The ceiling collapsed as if crumbling down.
Although the situation unfolded suddenly like a bolt from the blue, the people present weren't surprised by it.
Cravat raised dark energy around him to block the debris from the collapsing ceiling.
Although the debris was a mixture of steel and concrete, the black smoke supported it easily as if possessing enormous physical force.
Rather, the steel that touched it corroded rapidly, turning to dust and disappearing as if fast-forwarding through hundreds of years of time.
It was the power of an ancient curse with both form and physical force.
The next to react was Gabriel.
The time it would take for the ceiling debris to collapse and crush the room was less than 3 seconds.
Gabriel’s magical power rose to envelop his body.
Gabriel’s magic didn't require formulas, his magical power itself was already the formula that implemented magic.A translucent white clock appeared above Gabriel’s head.
Tick.
Its second hand stopped moving.
[Time Stop]
In the frozen world, Gabriel moved.
For someone else, it was only 3 seconds. But Gabriel could extend that time as much as his lifespan allowed.
After extending those 3 seconds to 30 minutes, the stopped time began to flow again.
"Well, let's say we're workplace colleagues."
"If you're colleagues, why is he trying to kill you?"
"That's the kind of workplace it is."
"I thought you said you knew everyone on this island!"
"I didn't know he was here either. Well, I heard about it beforehand, but I didn't know he'd come looking for me."
"Judging by that surprise attack, it looks like he's quite determined."
"Yes. It seems a fight is unavoidable."
Rudger stepped forward, crossing the debris of the broken wall.
Red light emanated from between the helm of Verom, who stood on the rooftop of the opposite building.
"I regret that it's come to this for both of us."
"Yes. It's regrettable."
Words were unnecessary between them.
Anyway, now that it had come to this, one of them had to die for it to end.
Zero Order didn't particularly stop First Orders from fighting and killing each other.
Looking at such extreme non-interference, one might question whether the organization functioned properly, but Rudger decided to be grateful that they could at least fight cleanly like this.
Just as Verom was about to swing his sword, shadows hiding behind him moved with a slithering sound.
They were experimental subjects created jointly by Nikolai and Victor.
"Tsk. Like a pack of hungry demons obsessed with the smell of blood."
Verom clicked his tongue, seemingly displeased with the behavior of the experimental subjects, and withdrew the sword he was about to swing.
As much as he wanted to sweep the entire area clean along with the experimental subjects...
"That cunning Nikolai might be secretly watching from somewhere. In a position where I need to make a deal, it's better not to do anything that might give him an excuse."
The experimental subjects moved as if crawling on all fours and rushed toward Rudger.
They moved in ways that were hard to comprehend with common sense—climbing walls, jumping high to attack from mid-air, or breaking through the floor below the building to come up.
Their movement patterns and attack directions were difficult to accept by normal standards.
Moreover, their grotesqueness—being human yet not quite human—naturally invoked fear and pressure in their opponents.
As the experimental subject's mouth opened wide, revealing sharp teeth, just as it was about to bite Rudger's entire body with teeth that could chew through even steel, Rudger's prepared magic activated.
-Zap!
An intense electric field formed around him.
The experimental subjects that had approached were thrown in all directions, becoming charred lumps from the heat of the electric field.
Other, more perceptive experimental subjects quickly scattered and distanced themselves the moment they saw Rudger's magic.
The sight was quite disgusting, like watching cockroaches hiding in the gaps of a closet.
"Using people as experimental subjects. You've really gone too far."
Rudger raised his hand.
Following his gesture, the electric field spread widely, exerting magnetic force on the surroundings.
At the same time, iron particles gathered, creating a metal cube in mid-air.
Seeing this sight, Verom's eyes widened.
"That's... Leslie's magic?"
How could John Doe use the magic of Leslie who had died?
Before Verom could even be surprised, the metals gathered in the air bent and twisted, sharpening their ends.
Countless steel spears created this way were shot like rays of light, targeting the experimental subjects.
The experimental subjects tried to quickly evade, but the steel spears Rudger fired weren't something they could escape from just by running away.
The steel spears persistently chased until they hit their target and one by one, the experimental subjects were pierced, spraying red blood.
Some experimental subjects tried to scatter widely by coming out to the main street, but Rudger didn't allow that.
"Where do you think you're escaping to?"
The electromagnetic field that encompassed the entire area turned off all lights in the buildings and simultaneously affected the surrounding metals.
-Screeeeech.
The gas lamps on the street all made a bending sound and began to be uprooted from the ground.
It wasn't just the gas lamps.
From the reinforcing bars that made up the building debris to most of the metals that constituted the surroundings, they all moved according to Rudger's will.
The metals that followed Rudger's will caught the fleeing experimental subjects and bound their bodies.
When the experimental subjects struggled, the restraints didn't last long and broke.
It was truly an unbelievable physical ability but the gap created in that fleeting moment was enough to embed the steel spears.
-Thunk thunk thunk!
Experimental subjects skewered like kebabs increased everywhere.
With just one spell, more than half of the experimental subjects were subdued but Rudger's expression wasn't very pleased.
