The Second Strongest Has Returned

Chapter 58

Frenzy of Depravity

“You’re sharing quite a fiery love, aren’t you? Sister?”

Arias was beyond flustered, staring at him with a dumbfounded expression. Her reddened face was thoroughly etched into the eyes of her brother, Rios.

“It’s not for the one who arrived late to say, but leave the rest to me.”

With that, Rios snapped his fingers.

“What?”

Arias and Leonardo were instantly teleported. The coordinates were set to the Magic Tower, so they should receive appropriate treatment.

“Taking your eyes off the enemy…!?”

In that brief moment, the Clay Shaper lunged at Rios.

“Taking them off? I just turned my head because my optic nerves felt like they’d rot if I kept looking.”

Weapons made of ice embedded themselves into the flesh of the Clay Shaper. He staggered back, struck by the impact.

“…Ha… Hahaha!”

However, despite being knocked back, the Clay Shaper burst into wild laughter.

“Yes… I’ve heard of you. Rios… The eldest son of the Reinhardt family, right?”

The Clay Shaper let out another loud, distorted howl.

“Do you think you can win after this!?”

Charging forward were the monstrous beings—there were still many victims who had become the Clay Shaper’s materials.

“…I am, indeed, terribly lazy.”

The ice weapons rained down, piercing through the monsters. Rios’s eyes held a calm fury.

“I’m sorry.”

As the ice struck, the bodies of the monsters exploded. The blast was so swift that they didn’t even have time to feel pain.

“You…”

“What’s wrong? Isn’t smiling your specialty? Rios Reinhardt?”

As he spoke, the Clay Shaper absorbed the shattered pieces of flesh. As soon as he did, his muscles and bones began to regenerate.

The victims, without even leaving behind corpses, let out weak screams as they merged with the Clay Shaper.

“Hah…! You people are so predictable. Talking about how life is precious, or how the dead can’t come back… That sort of nonsense…!”

Rios squinted his eyes and smiled.

“Have you ever seen love?”

In a battlefield where bloodshed raged, and the scent of blood thickened in the rain.

“The first time I saw love was with my grandfather and grandmother.”

Rios began to speak, smiling as he talked about love.

“Those two, who were already more gray than black-haired, had a better relationship than my young parents.”

“What kind of nonsense are you suddenly…”

Before the Clay Shaper could finish his sentence, Rios sent a blade of pressurized water flying.

“At the time, love seemed beautiful to me. Even though I was young, I was rather mature for my age.”

As he said this, he vaporized his water weapon, causing it to explode into steam.

“Kraaagh!!”

“But shortly after Arias was born, my grandmother passed away. It was because of black magicians like you, who tampered with her food.”

The heat from the steam caused the raindrops to explode in succession. The force of the explosion sent pieces of the Clay Shaper’s flesh flying in all directions.

“My grandfather was furious. He went on a rampage, slaughtering every black magician, person, and organization he thought was even remotely connected.”

The Clay Shaper reformed his body by gathering the scattered pieces of flesh. Then, as if mocking the attack, he charged at Rios.

“It was only then that I realized—love is tragic because it’s the most beautiful thing.”

He then generated arms in all directions and unleashed his unique magic at Rios.

“I’ll kill you in one blow…!!”

“Do you think someone like you, a piece of trash, has the right to trample on such love?”

Crack

The arms, imbued with his unique magic, twisted unnaturally as their bones snapped. It wasn’t due to external magic, nor did the Clay Shaper do it intentionally.

“I don’t think so, especially when it’s the love my siblings have.”

It wasn’t just the bones. Muscles, blood vessels, and nerves—every single cell in the Clay Shaper’s body began to destroy itself.

“How…? Ugh…! Why is my body…?”

“Why would you think you’re the only one with a technique for instant death?”

Rios snapped his fingers again.

Puhk, Puhk

Blades of ice erupted from the Clay Shaper’s flesh. These weren’t projectiles that had been thrown—they had formed inside his body and pierced through his flesh from within.

