Chapter 194
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 194
Chapter Title: I Won?
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To the fallen spirit, the mage had been an eyesore from the very start.
And with good reason. The command given to it was to kill two members of the imperial family.
Yet that mage had been getting in the way ever since.
At first, it had dismissed him as a mere threat due to his mana reserves, figuring his actual skill was beneath its own.
But the moment he stepped out from that protective barrier, everything changed.
For some reason, he'd powered up to a level that posed a real danger. The spirit hurriedly devised a way to separate him from the imperials.
That was the Manifested Mindscape.
Something only possible for a spirit that could endlessly draw mana from this vast ocean.
It had dragged him into the Manifested Mindscape, planning to deal with the imperials now.
But alas.
The problem was the storm of flames he'd summoned right before being pulled in. Rather than dying down, it was expanding the closer it got to the sea.
With all its mana poured into maintaining the Manifested Mindscape, the spirit had no means to counter it.
'Kill him.'
It shifted its gaze back to the Manifested Mindscape.
At first, it seemed the mage was struggling.
His attacks were timid, and he wasn't even dispatching monsters cleanly.
It thought everything was going according to plan.
Soon, he'd be torn apart by the monsters born from the host's mind and meet a gruesome end.
It had no doubt.
Until the mage's expression changed.
He smirked as if he'd realized something, then abruptly unleashed a barrage of spells.
'...!'
At that rate, his heart should've given out.
Yet the mage kept casting flawlessly.
That was when the tide began to turn.
His magic was extraordinary.
He was burning through mana at an unnaturally rapid pace—far too fast to sustain.
If this continued, even the mana upholding the Manifested Mindscape would run dry.
The fallen spirit hastily drew more mana from the sea.
Guooooooo...
Damage rippled through its body immediately.
Like this:
Even if you hooked a pipe to the ocean, the pipe's diameter was fixed. There were limits to how much seawater you could pull through it.
Dermane's body served as that pipe.
The problem was that it couldn't withstand the mana consumption.
Dermane's body had already been squeezed to its limit once for the Manifested Mindscape.
At this rate, it might collapse entirely.
'It's not over yet...!'
The silver lining: the mage trapped inside was pushing himself too.
His body had turned purple, now edging toward red.
Just a bit longer.
Hold out a little more, and it would win!
Clinging to that certainty, it ignored the crumbling body—until then.
'What is he...'
A change overtook the mage's body.
Was it because he'd struck it once?
The 6th-circle wall, which he'd thought would take ages to breach, crumbled away all too easily.
'So this... is the 6th circle.'
The 6th ring formed atop the original five.
From a typical viewpoint, the gap between 5th and 6th wasn't all that vast.
Just the ability to wield a few more powerful spells, really.
But to Jun, it was anything but minor.
'It's like... gaining an extra hand.'
Not that it felt unfamiliar.
On the contrary, an instinct bloomed: he could now do things that had been theoretically possible but beyond his prior capabilities.
And that instinct sparked immediate inspiration.
A truly wondrous moment.
Even now, the flames of the Exploratory Inferno he'd summoned were devouring everything around him.
Yet Jun stared blankly into the void, entranced.
'Now I get it, Sergei. The view you saw.'
The Volcanic Mage Tower Lord, a 7th-circle mage who'd been beheaded on the scaffold and whose corpse was turned into a chimera.
Jun had once puzzled over his theoretically impossible mindscape.
It was inevitable.
Jun hadn't lived long as a mage.
But now, reaching 6th circle and preparing for 7th, with layers of knowledge solidified...
It was as if they whispered in his ear.
'Normally, it'd be tough to pull off.'
A technique feasible only now.
A spell he wouldn't master until reaching 7th circle dawned on him.
All it required was roaring flames.
And this place brimmed with them.
Gazing at the blaze battling endless monsters rising from the abyss, Jun opened his dimensional bracelet.
From it emerged the crimson orb Sergei had passed to him before dying.
The key to a new realm of magic.
"Feels kinda weird."
What a joke.
The man who'd tried to kill him—and allied with the Heavenly Church to slaughter others—had handed him this on the brink of death, and now it was fueling his growth.
"Well, whatever. I'll put it to good use."
He focused on the orb.
Truth be told, the spell he was about to attempt was beyond what he could handle.
Jun aimed to draw a fragment of the [Manifested Mindscape] itself.
But.
"Temporarily borrowing a portion... should be doable."
With the current environment and Sergei's essence in the orb, it was possible.
Jun's gaze turned to the flames blanketing the area.
Without gestures or incantations, he simply extended the hand holding the orb.
Suuuuu...
Thin threads peeled away from the flames scattered everywhere.
