Chapter 177: What Can Be Handled (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 177: What Can Be Handled (5)
Calian said nothing.
—In the great forest on the path to the believer, there is a mage and a bird. ‘They,’ along with the denier, have gone to find the bird.
The “believer” was Tensil, and the “denier” was the Wolf of the Great Desert.
After reading the cryptic message, Calian’s expression remained grim. Instead of burning the note, he handed it to Franz. Then, he vaulted over the terrace railing and vanished.
Moments later, the sound of galloping hooves echoed through the royal palace. The prince’s black horse darted forward, weaving gracefully through the knights who tried to block its path.
Franz, who had been watching from the terrace, quietly stood up. Just as Calian had, he jumped down from the terrace and headed toward Arpia Palace.
Calian had given him the note, after all.
The meaning was clear: he was being left to clean up the mess. And so, he would deliver the message to Arpia Palace.
“…Sigh.”
My little brother just ran off.
* * *
Inside the cave.
Euria, who had been standing perfectly still while spreading her mana to assess the situation outside, finally spoke.
“Birdies.”
The Yellow Robin, who had been on edge ever since the explosion shook the cave, reflexively turned his head, his face twisting in annoyance. Her tone, however, remained nonchalant.
“We’ve been tailed.”
Someone was rushing toward them with clear intent. Judging by the trajectory aimed precisely at their cave, it was definitely not a friendly visit. Yet, even as she sensed the extraordinary and unfamiliar presence, Euria’s expression didn’t even flicker.
The Yellow Robin frowned. “Tailed? What are you talking about?”
“A tail is a tail. Someone followed us. I don’t know if they were on my tail or yours, but my money’s on yours.”
The Yellow Robin had already been caught by her once, yet she was now displaying baseless confidence that it was his spies who had been followed this time. He asked curtly, “And you don’t know who it is?”
“Nope. If I could figure that out just by standing here, I wouldn’t be human, would I?”
Euria clenched and unclenched her fists, then rolled her neck from side to side to loosen her muscles. Exuding the aura of a knight preparing for battle, she addressed the Yellow Robin.
“I don’t care if you run away. But if you take the documents out of this cave, they’ll be ruined. They’ll also be ruined if the cave collapses. So just stay put and protect them.”
The Yellow Robin’s face turned grim. Euria, still looking entirely unbothered, spoke again.
“Looks like a wolf pup from the Great Desert. Don’t go outside and get yourself killed. That would just be a headache for me.”
The spies knew of the power wielded by those from Zeon. They especially knew what kind of monsters they became when a warrior of immense physical might, like a ‘Wolf of the Great Desert,’ was involved.
Euria had no reason to protect them, and they had no reason to help her. As they hesitated, a low voice rang out.
[Sleep]
It was Euria. She’d changed her mind about leaving them be.
“On second thought, you’d probably try to steal the documents and ruin them in the process. Can’t have that.”
Euria spoke leisurely as she gazed at the three spies, who had collapsed in a neat row. Then, she strolled out of the cave to greet the wolf that had just arrived.
Purple sparks began to crackle at her fingertips.
* * *
It had been invisible.
The forest shook as Calian blocked the attack.
A long, thin gash was carved into the ground, stretching from a distant point all the way to where Calian now stood. Only then did Arsen realize Calian had arrived from the direction of the teleportation magic circle. He also realized, from the deep score in the earth, that Calian must have charged forward with his sword dragging on the ground before slashing upward to meet the descending blade of red aura. The massive roar had been the sound of Calian’s upward swing, powered by the momentum of his sprint, clashing head-on with Tamira’s downward strike as she leaped toward Arsen.
If not for the aftermath, he never would have known how Calian had arrived or how he had blocked Tamira’s sword.
He hadn’t seen a thing.
“Capture the mage. Don’t kill him,” Calian said, his eyes locked on Tamira’s light brown ones. His words were for Arsen, who stood behind him.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The thick scent of blood suggested the wound on Arsen’s shoulder was deep, but his clear response told Calian it wasn’t fatal. With that, Calian dismissed Arsen from his thoughts, focusing not on the mage who had caused this mess, but on the warrior of the Great Desert standing before him—one who clearly knew her way around a sword.
Clang!
As if signaling the start of the battle, a blue energy coalesced in Arsen’s hand. The energy repeatedly dispersed into the air before vanishing as if absorbed back into his palm. He turned his head toward the enemy mage.
Calian would handle Tamira, who had given him so much trouble. That meant Arsen only needed to capture one mage, regardless of whether Tamira continued to target him. The man had been introduced as ‘Marshita,’ but the name hadn’t registered. To Arsen, he was just a mage with no memorable features.
Whoosh!
The swelling energy was instantly sucked into Arsen’s palm, swirling into nothing. Confirming the familiar chill was concentrated in his hand, Arsen took a step forward.
He reappeared directly in front of the mage, who had been several paces away.
Realizing Calian’s arrival had evened the odds, the mage didn’t panic and swung a glowing red dagger.
