Chapter 207
Chapter 207
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 207
Chapter Title: Flame's Path of Domination, Lead Hunter Strategy (2)
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2.
“Hey…… Lee Ha-ram…….”
“Don’t talk, you idiot…….”
“One…… favor…….”
With trembling fingers that shook uncontrollably, Park Ji-won pointed off into the snowy field.
“Tae-yeop hyung…… [GodSpring Improv 12]…… Just draw one more circle there, and it’ll be complete……?”
“Yeah……? And? We can’t even get out there…….”
The situation was exactly as Lee Ha-ram said.
Beyond the barrier Shurakiga had erected, 《Froststorm》, fireballs and wind blades exploded one after another.
An all-out clash between peak-grade sorcerers.
The ground shook violently, the world was dyed blood-red by fireballs, then torn apart by the roar of razor-sharp winds.
“Yeah…… We…… can’t reach it…… I know…….”
Park Ji-won coughed up blood in a convulsive fit.
“But…… my 《Bloodline Clone》 could do it…….”
《Bloodline Clone》……?
For a moment, Lee Ha-ram, who had been gauging the odds of success, could only shut his mouth.
“Are you…… saying this in your right mind……?”
Park Ji-won had already crossed the threshold of death.
His entire body was drenched in blood, and pale frostbite was spreading from the pierced wound across his whole form.
“If you do that…… you’ll really die…….”
“I’m dying anyway…… Paradise’s healing…… by the time…… it cures this poison…….”
Park Ji-won vomited more blood, then flashed a desperate smile.
“Cut…… my arm’s artery…… vertically…… so enough blood flows…….”
With shaking eyes, Park Ji-won pointed to the dagger at Lee Ha-ram’s waist.
“It can only use…… my blood from my arm…… Hurry…… before it fades…… my consciousness…… completely…….”
Park Ji-won pleaded in three ways.
With a trembling voice.
With fading eyes.
With breaths on the verge of stopping.
“Please…….”
Why was it…… that at the moment of death, a faint smile lingered on his lips…….
No regrets. No lingering attachments.
Ji-yeon noona…… I’m so sorry for going first.
But that day.
From the moment I met Baek-jun hyung…… I guess I wanted to live and die like this too…….
“It’s not fair…….”
Lee Ha-ram gripped the dagger.
He bit his lips fiercely. As the dagger slid out with a shing, tears streamed down his face.
“Why only Seodaemun-gu…….”
And that blade tip.
That lump of metal that ended others’ lives.
Into the wrist of the boy trying to save and end a life.
“Has so many kids like you…….”
He thrust it deep.
Pshaaaaak…… As the last spurt of blood gushed out, the boy mouthed these words to the girl.
Thank you.
3.
“Flame magic has clear limitations, GodSpring.”
When was it?
In that distant past world.
Valerine had once given that advice.
“It has extreme power, but all damage is concentrated in an instant.”
“……!”
“A battle sorcerer needs techniques that can inflict sustained damage as well.”
“…………!”
“A battle sorcerer isn’t a mage-scholar. No need to be bound by academic schools.”
“………………!”
“Above all, you’re not some three-tailed fox who can only use flame magic.”
“………………………!”
“You should learn magic of other attributes. Good opportunity. I’ll teach you only the ones with top practical value.”
How had he answered back then?
Cockily clenching his fist and shouting like this.
“My name is GodSpring! Archmage who chose the path of magic for flame magic!”
“……?!”
“It’s not that I only use flame magic! I just don’t use anything but flame magic!”
“What’s the difference between those two statements……?”
“Wind-thunder! Freeze! Earth! Metal! Sure, it’d be convenient to learn! But no! I’m an archmage who loves only flame magic!”
The one who poured cold water on my fervent flame ode…… was, as expected, my nemesis Michel.
“Wh…… what……? An archmage is one who masters three or more attributes───”
“────Limitations are clear? Hmph, even if this body turns to ash atop the flames of hegemony, I’ll walk this path!”
