Wizard’s Brain Volume 1 Chapter 1

Chapter One: A Knight, an Angel, and a Demonwielder— Dance in the Air

It was an abrupt awakening, accompanied by a suffocating sense of liberation like that of surfacing from the depths of water.

His blurry vision first registered the titanium’s dull gray walls, the sleek black of synthetic leather seats, and a series of lamps on a control panel, casting a mix of red and green flickers.

Hovering 10,000 meters above the African seas in a small reconnaissance plane of City Berlin, a string of coordinates surfaced in Yuuichi’s mind, pinpointing their location.

His internal clock reported “February 13, 2198, 2:35 PM.”

“… Have you awoken, sir?”

“Sorry, I dozed off… What’s our status?”

“Sir, we reached the designated area fifteen minutes ago. All’s normal, we remain vigilant,” the pilot reported with enthusiasm. Acknowledging his response, Yuuichi nodded, his gaze drifting to the window, seeking a hint of blue sky. But his smile soon faded, replaced by a sigh.

Outside, the world lay shrouded in darkness.

Through the windscreen, a blanket of thick, leaden clouds obscured the sky, while a swirling blizzard painted the air with spirals, forming dark gray veils. It was twelve years ago that the atmospheric control systems installed over the poles had malfunctioned and started unleashing light-blocking gaseous bodies, originally meant for drought prevention. The catastrophe ushered in an endless winter.

The land, now a barren expanse of permafrost, had become inhospitable, even to the hardiest of plants. The harsh, minus forty-degree atmosphere ravaged all life, leading to the demise of over ninety percent of terrestrial species.

The word “Spring” now exists only in distant memories.

“That’s strange,” Yuuichi couldn’t help but wonder, “Why did I have this dream now, of all times.”

He used to see it almost every night in the past— it was like a nightmare. He has seen that same scene so many times that its picture was etched into his brain in intricate detail, down to each blade of grass in the background.

Yet, no matter how many times he was revisited by this dream, he was never able to recall its most crucial part.

Her words at that moment— the knight’s vow that he was supposed to remember the most vividly.

In the midst of those memories, so colorful like an oil painting in his head, only that single phrase seemed to be carved out, leaving a gaping hole.

Yuuichi was deeply tormented by this fact initially. But as time passed, he eventually gave up trying to remember and stopped having the dream altogether. Yet now, after a decade, it returned, and still, the key memory eluded him. As for the reason— he knew all too well.

A pang of guilt stirred within his heart.

He reached for his sword, resting beside him, and lightly touched the small crystalline embedded in its hilt. This simple action triggered his I-Brain, a sophisticated device that modulated his neurosecretions and nerve impulses, instantly boosting his physical capabilities to their peak.

(Condition check complete. All bodily functions operating normally.)

Yuuichi extracted a mirror shade-type retinal projection display from his breast pocket. As the system activated, the dream’s remnants faded from his mind.

His internal clock informed “2:36 PM.” The situation remained unchanged.

“Any regular reports from ‘Siegfried?’”

“No complications so far. The operation is on schedule… ” The pilot directed a questioning gaze to Yuuichi.

Feeling compelled to respond, Yuuichi said, “I’ve notified headquarters. All should be well, barring unforeseen events.”

“Roger that, Major Kurosawa.”

A brief moment of silence followed. Yuuichi slid his gaze down, noting the absence of his identification tag in his collar. He then rapidly compared the pilot’s young, lean face with his memory.

“How do you know my name? I’m sure we haven’t met before.”

“One glance is all it takes to recognize you. For someone like me, raised during the war, your name is a living legend, Major.” The pilot swiveled around, enthusiasm clear in his exaggerated movements. “I’m honored to meet you personally! My father was saved by you during the Libyan battle, ten years ago. He was in the allied forces’ airborne tank battalion and…”

Watching the pilot speaking nonstop with flushed cheeks, Yuuichi let out a secret sigh. Having wandered the world for nearly a decade, this wasn’t the first time he encountered this type of person.

Yuuichi was indeed in Libya ten years ago. There was no denying that he had participated in a joint operation with the allied forces’ airborne tank division. But the claim of defeating a republican wizard in single combat and affecting a tank soldier’s life was far from his concern.

There was a reason behind “Knights” being the only type of various “Wizard” types seen as heroes. It was because knights primarily excelled in anti-wizard combat and never targeted ordinary soldiers. However, most people were unaware that this was merely a result of their abilities being most effective in one-on-one or similar small scale battles. It wasn’t that knights chose not to engage ordinary soldiers— they were simply not suited for such type of combat.

But despite this…

“This outfit has become quite famous,” he mused, comparing his uniform to the pilot’s moss-green one. His jacket and slacks, dyed in complete black, were once officially adopted by City Kobe. And to top it off, he added the black boots, a black long coat, and black mirror shades. It was as if he was advertising his presence everywhere he went.

Now, even after two years as a guest officer in Berlin’s autonomous army and despite objections from his superiors, he maintained this distinct look. It had made him increasingly recognizable, even to regular soldiers who saluted him respectfully on the streets, occasionally seeking his advice on warfare.

But Yuuichi would never stop wondering why they failed to understand that the person in front of them was no hero.

“It was at that time when You, Major and Lieutenant Colonel Nanase rushed to the scene…”

The pilot’s talk continued incessantly while Yuuichi was deep in thought. He felt already fed up and glanced at the pilot’s identification tag to read his name and rank. It was time to put an end to this unceasing chatter.

“… Sergeant.”

