Chapter 302: Hold Back, Older Brother (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 302: Hold Back, Older Brother (5)
The forest was not large.
Because of this, the dark clouds blanketing the sky, the crackling lightning, and even the distant thunderbolts were all clearly visible.
Rumble…
However, Rachel was in a predicament of her own, making it difficult to focus on Euria’s battle for long.
What was certain was that Euria had also encountered an unexpected opponent and that the fight had begun. And based on the display, her opponent was a mage.
The ground shifted, a squirming sensation crawling beneath her feet.
“Is their guest a water mage as well?”
These had to be the ones Euria and Alan had warned her about.
Five individuals, said to wield the power of a Sword Master, had arrived. The fortunate thing was that not all of them were as monstrously skilled as the warriors of the Great Desert. The unfortunate thing was that their strength was still more than enough to slaughter the soldiers in an instant.
Rachel scanned her surroundings with a grim expression. She hoped for a survivor, but she couldn't sense a single living presence. Though she had tried to protect the soldiers through several exchanges, she had ultimately failed to save a single one. Rachel, however, had killed two of the swordsmen.
Three remained.
Rachel focused on the energy of the earth, searching for the movements of those who trod upon it.
Rumble…
The thunder echoing from the distant sky grew louder.
Dash!
Using the noise as cover, the footsteps of three people rushing toward her from all directions finally became audible. Rachel quickly released the mana she had been gathering.
Boom!
One warrior and two swordsmen. The ground they were about to step on collapsed. At the same time, the surrounding soil rose up, forming several giant hands.
Sensing the shift, the warrior leaped high into the air. The two swordsmen, however, momentarily lost their balance. Solid hands sculpted from rock reached for their legs. One managed to scramble away, but the other was not so lucky.
Crack!
A sickening crunch of bone echoed through the clearing. Rachel tore her gaze from the man who could no longer fight and focused on the two still charging toward her.
Squelch!
The ground beneath them shifted again. The warrior, having leaped high to evade her first attack, quickly changed his trajectory and dodged. The other swordsman, slower on the uptake, felt his ankles sink into the earth. From ankle to shin, then to thigh, a suddenly formed swamp began to swallow him whole.
Thud!
The swordsman desperately thrust his blade out, driving it into what looked like solid rock.
But the rock, now soft as melted ice cream, allowed the sword to pass straight through it. Having lost his only support, the swordsman’s body slowly sank into the ground until only the top of his head was visible.
Forcing herself to ignore the man’s final, muffled scream, Rachel turned her attention to the last opponent.
Whether she melted the rocks, carved them into projectiles, raised or collapsed the ground, or caused minor earthquakes, the warrior evaded everything. With swift, nimble movements, he would leap off the tiniest pebble to dodge and resume his charge.
Whoosh!
Having closed the distance in the blink of an eye, the warrior swung his sword. Rachel’s eyes weren’t fast enough to track the blade’s precise movement.
In an instant, the ground she stood on slid backward. Her entire figure, which had been right in front of him, was relocated several feet away. Having evaded the sword strike while standing perfectly still, Rachel manipulated her mana once more. All the rocks around the warrior rose into the air and shot toward him like cannonballs.
Clang! Clang!
After cutting down a few and blocking the rest, the warrior twisted his body again. He pushed off one of the flying rocks and lunged at Rachel, sword first. Once again, the ground beneath her feet drifted away, leaving the warrior to slash at empty air.
At other times, the ground the warrior stood on would slide far away. Rachel’s body moved in flashes, constantly maintaining her distance, while the warrior relentlessly chased her, swinging his sword. Even when she dodged, fired sharpened rocks, or kicked up a cloud of sand to block his vision, the warrior responded without the slightest hint of panic, his sights locked firmly on her.
“Sigh…”
She didn’t have many offensive spells. She had already consumed a significant amount of mana traveling from the royal palace, leaving her with very few options.
Should I use what’s left to run?
Rachel let out a soft chuckle. With the difference in their speed, running away would actually be the easier choice. But she knew exactly where the warrior’s sword would be pointed the moment she turned her back.
Whoosh!
The warrior’s sword lunged at her again.
I said goodbye to Veronica before I left… but did I say anything to Father?
As Rachel briefly searched her memory, she gathered her remaining strength and launched a stone wedge at the warrior. At that exact moment—
Whoosh!
With a sound that had no place in this battle, a fireball streaked toward the warrior. He had been about to swing his sword after dodging Rachel’s attack but was forced to twist his body to evade the sudden burst of flame.
