Chapter 73
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 73
Chapter Title: Frozen Blood (6)
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“No!”
The moment I screamed, a powerful shockwave erupted from Varkus, sending my body flying far backward.
“Uwaaack!”
“Dodge!”
Rumble rumble...
The knights' screams and the sound of flimsy buildings collapsing echoed one after another.
I barely managed to sit up, gazing at Varkus from the depths of despair.
Varkus stood on two legs as if he had never been injured. Wild, ominous mana swirled around him like a typhoon.
He stood in the eye of the storm, laughing as if he had forgotten all about his wounds and pain.
“See, Lib? I told you I'd be fine! Lady Kaela will give us the answer!”
Varkus shouted triumphantly toward me.
His face was already beginning to mutate.
His skin grew pale, his blood turned black, and veins bulged grotesquely. The wound on the nape of his neck regenerated at a rapid pace.
Yet he was too intoxicated by the overflowing mana to notice the changes happening to his body.
“What the hell is that?!”
“How did that court mage survive?!”
The knights atop the crater cried out in shock and raised their swords.
Varkus smirked at the sight and swung one hand down toward them.
Boom!
A massive roar and screams followed as the ground where the knights stood crumbled away.
He had merely swung his condensed mana carelessly, yet it sent the knights flying off to places unseen.
“Varkus! Stop this!”
I cried out desperately, my heart burning away.
The rampaging mana made it impossible to get close to him.
I wasn't even sure if my voice could reach him, but I had to stop him before he lost all reason.
“Lib, this time I'll save you all.”
Varkus spoke without even looking at me.
His voice carried a metallic rasp unlike his usual tone.
Even his voice was warping from the power, but he paid it no mind.
As Varkus raised both hands, the scattered, rampaging mana began to gather toward him.
The mutation of his flesh accelerated.
His robe tore and flew away, his back split open, and two wings sprouted forth.
The moment I saw them, dizziness overwhelmed me, and my body swayed.
Enormous, grotesque wings...
Selena's final form.
That sight from my childhood had changed everything.
Varkus's wings were covered in black leather, tipped with sharp claws.
Like the wings of a black dragon.
His skin blackened as scales—not of a human—began sprouting one by one.
Yet Varkus ignored his own mutations and drew in the mana with control beyond anything his usual self could imagine.
Soon, the cries of gatra echoed from all directions.
From the shadows of the ruins, beneath piles of rubble, and in the mud of abandoned ponds, they began to rise one by one.
Some gatra touched by Varkus's mana instantly turned pitch black, yellow stripes forming on their bodies.
Ordinary gatra were mutating into black gatra.
“Th-those are black gatra!”
The terrified knights staggered backward in retreat.
The duke grabbed Clemence and pulled her behind the knights, while she in turn yanked Wedin close.
“Lib!”
Wedin called my name desperately from behind, but I couldn't respond.
The moment the black gatra turned toward the family knights and prepared to unleash their lightning, I gathered my mana and blocked their path.
I no longer needed the spell that had once trapped and discharged a black gatra's lightning.
Lightning made of mana wouldn't work well on me anyway.
Instead of dealing with each bolt, I had to crystallize them outright.
I was the only one here who could handle these magical beasts.
I quickly manifested crystal magic and fired it at the black gatra.
The instant their yellow stripes glowed, the black gatra were pierced by surging red crystals, their breaths cut short.
Dark terror shadowed the faces of Clemence, Wedin, the duke, and the knights.
I turned to them and said,
“Get out of here now.”
As if they had been waiting for those words, the duke and knights bolted toward the fortress's north gate.
The duke gripped Clemence's arm tightly and pulled.
“Lib...!”
Clemence looked back and called my name, but she couldn't shake off the duke's hand.
That was enough.
“You...!”
Wedin finally grabbed my arm, but I shoved him away and shouted,
“Run, hurry!”
With that, I turned and charged toward the black gatra.
In the opposite direction of the fleeing people, deeper into the plaza and the city streets.
The black gatra, sensitive to mana, all turned their heads toward me as I used imperial magic.
As far away as possible, in the opposite direction.
The farther I drew them, the safer they would be.
That was the only thought in my head.
I tried not to think about whether Wedin was escaping safely or if the duke was protecting Clemence.
Boom!
Lightning flashed from all sides, and the grotesque teeth and claws of black gatra lunged from everywhere.
I crystallized everything that moved without even breathing. I had no time to worry if someone might still be here.
Crack!
The red crystals spread rapidly along the splattering blood droplets.
When one black gatra crystallized and exploded, the ones beside it and across from it were sequentially engulfed and collapsed.
All the while, I wrapped myself in a protective crystal barrier to block the flying shards and lightning.
