"The Noose of Despair" was working on various operations to infiltrate Crownhall.

What keeps the Empire standing? It stems from the 'unconditional' competence of the imperial bloodline. Humans are imperfect beings, and even great parents can produce incompetent children. Mutations inevitably occur across generations.

High-ranking dark mages could afford to wait. Using various wicked arts that crushed others' souls, they could extend their lifespans dozens of times over.

Historically, many kingdoms fell to dark mages because they struck during vulnerable periodsâwhen ruled by foolish, arrogant, or incompetent kings. Blades that strike at such times cannot be blocked.

But the Empire was different. The concept of an "incompetent imperial descendant" seemed not to exist. All imperial children were geniuses, and while they might have character flaws, they were never incompetent.

Was it the power of bloodline? Did their golden hair carry such magnificent traits?

No. Even children created by stealing imperial seed were born with golden hair and blue eyes, but not with talent.

Therefore...

The secret of their competence must lie in the capital, Crownhall.

Whether it was the Goddess's blessing, some ancient artifact, or an unknown archmage's secret artâthe dark mages didn't know. But they were certain it existed and was hidden in the imperial district at the heart of Crownhall.

If they could destroy it, or perhaps take it for themselves...

The Empire, which had seemed unshakable for thousands of years, might finally fall.

Dark mages rarely cooperated, but the prospect of the Empire's collapse was too enticing. It was worth investing significant resources.

That's why "The Noose of Despair" received support from other named dark mages to plan the raid and seizure of Crownhall.

The magic that turned citizens into living spies was a gift from another named dark mage. He thought he should make good use of this gift.

The plan was to connect with a manipulable foolâpreferably a nobleman, ideally one who was greedy and thought with his lower body. Then, using an artifact that could control others as bait, he would borrow influence to spread magic throughout Crownhall.

The plan had progressed successfully. They had gathered much information and expected to gather more. Now they could take another step forward.

They could use those under hypnosis to cause chaos. If sudden terrorist attacks occurred everywhere, it would be extremely confusing...

"The Noose of Despair" had assigned three useful men to the viscount. They served as guards, monitors, and essentially the command center that properly managed affairs instead of the incompetent viscount.

All three were dark mages, and all were Ascension-level powerhouses who could use souls as fuel.

Among them, one had reached the Ascension realm in his original form. If he amplified his power by sacrificing others' souls while already able to use Ascension, the effect would be overwhelming for opponents of the same level.

Above all, the statue.

The hypnotic function was merely a secondary effect of the magic engraved on the statue's surface. The true significance lay in the statue itself.

There was a reason they engraved magic on a crude statue rather than on precious metals with high mana conductivity. In an emergency, they could use the statue's power.

So when uninvited guests arrived at the mansion, they weren't nervous.

"That's Rorey the 'Puppet.' And that one... seems to be an agent from Intelligence. Nice chest."

"The agent seems capable, but that skinny guy is nothing special. Could kill him in three exchanges. And that kid... a servant? I don't sense anything from them."

"Kid? Where's a kid? Her? Man, if you're calling those breasts 'kid-sized,' what size do you like?"

They were relaxed enough to joke. There were four enemies, but only two they needed to worry about. The dark mage who had reached the Ascension realm fingered his bowstring and said in a low voice:

"Quiet. If the viscount is harmed, we attack. Kill all but one."

"Yes, yes, I'll smash through and go down."

The dual swordsman spat and drew his swords from his waist.

Crash! Rumble!

The dual swordsman smashed through the floor and descended. Until that point, the dark mages thought they could quickly dispose of the intruders. If they had time to spare, they even thought about capturing and having some fun with them.

But when an indescribable flash of light flickered from the twin-tailed girl's hand...

"This... is the Purple Tower's...!!"

With those words that suggested he had noticed something, their strongest dark mage, the archer, was "erased" in half. They realized this mission had gone terribly wrong.

A monster was hiding among them.

===============================================================

I blinked to focus my eyes. Clearly, the dual-wielding guy had swung his swords while descending... I hurriedly cast a spell, but when I came to my senses, Pinkvales was blocking my front.

"You..."

