Chapter 314
Chapter 314
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 314
>Chapter Title: There Was No Shame
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**Crack**…!
A monstrous impact that rattled my skull left my mind in a haze.
The faint, metallic tang of blood spreading across my lips. It was sweet. So sweet that Holland couldn’t hold back the laughter bubbling up from within.
“You’re finally seeing me!”
Joy. Such overwhelming joy that he couldn’t contain it. Had he ever felt this elated in his life? No, Holland could declare with certainty.
‘Never.’
That’s right. Never.
A rival, you say?
What nonsense!
To be frank now, Holland had never acknowledged the existence of a “rival.”
A rival was just a fancy term for a good enemy, but how could any enemy be good?
An enemy was a living corpse, something you’d eventually have to snuff out. Looking further ahead, it was just a rotting hunk of meat.
And yet, to ascribe meaning to a rotting hunk of meat?
Insanity!
But now… at this very moment.
“This is delightful!”
Look, then.
At this burning land. At the foe charging across it.
Take one step back, and they close in with two. Swing your flames with all your will, and they burst through unfazed.
Can’t you see it? That glint in their eyes.
Even as their barrier crumbles against the all-consuming blaze and their flesh begins to cook, they never waver.
Rip away the barrier…
*Swish*—!
They pass through like a ghost.
Advancing step by step.
Behind them trails blue mana, holding its form even within the crimson flames.
And when they finally close in—
*Boom*—!
A beam of mana shot like a ray of light.
*Zzzzt*—!
That onslaught of light was near-absolute death, impossible to block even with a barrier.
So…
“How could it not be delightful?”
“Joy” wasn’t enough to describe his current mood. No, did words even exist to capture this feeling?
No flowery language could come close.
Holland dodged the beam, sprinting across the scorched earth, then seized the moment to kick off and leap into the air.
Flames gathered and swirled in his grasp.
And soon, a fireball launched toward his foe.
……*Boom*!
Throughout the battle.
Holland teetered on the brink of death, pushing past his limits time and again.
Gasping breaths. Aching limbs. Not a single bone in his body intact, his core groaning from overtaxed mana.
*Keeeen*—
At times, he unleashed transcendence, gauging his opponent in fleeting instants of time. Other times, they traded punches at point-blank range.
Through the fight, Holland shed the shells of enlightenment one layer at a time. One layer, then another…
Growth through combat wasn’t limited to Holland alone.
“……”
Aster’s eyes meticulously scanned Holland while maintaining dozens of Explosive Annihilations as he raced across the ground.
At some point, the crimson flames could no longer disrupt the Explosive Annihilations.
Not a single spark of instability flickered in the mana. The condensed Explosive Annihilations stood firm in their own right.
A contradictory sight.
Explosive Annihilations were born from gathering the destructive force of mana particles radiating outward. Their essence was the explosiveness from instability—yet here they were, perfected in stability?
Their manifestation had changed too.
The jagged flow, once like lightning, now shot straight as light, and the prelude of noise that heralded detonation had vanished.
And so, amid the repeated clashes.
The flickering flames surged toward Aster like a tidal wave. Astonishingly, it was a phenomenon manifested by will alone.
Within that inferno, Aster exhaled a faint frost from his breath and closed his eyes.
Even with transcendence unlocked, this was impossible without the essence of ice magic at its peak.
This, too, was manifested by will alone.
As Holland had said…
They were rivals to each other.
Each had power enough to kill the other, but with full effort, neither was unstoppable.
Aster had become a goal Holland could reach, inducing enlightenment—and vice versa.
……Utter immersion.
Pushing forward to kill one another, advancing relentlessly. The struggle to survive became enlightenment itself.
In that process…
Just as Holland felt ecstasy, Aster too sensed a profound fulfillment.
And that fulfillment crystallized into true enlightenment.
*Plip, plop.*
- The era has changed.
Absurdly, what fell away from his heart was the burden he’d clung to so desperately.
It had stuck tenaciously whenever he tried to let go, cluttering a corner of his mind.
- With the changing era, cast off all responsibility.
The Magic Tower. The Second Black-White Slums.
You couldn’t protect what you wished to by sheer will. Nor discard what you wished to discard.
Thus…
He let go.
Of everything.
The lingering attachments born of vain illusions, the haven he’d deemed overflowing happiness and wished to cling to.
People, eras, the scents of all flowers arriving with spring.
Having barely reached this spring after the barren winter of his past life, it was precious beyond measure.
Knowing this spring wouldn’t last forever filled him with longing; knowing even that would be brief filled him with anxiety.
