Genius Wizard who sees Rainbows- Chapter 110

#110. The Outbreak of War (4)

 

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**Intermediate Combatants of Murcred.**

Malik and Stoney.

They tapped the barrier that appeared before them, showing rare expressions of surprise.

“It’s quite sturdy.”

“I saw it from a distance earlier, but this isn’t ordinary skill.”

Then, they slowly turned their heads toward Ray.

“You ordered us to push him to the brink of death.”

“Allagger will enjoy this.”

**Bang!**

A sound like a gunshot erupted from beneath their feet, and Malik and Stoney’s figures vanished.

In the blink of an eye, the two men closed in on Ray from both sides. They adjusted the grip on their daggers, switching from a reverse grip to a standard one, and slashed down in an X-shaped attack.

**Whoosh!**

The air was crushed, letting out an eerie scream.

“Fast.”

“Quick reflexes.”

The two men turned their gazes to the left.

There, the boy had already slipped away, widening the gap by several steps. In his grasp, a vivid blue current crackled.

**Crackle!**

Lightning flashed. It shot forward.

A wall rose in front of the two men.

But it could not match the speed of the current.

Seeing the sinister blue light approaching, the two men twisted their heads with all their strength.

**Splurt—!**

“……”

“……”

Malik and Stoney each touched their ears—right for Malik, left for Stoney.

More than half of their ears, including the earlobes, had been sliced away.

**Drip.**

The moment a drop of blood hit the ground—

**Bang!**

The two men charged toward the boy.

**Clang! Clang! Clang!**

Five blades, reinforced with mana for increased durability, danced chaotically through the air.

Their edges gleamed, poised to sever life the moment any opening appeared.

As Ray blocked the relentless assault, he focused on the presence behind the barrier.

—Brother! The tire change is complete!

—Hurry and get on! Staying here will only get in the way!

The sound of a container door closing and an engine starting could be heard.

—Ray! Please, come back unharmed!

A girl’s voice trembled with unease.

**Clang! Clang! Clang!**

As Ray fought, he recalled the last glimpse he had of Veronica before the barrier rose.

To be honest, he couldn’t remember the expression she had worn.

He hadn’t had the presence of mind to notice.

All his focus had been on creating the barrier.

‘Using only the mana from my circle, I couldn’t generate a large quantity of gray mana.’

While McCurley bought time with gunfire, Ray had drawn in ambient mana, converting it into a large supply of gray mana.

Most of it had been used to form the barrier.

The remainder—

Was still bound within him.

**Boom!**

As Ray stepped back, stomping the ground, the gray mana surged forward.

It reached his soles, then spread along the ground, racing toward the feet of his enemies.

**Rumble!**

A two-meter-high pillar erupted beneath the two men.

“…!”

“…!”

Their stances broke, and they were momentarily lifted into the air.

Ray generated blue lightning, taking precise aim.

Among elemental spells, lightning magic had the fastest casting speed but the lowest destructive power.

But if he increased the output and targeted a vital point, it was more than enough to be fatal.

Moreover, his opponents lacked white mana, meaning they couldn’t use defensive measures.

Just as he was about to fire—

**Fwoosh!**

Flames burst from the mouths of the two men, engulfing Ray.

Dodging wasn’t difficult, but it disrupted his aim.

**Zap—**

**Fwoosh—**

As the electricity and flames faded, Malik and Stoney landed back on the ground.

This time, they touched their opposite ears.

More than half was gone again.

Dripping blood from both ears, Malik spoke.

“He’s aiming relentlessly for our eyes. If we hadn’t dodged, we’d be blind by now.”

“Sorry, I can’t hear you well with this ringing in my ears.”

“We need to go all out.”

“Electricity?”

“All-out.”

“Yeah, we need to be cautious of electric magic.”

The two men kicked off the ground.

The boy did the same.

**Vroooom—!**

Listening to the sound of the departing vehicle’s engine, the boy refocused his scattered mind entirely on battle.

*Clang! Clang! Clang!*

Blades rained down on him without respite.

The clash of metal and flying sparks filled the air.

And within it, the boy danced.

His blood boiled.

At first, his purpose had been to buy time for his allies to evacuate and to test his own strength.

But the deeper he immersed himself in combat, the more he felt his lips curling into a smile.

‘It’s been a while.’

Since his battle with Walter—

It had been too long since he last fought using his body to its full potential like this.

The crimson mana of the ring and the circles surged through his entire body, stirring an unending euphoria and bloodlust.

His muscles twitched, his pupils dilated.

Energy overflowed between his joints.

Perhaps his body had been craving this all along.

And then—

‘I have to kill them.’

The deeper he sank into his rising fury—

‘Pierce their hearts.’

—The crimson mana flared even stronger.

‘Make them spill blood.’

As the tide of his rage surged violently, the tide of battle shifted rapidly in his favor.

Then, at a certain moment—

“……!”

The boy flinched, hurriedly suppressing a portion of his mounting fury.

A brief hesitation.

The enemy did not miss the opening.

Switching from defense to offense, they launched a fierce assault on Ray.

*Clang! Clang! Clang!*

Defending himself wasn’t difficult.

He could see the mana flashing inside their bodies, revealing the movements of the martial artists.

However, the reason he had hesitated was—

‘That was dangerous.’

He had nearly been swallowed whole by his own rage.

Was it due to his significant mental exhaustion from consecutive large-scale spells?

…No. Even so, he wasn’t in the same extreme state of depletion as he had been in Sector 49.

*Clang—!*

What troubled him was the realization that he had been enjoying his own rage.

He hadn’t intentionally restrained the wolf called “anger” with its leash.

