Book 16 Chapter 11
The strongest dark mage group of all time!
Clash, Seven Souls (5)
As soon as that brief exchange ended, Abba, who had sorted out her target priorities, charged at Rin.
"!"
What certainly blocked a blow that would have instantly killed any mage was… a frost barrier.
Its hardness and size, at least 3-star.
Yet, all Rin did for that 3-star magic was weave her fingers a few times.
"You're using magic like this with a Bargante type?!"
The frost prison didn't merely end with defense.
Its fragments pierced or stuck to Abba's hardened body, inflicting effective damage.
Abba spun her body in the air, brushing off the frost spikes embedded in her arm, and blinked her eyes.
"Ah, it's you! The one Lord Kishua said he would definitely kill!"
Sval, flicking his tongue as if to taunt Abba! A master!
"Gyubebebebet~!"
At that moment, Rin was not looking at Abba. There was something else that needed to be prioritized in this situation, in this battle.
Osarius Rosary deployment.
4-star.
Earth-Boundage (地境地緣).
Uses a 4-star earth-element binding magic.
The earth by the canal riverbank surged up, grabbing the sinking merchant ship and lifting it diagonally above the water.
As the water filling the deck drained, the shadow of death that had enveloped the entire merchant ship also receded.
"Uh, uhoh…?"
"The ship, to the sky…"
"Woaaah…"
All the people who had been screaming could only witness the miracle unfolding before their eyes, named magic, for that one moment.
'What was that just now…?'
The one who trembled more than anyone else present, upon seeing the two spells Rin had just used, was the orthodox mage Pencion Ludwig.
'Is it possible to cast 3-star and 4-star magic consecutively in less than 5 seconds?'
In the case of [Earth-Boundage], Pencion also had it in mind as a spell.
However, as it was a 4-star magic, the problem was that if the coordinate calculation and power control were even slightly off, the surging land could destroy the merchant ship.
But Abba's interference had continuously prevented him from using it.
'Just now, when that rosary unfolded, I confirmed with Bell Sidious that there were at least 2 to 3 ultra-high-speed calculation corrections.'
But the coordinate input field had been empty and was filled instantly.
This means!
That Rin calculated and entered them herself.
'I don't know what that rosary is, and I don't understand that guy's mind, calculating coordinates so precisely in an instant.'
Rin tilted the ship not only to drain water but also to destabilize the ground.
The opponent is a Ghing type.
Ghing-type mages prefer close-quarters combat, so like knights, they are highly sensitive to ground stability.
"!"
At this very moment, Catherline's spear thrust, aimed at Rin's back, missed cleanly for that very reason.
Catherline is a master of spear fighting. Her attack wouldn't go awry just because the ground was slightly tilted.
But what if the water on the deck, where her foot had to land when thrusting the spear, instantly froze?
"Gyut!"
Immediately around Rin's left hand, a constellation of light swirled again, crafting a new ability.
Osarius-style hand sign.
3-star, Toad's Breath Stem (蟾氣莖).
The deck twisted into tree branches, rushing towards Catherline as if a goblin were snatching prey with its tongue.
"What the, seriously…"
Catherline struck the branch with a lightning spear and launched herself into the air. Rin clicked her tongue, "Tch."
'She still avoids it. This is a slightly slow suppression magic, after all.'
If Rin had used a magic focused on power and speed during that trump card moment Sval had created, she might have finished Catherline, but the problem was the hostages clinging to the deck would get caught.
"Gyuuut!"
Rin ran across the ship at an unrealistic speed, directly facing Catherline's attack, which was a lightning-fast thrust.
'Really incredibly fast. Are all Ghing-type dark mages this good? Whatever magic they used, it's damn cool.'
She seemed composed, but cold sweat was pouring down her back. The sweat, cold as soon as it formed, ran down her temples.
'Evade impossible, defense impossible.'
The most threatening thing was Catherline's thrust!
'From pulling back the spear to thrusting, it's almost instantaneous.'
Abba was already covering all possible escape routes Rin could use from behind.
Too slow to react now.
She had to use a magic that neither evaded nor blocked Catherline's attack.
'Could such a thing exist?'
Yes.
The foundation of her magic is lightning.
'Even if it's magic used by a Ghing (Wing) type, if I understand the principle of its power, finding a counter isn't impossible.'
Control each particle of electric current, forcefully twisting attraction and repulsion.
"- A thrust is an attack targeting a point, capable of inflicting fatal damage with a concentrated blow, but if its trajectory is slightly off, it becomes fatally detrimental in return."
Referring to what Rista told her, an application of Thunder Magnetic Steel Strike (雷磁鋼擊), which defeated Ice Bremena!
"Osarius-style hand sign, 4-star. Thunder Magnetic Brilliance (雷磁晟津). Repulsion amplification."
Controlling the naturally existing electric current flow around, it disrupts the trembling current flow at Catherline's spear tip.
"!"
"!"
"!"
Instantly, at that moment! Catherline's spear thrust, which should have surely pierced Rin's head!
Missed!
It left a scratch on Rin's cheek, veering off to the side and thrusting into empty air!
"What?"