Addressing by rank often yielded better results than using names in such situations.

“Oh, My apologies! It wasn’t lieutenant colonel Nanase that was with you at that time, it was—”

“We’re on a top-secret mission. Be mindful of that, will you?”

The pilot’s expression transformed as if doused with cold water.

He then reluctantly turned back to his console while muttering something under his breath.

Confirming that the pilot had finally turned back in the corner of his vision, Yuuichi connected his mirror shades to his terminal. He expertly navigated the floating translucent icons on the retinal projection display, pulling up a global electromagnetic wave map and confirming that all the readings were exceptionally normal.

In front of him, two light points represented the military airships “Siegfried” of City Berlin and “Ouka” of City Kobe. The surrounding complex codes confirmed the operation was progressing as planned.

The pilot, perhaps feeling bored, reached for the switch of the sub-display next to the console. The screen flickered with noise images before a rich soprano voice started flowing from the speakers.

“… Jean D’s ‘Perfect World?’”

“You know it?”

“I do.” It was a song by “Jean Dalia,” a leading diva of the 2150s, hailed as her masterpiece.

The song told the story of a man who returned to his hometown, heartbroken, and reunited with his former lover. The lover smiled tenderly to the man lamenting all he had lost. Even if everything is lost, even if there is no hope for tomorrow, as long as the blue sky and green grasslands exist— as long as the one you love is by your side, the world will stay beautiful. “I love this perfect world—” that was the essence of the song.

It was “her” favorite song.

However, right when Yuuichi was about to be captivated by the beautiful singing voice, he suddenly realized something critical.

“Sergeant, what’s the frequency of this broadcast?”

“Huh? … 1600 Gigahertz—” The pilot’s expression froze mid-sentence.

“Why are we hearing a civilian broadcast on a military frequency band!?” A good half of his shout was directed at his own carelessness. He quickly accessed the public radio frequency records, comparing the intended broadcast frequency with the 1600 Gigahertz they were receiving.

His I-Brain spat out the answer instantly.

Yuuichi pushed the pilot aside and reached for the console, beginning to type the frequency into the touch panel.

The next moment, a voice laced with static noise bursted from the speakers.

“… This is ‘Siegfried’! We have an emergency! Urgent need for backup requi— What is going on!? Why aren’t you responding!?”

***

Sitting on a titanium alloy floor of an exhaust duct is extremely uncomfortable, usually because it is not designed for people to sit on it. It’s cold, hard, and as slippery as polished grass.

To make matters worse, the wall pressing against his back had a craggy surface, making it impossible to find a comfortable sitting position.

In an attempt to ease his stiff joints, Ren Amagi stretched his upper half, only for his hands to hit the ceiling. Next, he tried to lean forward instead— his legs got in the way this time.

“I’m never going into exhaust ducts again,” he thought to himself, sighing. “I mean, I thought it was a good idea…” His muttering voice echoed faintly off the ceiling, creating a slight vibration.

Ren Amagi— he had a rather unusual name that he got from his older brother and sister. Ren still remembers when he asked his brother about the origin of his name three years ago, after he realized that he never came across anyone else with the same name in all the novels he scoured in the family’s data library.

“The character ‘Ren’ comes from the word ‘Alchemy.’”[1]

“You mean like, the medieval European practice of making gold?”

“The idea of making gold was just a metaphorical way the alchemists chose to describe their research. In fact, their true goal was the pursuit of truth— the replication of miracles within a flask…”

His explanation went on for hours. At that time, he was impressed by the answer. He thought it wasn’t a bad name, after all. But soon, he realized it was the concept of alchemy that was fascinating, not his name.

They probably just wanted him to have a unique name.

Still, he didn’t dislike it.

Ren wondered if Mahiru and Tsukiyo were worried about him. The only thing he had left on the table before he rushed out was a note saying “I’m off to work,” so surely they must be concerned.

Well, no point in worrying about it now.

With a short grunt, he pushed the thoughts away from his head and resumed his work.

Ren was currently aboard “Ouka,” a large military transport ship that belongs to City Kobe, flying over the old Russian region at an average speed of 15,000 kilometers per hour and nearing its destination.

It had been almost twelve hours since he sneaked onto the ship the previous night, hiding inside the cargo.

Evidently, he wasn’t just sitting idly during all that time. Part of the duct near him was cut open, exposing bio-cables that extended to the nape of his neck. Those cords, which are made from the base of living cells, were integrated into his skin, fusing at a molecular level with his I-Brain.

An I-Brain, or “Informational Brain,” located right next to the brain’s Brodmann area forty-six, is the marvel of cerebral physiology and genetic engineering— the pinnacle of bio-computing technology created by humanity. Although it can vary among individuals, its processing speed can be hundreds to tens of millions of times faster than a standard 100,000-bit class quantum CPU.

(Cleared from zero to ten squared minus one. All systems under control.)

“Yes!”

A message surfaced in the back of Ren’s mind, indicating the successful hijacking of “Ouka.”

It is not easy to explain the sensation of having an I-Brain to a normal person. It isn’t like a normal display where a screen appears in front of one’s eyes, Nor is it like getting immersed entirely in the virtual world by entrusting all five senses to a machine, as it was popular at the end of the 21st century.

The experience is unique, maintaining full physical sensory awareness while also possessing an additional consciousness within the mind. It’s somewhat like being engrossed in a vivid daydream while remaining completely alert and aware of the real world.

