Chapter 330
Chapter 330
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 330
Chapter Title: Assembly (3)
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◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Twisted circuits floated in the air.
They were circuits Raniel had never encountered before, yet ones she knew of, however superficially. In other words, the circuits of ancient Arcadia.
Magic erased from human history.
Spells that had vanished into the dusty back alleys of the past.
Ancient sorcery lost to humanity was now revealing itself right here. As a mage, Raniel wanted to marvel at the sight, but she knew she couldn't afford to. Her expression hardened.
'...What a pain.'
Ancient circuits.
She had faced them several times battling Skeval, but the ones floating now were far more refined than his. The roots were the same, but the branches extending from them were countless.
Impossible to predict.
And if she couldn't predict them, she couldn't act rashly.
She had no idea in what direction or manner these ancient circuits had set their traps. She needed to proceed with caution, but...
'My condition isn't good enough for that.'
She had burned countless demonic beasts to reach this point.
In her haste to end the fight with Skeval quickly, she had overtaxed herself, drawing on mana excessively and overheating the circuits etched into her heart. Her mana was plummeting rapidly.
And time was short.
"......"
Raniel fell silent.
Her opponent was a mage who wielded at least four classes. She still didn't know his limits. Nor did she know what those floating circuits would do.
The unknown.
Things she didn't yet understand.
What move should she make against it? What was her role here? Raniel derived the answer. Her eyes, moving swiftly, spotted a wriggling seed in the center of the top floor.
"You crazy bastard."
Raniel muttered without thinking.
The madman, hearing her, nodded.
"Thanks for the compliment."
Immediately after, the circuits lit up one by one.
As blinding flashes erupted, Raniel casually stepped to the side. She extended her arm. With that reach, she grasped the clue that would turn this fight in her favor.
A girl holding her breath, leaning against the wall.
Raniel seized Resti Eleanor.
2.
Resti Eleanor was confused.
What had she just heard?
When Professor Lania burst through the firmly shut door, Resti had felt relieved. With Professor Lania there, anything seemed possible. But the madman's words that followed left her silent.
「Raniel van Trias.」
「I've been waiting for you, Ashen Mage.」
Not Lania, but Raniel.
Not the successor, but the Ashen Mage.
The madman had said it clearly, and Raniel hadn't denied it. That was as good as affirmation. Resti glanced sidelong at Raniel's profile. Her expression remained unchanged.
...Professor Lania is Sir Raniel?
For a moment, Resti couldn't process the information.
Resti had spent years being compared to Raniel and treated with contempt because of it. To say there was no resentment born from that would be a lie. It had diluted a lot by now, but...
Still, Resti Eleanor didn't hold a very favorable impression of the Ashen Mage.
To Resti, Raniel van Trias was a wall she had to someday surpass. But what was Lania to her? The one who had become her second mentor. And her lifesaver.
Caught between that gap, Resti panicked.
As she swallowed dryly, unable to accept the revelation, someone suddenly gripped her wrist.
"...Professor?"
It was Lania.
Lania said nothing. She pulled Resti's arm, hoisting her up. Then she kicked off the ground and started running.
Flash!
A blinding light exploded right after.
Spells of unrecognizable form swept through the area. Raniel evaded them on instinct and began running along the walls.
The top floor of the Mage Tower.
As she dashed through the vast hollow where all walls had crumbled, Raniel snapped her fingers. The ground shook, the terrain shifting. The Mage Tower was built of magic stones.
Rumble rumble rumble!
The seams between magic stones.
Not the entire tower, but she knew how the stones on this top floor connected. Now, she severed those connections.
The magic stones separated.
Riding mana flows, they floated into the air.
The collapsed floor rose into the sky, and the ceiling crumbled, letting sunlight seep in. Leaping from floating chunk to chunk, Raniel dodged the spells.
Screeeee!
Heat rays grazed past.
Dozens of spikes rained down from above.
Dodging them all by a hair's breadth, Raniel opened her mouth.
"Listen up, Resti."
Resti looked up at Raniel.
"In ten seconds, I'll reset all these floating magic stones."
Raniel stared straight ahead as she ran.
"That's your chance."
She leaped high.
Landing in midair with conjured chains, Raniel caught her breath briefly. She looked at Resti. Her pale blue eyes fixed on Resti.
"It's insane, but it's the only play we've got."
Raniel said something.
The moment Resti heard it, her eyes widened. It was insane. At the very least, not a viable option in this situation.
"...You're serious?"
Raniel nodded.
Resti swallowed hard.
Her mind was a whirlwind. Suddenly learning the truth, she didn't know how to face the woman before her. It was so disorienting, yet...
"I trust you."
The moment she met Raniel's eyes, Resti felt her mind clear. Those pale blue eyes. Among countless gazes, only those eyes had ever truly seen her.
「You can do it, right?」
「I believe in you.」
Eyes that had seen not the next Ashen Mage Tower Lord, but Resti Eleanor as a person. In those unchanging eyes, Resti realized her duty hadn't changed.
To answer the faith placed in her.
Resti nodded.
Raniel smiled faintly.
"Thanks."
Raniel stomped the ground.
The floating magic stones snapped back into place in an instant. Like time rewinding, the tower's structure reformed, blocking the madman's view.
When everything settled.
Resti planted her feet on the ground.
She slowly opened her eyes.
Platinum rings layered over Resti's wide-open pupils. One, two, three.
"...What?"
The madman faltered for a moment.
Three platinum rings in her eyes.
Before the girl who had awakened the mage-god's gaze, the madman swallowed nervously.
