Chat Group For Magicians

Chapter 120: Battle to Death 3/3: Epilogue of Arc 2

"I don't know if I should say you are getting cocky now or you are just overestimating yourself! Manipulation magic needs a lot of time to learn! Not just a one time read and you can learn it! That is not how the magician world works!" Blue grumbled.

"Just let me see and find it out if I can't learn it or not! I am in a hurry!"

Blue sighed and reluctantly show the method on how to learn Manipulation magic. I didn't waste my time and immediately read all the words, processes, and instructions of the Manipulation Magic.

Apparently, the name of the magic for manipulation is called Puppeteering. The higher your comprehension of the magic skill, the more creatures or people you can control using it. Of course, the more you control, the more you mana consumed while using it which is why only those magicians with an almost infinite amount of mana in their bodies can use this skill without much undergoing the risk of losing all your mana in one go.

"Alright, this should do it," I said as I close the app.

"Are you sure you have learned it?"

"More or less! I just needed to check if it is working for these monsters!"

"F*ck, you are out of your mind..." Blue cursed.

Even though Blue is cursing, I didn't mind it and headed straight around the tentacles still wriggling around the ground and some are still around looking for any person they can attack since they cannot even approach those people I have given the sigils that Anya has taught me.

Seeing one tentacle still in the legs of a female magician which is one of the survivors from the first attack earlier, I decided to check the Puppeteer power on that tentacle. Using the solidified mana that can be done by concentrating on mana manipulation, I throw it to the tentacle and used it to pry on the body for me to control.

Just like how a puppeteer controls its puppets with the strings, I am using the solidified mana to act as strings. I can feel that it started to attach to the tentacle and all the limbs and parts are now under my control. In a single swipe in my hands, the tentacle detached itself from the legs of the girl and followed my command.

After that, I helped her drink the potion to cure the wound on her legs and put her one of the marks so that the tentacles will stop attaching to her legs. She thanked me before retreating since she is very low in mana. There are still so many tentacles around me and most of them are trying to attach themselves again to the people I already helped but due to the mark that Anya taught to me, they were repelled and cannot even bring to touch them.

"Well, sh*t, I am still not sure how you did it but since you did it, I have nothing to say," Blue mumbled as soon as she saw the magic was successful.

"See? I can learn it if I try!"

"Don't get too cocky, kid. That is just a single tentacle, are you quite sure you want to control a whole bunch of them in one go?"

"It was the only plausible way and we can use them to fight against that monster. It seems the demon priest had some sort of magic repellant that allows him to block and repel the magic being cast on him."

"Are you trying to be an upstart maniac or something? Only someone in an archmage caliber can pull that off and live to tell the tale without getting insane! Don't keep pushing your luck to the extent because it might become your downfall if you do so!" Blue retorted.

"I promise I won't overdo it. I just have to limit myself if I can't control any tentacle any longer. That should do it."

After that, my mana started to flow in my fingertips and I slowly control them to move fluidly like threads. The first tentacle is still on my control and when I throw the second and third thread, I slowly felt that my control is now a bit different and not so fluid as before. So this is what Blue said to me on dividing my control to multiple targets.

Still, that was not enough to shake my thoughts. I can still control more so without further ado, the threads I am making are also thrown to the tentacles I saw. There are countless of them on the road but I don't mind how many there were at the moment and continue to produce thread mana and attach them to the tentacles that I meet.

"Kazuma? What the heck are you doing?!" Voltaire saw me gathering tentacles one by one in the surroundings.

"Don't mind me, please help the others while I am gathering all the tentacles out of here."

"Stop doing everything on your own! We are here to help!" Catmod shouted.

"Ah, then can you gain control of these tentacles? I have to gather them all use them."

"Huh? Control? Isn't that going to be on the level of Archmages to use it?! Are you saying you are doing the Control Magic to the tentacles right now?!" Catmod glanced at the tentacles that I have controlled using the thread mana. All of those tentacles are not moving from their spot unless I move them at all. 

I don't have much control left and if I keep on speaking, I might release a few tentacles out of my control if I do so. Without responding to Catmod, I continue releasing more mana threads and attaching them to tentacles I see. Soon enough, I can feel my whole head hurting a lot like it was being bashed by some hard thing slowly and surely.