Around Ren of the other side, numerous windows floated with strings of text flowing rapidly through them. He could create a more realistic virtual reality inside his mind if he wanted— one that could be even indistinguishable from the real world. However, doing so would be pointless and would only cause unnecessary strain on his I-Brain. During operations at least, he preferred to use this simple and anachronistic environment.

That’s right. Ren was in the middle of an operation.

“February 13, at 2:30 PM, over the skies of Old Russia, at point 85 degrees east longitude and 50 degrees north latitude, at an altitude of 10,000 meters, an experiment sample is to be transferred from City Berlin Forces to City Kobe Forces.”

The mission was to intercept and secure this sample. The instructions were clear: recover only the item referred to as “Number Four” and absolutely do not touch anything else. He must then protect the item until an agent from the client side makes contact within a week.

The client was anonymous and the nature of the sample he must acquire was also unknown. Normally, Ren would never accept such a strange request, but this time, the award was too enticing to ignore.

Three City IDs for City Massachusetts.

There are only seven Cities in the world. Due to their restricted nature, every City strictly controls its population, refusing settlers from outside. The population of Cities never increases from the number of original residents who were fortunate enough to settle there during post-war chaos.

For someone like Ren, hailing from Downtown, acquiring even a single City pass was an unattainable dream, regardless of his savings in pirated currency or globally circulating credits.

He had to succeed in this mission, no matter what.

Ren’s internal clock marked “2:30 PM.” It was time.

Terminating the usual hacking process operating within his I-Brain, he unfolded a special program that had been compressed and stored in its memory area.

(Opening ‘Daemon’ folder. Initiating Virtual Entity Control Daemon: ‘Turing.’)

“Let’s get started,” he muttered calmly, suppressing his excitement.

Confirming that he had total control over “Ouka,” he began issuing a series of commands to the main system of the ship.

***

Yuuichi clenched his fist as screams burst from the speaker, sounding almost like cries of help.

“Show me Siegfried’s condition!”

“Huh?” the pilot replied dubiously. “We won’t be able to tell anything with our camera’s resolution from this distance…”

“I will calculate the missing parts.” Yuuichi asserted, extracting a bio-cable to connect his I-Brain to the panel’s image processing system. “Do it!”

Nodding back, the pilot turned to the control panel and after a few seconds, the sub-display screen switched to the external camera view of the ship.

A sharp gasp from the pilot punctuated the severity of the situation.

Despite the lack of clarity, the noisy, dim image sufficiently conveyed the abnormality of the situation.

On the left side of the monitor, there was a red silhouette of City Berlin Defence Agency’s aerial battleship, “Siegfried.”

That wasn’t the problem.

The problem was in the white object occupying the right half of the screen. It was almost the same size as “Siegfried.” At first glance, it would even be mistaken for a deformed transport ship.

Countless entities were growing from that ship that could be only described as tentacles.

Each tentacle was about a meter in thickness and varied in form— some took the form of monster heads bristling with fangs, others looked like gigantic human hands or feet, while some branched off like plant vines. All of them were wriggling incessantly.

They all latched onto “Siegfried” one after the other, intertwining to form a massive net that pulled the red ship towards them.

“Someone is ghost hacking?” Yuuichi intently stared at the monsters on the other side of the monitor.

“… Huh?” The pilot turned around, looking astonished. “Ghost… hacking?”

“It’s the ability to turn inanimate objects into living ones by sending in virtual consciousness,” Yuuichi explained rapidly while reaching for the switch on the communicator.

“The hacker is probably using the main system of Ouka to maintain the information structure. It’s an old trick overused by wizards during the war.”

The pilot would only mutter the word “wizard” in daze, but Yuuichi had no time for him.

“… Is this headquarters? This is Major Kurozawa. Siegfried is under attack… No, that transmission was a decoy… Yes, immediately start preparation for anti-wizard combat. And get the brigadier general on the line.”

Moments later,  the small, bearded face of Yuuichi’s direct superior appeared on the monitor.

“… Major! What is the meaning of this? We haven’t received such reports—”

“We’re experiencing radio interference. It’s likely from a relay base in Ukraine. The electromagnetic map in the database was tampered with as well— otherwise I would have noticed this earlier. Our enemy is highly skilled.”

“… We have just confirmed it here too… It looks like you were right, after all.”

Yuuichi recalled the Brigadier General’s sarcastic smile when he had suggested revising the strategy.

“This is what happens when you entrust all operation planning to computers… Or was there a reason you didn’t want to doubt this plan?”

He instantly noticed the slight twitch in the Brigadier General’s cheek at that moment.

“… What are you implying?”

“Let me change my question then— If this situation leads to a battle inside the ship, what is Siegfried’s current fighting power?”

The Brigadier General’s bald forehead glistened with sweat.

“… Just the automatic defense mechanism and a few unarmed researchers.”

“In normal circumstances, transport missions are carried out with a formation of four, including three escort ships. Still more, this is a joint operation with City Kobe. Engaging it with maximum force is most reasonable. But the operation planning computer concluded that ‘the transport must be done by one battleship.’ And you all jumped at this plan, even deploying a battleship capable of unmanned navigation. My question is, why?”

“… That is…”

“There is only one reason. The nature of the transported items must absolutely not leak to the average soldier— at any cost,” Yuuichi declared, glaring at his now visibly shaking direct superior. “Let’s have it. What is Siegfried’s cargo?”

The Brigadier General’s face turned pale. He attempted to hold Yuuichi’s incisive stare but faltered.

“It’s a Mother Core.”

“I see. I’m not surprised.”

That was all he needed to hear.

