Chapter 140
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 140
Years ago, Turan had watched the magic unleashed by the old man before him and felt a deep sense of yearning.
Witnessing the authority of the most powerful mage in the world, he had craved the ability to wield such power himself. Now, several years later, he was finally facing the opponent he had once only hoped to reach: the Head of the Arabion Family, the descendant of the Thunder Lord.
‘His presence has changed quite a bit since then.’
The Badal he remembered from the past was a lethargic old man. Usually, he would sit in the sun, dozing off while letting a proxy handle his affairs. Even when he did exert his power directly, he had always looked visibly strained.
But the Badal standing there now looked ten years younger, his expressions and movements brimming with vitality. It was something that shouldn't have been possible unless he had consumed some mythical elixir of immortality.
Turan immediately sharpened his Spiritual Awareness, opening his spiritual sight. He shuddered at what he saw. An ethereal body, so bloated it looked ready to burst from his skull, was forcibly tethered to his physical form.
Furthermore, the inner self he glimpsed through the Mimic Relic remained the same as before. He saw the symbol of the Thunder Lord: a giant hand gripping a hammer, with lightning and wind swirling every time it struck the anvil.
Suppressing the fear rising within him, Turan spoke mockingly.
“So, you’ve turned your precious daughter into this? I suppose that’s a White Elf for you.”
“A White Elf, you say? That was quite an amusing lie.”
Instead of flying into a rage at the provocation of a youth hundreds of years his junior, Badal replied with an expression as calm as still water.
The battlefield was chaotic, filled with screams, shouts, and magic flying in every direction, yet the two were able to converse without difficulty. This was because they were using wind magic to carry their voices directly to one another while simultaneously drawing the other's voice in.
This alone proved that while Badal’s magical talent might be inferior to his or Meisa’s, it was on an entirely different level compared to ordinary mages. Then again, it wasn't as if the gods would have chosen a vessel lacking in talent.
Even as they spoke, Turan stole a glance to check on his two companions. Solif appeared to be quite badly injured, but in contrast, Meisa seemed to have escaped fatal wounds, though she was bleeding heavily.
“I have one question. Do you have Kadram’s soul?”
“Well, I wonder—”
Before he could even finish his sentence, Turan’s hand whipped around, and the sling he held exploded into motion. It was a high-speed launch using a Soul of Fire as propellant—a sudden, underhanded sneak attack.
However, Badal didn't even bat an eye. He immediately called down a bolt of lightning from the sky, intercepting the projectile with pinpoint accuracy. Just as it had when he attacked the Heavenly Guardian in the past, the steel ball—a magic tool—melted away in an instant, leaving nothing behind but metallic vapor.
‘This is...’
The sky, which had been relatively clear when he arrived, had long since been covered by dark clouds. It was highly likely a phenomenon created by the old man to foster an environment where his lightning magic could be used more easily, just as he had done before.
Turan immediately melted into the darkness using Stealth magic. He didn't actually expect to stay hidden; rather, he intended to force Badal to expend mana and distract him by making him create light, just as he had done during his fight with Meisa.
However, instead of creating a sphere of light to illuminate the area, Badal pulled a long staff from his robes. No, looking closer, it wasn't a staff. It was a hammer made of a long rod of blue crystal, with a square-shaped jade gemstone embedded at the tip.
The moment Badal raised the hammer high toward the sky, Meisa, who had been catching her breath behind him, screamed urgently.
“Get away!”
Whoosh!
Turan quickly detonated a Soul of Fire to propel himself away just as a violet flash erupted around Badal. It was an eerie color that could never be achieved with conventional lightning magic. Though he didn't know it was a form of plasma, he could instinctively feel that the power contained within it was terrifyingly potent.
From where Badal had stood to where Turan had been just a moment ago, the air within a range of a hundred meters shimmered with a distorted, scorching haze.
Seeing this, Turan deactivated his Stealth. The light had been so blindingly bright that his mana had evaporated in an instant. As expected of a Family Head, even his methods for dragging someone out of stealth were on a different level from ordinary mages.
