Chapter 109: The Tragedy of Colon (8)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 109: The Tragedy of Colon (8)
The woman was limping.
She had been hiding near a building that had just been blown away by a mana cannon, and the resulting shockwave had left her with significant injuries.
She had been hiding there for a simple reason. While Jin’s party and Myuron fought, she hoped that—just maybe, by some miracle—she might be able to retrieve even one of her kin piled in the basement.
It wasn't because they were still alive, as Myuron had claimed. It was simply so she could give them a proper burial.
“Our people in there are all already dead! The thing amplifying the mana is a sacred object!”
“Tika…!” Dino screamed her name in anguish.
Her name was Latika Tika Mamutika. Since Laosa’s departure, she had been serving as the acting priestess. However, because she was not a chosen one, she did not possess special divine powers like Laosa. She was merely an ordinary person.
Grit!
Myuron’s expression contorted.
He had wanted to watch Jin’s party struggle and fight to protect that useless pile of corpses, believing them to be alive.
“That little rat of a woman… How dare she ruin my show?”
Vring!
Blue flames ignited in Myuron’s pupils.
It was a Zipple secret magic: the Eyes of Azure Fire. Though it was Jin's first time seeing it in person, he had heard of it from his magic master in his past life.
—The Zipple’s secret techniques are all dangerous, but the Eyes of Azure Fire are particularly annoying. Blue flames latch onto whatever the user looks at, and they simply won't go out.
Myuron’s gaze shifted toward Tika.
“Burn to death…!”
Immediately, blue flames began to spread from Tika’s ankles.
Tika was a woman of incredible fortitude, having found the strength to shout to Jin’s party despite her heavy injuries from the collapsing building. However, the pain of the Azure Fire touching her body was not something an ordinary person could endure.
“Aaaargh!”
“Ti—Tika! We have to save Tika! She is the only pillar of support left for the remaining natives!”
Tika collapsed, her body falling into violent convulsions. Her eyes rolled back, and she gasped for air, unable to breathe through the agony.
“Watching those fools protect corpses without knowing any better was supposed to be the highlight of this beautiful night!” Myuron spat on the ground, looking unsatisfied even as he watched Tika writhe in pain.
At this rate, she’ll die before the Azure Fire even finishes spreading.
Jin dashed toward Tika, recalling the conversation he’d had with his master before his regression.
—Then what do I do if I’m hit by that magic?
—Don’t try to neutralize it with half-baked ice or healing magic. Even if it’s a strain, you have to carve it out with a stronger flame.
A stronger flame…
One name immediately came to mind. Mana gathered in Jin’s hands to tear open a dimensional gate.
The Master of the Fire Realm.
The Phoenix, Tess.
“Summon.”
With a sharp tear in space beside Jin, a pair of blazing blue wings emerged. Whoosh, roar! Every movement of the wings sent out an intense, scorching wind.
Seeing this, Myuron blinked repeatedly, unable to believe his eyes.
“Tess…? You summoned Tess?”
A legend that every mage yearned for—a being that was nothing short of a dream. Even the great archmages of the Zipple often lamented their inability to obtain Tess.
To become Tess’s master was synonymous with being the greatest mage of the era.
That Runcandel brat… is going to be the mage who seizes this era? He’s become the pinnacle that even I, Myuron, dare not dream of?
The laughter vanished from Myuron's face.
Jin, on the other hand, wore a faint smile. The moment Tess was summoned, a ‘communion’ formed between them, and a surge of certainty washed over him.
In the presence of true blue flames, something like the Azure Fire wasn't even as warm as lukewarm water.
“You’ll feel better soon, Tika.”
Tess lowered its long neck toward Tika’s feet. Then, with a single deep exhale…
Like drifting seeds, the Azure Fire clinging to Tika’s ankles vanished in an instant. Not even a small burn remained, as if the Azure Fire had never touched her at all.
Such was the mystical power of the Master of Fire. It could make wounds caused by a clumsy imitation of blue flames as if they had never existed from the start.
“Th—thank you.”
“No, thank you. If not for you, we would have become that trash’s entertainment.”
“The situation is urgent, so I’ll get straight to the point. My kin in the basement are already dead, and Myuron is using a sacred object. But he hasn't actually found it yet.”
“Then how?”
“Myuron only managed to learn a few activation words for the sacred object by torturing my people. The object is still hidden. In a place that no one but us can ever find.”
Despite the dire situation, Dino felt a slight pang of hurt at those words.
That’s information she never shared with me.
Throughout the centuries of Zipple oppression, the natives of Colon had never once spoken of the sacred object’s location.
“If you were sent by Lady Laosa, I can trust you. I will tell you… after you eliminate that man.”
Jin nodded.
Myuron’s face was completely distorted, struggling to process the inexplicable sense of humiliation and inferiority.
Jin turned back to face him.
“So, Azure Fire, was it? Is that the end of your parlor tricks? As you wished, I’ll send you on your way now—to the place that suits you best. To hell.”
Jin read Myuron’s expression perfectly.
He must be feeling an unspeakable sense of shame that I suppressed his Azure Fire by summoning Tess.
