Rein hurried forward to check on the twins—

  but before he could take another step, LIZ’s message flared into view.

  [LIZ: Too late, Rein! The twins are already dead. Scans confirm traces of Poison Bolt in both of their chests!]

  “Poison Bolt… used to take down the Twin Vipers, only to stage their corpses in the snow like this?”

  Rein frowned deeply.

  “No swaying, no loss of muscle tension... what’s the point of this theater?

  [LIZ: Point one—making you look like the bad guy. Point two—]

  The message window exploded into a massive crimson overlay.

  [LIZ: TRAP!]

  At a distance of less than five feet, ten Magic Missiles burst into existence out of thin air before the twins’ corpses—

  all fired simultaneously, executed through flawless Delay Casting.

  Rein snapped his left hand.

  The "snow umbrella" didn't just fall—it recalculated its vector, slamming into a defensive lock a split second before the first missile connected.

  The impacts roared like a storm of iron rain.

  The shield shattered.

  Several missiles punched through the fractures—

  but Rein was no longer there.

  He needed only a fraction of a second—because he’d been preparing for hours.

  The entire time he’d been walking, he’d been continuously casting Haste and Might Enhance—training his body as he moved.

  Just today alone, he’d downed five bottles of that awful-tasting mana potion.

  Now—

  even a flick of his toe was enough to trigger Haste instantly.

  His body launched forward at blistering speed, straight toward the massive tree behind the twins.

  Rein thrust out his right hand, releasing tightly compressed energy.

  “Shotgun!”

  The thunderous blast of mana pellets detonated.

  The bark of the ancient tree tore apart as if struck by a high-pressure explosion.

  A black silhouette burst out from behind it—

  propelled by Haste.

  In the blink of an eye, it shrank into a tiny speck swallowed by the darkness.

  Rein watched the fleeing shadow, his eyes gleaming as he murmured,

  “Went through all the trouble of walking till my legs hurt… waited for the fish to bite the hook…”

  He smiled coldly at the corner of his mouth.

  “And now you think you can dive back into the water?

  Not that easy.”

  “LIZ,” he mumbled.

  “Let’s go fishing.”

  A radiant blue CUBE materialized in his left hand.

  Runic glyphs carved into each face spun in opposing directions at extreme speed, warping the surrounding air until it screamed.

  [LIZ: All systems green! Hold your breath, Rein—we’re about to break a record.]

  [LIZ: Vortex Drive, ignition!]

  A brilliant flash erupted from the CUBE, bathing the surrounding snowfield in a soft blue glow.

  Rein’s figure vanished from the spot in an instant.

  A moment later, a massive pressure wave detonated outward, blasting the snow from the ground and forcing it to coil upward into a murky white dome that swallowed the area whole.

  High above the darkened sky, falling snowflakes were torn apart by something moving at over three hundred kilometers per hour—

  leaving behind a long, pale vapor trail that carved through the air like a meteor flying against its destined path.

  Elsewhere, the black-clad killer was tearing through the atmosphere like an arrow loosed from a bow.

  Grinding his teeth, he cast Vortex and Haste simultaneously through Dual-Hand Casting, desperately trying to widen the distance between himself and the irritating variable known as Rein.

  Do not reveal your identity under any circumstances.

  If the strike fails—retreat immediately.

  That was the order he lived by.

  A silver-iron mask concealed his face.

  He wrapped his entire body in unique-grade Light Armor, which ordinary offensive spells cannot penetrate.

  But his greatest confidence lay in the Force Field enveloping his form—a Stratosphere-tier defensive spell.

  This translucent barrier possessed an energy density several times greater than standard Magic Armor.

  He believed that with power like this, a mere first-year student could not catch up.

  That certainty shattered.

  A figure clad in pristine white—sharp against the killer’s own black cloak—suddenly appeared directly in his flight path, like a bodiless specter waiting ahead.

  “Impossible!”

  The scream tore out from beneath the iron mask.

  His speed had already reached the Stratosphere threshold—yet that boy had intercepted him as if he had known the future.

