Chapter 442
Chapter 442
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 442
>Chapter Title: An Answer Sheet Without Solutions
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
The 4th Elder passed through the warp gate and entered the sanctuary. Following right behind him, two figures emerged.
……The 9th Elder and the 11th Elder.
These were the ones originally meant to rendezvous with the 5th Elder, but their entry into the sanctuary alongside the 4th Elder had a particular reason.
Three Fingers.
‘No way, to think that person had mobilized.’
According to the two elders, while en route to join the 5th Elder, they received a command from Three Fingers.
- Join up with the 4th Elder.
They hadn’t asked why. No, there was no need to. The presence of that person had already drawn palpably close.
That was the reason the two elders were with the 4th Elder, but upon entering the sanctuary, the 4th Elder fell briefly into thought.
‘Just who is the 5th Elder facing, anyway.’
To think Three Fingers had moved personally.
The two elders’ voices reached him right then.
“4th Elder.”
“Where to.”
“……Wait.”
The 4th Elder gathered his thoughts. Three Fingers moving personally was astonishing, but for now, the fragment of Reverse Heaven took precedence.
The 4th Elder led the two elders onward. Infiltrating wasn’t difficult.
They had already mapped the layout beforehand, and most of the hermits were focused on the exam grounds.
How long had they moved like that.
Before the stairs leading underground.
“Is this the place?”
“…….”
The 4th Elder nodded at the two elders’ question.
“That’s right. Beneath here…….”
……lies the fragment of Reverse Heaven.
He didn’t voice the rest, but the two elders nodded as if they understood.
And so, for a moment.
The elders stared into the dim stairwell, then descended. The 4th Elder took the lead, his eyes gleaming as he stepped into the darkness.
‘It’s close now.’
His gaze was stained with greed.
* * *
Meanwhile, at that same time.
In the observation room.
Aster stood frozen in place, staring out through the glass wall at the scene beyond.
Grrrrrind—!
The ground trembled.
Rumble rumble rumble—!
Torrential rain poured from the split sky, lightning crashing down. Blade-like winds tore the space apart as a blizzard raged.
It was a complete disaster.
A natural calamity no one could believe came from a single human.
And who was conjuring that disaster.
……Pahren?
No, not him.
‘Bodo Kan Sherman.’
The former Arch Mage.
At first, Aster hadn’t recognized the old man, but the moment the battle began, he knew for certain.
Who the old man was.
What kind of existence he was.
Indeed, Bodo Kan Sherman was an ‘Arch Mage.’
Who else could unleash such grandeur. No mage, no matter how great, could achieve it.
Of course, to be coldly analytical, it wasn’t without flaws.
‘Crude.’
The application of magic was one-dimensional.
No consideration for linking spells. Not just correlations between attributes.
Something more advanced……
‘……The flow of mana.’
Such things.
Which spells synergized for greater effects when cast together, which clashed and lost power.
Things modern mages knew as instinctively as breathing, but Bodo Kan Sherman did not.
There were other shortcomings too.
But.
Even so, there was no disappointment.
Because, as said, Bodo Kan Sherman was……
‘……An Arch Mage.’
A mage wholly worthy of the title.
It went beyond not being disappointed.
It was awe-inspiring.
Dozens, hundreds of spells merging into one. Not a single lightning bolt from the sky, nor a gust slicing through space, stood alone as a spell.
The fusion of magic and magic.
Bodo Kan Sherman didn’t know the magical theories modern mages had internalized like breathing, but he had built his own world of magic.
How could one not marvel.
On the other hand, Pahren standing before him shocked Aster in a different way.
‘Different.’
Before all that nature, Pahren did one thing.
Simply exist, burn all as an inferno, and advance. Even if shaken, regain balance, and press forward step by step against the onslaught.
Devouring everything with blue flames.
Pahren of his past life hadn’t been like this.
Rather……
He had resembled Bodo Kan Sherman.
Heavenly Origin Art.
The secret art allowing him to wield mana of all attributes.
Based on that, Pahren had ascended to transcendence, mastering every attribute, standing against nature like Bodo Kan Sherman.
But Pahren of this life was different.
A single one.
Plunder Flame.
He had reached this realm with only that.
- I’ll give you a gift.
Now he understood why those words were spoken.
The path Pahren now walked was the same Aster himself would take.
The reason was probably……
‘……That day.’
The day he battled Holland.
The deep blue flames he ignited.
Pahren had gained enlightenment from those flames, using them as a foundation to elevate his realm another step.
Pahren walking the same path as him was likely because of that.
And furthermore……
- What will you do.
The reason for so blatantly showing that path was easy to grasp.
‘The easy path.’
Steep growth.
