Chapter 186
Chapter 186
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 186
Chapter Title: Omen (5)
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Superhumans have transcended humanity, yet they remain human.
They have not been blessed by the stars.
They have not been chosen by the stars.
They have not been loved by the stars.
And yet, that is fine.
It matters not if they receive no blessings, no choices, no love. They will reach the pinnacle through their humanity alone, without aid from any transcendent being.
Of course, it is no easy path.
They forsake something, obsess over something, rage at something—and in doing so, shatter their own limits. Every superhuman arrives in that realm broken, as if that breakage is the price.
Here stand three such superhumans.
Each ascended to that rank in their own way.
The Sword Ghost, Draka, is hatred and obsession.
He sought vengeance for his daughter.
The broken oath he could not keep, the lost territory, the horrific death of his child—they shattered him. He became a specter haunting battlefields, pursuing only traitors.
The Sword Transcendent, Kuntel, is tenacity.
He sought to break the blade of death, Ganikalt.
A past where even raising his sword before calamity was impossible. A past where he had to abandon his homeland. Those memories drove Kuntel to take up the sword. He devoted his life to training, gripping a single blade.
And finally, the madman.
The Madman, Kellrhalhm.
The mage who lived a century in madness.
"Celestia von Artanim, my disciple." "Artia, my homeland." "All who became ashes here, on this day, in this place." "I swear before you." A human who became a superhuman, gripped by madness.
"The immortal life you granted me, this endless existence of unknown end—I shall live it entirely for you." He endured a madman's life for that one oath.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Aphria was shrouded in darkness.
Swallowed by the black barrier, Aphria lay silent. Everyone inside slumbered. They wandered unbreakable nightmares. And in that artificial stillness came several thunderous roars.
Kwaaaaaang!
Explosions erupted one after another in the sky.
Storms of clashing mana shook Aphria repeatedly.
『How pathetic.』
The smoke from the explosions cleared.
Revealed within was an ancient lich.
『Do you think enlightenment comes in a mere century? I have lived for hundreds of years.』
He raised an arm woven of bone.
In response, dozens of circuits filled the air. Glowing in the darkness, they resembled moonlight.
『Behold.』
Moons merged.
Four massive moons rose.
『Are you not still human?』
The ancient lich flicked his wrist.
The glowing moon in the darkness plummeted toward the ground. By the time it fell, it was no longer a circuit. It was a house-sized blaze, a storm-like wind, a tearing bolt of lightning.
"Split."
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ Split In response, the madman swung his finger.
Dozens of preloaded circuits split at once. Dozens became hundreds, hundreds became thousands.
The split circuits glowed.
Thousands of spells pursued the four spells unleashed by the ancient lich. Water pierced the blaze's core. Stone boulders blocked the lightning barrage. If one failed, dozens attacked. If dozens weren't enough, hundreds. If hundreds fell short, thousands swarmed.
Kwaaaaaang!
Another roar echoed.
Having neutralized the spells once more, the madman exhaled.
『Crude method.』
The ancient lich frowned at the sight.
To Skeval, Kellrhalhm's spells were utterly crude. Splitting a single spell, splitting it again and again, overwhelming with quantity.
『You think to face me with such methods? Is that why you stand there?』
"Who knows."
Kellrhalhm's expression remained unchanged.
As restrictions lifted one by one, only the flames in his eyes grew fiercer.
"We'll see."
The madman, Kellrhalhm.
Superhuman of the mage lineage.
Flick.
He swung his finger once, yet dozens of circuits completed. They unfurled noisily in the air.
Chrararak!
Sword transcendents, who cross life and death in close quarters with a blade in hand, gain near-prophetic super-senses. Then what of a mage-lineage superhuman like himself?
'Accelerated thought, simultaneous calculations.'
Accelerated computation.
Assembling circuits in his mind, linking spell formulas. If sword transcendents' super-senses always stayed one step ahead, his computational speed allowed response to all.
That sensation returned now.
Awakening the senses he'd bound to restrain his reason, Kellrhalhm spoke.
"Hundreds of years of life, a century of life. Near-eternal existence."
Kellrhalhm swung his finger as he continued.
"What use is any of it?"
The spread circuits glowed.
"In my century, I gained nothing I desired. Nor did you in your hundreds of years."
Skeval's eyes narrowed.
A sneer curled Kellrhalhm's lips. As restrictions unraveled, he reverted to his true form.
Thud, thud!
Amid the crashing spells and roars, Kellrhalhm pressed on.
"Time is always relative."
Because it is relative.
"The absolute sum of time means nothing."
The gap in time could always be surpassed.
That ancient lich's centuries might be a mere instant to another. Kellrhalhm didn't count himself among them—he wasn't arrogant.
But he knew of one such mage.
'A mage who surpassed the ancient lich's centuries.'
A famously renowned mage.
"The Ashen Mage."
Saying the name, Kellrhalhm sneered.
"Centuries surpassed by a mere twenty-year-old brat. Truly meaningful centuries."
