns. ’A Gypsy Girl?’ The only things that set her apart were her slightly pointed ears and her hair, which wasn’t wavy but the straight, smooth locks characteristic of the Elf Race.

She flicked the ends of her hair and stepped through the doorway.

’I can’t let her get close,’ Rorschach determined. He tightened his grip on his magic staff with one hand, while a small paper packet appeared in the palm of the other.

The curved saber spun through the Mage Tower’s wooden door, sending splinters flying everywhere.

’That damn Bart... doesn’t even put up any defenses...’

The saber embedded itself in the wall. ’Now!’

Rorschach crushed the packet of Oscillation Crystal powder in his hand, simultaneously infusing it with a massive amount of Magic Power.

A shockwave erupted, so powerful it made even Rorschach’s insides churn. It simultaneously forced the teleporting Half-Elf to materialize. Her teleportation, which relied on the enchanted curved saber, was interrupted mid-transit, and she coughed up blood in midair.

"What was that!" Her voice had finally lost its composure. Seeing that the boy was also reeling from the blast, she tensed her powerful thigh muscles and leaped, soaring directly over Rorschach’s head.

The Half-Elf’s body filled the open space in the center of the spiral staircase, revealing the sharp blades fixed to the soles of her shoes.

A Mage’s Armor usually protects against attacks from the side, not from above! She was about to succeed. Once those blades descended, the momentum of her fall would surely be enough to crush Rorschach’s skull.

Just then, the boy hurriedly raised his magic staff to parry. The clang of metal on metal was immediately followed by the Fireball Skill he activated.

He was still reeling from the Oscillation Crystal’s shockwave and couldn’t cast quickly, but his magic staff could!

A string of what could only be Elven curses rang out as the massive Fireball blew the roof of the Mage Tower to pieces, sending shattered bricks and wooden planks raining down.

Even without the teleportation from her Enchanted Curved Saber, her speed was incredible. As she fell, she managed to twist in mid-air with pure muscle control, dodging the brunt of the attack. Only the hem of her skirt and the sleeve on her left arm caught fire.

"You little brat..."

The Half-Elf seemed ready to spit a threat as she reached for the curved saber to cut Rorschach down.

But she’d grown careless. Rorschach had already shaken off the effects of the Oscillation Crystal-powered Forbidden Magic Roar. And while his staff was firing, he hadn’t been idle. A Molten Beam, no thicker than a pen, shot from his finger as his right hand swept across his entire field of vision.

"Huh?" 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

The Half-Elf’s slender waist and the arm reaching for the curved saber were sliced apart. The beam destroyed not only the attacker’s body but also the ground floor of the Mage Tower. The string of beads she wore could normally deflect light, misaligning her actual position from what an opponent saw, but she never expected Rorschach to play so dirty, unleashing two area-of-effect spells back-to-back at close range.

So much for relying on experience.

The Mage Tower standing in the city center collapsed with a thunderous roar. The Magic Circuits lining the tower’s interior finally sparked to life, causing the piled-up rubble to flicker with a dim, futile light before going dark, having accomplished nothing.

’Bart... you really didn’t put a single protective ward on your office, did you!’ Having just destroyed public property, Rorschach decided the blame wasn’t on him at all.

He used an enlarged Mage’s Hand to prop up a safe area for himself, shielding him from the collapsing structure. Then... he quickly dug the hidden man back out.

The wounds on the man’s chest and throat had stopped bleeding and now glowed with a faint blue light. On closer inspection, one could see new flesh rapidly knitting together within them. Mariano himself, however, had fallen unconscious, tightly clutching a Storage Bag in his hand.

As Rorschach propped up his body, he suddenly recalled the man’s last conscious words: "Mage Bart is in danger!"