  Roaring in frustration, the shadow figure twisted sharply and dove toward the ground, skirting around the golden dome of the Department of Elemental Magic before plunging into the dense forest beyond, hoping to use darkness and terrain to vanish.

  His black form zigzagged through pine branches with advanced movement techniques, speed never faltering as he slipped past massive trunks one after another.

  Yet no matter which direction he turned—

  no matter how he used the forest to block sight—

  Rein’s white silhouette appeared before him every single time.

  It felt less like pursuit—

  and more like someone already standing at the destination of every future step.

  “What the hell… how are you doing this!?”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  He cried out in disbelief.

  Everything he trusted—his speed, his escape routes, the distance he’d memorized—was being peeled apart by a single first-year mage.

  “How can a Troposphere Master pull this off!?"

  "Who the hell are you, you little mutt…!”

  The words hissed through clenched teeth behind the iron mask.

  “…Tch. You forced my hand.”

  his wrist snapped forward.

  A Poison Bolt formed through high-speed Gesture Casting, aimed to end Rein here and now.

  The plan was already taking shape—

  If they found Rein’s corpse later, they would conclude that the boy had killed the twins and then fled into the forest, only to succumb to poison in agony.

  But—

  in the fraction of a second before the Poison Bolt was released—

  the white-uniformed figure vanished.

  And reappeared directly in front of him.

  The air exploded.

  A fist—layered with Might Enhance, density compressed to rival forged steel—crossed the last inch of space and struck the iron mask dead center.

  There was no time to evade.

  The green magic circle forming in his hand shattered instantly as his mana was suppressed.

  Destructive force, accelerated through velocity, surged—

  briefly reaching beyond a Silver Warrior.

  For an instant, time in the forest seemed to freeze.

  The impact collided with the Force Field, unleashing a thunderous boom that echoed through the once-silent woods.

  A perfect circular shockwave expanded from the point of contact, kinetic energy rippling outward and rattling the surrounding pine branches—

  sending the snow clinging to them cascading down all at once, like a white nightmare unfolding.

  The blow was overwhelming.

  The black-clad body was hurled backward, crashing into the nearest massive pine.

  The trunk—thick enough to require several people to embrace—snapped instantly.

  Wood cracked and screamed as the figure spun helplessly through the air like a scrap of cloth caught in a storm.

  Without the Force Field dispersing the impact, it wouldn’t have been just bones—

  even the head behind that iron mask would have exploded.

  “Y-you… bastard…!”

  He roared in fury even as he flew—

  but before he could regain control, Rein appeared beside him like a demonic shadow.

  His left hand seized the killer’s head and slammed it viciously into the ground.

  “Popping in and out like a worm…”

  Rein growled.

  “Ever tried eating dirt? Maybe it’ll knock some sense into you.”

  He drove the head down and didn’t let go.

  The body skipped, scraped, and tore across nearly a hundred feet of frozen ground in a single breath.

  The iron mask scraped against packed earth and stone beneath the snow, shrieking as metal met rock—

  sparks spraying violently along the trail.

  “Ghk—!”

  Without his pre-cast defenses, his neck would have snapped on the first impact.

  Pulverized dirt and stone forced their way through the mask into his mouth and nose, choking him.

  Behind the iron mask, his eyes burned red with rage.

  Twisting its body at an impossible angle, he unleashed a barrage of Poison Bolts at Rein’s back—point-blank, without restraint.

  But the deep green arrows pierced nothing but empty space.

  They streaked upward, carving emerald lines through the darkness of the sky.

  The killer spun back to his feet, breathing hard.

  He knows. Or he’s paranoid beyond reason—strike and instantly withdraw to reset distance!

  And just as he scanned the shadows for his vanished target—

  the air behind him compressed violently.

  A massive impact smashed into his back once more.

  Rein burst from a blind spot like a shadow freed from its chains, twisting midair and driving a crushing kick into the black-clad body.

  A localized explosion thundered.

  The killer ascended skyward—nearly fifty feet up in an instant.

  Though Rein’s body was wrapped in Might Enhance and Magic Armor to dampen backlash from the CUBE, the first contact told him everything.

