Winter's End (2)
[Achievement Reached: "Metal Reinforcement" Complete]
◆ Mana Quality Purification
◆ Attribute Endowment
Mana quality purification. And beneath it, a single thread of attribute endowment.
This signifies a mana aura.
It means my mana has taken on a single 'trait', and at the same time, it's an indicator that I've reached a certain realm.
Metal · Abrasion
Mana purification, simply put, means the primal impurities in my mana have been washed away, filled instead with a specific property.
"...Hm. So there was a countermeasure."
Ihelm nodded and muttered.
The barrier, which had shaken as if it would shatter under the bombardment of demonic energy shells, had now been repaired—and it brimmed with even denser mana.
The dual attributes of metal and abrasion.
Just as ice clung to Julie's mana, shadows seeped into Yuseffin's, and wind swirled around Syrio's.
My mana had reached that same realm.
I turned to look behind me. There stood a throng of knights and mages, clustered named ones among them.
"The barrier is mine. Prepare for war, all of you."
"...Ah, yes."
Delik and the knights moved first, followed by Julie and Rafel.
But then.
"Then what about me."
Ifrin strode boldly to my side. And with brimming confidence, she shouted,
"I'll protect you, Professor!"
I said,
"Begone."
"Whaaat?!"
Premien, who had been lingering nearby, chimed in.
"It's a waste for one mage to guard another. Not efficient at all."
"......"
Ifrin's cheeks puffed out indignantly, and I told her,
"Support the knights from atop the barrier."
That's where she belonged more anyway.
With her mana quality, mana capacity, and destructive talents—all overwhelmingly superior to mine, describable in no other way.
"...Fiiine."
Ifrin pouted and turned away. Her trudging steps turned into a sprint at the ninth shell's boom——!
"Rest easy. I'll handle my share too."
Premien's words, meant to reassure.
Knowing her origins, her Altiegue bloodline, it wasn't entirely comforting—but at least for now, she had no risk of death.
"Watch my back."
Thud—!
I stamped the ground with my mana-aiding staff.
Unshaken in that stance, I focused on the barrier.
———!
The tenth shell.
But it couldn't even scratch my mana.
Attacks made of demonic energy, at least, wouldn't pierce this 'abrasive mana'....
......Beyond the killing fields. The horde of ten thousand demons surged forth.
Lia watched the scene and smacked her forehead.
If the barrier broke, if defenses weren't solid, this was continental apocalypse-level event!
In other words, the main quest's overall difficulty had spiked!
"Lia. Can you handle it?"
Ganesha asked Lia, who gnawed at her nails.
Right now, they were observing the turtles from the demonic forest.
"Huh? Oh yeah, totally! What about you, Leo?"
"Me too! Obviously!"
Leo was the typical brawler type, but uniquely a 'long-range fighter'.
His fists extended ridiculously far.
Not like some pirate ship's rubber man or anything. When he swung, the exact same force and weight transmitted at least 50 meters.
"Whoosh-whoosh—I've even learned boxing from Lia!"
"Right! Hoo!"
Lia exhaled deeply too. Calming body and mind, she told Ganesha,
"Ready when you are!"
"Good good~"
Ganesha beamed and snapped off a nearby branch.
The branch, thick with demonic energy, would scorch human skin, but Ganesha didn't care.
"I'll pop the turtle first. Then just follow me, got it? Trust your battle instincts. Gotta hone that sense too~"
With that, she gripped the branch casually. Pulled her arm back like a javelin. And—
Kwaaaaaaaa─────!
Thrown.
The branch rocketed from her hand, warping the air currents as it hurtled forth.
Faster than bullets, hypersonic burst. It slammed into the turtle's barrel like a geyser, and the beast screamed.
Grraaaaa———!
Bet that hurt like hell.
Ganesha's two traits: "Indestructible" and "All Flows Return".
"Indestructible" made her entire body diamond-hard, literally. "All Flows Return" extended that hardness to 'any object she wielded'.
