Chapter 337
Chapter 337
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 337
Chapter Title: Frozen Meteor
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Neila stared blankly at the pure white frozen meteorite for a moment.
Clashing head-on with Meteor. Freezing it solid in a single breath like that.
All of it was utterly impossible in her mind.
Crack-.
Cracks began to spiderweb across the frozen meteorite. Boom, the sound of something colliding with the meteorite slammed against the sky and rained down below.
The meteorite shattered like glass, fragments cascading downward. Neila lost herself in the blindingly beautiful spectacle.
In that instant, Siwoo standing atop a plummeting meteor fragment entered Neila's field of vision.
A chill ran down her spine.
Whoosh-.
Her instincts seized her staff.
Piiieeeek!
A bird wreathed in flames hurtled toward Siwoo. Neila had completely forgotten about Ye-ryeong lurking behind her.
The Phoenix that shot forward at blinding speed engulfed Siwoo's body. For a brief moment, Neila even thought of victory.
But only for a moment.
Kagagagat-.
Fwoosh!
A spear infused with pristine white frost cleaved through the Phoenix and closed in.
Neila hurriedly cloaked herself in an armor of flames. But only for a moment—moments later, Siwoo's spear sliced through her body as it thrust right before her eyes.
"Haak!"
Startled, Neila tumbled backward. She thought her body had been split by the spear tip, but fortunately, only her armor had been rent.
Thud.
Siwoo's spear embedded itself beside Neila's head. It could have pierced her skull without issue.
Kyaaaah!
As the spear stabbed into its back, Crasion let out an agonized screech. Its wings faltered, throwing off its balance.
Neila looked up at Siwoo.
Steam rose in wisps from her feverishly hot body. Her skin was flushed red in patches, burned here and there, yet no matter how she looked, he didn't resemble someone who'd taken a Meteor head-on.
Siwoo exhaled hot steam from his mouth and wiped the sweat streaming down his forehead.
"Haven't sweated like this in ages. Thought I was gonna roast."
His body was drenched in sweat like he'd been caught in a downpour. The fact that he was sweating this much proved Neila's flames had been brutally hot.
It was only natural, having broken through the enemy tower mages' barrage of spells, Meteor, and even Phoenix to reach her.
"H-How... how...?"
Neila's face was one of utter disbelief at the situation.
Had she been wrong to think of them as relics of ancient history?
She'd inwardly dismissed them as faded legends of a bygone era. Kim Siwoo? Kim Ye-ryeong? So what? They were has-beens, weren't they? Such thoughts had crept in unnoticed.
Yet as if to prove her wrong, the two stood before her, hale and hearty.
We're not relics left behind by the times, they seemed to declare. On the contrary, we've been biding our strength, honing our power for this very moment.
From behind her, Ye-ryeong spoke with a mocking laugh.
"Told you, didn't I? You lot couldn't even take him down. And you call yourself a grand mage?"
Every word from Ye-ryeong stabbed like a dagger. It was as if she were demonstrating that words could wound as deeply as any metal blade.
Neila bit her lip hard.
She tried to move her staff in a final desperate struggle, but it was impossible.
Her arms were already frozen solid, rendering the staff immovable.
Swish-.
Before she knew it, Ye-ryeong had circled behind Neila. Stealthily and swiftly. A dagger pressed against her throat.
"Since when exactly? How long have you been colluding with the Black Tower, buying up street orphans for your filthy schemes?"
Her voice was calm, but Ye-ryeong's eyes blazed with killing intent. As the dagger touched her skin, a single drop of blood, red as Neila's hair, trickled forth.
"Since when have you been in bed with Blue Zone and Kim Il-su? What are you two plotting?"
"If you kill me... you'll cross a river of no return."
Even with the blade at her throat, Neila's desperate flailing didn't end.
Instead of answering Ye-ryeong's questions, she rattled off her own pleas for survival.
"Isn't that already the case? Attacking Sacheon Tang Clan, killing the Poison King. And now me too? Kidnapping children for decades?"
"Hey, that's all on you."
"Does the truth even matter?"
Her words weren't wrong.
If they killed Neila here and ended the incident, Siwoo and Ye-ryeong would inevitably become enemies of both Murim and Runeterra.
"And I have to stay alive to save your comrade. Mersian needs me. Lee Soo-hyuk, that disciple you've raised, right? He's probably been captured and suffering horribly by now. With me alive, we could exchange hostages."
"Pfft."
Unable to hold back, laughter leaked from Ye-ryeong's lips.
"...What's so funny?"
Even as Neila stared in bewilderment, Ye-ryeong cackled and turned to Siwoo.
"Hear that? Calls him a disciple."
"Didn't you hear who lopped off those Hydra heads? Not exactly a state secret."
At their reactions, Neila felt dazed.
She had heard.
Lee Soo-hyuk, appearing alongside Hails, had severed several of Hydra's heads.
It was a scene broadcast live, and with recent footage surfacing, it had become a hot topic.
But even so, Neila hadn't believed it.
Hails had been there, so she assumed he'd received help.
"From way back, he's always been the one worrying about us."
"From way back?"
