Chapter 14: Kuro vs Flame

Since the beginning of this never-ending war, humanity had always been at a huge disadvantage. The beings that attacked them could manifest fantastical powers on an unprecedented scale, rendering their resistance futile.

But, through countless struggles, mankind crossed into that plane that was believed unreachable. Many names were used to describe them; soothsayers, mages, wizards, witches, mystics, seers.

Now, they were generally grouped under one name…

Magicians.

The same way humans found the way to celestial bodies, the watery depths, and treacherous landscapes, they had also found a way to magic.

How this feat was accomplished, nobody knew. Only by their exploits did the world become aware of humans who wielded magical powers.

Some of the masses called them hoaxes, tricks, deceivers, charlatans. Fingers were pointed, allegations raised. They claimed these displays of power were staged. Even today, some denied the existence of magic…

Those who did not believe could never answer one question: how in the world did Magicians do what they did?

There were societies said to have gathered a great number of followers, and pioneers whose origins were yet to fully be uncovered. From the knowledge they left behind, the path to learning magic was a perilous one.

The sheer amount of ancient texts to be committed to memory. Incomprehensible symbols and markings that require careful practice to master. Sacred, unattainable artefacts.

And the most dangerous one of all…

…A portion of your soul would be at stake…

After all, power comes at a price. Some spells drew power directly from the person’s essence. But overtime, there were ways to purportedly deal with that drawback, and raise the ceiling of a Magician’s potential.

And now there were two of these distinguished individuals, standing before Kuro.

“Ahh... Flame is so hot… We love you Flame!!!”

“Look at that ice cold stare. That’s Freeze for ya!”

The shouts of adoration only increased with the sounds of camera shutters.

Kuro focused his attention on the faces of the Magicians, deducing that they must have been using a spell called Change Face—a more upgraded version of False Face.

Unlike False Face which merely created the illusion of another face, Change Face went as far as altering the actual anatomical structure of a person’s face. It could transform every facial feature to an incredible degree.

The spell was considered to be a Stage III spell due to its level of difficulty. It was also the comparative level of power thought to be the maximum a Magician could ever reach, since they didn’t personally possess Stages.

As Kuro stared pensively at the Magicians, the one called Freeze began to turn her shapely face around.

“Yo, she’s looking at me!”

“No, you idiot. She’s obviously looking at me!”

Neither of the two fellows were correct. Her eyes had fallen upon the young man in black at the back of the crowd—Kuro.

Her afore lifeless lips curved into a smile—

Shocked gasps escaped from everyone, excluding Flame—her alleged brother—and Kuro, of course.

“She’s actually… Smiling?! Our Frozen Queen, Freeze?!! I need to get this on camera!!!”

The person she stared at felt compelled to give her an uncomfortable smile back. He also wondered why he felt a sense of familiarity. Then—though he believed he imagined it—he saw Flame lock eyes with him and his expression flickered with a penetrating malice…

Flame strutted over to Freeze and whispered near her ear. They courteously bowed together, before vanishing up into the air with an explosion similar to fireworks.

The crowd dispersed a short while later, resuming their daily activities.

Kuro had—at long last—gotten that coffee and sandwich. He was partway done with his food as he took a right down the sidewalk.

He brought up his coffee to take another sip—

A sound he was all too familiar with interrupted him.

Kuro whirled his head around, meeting a ball of crackling blue fire mere moments away from his face…

● ● ●

A lot went through Kuro’s mind within that short timespan. For example:

Huh?!

At the speed it travelled it should’ve struck him, considering he had less than a second to react. After carefully deliberating his available options, he flung his neck to the left and the fireball crackled past his ear.

Kuro could see annoyance written across Flame’s face the next moment.

That was all the evidence he needed to confirm that it certainly wasn’t a stray shot or some similar explanation.

Kuro proceeded to scarf down the remainder of his lunch as he ran in the opposite direction of the hostile Magician.

Unsurprisingly, Flame chased after him.

It all happened so fast for the people who bore witness to this spectacle.

Somebody was running away at an inhuman speed from a streak of blue fire in hot pursuit.

