Book 16 Chapter 23
The strongest dark wizard group in history!
Clash, Chilhun (11)
“Hero party assemble?”
Kishua of Blackfire, the leader of [Chilhun], said with a sneer.
“I killed three yellow wyverns even before awakening this immortal power. What can a mere hero party do against me?!”
When Yongmang (Molten Serpent), the lava serpent, let out a roar… the bodies of people evacuating to the surface via the stairs Rin had made began to melt, and sorrowful screams erupted.
“Excellent! The terrifying heat output is incomparable to the Yongmang I saw when I was young! With this power, it won't even take half a day to reduce this entire area to nothing!”
At that moment, light began to dance dazzlingly, brilliantly, and profoundly around the left hand of the boy wizard Rin.
Ice.
Casing.
Frost scattered, and armbands modeled after snowflakes appeared on the wrists of not only the hero party members but also the people.
“What is this?!”
“It appeared on everyone!”
“Gyuuung!”
It was a cold amplifier. A light that protected people's lives, minds, and bodies in this superheated hell.
“- Go on a journey, Rin.”
Lishtar the hero looked back at Rin and their companions and nodded.
“- That journey will teach you.”
Reverently, fervently, sorrowfully, as if praying, he gripped the hilt of the holy sword with both hands and raised it.
“I am…”
Before that prayer was recited.
“The Origin of the Sword! Did you think I would let that trick go unpunished?!”
Yongseom's (Molten Toad's) outstretched tongue, immediately pulsating as a stream of lava, tried to entwine Lishtar's body, but!
“…Lishtar.”
A beam of light that pierced and severed that tongue with the light of fresh greenery… the Radiance of the World Tree.
“Alter…”
The serpent coiling around Kishua's body shifted from defense to offense. Yongmang, lunging forward with its giant maw and fangs dripping lava.
“…Shirping.”
However, the second psalm scroll was already fluttering nobly around Freya. This was proof that the entire prayer of the Holy Word had already been recited!
Divine Love Psalm.
That Genesis prayer is the power to protect the creatures of creation from beings that defy the will of creation. It is the power that preaches the Creator's love!
“An area-wide barrier…?!”
Kishua shouted.
Even Yongmang, considered invincible, could not break through the barrier and was repelled.
Meanwhile, the holy sword's blade light was reaching its zenith.
“Across the land…”
The Origin of the Sword is resonance with the proxy and the holy sword. Through the process of communication, their wills are exchanged, finally achieving unity.
“…I wish for it to be filled with true laughter.”
That was Lishtar's heart and Shirping's heart simultaneously. The holy sword only responds to the proxy's true feelings.
That brilliant will…!
It draws out the power of the holy sword to its extreme, reproducing the power of the Eldia heroes who, in the distant past, were said to have cut mountains, parted seas, ended darkness, and heralded the dawn.
“Spacetime Annihilation!”
Dimensions rippled, then split and tore, banishing everything that lay upon them into the void outside the created world.
“Kkkkeu-ee-euaaaaaaaah…!”
Truly an absurd power!
It's impossible for a mortal being to resist the power that tears dimensions themselves apart.
“!”
“!”
“!”
But the moment the dimensional rift closed, everyone had to doubt their eyes. Because Kishua was still standing firmly in his original spot.
“Immortal? Crazy, that's incredibly cool! How do you do that? Sir, share it with me!”
A tobacco pipe landed squarely on Rin's head as he gawked in admiration!
“Not immortal! That guy, he regenerated his body in an instant! It's literally super-speed regeneration!”
“Isn't that the same thing?”
“Ah, I guess it is.”
As if to make everyone clearly aware of Kishua's regeneration ability, Lishtar, who had taken a "True Step" transcending time, once again vertically severed Kishua's body.
“!”
Kishua's body, which seemed to have been severed into two pieces, truly reconnected in an instant amidst bubbling lava.
