Book 15 Chapter 29
Burning Youth,
Not doing the studies they're supposed to be doing (4)
In the mythical era, the Red Mountain Range area was one of the fiercest battlegrounds in the war between <The Ones Who Came> and <The Forgotten Kings>.
Naturally, even the Eldian Knights, passed down in modern times under the name Ascensi Currior, meaning True Warriors (眞勇士), participated in this battle.
As many as four of those who were said to have cut the sky and parted the sea alone were deployed, and… Thrys had seen those war machines from a distance in that battle.
It was, truly overwhelming (壓倒).
That power, which tore apart even the ancient nobles called Triple Sages (三中賢), the highest retainers of the Lord of Time, was imprinted upon the entire bodies of the ancients who had lived as rulers, as a shock and a memory of terror.
‘Is this sword identical to that one? No, it only resembles it, and its appearance is different… Compared to those swords whose very presence was like an exploding torrent, it’s utterly weak.’
After several exchanges of blows, Lysta, who had landed back on the ground, quickly regulated her breathing.
‘His aerial movement speed is too fast.’
In ground-to-air combat, it is common knowledge that a ground-based entity is overwhelmingly disadvantaged.
A swordsman who wraps magical power around their weapon is inevitably more vulnerable to aerial combat than a mage who materializes magical power itself as force.
Since the air has become the main battlefield, Lysta's specialty, mobility, is no longer a means to overwhelm the opponent but merely a means of approach.
‘Friede is protecting Rin, and isolating this area is her limit…’
Seven Hagnis that Friede overexerted herself to deploy formed a large circle. She had cast a barrier to prevent the wind of corruption from escaping elsewhere.
‘Ah, if only Rin could provide support both offensively and defensively, I could go all out and Friede could use the Psalms to finish it in an instant.’
Just then, as a cold chill was felt, snowflakes suddenly appeared before her eyes.
“Gyung!”
“Sbal, why did you come here?”
“Gyugyung!”
“You’re going to help me?”
Sbal nodded wildly.
How would he help?
Then, Lysta's pupils dilated. She saw the rings of her Mana Chain, emitted from her body, freezing solid blue along with the cold air.
“The amusement after awakening from a long slumber is enough. Now, I shall return everything to its rightful time!”
With a single flap of Thrys's wings, a blackish-blue storm of corruption unfolded across the entire area.
‘Yes, if it’s this…!’
Lysta gripped Shirphen in a reverse hold and took a deep breath. Dividing one second into twelve moments.
“Let’s try it.”
Only 9 for approach, and barely 3 available for attack, perhaps.
“Oh, power of fire residing in nature. Oh, deed of fire illuminating the world, oh, element hotter than sunlight and brighter than moonlight, by my command, burn my enemies! Dracutos!”
Friede's long exhalation transformed into a massive blaze and fiercely clashed with the wind of corruption.
Using that blaze as a smokescreen, Lysta leaped once more. Creating twelve magical footholds in the air in an instant.
Lysta's movements, pushing off those twelve footholds, were executed within the temporal domain of "an instant." Only by the afterglow of light trails left by the holy sword could her trajectory be barely estimated.
“!”
Thrys predicted (豫測).
With the third eye she received from ‘The Queen Who Walks Through Time’, she predicted the three slashes rushing towards her.
Therefore, in the next moment, she was able to spew venom a beat ahead of the slash's trajectory.
“I knew you’d come out like that!”
The fact that her magical attribute had transformed into ice (氷) meant that the footholds created in the air would also become ice platforms.
Unlike footholds of the void (無) attribute that disappear instantly, there is a period of time they remain in the air.
Lysta leaped again.
Stepping on the melting footholds again and again, she put all her power into a single slash.
‘Cold in the slash…!’
Thrys's left arm, which received the slash, was frozen solid blue (凍結).
Frozen objects have their intermolecular bonds, which were organic, stiffen. This is the principle behind frostbitten fingers or toes breaking off easily.
Shirphen's blade sliced off the left arm, and with its immense weight, slammed Thrys's body to the ground.
‘This human girl…!’
Even faster than that, Lysta, who reached the landing point first within the divided time.
‘How can a mortal being possess such abnormal speed that they cannot enjoy…!’
By plunging her fingertips into the ground, she forcibly controlled her inertia, then unleashed a second slash.
“Revert (逆行), ancient wind!”
Commanding spacetime entirely was the prerogative of the ancient nobles blessed by her.
Top-tier ancients like Thrys could only interfere with the time of the mind.
The swirling wind returned Lysta's mind to the past, erasing the thought of 'the second slash'.
