Chapter 652: Black Magic, White Magic, and Gray Sorcery - 10
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 652: Black Magic, White Magic, and Gray Sorcery - 10
A glacier is called a river of ice not just for its shape. Glaciers, like rivers, flow. The ice, frozen at its source, moves with excruciating slowness, yet steadily, on an eternal journey to the cold sea.
The Celsius family marks the glaciers with scales, measuring their movement each year. The fact that this cold, hard ice flowed, however placidly, was a mystery so profound it was etched into the heart of a young mage.
That was how Elcia’s Unique Magic was born.
Unique Magic, River of Ice.
The ice flows. Solid ice becomes a fluid, creating a current more destructive and shocking than any rapids.
The ice surged forward, scraping against the ground. The torrent of ice crystals was like a grinder made of countless, spinning metal shards. The ice, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake, coiled like a dragon.
An ice giant and an ice dragon. Beings that seemed to belong in the pages of mythology.
Standing tall atop the ice, Elcia spoke.
“This is your final warning. Return the Rule to how it was.”
“What? The cold feels worse after you’ve been warm. Why don’t we just leave it like this? Isn’t being warm better than being cold? Instead of you all hogging the warmth, let’s share it with everyone.”
My words were insincere, and they didn’t seem to resonate with Elcia either.
“There is no reason to show such consideration for the ignorant masses. When the body is warm and life is easy, one is bound to become lazy. They will grow slothful and neglect their own development.”
“You all live warm and comfortable lives, yet you haven’t grown lazy, have you? Or perhaps you were so lazy that you let someone like me steal your Rule?”
“It has not been stolen yet.”
A growl rumbled from the ice dragon. The flow of a solid was destructive in itself. If that thing swallowed me, my body would be torn to shreds as if in a grinder. My blood would freeze instantly, preventing any regeneration.
“I will give you a chance to atone for your mistake.”
“Oh, moving ice? What an interesting technique! Best of all, it’s easy for the audience to understand! I love it!”
I meant “easy to understand” as a compliment, but to a mage, it was nothing short of an insult. It implied her power was so simple it could be grasped at a glance.
“If you insist on choosing the wrong move.”
The ice surged. Every piece of ice connected to her Unique Magic began to ripple like a fluid and pour toward me. The basic principle of her Unique Magic was to ‘grant the property of flow to ice,’ but Elcia was exquisitely controlling its scope, directing it in a single direction.
It was a standard application for a simple yet powerful Unique Magic.
“But what’s easy to understand is also easy to counter. Especially now.”
I gripped Kelvin’s thermometer once more. Let’s see, this targets ‘ice,’ so…
“Freezing Point Control.”
If I change the conditions under which ice can form, it’ll all be for nothing…
Huh?
It’s not melting?
I hesitantly looked up at the cascading ice. Elcia answered with her cold eyes.
“Incorrect.”
It would have worked if it were only Elcia’s Unique Magic. But Elcia possessed a Relic. Olaf. It had the ability to cohere ice—or more precisely, water crystals.
Under the conditions I had set, the ice should have melted, but Olaf’s power was still holding the crystals together! Even in the Celsius domain, where freezing and boiling points were in constant flux, the Relic’s power was maintaining its state as ice!
“Another Relic?! Using a Unique Magic and a Relic at the same time…!”
“You should have stayed trapped. It’s too late now. Be swept away by the glacier and disappear.”
“Aaaaaaaargh!”
With no time to resist, I was swept away by the glacial torrent. My shadow was buried beneath the white, transparent ice…
…or so the dramatic performance went.
Unique Magic, River of Ice.
Using the moment Elcia’s view was obscured, I stole her Unique Magic. Elcia’s Unique Magic was River of Ice. Its target: ice. Even if I stole it, I’d only be able to control a little ice around me, but…
So what? Even that terrifying torrent of flowing ice is no different from ordinary ice the moment it comes within a millimeter of me, as long as I stop it. It’s a bit cold and cramped, but that’s all.
Now that my safety was secured, shall I try a different performance? I counted silently, then reached a hand above my head and muttered.
“Simultaneous Freezing and Boiling Point Control. Triple Point.”
The pinnacle of Kelvin Celsius’s Unique Magic.