“It's meaningless, hero. My life had no value to begin with. That sense of nihility has now granted me complete immortality.”
Inertia control after the slash, Yongseom fiercely extended its tongue towards Lishtar, who was spinning in mid-air.
“This world is a value-based world! For those without value, only despair exists, without any hope or desire.”
Lishtar cut off its tongue and deployed countless magical footholds around Kishua.
“But the Second Pillar came to me, to us, and gave us hope. He gave us power!”
Even if he cut, cut, and cut again…
“Before meeting Him, we were as good as dead, so this life must be lived for Him!”
Kias's arrows and Pipi's fiery wingbeats also repeatedly surged, but Kishua instantly regenerated his body as if scoffing at all the attacks.
“I can never die before repaying His grace!”
The Lava Four Divine Beasts were created by Kishua's abyss, and no matter how many times they were defeated, they reappeared as if super-speed regenerating.
“You destroyed this kingdom, this land, for such a trivial reason?!”
The moment Lishtar shouted that, Kishua's abyss went berserk.
“Trivial?”
The heat output of the lava spewed by the Lava Four Divine Beasts exceeded its limits, and the horizon began to undulate as if weeping.
“What do a wretch like you know about His greatness to speak so carelessly?!”
To protect the people from that powerful abyss, blood poured from Freya's mouth as she maintained the Divine Love Psalm.
And that's not all!
The second serpent, Yongmang, surged up from beneath the ground onto the steadily rising lava… and slammed its massive body directly into Lishtar!
“Lishtar!”
Lishtar is the strongest. The strongest, but… Rin urgently shouted, clenching his sweat-soaked fists.
He himself found it baffling that he could produce such a voice.
As if responding to that cry, the next moment, three streams of holy sword light surged, and the serpent disintegrated into countless chunks of lava and scattered.
“He desires the world's destruction. Is that a trivial reason? Do you not know that there must be a greater purpose that our perception cannot grasp?!”
Kishua was originally a wizard from the Rivendell school, which specialized in flame magic.
The Rivendell school rose to the position of a pioneer in practical Remedial-type magic by using talismans.
Each time Kishua threw a talisman, the manifested power was all 4-star flame magic. The difference was that its attribute was lava, capable of melting the entire crust.
“A colossal will, which neither you nor I dare to comprehend, is attempting to operate this world. To make this world, filled only with despair, grow into a more ideal one!”
Think…
At that moment, Rin closed his eyes, cut off his attention from all ongoing tribulations, and entered the realm of thought.
“You destroy the current world to create an ideal world?”
The opponent is immortal…
No matter how decisively he cuts, his body regenerates. Even Lishtar's Spacetime Annihilation is instantly regenerated as if scoffed at.
If so, the method of power emission must be changed. Not to kill, but to prevent regeneration.
“The First Pillar said that this world's foundation became twisted because the dawn broke before the war ended.”
A third serpent appeared from within the lava.
And that's not all.
The foxes had now multiplied to five, and Lishtar's senses perceived the entire world, meaning up, down, left, and right, in reverse.
“It's neither complete darkness nor light. That's why all irrationalities overflow. This is a process to weed out such contradictions.”
In that state, he was facing three serpents. A desperate situation where even a master at their peak would have died without being able to properly evade.
“That's why our name is [Chilhun]! To make this imperfect world complete, we were given the mission to paint the world with darkness!”
No sooner had he thought he'd cut down one serpent than the next serpent rushed into the gap and slammed Lishtar into the underground outer wall!
“Then why paint with darkness?”
No, the light of the sword aura, surging like a roar, simultaneously cut down three serpents and simultaneously dealt an 8th direct hit to Kishua!
“What about the option of painting with light?”
The sword aura tore Kishua's body into three pieces, but it quickly regenerated.
“This world only gave me darkness, so why should I repay that enemy with grace?”
The power was enough to pierce Kishua and slaughter countless parts of the underground outer wall beyond him.
