Book 21 Chapter 4
199th Chapter
To the Land of Decisive Battle!
The City of Beginning and End, Raftas Decisive Battle (3)
Ancient Uruk, Kiral.
With his violent nature and power, he butchered humanity and was rewarded by the Lizard Lord, becoming the first Rabashuruf.
Kiral was a warrior who was one of the central figures when the <Forgotten Kings> were sealed by the <Ones Who Came> and the demonic forces fragmented.
‘As one who established order in the demon realm, the land where the kings disappeared…’
His mere history made him an inevitable adversary to Sarandis's party during the Great Conquest.
However, Kiral was defeated.
There were several reasons for his defeat; while Sarandis's martial skill outmatched him, he also underestimated human cooperation.
‘Humans, especially those who have reached their peak, are incredibly powerful when they cooperate. You can’t win by fighting head-on like a fool.’
As Kiral whistled, dozens of Rabashurufs simultaneously charged at Lin, who was guarding the rear.
Then, the hero moves.
Sorcerers in the rear are extremely vulnerable in close combat, so the hero has no choice but to move to protect their vanguard.
“Meta Kuresan bishata, Sarandis (I aimed for that very moment, Sarandis)!”
Almost simultaneously with Rista's movement, Kiral and the leader Rabashuruf charged.
“Chitoshi wa hitas (It’s different from last time!)”
A psychological battle using reflexes to their extreme… The target aimed at with speed transcending the range of visual perception was none other than the Archmage Lin.
“hibani giken ni wa Julrak, to mo Ashire nida (The most dangerous one was Julrak, it was you)!”
Unlike last time when I neglected you and got wiped out with the wolves, this time I’ll twist your neck first.
“Lin──────!”
Kies immediately moved to intercept, but the leader Rabashuruf caught the arrow aimed at Kiral with its snout and snatched it away.
“Master──!”
A momentary confusion arose in Lin's brain as he was about to unleash a spell towards the Rabashuruf horde.
‘Rune engraving alteration, impossible. Too short, too close.’
It would be impossible to counter this sudden assault with any magic.
Just as his brain made that judgment!
His body instinctively pulled out the golden staff strapped to his back and began to respond to the threat.
‘My body…?’
It was the instinct for survival.
No, it was the battle sense, sharpened over five years of combat and etched into his genes.
His stance widened to shoulder-width.
The stone staff was pulled back behind his hip.
By raising the heels of both feet, he put all his muscles in a state of tension, preparing for advance or retreat.
‘I see it…’
Extreme concentration granted a temporary moment of clarity.
‘What kind of momentum the opponent has.’
The leisure to think about what kind of stance to take against it!
‘A trajectory I wouldn't have seen if I hadn't learned this staff art…!’
No matter how skilled, for bipedal creatures, the range of motion for bones and muscles is limited.
- So, when performing any action, the movement of force is bound to be similar, isn't it? The battle among masters is a fight of how to conceal it or how to read it.
Through five forms, later named Osarius Staff Art, the boy memorized this flow of power as a formula.
- What's the core point I want to make? It's to read the trajectory of the opponent's attack from the flow of their power.
Could he block it?
No, the size difference was easily two or three times greater.
Surely, even a struggle of strength wouldn't be possible.
‘Then…!’
The next moment, the lava mace roared, and the golden staff soared high into the sky, flashing brilliantly.
A clash in an instant!
As a result, Lin tumbled roughly across the sand.
‘Lin…!’
Friede’s eyes trembled.
The chanting process of the Psalms requires extreme concentration.
Because if any interruption occurs and a verse is damaged, its full power cannot be exerted.
As if to reassure Friede, Rista, who had sprinted forward in one breath, thrust the tip of Shurpen's blade at Kiral and shouted in an excited voice.
“That was an excellent stance, Lin!”
Was there no need to worry?
Lin lifted his face, covered in sand in an undignified manner, and spat out a mouthful of phlegm.
‘He's fine? How?’
