Book 14 Chapter 37

The hero's hometown,

in the central part of the empire (7)

All members of [Seven Souls] are direct disciples of the second pillar, Zernix.

They inherited knowledge of geometry close to perfection from him, and even gained the know-how to integrate that knowledge into various magic spells.

In fact, Bremena's freezing magic, called 'Cheongyeol (穿結; piercing and binding)', is fast enough to freeze space itself by applying geometric principles. In freezing magic, the freezing speed is precisely the measure of power.

‘What is this guy?’

But…

‘Spellcasting speed comparable to Lord Zernix, all I can do is receive it.’

The attacks were not landing. Even if everything is frozen in an instant, it's useless if the hit itself doesn't occur.

‘Still…’

That kid also had no decisive means of attack.

In the first place, Bremena was a mage who specialized in defensive and supportive magic.

Although the kid's attacks were fast, they were reflected by the mirrors guarding Bremena's surroundings (四周).

"My power is absolute defense (絶對-防禦). Nothing can pierce it."

It was a natural fact.

Even Bremena's companions in [Seven Souls] acknowledged his defensive power.

"Fireball."

Fireball, despite its high power, has a high computational difficulty, making its casting speed extremely slow compared to other elements, yet it is the most practical spell in the fire magic family.

Its size and power vary greatly depending on the mage's skill.

Lin's fireball was easily 2 meters in radius. Bremena drew a mirror in front of him.

"!"

The fireball was sucked into the icy cold mirror, then bounced out the next moment.

It wasn't just a simple deflection.

Three additional mirrors appeared, bouncing the fireball around and repeatedly changing its trajectory.

"Hmm? Oh? It's not just simply reflecting? This kind of operation is also possible?"

Lin stretched his palm forward.

A strong wind full of moisture unfolded along the fireball's straight trajectory, suppressing its firepower and precisely neutralizing its momentum.

At that moment, as Bremena 'inserted' a dark magic spell into one mirror, ice spears rained down from the three mirrors that had moved above Lin's head.

‘What is this? What's the principle?’

Osarius-style hand seals, 2-star.

Computational abbreviation. Fire Honey Curtain (火蜜幕).

Mil (蜜), a water-attribute magic, first spreads out a viscous flammable liquid, and then applies a Mak (幕), fire, to it, instantly deploying a flame barrier.

‘My magic is being pushed back.’

Amidst the chaos of high-level magic repeatedly clashing and shaking the world, Bremena momentarily gained the upper hand, and Lin had to retreat.

"What are you dawdling for against such a brat, Dark Mage!"

Jiheet, who had plunged into that momentary chaos, targeted Lin's back in the blink of an eye.

The compatibility between swordsmen and mages is extremely poor.

Mages are strong in one-on-many combat but lack mobility, thus requiring a frontline.

"!"

Even if Lin possessed unrealistic spell activation skills, while exchanging blows with an opponent like this, he would undoubtedly be caught off guard.

A barrier deployed instantly.

But the blade of lava, rushing in, melted the very concept of the barrier itself.

"Lin!"

At that dangerous moment, a holy sword gracefully parried the attack. It was the hero Lysta, who had entrusted her younger brother to their father and rushed here.

"Lin, somehow neutralize that reflection magic. I'll handle the rest."

Even as she spoke, the clang of the silver holy sword and the lava blade clashing at speeds leaving only afterimages shook the night like a roar.

‘Is this the first time?’

In the brief moment of respite, Lin pushed his conical hat back, regulated his breathing, and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

‘To feel my life threatened during a one-on-one magic duel.’

The time needed to organize his thoughts would be too short even for 10 seconds for an ordinary person, but for the boy's genius brain, those 2.8 seconds spent regulating his breathing and wiping away sweat were sufficient.

‘My spell activation time is definitely superior…’

So far, in the eleven high-level magic exchanges that had almost destroyed the mansion's courtyard and exposed the ground, Lin had clearly grasped this.

‘But that reflection… it's completely overturning that temporal superiority.’

It's not nullifying my attacks but reflecting them; I've never seen reflection cast with freezing magic before.

‘My attacks are coming back, and he's also using offensive magic, so it feels like I'm being attacked by double casting.’