A poisoned chalice. One could rise quickly, but inevitably stagnate.
It was unavoidable.
……Like copying only the answers from a solution sheet that has both explanations and answers.
He could surmount the current wall, but reaching the next would be a distant dream.
Of course, the temptation hadn’t been entirely unappealing.
After all……
‘……It’s the fast way.’
But Aster overcame the temptation. No, in truth, no grand phrase like ‘overcame’ was needed.
Just as Pahren used magic as a means.
Aster too used magic as a means.
A means to what.
Simple.
‘Decullan, and furthermore…… Pahren.’
A means to surpass them.
In the end, no matter how fast the path, if it didn’t achieve that, it was meaningless. Climbing higher, ever higher……
If he couldn’t surpass Pahren, it was the same.
Thus, the choice was easy.
Yet……
‘……So that’s the path.’
Aster stood still, taking in the battle between Bodo Kan Sherman and Pahren.
Pahren and Bodo Kan Sherman.
From them, Aster gained two different kinds of enlightenment.
From Pahren, the shape of the path he would walk…… And from Bodo Kan Sherman, the shape of the path he wouldn’t.
Such a thing was possible because……
……Pahren had handed him an answer sheet stripped of solutions.
Having seen the answers from that.
Aster was reading the solutions through those answers.
* * *
The battle, like a catastrophe, showed no sign of ending.
Bodo Kan Sherman threw every means and method at Pahren, but Pahren’s responses were seasoned.
Pillars of fire erupting from split earth, lightning crashing from the sky, freezing gales sweeping space—none pierced his barrier. Occasionally, spells breached it, but before the flames Pahren raised, they melted away like spring snow.
But that didn’t mean Pahren had seized the advantage.
‘……As expected.’
An Arch Mage.
Magic is typically narrow if strong, weak if broad, yet Bodo Kan Sherman’s defied that rule.
His spells shook the entire ground in vast scope, yet struck the barrier with immense force.
Even a single gust sweeping every direction held enough power to shred the grand mage’s flesh.
One could feel in his bones why he……
Calamity of the Heavens
……was called that.
Ascended to the high sky, wielding nature freely—his very existence was a calamity.
The sole mage who could place war beneath his feet.
His legend was no lie.
Numbers meant nothing.
‘No matter how many grand mages, how many master knights…….’
Bodo Kan Sherman could block, crush, and tear them apart.
Like nature itself.
That was his magic.
Unbound by numbers, requiring no special counters—perfect in itself.
How was such a feat possible.
‘Dozens, hundreds of spells. And their combinations.’
Every phenomenon seemed to unfold naturally, but each tiny event was his creation.
Like a meticulous painter rendering even a single blade of grass in the field without lumping it together.
……Yes, a painter.
Pahren, pleased with his own expression, smiled as he took a step forward amid the fierce winds. Lightning struck his barrier from the sky, but he didn’t blink, holding his ground.
‘Bodo Kan Sherman is…… a painter.’
If anything, one who wields ultra-precise brushstrokes.
How many such beings were there.
Mages who built their own worlds. No, all grand mages had such worlds.
For example…… the first seat of the Seven Mages, Aevilon, was a spider.
Spinning dense webs to trap foes, seal their movements, then engage.
Holland, by contrast, was a raging fire demon.
Burning through any obstacle. No thought to it—just burn, and that was all.
And Bodo Kan Sherman……
‘The orchestrator of the battlefield.’
Ascended to the distant sky, looking down and painting. His canvas: a hellscape where all nature bore malice toward humanity.
Not a single wind, nor a stone bouncing from the ground, escaped his careful brush.
Even a single strand of hair fluttering in the wind. Then, what was the meaning of all those shapes.
For what purpose did he paint them so vividly.
Nothing else.
‘Malice.’
To crush and press down every being in the landscape.
Realizing that, Pahren understood he had entered a small world.
Not the battlefield created by the sanctuary’s power.
Rather……
Calamity of the Heavens
The tiny world this man painted with his malice-filled brush.
He was a traveler wandering its scenery. A character in a world where storms raged, lightning fell, and all nature envied, jealous of, and hated humanity.
Frankly, it was ridiculous.
‘……A world.’
Magic was just magic.
No more, no less.
Thus, Pahren hadn’t built a world. Instead, he focused on shattering built worlds.
Yet Bodo Kan Sherman.
……The strongest in history.
Watching him.
Receiving that malice with his body, thick malice welled up in Pahren’s heart.
Arch Mage.
Seizing that seat was the natural course.
Then how to……
‘……That old man.’
This malice……
Repay it with greater malice.
A smile spread across his lips.
A very thick smile.
Pahren von Decullan. The moment he truly took one step toward the seat of ‘Arch Mage.’