But, they were slow.

Mike already was prepared for that event. I mean, they really were half-assed pieces of security detail: decent ones would have shot him on sight, instead of waiting for the order of their boss. What if he was a bit more desperate and attacked more indiscriminately? Did they really have that much faith in their boss?

Scratch that.

Magic aside, that was a good question. Why was Mike not more… aggressive?

Sure, it did seem like he came here to discuss something with the guy, but it was almost immediately obvious that that was not gonna happen.

So why not escape? Or at least double down and knock him the fuck out? I dunno, maybe try to kidnap him? There were a lot of options, especially with that shitty security…

And yet, with that many options, he was just on defense, essentially passive all that time, letting them shoot him.

Granted, they weren’t doing much damage, but that was only because of me…

Yeah… Well, not directly.

I have not helped him at all, just observing. Hell, I am not sure if I could even. But that did not mean I wasn’t helpful before…

See, when he first got shot downstairs, he did really take damage. So I thought he was going to be a bit more careful. Or to plan something.

And he did.

Right now, he was using my own spell… if that was even a spell. A technique is a better description…

His arms, turned to stone, were now covering him from all the sides.

Just as me when he was attacking me with his spear, he now formed a protective sphere around himself, rendering gunfire ineffective.

Sure, they were managing to crack it with those strange magical bullets, but it was not something that he was unable to repair.

Or… I thought that it should be the case.

Strangely, his shields were… weak. And were cracking. And he was not repairing them at all. Why?

But… he was doing something.

I noticed that the pieces that were constantly getting chipped off him were still.

Too still.

Like they were frozen in place. Sometimes even floating mid-air.

What the hell was he planning?

Instead of repairing, he was just adjusting the angle of the shield, for the bullets to hit the spots that were still untouched.

Sure, it was going to extend the durability of this whole defense, but so what? If he was not going to do something about it, he would soon be in very big trouble.

Meanwhile, someone was getting impatient.

-What the hell are you doing?! Aim better! - yelled the “boss”, and he himself grabbed one of the guns off of the guards, and aimed at him. - I’ll show you how it’s done!

He was not kidding.

Whatever those weapons were, they were definitely very magical. It was especially visible after he took one in his hands.

Before, when used by guards, they were barely even having any mana signature to speak of. Sure, I could tell that there was some enchantment woven within them, but that was it. It was just a tiny sign of it. The bullets themselves were a lot more potent, though.

But when the other guy picked the weapon, that changed.

It instantly got charged with a lot more magic than before. It was an incomparable amount.

Not because his mana was so overpowering, it was more of a difference between the guards and him was massive.

Even though he himself was not that great of a mage, the weapon was going to make a difference. If in the hands of those barely magical lackeys they were able to pack a punch enough for the Origin Crystal to crack, what the hell was going to happen if a half-decent mage was going to use it?

A pandemonium, that’s what.

One shot was enough to pierce through the shield and hit Mike right in the leg.

I could tell he actually felt that, grinning in pain, surprised by the sudden jolt.

But, that was not just one hit.

The weapons were automatic, after all.

With a series of bullets, they were able to completely shatter his defense, sending shrapnel of crystals all over the room.

Mike, hit more times than I could count, crumbled onto the floor, shaken by the multiple hits to his body.

-See? Even with me, he managed to adapt! - barked the guy. - It was because of your weak bullets that he managed to absorb enough energy to block most of the impact!

Block the impact? Hardly. Even those earlier shots were damaging him pretty well.

It’s interesting how they were seeing that whole altercation… Didn’t they see the damage?

-Don’t stop now! Those fuckers can regenerate even from small scraps!

Oh. So they knew about that too?

Where did they even get the info? Were the remnants and revenants actually common here? What’s up with that?

And more importantly, what was Mike doing? If he was not going to retaliate any time soon, or at least not try to regenerate himself, he was really going to be in trouble.

The shots resumed.

Still, the assault was weaker. While there still was the one person who was stronger than others, he was no longer pouring that much magic into his attack, so there was that.

Why though?

Was he so sure of himself?

I doubt that, especially after the last comment.

He must’ve been conserving his energy.

Smart on his part. I mean, their attacks were effective, so using as little as they could, while still being consistent with the damage should do the trick, right?

