Chapter 327
Chapter 327
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 327
Chapter Title: Overturn the Board (5)
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◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Ancient Lich Skeval.
Like any mage who had lived through countless ages, Skeval too harbored an inflated sense of self.
The arrogance of believing himself superior to others. The conceit that he was closer to the truth than anyone else. The delusion that, having survived this long, he must be the strongest of them all.
Arrogance, conceit, and delusion.
No one had ever shattered them.
And so, for centuries, Skeval had reigned as a nightmare over mages and a calamity on the battlefield.
"Come down here, you bastard."
Until he faced the mage of the ashen lineage. On that day, Skeval tasted defeat for the first time in hundreds of years. A humiliating, excruciating defeat. Yet his bloated ego refused to accept it.
Time passed once more.
"Oh, you're back again?"
As time flowed on and on.
"What'd you bring this time?"
There had been several defeats.
Too many to dismiss lightly with the word "several"—humiliations that chilled him to the bone. Skeval no longer averted his eyes from them.
'I admit it.'
The possibility that he, whom he'd once deemed extraordinary, might actually be pathetic. Enduring the shame of those defeats just to consider it, Skeval returned to his roots.
'For the sake of my goal.'
He would cast aside anything.
'No ugly deed too low.'
Before the mage who had crushed him time and again, Skeval shed everything and faced his rival as a mage once more.
Use everything at my disposal.
Skeval's robe billowed.
Black crystal orbs floated out from within.
"I'll kill you, Ashen Mage."
"Yeah, sure."
Raniel just nodded dismissively.
2.
Seeing the orbs rise, Raniel impassively pressed her palm to her chest. She'd already fallen victim to those damned crystals once before.
'Can't fall for the same trick twice.'
She had countermeasures ready.
Squeeze.
Her fingers dug into her skin.
With a grind, Raniel rotated the circuit etched into her heart half a turn. Her heart pounded fiercely, and her eyes turned ashen.
The floating orbs emitted waves.
The shadows pooled in her heart rippled in response, but the faster-spinning circuit suppressed them. That magic tool would never work on her again.
Snap.
Raniel flicked her fingers.
A stocked spell unleashed, and a barrage of flashes hovered above her head. Too massive for arrows, they resembled spears. It was her favorite spell.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ Smite Raniel swung her hand lightly.
The flashes shot skyward in erratic trajectories. Skeval's orbs intercepted them, but the beams pierced through toward him.
Screeeeech!
Abandoning all dignity as an ancient lich, Skeval dodged midair. His robe flapped as the beams pursued.
While evading, Skeval countered with spells of his own. Black flames incinerated the flashes, and elemental spells shot them down...
Boom.
A cannon-like roar echoed in Skeval's ears. His head snapped around. Following the mana signature upward, he saw Raniel hovering higher than him.
Humans couldn't fly.
She'd leaped up with pure leg strength—could a mage even do that? No time for such obvious doubts. Something even more vicious was gathering in that inhuman mage's grasp.
Skeval knew its nature now.
The spell symbolic of ash.
He'd felt its horrifying power firsthand. As Skeval layered protective spells, Raniel spun gracefully in the air.
⟨ Ashes to Ashes ⟩
Flashes engulfed Skeval.
Light struck first, followed by a delayed BOOM! Like thunder crashing.
Bang!
Skeval plummeted vertically into the ground, rising amid the debris with a hand on the rubble. His rigorous training had paid off—he could react to that spell now.
Creak, grind.
But he didn't let his guard down.
Skeval chanted immediately. Countless circuits etched in the sky lit up one by one. Raniel, still airborne, merely glanced up indifferently at the onslaught.
Bolts of lightning.
A downpour of flames.
Razor-sharp rock spikes.
Icicles freezing all they touched.
Every elemental magic rained down like a storm. A sight that would stun any mage, but Raniel just swung her arm lazily.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ Smash The spells scattered.
Each snap of her fingers or swing of her arm unleashed stocked spells, brushing aside Skeval's assaults effortlessly.
Activation speed, power—Raniel held the edge in everything. Her blue mana was even mutating to ash gray. Skeval had no confidence against that curse-like mana.
'But.'
Skeval shook the dust from his robe. Filth dripped from it, hissing as it melted the stone floor.
'This much was expected.'
The real show started now...
"Hiding something, huh?"
The voice came from right in front of him.
Skeval's dark eyes contracted. Raniel landed amid falling rubble, having shot down like a bullet, standing before him.
Crunch.
She seized his skull.
Her hero-level grip crushed it. Already at a disadvantage, allowing close range made it worse.
Slam!
His skull smashed into the stone.
Still pinned, Raniel stepped forward.
Scraaaape!
His head dragged across the ground.
The earth shook with each deliberate step as she yanked him up.
Creak, grind.
A straining sound came from Raniel's body.
Skeval couldn't know it was her muscles at their limit. He just braced for the impact.
Raniel raised her arm and slammed his skull down again—not with brute force alone, but layered spells.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ Accel + Shock + Smash Three spells flashed, amplified impact rattling his skull. Cracks spiderwebbed across it. He tried to resist, but mana wouldn't gather once gripped.
Blame that damned ashen mana.
Raniel smashed his defenseless skull repeatedly into the stone. Brutish, but efficient. His head began to shatter.
One last time.
Layering spells, she drove it into the plaza floor.
Slam!
It was over.
Tiles exploded outward, skull fragments flying. Raniel crushed the exposed brain and phylactery.
Crunch!
Shattered phylactery oozed onto the ground.
Seeing Skeval's remaining bones crumbling in the crater, Raniel turned away. After a few steps, she glanced back.
