Jared screamed, feeling as if something welling up from within was clawing at his insides. His body burned, so hot and painful that he thought he might turn to ash and crumble away.
“Ah, wonderful, do you understand, Jared? The magic power you possess is far too abnormal. It’s not a quantity a human should have,” Leonard said, his voice filled with delight. He continued to rummage inside Jared’s body, his arm still there as if searching for something. Jared’s screams intensified.
“Please stop, Lord Leonard! If this continues, Jared will be…!”
“Be quiet. He won’t die from this. Look instead. You should be able to feel it too, Jared Murphy’s strong magic power…”
Milina clung to Leonard’s leg, pleading, but her pleas were ignored. Trembling with joy, a rapturous expression on his face, Leonard’s attention was entirely focused on Jared.
“Yes, yes, release it all, Jared Murphy!”
Another sound of something breaking echoed. *No, I can’t let them break me any further. If they do, I won’t be me anymore.*
“Release it, Jared!”
With a *crack*.
“Ah, ah, ahhhhh, GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
Another scream, the count no longer known, erupted. This time, the girls turned away.
“F-fuhahahahahahahaha! Wonderful, truly wonderful! To think you had this much, this much magic power!”
Before Jared, his magic power fully unleashed, Leonard reveled in his joy. The magic power rising from the boy was double, or even more than, his own as the Commander of the Royal Mage Corps. Magic power is everything for using magic. However, magic power capacity is not everything. How well one can utilize their magic power determines everything about a magician.
A magician who can’t even master half of their twenty magic powers is inferior to a magician who can fully master all ten of their magic powers. But in modern times, the quality of magicians is far lower. How many people can truly master their own magic power? Even someone like Jared, who possesses monstrous magic power, would only be considered “an excellent magician” in an era when magic was at its peak. Leonard knows. Though only from hearsay, in the age of gods, magicians who stood at the height of power were comparable to gods. They say they not only made god-killing possible but even commanded gods. Leonard wants to create such a magician in the modern era, using the boy Jared Murphy.
“Now, Jared, let’s ascend to greater heights, you and I. Let’s build a kingdom of magicians, a world not ruled by non-magicians—What?”
“…H-ha…”
Leonard felt something was off. He was trembling with joy, so he was late to notice, but he managed to realize it. Jared wasn’t screaming anymore.
“Why? There should still be pain, and you haven’t fully released all your magic power.”
“…H-haha… Hahaha…”
“Why are you laughing? Why can you laugh, Jared Murphy!”
“Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!”
Jared laughed loudly, as if feeling no pain at all. His demeanor was far from sane, and the girls let out small screams of fear. Even Leonard felt uneasy. He withdrew the arm that had been piercing the boy’s chest and unconsciously took a few steps back.
“Have you lost your mind due to the heightened magic power?”
“Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha… Hah.”
After laughing boisterously, Jared’s laughter stopped, his expression vanished, and he stood still. Then, he slowly raised his right arm, pointing his index finger at Leonard.
“What… are you…”
“—Cursed Demonic Eyes, defile and taint!”
“Wha—”
It was a miracle that he dodged it instinctively. A sharp flash of light was released from the fingertips with Jared’s short incantation. The intensity the light was so blinding, even for a moment, assaulting everyone in the room. Leonard, sensing immediate danger, narrowly dodged to the side. The flash passed him by, and the instant it struck the door behind him, the door, which should have been made of iron, turned to stone, crumbled into sand, and collapsed.
“Impossible!?”
Leonard cried out in shock and stumbled backward, his body trembling. His eyes darted between the collapsed door and Jared.
“How can something so absurd happen!” he roared with all his might.
“What did you do? No, what happened, Jared! This room is enchanted with a magic-nullifying array. And yet, why, why, why can you use magic!”
“Are you sure?”
“About what?”
He asked in confusion, not understanding the meaning of the question. Then, Jared curled his lips upwards and smirked with amusement.
“Aren’t you going to run away from me, Leonard Gallagher?”
