Chapter 163
Chapter 163
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 57
Chapter Title: How Dare You (5)
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“How dare you...”
He opened with those words.
Jamie took a step toward Sophia, who couldn’t comprehend the situation.
Even just walking made his mana roil, sending crackling currents shooting out in every direction.
[Welton Style Form 2]
[Pushing Slash]
Without soothing his billowing robe, he raised his sword and aimed it at the enemy.
“You dare touch my disciple?”
Mana coiled around the blade like sword aura.
At the tip, sparks born of mana friction burst forth noisily.
He had no idea of the precise circumstances, but there was no need to dwell on the details.
Anne was in danger, and the culprit was none other than Sophia. He could get the full story later.
“H-How...?”
Sophia couldn’t hide the tremor in her voice.
It was that bewildering a turn of events.
She had already heard from Kennyak that Jamie had become Anne’s teacher.
She knew forcibly injecting Apophis into Anne would invite headaches down the line.
But not now.
It was a future problem—one she figured she could handle when the time came.
“...How did you get in here?”
“None of your business.”
Jamie replied curtly as he thrust his sword forward.
“Kyaaak!”
Jamie’s blade pierced Sophia’s shoulder without the slightest hesitation.
A shrill scream tore through the laboratory.
Jamie had no intention of killing her just yet. He needed answers about what was going on here.
There was that man facing off against Kennyak, too, but anyone could see he was just your run-of-the-mill swordsman.
A place like this lab suited a mage far better—and Sophia was no slouch as a mage.
“Gotta say, it’s a shock. The fanboy who approached me at first turns out to be a real piece of shit. Your rep was solid enough, too. How’d you keep up the act at the academy? That vicious look on your face earlier was something else.”
“Grrraaahhh!!”
Jamie gave the sword a slight clockwise twist, and blood welled up as Sophia’s face flushed beet red, like it might explode.
Must hurt like hell.
Jamie stared down at her stone-faced, then sensed a gaze from across the room.
‘Finn, right?’
The boy Finn, staring wide-eyed in terror.
A quick glance back revealed Anne wearing a similar expression.
‘Lost my head there.’
Not a scene for kids.
“You two, take five.”
“T-Teacher?!”
Jamie gave Beyond Avalon a light shake, and Anne and Finn vanished like a mirage.
Teleported into Gremia.
“Now then, let’s chat properly.”
“P-Please... this...”
Sophia grabbed the blade of Scud with trembling hands.
She tried shoving it out to pull it free, but it was hopeless with her strength.
“What’s with the brat?!”
At that moment, the brown-skinned swordsman clashing with Kennyak pivoted and lunged at Jamie.
Kennyak manipulated the earth to raise a stone pillar as a barrier, but a diagonal slash cleaved it clean in two.
‘Not bad.’
Jamie leveled his staff at the man hurtling toward him at blinding speed.
A beam of blue light lanced out.
The man—Ashtar—twitched an eyebrow and batted the beam aside with his sword.
In that instant, five blazing orbs plummeted onto him from above.
“Not your average brat, eh?”
Kwaaang!!!
The explosion birthed a towering inferno.
Jamie slapped a hand atop Sophia’s head amid the chaos.
She tried summoning mana to resist, but
“Think that’ll stop me?”
Jamie’s eyes shifted to purple.
Black mana slithered up his small hand and into Sophia’s brain.
“Guhk!!”
Her eyes flashed black for a split second before returning to normal. She went limp.
Jamie yanked Scud free from her shoulder. Blood spurted; he staunched it roughly with magic. Then he watched the smoke clear.
“Teacher Jamie...!”
Kennyak’s voice rang out from behind the smoke, but Jamie ignored it.
“Fuu- Things just got interesting.”
Ashtar dispersed the last of the smoke and flashed a toothy grin.
Up close, both his eyes gleamed crimson.
“Kala tribesman, huh.”
“Heh. You know our people?”
“Minority tribe from [Arisha], right? Battle folk cursed with undying bloodlust.”
The western continent of [Arisha] had been wracked by war since time immemorial, breeding no shortage of battle-hardened tribes.
The Kala were few in number but savage beyond measure.
Nations far and wide hired them as mercenaries for good reason—and the man before him was proof of their prowess.
‘No Sword Master, but no pushover either.’
Kennyak sure as hell couldn’t handle him.
Ashtar smirked.
“I see. You must be the infamous Jamie Welton.”
“Famous enough you’d have to be living under a rock.”
“Hahaha! Way cockier than the rumors!”
“You? Never heard of you. Care to introduce yourself?”
Jamie’s jab turned Ashtar’s grin downright feral.
“Sharp tongue, huh.”
“Got other talents, too.”
“We’ll see if your mouth’s still flapping after I tear it off.”
“Big talkers like you...”
“Let’s see who’s all talk!”
“Teacher Jamie!”