He reached to the door and flung it open. Thanks to entropy control, the influx of outside air was halted, but only one step outside would place him in a minus forty-degree world of death.

“We’re out of time,” he glanced back at the pilot. “I will head to rescue Siegfried immediately. You return and join the reinforcements.”

With that said, he leaned out of the aircraft.

Looking up, the leaden sky seemed even heavier, as if it was trying to crush the people below.

“Understood!” the pilot finally snapped back to reality and shouted. Hearing his affirmation, Yuuichi hurled himself into the frigid sky.

***

The sound of Ren’s footsteps echoed repeatedly against the linoleum-covered ceiling of the first layer of Siegfried, creating an ominous echo.

“Ah! Come on!”

Why did it come to this? He was too frustrated to even voice out his final mutter.

His heart wasn’t simply racing— it was throbbing in an erratic thirty-two-beat rhythm. Nonetheless, he endured, running tirelessly along the corridor illuminated by pale artificial light.

In fact, things had been going incredibly smooth— initially, at least.

Usually, it was his brother and sister who would handle the preparation work and afterwards cleanup for operations like this. But this time, since he had taken on the mission without telling them, he had to do everything by himself.

He racked his brain and came up with two strategies.

First, he hacked the operation planning computers of both City Berlin and City Kobe and altered part of the plan. One ship from each City was to participate in the operation. There was no way he could handle the situation if they brought a whole entourage of escort ships.

Next, he hacked a radio relay facility in the Ukrainian plains and sent out fake communications. Just to be extra safe, he also infiltrated public databases and tampered with electromagnetic wave maps.

Perhaps due to the thorough preparations, the takeover of “Siegfried” was successful with rather disconcerting ease.

Ren was anticipating a more or less important resistance, but once he used “Ouka” which he ghost hacked to seize control over Siegfried’s main system and automatic defense mechanism, all the white-coat researchers fled to their rooms, unexpectedly making the whole operation incredibly anticlimactic.

Strangely, there seemed to be not a single combatant aboard both ships.

It took him approximately fifteen minutes to access Siegfried’s structural data from the database, lock the researchers in their room and then move into the ship via the tentacle pathway.

Up to that point, everything was going so well.

Yet…

— What the hell is that!

The external cameras of “Siegfried,” linked directly to Ren’s brain, captured an unbelievable scene.

The tentacle monster floating elegantly under the leaden, dark sky— the ultimate shape of what was once a large transport ship belonging to City Kobe Military Forces.

There was something darting around those countless monsters.

That object, engaging in combat with the tentacles, was too small and fast to be identified from the camera’s perspective. It appeared merely as a black dot, notably when compared with the immense size of the tentacles.

Nonetheless, each time that dot made contact with a tentacle, an unpleasant pulse, like a ripple, would run through Ren’s brain and the tentacle would get destroyed.

Ren tried to discern the identity of the enemy by sending further commands to the camera. But in the next instant, the image abruptly disappeared. Apparently, a shard of the shattered tentacles had sheared off the external camera, along with a large chunk of the ship’s armored plating.

That was the reason why Ren was running.

With disordered breathing, he ran at full speed through the ship that maintained a temperature of twenty-five degrees. Sweat was teeming down his cheeks, but he couldn’t afford to pay attention to that. He had to end the operation as quickly as possible— every second of every minute counted.

The target room was at the very end of the second layer of this four-layered ship. There, a space completely isolated from the ship’s system existed. The “Sample” had to be there.

His internal clock indicated “2:47 AM.”

He leapt down the stairs, skipping several steps, and entered the next corridor. After taking a few turns, he emerged into a space that resembled a fairly open hall.

The place seemed to be used as a storage area. It was cool and dimly lit, but quite empty.

Across this ten meters diameter hall, the target room came into Ren’s sight.

But the next moment…

“You’re late.”

Shrouded in the dimness and silence of the hall, a man stood there, composed— clad in a black military uniform, a long black coat, and black mirror shades.

He had the look of an East Asian, possibly Japanese, in his late twenties or early thirties. His neatly groomed hair and tall, lean stature, almost 190 centimeters, marked him as an exemplary soldier.

Yet, there was something about him that transcended human qualities— reminiscent of a grim reaper.

“You’ve had your fun rampaging around, but it stops here.”

The man slowly drew his sword from its sheath. The discarded sheath clattered coldly, causing a dry sound when it hit the floor.

The sword he held casually, without taking any particular stance, was of a size slightly shorter than that used by knights in Western fairy tales. Its blade was intricately engraved from surface to hilt, covered densely with fine patterns and adorned with several gems of unknown materials.

Its craftsmanship, a complex, massive structure, was too sophisticated for mere decoration yet too inorganic to be considered art. However, it unquestionably stirred something deep within Ren.

“Surrender now. You resist, you die.”

It was an elaborate electronic circuit.

***

Hanging his sword loosely with an abstract stance, Yuuichi observed his opponent.

… To think it was just a child.

A typical Japanese boy with moderately long, slightly wavy black hair and mildly oversized black eyes that gave his face a distinctive look. His age hovered around thirteen or fourteen, but his slight, slender build hinted at possibly being older. He was wearing a cut-resistant shirt that clung to his skin like those worn by special operatives and had a survival knife etched with a logic circuit.

His solitary stance spoke volumes of his confidence in his I-Brain, which wasn’t surprising given that his skills were remarkably advanced for a child.

But in the realm of wizard combat, the prowess of an I-Brain’s processing speed isn’t the deciding factor.

… Let’s see what you’ve got.

