Chapter 62: I’m Strong! Stronger Than You!
Although he had decided to crush him, Kazuma lacked a decisive blow.
Mahito was endlessly multiplying himself through Proliferation.
Thanks to that, while he couldn’t match Kazuma evenly, he was able to fight for a long time.
Both were merely wearing each other down, and a conclusion was nowhere in sight.
“I’m getting pretty tired of this!”
Kazuma mowed down the attacking horde of Mahitos and shouted.
“Yeah. How about you let me Snatch you soon?”
“Like hell I will!”
Shaking off the Mahitos attacking from all directions, Kazuma went on the offensive.
He wouldn’t lose, but at this rate, he would only be wasting time fruitlessly.
Therefore, Kazuma decided to try a certain method and captured one Mahito.
“Gotcha!”
“Catching just one of us is meaningless~”
“That’s right. There’s an infinite number of us.”
“No matter how strong you are, there’s nothing you can do against an infinite enemy, right?”
Even as the surrounding Mahitos said this, Kazuma paid them no mind.
His objective had already been achieved, after all.
“This is fine.”
“What are you planning to do?”
“You don’t need to know.”
Kazuma thoroughly examined the body of the Mahito he was holding.
Of course, he didn’t strip off his clothes to make him naked; he used magic to visually inspect everything from inside Mahito’s body to his very soul.
Then, shifting his gaze to another clone and confirming that everything from its physical structure to its soul structure was identical, he crushed the Mahito he was holding.
“Ugh~. That’s a horrible thing to do~”
Seeing his own self, whose head had been destroyed and who had died, Mahito criticized Kazuma.
He had been trampled like an insect for a while now, so it wasn’t a big deal at this point, but Mahito continued speaking, trying to cause Kazuma even a little stress.
“No matter what, isn’t there a slightly better way to do things?”
“Why do you do such cruel things?”
“Don’t you have a human heart?”
“Ah, so that’s why you can kill people so easily.”
Kazuma paid no heed whatsoever to the grating words.
While fending off Mahito’s attacks, he was concentrating his consciousness.
“(One hundred, two hundred, three hundred…)”
After counting for a while, Kazuma finally listened to Mahito’s words.
“A lot of people died because of you.”
“Is that all you wanted to say?”
“Huh? You finally spoke. You were silent until just now.”
“Yeah, I was concentrating a bit.”
“Hmm. Were you thinking up some kind of plan?”
“That’s right. I’ve come up with a plan to wipe you all out in one go.”
“Hoh~. Sounds interesting. Go ahead and try it.”
“You’ll regret it, you know?”
“I hope I do.”
Hearing Mahito’s words, Kazuma gave a faint smile and activated a dark magic.
A dark magic based on the same principle as Subjugation Magic, which binds the souls of hostiles and grants them a peaceful slumber.
The Mahitos affected by the magic collapsed with a thud and never rose again.
Seeing his other selves fall one after another, Mahito stared at Kazuma with astonished eyes.
“What in the world did you do?”
“Magic, it’s magic. It was tough because there were so many of you, though.”
“Hahaha, haven’t you been watching too much anime? I want to say that, but… I guess there’s no other way to describe this…”
Mahito, with a bead of cold sweat trickling down, decided to use Appraisal to see Kazuma’s Gift, which he had been looking forward to.
Realizing that he would definitely lose if he didn’t.
“(I really wanted to save this for later, but I guess I have no choice now.)”
He activated his Appraisal Gift and peered at the Crimson Knight.
Displayed there was a detailed profile including name, age, and date of birth.
When Mahito checked the Gift listed within, his eyes widened in astonishment, and he blinked repeatedly, wondering if it was a mistake.
However, no matter how many times he blinked and rubbed his eyes, the only thing written there were the two characters for Transposition.
“Huh…?”
“What’s with that look? Did you perhaps see my Gift?”
“No way… that can’t be, it’s a lie, right? Are you… are you really a magician?”
“I just told you, didn’t I? That I can use magic.”
“Th-This is no joke! How can I fight a genuine monster like you!”
Mahito’s job was to stall Kazuma.
Ideally, he would defeat him and use Snatch.
However, now that it was revealed Kazuma’s only Gift was Transposition, and that he possessed the unknown power of magic, Mahito’s circumstances changed.
Even if he could Snatch Transposition, he didn’t know if he could steal magic.
His sole pleasure was taken away, and on top of that, Mahito felt fear towards Kazuma, who possessed an incomprehensible power.