Knowing how much Myuron was shuddering from the humiliation, Jin deliberately chose words to provoke him further.
An enemy blinded by rage…
“The games are over, Jin Runcandel. I will chew and swallow every single morsel of your flesh…!”
…is always easier to deal with.
“Sir Casimir, please continue to protect the natives! Murakan, let’s go all out immediately! Don’t give him any time!”
“Does that mean I can transform?”
“Are you insane? Of course not!”
“Tsk! Fine, I get it. Man, that guy… stop cussing so much!”
Of course, this idiotic banter was also a ploy to provoke Myuron. They hadn't coordinated or planned it beforehand, but this level of synchronicity was natural between a contractor and his guardian dragon.
As Murakan attacked from behind and Jin and Tess charged from the front…
A thick vein throbbed on Myuron’s forehead.
“The price for mocking Myuron Zipple will not be light.”
Sizzle!
The Eyes of Azure Fire in Myuron’s pupils extinguished. Now that Tess had appeared, even his secret magic was meaningless.
“You said hell was the place that suited me? You said it well, Jin Runcandel!”
Instead, Myuron began to chant a spell that the Zipple had restored and designated as a secret technique.
Or rather, a sealing ritual.
“I am he who was once the lover of the Witch Heluram, he who shared a cup alongside the kings of Mount Tigris in the west of the Black Sea…”
Jin flinched, his movement stopping just as he was about to extend his sword.
Is this… dark magic?
Like light-attribute magic, it was a school of magic that had completely vanished from the world after the ancient era. Almost no records of dark magic remained in literature; it existed only as rumors passed down through oral tradition.
Jin only guessed it was dark magic and didn't know the exact nature of the incantation.
However, Murakan looked horrified, and Tess let out a roar of pure fury.
Kaaaaah!
Tess immediately spat a torrent of flames filled with ‘Pressure’ toward Myuron.
It was a breath of fire on a completely different level than what had been shown against Alisa. Even Jin, the summoner, could faintly feel the crushing weight of the Pressure.
Tess is furious? Just what is that incantation?
At that moment, Murakan pulled the ‘shadow’ of Tess’s flames toward himself and converted it into Spirit Energy.
“Kid! He’s planning to be possessed by the Beast Demon King, Orgal! You have to finish him before he finishes the chant! Release your sword to the maximum! Now!”
Flash!
Murakan fired the converted Spirit Energy like a breath.
While the blue flames and Spirit Energy converged to engulf Myuron, Jin realized that these powers hadn't actually harmed him yet.
A strange, violet energy—something he had never seen before—was protecting Myuron.
A shield? No, that’s a dimensional gate!
It was a dimensional gate of the same shape as the one used to summon Tess, except it was stained with an ominous violet light.
And the place that gate led to was the dark world commonly spoken of by the masses.
Hell.
Tess had exhaled its breath with maximum Pressure to prevent the Hell Gate from opening. Murakan was coating the Hell Gate with Spirit Energy to create a path that Jin’s sword could ‘reach.’
It was, in essence, a marker. Without the marker of Spirit Energy, swinging a sword would only cut through the chilling wind escaping the Hell Gate.
“Cut the spot where my Spirit Energy reached with Bradamante!”
“Understood!”
Swooo…
With Tess summoned, Jin’s mana was depleting at a rapid rate. Controlling Spirit Energy on top of that was a heavy burden for his current self.
“Urgh!”
The moment he raised his Spirit Energy, signs of mana backflow began. Blood started to flow from his mouth, nose, and ears. The mana surging wildly inside his body made him feel like he might lose consciousness at any moment.
As Jin’s mana became unstable, Tess’s power also began to wane. The blue flames of Pressure weakened visibly, and Myuron took the opportunity to resume his chant.
“…And finally, he who met a lonely end to his glorious life by Heluram’s dagger. Yet, he who headed underground receiving the adoration of death. My name is…”
Graaaah!
Jin, having deactivated the Rune of Mul-ta, spat out a mouthful of blood and stepped forward.
The mana backflow was caused by magic, but paradoxically, it was his will as a warrior that kept him moving.
To swing ten thousand times and have it be the same every single time, regardless of the circumstances.
The stage where one could manifest their will through the sword. Though the Heart Sword was still a distant realm for Jin, in the moment just before losing consciousness…
For a fleeting second… the veil that stood like a wall was lifted.
“I will cut it.”
He whispered those words as if chanting a spell. I will cut it. With every step closer to Myuron, Jin was reciting an incantation.
An incantation to cut that thing down.
Just as the magic swordsmen of the old Runcandel always did when they exerted their full power.
Shhh…!
The flickering Spirit Energy on Bradamante’s blade began to settle into a calm stillness.
The particles that had been scattering like smoke were completely absorbed into the blade, forming a new, pitch-black edge that looked as if it had just been forged.
Unlike the Spirit Energy he had used until now, that black blade reflected the moonlight. Like a real physical blade.
Slash—!
The moment Jin finally struck the Hell Gate.
Myuron, who had reached the final stages of possession, felt a brief chill and instinctively realized that his final plan had ended in failure.
“Well now… Hehehe.”
With his one remaining arm, he squeezed out his last bit of life force and swung his staff.