In fleeting moments too short to perceive, lightning and stone fragments struck the barrier and vanished.
No time to breathe as crystals surged and my vision flashed.
I dashed as deep into the city as I could, swinging my mana wildly, turning everything that moved into red crystals.
Only when the area was completely covered in red crystals did I stop, gasping for breath.
A black gatra's massive head rolled to my feet, belatedly covered in red crystals.
From within, its red eyes stared up at me blankly.
“Wow, you're really something.”
Varkus's voice, laced with that metallic rasp.
A chill ran up my spine.
Varkus sat atop a building, dragon wings spread wide, looking down at me with keen interest.
“I've never seen magic like this. Lady Kaela will be very intrigued.”
“Mr. Varkus, please stop now.”
Even as I said it, a horrific realization forced me to face reality.
Too late... It was far too late to turn him back.
My heart burned black.
Varkus's form was already no different from a demon.
“We haven't even started, Lib. I have to kill all the bastards who did this to me. And now I finally can.”
Varkus grinned and raised his right hand, gathering mana.
In response, gatra began rising again from alleys everywhere.
I had to stop Varkus.
I shouted at him,
“It wasn't the knights who did this to you! It was Kaela...!”
At that moment, a silver beast raced along the ramparts and sank its teeth into Varkus's right hand as if to devour it whole.
“Uwaaack!”
Varkus screamed and flailed his arm, the mana gathered in his hand dissipating in an instant.
The silver beast leaped away from Varkus and landed lightly on a rooftop opposite.
“Ash!”
How was Ash here?
I could see it clearly with my own eyes, yet I couldn't believe it.
Liberic.
Ash's red eyes gazed steadily at me.
The warm sensation I had forgotten began filling my body.
“That wolf! It bit me!”
Varkus bellowed in rage. His arm was drenched in blood.
Ash lowered its body into a fighting stance.
That demon is dangerous.
“No, Ash, that person is...”
Without giving me time to explain, Ash lunged at Varkus.
Varkus spread his two wings to evade and took to the air.
He drew in wild mana, spawning more gatra around him.
As Ash leaped from rooftop to rooftop, closing in on Varkus, I followed behind, slaying the gatra rising from the ruins below.
Then, at some point, both Ash and Varkus vanished from sight.
For a moment, my breath caught at the thought that Ash had disappeared again, but I was too busy fending off the charging gatra.
My head throbbed from overusing mana.
I swung my hand, slicing a gatra's neck with a crystal blade, while simultaneously piercing several more with crystal arrows.
Yet the mana-hungry magical beasts kept coming endlessly.
“Lib!”
A welcome voice.
I whipped my head around reflexively and saw Father, Shuren, Erner, and Prius knights charging toward me against the brightening dawn.
It was so unbelievable it felt like a hallucination.
Mana intoxication symptoms that sometimes appeared from excessive mana use.
Father swung his sword at a gatra lunging at me, while Shuren and the knights bellowed and began cutting them down.
“Father...”
My vision spun wildly, unable to distinguish if this scene was real or hallucination.
I reached out toward Father right in front of me. My fingertips trembled.
The gatra Father slashed rolled across the ground, and in an instant, my mana enveloped its body.
Red crystals surged rapidly, black blood droplets scattering everywhere.
A few drops splattered onto Father's arm as he swung his sword.
The moment the greedy crystals, indiscriminate between foe and ally, covered his arm in red...
I screamed.
“Father!”
Dispel the spell now!
The instant I saw Father being corroded by the crystals, I focused all my mind on canceling the magic.
The crystals that had infested the city shattered and melted away all at once.
At the same time, the foul red-tinged mana rushed back toward me.
A horrific euphoria and dizziness overwhelmed my body.
As I clutched my head and staggered, Father groaned, grabbed his left arm, and collapsed to the ground.
The red crystals that had covered his arm vanished in a flash, but the pain left by the crystal magic was etched plainly on his face.
“Instructor! Someone get Holy Mage Grain!”
Erner cried out in alarm and caught Father.
I covered my face and staggered backward.
My cold fingertips and pounding heart seemed to scream that I didn't belong here.
“L-Lib.”
Father, collapsed on the ground, reached out his right hand toward me.
The expression on his face said, I'm so glad you're safe. You have no idea how much I searched for you...
... You almost killed me.
No.
This was the hallucination.
I couldn't bear to look at Father's face and turned my gaze away.
In the dizzying reality, I spotted Ash standing atop a tall building.
Ash's red eyes seemed to ask what had happened.
I don't belong here.
A voice in my head repeated it over and over.
I don't belong here.
So I drew on Ash's power...
and vanished from the spot.