Twitch.
Skeval's gaze wavered.
『Those words.』
A voice like scraping bone.
『You will regret them.』
Black eyes flashed.
Skeval's executioner's hood fluttered, sewage spilling forth. The pouring filth writhed on the ground as black bone disease.
"...Hoo."
Kellrhalhm exhaled briefly.
As madness eroded his body, reason slipped away. The time he could endure was shorter than expected.
'Before I lose reason completely.'
Kellrhalhm looked up.
'Take that down.'
His gaze didn't turn to the ancient lich. It fixed beyond, on the colliding shadow and starlight.
2.
The Black Spire Lord stared blankly out the window.
A massive distortion appeared where Aphria should be. The distortion soon vanished, wrapped in the black barrier... but.
'What in the world is that?'
For a brief moment, mere seconds.
He'd glimpsed it in an instant, yet the image lingered in his mind.
'Clashing mana? Distortion? Shadow...?'
Indecipherable.
Incomprehensible.
A form beyond words.
"One question."
As Yetual reeled from the incomprehensible phenomenon.
"Do you know anything about that situation?"
Kalt spoke, directing his question at the enigmatic elf beside him. Kalt was adept at reading expressions. To him, this elf wore a look as if he'd seen it before.
"......"
Cardi turned to face Kalt.
After a moment's silence, he slowly replied.
"...Not precisely. Compared to what happened in my era, the scale is laughably small. But I can hazard a guess."
"Could you explain?"
"Explaining the situation is impossible."
But, he continued.
"I can offer countermeasures, to some extent. Just remember this one thing."
Cardi added words of unknown meaning.
"This is the lesser evil to avoid the worst. It's the only method I know."
The elf's eyes narrowed.
Chill settled in them. Eyes recalling some past ordeal.
"Someone must be sacrificed."
Sacrifice.
"Someone must become the vessel."
3.
Restrictions unraveled. Madness arrived.
Madness was like wildfire. Burning away reason, spreading ever larger. Kellrhalhm felt his reason numbing gradually.
Chrarararak.
He merely conjured spells.
Near-instinctive calculations continued. Unconsciously assembled spells glowed repeatedly.
'This won't work.'
Unyielding spells poured down.
Kellrhalhm judged instinctively. He retreated, converting intercepting spells to pure defense.
A wave of spells enveloped him.
As he tried to solidify them, an anomaly struck his circuits.
『Think you can block forever?』
The ancient lich interfered with his circuits.
Until now, splitting spells finely meant losing one or two didn't matter. But this time was different.
Crack.
The unhardened spells.
Cracks spiderwebbed his ice walls. Earth walls crumbled. Flame walls began dispersing.
『Your casting speed is impressive. But that's the end.』
Skeval flicked his finger.
Black flames plummeted over Kellrhalhm's head. The house-sized blaze couldn't be blocked by incomplete spells. Kellrhalhm gritted his teeth.
Whoosh!
The fireball hit the ground, vaporizing Kellrhalhm's barriers like mist. His defensive spells tore like paper.
Sizzzzzz!
Wrapped in water, Kellrhalhm escaped the fireball. His skin charred, pus dripped from his body. Emerging, black bone diseased lunged with spears and swords, piercing him.
Drip, drip.
Blood fell. Vision shook.
Yet he endured.
Shock.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ Shock He repelled the black bone diseased, stomping the ground. Completed spells flowed across it. Dozens completed, but half were hijacked.
Kwajik!
His spell-drawing finger snapped from backlash. Amid pain, Kellrhalhm moved. Half lost, half remained.
'Use what's left.'
The earth quaked. Flipped.
He buried black bone diseased by upheaving ground, raised earth to block Skeval's spells.
『Pitiful.』
He couldn't block all.
Wounds multiplied. Vision blurred, mind faded. Still, Kellrhalhm glared, deciding his next move.
Split.
Split spells. Split again.
Power per spell, circuit mastery—his foe held every advantage. Thus, Kellrhalhm ceaselessly sought answers.
'I knew it.'
The ancient lich, Skeval.
To mages, he was nightmare incarnate. Winning a pure power contest against a centuries-old archmage was near impossible.
'But.'
Kellrhalhm knew a greater foe.
He recalled a century past.
"Isn't it ridiculous?" The woman laughing before him.
That loathsome summoner was leagues beyond this lich. Compared to her, these black bone diseased were laughable.
Per Kellrhalhm's original expectation, his foe here wasn't the ancient lich.
'It should have been that traitor.'
Anticipating the traitor, Kellrhalhm had lived under self-imposed restrictions. Means to counter the summoner were naturally prepared.
And now.
He unveiled them before the ancient lich.
"Disassemble."
One word.
At that word, chains clattered free—most of those he'd bound with his madness over a century. Mana flowed forth.
Screech, grind.
Air warped around Kellrhalhm's core.
Skeval's eyes narrowed at the sight.
'Five.'
Five restrictions left.
