Chapter 150
Chapter 150
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 150
Chapter Title: Archmage Empress (5)
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Kant’s hand trembled the moment he laid eyes on Theo.
Out of fear?
No.
-It was excitement.
He knew it instinctively.
‘You’re no inferior to me at all!’
He had heard plenty about Theo.
A prodigy who graduated the Awakening Ceremony with the highest score in history.
Appointed as a combat swordsman in record time.
And then conquering the Bu-yu Archipelago’s autonomous region.
Each achievement was monumental, things even he would struggle to accomplish.
So when he thought about clashing with Theo, he figured it would let him gauge the caliber of the Ragnar prodigy they boasted about—giving him insight into how to steer the Wanderer Knights’ Alliance moving forward.
With the war between Ragnar and Troyvan dragging on in the North, small outfits like theirs would need to scramble for ways to survive.
But now that he was actually facing Theo, all those calculations vanished.
All that remained in his chest was a burning competitive fire.
His instincts as a swordsman were screaming.
-He had already forgotten about retrieving Cassandra.
Chaaaang!
And that instinct solidified the instant their blades first crossed.
“Not bad! Your fundamentals are rock-solid, beyond what I’d expect from someone who rose so fast. Did Evelyn Nereville train you by any chance?”
“You know Senior Evelyn?”
“Of course.”
A smile crept onto Kant’s lips.
“I’m the one who straightened out Evelyn’s wandering blade in her youth.”
“……!”
“Haha. In a way, that makes you and me teacher and grand-disciple.”
Theo’s eyes darkened deeply.
Kant, on the other hand, looked utterly thrilled.
“For a wanderer’s sword—without lord or home—to reach Ragnar’s heir! What an honor!”
Chachachang!
Theo and Kant’s swords clashed in a flurry of exchanges in an instant.
Their styles seemed different at first glance, yet somehow similar.
The way they held their swords, the direction of their steps, even the length of their strides.
Theo could definitely glimpse Evelyn in Kant’s form.
‘Never imagined the kingslayer was Evelyn’s swordmaster.’
Even in his past life, the Wanderer Knights’ Alliance had risen in rebellion alongside Troyvan.
They dealt heavy blows to Ragnar, and many swordsmen had to lay down their lives to suppress them.
Kant’s image in particular—wielding his blade like a demon soaked in blood—lingered in many minds for years.
‘But.’
Theo gripped Drake’s Edge tightly.
‘I’ll win.’
It wasn’t arrogance.
It was certainty.
Creeeeeng!
As his inner aura surged, the dragon scales protruding along the blade all glowed yellow at once.
Pajijijik—
Lightning crackled up simultaneously.
The sword strike hurled Kant back hard.
Kant’s eyes widened hugely.
“Cassandra!”
At Theo’s shout, a faint echo of Cassandra’s laughter rang out from where she’d been hiding amid the ghosts in the central mausoleum.
「I’ve been waiting for you to call.」
The mana flowing through the cave suddenly grew heavy.
<Binding>
Chrrrrlk!
Magical chains burst from the ground, shackling Kant’s limbs.
Kant quickly erupted his aura to shatter them,
But the Wanderer Knights’ Alliance knights searching for Cassandra, the One-Sword Society swordsmen still lost in hallucinations, and the hidden Black Shadow Squad assassins couldn’t react in time.
“W-What the—!”
“Magic out of nowhere?!”
“Damn it! My mana’s draining!”
[Energy Drain]
The chains’ horror lay in how they siphoned mana at a ferocious pace.
Spells impossible without at least a 6th-circle high mage.
“A mage in your group? When did this…?!”
Kant, who hadn’t heard a whisper of it, couldn’t help but stiffen.
He’d never dream Cassandra had brought the soul of the future’s infamous Archmage Empress.
Theo saw no need to answer, so he squeezed every drop of mana while reviewing the sword arts he’d learned before.
‘Black Flame Dark Sun.’
An old Ragnar secret art that became the Troyvan family head’s hidden technique.
Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump!
The Dragon’s Heart pounded wildly, resonating with his dantian.
[All buffs activate.]
[Duration: 6 minutes.]
Every ancient dragon relic he wore reacted at once, infusing Drake’s Edge with immense power.
Theo’s mana exploded outward.
The lightning cloaking the blade roiled violently, twisting into spheres in midair.
The thunderball born that way ballooned instantly, blanketing the cavern ceiling.
-T-That’s…!
-The sun…! The sun has risen!
-Replacing the boss’s black flames with lightning?
-Ah!
-With the boss’s secret art passed on, we can die without regrets….
The ghosts gasped in awe or shed moved tears at the thunderball illuminating the cave.
Long-forgotten memories from the past flooded back vividly.
Whenever that sun rose, they always felt at ease.
It was like the banner heralding the family’s victory!
‘This could go really wrong if I’m not careful.’
Meanwhile, Theo gritted his teeth, feeling his mana deplete far faster than expected.
The thunderball began spinning, sucking in mana ever quicker—the faster it spun, the more mana it devoured.
He’d substituted thunder for flames due to his affinity, but electromagnetism seemed to amplify the effect.
‘One slip and it’ll blow. So before that—’
Theo kept his focus to the end, arduously swinging Drake’s Edge upward.
