Chapter 252
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 252
Chapter Title: Rockwind Plains (9)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Once the king of the mountains, now the ruler of this massive cavern—the Stone Ogre, Tolton.
As it swung its fist once more, Maya cast [Swarm of Lost Souls].
[Swarm of Lost Souls]
Just as its fist thrust forward and its power surged ahead, its left leg withered black, completely collapsing its stance.
No—it pretended to collapse.
"...?!"
A phenomenon it had never experienced before.
Tolton's mighty soul had repelled the slash she created, and the backlash hit the caster, Maya, full force.
"Urk, blegh!"
"Maya!"
Maya spewed out blackened, necrotic blood.
In that brief moment when both their gazes turned to Maya.
Roltan—no, Tolton—charged forward, kicking off the ground with its right foot from its collapsed stance.
"Aah... Hngh!!"
Eleanor barely managed to spread her golden wings and evade, but she was swept up in the shockwave and slammed into the wall.
In an instant, both women crumpled.
Aiden, who had somehow reached right beneath the beast, drew up his mana with full power and slammed [Gale Fury] into its chest.
[Gale Fury]
[I told you before. Humanity's greatest enemy is... fear itself.]
"...!!"
Was it because of the fallen Maya and Eleanor? Aiden's focus wavered, and it didn't unleash its full power.
At the same time, the beast's fist shot toward Aiden once more.
[Stone Shield]
A rock manifested to block the mountain-like strike of the ogre.
But as Eleanor had said, [Stone Shield] only halted the beast's fist for a fleeting moment.
"Ngh...!!"
He hastily wrapped his body in mana for protection. The moment a sword infused with a strand of wind clashed against the fist.
Kagagagak!
The Cloudlight Sword, sparking crimson like blood, finally shattered under the beast's monstrous strength.
"...!"
Pain exploded through him, too overwhelming even for a scream.
Even after [Stone Shield] and [Gale Fury] mitigated the blow twice, the mana cloaking his body burst apart in unison, churning his insides with the impact.
He tumbled across the ground several times. Through his blurred vision in the dust cloud, he saw the Stone Ogre lumbering toward him with heavy thuds.
It reached out with its massive hand.
'Get up, please... get up...!!'
His body refused to muster any strength. His flesh rejected his brain's commands.
Death loomed as if to say, Accept it—you entered a world of the survival of the fittest.
Is it truly the sword you lack will for, Aiden?
A blade that naturally craves ever greater power, heedless of means or methods.
Maya's words resurfaced.
Suddenly, an omnipotent sensation began to envelop his body.
Crimson aura wrapped around him entirely, and a domineering energy whispered.
To simply accept the power.
He recalled the final moments of the slaughter monk he had killed relying on this strength.
That which dwells in your body... it will one day devour your flesh. Soon, it will bring you ruin.
As the monk had warned, the moment he relied on this power, only ruin awaited him.
But if he was going to die anyway. If he would lose his comrades too.
Why not use it?
His vision gradually stained red.
Just as the world and his consciousness began to sever, like plunging into a blood-soaked sea.
Don't dump the burden you're carrying onto us.
A voice brushed past his ear.
"Grh...!"
His blood-red vision shook.
Dying like this would leave nothing behind.
He couldn't even protect the comrades he'd longed for his whole life.
With this power, he could overcome this crisis, protect his comrades.
But if at the end, the "self" vanished. Could he bear a future where his surviving comrades looked upon such a "him"?
Caught in indecision.
Aiden stared at the blood-drenched world.
There, ahead, existed something not of this world.
A land soaked in blood.
Mountains of countless human corpses piled high.
And atop a jade throne placed there, someone sat.
Undoubtedly the original owner of this power, gazing down at Aiden arrogantly.
That arrogant demeanor ignited an inexplicable rage. He soon understood why.
It was that gaze treating his and his comrades' deaths as trivial.
Within it, the certainty that he would inevitably bend to its will—it set Aiden's heart ablaze.
From that fury, his fingers twitched.
And with it, for the first time, he felt greed for this power flowing through his body.
But this power was dangerous.
He had received that warning countless times.
"Grrrr...!!"
But if he couldn't claim it simply because it was dangerous.
If that thing would take something from him in exchange for the power, then instead...
"I'll..."
I'll take it.
Aiden, who had never truly coveted anything in life, who had lived forsaking all—now felt greed.
To seize it from its owner, to make it wholly his own.