Blood was flowing from Pinkvales's slashed forearm. Judging by the bleeding, it seemed cut deep enough to expose bone.

She summoned chains, wrapping them around both arms, and without looking back, said:

"Are you alright? Any injuries?"

"...Thanks to you."

All kinds of thoughts ran through my mind. If I were a warrior instead of a mage, would Yuri Lanster not have been hurt? Or if I had prepared an immediate defensive spell...

But now wasn't the time for such thoughts. I quickly moved my eyes to assess the battlefield.

One muscular guy with a large greatsword on his back.

One slender guy wielding dual swords.

And the archer was... dead. It seemed his mind had been split by Yuna the Purple Tower Master's interception. He was lying face down, drooling.

They probably hadn't expected the Purple Tower Master to be among us. This fight was already our victory. We had asymmetric power.

Indeed, the dual swordsman was sweating nervously, glancing at the archer's corpse.

"What? He's dead...? What the hell... Why?!"

"..."

Let me think. If the Tower Master unleashes her magic, the battle ends here. However, we needed information.

Given the circumstances, the viscount was likely just a puppet, so subduing these attackers would yield more meaningful information. We needed to extract information by interrogating them.

So I asked:

"Tower Master, can you subdue them while preserving their information?"

"Hmm..."

The fact that she hesitated was a problem. Given the Tower Master's characteristics of poor power control, we might end up with nothing left even if we captured them. If their brains were completely bleached, no amount of interrogation would yield information.

It was a targeting issue. We needed to fire a cannon but aim carefully enough not to shatter their heads. So...

"If you can securely bind their feet, it's possible?"

"Yes. If you do that, I'll cleanly erase just their limbs. B-but if anyone becomes dangerous, I'll shoot immediately."

Confirmed.

"Junior, I'll handle the greatsword user alone."

"...A mage fighting alone without a vanguard? 'Puppet' Rorey."

"No need to worry, Agent. I'm taking this on because I'm confident. That man doesn't look as strong as you."

"In that case, the dual swordsmn will be handled by me and the Mad Magician... we'll subdue or eliminate him as a team."

The assignments were complete. Scarface Senior moved positions while bombarding the greatsword user with deterrent magic, and Pinkvales rushed at the dual swordsman.

The blood flowing through the chains kept catching my eye.

I gritted my teeth and prepared my magic.

===============================================================

The dark mage with the greatsword glared at Rorey. He knew about her from a list of persons of interest he had received beforehand.

"'Puppet' Rorey... I've heard the name a lot. You mainly take dungeon exploration requests, right?"

"Do you have an exploration request for me? But the situation doesn't seem good for accepting requests."

At Rorey's glib response, the dark mage raised his greatsword to a high stance.

"Amateurs like adventurers are easier to deal with than mercenaries. You're the kind who live comfortably fighting golems and goblins. Have you ever killed a person?"

"Probably more than you think."

"Let's find out directly. Burnt Offering, 'Burning Mental Barrier'!!"

Aaaaargh-!

One pitiful soul stored in the greatsword was torn apart with a terrible scream. Black, intense mana spread, and the dark mage used it to complete his spell.

Black flames flickered in the dark mage's eyes.

"...That's the Red Tower's mental protection spell."

"Yes. A spell that burns away all attempts to harm the mind. 'Puppet' Rorey... your nickname makes it obvious. You use illusion magic to control others' bodies at will, don't you?"

Whoosh. The large greatsword cut through the air with a threatening sound.

"Purple Tower mages are so easy to hunt... Just a few souls and I can block them so simply-!!"

"'Dispersing Illusion.'"

Thump, thump, thump. Against the dark mage charging with his heavy build, Rorey calmly chanted. Since mental interference wouldn't work, she used magic that affected vision by distorting light.

A skilled mage's illusions have no awkwardness. Rorey meticulously crafted her illusion based on solid fundamentals built through effort.

As light spread, Rorey's form split into three. Each illusion moved naturally, and they all moved in different directions simultaneously. The dark mage couldn't distinguish between the real one and the fakes.

"Hup!"

Whoosh-!

The greatsword sliced one illusion in half.

Swish! Ting!

