Book 16 Chapter 40
Episode 95
“A rather annoying problem has arisen.”
Nils said as he ran.
“The item we're looking for, the Heart Bomb, is located directly opposite to where Greta Visor is.”
*Whoosh!*
The X-Blast Plasma Cannon punched a hole through the first bulkhead blocking their path.
“So?”
Lista, who had by then almost perfectly adapted to her younger body, leaped through the hole in a single bound.
“That’s why we’re running and breaking through bulkheads right now.”
Nils’s stocky physique, whose innate talent was concentrated in his brain rather than his body, got stuck in the hole! A mere mortal!
“Ugh, why are you so fat! Get some exercise!”
“This is all battle-hardened compressed muscle, you whippersnapper! What would you brats, who’ve never even hammered in front of a furnace, know!”
“What nonsense. Are the muscles of the A-in originally this soft?”
Only after Lista pulled him from the other side of the bulkhead and Lin pushed him from this side, could Nils barely get through the hole.
“To get back to the main point, bulkheads keep appearing, whereas Greta Visor has opened all the bulkheads leading to her location, so…”
Just then, Lin, who had hopped up, also got stuck in the hole! A crazy mere mortal! Lista grabbed Lin’s arms and said.
“Lin, you should get some exercise too!”
“Reading books is exactly 13 times more beneficial than exercising, so why would I? And my stamina is pretty good from running around the slums and mountains a lot. No arguments accepted.”
“I mean develop your athletic ability, not just stamina! Ugh, why are all the men next to me so clumsy!”
*Whoosh!*
In the meantime, the X-Blast Plasma Cannon punched a hole through the second bulkhead blocking their path.
Nils, who quickly darted into the hole, got stuck between the bulkheads again. A damn crazy mere mortal!
“Greta Visor is coming. We have to hurry!”
Nils shouted.
Lin and Lista pushed his backside (which, by the way, felt surprisingly soft for battle-hardened compressed muscle) from both sides and yelled.
“Then stop getting stuck like this and just talk!”
Just then. The facility shook, dust poured from the ceiling, and light, residual heat, and blast smoke surged in from the hole in the first bulkhead.
*Kwagwagwagwagwagwa…!*
Greta Visor's full-scale assault, having pursued them past the opened bulkheads, had begun.
“At this speed, we’ll be caught in no time!”
Lista leaped through the hole that Nils had struggled to pass, in a single bound.
“Lin, come over here quickly!”
Meanwhile, the first bulkhead began to buckle under the explosion.
“Lin?”
Lin looked back at the bulkhead, where cracks were spreading like a spiderweb, and stood there for a moment.
“Go on ahead.”
“What are you talking about!”
“I’ll handle this here.”
Lin, having perfectly completed one of his [Strongest Mage Bucket List] items, trembled with satisfaction, clenching his fists.
‘Phew, so perfect.’
Lista’s expression, not missing that tremor, hardened in misunderstanding.
‘He’s trembling that much, and yet…’
However, it didn't take long for that expression to turn cold.
Lin had thrown himself into the hole!
Of course, he got tragically stuck again!
“You whippersnapper, didn’t you just say ‘go on ahead’? Is there something wrong with my ears?”
“I just wanted to utter a line like that once. I didn’t actually intend to stay behind alone.”
“What kind of crazy person is this! If you utter a line like that, then stay behind coolly! Don’t you know the meaning of ‘consistency between words and actions’! The word ‘manuki’ must really have been coined for you!”
“Ugh, move aside there, you fat old man!”
“Shut up, you whippersnapper without battle-hardened compressed muscle!”
A squabble! The struggle between the one trying to get through the hole and the one trying to prevent it began!
“Lin.”
However, what chilled that struggle more coldly than ice was Lista’s beaming voice.
“Which of the two was a joke?”
Lin’s brain revolved exactly 188 times per second, deriving an approximate risk for the choices in the current situation.
That approximation suggested that Greta Visor would be less dangerous than *that* Lista.
Lin stopped resisting Nils’s kicks and returned to the other side of the bulkhead.
“Hmph, I just played a little trick because the atmosphere seemed too heavy. Leave this to *this* [Strongest Mage].”
Seeing that valiant expression, Lista was once again moved! And blamed herself for not recognizing Lin’s true intentions! What a gullible hero!
“Lin, I’ll be back soon, so don’t overdo it!”
Nils reached out his hand through the bulkheads.
“Stop joking and come over here! She’s not an opponent to face alone! Right now, Greta Visor is probably fully equipped with Master Guenther’s artifact, ‘Pavel Tican’!”
Guenther.
The first A-in and one of the first Head Technicians (Meisters).
A technician created by the authority of the Black Sun Calenden in the Age of Myths, who assisted on the front lines of the Great Abyss War.
“Oh? Perfect.”
Lin reached out his hand and took out what he had been carrying diagonally across his back… a concentrated strand of light.
Geumyeongjang.
The power imbued with the True Dragon Yosuhar’s plea to beautify the world, with a brilliant light, crushed the bulkhead and confronted the encroaching darkness.
“To test my strongest magic.”