26
Chapter 26
After telling the children to flee,
I looked at the man before me once again.
His mana was overwhelming, even looking at it a second time.
Fitting for a Black Mage, there was an ominous pressure mixed with a wicked aura.
'This won't be as easy as I thought.'
But that didn't mean I could just give up.
I would have to fight even stronger opponents in the future.
I couldn't avoid real combat forever.
I didn't want to mess things up due to lack of experience when I actually had to fight. With such a great opportunity appearing like this, how could I let it slip?
'Besides, I want to save the amulets as much as possible.'
From separating with Ciel to find Rien until now. Amulets that Ciel had created by saving up her power bit by bit throughout that long time.
It was no exaggeration to call them artificial artifacts.
If I could avoid using them, that would be ideal.
Well, there was only one conclusion.
I just needed to beat this guy somehow.
'Certainly, if we're just comparing pure mana, he has a significant advantage.'
He wouldn't be an easy opponent to face.
If my mana was made from Rubia's tears of blood, his was made from 'real' tears of blood.
With that many people ground up for it, it would be stranger if he didn't get stronger. At least it ended at that level because Asel was officially recognized as talentless in his previous life.
Still, there was no major problem.
Because a fight wasn't decided by sheer power difference alone.
"I won't ask twice. Who are you."
The man asked.
Seeing the wicked aura seeping from him, he seemed to be directing his bloodlust straight at me.
...Well, honestly I couldn't really tell.
That was because once bloodlust exceeded a certain level, it was considered mental attack damage. The immunity effect of Sovereign's Grace applied.
The wariness in the man's eyes toward me deepened. I could see roughly what misunderstanding he was having.
I could tell instinctively.
That this moment was the perfect timing.
"Disgusting. Wearing my master's skin like that. Do you have no shame whatsoever?"
I spoke with gravity in a solemn voice.
The act of deliberately provoking the opponent.
It might seem meaningless at first glance... but it wasn't.
This was the best solution when facing a mage.
Constructing spell formulas required concentration.
Therefore, when fighting a skilled mage, it was important to break their composure.
"......."
The man's expression was colored with shock.
Maybe it was the experience from acting all this time. He regained his composure before long. It seemed this alone wasn't enough to shake his mentality.
But... it didn't really matter.
That was obvious.
Veterans aren't veterans for nothing.
The Archmage's disciple, Asel.
That guy was a character from the previous work.
In other words, he was a face I'd seen for years during my multiple playthroughs.
I couldn't even skip the cutscene, so I'd watched him kill his master hundreds of times.
I probably knew Asel better than he knew himself.
I could see exactly how and where to provoke him to make him snap.
That was why I asked with a faint smile.
"Do you know that was your father?"
It was time to drop the secret of his birth.
****
Asel felt like he was about to lose his mind.
In a way, it was only natural.
A terrorist attack suddenly occurred at the Black Market he had painstakingly managed, and when he went to suppress it... the terrorists had all vanished.
An utterly incomprehensible situation.
But the real reason driving Asel crazy was something else entirely.
'Just who is this guy...'
The man who had suddenly infiltrated his warehouse.
He couldn't understand his existence at all.
He had already figured out the man's entry route through the massive hole.
But the security here shouldn't have been that sloppy. Naturally, all sorts of devices were prepared to fend off intruders.
Curses that would drive one mad enough to stab themselves in the neck before even setting foot inside.
Over 80 people had been sacrificed just to create them, so their effectiveness was certain.
But that man was standing here as if nothing was wrong. As if the curses he had painstakingly prepared meant nothing.
That was still the case now.
The power received from a Demon as payment for killing his master.
Even though he was releasing enough Demonic Energy to make anyone faint, not a flicker of emotion appeared on the man's face.
That unidentified man calmly approached Asel and spoke.
The secret that no one else but him knew.
The fact that he had killed his master and was living under his master's identity.
Very casually, as if it were nothing.
'How on earth?'
His expression crumbled for a moment.
A crack formed in the mask he had been wearing for over ten years.
No one had ever discovered that fact.
That was natural.
It was something specially crafted by grinding up his master's corpse himself.
