Book 15 Chapter 15
On the ruins of that day,
Nemesis of Fate (3)
“Friede, are you alright?”
To Lista, who had a worried expression, Friede raised a hand to signal that she was fine.
“No problem. Because of the Neo-Ash Chapter barrier, that guy couldn't land a proper effective hit on me. All he did was isolate me in a strange space.”
“Then you should prioritize evacuating the people here. Lin and I will handle that guy.”
“What? No, it's fine. Everyone here is—”
Everyone died.
So, what needed to be prioritized was clear.
Not the dead, but the living comrades needed help.
“—Friede's family, aren't they?”
There are times in human relationships when one suddenly sees a light. Even if no actual light shone, it felt dazzling. For Friede, this was one such moment.
“He's an incredibly strong opponent. My techniques didn't work at all. Be careful.”
Friede turned away to hide the tears welling up in her eyes and said that, while Lista raised the blade of her holy sword high and grinned.
“What are you worried about? I'm a hero (勇士).”
During that short conversation, the area around Lin and Zernix was being devastated by ultra-high-speed magic combat.
[Don't be so angry. I don't think I did anything that bad.]
Zernix thought.
‘When was that?’
Since he began to be called a genius of magic, he had never lost to anyone in casting speed, even if not in the sheer power of magic.
‘However…’
Just once in his life, in the most important battle, he was repeatedly toyed with by a half-beat difference in speed.
“Shut up.”
By the old man, Osarius, a Glados (4-star) remnant who failed to leave a single proper achievement in history.
[How troublesome. It seems that bug-like school has been brainwashing its disciples generation after generation into thinking I'm a bad guy… Well then, shall we see the skill of the so-called greatest genius since the founding of their school?]
A torrent of power, the ground beneath his feet seemed to quake, then a giant beast surged forth as if opening its maw, swallowing Zernix.
However, it did not happen.
The act of swallowing could not be completed. As if it were blocked by some… invisible space.
[Not this Yordren type, show me your hand seal magic.]
What was this… Lin's left eye creased.
It wasn't blocked by defensive magic, nor deflected by offensive magic. It just stopped?
No, the creaking sound of the earth was clearly audible. It was blocked by something.
‘It doesn't seem to just be blocked…’
Some other method seems to be at play. What is it? A few more experiments seem necessary.
[Are you still not going to show me?]
The poisonous aura condensed into a large serpent shape, opening its maw wide and rushing towards Lin.
“Lin!”
The blade of the holy sword… purifying that poisonous evil (毒惡) by bisecting it from the front.
‘Fast… this guy, was his magic casting this fast?’
Lin felt the sweat drops on his forehead run down and sting his eyes, and he furrowed his brow.
‘The magic circle appearing on his palm and the casting are almost simultaneous. I can't even predict what kind of magic he's using.’
Does one gain such speed upon reaching the pinnacle of the Yordren type?
But why did he use the Remidiere type during the [4-star selection]?
To induce carelessness?
[It's more boring than I thought. Shall I pick up the pace a bit?]
Zernix unfolded his left hand, which had been clasped behind his back.
A magic circle also unfolded on that palm… and in the short time it took to open and then close his hand, four layers of magic circles perfectly formed.
The magic thus manifested was, once again, poisonous aura… a storm of poisonous aura condensed into a single core, beginning to revolve around Zernix.
“That won't happen!”
Again, a blade of light flew in, precisely piercing the core of that storm, incinerating the darkness of corruption.
[How annoying.]
Zernix frowned, seeing Lista, who not only defeated the venomous snake in a single blow but also rushed right before his eyes.
[I told you, I hate those who use swords. That ignorant and barbaric way of using power… the old hag who's thousands of years old is the same. There's no subtlety. Isn't that right? You impudent junior brat.]
This hero girl might be the most dangerous, but the power to cleave dimensions requires preliminary actions that serve as a prelude.
‘Rukael, that crazy old man, with just one holy sword release, he could eliminate this and kill me and still have power left.’
But this sword cannot reach me. As long as you can't unravel the secret of my power, fakes like you can't defeat this body.
“!”
The moment Shirfang's blade tip was 'stopped' by some space again, Lin's eyes opened wide.
‘Ah.’
That realization quickly led to a magical calculation through three hand seals, and seeing that hand gesture, a smile bloomed on Zernix's face.
[Successor of the Osarius-style hand seals! That's the answer. It was worth waiting here.]
Suddenly, Lista's blade tip broke free from the 'stopped' state and pierced the air.
This was because the ground beneath Zernix's feet collapsed, and a dimension leading to another place opened up blackly.
The problem was that the same magic was cast beneath Lin's feet. Lin's eyes widened.