To plunder and usurp.
"Wait, you...! Right there, I'll..."
To drag down the one on that throne and grasp everything in his hands.
The moment he swore it.
"I told you... none of us would be happy surviving at the cost of just you sacrificing yourself...!"
A voice from someone absent, impossible to hear, reached him.
And with it.
Hwaaaaa...!
A massive hammer of coalesced golden holy power crashed down onto Tolton's head.
As Tolton foolishly raised one hand in response.
Chwajajajak!
Thousands of needles raining from the sky, connected by threads of spirit energy, sealed Tolton's movements.
Though only for a brief moment, Tolton's soul was bound by Maya.
The countless ancestral spirits rising around her shackled the ogre's ferocious soul.
Whoooong—! Kwaaaaaang!!
The divine punishment, scattering golden holy power, smashed precisely into Tolton's skull.
Eleanor's holy magic, [Disaster of Light].
⟨ Disaster of Light ⟩
The golden hammer that struck Tolton's head dead-on particleized and vanished as if its duty complete. In its place, the scattered holy power naturally seeped into Aiden's body.
Strength returned to his legs, which had no intention of moving amid fatal wounds.
Slowly, with the sole will to stand, he moved his legs.
As if declaring no such future of immobility existed, power gradually returned to his body.
[Grraaaaa...!]
The direct hit to its head couldn't be ignored even by Tolton; as it shook its head and tried to rise again.
From the cavern entrance, mana surged like waves, manifesting magic.
Jun, his body caked in blood and dirt, was drawing a magic circle with his hands.
Behind him, a summoned dark-silver golem charged at Tolton with heavy thuds.
Kuwoong...!
Even after being struck by Eleanor's holy magic, Tolton grappled with the golem, pitting strength against strength.
In an instant, the [Soul Drain] property sucked in Tolton's mana, but the ogre's strength lay not in mana, but its sturdy physique.
Ultimately, the golem's joints buckled under the pressure, losing balance to a headbutt.
The moment Tolton's fist pierced the golem's abdomen.
Gloop—!
The golem's body spread like mud, enveloping Tolton's entire form.
And then.
[Earth Gravity]
Gravity inverted, compressing rocks and earth around Tolton's body.
Kwagagak—!
Metallic mana imbued into the massive rocks, soil, and stones.
Moreover, the [Soul Drain] mud formed from the golem's body absorbed Jun's mana, further solidifying and anchoring the interior.
[Guuuu...!!]
Even as the magic perilously shook from Tolton's rampage within.
Chijijik...!
Darkness settled over the cavern ceiling, forming black thunderclouds.
Soon, pure white divine punishment struck down.
[Lightning Call: Variant - Thundercloud]
Kwarurururung—!
A tremendous thunderclap echoed through the entire tunnel.
Yet Aiden, his vision still not fully cleared of crimson, glared at the entity beyond.
Only now did he think its face vaguely resembled his own.
But that was unimportant.
"I don't know who you are..."
He wouldn't yield this body, at least.
As long as they were there, this will would never break.
"But I'll make good use of this power."
For the first time, the desire to seize another's possession stirred, and he drew upon a portion of the energy within this blood-red mana of his own volition.
The enigmatic being still lingering in his vision didn't avert its gaze from Aiden.
But in its utterly hollow eyes, a faint flicker.
Of interest.
He picked up the broken Cloudlight Sword. To bid farewell to the companion that had journeyed with him.
Wrapping it in blood-red energy by his own will, he swung.
The most honest overhead slash.
Yet what could block the domineering power contained within?
[Will Manifestation: Heaven and Earth Usurpation]
Not yet Aiden's.
But in this instant, the energy moved undeniably by his will, carving a vivid line between heaven and earth.
[Krooooaaar—!!!]
One strike split space apart. Tolton, surviving even within Jun's magic, roared from between the clear lines.
Soon, the severed spaces began to twist slowly.
Accordingly, cracks formed along the precisely bisected ogre's body—jjeok.
[It has been long since I felt such joy. Yet that is why it pains. A finite life is so beautiful. Human, who trembles in fear, led by desire, yet pierces through with your own will to the end.]
"...?"
[I, Tolton, shall remember you.]
The Stone Ogre's body crumbled. Vitality faded from it, and with a dull thud, it collapsed to the ground.
Finally, the survivors gazed at one another.
Silently, without a word.
Seeing each other's faces, they smiled—painful yet joyful.
