Chapter 62
Chapter 62
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 62
Chapter Title: Death and Revival
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He bolted out of the room without even a moment to reply.
The academy dormitory was none other than the place where Dorothy lived.
After running and running, the dormitory Aslan finally reached was engulfed in roaring flames.
A few children who had escaped were writhing in burns or sobbing uncontrollably.
But Dorothy wasn't among them.
Aslan hurriedly asked one of the least injured-looking kids.
"Hey! Have you seen Dorothy? A girl with translucent blue hair!"
"D-Dorothy? That flunkie?"
He seemed to know her, but his face was full of confusion.
At that moment, one child raised a hand.
"I-I saw her. She saved me and that kid over there."
The student-like child pointed at a fainted kid, probably from inhaling too much smoke.
But Dorothy herself was nowhere to be seen.
"Wh-Where's Dorothy?"
"She said she'd save more kids and went back inside..."
The moment he heard that, Aslan dashed into the entrance before anyone could stop him.
He cast flame-resistant spells on himself one after another and charged through the blazing inferno.
Even with the protective magic, the heat was scorching.
This wasn't ordinary fire.
'This is magic.'
Who the hell would do something like this?
Did someone have a grudge against the academy?
Aslan, who hadn't attended the academy, had no way of knowing.
The only thing that mattered was finding Dorothy right now.
"Dorothy! Dorothy, where are you?!"
Aslan desperately called out for her while dodging collapsing debris.
She could barely cast basic spells.
There was no way she could survive in flames like these.
He searched the entire first floor, then somehow made it to the second and third floors when he sensed the flames cooling off in one direction.
Realizing this, Aslan turned and sprinted that way with all his might.
"Out of the way!"
Aslan blasted away the fallen debris with magic, and his eyes caught a glimpse of shimmering blue hair.
Frozen at the tips and fluttering like ice, with translucent blue skin peeking through like crystal ice.
The girl's body was half made of ice as she desperately suppressed the fiery magic circle in front of her with cold air.
And Aslan knew this girl well.
"Dorothy!"
At Aslan's shout, Dorothy's head turned toward him.
Her eyes widened more than ever upon meeting his gaze, her face filled with bewilderment.
"A-Aslan?"
Confused about why he was here and suddenly aware of her own appearance, Dorothy panicked.
Aslan realized it the instant he saw her.
Dorothy wasn't an ordinary human.
She was a spirit.
Erosion beasts instinctively repelled people.
Let alone a spirit.
How the Igreet family treated spirits was well-known.
The atrocities committed by the first spirit contractor's spirit were recorded in history as a major event.
Thus, spirits were an absolute taboo for the Igreet family.
Dorothy knew this too.
As guilt for deceiving him and a whirlwind of thoughts filled her mind...
Aslan felt a deeper relief than ever before.
Because Dorothy was safe.
Aslan immediately leaped to her side.
Whether she was a spirit or whatever, it didn't matter to him.
She was the Dorothy who had given his life back to him.
"Aslan, you idiot?! It's dangerous! Get out now!"
Dorothy's panicked voice rang out upon seeing him.
No matter what she looked like now, she hated seeing Aslan in danger more.
But Aslan felt the same.
"We just need to deal with this."
"Wait, it's dangerous!"
"Dorothy, I'm an Igreet."
Aslan approached the magic circle.
The heat singed his face, but he ignored it, clasping his hands together and spreading them wide.
Magic circles began appearing one after another, glowing in his grasp.
"Magic is my specialty."
It was ridiculous.
He, who had hated magic so much, now claiming it as his expertise.
But he was the only one who could stop this magic circle now.
Dorothy's eyes shook violently at the sight.
Her lips bit tight seeing him step forward without hesitation despite knowing she was a spirit.
"...Aslan, I'm a spirit. If anyone sees you with me, it'll be big trouble."
It might not even end with just disownment from the family.
At the very least, the Flame King, who cherished the family above all, wouldn't let Aslan off easily.
But Aslan's eyes remained unchanged.
"I know."
He simply replied flatly, as if saying he'd endure anything to be with her.
Receiving his sincerity, Dorothy clenched her fists tight.
"This arson was done using a spirit seed. Normal magic can't extinguish these flames. Even spirits can't fully block it."
A new magic being developed using spirit seeds sold on the black market.
This forbidden spell forcibly awakened and detonated the spirit power within the seed.
Immensely powerful, it was a spirit amplification magic close to World Erosion, sacrificing spirits by force.
Naturally, the Igreet family was investigating those using such magic.
And Dorothy was doing the same.
