Chapter 217
Chapter 217
Chapter 217: Diamond Promotion Match (4)
Translation: godtl
"This—this is impossible!!"
Shirane's voice trembled with disbelief, her shock so profound it bordered on denial.
And she wasn't wrong to react that way.
"How—how did you break my magic?!"
Even if she had been forcibly demoted, her magic—once ranked among the upper echelons of Diamond-tier spellcasters—had been shattered effortlessly.
Moreover—
'That spell utilized the seawater of Azshita!'
For a water-attribute magic user, especially a Naga—a dragonkin race—this environment should have been perfect.
Yet her magic had been erased without a trace.
Most crucially—
'Even if my magic was negated... This artifact was personally bestowed upon me by the Queen herself!'
The blue necklace around her neck.
An artifact touched by the Naga Queen's own hand—something only Diamond-grade players could receive.
And yet, its activation had been crushed so easily?
Shirane wasn't the only one reeling in shock.
=What the hell?!
=What was that just now?!
=What kind of creature is that?!
=Negating a Naga's magic in Azshita?!
The cross-dimensional chat channels were flooded with spectators just as stunned as Shirane herself.
=No, that wasn't negation.
=I agree. If it were negation, it should've only affected the Naga's water-attribute magic.
=But it also destroyed the artifact's binding effect on that Kim Si-mun guy.
=Don't tell me... that's the domain of nullification?
=Most likely. The probability is high.
=No, it's practically confirmed at this point.
Kkyu-ung's deafening roar.
The subsequent nullification of both magic and artifacts was nothing short of a seismic shock.
Meanwhile—
=Wait, what are these aliens suddenly talking about?
=Can't you read? That roar just nullified magic and artifacts.
=Lower-ranked players might not know. Nullification is devastating for Magic Class users.
=But what's up with that colorful little thing? Never seen it before.
=Right. At first, I thought it was Si-yeon popping out.
Earth's viewers, too, were voicing their surprise and confusion at Kkyu-ung's sudden appearance.
And then—
"Ah!"
The central figure of this entire incident.
"I get it now! Finally, I understand!!"
Shirane's eyes widened to the point of nearly tearing as she pointed an accusing finger at Si-mun and Kkyu-ung.
"You—you—it was you! It was you all along!"
As if she had finally grasped Si-mun's true nature.
The shock and horror in her eyes gradually twisted into fury, then murderous intent.
"You're the one who... the Second Dragon Emperor..."
Her voice, sharp and rising, suddenly faltered.
The reason was simple.
'Kim Si-mun—that bastard must be under heavy scrutiny right now, including from this broadcast.'
The Second Dragon Emperor, Echidna.
Wasn't Si-mun the very reason she had been placed under disciplinary confinement?
If she brought it up here—
'I can't dare expose the Second Dragon Emperor's disgrace!'
Multiple Constellations, including Si-mun's own viewers, would learn of the incident.
This would directly contradict the Dragon Realm's upper echelons, who were currently suppressing and manipulating rumors about the affair.
"Tch!"
Shirane bit down hard on her lip.
Her sharp fangs dug into her scaled flesh, but she paid it no mind, channeling both her mana and Dragon Power to their absolute limits.
'If it's Kim Si-mun... there's no way I can face him as I am now.'
Kim Si-mun.
A human who had repeatedly dared to stand in the Dragon Emperors' way.
Already a notorious figure among dragonkin—how could she, weakened by forced demotion, possibly defeat him?
Therefore—
'I have to escape!'
Flight was the only answer.
Fortunately—
'If I can just reach that person... Even Kim Si-mun won't be able to do anything!'
She had someone who could deal with this monster, didn't she?
With a fleeting glance toward the direction where the Giant Envoy and the robed Naga had disappeared, Shirane barked orders.
"Abandon defense and attack him now!"
"Yes, Lady Shirane!"
"Switch to Wave Charge Formation!"
After commanding the dozen or so Nagas ahead of her, she unleashed her Dragon Power and mana at full force.