And then, he realized another fact.
Raniel van Trias had her eyes closed.
Crouched low, she had no intention of opening them. Through his narrowed eyes, the madman saw the spell Raniel had cast.
Shared Vision.
Like a Summoner linking sight with their familiar, Raniel had connected her vision to Resti's. The madman understood what that meant.
Resti closed one eye.
Raniel opened one eye.
"Holy shit."
Raniel burst into laughter.
"So this is what it feels like?"
Drip.
Blood trickled from Raniel's nose and eyes. One without the Watcher's gift had peered into the stars' sight. Bloodshot veins burst in her eyes as payment.
But she didn't close them.
Enduring the agony, Raniel took a step forward.
"You're done."
3.
The Watcher's sight jammed the essence of everything it beheld into her mind. No human body could sustain it long.
'Ten seconds at most.'
That was the limit for Resti and herself.
Raniel pondered it as she moved.
The moment she stepped forward, ash erupted wildly from her body. She resolved to stake everything on those ten seconds.
She burned every last drop of mana.
Enveloped in ash-transformed mana, Raniel charged. The madman's circuits filled the space, glowing. Until moments ago, they had been incomprehensible ancient circuits... but not to her now.
'I can see it.'
Seeing meant understanding.
Raniel reached for the glowing circuits. Though she'd never seen them before, she fully comprehended their structure.
She hooked her curved fingers like claws into the circuit and yanked.
Shatter!
The circuit unraveled.
The instant she dismantled one, Raniel grasped the knack. She applied it immediately, firing dozens of mana bolts in all directions.
Crack!
A bolt slammed into the circuit's core.
The ash mana within disrupted its formation. Dozens of circuits were neutralized in a breath. The remaining ones targeted Raniel and glowed... but their trajectories, their paths, were all read in the Watcher's eyes. Amid the searing pain in her corneas, Raniel strained her sight harder.
Detect. See it all. Understand.
The madman summoned every familiar he had.
Knights surged forth, a dragon tangled in sewage roared... but it didn't last. An ashen figure flashed through them. Explosions followed with belated booms.
"...Like a berserker."
The madman muttered, leaping back.
Proving why he was called a grand mage, he wielded four spell categories at once.
Necromancy, shamanism, elemental spells, summoning.
He offered the grudge spirits of the dead as shamanic tribute, unleashing massive elemental spells with substituted mana. He scattered summons to bind Raniel's feet.
The completed spell was Heavenly Judgment.
Rumble crash!
A massive flash from above shattered the Mage Tower's ceiling. The layered resistance spells coating the tower tore like paper, and the light swallowed Raniel.
Supreme magic.
Constraints limited its area, meant to annihilate the surroundings. Yet someone burst through the flash.
Spraying blood.
Ignoring her own body.
A mage charging forward, eyes fixed ahead.
In those bloodshot eyes, the madman sensed a spark of madness. She had pierced a supreme spell bare-bodied, trusting only her ash mana against it.
The distance closed.
The madman clicked his tongue, trying to blur his form. He was originally a shadow without shape. If he shed his flesh temporarily and fled...
That was his thought.
Crunch.
A familiar lunged from thin air, biting the madman's body. Physical attacks from familiars wouldn't work on his shadow form, he thought, so he didn't dodge.
But that was a mistake.
The madman's eyes widened.
Burning pain. The wolf's fangs tearing into him shimmered with ash mana. He glared at the girl behind Raniel.
The mana he thought only the Ashen Mage could wield... the girl was using it too, faintly.
The ash mana in the wolf's fangs pinned him in place, preventing escape. Unable to turn to shadow, the madman let out a hollow laugh.
"Hah..."
The distance closed completely.
The Ashen Mage closed in, spraying blood, reaching out. That ash-wreathed hand finally touched the madman.
"Got you."
Raniel laughed.
Gripping the madman's head, she slammed it into the floor. She unleashed all her gathered mana in one burst.
Ashes to ashes.
A blinding flash.
Brighter than the heavenly judgment, it swept the area, followed by a deafening roar.
BOOOOM!
The floor collapsed.
The ground exploded, and the two plummeted to the lower levels. The madman tried to mend his ragged body, but the damned ash mana hindered regeneration.
'But...'
Unlike the Ashen Mage who had poured everything into that strike, he still had mana left. As he reached for the falling Ashen Mage—
She was smiling.
Even in obvious defeat, she smiled.
A hidden card? No way.
In that moment, he realized his vision had narrowed. Outside it, someone kicked off the ground and leaped into the air.
Guarder, Kalt.
He caught Raniel's falling body and slid to a graceful landing. Unlike him, the madman, sprawled ignobly on the ground, slowly rose.
"...Hah."
Then, he let out a hollow laugh.
Raniel, barely standing with the superhuman's support.
Several figures stepped forward protectively. Reading the colors of their souls, the madman burst into mad laughter.
Rak van Grace.
Axe planted in the ground, he clutched the air. In response to his call, the holy sword once held by the first hero appeared in his grasp.
Belnoa van Dragonic.
Dry winds swirled around the boy contracted with primordial gods. At his feet, shadows of birth—not the madman's kind—lingered.
Stella, Aila.
Blessings of the stars dwelled around the star-loved girl. The madman's shadows couldn't approach Aila. He instinctively recoiled from the life born to oppose him.
And the hero bearing dual glories.
"Hero, Chloe."
Chloe, Hero of the Holy Stream.
"We're joining the fray."
Those who would lead the next era had assembled.
The board had flipped.
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