Rest was no rest, happiness no happiness.
Even in rest’s shadow, his eyes never left the thorny path on the distant horizon. Even immersed in happy times, his heart wallowed in the mire.
But now, in this moment.
Willingly.
……He let go.
The circle.
It was a chain. Binding past, present, and future.
Weaving the present to the “Heavenly Origin Art” of the past, dreaming of the “Magic Tower” in the future.
The imagery within formed a single shape.
Magic Tower.
A library built for all the wretched of the world—a compass for the present, vengeance for the past, yearning for the future.
Now, he admitted it.
What he’d sought to protect wasn’t the Magic Tower.
It was himself, the one seeking to protect the Magic Tower.
But.
There was no shame.
……Born a Black-White Slums urchin. A lowly hunting dog rolling in filth its whole life.
What right did such a creature have to claim a human heart now?
That was why he delved into the shadows.
He didn’t want to bare his true face under the bright sun.
……Transcendence ripening further.
But there was no radical shift like the first time he’d breached that wall. The world simply expanded before his eyes.
“You’ve ascended too…!”
At Holland’s mad laughter, Aster halted every movement, taking him in fully.
Now he knew.
You couldn’t protect by clinging. Only by releasing could you safeguard.
*Whoooosh*—
As if by magic, a cool breeze pierced the heat, tousling his hair.
Aster and Holland, having internalized their new enlightenments, gazed at each other.
Aster’s eyes held no more chill.
Meeting them, Holland intuited it.
The battle’s end was near.
The roiling mana flows and explosive spells stilled the air in an instant.
Yet this was the calm before the storm.
The flames died down, gathering in Holland’s grasp. A single handful of fire rose from his hand.
……Crimson Fire.
Perfectly flawless, it flickered alienly, as if from another dimension. Aster watched it calmly, then took a step forward.
Resonating circle and…
*Crunch.*
Mana condensing in his clenched fist.
Ambient mana warped space to surge into his grasp. An impossible overlap of mana. An application of Blink…
“…….”
“…….”
Aster and Holland steadied their breaths, eyes locked. They didn’t kick off like before.
Though separated by distance, they moved as if blades at each other’s throats—cautious, knowing.
When their prepared spells detonated, distance meant nothing.
……And so.
The rain of fire ceased.
Snow clouds filled the sky once more. Snowflakes drifted down from them.
The moment the first flake touched the ground—
*Flash.*
White flames filled the world.
In a splintered instant of time, Aster beheld the encroaching white flames. At a glance, they seemed listless, as if resigned to fate—but no.
Because.
His hand was already open.
“…….”
Above the open palm.
Overlapped mana in space.
Aster infused it with one imagery. Nothing special, nothing new.
Just what he’d used from the Great Forest to now.
The very imagery Holland called “Hellfire.”
But Holland had never truly seen “Hellfire.” …At least, not compared to the flames unfolding now.
――――!
No sound.
As if start and end were one.
Only the result lay before him.
“Huh, ha…….”
Was it shock that the white flames vanished without a trace?
Holland exhaled in daze. No, the shock wasn’t his spell’s futile end.
Rather…
Right before him.
In the midst of space.
A flame burning in midair.
Deep blue flames.
Eerie.
And not hot. Why? Because they were blue? No. Magic flames didn’t take color from temperature.
Yet they weren’t hot.
Nor did they carry any sense of power.
‘And yet, why…’
Did they instill such terror?
From a flame no bigger than a fist, Holland felt dread. Like legendary hellfire, it promised to incinerate even the soul.
……But why?
Why not end it?
“What are you…?”
About to question his foe’s demeanor, Holland sensed something off and swallowed his words.
Transparent eyes.
They held no reflection of him.
Instead…
Behind him.
“……?”
Turning in confusion, Holland realized why his foe hadn’t finished him.
To be precise, not hadn’t—couldn’t.
Who could block that horrifying flame?
……Someone could.
Pahren von Decullan.
The mage who would rise to the greatest in history.
“……Patriarch.”
Amid the blizzard, Holland bowed properly to the man untouched by a single speck of filth.
Inconceivable after his beastly rampage, yet the recipient remained impassive.
Pahren ignored the kneeling Holland, fixing his gaze on Aster.
His mouth opened soon after.
“Are you the Tower Master?”
“…….”
Aster stayed silent.
……In a time already gone.
- Pleased to meet you. I am Pahren von Decullan, the fool you hold’s uncle and head of the Decullan Family.
Past and present intersected.
In that crossing of time, Aster silently took in Pahren.