Chapter 41
Chapter 41
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 41
Chapter Title: The One Who Devours Calamities
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Space Mage gazes at yet another vermin appearing before him.
"Mask."
That mask was ridiculously ordinary.
And that very ordinariness made the sense of wrongness within it stand out even more.
But above all else... the golden pupils blooming from the empty darkness of the mask.
【How dare you...】
The Space Mage's gaze shifts downward.
To Adel's feet.
There, an abyss was blooming.
...Only to sink in the very next moment.
The rippling darkness swells up before devouring itself.
Black waves tangle together, and formless shadows whisper as they etch another space atop this one.
A chill—
The Space Mage's body, made of shadows, shudders.
He doesn't know why.
【Vermin...】
He reaches out a hand.
No, not a hand—a shape of shadow unfit to be called one.
It mimics a human form, yet proves he is no human, for only shadow flickers at its tip.
- Whoosh...!!
The space where Adel and Klaus stand expands.
And at the same instant, the abyss blooming at Adel's feet scatters.
【I never forget.】
He remembers.
The mistake that began at the tip of an arrogant human's finger.
He is certain.
The being closest to 'evil' is neither beast nor calamity—it's humanity.
He takes a step forward.
A black footprint stamps onto the space.
【With every step, I shall remember.】
What did he fight for?
What purpose did his existence serve?
Who am I now?
【With every second step, I shall reaffirm.】
Was it for myself?
Or for the world?
【At the third step, without sorrow.】
The choices of a past self thrown away.
I shall never forget the me who sacrificed for glory.
【At the fourth step, I shall wail.】
This time, not for the world—but for myself.
【At the fifth step, rise again and walk.】
For the self betrayed by the world, for an irreversible vengeance.
【At the sixth step, knowing it will not end.】
For the end of a world that forgot my honor and glory.
【At the seventh step, I shall never give up.】
O God. No, Will of the World.
【I swear it.】
Grant me the power... to strike down the being before me.
***
[ You have encountered the First Calamity 「Space Mage」. ]
[ When 「Space Mage」's health falls below a certain level, you may use the unique skill 【Devourer of Calamities】. ]
"What the hell, is with that double-take mug of his."
Even in "Aka Calamity," the 「Space Mage」 had never properly revealed its form.
Its entire body was buried in shadows from the start, and even the number of limbs was unclear.
But now... it had sprouted arms and legs like it was imitating a person.
That made it all the more repulsive.
A monster that wasn't this or that, now mimicking a human form... fucking disgusting.
"...It looks like total shit."
If even Klaus was saying crap like that, there was nothing more to say.
No matter the enemy, if its looks warranted words like those...
- Whoosh!
The space beneath their feet warps.
I leap up alongside Klaus.
The space swells, then crunches! and compresses, bursting apart.
The problem was.
"Fuck."
Without mana, my body was basically useless right now.
No, straight-up crippled. That had been a close call just now.
"Adel... just to check, any way to take that thing down?"
I silently press my index fingers together to form an X.
"That... so?"
Klaus grins awkwardly and raises his broken sword.
"Well... if we hit it enough times, and it'll die."
Sure, hit it enough, and it'll die. The issue is we'd die if it hit us.
- Whoosh!
Klaus charges.
But the Space Mage reaches out first.
The view ahead distorts unnaturally.
Space twists, drawing an unnatural trajectory through the air.
"Get it together!"
Klaus shouts, infusing his broken sword with radiant light to slash the trajectory away.
I don't miss the opening and move in.
I store 【Leviathan】 in my inventory.
With my body much lighter now, I draw a cheap dagger, waiting for my chance.
"One step."
Within arm's reach.
I spin and hurl myself forward.
Using centrifugal force to drive the dagger into its body—
- Whoosh...
...The shadow writhes, blocking the dagger's tip.
【A meaningless act.】
My eyes meet the Space Mage's.
In those pupils, my reflection.
A smiling mask, golden eyes glinting through the cracks.
【What the hell are you?】
No one answers that question.
【Die.】
The space before me tears.
Space, contracting toward a single point...
────────!!
Explodes.
"Adel...!!"
- Splash.
My exploded body falls into the abyss.
A sea that touches nothing.
Formless, lightless, soundless—an endless silence swallows me.
"Ah."
Once more, my consciousness fades.
A familiar sensation.
"What to do."
Unable to wield mana means having no ground to stand on in this battlefield.
In other words, I'm no help to Klaus right now.
And I know that better than anyone.
"I was ahead, though."
Honestly, I'd thought I was ahead of Klaus in raw power.
But sinking here now, I reflect.
"I'm behind."
I'm weaker than Klaus, and my mind is even frailer.
"Still."
I can't stay here.
My mind clouds, my body sinks, but...
This place won't kill me. Nor will it save me.
Without will, it's over.
Without even an unconscious drive to live, nothing remains.
I grip the dagger tighter.
Then...
