Chapter 76
Chapter 76
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 76
Chapter Title: Lin Original
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“This side is Lin Original.”
He had put on a deliberately relaxed attitude to provoke him as much as possible, but his experience from his previous life had taught him that acting cocky against a black mage would get you killed.
‘I’ll crush him with full power from the start.’
The hand seal he formed reverently was Ra.
Two circles and two diamonds—the rune properties of their combination meant “to spread out”... But what was this?
‘No mana flowing from the § in my palm?’
The mental barrier wasn’t forming.
A cold sweat ran down his spine in an instant. Had he formed the seal wrong? Was his mana insufficient?
No, everything was perfect.
“────!”
As he peered into his palm, Ribadin lowered his stance and kicked off the ground.
In that moment, Rain’s body was already shifting into a defensive posture. With a metallic scrape slicing through the air, a massive stone staff came charging in.
Fast... He raised his staff in a split second to block it. He deftly parried the five follow-up strikes that came next.
But the problem was that the impacts were far stronger than anticipated.
Crack─── Crack───!
The recoil from the immense mass made his staff scream despite perfect reinforcement... And on the sixth clash, it shattered into countless splinters.
‘Not just the tip—the whole staff is iron?’
And the blade edge was glowing dark blue. It was wrapped in Abyssal energy...
One hit and he was done for.
The hairs on his body stood on end.
‘And this guy’s using Osarius-style staff techniques.’
As the shattered splinters scattered everywhere, Rain kicked off the ground and spun in midair to create distance.
‘Ribeni was the same.’
Checking his body’s condition, his lips twisted into a smile against his will.
‘Have I lived too long in peace as Rain that I’m making rookie mistakes like this...?’
One splinter had lodged into the flesh of his left arm. He could feel something hot spreading slowly through his body.
It wasn’t the sensation of blood clotting. It was the deathly spread of deadly poison.
“Barrier field, deploy.”
A magic circle shattered above Rain’s palm, and a colorless, transparent barrier enveloped the wound like a wrap. It would hold off the poison’s spread for a little while.
‘But it’s just a stopgap...’
He needed to receive treatment quickly. This time was different from before. No Rem, Bart, or Sami.
“Pfft, hahahahahaha!”
Suddenly, Ribadin burst into狂 laughter as if it was the funniest thing ever. The expression on his face was pure ecstasy.
“Man, every time I see that look of despair on your face, I just can’t stop doing this.”
It was eerily similar to the grin Ribeni had worn while looking down at Rain as he lay dying.
“You little rats are so predictable. The moment I flex a bit of power, you freak out and think about going all-out. So easy to read.”
“What did you do?”
“I figured you’d have some trump card. Once I know about it, I just make it unusable.”
Clank... As Ribadin pulled his hand, dark blue mana chains unspooled into the air with a wet metallic grind.
His lips twitched.
That... No, that couldn’t be. Countless questions crossed his mind, and cold sweat soaked his back.
“The Chains of Vigilance...?”
It was hard to believe even for himself, impossible to accept now, but it was the 5-star spell he had developed as his trump card at eighteen.
“You know this too? Looks like you studied up on Lin.”
Three hundred years ago, the closer he got to the Abyss’s core, the exponentially stronger the black mages became. Blocking their attacks had grown too burdensome.
That’s what inspired those chains. Rather than countering already-cast spells, they prevented activation from the start.
As a 5-star spell, it demanded insane amounts of mana, so he hadn’t even dreamed of using it after reincarnating as Rain...
‘If I poured in everything I have now, maybe five seconds?’
Unable to believe it, he focused mana into his eyes, turning his vision red.
┏ 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 ┓
ㆍThe spell formation combines three octagons (steel) and two pentagons (electricity).
ㆍRunes used: formula-type Ruticen:
‘Je (制): suppress’
‘Seo (誓): vigilantly’,
‘Swal (鎖): lock’,
‘Ran (攔): block’,
‘Yeon (鍊): refine’.
ㆍSize 88 axel, range 122 gimite.
┗ 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 ┛
Even the fine details seen through Bell Sidias were identical to what he’d created. This wasn’t some sloppy imitation from history books.
In that instant, he understood why the special forces mages had fallen so easily.
On the other hand, another suspicion amplified uncontrollably. Ribeni had mimicked his appearance when Rista and Fride had forced him into drag.
‘And this guy has my ultimate move. Both used my staff style too.’
How was this possible? Were there records in some book? Or was one of his old comrades a traitor?
‘Impossible. They wouldn’t, and it’s been three hundred years...’
For a moment, like a cold blade piercing his skull, the face of his disciple—who had lived three hundred years and was now on trial for heresy—flashed in his mind.
He immediately shook his head to dispel the ominous, absurd delusion.
Tureina wouldn’t do that. No way. She was so innocent despite her playfulness... And she was already dead.
“...How exactly are you using Lin’s techniques?”
Ribadin smirked.
Then that smirk twisted viciously, and in the next moment, he lowered his staff into a charging stance.
“If you want the answer, entertain me a bit more!”
He immediately raised his palm to form a magic circle.
But clank...
A cold chain wrapped around his body—precisely the main joint of his shoulder blade—and the magical glow blooming in his palm fizzled out powerlessly.
‘So it seals right away...!’
The Chains of Vigilance could block three spells total. This guy had just used the second to seal the one he’d tried to cast.
Screee!
In that instant, as the staff whistled through the air toward him, he leaned his face back to dodge, then cracked the ground.
“Petty tricks!”
Should he save the last one carefully? He needed to drain the chains’ power first... Bell Quirius to erase them was off-limits. He’d use that differently.
“Rune engraving alteration.”
As Ribadin moved for a follow-up strike, the crumbling ground beneath Rain erupted violently, surging upward in an instant where he stood.