"Looks like this is my limit," I mumbled.

But heck, I just realized I already controlled too many of them and they look creepy and cringe-worthy to look at. The way they wriggle will make many people creep out and they won't bother to get close to them. However, they are still necessary for the plan.

...

I am not sure whether I am seeing things or not. Kazuma has been showing us a lot of surprises. He has a deity familiar, he knows forbidden magic and now he is using control magic that only with the rank of archmage can handle. Even I who is a magician since I was a kid is not able to do the feats he has already done. It was like I am seeing a monster instead of a normal human.

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"Hey, Voltaire..."

I look at my side and saw Nekoyama whispering at me.

"What is it?"

"When did Kazuma entered our chat group again and became a magician? I don't recall having a member capable of those feats. Are you sure he was a young fledgling and not a genius monster hiding his fangs?"

"I am quite sure. When I met him before, he was just a newbie and he didn't possess that much magic skills. He can barely use magic even before without relying on the two items that were given to him. However, now is different. I don't think he is someone who I should just ignore, he is someone who I should watch out from due to his abnormal growth."

"Once this is over, we should go and tell this to the Oracle. We have to tell her a new genius of magic has appeared after the first appearance of one, 100 years ago," Nekoyama said.

"We should focus on this demon first. We have to help Raigaki or he will lose his mind and his berserk self might remain instead. Most of us are now recovered and the mana we lost are also ready to go too."

"Then rally up everyone and go into an all-out attack! We can't let the chance go to waste!"

...

The situation is getting hectic. Erina and her mother are busy healing the wounded, while Titan and Moonlight are defending them in case something will happen once the demon priest goes berserk. Anya and Maple are helping the wounded and helping to get rid of the tentacles. The rest are now locked on to the demon priest.

"Foolish humans! You dare challenge me?!"

His voice reverberated throughout the place and the air is filled with a foul smell. But the magicians are not perturbed by the threat, instead, they keep on fighting the demon with all their might. 

Raigaki is still howling mad while punching the demon priest without stopping. They were quite strong punches but it was clear that the punches almost did nothing to the body of the demon priest.

I am slowly controlling all the tentacles simultaneously despite the difficulty. It was quite a trouble but I can slowly get used to it and do it properly. Waving my hands, synchronizing the movements to the tentacles, and giving commands, it takes a little bit of time before I can properly execute it.

Moving my fingers that are attached to the mana thread and slowly ordered the tentacles one by one. It was easy commanding one, but it's another thing when commanding countless tentacles. But it was a matter of practice.

While the others are busy trying to injure the demon priest, I keep on trying to control the tentacles. After a few more practice in a few minutes, my grasp in controlling the tentacles started to rise. It is not that hard anymore and giving attack commands is now much easier. 

After a while, I can almost control all of them in one go. Just that I have to just give them out with the same commands, not something complicated that only intelligent creatures can understand. These tentacles are simple creatures, making them perfect for people who can control other creatures.

It didn't take me long to get ready, I just have to organize the tentacles and extended the length of the mana thread. Mana is not a problem, only the tenacity of my mind is the problem. I have to hold on and damage the demon priest before I fall.

Lifting my hands and focusing my eyesight to the towering demon priest, I opened my mouth and gave out a command.

"KILL!"

All at once, the tentacles moved swiftly to the demon priest and attached their tentacles to his body. It was so fast that even if you have fast reaction and reflexes, as long as a tentacle managed to attach itself, it will never detach itself whatever happened unless a repellant like what Anya thought to me was applied.

The demon priest who was busy trying to damage and kill Raigaki was surprised when a sticky and slimy tentacle attached itself to his legs. He was also caught off guard when all of a sudden, dozens of tentacles started to gather. A few dozens of tentacles managed to cover his left leg and not all of the tentacles I have commanded have attached to his left leg alone. The others attached to his body and arms. I just realized that they work like an octopus too even though they don't look similar to an octopus and more similar looking to a spider with tentacles replacing its legs.

"Yaya-san! Please take Raigaki away from here! He might get caught up from the tentacles assault!"

