Genius Wizard who sees Rainbows- Chapter 130

#130. Element of Destruction (3)

—

“Element of Destruction?”

It was an unfamiliar term.

He had studied all known elements during Graham’s lectures, but the element of destruction wasn’t among them.

“Yeah, the Element of Destruction. At first, I thought it was complete nonsense.”

“For what reason?”

“…Isn’t it obvious? There’s no such thing among the elements known until now.”

A brief explanation followed.

All elements that exist in reality had already been discovered by scholars.

The interrelationships between them, as well as the compound elements formed through their combinations, had long been established.

“That’s the standardized elemental classification system used by mages today.”

It wasn’t much different from what Graham had taught him.

“So I thought the contents of the tablet were fake. Just some scribbles left by people of the old age to mess with future generations.”

“People of the old age?”

“Yeah. The world wasn’t always shaped like this. When you look at the ruins scattered throughout the Wasteland…”

Curiosa trailed off mid-sentence.

She shifted her eyes slightly, sending the message: *This isn’t information I promised to share with you.*

But soon after—

“Element of Destruction, destruction, destruction… I can see why they named it that.”

As she sensed the black orb in Ray’s palm, her breath hitched.

Curiosity and excitement churned within her like waves in a bowl.

*Destruction.*

Ray recalled the dictionary definition of the word.

[Destruction] [The act of breaking or shattering an object through great force.]

The black orb had literally destroyed Allager’s circle.

It blackened all four circles and reduced them to crumbling fragments.

*Feels similar.*

In Sector 50, it was common to see corpses discarded like scrap metal.

Gnawed by wild dogs or rats, bones and intestines often lay exposed, and the inner flesh would be blackened.

The stored data in his brain reacted in a chain.

The black mana rising skyward from the golem’s core after it was spent.

The dark clouds rushing in from upstream of the Elton River, pouring black rain.

Graham, who had died from eternal slumber disease caused by that black rain.

And now.

The condensed form of the Element of Destruction in his hand.

*There’s definitely a connection.*

His intuition told him so.

But when he considered it more carefully—

“…”

It was hard to directly connect the black rain with the Element of Destruction.

The rain droplets themselves didn’t contain any trace of the element.

Even the blackness of the rain didn’t match the density of this orb.

*It’s no different from regular rain. Aside from the color and the fact that it causes disease.*

That was true both from the elemental composition centered on water-type elements and from general research conducted outside the framework of magic.

It felt like there were a few more missing links in the chain.

“I wonder if there was more written on the tablet.”

“Oh, that—”

Curiosa instinctively started to answer but flared up instead.

*This cocky little brat, tch. I almost answered. The only info included in the trade was about Rainbow, the Doctor, and Murcred.*

She had felt it before: the brat standing in front of her would try to squeeze out her information with clever little tricks if she let her guard down.

*Tch!*

He was clearly underestimating her.

Mocking her.

Just look at that shameless face—pretending nothing’s wrong after doing something outrageous!

*Quite the actor. But I’m not so easily fooled.*

Though the nature of their elements had created a situation resembling equals, she wasn’t someone to be taken lightly.

*Do you know who I am?*

A high-ranking 4-circle mage, the continent’s foremost spatial jumper.

A free-spirited ruins explorer, seeker of the cursed art of binding.

Chairwoman of the Doctor Assassination Club and Cookie Slayer of the Shawnless Orphanage.

She was someone whose résumé would drop jaws.

“Don’t try any funny business. You think I’ll just hand over something like that?”

“I’ll tell you what my favorite food is.”

“The tablet only had the principle and method for destroying circles written on it. Yeah, anything else you want to know?”

“That’s enough for now.”

Curiosa nodded and waited quietly, not to disturb Ray’s thoughts.

Then, abruptly, she spoke.

“I doubt that was the only tablet.”

“What do you mean?”

“The last sentence of the tablet was leading into something new. If I recall correctly…”

She paused as if searching her memory, then spoke again.

“The Element of Creation.”

“Creation.”

Ray repeated the word.

It wasn’t a term he was hearing for the first time.

When discussing the birth of mana, Graham had used the term “Creator” instead of “God.”

Creation.

The act of bringing into existence what did not exist before. The conceptual opposite of destruction.

Creation brings something from nothing.

Destruction returns something to nothing.

*The Element of Destruction has been proven.*

The tablet had been real. Which meant the Element of Creation was likely real too.

───

A sharp thrill and curiosity bloomed in the boy’s chest.

How could the Element of Creation be made?

What could one do with it?

And, the Element of Creation—

*What color would it be?*

It would surely be a color he had never observed before.

Ray, without realizing it, asked with a slightly quickened voice,

“Where is the tablet with that next part written? Are there multiple tablets in that ruin?”

“Wow, I’m your personal storage unit now? Huh?”

“I’ll tell you my favorite color.”

“I only found that one tablet. I’ve explored quite a few ruins, but the only one with a tablet was that place on the outskirts of Sector 48. Yeah, anything else?”

“That’s enough for now.”

Ray added “ruins” and “Element of Creation” to his list of future investigation keywords.

Not long after, Curiosa, unable to suppress her curiosity, changed the subject.

“By the way… if you can control every kind of element, does that mean you can use any type of magic?”

