Mombi decided to drop the act.

I don’t know the exact means, but it seems my identity has already been discovered.

If the other side was still uncertain, continuing the act to the end and encouraging confusion might be a method, but Mombi thought there was no such possibility.

What madman would threaten and attack the great teacher of the Magic State without any particular evidence or certainty? If things went wrong, how would they deal with the aftermath?

Logically thinking, she had to assume that the enemies “naturally” already knew about her.

The witch Mombi was a rational person, and she didn’t even consider the possibility that the Tin Knight had just probed on a “maybe it’s not” basis. That was closer to delusion than inference.

She was cunning and knew that information was the most important thing before deceiving the opponent.

Therefore, she tried to provoke the enemies to find out their method.

“Answer me, was there a flaw in my actions and speech? Or—tch!”

However, Mombi had to immediately modify her plan.

After all, the Tin Knight’s blade flew towards her head without hesitation.

Mombi quickly twisted her body to avoid the attack, but the blade cunningly twisted its trajectory and stuck to her until the end.

Screech!

Blood didn’t flow, but as if to replace that, the defensive magic wrapped around her body was shaved off.

Mombi frowned.

The damaged defensive magic was only an extremely small part, about 1/10 of the whole, but the very fact that she had taken even a small amount of damage was important.

It meant that if she continued to receive attacks, eventually the defense would break.

“Ha! Foolish knight! Do you know what you’re doing!? This body is Orin’s! If I die, that fool dies too!”

Slash! Swish! Slash!

“Harming me is the same as pointing a sword at your great teacher!”

Slash! Scrape! Thud!

“—Listen to me, will you!!”

Boom!

Finally, the evil witch’s patience exploded.

The Tin Knight’s companions heard the Tin Knight’s babbling, shouting, “The boss talks too much! Where’s the skip button?”

Mombi was disgusted with the Tin Knight who only launched attacks without any situation assessment.

What angered her even more was that now, not only the Tin Knight, but the others were starting to make expressions like, “Shouldn’t we just hit first and think about complicated things later?”

No, logically, if an ally’s body has been taken over by the enemy, shouldn’t they show more thinking, hesitation, or anguish? Why do these crazy ones try to use their swords first without any dialogue? Are they barbarians?

To reverse the atmosphere, she used her transformation magic to modify her body and defensive magic to receive the Tin Knight’s attack with her bare body, then rushed towards the enemies.

Mombi’s fingertips, transformed into blades, tore the green-haired woman’s clothes and lightly, very lightly touched her bare skin.

That alone was enough.

Boom!

The green-haired woman’s body exploded in an instant.

Mombi was a master of transformation magic.

While there were restrictions like not being able to touch inorganic objects and having to contact the opponent’s bare body, she could freely change the form of living things.

It was essentially an instant death technique.

Mombi then reached out towards her next target, Dorothea—

Boom!

—the next moment, she was blown back as if bounced off.

An enormous impact, as if hit by a giant’s hammer.

Mombi stared straight ahead at the terrifyingly fierce attack that would have turned her body into mush rather than just pushing her back if not for her defensive magic.

A girl with bright golden hair was glaring at her with terrifying eyes while simultaneously emitting golden flames and violet lightning from her entire body.

Not only that, but the Tin Knight’s sword and the White Knight’s spear, who had approached unnoticed, pierced Mombi again.

While receiving the attack again with her transformed body, Mombi acknowledged her inferiority.

The two who seemed strongest among the enemies were opponents her specialty didn’t work on, and even if she forcibly continued the battle, the longer she dragged it out here, the more disadvantageous it would become for her.

She released the magic she had placed on the gray old man while simultaneously drawing everyone’s attention with a large attack.

“──!”

The old man who dreamed of being king was meticulous and thorough.

As if he knew Mombi would do this, he indiscriminately fired wide-area magic around him as soon as he returned to human form.

In the blink of an eye, the surrounding area was engulfed in an extreme blizzard.

It was an attack insufficient to reverse the unfavorable battle situation, but it was enough of a gap to activate the move Mombi had prepared.

More precisely, it was enough to give some command to “Orin’s barrier”, which was the original owner of this body.

Click, click.

The mandala-like magic circle interlocked here and there, changing its form.

Inside to outside, outside to inside.

As spaces mixed, it trapped the Tin Knight’s party and allowed Mombi and the gray old man to escape to a safe zone.

But they underestimated their opponents too much.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ exclaims that scenes where enemies are forcibly let go through cut scenes are the worst!]

The Tin Knight’s mana surged.

That momentum was like a flood-overflowing river, but nevertheless, not a single drop leaked to the wrong place or was wastefully spent, perfectly matching the Tin Knight’s sword strike.

What shouldn’t have been cut was cut.

What couldn’t be touched was touched.

Just after something seemed to flash.

The Tin Knight’s Severing Flash, which transcended space, accurately bisected the waist of the fleeing mage and witch.

“Gack!”

Mombi, who still had defensive magic left, endured even that slash, but the gray old man didn’t.