Boom!
The massive fireball crashed into the ground and exploded with a deafening roar.
Before the warrior could even grasp what was happening, another fireball flew at him. A second, a third—the flames relentlessly cornered him in rapid succession.
Rachel seized the opportunity, using her magic to push back the warrior’s charging feet. She had no time to see who had arrived; her priority was to deal with this enemy.
Boom! Crash!
Whips of fire, spears of fire, and spheres of fire endlessly hammered the warrior. The hem of his clothes caught ablaze, and his eyes burned with murderous intent.
He leaped high into the air.
Rachel channeled her mana, quickly calculating his landing spot. Squeezing out every last drop of her strength, she cast a spell on the seemingly normal patch of forest floor beneath him.
Thud!
The warrior landed.
The ground, which had shown no outward sign of change, instantly dissolved into sand, revealing its true form. Dozens, hundreds, of sharp stone spears erupted from below. At the same time, the other mage triggered a massive explosion right above the warrior’s head.
Kaboom!
The warrior, who had tried to leap away by pushing off the tips of the spears, was caught in the blast. He was slammed back toward the ground as if by an invisible giant. And that ground…
Squish!
With a deeply unpleasant sound, the last warrior’s life was extinguished. As Rachel frowned, the mage in the grey robe who had been hidden in the darkness finally revealed herself.
“Dame Grace.”
The voice was familiar, yet unfamiliar.
Rachel stared at the robed figure for a moment before her face lit up with recognition. She offered a faint smile.
“The Association President of Secritia.”
“His Royal Highness the Crown Prince asked me to check on things, but I had no idea this was happening,” said Meilin Lonz, the Association President of Secritia and a 6th Circle fire mage whom Rachel had met just the previous morning. She grinned.
“I’m glad I wasn’t too late.”
Rachel nodded and raised her gaze.
At that moment, a torrent of violet lightning began to rain down from the sky.
*
Dark clouds had consumed the once-clear sky, and thunderbolts crashed down.
Boom! Crash!
Between the shields protecting the soldiers, streaks of violet lightning—the exact color of Euria’s hair—shot down and struck the moisture-laden forest floor. It was a spectacle no ordinary 5th Circle mage could produce, a bridge of raw power connecting heaven and earth.
Crackle, crack!
Kaboom!
Her hand remained outstretched toward the sky, unmoving, as dozens of lightning strikes fell relentlessly upon the spot she was staring at.
The Secritian soldiers and their commanding knight were already dead. The other knights, who had taken temporary command of the survivors, could only watch the scene from behind their shield, their faces pale with terror.
Boom! Crash! Kaboom!
After the final thunderbolt struck, thick, heavy smoke began to rise.
The water-soaked earth had been turned to black ash, the rocks were scorched and shattered, and the massive trees were splintered into pieces. Confirming the devastation, Euria quietly lowered her arm.
This was her most powerful attack.
It was the same power that had instantly turned the healing soldiers of Zeon to ash. If there was one enemy, she would kill them. If there were two, she would slaughter them. If they had a shield, she would break it. If they had healing powers, she would burn their hearts to cinders.
So, this should have been a task with absolutely no difficulty…
“Wow.”
Or so she had thought.
In a corner of the forest that had been reduced to ashes, a mage stood perfectly intact, without a single scratch. Seeing this, a smile full of amusement spread across Euria’s lips.
The shield was a dark, murky red, similar to the fire shields Alan created but distinctly different. This was definitely a mage of Zeon.
“…Jina.”
They were acquainted.
A woman with scarlet hair like a blazing flame.
The 6th Circle mage, who had been like a second teacher to Euria and had taught her water magic, stared back for a moment before turning her head. With that movement, a powerful surge of mana rippled through the air, and the atmosphere began to swirl once more.
Crackle, spark!
There was no reply, but Euria hadn’t spoken to catch up. A violet sphere formed at her fingertips as well.
Swell!
Euria drew upon the power of water.
The pools on the ground moved as if they were alive. Droplets scattered here and there gathered into a single mass and floated into the air.
Zzzzt!
Euria infused her electricity into each of the countless droplets. They then shot like arrows toward the Zeon mage.
Jina simply waved her arm. A whirlwind of freezing cold swept through. Every single water droplet Euria had fired froze solid and clattered uselessly to the ground.
Spears of ice formed in midair and shot toward Euria, who was perched on high ground. She teleported away to evade the attack, then created a water spear crackling with sparks and sent it right back.
