Chapter 125
Chapter 125
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 125
Chapter Title: The Road to the North (3)
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It was a dark night.
The knights, pushing forward relentlessly to reinforce the front lines collapsed by the heretic's demonic beasts, came to a halt. They sensed something amiss. The torches illuminating their path were extinguishing one by one.
"......"
The torches went out without a sound.
Not even ashes remained from the flames. Though they had lost their light, the knights did not panic. They steadied their breathing and scanned their surroundings. They, too, were seasoned soldiers.
And then, they faced it.
The entity emerging from the darkness.
The knights' gazes wavered. Cold sweat dripped from them. Before the fear they confronted, the spears and swords they held rattled noisily. Some clacked their teeth together.
Disaster.
One of the Four Heavenly Kings' disasters.
Ancient Lich, Skeval.
An indescribable being looked down upon the knights.
"Ah, aaaah..."
Humans feel terror before an incomprehensible existence. The knights were no different. Even seasoned soldiers were mere mortals before a disaster.
Gulp.
The knights swallowed dryly and shifted their gazes. Hundreds of eyes turned to the same place. They saw a single beam of light not swallowed by the darkness.
A being not merely human.
The chosen one to stand against the disaster.
The Hero, Kyle Toven.
Ignoring the pouring gazes, Kyle readjusted his grip on his sword. Platinum starlight gleamed in his eyes. Kyle raised his head.
⚙ ANCIENT VOICE ⚙ You are alone. A crackling noise rang in their ears. Mockery filled the voice echoing in overlapping layers.
"......"
Kyle silently turned back.
There was the Saintess. There was the Divine Archer. Countless soldiers were there. Yet the ancient lich had said "alone." Its meaning was clear.
"...Being alone is enough."
⚙ ANCIENT VOICE ⚙ How arrogant, child of the stars. Overlapping sneers echoed.
Kyle furrowed his brow and lowered his holy sword. A halo of light shone brilliantly in the darkness.
-Skeval? That coward?
Ridiculously, in this situation, that voice came to mind. A conversation from long ago lingered in his ears.
-Why do you call him a coward?
-He sets traps, builds altars, mass-produces turncoats... He's certainly annoying, but how many times has that skull shown itself directly on the battlefield?
He had said it.
-Excluding the times I dragged him out by force... surprisingly few. That's why he's a coward. He does a lot, but always from hiding. So frustrating.
The ancient lich Skeval was a coward.
He rarely revealed himself. He always schemed from the shadows.
-He's a coward, sure. But...
However.
-That doesn't mean he's stupid.
-He doesn't miss opportunities right in front of him.
When the moment to seize the advantage came, the ancient lich would always move. He never missed a gap. That's what made him so troublesome.
-See?
-He never misses an opening.
The traces of the "altar" engraved on his body.
Pointing to it, Raniel had said.
Even then, Skeval hadn't missed Raniel's moment of weakness. The skull always did that. If there was even a slight gap, he exploited it and wreaked havoc.
Skeval had appeared on the battlefield.
That meant one thing.
He is certain of victory.
Kyle clicked his tongue briefly.
Is that it?
He could roughly guess why the ancient lich had shown himself here.
Troop losses from the heretic's demonic beasts.
The front lines' retreat and the Demon King's army concentrated in the east.
The eastern front on the verge of collapse.
The shortest route to the east.
Connecting the information pieces yielded the answer. Chewing on it, Kyle furrowed his brow. From the enemy's perspective, there was no better opportunity.
That's why here.
He had been waiting here for him.
Kyle tightened his grip on the holy sword. In response, Skeval moved his fingers. Spells wove around his long fingers.
⚙ ANCIENT VOICE ⚙ Fear. Skeval clenched his fist.
Kyle kicked off the ground.
Shwaaaaaak!
Kyle swung his sword through the pouring spells.
The disaster and the Hero clashed.
2.
The battle between a mage and a warrior is a fight over distance. The mage must keep range. The warrior must close it. Their desires conflict. The moment the scales tip to one side, victory and defeat are decided.
And the scales always tip toward the warrior.
Most mages cannot handle warriors. That's a well-known fact. The means to stop a warrior charging with full intent are limited.
Let alone if that warrior has reached superhuman heights?
Blocking is nearly impossible.
That's why warriors always hold the advantage against mages. However, there are always exceptions.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ Rebuild The ground surged like waves. The floor sank deeply. The terrain shifted. There was no solid footing. Kyle swung his holy sword toward the ground.
Slash.
The ground sliced by the holy sword flattened. But the moment Kyle took a step, his foot sank into the earth.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ Swamp Before they knew it, the ground had turned into a swamp.
