Chapter 260: Trackers (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 260: Trackers (2)
How did those mages find us?
The answer was obvious. They had either found a clue while manipulating Veradin’s memories, or they had placed eavesdropping and detection wards here from the very beginning.
Either way, it wasn't a completely unexpected development.
I expected the trackers to be the White Night, other elite mages, or even a Tower Master… but what are those gray robes?
He had never seen that attire before, not even in his past life.
One thing was certain, however: they were leagues above any mage division he had ever encountered.
"Jin!"
The moment Dante instinctively reached for his sword, Jin grabbed his wrist.
"Don't draw it. They'll mark you as an enemy the second you do. That's the feeling they give off."
"I have a bad feeling about this, Jin. Those people… they don't seem like ordinary mages."
"That's exactly why you need to use Veradin as a shield. What are you doing, Veradin? Get Dante out of here, quickly."
"Jin, those are my aunt’s direct subordinates. She must have come with them. I'll try to talk to her."
"Do I have to knock you out again for you to listen? What do you think will happen if you try to protect me here?"
"Hah. Dammit… I'm sorry."
"You have nothing to be sorry for."
His aunt. The younger sister of Kelliark Zipple.
Octavia Zipple.
Jin knew her name. He had noted it simply because she was a member of the Zipple family, but he had never considered her an important figure.
She was someone who had supposedly retired as a 7-star mage before Jin was even born. Naturally, she was written off as a mediocrity by Zipple standards. Despite being the patriarch’s sister, she had never once garnered public attention due to her relatively low skill and early retirement.
She was a non-entity within the Zipple family—as unremarkable as the air.
Yet that same Octavia had now arrived, leading a group of unidentified, top-tier mages.
—You hit the nail on the head. As you said, that fellow is merely the Vice Patriarch; he cannot be called the second-in-command. The true power second only to Kelliark is someone else. Though, it’s not information I’m ready to give you just yet.
Suddenly, Jin recalled what his father had once said about Andrei.
Was that woman the real second-in-command?
Outside the window, a woman holding a particularly radiant staff stood at the center of the mages who had deployed the barrier. That was Octavia.
And her staff was pointing directly at the drawing room where they were.
Flash—!
Jin almost missed the moment the staff spat out a beam of light.
The ray of Light Magic fired by Octavia was less like a spell and more like the single, decisive strike of a martial artist at the pinnacle of their craft.
Shring!
Jin shoved Dante toward Veradin and drew Sigmund.
He didn't draw it to parry the beam. Not even a 9-star martial artist could parry such a near-instantaneous attack without perceiving it in advance. He drew his blade to shift his body just enough to avoid a fatal wound and prepare for what came next.
A thread-thin flash of light grazed Jin’s left cheek. A few strands of his hair were severed as blood splattered, but fortunately, Dante landed safely near Tuyan and Pinia.
"You dodged? You’re not just a reckless brat, it seems."
Crack—!
No sooner had her low murmur ended than cracks spiderwebbed from where Jin had just been standing. The thin lines, as straight as if drawn with a ruler, were the traces of the beam piercing through the entire villa.
Five such cracks appeared in an instant.
Octavia had fired follow-up shots the moment Jin dodged, and her goal wasn't just to kill him. It was an attack to eliminate any place he could hide—in other words, to demolish the villa.
The massive villa was being sliced apart as if it were nothing. As the cracks widened, the stones and materials making up the building exploded.
Inside the collapsing villa, debris flew like popping kernels of corn. Jin and the dragons quickly deployed shields against the fragments flying from all directions.
In fact, the dragons had been maintaining shields to protect Veradin and Dante for some time. The cute, chatty dragons who had been cleaning were gone, replaced by cold, emotionless gazes. They even blocked Veradin when he tried to move toward Jin.
Dante, too, found himself unable to leave the dragons' protection.
The moment Octavia appeared, the dragons had calculated that Veradin and Dante would die instantly if they stepped outside the shields. Confident that the dragons were there, Octavia felt free to unleash her magic to capture Jin.
Just as Jin had predicted, Octavia and her subordinates, the Wraith Squad, were willing to destroy the entire island if they had to.
This is no joke.
Watching countless fragments shatter against his shield, Jin felt a chill run down his spine. It was a sense of crisis he hadn't felt in a long time.
He mouthed a message to Dante and Veradin, who were screaming his name from within the dragons' shield.
Do you really think I’ll get caught?
See you later.
Rumble…!
The villa collapsed completely, kicking up a pitch-black dust storm that blinded everyone.
"Bring him to me alive. Barely," Octavia commanded.
Simultaneously, the Wraith Squad raised their staves in unison. The blood-red sky swirled, dropping countless particles of mana that looked like a rain of blood. The red mana particles transformed into blades and chains, pouring down toward Jin.
This was magic the current Jin could not possibly counter. It was the combined magic of mages approaching the 9th and 10th stars.
The sight of the red mana rushing toward him as if to gouge out his eyes made his hair stand on end. The mass of mana was so immense that he couldn't even dream of using Heaven Reversal, as he had against the Zipple mages in the Holy Kingdom. The result would be the same even if he unleashed both his lightning and spirit energy. The difference in power was simply too vast.
