Chapter 142
Chapter 142
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 142
Chapter Title: Erased Name (5)
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Did I see that wrong?
With his mind slightly dazed, Galen drew up just a tiny bit of mana from Phantom Inferno.
A small flame the size of a candle flickered to life in his palm. It was more than enough to illuminate his hand.
It was dark red. A foul metallic stench wafted up. The sticky, damp liquid was unmistakably blood.
"Cough! Cough!"
Something surged up from deep inside him again. He hacked it out. The fishy reek, even worse than before, fouled his mouth.
That's when the pain started to creep in, little by little.
It felt like a blade was slowly slicing into his body. Chilling cold and searing heat stabbed at his nerves in equal measure.
"Ngh..."
Galen gritted his teeth.
Had he been caught off guard by this magic that killed even spirits and mana alike?
No. That couldn't be.
Even now, at the boundary of the water prison, the mana of Water Flow Manipulation was fiercely clashing with the armored figure's mana.
There was no way he hadn't sensed that ominous mana encroaching nearby.
But... then what the hell was this? How did this happen?
"Ugh... Ack!"
Irregular waves of agony whited out his vision. Galen's knees buckled, his body swaying.
Splash!
The water giant hurriedly curled its arm to catch him. The spirit's body undulated like a waterbed, supporting its master.
A Gem-rank mage's focus was unshakable by mere pain.
But no matter how ironclad the mind, he couldn't fend off the weakness creeping in as his body faltered.
Throb!
The headache intensified. His vision shook. His head grew heavy, the edges of his consciousness blurring.
As his control over mana wavered, the water prison began to waver too. Water Flow Manipulation lost strength bit by bit.
The armored figure couldn't have missed it.
Whoosh!
The mist swirling around the armor thickened.
The Reformed World was the product of intense self-conviction. The process of dyeing the world in a Gem mage's unique hue.
The 'death' hue within the mist began to taint the 'domination' hue in the water.
It wormed into the tiniest cracks, tearing them wider. Like a single hole breaching a dam, the control over the water rapidly eroded.
Boom!
The water prison finally burst.
A massive torrent surged outward, enough to sweep away nearby houses.
Galen watched it all through hazy eyes. If he'd had the strength to control it, the prison wouldn't have burst in the first place.
The spirit was nowhere in sight. Galen barely leaned against a nearby wall, standing unsteadily.
"Even if you can reshape magic's form with your Reformed World, you can't fix its roots. A water mage grows strong in water and weak on land— that's just how it is."
The armored figure, now free, walked toward Galen as he recited.
"Had the battlefield been elsewhere, the victor would have been you. Your fatal mistake was facing me where you couldn't fight at full strength."
"When... did you... attack...?"
Galen panted out the question. The armored figure growled low, like a beast chuckling.
"Do you know what the Forest's Abyss is?"
"...What?"
"It's chaos—a deadly poison, a curse, a plague. My body harbors the Forest's Abyss, meaning my mere breath can lead you to death. I usually suppress it with mana, but now... there's no need."
"Wha...?"
"In simple terms, this guy's a walking toxic cloud. Well, not exactly poison, but it kills all the same, so close enough."
The squinting man, unscathed thanks to the mist's protection right beside him, chimed in with a smirk.
"Didn't you tail us all the way here? You've been breathing in poison the whole chase. It's finally kicking in. We were wondering when it'd hit."
"Not... magic...?"
"Yep. Tough break, huh? Magic alone had you neck-and-neck—impressively so. But you let your guard down. Though even if you hadn't, you couldn't have blocked it."
So, if Galen understood right, the armored figure was a Gem mage wielding death mist and carried something like a deadly toxin in his body.
It'd make more sense if he were like Galen, mastering multiple magics with poison as a side gig.
Why the hell carry poison in your body like some viper? And unlike a snake, this wasn't just fangs—it was his breath. Incomparably vicious.
"Anyway... time to die, Lord Galen."
The squinting man drew his sword.
"Even a sluggish church will send someone soon. Better handle you before a priest shows up and complicates things."
He glanced at the armored figure. The helmet bobbed slightly. Message received: conversation over, kill him.
Grinning, the squinting man turned back to Galen. The raised blade gleamed faintly.
"If we'd found you before the church, I'd have offered recruitment. No choice now. Farewell."
The blade swung mercilessly.
Slash!
It looked casual, effortless—but the sword was a magic weapon.
Its power could cleave Galen in two and still shred the wall behind him.
Reeeng!
A shrill metallic ring assaulted his ears—nothing like flesh being cut.
And indeed, it was so.
The blade hadn't sliced Galen.
"Guh?!"
The blade twisted, then shattered. The recoil tore the squinting man's grip.
The magic sword granted Gold warrior-level strength temporarily.
But it couldn't pierce Earth Bind at the pinnacle of Gold, just one step from Gem.
The squinting man, still clueless, locked eyes with Galen.