“Hmm.”

Half true, half false.

While he could control all elements, the amount he could wield varied greatly by type.

The red mana, which occupied the largest volume of his circles.

Elements like fire, enhancement, amplification, and metal
—he could use those freely.

But there were others that barely occupied a speck in his circles and were hard to draw from the atmosphere.

In other words—

He couldn’t use spells that required large amounts of rare or hard-to-handle elements.

Spatial magic, like the kind Curiosa used, was a prime example.

“I can’t answer that.”

“…”

Curiosa raised a metaphorical middle finger at him in her heart.

“Yeah, I didn’t think you’d answer. Then what’s your favorite food and color?”

“Favorite food is chocolate.”

He consciously consumed it to replenish energy.

There were still several boxes in the car, a gift from a child in Sector 49.

“And your favorite color?”

“White.”

It had nothing to do with the color of his hair or eyes.

It was simply because the sun of Veronica shone white.

“Chocolate and white, huh…”

Curiosa repeated the words to herself.

Strictly speaking, calling them his *favorites* was a bit of a stretch.

The boy judged everything by efficiency, so he didn’t have a real concept of preferences.

But those were the food he consumed most often, and the color that most frequently caught his eye.

“Chocolate. White. Got it. I’ll remember that.”

Curiosa’s curiosity shrank a little with a small tremble.

But it wasn’t noticeable.

She had gathered so many new questions from this encounter that her curiosity had ballooned to many times its usual size.

“Then I guess if I gave you white chocolate, you’d die from joy.”

“…”

Ray ignored her and looked down at his palm.

*I need to get rid of this.*

The black orb.

The concentrated form of the Element of Destruction.

Even without additional mana input, it showed no sign of fading or weakening.

He inspected it thoroughly, but couldn’t find any structural gaps in the element.

*Seems like I can’t break it apart by force.*

He loosened his control briefly, and it began to float upward like a bubble.

For some reason, it felt like it would contribute to the black rain, so he snatched it back.

*It’s not going to vanish on its own.*

Maybe it would only disappear if it *destroyed* something.

He remembered how the orb shrank when it corroded Allager’s circles.

His decision was swift.

He flicked the orb into a pile of junk nearby.

*Bzzzzzzzt──!*

His hunch was right.

Within a 30-centimeter radius from the orb—

Everything with mass began to blacken, accompanied by a twisting sound from within.

And then—

*Ssssssssssssh──*

The matter dispersed into black particles.

It wasn’t like being burned by fire or electricity—it was a completely different form of annihilation.

“…”

Once it was all over—

Silence fell.

The debris within range had a large, circular chunk missing.

Seeing this, Curiosa took a step back and said,

“Don’t ever use that on me.”

“…”

A few seconds later—

“I said don’t. Ever.”

She emphasized again.

*
*
*

How much time had passed since Curiosa had been staring at a single point in the air?

*Crackle—*

Space split apart.

But the place beyond wasn’t the laboratory of Curiosa that Ray had seen before.

An unknown space rippling with a bluish light so intense it could almost numb the senses.

The floating body of Alager drifted inward and disappeared.

*Ziiik.*

The space closed its mouth.

Soon, the scenery regained a stillness as if nothing had ever happened.

Ray, who had been watching the entire scene unfold, asked:

“What was the meaning behind what you just did?”

Curiosa responded in a voice tinged with a trace of bitterness.

“Alager has a strong sense of pride. Far beyond what ordinary people imagine. If he realizes the Circle has been destroyed, he’ll almost certainly try to take his own life.”

It seemed plausible.

Considering the overwhelming arrogance of that abnormal being, it wasn’t hard to imagine he wouldn’t be able to accept the fact that he had become inferior.

“I did it to prevent that. Inside the space I just opened, time is completely frozen.”

Unless someone brings him out from the outside—

It meant Alager would exist forever in a state of unconsciousness.

Ray naturally followed up with another question.

“But you seem to know Alager pretty well. That’s a strange thing to say, considering the higher-ups haven’t seen each other in a long time.”

“Well, of course I do. The doctor’s experiments were done when we were children, and back then, our personalities wouldn’t have changed so—”

Curiosa abruptly cut himself off and looked at Ray.

Then, with a small sigh, she spoke softly.

“…Fine, I’ll tell you. I was going to hand over information about the doctor anyway.”

The story that followed could be summarized as this:

All the current executives of Murcred were once orphans adopted by the doctor.

Later, they were subjected to some kind of experiment that turned them into broken people who feel certain emotions with overwhelming intensity.

“It’s not something as simple as being a little sensitive. It’s like the valve controlling a specific emotion has been completely destroyed. Even if I don’t want it, the emotion just gushes out constantly.”

“And in your case, that emotion is curiosity.”

“Yeah. That’s exactly right. And in Allager’s case—”

Ray finished the sentence.

“Arrogance.”

“—Correct.”

The doctor’s experiments.

It aligned somewhat with what Ray had been expecting.

Walter, Curiosa, Alager—

None of the three were likely born with such twisted emotional cores from the beginning.

*‘The doctor has been conducting some kind of experiment.’*

From the time when the current Murcred executives were just children—

To the present, when he had given a necklace to Madam Lenia.