'Many of them are still alive even after being pierced by steel spears.'
An experimental subject with its chest pierced through the center was using all its strength to try to pull out the steel spear that had penetrated its chest, gripping it with both hands.
Judging by how it ignored the blood flowing from its wound, it seemed unable to feel pain properly.
Moreover, its grip strength was considerable, as the specially made steel spear began to make creaking sounds and develop scratches.
'Excellent regenerative abilities and physical capabilities. Nullified pain and fear of death. And even facilities to mass-produce such beings.'
These were worse than the chimeras he had encountered in the underground of the imperial capital.
No, it would be fair to say that Victor Dreadful had created these beings based on the data from those chimeras.
'It's dangerous to leave them be.'
At that moment, some of the experimental subjects changed their target.
Those that were rushing toward Rudger changed direction and targeted Cravat, Gabriel, and the sleeping Rene.
"Hmph! Where do you think you're going!"
Cravat sprayed the familiar black mist around him.
The experimental subjects that touched it rolled frantically on the ground.
-Gaaaah! Gaak!
An experimental subject that had been struggling went limp as its skin turned black.
Although pain might have been eliminated, they couldn't withstand the intense power inherent in the curse itself.
But there was an experimental subject that managed to break through Cravat's counterattack and approach Rene.
At that moment, Gabriel’s housekeeping automaton, which had been quiet until now, stepped forward.
-Slash!
A straight line was drawn in the air.
Following the trajectory of that line, three experimental subjects were split into upper and lower bodies and scattered on the floor.
The automaton dressed in a housekeeper's uniform slowly folded the leg it had swung and took a stance with one leg raised.
Commonly known as the stance with one leg folded up and the other supporting the ground.
The automaton's leg revealed beyond the skirt hem had a sharp form reminiscent of a giant scissor blade.
"Haha! See that! This is the performance of a special automaton!"
Gabriel shouted, raising his fist.
Rudger was dumbfounded at the sight.
He had wondered where the money had gone, and it seemed it had been spent on a specially made automaton close to human.
'I thought there was something unusual about the lack of presence and good performance, but...'
He never expected it to have functions suitable for combat.
The activated automaton moved to protect Rene according to its master's command.
Like a ballet dancer, the automaton left dismembered experimental subjects spraying red blood wherever it passed.
Even with its leg blades stained with red blood, the automaton's dance didn't stop.
The sight was like watching a fairy tale of eternal dancing with pink shoes.
'Whatever the case, it's fortunate that there's one less thing to worry about.'
Rudger's gaze turned to Verom.
At the moment, Verom's existence was more threatening to him than the experimental subjects.
Rudger stretched his hand sharply toward Verom.
With his armor and sword, Rudger's use of magnetic force should give him an advantage but Rudger quickly realized that was an illusion.
Verom's body wasn't affected at all by the magnetic force Rudger had created.
Rudger's eyebrow twitched.
"Is that really armor?"
"Well, it is. A cursed relic disguised as armor, but still."
Verom smiled bitterly and gripped his sword again.
If it had ended at the level of the experimental subjects, it might have been different, but having come this far, he had no choice but to take action himself.
Perhaps it was for the best.
It was more reassuring to handle it personally than to entrust it to experimental subjects.
"Please, let me give you a painless death."
-Flash.
Verom swung his sword, and almost simultaneously, a crimson slash followed its trajectory.
The crescent-shaped slash covered Rudger as if to split the world vertically.
Rudger gathered the scattered steel cubes around him to create a shield, but the slash easily penetrated that shield.
'So easily through a special alloy steel shield?'
Rudger was only able to block the slash after creating several more barriers.
'So the first surprise attack was literally a casually thrown strike? He's become stronger than before when I last saw him.'
The first time he clashed with Verom was when destroying Victor's secret laboratory.
Even then, Verom demonstrated unbelievable strength, but now the level was different.
Proving he wasn't a First Order for nothing, his rank had already reached the Master level.
'He's the opposite of Alex. If Alex reached the Master level through pure talent and technique, Verom reached it through pure power and class.'
Simple and one-sided attacks without technique or anything else.
But simplicity didn't mean weakness.
The crescent-shaped slashes that formed following the trajectory of his sword swings were difficult for Rudger to deal with.
A knight, but it felt like facing a mage who fired at least 4th-tier magic with every sword swing.
It would be more accurate to call him a magic swordsman rather than a knight.
'Even if it's the power of an ancient relic, can he continuously produce that level of power?'
To produce that level of output, it wouldn't be strange if it burned the user's life force as fuel, yet Verom looked perfectly fine.
This attack felt less like Verom's pure will and more like the relic exerting stronger power to protect its master.
Was it just his imagination?
'Whatever the case.'
If a fight couldn't be avoided, there was no choice but to face it.
[Aether Nocturnus]
Rudger summoned magic and enveloped his body.
Black shadows covered his entire body, and soon a crow mask was placed on his face.
Seeing this, Verom's red eyes within his helmet widened.
"That appearance, could it be?"