Chapter 98
Chapter 98
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 98
>Chapter Title: Don't Get Any Funny Ideas?
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Dark clouds heavy with lightning hung over the ground.
No, not exactly clouds.
Boom...! Kaboom!
Explosions rang out one after another. Monstrous blasts. All sorts of dust and debris couldn't withstand them and rose billowing into clusters.
So what was the lightning?
Crackle—!
Sparks burst through the dust in all directions. But they weren't ordinary.
Too deep a purple to call them mere lightning.
“How long’s it been since I cut loose like this?”
Aster kept unleashing explosive blasts, pressing Destrow relentlessly.
They weren’t precise.
As if he didn’t care whether they hit or not. Just rough guesses for aim.
Because of that, some blasts only sent shockwaves grazing Destrow before vanishing, but who cared about the details?
Even if he aimed carefully, how solid was Destrow’s barrier?
Clang—!
A clear ringing strike, like pure ingots of metal clashing without a speck of impurity.
It left only that echo before fading into nothing.
Why bother spending mental energy on it!
‘Just swing away.’
In the face of Aster’s onslaught, Destrow couldn’t hide his considerable fluster.
[What... the...!]
Shockwaves hammered his barrier nonstop. Sloppy. No, beyond sloppy—like children playing around.
But that made it all the more tricky.
If it were structured, formal attacks, he could at least predict them. But this? No telling where it’d veer off.
And that wasn’t all?
Boom! Kaboom kaboom—!
Dozens of blasts rained down, and the emperor fell back to create distance.
One second. No, half of that. A split second would do.
Just buy a moment!
But his foe was lightning-fast in pursuit.
<...>
The emperor hardened his face and accelerated. Eventually, he turned his back outright and fled.
Even that wasn’t easy.
“Where you going?”
Layer after layer, layers upon layers of blue glows bloomed along his path. Then crackle, friction sounds, illuminating everything around.
Shockwaves followed!
[...Damn!]
The emperor had no choice but to halt and deploy his barrier.
‘Filthy pest...!’
Was his opponent on a higher level? No, not at all.
If anything, inferior.
Of course, Destrow versus human. Ancient mage versus modern mage. You couldn’t apply the same yardstick between them, but those in the fight knew.
Who was above, who below.
Whether he could crush the foe, or what damage he’d take trying.
In that sense, Aster was clearly his inferior.
Zzzzt—
Damnable reverse-heaven kept pressing endlessly, sure, and the guy had twisted freakishly with its help...
An unchanging truth.
The emperor was above. Aster forever below.
‘So why?’
[...Kuh!]
Bam! Vision whipped around. Aster’s fist smashed his jaw.
A blow hard to credit from a mage. Probably that bizarre mana wavelength coating the knuckles.
Crash!
“...!”
Had he given up widening the gap? The emperor slammed his forehead into Aster’s face.
Aster staggered back a couple steps, then grinned through bloodied teeth.
“Fistfight, huh? I’m good at that too.”
<...>
A sudden brawl erupted between them.
Thwack! Thud—!
The sound of hide drums being beaten echoed, each hit making someone’s body jolt hard.
Even amid it, the emperor couldn’t fathom it.
‘What... the hell...!’
He who’d placed the world at his feet through countless conquests.
He’d faced the finest knights and mages. And those hidden masters everywhere, wielding all sorts of freakish tricks.
Among them, geniuses who’d reached the peak by the orthodox path. Stubborn dullards who’d carved their way through endless toil.
Even unorthodox cheats who’d nearly taken his life.
Ten thousand battles.
But ten thousand victories.
Yet even to such an emperor, Aster’s style—no, Aster himself—was utterly inscrutable.
Thud—!
“Guhk...!”
A fist planted squarely in the solar plexus. Eyes rolled back. A hit that could’ve toppled him flat.
But.
[...Gah!]
Smack!
As if feeling no pain, a fist shot out from rolled-back eyes and smashed into his face.
Fearless? No, not quite.
Enjoying the fight? Like the Battle King who’d troubled him to the end. Thrilling in the agony?
No, not that either.
Crack! Bam! Thud!
Exchanging blows. Give one, take one right back.
The emperor and Aster’s clash felt less like mage versus mage, more like a knightly brawl. No, pure violence.
Even then, old foes flashed through the emperor’s mind.
‘How can such a being exist!’
Look at those eyes.
“...Heh heh.”
Fiercer savagery than the Wild King who’d lorded over beasts.
That belligerence outstripped the Battle King. That bloodlust thicker, denser than the soldier who’d slain most in ten thousand battlefields.
“Don’t get any funny ideas?”
Grab!
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!
Shoulders locked, no room to budge, came brutal headbutts.
The bastard ignored blood trickling from his own forehead, thrashing nonstop.
As if offering his blood meant they couldn’t touch a hair on him. Offering flesh meant he’d claim a drop of theirs.
Beyond common sense.
Warriors naturally gave flesh to take bone.
