Dance with the Red Sky (1)
Dance with the Red Sky (1)
#50
『Unique Magic—Equivalent Exchange』
If you wish to achieve something,
be prepared to offer up a value commensurate with that desire.
Thus, Elysia Florentia's Unique Magic could not truly be called a sorcery that created something from nothing, unlike Estelle's 『Contract』.
The 『Contract』 was, after all, a reality-warping magic that could accomplish anything so long as the terms of the transaction satisfied both parties.
In practice, Estelle cast her see-through imaging magic simply by imbuing particles in the air with her mana, and she gifted Do-yun functional wings merely by granting his desire.
So long as both parties were satisfied, anything was indeed possible.
That, however, did not make the Florentia family's magic inferior.
What would you place upon the twin scales of equivalent exchange?
A boundless power could certainly be drawn forth depending on the sacrifice—
It was simply that, from the perspective of an impoverished Untitled Mage House mage, the price demanded for wielding grand magic was always just out of reach.
For that reason, half of the ancestors of the House Florentia who inherited 『Unique Magic—Equivalent Exchange』 could never escape the shadow of suspicion.
Were they truly proper mages? Humans of the modern world could also create something from something.
Fashioning vehicles from iron, crafting cuisine from meat and vegetables—such things were everyday. A true mage, surely, must conjure something from nothing by mana alone.
At the very least, they should stretch a foot into realms a mere human body could never reach.
But the long-borne shame no longer mattered.
Today, that ancient disgrace was to be washed away, not by a mage of the Florentia family,
but by the hands of a single man.
***
"It doesn't seem like anything's changed?"
Three spears descended, impaling the beast blocking the girl's path.
Shiiiiing—BOOM!
The beast, as if utterly unbothered, glared up at the Hunter with its ferocious eyes.
The Hunter's face was colored by a mix of shock and exhilaration.
Just what change had occurred?
The attack had been identical in scale to the last, yet the man before him hadn't sustained a single scratch. Instead, three red-hot iron spears were tumbling through the air, bent completely out of shape.
How he had regenerated his body in the first place was also a mystery.
This was undoubtedly magic of a caliber unattainable through a single young apprentice mage's Unique Magic alone. Furthermore, the fainted brat's mana, and the very grounds from which she could pay a price, must have been utterly depleted.
Having spent such a long time meticulously weaving this vast scheme, the Hunter had labored under the delusion that he had a complete grasp of his enemy's strength.
He had thought he'd separated the troublesome Count to the modern world through backroom machinations, and used an unaware man to shatter the young mage's Unique Magic.
At what point had things begun to go wrong?
Questions chained into more questions, but there was no more time to waste. The only option left was to hunt his prey as swiftly as possible and escape.
The siege barrier's capacity to withstand the attacks from the masters of Arcanum would last less than ten minutes now.
The Hunter began a full incantation.
『—Eisernes Urteil—』
Gigigigigigigigigik——
Countless iron spears in the sky began to melt and fuse onto one another. A pillar of steel. Its diameter was soon far exceeding ten meters, and the height of this cylinder grew longer than the entirety of the corridors in the ruined mansion's annex.
A bombardment of overwhelming mass,
making use of metal's sheer weight.
The rod of god, whose development the modern world's superpower had abandoned, was casually brought to life by this single Hunter's might.
Guuuuuuuuuung——
In the brief moment between closing and opening his eyes, the colossal stake shot up into the sky.
"Let's see you take this—"
Hwaaaaaaah!!!!!
The judgment of steel struck the earth.
***
***
***
In the same moment the colossal iron stake rose into the air, Ha Do-yun regained his full reasoning.
Shit.
What the hell was going on now that I had opened my eyes?
Was it a dream?
What the hell was that thing and why was it falling in this direction?
It felt like my memories had been wiped clean. Where did things even start?
Ah, right. I remembered right up to the point where I'd challenged the Hunter to protect Estelle and gotten utterly wrecked like a dog.
But how was I still alive?
There was no more time to ponder. I had to save Estelle before that attack detonated here.
Even as an overwhelming mass hurtled down before my eyes, I felt as though I could accomplish anything right now.