“Kraaaagh!!”

“Just as you have a unique magic, I also have my own.”

“…Unique… magic…? Someone like you…?!”

Rios snapped his fingers once more. This time, all the blood vessels in the Clay Shaper’s body burst.

“Aaaagh!! Stop…! Please, stop…!!”

“What’s the matter? I’ve only solidified your fluids so far.”

No blood flowed out. All the fluids in his body had solidified, twisting his entire body. When water solidifies, it expands, tearing through the pathways it occupies.

“My unique magic allows me to perfectly control the state of water. I can completely manipulate any liquid that contains my mana.”

Only now did the Clay Shaper understand. The ice weapons Rios had been launching were merely catalysts to inject his mana.

“In that case…!!”

He let out another desperate scream. Though it was his last, he still had some monsters left…

Boom! Crack!

“They should have remained…”

“From the moment the rain started, you had no chance of defeating me. I had already infused my magic into the rain clouds.”

All the monsters who had been caught in the rain had long since exploded.

“Of course, without the rain, my power would be significantly reduced. You could say the heavens assisted me today.”

The Clay Shaper writhed like a worm drowning in the rain, trying to crawl away.

With each attempt, Rios’s unique magic twisted his body even more painfully, but the Clay Shaper no longer had the strength to process the agony.

“The reason the victims exploded earlier is because the fluids in their bodies turned to gas.”

“…Ugh… Please…”

Blades continued to erupt from the Clay Shaper’s back. By now, Rios’s unique magic had permeated every cell in his body.

“What’s wrong? I’m not such a heartless person. I’ll, of course, give you a chance to apologize.”

At those words, the Clay Shaper, unable to even maintain his form, began to clasp his disfigured hands together as if in prayer, pleading desperately.

“I…I was wro…wrong…! I won’t ever… do this… again…!”

“…It’s so strange. You people ruin others’ lives in such creative ways… but when it comes time to apologize, you all do it like this.”

Rios pressed his thumb and forefinger together, applying pressure.

“Isn’t an apology usually made to the ones you killed, not the ones doing the killing?”

“A…Aah…!”

The moment he understood the meaning, Rios moved his fingers.

“Rios!!”

At that moment, a woman came running at full speed.

“Oh, it’s the grade slave.”

It was Ameri Esph.

“Shut up, slacker.”

But this time, Ameri was quite different from her usual self.

“So, my friend, why did you call me? If it’s not urgent, let me just kill this trash first, and then we can talk.”

With that, Rios prepared to snap his fingers again.

“I’m here to stop you from doing that.”

“…What?”

“Don’t kill him. If you do, there’s no turning back.”

The Clay Shaper smiled faintly. He thought he might survive, thanks to such soft-hearted thinking.

“My siblings nearly died because of this bastard, and I’m supposed to show this lunatic moral consideration?”

Even if Rios ignored her and went ahead, it didn’t matter. If push came to shove, he could use this woman…

[Frozen Blizzard]

“No, that’s not it.”

Ameri froze the Clay Shaper’s hands with her magic, encasing them in ice.

“I’m saying this for when you write the incident report and consider the antidote.”

“Kraaaagh!”

Ignoring the Clay Shaper’s screams as he clutched his frozen arms, Ameri continued.

“It’s easier to write an incident report when there’s a body left behind, and it’ll be more convenient to develop a treatment for unique magic if we have the black magician’s body.”

“…So you’re saying to keep him alive?”

“No. Just freeze him whole like this. If you want, you can blow up everything except his head.”

The Clay Shaper couldn’t even sweat in fear. The air around him was too cold for that.

“Ah, that works.”

Snap

Rios snapped his fingers, and the Clay Shaper’s entire body, except for his head, exploded. With that final sight etched into his mind, the Clay Shaper’s head was frozen down to the cellular level.

“Ah… I’m exhausted~”

Watching the now-frozen head, Rios collapsed onto the dirt ground.