Indignant that he couldn’t deal with this, Mahito fled like a scared rabbit.
“If I can’t Snatch it, there’s no point! This is just a waste of effort!”
Mahito, who had fled using Teleportation, stomped his feet in frustration inside an empty building.
He seemed so frustrated that he took his anger out on a wall, destroying it.
Still not calming down, he destroyed whatever was around him indiscriminately.
Finally seeming to calm down, his shoulders heaved as he caught his breath.
“Haaah~. This is a complete disaster! I went along with it because it sounded interesting, but when I opened the lid, it wasn’t just empty, it was an incomprehensible monster! I can’t deal with this! I’m outta here~”
Mahito completely lost his motivation and sat down on a pile of collapsed rubble.
Just as Mahito began to wonder what to do next, he felt a chill and turned around.
However, there was nothing there, only a collapsed wall.
Thinking the chill he’d felt earlier must have been a mistake, Mahito was about to exhale to calm himself when he turned forward and gasped.
There, Kazuma, wearing an eerie mask, was crouching down, peering into Mahito’s face.
“W-Whaaaaaaaaaah!?”
“Yo.”
Mahito, so surprised he nearly collapsed, trembled and pointed at Kazuma, shouting.
“Wh-Why are you here?! No, wait! You can use Teleportation too! But how did you know where I was?”
“Simple. I put a Marking on you.”
“Marking!? Don’t tell me, is that magic too?!”
“Correct. I’ll tell you this: no matter where you run, assume I’ll find you immediately.”
“N-No way…”
Realizing he had no chance of winning, let alone escaping, Mahito was overcome with despair.
He never dreamed he would suffer the same fate as the people he had Snatched from in the past.
Mahito now understood clearly.
The Kazuma before him was a genuine monster, a symbol of despair.
“Ha, haha… We were wrong from the very beginning, weren’t we?”
“That’s why I told you. You guys stepped on a tiger’s tail.”
“If we hadn’t laid a hand on you, I wonder if there would have been a different future…”
“I wonder. Sooner or later, you guys would have harmed my family or friends, so I think you would have just ended up with the same outcome eventually.”
“I see…”
Hearing Kazuma assert that the outcome would be the same regardless, simply because Kazuma existed in the same era, Mahito’s shoulders slumped.
What he said was true; whether they intended to or not, if they continued their activities, they would inevitably clash and be defeated.
In that case, this outcome was only natural, Mahito thought, and without fighting or fleeing, he simply resigned himself to his fate.
“Even if I multiply, it doesn’t matter to you, right? Why don’t you just kill me?”
“How about a double whammy of Brainwashing and Subjugation, and you can dedicate yourself to serving the world and its people from now on?”
Honestly, the Snatch Gift was too valuable to lose.
Not only could it be used to take Gifts from criminals, preventing them from ever doing wrong again, but it could also save people suffering because of their Gifts.
There were likely other ways to utilize it as well.
Considering all this, Kazuma judged that he should tame Mahito.
“Does that mean you want me to become a dog of the government?”
“That’s right. You certainly killed many people and caused trouble for many. But from my perspective, it’s not a big deal. They’re just strangers, after all. If my family or friends had been killed, I would have killed you on the spot without a second thought.”
“So, even though I’m a criminal, it doesn’t matter to you?”
“Yeah. I’m no saint, nor am I an ally of justice. I’m just one person. Well, I do have a friend whose life was ruined by you guys, but he’s alive. He’s probably facing his own weakness and moving forward, walking steadily. So, I don’t have anything more to feel about you.”
“But just a moment ago, you were saying you’d never forgive me, weren’t you?”
“I did say that…”
In the midst of the fight, Kazuma had become enraged and shouted that he would never forgive Mahito.
Which means it would be normal to condemn Mahito here.
However, after calming down and thinking it over, he judged Mahito’s Gift to be useful and ended up offering forgiveness.
“What are you going to do? Kill me? Not kill me?”
“…Hmm.”
“I don’t think it’s good to change your mind so easily like that~”
Seeming to have regained a little composure, Mahito spoke, as if to provoke Kazuma.
“That’s right. I’ve decided. I’ll leave you to the higher-ups!”
“Eh…”
Mahito wasn’t killed, but he was restrained by magic so he couldn’t escape.
And then, as if satisfied, Kazuma, with a clear expression, took Mahito and returned to Japan.