The Ancient Mage's Lair (7)
Leon gasped for air, chest heaving. “Haa… haa…”
He had nearly died. He struggled to steady his ragged breathing, but the tension refused to leave his body. His heart still hammered wildly because the crisis had not truly passed.
Leon sat cross-legged, regulating his breath as he sank deep into thought. The Chrono Orb currently held 369 hours. Even if he spent every single one of those hours inside, only six hours would have passed in the real world.
Six hours… Has that woman finally left?
It seemed unlikely she would simply stand there waiting like an idiot, but he couldn’t afford to be overly optimistic.
I’ll wait for the cooldown on the Golden Wings and the Cloak of Concealment…
At minimum, he would have to spend an entire day here. The artifacts’ cooldowns continued ticking even inside the orb. Whether he held them in reality or inside the bead, a full day was a full day. Once used and tossed inside, he could pull them out again after just twenty-four minutes. It wasn’t completely without delay, but the advantage was absurdly broken.
A single day feels too risky… Let’s stay here for ten days.
Just like when he had first fought Forn, Leon began running mental simulations. I can’t afford to sit idle during that time.
Could he find a way to escape the witch in ten days?
Ten Thousand Leaves is too difficult to learn right now, and the secret spell Glory of Lightning is also impossible at the moment.
Those were spells that required three full months of slow, careful study. Even burning through all his remaining orb time wouldn’t be enough. Besides, learning them wouldn’t drastically change his current situation.
Then a different idea flashed through his mind—the red-haired dark mage. The spell he had used: Shadow Assimilation. A magic that allowed one to vanish into their own shadow and emerge from another. The only limitation was that it couldn’t be used through another person’s shadow.
Among the spells he could realistically learn in ten days, this seemed like the one most likely to create new variables.
It probably won’t work against an Insight-rank mage… but having one more escape option can’t hurt.
Leon didn’t need to create an artificial core in his heart, nor did he need to steal another mage’s core. Dark magic itself felt repulsive, but at a moment when his life was on the line, he was in no position to be picky.
Mana interference… it really is terrifying.
Just thinking about the moment the teleport scroll had failed made his heart race. Still, even a High Insight mage couldn’t possibly interfere with every single spell he used.
At best, she can only block one strand of the mana I release.
In a real battle, controlling even a single thread of mana could grant an overwhelming advantage. But Leon had no intention of fighting her head-on. All he needed was to activate a single teleport scroll.
After spending ten days inside the orb mastering Shadow Assimilation and completing all his preparations, Leon emerged.
He assumed the woman was still waiting outside. The instant he stepped out, he raised his wooden sword to guard his front and poured mana into every scroll he carried.
And then he saw her.
She was standing in the exact same spot, in the exact same posture.
She really waited?
Even though he had prepared for the worst-case scenario, his heart still lurched violently. Four whole hours. The obsessive persistence made cold sweat break out across his back.
Still, with this many scrolls, she can’t possibly identify the teleport one—
Unfortunately, the woman far exceeded his expectations.
She instantly seized control of only the mana flowing toward the teleportation scroll among the countless ones he held. Leon immediately switched to Plan B. He kept the suppressed teleport scroll in his hand and poured mana into the last remaining Blink scroll.
In a flash, he and every object touched by his mana appeared in a different location.
And once again, Leon’s blood ran cold.
A black fireball was already hurtling straight toward him.
She predicted it from the flow of mana?
The fireball instantly neutralized every spell born from the other scrolls, but it was blocked by the wooden sword held in front of Leon’s body.
BOOM—!
The sturdy wooden sword didn’t even get scratched. However, the shockwave was too much for Leon’s basic telekinesis to handle. He was sent tumbling backward along with the sword.
The woman’s eyes widened slightly as she watched. She clearly hadn’t expected him to block the spell.
She appeared behind him in an instant, grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, and forcibly hauled him upright. It happened before Leon could even attempt Shadow Assimilation.
“How did you do that?”
At her question, Leon bit his lip hard. He had a strong premonition that any funny business would result in immediate death.
“…”
“If you don’t speak, I’ll kill you.”
Her tone was completely flat, without the slightest change in expression. Leon pointed silently at the wooden sword.
The woman shook her head slightly.
“Not that. The method you used to disappear without a trace.”
Her speech was choppy, like someone who hadn’t held a conversation in a very long time.
“That… is because I learned a special spell.”
“I felt no flow of mana at all.”
His excuse didn’t work. In truth, the moment he had revealed even a fragment of the orb’s strange secret to her, the outcome had been set in stone. There was no way to stop her from becoming interested.
Leon couldn’t bring himself to speak right away. The orb was a secret he could never share with anyone, but that wasn’t why he hesitated. He hesitated because it was his one and only means of escaping her.
Whether he spoke or not, he would die either way.