Among spirits, Dorothy was a unique case, close to human.
In the evolving World Erosion, she was a new entity created by the Spirit King's forest to counter humans.
Unlike typical spirits who couldn't understand human thinking, she knew humans well.
Regardless of the intent behind her evolution toward humanity, she naturally took interest in them.
Magic, in particular, fascinated her most.
To learn it, she took the identity of a dead young mage for some reason and enrolled in the academy.
In that process, she discovered one fact.
The young mage whose identity she used was connected to a group researching spirit amplification magic.
Upon learning this, Dorothy monitored the group.
When one of them, cornered by the Igreet investigation, resorted to terrorism, she rushed to stop it.
Only then did Aslan notice the burning seed inside the explosive magic circle.
The flame aura emanating from it was something even he couldn't decipher.
"I'll suppress the spirit power."
"I'll dispel the magic."
Dorothy and Aslan's eyes met.
They both realized what needed to be done simultaneously.
In the roaring flames, the two smiled at each other.
And the moment those smiles crossed, Dorothy and Aslan moved.
Dorothy's chill forcibly crushed the spirit flames.
In that gap, Aslan began dispelling the circle immediately.
The circle's foundation was an explosion spell.
A highly sophisticated one at that.
The arsonist's madness for magic was palpable.
From the ether framework to ancient Akasha runes, it was a product of absurdly advanced knowledge.
'Damn, twisted like a lunatic. At least a 5th-circle philosopher mage.'
He himself was merely a 3rd-circle theoreticus.
A two-circle gap between him and the circle's creator.
The obsessive complexity to ensure activation was evident.
Aslan felt dizzy just looking at it.
Yet his eyes and hands moved relentlessly.
He understood why Dorothy had been suppressing it.
If it detonated, the dormitory—and the whole area—would be obliterated.
Knowing this, she had desperately held it back.
Thus, Aslan had to dispel it even more carefully.
Speed and precision both required in this situation.
A tightrope walk at full speed where one slip meant death.
Dorothy's chill poured out in real-time.
She was holding it somehow, but she'd been overexerting since he arrived.
Proof was her form inching closer to full spirit.
Droplets of water trickling from the ice revealed her limits plainly.
Time was running critically short.
Cold sweat beaded on Aslan's forehead.
He pitied himself for neglecting magic for so long.
Acting all cool, yet struggling like this to dispel a circle.
'Faster. More precisely.'
Still, his hands and eyes didn't stop.
His mental force, poured to the limit, forcibly entered hyper-focus for dispelling.
Drip, drop—
Too much mana gathered in his eyes; blood trickled from the corners.
His unblinking pupils didn't falter.
'Damn it.'
Even so, he painfully felt his skills were lacking.
"Aslan."
Dorothy's voice reached his ears.
"You can do it. If even an idiot like me could learn from you."
Now fully in spirit form, Dorothy drew up more chill as she spoke.
"You're the greatest mage I know."
Someone believed in him.
That alone was enough for Aslan.
Aslan's red eyes glowed brighter than ever.
As if he'd learned magic for this very day.
His sharp pupils guided his fingers like playing a melody.
Dozens of magic circles unraveled from his fingertips in succession.
The flames intensified, but Aslan's hands continued dispelling.
And finally, the last one.
The moment he reached it...
His index finger touched the circle.
Crack!
The circle shattered like glass.
And with that...
Whoosh!
The surrounding flames vanished in an instant combustion.
Drip, drop—
The sound of charred building parts crumbling into ash echoed quietly.
Amid it, Aslan breathed slowly, blood trickling down his cheek.
Aslan's eyes turned sideways.
Overuse of mana for precise speed, perhaps.
His voice wouldn't come out, and his vision blurred.
Yet Dorothy appeared clearly in his sight.
Semitransparent icy skin, eyes like ice crystals embedded in flesh, blue hair intricately carved from ice.
A radiant smile bloomed on Dorothy's face below.
"Aslan!"
He'd protected her.
That was enough.
The moment Aslan's consciousness nearly faded...
Rumble!
The entire dormitory shook.
The flames had weakened the pillars beyond endurance; they collapsed.
The whole building began crumbling.
This was the corner of the third floor.
Too far from any window to escape.
Moreover, Aslan was at his limit, mana exhausted.
He could barely move his fingers.
Still, as he reached to shield Dorothy, she embraced him first.
Crash!
The dormitory collapsed in a storm of black ash and smoke.
Aslan felt the falling sensation and groaned.
But no impact came.
Dorothy had frozen the surroundings amid the debris, barely preventing them from being crushed.
