Book 17 Chapter 28

Former rulers,

Ancient Madness Summoning the Sea Wind (6)

"Shuru-shuru, you just happened to come down?"

Philsanna said.

"Then go back. A sacred ritual to awaken a great being is currently underway here… Did you think I'd kindly tell you that, you arrogant brat! Shurururut!"

Philsanna's action was psychological warfare!

While trivial chitchat came from her mouth, the snakes of her hair were chanting a spell!

"Li, Limu!"

Eniger urgently cried out.

Was it needles that rained down on Lin! Since there were no less than four snake heads, the spell chanted here was a quadruple incantation!

"Shuru-shuru! You're messing around for nothing! Now, I will proceed with the sacred ritual again."

But what was this, the boy's magical presence had not disappeared. Rather, wasn't it being amplified even more powerfully?

"That was your only chance to beat me, and if that's all, I'm a little disappointed."

From the boy's left hand, an unidentified rosary dazzlingly unfolded, scattering the light of truth across this seabed, wasn't it?

In that light, the needles hung.

More precisely, hundreds of poison needles hung suspended in an amorphous barrier. Nothing had landed an effective hit on the boy.

"I'm the type who gives the first right of attack to opponents who seem weaker than me, to train my defensive magic."

Philsanna, and all the witches who witnessed this momentary exchange, were astonished.

'What? When?'

'Clearly, when Philsanna used her spell, that boy wasn't making any preparations.'

'But when did he manage to deploy such a powerful defensive barrier?'

As such bewilderment spread, the boy's brain corrected the source of the currently active Providence Alteration Equation and rectified the errors in that process.

Pa-ji-ji-jiiik…!

Electric current began to rise on the surface of the barrier. This was Rune Engraving Alteration, which would later become famous as the symbol of Archmage Lin!

"I'll give it back to you exactly as it is, so take it."

The reason for changing the attribute to electricity with Rune Engraving Alteration was clear.

This was because it offered two advantages: one, the artificial generation of repulsive and attractive forces provided significant propulsion to these poison needles.

The other was that if these hit, each poison needle would directly inject an electric current far exceeding a lethal dose into the target's body!

"Kk, Kkwaaaaaaaaaak!"

How could one resist the wave of that terrifying power?

How on earth could it be stopped?

Even if multiple casting was possible, it still required time!

"Am-amazing!"

"The second-in-command of the Black Rose Society, Archwitch Philsanna, in a single blow!"

"We weren't even a match!"

As the witches cried out with exclamations of awe, Lin once again felt a wave of emptiness and exhaustion wash over his entire body.

'Crazy, why is it another one-shot? She's an Archwitch, isn't she?'

What was that? Hmm? Between the strongest? Blah blah blah? Like a conversation using power, you know. I was expecting something like that to happen!

"This is no time to be making a fuss! We must quickly move these poor souls outside!"

At that moment, Tubasa shouted.

The witches immediately regained their senses, touched the minds and souls of the people succumbing to madness, and prepared to escape to the surface.

And as they tried to exit via the stairs, something was strange. No matter how much they walked and walked, instead of moving forward, they were being pulled backward.

"W-what is it?"

"C-could it be!"

It was the outstretched hand of the ancient sea.

Wasn't an indescribable and unobservable force pulling them, like tentacles dragging drowned bodies?

However, the source of that power was not gravity, but erupted from the statue of Baoba located at the center of this underwater clearing.

"Protect the children, the people! Don't let them be sucked in!"

"Th-the power is too strong!"

"We must do something!"

Those who were to be offered as living sacrifices barely survived thanks to the witches' desperate struggle, but the corpses of the witches who had become Nagas did not.

They are sucked in, absorbed.

Everything that made up their bodies, from the products of corruption to flesh, veins, fascia, and blood… all were absorbed the moment they touched the surface of the statue, as if submerged in the sea!

'Wow, what's happening?'

Lin, whose hanbok hems fluttered madly, felt his heart pulsate hotly as he watched the scene.

'I'm not sure. But something… something is happening.'

A situation that so stimulated the cells of the [Strongest Mage] was about to unfold right before his eyes!

"H-hurry and take the people out of here!"

"S-senior! All we can do is prevent them from being sucked into that power!"

At that moment, a golden curtain was drawn between Baoba's curtain and the stairs. More precisely, a barrier was cast in a position that separated Lin from everyone else.

"You go first. The [Strongest Mage], myself, will take care of this place."

That light freed them from the intangible tentacles. It severed them from the gravitational pull that felt as if they would be sucked into that sea of nothingness at any moment.

"Li, Limu!"

Eniger urgently reached out her hand to the curtain, but the electricity-laden barrier dazzlingly repelled her hand.

"I told you, my name is Lin."

One of the [Strongest Mage's Bucket List] items, "You go first, I'll handle this!", couldn't be properly completed last time because of fooling around, so it must be finished here and now.

That is my fight.

And it was time to awaken and revive the [Strongest Mage's cells] that had been chillingly dying after the fight with the Diamond-grade mercenary. He would not be disturbed by anyone.

"No, don't! Don't do that! I won't call you Limu anymore! Please, let's go together!"

Eniger, who couldn't possibly know the true intentions of such a crazy madman, pounded on the curtain of light with her fists, lamenting with tears!

"Gyugyung!"

To such an Eniger, Snowflake Sval seemed to dance cheerfully, as if to say "don't worry." Meaning Lin wasn't alone!

"Eniger, you must go now!"

"Master, but!"

"Don't you understand even after hearing that name? Lin, that's the name of the mage of the Last Hero Party! If we stay here, we'll only be a hindrance!"

At that moment, a strange change began to occur in Baoba's stone statue, which had absorbed the 'minimum necessary' life force from the Naga corpses.

Blood color and luster!

Ah, what terrible madness this was! Could such a wave, capable of shaking heaven and earth, be created by madness alone!

"Eniger, hurry!"

"Lin, you mustn't die! Understand? Absolutely, absolutely not! You have to come back!"

That wave swept at Lin's feet like a tide and crashed against the light barrier, and with each surge of the wave, terrible cracks spread across the barrier.

Kkeudeuk, Kkeudeudeuk, Kkuruk, Kkururuk…!

Simultaneously, a being forged by madness finally awoke from a thousand-year slumber and began to gain vitality.

"Kk~ What a truly awesome entrance! Yes, this is it! This is a fitting adversary for the [Strongest Mage]!"

Its form looked as if a whale shark, a fish that had dominated the oceans from ancient primeval times to the present, had been maliciously hybridized with a human.

Dark blue viscous fluid flowed from its twisted, grotesquely rising demonic wings.

However, this is merely a description in human language, as no whale shark with hundreds of eyeballs like this exists in any sea, regardless of the era.

"You lowly creature, was it you… that even-less-than-a-worm, ignorant of your place, who defied the will of I, Baoba…?"