“Because one knows sorrow, one can understand the sorrow of others, and one who has experienced pain can comfort the pain of others.”
Such a powerful exchange of blows, truly a kingdom… no, a feast of power capable of devastating an entire continent.
“You said you know the pain that covers this world better than anyone, didn't you?”
The holy sword's light and the lava's heat, endlessly intersecting in silver and red, caused widening cracks in the Divine Love Psalm, which deals with the story of creation.
“Then you must know better than anyone how to comfort others. Am I wrong?”
Kishua's forehead veins bulged, unable to answer immediately.
“You, who can't even defeat me alone! Do you dare think you can paint all the countless darknesses consuming the world with light?!”
By that time, the fourth serpent, five eagles and toads, and seven foxes had multiplied… the boy wizard Rin finally returned from the realm of thought to reality. He opened his eyes.
“Freya, there's something I want to try.”
“You want to fight me again? You crazy kid, now that he's used all his strength blocking that guy's attacks with psalms, you're being cowardly!”
“Not that, you idiot!”
Rin briefly summarized and explained the strategy, and Freya, though gasping for breath from maintaining the psalm, couldn't help but admire his insight.
“Ah, if it's that method…!”
“Can you do it?”
“I can't guarantee I can do it, but I have to try. There's no other answer.”
“Match me. Sval, you?”
“Gyung!”
Sval, who had shrunk to the size of a pea after creating frost barriers for everyone, was more spirited than before. Seeing that, Rin chuckled.
“Alright, a useless guy like you should earn his keep now, when else?”
The outcome would be decided in an instant, literally. Freya would have to release that Divine Love Psalm. Therefore, they absolutely had to succeed.
Reversal of thought.
It was a reversal of flow.
There are a few runes I realized while researching the immortal formula that saved me in <Ikegrad Prison> with Sval.
‘One is Yeo (Filter).’
The power to filter, that is, to cleanse.
However, this rune is not a magic rune but a rune used in sorcery, and Freya's help is needed.
‘Another is Sogye (Subtotal).’
This is a composite rune to accurately measure the amount of abyss that has infiltrated the body.
‘For that, Dae (Bag).’
It means sack or pocket.
It's a rune to create a bag that contains the calculated abyss as if isolating it, then washes it out with the Yeo (Filter) rune.
‘Finally, Ban (Reverse).’
The characteristic of flow reversal, cleansing it to transform the curse of the abyss into healing power.
Thus, it becomes a 5-star magic.
Although it was still an almost theoretical discussion, with Freya's help, it was certainly worth experimenting with here and now.
“The most useless (actually the most important) freezing property I'm entrusting to you, Sval.”
“Gyung!”
“Alright, let's go.”
Before the opponent, the wizard who had achieved immortality, could detect the anomaly… aiming for that one moment when he was immersed in victory, watching the fragments of light from the Divine Love Psalm shatter.
Osarius Rosary Deployment, 5-star.
The ecstatic light dancing above the boy's left hand was like fireflies on a grass field on a spring evening. It was like the traces of stars brightly emerging and singing in the early evening.
“Yeosogyedaeban (Filter-Subtotal-Bag-Reverse).”
Sval wove a combination of powers - washing, calculating, isolating, and reversing - into a vortex of cold and sent it towards Kishua of Blackfire.
“Freya, now!”
Freya read the next psalm scroll amidst soul-scraping pain.
Omunsipyeong.
She couldn't draw out its full power by reading only the important phrases, but still, the power of Omunsipyeong, containing the hearts of the Creator Gods where 'there is no pain, no tears, no suffering in the world'… the power of [Area Healing] was surely layered onto that magic.
“With mere cold like this… Hmm…? Euhp… Uuueuk… Kkeueueu-aaaaaaah!”
In the midst of pushing Lishtar back, Kishua, who had disdained Rin's power, felt his eyes tremble the moment the attack directly hit.
