Chapter 84
Chapter 84
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 84
Chapter Title: Confrontation and Declaration (2)
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*
[...I am the Pharaoh of the High Stars, son of the Black Sun, Altarak of a Thousand Daggers. Young mortal, I shall never forget this humiliation!]
-Ku-gu-gu-gung!!
Altarak's mudra accelerated like a seizure. He pressed against the sky and chanted a spell while descending. It was the ancient incantation of Upper Asit. From the tip of the distant pyramid, or perhaps from the oasis floating above it, an emerald-green current of electricity flowed.
-Kwa-ji-jik!!
Following Altarak's gesture, the current swirled and plunged straight down. Spirit, Nature, Soul, Vital Soul. The lightning that simultaneously destroyed the four factors maintaining the spirit body twisted grotesquely toward the crown of Fernandez's head—
[Mahras's Celestial Verdict.]
Until the knot of magic was finally complete, Fernandez stood alone, forming his own mudra without attempting a counterspell. Just before the lightning touched his hair, a black shadow erupted from his body.
-Kwa-deuddeuk!!
The space the shadow touched tore apart, devouring Altarak's lightning. From between the shadows, Fernandez's arm extended. Veins bulged on the back of his hand, and bones protruded from the backlash of black magic.
The arm emerging from the shadow was shriveled and twisted like that of an old man. Slowly, the hand clenched the empty air—
"Altarak, if you shall never forget. Remember my name."
Within the shadow, deep blue eyes blazed like a lion's. Like smoke, the black shadow slowly receded, revealing the face of an old man inside.
[!!!]
At that moment, Altarak halted his spell in a chill of dread. The violently shaking mana calmed for an instant.
-Hwaruruk!!
A black halo ignited. Fernandez, having consumed his lifespan due to the backlash of excessive mana use, wore a face aged and exhausted as if he might collapse at any moment. Yet those deep blue eyes glared at Altarak.
His emaciated legs, barely able to take another step, stepped onto the hall's stone floor, forward.
"My name is Feizashi, Wildcast, Feizashi of the foul blood. Founder of Kalmburg, Grandmaster of Ensorcery! Remember my name."
-Chwarureureuk!
Iron chains slithered like snakes. Before Altarak could even react—no, before he could even think to react.
The chains pierced his chest and head, wrapping around his body. A crushed groan escaped the lips of Altarak, bound like a mummy.
This couldn't be! He struggled to resist. Magic was a clash of mysteries, a confrontation of ranks. His years spanned over a thousand... How could a mortal's magic bind his body?
Moreover, that black shadow that had swallowed his spell, and these pitch-black chains enveloping his entire form—they were not complete spells. They were mere secondary functions triggered while continuing the incantation!
Fernandez's final mudra formed in the air.
'Mana stone veins are truly convenient.'
The bronze throne merely provided the circuit. The total amount of mana itself was negligible. Without his senses to utilize it precisely where needed, such grand magic would have been a pipe dream.
The mana stone vein embedded in this cavern was structurally condensing into this hall. Vast natural mana heated the bronze throne red-hot, flowing over his hands.
The sense of omnipotence he had felt in his prime, when he wielded hell mana, welled up in his heart. The heart of the man who had dominated the world—at least in magic, at least in attunement to mana—pulsed once more—
-Ah, this sensation, I always missed this sensation. Fernandez. It was always, always, forever lacking.
'Even if I burned the entire world, it was always lacking.'
A heart addicted to hell mana knew no satisfaction. The threshold for stimulation rose endlessly, the heart greedily devouring mana. In exchange, his life force was shredded and burned away.
-Hwarureureuk!
Consuming life as currency, the black halo branched out like twigs. The bronze throne's mana circuits heated to their limits. But without stopping, Fernandez formed that final mudra.
"Diar's Black Protection, Bation's Soul Binding, and..."
-Feizashi's Dominion.
The moment the spell completed, the mana storm raging through the hall ceased. Silence descended upon the chamber. Altarak, his mudra, the spells, incantations, true words, and frenzy—all halted.
Silence enveloped everything. Even the light of the mana stones slowly dimmed as if cooling. Only the halo floating behind Fernandez's head burned alone.
-Gooo...
Fernandez staggered, swaying unsteadily, then thrust his greatsword into the floor to support himself. His hair, now whitened to ash, veiled his face. His life was now fully burning away in this spell.
His final breath gathered at his nostrils. Exhaling even one breath was his limit. Fernandez twisted his wrinkled lips open.
"Mine."
*
-Kwaaaang!!
One corner of the pyramid was cleanly torn away as if sliced off. As Abel and Kirhas ran through the pyramid's interior, thick with the aura of death, they abruptly halted at the massive tremor.
"It seems the Benefactor is fighting!"
"Let's hurry a bit more."
An earthquake was erupting. From the far end of the corridor where Fernandez surely was, shaking the entire pyramid and finally rattling this underground cavern. Abel knew well what this violent destruction meant.
'Infermer...'
In Infermer's harbor, Fernandez wielding mana astride her back still vividly lingered in her memory. Even for her, an ancient dragon over a thousand years old, that day's recollection sometimes sent chills down her spine.