‘Is this the Heavenly Punishment...?’
The relic of the Thunder Lord, considered a pair with the Heavenly Guardian worn by Meisa. Unlike the Heavenly Guardian, which was only a mid-to-high-tier relic, this was a top-tier relic held in the highest regard even within Arabion. It was an item on par with the Mimic Relic Turan possessed.
In the distant past, it was said that people saw this hammer dry up a river with a single swing and mistook it for a staff that breathed fire.
“Oho.”
Badal, perhaps surprised by Turan’s mobility, furrowed a brow and gave the hammer a casual swing. At that, the massive amount of electric charge gathered in the sky converged into a single point with a low growl.
“You have a knack for dodging. Then how about this?”
If a fly is too quick to be hit by a pinpoint strike, one simply needs to swat it with a wide flyswatter.
Guided by the hammer, the charges gathered in the sky transformed into the shape of violet dragons and descended upon the earth. It was a technique that ignored the fundamentals of lightning magic, which usually manifested and vanished in a flash.
Turan hurriedly detonated a Soul of Fire again and used flight magic to evade, but the dragons did not give up after one failure and pursued him relentlessly. It was magic imbued with tracking capabilities; dodging wasn't the end of it.
“Ugh—”
Turan retreated hastily, immediately drawing upon the combined power of the two Arabion bloodlines. It had been about a month and ten days since he had mastered the magic of the gods. Through practice, he had already learned which 'levers' to pull to exert which powers.
The moment Turan cast his magic, dozens of lightning dragons swarmed him. The resulting shockwave and thunderous roar sent a couple of nearby knights flying into the distance.
“No!”
“You bastard!”
Meisa and Solif screamed in desperation and immediately launched attacks at the now-defenseless Badal. A javelin forged from Judgment Light and boulders unearthed with earth manipulation magic flew toward him.
However, Badal stood his ground and deflected both their attacks. The Judgment Light tangled with the violet glow emanating from the hammer and vanished, while the boulders, imbued with strong mana, were swept away and repelled by a barrier of tempestuous wind.
Seizing that opening, Solif shaped his Judgment Light into a sword and attempted close-quarters combat. But Badal skillfully evaded the blade and swung Heavenly Punishment, striking Solif in the chest.
Crack—!
With a fluid motion and a thunderous boom, Solif’s body was sent flying over a hundred meters. Meisa’s eyes widened in shock at a distance that seemed impossible for a normal physical strike.
“Soli—!”
Of course, they weren't unaware of the gap in skill between them and Badal. They had already been fighting for the past few hours, using hit-and-run tactics to allow the main force to retreat, and they were already on the verge of death.
And that was only possible because Badal hadn't been showing his full strength. Whether because of the false rumors about the White Elf, he hadn't used the magic of the gods, and he had even held back to capture Meisa alive.
Thanks to that, Solif had found some success with a strategy of using Meisa as a shield whenever he faced a lethal attack. Since she was practically immune to lightning magic thanks to the Heavenly Guardian, it had been a great help.
But now, with Turan’s arrival, Badal had revealed his true strength and become a level more powerful than before. Turan trembled for a moment with a sense of frustration that threatened to break his will, but Badal turned his head and let out an exclamation of admiration.
“I see, you really can use Skills. The rumors were true.”
Shortly after, a gust of wind blew, and the two saw Turan, half-crouched on the ground. A dark blue barrier hung around his body in a semi-transparent form. This divine magic, once used by Kadram, possessed the greatest defensive power among the techniques he could use.
Even so, his entire body stung as if he had been burned; had he taken the hit directly, he likely would have died instantly, regardless of any defensive magic tools.
‘He’s stronger than I thought...’
Since Osel was said to have repelled the Head of the Baraha Family while fighting at the Lavitas stronghold, Turan had assumed that even a vessel possessed by a god wouldn't be that strong if it was the head of a Great House. He had believed that if the three of them joined forces, they could at least hold their own, even if they couldn't push him back.