First strike is victory. Narrowing his eyes slightly, he plunged into the depth of his mind.

(Activating I-Brain combat mode.)

Yuuichi shifted his thought process to his I-Brain. His thinking speed was fixed to one thought process per nanosecond— one-billionth of a second.

(Connecting information structures. Ego (Local Net) and Informational Sea (Global Net) link bridged.)

The first step was the recognition of the situation. The flow of heat in the body, waveform of nerve pulses, tension of muscle fibers, external temperature, humidity, pressure, coefficient of friction on floor surface… Only after assimilating this flood of data could he proceed to the next phase— “rewriting” them.

(Activating ‘Physical Ability Control’)

An I-Brain is not merely a computer. To put it more precisely, “any machine that achieves a certain threshold of computational speed is no longer a computer.”

A computer is a machine that handles information.

Images, sounds, words, and thoughts produced by a terminal display— all of these are nothing but information composed of abstracted infinite sequences of zeros and ones.

So what exactly is information?

The answer to this question was first discovered by net divers of the 21st century. At one point in their pursuit of a more realistic virtual reality, they eventually stumbled upon a profound realization.

Their interaction transcended mere character strings on screens or binary electric circuits. They uncovered a more abstract element, one that seamlessly intertwined with the tangible world, blurring the lines between reality and virtual reality.

The world is made up of “information.”

Human emotions, the laws of physics—they are all but forms of information. However, this information is vast, deeply embedded in the fabric of the universe, thus inherently rigid and resistant to alteration.

The breakthrough lay in the ability to impose information with greater speed and force.

If one could directly manipulate “information”— bypassing the need for electron or light flow— overriding physical laws would become feasible.

In essence, there is no fundamental difference between altering computer data through network structures and rewriting physical constants or fundamental equations. This is achieved by navigating the complex “Informational Sea,” a vast expanse containing all the information in the world.

It was in the mid-22nd century when the world’s first 100 million-bit quantum computer was booted, confirming a breach in the “Second Law of Thermodynamics” and the existence of the “Informational Sea.”

The light of science was once again cast on all the occult that 20th-century science had discarded.

Thus, “Wizards” were born.

(Defining movement speed and perception speed multiplier to twenty.)

Time seemed to crawl to a halt as every bit of sensory input transformed into quantifiable data. “Physical Ability Control” modifies the laws of physics within one’s body. It amplifies muscle strength, reaction speed, and nerve transmission speed while simultaneously protecting the body from reactive forces consequently generated by unnatural movements.

This ability is the most straightforward and the most effective in close combat, among the diverse abilities of wizards.

Yuuichi took his first step forward.

His body, with an acceleration of twenty times the norm, slashed through the original physical laws with a sprint.

The moment his foot touched the floor on the first step, his I-Brain whirled in tremendous speed, nullifying the impact generated by high-speed movement.

The boy’s eyes widened in surprise.

His reaction was quicker than he had expected. His perception speed was probably on par with his.

But the boy’s physical movements lagged behind.

The second step.

The boy’s body finally began to move.

Yuuichi instantly estimated his movement coefficient— it was about five times. Quite impressive.

The third step— Yuuichi was now within striking distance. He aimed a single, diagonal slash at the boy’s right arm.

The boy drew his arm from the way at the last moment. His small body leapt significantly to the left.

Right before the sword tip struck the floor, Yuuichi shifted his power to his right leg. He transformed his linear momentum into a circular motion and slashed upward at the boy who was still in the middle of evasing the first strike.

In that same instant, the titanium alloy floor deformed drastically into a giant arm, blocking the path of the sword.

(Knight sword ‘Six-style Pluto.’ Activating Information Disassembly.)

Without hesitation, he struck down at the titanium alloy arm. The moment the sword made contact, its exclusive device “Six-style Pluto” hacked into the information of the “arm” and erased its logical structure. The “arm,” losing its grounding logic, crumbled like sand.

The boy gained one extra step in distance.

Yuuichi stepped forward while retracting his sword, closing the distance to the boy in an instant. He went for the third strike. He held the sword horizontally and thrust it straight forward.

It was an extremely precise thrust aimed at the boy’s right arm. However, it got blocked by a knife that appeared in the boy’s hand out of the blue.

(Information Disassembly failed.)

The knife’s logical structure resisted “Six-style Pluto’s” interference. The boy used the shock of the thrust to leap backward before the hacking could be completed. He managed to pull the knife out of the knight sword’s interference range and tried to create more distance.

He was good at dodging.

Yuuichi assumed a proper posture, pointing his sword towards the boy.

(Fully synchronizing knight sword ‘Six-style Pluto.’ Acquiring speed of light, gravitational constant, planck constant. Preparing Activation of ‘Personal Domain.’)

The titanium alloy that regained its logical structure recrystallized in mid-air and bounced off the floor, causing a high-pitched metallic sound.

***

(Loading Kinetic Control Daemon ‘Lagrange.’ Defining perception multiplier to twenty and movement speed multiplier to five.)

Simultaneously with the execution of the command, the man leapt forward.

He was unbelievably fast.

So fast that he seemed to be moving at “normal speed” within the twentyfold stretched time.

Ren could only track the movement of the sword with his eyes while slowly maneuvering his body to escape.

His perception speed was four times faster than his movement speed. Air felt as dense as coal tar— it was frustratingly sluggish.

But increasing his movement speed any faster would risk damaging his own body. Although both his movement and perception were maximized by the “Kinetic Control Daemon Lagrange” loaded in his brain, Ren’s I-brain wasn’t specialized in close range combat.

