Chương 208: Inherited Mission, Inherited Problems

The agent grunted in pain through his teeth as he channelled his mana through the very same rope that had allowed him to gain entry to this awful place… The rope swiftly came to life, wrapping around his leg to stop the heavy bleeding caused by his self-inflicted dismemberment before cancelling the spell, leaving it inanimate now that it was tightly tied.

"Who… What the fuck are you?" The shadow creature had retreated back to where it had come from, but the clown woman was still here, still illuminated as she wrapped her fingers around the original lantern–If that one was destroyed, they would all shatter, plunging everything into darkness. He wasn't too worried about that. He did have a backup source of light inside a pouch strapped to his waist. Instead, he focused on his bizarre adversary.

She definitely wasn't human, but she more closely resembled a young woman who happened to be dressed like a black and white clown. Right now, she was using her free hand and index finger to lightly tap against her chin as though trying to remember something, completely ignoring his question as though she hadn't even heard him–In fact, she wasn't remotely looking in his direction right now.

"Hey! Didn't you hear me?!"

"Keep quiet, buddy. I'm trying to think of something funny to say about a foot… Since you lost one and all… Mmh… Got your foot stuck in the door? No… Maybe I should look on the side of ankles instead?"

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Me? There's nothing wrong with me. You're the one missing a body part! You're the one who has something wrong! Don't try to pull an inverse on me, Mister Ugly Mask–Say, which is uglier, that god-awful mask, or the face it conceals? Aren't you some sort of secret guy anyway? Why do you need a mask, as if anyone actually knows what you look like?"

"Do you think you're famous or something? A bit embarrassing, really. Have you considered dropping dead already?" As she said this, the lantern was crushed in her grip, drowning everything in darkness for several seconds, prompting the agent to perform some fairly advanced motions to move away from his opponent swiftly, despite missing something integral to perform such an action.

Never in his life would he have believed it if someone had told him that he would end up having to perform flips to get away from a clown she-creature and a monster living in her shadow. These things were already quite ludicrous individually, but brought together? It felt like a fever dream. Especially since he had lost a bunch of blood, and doing spinning manoeuvres while lacking blood in his body was a most nauseating experience.

While making these unusual motions, he reached into the pouch at his waist, seizing hold of dozens of fingernail-sized yellow rocks. There were the broken pieces of what had once been fist-sized mana stone, formed from solidified light mana specifically. By channelling his magic through them, he imbued them with life, making them akin to fireflies as he released them into the Purging Station.

He quickly imbued them with the same spells he had imbued into the lantern previously, making himself feel even more light-headed as he thoroughly overstepped the usual limits he put on himself. The agent may be pretty good at casting spells, but he wasn't an expert, nonetheless, and chain-casting difficult spells like this while forcing some to do their thing faster than normal wasn't something he would usually be willing to do.

He was absolutely ransacking his own spellcasting capabilities for the foreseeable hours by pulling such tricks. It was a good thing that his main offensive spell was merely the good old mana bullet. He doubted in his ability to swiftly cast anything more complicated than that, and even then… He would have to see the number of them he launched at once from now on.

His surroundings quickly became illuminated by bright yellow glows, with so many 'originals' flying around while surrounded by countless copies, he shouldn't have to worry about running out of light now–As long as he didn't completely lose control of his mana or spells, at least…

"Oh, fuck you" He felt exasperated. The clown had vanished without a trace, while everything went dark.

"Are you trying to wait for me to tire out? Damn it" The intruder wasn't just in a bad situation. He was in the worst situation he could possibly be in right now. Failing to fulfil a mission was already unacceptable in his eyes, but running away from a mission was even worse, but if he died… His corpse might be used to follow a trail back to his lord. Well… He hadn't been told about anything like that, but he would guess that he had been marked with something to destroy evidence if he were to die… Or so he hoped.

"No… I can't fail! My lord saved me! I must complete the mission, even if I die… I must complete it!" He rambled to himself, taking support against the magical constructs as he hopped on one foot. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. The Purging Station now seemed… Awfully quiet. The humming and booming of the working magical apparel all around him was still present, but it was as though his enemies had vanished.

As though they had taken a backseat and were no longer observing him, merely… Watching with interest as his motions grew more and more sluggish. He had truly gone too far. He could have gotten away with losing so much blood, but his subsequent abuse of chain-casting and forcefully spell-weaving had been the nail in the coffin for him. His own actions had weakened him enough for the blood loss to truly get to him in spite of his intense training.

