Climbing the Tower with Multidimensional Avatars - Chapter 111

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 111. The Magician of Sephiroth – The Murderous Clown (5)

I immediately retrieved the flying bike from my subspace cube and fired up the engine.
I never expected to take it for a test drive in actual combat.
I’d thought the compact size would be inconvenient, but it felt surprisingly snug.
The moment I started the engine and took off, a thrill coursed through me.
My mood, which had soured after witnessing that gruesome corpse, lifted considerably—a relief.
Recalling it now made my stomach churn; I doubted I’d be eating anything tonight.
The flying bike cut swiftly through the air in a straight line, ascending the building’s exterior wall by generating precise attractive and repulsive forces.
Andromallius followed directly behind me, employing a weightless technique that blended martial arts with magic.
“Commander, aren’t you using a bike?”
“Mine got totaled during a recent mission and is currently under repair.”
Just how dangerous were the commissions Andromallius took on if his bike had been destroyed like that?
Still, the fact that it was being repaired suggested the damage wasn’t catastrophic.
“I’ll hitch a ride for now.”
Andromallius, suspended in his weightless state, conjured a magical chain and connected it to the rear of my bike.
The weightless condition meant mana consumption didn’t increase significantly, but the added air resistance created some drag on the handling.
“I’m impressed you’re driving so well on your first time using a bike.”
“Ha, once you try it, it’s not so bad.”
Not now, but back in high school, I’d gotten the urge to buy a motorcycle.
I’d secretly saved my allowance and even obtained my motorcycle license, but I got caught by my mother just before the purchase and ended up riding a 50cc scooter instead.
That scooter held no fond memories—I’d only used it for errands to my grandfather’s mandarin orange farm.
The flying bike operated quite differently, but the driving technique was similar enough to the scooter that I could handle it immediately.
Flying in a straight line over the building rooftops, I quickly reached the location where the Murderous Clown’s mana signature was detected.
I stopped on the rooftop of the 5-Story Building Rooftop, stowed the bike in my subspace cube, and peered down to see the Murderous Clown drenched in blood, shambling about with a grotesque laugh.
“That’s clearly not human.”
It stood roughly three meters tall, its entire body rippling with muscle, its arm joints—at least four of them—bent in impossible angles.
Its head, the size of two watermelons combined, rotated a full 360 degrees, and its mouth was unmistakably wider than its face.
It resembled elastic rubber being stretched and distorted.
Its eyes had no eyelids, the round pupils exposed raw, and beneath them, crimson tear-like markings painted in blood writhed grotesquely.
“We classify mutated monsters as deceased from the moment they lose rationality and undergo complete transformation.”
At Andromallius’s words, I positioned my mana blade at my waist for quick draw and raised my mana pistol.
“Should I hunt it alone?”
“If it looks dangerous, I’ll intervene anytime. You’re free to use martial arts as well—go wild.”
Over the past six months, I’d learned and mastered the ability to completely conceal my mana, aura, and even traces of martial arts through magic.
The concealment was so thorough that I felt a sense of alienation from myself, but as a result, no one could tell whether my extraordinary physical feats stemmed from body modification enhancement, mutation abilities, or temporary physical enhancement magic kits.
I set the mana pistol’s output to maximum and fired at the clown’s torso.
Whoosh!
In a single breath, the magic bullet that consumed one-tenth of the cartridge’s magical power flew at supersonic speed, fragmenting just before it pierced through the clown’s body and scattering like buckshot.
The Murderous Clown, bombarded by over a dozen magic bullets with power exceeding an elephant gun, twisted its grotesque head while black smoke billowed from its entire body, glaring at me.
Wow, I condensed and fired the equivalent of a thousand magic bullets all at once, and it still survived.
“Protective magic. The vital points are shielded.”
Powerful protective barriers surrounded the clown’s head, heart, and neck.
It was clear evidence that someone was backing this creature.