So that ordinary branch she'd just hurled became an 'indestructible branch' the instant it left her hand and hit.
"Hup!"
Ganesha hurled branches one after another, but the racket gave away their position instantly.
Shhhh……!
Altar mages' converged demonic magic. At times like this, Ganesha was surprisingly useless. Classic brawler—no efficient counters to magic.
Except smashing the casters.
"Lia?"
"On it!"
So Lia stepped up. She closed her eyes, focused her mind. Drew her internal mana up like a thin membrane.
A rippling blue veil shimmered into existence in the air.
Kwaaaaa─!
Demonic spells rushed toward them.
But the demonic energy couldn't pierce her veil—instead, whoosh────!
It scattered as harmless spray.
This was Lia's character talent—"Decomposer".
A high-end trait that broke down anything—demonic energy, mana, whatever—with mana expenditure.
Thus, Lia blocked the demonic magic and spells, Ganesha speared more branches at the turtle, and Leo pummeled the rising beasts below with long-range punches.
Perfect synergy and rhythm...
"Hm?"
But then, Lia sensed something off.
There were hardly any Altar mages controlling that turtle. Just ten.
No warriors guarding them either.
Last time, there'd been hundreds.
"...Ah!"
Lia realized too late.
"This is a feint!"
"...Feint? What's a feint? Where's the feint?"
Leo asked back mid-swing.
"Not that feint!"
Lia shook her head in frustration and pointed to the distant barrier.
"The Altar's main force right now is probably..."
Recor Dak's back gate.
Guarded by minimal knights and convicts—that's where the Altar would strike.
Boom──! Boom──!
Exploding magic.
Screeeee───!
The crossbows' wail as they loosed arrows.
Don't run, kill them───! For His Imperial Majesty──! Show your loyalty──!
The knights' cries as they charged into battle.
This fucking──! Die──! Just die, you goddamn──!
The convicts' desperate flailing with their weapons.
"...Hm."
A white-haired man watched the brutal war from afar.
"Seems they're holding out, somehow."
Zeit von Brugan Phairden.
He stood atop a ridge a short distance from Recor Dak's entrance.
"Deculein's guarding the barrier, and Julie's over there... in the thick of it."
As he observed the situation quietly.
Zeit's eyes widened round.
Whiiiiiir——
A black wind howled, and below appeared a band of unwelcome guests in robes.
"Oof..."
They were clearly advancing on Recor Dak. Murderous intent radiated, eerie demonic energy piercing the sky.
"This world won't leave me in peace."
He hadn't come specifically to aid Recor Dak's front... but what could he do.
Rubbing his chin in thought, Zeit leaped from the ridge.
Boom──!
One bound closed thousands of meters, his body blocking the Altar's path.
Like a tiger cresting a cliff, or lightning striking from the heavens. Utterly sudden to the enemy.
Zeit, all alone.
He asked,
"Who might you lot be."
One of the halted intruders, an Altar priest, solemnly named him.
"...Zeit."
Even the Altar, who scorned the continent as barbarians, knew Zeit's prestige well. Feared it sufficiently.
In truth, they'd hidden and built strength all this time largely because of that one wall named Zeit.
"Yeah, that's me."
But Zeit reveled in their fear of him.
"I listened well to my old son-in-law. He said you'd be the continent's strongest this time around... so I beefed up my defenses accordingly."
Crack— crack crack—
He said, loosening his fingers.
"Thus."
Hundreds from the Altar now, against one Zeit.
"Seems I've got some time on my hands."
Yet it was the Altar retreating.
"Climbed up for a bit."
Crick—
This time, his neck cracking.
That simple gesture and echo crushed them like a massive press.
"But going to see his face myself felt too embarrassing."
Thud—.
One step from Zeit.
"Sorry to my uptight little brother too, who knows nothing."
Whoosh── blazing mana. Frost shards floated around his body.
That aura choked the Altar's breath.
"...Especially to Professor Deculein."
Zeit muttered bitterly, sighed, scratched his hair once.
"Anyway, my mood's foul right now."