As she started to ask what that meant—
Fwaaaah-.
A brilliant glow seeped from the black space Mersian had conjured.
Kaboom-!
A familiar thunderclap roared skyward.
Light burst repeatedly from within Mersian's darkness.
Thunder and lightning illuminated the gloom, only for the darkness to swallow it once more. The battlefield where the two clashed kept shifting within the shadows.
Sometimes a mountainside, sometimes a plain. It became the middle of the ocean, or pitch-black void like starless space.
And now.
The site of their clash was atop a plain.
Bang-!
Sword met staff. Mersian shattered the notion that mages were weak up close.
He parried sword and lightning with his staff, then flourished it to unleash spells.
Just like now.
Fwaaah-!
Black light poured from the staff. Unlike the murky, ominous aura of a demon king, Mersian's dark magic gleamed like obsidian.
But one mustn't be fooled by that flashy staff movement.
Most mages channeled spells through their staves, but Mersian was different.
The staff was a feint. Its glow had nothing to do with spell activation.
Just like now.
Shuuuuk-!
A black spike erupted from the ground, grazing Soo-hyuk's chin.
Unlike before, no light emanated from the staff.
After a hundred flashes came one silence—and that was the death sentence.
Those who dodged based on the staff's light would perish to such unheralded strikes.
But Soo-hyuk evaded it as if he'd anticipated it.
And in the instant he counterattacked—
Fwaaah, light blazed from Mersian's staff once more, shoving Soo-hyuk back. Distance opened in a flash as Mersian cloaked himself in darkness.
The black spikes rising from the ground weren't solitary.
Starting from that one, the entire plain transformed into a field of deathly spikes.
And every spike blooming from that land targeted Soo-hyuk.
Tzztzztz.
His two hearts ramped up output, enveloping his body. Without even swinging his sword, Soo-hyuk charged straight at the spikes surging before him.
Kwangchang! He bulldozed through them with his body. In the blink of an eye, he spotted Mersian's shroud of darkness.
Kaboom!
With a thunderclap, Mersian's darkness shattered and dispersed. Soo-hyuk expected Mersian inside, but he was already gone.
As Soo-hyuk ducked, the plain's terrain flipped.
His feet sank. Soo-hyuk plunged into a black sea.
Within it, his eyes met Mersian's. He aimed his staff, preparing the next spell.
"[Dark Hell]."
A magic circle appeared alongside a black gate.
Soo-hyuk had no intention of waiting for it to open. He kicked off the seabed and slashed at the gate.
Flash-!
Boom! Despite the ferocious blow, the gate held. Lightning spread, churning waves in the black waters.
"A gate not meant to be shattered by physical atta—"
Boom!
He slashed again.
Endless output poured forth as he swung relentlessly. Pajijijik! Lightning sprayed like crashing waves with each motion.
Mersian behind the gate was incredulous.
Upon closer look, cracks marred the gate. Impossible.
'No way?'
The hellgate couldn't even open. The fury carried on that brutish blade was sealing the gate itself.
From the other side, Mersian reached out.
A futile struggle to preserve the gate, but it shattered faster.
Kwaang!
Crunch!
The gate finally broke, closing the distance completely.
Mersian raised his staff. In that instant, Soo-hyuk's sword knocked it aside.
Kwak.
Soo-hyuk's fist clamped around Mersian's throat. With lightning propulsion, he hurled Mersian forward.
He cleaved through the black sea alongside thunder. Mersian had never moved at such speed.
His body shook on the verge of disintegration. Gritting his teeth, Mersian poured mana into his staff.
Whooosh-.
In that moment, the lightning in Soo-hyuk's hand vanished.
Until now, Mersian's staff had emitted black light—but this time, the opposite.
"[Dark... Eclipse]."
The staff sucked in the light.
No, not just light.
It devoured every color around it.
Color drained from Soo-hyuk's skin, blackening it. It looked like mold sprouting, decay setting in.
The magic that blackened everything.
Its true nature lay elsewhere.
Szzzz-.
The blackness implanted in his body seeped into his hearts. His heartbeats weakened, and Soo-hyuk felt searing pain in his chest.
As his hearts faltered, strength fled his eyes. His grip on Mersian's throat loosened.
Mersian prepared the finishing blow. Snuffing out a foe whose strength and fire had dimmed was as easy as crushing an ant.
That was when.
Thump-.
Light returned to Soo-hyuk's fading eyes.
His heart beat anew. And simultaneously—
Kaboom-!
"...!"
Lightning struck Mersian's body.
It should have been depleted, yet Soo-hyuk seemed to regain his power.
It wasn't mere vast mana or high output. Something kept driving his hearts.
Struck by lightning, Mersian's body flew backward. At the end of his path slicing through waves, something slammed into his back.
Thud-.
How far had he been blasted?
In that thought, Soo-hyuk materialized above Mersian in a flash.
Tzztzztz-.
A single golden spear in his hand.
The moment he saw it, Mersian's grip on his staff slackened.
Kwarung!
The spear impaled Mersian's body. Brilliant light pierced the black sea, and Mersian's world collapsed.