Yaya who was now riding a new teddy bear that is now made from metal grinned and gives a thumbs up.

"Leave that pervert to me!"

Her metal teddy bear immediately made its move before Yaya can give out command and grab the thrashing Raigaki and knocked him out. I don't want to know if it hurts being slapped by a metal robot or not. That is not something I want to happen to me.

Now that Raigaki is out of the scene and the other magicians are on standby, I have to deal with a huge amount of pain and wounds on this demon before I will lose my sanity completely.

"Secrete!"

The demon priest who was trying to get the tentacles out of his body stopped and smoke started to appear in his body though I think that was not smoke something like some sort of steam after melting something out.

"GRAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

The demon priest started to thrash around and tried to use force to remove the tentacles but just like how the magicians were having trouble taking them, the demon priest can only pull them but can't take them off completely from his skin. It can be seen that the skin on his body is currently burned and the skin is just hanging and ready to be removed by a slight movement.

"Bind!" Closing my fists, I released the command.

Bloodlust starts to fill the air as the tentacles started to tighten their grips to his skin, making the melted flesh and skin on his body to also tighten. If a normal human experienced it, they would suffer a very painful experience. It wouldn't be an exaggeration that someone would want to die instead of experiencing it.

Still, this demon is not someone who will just surrender after being tortured by the tentacles. His eyes started to wander around and landed his gaze to me.

"So it was you who did this... IT WAS YOU!"

The bloodlust that was built up suddenly exploded and all the tentacles I was controlling immediately turned to ashes. It was so sudden too so when the connection to the tentacles was cut off, it immediately caused a backlash to me and injured my mind. I have to block the remaining bloodlust from being released to avoid fatally injuring me.

"You are the one who caused everything to fail, even reviving Shadow-sama is a failure. And now you are have injured me, your life is not enough as compensation! I will rip your limbs one by one and torture you every day that you will wish you will die which of course, I will be preventing to do! You have to pay for everything!"

The backlash from the control was too great that even if I managed to block some of it, it rendered me helpless and has a hard time moving. I closed my eyes and accept my faith when fluctuations of mana started to emanate around me. Opening my eyes, I saw 4 people standing in front of me. They are not the same as Voltaire and the others. They emanate different auras from them and they were more overwhelming than them.

But my consciousness is failing to hold out and before I knew it, I fell into a deep abyss of darkness...

...

The appearance of the four new individuals caused some of the magicians around to feel shocked. It was quite a show for them to appear in the Phantasmal Reality.

"Who are they?" Maple approached Moonlight and Titan who were the companions of Kazuma that he kept on mentioning before.

"Those are members of the Councilors! They are part of the strongest magicians existing in history and they work directly from the Oracle herself! They are not just the same as us since it was quite the far cry to compare us from them!" Titan said.

"Umm... sorry, I don't know who are these councilors and oracle are..." Maple said.

"It's understandable, the Oracle and the Councilors are both secrets that were meant to intervene on things in magic wars and demon extermination that has the point where they will have a big disadvantage. According to the records, they are too strong that restoring things to the way they were is as easy as breathing for them."

Maple was not sure what to say about what she just heard. Magicians capable of that feat surely have passed the rank of Archmage already. And seeing the four of them young and not some old man with a staff and white beard as a trademark makes her think of how monstrous they were.

"If I am not wrong, the guy who looks like a loner should be the Scorpio holder, the librarian looking girl is the Aquarius, the guy who looks like a normal high school student is the Leo, while the lolita one is the Libra. They might look like that but they are people you wouldn't want to mess with," Moonlight added.

Maple nodded and silently took note of that. She would be going to remember that the next time she crossed paths with them.

"Four more bugs appeared to intervene? Ha! You all are going to die!"

"Shut up," the one who looks like a loner and has a headphone on his ears just looked at the demon priest before the demon priest's mouth started bleeding.

The demon priest was surprised because his mouth bleeding is not something ordinary for him, in fact, he never has experienced it. It was the first time he had experienced it.

Still, that was not something the demon priest would get afraid of. He raised his staff to cast a spell but then realized that he seemed to have a missing arm. Looking at his left arm that was holding the staff he used for ceremonies and casting spells is now looking withered and looking similar to a twig. It was still gripping the ceremonial staff he used tightly but it was clear that it will no longer be functional.