[Kraaah—!]
Around then.
The emperor had to realize it. Had to admit it.
[You scum...!]
That’s when the emperor bellowed.
“Huh...?”
Sensing the ominous surge, the bastard recoiled without hesitation.
Fwooom—!
A monstrous aura poured from the emperor’s body right then.
[I’ll acknowledge you.]
Whoosh—
The ground blackened and died where the aura spread. Nature rotted away.
Ancient specter.
With his loyal minions tied up by some interloper, he’d preferred not to draw on Destrow’s power.
But.
[Half-measures won’t cut it.]
The gap of ages? Advances in magic and martial arts while he slumbered? Shifting tides of battle, old ways cracked?
Or maybe just this freak.
Either way.
[Human ways won’t catch you easily.]
Soon, thick deathly energy rippled everywhere.
Purple aura spreading through the emperor’s flesh.
The moment he shed his mage identity and drew on Destrow’s might.
Overwhelming dread.
But Aster didn’t shrink from it.
“No wonder it felt too easy.”
He knew it well.
“Then I will too...”
Crackle, snap.
Blue sparks spread across his body.
As if cloaked in lightning. Mana sparks flickered around Aster.
Soon—
KABOOM—!
Clashing flashes and thunderbolts. The area dyed in clashing colors.
* * *
Ominous energy roiling in the sky.
Shine and Obern, witnessing Destrow’s advent from afar, accelerated.
They’d raced to this ancient ruin site, guzzling the elixirs they’d received.
[What... in the...]
Shine stood stunned, taking in the scene ahead.
Flash—
Rumble... Boom!
Like thunderclouds crashing to earth, fierce bolts struck the ground.
No, better to say they erupted from it.
It was as if... yeah. Heavenly gods from legend had plummeted to the dirt.
Even Shine felt overwhelmed by the ferocious aura.
[That vile bastard... was this strong?]
Blue lightning and purple flashes strobed, hiding Aster, but Shine naturally pegged the blue as him.
And why not? That deep blue thunder matched Aster’s mana nature closely.
“I... I too... kind of...”
Obern stared, half entranced.
Clouded eyes. Blurred focus. Intelligence somehow dulled.
Not from Destrow’s deathly energy. Nor the negativity messing his mind like it had Aster.
Destrow’s deathly aura was locked on Aster, even the fringes gathered to face him.
No, Obern’s daze had another cause.
“...”
Awe.
Each purple flash stirred deep terror. But the blue thunder?
Ecstasy.
They say a master’s art steals your soul just by looking. Beauty that captivates instinct.
To a mage, the blue thunder was more beautiful than any master’s work.
How could it not be?
Mana manipulation at its peak.
Setting aside the imagery and principles it held, its sheer existence was purest mana. Drawing out destruction.
Meanwhile, Shine saw it differently.
[Filthy... good fighter.]
Flashes hid gestures, but the fight’s momentum and flow stood crystal clear.
An abstract sense made concrete through mana’s medium.
Crackle— Boom! Rumble...!
Two glows clumped, scattered, charged again in fierce clashes.
Seemingly even at a glance, but Shine’s master knight eyes saw true.
‘Edge goes to... Destrow.’
Aster just rampaged wildly.
But that very wildness mesmerized more.
Rough. Brutal. Vicious. Ignoring efficiency, formless flow.
Yet Shine felt freedom from it.
No, not freedom...
—Awe.
Screech—
Shine realized his feelings when friction sounded from his unconsciously clenched fist.
‘Me... feeling awe?’
Why?
Those moves didn’t match his prime self.
Form and style, embodied to earn freedom—unlike knights who’d mastered that, this baseless freedom was distantly beautiful...
But just that.
‘So why?’
[Damn... it. Me, to that vile bastard?]
Shine couldn’t accept it himself, but it was inevitable, really.
Some things inspire awe through existence alone, beyond perfection.
A mage, yet self-taught in martial ways. A lifetime from his past life. Aster’s piled-up martial prowess was just that.
[At this rate... can’t even jump in.]
Not just the ferocity.
Vast freedom... yet savagely shredding the foe’s rhythm. Amid the frenzy, severing the enemy’s battle pulse, dictating the fight.
That was the source of the emperor’s déjà vu. A mage born to magic, not martial, could never grasp Aster’s style.
But.
Watching him, Shine also felt pity.
Solitude.
No concept of allies in Aster’s fighting.
Each move inefficient, but the whole? Ruthlessly efficient. Structured to shoulder everything alone.
‘What kind of life did he live?’
Still at a distance.
Untouched by the fight’s ripples, Shine and Obern watched Aster battle.
One in distant ecstasy, one in unexpected pity.
<...>
“...”
Two beings clashing, parting without cease. Destrow emperor and Aster.
Even dripping blood vaporized instantly in the mana thunder.
The emperor regarded his foe with sunken eyes.
“...”
The bastard was grinning.
Grinning like he was having the time of his life.