The man’s sword lunged for his right hand at a speed that was impossible to dodge if not predicted in the right time. He was barely able to retract his arm in time before jumping back and narrowly evading the strike.

The man’s posture followed the strike for just a moment. During that brief time, he released part of his I-Brain’s memory and opened a channel of consciousness to the titanium alloy composing the floor.

(Activating Virtual Entity Control Daemon “Turing.” Auto-starting ghost hacking process.)

The Virtual Entity Control Daemon that was compressed and stored in his I-Brain started overwriting the information of titanium atoms.

“Turing” is a daemon that sends virtual consciousness through the Informational Sea to a target material, turning it into a virtual living being under its control.

The consciousness sent into the material usually vanishes in less than ten seconds unless the sender keeps compelling the material to “think” in some way. This ability originally had no use other than as an attack method against general weapons controlled by machines. However, in wizard battles like this one— battles whose progress is measured in nanoseconds, it serves both as an effective offensive and defensive measure.

Following Ren’s command, the titanium alloy floor deformed and a gigantic “arm” emerged.

The man quickly regained his posture and delivered a slicing blow. He was too fast. Ren hadn’t even landed on his feet yet. He barely intercepted the blow with his newly created “arm.”

(Logic formula damaged. Forcing termination of current ghost.)

Not only the information making up the “arm” had temporarily collapsed, but even the attribute of “titanium alloy” had vanished.

Getting their metallic bonds dissolved, the titanium alloy atoms shattered apart. His reactions were too quick. It was impossible for Ren to create a distance.

Ren instinctively reached for the survival knife at his waist.

(Redefining Right arm’s movement multiplier to fifteen.)

His right arm jerked up, tanking the third strike. At the same time, he lightly jumped using his knife’s momentum to escape backward.

The survival knife his sister made for him somehow withstood the knight sword’s interference, but the excess motion and the compounded impact caused the capillaries in his right arm to burst and several tendons to snap. He promptly controlled his nerve pulses to block the pain.

The man suddenly assumed a proper posture with his sword.

Ren’s body was still gliding through the air. In the brief moment before he could land, not even a second long, he changed the processing state of his I-Brain.

(Switching to automatic body control. Releasing brain memory. Preparing for full activation.)

Ren’s vision flipped around a single point. His surroundings got engulfed in darkness. Now, countless “windows” filled with strings of text floated around him. He succeeded in shifting his primary focus of thoughts to “Ren within the I-Brain.” His thoughts became sharply honed inside the flow of time that was condensed to its limit and stretched to nanoseconds.

He pointed at the smallest window in front of him, prompting it to burst into several silver spheres. The spheres then unraveled smoothly, like peeling an apple, into infinitely long strings of text, intertwining to form two mask-like human faces.

As if in sync, two fairy sprites that had been fluttering around Ren disintegrated into strings of text as well and got sucked into the mask-like windows.

(Loading ‘Laplace’ and ‘Maxwell.’ Insufficient memory. Forcing termination of ‘Lagrange’ and ‘Turing.’ Physical sensations returning.)

His thought focus returned to the real world again and gray walls of the dimly lit hall entered his vision.

Right foot, then left foot— he finally felt the sensation of landing.

The man lunged forward from straight ahead.

Far quicker than Ren’s body or his consciousness could react, the short-term future prediction daemon “Laplace” he loaded into his I-Brain, activated. The ability of this daemon was the output of Newtonian mechanics-based prediction of up to three seconds ahead in the future— using the initial values of all matter coordinates and momentum within the surrounding space.

All potential trajectories of the man’s sword were displayed in his field of vision in order of likelihood— with optimal points for creating a shield blinking in red.

(Starting Entropy Control. Activating “Ice Shield.”)

He executed a sweeping motion with his right arm, his palm tracing an arc through the air. As it moved, the temperature in its path plunged dramatically. A small volume, barely ten cubic centimeters, reached the extreme of absolute zero. In this frigid zone, the air itself solidified, crystallizing into structures the size of small fingers. These icy formations emitted a faint blue glow— a testament to the abrupt and intense cold he had conjured.

Molecular Motion Control Daemon, “Maxwell—” the ability that involves manipulating energy and momentum within a localized space through generating a virtual entity that controls the movement of gas molecules, known as “Maxwell’s demon.”

The created air crystals partly converged to form a pale blue shield the size of a palm, diffusing and absorbing the impact of the sword. The rest were attributed a certain momentum, turning them into bullets that attacked the man.

The man retracted his sword at the last moment to deflect the ice bullets while leaping backward.

Ren had already predicted his evasion trajectory.

By the time the man landed, “Maxwell’s Demon” had already completed its transit through the informational sea.

(Activating “Ice Spear.”)

Ren formed several ice spears in all directions around the man— left, right, behind, above, blocking all his escape routes.

The man prepared for a counter-attack. His face showed no sign of panic. With the skills he exhibited earlier, it would be likely easy for him to knock down all the ice spear attacks.

Just as Ren was expecting.

(Executing ‘Maxwell’ thermal manipulation. Activating ‘Flame God.’)

Ren channeled the heat he had initially absorbed to form the ice spears back into them— as it was unable to vanish due to the law of energy conservation and was lingering nearby.

Instantly, the nitrogen crystals composing the spears boiled furiously. The volume difference between solid and gas is roughly several thousands times, so when highly pressured gas expands, it breaks the sound speed barrier.

Naturally, a steam explosion would follow.