Still, if I can buy some time…
The moment Leon was carefully weighing his options, the cave shook violently. It wasn’t just the passageway—this tremor felt like the entire cavern was roaring.
The woman’s head snapped upward. Still gripping Leon by the neck, she soared into the air and flew in one direction. Leon was helplessly dragged along, using basic telekinesis to pull the wooden sword back to himself. Once he confirmed she wasn’t paying attention, he quickly stored both the teleport scroll and the sword in his pocket.
A short while later, the plaza he had passed through earlier appeared. The woman seemed certain of her direction; without hesitation, she chose one of the many staircases and descended once more.
They descended endlessly. Whenever another passageway appeared, she destroyed the armored golem blocking the door in a single strike and flew onward. A passageway completely filled with gargoyle and armored golems was obliterated by a single spell. And still they descended.
Leon gave up on any pointless resistance. Although she wasn’t looking at him, he could feel that a portion of her attention remained fixed on him.
After descending for a long time, another plaza identical to the one above appeared. The only difference was the enormous magic circle engraved in the center of the floor, its interior hidden behind a gray barrier rising from the circle’s edge.
And around it stood a great number of mages.
The mages were clustered in their respective groups near the circle, discussing something intently. Among them was a familiar face—Berford of the Widia School and his companions.
The mages from each school glanced briefly at the new arrivals, then their eyes widened in shock.
“The Destruction Witch?”
“Why is she here…?”
Their whispered conversations gradually turned to complete despair.
The witch paid them no attention. When she raised one hand, one of the mages hurriedly stepped forward, terrified. He was a High Mystery-rank mage, yet he trembled before her.
“If you use powerful magic here, the cave will collapse!”
Her hand paused at his words.
“W-we… seem to have touched something unstable while dismantling the magic circle. It’s in a very precarious state right now. So please… refrain from using magic…”
“…”
Her expression remained unchanged, but the mage seemed to sense something and quickly continued.
“We will withdraw. May you obtain what you desire…”
The mage who had stepped back spoke briefly to his group, then they began gathering their equipment at high speed.
RUMBLE—!
But another vibration shook the entire cave. The ground shook violently, and magic circles that had been invisible until now began appearing one after another across the plaza. They glowed brightly.
The mages caught in the circles began disappearing in droves.
The witch, floating in the air, raised her hand, and a black curtain enveloped her. Leon, watching from within that dark veil, clicked his tongue in disbelief.
Another teleportation circle…?
Even Mystery-rank mages were helplessly swept away by the light and transported somewhere, yet the witch blocked it with nothing but a single black curtain.
After the flickering light had flashed several times, only the witch and Leon remained in the plaza. The gray barrier that had risen in the center was gone. The magic circle’s true form was finally revealed.
A complex and sophisticated formula that granted a small flash of enlightenment just by looking at it.
So this is the true nature of a teleportation circle…?
However, the circle was glowing unsteadily, as if it might exhaust its power at any moment.
Still gripping Leon by the neck, the witch approached the circle. Leon quickly stored the wooden sword in his subspace. The moment she stood at the exact center, the unstable circle squeezed out its final strength and erupted with blinding light.
The light was so intense it hurt to look at. Then everything went dark.
When his vision returned, Leon realized he had been transported to a new space. It was incomparably vast and tall compared to the plaza inside the cave. There were no signs of other people. Only the witch and Leon existed in this enormous chamber.
Soon, Leon spotted something and stared with his mouth agape.
A single golem towered so high that even using flight magic would take a long time to reach its head. Its body resembled a human’s, with ivory-colored skin. Red vein-like stripes protruded from beneath the surface across its body, pulsing as if alive. Hundreds of tubes were plugged into each of those vein-like red lines.
Especially around the heart area—despite having no visible veins—dozens of tubes were embedded. The long tubes stretched behind the giant into the darkness, where they connected to something unseen.
The face, which Leon could only see by craning his neck, also resembled a human’s. However, where eyes should have been, a horizontal red light flickered. It had no hair, and its ivory lips were tightly sealed.
“So this is a Gigantes…”
The witch’s quiet murmur reached Leon’s ears. She clearly knew what this golem was.
And the moment she spoke, the giant golem’s flickering red eye finally filled with complete light.
RUMBLE—!
When the giant shifted its body, the entire cave shook. The movement didn’t stop after one motion; it grew increasingly violent. Tubes began snapping off one by one.
Without hesitation, the witch stretched out her hand toward it. A fireball far larger than any Leon had seen before formed in the air and slammed directly into the giant’s body. The giant didn’t suffer any visible wounds, but the black flames that clung to its shoulder refused to die and continued burning fiercely.
The giant raised its hand and smashed down at the spot where the witch had been. The witch, still holding Leon by the neck and floating in the air, glanced at him once before throwing him aside.