It should really be the case.

But, despite the constant barrage of magical bullets, and Mike lying on the floor, I couldn’t help but notice the shards of crystal still being awfully active.

He was still controlling them.

What was more important, though, was the fact that none of them were seemingly noticing that.

Wasn’t that quite obvious? The hovering specks of mana that were covering more and more space in the room. It was kind of hard to miss, at least to my non-existing eyes.

Were they really that oblivious…?

Or they were literally unable to see those…?

How even? To miss mana like that?

To have this kind of magic and no awareness like that… Was that possible…?

Well… was it even magic?

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At this point, it seemed like it was more technological feat than magic that they were using, which was doubly infuriating to me.

I’ve spent how much time? Working on the assumption that mana and technology were unable to coexist together, and yet here I was, again being proven that all that I was believing in was complete bullshit?

It was honestly making me angry.

To waste that much time on something so pointless… That my whole life’s work was reduced to nothing…

My inner complaints got cut short, because, finally, Mike decided to retaliate.

Or maybe it was not that he decided it’s time, it was just because he wasn’t able to take it any more.

The damage that he took was definitely life-threatening, even to a body like his.

Without help, to recover from being shot that many times, would take a very, very long time. And mana.

But, before it was going to come to that, there was a spell to be released.

The one that was holding the pieces in place.

Or rather, priming it.

During all that shootout, Mike kept steadily increasing the amount of crystal pieces he was controlling.

I say that, but it was just that it was just his body being destroyed constantly.

I could’ve thought of a better way to do this, but this was definitely quicker. To have your own body as a catalyst for the spell was for sure the fastest way to do this, with minimum amount of thinking necessary.

He just needed to freeze the crystals in fixed pieces, let them keep the momentum as a passive attribute…

And then, release, when they would the least expect it.

And so he did.

From every single direction, the pieces of crystal started shooting out like a massive cluster bomb had just exploded on the premises.

To be honest, it wasn’t that far off what was going on.

Like tiny spears, thousands of toothpick-size pieces had shot outwards, piercing everything and everyone they came into contact with.

With the power and strength of the Crystal, they were able to destroy anything caught. Be it furniture, walls, or…

People.

Yeah, speaking of people.

They, of course, weren’t able to avoid this attack.

Some tried putting barriers between them and the epicenter, but… it wasn’t effective.

Not with this kind of shrapnel.

The pieces were small enough to sneak through any defenses… not really that they needed to: they were already fast enough to hit them before any of those were formed fully. Or at all even.

Some of them didn’t even notice the projectiles before they hit them.

Those who reacted could’ve been counted on the fingers of one hand. And they reacted not to the appearance of spikes, but to the noise. The tiny pieces shooting through the air did give out a very quiet, whizzing sound.

None of that mattered though.

Thanks to the power of the Crystal, they all were already done and gone.

The moment they got pierced, even with a small piece, I could tell that they were getting sapped from their magic.

Just like any Origin Crystal, the pieces were great at containing mana, and also at taking it away from things.

The only downside to the whole attack was the time.

Both the time it was needed to prepare… and of course the problem of him hurting.

And the time for it to fully complete.

Sure, the people that were struck were going to be neutralized, and in the future also absorbed into the amalgamation of Mike… ILMA… or whoever. But, it was going to take some time.

Judging by the fact that the pieces were small and Mike’s mind a bit strained recently, I thought that the magical overwrite was going to take a while.

Well, I wasn’t completely wrong.

In normal circumstances, in a good environment, the full assimilation would take… from weeks to months.

And that is when it would be on full power, without much resistance or even realization that someone was attacked.

Sure, they most likely wouldn’t immediately realize that they are getting attacked mentally, but, even then…

Those small pieces were not going to be enough in time. We had to think of something to delay them…

But that was a problem.

Sure, I could try and think of a plan that would buy us a day. Or a few.

Definitely not days or weeks, though.

So what the hell were we supposed to do?

But, no one cared about his plans.

If he even had any to begin with.

-Fucking shit!

In between the mass of cursing, shrapnel and everything else, people started shooting even more erratically, and that included our boss as well.

But, he didn’t have a gun, so reflexively, he blasted a spell right at his breaking body.

He did not expect that.