‘Dimensional rift, what insane speed is this?’
As he was finishing an offensive magic hand seal, an immediate response was impossible. He tried to cancel the ongoing magic and replace it with new magic, but…
[I value your talent highly, so as a special treat, I'll let you visit the 'Strongest Mage's' tomb.]
Lista's desperately outstretched hand barely failed to reach Lin…
“Lin──!”
…Both Zernix's body and Lin's body were sucked into that dimensional portal.
* * *
“────!”
In the darkness, the unique cold and humidity of the underground touched his skin, and the smell of mold stung his nostrils, instantly bringing Lin's consciousness back.
‘Where is this place?’
Osarius-style hand seals.
Calculation abbreviation… 3-star, Fireball.
Although fire magic in a sealed underground space usually meant immediate death, this was an urgent situation.
‘Use it as illumination, then switch to offense.’
A large fireball that appeared overhead illuminated the surroundings in a crimson glow, and sensory (認知) information entered his brain.
[The <Ones Who Came> sealed the <Forgotten Kings> and then built a sanctuary (聖域) over each of them.]
Ash and gravel, and… bone fragments.
Is this a burial ground?
The strange thing was that in this vast space, there was only one tomb, and it had been completely unearthed, with an abyss boiling in the empty space.
[Don't you know that the Papacy of the Blade Peninsula, the World Tree of the Idea Peninsula… they were all made to suppress the abyss? This place is no different.]
And Ken Serman, walking above it…
Lin immediately brought his hands together.
The combination of hand seals activates magic, fitting it into a standardized framework of power.
[Don't be in such a hurry. This great senior is personally giving a history lecture, you know.]
Maximum magic output.
He launched five or six spears of flame, but they merely stopped before Ken.
[This is the very place where Lord Zernix, the strongest mage, was buried.]
Lin focused on that phenomenon. With his brilliant mind, he hypothesized and calculated hundreds of possibilities.
Again. Is it stopping?
No, rather than stopping… should I say it felt like the force's trajectory suddenly shot vertically upwards or plunged downwards?
‘Vertical, it's vertical.’
There's some hidden principle here.
[That crazy old man who has denounced me as a bad guy for generations, you see.]
By the way, hmm, Ken Serman… Is this guy also dreaming of becoming the strongest mage? He could be called a comrade, but there's no trace of forgiveness in his heart.
[And then they built the <Ikegrad Prison> above this, just like other sanctuaries. In short, this prison wasn't built for heinous criminals, but to guard this one tomb.]
Ignoring the chattering Ken Serman, Lin briefly glanced at the open coffin lid.
There, a hand rested.
It was a statue shaped like hands clasped in prayer, and though the statue had deteriorated in the underground humidity, the rosary (黙珠) wrapped around its hand still… glimmered with a radiant light.
[Before I became the strongest mage, I was never captivated by anything. But after I became one, I saw three things. They are called Heaven beyond Heaven (天外天).]
One was Ryuken Ludwig's ‘Belle Curias.’
Another was ‘Crystallization (結晶化)’ by Julak Keffel, one of the Four Great Mages who commanded the Golden Age of magic.
And the other one was… Osarius's hand seal magic.
[That old geezer was a cunning and despicable piece of trash, but his power, at least, was beautiful.]
The first two became unusable due to genetic restrictions, a secret art of bloodline limitations… but the power of Osarius, who foolishly founded a 'school' instead of a 'family,' is different.
[Beautiful things should naturally be cherished. In the embrace of a being worthy of that power.]
“It seems you're done talking. Can I beat the living hell out of you now?”
[It's in your possession, isn't it? 『Osarius Bibon』. Hand it over. As you know, it's incomplete. Do you know why?]
“I honestly don't know.”
[It's not a book, you see. It's a key. A key that leads to true enlightenment!]
Osarius-style hand seals, 3-star.
Wind. Branch-Trunk Spirit Domain (枝幹-靈域).
The fireball hovering in the air branched out into countless tendrils by the hot wind, dominating the entire area.
“You've been boasting since earlier, but I've already figured out the secret of your power, you know?”
Ken Serman's eyebrows, which had been nonchalantly folded in front of the attack, twitched.
‘It was broken…?’
Ken, no, Zernix!
For the first time since their encounter, he had to deploy defensive magic to swat away the tendrils of fire!
“Zernix's Geometric Definition #23, ‘If two lines are parallel, they will not meet even if extended indefinitely in the same direction,’ isn't that right?”
[!]
“Any magic is easy to break if you just unravel its principle. If you find the parallel lines you arbitrarily set using inverse coordinate equations, and then draw an arbitrary transverse line (橫線) on them? Your barrier is merely shortened to an ordinary rectangle.”