"Magnum Water, Frost Cloud, Glacial Spike, Ice Fisting!"
A quadruple incantation completed in an instant.
The four distinct magics gathered at her fingertips—taking advantage of the surrounding water—manifested not from her hands, but...
Drip.
Fsssh!
...from all around Si-mun.
One.
'This won't be enough to stop him.'
Beside Si-mun, a colorful Dragonkin glared with sharp eyes, seething with anger.
After briefly glancing at Kkyu-ung, Shirane chanted twice more.
Unleashing over a dozen spells in succession, she then—
"O Queen...!"
—gathered her four arms, which had been moving independently, into a single unified gesture, forming identical hand seals.
Then—
Hwoom!
The blue pendant at her center—
the Naga Queen's artifact—
erupted with an overwhelmingly intense light.
"Punish this blasphemer!!"
Shirane's shout burst forth as her eyes widened.
Crack!
The shattered artifact transformed into a stream of blue light—
Shoooom!
—and shot straight toward Si-mun.
But Shirane didn't even wait to confirm if it had hit.
She immediately twisted her long lower body into a coil and—
Wham!
—propelled herself forward with a powerful flick of her serpentine tail.
"Quadruple Accel."
As she let her four arms—each inscribed with acceleration magic circles—hang back—
Swoooosh—
—she streaked through the dark ocean depths like a motorized vessel, faster than the blink of an eye.
'There won't be any survivors...'
Her guilt-ridden eyes flickered briefly backward, but that was all.
'Hmph! They weren't even Players anyway. They should consider it an honor to die like this.'
Thinking of the dozen or so Naga who were likely corpses by now, Shirane—
'Your sacrifices will be repaid by Him personally...'
—glared ahead with renewed venom, sparing only a fleeting moment to mourn their deaths.
Or rather,
she tried to mourn them.
Kyaaaaang!
Until the same roar that had nullified her earlier magic and artifact resounded once more.
Piiing.
And before she could react—
Swish.
—a thin, sharp sound of something tearing through the water reached her ears.
"Damn it!"
There was no time to counter.
In an instant, the pursuing black beams—
Kwa-dduk!
—pierced straight through all four of her arms maintaining the acceleration magic circles.
"Gyaaaaah!"
A shrill scream tore from her throat.
All four arms vanished in a single moment.
The backlash of mana from maintaining four spells simultaneously wracked her with unbearable agony,
but she couldn't even afford to writhe in pain.
The reason was simple.
Piiing.
That eerie sound of rending air came again.
"Tch!"
Biting back a rising scream, Shirane twisted her body frantically.
But—
"Aaagh!"
A choked cry finally burst out as her furious eyes bulged wide.
Two black beams had skewered her serpentine lower body.
The wounds in her tail brought a different kind of pain compared to her earlier injuries,
but—
"Grrrhh!!"
Clenching her teeth hard enough to split her lips,
she had no time to tend to her wounds—
only to focus on swimming.
And whether by sheer luck or the blessing of the Dragon Emperor she so revered,
no more black beams pursued her.
Against the dark ocean backdrop,
Shirane had now vanished into a speck too small to see.
At this,
Si-mun stroked his chin briefly.
"Hmm. That should do it."
Then he turned his head toward a groan coming from not too far away.
Like prey mauled by the claws of a monstrous beast,
half of the creature's limbs had been gruesomely torn away.
Only her innate resilience as an upper-level Dragonkin and her four-armed Naga physiology kept her clinging to life.
Crimson blood streamed steadily from her ravaged lower half.
"A monster...?"
Si-mun, who had been quietly mulling over the dying Naga's words,
gave a faint smirk.
"Coming from you... that doesn't sound half bad."
With a flick of his finger—
Piiing.
A beam of dark light shot forth from his fingertip,
utterly annihilating what remained of the bisected Naga's head.
Now, only the corpses created by the joint efforts of the Dragonoid and the Heavenly Demon Arts littered the surroundings.