In a regular circumstance, this should be a non-factor. Hell, it would’ve helped him survive the attack, giving him a bit of mana to feed on.

But, he was not focusing on that at all. His focus was on the shards and the pieces flying through the room, trying to convert every single person as soon as possible

So, when a fireball hit him, he was stunned. While that doesn't do him much harm, he definitely lost concentration: the sheer force of the explosion managed to throw him off.

Unlucky for him.

If it was just a few centimeters away, it wouldn’t have mattered: the direct contact would’ve drained the spell before it even managed to explode…

But, that was not the case, because our guy missed.

Most likely not on purpose…

What I am talking about, of course not on purpose: he was flinging the spells left and right, setting the whole room on fire.

The fact that the room was filled with lingering mana from the earlier attacks and the pieces of crystal all over the room made the explosion and the following fire even worse.

And that was what managed to bail him out.

He didn’t only stun him and throw him off the concentration, he also incapacitated every single person in the room. Including himself.

Everything set on fire, of course the fire alarms started blasting out. The sprinkler system activated, trying to control the blaze, but in case of this fire that was not even close to being enough.

I started wondering why was he so lucky, when I noticed that he was not moving.

Right. He was, for some reason, unable to quickly repair the damage he suffered throughout this whole encounter.

That was inconvenient.

Whenever I wanted or not, I was now part of him. At least at that moment.

While personally I was pretty certain that I’d be able to survive this fire… or any fire for that matter, at least with the crystal body I used to have, I wasn’t so certain about Mike. He was the one who was tinkering with it. Or at least he had knowledge about it. I couldn’t be certain about the properties of that crystal.

I started wondering, what is going to happen?

In the scenario of death… who would be the one dying?

I mean… I of course wanted to think that I’ll survive somehow… but I didn’t like to take this gamble…

Besides the obvious problem of actually having no body to call mine… I mean, sure, there would still be some of my own essence hidden within the pieces of crystal, and I already knew that even that would be enough to at least keep some of my personality intact… maybe not this one, but at least one singular bit.

That would be fine with me.

But, if that was the case, the same scenario would play out for every single soul that Mike has absorbed.

Okay, most of those were already gone. But, there was a fresh supply that was just a moment ago added to the pile.

Sure, they weren’t the most powerful. I mean, most of them. But, even the smaller ones would be fighting fiercely for survival, especially after not realizing that they were even killed.

I wanted to believe that my mind would come out on top… but why even take risk, when there was the other option?

I could just take control beforehand.

And I didn’t mean completely.

Sure, I could try to do it, but seeing as the body in question was tiny bit damaged, I would’ve had to at least repair it to the point of usability…

Or I could just repair it and he’d do the hard job for me.

I froze for a second.

Why was I even considering healing him for free?

Sure, he was… used to be my friend. But right now, wasn’t that the best chance for me to get out? Get control of my body back?

Well, it wasn’t really my body anymore, but whatever.

Why would I even think of trying to help him?

Was that the assimilation process talking?

Most likely. Damn. It was progressing faster than I thought.

Maybe because of the recent circumstances? We were in a bit of a pickle right now… I guess…

Whatever.

I should just do it on my own.

To control the body…

I used that before.

I managed to control the body of Il when she was down. While it was a bit annoying, I sort of got the hang of it in time…

Shouldn’t be that hard with him, right?

And it was not.

I am not sure if that was my exceptional skill or just the fact that we were on the way to becoming one entity, I quickly managed to just… do it.

To be completely honest, it was most likely neither of those things. Sure, it might have helped a bit, but the fact that I was trying to control someone that was knocked the hell out was the deciding factor: there was no one to fight for dominance over the vessel, the souls that were shot by the shards weren’t even drained into him yet, still residing in their own bodies.

The moment I focused, I felt a very familiar tug, and just like someone had started pulling me down, I got dragged into him.

Back into the body.

I never realized that before, but up till then I was seeing this all in a very skewed perspective… I was seeing everything differently, but I couldn’t place how and why. I assumed it was because I was using my damaged senses and didn’t have an actual, my original body.

Well, it was half right.

When I came down, I understood that my perspective before was… larger. I was seeing everything with a much wider field of view, which got restricted back to human size when I opened my eyes as a damaged crystal body of Mike, lying on the burning ground of the building.