Chapter 166
Chapter 166
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 166
Chapter Title: The Old Ruler's Pursuit
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As the old ruler soared into the sky on three pairs of wings, chasing after the red-haired youth, the ancient malice trembled through dimensions, swirling along his flight path.
“Ah, about—!”
What’s with that guy…… Is he doing this to buy time for everyone here to escape?
As the presence that had felt like it could crush souls gradually receded, Miria caught her breath and bit her lip in helpless frustration.
She couldn’t imagine he’d fled because there was some way to win. Humanity had no means left to stand against that ancient ruler.
‘Acting all cool for no reason…….’
Meanwhile, Millone Alter Gaumris dragged Gaumris across the ground as he approached Juliana, the shrine maiden of the star cluster.
“Juliana, was that what I think it is just now? Juyeo Soge Daeban, right……?”
Finally able to dispel the seal of the Light Psalms, Juliana collapsed to the ground, drenched in sweat like rain, her strength utterly spent.
“Yeah…… It’s the absolute healing manual created by Great Mage Lin and Fire Dragon’s Shrine Maiden Fride.”
In theory, Juyeo Soge Daeban used a 5-star ice magic focused solely on defense to render the caster temporarily invincible.
And within that, 5-star healing and awakening runes activated to perfectly restore the caster’s body—that was the academic consensus.
Originally an incomplete hybrid incantation, it had evolved into a perfect one when wielded by an absolute being beyond human perception.
“Lin died thinking it was just an activation formula, but according to Tureina, Fride made it so it would automatically trigger when the caster faced mortal danger…….”
Nariaduk had transcended death through that tragic incantation.
No one here could stop it…… Not unless every existing FakeWarrior banded together, or the water dragons or the cardinals stepped in…….
The sealing power of the Light Psalms might create some variable…… But the two shrine maidens who could wield that omnipotent force were no longer on this earth.
Still, she had to try somehow. She was the only one left.
“Valensidis, find Tureina’s body! The psalm scroll should be…… Valensidis?”
* * *
I need to buy time.
Time to sort out my overloaded mind from Bell Quirius, and time to activate the power of creation.
「Rotas…… Futile struggling.」
As Nariaduk streaked sharply across the sky above my head, a storm raged, and the landscape began to distort horrifically.
‘Crazy.’
Amid a stench that could ruin my sense of smell, the lush forest rotted yellow. Beasts and monsters wailed in agony before turning into pus-filled lumps.
‘Truly insane.’
Cracks split the earth, and pillars of fire that burned the air itself erupted to engulf Nariaduk…… Or rather, that moment was erased.
‘A truly insane ability…….’
But beyond the deleted time, waiting for the translocated Nariaduk were five pillars of fire exploding with blistering heat.
「Puuuuuet…… You bastard……!」
The silver lining was that his powers still needed activation time. If he could spam them endlessly like Shar’kas, it’d be hopeless.
His ‘time deletion’ and ‘space interference’ abilities seemed to share that cooldown.
I confirmed it when I saw him burst from the pillar’s smoke and charge down the opposite slope after me.
‘So even 4-star magic can do some damage.’
Revived in human flesh, Nariaduk wasn’t as utterly despairing an opponent as Shar’kas with his true form.
The problem was that no matter what I did, I couldn’t kill him…… No, wait, that was true for Shar’kas too.
Right, the real issue is there’s no mighty ally like Alakish here. I have to solve this alone.
“Lin, Lin, Lin.”
No, not alone.
Whenever I thought I was alone, this one was always by my side. Fride’s greatest gift to me.
An unavoidable fondness made me smile unwittingly, even as worry crept in.
“I told you to guard Tureina.”
Logically speaking, that fool was already at eternal rest, so no one needed to guard her anymore.
But why had I done it?
Part of it was that Pipi didn’t want to leave Tureina’s side, and I didn’t want to drag Pipi into this dangerous fight.
And I didn’t want to leave that lonely fool alone, even in death.
“This, this, this.”
But wasn’t Pipi holding a scroll in its mouth with a string? Rolled up tight in that string was a small scroll.
If my memory served, it had been hanging from Tureina’s waist……
“Lin, front, front, front, front.”
While running and unrolling the scroll, I nearly smashed headfirst into a tree looming ahead.
“Left, under root, right rock.”
Following Pipi’s guidance, and using its flame wings for light, I frantically read the incantation on the scroll—and it was shocking.
“A 5-star hybrid of magic and ritual incantation?”
This……
This could definitely……
Buy time, but there was a fatal flaw. I could handle 5-star magic, but not 5-star ritual.
「Heh heh ha ha ha…… No escape from the storm of causality…… Al ta ris, this valley shall be your grave…….」
Then came a resonance impossible to imitate with human vocal cords.
Not a voice so much as a shockwave, stirring primal fear and madness rooted in the origin……
Feathers scattered throughout the forest suddenly whipped up a fierce storm. Vortices of erosion rising from the cosmic extremes, the abyss of time……
“Dodge, Pipi! Into Celesia!”