Faced with an attack that flew too fast to freeze, Jina teleported as well.
Rumble!
Crackle!
Seizing the moment, Euria drew water from the ground once more, sending a powerful electric current through the earth where Jina had landed. When Jina’s ice spears flew toward her again, Euria dodged and unleashed a long bolt of lightning from her hand, striking Jina’s shield.
Boom!
With an explosive sound, Jina’s body vanished. An instant later, she reappeared right in front of the shield protecting the soldiers and tapped it with her fingertip.
Crackle! Snap!
Pure white frost enveloped the shield, freezing it solid. Her face hardening, Euria reinforced the barrier and attacked Jina, but the 6th Circle mage was already gone.
Teleporting once more, Jina perched on a nearby tree and smiled faintly at Euria. She then stretched her arm toward the shield below.
Screeech!
An unpleasant grinding sound rang out.
Kaboom!
The water gathered beneath Jina’s feet erupted in all directions. Euria tried to block the attack aimed at her shield, but her counterattack only struck Jina’s red shield, failing to stop the onslaught.
Whoosh!
A long whip covered in thin ice lashed out at Euria. She deployed her own shield to block it and sent a bolt of lightning back along the whip’s length. Traveling along the whip in a split second, the electric attack struck Jina’s shield hard. It was blocked.
At that moment, Jina’s mana bypassed the soldiers’ shield and manipulated the water inside it. Just as the soldiers felt the ground rising and looked down at their feet—
Boom!
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Water, controlled by Jina, burst through the unprotected ground and froze into sharp points. The shards became individual daggers, impaling the soldiers one by one.
It happened in an instant.
The soldiers’ screams were brief. In the end, they were all dead. Not a single one survived.
A 6th Circle mage versus the 5th Circle Euria.
The difference of a single number. The difference in accumulated mana. The difference in raw magical power. That small gap was everything.
“Damn it.”
Euria clenched her fists tightly.
“…You want to die?”
Violet sparks crackled fiercely across her knuckles.
She pushed aside her guilt for those she couldn’t save. She pushed aside her confusion at fighting for her life against someone she had once been close to.
Teacher, 6th Circle mage, woman from Zeon—it didn’t matter. That bastard was simply an enemy now.
Crackle, spark!
Euria created a spear brimming with electrical energy and hurled it at Jina. The bright light left a long afterimage.
Jina deployed her shield, blocking the attack with ease.
Then, as if she could no longer be bothered, Jina summoned her freezing cold. The world around Euria began to freeze.
Endless water spears left Euria’s hands and flew toward Jina. All of them were blocked by the red shield, flowing down uselessly. Jina ignored the water pooling at her feet. Even if electricity flowed through it, her shield would block it.
The trees swaying in the wind stopped moving, frozen solid. The ground where they were rooted turned pure white. The fallen leaves rolling across the forest floor ceased their movement. As if she were standing in the middle of the Great Desert, everything around Euria froze. And that freezing cold was rapidly closing in on her.
“You weren’t a dual-attribute mage when we last saw each other. That pebble must be quite useful.”
“Very,” Jina replied curtly as the ground beneath her feet exploded.
“It’s frustrating. I went through a lot of trouble to get this far. I didn’t know you could become a dual-attribute mage with just a single pebble.”
Kaboom!
Euria’s attack flew toward Jina once more. It was blocked.
‘If you can use electricity, can’t you call down lightning and stuff? Grandma, your magic is so boring.’
‘Does a thunderbolt fall from the sky just because you make a spark in your palm? If you like thunderbolts so much, try reaching the 7th Circle.’
‘How can I wait that long? I’ll die of old age.’
The powerful are often slower to perceive danger than the desperate.
Euria accurately calculated the exact moment the encroaching frost would consume her. Jina, however, did not realize that the water she was standing on was gradually warming up.
Euria Seiren.
‘I’ll just make it myself.’
To be precise, she was a 5th Circle Master mage with dual attributes of water and electricity.
That was why this was possible.
Lightning is born when electricity meets warm, moist clouds. If she couldn’t summon the clouds, she would just have to make them.
Crackle! Snap!
Euria’s robe no longer fluttered. It was beginning to freeze.
She did not dodge. The ice would follow her wherever she fled, so she protected her body with a shield and continued her water attacks.
She sent water. The water flowed. The water warmed. It boiled.
A pocket of warm, moisture-laden vapor pooled beneath the ground where Jina stood.
Rumble…
The ground beneath Jina’s feet began to groan.