"Well."
She let out a scoff.
"Wonder what you prepared..."
She'd definitely crushed the phylactery.
Smashed the skull too. Yet Skeval didn't die. A new phylactery reassembled the skull, raising his body anew.
Flash.
Dark blue eyes gleamed once more.
"Didn't I tell you?"
Crackle.
Stone fragments fell as his body floated. Eyes scattering dark light, Skeval spread his arms wide. Beneath the flapping robe, his phylactery rose into the air.
"Hundreds of years of hoarded lives."
The ancient lich murmured quietly.
"All to kill you."
Pride and mage's dignity cast aside. Only obsession for his goal remained. If one life failed, try until it worked.
"Behold the truth, Ashen One."
This was his way.
3.
Spell clashed against spell.
Raniel, who had held back against the madman, now poured everything into crushing Skeval. She pressed close; he desperately fled.
Spells tangled.
To block her, Skeval unleashed barrages, which she deflected without letting stray, continuing the pursuit.
Flashes struck.
She thrust her hand through flames.
Skeval raised earth to bar her.
Even if she caught and burst his skull at the end, he'd just pull another phylactery.
"What a pain in the ass."
Raniel pulverized his third skull, trampling his body to dust. But from some hidden phylactery, he revived.
Truly, stashed everywhere.
Raniel clicked her tongue, narrowing her eyes.
She knew Skeval's game.
Drag it into attrition, then flip the tide with crystals and phylactery spells when she tired.
'Attrition war, huh?'
Raniel exhaled shortly.
Conserving mana, she eyed the Ashen Mage Tower. From the overflowing filth and gathering strange mana, she back-calculated her time.
The answer: not much leeway.
No time to play along with his plan. As she tightened her heart to end it swiftly—
"You seem pressed, Ashen One."
Skeval laughed from midair.
"You'll lose. Your loss won't be yours alone—it'll doom all humanity."
He cackled.
"You don't know the madman!"
"You, all of you, don't know the lunatic who hates even the stars. That's why you can't prepare!"
The first madman.
Skeval knew how meticulously he'd planned for this moment. He'd watched up close.
"The traitors' demon horde they've unleashed here will slaughter humans. Everything you fought to protect is crumbling. But you can do nothing!"
A taunt to shake her mind.
Did it work? Her eyebrow twitched. Skeval raised his voice.
"The madman has scouted every force in the capital down to the last. And prepared an unstoppable horde."
One variable, though.
"The only wildcard—you—is tied up here by me. You're all dancing in the madman's palm. You're as good as defeated!"
Skeval spread his arms, unleashing a secretly prepared spell using the tower's filth. Black waves crashed over Raniel. Beneath, she bowed her head silently.
Taunt landed perfectly.
Mind shaken.
As Skeval moved to laugh at his first solid hit—
"You got me there on the carelessness."
Even before the waves, Raniel's voice was eerily calm. Too serene. Skeval's eyes contracted.
"Yeah, I'm rattled too."
She admitted coolly.
Never imagined such a massive incursion at the capital's heart. She hadn't gauged the first madman's strength right, admitting her defenses fell short.
Black Storm, the Black Dragon: subjugated.
Death's Sword, Ganikalt: repelled in the north.
Traitor, Gletus: impaled by Glahal's spear, crippled.
After fending off disasters, she'd grown complacent, she berated herself. But that didn't mean zero preparation.
"Ever think there's a reason I let my guard down?"
Boom—she stomped.
The ground quaked as her body accelerated repeatedly. Clutching rising ash, she charged straight into the waves.
Whoosh!
Becoming a streak of fire, Raniel pierced the waves. Flames erupted in her wake, snaking up the tower like serpents to the airborne Skeval.
Crunch!
Closing the gap instantly, she gripped his head. Flame-wreathed fingers hissed, digging into his skull. Thrusting into the dark sockets, she spoke.
"Scouted every force fully?"
Unstoppable horde?
She laughed.
"Sorry, your intel's outdated."
Gripping his skull, Raniel kicked off the tower's exterior, soaring high. From where the capital sprawled below, she shouted.
"Can't stop it? Like hell, you moron."
Skeval saw the same.
The horde meant to turn the capital into hell was being pushed back rapidly. Where did it start? Aphria Academy's location. The flow from there swept the demons away in seconds.
Raniel smirked.
There was a reason for her lapse.
Conviction that anything could be stopped. No matter the variable... unlike old days when she alone guarded the capital.
"Should've brought the traitor or Death's Sword if you wanted to topple it."
A warrior wielded the first holy sword.
A shaman contracted with primordial gods.
A hero inherited Glahal's will.
A mage bore the gods' eyes.
A star-independent child commanded them.
And a superhuman ground demons unseen. Without a calamity, none could stop them. Raniel's job: signal them.
Come here.
'Here—the source of it all.'
To make a signal visible citywide, Raniel became a flame streak. Smashing Skeval's head into the tower's edge, she ran along its perimeter.
Hiiiiss!
Each step melted stocked spells into the flames. They burned shadows, leaving fire seals. Her footprints were spell circuits.
A path ground from his skull.
Exquisite circuits stamped by her feet.
The final step landed lightly.
Crowning the endpoint, she slammed his burning skull to the ground. Period. Circuit complete.
Snap.
Flames raced the fuse.
The massive spell, visible everywhere, erupted in flash to collapse the shadow-veiled tower. The Ashen Mage Tower area blazed white.
BOOOOOOM!
Flashes pulsed, then thunderous roar hammered the area like a bolt from the heavens.
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