Rorey seized the opportunity and threw a dagger. However, the dark mage blocked it by flowing mana throughout his armor. He cut down another illusion and said:

"If you're waiting for my mana to run out, you're mistaken. I have ten souls stored in my greatsword! I can fight all day with this. Your head will fall before that... but!"

"..."

The dark mage who poured out mana wastefully had no weakness. He didn't need to strive for efficiency or researchâsimply increasing output was enough to gain the upper hand.

The evil deed of burning others' soulsâby accepting just that one thing, he could wield such immense power.

Then what reason was there to hold back?

The dark mage infused his greatsword with mana. Dense mana coated the blade so thickly the edge wasn't visible. It lacked sharpness and precision, but it could crush a person all too easily.

No illusions remained. The Rorey standing blankly over there must be the real one. The dark mage swung his greatsword at her.

And before him, Rorey quietly raised a finger.

"One correction."

"Dieââ!!"

Swoosh- Crash!!

The greatsword fell. One span away from Rorey. Onto the wrong floor.

Cold sweat ran down the dark mage's cheek.

"...What? I clearly...!"

"A spell that blocks attempts to harm the mind, you said? It won't work. 'Puppet' isn't magic that takes something away."

His senses felt wrong. His arm didn't feel like his own. Something was strangely twisted. He was sure he had cast a mental protection spell.

"What have you done...!"

"'Puppet' doesn't mean making the opponent a puppet. The puppet isn't you, but me."

The dark mage tried to pull out his greatsword. But no matter how much strength he applied, his arm wouldn't move. Instead, Rorey in front of him raised her arm. Rorey quietly said:

"This magic is about giving myself as a gift."

"...!!"

The dark mage finally understood the source of the discomfort. Rorey had "gifted" him the sensation of her own body. The arm he had been trying to move wasn't his arm, but Rorey's.

The dark mage quickly made a judgment. If this arm was Rorey's arm...

"Then...!"

Then he should move Rorey's arm to hit Rorey. The dark mage moved his arm to throw a punch at himself.

Thwack-!

"Ugh...!"

The dark mage ended up punching his own face. Rorey had released "Puppet," returning his senses to normal.

Rorey smiled.

"Now, which one is your arm? Think carefully and tell me."

"Uh, uwaaaââ!!"

It was a terrible psychological quagmire. He didn't know when or how his senses would be "gifted." He couldn't tell if the arm he was about to swing was his own or Rorey's.

When he extended his fist forward, he couldn't know whether he would hit Rorey with his own arm or hit himself with Rorey's arm. In the complexly distorted confusion, the dark mage danced according to Rorey's will.

At the end of the puppet show, only the dark mage remained, having knocked himself unconscious by repeatedly punching his own face.

Rorey stretched after finishing the battle. The brute was easy to defeat. If he had been someone who had honed his senses even a little, a more complex psychological battle would have been necessary.

"Well then, how is Junior's side..."

Rorey turned her head. The dual swordsman was about to self-destruct, emitting light.

"?"

===============================================================

Aaaaaaaa-!!

"Burnt Offering, 'Mental Barrier Reinforcement,' 'Physical Enhancement.'"

With the soul's scream, massive mana surged through the dual swordsman's body. The buffs he applied to himself were very basic.

A technique that simply pumped in mana to increase performance without any special process. As such, it had no particular weakness. It felt like he was overwhelming with raw stats.

"'Trojan Horse,' 'Time Perception Distortion,' 'Tickle'..."

I had been continuously firing spells at his mind, but. He hadn't constructed his mental barrier with techniqueâjust with quantity. It felt like it was densely packed with sandbags, making it extremely difficult to penetrate.

Even if one occasionally got through with persistent gnawing...

"...Hmph, you think that will work?"

He would shake his head once and break it. He was performing real-time mental cleansing. With him crushing us with his tier, there weren't many options.

"Ascension - 'Binding of True Desire: Foreplay.'"

Clank!

Yuri Lanster manifested her Ascension in sustained form. Besides using it all at once like when she destroyed the golem, she apparently knew how to apply it over a longer duration.

"Hup!"

Whoosh-!!

Yuri Lanster swung the chains wrapped around her arm. The silver chains drew a semicircle, and the table and chair caught in the chains were instantly shattered and scattered.