A miracle occurred in a tiny area above my head. The boundaries between water, ice, and steam blurred. The three states coexisted, creating immense chaos.
And usually, the end of chaos is an explosion.
Fwoooom. A massive explosion erupted above my head. Half-frozen crystals, clouds of billowing steam, and shimmering water droplets. The three forms of water scattered, painting a rainbow in the air.
Elcia, who had been riding the flowing ice, was caught in the blast.
“Kyaaah…!”
Olaf quickly blocked the explosion with his hands. For a moment, a thick mist obscured the stage. I quickly crawled out, straightened my clothes, and bowed.
“H-How…?!”
“That’s for you all to figure out. A magician lives by his tricks. It wouldn’t do to just ask me to reveal them, now would it?”
Magic, at its core, is no different from a stage trick. It’s just a bit of skill and equipment the audience doesn’t know about, with a dash of deception to add to the mystery.
A trick that would make you laugh if you knew it. But to those who don’t, it is a wonder.
“Does no one, no one at all, know? What trick did he use?!”
Not a single person answered Elcia’s question. To the Celsius family, this silence was more painful than any defeat.
“In the heart of Celsius, while he is using our power! You’re telling me you have no idea what he did?! If so…!”
Isn’t this a complete defeat? The words rose to Elcia’s throat.
It’s fine not to know. If failing to see the trick meant defeat, I’d have won every time. Well, I suppose I did win every time.
“Well? Anyone else want a go?”
No one answered my question. By the rules of the street, it’d be perfectly fine for me to take my winnings and leave. But these refined folks from Celsius, perhaps because they were raised too gently, couldn’t let go.
“Stop…!”
Her fighting spirit was already broken. But Elcia still had something to say. She raised a finger and pointed.
“You may not know this, but Celsius once considered that method. Condensing cold is far more intuitive and easier to use. But after various calculations, we concluded that we could not choose to gather the cold.”
There, something—a deep blue crystal—was glittering in the air.
It was a crystal with no distinct shape. A mysterious, cool mist flowed around it, obscuring its outline. I estimated it was smaller than a grain of sand, but the power it contained was beyond imagination, and it was growing in real time.
“Gathering the cold spread throughout this city? Yes, with the power of Kelvin Celsius, it’s possible. But the nucleus where the cold gathers would be the Celsius family, and the cold gathered there would become an Ice Crystal.”
“An Ice Crystal?”
“The cold, gathered by the Rule, gradually condenses and transforms into a crystal of pure cold. It’s a curse of frost, waiting to explode. Simply getting near it is enough to freeze you solid.”
A crystal of air, solidified after absorbing a massive amount of cold due to the Rule. That was the Ice Crystal. One could not even approach it. The atmosphere around it would sink, frigid, freezing anything that came near.
It was the same solidified atmosphere I had seen in the Blue Tower Master’s Unique Magic. It was on par with the power that had put the Green and Black Tower Masters on edge, a power the Mage King himself had barely managed to resolve.
No, unlike a Unique Magic that merely replicates a phenomenon, this was the result of pure, condensed cold. It would be even more powerful.
“If left alone, the Ice Crystal will gradually grow and swallow the family. It will reach a point where it can no longer be controlled. When that happens, the ignorant masses will pay the price for the warmth they enjoyed in one lump sum. Are you going to leave a ticking time bomb like that unattended? With no sense of responsibility?”
“Responsibility? Me?”
Just because I changed it, I have to bear all the consequences? In that case, had Celsius fulfilled its responsibilities?
“You’re the ones who left things unattended. You held this Rule in your hands, yet you left the cold outside and the foolishness of the masses as they were. Who took responsibility for that?”
It’s all the same. Just one side forcing its will on the other. Responsibility? I’ve never seen a single person who talks about it actually take it.
“You’ll have to figure something out. You all.”
“How… irresponsible…”
“And honestly, you can deal with the Ice Crystal, can’t you?”
Why play the victim? You rejected the idea because the cost-benefit analysis didn’t work out, not because you couldn’t do it. The power of the Celsius family can’t be that weak.
“…Are you talking about Elisha?”
“Hmm?”
Elisha? The Blue Tower Master? Why is her name coming up?
Until now, Elcia had maintained a minimum of decorum, but now…
“Yes. Elisha. With my inadequate sister’s power, the Ice Crystal could be controlled. Her Unique Magic is difficult to use… but it can control one thing, and that is the Ice Crystal.”