Leon, sent flying, used flight magic to stabilize himself before hitting the ground. Now suddenly free, he watched the witch with a dazed expression.
Should I use the teleport scroll right now?
But that thought quickly faded. Although her gaze was no longer on him, the moment he tried to teleport, she would undoubtedly interfere. Otherwise, there would have been no reason to drag him all the way here.
The circle looked unstable, so she probably had no choice.
Leon moved far away from the exchange of attacks between the giant and the witch, floating innocently in the air with a harmless expression. If he attempted to escape carelessly and got caught, she would be even more vigilant afterward.
I’ll stay quiet and wait for the right moment.
The exchange of blows between the two continued for dozens of rounds. The giant threw punches, and the witch dodged while continuously firing spells. Each impact made the cave tremble as if it would collapse at any second. Stones actually began raining down from the ceiling. It was a clear sign that the cave was beginning to collapse.
The witch’s spells struck the giant’s body multiple times but failed to inflict serious damage. Yet the black flames stubbornly clung and continued to burn.
As time passed, the giant’s skin gradually softened and began to melt. Sensing danger, the giant hunched its body for a moment. The pulsing of the red vein-like stripes protruding from its skin grew faster. Then, suddenly, it twisted and swung its fist at the witch with terrifying speed.
The speed was on an entirely different level from before. It was physically incomprehensible how such velocity could come from that massive body.
The fist slammed into the black curtain surrounding the witch. The curtain didn’t break, but the witch was sent flying, still wrapped inside it, disappearing into the darkness on the far side.
BOOM—!
The sound of her crashing into the wall echoed through the cave. Shortly after, another fireball flew out from the darkness. The giant swatted it away with the edge of its hand.
BOOM—!
The ground where the fireball landed collapsed, shaking the earth. Neither of them paid it any mind. Instead, their attacks only grew fiercer. They were completely focused on the battle.
From the ground around the giant, dozens of black flames erupted like whips, wrapping around its limbs. The physical force behind them made the giant flinch for a moment. The flames clinging to its limbs began spreading across its skin. Instead of trying to shake off the whips, the giant simply opened its mouth wide.
A massive magic circle formed in front of its mouth, and from it, a white beam of light shot forward—directly toward the witch.
KWAAAAANG—!
Unable to withstand the impact any longer, one side of the cave wall completely collapsed. The destruction spread like dominoes. The ceiling caved in, and massive boulders began pouring down like rain. The light orbs went out one by one, and darkness deepened.
But the giant didn’t stop. It created dozens more magic circles around its mouth. It didn’t fire the beams immediately—apparently they required preparation time.
By then, much of the giant’s body had already melted away. The skin near its heart had dissolved, revealing the red core hidden within. The enormous core was engraved with incredibly complex patterns.
Leon’s eyes, which had been busy dodging falling rocks, suddenly gleamed. At the same time, he felt an overwhelming surge of mana from the witch’s direction. It was on a completely different scale from before. She was clearly preparing a grand spell.
Grand spells were stronger than secret spells and possessed destructive power comparable to natural disasters. Even an Insight-rank mage needed time to cast one.
The opportunity Leon had been waiting for had finally arrived.
Having stealthily descended to the ground nearby, Leon immediately used Shadow Assimilation to vanish into his own shadow and reemerged from the giant’s shadow. The instant the white beam fired from the giant’s mouth, Leon placed his hands on both the giant’s leg and the Chrono Orb.
The flames blazing on the giant’s leg instantly transferred to Leon’s arm, but once he entered the orb and used water magic, the fire quickly died out. The witch’s mana supply had been severed.
Nevertheless, a deep burn remained on Leon’s arm. Without time to feel the pain, he immediately drove the wooden sword into the giant’s softened leg.
THUD—!
The giant staggered and dropped to one knee on the dirt floor. There was no time to watch it collapse completely.
No time to waste.
Confirming that it had worked was enough. Leon immediately exited the orb again.
The time between his disappearance and reappearance was less than a single second in reality. At that exact moment, dozens of white beams collided with the massive meteor the witch had summoned.
At the same time, Leon used the triple acceleration of his Golden Wings to put as much distance as possible between himself and the witch while pouring mana into the teleport scroll.
That brief instant while the scroll filled with mana felt as slow as decades passing.
KWAAAANG—!
The two spells collided, sending powerful waves of mana surging outward. But those waves never reached Leon. The moment he vanished from the air, the cave completely collapsed.
The destruction that began in the lower levels accelerated as it rose upward. The sound of boulders and stones pouring down mixed with the crashes of collapsing debris, creating a deafening roar that threatened to burst eardrums.
After a long time had passed, the dust that had swirled like a storm finally settled.
From between the fallen rocks, a black-haired witch named Lin emerged. She stared at the spot where the giant and the boy had vanished, then pouted her lips slightly.
“…I’ll find you.”