Amidst that gruesome scene—
Kkyu-ung.
A tiny, adorable whimper echoed.
Turning his head—
Kkyuuuu~
A dragonkin the size of a puppy, its scales dappled in vibrant colors.
The Fairy Dragon Kkyu-ung, currently in its miniature form, nuzzled its head against Si-mun before burrowing into his embrace.
"Good job, Kkyu-ung."
Si-mun stroked the little creature with a gentle smile.
But then—
'Still...'
His smile twisted into a frown of doubt.
'Did Kkyu-ung always have this kind of power?'
That thunderous roar—
The ability it displayed was something even Si-mun, its creator, found astonishing.
And naturally—
[Hwaaaahhh!! So freaking cute!!]
Si-mun's chat window was in absolute chaos.
Mostly due to the creature's relentless display of affection.
[Where the hell did you even find such an adorable thing?!]
[Its name is Kkyu-ung, right? Even the name is adorable lol.]
[My heart hurts...]
[Hey, you too?]
The chat logs scrolled endlessly.
Of course, not all the chatter was about its appearance.
[How the hell does something that tiny have nullification abilities?]
[Right? And that magic earlier—that blue beam was no joke. It actually nullified it...]
[Wait, is it really nullification?]
[I'm currently Diamond-rank in the Magic Class, and I'm certain it's nullification.]
[Yeah, same. The Aura from those trident-wielding Nagas didn't vanish, after all.]
[Oh, now that you mention it...]
The phenomenon Kkyu-ung's roar had displayed—
A heated debate about nullification was already unfolding.
And—
[=I've never seen a dragonkin like this before.]
[=It's clearly a dragonkin, but what's with those butterfly-like wings?]
[=A hybrid with an Insectoid? But their species are fundamentally different...]
[=One thing's for sure—that multicolored dragonkin can nullify magic.]
[=Seems like a tier above standard magic nullification, no?]
The cross-dimensional chat was no different.
[=Agreed. That blue beam the Naga used earlier was high-tier magic, fueled by sacrificing an artifact.]
[=At minimum, it was mid-7th-star level... and it got nullified by a single roar.]
[=That implies its nullification operates on a more fundamental level than magic...]
[=I'd cautiously speculate it's attribute nullification.]
[=Attribute nullification? That tracks.]
[=True, all the magic the Naga used was water-attribute.]
Perhaps because these were species participating in the official Arena—
The cross-dimensional chat was exchanging far more in-depth theories than Earth's.
But with the chat minimized—
Si-mun, unaware of the ongoing discussions, cradled Kkyu-ung in one arm while—
"Let's see... my current kill count is..."
With his other hand, he pulled up the Arena Board.
[1st -???? 50 Kills.]
[2nd -?? 39 Kills.]
[3rd - Kim Si-mun 31 Kills.]
[4th -...]
The rankings and scores scrolled past.
Si-mun stared at his third-place position and tilted his head.
'As expected, my kill count didn't budge. Those Nagas I just dealt with weren't Players.'
Just as he'd guessed—
The dozen or so Nagas had been ordinary ones, not Players.
On the other hand—
'That giant woman and the Naga named Shirane from earlier—they were definitely Players...'
When he'd first encountered Shirane's group—
The four-meter-tall woman accompanying them had definitely been a Player.
'Well, I'll find out soon enough if I follow Shirane.'
Hadn't he deliberately let her go for that very reason?
She probably had no idea—
'I wounded her to the brink of death. She'll probably croak right around the time she arrives.'
Meanwhile.
The being she had crawled toward with her dying strength—just what relationship did it have with her?
"Before that."
Si-mun, who had been observing the Arena Board, smoothly—
—tapped his sharp fingers against his chin.
'If I move toward Shirane's side, I'll probably run out of time, won't I?'
Chasing Shirane itself wasn't much of an issue.
But if she met the being she sought, the situation could drag on.
So then—
"First, I should secure first place a bit more firmly."