But the power of the Arabion Family Head he was facing directly was beyond his imagination. Was it because of the compatibility as a vessel? Or was it the difference in the strength of the original god? Whichever it was, the Arabion Family Head was overwhelming Turan’s group without even revealing the True Magic he would possess as the Thunder Lord.
Of course, things might have been better if Meisa and Solif weren't already near exhaustion.
While he was inwardly marveling at his opponent’s prowess, the stinging of the burns across his body quickly subsided. It was thanks to the relic around his neck, ‘Simple Wish,’ healing his body. Since it didn't have very strong regenerative powers, it could only slightly mitigate serious injuries, but in a fight, even nullifying these minor strikes was a huge help.
“Just hold on a little longer! Reinforcements are coming!”
Shouting to encourage the two, Turan immediately took to the air to claim the high ground and fired several whirlpools at Badal. It was the technique Kadram had once been known for, called ‘Cyclone.’
He didn't just throw them haphazardly as he had the first time. Using wind magic, he designed it so that several whirlpools scattered around would converge and surround Badal. Linking ordinary magic with the magic of the gods was one of the areas Turan had spent the last month painstakingly researching.
“Not bad.”
With a brief compliment, Badal lightly tapped his foot and rose into the air as well. Turan sent the whirlpools upward to pursue his opponent. With ordinary flight magic, it should have been impossible to evade their speed—
“What?”
Turan’s eyes widened involuntarily at the sight that followed. Badal, having flown into the sky, escaped the encirclement in an instant with literally lightning speed. It was a speed that was on a different level from ordinary flight magic, more comparable to Bije’s flight.
“Are you curious?”
Muttering words that could have been a taunt or a serious question, Badal flew toward Turan at that same speed. The hammer he held was once again filled with the same violet glow as before.
The moment Turan evaded again with an emergency maneuver, the aftereffects of the power detonating right beside him struck his flank.
“Gah...!”
He let out a groan as if the air were being squeezed from his lungs. After repositioning, Turan felt a chill run down his spine as he looked at where he had just been. Around the spot where Badal’s hammer had struck, a massive crater dozens of meters in diameter had formed. Had he even been grazed by that, it would have been like being struck by the tail of a Great Sea Serpent.
He began to worry if Solif, who had been hit earlier, was even still alive.
“You dodge the strong attacks and block the ones you can't avoid... You are a troublesome opponent.”
It sounded like a complaint, but a faint smile played on Badal’s lips. Did he find it fun to encounter a challenging foe?
Badal charged again, and Turan used a Soul of Fire to evade, but he was quickly caught. He didn't know what method Badal was using, but his opponent’s flight magic was impossibly fast.
‘It should be impossible to move that fast by pushing the body with wind, and there’s nothing like that among the divine magics except for acceleration. Could it be a unique ability only the Thunder Lord can use?’
Dozens of thoughts flashed through his mind in a short moment. With them, Turan realized that his opponent’s movements were somewhat different from ordinary flight magic. Unlike normal flight, which pushes the body with wind, it was as if an invisible hand were pulling his body along.
Just as a flash of realization was about to strike him, the thought was interrupted by a commotion in the distance.
“Reinforcements!”
“It’s the enemy! Fall back and form ranks!”
The Lavitas mages who had arrived on Bije earlier had finally joined the battle in earnest.
‘They’re only just getting here? No, come to think of it, they actually arrived quite fast...’
Only then did Turan realize that it hadn't even been a minute since he had started fighting Badal. The density of the combat had simply been so high that it felt like they had been fighting for a long time.
“Arabion! Attack the Arabion side!”
“Where are the mages from Kalamaf? Get the wounded!”
The Lavitas mages struck the flank of the Arabion army, which had been pushing the Berk mages back. Not all of them were healers of the Lavitas bloodline; some were nobles from vassal families with bloodlines specialized for combat, so their fighting skills were not lacking.
In the meantime, Badal, though he didn't show it, seemed to have grown impatient. He stopped playing around and flew toward Turan. Every time he swung the hammer imbued with violet flashes, the atmosphere shimmered and burned from the immense heat.