If he hadn't predicted this might happen and made preparations, Jin would have been out of options.
Though, they do seem to be running a bit late.
Slash! Clang!
Jin threw himself to the side, parrying the red chains and blades one by one. The feeling of his palms tearing was another sensation he hadn't experienced in a long time.
Ten times, at most.
Parrying that many would be a miracle. They had to arrive within that window.
Just as Tuyan and Pinia were protecting Veradin and Dante, his own guardian dragons had to come to his aid.
Two, three, four.
Every time he blocked the red mana, his stamina and aura were drained as if sliced by a guillotine. It was agonizing, but the mages of the Wraith Squad were also quite shocked. It was only natural. A mere reserve flagbearer of Runcandel, who had just turned eighteen, was parrying their combined magic multiple times.
The island was already being torn apart. Every time a deflected attack struck elsewhere, the ground shook and chunks of the island crumbled into the sea.
Of course, if the order hadn't been to 'capture alive,' it would have been over already. Jin looked precarious, as if he were walking on thin ice.
But even that was an insult to the pride of the Wraith Squad.
Seven, eight.
Nine.
Finally, Jin coughed up a mouthful of blood and fell to one knee. An aura backflow was spreading through his body; it felt as though he could no longer swing his sword.
Yet, Jin was smiling.
Because the moment he parried the ninth attack, he saw a massive, dark hole opening in the middle of the sky.
Guardian dragon—not singular.
Plural. Guardian dragons.
Being protected by two dragons wasn't a privilege exclusive to Veradin.
From within the black void that had torn through the Wraith Squad’s barrier, the last Black Dragons in the human world revealed themselves.
[To think that those who call themselves the overlords of this world would deploy the Red Abyss just to catch one child… the Wraith Squad of old would be turning in their graves.]
As Misha’s voice rang out, the blades and chains of the combined magic, Red Abyss, that were hurtling toward Jin all stopped dead in their tracks.
It wasn't that the Wraith Squad had stopped.
The spirit energy and shadows clinging to the red mana were disrupting the spell’s activation. This was Misha’s power.
[Hey kid, how was it? A bit hair-raising, wasn't it? If not for times like this, when else would a punk like you learn to fear the world?]
Then came Murakan’s voice.
He was dyeing the blood-red sky anew with darkness. Just as he had when he annihilated the Dark Magic Association, vortices of spirit energy, large and small, surged with every flap of his wings. It was as if a fierce, dark sea had unfolded where the sky should be.
Meanwhile, Jin was chewing over Murakan’s greeting.
Learn to fear the world? That crazy dragon… he didn't arrive late on purpose, did he?
In truth, Murakan and Misha were late because the Wraith Squad’s barrier was thicker than expected. However, that truth would never reach Jin.
Roar—!
Before the Wraith Squad could reorganize their formation, Murakan’s breath shot toward the ground.
Despite having just cast the massive combined magic Red Abyss and now weaving a new shield, the mages of the Wraith Squad remained calm, their breathing not even slightly disturbed, let alone suffering from backlash.
Just as the breath was about to strike the shield, Octavia’s beam shot upward. Surprisingly, the beam split the breath in half and surged toward Murakan’s neck, but Murakan didn't dodge, instead batting it away with his wing.
Misha, while holding the Red Abyss in check, slowly descended toward Jin.
"Murakan and Misha. To meet the legendary Black Dragons in such an unexpected place. So, the rumors that Jin Runcandel was your contractor were true. It seems the wounds you received from Kadun have fully healed?"
Octavia, who didn't even blink while looking up at the Black Dragons, was a monster in her own right.
[Mage, if you manage to return alive, tell Kadun this: the King of the Skies has returned.]
"That is not a difficult task."
[And tell him that the King of the Land will also change.]
"Do you truly believe Runcandel can defeat us and ascend to the throne of the world? It seems you’ve forgotten the lesson your old contractor left behind a thousand years ago."
At that, the corners of Murakan’s mouth twitched.
It wasn't a twitch of anger or humiliation.
[Pfft… Hahaha!]
It was ridicule. The kind of laughter that wells up when great beings see foolish humans who understand nothing.
[Who said the one becoming the King of the Land is the Runcandel Clan? I was referring to my contractor. You prattle on without even realizing that today was your last chance to change the future.]
The one who would push aside the Zipple and become the King of the Land was not the Runcandel Clan, but Jin Runcandel.
For some reason, Octavia couldn't bring herself to laugh at the absurd, joke-like statement. Though she had been composed even in the face of two Black Dragons, she suddenly felt as if a large thorn was stuck in her throat.
Why?
It was intuition. Not the insight of a 10-star mage, but the ordinary, ominous, and intense premonition that any human occasionally experiences—and it was making Octavia feel deeply unpleasant.
"…Very well. If a great Black Dragon goes so far as to warn me, there is no need to hesitate. Wraith Squad, forget capturing him alive. Kill Jin Runcandel."