Chapter 101
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 101
Chapter Title: Ambush
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If Collio really had ties to the underworld, there were plenty of angles to exploit.
Lina and Jenjen both had connections there.
Still, I’d planned to keep Cedric under wraps for a while, so having to show my face again after just a few days was a nagging concern.
‘I should send a letter to Jenjen.’
Anyway, setting those matters aside, the banquet continued without a hitch.
I wasn’t exactly the type cut out for these kinds of events either, but this time I’d come with purpose.
To officially announce my ascent to the 7th Hierarchy and normalize the path to becoming a Transcendent.
But as the night wore on, the energy drain was unavoidable.
Truth be told, I wasn’t all that different from Rosellin. Just a gap in mindset and experience. Empathizing with her floundering was only natural.
Before long, Oz’s family and mine had mingled into one group, chatting away.
I stepped back after a conversation with Rozef, the lord of the Yellow Magic Tower.
‘It’s winding down.’
I’d originally planned to set off on a journey touring various regions the moment the banquet ended.
To attune myself to mana.
That resolve had crystallized after discovering the oracle in the snowy mountains and learning about the Primordial Glyphs. The experience there had inspired me in countless ways.
Having found the stele for primordial cold amid those peaks, I figured volcanic regions held the one for fire—a half-joking notion I now intended to pursue for real.
It would serve as training for magical integration while hunting oracle steles. Who knew? The journey might uncover another piece of the puzzle about the hero.
Secluding myself for intensive training was something everyone would accept without question.
‘Ah, right—Rosellin wanted a quick word first.’
Once I shook off her inevitable grilling, I’d be free.
Just then, across the chandelier-lit hall, Rosellin approached me at a measured pace. Her gaze locked on mine practically screamed she had business.
Maybe to set a time to meet?
I’d only just extricated myself from the conversations, catching my breath.
She must have been biding her time for this.
“Um...”
And right as Rosellin opened her mouth to speak.
Ping—
A spark flared in my mind, an intense premonition lancing through my entire body.
This was a Transcendent’s instinct.
Something was lunging at us. Something exceedingly dangerous.
Before the thought this suddenly? could fully form, my instincts thrust my hand forward.
My own safety wasn’t the first thing that flashed through my mind—Oz’s family and mine, clustered on one side of the hall, were.
I might scrape by without dying somehow, but they wouldn’t.
Their position. The distance. The ideal spell to shield them.
In an instant, data flooded my head. Thoughts raced by in a blur.
7th Hierarchy magic couldn’t handle this.
There was no hierarchy spell that could protect them swiftly and effectively—not right now, anyway.
What surfaced then: the Primordial Glyph.
No chants required. No rigid forms dictated.
Yet brimming with unfathomable power, all while staying firmly within Ivan’s domain...
Decision made, mana etched with the Primordial Glyph erupted outward.
Ice crystals swelled from the empty air around the families, like crystals blooming. By the time the ice walls interlocked, sealing them off on all sides...
Instead of the massive impact I’d braced for, an eerie silence blanketed the area.
“...”
Not that nothing had changed. The surroundings had plunged into marked darkness.
Senses flung wide, I realized the banquet hall—and the area around it—was encased in a thick, impenetrable curtain of shadow.
Confusion rippled through the people inside. The clink of glasses, laughter, music—all vanished.
It was like midday turning to pitch black without warning. And then ice walls sprouting out of nowhere in the middle of the hall.
That’s when it hit.
‘It’s coming again.’
My Transcendent senses blared another warning.
This was the real deal.
That dark curtain? Near-perfect prior setup.
An ambush, sure... but one this meticulous? Cautious? Leisurely?
‘A Transcendent’s ambush.’
Suddenly it all clicked—the razor-sharp alert, the deliberate pacing.
But... here, of all places?
At least it bought me time to prepare.
Had the opener been a full-powered strike, I could’ve shielded the families but taken serious wounds myself at minimum.
The eight rings in my heart spun furiously, mana surging out in thick waves.
A frigid, crystalline, utterly overwhelming surge of power.
My mana blanketed the entire hall.
And froze solid.
No form. No incantation. Nothing.
Mana inscribed with the Primordial Glyph, shaped by my will alone.
At the same instant, a thunderous boom! rocked the ground.
Tables toppled. Dozens of chandeliers crashed from the ceiling.
Nobles’ screams erupted.
The ice wall I’d spread over the whole hall shattered. One entire side collapsed.
Simple structure didn’t mean feeble magic—yet it crumbled like nothing. No doubt about it: a Transcendent.
Ice shards flew. Amid them, a voice drilled into my ears.
“What is this?”
I’d have known even without the voice.
A silhouette loomed, stretching toward the ceiling—unnaturally massive.
Its form: obviously not human.
An elongated torso like a tree trunk, head sheathed in bark-like hide.
I knew this race.
A rare species that had made its home in Ebonyveil. Ones that could melt into the earth at will, then erupt from the ground swollen to tree-like heights.
...A Transcendent among them?
‘It survived?’
Ebonyveil’s Transcendent had stuck with Ard to the bitter end.
I’d warned of the impending raid on Ebonyveil, and anxiety had drawn him along.
Did he survive because of that?
Of course, it might not be him.
I couldn’t distinguish every nuance of rare species physiology.
But Ebonyveil had been elven territory for ages. Any rare species lingering there would’ve been wiped out.
Not just Ebonyveil—most northern forests housing rare species had fallen to the elves.
Even a Transcendent—could it have slipped away?
Only explanations: it never went near the area, or bolted the instant it heard about the elven ambush.
“...”
The rare species swiveled its gaze, locking eyes with me.
Then it stretched its body long and slithered my way.
‘It’s me.’
The target was unmistakably me.
This whole stunt to kill me.
Or... capture?
I’d heard the forces of evil were hunting Ivan.
But coming here so brazenly?
Insane?
The emperor was here...
You don’t pull something like this without ironclad backup.
That’s when my senses snagged on something.
An attack bursting up through the floor around me.
Tree-root shaped, but coated pitch-black, barreling straight at me.
I reflexively threw up an ice wall—stronger this time?—but it crumbled anyway.
The black root grazed past my side by a hair’s breadth.
“You blocked that?”
His tone dripped surprise...
‘Definitely not trying to kill me.’
If he were, it wouldn’t have whiffed so narrowly.
If he was who I suspected, he was a Dragon Rank Transcendent.
When I’d warned of a Dragon Rank hitting Ebonyveil, Ard had quaked in terror.
Even wearing Cedric’s face, I couldn’t guarantee victory.
This wasn’t a space I’d engineered.
My easy kills so far stemmed from intel superiority and prep time.
“Step back.”
“...Pardon?”
“Step back and just block the fallout.”
I snapped it at Rosellin, who was right beside me.
She hesitated a split second; I shoved her shoulder hard.
“Hurry!”
The moment her body sailed away, I hurled myself in the opposite direction. I deliberately didn’t glance toward the families.
‘Gotta get out of here.’
Whether shielding the families from battle spillover or unleashing my true strength... either way, I had to break out of this place.
Running on foot was obviously no good.
This thing could seep into the ground and pop up anywhere without warning. I’d seen it through Philip Deran’s clone eyes.
My edges: passing as 7th Hierarchy, and it not gunning to kill me.
Plus knowing its moves from prior sightings.
Escape hinged on that alone.