Without footing, speed faltered. Without weight support, stances crumbled.
Even so, Kyle swung his sword.
He was Kyle, taught the sword by the sword's superhuman, Kuntel. One must be able to swing the sword in any situation. That was Kuntel's first lesson.
Shwaaaaaaaaak!
The swung sword upheaved the ground.
It severed the spells permeated into the floor. He kicked off and leaped. At that instant, completed spells engulfed Kyle.
Fireballs poured down.
Lightning struck, bone spears erupted from the earth.
Top-tier spells rained like a downpour.
Hot.
Heat scorched his clothes. Surging lightning singed his skin. Bone spears grazed his flesh. Kyle gritted his teeth and swung his sword.
Slash.
He slashed with his sword. Sometimes dodged. What he couldn't dodge, he met with his body's resilience bare. Wounds accumulated, but it was fine.
Anyway, Sara's blessing...
The moment light began healing Kyle's body.
The lich twitched his finger.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ Anti-Spell Crack—the blessing enveloping Kyle's body fractured with a sound. Kyle's eyes narrowed. Reflexively, he turned back.
"K-Kyle!"
Sara hurriedly cast her blessing.
But it never completed. The lich's incantation was faster than the Saintess's chant.
⚙ ANCIENT VOICE ⚙ ■ A mangled incantation.
No telling how much spell language was packed into the garbled pronunciation. Only one thing was clear.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ Spell-Capture Spell-Reversal
Sara's blessing was captured.
The starlight-infused blessing turned black. Skeval twitched his finger. In response, a sound came from beyond the darkness.
Clack, clack-clack.
With the sound of bones rolling, black skeletal soldiers poured from beyond the darkness. Reversed spells flowed above their heads.
🛡️ Blessing (Reversed) 🛡️ Black light seeped into the black skeletons' frames.
As if this had been the goal from the start, Skeval sneered.
-Kieeeek!
The enhanced black skeletal soldiers screeched monstrously. They charged at Kyle. Kyle gritted his teeth and swung his sword. He couldn't cut them all down. The black skeletons overran him toward the knights.
"Kuh, ack!"
Casualties occurred.
Knights were swept away by the enhanced black skeletons. Remia fired moonlit arrows, but it took time to fell the skeletons. Knights' blood sprayed.
⚙ ANCIENT VOICE ⚙ I told you. Sneer.
⚙ ANCIENT VOICE ⚙ You are alone. It sneered.
The spells filling the sky still targeted Kyle. Some aimed for his back. They targeted the Saintess.
"Kuh!"
Kyle kicked off the ground and swung his sword.
He succeeded in protecting Sara, but not the others. Knights were swept by the pouring spells. Chaos deepened on the battlefield.
Blood sprayed.
Knights' screams rang out.
Remia's arrows poured noisily.
Amid the chaos, Skeval let out a laugh. He wove spells on his fingers. Incomprehensible language filled the sky.
⚙ ANCIENT VOICE ⚙ No one to intercept my spells. Skeval piled up spells.
⚙ ANCIENT VOICE ⚙ No one to check my Spell-Capture. The piled spells emitted light.
⚙ ANCIENT VOICE ⚙ No one to sever my spells. A rain of spells filling the sky poured down.
⚙ ANCIENT VOICE ⚙ No one to send you to me. The ground upheaved.
Pouring chains bound Kyle's body. Without the blessing, his flesh was slower than before. Yet the battlefield continued to worsen.
⚙ ANCIENT VOICE ⚙ Thus, you are alone. Kyle gritted his teeth and swung his sword.
Slash.
He slashed one spell.
Dozens rose.
Shwaak.
He slashed the pouring spells. He took the ones targeting his back with his body. He deflected the chains. He rolled his foot, burst the mire, and charged.
⚙ ANCIENT VOICE ⚙ ■■ Slash one, dozens rise.
⚙ ANCIENT VOICE ⚙ ■■■■■ Slash dozens, hundreds rise.
⚙ ANCIENT VOICE ⚙ ■■■■■■■■■■■■ Slash and slash through hundreds more.
The spells filling the sky targeted him once again.
No end.
No end, so no solution in sight.
Was he always this troublesome?
No. Absolutely not.
Originally, all of Skeval's spells had been intercepted. Spell-Capture? No room for that. Rather, Skeval's spells had been captured.
If it were as before.
Sara's blessing wouldn't have been stolen.
He wouldn't have failed to close the distance.
The rear guard wouldn't have collapsed to mere black skeletons.
⚙ ANCIENT VOICE ⚙ Behold. Things that shouldn't have happened did.