She lowered her head. She tried to teleport. But a thick, viscous water clung to her feet, holding her down.
‘Is creating magic such an easy task?’
‘Well, if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.’
She hadn’t wasted all that time traveling to Libern just to learn how to make things wet for a better shock. She hadn’t abandoned fun-looking wind and fire magic to train in boring water magic all the way to the 5th Circle for nothing. Since becoming an Archmage in her lifetime seemed a distant dream, she had learned two attributes for her own peace of mind. She had gone through all that trouble just for this one thing.
Kaboom! Crash! Kaboom!
To call down lightning!
Kaboom! Crash! Roar! Boom! Crash!
The power of lightning generated at point-blank range was unimaginable.
Dozens, hundreds, of lightning bolts erupted from beneath Jina’s feet, mercilessly shattering her red shield. The barrier, made thicker than ever before, was blown to pieces and vanished.
The lightning struck the defenseless mage.
Kaboom!
Because the powerful often look down from too high a place.
The mage had never imagined a mere 5th Circle could unleash such power again, let alone that lightning could strike from below. Her body, caught completely off guard, was charred black. The lightning pierced straight through her heart.
“With just a single pebble… how dare you pick a fight with the real deal.”
Her six circles scattered, burned away to nothing. Amidst the deafening roar that extinguished a life, Euria’s voice echoed.
“You want to die?”
And that was the end of it.
*
A familiar footstep.
A familiar voice.
“Calian.”
He had fallen asleep in a familiar-looking room, sinking into a deep, dreamless slumber. He had slept so soundly that he only realized someone else was there when the footsteps drew close and a low voice called his name.
Calian, who had been sleeping without so much as a heavy breath, quietly opened his eyes. Instead of the light purple eyes of the room’s previous occupant, transparent, ruby-red eyes briefly scanned the surroundings.
“…Yes.”
Calian glanced up at the man who looked like an unripe lime standing a step away from the bed. Answering shortly, he sat up. Then, he held his breath for a moment.
His back still ached. As sensation fully returned, a searing pain shot through his waist, so intense it felt like he was being torn in two. Although the poison had been neutralized and the bleeding had stopped, the wound was too large and deep to heal in a single night. The poison had been potent.
Calian chuckled softly as he glanced at the bananas piled beside him. If Hina were here, it might be a different story, but he felt he shouldn’t eat anything right now. Deciding to wait until his waist had healed a bit more, Calian looked up at Franz.
“Wait.”
“Yes. Go ahead.”
Franz stared for a moment at Calian, whose face remained completely unruffled, making it impossible to tell how much he had recovered. Then, he began to explain the situation.
Around the time Calian, Franz, and Arsen had arrived at the villa, a battle had broken out in the forest. Euria and Rachel had been attacked, and all the Secritian soldiers had died. Before Devlan could arrest the two mages on charges of murdering the soldiers, Chase had mobilized the Mage Association. As a result, both mages were currently staying inside the Association’s building.
“…Ah.”
A soft sound escaped Calian’s lips after he heard the whole story.
Despite being so careful, they had fallen right into Devlan’s trap.
Calian finally understood who the knight that had approached Franz was. Devlan—clever and a step ahead of him in experience—had anticipated how they would move and had instructed the knight accordingly. He had fabricated a scenario, leading them to believe there was a movement among the nobles to oust him. He had predicted that Calian's main strength would head to the forest. Then, whether he had allied with Zeon or was commanding them directly, he had sent additional forces to kill the two mages.
He had orchestrated this entire scheme, even going so far as to slaughter his own soldiers to sell the lie.
"So… Chase mobilized the Mage Association, openly declaring his opposition to Devlan."
Calian had been trying to contact Chase for some time, but he’d gotten no response. He let out a soft sigh.
"I hope he isn't planning to mobilize Teilan as well."
If Devlan played his cards right, he could frame Chase for treason. While he likely had no intention of killing his only son and successor, he would certainly use this incident as a pretext to place Chase completely under his thumb.
There was no way Chase didn't know this. Yet, fully aware of the risks, he had mobilized the Association anyway.
"What are you going to do?" Franz asked quietly.
Calian gave a slight nod to Arianne, who stood in the distance, before turning to Arsen with a grin.
"Since I'm hurt… it's a bit difficult for me to move."
He wasn't referring to the physical act of walking or running.
Watching Calian's bracelet begin to glow, Franz chuckled.
Master.
I'm calling Dad.
My dad is incredibly strong.