No detection magic worked on it.
The disguise and acting were perfect. That was exactly why he couldn't understand it. How on earth did this man figure it out.
If there was one thing he could be certain of... it was that this man was absolutely not someone to be taken lightly.
'There's no time to waste.'
Asel suppressed his presence to avoid detection and began constructing a spell formula. ...No, he tried to construct one.
But at that moment, words he absolutely couldn't ignore reached his ears.
"Do you know that was your father?"
His mind went blank for a moment.
It was obvious the man was spouting nonsense. He knew that clearly... but he couldn't focus on the spell formula at all.
"......It's been over 10 years. Looks like you still didn't know."
The man said so in a calm voice.
Those words were definitely lies.
But... for some reason, he couldn't just brush them off.
"Did you never find it strange? Why someone as prominent as your master would seek out a wandering boy and take him in as his disciple."
"Stop spouting nonsense!"
Asel shouted, forgetting even to keep up his act.
"The reason that assassination plan succeeded is simple too."
But the man continued speaking in a calm voice.
As if he had been right there himself, recounting the events of that day so naturally.
The poison that had suddenly entered his body while he was defenseless.
Not knowing it was his own son who had been poisoned, he had poured all his power into saving his son who had drunk the same wine.
At first he had definitely found Asel intending to offer his own flesh and blood as a sacrifice, but at some point he had come to truly love his son.
"You should have noticed when the Demon so easily handed over such precious deadly poison. Those creatures will do anything for amusement."
"Do you think I'd fall for such nonsense!"
Asel shouted.
He wouldn't listen. All of that was definitely lies.
He unleashed incantations wildly with eyes full of madness.
But....
"As expected, all techniques copied from your master. You haven't grown at all."
None of those attacks reached the man.
Before they could even touch him, they were all reverse calculated and dispelled.
The man walked toward him without a single wound, perfectly calm.
He couldn't understand what he was seeing at all.
...How on earth?
How on earth was such a ridiculous thing possible.
Instantly reverse calculating the curses being fired at him?
That shouldn't be possible. This was his master's secret technique. He had killed everyone who had ever seen it.
Then how on earth did that man reverse calculate the spell formula.
How could he know the curse's construction formula so well when he should be seeing it for the first time.
The man's face slowly drew closer.
The man wearing the Wolf Mask opened his mouth in a calm tone.
"You are still as foolish as ever, my son."
Those words.
The moment he heard that story.
There was no way he could maintain his sanity. All of Asel's mana slipped out of his control.
And... the man didn't miss that moment.
All of the man's mana concentrated into a single point.
A situation where an ordinary physical body would have failed to endure and burst.
However, the man's fist was perfectly fine.
Something utterly incomprehensible by common sense.
"You idiot, did you fall for that?"
Along with those words, a dull pain spread through Asel's abdomen.
His reasoning was instantly paralyzed.
His mind couldn't think properly due to the pain.
But even so.
"You son of a bitch......."
Asel bit his tongue.
With the metallic taste of blood, his consciousness snapped back for a moment.
Asel's face contorted with rage.
It was only natural.
Because the difference in strength between that man and himself was overwhelmingly huge.
He had taken all of his attacks as if they were a joke.
The reason he hadn't killed him instantly despite having such power was simple.
To mock him.
To play with Asel like a toy.
That was something he absolutely couldn't forgive.
The outcome of the fight was certain.
The difference in power was overwhelming.
No matter how much he fought, Asel couldn't win against this man.
But he could at least take him down with him.
'You will die together with me, the one you so thoroughly despised.'
Teleportation magic.
That ominous sword was gripped in Asel's hand.
An item he hadn't been able to figure out anything about even after researching it for 9 years, and that even demons had refused to accept as tribute. In the end, he had reluctantly decided to dispose of it.
But he had finally found a use for it today.
A calamity that endlessly poured curses into this world.
A demon sword that drove people mad just by being near it.
If he took all those curses upon himself, even that man wouldn't be safe. Asel was certain of that.
"You brought this upon yourself."
Asel smiled so widely that his mouth seemed like it would tear apart,
and completely released the seal.