Still, that last strike had left the protective barrier tattered. Since the barrier was also magic, it would disappear once the magical power ran out.
“Eeeek! Eeeek! Eeeek! Eeeek!”
The Murderous Clown, seemingly immune to pain, lunged directly toward my position in a single breath.
If it had seen the power of that attack, it should have fled immediately.
I immediately aimed my magic bullet pistol again and fired.
Perhaps because the clown had experienced the magic bullet’s power firsthand, it twisted its body in midair using magical energy to evade the shot.
“Idiot, this one’s just a regular magic bullet.”
I charged toward the clown while swinging a magical blade like a beam saber.
The clown, having lost its center of gravity in midair while dodging the magic bullet, had its arm severed cleanly by my magical blade.
It was an attack aimed at the neck, but it twisted its waist backward to evade.
“It’s definitely not human.”
I created footholds in the air, kicked off the empty space, and rotated my body to sweep the clown to the ground.
Boom!
When my strike, enhanced by inner power, struck the clown’s abdomen directly, it was driven into the ground and writhed.
As I fell to the ground, I aimed my magic bullet pistol and fired once more.
This time, to make evasion impossible, I fired hundreds of magic bullets like a shotgun, and the area where the clown had been was riddled with bullet marks.
Landing lightly on the ground using magic and lightness technique, I clicked my tongue softly.
“They say mutant ability users employ unique powers, and it seems mutant monsters are no different.”
The Murderous Clown created countless balloons in a brief moment to block the magic bullets.
More precisely, it deflected the magic bullets or weakened their impact.
Thanks to this, the clown became riddled with holes, but the magic bullets couldn’t penetrate deeply.
The Murderous Clown consumed magical power to heal its wounds.
Regeneration was one of the innate supernatural abilities fundamentally embedded in mutant factors.
Of course, regeneration at this level only sealed puncture wounds or closed lacerations—the severed arm didn’t regrow.
I’d heard that severed body parts could theoretically regenerate if reattached, but apparently it rarely happened.
This was because regenerating an arm could cause shock-induced death from magical exhaustion.
Still, I’d heard that if a severed limb was brought back into contact, it could be reattached, so I incinerated the clown’s fallen arm to destroy it completely.
As its arm burned away, the enraged clown let out a grotesque laugh.
“Hehehehe! Hehehehe! Hehehehe! Hehehehe!”
Sensing magical fluctuations in the laughter, it appeared the creature also possessed mind-control type supernatural abilities.
But the effect wasn’t severe.
If it continued killing people to steal their magical power and life force to grow stronger, that would be different, but for now it was unremarkable.
Mutant monsters survive by killing non-mutated life forms, especially humans, and absorbing their magical power and life force.
Since mutant factors cannot digest nutrients obtained from food or magical power they generate themselves, they must kill living creatures and drain their life force like blood to survive.
Mutant ability users who controlled mutant factors maintained their abilities by feeding their mana to the mutant factors as if providing sustenance.
Mana created by the mutant factor itself couldn’t be consumed, but mana generated by the non-mutant body could be.
Mutant ability users could also maintain their mutant factors by killing other living beings, though it was generally considered taboo.
Feeding one’s own mana allowed complete control, but mana from other life forms couldn’t be controlled, which was the critical issue.
If the mutant factor escaped control and proliferated, that was the moment the ability user transformed into a mutant monster.
Conversely, if too many mutant factors died from combat or aging and couldn’t proliferate with just one’s own mana, killing other life forms to feed them could rapidly accelerate the mutant factor’s reproduction.
Accidents where mutant ability users transformed into mutant monsters happened frequently this way.
The cost of stably reaccepting mutant factors was far more complicated and expensive than initially accepting them, which is why such incidents occurred.
Unlike body-modified enhanced soldiers or mages, mutant ability users were those living with bombs that had detonators embedded in their bodies.
The Murderous Clown, having recovered his body, created a short sword from mana in the air and hurled it at me.