Flutter——
The wings, moving as naturally as if they had been my own limbs from the beginning, carried me to the fallen girl. I gathered her into my arms and leaped.
A physical strength more immense than anything I'd ever experienced took command of me, launching them both into the sky an instant before the colossal steel pillar slammed into the ground.
BOOM!!!!!
Everything on the earth was destroyed.
The vast land entirely lost its original form, shattering into fragments and distorting like a crushed eggshell.
That was a damn close call.
"Lady Estelle, are you alright?"
"Mister Do-yun!!!!!"
The golden girl pressed her blood-soaked face against my chest and began to sob.
"I really, truly thought you had died—"
"I'm alive for now. I don't know how I survived, but please tell me what to do now."
The girl, her spirit restored, looked up at the crimson sky and spoke.
"Look at the sky, the siege barrier is about to collapse."
She was right. Cracks had already begun forming across the sky, and molten iron began to drip down from them.
"It's going to break soon... dodge!!!!!!!"
『—Stahlregen—!!!!』
Rain of steel.
Once again the Hunter's full incantation rang out, and along with it came countless iron spears at a speed I had never before experienced.
An overwhelming velocity that no magic could evade.
But to me, it was no problem.
For so long as the sacrifice was sufficient, there was no limit to the body's enhancement—
『Unique Magic—Equivalent Exchange』
The half-imprint engraved upon the source of my lower body. The vast information of the Unique Magic dissolved into my mind as though it had always belonged to me. If ever there were a time, I could wield this magic by my own volition now.
The Unique Magic's imprint shone brilliantly—and the weight of the sacrifice demanded for its activation seeped into my head like leaking knowledge.
God dammit.
... This was never a situation to be settled with some half-baked price to begin with. The ordinary things I possessed alone would never let me survive. No matter what was offered, only the outcome of death lay in wait.
A life that had already met its end once—I would stake everything I had and fight without regret.
『Future Severance—預削』
The price offered: the remaining lifespan of my life. Every shred of kinetic energy that should have been exerted across a full lifetime, coiled around my body.
『Enhancement—增强』
I reinforced my flesh with energy drawn from the future. My wings, now even larger, began to tear the surrounding air apart and whip up a gale.
『Commencement of War—開戰』
All preparations were complete.
The goal was one—to send Estelle out alive.
And if permitted, I would throttle the life from the Hunter here and now as well.
Every function of my body was recast for the final moment of my existence.
Muscle and sense—reason and instinct, without exception, were all subordinated to a single purpose.
To let the girl survive—
Everything I had focused into a single extreme point.
"Aaaaaah!!!"
With the girl's scream,
a glide faster than the beast's rain began.
Hooong——
Amidst the downpour of violence, the massive form began to dance.
"You're nothing but a construct!!!!"
The man's wings were reflected in the Hunter's shock-stricken eyes. But it was only fleeting; the beast, who had vanished from his sights, was already right before the Hunter's nose, swinging its enormous grasp.
Kwhaaaaah!!!!!
The beast's powerful strike.
Was this finally the first effective blow?
The Hunter, struck by the hand swung with overwhelming muscular force, plummeted to the shattered ground below.
——Thud
"Mister Do-yun, this is enough. Just hold out a little longer and reinforcements will come from the outside. Let's get as far away as we can!!!!"
"Can't we make our way out the door?"
"Look up!!!!"
I glanced at the spot where the gate should have been and found hundreds of enormous iron pillars waiting.
... You've got to be kidding me?????
The sky was filled with the same iron pillars of overwhelming mass that had just struck the earth.
『—Eiserner Zorn—』
Iron Wrath.
A voice brimming with rage sounded out from far below on the ground.
"You've crossed the final line... My name is Delheit von Waldheim. A Steel Hunter who has survived over 300 years. On my mage's name, I swear I will tear you apart."
Fuck.
Was even this much sacrifice still ineffective?
I could only feel the vast gap between myself and my opponent.
Even so, Estelle would surely know a solution.
"Lady Estelle... what do we do now? There's nowhere left to dodge."
"..."
The steels that had filled the sky without a single gap began their descent.