Friede was truly puzzled, but Kies, a warrior like Rista, had clearly captured that fleeting exchange in his eyes.
‘During the counter-stance of the Fourth Form, he only pushed the stone staff into the mace's trajectory and deliberately shifted his center of gravity backward, converting it into an evasive action… to imitate my specialty.’
It was only natural for a proud smile to form on Kies's lips as he strung an arrow onto the bowstring of his White Spear Bow to support Rista, who was locked in close combat with Kiral.
‘It’s a shame I can’t explain it in detail to Friede, but Lin reacted decisively. He reacted, achieving a complete evasion in that instant when he couldn’t even use magic.’
It's natural for Rista to be happy. Because he gifted Lin the staff art precisely for situations like that.
‘However, I'll have to teach him how to breakfall once this expedition is over. So he doesn’t look so undignified next time.’
The moment the leader Rabashuruf spewed lava towards the arrow burrowing into Kiral's blind spot, the arrow's trajectory suddenly changed!
This was a coordinate alteration…!
Even in later generations, countless brilliant archers appeared, but it is said that no one other than Kies could freely bend the trajectory of an arrow.
‘Recombination in the air, 16 consecutive shots of woodchopping!’
Having soared into the air using the lava's heat as a shield, even Kiral couldn't help but lose track of the arrow's movement for a moment.
What kind of genius was this, using the opponent's counterattack to create a blind spot!
The light of fresh greenery, recombined in the air, split into dozens of strands again, raining down on Kiral.
“Bakomane o (These petty tricks)…!”
The moment he spread lava into the sky, the main attack would come from that Julrak fellow. Kiral judged so.
‘Then I'll allow it.’
He would endure the arrows' power with minimal force and use his preserved strength to receive Julrak's attack.
‘But why isn't the attack coming…?’
No, it was coming.
Lin had already begun his human-beast fusion at the same time he lifted his face from the sand.
To weave a new framework of power into the natural order.
‘This time, I'm aiming for the power of linkage, not a solo attack.’
Fresh greenery is the power of life, and life holds moisture, meaning it can act as a powerful catalyst for two types of attribute magic.
“Kyuuuuiiiiiiit!”
The light of fresh greenery, piercing through the leader Rabashuruf's lava curtain and Kiral's body, rooting its roots and stems within him… instantaneously began to freeze.
“Ice expands in volume compared to water due to the wider spaces between molecules caused by hydrogen bonding! With Sval’s power, it can now expand three to four times!”
The roots of fresh greenery, which would have merely limited movement and slowed super-regeneration by rooting deep within the body, now possessed the power to shred that body to pieces as blades of ice were infused!
“You’ll have to pay the price for touching Senior Brother Pomas, won't you?”
“Phonoshe (This bastard)…!”
“Kiral, die torn into hundreds of pieces.”
In that instant, before the fresh greenery could fully freeze, Kiral's body, which had charged at Lin, was cut in half first.
The light of the holy sword!
The light of the holy sword, which had cut down dozens of Rabashurufs, leaped over a time zone, its trajectory dazzlingly streaking from beyond to this side, severing Kiral's upper and lower body.
“Friede!”
“I know!”
As Kiral and his wolves' cores were exposed all at once, chains surging with the radiance of creation bound those marks of corruption together.
“These days, humans don't even listen to old men's words, so who would listen to your outdated Uruk nonsense! Disappear beyond the dimension with your past delusions!”
Pomas let out a hollow laugh, watching the core, drawn by that light, being pulled into the rift in space.
‘Ah, the level itself is completely different.’
Now I vaguely, no, clearly began to understand.
‘The reason the dean said Lin had to leave the magic tower back then.’
From his childhood, he had always wanted such friends… in a solitude he could speak of to no one.
“Father, did you see? Big Sis just went *pabak* and the wolves, wow, I couldn't even follow it with my eyes!”
Leland Apeltas couldn't help but fall into deeper contemplation than Pomas. Because he was the blood-related father.