"You fool, human."
A voice strangely familiar yet grating.
I turn my head, and there... a tadpole—no, Leviathan.
"Why is this guy here...?"
Half annoyed, half glad.
Leviathan looks down at me.
"Forgot? This is my home, you fool of a human."
Oh, right... But did it just read my mind?
"Foolish human."
Guess so?
"Quit calling me foolish and tell me how, then."
"Foolish human."
"..."
This bastard.
"If I die, no more food for you?"
...... "Melee against a mage? How utterly foolish, human."
It sounds genuinely impressed.
Grating, but not wrong.
"But I can't use magic—what am I supposed to do?"
I can't even attune mana right now.
Can't use magic at all, so attunement's pointless.
"Foolish human."
That's all it knows?
Just wait till we get back to the dorm. You'll starve for a week.
Look forward to it.
"Whatever."
Pointless thoughts.
- Crackle...
I grip 【Leviathan】.
"They said miracles come if you don't give up?"
That is cringiest line ever.
The kind that'd make me kick under the covers a thousand times if I said it out loud.
Words Klaus had told me through the screen. And ones I'd passed to him someday.
No idea why they surface now, but we're here—might as well go all the way.
"Levi."
I open my mouth.
Pain rips through my guts with blood-mixed breath, snapping my mind awake.
"Devour."
In that instant, I'm atop the dragon's head.
────────!!
With a roar, the dragon bellows.
The abyss tears, space rends.
"Adel?!"
【...Dragon.】
The Space Mage pauses, seeing me emerge from the abyss atop the dragon.
It never dreamed I could command one.
"Whoa..."
Even Klaus beside me gasps unconsciously.
【Petty tricks...】
Leviathan's body distorts and explodes.
But the shattered dragon form splits into thousands of serpents.
And... they swarm the Space Mage at once.
"Hup...!!"
Klaus stops gaping and raises his sword.
Dazzling light blooms from the tip.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
【Meteor Light Dance】
Like a falling meteor, your sword dances brilliantly.
: Deals absolute damage to 'evil' along light's trajectory.
Light shall surely dispel the shadows.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
It becomes a meteor in truth, blazing like a star before plummeting toward the Space Mage.
【Grah... vermin...!!】
"You said that earlier! Puahaha!!"
Klaus laughs maniacally as he slashes, radiant shards scattering.
And amid it all, I quietly stroke the mask.
"Magic."
The word circles my mind.
What is magic, anyway?
I've never learned it.
No teacher, no textbook theory.
But... once, Veronica, pinnacle of magic, said:
—"【Dragon Tongue】, the language of dragons."
—"【Dragon Tongue】 is the origin of all magic."
—"Language is magic, magic is language."
It is still an abstract concept to me.
My head can't grasp it.
"If only I were smarter, my body wouldn't suffer so much."
Some would draw circuits and crunch dozens of calculations here... but I'm not that confident.
"So... think simple."
Magic is language.
I bet everything on that simple truth.
"Language becoming magic."
No complex principles or calculations needed.
Thoughts become words, words become magic, reshaping the world.
I stroke the mask's mouth.
Ever as before, the mouth stays shut, but thoughts are open.
- Crackle... crackle...
Formless mana swirls around me, rippling.
"Think."
The strongest magic I've seen, imagined, remembered somewhere.
The miracle shattering sky and sea's boundary, upending order.
"Recall."
Thoughts become language, language becomes magic, and it will respond.
《Abyss / Supreme Magic》
"Azure Heavens' Downpour."
「Azure Heavens' Downpour」
────────────!!
The sky inverts.
Sky becomes sea, sea rises inverted to become sky.
A momentary silence, then the ceiling rips open, spilling blue-black waters from the sky.
That sea is not calm. Waves surge with colossal will, as if alive.
Soon, those waves become countless daggers, plunging toward the Space Mage.
【Graaaaaah...!!!】
For the first time, the Space Mage screams in true agony.
"Puh...!!"
I vomit blood too.
Lungs crushed, heart pounding madly.
Vision fades distantly, the world tilts, but...
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
【Blossoming Bloodfall】
Fallen blood reverts to life, blooming flowers anew.
: Absorbs spilled blood to restore health.
Blood's circulation defies death, life blooms again.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
Red blood scatters, soaks the ground, and births flowers of life.
[ ! ]
A system message rises.
[ You may now use the unique skill 【Devourer of Calamities】. ]
No time to think—I charge with 【Leviathan】 drawn.
I aim this sword, shaped like the abyss, at the Space Mage.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
【Devourer of Calamities】
Only you can 'understand' calamities.
: Pierces the essence of calamities.
: Makes the power of calamities your own.
At the end of forsaken ruin, only you can reach out.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
[ Using 【Devourer of Calamities】. ]
[ Piercing the essence of 「Space Mage」. ]
In that instant, all falls silent, and the shadows cloaking the Space Mage lift.