The Blue Tower Master’s Unique Magic, the power of Determinism, was forced solidification. That included the air. It was different from the condensation of cold, but with that power, she could interfere with the Ice Crystal.
“I see. The Blue Tower Master could control it easily.”
“…Do you even know what that means?”
Elcia ground her teeth and glared at me with murderous intent.
“That’s the same as telling my sister to die and become a Relic.”
She didn’t necessarily have to die. If the Blue Tower Master simply dealt with the Ice Crystal whenever she thought of it, this domain would become much warmer and more livable.
However, accidents happen in this world. What if the Blue Tower Master was away for a long time due to some circumstance, or suddenly lost control, or even died unexpectedly? The means to control the Ice Crystal would be gone.
But a Relic would have no such worries.
“Every single day, she would be pressured to hurry up and become a Relic before she grows old and dies. And that inadequate child would one day try to live up to those expectations. She’s a soft-hearted and delicate child. A very small trigger would be enough for her to make that decision.”
Well, maybe. The Blue Tower Master wasn’t stupid, but for a mage, she cared a lot about others.
“Your idea of sharing warmth with everyone is the same as telling Celsius to sacrifice itself. The Rule of this land is built on Celsius’s knowledge and sacrifice. Those ignorant masses contribute nothing to this Rule! And yet, you tell us to make an even greater sacrifice to care for them? We have no reason to, and you have no right to demand it! I’d rather those masses live cold and hungry!”
When you put it like that, she had a point. Celsius created it, Celsius developed it. Demanding a greater sacrifice from them was unfair.
Still, you can’t just stay quiet when you have a complaint, can you?
“Why are you so fixated on killing someone and turning them into a Relic? You could just find another way…?”
You want to protect your vested interests. You don’t want to make more sacrifices. When someone complains, you bring them here and freeze them. And you try to eliminate a self-help measure like black magic because it’s a taboo.
What is this? You plan to live by this Rule forever?
Shouldn’t the Rule compromise just as humans do?
“Another way… Do you think it’s that easy to find?! Talk is cheap, but you have no solution!”
No. There is a way. Or at least, a path leading to one.
They just chose not to take it.
“No. There is!”
As if in answer for me, another voice cut in.
My first impression was of a flame. Just her approach brought a wave of scorching heat. The ice, which shouldn’t have melted so easily under the Rule, trembled and then dissolved.
No, it burned.
The North is cold. People’s actions and attire can’t help but become closed off. But the woman who had suddenly burst in was as open as if she had come from the south.
Her upper body was almost bare, clad only in a short tank top, and her bottoms were torn off at the start of her thighs, making it questionable if they could even be called pants. It was a fashion even someone sweltering in the heat would hesitate to try.
But such an outfit suited her.
Red eyes. Hair just as red. Flames that seemed to coil around her. Her skin, as if scorched by her own temperature, was mysteriously alien.
“The sky I thought was the ceiling of the world is an illusion. The stars are much farther away. A limit is just an excuse for those who define it as such. There are no limits to magic! There is always a way!”
The red-haired mage shouted powerfully and snapped her fingers.
And a great pillar of fire erupted, engulfing the Ice Crystal.
It was a flame so bright it illuminated the world. If the sun had vanished for a moment, no one would have noticed its absence. The magical fire, which had incinerated the supposedly dangerous Ice Crystal, shot straight into the sky without a chance to spread.
The atmosphere was sucked in. A rapid updraft carried ice and snow soaring upwards. Snow, hail, mist, clouds. The snow fragments, given different names in a matter of seconds, glittered in the distant sky and vanished.
It was an enormous amount of mana, but that wasn’t all. Even though it hadn’t gathered for long, the Ice Crystal’s power was at a level difficult to handle with mere magic.
It was only possible because it was a spell enhanced by the power of a Unique Magic.
“You are… As I thought…”
Recognizing her opponent, Elcia broke into a cold sweat.
The last successor of the ruined Fahrenheit family.
The Red Tower Master.
And a topic of discussion at the Shrine of the Divine.
The Red Tower Master.
Hwaran Fahrenheit.
The most radical and fiery mage had appeared in the Celsius domain.