An occasional ball of fire or two would be thrown, and the chased person would narrowly avoid. If it came from above, the person rolled to the side. From below, and the person would leap high…

Kuro pondered on some issues concerning the person chasing him.

This Flame guy sure is out to get me. He avoided another attack by swinging himself around a corner, and into a less busy street using a streetlight. Maybe he’s on par with a Stage III in terms of his magic. His soul couldn’t take this much punishment otherwise.

The Magician’s attacks were exceptionally potent, blasting away bits of asphalt, scorching the very air in the vicinity—all without dropping dead on the spot.

Guess he has a way to treat any extreme damage to his soul, then.

Every now and then, as Kuro ran, his fingers would twitch—a signal that a side of him wanted to summon Silent and end things quickly.

But the much larger side, the side that wanted to goad this Magician by stepping on his toes a little, outweighed the other. And there was another reason. One he absolutely had to investigate.

Kuro’s figure was starting to become blurry as he ricocheted off the walls of buildings and across the street. At this point, he was just barely visible to the naked eye.

The Magician, Flame, continued his aerial pursuit. Like a hawk, he swooped down as if to snatch him off the road. He missed his nimble prey which only got quicker.

This series of swoops and misses continued until they both noticed a large building growing in size straight ahead—actually, it wasn’t growing. They were about to collide with the structure!

Kuro pushed off the ground with a lackluster leap, propelling himself onto the surface of glass. He began running upwards, vertically…

Flame wasted no time at all. He went after his target, flying up after him, and hurling more constructs made of fire.

In one of the middle floors, there was a meeting. They were all seated around a lengthy, high class table, listening to a presentation of the person standing next to the slides.

A streak of black went across the window, and all heads turned to face it. The meeting continued, once their heads returned—

A fiery blue streak flew by right after, making the entire process repeat itself.

● ● ●

Kuro slowed down once he arrived at the ledge of roof, a good distance away from the regular routine of the city below.

He backed away steadily towards the center of the space.

Then, Flame levitated into view—the fiery attacks had ceased. But it appeared to be only temporarily.

The Magician now reached into what served as a pocket around his thigh, pulling a rectangular piece of paper with a marking similar to a net—more like that of a spider’s web.

“Net of Flames!” the Magician shouted, tossing the object in his hand high. It crumbled to dust, and blue fire lined the sky on top of them, tracing arcs down to the edges of the roof.

It was evident to Kuro that he must have realized his reckless actions and switched to a less harmful, alternative method of casting.

Kuro then watched as Flame thrust his left hand forward, making a hollow fist. He slowly drew a horizontal line in the air—it was a line of crackling blue fire.

The name of the spell came immediately to Kuro—Great Lance of Sweltering Flame. An attack his father— as well as he—was once fond of…

That made him know just how powerful the spell was, and the possible impact it could have on the fuming Magician.

Kuro had to put an end to this now. But before he would, he needed satiate his curiosity.

He said, “Wait. I think your sister, Freeze, is really… Cool…”

“…...”

Though cars honked and pedestrians ambled, they were locked in a muteness. Quite serene, actually.

Then, like a candle fire in a strong wind, both the Net of Flames and the Great Lance of Sweltering Flame dissipated.

“Of course she’s cool. I mean, it is her thing, after all. You just can’t help but love that icy personality of hers, right?!”

Yep, he’s like that, Kuro thought, furrowing his mental brow. Never knew I’d run into one that was a Magician.

“Please forgive my outburst,” Flame apologized with a bow, hovering mid-air. “I never knew we shared the same passion. Just, seeing her smile threw me off a little—my dearest sister needs me! I bid you farewell, athletic person.”

And off the Magician went, like a comet in orbit…

Kuro wanted to laugh that his hunch was right. But after simply being called, “athletic person”, he couldn’t do so. He was sure that he’d get a much bigger reaction since this was his first run in with a “human” magic user. Well, what could he do?

He was fine with meeting a figure he had only ever seen on the media in person. This must be how meeting a celebrity must’ve felt to people. It was nice.

With that closing thought, he hopped of the ledge to get ready for tomorrow.