Suddenly, a chill silence fell.
Valerine stared blankly up at Shin Tae-yeop, then exchanged odd glances with Amber. At that moment.
Amber let out an “Ah-hat,” and laughed.
Amber’s laugh out loud was probably the first and last time.
“Isn’t that fine? If hegemony lacks even one conviction, how could it be hegemony?”
“Yeah, that’s right! Amber gets it!”
“Flames are also called the Realm of Fantasy. They have the power to captivate those who behold them…….”
Hair redder than flames.
The smile on her pure yet strong features carried genuine support.
“I want to cheer on your conviction.”
“Huh……?”
“By passing on the magic handed down as a secret art in our clan.”
Shin Tae-yeop doubted his ears.
Secret…… art? The secret art I know?
“Yes, that secret art. From the distant mythic age…… The magic personally devised by my ancestor, Siren, lover of Sir Liam Talorden.”
4.
Kwarrr rumble───────!
Shin Tae-yeop was gradually being pushed back.
Yet he didn’t stop his magic calculations.
An unbearable rage.
Seemed to be providing a strength he’d never known before.
──────Squeeeeeeee!
An ear-shattering sonic boom.
Over a dozen fiercely swirling wind blades came rushing in.
5-star magic 《Flamestream Wall》.
Mental calculation of the magic formula and derivation of the solution. In an instant, a wall of surging flames erupted at Shin Tae-yeop’s feet.
Roooar─────!
The incoming scythe doves crashed into the flame wall and popped away, one by one.
“You’re really tenacious, huh?”
He’d barely blocked them…… but his breath caught, and one knee buckled momentarily.
What?
But even if mental strength holds, the body has limits.
On the verge of…… the limit?
He knew it immediately. Mana was rioting wildly through his body.
Valerine had said mana is like kindling fire.
The longer and more fiercely you stoke it.
The firewood…… soon begins to consume the sorcerer’s own body.
Compared to that…… that Hwang clan bitch, fused with a Holy Apostle or something, her power seemed limitless…….
The crisis hit then.
A ferocious gust arose, and the 《Flamestream Wall》 before his eyes scattered like a lie.
“Had a bit of hope, but properly done, you’re nothing special.”
How……?
Hwang Ga-in flashed a bewitching smile, then reared back her arm with all her might to swing her fan.
“Right?”
My mana…… overwhelmed……?
His mind raced to recall a spell to break this. Damn…… damn…… damn it…….
No way out.
As his vision darkened, suddenly a vast red light surged from the ground.
Precisely from the magic circle on the surface.
One central circle.
And nine sub-circles intersecting its arc.
Ten circles in total.
Each etched densely with otherworldly letters and numbers, beautiful in their complexity.
Ten circles.
A mythic-grade magic circle.
“What…… what is this……?!”
It was an opening where she could’ve killed Shin Tae-yeop, but Hwang Ga-in was visibly flustered for the first time, looking around wildly.
Shin Tae-yeop was equally dumbfounded.
An invisible flame, igniting slowly with solemn dignity.
The air quivered before that dignity.
Snowflakes falling from the sky melted powerlessly before it.
《Hundred Ranks Explosive Slash》.
The ancient secret art of the three-tailed foxes taught by Amber, Shin Tae-yeop’s sole true mythic-grade flame magic.
This……?
How……?
- Remember this magic circle well, GodSpring.
This magic that unleashes a hundred strikes without pause was a secret art used only by the flame witch Amber.
- It is called Hundred(百) successive(列) flame explosions(爆) as slashes(斬).
Its unreal destructive power.
In the shit game [For the Princess], it was an instant-death pattern tied with the Pride Archangel Alkaios as one of the worst boss fights.
- Known as 《Hundred Ranks Explosive Slash》.
But Shin Tae-yeop hadn’t fully made this magic his own yet.
So he needed help.