The most shocked was Catherline, who was confident in her own skill.
It missed?
No, it was clearly a lethal angle, wasn't it? With the exact same sensation as having thrust it millions of times?
"Thunder Magnetic Brilliance, attraction amplification."
Catherline immediately tried to recover her thrusting stance, but oddly, the power in her body seemed to have slowed.
No, something was pulling her body.
Not her body, but the spear!
An invisible flow of force, an attractive force generated from a magnetic field, held the spear and wouldn't let go.
"Target fixed, zero distance."
Rin placed her hand on Catherline's chest.
At that moment, the attractive and repulsive forces of Thunder Magnetic Brilliance mixed and erupted as a chaotic force from her fingertip!
It created a massive hole in Catherline's chest, scattering blood, bone fragments, and internal organs far away, sending Catherline flying!
"Catherline!"
Abba frantically flew, immediately snatching Catherline from mid-air just as she was about to fall out of the canal's trajectory.
"Tch, did I fail to target the [King's Flesh] precisely?"
Rin clicked her tongue, watching Catherline's body restore itself. And she shouted to those she wasn't sure could be called allies.
"Hey guys, do something about those people. They're damn annoying."
The [Lion's Song] mercenaries, who had been entranced by the magical spectacle, snapped out of it. Leonia shouted.
"Juicy, you take the left! I'll evacuate the people on the right with Horu and Senru! Pencion and Kove, help that mage!"
Catherline and Abba, who were at a numerical disadvantage, well understood the importance of these hostages. If the situation was like this, priorities changed.
"Catherline! I'll take the right!"
Abba, after putting Catherline down on the ship, immediately went towards Leonia. Cleverly using the hostages.
"This bastard…!"
Kove nocked an arrow again for support, but her fingertips trembled because of her previous mistake. Pencion, who had deployed magic above his palm, was also the same.
"Just fight with all your might! Stop being so hesitant!"
At that moment, Rin shouted. Just as he was about to say, "Not everyone is as perfectly accurate with coordinate calculations as you are," Rin spoke again.
"I'll handle it myself! Just… a little! It's so frustrating I could die!"
That taunt, which wasn't quite a taunt, ignited Pencion's competitive spirit.
"If you're going to shout so boldly, let's see if you can really do it!"
Pencion's ultimate specialty, a 4-star wind magic.
Wind Kite Frenzy (風鳶熱鬪).
It's a cruel and merciless magic where wind weaves into countless kite shapes, tearing the opponent apart. The number of monsters felled by this magic is countless.
"Pencion, if you use that, this entire ship…!"
Juicy, who was fighting Catherline, urgently cried out, but the flock of wind kites was already swooping down towards them.
Osarius-style hand sign, 4-star.
Interstitial Separation (間闡離隔).
What roundedly covered the entire area where the flock of kites was attacking Catherline was… a translucent circle.
"!"
It trapped the wind from hitting the ship and people, while also blocking Catherline's evasive movements.
'What the…!'
Kove, upon seeing it, rather than admiring it, released a magnificently woven magic arrow from her bowstring.
Secret technique, Grand Zero Kill (太零殺).
[Taehwa Archery Style] is an archery style that mostly focuses on enhancing power. If this attack, which scatters magic as dew at the point of impact to inflict secondary damage, were to hit directly, the merchant ship would disappear without a trace.
"!"
"!"
"!"
But it did not happen…
Thanks to a barrier magic, similar to Pencion's magic and comparable in power to Grand Zero Kill, that adjusted the damage to be focused solely on Abba.
'If this is the case, then surely.'
Juicy threw the windmill boomerang, which she hadn't been able to use, at Abba, who was deflecting the attacks of Sky Bow Kill (천궁살), which scattered like drizzle and tore at the skin.
"!"
Abba, sensing the threat, immediately lunged to evade… though her entire lower body was exposed to Sky Bow Kill, scattering blood.
But what about the windmill boomerang?
The windmill boomerang, which would have swept up nearby civilians and caused casualties, was softly caught by a telekinetic barrier surrounding the civilians, then bounced back and returned to Juicy.
'Incredible…!'
Leonia purely admired it.
Because she was a mercenary, because she had lived as a mercenary, she understood what this situation meant.
'She's perfectly supporting everyone so that their full power can be unleashed.'
Just one person helping, but it felt like multiple Platinum-rank individuals had come as allies.
'No matter how much of a genius, she's not even fifteen yet, how is this possible?'
Anyone could see… this far exceeded the level of a Platinum-rank mercenary.
'She came…'
She was told to help, she cried and shouted like that, and she came to help. Like the teenage Archmage of the past.
"What are you, exactly! This is cheating!"
Abba shouted at Rin, as if appealing to her, frustrated by the unreasonable situation unfolding before her eyes.
'It's here!'
Rin's eyebrows twitched.
'The moment of bucket list achievement!'
So, to hide the trembling corners of her mouth, she pulled her conical hat low, then declared in the gravest tone possible:
"Who am I? You don't need to know."
At that moment, a presence from the abyss suddenly surged with murderous heat.
Lava (鎔巖).