The space around the man erupted into chaos. At the epicenter of the explosion, the floor gave way with a sound that was anything but normal, succumbing to the immense force. Shockwaves radiated outward in every direction, their unrestrained energy battering against the outer titanium walls. Ren, however, remained unscathed as he was shielded by a vacuum barrier he had initially erected to protect himself.

The explosion subsided in less than a second. Vibrations in space soon vanished, eventually leaving the hall enveloped in total silence.

Ren let out a breath of relief.

— Only to get struck with a danger signal from behind.

(Attack Detected. Defense unachievable. Evasion unachievable.)

A searing pain pierced his left leg before he could understand the warning from “Laplace.”

“… Argh!”

The excruciating pain traveled along his nerves, shooting through his brain.

He lost all of his concentration and wasn’t able to block it out.

Barely evading the second and third strikes, he twisted his body to turn around and was met with a dark coat fluttering like the wings of a death god.

He attempted to stand but failed. His leg has been slashed, likely extending near the bone.

He could only crawl his way from the man’s attacks.

Unavoidably, he couldn’t dodge them all. His right arm got shallowly cut.

Each movement was followed with a new wave of pain and splattering fresh blood.

His mind fell in disarray. He didn’t understand. How did the man evade that explosion? How did he move right behind him? Even with the ability of “Laplace” that is supposed to perceive the world in units of one hundred millionth of a second, his movement seemed inexplicably akin to teleportation.

Ren felt a light impact on his back. He desperately reached behind and felt the smooth surface of the titanium outer wall.

Through his fading vision, it was eerie how he could clearly see the man pointing his sword at him.

He experienced a terrible dizziness and nausea, as if all the blood in his body was flowing backwards. His limbs, drained of strength, wouldn’t respond to him no matter how much determination he put in.

He could feel his eyelids closing against his will and beyond his control.

… The face of his brother and sister waiting for him at home flashed across his mind.

Then, his body moved before he could even think. His battered right arm jolted upwards, deflecting the tip of the sword. He exploited that chance to roll his body to the left along the wall, escaping the range of the sword.

The knife slipped from his now completely useless right hand.

His mind became relatively clear.

He imagined how much his brother and sister would grieve if he were to lose and die in this place.

Only then, he finally succeeded in activating pain suppression on his left leg.

Gritting his teeth almost hard enough to shatter them, he used the wall behind him for support to stand up.

He could not move fast enough with one leg and “Maxwell’s” attacks were not effective against the man. Tha narcotics produced by his brain stimulated his thoughts. His sensation spread to every last peripheral nerve. His world narrowed down to a single line, connecting him and his opponent.

His only choice was to act.

(Loading ‘Einstein.’ Insufficient memory. Forcing termination of ‘Maxwell’ and ‘Laplace.’)

He used his intact right leg to kick the floor and pushed away from the wall with his left arm, charging at the man without hesitation.

Slipping past the sword, he landed right in front of the man. His left leg failed to support his weight, but despite the stagger, he still faced him head-on.

The man seemed taken aback at first and took a small step back before he reflexively swung his sword down.

In trance, Ren thrust out his left hand.

(Starting Spatial Curve Control Daemon. Activating ‘Dimensional Cloister’)

***

“Phew, this should do it.”

After applying some first aid measures to his left leg and right arm, Ren leaned his head against the wall and closed his eyes.

He was exhausted. It was his first time fighting such a strong opponent. He knew he probably wouldn’t win if there were a next time.

He wanted to just fall asleep right at that moment, but realized that he couldn’t afford doing so. His internal clock reported “2:52 AM.” Dragging himself to his feet while leaning on the wall, he looked around him.

He was already inside the target room. The man he was fighting was still in the hall next to him, stuck at the bottom of a “space hole with infinite depth” Ren had created using the “Spacial Curve Control Daemon, Einstein.”

It takes approximately thirty minutes for the “Dimensional Cloister” to naturally dissipate due to the restoring force of the informational sea. While it’s highly unlikely that the man would be able to escape on his own, Ren still put the door to the room under his control and reinforced its resistance.

The temperature was low. The place seemed to function like a kind of refrigerator. The room was about fifty meters square and contained forty cylindrical glass cultivation tanks, each far larger than Ren’s height.

“I guess one of these is number four.”

The glass cylinders were all covered in frost, obscuring the view inside. Curious, Ren approached one and wiped away the frost.

“… A Brain?”

It was what appeared to be a human brain, floating in the tank. It had a dull gray color and was connected to several tubes and electrodes, pulsating rhythmically.

“And… it’s alive.”

Then, he noticed something. He circled around the tube and found a spot slightly off-center, having more wrinkles than the surrounding brain tissues. It was also slightly swollen.

“… This is an I-Brain.”

It was a wizard brain. Not only that, but given there were no signs of surgical intervention, it was likely a congenital wizard brain, synthesized at a genetic level.

Ren rushed to the other cultivation tanks. Each one had a brain floating inside.

“This means that ‘Number Four’ is also…”

An unpleasant image of a glass tank containing a brain next to his bed flashed through Ren’s mind.

With a scowl, he checked the numbers of the cultivation tanks and located “number four.”

He placed his hand on the cool surface of the glass cylinder and swiftly wiped it.

The next moment, his heart leapt.

Ren’s gaze fell upon an unexpected sight. Not the gray brain he had anticipated, but a girl, seemingly his age, with strikingly white skin.