What is it? What principle of magic is that reflection based on?

My heart is pounding too much.

I want to investigate further into what runes and mathematical formulas make such a thing possible, but if this turns into a war of attrition, Lysta, unable to fully exert her power, will be at a disadvantage.

‘Alright, let's think.’

1. That guy either reflects my magic with a mirror or disappears into a mirror.

2. The mirror also sometimes appears in other places, and at that time, his offensive magic sometimes comes out from within the mirror.

"Gyu, gyugyu, gyugyugyut!"

"What? You're saying he's creating another space inside that mirror? Is that even possible, you idiot."

"Gyugyugyugyut!"

He said such harsh words to Sval.

He knew. This wasn't Sval's words, but one of his own absurd fantasies.

Because it's not geometry at a level that a human can devise and design.

But what if this isn't a delusion, but a correct deduction?

‘There is.’

A value in breaking through it head-on.

No, there must be no other way.

Since dark magic deals with extradimensional space in the first place, thinking this way will lead to a strategy.

"Magic circle construction, pentagon: Thunder (雷)."

The magic circle that surged above his palm was in the form of four overlapping pentagons. It would be good to mix in steel attributes as well, but he only used the thunder attribute to amplify its power.

Instead, should he use the rune of Gang (鋼) to imbue this magic with the properties of iron?

And to the other magic circles, he imbued the properties of Gyeok (擊; striking), Ip (粒; particle), and Ja (磁; magnetic), respectively.

This was, in short, a nascent magic built by Lin's unique design.

"Thunder Magnetic Steel Strike (雷磁鋼擊)."

The four magic circles shattered with a clear sound above his palm, surging forth as beams of light.

"You fool, do you still not understand that no magic is effective before my Four-Point Ice Mirror?"

However, the moment it was sucked into the mirror, the light scattered into countless light particles as a catalyst.

Each of those particles possessed magnetic properties.

Also, each of them possessed properties that made them want to clash with each other.

The ultimate repulsive force (斥力) created by forcibly pushing N-poles against N-poles, and S-poles against S-poles – magnet masses that could never touch and should never touch – against each other.

"!!"

Lin judged.

If that mirror wasn't just simple reflection magic, but contained a geometric space to actualize reflection, then it must surely have limitations on its capacity for mass and volume.

In that case, he would unleash repulsive force to its limit, capable of resisting the reflecting power.

"The geometric space will try to expel the absorbed power."

But the power, scattered into magnetic clumps, would be pushed by the repulsive force generated by other magnets spread everywhere, unable to move anywhere.

"Then there's only one outcome."

Crack, creak, crrraaccckkkk…!

"Magic that develops a fatal error in its logical circuit – 'expel absorbed magic' – will begin to run wild… Isn't that right?"

That deduction proved effective.

Cracks spread across the surface of the Four-Point Ice Mirror, and Bremena's complexion darkened with bewilderment.

"You assembled such intricate magic in an instant…?"

While, of course, deploying any magic mentally to suit a situation is a symbol of genius, newly combining magic to fit that precise moment is not the realm of a genius.

‘That's truly beyond human (人外), the realm of a monster.’

However, the cracks did not spread to the very end.

The mirror's surface was covered in cracks, but it did not shatter; instead, it began to quiver.

It was a sign that the internal space had successfully absorbed the power and was now poised for reflection.

"It's a shame, but you were just a hair short. This is my victory. Now I'll return it as is!"

The smile on Bremena's lips lasted only a brief moment.

Because he saw the magic rotating on Lin's other palm.

Multi-casting?

If he had created a 4-star magic of this power anew and cast it as a Jörgen type, his brain should normally be overloaded, so when did he cast another 4-star magic?

"This useless fellow controls the attribute of freezing. He arbitrarily increases mass and volume, and such."

"Such a thing can't be possible…!"

"It's possible. It didn't work at all at first. But isn't math all about the fun of trying until it's possible?"

The freezing power, embodied on Lin's palm and rushing into the mirror, adhered to the surface of the internal space.

Without any murderous properties, the volume of the 4-star magic, which had focused solely on the size of the frozen mass, expanded to nearly double.

In a space that had been barely holding on in the fight against repulsion, that mass and volume, needless to say, had a fatal effect.

