Chapter 455
Chapter 455
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 455
>Chapter Title: Just You Wait
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Phantasmal Barrier, central area.
The 9th Elder curled his lips into a sneer as he unleashed countless clones ahead of him to assault the Tower Lord.
'Fool...'
Suddenly, the Tower Lord erected a barrier and activated a breathing technique.
His intentions were obvious enough.
He must think he can take in and wield the black mana.
It looked insane, but to the 9th Elder, it was a strangely familiar sight.
How many experiments had he conducted to create this Phantasmal Barrier?
Hundreds of innocent civilians had died, and dozens of mages and knights had met their ends inside it.
And among them, more than a few had made the same choice as the Tower Lord.
Clutching at straws, desperate to survive...
But.
'Think that'll work?'
No chance in hell.
Taking in black mana?
Maybe that much was possible.
In this Phantasmal Barrier, black mana served as a substitute for mana. If you willed it, you could absorb it.
But after that?
'What can you do with a single speck of black mana?'
Magic or black magic, it was all the same.
Refine the energy, accumulate it, then manifest phenomena based on that stockpile.
The more mana you had in your core, the more ambient mana you could stimulate, and the stronger spells you could cast.
And this held even truer for black magic.
Unless you were in a demonic realm, you couldn't find demonic energy.
Unlike regular magic, which arranged mana to create larger phenomena, black magic had to produce effects using only black mana, without demonic energy.
That's why black magic leaned toward necromancy, curses, and spirit arts.
Tainting something that already existed was far more efficient than creating phenomena from scratch.
So the Tower Lord's actions were foolish.
Accumulating black mana in his core was impossible to begin with, and even if he managed it, a single speck wouldn't let him do a damn thing.
'...The Phantasmal Barrier does have plenty of black mana floating around...'
Still the same story.
What black magic could someone who didn't even know the incantations cast?
Victory was already decided.
Soon, the Tower Lord would vomit blood and collapse, his body and soul becoming valuable nourishment for the darkness.
As expected.
Crash—!
The barrier shattered not long after.
He clearly lacked the mental fortitude to maintain it.
Not that he had a choice.
Sucking in black mana that aggressively was no different from gulping down demonic energy defenselessly.
Perfect. Now then...
The 9th Elder shared his consciousness with the clones as he charged at the Tower Lord. Dozens of fields of vision captured the defenseless man in an instant.
Time to...
'...tear you to shreds.'
No magic this time.
Slowly.
Purely physical.
That's when it happened.
“...?”
The 9th Elder, eyes closed, furrowed his brow.
A strange sense of wrongness.
The change came right after.
Crackle, crackle—!
A rupturing sound echoed from somewhere. Heads tilted in confusion...
Roooaaar—!
Was this the roar of a dragon?
A monstrous boom shook him to his soul.
The 9th Elder severed his consciousness from the clones to identify the source of the roar. Or rather, it was severed for him.
Crunch, cruuunch—!
The clones were ripped apart by a sudden violent gust.
“What...”
The 9th Elder linked his consciousness to one of the few remaining clones.
What the hell was happening?
...Had Demeiana or the Judge of Jamal escaped the illusion? A slim possibility, but he considered it.
But no.
They were still trapped in the illusion.
Then what was this monstrosity?
Nothing else.
“...Tower Lord.”
In the midst of the scattered clone remnants, a masked mage stood blankly, staring down at his own hand.
Swirling black darkness around him.
Unreal.
Had he... really, truly succeeded?
No, even if he had, could he wield black mana?
Unbelievable.
'What the...'
As the 9th Elder flailed in disbelief at this impossible reality, Aster looked up after toying with the darkness.
Aster easily spotted the clone housing the 9th Elder's consciousness and flashed a grin.
“Hey, your black mana's pretty potent.”
He meant it.
* * *
Stunned by the unbelievable sight for only a moment, the 9th Elder quickly regained his composure.
Impossible.
But it had happened.
Time to accept it and plan accordingly.
The 9th Elder coldly assessed the situation.
'Even so, there are limits.'
Black mana wasn't something you could just accumulate in your core.
Unlike mana, it corroded the body. That's why black mages like the Gold Demon Cultists learned special techniques to protect themselves from it.
But the Tower Lord?
Had he learned any such techniques?
'No way in hell.'
It still boiled down to a battle of time.
He had no idea how this was possible, but the Tower Lord's body would crumble eventually.
Which meant...
Sss, sss—!
The 9th Elder summoned clones again. But they were different this time.
Fewer in number, focused on durability. Strong enough not to get swept away so easily.
Of course, that reduced their numbers drastically...
'...Better this way.'
Even clones—losing them wasn't nothing.
Truth be told, when the first one vanished to the Tower Lord's fist, the 9th Elder had felt a dizzying shock.
