Chapter 71: Flight Magic

“Good grief! Now this is a proper pinch!”

As bullets rained down toward us, General Newsbeck—still dragging me along as we fled—raised her voice with what could only be described as… excitement. Her expression was almost delighted, as though she were enjoying the situation.

“General Newsbeck! Please deactivate the anti-magic barrier extending into the ground!”

Unlike her, I had no intention of enjoying a life-threatening situation. I shouted desperately over the chaos.

“Oh? Ah—right!”

“Good!”

Analysis could wait.

Right now, survival came first.

I quickly dug into the ground, creating a small hollow space beneath us, and pulled us both inside before sealing it shut with earth.

“Ohh!? That’s quite the method of movement!”

“It’s cramped, but please bear with it.”

“N-no, it’s just that… this is…”

Inside a space barely large enough to fit two people, General Newsbeck and I were pressed tightly together. Without pausing, I shifted the entire pocket of earth sideways, moving us through the ground at full speed in a desperate escape.

“…They’re not chasing us.”

Once we had retreated underground, it seemed the soldiers from the Kingdom of Friez had given up, as no pursuit followed.

“……”

“Oh? What’s wrong? Why have we stopped?”

Flight magic.

That, I could reproduce. What I couldn’t understand was the method they used to operate their anti-magic barriers. Anti-magic barriers worked by nullifying mana within a defined space.

If they deployed such a barrier around themselves, then logically, any magic—like flight magic—activated within that space should also be nullified.

“…Inside the body?”

It was an obvious contradiction.

Yet as I tilted my head in thought, a certain conclusion quickly took shape.

“General Newsbeck, could you remain hidden here for a moment?”

“…Hm?”

“I’m going to go hunt them down.”

“What?”

We couldn’t simply ignore enemy soldiers infiltrating the Kingdom of Lunoa. Behind us, supply trucks were also moving along this route. We couldn’t allow those to be attacked.

They needed to be brought down—now.

“I’ll make a small air hole, so please wait here.”

“W-wait! What are you planning to do?!”

There was no time.

Leaving General Newsbeck underground, I burst back up to the surface alone.

“Alright…”

Just as I had imagined—by activating the anti-magic barrier along the surface of my own body, hugging it like a second skin, any magic cast inside that boundary—within my body—remained unaffected.

“…This is quite the revolutionary application.”

Because the anti-magic barrier covered my body, I naturally couldn’t deploy any defensive barriers inside it to block physical attacks. Nor could I use body-enhancement magic.

After all, the barrier clung tightly along my skin.

If I tried to enhance my body while my skin itself wasn’t reinforced, the strain would tear it apart. And if I attempted to deploy a physical defense barrier beneath the skin? Everything under that thin layer would be erased by the barrier—resulting in catastrophic injury.

Even so… this method was groundbreaking.

“Flight magic… I’ll mix in earth magic as well.”

The flight magic used by the Friez soldiers relied on attribute-less magic. From what I observed, the most difficult part of its structure was lifting one’s own body.

They seemed so focused on simply staying airborne that they struggled with speed and altitude control.

“…Alright…”

Earth magic.

Once activated, its effects persisted indefinitely. A hole dug would not simply vanish.

In a world where only one spell could normally be active at a time, earth magic alone allowed multiple effects to remain layered and sustained.

“…Good. That should do it.”

Earth magic typically targeted the ground—but if expanded further, it could influence the planet itself.

It was a transformation of existence. And that transformation wasn’t limited to reshaping form—it could alter composition itself, turning barren soil into fertile land suitable for agriculture.

Within that same principle…

I reduced the mass of the planet pulling on me.

In other words—I lessened gravity.

With my body now dozens of times lighter than before, a simple push off the ground was enough to send me floating gently into the air.

“…Alright. Let’s go.”

From there, it was simple.

I took the Friez Kingdom’s flight magic, reduced the portion devoted to lift, and redirected it toward speed—creating my own variation.

Gripping my bayonet, I accelerated sharply and shot back toward our original position in an instant.