"It's pierced? Absolute Defense."

As the ice mirror shattered into pieces with a terrible rending sound, Bremena placed his hand on his grimoire, and Lin was forming hand seals with his fingers.

When their ultimate moves canceled each other out, the mage's victory would be decided by who could unleash the next spell faster.

Bremena's calculation speed was fast.

He could almost cast magic just by placing his hand.

But due to the inherent limitation of a calculation-based mage, he needed time to turn the pages of his grimoire and find the magic suitable for the situation.

‘This is…’

However, no such limitation existed for Osarius-style hand seals.

Because magic could be materialized by simply intertwining one's hands a few times.

‘Osarius-style hand seals…’

Just as he was about to finally activate his magic, Bremena was pierced and torn apart by iron spikes that surged from the ground, and he finally understood the story that had been passed down like an unbelievable legend.

‘500 years ago, even that person was cornered by it…’

* * *

The moment Absolute Defense, that is, the Four-Point Ice Mirror, was breached, Lysta had already fully unleashed the holy sword's power through its origin.

"Look, Reiland!"

It was the same for Jiheet.

"A power that can obliterate the entire city you tried to protect in a single blow, with power to spare!"

The blade of lava expanded with an unstoppable momentum like an erupting volcano, and immense waste heat covered everything, wilting grass and trees.

If it's an unwinnable situation…

I will destroy as much as possible of what that bastard holds dear. That is revenge.

"Reiland!"

He was eliminated in the semifinals of the Jigeomje (Earth Sword Festival) against Reiland, losing the honor of victory.

He, too, had his heart captivated by the genius girl swordswoman Sena in the finals, but that too was taken from him by Reiland.

He abandoned worldly attachments and dedicated his life solely to reaching the pinnacle of swordsmanship… that is, to claim the title of Sword Saint, but that too was taken from him by Reiland.

"I'll smash everything, I'll destroy everything!"

The Peerless Holy Sword Shurpen, a holy sword forged with a stern and fastidious personality, had never once chosen a proxy since its creation.

"I am Lysta Alte Shurpen."

Lysta was the first proxy.

"I wish for this world to be filled with genuine laughter."

Therefore, Lysta's unique swordsmanship soon became a textbook, later named 'Time-Flow Swordsmanship (時流-劍法)', and was also used by later proxies.

‘I could counter with a Space-Time Island, but there's a high possibility that the surrounding area of the fortress would be obliterated by the impact.’

Shurpen's special ability was the acceleration of the swordsman's internal time.

‘That must be Jiheet's aim. I won't let that happen. Not to this place imbued with memories of my family.’

Lysta combined this power with her swordsmanship, unleashing power that could even crack spacetime by launching dozens of sword energies along the same trajectory within an extremely accelerated timeframe.

‘That's why I have no choice but to use this. My lifespan will diminish three times faster than with Space-Time Island, but…’

However, she also used it in another way: with that time acceleration, she inflicted a dozen slashes on the target from different directions, in what was essentially 'the blink of an eye.'

"Slash of Engraved Gaps (斬銘間劍)."

The imperial palace guard Kias, who had witnessed this attack firsthand several times, later recounted after the hero's party expedition:

- It was as if dozens of situations of cutting down an enemy were etched as temporal fragments into the blink of an eye.

Unlike Space-Time Island, which was carved into Shurpen with a power called Jeolwon and passed down to future generations, this technique never appeared again in later history.

How could this possibly be imitated?

Jiheet, who witnessed that power for the first time… hastily pulled back the momentum of his blade that was descending towards the city, switching to a defensive stance.

‘What is this…?’

In a single instant, he succeeded in inserting his blade into the trajectories of 9 out of 12 slashes that flew towards various parts of his body '동시에' (simultaneously).

‘It’s too fast.’

However, two that he couldn't deflect, and one that he tried to deflect but was pierced by, accurately aimed for his death.

‘It's as if.’

One was his right arm.

One was his left foot.

‘As if time itself had stopped at the moment of the slash.’

In the instant he became unable to grip and wield his sword, the last one sliced his body in a straight line and extracted [The King's Flesh], which had been extending stem cells throughout his body.