Turan also set his relic to the Sun bloodline and responded by creating Judgment Light. He had seen earlier that the violet lightning could interact with Judgment Light. If his attacks were blocked by it, then Badal’s attacks could be blocked as well.
As expected, Judgment Light proved quite effective at blocking Badal’s attacks compared to other techniques, though his mana was being shaved away in massive chunks each time.
As he desperately evaded and tried to throw Badal off with wind magic, Turan realized one more thing. He couldn't feel a single trace of wind magic around Badal’s body. What was moving his body were the metal pieces placed throughout his clothing.
At that moment, Badal, who was about to attack Turan, frowned and thrust one hand behind him. A dark blue barrier extending from his hand collided with a flying blade of wind with a sharp clang.
“You’ve become able to use it. It is certainly... well-made.”
On the other side of Badal’s mutter, Meisa was glaring at him, pressing a finger to her temple as if she were suffering from a headache. Turan realized that wind and lightning were intertwined within her; she had finally succeeded in connecting her Symbol through soul magic. Considering she hadn't used it until now, it was either a hidden trump card or something she had only just managed to achieve.
“You... will never... touch him!”
Perhaps the connection of the Symbol was taxing, for Meisa’s face, already pale from blood loss, had turned from white to a sickly bluish hue.
Badal stared at her for a moment before suddenly turning his gaze to his surroundings.
“The situation is unfavorable.”
As he said, the Arabion army that had been with Badal was now being pushed back by the Lavitas mages. Since there were no other mages as powerful as Badal himself, there was no one to stop the two top-tier mages belonging to Lavitas.
“This is enough.”
Badal spoke dismissively and lowered his hammer, stepping back to show he had no further intention of fighting.
“Enough?”
“I suspect further fighting will only lead to poor results for both sides.”
Turan wanted to shout, 'Who says it's enough?' and tear into him, but he wasn't in a position to do so either. He needed to check on Solif, who had been sent flying, and Meisa clearly looked like she was struggling to maintain her soul magic.
Did Badal sense Turan’s dilemma? Unlike his vibrant demeanor from moments ago, Badal spoke with a weary face.
“This is truly tiresome. To have to expend strength on such trivial matters at such a critical time...”
What did he mean by a critical time? Before Turan could ask, Badal flew away and disappeared with the same incredible speed as before.
[“All forces, retreat!”]
Soon after, a voice rang out powerfully from the sky. At that command, which pierced through even the noise of the battlefield, the Arabion mages who were being pushed back began to retreat all at once. They, too, had only been waiting for their leader’s order.
The battle had ended quite abruptly.
Turan remained on guard in case the retreat was a ruse, while simultaneously searching for Solif. Before long, he found him buried nearly a meter into the ground, his chest bones crushed.
“Are you alive?”
“I think I’m already dead. Or I will be soon.”
Turan chuckled at the grumbling voice and immediately activated his Lavitas bloodline, casting recovery magic on Solif’s body. A moment later, with a series of sickening cracks, his sunken chest bones straightened out, and the minor wounds all over his body vanished.
“You’ve brought another new trick since I last saw you... What about that old man?”
“He fled.”
“Dammit, that monstrous old geezer. We should have finished him here.”
In truth, saying he had fled was a bit of a misnomer. Even though the Arabion army was being pushed back, Badal would have had plenty of strength left to fight if he had exerted his full power. Most importantly, he had hardly used the magic of the gods—the techniques he had referred to as ‘Skills.’ Whether he had gone easy on them or simply couldn't use them, Turan didn't know.
‘Still, have I finally grown enough to at least make it a fight...?’
If he had to compare, the gap was still like that between a burly, muscular man and a frail woman. But at least he had reached a realm where they could trade blows. Unlike before, when he was no different from an insect that could be crushed with a single press of a finger.
He felt a small sense of pride in that fact for a moment, but then he began walking toward the Lavitas mages who were healing the wounded. He hoped that none of the people he knew had died.
As if to mock that hope, it wasn't long before he heard a familiar voice let out a gut-wrenching scream of despair.