The demon priest did not care if he lost one hand since he can just regenerate it. However, he realized that his regeneration ability is no longer functioning properly.

"You think you can restore your hands to its former glory? It was just a pipe dream now for you. Due to the acid that the tentacles secrete, I managed to enhance its capabilities of increasing the regeneration drop that it has. Increasing its function, it was much easier for me to stop any of your regeneration quirks or whatever you are trying to use," a young girl wearing a pink dress with frills. You can say she looks like a lolita but from the way she speaks, she is more like an old woman rather than a lolita.

"Hey, what do you say I deal with the final blow? You guys have already done your part and I have yet to try this new punching bag. Pretty please?" the guy who looks like he was just a normal high school boy with a jolly attitude looked at the others like a puppy.

"I don't really care, as long as you remove him out of here, the better it is so that I can start restoring this place. The whole place is looking so bad I am getting bored and tired watching the scenes," the last girl who looked similar to a librarian girl seen in a school sighed as she keeps her eye on the book she was reading.

"Alright! That was just the signal I am waiting for!"

It was fast and in the blink of an eye, everything ended. It happened in a flash that even the other magicians were not sure what happened. The Leo Holder who was just talking earlier disappeared from where he was standing and the demon priest who was not moving disappeared in a second. And in another second, the remaining guy standing is the Leo Holder guy, covered in blood.

As for the demon priest, it was quite clear that he is missing. No, more like he was wiped out from the face of where they are standing.

"How was it?" the lolita asked.

"Meh, I thought he would be tough enough but it was quite a waste and he looked imposing too, only to be quite a disappointment. He just burst after I punched him on his big stomach. Some of those random monsters I fought before lasted a few more punches before they died and this one didn't even last one punch."

"Eh, that is good I guess?" the lolita shrugged.

"Are all of the jobs done? Let's go back already. I am tired and I hate going out like this," the loner guy said.

"Meh, all you do is sleep and nothing more. I don't know why they bestowed you the Scorpio title even though you are clearly showing the signs of a sloth," the lolita girl shrugged.

"Che, mind your own business."

The librarian looking girl stepped forward and opened her book. The book isn't something magical at all and you would not really think it was once you saw the cover of the book. In reality, that book is not even related to mystics and magic. More like it is related to It was a fashion magazine and from what the cover tells and its date is big enough for anyone to see, it was clear that the magazine she is holding is today's issue magazine. 

The question is, why does the fashion magazine able to invoke some sort of magic too? It might be her magic skill but as the holder of the Aquarius, she should be holding a jar full of water, not a book.

She is chanting under her breath and when she opened her eyes, it was glowing bright blue and droplets of water started to appear in her surroundings. But it was actually expected for water to appear. The droplets started to gather around her body and before everyone can blink, the droplets turned into a wave of water, and anyone seeing this scene will mistake it for a tidal wave.

"Pure water of the deep sea, cleanse all the malice present in this world! Cleansing Flood!"

All of a sudden, water started to flow into the ground and flood the surroundings. The magicians immediately tried to escape by floating in the air, while those who are not capable were not able to climb a tree or escape. The flood already engulfed everywhere of the Phantasmal Reality and covered it with water.

"WAHHH!" 

The magicians who cannot fly screamed on top of their lungs as they were engulfed in water. However, everyone realized that the water was not really water.

"Huh? I can still breathe underwater!" Erina muttered as she thought that she was drowning.

"The power of the Aquarius huh, I see. I just heard it before but according to those who have seen and experienced the power will be cleansed and the wounded will be healed once she cast her powers around. One of her powers is this cleansing flood. It might look like we are being flooded with water but it was only effective against malice and dark matter. Living people that have no malice will not be affected by this power. We don't need to be afraid," Catmod said as he calmly floated under the magical water.

Anya and Maple swim straight to Kazuma who is unconscious after the backlash he received after the death of all the tentacles that he controlled, it all came together to him causing damage to his mind even though he managed to block most of the damage. As for how long will he remain unconscious, no one knows.

