CHAPTER 331: CHAPTER 331: A CRY FOR HELP FROM A TRUE MAGIC USER

~ Support & Read 10 Advanced Chapters on my Patreon

"Phew—!" Haru let out a long sigh, setting down the magical document.

The moment his hand left it, the parchment scroll silently ignited, vanishing without a trace.

"The Atlas Institute’s data is also done," Haru said, lying on the sofa, rubbing his temples, his voice tinged with exhaustion.

Behind him, a two-meter-high mountain of magical documents either burned or rotted, self-destructing through various means.

These were the methods the three major powers of the Mage’s Association used to protect their magical data.

This was their complete research. They had to take some precautions to prevent leaks.

"The debts are piling up,"

Haru said, standing up and pulling back the curtains, gazing at the night view.

Haru wasn’t stupid.

Things in the Type-Moon world had been going too smoothly. A slight threat, and the Mage’s Association had bowed its head, handing over all its magical data without holding anything back.

Kischur—who roamed countless parallel worlds, had just happened to encounter the Tokiomi Tohsaka he’d screwed over, and had come all the way to the Clock Tower to deliver the Second Magic to him...

And with just a little effort, the affection of those distinct, individualistic young women had skyrocketed.

He’d be a fool to believe that Gaia and Alaya, the Counter Forces, hadn’t been indirectly involved. Yet his intuition told him that his two "mothers" held no ill will towards him.

In fact, their affection for him was exceptionally high.

Haru trusted his Hyper-intuition, an ability he’d had since his God-Slayer days.

"Is the Earth Mother’s bloodline and the title of God-Slayer, King of Humanity, really that useful?" Haru stood before the floor-to-ceiling window of the luxurious hotel, his hands clasped behind his back, gazing down at the bustling streets below, muttering to himself.

"Oh well, they’ll tell me eventually. I’ll go for a walk, get the lay of the land," Haru said, grabbing his black overcoat from the coat rack and leaving the suite.

———

Misaki Town.

Home to Japan’s foremost ley line, the Crooked Core Ley Line. In Haru’s magical understanding, this was essentially a distorted ley line created by the compression of continental plates.

Such ley lines existed at the junctions of all continental plates, but Misaki Town’s was different.

The distortion of the Crooked Core Ley Line here had torn open the world, creating a passage to the Outside—a passage to the Root.

The prestigious Aozaki magical family, as the owners of Misaki Town’s ley line, had ruled the city for generations.

A miracle had befallen the previous head of the family, Touko Aozaki’s grandfather.

While inspecting an anomaly in the ley line, he’d slipped and fallen into it.

As luck would have it, he’d landed right at the ley line’s point of distortion. With that one fall, he’d stumbled into the Root. And with his half-baked wind magecraft, he’d achieved the Fifth Magic—Blue.

PS: A lucky bastard who hit the jackpot.

PS: The weakest of the True Magic Users. A single Guardian would be enough to keep an eye on him.

This was the information and commentary Alaya had gleaned from that lucky bastard’s mind.

However, Alaya didn’t have the full details of the passage to the Root. It was a higher-level secret, and Alaya, with her insufficient clearance, couldn’t investigate further.

And now, Haru stood at the junction of the mountains surrounding Misaki Town, using his own perception to trace the ley line’s path.

A dream-like magical energy enveloped the ley line, forming a massive barrier that covered the entire city.

Normally, the moment a magus used their magical power, the barrier would sense their presence and report it to the city’s guardian, but...

"A fairy-tale-based magical foundation with a C-rank mystery concept? Garbage!"

"The integration between the ley line energy and the magical foundation is less than thirty percent. What garbage. Even weaker than that weakling Trhvmn."

Haru pursed his lips, passing through the numerous barriers with disdain, heading towards the center of the Crooked Core Ley Line.

Though he had only forcibly memorized the magical data of the three major powers, with the accumulated wisdom of countless Sealing Designations, Haru’s magical prowess was among the best in the history of the Type-Moon world.

The only ones who could challenge him in terms of magical expertise were the Heroic Spirits of the Magus class, who had themselves become magical concepts.

In just a short while, Haru reached the mountain directly above the center of the Crooked Core Ley Line.

The reason he’d come looking for it was, naturally, to reach the Root.

Having plundered the Mage’s Association’s magical data, Haru had accumulated a vast amount of ’knowledge’.

Though he still lacked the secret arts of some non-Mage’s Association magical families, in terms of sheer volume, it was enough to achieve True Magic in the Root.

"Putting other magecrafts aside, with the unified time law of Innate Time Control and the unified space law of Parallel World Interference, it’s enough for me to establish a connection with the rules of time and space in the Root—" Haru murmured, his perception fully released, searching the ley line.

However, after a moment, sensing the aura of the Root and the dense temporal fluctuations on the ley line, Haru’s expression turned strange, his lip twitching. "Damn Aozaki, to think he sealed the passage in the timeline."

Haru turned, his face grim, his sharp gaze piercing through the dense forest, landing on a natural stone cave...

Inside the cave, a white-haired spirit stood before his workbench, studying magecraft through the magus on the table.

Due to the imperfection of the Aozaki family’s Blue—the old Aozaki patriarch spent all his days in his magical workshop, researching the Fifth Magic.

Even after his physical body was killed by Touko Aozaki, this old monster hadn’t taken a single step out of the stone cave. In his eyes, rather than wasting time ’educating’ Touko Aozaki, it was better to spend his time at home, researching magic.

In the end, this old monster was a completely ’qualified’ magus.

And at this moment, Haru’s malicious gaze fell upon the old True Magic User.

———

"Killing intent!!!" The old True Magic User’s eyes narrowed. He immediately activated the Fifth Magic, using the magus on the workbench as a consumable, and hid himself in the timeline.

Don’t blame the old man for being paranoid.

As the pushover among the True Magic Users, he was constantly on the verge of being hunted down by Guardians.

If his escape techniques weren’t top-notch, he’d have been a pile of bones long ago.

As for fighting back?

The old True Magic User had tried that a few times. After nearly being killed by a Grand-class Heroic Spirit—he’d learned his lesson.

The next moment, Haru silently passed through the numerous magical barriers and appeared in the stone cave.

———

"The aura of the Root? A True Magic User!!" The old True Magic User’s face changed drastically.

As a fellow True Magic User, he immediately recognized the similar aura on Haru.

He didn’t remember angering another True Magic User. And the other party looked like he was about to kill him!!!

"Damn it, he’s fast," Haru said, his face grim as he surveyed his surroundings, his tone cold as he sensed the temporal fluctuations.

Haru lifted his hand and snapped his fingers. The aura of the Root flowed out, and a puppet, a perfect replica of Haru, materialized.

Then, a brilliant light flashed from Haru’s brow, and a radiant figure, chanting a hymn, entered the puppet.

The puppet’s eyes snapped open, its gaze exceptionally impassive as it looked at Haru.

"Monitor this place. Inform me immediately when that old man returns," Haru said to the Divine Spirit clone, his tone flat. He then turned and left the stone cave.

The Divine Spirit clone silently nodded, dissolving into a holy light that filled the cave.

The old True Magic User, still in the timeline, watched Haru’s actions, his lip twitching, cursing under his breath.

After a moment of venting, the old True Magic User looked at the light filling the stone cave, his face a mask of despair.

’There’s also a Divine Spirit camping my house... what do I do??’

Support & Read 10 Advanced Chapters

https://p-atreon.com/dragonnx

(Just remove the hyphen to access Patreon normally.)