Ren was instinctively mesmerized. Her skin was literally translucently white. Framed by golden hair cascading to her shoulders, her face bore the delicate features of a porcelain doll, accentuated by softly tinted crimson lips. The illusion of her being an inanimate doll was further reinforced by her closed eyes.

However, as Ren’s gaze drifted downward, he noticed the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest. She was breathing. She wasn’t a doll, but a living, breathing person.

Naturally, since the girl was inside a cultivation tank, she wasn’t wearing anything.

Ren felt his cheeks heating up and quickly redirected his gaze upwards.

— That is when he met her emerald green eyes.

The girl’s eyes had opened at some point, turning her from a doll to a living human. She looked directly into his eyes, blinking a few times before offering him a sweet smile.

He was caught off guard and found himself smiling back at her, awkwardly. The next moment, the front of the tank got split in half, and the girl, along with the slightly viscous cultivation fluid, fell down.

He hastily spread his arms and caught her.

“Ouch!”

One major downside of blocking pain was that sometimes one would forget that they are injured. His waist nearly gave out, but he managed to stay up on one arm and one leg.

Fortunately, the girl was very light.

After a few attempts, he figured out a way to lift her with one arm. The girl closed her eyes again— She seemed to be asleep. Her sleeping face looked pretty innocent upon closer look.

“Anyway, let’s get out of here.”

He coughed, trying to suppress his strained voice, and removed his jacket to wrap it around the girl’s body before heading to the back of the room.

On the way, his eyes caught a mobile device on a table in the corner. It was an old laptop-type model.

He approached it casually and tried to boot it up. It had a disc in its drive. He tried to open the files within it but the lock was unexpectedly strong.

He gave up on copying the data into his I-Brain and just removed the disk instead.

“It won’t hurt if I took this home with me, right?… it’s not considered a sample anyways.”

It was right after he muttered.

A faint metallic sound followed by an explosion noise struck his eardrums.

Ren instinctively looked back at the door forty meters behind him.

“… No way!”

The enhanced door was neatly cut into a circle, and a man dressed in black entered the room.

“You’ve set me up.” As soon as he recognized Ren, he removed his mirror shades and hung them in his breast pocket.

“You twisted space to create a spacetime trap, huh? I admit it’s a good touch.”

“What about you? How did you escape my Dimensional Cloister?” Ren bit back his question. He was severely injured with two critical wounds on his right arm and left leg— without counting the minor ones. And to top it off, he wasn’t able to inflict any damage on his opponent.

— Can I escape?

(Starting ‘Turing.’ Auto-starting ‘Ghost Hacking’)

Using the structural information of the floor, he generated an “arm” right beneath the man’s feet.

Simultaneously, the man kicked off the floor, soaring into the air.

The “arm” swept through the space in which the man was standing a fraction of a second ago. The man flipped mid-air, kicked off the ceiling, and initiated an attack towards the “arm.”

With swift decisiveness, Ren took advantage of the chaotic moment. He carefully repositioned the girl’s body, ensuring her safety, and grabbed the disk. He dashed to the nearest corner of the room and upon his touch, the wall seemed to come alive, trembling and forming an opening just wide enough for a single person to slip through.

Beyond it unfolded an atmosphere of minus forty degrees and a leaden sky.

Meanwhile, the man severed the titanium alloy arm and turned his attention towards Ren. But he was too late. Ren drew a sharp breath and propelled himself off the floor in a powerful leap.

The low roar of the wind and snow filled his ears as he soared.

***

“… Is this headquarters? This is Major Kurosawa… One of the samples has fallen into enemy hands. Yes, it’s ‘Vier’…  Pursuit? Fully geared? I’ve inflicted damage on the enemy but do not underestimate him.”

Yuuichi ended the call and peered down the hole through which the boy had vanished.

“Well, I doubt he’ll be caught,” he mused, discarding his sword with a nonchalant toss. The sword shattered upon contact with the ground, leaving only the hilt behind.

The unstable allotrope of silver constituting the blade of a knight sword, commonly known as “Mithril,” is a substance that can only exist under information control. Because of this, it has strong influence within the “Informational Sea” but on the other hand, could easily get corroded when exposed to a certain degree of information flow that exceeds its tolerance.

The sword was never designed to withstand Yuuichi’s abilities, so it gave in when he pushed it to its limits against the boy who was unexpectedly strong.

If only the sword had been more reliable, he wouldn’t have let the boy escape.

“These mass-produced swords are useless.” He kicked the hilt on the floor and turned his attention back to the remaining samples.

— … Who thought I’d get involved with a “Mother System” again.

Who knows— perhaps the dream he had earlier was some sort of premonition.

Exhaling deeply, Yuuichi returned his gaze to the sky beyond the titanium outer wall. Despite his efforts, the strategy had failed.

Several heads in the upper echelons responsible for it will likely roll, and a retrieval operation will most likely be planned very soon.

This incident might even lead to Yuuichi’s first return to Japan in a decade.

“… Kobe, huh.”

Before he knew it, the leaden sky had lightened to a softer shade of gray. The fierce snow had also transformed into a light, sparse fall.

While gazing at it, a thought crossed his mind.

He wondered if the boy he had just battled still remembered the color of a clear blue sky.

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TL Notes:

[1]: “Alchemy” translates to “錬金術” (Renkinjutsu) in Japanese, and Ren’s name originates from the first character “錬” of the word “alchemy.”

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Translator note: Wizard’s Brain is a hidden gem that I coincidentally found out about thanks to discussions about its final arc being delayed for almost 8 years. It’s a pretty old gem that is now one of my personal favorites. I hope you enjoyed the read.