—Cut it.
“Such a—!”
Kant guessed his intent and kicked off the ground again.
He could sense the thunderball’s power.
The air in the cave was already scorching enough to burn skin from the heat it radiated,
And every random spark whipped up qi vortices.
But before that, a flash surged alongside Nibelrung’s Claw, slicing the thunderball diagonally.
Shlik—
The bisected thunderball slid apart left and right.
[First Form - Solar Eclipse]
In the same instant, the cave plunged into pitch darkness as if on cue,
And the split thunderball detonated, scattering fragments everywhere.
Each fragment became a bolt of lightning, slamming ferociously into the ground.
“N-No…!”
“U-Uwaa…!”
Kwarung!
The screams of the binding-trapped swordsmen were utterly drowned by the thunder.
Their bodies fared no better.
The moment lightning struck, they charred black, unrecognizable husks.
Where the eclipse ended.
The sweltering cave was thick with drifting black ash.
“W-What… in the… world…?”
Only Kant, the sole survivor, stood with a face steeped in shock.
But even he was in bad shape.
His right arm was gone, torn clean off—its sword charred black, stabbed into the floor.
That one strike had vaporized all the subordinates he’d sworn to stand with for life.
His irreplaceable arm too.
“T-That sword… what… is it…?”
Regaining some composure, Kant forced the words out.
Here, he foresaw his death.
But even in dying, shouldn’t he know the blade that felled him?
“Yeouiju Taeyang.”
“Yeouiju…? Yeouiju, you say.”
Kant mulled the name.
“I’ve heard tales of the jewel the eastern dragons clutch in their mouths, called that. They say it holds the power of lightning, thunder, gales, and storms—enough for eastern folk to revere dragons as gods?”
Kant smiled faintly.
“Indeed… it… suits… better… than… anything…!”
Fsssh—
With that, Kant crumbled into fine dust and vanished.
Facing the eclipse head-on, surviving this long was impressive in itself.
-Yeouiju Taeyang, huh.
-No more worry of the secret art being lost in battle.
-But it’s still rough. Energy loss rate too high, right?
-Yeah. Needs refining there.
-How should we approach it?
Emotion aside.
The ghosts swiftly brainstormed ways to improve Theo’s [Yeouiju Taeyang].
One thought unified their minds.
-Perfect this secret art for Theo, make it Ragnar’s greatest masterpiece!
Just glimpsing the path filled them with zeal rivaling the living.
Theo gave a slight smile at the ghosts, then fixed his gaze forward.
Someone was approaching.
The battle wasn’t over yet.
* * *
“Hot.”
The Blue Wyrm Captain entered the mausoleum entrance with his subordinates.
The stench of burns assaulted his nose alongside the heat.
He’d rushed in after massive thunderclaps shook the cave like it might collapse….
“Looks like a real scrap went down. Thought it was just two or three combat swordsmen at most. Or did that Selector brat snag the sword tomb already?”
Tsk!
The Blue Wyrm Captain clicked his tongue in annoyance.
He’d painstakingly tracked down that oracle-gifted imperial with the foresight ability to claim the sword tomb, even luring out the spy called ‘Alpha’ from the mausoleum.
Now it felt like handing a perfectly set table to some bastard on a silver platter.
Arct would explode when he found out.
“Gotta recover the goods before Lord Bong arrives.”
“Understood!”
“Understood!”
“And… we’ll need Bishop Kali’s help too.”
“Heh. I’ve been waiting for those words. The sanctuary’s further ruin was already hard to stomach.”
Kali appeared with a sly smile.
“See you soon.”
Sssrk!
The Blue Wyrm Captain tsked as the bishop vanished like a mirage.
He wasn’t thrilled about sharing the sword tomb with those guys.
‘All that’s left is striking the back of their heads while they relax, thinking the encirclement’s broken?’
The Blue Wyrm Captain could only hope the dagger planted in their heart stayed sharp.
* * *
“Theo! You okay?”
Ray rushed to Theo anxiously.
Steam still rose faintly from him.
His skin was flushed red-hot.
Leaving him like that would strain his body, so she planned to cool him with her frost affinity.
But,
“Ray, hold on a sec.”
“Huh…?”
Ray paused, blinking.
She couldn’t grasp why Theo was glaring at Od.
Hadn’t he been the one to save them from Troyvan’s encirclement?
Sure, he hadn’t shone in the fighting, and when Kant and Barosa showed, he’d vanished without a trace.
But he’d managed this mausoleum for ages, on friendly terms with the earth dragon—loyal to Ragnar for so long…!
“Since when? When did your heart turn from Ragnar?”
Not just Ray—even Selphid, checking Arin’s condition, whipped his gaze to Od.
A bitter smile tugged at Od’s lips.
“What’re you…!”
“Drop the act. This mausoleum was a place they couldn’t know without someone leaking info. You said so yourself, Od. And moreover.”
Theo paused, glancing at the ghosts.
They nodded solemnly now.
Confirming his hunch.
That gave Theo even more certainty.
“Above all, that swordplay you showed briefly… it resembled the absent captain’s sword tomb a lot. Didn’t it?”
“…….”
In that moment, Od’s face hardened.