...

With the situation of the Phantasmal World intercepted and solved by the 4 zodiac holders, the demon invasion and the resurrection of the "Lord Shadow" they keep on saying was also prevented. Of course, many lives have sacrificed themselves just to prevent it but with the help of many individuals, their death was not in vain.

The 4 Zodiac holder who helped the magicians in the battle against the demons at the very end and restored the status of the Phantasmal World to its former glory disappeared like how they appeared out of nowhere. Despite that, many who have witnessed their power is enough to etch their minds that they are one of the strongest.

As for the Kazuma, he was back in the real world and back to his humble house. The magicians of the chat group decided to help Kazuma to recuperate by helping his body to recover faster using mana recovery. And due to that, they are staying at his house at the moment. As for how they know it, magicians have their ways to know it and it is not that hard for them.

Anya who was originally living in the Phantasmal World arrived in the real world and with the permission of Catmod and other magicians, they allowed her to transfer in the real world and make Kazuma as his foster father which she keeps on insisting. Maple visits from time to time to Anya and Kazuma since she has to keep on practicing her magic since she was motivated to get stronger seeing stronger magicians around her.

Catmod who has initiated the annual training to the Phantasmal World decided that he would postpone the rewards exchange at the moment until all of the magicians who participated have fully recuperated from their former form. And everything that occurred after the event was now recorded to the database of the magicians.

...

Somewhere in Tokyo, two individuals are currently kneeling and bowing in front of a female girl clad in white and red kimono with her eyes covered with a blindfold that is engraved with glowing red runes of "chalice" of Scandinavian runes. She exudes strong mana in her body and every breath she does, mana is released from her surroundings and everything and everyone that can sense it will feel it. Her aura is much more formidable compared to the aura of the zodiac holders.

"Good work for dispelling the demons invasion in the Phantasmal Reality incident. The resurrection of "Shadow" is one of the priorities that they keep on focusing on how many decades already. As the Oracle that supervises all mages in Japan Branch, I must say that the demons have already started to unleash their plans to do things and the attacks that the lesser demons do in the cities are also getting excessive and they also start to do some riots and some other stuff that disturbs human society's peace. It pained to hear that many of the promising magicians who trained annually were killed in action during the invasion," the female clad in kimono started speaking.

The two who were bowing which was revealed to be Voltaire and Catmod raised their heads and looked to the Oracle.

"Although we lost a lot of the promising individuals, there are many new magicians who survived the battle are now recuperating and after a few more weeks of rest, they will be back in action again," Voltaire reported.

"I see. Also, I heard from the report that some promising newbie magician who recently joined is now doing many things that can be on scale with an archmage's capabilities. Is this a valid report?"

"Yes, oracle. Currently, he was recuperating but he will back on feet for a few days. He just suffered a minor backlash from the Control Magic he used to fight against the demon priest that was defeated by the Leo Zodiac Holder."

"What made him something special?"

"I gathered intelligence from him and he just became a magician for a month. His rapid growth and lots of magic skills that were supposed to be used only once he managed to reach a certain rank. Of course, we already dismissed it since his abnormality seems to be the reason he has those. However, we also have discovered that he managed to get a contract with Inari-sama, which is considered as a deity level one. He also has a contract with two other creatures too, a succubus and an incubus."

"I see. He was interesting indeed. Looks like the magicians have finally found someone that can have the potential to become a new archmage and might even be someone who will be able to stop the war of the demons. Can you tell me what is his name?" the oracle asked.

"He goes the name "Chat Killer" in the chat group but according to Moonlight and Titan, his name is Kazuma Fukuyama," Voltaire said.

"Fukuyama?!" the oracle was stunned.

"Is something wrong, Oracle?" Catmod asked.

"Uh... nothing. Anyways, pay attention to this Fukuyama guy. If possible, assist him if he needs it. We can't afford to lose another person that might have the chance to end the war of magicians and demons. You two are dismissed."

"As you wish, Oracle. Farewell!" the two bowed down before disappearing in thin air, leaving the Oracle sighing on her throne.

"Fukuyama eh? Looks like the wheel of fate is already in motion. That was sooner than expected."

---End of ARC 2