The journey through the 7th layer was nearing its end.
From Jun to Aiden, Maya, and Eleanor—all four bore grave wounds, but they couldn't afford to sit there.
The day would soon end.
A little more time, and who knew when Fenrir would return—they had to hurry and escape.
"Haa, haa... So, Captain. What now from here?"
"We've dealt with all its roots... Now we head to the eye of the storm."
Jun limped on one leg toward where Tolton had fallen.
Amid the dirt and rocks, he spotted a blackened human hand.
"That's...?"
"Something like a catalyst. I don't know the exact mechanism, but put it on that altar."
A small altar visible at the back of the cavern.
As Jun placed the blackened hand on what seemed made for offerings.
The tunnel ceiling, unscathed through the fierce battle, began to crumble, revealing the surface world above.
"Whoa..."
"It's the sky."
"The real sky..."
The gray, dreary sky they'd seen before entering the tunnel.
In contrast, the surface they now beheld was a starry night sky, utterly cloudless.
"This place..."
Aiden looked around. Gray winds swirled around the night sky, devouring even clouds, engulfing the entire space.
"It's the eye of the typhoon. Like the hurricane center we saw when we first arrived in the field."
"Indeed... a space brimming with wind."
Even the dormant wind spirit reacted—the immense energy swirled centered here.
"So... what do we do now?"
"There's a way to condense all this energy in one place. That's what we'll do next."
"Didn't you say wind mana is tough because it moves wildly on its own?"
"Normally impossible. But there's a method that works only here."
In the game, Rockwind Plains had no reason to visit unless farming specific items—then it was mandatory.
Having surfaced, Jun scanned the surroundings and spotted a cloth plastered to the ground, unmoved even by the fierce winds.
"That...?"
"The owner of that black hand earlier."
"What?"
As Eleanor gasped, Jun brushed aside the cloth, revealing a blackened, discolored skull.
And in the skull's remaining hand, it clutched a gourd bottle like a treasure.
"What's this? It radiates... an ominous aura."
"A gourd that holds wind. More precisely, one that holds wind spirits. It's too worn to serve fully now."
Still, it was undoubtedly an artifact capable of containing wind.
Jun drew it from the skeleton's grasp and turned back.
The pitch-black night sky was already tinting pale purple.
"Well, I don't know the exact reason... but this typhoon we're seeing was originally sealed inside it, apparently."
"So what you're planning now is...?"
"What else? Seal that typhoon in here, obviously."
The surest way to master wind-attribute mana.
Imprison the wind within this gourd.
"It'll become a magic stone packed with ultra-concentrated wind mana."
"Then with this... we can awaken the wind spirit?"
"Exactly."
"Phew... So, mission accomplished, then?"
Eleanor spoke wearily, but Jun shook his head.
"One thing left. Sealing the hurricane isn't enough."
He turned back.
His comrades' gazes followed.
"...!"
"Jun!"
Grrrrowl...
Fenrir had appeared behind them unnoticed.
Revived and entering phase 4, it had grown to a size unimaginable from its initial form.
With all four already in dire condition, its emergence spelled doom.
If it rampaged, they couldn't respond properly and would be wiped out.
Yet Jun calmly walked toward it.
"Jun...?"
Aiden tried to stop him, but Eleanor grabbed his shoulder.
"It's the captain. He has a reason."
"...?"
As Jun reached it, holding the gourd forward.
Winds fluttered like soft silk, gradually gathering into the gourd.
Grrrrowl—!!
Fenrir howled fiercely, but it was mere thrashing.
Its wind-composed body inexorably flowed toward the gourd.
Realizing too late, Fenrir tried to retreat, but the gourd's suction only intensified.
"Whoa..."
Aiden watched, agape, as the field-filling typhoon endlessly poured into the tiny gourd.
Time passed.
The sky-high hurricane vanished like a lie, and Fenrir dissolved into a single gust, sucked inside.
"Phew..."
Jun corked the gourd, stored it in his dimensional bracelet, and faced his comrades.
"Man, you all look like hell."
Not one had an unscathed body.
Having overcome death's door countless times, they'd finally conquered the 7th layer.
As if blessing them, the cloudless sun shone down.
"You all have plenty to say, I'm sure... but for now."
Sleep.
No more words needed; all nodded.
Pride, relief at survival—whatever.
Right now, they just wanted sleep.
Living as the Hero Party's Mage Chapter 253