After finishing his conversation with Elena via the Paired Orbs, Rei had drifted off to sleep in bed.
But something jolted him awake.
It wasn't the need to use the bathroom, nor a dry throat. Rei bolted upright in a movement so close to reflexive it barely qualified as conscious thought, and from the instant his eyes snapped open, he swept a sharp gaze across his surroundings.
Ordinarily, he would still be half-groggy upon waking. But the Rei lying in bed right now looked nothing of the sort.
"......What was that? Something just......"
He pulled the Dragon Robe from the Misty Ring and draped it over himself while probing his surroundings, but everything seemed normal.
"What was that presence I felt for just an instant?"
If Rei possessed clairvoyance, he might have been able to see Sardat fighting a Stigma member on the rooftop of a building some distance from the staff dormitory. He might even have understood that the presence he had felt was caused by the activation of Stigma's power.
But Rei had no such ability. All he could do was remain alert and scan his surroundings.
Yet...... it was precisely because he was doing so that he caught it.
A fist, hurtling toward him out of nowhere.
"!?"
He ducked on pure instinct. The fist punched through the space he had occupied a heartbeat before.
......Yes—punched. That was the only fitting word. It carried enough force to bore clean through.
The man who threw it wore a faint look of surprise.
"Hoh. I came at you far more seriously than last time. I certainly didn't expect even this to be dodged."
"You......"
As the man retracted his fist, wearing an expression of genuine admiration to match his words, Rei studied that face. He had seen it before.
Strikingly handsome features with a tattoo-like mark on his right cheek—an appearance not easily forgotten. He was the one who had attacked Rei during the rescue of Ealand. At first, Rei had suspected him of being another of Ealand's assassins.
But after what Sardat had told him in the Academy Headmaster's office, Rei now knew exactly who he was dealing with.
"Stigma...... wasn't it?"
"Correct. Though knowing that at this point is hardly going to help you."
Rei clicked his tongue softly at the man's elegant smile.
An ambush while half-asleep was bad enough, but fighting without being fully prepared was far worse.
He had managed to throw on the Dragon Robe, but the Sleipnir boots—a magic item he relied on heavily in combat—were still sitting in the Misty Ring. The Eye of Nebula, which was ideal for catching enemies off guard, was likewise still stored away.
The Death Scythe could be wielded the moment he drew it, but the Sleipnir boots needed to be put on properly. The Eye of Nebula only needed to be clipped to his waist, so it could be deployed instantly—but still, it had to come out of the ring first.
Rei weighed his options for a split second before making his decision.
Either way, this was an enclosed room—a terrible battleground for someone who fought with a long-handled weapon like he did. His opponent, on the other hand, was a martial artist who suffered no loss of power in tight spaces. If anything, confined quarters were his specialty.
Rei was not so obliging as to fight on his enemy's preferred terrain. His next move was to yank a short sword from the Misty Ring and hurl it at the man's face.
The throw used nothing but a flick of the wrist, but Rei's physical abilities were beyond human by any reasonable measure. The blade cleaved through the air, screaming toward the man's eyes.
A strike that no ordinary person could have ever hoped to dodge.
But the Stigma member caught the blade cleanly between his fingers, without so much as a struggle.
Rei's eyes widened slightly at the feat—but even a heartbeat's pause in the man's movement was enough. He kicked off the floor, bolted for the window, and in the next instant smashed through it and hurled himself outside. But......
"Gah!?"
The moment he cleared the window sill and thought he finally had room to fight, an impact slammed into him right through the Dragon Robe.
Being airborne sealed his fate. Rei went flying, unable to correct his trajectory.
If he had been wearing the Sleipnir boots as usual, he could have kicked off the air itself and recovered his stance. But Rei, freshly roused from sleep, had only the Dragon Robe to protect him. Such acrobatics were out of the question.
(Damn! What the hell——I didn't sense anything at all!?)
A dull throb spread across his back as he tumbled through the air, wrenching his gaze around to find the source.
What he saw was an old man standing flat against the wall at a perfect right angle, staff in hand.
The dull pain in his back—that was from the staff.
(That guy......)
Just like the man who had appeared in his room, Rei recognized the old man too. He had been alongside the first attacker—which meant this old man, standing impossibly on the wall, was also a member of Stigma.
(Two of them...... and I'm pretty sure there was one more, wasn't there?)
Rei righted himself midair and landed barefoot on the ground below, already scanning the area. The snow beneath his feet was freezing, but there was no time to care about that. He drew the Death Scythe from the Misty Ring and swung it in a wide arc.
"Flying Slash!"
The slash launched alongside those words tore straight toward the old man still perched on the wall—but the moment it seemed to connect, the old man vanished completely, as though he had never been there at all.
"What!?"
Rei couldn't comprehend what had just happened. He could tell the old man hadn't used a Teleportation magic item, but the fact remained that his target had disappeared the instant the Flying Slash landed.
"Hehehe. How frightening, how frightening. To attack a helpless old man like myself without a shred of mercy. You should show a bit more respect for your elders."
The old man reappeared with a grin, delivering the line with a grandfatherly chuckle. But there was not the faintest trace of fear on his face.
Taking advantage of the brief distance between them, Rei loosed several more Flying Slashes as covering fire before breaking into a sprint away from the spot.
He made straight for a copse of trees not far from the staff dormitory. It was too sparse to truly be called a forest, but for the moment, all Rei needed was enough cover to conceal himself from two Stigma members.