The dual swordsman wasn't among the scatered debris. He had lowered his posture almost to the floor and shot forward like a cockroach.

Slash! Clang!

The blade rose upward like a salmon swimming upstream. Yuri Lanster deflected the sword strike with her chain-wrapped forearm and delivered a sweeping kick aimed at his face.

Smack!

The dual swordsman's body floated up from the kick, but I saw him raise one hand to block it. It wasn't an effective hit. He had deliberately used Yuri Lanster's attack to lift his body.

"Yuri, block-!"

"Hah!"

Swish! Clang!

The dual swordsman's body rotated sharply in mid-air. The two blades spun like a mixer, cutting through Yuri Lanster's iron chains and drawing blood.

"You, you bastard...!!"

The Tower Master aimed her finger. Whoom. The light that carved out information gathered at her fingertip, but the dual swordsman seemed to be wary of the Tower Master. He constantly moved his body to keep Yuri Lanster in the line of fire.

He knew who was the most dangerous here.

I needed to create a variable. I summoned a hologram.

"'Hologram: Butler Legion'!"

"What kind of game is this... Ugh?!"

The dual swordsman tried to ignore the approaching holograms, thinking they were illusions, but after taking one butler punch, he realized they had physical force.

"What strange magic... Get lost!"

Slash!

The holograms clinging to the dual swordsman's body were instantly slashed to pieces. But I had bought one turn. I quickly thought.

Existing illusion magic wasn't working well. He blocked it with raw mana by tier, and even if something got through, he immediately applied mental cleansing.

No matter how many debuffs I applied, they were useless against an enemy who drank debuff-clearing potions every second.

If this were an environment where I could draw in others' beliefs like with "Gate Ascension," I could exert sufficient restraining power, but there were no weak, unspecified masses here to feed on beliefs.

No wonder Scarface Senior disparaged illusion magicâit's a headache when you meet a counter.

I needed... a different spell.

Not magic for TRPGs, but something else.

Since my isekai reincarnation until now, I hadn't really thought about harming others. I had never contemplated magic specifically for killing.

It wasn't interesting. And I hadn't needed it. I was protected by the Tower Master, so I hadn't bothered to step into such ominous magic... I had thought complacently.

But now I seemed to need it. Magic that would blow someone's head off.

Before more wounds appeared on Yuri Lanster's beautiful body... magic that could pierce through that bastard.

If the problem was the mental barrier packed with mana, I would pierce it with a single concentrated point.

If the problem was mental cleansing, I would neutralize it in one go. Like the Tower Master's magic.

I would create it.

I twisted the magic into a spiral. The tip sharp and pointed, able to penetrate the barrier and reach deep into the brain.

I infused emotion into the mana. I had data. The despair and suffering of the trio who had been dipped in the Cthulhu session. The 2nd Prince's heartbreak. I crammed in all that mental anguish.

"You, what are you... damn it!"

"Magician, I'll protect you, so keep doing whatever you're doing! Whatever it is!"

Focus. Carve it delicately.

It's a simple but efficient arrow. But there's no need to flick the bowstring. This will persistently chase its prey to devour a person's heart.

"The shadow cast at your feet, the darkness peering through the closet crack, the loneliness of the pitch-black night."

A black arrow that shatters the mind.

"'Mystic Heart-Piercing Arrow.'"

I shot to kill.

===============================================================

"This is what happened, Your Highness."

"Ah, I see. So... a dark mage with a shattered mind decided to self-destruct, causing an explosion that took out half the mansion. Fortunately, the Purple Tower Master twisted the direction of the explosion, preventing casualties, but you were arrested by the Capital Knights who rushed in after hearing the commotion... and now I've bailed you out?"

"That's right."

The 2nd Prince Irid closed his eyes briefly to consider, and finally reached a conclusion.

"Prostrate yourself."

"Yes."

I quietly bowed my head and lay flat.

Still, we hadn't come away empty-handed. We had rescued the viscount and other hostages, gathered evidence, secured the hypnosis app, and collected some suspicious and interesting items...

If I mentioned that now, all my merit would be used up just calming his anger. I wanted praise and rewards. I would casually bring it up once the 2nd Prince's anger subsided.