Chapter 73
Chapter 73
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 73
Chapter Title: Clash in the Mental Image
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A single strand of silver mana passed through Silver and touched Jeon's body.
As a result, everything around Jeon was dyed in a deep silver hue.
However, what had changed wasn't just his vision.
'Luna Lake is gone.'
The ashen magic Jeon had been using, and the Luna Lake he held, had vanished.
Silver, which had rushed out to block the mana, was also gone.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that everything around him—except for Jeon himself and the clothes he wore—had been transformed into silver.
Left alone in this space filled entirely with silver, it felt as if the surrounding silver was rippling and gradually closing in on him.
'No, it's not just a feeling.'
In reality, the silver around him was undulating like a wave, surging toward Jeon.
And the silver waves that reached him began to slowly erode him.
Even in such a situation, Jeon didn't panic much.
And for good reason.
He had experienced something similar before.
'It's like what happened in the ruins.'
The Silvermont ruins.
It felt very similar to when he had touched the door at the end and confronted the will accumulated by the Silvermont mages.
So, the nature of this place was.
"Mental image."
The moment he realized what this place was, Jeon subtly drew up his mana.
Then, he felt the silver waves approaching to erode him suddenly falter.
"......Aren't you panicking?"
Kairon's voice, resonating through the space, echoed once more.
"I've been through it before."
In contrast to Kairon, who sounded slightly flustered, Jeon's voice remained calm.
Perhaps sensing that, Kairon's voice no longer filled the space.
"......You seem to have far more experience than you appear."
The surrounding silver space dispersed, and Kairon revealed himself before Jeon.
Because this was his mental image, Kairon was in pristine condition, without a single trace of battle.
"Well, not bad."
"......Insolent."
When Jeon responded to Kairon's words with a casual quip, Kairon clicked his tongue in displeasure.
But he didn't react with the intense agitation or visible anxiety seen from outside.
Observing him, Jeon probed lightly with a question.
"You seem pretty relaxed. Outside, you're on the verge of falling to my magic right now."
"Yes, that's the situation outside."
Kairon smirked at Jeon.
Then, he snapped his fingers in the air.
Snap! With that, ripples started from his fingers, once again altering the surrounding scenery.
The silver background gave way as dozens, hundreds of silver humans identical to Kairon materialized, enveloping Jeon.
"As you said, this is my mental image. It's a space completely different from the outside in both time and concept."
And as the hundreds of Kairons spoke in unison, the mental image space hummed with a different intensity than before.
If earlier it felt like a single voice booming through a megaphone, now it was like an audience in a concert hall singing in chorus.
"This is a space where my mana and will shine even more than in a mana field—in other words, a space where I am like a god."
Shrrrr.
With those words, the hundreds of Kairons melted away.
The one in front of Jeon seemed to dissolve with them, and the space formed by Kairon's mental image vibrated once.
Rumble.
Then, a massive palm emerged from beneath Jeon's feet, shooting upward with him on it.
And the owner of that enormous palm, Kairon—now dozens, hundreds of times larger than Jeon—looked down at him.
"And you are merely a pathetic creature dragged into this space."
Kairon spoke with a lofty expression and tone, as if he had become an absolute being.
But even seeing that, Jeon showed no agitation.
"Is that so? For something like that, it seems all flash and no substance."
"What?"
"Right now, instead of yapping, wouldn't it be easier to just grab and subdue me?"
As Jeon said.
If he was truly like a god in this space, he could simply kill Jeon without all the talk.
Yet Kairon was resorting to this strange method of flaunting his power instead of something simple.
"You dragged me here to turn the tide against the disadvantageous situation outside, right? If so, why drag it out? You're practically a god here, aren't you?"
At Jeon's sharp remark, the gigantic Kairon's body trembled with rage.
As he said, even in his own mental image, Kairon couldn't decisively subdue Jeon.
"Or maybe, contrary to your boasting, you can't actually touch me?"
Of course, Jeon knew the reason very well.
Thanks to his experience in the ruins and inheriting Silvermont's will, he understood the characteristics of this space.
"No matter that you invited me here, it doesn't mean I can't do anything."
Back in the Silvermont ruins, when facing Merimure.
He had once blocked her gaze trying to read his inner self by drawing up mana and activating the Guardian rune.
In other words.
Being pulled into someone else's mental image didn't mean he had to be helplessly swept away by it.
"Come to think of it, it makes sense. You have your mental image, so I must have mine too."
Building such a mental image world required reaching a certain realm, but everyone had an unconscious mental image.
Recognizing that each possessed their own independent mental image.
Just remembering that fact allowed him to resist interference from another's mental image.
"......Indeed, you know quite a bit about mental images more than I expected."
Kairon, trembling as he listened to Jeon, soon reverted from his giant form to normal size.
Then, he glared at Jeon with fierce eyes, as if flames burned in them.
"But what you know isn't everything about the mental image world."
"Huh?"
"In this world, mental images can clash with each other. In other words, it's wrong to say I can't touch you."
Rooooar!
With those words, Kairon's mental image sustaining the space shook, rapidly absorbing into the normal-sized Kairon.
As a result, the world was now filled entirely with black, leaving Jeon and Kairon facing each other.
"Let's see whose mental image is stronger—mine or yours!"
Hummm—flash!
With that final declaration, Kairon's body could no longer maintain its form.
His entire being transformed into a streak of silver light and shot toward Jeon.
"Urk!?"
Moreover, its speed was light-like, leaving no room for evasion.