As the upper and lower halves of the aged mage’s body split in two, things that shouldn’t flow out spilled between them.

Mombi clicked her tongue and used transformation magic on the remaining upper half of the old man’s body.

The wound was instantly filled, and the cut surface was covered with smooth flesh as if there had never been anything there originally.

Just before the cut space was filled again.

Mombi and the Tin Knight’s gazes met through that gap.

“…It would be better not to think it will be like this next time.”

The gap in space closed.

Large wings grew on Mombi’s back.

Holding the gray old man’s body in one hand, Mombi flew high into the sky and said to the old man, “We need to prepare a workshop. It would take too long to modify Orin’s to my taste, so your side will have to exert some effort.”

A mage was fundamentally one who prepared for all scenarios.

While Mombi could massacre ordinary knights or mages even barehanded, considering future battles, that alone wasn’t enough.

To face the Tin Knight’s party, she, too, needed to show her true skills.

“…As you wish. I will do my best to help,” despite the tremendous pain and shock of having half his body cut off and only the upper half remaining, the old man answered while maintaining his reason.

It was truly terrifying greed and obsession for the throne.

The evil witch and mage flew towards the Tower of Control like that, and shortly after, the Magic State was turned upside down.

***

“The Tower of Control announces to the various mages and people of the Magic State Aeolia.

“All the recent disturbances in the Magic State were schemes carried out by the Tower of Protection, with the intention of undermining the honor and power of other towers and seizing control of the entire Magic State for themselves.

“Not only that, they vilely used poison and traps against the Guardian Witch, our great teacher Orin, to rob her of her reason, and tried to manipulate events by moving the great teacher, who had become like a puppet, according to their will.

“However, our tower received the great teacher’s request for rescue and successfully rescued her, and also succeeded in uncovering all sorts of schemes the Tower of Protection was trying to carry out.

“To the mages belonging to the Tower of Protection. Our tower considers this incident to be the unilateral action of the upper echelons blinded by power and greed, not the will of the entire Tower of Protection. Moreover, the great teacher herself has requested forgiveness for everyone except the upper echelons directly involved in this incident. Therefore, leave that evil tower as soon as possible and gather around the great teacher.

“Also, to the upper echelons of the Tower of Protection who led this incident, and to Gale Elilaz who disgracefully betrayed her mentor and tried to poison her. If you have any pride left as mages or any shame as humans, come before the great teacher immediately to beg for forgiveness and receive the punishment you deserve.”

As if to pay back the bone flute tactics used by Dorothea’s party, the Tower of Control used all means such as amplification magic, letters, and familiars to spread such content throughout the Magic State.

The reaction was fierce.

Voices cursing the Tower of Protection and Gale grew louder all over the Magic State, and even within the Tower of Protection, an air of doubt and anxiety circulated, though not openly spoken.

The Tower of Protection resisted, saying everything the Tower of Control was saying was false, but overall public opinion was not very favorable to them.

This was because none other than the Witch of the North was openly standing with the Tower of Control and advocating for them.

The only fortunate thing for the Tower of Protection side was that the Towers of Foresight and Annihilation seemed to be taking a stance of observing without following the Tower of Control’s claims.

This was entirely due to the Tin Knight’s party quickly seeing through Mombi’s identity.

According to the Tower of Control’s original plan, Orin was supposed to pretend to go along with their intentions within the Tower of Protection and then backstab them at a critical moment, and if things had gone that way, the Tower of Protection would have suffered a fatal wound without being able to respond properly.

But Mombi’s identity was discovered much earlier than expected, and the Tower of Control had to strike first before this fact became widely known.

Naturally, the more they rushed, the more sloppy the detailed parts of the operation became.

The upper echelons of each tower didn’t overlook these “sloppy parts”, and the Tower of Control failed to draw them in as allies.

The situation was increasingly flowing towards a direct confrontation between Control and Protection, and while Control’s side had a slight advantage in terms of tower power itself, what was more important was where the battlefield would be.

A mage’s combat power greatly increased in a workshop, and a tower itself was essentially a giant workshop.

If one side took on siege and the other defense, it was a battle where the defending side was sure to win.

Therefore, the fight had to maintain a stalemate, but this was a route where the Tower of Protection would definitely lose.

While Annihilation and Foresight weren’t moving right now, as long as the Witch of the North was on Control’s side, they, too, would eventually be drawn to that side.

Therefore, the Tower of Protection needed to launch an offensive before other towers intervened.

Against an opponent they were at a disadvantage against even in a pure frontal battle, and while accepting the disadvantage of being away.

Thinking normally, it was a situation where they absolutely couldn’t win.

If they waited quietly, other towers would intervene, and it would be game over.

If they launched an offensive, it would be game over due to inferior forces.

Therefore, they had to flip the board.

“Hey, golden skull.”

“Oh, what business do ya have with me? Damn witch.”

Dorothea spoke to Cap’n Bill in a crooked posture, “—Let’s make a deal.”

***

https://ko-fi.com/genesisforsaken