‘I need to quickly control my inertia when landing…!’
Instead, the thought for the immediately preceding movement dominated her mind, and Lysta's action instantaneously switched from a slash to a landing movement.
“Lysta───!”
The momentary opening thus created.
“───Pipi, Lysta!”
It was a moment when their lines of death (死線) were perfectly reversed.
“Protect Lysta───!”
Thrys's demonic hand aimed at Lysta, at Lysta's heart, who was in a school uniform without armor, and darted through that momentary gap.
Clear light (淸光).
Like a ray of sunlight, the verdant radiance clearly and sharply cut through that gap.
“───?!”
That ray of light, which accurately pierced Thrys's chest, instantly took root around the impact point, temporarily sealing the target's movements.
‘What…!’
Thrys's third eye pinpointed where the source of this phenomenon was.
It was a distance barely detectable.
A human whose yellowish-green hair fluttered in the mountain breeze was seen nocking a second arrow to the bowstring. And the sight of the arrow being amplified to an enormous size by magical power.
‘From such a distance, from that range where the naked eye cannot reach, did they precisely hit me?’
Lysta, without seeing it, no, simply by seeing the power that pierced Thrys's chest, recognized its identity.
“Kyes…!”
In that era, those who accompanied Lysta's party left records in historical texts, and descriptions of the power of the archer Kyes were mostly like this.
If Rin was the main cannon (主砲) of the hero party, Kyes was both a secondary cannon (副砲) and a giant cannon (巨砲).
As befitting that description, Thrys's attempts to hover in the sky again and induce air-to-ground combat were repeatedly frustrated.
Simultaneous impact firing.
This technique, where 4 to 6 arrows fired at different times and angles simultaneously hit the target, was passed down as a secret art to future archers, but for Kyes, it was merely a basic skill.
‘Good. Thanks to that drunkard, he's now dedicated to defense and evasion instead of offense. I've bought time to change the Psalms.’
Friede folded the Scroll of Divine Love Psalms and unrolled the Scroll of Clarity Psalms. The power of the Divine Love Psalms is ‘Area Barrier’, and the Clarity Psalms is ‘Area Slow’.
“Sis, hug me.”
There are no variables.
“Siiis.”
If I can just complete the sacred chant like this, victory is assured.
“Hug meeee.”
If only this crazy kid hadn't started pulling her cheek and interrupting the chant.
“Sis, hug me.”
Chanting the Psalms, where not a single word can be out of place, can be seen as a delicate task, like threading thousands of needle holes.
“Ugh! This is an urgent situation, and because of you, I'm confused and have to memorize it all over again! Go over there and play with Pipi! Pipi can't even fight because she's looking after you!”
At that, Rin sniffled, and started to cry, puffing up both cheeks.
“Wah, wah, waaaaaaaaah! Hug me hug me hug me hug me hug me!”
“Uh, no. I won't hug you. I have no intention of hugging you. Go away.”
People have something called muscle memory. It means that memories remain not only in the brain but also throughout various parts of the body.
Although the young mage's mind had regressed to that of a child… his body remained the same, so memories lingered in his muscles.
When things didn't go his way, the memory of using a truly unreasonable force to overcome it instantly.
Lightning (電). Field (場). Cast (投). Fall (落). Flash (閃).
Chwa-reuk… The dazzlingly deployed rosary assisted the master's clumsy hand seals and calculations, but there were limitations. Because his mind had regressed, coordinate targeting was not precisely achieved.
Flash…!
As a result, the lightning strike that momentarily painted the sky white failed to take the form of power, and merely vanished, leaving only a flicker of light.
“!”
However, that light momentarily diverted Thrys's attention, who was continuing a fierce battle in a fleeting moment against Lysta and Kyes's coordinated attack, and…
Thousand Nightingale Kill (千鶯殺).
…drawing out the piercing sound of a thousand birds' cries led to Kyes's secret technique, which annihilates the target, directly hitting.
Thousand Nightingale Kill is a sure-kill secret technique.
It doesn't end with impact, but sends hundreds of roots into the penetrated target's body, severing blood vessels and muscle fibers, and tearing even internal organs and bones.
“Kkeuaaaaaaaaaaaaa───!”
Thrys is a top-tier ancient, of a different caliber than ordinary ancients, and among ancient beings, the closest to the ancient nobles.
It won't end like this.
That is, if the power of the Ultimate Holy Sword, which imitated the primordial light, hadn't delivered a follow-up blow.
“─────Spacetime Annihilation (時空殲)!”