Unable to dodge in time, Jeon gritted his teeth as the light struck him.
The instant the light touched his body.
Jeon's mind—no, his very existence—shook violently for a moment.
'What... is this...!'
He wanted to open his mouth and speak, but no words came out.
The shock rattling his very existence kept repeating.
Jeon had no time to worry about whether he could speak; he focused entirely on enduring the ongoing internal assault.
—Well? Do you still have the leisure to spout insolence?
Then, Jeon realized Kairon's voice was coming from within him.
'What have you done?'
—Didn't I say it? Let's see whose mental image is stronger—yours or mine!
With that, Kairon burst into loud laughter.
And Jeon felt his mind growing even dizzier.
Yet even so, Jeon realized the situation wasn't entirely against him.
'You're not unscathed either, are you?'
He noticed that every time the immense shock reverberated inside him, Kairon felt a similar impact.
And as Jeon said, this was a head-on clash of mental images alone, excluding all other factors.
A direct confrontation where the loser's mental image would be devoured by the winner.
Heh heh, you think you can beat me?
Even though Jeon had realized this, confidence filled Kairon's voice.
He never believed Jeon could defeat him, even if it cost him something.
And Jeon knew that well.
Though both were taking shocks, Kairon was the one unilaterally attacking.
All Jeon could do was grit his teeth and endure.
'No, is that really all?'
Even as Kairon relentlessly battered his mental image, Jeon ceaselessly pondered what he could do.
The opponent had already reached the realm to construct his mental image and was attacking freely.
The best counter would be for Jeon to construct his own and strike back, but suddenly building one now was nearly impossible.
'There has to be a way.'
Yet Jeon didn't give up, focusing on peering into his own mental image.
And perhaps because of that.
He could see what lay within his mental image, which should have been chaotic and filled only with unconsciousness without reaching that realm.
'The Guardian rune!'
And it was none other than the Guardian rune.
The Guardian rune, which had transcended Jeon's mind and taken root even in his mental image, rose to the center at his will.
Flash!
The Guardian rune, surging to the center of the mental image in an instant, then radiated brilliant light in all directions.
—Wh-what is this!?
Kairon, who had been pressing the assault, let out a panicked voice.
For from the moment the Guardian rune shone, he felt his attacks on Jeon no longer landing properly.
—This can't... it can't be!
Realizing his attacks weren't working, Kairon unleashed a barrage in disbelief.
But even so, Jeon's mental image, now protected by the Guardian rune, easily withstood Kairon's assaults.
—What in the world are you!?
And Kairon couldn't accept the current situation.
When they first met, he thought Jeon was just a talented kid.
When he used strange magic whose principles he didn't know, he considered him a variable, but not a real opponent.
And the moment he nearly landed the ashen magic on him, he recognized him as a threat to his life.
So he dragged him into his inner world, the mental image.
Here, he was confident.
That the kid knew something about mental images was a variable, but the gap between him—who had already constructed one—and an opponent with only an unconscious mental image was vast.
Thus, he believed he would seize victory in this mental image world.
Yet again, some unknown principle—something he hadn't even known existed—blocked his attacks.
—Unbelievable! I can't believe it!
Who was he?
One of the two pillars leading the Silvermont mages, a grand mage who had reached the 7th Circle.
Yet feeling his life threatened by such a kid who hadn't even grasped basic enlightenment?
'It's all your karma.'
But Jeon responded to Kairon coldly.
All of this was the karma from betraying his comrade.
At that, Kairon screamed in a frenzy.
—What do you know!? Do you understand the pain of stagnation for over a decade!? The frustration of being helpless against the apostles despite being hailed as a pillar!? So I joined hands with them to judge them! I planned to reach the 8th Circle with them and then judge them!
'......You're getting uglier by the minute.'
But even to Kairon's desperate cry, Jeon replied with pity.
Join hands with them to reach the 8th Circle and then judge them?
It was utter nonsense.
Did he think they pulled him in without suspecting such thoughts?
'No, you're just rationalizing it to yourself.'
It was all just self-justification.
—No, no, I... I...
Watching the grand mage degrade further, Jeon felt it was time to end this.
So, he turned his gaze to another rune in the corner of his mental image.
'The Compression rune.'
There was the Compression rune.
One of the only two runes residing in Jeon's mental image alongside Guardian.
'Storage and Will runes aren't visible... Does residing in the mental image have conditions?'
A small question arose, but it didn't linger.
First, he needed to deal with this unsightly grand mage.
'Compression.'
Thus, following the Guardian rune, Jeon drew the Compression rune to the center of his mental image.
Then, the light from the Compression rune slowly extended outward from Jeon's mental image toward Kairon.
—Wh-what? What is this now!?
Facing yet another unreasonable situation in what he thought was his overwhelmingly advantageous mental image world, Kairon felt a threat to his life—no, his very existence—from the encroaching light.
He had to escape! That thought dominated his mind as he thrashed to flee Jeon's mental image.
His movements seemed much faster than the slowly advancing light.
But soon, Kairon realized he could no longer move.
—This... what...
The light hadn't touched him yet.
It was merely that some immense presence was pressing down on him, rendering movement impossible.
Thus frozen, the light extending from Jeon's mental image finally reached Kairon's.
And at that moment, Kairon vaguely grasped the identity of the presence he felt.
Heh heh heh, child. You've reached this place with your still clumsy realm.
A voice entirely different from Jeon's.
A rough voice carrying the weight of ages reached Kairon.
Crack.
With that, Kairon's mental image completely vanished on the spot.