“What is this power…! My body, along with the serpent, is freezing instantly?”
If it were just freezing, he could melt it with lava, but it wasn't melting.
“The abyss within my body isn't working? What on earth is this power…!”
It's a magic I've never seen before. Is it magic created to defeat me?
Is that kid a monster?
At this very moment, in this place, within this short time, can he design and assemble such magic?
“!”
“!”
“!”
Lishtar hadn't heard Rin's plan, but he recognized that what Rin and Freya had created was a decisive move towards victory.
Kias and Pipi also saw.
Lishtar spun Shirping in his hand and displayed his unique stance of gripping the hilt in a reverse grip.
“That's right! I can't do anything alone! So I must be a fake hero.”
Since the opponent had summoned temporary immortality, the isolation by that power could not last forever.
“But, because I can't do anything alone----!”
The ice was also slowly melting amidst the thick steam.
“----Kias is!”
The time that ice could exist as ice was a countdown.
“Freya is----!”
There would be slightly too little time to use Spacetime Annihilation. In that case.
“----and Rin is by my side!”
Lishtar split time into twelve fragments with Shirping's power and dashed forward.
“Everyone----!”
First and second fragments: vertically slashes the body of one serpent attempting to protect its master.
Third and fourth fragments: while evading five diving eagles, Pipi intercepts three.
“Therefore, this power is----!”
Fifth fragment.
The foxes wag their tails, causing illusions, but it's no problem. He's long been accustomed to movement in a world where up, down, left, and right are reversed.
“----not my power alone!”
Sixth fragment.
Sweeping away the foxes in one blow, he adds the centrifugal force and inertia generated in his body to the next attack.
“Our power----!”
Seventh fragment: The toads arrayed by their master's side extend their lava tongues… but the blue light does not tolerate it.
Eighth and ninth fragments.
A ripping sound, like a thousand birds shrieking, tore vertically through the world, turning the toads back into chunks of lava.
“----The human potential to join hands and 'correctly fix' the world!”
Tenth fragment: horizontally slicing the serpent surging as a wall of lava… and capturing the target beyond that fiery explosion, Kishua.
“The reason a hero doesn't fight alone, but forms a party, is----!”
Eleventh fragment.
As Shirping, having reached the zenith of its brilliance, began to roar, he leaped, stepping on a magical foothold momentarily created in the air.
So intensely that cracks formed on its surface.
“----to convey that very possibility to the world!”
Just before the twelfth fragment, Rin, who was kneeling on one knee from using advanced magic, blinked blankly.
‘Again.’
When Lishtar puts his heart into it, the magic energy emits the same light as when the Dean uses magic.
His fist clenched involuntarily.
Inside, he was saying this.
‘Go, Lishtar.’
And at that moment, the same resonance was spreading through Freya's and Kias's hearts…!
‘Finish it. Finish it, Lishtar!’
No one could see the slash performed within the twelfth fragment. Because Lishtar had once again divided that time into twelve pieces.
“That I-----!”
Kishua pulled out a talisman.
“----did you think it would end like this?!”
Hundreds of them, raging lava rose from the talismans scattered like cherry blossoms on a spring day, forming a colossal serpent's head before Lishtar, who was splitting time.
“The magnitude of my mission, something a wretch like you cannot stop----!”
Only its beginning and end could be seen.
“--------------------SLASH!”
Lishtar's figure vanished for an instant, then appeared at the end of that linear trajectory. In the middle of the trajectory were Kishua and the serpent's head.
A moment of stillness was needed.
A moment of respite was needed.
Until providence properly recognized what had just happened and outputted it to the observers' five senses, summarized in three ways.
“!”
A residual image of light described the trajectory of the almost artistic slash that had just occurred to the observers.
Jjeong… the sound of ice cracking.
And the grotesque entity, the size of an adult's upper body, flailing and spewing lava from Lishtar's hand, was none other than… [King's Flesh].