Shaped like a fist clutching his heart. The pinky one crumbled.
'Four.'
The one binding his mana-filled heart.
And the one shackling his soul, ruined a century ago by weighing lifespan on scales.
'Three.'
Madness devoured his mind.
Reason collapsed. Madness filled the void.
'Two.'
One remained.
The chain pierced in his heart. It couldn't be undone. Even losing reason, he mustn't lose purpose.
Crunch, crackle.
Unleashed mana surged.
Kellrhalhm's eyes widened.
'Ah.'
Calamity wasn't all he saw.
Beyond it, shadow and starlight entered his view. Kellrhalhm knew them well. Better than any.
Long ago, the scholarly city of Artia.
There too, he'd seen it.
"Ah, aah, aaaaaa!" Beams of light bursting from Celestia's body.
The shadow beneath the beams flowed up along them, devouring the starlight before reentering Celestia.
And Celestia could no longer sing of stellar beauty.
"M-Master." Black mist poured from her eyes, ears, mouth, nose—every orifice. In that instant, she was merely a vessel for something. Celestia's human spirit was unnecessary.
Was that why it broke her?
"Ah, aah. Ah." Celestia crumbled.
Her soul shattered in the black mist. The hollow vessel thus created—once holding starlight—was greedily devoured by the shadow.
It didn't last.
The vessel couldn't contain the shadow.
Celestia's flesh crumbled too.
That was a century ago. Losing Celestia then, Kellrhalhm had endlessly pondered what he must do, what he could do.
He'd faced an inscrutable concept.
No path to understanding.
But time was plentiful.
Immortal life. A century's span. Kellrhalhm thought and rethought through it all. He learned the shadow was called "shade." And much more.
Learning, realizing.
Time flowed on.
"Ah."
Now he stood here.
Different from then.
Foe different too.
'Thus.'
What he must do differed from then.
『You.』
Skeval cracked his bones.
Hundreds of instantly completed spells filled Kellrhalhm's vision. Staring at them, Kellrhalhm halted. Exhaled.
Screech, grind.
Unleashed mana surged.
To step toward the answer, Kellrhalhm drew the weapon honed over a century.
Flick.
Kellrhalhm swung his broken finger. Its path traced a circle. Flames rose along it. Skeval frowned.
'Unseen spell.'
Unfamiliar, incomprehensible. Skeval couldn't hijack it. Instead, he chose to crush with hundreds of spells. Skeval swung his hand.
Hundreds targeted Kellrhalhm.
Spell waves crashed from the sky. Black bone diseased thrust weapons from the ground. Yet Kellrhalhm didn't stop circling.
Fwoosh.
A point formed in the rotating flames.
Tick, ticktick.
Flames sucked into the point.
Flames, century-condensed mana—all converged into one. A single spell completed. Kellrhalhm named it.
"One-Off."
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ One-Off A spell containing one human life. Developed to oppose calamity.
One-Off.
Originally devised against the traitor. Thus, focused on incinerating vast areas in an instant.
Flash!
The point at Kellrhalhm's fingertip spat blinding light. The flash whipped surroundings; immense heat devoured all approaching him.
Black bone diseased burned away.
Skeval's hundreds of spells incinerated entirely. Scattered mana, everything—erased in an instant. Heat storm stripped much of Skeval's body, yet he lived.
『Insolent!』
Yet he entered temporary lull, reassembling bones. Skeval warily awaited Kellrhalhm's next spell—but none came.
Thud.
Kellrhalhm ran.
He slammed the ground, raising a stone pillar. With battered body, he dashed up the slanted pillar.
His gaze ignored Skeval.
From chanting the spell, it fixed on one place.
'Star and shade.'
Where light and shadow intertwined.
Toward it Kellrhalhm ran.
Thud, thud!
Light and shadow collided, resounding endlessly. No victor yet, but the outcome was clear.
'The shade will devour the light.'
As in the past.
'The light could resist further, could crush the shade—yet won't.'
As the star did then.
'The star will yield again. Let itself be devoured by shade.'
Kellrhalhm saw the end.
Indeed, starlight ceased resisting, moving to abandon its chosen child. The threefold starlight's connected ends were unseen.
But one child it linked to, Kellrhalhm knew.
'A child like Celestia.'
So eerily similar.
Violet hair, violet eyes. Voice so alike it shook his restrictions. In her, he'd seen his disciple.
'What should I have done then?'
From present, he viewed the past.
When Celestia was devoured by shade. What choice should he have made then, there?
He hadn't known then.
But now he did.
A century's struggle to keep his oath. At its end, a mere human reached the answer. Kellrhalhm recalled it.
'I will devour it.'
The inscription on his last restriction.
"Devour the shade." Kellrhalhm fulfilled it.
The instant he reached for the shade.
『A poor choice.』
Skeval sneered.
Kellrhalhm didn't grasp the meaning. Ungrasping, he made contact.
Gurgle.
The writhing shade swallowed him.