He needed to firmly lock in that top ranking.
Kiiing—!
A sharp tinnitus spilled from Si-mun's left eye.
Golden magic circles, layered upon layers, interlocked like gears—
'Two, ten, twenty-four, fifty-five...'
—relaying the information of players scattered throughout the depths of Azshita.
Of course, he couldn't pinpoint every single player's location, but—
'Roughly about ninety around me, huh?'
Given the vast structure of the map, then—
Raising his kill count in a short time was nearly impossible.
'With the AoE attacks I currently have, it's not feasible. I'll need something new...'
One eyebrow slightly raised, Si-mun glanced down at his chest.
—Hmm~ Our Oppa. Thinking of something fun again, aren't you?
The Philosopher's Stone, sensing his intent, immediately chimed in.
Si-mun asked without an object.
'What do you think? Possible?'
—Well, nothing's impossible, but... if you want the effect to reach the range you're imagining, the usual Equivalent Exchange ratio won't cut it.
'Meaning, like with Asclepius' Staff before, the base cost will exceed the standard, right?'
—Yep. Efficiency-wise, it's kinda crap, but... since your alchemy-related stats have gone up a lot, it's way better than before.
'Oh?'
Way better than before, huh?
Mulling over those words for a moment, Si-mun then added—
'Then let's throw in one more thing.'
—One more?
He relayed another idea to the Philosopher's Stone.
—Wow... just look at this blueprint? Man, you're usually so docile, but when it comes to times like these, you're such a dangerous Oppa, aren't you?
'Is that a compliment?'
—It's an insult, actually.
The Philosopher's Stone replied snarkily as it amplified Transmutation Power.
In response—
[The Philosopher's Stone requests 2,000 Achievement Points to compensate for the insufficient Equivalent Exchange.]
[Do you accept? (Yes / No)]
The terms of the exchange materialized before Si-mun.
—By the way, that's the combined total. 1,000 points each. One of them cost a bit less since we're underwater.
Nodding at the Philosopher's Stone's additional explanation, Si-mun immediately began the transmutation.
Snap.
A flick of his fingers.
And before him—
Krrrrumble—!
A thunderclap, utterly out of place in the ocean depths, roared as a single bolt of lightning struck down.
From below—
Sssss—
A fork-shaped staff, forged as if from mithril and sapphire, rose upward.
Compared to the short rods of before, both had now evolved into full-length staves.
And at the sight—
=Th-That... those can't be?!
=They look heavily degraded, but it's unmistakable!
=Good heavens... to see both of those divine weapons in one place!
=What even are those?
=I've never seen them before either.
=Well, they don't look ordinary, that's for sure.
The cross-dimensional chat erupted in shock and confusion at the appearance of the two weapons.
But Si-mun, unfazed, simply gripped both staves and brought them together.
Crackle-crackle-crackle—!
As the two staves gradually merged, violent transmutation sparks erupted.
Simultaneously—
[Insufficient Transmutation Power to meet the required synthesis conditions.]
[The Philosopher's Stone requests an additional 3,000 Achievement Points to compensate for the insufficient Equivalent Exchange.]
[Do you accept? (Yes / No)]
Another exchange prompt appeared.
Si-mun's gaze fixed on the number: 3,000 Points.
'It really did drop to 3,000.'
The birth of the Fairy Dragon.
The cost reduction from Ars Magna, granted as part of that achievement's reward, was clearly in effect.
A faint smile lingered at the corner of Si-mun's lips—but only for a moment.
[Constellation Zeus's eyes gleam with interest.]
[Constellation Poseidon's eyes widen in unexpected surprise.]
[Constellation Ra stares at you with a blank expression.]
A cascade of reactions from the Constellations surfaced one after another.
And with a deep, resonant hum—
By realizing this grand truth he had grasped—
In the abyssal depths of Azshita—
Ars Magna (The Great Art) — Fusion.
The divine minds of two exalted god-kings.
For the first time—dawn arrived.