It was the authority of the Lizard Lord Neigalas. Catherline, with that power pulsing in the veins throughout her body, even her eyes had transformed into snake eyes.
"There was a mistake in priority. Abba, we need to kill her quickly. Without her, the rest are nothing."
Not a hint of drowsiness, and her expression was terrifyingly serious!
Abba also stepped back, chanting a curse to unleash the full power of the [King's Flesh].
As a Ghing type, aiming for physical enhancement by extremely amplifying the circulation of magic within the body, the lava's transfer ability was several times faster than ordinary people. Instantly, her veins and tendons glowed grotesquely with the light of lava.
"K-Kukukukuh…"
Rin felt as if she would go insane with joy at that moment. So she just laughed!
"Huuhat, Hahahahahahaha…"
The fight between the strongest I've cultivated and the strongest formed by flesh!
"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA…!"
What she had dreamed of the moment she joined the hero's party was now unfolding before her eyes!
Dreams come true!
Yes, this is a hero's party! The proper dark mages I've been dreaming of, come on!
'She laughs at me, so strong now? What is that composure?'
'Our magic power has been amplified by nearly 3.5 times right now!'
But to Catherline and Abba, who didn't know the full story, that laughter could only sound like a terrifying funeral dirge, like a murderous declaration!
"Alright, let's find out then! Who is closer to being the [Strongest]!"
From a glass bottle hanging at her waist, Rin chugged a violently surging blue liquid.
This is a magic potion!
It instantly replenishes magic, but rumors even say it's exclusively for mages who give up their future due to the lingering side effects.
'For this battle I've dreamed of, I'd gladly drink any number of bottles!'
When those aiming for the pinnacle exchange blows with their full might, the outcome is decided in an instant by the one closer to being the [Strongest].
"Let's go, Sval."
Fierce offense and defense are for those who have already reached the pinnacle, or perhaps for those beneath them!
'Alright, let's think.'
The lightning type is too fast, and the steel type is too hard, making it difficult to land an effective hit with ordinary magic.
'Then, it's time for a paradigm shift.'
What if magic that merely brushes past could leave fatal damage? In this case, I'll switch the logical circuit from "that" to "if fatal damage must be inflicted" and think.
'Should I try to derive an equation for [Line of Force], which activates quickly but converts its speed into power immediately after impact, using planar vectors?'
Then, again, rune engraving conversion. This is like my ultimate secret technique; I haven't neglected learning and training it for a single day, one might say.
"Gyugyung!"
The next moment, Catherline and Abba's forms vanished from their spots, leaving behind lava residue.
Fast.
To the point of human bodily structure breaking down.
Simultaneously with their disappearance, no, slightly faster than that, Rin was also moving.
"Osarius Rosary deployment."
With her left hand, she formed a hand sign and deployed a triple magic circle at her feet as usual, but the difference was that two layers of magic circles were rotating above her right palm.
'Double casting, combining two magic types?'
Pencion Ludwig's pupils trembled.
'Fast, can it be that fast? Just trying to read the runes or mathematical formulas being carved there with Bell Sidious feels like my brain is burning…!'
In a speed battle of magic, the presence or absence of catalysts is extremely important.
To counter this distance and that speed, Rin decided to use the nature spread all around her.
Ice (氷).
Field (場).
Erupt (發).
Ascend (昇).
Point (尖).
A modified version of the ice magic from [Secret Art: Thunder Vein Burst (뇌장방혈)]! With Sval's assistance, she gains the leeway to use the root rune, Ice, making its power even greater than the currently incomplete Thunder Vein Burst!
'And coordinate calculation, I just need to specify it as up, down, left, and right around me. Ghing types have no choice but to approach for close combat, and all the ship's troublemakers are gone.'
As calculated, Catherline and Abba, aiming for a single decisive blow, appeared respectively at Rin's upper left and lower right.
Their momentum, solely focused on attack.
They abandon defense. They focus solely on attack, on annihilating the opponent, to end this match. Defense can simply be covered by the ultra-high-speed regeneration provided by the [King's Flesh].
"If you can regenerate, try it."
However!
Everything, failed!
That attack! That prediction! That plan! Even the body that was carrying out all those actions and thoughts…!
"If you can do it even with your body torn into at least 100 pieces."
The next instant!
The canal water froze deep blue, and they were torn apart by a cascade of surging frost spike spears.
"…?!"
"…?!"
Catherline evaded the attack with lightning-fast movements to prevent it from becoming a fatal wound, and Abba blocked it through body hardening.
"Rune engraving conversion."
Both clearly judged that.
It should have been that way, of course.
But it wasn't happening that way.
"Converting Field (場) to Parasite (寄)."
Instead, the impacted areas instantly froze, and the frost penetrated deep into their bodies… then surged out as if hatching the next moment.
As ice spikes tearing through all the obstructing bones, flesh, and tendons.
It was full bloom (滿開).
Like snowflakes in full bloom, spreading wide in all directions… a flower of slaughter scattering blood, flesh, and brains instead of a floral scent.
"I endowed it with parasitic properties instead of field properties. One more, converting Ascend (昇) to Open (開)… Oops, can't they hear now?"