  Stratosphere Expert-tier defense… at minimum.

  Each strike sent a portion of force back into his limbs, leaving his wrists and soles numb.

  [LIZ: Your physical attack matched Gold Warrior output—but it barely irritated the Stratosphere-grade Force Field and that light armor. This one’s far tougher than expected, Rein.]

  Likely a damage-resistance spell covering both physical and magical vectors.

  Rein analyzed swiftly as icy wind sliced across his face.

  He had hit hard—yet not hard enough.

  The armor’s structure remained intact.

  Compared to Sophia…

  Rein admitted it without hesitation—his close-range power still lagged far behind.

  [LIZ: Sophia’s Vacuum Blade penetrates high-tier armor by compressing force into a contact area under one centimeter. Combined with her unique-grade acceleration items, the damage efficiency is significantly higher.]

  Alright, LIZ…

  Let’s see just how much sustained impact that Stratosphere armor can really take.

  Rein lifted his gaze to the black figure spinning helplessly in midair.

  In the next instant—

  his body vanished from the ground, leaving only a violent surge of displaced air that blasted the snow outward in a wide ring.

  Like a white streak of light slicing through the darkness, Rein surged upward—

  slamming into the black-clad body again and again, driving it higher and higher without allowing it to fall even for a single second.

  A Head-Up Display from LIZ flared into existence at the edge of his right vision.

  At the periphery of his sight, Rein watched the speed readout climb wildly—

  320…

  370…

  380 kilometers per hour—

  the readout lagged for a fraction of a second, struggling to keep up.

  But in his mind, everything was redlining—his focus pushed like a race car engine screaming at its absolute limit.

  Until finally, the air itself seemed to solidify against him.

  400 kilometers per hour.

  A speed no ordinary human—

  not even mages below the Stratosphere—could ever track with their eyes.

  Each time Rein’s fists and feet smashed into the killer’s body, the immense momentum generated by high-speed movement detonated the air itself, explosive booms chaining together like the relentless pounding of war drums.

  The killer was battered higher… and higher…

  Now soaring above the treetops of the pine forest, more than three hundred feet above the ground.

  “Hah…! Just wait—once your mana runs dry, it’ll be my turn!”

  The voice roared beneath the cracked iron mask, desperately trying to steady itself—

  clinging to its faith in the Force Field that surrounded his body.

  But reality was far crueler than he expected.

  After enduring Rein’s storm of fists and kicks at extreme velocity, the once-invincible magical barrier began to scream within the atmosphere.

  Cracks spiderwebbed across its surface, each fracture shrieking as compressed mana bled into the air.

  For the first time in its life, terror flickered in the killer’s trembling eyes.

  “Impossible…! This can’t be happening!!”

  [LIZ: Data acquisition complete. Structural tolerance limit of Stratosphere-tier defensive magic confirmed.]

  The message slid into Rein’s vision.

  He nodded lightly—then delivered another crushing kick straight into the killer’s torso.

  The explosion of air merged with the brittle shattering sound of fractured magic, drawing a faint smile to the corner of his mouth.

  “Then…” Rein said quietly.

  “The experiment’s over.”

  With those words, Rein vanished in an instant—

  reappearing high above the sky at nearly six hundred feet.

  He inverted his body and dove headfirst, accelerating with terrifying speed like a white meteor plunging through the falling snow.

  The roar of torn air screamed across the pine forest, stabbing at the ears.

  Both of his hands glowed.

  His left hand layered Enhancement magic onto the spell circuit of his right—

  and then the boy clenched his right fist and punched into empty air.

  “Mage Hand—Enhanced Model.”

  The words left his lips in a quiet murmur.

  In the next instant, a colossal mana fist condensed into existence midair. It was over sixteen feet wide, far beyond any scale a Mage Hand was ever meant to reach.

  It slammed downward, colliding with the black-clad body still suspended from the previous assault.

  Behind the cracked mask, the killer’s face twisted in pure horror.

  His eyes reflected nothing but the shadow of the gigantic fist—

  crushing the sky as it descended.