Ashtar charged like a beast unleashed. Kennyak cried out in alarm and scrambled to cast a spell.
Jamie just smirked and met the charge head-on.
Ashtar’s eyes widened a fraction.
He clearly hadn’t seen that coming.
“Heard you swing a sword decently, but...”
Ashtar shook off his surprise in a heartbeat, his red eyes curving into bloody crescents.
“You’re still just vermin!”
“Exactly.”
[Welton Style Form 2]
[Pushing Slash]
“...always turn out useless in a real fight.”
Jikdo met Scud in a shower of sparks.
Fierce winds whipped around them.
Kennyak, mid-incantation, gaped at the sight—Jamie wasn’t buckling; they were dead even.
Ashtar had prowled battlefields since childhood, a monster forged in blood and steel. Kennyak knew his strength intimately from prior clashes.
Jamie’s sword skills? Just idle gossip until now.
‘Not just magic he’s a natural at?’
At a mere eight years old, prodigious in magic and the blade? Unthinkable.
Ashtar felt it viscerally in the clash.
‘Absurd. How’s a kid this good with a sword?’
It defied Ashtar’s worldview.
Small wonder.
Jamie had long transcended human limits.
Magic passed down from Diablo Volpir, fused with Welton blood—gifts that pierced the heavens.
‘Even so.’
Ashtar split his lips in a savage grin.
“You’re sorely lacking.”
Aura bloomed along Jikdo.
He’d concede the boy’s skill matched his own.
But without aura—the hallmark of elite swordsmen—he couldn’t prevail.
“I’ll carve you up!”
“Exactly.”
Jamie’s eyes flushed purple once more.
“I get it—you’re all talk. So shut up and fight.”
Darkness writhed, sheathing Scud.
Gluttony’s hunger gnawed at the aura, devouring it sliver by sliver.
Ashtar’s eyes bulged at the impossibility.
“Wh-What the hell?!”
“No questions for you.”
Ashtar tried wrenching Jikdo free, but Leviathan latched on, insatiable, slurping every scrap of aura.
‘That sensation from before...’
In his brief bout with Linmel Marquis, he’d channeled magic into this blade for a fleeting moment.
Weeks of agony pondering it, yet only a thread of insight remained—ungrasped.
Jamie sought to draw Ashtar’s aura into Scud slowly. Leviathan, however, transmuted it wholesale into black mana, hoarding every mote.
“Tch. Too weak to test properly, huh?”
“What the hell is this brat doing?!”
“No need to know. Besides.”
Jamie trained Beyond Avalon on him.
“You’ve got some real skill.”
“Wh-What?!”
Kuuguuguuguugu-
A colossal Gate of Defying Heaven materialized behind him.
Vaster than before, its iron chains clanked loose. The gates yawned wide, vomiting dank darkness.
“......”
Ashtar gawked in disbelief.
“Go get an education.”
Jamie hurled him inside.
Ashtar fought back, but shadowy tendrils lashed from the gate, binding his limbs and dragging him with inexorable force.
“Kuaaaaagh! Stop—stop it! Stooop...!”
The darkness swallowed him whole. The gate slammed shut and dissolved into the summoning array below.
“Child’s play now.”
A fifth-class foe like Ashtar might’ve been tricky once, but sixth class plus Welton swordsmanship? Laughable.
He hadn’t even drawn on single-strike techniques.
By now, he’d be tangled in undead hordes in the Defying Heaven realm. Come a week, he’d make a fine undead swordsman.
“What was that just now...?”
Jamie eyed Kennyak approaching from the side.
Kennyak fixated on the vanished gate, brain in overdrive trying to process it.
Not just the gate. That black stuff devouring aura. No black magic stench, but every bit as sinister.
Clueless that it was primordial black mana, Kennyak’s mind reeled.
“What was that, Teacher Jamie?”
He stared at Jamie, eyes fraught with unease, seeking confirmation.
Jamie let out a short sigh.
Strictly speaking, no black magic in front of him—but this was partly deliberate.
“Sorry, Teacher Kennyak.”
“For what?”
“Get some rest.”
Jamie struck the floor with Beyond Avalon. The shadow realm unfurled; Kennyak staggered.
Jamie clapped a hand to his head and intoned an arcane chant.
“Delete.”
He lifted his hand. A hazy mist trailed from Kennyak’s brow along Jamie’s fingers.
Memories from right after the Ashtar clash onward.
Used to be tricky, but sixth-class black magic made erasing memories a breeze.
Multiple eyes would’ve been a hassle, but one witness? No need hiding it.
Sealing black magic against a real threat was a pain even for Jamie.
“And...”
Jamie shifted the unconscious Kennyak to Gremia, then turned to Sophia.
Time to uncover what went down here—and why she targeted Anne and Finn.
“Awaken, my faithful servant.”
At Jamie’s command,
“...You called, Master.”
Sophia shot upright from unconsciousness without warning. Her eyes burned the same violet as his.