"This really is the end now. At least give me a kiss— It was a short time but thank you so much. If I'm born again, I hope it's a world where I can be together with you Mister Do-yun..."
Ah, the girl had already given up.
It was not a mistaken judgment. That attack was likely the Hunter—Delheit's—strongest trump card, absolutely inescapable within this siege barrier.
The man hesitated.
Would he accept the end and bid the girl farewell?
No, the man would never abandon the girl. He did not know how he'd revived, but had the heavens not granted him a single miracle? Even if it meant burning up the last dregs remaining upon his already-spent life, Ha Do-yun would absolutely protect the girl.
"Lady Estelle."
"Yes?"
"I'll give you that kiss later. Hide behind my back."
He hid the injured Estelle behind his wings.
With Estelle barely hanging on behind him with one arm, he faced the onrushing mass head-on.
『Unique Magic—Equivalent Exchange』
There could be no sacrifice left to offer now.
For I had already burned away even my lifespan without reserve.
Even if a life spanning tens of millions of years remained in my hands, there would be no stopping an attack like this with nothing but the body of a tough beast.
But it was not over yet.
Only one thing remained—
A final resort to keep Estelle safe.
I could conjure it purely by instinct. I was certain that with this, the protective Unique Magic would be established.
Even in death, I would not be able to remember her, nor would she ever be able to recall me again.
I would sever and offer up as sacrifice every last bit of fate that bound the girl and me together.
『Severance of Bonds—滅緣』
The mighty attack before my eyes would return as nothingness, at least to the girl behind my back. For had she never met me, she would never have encountered that Hunter in the first place.
「—————!!!!!!!!」
An overwhelming descent that would drown out even the beast's roar.
The siege barrier completely shattered, and the blue sky reclaimed its place.
#51
"Oh my oh my! Whatever could have happened."
"Right? To dare stage something like this in the heart of Arcanum—they must truly have some gall."
"So who exactly is it that stormed in?"
"It was the Steel Hunter, they say. That blacksmith. Thought he'd quieted down for a time."
"So, did that Hunter die?"
***
***
***
The first attack on Arcanum in 50 years.
Surprisingly, the mastermind of the invasion was the same individual responsible for the attack 50 years prior—Delheit von Waldheim, widely known in the mage society as the blacksmith.
After the siege barrier fell—the three Countesses outside who had been attacking the barrier and their subordinate mages pursued the Hunter, but he vanished into the darkness just as he always had.
In the skill of fleeing alone, he could indeed be compared to Arcanum's only two Dukes.
Regardless, the single most critical fact.
Whereas the nightmare in Arcanum 50 years ago had claimed countless apprentice mages' lives, surprisingly, not a single mage had died in this incident.
Only slaves and other servants had died a bit. They were consumables anyway, so they weren't considered important factors when weighing the severity of the incident.
In the aftermath of the event that the Eurasia would later come to name the Estate Incident, countless rumors among mages chain-linked endlessly.
A single apprentice mage had managed to fend off a powerful Hunter's attack all alone. That apprentice mage was, they said, the successor to the great Six Count Houses, the House Eurasia.
According to circulating rumors, the Hunter had concocted a scheme just to kill a single apprentice mage.
The apprentice mage, having seen through everything, drove the enemy into a corner with a flawless display of magic.
No, there had actually been two mages in the mansion where the incident occurred, they said, and one had died protecting the apprentice.
According to the mages who arrived at the scene, aside from the Hunter's, mana traces from the activation of at least two Unique Magics remained.
In truth, the vile House Eurasia had concealed all facts to steal the deceased mage's achievements—
All those rumors sank into silence as the head of the House Eurasia hurriedly returned to Arcanum.
For no one in Arcanum would wish to rouse the anger of the great Count.
But as is always the way with rumors, they spread very quietly, darkly, within the shadows.
Among the public, claims burgeoned like weeds that the House Eurasia must locate the unknown mage who had sacrificed himself in place of the apprentice, acknowledge his contributions, and bestow proper compensation—but all those words ultimately crumbled like drought-stricken leaves under the sun.
Because all parties involved in the incident had fallen into a state where none could open their mouths.
A considerable amount of time would be needed before all truth finally revealed its face under the sunlight.