The night was already inescapably dark, but the world felt even darker.
Vortices of malice swirled dreamily, as if space-time itself was collapsing, surging from all directions in a nauseatingly dizzying assault.
Indescribable power…… Everything in the mountains—trees, weeds, mud, rocks—melted like sap, flowing and twisting……
Did I have no choice but to draw my imagery here? But even if I did, it wouldn’t help…… As I idly formed seals, that’s when it happened.
“If it’s a hybrid of magic and ritual, you’ll need my help, Rain Ludwig.”
I could only let out a hollow laugh.
Whether it was hollow or genuine joy, I had no desire to distinguish. My pride wouldn’t allow it.
“Valensidis……?!”
A rift suddenly tore open in the dimension before me, revealing that smug student council president’s face.
“I tailed you because I didn’t trust you not to bolt off alone.”
Before I could retort, Valensidis grabbed my arm and yanked.
“No time for chit-chat—get in!”
The next instant, a dozen vortices intersected at one point, unleashing a roar that shook the entire mountain range.
A massive hole was gouged into the mountainside by the acidic slime’s erosion, so deep and vast it exposed the geological strata.
Nariaduk, gliding down elegantly with aristocratic wing flaps from above, twitched an eyebrow.
「I unleashed every power at my disposal…… Ro sas, where did you vanish to?」
He didn’t need to search impatiently.
A crow’s caw echoed from afar. The cry disrupting the mountains revealed the target’s position to Nariaduk.
Nariaduk grinned wickedly and soared high into the sky once more.
「No escape from fate, Bel has. I shall claim your flesh before dawn breaks.」
* * *
At that moment, in another space—a forest untouched by Nariaduk’s storm—Valensidis’s pupils shook.
“This……?”
The scroll handed over by the red-eyed youth was profoundly shocking.
The equations forming the casting formula and the ritual runes were artistic in their fusion, but what stunned him more was what it implied.
Juliana’s words before deployment wriggled in his mind.
- Tureina didn’t seem to want to destroy the world.
Hard to believe after witnessing her brutality firsthand…… But didn’t this perfectly corroborate Juliana?
“A reversal incantation……?”
It reversed a mighty reincarnation incantation—drawn across three peaks, amplifying modern magic, rituals, and black magic at its core—with sealing power.
Judging by the runes, it was an advanced application of Juyeo Soge Daeban that Tureina had researched her entire life.
In simple terms, a ritual to forcibly freeze and seal the target.
“Seal, seal, seal, seal.”
Unlike Juyeo Soge Daeban, no healing rituals or ice-shatter effects upon awakening.
Magic and ritual alike—runes and equations solely for sealing.
“I’ll give it a shot…… But sorry. Even for me, this incantation is too immense to guarantee success.”
So he can use it—that incantation that even made me stick out my tongue……
Impressive guy.
Tureina’s prized disciple who could wield her hybrid incantation.
The red-eyed youth leaned on his stone staff and rose.
“Doesn’t have to succeed. Just cast it, buy a little time—that’s enough.”
“Time? Even if we buy a bit—”
“—Then I trust you with it, Valensidis. Pipi, help him.”
At that instant, as the crow caws grew frantic, Rain erased Valensidis—or rather, the formless vortex writhing around him.
It was space interference.
He hadn’t erased the power acting on himself, so the next moment, Rain faced the vortex’s master, his knees and shoulders crushed under its pressure. In another space.
「Petty tricks are futile before absolute fate…… This is true power…… Surutos, the storm of fate shall lead the world to the king’s path of truth…….」
True power, huh? The true power I know is warmer than you. Rain unwound the bandage on his left hand while forming seals.
Fire.
Radiance.
Light.
Net.
The seals formed in an instant overlaid the world with an unknown landscape—his imagery.
The mark of the sage, said to materialize imagery at its ultimate peak.
“Imagery Construct.”
The old great mage, not yet at 7-star divine realm, could only drape the world in imagery.
But that was enough.
No human mage had ever wielded fire runes through imagery.
「!」
Overwhelmed by the presence, Nariaduk flinched back in wariness at what should have been his moment to seize victory.
「No, that power……?」
A ring of flames expanded massively around the youth, guiding the dark world to eye-searing primary brilliance.
Along with it, four triangles appended to the circle: Flow, Quantity, World, Venerable.
And framing the ring, the sacred words of the Light Psalms embroidered the genesis tale in sublime, dazzling beauty that stole the breath.
「The Black Sun’s……?」
He had no choice but to feel wary.
No choice but to be overwhelmed.
That power, that maelstrom of heartfelt force, closely resembled the irreverent presence that had sealed the Queen of Time.
“Fire Radiant Light: Flow Quantity World Venerable.”
Flames softly illuminated the world like a spring sun, yet blazed murderously like midsummer’s blaze. The red-haired youth slung his stone staff under his arm and wagged his fingers.
“Come at me. I’ll show you the hell where your pal Shar’kas went.”