However, the real problem followed.
"Wh-What is that?"
"M-Monster! It's a monster!"
"A spirit! There's a spirit!"
In the chaos, Aslan heard uproar from all sides.
Voices of evacuated kids in front of the dorm and late-arriving mages for firefighting.
Fear, hostility, and various emotions poured from their eyes.
"Hostage! She's taken a hostage!"
The mages shouted without knowing who stopped the explosion.
He wanted to yell it was a misunderstanding, but no voice came from Aslan's mouth.
Not coughing up blood was fortunate enough.
Aslan's eyes urgently turned to Dorothy.
They had to escape now.
If Dorothy stayed, she'd become their target.
Dorothy knew this well.
But before she could move, flames surged first.
"Get away from my son!"
A booming voice rang out, and flames engulfed Dorothy in an instant.
Dorothy had already been at her limit suppressing the amplification magic.
She couldn't possibly dodge those flames.
Aslan and Dorothy's eyes met.
In that brief moment, Dorothy smiled softly, and Aslan's eyes widened.
"No...!"
A squeezed-out voice barely escaped when...
[Aslan, thank you.]
Her voice echoed in his mind as Dorothy gently pushed him away.
The incoming flames swallowed her whole.
Within the blaze, Dorothy burned away in an instant.
It was far too advanced a flame spell for her to endure.
"A-Ahh!"
Witnessing it firsthand, Aslan screamed, vomiting blood.
As he tried to rush to the burning Dorothy, someone grabbed his arm first.
"Aslan! You're okay. Everything's okay now!"
It was none other than his mother, Agatha.
Investigating taboo-using mages, she'd heard of the academy fire and rushed here.
Fortunately, the culprit was caught.
The arsonist was an academy professor.
Cornered by the investigation, he'd unleashed his madness on the dormitory as a final act.
Arriving, Agatha saw the spirit seemingly attacking Aslan and judged it another of the arsonist's preparations.
To save him, she incinerated it at full power.
But to Aslan, Agatha's actions meant nothing.
Dorothy was burning away.
That was his only concern.
Her smile in that final push replayed vividly.
"Dorothy..."
Calling her name one last time, Aslan's consciousness finally succumbed to mana exhaustion.
And that day was when Aslan broke.
But now, Aslan had come here to meet that Dorothy again.
He despised his past self for giving up on life after thinking he couldn't retrieve her, even choosing suicide.
He should've struggled endlessly to revive her, time and again.
He hated himself for trying to die just because he couldn't find a way, after she had saved him.
"That's why."
Aslan parted his lips underwater, shouting toward the brilliantly glowing Spirit King's egg.
"Dorothy, let's meet again."
He'd regret and atone for those abandoned days a thousand times.
Aslan swallowed tears, crying out to meet again.
He still hadn't heard her answer from that day.
At that instant, the entire lake was enveloped in light.
Within the radiant glow, cracks began forming on the Spirit King's egg that Aslan held.
Crack—
Aslan slowly lifted the egg from his hand, and the lights converged on it all at once.
Translucent blue hair fluttered before Aslan's eyes.
Aslan's eyes widened more than ever.
The girl floating in the water trembled her closed eyelids and slowly opened them.
Seeing this, Aslan smiled slowly underwater, tears streaming.
"Dorothy."
"A-Aslan?"
Aslan's arms extended, pulling her into an embrace.
With a vow etched deep in his heart never to lose her again.
Their reunion was the moment hope returned to Aslan, letting him live again.
And Krash came to mind.
His benefactor was now facing his grandfather.
"Dorothy, I'll explain later."
They had to get out now.
Ting!
The sharp sword cry echoed.
Krash's eyes darted busily.
He was desperately batting away dozens of incoming fireballs with his Sixth Sense and blunt sword.
And ahead stood Adolf, looking utterly relaxed.
True to his Ten Supremes fame, Adolf was strong.
Krash hadn't thought he could win from the start.
If Adolf went all out, Krash would've been done long ago.
This spar was possible only because Krash calculated Adolf wouldn't get serious.
'Still...'
Krash deflected all the fireballs and leaped back dramatically.
'That smug attitude is infuriating.'
He'd planned to just stall until Aslan revived Dorothy.
But seeing that face, he wanted to rethink.
He understood why Aslan hated and resented Adolf so much.
Even he, facing him briefly, felt this way; daily torment must've been hell for Aslan.
So he wanted to land one big hit.
[Krash.]
Crimson Garden's voice rang out then.
[The spirit lives.]
And that was enough to break Krash's limits.