This short sword appeared to be the primary weapon that had wounded the victims.
The moment I lightly dodged the incoming sword and approached the Murderous Clown, I felt another blade flying at my back from behind.
Since it was a sword made of mana, I could clearly sense its trajectory and direction without even deploying my mana perception.
“Remote manipulation is possible, then.”
I spun around, struck the short sword with my mana blade, and simultaneously poured my mana into it, causing it to dissipate completely.
This was possible because the sword was a form of magic, allowing me to use Dispel.
If the mana structure had been robust, I couldn’t have simply erased it by flowing mana through it, but the Murderous Clown, having lost his reason and intellect, seemed incapable of maintaining a solid mana structure.
As the sword vanished, the Murderous Clown panicked and continued creating and throwing short swords.
I struck down each sword to disperse it while charging toward the Murderous Clown.
Judging that he couldn’t overcome me, the Murderous Clown created a small sphere and threw it at the ground.
The sphere burst upon impact, and black smoke filled the surroundings, obscuring my vision.
I attempted to disperse the smoke with wind magic, but it didn’t disappear—the structure seemed to continuously emit smoke rather than burst once and end.
“Tch, smoke that diffusely scatters mana wavelengths themselves. Unnecessarily troublesome.”
Even with my mana perception blocked, I could determine direction well enough through hearing alone.
“Next time, make the smoke disrupt hearing too. If you get another chance to make it, that is.”
Toward the direction I heard the Murderous Clown’s footsteps, I unleashed hundreds of rounds of buckshot in rapid succession.
Since I couldn’t land individual shots through the smoke, using buckshot would do the trick.
After pulling the trigger about ten times, only thirty-five percent of the mana cartridge remained.
With hundreds of rounds firing with each trigger pull, the mana was draining rapidly.
The Murderous Clown emitted a bizarre, shrieking laugh as I heard him crawling across the ground.
The smoke production wasn’t unlimited—after about twenty seconds, the smoke cleared and the Murderous Clown’s form appeared.
“Well, well? Still alive?”
The Murderous Clown’s entire body was riddled with holes like a sponge, tattered and torn.
Seeing balloon fragments scattered across the ground, it seemed he’d blocked the attack with balloons about six times and endured with regeneration about five times.
Though I thought I’d aimed carefully, I’d apparently only landed dozens of hits out of hundreds of rounds, allowing him to survive—likely due to the distance being considerable.
The gap between us had grown quite large in the meantime.
Well, regardless, since I’d landed hits, the buckshot’s effectiveness was certainly proven.
I holstered the mana pistol in its holder and drew my mana blade again, approaching the Murderous Clown.
“I’m clocking out early today.”
As I moved to kill the Murderous Clown, I felt no hesitation whatsoever.
It wasn’t that the Murderous Clown was inherently cruel in his killings.
Though humans are said to have a common origin, I simply couldn’t regard this creature as the same species, so my blade harbored no hesitation.
Of course, once the transformation wore off and I saw the corpse that remained, my feelings might have been different.
But that wouldn’t have been reason enough to spare the Murderous Clown.
“May you find peace.”
Just as I raised my sword to strike, I sensed a potent magical presence from far away and instinctively conjured a solid barrier.
But Andromallius’s barrier materialized above mine, far more formidable.
As if urging me to focus on eliminating the Murderous Clown, I dissolved my barrier and reabsorbed the mana.
Creating magic consumed mana, but converting that magic back into mana and reabsorbing it allowed me to recover over ninety percent.
The grimoire claimed only thirty percent was recoverable, but the grimoire was simply wrong.
With my mana restored, I swung my blade without hesitation.
Just before the sword reached the Murderous Clown’s neck, a barrage of sniper magic rained down upon me.
Yet the sniper fire was easily blocked by Andromallius’s barrier, and my blade severed the Murderous Clown’s neck, sending his head tumbling to the ground.

(Continued in the next chapter)

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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