Eventually, he would lose his balance and fall to the ground as he tried to hop forward. The agent would just slump to the ground unconscious and be finished off without a chance to fight back… What sounded like a low growl came from beyond his mask as he slammed his fist against the side of a large construct. It had been a long time since he had felt the weakness of his flesh. The training and mana invigoration had allowed him to forget that he had been born the lowest of the low.

A crooked, malformed child destined to die as his own body collapsed on itself. He had been born an abnormal hybrid. His parents were from two species that weren't supposed to be capable of producing offspring at all… Such stories were most often told from the perspective of a miracle. Of a child born with the best qualities of both sides–A child of fate, but his life wasn't a story. The only miracle was that he had been born at all and barely survived.

His body was misshapen, twisted to the point that he looked like an abominable monster. To the point that people believed he had been corrupted by contact with the Abyss. He did not resent his parents, though. They themselves had done their best, but he resented others. Those people whose name he did not know and whose faces he failed to remember properly… They hadn't viewed him as a fellow sapient at all. They thought he was a monster, cursed, or bearer of something even worse, so they tried to kill him.

The agent had run away, only to be discovered by his lord. He didn't care if the one he looked up to so dearly only viewed him as a disposable object of little value. His lord had given him life, power, and purpose.

"If I'm done for anyway…" He channelled mana throughout his body, and in one brutal instant of spell-crafting, cast a spell upon himself, bringing invigoration and wakefulness to his body as though everything was perfectly fine. Using such a spell in his state would probably end with a heart attack or his heart exploding inside his chest by the end of it, but he needed focus to cast another spell.

With a trembling hand, he reached for his mask, taking it off only to reveal that his face was covered by bandages underneath. He didn't wear the mask to conceal his identity or looks… But it was what anyone would assume–After all, what other point was there to a mask? When you had the same magical affinity as him, a mask indeed had a much greater purpose. His element was rare, but simple.

It gave life to inanimate objects, and as anyone could expect, the item used during spellcasting held importance in certain cases. … Such as this one. He channelled life into the mask, life identical to that of the creature the mask represented. As he cast this spell, the agents reached beneath his cloak, grabbing a mana crystal, not hesitating to absorb the raw, foreign mana into his body to channel it directly into the mask.

The process ended quickly, and the agent slumped against a humming machine, unconscious as a body formed from the mask. The features of that mask weren't actually exaggerated. They simply represented a very specific kind of goblin. A species rare and unique to the place where the agent had come from. Unlike most goblin species, this one wasn't a social creature at all. It was solitary. A wild creature that ate anything it could get its hands on–A scavenger, for the most part…

Nonetheless, a being with the means to hunt its own food. Rising to its full height, the goblin only had the ugly face of one. Its muscular frame was more reminiscent of that of an orc, while its slouched, large back was more akin to that of an ogre.

It did not remain upright for long, planting its fist against the ground like a gorilla as it roared at the ceiling of the Purging Station–Infused with the agent's mana, the resulting creature he manifested carried his anger and anguish, breaking out into a full sprint nearly immediately in search of the objective, leaping from left to right to avoid attacks it didn't even know were coming or not.

The goblin moved swiftly amidst the building's interior, leaving its caster behind without care–With the sort of power packed in the mask, the death of its caster wouldn't do anything. This being was basically a living creature on its own right now. Activities resumed around it, but it was too fast and focused to care about that. The goblin only stopped when a rancid smell hit its nostrils. His caster had run in circles like a fool.

He had allowed himself to be led astray by those hiding in the dark, but the goblin had barrelled in a straight line without even thinking. Thus, here it was. A great pit opened in the middle of the Purging Station, from it, the foul odour of sapient waste rose. The machine it was seeking had to be nearby, and indeed, it quickly spotted a door. A red door.

Without an ounce of hesitation, the monster rushed for this, only stopping itself from crashing right through due to having the same preoccupations as its casters… Being that it shouldn't leave too much evidence of outside interference. It was hard to hurt someone's reputation when it was obvious that it was the fault of another party. The door was pushed open, and its face was caved in as something instantly slammed right into the center of the goblin's face.

Its large nose was shattered, and its eyes felt as though they were about to pop out of their sockets before it was thrown back like a rag doll. The creature's momentum was only stopped by the railing that surrounded the great pit, and even then, the railing had been greatly bent out of shape. It was extremely fortunate that it hadn't snapped. As the goblin rose back up, the lights of the Purging Station suddenly all turned on. Seemed like it was no longer necessary to keep things in the dark.

"Y–You're one ug–gly motherfucker" The goblin screeched.