He pressed his back against a tree trunk and fished the Sleipnir boots and Eye of Nebula from the Misty Ring, strapping them on one after another.
It took him a little over ten seconds to equip everything.
That was more than enough time for the Stigma members to find him.
"!?"
A faint whisper of displaced air reached his ears. He kicked off the ground on pure reflex, abandoning his position.
The instant Rei disappeared, the tree trunk he had been leaning against shattered to pieces.
......Not snapped. Not cut. Shattered.
Rei cursed inwardly at the sheer force behind the blow—but unlike moments ago, his combat preparations were now complete, and there was no panic left in him.
He eyed the trunk, splintered cleanly in half, then stepped out from cover.
"Hoh? Done running already?"
"Yeah. I was in a rush because someone decided to ambush me before I was ready, but that's handled now. Still, I always thought giving advance notice before visiting was common courtesy. Does the Holy Light Religion not even teach that much? Then again, what else should I expect from a worthless religion."
The man in his twenties' cheek twitched at Rei's words.
But the old man beside him merely floated a benevolent smile and let the provocation slide right off.
"Hehehe. Now, now, don't say that. Contacting someone before a visit is only proper, of course—but ours is not that sort of relationship, is it?"
"Indeed. What delivering divine punishment upon a great enemy requires is not courtesy, but a whip...... no, my fists. Courtesy is wasted on such an opponent."
"Hmph. So the Holy Light Religion really is just some low-class cult. And what's this about a 'Goddess of Light'? If you ask me, she's nothing more than an ugly, filthy, grotesque self-proclaimed goddess."
It would be a bald-faced lie to say Rei had no intention of provoking them.
Facing two fighters on the level of A-Rank adventurers simultaneously was a first for him—and this was no mock battle. These were opponents who bore genuine killing intent toward him. With Set absent, he was at a disadvantage. He needed to do whatever he could to throw the Stigma members off balance—especially the one who looked like he had a dangerously short fuse.
Rei's aim was on target. ......It was on target, but he had also made a miscalculation.
The man standing before him was not merely a devout follower of the Holy Light Religion. He was a fanatic.
Upon hearing Rei's words, the man in his twenties twisted his refined, beautiful features into a mask of fury and roared.
"Great enemy! I declare here and now! I shall make you regret ever being born into this world as I erase you from existence upon my faith! That—precisely that—is the mercy Visente, a member of Stigma, can grant you! Receive divine punishment, great enemy Rei!"
As the man named himself Visente, the tattoo on his right cheek flared with a sharp, piercing light.
(This is bad!?)
Rei had no idea what the man was about to do, but he knew leaving Visente unchecked was suicidal. He funneled his magic power, activating the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor as he drove his foot into the earth and launched himself forward.
As he closed the distance to Visente, Rei's magic power compressed, condensed, and transformed into a deep crimson energy that coiled around his body like living flame.
What surprised him next was the reaction of Visente and the old man.
Neither of them could sense magic power, so they had no way of knowing that the energy enveloping Rei was mana. Had he not been wearing the Ring of the New Moon—which masked his mana to the level of an ordinary spellcaster—then perhaps, even without the ability to sense magic, they might have intuited what the power radiating from his body truly was.
But that was all hypothetical.
With his mana compressed and concentrated to the point of being visible to the naked eye, the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor fully activated, Rei bore down on Visente in a single explosive burst.
His speed now was on an entirely different plane from before—so fast that ordinary eyes could not even register the moment he moved.
......Yet before he knew it, the old man was running right beside him.
(He's keeping up at this speed!?)
Rei hadn't let his guard down simply because his opponent was elderly. The man had already struck him from above when he escaped through the window, and had weathered a direct Flying Slash without a scratch.
But even knowing all that, the fact that the old man could match his speed was something Rei never could have anticipated.
"Tch! Flying Slash!"
While still bearing down on Visente, Rei swung the Death Scythe toward the old man at his side. The Flying Slash that erupted from the blade screamed straight at its target...... but just as before, the old man vanished into the night sky.
But Rei had already seen this once. He didn't let it rattle him this time.
Taking full advantage of the old man's disappearance, Rei poured everything into closing the distance with Visente.
It had been several seconds since he started his charge. By all rights, that should have been more than enough time to reach Visente.
But the old man's interference had stolen those precious fractions of a second—and that was all it took to cost Rei his window.
"Too bad for you."
"Tch!"
The moment those words left Visente's mouth, Rei abandoned his attempt to close the gap. He switched tactics instantly, going from a full charge to an all-out retreat.
He leaped at the same blistering speed he had used to rush in, activated the Sleipnir boots, and kicked off the air itself—launching himself in a wide lateral arc away from Visente.
One step, two steps, three steps through the air, each kick widening the gap while carrying the momentum of his initial charge.
But there was no way Stigma would simply let him go.
On his fourth and fifth steps, the old man materialized directly in his path once more, thrusting his staff straight at Rei.
Remembering the impact that had sent him flying through the window, Rei brought the Death Scythe up to block. The enormous blade was about to cleave the old man in two when, just as before, he vanished.
(Is it really not Teleportation!?)
Rei cursed inwardly at the old man's maddening ability to appear and disappear at will.
But right now, he had bigger problems than unraveling the old man's abilities.
His movement, however, was one step......no, two steps too slow.
The old man's interference had stolen the decisive moment Rei needed to escape.
"Great enemy—receive divine punishment!"
As Visente's voice rang out, something erupted from his body. It spread outward in a single heartbeat......and swallowed the entire battlefield whole.