‘Whenever I see it, it's a swordplay that reminds me of my wife…’
When his wife was still healthy, an innocent smile used to grace the tip of her blade… If it had been perfected, perhaps it would have taken that form. It surely would have.
‘But Rista…’
Rista hid a shadow behind that smile, so like her mother’s.
When his mother died, and Leland was driven by guilt to wander the demon realm, Rista was lonely in solitude, as the mansion's butler continuously conveyed in letters.
Rista had no friends because of her exceptional genius, and was only exposed to envy or awe.
‘And yet you, now, finally, found friends you can entrust your back to…’
But the life of a hero…
Must it deny and snatch away all those dreams and ideals, achieved only at the very end of life…?
As the father of a hero, destined to part with his daughter in his youth… Leland wept inside.
“She is not Big Sis. You should call her Sir Hero. As the future head of the Sword Crafter family, do not make that mistake again.”
Rista was truly heroic; in that situation, instead of looking at her family, she was discussing the situation with her comrades.
“An ancient demon targeting only forces not under the protection of the Red Dragon Legion… The situation is unusual.”
It was in that very moment that Rista poked Kiral's ulna, which had returned to bone fragments as his core and soul vanished, with the tip of her foot.
Kies instantly gripped Serwebon again and strung an arrow.
Rista also readied the tip of Shurpen's blade and turned around, for the space where Kiral had been annihilated by the Song of Creation began to melt.
‘That’s… the trace that appeared when Zernix, who devoured the king’s power, crossed space?’
That wasn't all.
The arrow of fresh greenery that immediately flew towards the being that appeared from the dimensional rift…!
It was blocked by parallel lines of lava that almost completely covered its body in an amorphous shape—Zernix's parallel line barrier!
“I told you not to confront them alone. After all, a demon is a demon. There's nothing in their heads. Ignorant is the perfect word.”
But it was strange.
It was too bizarre.
The being that appeared from the rift… was not Zernix. It wasn't even a man, but a woman.
“…!”
At that moment, Kies groaned and clutched his head.
‘What is this…?’
The scene that instantly unfolded in his mind, was it fiction or a dream, or a fragment of a dream?
‘A desert where a storm of volcanic ash entwines with a monsoon and rages…’
The city of pillars erected in its midst… with an unparalleled sinister and hideous majesty… overwhelmed the entire region.
‘Serwebon, are you showing me this? Are you peeking into that guy's mind right now and telling me?’
While Kies was flustered, Friede immediately unfurled a scroll of psalms, taking a combat stance.
“What is that bastard?”
Rista also said, sharpening the tip of her blade.
“Zelly's parallel line barrier? But what is it? The texture of the magic feels completely different…”
No, should I say the magic itself felt changed? Is that natural since he gained the king's power?
‘Her appearance itself is different.’
Such a beautiful woman, yet, somehow a snake-like woman.
‘Doesn't seem like a puppet. But the Zernix I saw back then was clearly a man.’
Lin felt an immense confusion for a different reason, his pupils shaking wildly.
‘No, this can't be possible. This can't be possible.’
There's no way ghosts exist in this world. If they did, science itself would be negated.
‘I clearly eliminated Ken Salman’s ghost, but now it appears as a woman?’
Just as the hero party was offering their opinions amidst the confusion, the sorcerer spoke.
“I am Zernix, but I am not Zernix.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Zernix obtained the king’s power and created me. Because he needed my power.”
Friede snorted.
“Created? You mean he gave birth? In that short time? Wow, he's truly insane!”
“The woman said to be the greatest priestess in history is utterly ignorant. Judging by her blabbering.”
“What, you punk?”
“Zernix obtained the king’s power. That means he could do anything the king could do.”
Suddenly, Friede's face turned pale.
“Surely, you bastard…”
The sorcerer flashed a wry smile.
Unlike the main body, she gave an overall calm impression.
But that smile alone was exactly the same, enough to definitively prove that she was Zernix’s alter ego.
“You have recognized it from my expression. Yes, I am Rje. Zernix’s Mauna Loa… indeed, the king’s incarnation.”