“Is this your bedroom? Go home and lie on your bed. You’re going to get sick for real.”

“You’re too harsh~ Even using my magic on a large scale makes me tired.”

Ameri sighed and hoisted Rios onto her back. Then, she stuffed the Clay Shaper’s frozen head into her dimensional bag.

“You really are my best friend~ Thank you so much~”

“Don’t mimic me. I’ll drop you on the street.”

“You’re so mean~ You talk like this to other people all the time~”

Pinch

“Ow! That’s a tendon! A tendon!!”

“I was tired back then, and they weren’t close friends, so it’s different. It’s harder to talk that way with someone I’ve known for eight years.”

As the pressure from her fingers eased, Rios returned to his usual cheeky expression.

“So, I’m special then.”

“Hah… Think whatever you want.”

“Don’t you know how these things work? Childhood friends are all the rage in pure romance novels these days.”

As Rios chuckled behind her, Ameri’s face flushed red with irritation.

“That’s nonsense. Childhood friends always lose out to the main heroine in the end.”

“Hey, Ameri.”

Suddenly, Rios’s grip tightened, and Ameri was momentarily startled.

“That’s not true. You went too far with that comment.”

Ameri, feeling slightly overwhelmed by the seriousness in Rios’s voice, asked in a trembling tone. For some reason, her face reddened even more.

“…R-Really? Then…”

“A harem isn’t pure romance!”

Smack

Unable to endure any more nonsense, Ameri flung Rios off her back.

“Walk on your own. I’m heading back first.”

With those words, she unfolded a teleportation scroll and disappeared.

“…Maybe I should’ve been a bit more honest?”

What Rios had implied was that he preferred pure romance novels where the main characters are childhood friends, but Ameri didn’t catch on to that.

And Rios, on the other hand, didn’t realize that even though Ameri could have teleported immediately, she had chosen to carry him instead.

* * *

The aftermath of the terror attack rippled through society heavily.

Public opinion condemned the Magic Tower and its masters for their incompetence in failing to resolve the attack themselves. When it became known that the cause was internal corruption within the Magic Tower, the criticism grew even more intense.

The victims of the incident were left with indelible scars, and families who had lost loved ones spread their resentment to others.

Amid this chaos, the young hero who had brought the situation to an end was deep in sleep in a hospital room.

“…Leonardo.”

“Yes?”

But the place where Leo opened his eyes was not a hospital room.

He was sitting on the damp floor of a cave.

Standing before him was the Sage, not in his usual translucent, ghostly form, but as a solid figure.

“You’re awake?”

“…This is where the Guardian was…”

It was the place where he had accidentally obtained the Philosopher’s Stone while battling the Guardian.

“You haven’t actually moved here. Technically, this is inside your mind, within the Philosopher’s Stone embedded in your heart.”

Suddenly being transported to a cave like this didn’t make sense, but if that were true, what was happening to his real body?

“What about me in the real world?”

“You’re unconscious. Don’t worry, you just passed out from exhaustion. You were given a potion in time, and with proper treatment in the hospital, you’ll recover without any aftereffects.”

That only made it more confusing. Then, why was he here?

“Then why am I…”

[You are about to face a trial. You could say you’ll confront your past, or perhaps face yourself.]

“Confront… myself?”

It was clearly different from the concept of returning to the past.

“Don’t overthink it. For now, just sit down.”

“Even if you say that, there’s nowhere to…”

Before he realized it, he was already seated on a somewhat familiar wooden chair.

“And then?”

“…What?”

“Just do whatever you want. You could train as usual, or cook yourself something like the chair you just made. If you overthink it, it’ll really become difficult.”

Leaning back in the chair, Leo finally spoke.

“…Can I tell you a long story?”

“If it’s shorter than 300 years.”

Three hundred years—a fitting time for an old man like the Sage.

“I met Arias at the time when I was finishing up a mercenary job.”

Fortunately, the stories of the past were much shorter than 300 years.