“This your last gasp!”
High-speed computed 1-star triangular magic circles rained fireballs along his predicted path, blocking his approach. It should have blocked him.
Clank...!
Once more, with the utter helplessness of absolute chains wrapping his body, the magic circle forming in his palm scattered into motes of light.
“Oh no...!”
He’d planned to intercept with worthless 1-star spells, but this must have been the kill moment Ribadin anticipated.
The battle-hardened Ribadin sealed the spell a half-beat late on purpose, making Rain’s response fatally delayed.
Ribadin had already crested the slope, thrusting his staff. This wasn’t an attack magic or mage-sight could handle.
“Form 4, Elephant!”
He gripped his half-broken staff for momentum. Infused it with mana for reinforcement, meeting the lethal strike.
Crack───!
The staff shattered from one clash, spinning through the air, shards embedding deep in his arm with sharp pain, and meanwhile the stone staff aimed straight for his throat—
“...?!”
—In that instant, sensing immense killing intent—no, heat—Ribadin hurled himself sideways in a frantic roll.
────Roarrrrr!
Flames poured into the spot where he’d stood.
A majestic blaze sliced through the air, unleashing a massive heatwave that shook the forest, proclaiming its presence.
While Ribadin narrowed his eyes at the unexpected foe, Rain muttered in helpless joy.
“You always show up right on time, Pipi.”
Pipi, reverting from its massive form to its cute state, landed on Rain’s shoulder and suddenly pecked his cheek furiously with its beak.
“Ow! Sorry, sorry! It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Pipi—I just came alone because it was dangerous!”
Hmm, if that’s the case...
Pipi nodded as if convinced, then glared at Ribadin. Precisely, the chains floating around him.
“Amazing, amazing, that’s Lin’s technique. Pipi knows, Lin’s technique.”
“You remember?”
“Yeah, so Pipi thinks that’s real Lin. This is fake Lin.”
He jolted in shock for a moment.
He jumped straight into frantic excuses.
“No, no! I’m the real one! Think about it—do I look like I’d grow up that sloppy?”
Pipi narrowed its eyes.
Rain immediately bowed his head in a remorseful tone.
“Sorry for sacrificing you yesterday. I’ll pay back with a hundred corn kernels.”
Only then did Pipi shake its head and hips in satisfaction.
“Forgiven once, Pipi forgives once.”
Their playful laughter lasted just a moment—both were combat pros, so they quickly refocused.
“Chatting so merrily with a beast—guess you really are a rat at heart?”
Thus, the moment Ribadin finished probing and charged back in, the two seamlessly shifted to combat and executed flawless teamwork.
Pipi darted everywhere, scattering flame trails that heated the forest in spots, whipping up gusts that shook the trees.
Having to deal with Pipi’s intercepts suppressed Ribadin’s assaults on Rain to the point of losing their edge.
‘Tch, just when I line up a killing blow, that bird keeps interfering...’
Ribadin furrowed his brow.
Really annoying.
This wasn’t his first or second human duel... But thankfully, his opponent’s owner was pathetically amateurish by comparison.
‘Wary of another seal from the Chains of Vigilance, he’s sticking to low-level spells at best.’
The Chains could activate three times total. After that, they entered standby, recharging runes on their own.
‘But this punk couldn’t know that. That’s why he’s dragging it out.’
So Ribadin judged, but even that complacent assessment played right into Rain’s hands.
‘Look, the runes on the chains have lost all glow, but they’re slowly regaining it.’
Dodging Ribadin’s staff by a hair’s breadth, he glanced at the chains to gather info.
‘When the light returns, it recharges uses—so that’s the perfect moment to end it.’
He flung his body sideways to evade a wide staff swing, prompting Ribadin to spit on the ground.
“Tch, slippery as a rat.”
Irritated tone, but his face was full of leisure. He must think he had the prey cornered.
“Tell me how you killed Ribeni. I’ll kill you the same way.”
Leisure was a double-edged sword.
It bred carelessness, but also calm judgment, making for a tricky foe.
So he’d flip that leisure first.
“Calling yourself my reincarnation pisses me off so much I can’t even talk, you pathetic loser.”
“?”
“You could’ve sealed my magic then hosed me with high-level AOE from range and killed me easy—but you didn’t? Means you suck at ranged magic battles, right?”
He raised index and middle fingers to the sky—a signal to Pipi: cease attack, hold position.
“Loser, if that’s you, should’ve joined the One-Star Seven Swords instead of being a mage. Oh wait, they wouldn’t take trash like you.”
For a moment, it felt like a vein burst somewhere on his face.
“I’ll rip that mouth to shreds!”
His foot carved into the ground as he charged with full power.
“Bell Quirius.”
Fresh blood.
In an instant, a mana ripple spread from Rain, giving the illusion that the whole world was drenched in blood.
And it pierced Ribadin.
An overwhelming insight of unknown nature, silver-white flowers blooming beautifully, terrifyingly from eyes blazing red.
He knew what it was.
‘Bell Sidias.’
The Ludwig bloodline limit that let them steal any magic, earning them the moniker “magic thieves.”
But that was Bell Quirius—Bell Sidias, its degraded form, only read others’ magic structures. Nothing more.
But weren’t those eyes a bit off? In Dragon Hole Field, it was clearly deadly, so why seven veils...?
Clankclankclank───!
In that confused split-second, the mana chains stretched across the air—sealing the boy’s power—speared through Ribadin’s chest.
“What...?”
The five powers engraved on the chains stripped all supernatural abilities from Ribadin’s body.
“I told you, I’m Lin Original.”
The incantation boosting his physical prowess, the magic lightening the 70kg staff, the body alchemy maintaining his form.
“All of it.”
“Trying to use my magic in front of me makes it way too easy to steal, doesn’t it?”