A jarring alarm echoed inside the large Argan CAD. A warning message appeared on its inner console that the Igrok intended for Tuman Bomba activation had been eradicated in a fraction of a second during the spell’s initial stage.
A magician’s job was to construct magic programs. Even if the program was completed in the magician’s magic-calculation region, the spell would not activate until it was fixed to its target’s coordinates. If the magician happened to die the moment the magic program was fixed, the spell would fail to activate.
“Transfer over to the next Igrok,” Bezobrazov ordered. “Hurry.”
There was no escape this time. The New Soviet scientist anxiously awaited the exchange process, fearing the eerie specter of death looming over him.
✦ ✦ ✦
It was not easy to prevent Tuman Bomba from activating. More precisely, it proved challenging to neutralize a Chain Cast Tuman Bomba with Program Dispersion. Tatsuya had realized this after his two encounters with the spell.
The magic programs deployed by Chain Cast were each slightly different, and their differences became more significant as their coordinates diverged. Even if Tatsuya tried to break them down in groups, it was impossible to eliminate all the programs at once. Moreover, attempting to counter the programs with rapid-fire Program Dispersion ran the risk of Tuman Bomba activating in the process, exposing Tatsuya to a powerful explosion.
The only option was to completely stop the spell’s activation. In his previous battle with Bezobrazov, Tatsuya figured out how to trace Tuman Bomba back to where it was cast. The moment Chain Cast began, he would trace its magical path and use Trident to decompose the caster into three parts. This was Tatsuya’s strategy.
Chain Cast was a technique that simultaneously activated all magic programs after copying and fixing them to a specific target. Since it cast magic programs over a broad area, it was faster to use Trident to destroy a single entity rather than to trying to eliminate the countless programs. Even if the caster was two people, the attack would fall within a margin of error. But this wasn’t a gamble; it was a defensive counterattack based on unmistakable odds.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Igrok transfer complete,” a worker announced.
Without responding, Bezobrazov stared at the satellite imagery on his console. Since Tuman Bomba had just failed to activate, there was no change in the atmospheric conditions above the target. Rain continued to fall from warm clouds, and there was hardly any wind. Another attack could be launched soon.
In their previous battle, Tatsuya did not release a second wave of magic to neutralize any intermolecular bonding after eliminating two Igroks. A simulation of what it would have looked like if he had cast that magic proved that it would take over five minutes for Argan alone. It was that complex.
With only a handheld CAD at his disposal, there was no way Tatsuya could work at such blistering speeds. Even if he could, Bezobrazov calculated it would take a significant amount of time. In that time, Tuman Bomba could be cast first. As a precaution, Bezobrazov adjusted Argan’s settings to ensure that the Igroks could be used one after another in case a third shot proved necessary. He confidently configured the launch sequence created by Argan into his magic-calculation region. This time, he was determined to eliminate Tatsuya once and for all.
✦ ✦ ✦
Confirming Tuman Bomba’s launch point, Tatsuya said to himself while reproducing Tuman Bomba’s trajectory based on Trident’s counter-fire memory.
Target changed to the caster’s CAD.
The relationship between a magician and his CAD became the most intimate during the process of casting magic. Information-wise, the CAD became a part of the magician, and the magician became a component of the CAD’s magic system. This was true even when large CADs imposed magic on the magician. Tatsuya aimed at the Argan.
Objective: total destruction of the train car CAD.
Tatsuya could tell that a magic program had already begun taking form within the large CAD he saw in his mind’s eye. At this point, it was still in the loading stage of the activation sequence. It seemed to be a complex activation sequence since loading was taking longer than a couple seconds.
Tatsuya’s decomposition magic typically required the same amount of, if not greater, preparation. Luckily, his magic-calculation region specialized in decomposition and reconstruction magic. This meant the subsystems for these types of magic were preconfigured, allowing him to activate highly complex spells with the simple input of additional data. Therefore, he could execute complex processes, like breaking down matter to its elemental level and information bodies to their psionic level in a very short time.
Initializing Program Dispersion and Mist Dispersion.
In a matter of seconds, Tatsuya dispersed the interference force field surrounding Bezobrazov’s large CAD, and Argan was disintegrated to its elemental form. Bezobrazov could consecutively activate two types of magic in an instant, despite the distance, thanks to the system he had prepared within his mind that sacrificed all other magic skills. Tatsuya activated one spell to disintegrate information bodies and another to collapse material forms at the very same time.
✦ ✦ ✦
At first, Bezobrazov thought there had been an earthquake. His vision seemed to blur, but his body didn’t register any shaking. He suddenly felt as if he was falling, and this wasn’t an illusion. The chair he was sitting on suddenly lost its ability to support his weight, and it wasn’t just the chair. Argan’s console, floor, and walls became completely unstable.
All of a sudden, the floor gave way, the ceiling collapsed, the walls crumbled, and everything seemed to turn to sand. Bezobrazov groaned as he was slammed hard against the ground. The pain was too intense to stand up immediately, and it wasn’t just physical. His head throbbed severely from within. He couldn’t think. The headache was so intense that he didn’t even realize it came from the shock of his mind’s forced disconnection from his Argan CAD.
He did, however, find the sand on his head annoying. Bezobrazov struggled to raise his upper body and brush the sand off his head. The realization that the sand was Argan’s decomposed pieces was beyond his current mental capacity. It was only when he saw the scenery of Ussuriysk in front of him that he finally realized that he had been thrown outside.
Assailed by an intense headache, Bezobrazov sat down in a daze. The hearts of the three Igroks had stopped beating from the shock of being forcibly disconnected from the Argan CAD. Bezobrazov, however, was oblivious to the resulting commotion.