Galen's eyes, hazy like a dying man's moments ago, now gleamed with light once more.
"You let your guard down."
Galen flung back the man's earlier mockery with a venomous grin.
"Even if you hadn't, you couldn't have blocked it."
A shadow only he could see materialized. The false phantom settled over the squinting man.
Phantom Inferno Lv.62
Progress to Next Level: 51%
Somehow lagging in growth, it ranked low among Galen's magics—but still solid upper Gold.
The squinting man wasn't a Gold mage, so no illusion domain to suppress mana. Nor a true Gold warrior to sense and dodge the explosion.
Boom!
A massive blast erupted between the two, close enough for a sword swing.
The squinting man—now a chunk of meat—flew backward. His upper body shredded beyond recognition.
"Ow."
Galen, rooted in place and absorbing the full force, groaned. He'd amped the emotion, and the shock pierced Earth Bind a bit. His body ached like after a beating. Or was it the poison's aftereffect?
That was the damage he'd taken. Muttering complaints, Galen peeled himself from the crumbling wall.
"......"
The armored figure stared down at the charred corpse at his feet.
The silence felt different. Not like his initial eerie quiet.
"...What?"
The armored figure finally spoke, at a loss.
Withstanding the squinting man's sword unscathed was one thing—maybe some water trick in the Reformed World. Killing him with an explosion? Bizarre, but forcible logic.
But the Forest's Abyss? Entirely different.
'Deadly poison, curse, plague of chaos' was no exaggeration. A darkness even holy power struggled to purify.
Only a warrior beyond Gold with monstrous vitality, or a bishop pouring endless holy power to sustain life, could overcome it.
No lone mage with a normal body could.
Of course, calling Galen's state 'overcome' was generous—he was still wobbly. But despite trembling legs, he stood.
That alone defied reason.
"Why haven't you fallen?"
"A breeze would knock me over. I'm barely hanging on."
"Don't play word games. You were dying moments ago."
"You gave me the answer yourself."
"...What?"
"That abyss poison or whatever—you suppress it with mana normally. That's what I'm doing."
"Ridiculous nonsense. Only my mana can do that."
"Yeah. Your mana."
Galen grinned.
How could the armored figure know?
Deathly Mist Lv.1
Progress to Next Level: 74%
While trapping the foe in the water prison and squeezing, constant contact with the death mist had skyrocketed progress.
During that brief but fierce clash, the status window had analyzed the magic. Knowledge of it was etched into Galen's mind automatically.
As the name suggested, Deathly Mist's essence was debilitation.
A debuff stripping strength from anything mana touched—living or not.
Plus, its sensory range detected the so-called abyss toxin. Galen could briefly hold it at bay with Deathly Mist's mana.
Freshly learned at Lv.1 with pitifully scant mana like a chick's tear.
But that momentary gap was enough for Galen to rally and pulverize the squinting man.
And after?
As the dead man said.
The church was due any moment.
Shreeek!
A beam of light pierced the darkness. A radiant spear targeted the armored figure.
Whoosh!
Unfortunately, it couldn't penetrate the pervasive mist. The spear, stabbing the fog, decomposed from tip to base and scattered.
"This guy's no ordinary foe."
An elderly man in pristine white robes landed beside Galen, muttering.
Hamel, acting archbishop of the Southwest Diocese.
Glancing at Galen, he startled at the bloodstains.
"Heavens! You alright, Lord Galen?"
"Not really."
"Fall back for now."
"Agreed."
As Galen nodded, Hamel grabbed his arm and leaped back. Distance opened enough to counter ambushes.
Hamel placed a hand on Galen's back. Purification, vitality, healing miracles flooded in tandem.
Galen's expression eased slightly. Hamel's soured. Holy power drained like pouring into a bottomless jar.
"No ordinary poison. It's almost like..."
"A plague victim, right?"
"Treating it here in one go will be tough."
"I'd prefer somewhere comfortable too."
Mid-sentence, Galen thrust his hand forward.
The surrounding water obeyed once more, swirling fiercely.
Whoosh!
The creeping mist clashed with the waves. Mana shredded anew at the boundary.
"Who'd guess a plague-spreading mage was Gem-rank."
"Wh-what? You're serious?"
Hamel paled. Then understood why a water Gem mage bled profusely.
"Wish it were a joke. As you saw with the spear, it shreds mana and holy power alike. Separately, it constantly emits something like deadly toxin around him—from inside his body."
"That's the plague's source. Wait—then we're in trouble?"
"Yes. He's been spreading it since entering the city—still is."
"Oh no."
"So we catch him here. Let him escape, and who knows what gets razed next."
"...Can we? Even if I keep healing, the toxin eating your body won't stop. You're not at full strength..."
Hamel's concern was valid. A Gem duel with one poisoned.
"As long as I can cast."
Galen replied nonchalantly.
"Some houses might get wrecked."
Territorial Advance's mana quietly burrowed into the earth.