Minimize losses, stall just long enough—
Crunch.
“...?”
A low rupturing sound in his ears.
Pain followed instantly.
“Bluaaargh...!”
The 9th Elder vomited blood from the gut-wrenching agony.
The accumulated damage had exceeded the threshold. Even then, he observed the Tower Lord to grasp the situation.
Not through a clone, but with his own eyes.
And beyond.
“...”
The 9th Elder realized what had happened.
'...In one hit.'
Every last clone had been erased in a single blow.
How?
No clue.
From the scattered debris, though, it looked like their necks had been sliced by something sharp.
By what?
Simple black mana manipulation couldn't produce that kind of destructive power.
How could someone without proper black magic incantations pull this off?
As he pondered...
'...How.'
The 9th Elder was aghast.
“Is this right? Think I’ve got some talent?”
The Tower Lord toyed with black mana like a street thug tossing a coin purse—throwing it up, catching it, fiddling around.
In other words...
'...Materialization.'
He’d materialized the black mana.
How?
Explaining the method was simple.
Materialization alone was something even basic Gold Demon Cultists could do.
But that was the problem.
Put another way: you needed at least the Shedding Realm to materialize it.
The Tower Lord?
Impossible.
Because he was a grand mage?
No way!
Mages and Gold Demon Cultists transcended in entirely different ways.
Mages expanded their perception, built personal imagery, and created new laws. Time splintered finely; bizarre phenomena beyond normal magic emerged for that reason.
Purely inward exploration, not outward.
Gold Demon Cultists, however, probed outward.
Others' souls, bodies, essences, existences, and so on...
Mages viewed the 'world' through the lens of 'self'; Gold Demon Cultists analyzed 'self' by understanding the 'world.'
Black magic and regular magic were polar opposites.
And yet, this...
'...Monster.'
Yes, that was the only way to describe it.
That realization hit.
An alarm blared in the 9th Elder's mind.
'Dangerous.'
Sending more clones would be pointless.
No ordinary clone could withstand materialized black mana.
In that case...
Crunch, crunch!
“What’s this now.”
Aster watched the shifting darkness impassively.
How to describe it.
It had been wide open moments ago, but now it churned, and structures rose up.
When the change finished, the space resembled...
“A maze?”
Yes, nothing else fit.
Towering walls.
Sealed ceiling.
Twisting paths everywhere.
A perfect maze.
Aster tilted his head at the sudden maze, while the 9th Elder smirked, observing him.
Frankly, he was impressed.
Never imagined the Tower Lord had such talent.
But.
'...Talent is just talent.'
Talent was mere potential.
Obvious, but potential alone didn't accomplish much.
Especially not here.
And even if he blossomed that talent, so what?
'You can't do shit anyway.'
Just wander the maze.
That's it.
An endless maze with no exit.
...As if sensing the intent.
Instead of charging ahead blindly, Aster stopped, organizing his thoughts.
After a moment.
“No path? Then make one.”
Crunch, cruuunch—!
A black mana mass took shape amid strange noises. After twisting and bending every which way, its final form was a hammer.
And that hammer soon...
Bang!
Smashed a wall.
Not just once.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Relentless blows.
Terrifying impacts. The 9th Elder felt again why his clones had been obliterated.
But.
'...Not enough.'
He'd already recalled the clones.
Which meant one thing.
The 'no mana' law had strengthened.
The Tower Lord might not have noticed, but the intensified law slowed his movements noticeably.
Only natural.
High-realm mages unconsciously augmented their actions with mana.
Not to a knight's degree, but the difference was huge.
And one more thing.
'The maze walls are also materialized black mana.'
No matter how talented, the Tower Lord couldn't surpass the 9th Elder in materialization.
Skill gap, for starters. But not just that.
'Even at equal skill, more and denser black mana makes it tougher.'
Superior in quantity and quality.
Force alone couldn't break it.
But...
Fizzle—!
The 9th Elder narrowed his eyes.
Another impossibility.
“How...”
A gaping hole.
The Tower Lord had punched through the wall and stepped to the next one.
By smashing it?
No.
What he did was simple.
Just placed his hand on the wall, like now...
“Open.”
One word.
And like magic, the maze wall melted away, opening a path.
To Aster, no big deal.
Just cloaked his hand in black mana and applied an interference formula.
But to the clueless 9th Elder, it was a massive shock.
Word spirit magic? No, that's fairy-tale stuff. Impossible in reality...
'...How the hell.'
The 9th Elder stared at the Tower Lord in confusion.
Then.
The Tower Lord looked up.
“...!”
Impossible, but for a split second, the 9th Elder felt pierced by that gaze.
No, not a feeling.
“Just you wait.”
One phrase.
The Tower Lord left those words and crossed the maze.
As if he knew exactly where to go.