Overwhelming, and astonishingly efficient magic. Delicate like a jeweler's chisel, yet intense like a siege ram's blow. Even in the mythic era she had walked, such magic was rare.
-Ku-uuuung!!
Meanwhile, at that moment, Kirhas beheld something strange. No matter where Fernandez was in this world, she could now instinctively gauge his direction. It was akin to a spiritual communion.
A deep blue path unfurled before her eyes like silk. She felt good stepping on that path. Simply walking it filled her chest with pride, and if she ran, her heart pounded.
Now that path was burning. An intangible blue flame blazed vividly in her vision. The soul's pull grew ever stronger. As the pyramid's quakes intensified, the hue of the path she saw deepened.
Deeper, darker.
"Even blacker."
"Kirhas...!"
-Tadat!
She bolted like a flash. Though her physical abilities had dropped to human levels, Abel was still more dragon than human in composition. Even to her, Kirhas dashed away with a speed that left afterimages.
Abel clicked her tongue and pushed harder. When they first entered this pyramid, she had been wary of potential traps, but fortunately, all had been destroyed. Fernandez must have handled it. Now, she just had to trust him and—
-Gooooo...
"Stop!"
Abel hastily grabbed Kirhas's collar and yanked her back. Kirhas let out a choked gasp, halting mid-air. Abel roughly pulled her behind and glared ahead.
The air stopped. No, the quality of the air changed. To something stickier, heavier.
"...Fernandez. What have you done..."
Abel sighed, staring at the end of the corridor. The epicenter of the explosion was now right before them. Through the wide-open doors of the hall, Fernandez's form, shrouded in black shadow, was visible.
"...Benefactor...?"
Kirhas's eyes widened, her body trembling. Abel embraced and soothed her. It was understandable. Even she wanted to retreat.
"Calm yourself, Kirhas. Calm down."
In a voice even she could scarcely believe, Abel whispered softly. An overwhelming presence rampaged through the hall. With whitened hair, propping himself arduously against the floor, Fernandez's head drooped.
-Hwarureureuk!!
An ominous black halo flickered chaotically. Abel gazed at Fernandez amid instinctive fear.
As his presence grew, the Fernandez she knew seemed to fade. His gaunt, withered arm and hunched back looked pitiable.
She wanted to rush forward and support him. Yet her instincts blared warnings furiously.
Then, a small voice reached her ear. No, not her ear—her soul.
"Mine."
In that instant, the specters of the Conclave. Staggering Kirhas. Sadia racing from afar to follow them. Even Abel herself.
All knelt to the ground at his words.
*
At the outpost of the Levaunter Empire, in a classified sector on the outskirts of its massive encampment, silence hung over the 3rd Command of Ironside.
Brandon stood on the watchtower, gazing toward Mosat City for the fifth time already. He anxiously pulled out his pocket watch to check the time. Fifteen minutes had already passed.
The grand magic prepared by the Empire's School of Destruction should have activated by now. He cautiously voiced what he least wanted to say.
"Commander, it seems like a failure."
"...Seems like?"
"Definitely."
Angela's face was coldly set. Her mind tangled in complexity. Was there any point of failure?
The Conclave's sealed crypt door opens. Even 30 years ago, when Ironside discovered the Conclave's seal site, it had succeeded. Hadn't they even observed the emerald mana flare as proof of the seal's release?
Thirty years ago, when a massive ruin was discovered beneath a city occupied by the Levaunter Empire, Ironside had unhesitatingly broken the ruin's seal. The ruin was less a seal and more an altar. An altar to awaken an ancient being.
Vast mana swirled, the flare tore the sky, and the dead rose. Ironside had pushed that risen entity far away to the continent's east and claimed the mana stones there.
After thirty years, upon learning that the vanished Conclave specter had occupied the Dane Kingdom. And hearing that the 'Great Round Table Knight Albert,' who appeared like a comet, had exorcised that specter.
Angela immediately devised a new plan. Unseal the altar beneath Mosat City and revive the Conclave specter.
Raze Mosat City with bombardment, summon the Necropolis legions en masse, and introduce a variable to this stagnant war.
Repel the disrupted Kirzat from the rear, extract massive war reparations from the Sultan, and mine the ruins and mana stones buried underground in the wasteland. Then, they could rise as a great empire commanding the central and northern continent—nay, the entire world.
Every plan was perfect. The majestic fireworks crafted by the empire's scholars would be the signal.
"What now, Commander?"
The signs of the grand magic's activation would have been detected by Kirzat's magical forces as well. It wouldn't be hard to infer that this side's magical power would be groggy for a while.
The war situation looked clear until magical forces could be regained. And who would bear the blame for it all.
Angela bit her lip.
"I'll have to step in myself."
"...Are you sure?"
"If not? What choice do we have?"
The Empire's Ironside had already pinpointed all locations of ruins sealed with Necropolis Conclaves.
If the war situation was predictable, she would overturn the entire board into chaos. That was the most straightforward strategy she could devise now.