Someone—himself or another—had to draw the magic formula, the magic circle, in advance.
Lee Ha-ram……?
We’ve never synced once, how could he?
No…… wait.
Shin Tae-yeop’s eyes widened.
He whipped around to the spot where the circle hadn’t been finished before. There, instead of the girl.
Stood a boy.
A boy made of blood, standing there, thumbs-up to Shin Tae-yeop.
《Bloodline Clone》……?
Impossible.
He’s in no state to use unique skills anymore?
His heart pounded in terror, and this time he frantically turned to look behind. There too.
A boy.
A blood-soaked boy collapsed, looking at Shin Tae-yeop, thumbs-up.
“You…… Park Ji-won, you…….”
That one instant.
The instant before words could form.
Park Ji-won’s arm fell limp and silent. At the same time.
Splatter…… the 《Bloodline Clone》 poured into a blood puddle.
Hey, you stupid bastard…….
Circling in his mouth.
Words of farewell that never reached. An echo of parting that would never reach now.
“What, he offed himself in the end?”
That moment.
Clap…… Shin Tae-yeop spat a guttural roar from his throat and clapped his palms together.
“What was that brat trying to pull? Last show?”
In that one instant, Shin Tae-yeop prayed.
Magic is the product of reason. For sorcerers who interpret the world’s laws through theory, mixing emotion and faith into magic was taboo.
Prayers don’t solve math formulas, after all.
But that boy prayed then.
Not knowing who or what it was for, he prayed through tears.
Please…….
Please…… I beg you.
Don’t let this chance, paid for with Ji-won’s blood…… be wasted…… please.
- Don’t forget. To achieve 《Mudra》, you must.
Magic is the scripture of miracles, the love of creator gods written in prose. The law Karen made for humans ignorant of love.
- Reach the real(一實) through reason.
What the law cannot weakly achieve, love can accomplish.
- And reach truth(眞理) through love in practice.
Love is the truth of creation.
In other words, the completion of magic all archmages sought.
That moment.
The boy’s first prayer from heart over head……
Clap────────────!
……reached the remnant of the miracle left by creator gods on this land, with the solemn sound of mudra.
[Unique skill, 《Hundred Ranks Explosive Slash》 activated!]
- 《Mudra》: Power of the unique skill increased by 700%.
- Error: Cannot determine the rank of the unique skill.
Then the lines, letters, and numbers of the ground’s magic circle blazed in dazzling blood-red. And.
Snap.
The moment Shin Tae-yeop snapped his fingers.
The dimension turned pure white, and in an instant, flames slashed the world like blades.
“…………………?!”
The target shredded by the flame blades was none other than.
Lead Hunter Hwang Ga-in.
As the ferocious explosion subsided, Hwang Ga-in burst into laughter.
“That wasn’t impressive enough to show off?”
Snap.
He snapped again.
Again, flame blades tore the dimension where Hwang Ga-in stood.
“Better than before────?”
The 《Frost Barrier》 enveloping her body.
That bluish barrier spewed massive steam, wailing in agony.
Snap.
Snap, snap.
Snap snap, snap snap snap, snap snap snap snap snap snap.
《Hundred Ranks Explosive Slash》.
This magic’s true terror isn’t its ultimate power.
It’s the no-casting.
From the moment the spell activates.
No prep time needed. No time to calculate formulas. No time to gather mana.
Roooar───────!
────────Kwarrr rumble!
Kwaaaaa──────!
───────Roooar!
Kwagwagwagwagwagwagwa───!
For a hundred explosions.
All the sorcerer needs is the trigger.
“This won’t break through?”
And.
The trigger Shin Tae-yeop designated was simply snapping his fingers.
“Then the answer’s clear.”
Snap, the moment he snapped.
Snap, the ultimate flames that turn all creation to ash in an instant, snap, burn the dimension to cinders outright.
“From now on…… I’ll keep searing till it breaks.”