Zernix let out a hollow laugh. It was a wry laugh mixed with bewilderment, admiration, and countless other emotions.
How absurd…
You figured out the principle of my 'Parallel Line Barrier' spell, which took 200 years to complete, in these few short exchanges?
[You seem to have mastered Zernix's geometry?]
“Well, he's an old archmage. A respected mage, you see. The historical records name the Four Great Mages' Julak Keffel as the strongest archmage ever, but personally, I consider the Sixth Great Mage Zernix to be even stronger.”
[Hah, hah, hahaha, hahahahahaha! Hey, become my disciple. I've never met anyone I like as much as you. I'll make you the strongest.]
At that, Lin tilted his head, then shook it with a smile as if looking at something far away.
“No.”
[Why not? This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, truly one that won't come again.]
“I am the dean of the Osarius School… Atlante's disciple.”
That expression, that face… Zernix frowned genuinely.
‘All of that old geezer's descendants, without exception, are just like that old geezer…’
Are they practicing making such fucked-up expressions?
[Your talent is so exceptional that I considered making you my 'first disciple' if you just spoke nicely, but no. That arrogance of yours genuinely needs to be crushed.]
Zernix's body disappeared.
Rather than disappearing, he was sucked into a dimensional rift formed by the poisonous aura, and his presence itself vanished.
‘Where is he?’
Had he ever been exposed to this level of tension in his entire life?
‘Where did he disappear to?’
With cold sweat pouring down his face like rain, Lin, with one hand seal prepared as a reserve, anxiously yet carefully looked around.
‘That mirror woman, I could respond by following the flow of dimension opening, but with this guy, that's impossible.’
However, a very subtle, truly minute flow of magic power was still detectable.
‘Considering his magic casting speed, instant response is impossible. In that case, I'll control this entire terrain.’
‘Can I do ‘that’?’
‘That’ was something the boy had only ever thought about, something close to a madman's delusion, a daydream that countless geniuses had conceived but no one had ever realized.
In the face of such innumerable impossibilities (不可能), Lin made up his mind.
‘I have no choice but to try. No, I must do it. To respond to that guy's speed!’
At the end of that resolve, the young mage opened his palm.
“Rune Engraving Alteration.”
Runes are what imbue magic with properties immediately after a magic circle is constructed.
Depending on these runes, the required mathematical formula changes, thus they are called the core foundation of magic. If compared to a building, they are the base (基底部).
To change the base, the cornerstone, of a building, the building itself must be demolished. In magic, this concept applies more complexly.
Rune alteration, theoretically, is possible.
If, in the fleeting moment before the generated magic crumbles into particles of light, one can engrave a new rune and perform inverse calculations and mental calculations for the corresponding mathematical formula.
“Rotation (回), Pull (引).”
At this moment, Lin revoked two runes that form a fireball, excluding 'Fire (火)', and inscribed two new ones.
The mathematical computations required for the change were so vast that an ordinary person's brain would burst, but in the boy's mind, this process was completed within 1.3 seconds.
To explain it simply, it was as if he succeeded in replacing only the cornerstones before a building collapsed and then rebuilding the structure upon them.
“Fire Whirlwind (火回輪)!”
Instantly, at this very moment!
The magic usage method that would later come to represent Lin, the archmage of the hero's party… Rune Engraving Alteration, made its first appearance in the world!
‘Success… thrilling!’
The fireball, which had dominated the underground space as a giant light source, now orbited Lin at furious speed, turning the underground space into a wasteland.
Lin targeted two things.
One was the defense of blind spots (死角).
There was no need to pay attention to where the Fire Whirlwind was sweeping. It could compensate for the blind spots that are inevitably created because he is human.
‘The other is to find gaps.’
The heat currents of the flames create heat haze, and this haze is useful for finding gaps in the atmosphere. He could find places where magic power was leaking out.
[Changing the runes of an already cast magic? Ha, hahahaha! What a truly insane fellow. A mad talent, to the extent that even my younger self would have to concede a point!]
From somewhere, a voice was heard.
If he wasn't escaping this space, then he would have to reveal himself.
[You are an incredible fellow. But what to do, to face someone with such violent talent, you need to be able to use one-handed hand seals like that old man.]
At that moment, dimensional distortions were detected throughout the entire underground space. Lin's pupils dilated greatly.
‘360 degrees?’
What endlessly extended from there were spears (槍)…
‘Twisting the entire space?’
The poisonous auras, condensed into spear shapes, ripped apart all of Lin's limbs, muscles, and membranes, melting the bones and internal organs within.
[Don't despair too much. Your opponent was me, after all?]