‘…No.’

At first, he had.

But at some point, he had let go.

Even though he knew that, the moment he let his guard down, the beast would sink its fangs into his throat.

It had been truly dangerous.

With Veronica absent, if he had let himself be consumed by his fury, he would have undoubtedly faced a dire situation—just like before.

*Clang—!*

Amid the fierce exchange of blows,

A surge of gray mana slithered across the ground like a snake.

*Crunch!*

Stone spikes, the size of a palm, suddenly burst from the ground.

Reading the mana’s movements, Ray evaded them with the slightest motion.

‘Gray mana.’

Graham came to mind.

Veronica’s benefactor.

The man who had taught Ray magic.

And—

‘A Third Circle Mage.’

In the latter half of his life, Graham had formed his third mana circle, filled entirely with gray mana.

Which meant that, at the time of constructing his Circle, his nature and disposition were deeply intertwined with gray mana.

…And yet—

Gray was one of the colors Ray had never been able to associate with a specific emotion.

It made sense.

Gray mana never settled in a person’s vessel alone.

‘It was always accompanied by other emotions.’

That made it difficult to deduce its exact nature.

He had observed one thing, though—

When gray mana settled inside a vessel, the other emotions present became unable to move freely.

Emotions usually interacted like mixed paints—blending, pushing, and pulling against each other.

But gray mana was different.

It never blended.

It never yielded.

It simply *sat there.*

Like dried paint.

Like an immovable stone.

A lump of gray mana always resided at the core of Graham’s vessel.

(“What *is* it?”)

Ray had been intensely curious about the emotion linked to gray mana.

Whenever he took lessons from the old man or tended to him, he had observed him obsessively.

But he had found nothing.

The old man hardly ever expressed emotions through his actions.

A sense of frustration, a hint of impatience.

(“…Why?”)

(“Do you wish to ask me something?”)

Looking straight into Graham’s eyes, he had asked:

(“How can you be so calm? Always. No matter the situation. Even knowing that death is right in front of you. It’s not that you *can’t* feel emotions like I do, is it?”)

It was the conversation they had shared in Graham’s final moments.

The old man had smiled faintly.

(“I do not lack emotions.”)

(“Then what is it?”)

(“Ah, since you’ve been studying vocabulary, perhaps this word will be fitting.”)

*Control.*

That was the word Graham had spoken.

He had explained that it wasn’t that he lacked emotions—rather, he merely controlled them.

(“It is what people commonly call *equanimity*.”)

At the time, Ray hadn’t fully understood.

Lacking emotions.

Suppressing emotions.

What exactly was the difference?

But now, he thought he understood—

‘I must control my emotions.’

And the role gray mana played in his vessel.

*Clang! Clang!*

Maintaining his fight, Ray deliberately adjusted the level of rage he summoned.

He allowed his hostility toward the enemy to burn—only as much as necessary for battle.

Whenever a surge of anger threatened to take over in response to an attack, he forcefully yanked back the leash.

‘Good. This level of anger is completely under my control.’

Realizing that it couldn’t act freely, his rage settled down.

Ray repeatedly provoked and restrained it, steadily taming the beast.

And with each cycle, the ‘stable’ level of his rage increased.

*Wooooong—!*

That wasn’t the only change.

He suddenly felt the lump of gray mana in his grasp softening.

‘It’s… melting?’

Like hardened paint dissolving—

He wasn’t sure why it was happening.

But one thing was clear:

*Crunch!*

He could now wield gray mana with unprecedented ease.

“……!”

“……!”

Sharp stone spikes shot up from the ground, aiming straight for Malik and Stoney’s throats.

The two men frantically threw themselves backward.

*Clang—!*

Ray closed in.

In that instant, the battle flipped again.

“Guh…!”

“Ugh…!”

Malik and Stoney groaned.

Ray’s attacks had lost some of their initial overwhelming force—

But the never-ending platforms and spikes erupting beneath their feet suffocated them, preventing them from catching their breath.

It felt as though they were surrounded by dozens of enemies.

*Clang! Clang!*

*Crunch—!*

They tried using gray mana to cast spells in return—

But Ray dodged every single one, as if he were reading their movements in advance.

And worse—

“…….”

“…….”

Their eyes met, filled with alarm.

‘His skill is improving.’

‘He’s absorbing our techniques.’

His proficiency was increasing.

In real time.

Rapidly.

When they had first seen the massive stone barrier he conjured, they assumed he had long been trained in earth magic.

But they had been wrong.

The stone pillars he had created at the start were raw and unrefined.

Even his later spells, though formidable, lacked polish.

Their instincts as longtime earth mages had told them so.

‘That was why we concluded—’

‘The barrier was the work of an artifact.’

That he was an amateur, clumsily imitating their craft.

*Clang! Clang!*

“Huff…!”

“Guh…!”

But now, his earth magic was nearly flawless.

Goosebumps rose. Danger loomed.

Their instincts screamed:

This boy—

If left alive—

Would become a catastrophe for the organization.

They had to kill him here.

‘Allager ordered us to only gravely wound him, but—’

‘This place is beyond Allager’s sight—!’

And in that moment—

*Shlck—!*

The clash of weapons ceased.

Ray leaped backward, creating distance.

The two men’s eyes widened in disbelief as they looked down.

“…….”

“…….”

Sharp stone spikes protruded from their chests like spears.

They barely turned their heads—

To see two massive spikes stretching from the distant ground.

“Ghk…!”

“Ugh…!”

And as their vision blurred, one final thought crossed their minds—

That spell—at that distance—

Even *we* couldn’t have done it…

Their composure shattered.

*Boom—!*

 

 

 

 

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