  “Nooooo—!!”

  The destructive force multiplied with gravity and mass.

  For a heartbeat—

  there was no sound at all.

  The kinetic energy released at the moment of impact ignited into blinding brilliance—

  like a miniature sun erupting in the heart of night.

  [LIZ: Preliminary damage assessment—equivalent to approximately 20 kilograms of TNT.]

  The explosion struck with the violence of a heavy artillery shell—

  the kind capable of obliterating an entire building in a single shot.

  Thunder roared as if lightning had struck the earth itself.

  The shockwave expanded outward for hundreds of feet, releasing intense thermal energy that instantly vaporized the surrounding snow.

  Dirt and smoke surged skyward like a meteor impact.

  At the center of the blast, the earth revealed a crater nearly ten feet deep and over thirty feet wide.

  Towering trees in the vicinity were flattened indiscriminately, swept away in a wide radius as though erased by the hand of a giant.

  And at the bottom of that abyss—

  the masked killer disappeared.

  All of it—

  from a single strike.

  These entries expand the lore and mechanics introduced in this chapter.

  Completely optional—read only if you enjoy diving deeper into the system.

  Magic & Skill Techniques

  Vortex Drive (Field Test Update)

  A high-velocity, mana-based propulsion technique Rein activates using a blue CUBE. It allows instantaneous acceleration to extreme speeds—over 400 km/h—while maintaining control, making it appear as if Rein predicts his opponent’s every move.

  The technique leaves behind vapor trails and shockwaves, with atmospheric compression effects akin to high-speed flight.

  Requires extreme physical conditioning and magical reinforcement to withstand.

  Note: Functionally resembles a combat-phase mobility breakthrough, combining teleport-like acceleration with mid-combat pursuit tracking.

  Mage Hand—Enhanced Model

  An upgraded version of the basic telekinetic spell Mage Hand, magnified to colossal scale (over 16 feet wide). Used as a finishing blow by Rein during aerial combat.

  The impact power was calculated to be equivalent to 20 kilograms of TNT, capable of creating a 30-foot-wide crater.

  Dual-Hand Casting (Update Note)

  Utilized by the masked killer to cast Haste and Vortex simultaneously.

  Rein had previously used this style; it confirms advanced-tier spellcasting that allows simultaneous manipulation of multiple circuits—reserved for expert-level mages.

  Force Field (Stratosphere-tier Defense Spell)

  A translucent, high-density magical barrier protected the killer several magnitudes stronger than Magic Armor. Withstood dozens of high-speed strikes from Rein before eventually cracking under sustained assault.

  Combat Tactics & Gear

  Black Light Armor (Unique-grade)

  Worn by the killer; resistant to standard magical and physical attacks. Combined with the Force Field, it made the target nearly impervious to first-strike engagements.

  Mana Potions

  Rein had consumed five doses of bitter mana potions in a day to maintain his enhanced state and rapid casting chain. Suggests high resource expenditure in prolonged or high-impact encounters.

  Combat Enhancement Layering

  Rein continuously applied Haste and Might Enhance throughout the mission, allowing split-second reflexes and immense physical output. This preparation allowed him to transition between movements, defenses, and spellcasting without pause.

  Science & Tactical Glossary

  Kinetic Shockwave (20 kg TNT Equivalent)

  The final impact from the Enhanced Mage Hand was described by LIZ as releasing kinetic force on par with 20 kg of TNT—equivalent to a heavy artillery shell or a small building demolition.

  Subsonic-to-Transonic Speeds

  Rein’s speed reached 400 km/h (approx. Mach 0.32), surpassing human and standard mage perception thresholds. Rein’s real-time movement mimics teleportation because of his combat-speed enhancements.

  Key Character Notes

  Masked killer (Unnamed)

  – Wears a silver-iron mask and high-grade armor.

  – Uses high-speed Gesture Casting and simultaneous Dual-Hand Casting.

  – Identified as a Stratosphere-tier warrior based on defense scaling.

  – Displays professional restraint and tactical fallback priorities.

  – Intended to frame Rein for murder and disappear.