Swish!
Its speed was enough to make one doubt it was a mage’s attack, but having faced it once, Arsen was no longer caught off guard.
His fingertips moved.
A blue energy—like gathered mist, steam rising from hot tea, or clouds wrapping a high mountain peak—shrouded the dagger.
Clack! Screeech!
The mage’s hand froze in midair. An unpleasant sound, like nails scraping metal, followed.
The red light clinging to the dagger’s surface vanished. Like iron plunged into water right after being forged, the dagger’s surface turned pitch-black before fine white cracks spiderwebbed across it.
Just like Gray’s marble table, the aura-imbued dagger had frozen solid.
Shatter!
With a sound like fine porcelain striking the floor, the mage’s dagger broke into pieces that scattered across the ground.
Without a moment to savor his victory, Arsen gathered his cold energy once more, having noticed a large fireball forming in the mage’s other hand.
The flickering red fireball flew toward Arsen. But in a blink, his figure vanished.
Boom!
The fireball struck the empty spot where Arsen had been and exploded uselessly. In response, a wave of instantly gathered cold energy enveloped the mage as four ice spears shot toward him.
Whoosh!
The first three spears were blocked by the mage’s shield. Upon impact, they embedded themselves in the barrier and changed shape, spreading wide and freezing the red shield solid.
The fourth and final ice spear was fired.
Whoosh!
Crack! Crackle!
The shield lost its form under the impact and dispersed into the air. The final ice spear, its momentum unbroken, pierced straight through the mage’s shoulder and stabbed into the ground behind him.
“Argh!”
More than the pain of the wound, the bone-chilling cold was unbearable. A groan escaped the mage’s lips. Seeing this, Arsen pointed to his own shoulder.
“I suppose we can call it even.”
Compared to the mage, who was impaled by an ice spear that showed no signs of melting, Arsen’s situation was far better, but that was his calculation.
His mana moved once more.
A chunk of ice, rounded like a heavy stone, struck the back of the helpless mage’s head.
Thud!
With a sickening crack, the mage lost consciousness and collapsed.
* * *
A weightless sword is also quick to change its path.
After forcefully parrying Tamira’s downward strike, Calian immediately brought his sword back down. Startled by the speed, Tamira leaped backward to create distance. Calian’s blade sliced through empty air, then changed direction again, relentlessly pursuing her.
Clang!
A killing intent—similar to what he had unleashed upon the mages of Valkan, yet distinctly different, like an inescapable curse—choked the air from Tamira’s lungs.
Calian’s dark red aura stood in stark contrast to her own. That eerie light, like a clot of blood coughed up from a ruptured heart, flashed with every swing. The path of his blade cut through even the dense darkness of the forest.
The Wolf of the Great Desert, who moments ago had been thrusting her sword to take Arsen’s life, was now swinging desperately just to keep her own head from being severed.
Swish! Clang! Clang!
The endless whistle of parting wind was followed by the clash of swords and the ringing of a blade against a shield.
Without her powerful shield, their swords would not have clashed twice. If her wounds hadn’t healed so rapidly, she would have met her end in their first exchange.
Screeech!
Watching her shield get sliced away with every block, Tamira unconsciously bit her lip.
The red eyes facing her vanished. The long curve drawn by his equally red lips remained like an afterimage in her mind.
He is strong.
It was like hearing the growl of a beast that had just sunk its teeth into its prey’s neck. Her own sense of defeat, the terror pressing in from all sides that made her want to drop her sword, was mirrored by the cry of his blade—a sound filled with a predator’s satisfaction.
He is strong.
From what she’d heard, he wasn’t supposed to be this powerful. How?
“You’re going to die at this rate.”
As if answering her unspoken question, a still-youthful voice spoke from right behind her. The moment she heard it, her sword reacted.
Whoosh!
Gripping the hilt, Tamira spun in a full circle, slashing at everything around her. The tip of her blade met nothing but air.
With a low hum, the light of her red aura deepened, momentarily brightening her surroundings. There was nothing to be seen.
Just then, with the soft tap of a foot springing off the ground, a dark red sword plunged down from above.
Clang!
Lifting her own sword, Tamira blocked the attack. The force of the blow, delivered from a leap, was not particularly heavy. A glint appeared in her eyes.
A body without proper muscle, and a light sword.
Realizing this, Tamira channeled her strength and shoved Calian’s sword away, planning to strike his exposed upper body as he was thrown off balance.
The weight on her sword vanished. Just as she prepared to swing again to cut him down—
Swish!
Calian, who should have been pushed back, instead lunged toward her. His hands were empty.
He had abandoned his sword without a second thought.
Hummmm!
Before she could react, a new dark red sword had already formed, rushing toward her neck.
“…I told you. You’re going to die.”
As the whisper lingered in her ear, the sword, craving something of the same light, ruthlessly tore through flesh and claimed her life.
Thud.
The warrior’s body, no longer breathing, collapsed to the ground.