Dozens of crimson strands, like those from Jun's mindscape, swirled around the orb, tangling into a skein.
'The mindscape to contain it.'
The hottest space Jun could envision.
He scaled down a fragment of its forming conditions onto his palm.
Sensing the anomaly...
Guooooooo...
Dermane reacted too.
It was clearly afraid.
In a frenzy to kill Jun here and now.
It must've overexerted itself; the abyss loomed even closer.
Or more precisely, it was expanding.
Monsters spawning from it multiplied exponentially.
'Planning to abandon the host entirely?'
Perhaps terrified of the magic Jun was conjuring.
'Fallen spirits are like blank slates, newborns in a way.'
In the game, they showed particular weakness to fear.
'Yeah, fear all you want.'
Precisely what Jun desired.
The flame skein grew as it writhed.
Regardless of Dermane's reaction, it steadily bulked up.
Giiiieee――!!!
But Dermane's thrashing wasn't meaningless.
Monsters began breaching the flames, closing in on Jun.
'Monghwan.'
Lightning Whip
Whipping back approaching monsters
Lightning whips materialized in the air, lashing at the encroaching monsters.
But more surged from the abyss like waves.
Some thrust forward charred maws.
'Golem.'
A golem wreathed in blazing flames swung a massive fist.
One punch scattered monsters in sprays of flesh.
Kuooooooo――!!
Then colossal eyes erupted from the abyss below.
Unlike before, large enough to swallow a human whole.
A gigantic whale surged from the depths.
The mana-absorbing golem swelled and raised its arms to block the charge.
Kugugugu――!!
Lightning Call
Azure bolts raining relentlessly
Azure lightning crashed atop the beast's head.
Kwarururung! Kwarururung! Kwarururung!!
Not stopping at one—two, three bolts hammered down.
Finally, as it weakened and lolled its tongue...
Its dying eyes flashed, jaws yawning wide.
Swarms of monsters poured forth.
Flame Rage
Spiraling fireballs spewing flames
Monghwan's summoned spiral fireballs erupted wildly.
Some used comrades as shields to reach Jun's face.
A horrific beast crammed with teeth lunged—but.
'Predator.'
Undeterred, it halted before Jun's outstretched hand.
Chwaaaaaap!!!
Time had passed; it swiftly absorbed the toothy abomination.
And with that.
Jun's spell completed.
"Crimson threads weave the pyre's heart."
"Stars collapse in furious birth."
"Ignite the void, red supergiant."
⟨ Red Giant Star ⟩
A tiny fireball, small enough for his palm.
But its heat defied its size, swelling like a star on the verge of death.
Only one step remained.
The star's demise.
Kwaaaaa-
The minuscule fireball dimmed.
The ensuing shockwave vaporized everything.
The black dimension shattered.
The mana-sea space fragmented under the impact.
Beyond it.
Jun stepped toward the original dimension.
All that lingered behind was a dead white star.
A massive coral reef met mass death.
It had tried to protect, but failed.
The fog cloaking the area dispersed, revealing a lone figure strolling across the sea.
"I won?"
The colossal body from before was gone; Dermane knelt in his original form.
Jun stood before him, yanking him up by the collar.
The difference now: the body was dying even as they spoke.
"But you... can't die just yet."
As he'd told Dexter.
Dermane couldn't perish like this.
Or the Sea Serpent on the island's far side would rampage.
'Sword Soul. He'd hold it off, but...'
The nobles trembling in the city? Their survival uncertain.
Not Jun's desired outcome.
'Whoever planned this... damn good scheme.'
Without his game knowledge, the situation would've been dire.
One side would've been nearly annihilated.
'Probably that bastard.'
Only one could execute such a insidious plot.
The guy from layer 4, Ervantus's contamination zone.
But now wasn't the time.
"For now... yeah. Gotta keep you alive."
Save the guy who deserved death.
Absurd, but necessary.
And the spell for it was ready.
"Belles."
"Ready!"
Belles, prepared all this time, unleashed her spell on Jun's cue.
"Frost of eternity, bind the waves."
"Age of ice descends upon the deep."
⟨ Ice Age ⟩
A deep blue mist settled over the sea.
A high-difficulty binding spell that froze the space itself.
Not water into ice, but.
'Freezing mana itself—a spell of immense difficulty.'
6th-circle tier, rarely cast solo.
Usually required multiple 5th-circle mages.
Yet Belles completed it alone.
"Go."
Jun hurled Dermane into the icy mist zone.
Creeeak, crrrrack!
Dermane froze solid upon entry.
And at his temples: eerie purple threads.
Mental: Marionette Line
Threads binding the temples
Living as a Mage in the Hero's Party Chapter 195