⚙ ANCIENT VOICE ⚙ Nothing, isn't it? Kyle knew the reason better than anyone.
⚙ ANCIENT VOICE ⚙ Without the Ashen one, you are nothing, aren't you? That guy wasn't there.
The one who neutralized spells, guarded the rear, stood at the front and supported him—he wasn't there.
...Just once.
Kyle looked back.
Fear-stricken knights filled his view. Mages were mixed among them. Mages without flaw in being called first-rate.
"If just once, block the spells..."
Kyle trailed off and shut his mouth.
The mages' eyes trembled. Their eyes held no conviction. No confidence.
...Of course they can't block it.
Ancient Lich, Skeval.
An ancient magus who had lived for centuries.
His path in magic was long. He had achieved countless feats that a single human couldn't in a lifetime. A first-rate talent who researched magic ceaselessly for centuries.
Such a being.
Such a being's magic—humans who hadn't even lived a century couldn't comprehend it. Without comprehension, blocking was impossible.
Me, alone.
The weight of those words hit again.
"......"
The moment to decide had come.
If I ignore the rear and charge, burning my starlight... I could kill him.
But after that was the problem.
If he abandoned the rear to charge, all the knights would die. Perhaps Sara or Remia—or one of them—would be gravely injured.
A Hero shouldn't pursue only personal victory.
The Hero was a protector.
If he abandoned what he must protect, he could hunt the disaster.
But would that have meaning?
...No, it wouldn't.
Even if he steeled himself for sacrifice, charged, and pierced that skull, it would only reduce one of the ancient lich's life vessels. Skeval would revive somewhere again.
"......"
Kyle slashed pouring spells while looking back. In his sight were exhausted, wounded soldiers. Sara's robes were stained with blood. Remia shook an empty quiver upside down.
...I see.
Kyle made his decision.
"......We retreat."
The Hero ordered retreat.
The symbol of victory admitted defeat. At that fact, the knights' eyes wavered. The spears and swords of knights who had fought fiercely despite fear paused briefly.
They looked at Kyle in disbelief.
Kyle shouted once more.
"Retreat! We abandon the eastern front!"
The defeat on his lips was humiliating.
Enduring the humiliation, Kyle gritted his teeth. Watching them retreat, the ancient lich burst into sneering laughter.
That day, the Hero was defeated by the ancient lich.
It didn't take long for the rumor to spread to the capital.
3.
The road to the north.
In the carriage, I had quite a few conversations with Rak. It wasn't just because he was the only one to talk to.
Surprisingly, we click well.
Rak nodded to whatever I said. Since he accepted first without much suspicion, it was quite enjoyable to talk.
"Indeed, I see..."
Above all, Rak was straightforward.
Rak's questions were simple and fundamental, providing plenty of topics. You know, like "Who is the strongest?"—truly one-dimensional questions.
"By the way, Professor."
Rak suddenly asked me a question.
It was still a simple one.
"In your opinion, Professor, who is the strongest mage?"
"Of course, me..."
"You?"
"The mage who received three stars from Ra... the Ashen Mage, Raniel, right?"
"Is that so?"
"...Rak, you seem to think differently?"
I narrowed my eyes.
Rak swallowed nervously and replied.
"No, well... Isn't there the Ancient Dragon Mage too...?"
"Hey, that's off-limits. That one isn't even a mage to begin with. Not human either. How to put it... their very existence is different."
"Pardon? It sounds like you've met them..."
"...I heard it from Raniel."
I hurriedly added.
"Still, next would be Raniel, right?"
"Called the strongest mage in the human realm... Yes, Raniel seems next."
"Exactly."
Hm, I nodded but then blinked.
It felt like recognition limited to a narrow scope.
"Human realm's strongest?"
"Yes? Well, aren't there strong mages in the demon realm too...?"
"...For example?"
"Like the heretic or the ancient lich..."
"The heretic isn't a mage. She's a summoner. You can't view that lunatic as a mage."
"Pardon? Isn't Resti a summoner too...?"
"...Resti is different."
I fell silent for a moment.
...Fuck, am I not even second place?
No, but the heretic uses weird arms. Among pureblood mages, I'm the strongest. I decided to think that way.
"Then the ancient lich, Skeval..."
"He's trash."
"...Pardon?"
"He gets beaten by the Ashen Mage all the time."
"Uh..."
Rak wore a very subtle expression.
I nodded and grinned brightly.
"Anyway, the Ashen Mage is the strongest."
"Ah, I see..."
It felt like reluctant agreement, but whatever.
'It's all true.'
I spoke only irrefutable facts, without a shred of lie.