The air's momentum shifted. He looked up, staring them down.
His rumpled face twisted tiger-like, mana-waving hair floating ghostly.
"Not sure if it'll help vent, but."
The man called the continent's strongest.
The Altar, caught off-guard without warning, hurried to form retreat spells—but
"...Gonna have to beat some of you bastards to death."
In that instant, Zeit charged.
Fwooooosh───!
Just a human's sprint sonic-boomed, ruptured airflows shaking heaven and earth. The ground he trod was already grotesquely upheaved. Explosions with every stride.
And...
Rriiiip tear───!
Flesh and muscle shredding.
Crunch craaaack───!
Skulls shattering.
Kraaaaaaaa───!
Arms and legs literally torn off bodies, waists severed—screams.
Ugh──! Uwaaaaa──!
Here, now, a massacre utterly unlike Recor Dak's war unfolded.
"Welcome to winter. Glory in making me your end...."
The war raged on, as wars do.
Julie felt it in her bones. On this battlefield thick with blood and death.
Craaaunch──!
Endless beasts tore convicts' throats. Severed knights' arms. Ripped legs.
Squelch─!
Suddenly, a subordinate knight's heart pierced by a beast's claw.
Julie slashed the grappling beast and approached.
But his eyes held no light, no life.
No time for prayers—she closed his eyes and swung her sword again.
Kwaaaaaaaa───!
Just then, a mage's support spell descended. Wind laden with fire and oil engulfed the ground.
Blazing flames seared flesh; beasts' agonized roars tore eardrums.
"Hyah!"
Deculein's assistant, Ifrin. Her mid-scale fire-attribute destruction spell.
Julie and the knights pressed on amid the barrage of spells.
"...Haa."
But her breaths slipped through gritted teeth.
Rapid panting.
Chest growing heavy, heart stabbing. Like talons rending her guts...
Demonic energy seeping into her body.
"......"
Julie's vision blurred slowly.
Sight fogging, body ignoring her commands.
—Julie! You okay?!
Gwen's distant shout snapped her back; she moved her flesh again.
Overcome.
That single word filled her mind now.
Overcome.
Overcome.
Overcome.
If she couldn't overcome this demonic energy here, on her own.
If she collapsed like some invalid again.
—Don't get cocky. Useless invalids like you help no one.
Even Deculein's words.
—Know your place. You turn cripple in demonic energy.
Even those.
—Gonna be baggage? Get lost.
Even those.
—You're worthless. If you're dying, do it alone. Don't be a burden.
Even those.
—Can't take a dying invalid as my betrothed. Wouldn't sully Yukline.
Even all his contempt.
She could no longer retort.
Proved them true.
"Kuh!"
Blown back by a beast's attack, her body tumbled across the ground. Armor caked in blood and dirt, but Julie rose without hesitation.
...She knew.
This wound was the kind she couldn't overcome alone.
Back when her dantian first shattered, they'd diagnosed a death sentence.
Six months would be generous.
No knighthood possible.
Yet...
Deculein.
Rockfell.
Veron.
And everyone else he'd hurt.
She couldn't lose to him.
Refused to.
Wouldn't lose even in death.
No—not dying, overcoming on her own.
That was beating him...!
"——!"
Roaring, she swung her sword.
Kwaaaaaaaa———!
Sword qi cleaved the earth. Frigid mana from the blade froze the distant beasts solid.
"Whoa, Julie!"
Syrio's cheer.
"You're good now, right?!"
Gwen's worry.
...And.
"Not bad. Seems you're trying not to be a cripple."
Deculein's voice...?
Julie whipped around in shock.
"Ah..."
Hallucination, or real?
Too surreal to tell, but anyway.
Deculein.
Leaning on his staff.
"Eyes forward, not on me."
Julie turned where he pointed, eyes widening anew as she resumed battle stance.
At the same time, realizing why he'd come here.
"...Demon."
The endless demon tidal wave seemed infinite. At its utter end, beyond countless beasts.
An unnamed demon revealed itself...