Book 7 Chapter 16

Episode 165

"Ol pa sis, where did that turbid soul originate?"

Nariaduke squinted and asked, but the answer that flew back was a fireball that scorched heaven and earth.

But the moment it struck Nariaduke, that space-time merely flew to another dimension, and Nariaduke remained standing calmly.

As Nariaduke gracefully, almost seductively, swung his fan, a storm of poison qi surged, but as soon as its power manifested, it was incinerated into pure white ash.

"……Hoh."

In the suffocating reconnaissance battle, Nariaduke, who had casually covered his eyes with his fan, had quite complex thoughts running through his mind.

'A mature red dragon remained within a human body… did it use the same method as me?'

At that moment, Millone Alter Gaumlis staggered towards the red-eyed youth, Rain Ludwig.

"It's time."

She said, regenerating her left arm by plunging a serum syringe into the severed surface.

"That guy manipulates time. He just made 'the time you attacked' fly away."

Time, huh… The red youth turned his head and witnessed his past self.

He sees it. The unknown energy occupying Lin's body. That's the one who was trapped inside the Beltar Divine Stone in the temple earlier…

'My old body.'

He had expected some emotion to well up when he met it after graduating at the top of <Delaiten>, but facing his old body with strange eyes and wings, he felt strangely no emotion at all.

In his chest, deep within his soul, only suffocating hatred and rage burned.

The abyssal acid rain, which had been evaporated by the transcendent flames, began to pour down again. The red youth placed a hand on his chest and replied.

"This body was given new life by Alakish with that soul, which is why it appears turbid."

"Alakish… an unfamiliar name."

"Now it's your turn to answer my question. Was it you who lured Toureina into the abyss?"

His unnaturally calm voice rather hinted at the magnitude of his rage.

The atmosphere quietly boiled.

As if all the oxygen had been incinerated by an invisible flame, those present choked for breath, and sweat beaded on their backs.

"Do has… where are you impiously raising your eyes… you human, less than a worm?"

"I'll give you five seconds to answer."

"Time is His throne. That woman dreamed of twisted time, and I, Nariaduke, merely took that dream, the flesh of that soul. Little by little, ever so little… Hehehehe."

The moment the red youth's eyes flashed open, Nariaduke dramatically spread his fan, tore through dimensions, and pulled out the baby dragon that was beyond the flames.

"Do you resent me? Ru has… though your soul is mixed with transcendent power, your essence is still that of a lowly human… It would have been better if you had subdued me instead of babbling!"

Miria's face turned pale upon realizing that Akki had suddenly vanished from her arms.

Akki.

That kid entrusted him to me.

"Emotions contain power… ger sas, but one must always pay the price… That is why the wise discard emotions dispassionately… meticulously design victory… and coldly exploit all situations… exactly like this…"

The baby dragon, held in Nariaduke's hand, was swallowed by the abyss, swirling with sickening colors. Inside, Akki coughed painfully.

"From now on, this dragon will slowly be drawn into the storm of fate… Why do you think I didn't do it immediately, Bel has…? It's to utilize that fate worthily…"

As Miria tried to move towards Akki and Millone towards the Holy Sword Gaumlis, Nariaduke flashed a sickly smile at them.

"If you do not suppress those impertinent powers, I will immediately submerge this impious being into fate… Is that acceptable to you…?"

"Nariaduke, you bastard…!"

"You lot, do not react to anything I, Nariaduke, do… Al shiras… From this moment until I approach that thing and forge a body of a new star…"

One step, one step.

The eternal ruler closed the distance with movements so leisurely they were arrogant.

"This is true power… strategy (智略). A de sebur… Now I shall offer your luscious flesh upon the altar of the true king…"

The red youth, who had been silently gazing at the ancient noble and his own old body, suddenly lowered his head and let out a short sigh.

"No, not you."

When he muttered in an indifferent tone and raised his head again, a slowly rotating flower bud in his red eyes brilliantly bloomed into seven petals.

"Your arrogance about power makes you too transparent. Toureina couldn't possibly have been fooled by that."

And the moment he glared at the storm of poison qi with those two eyes, the storm ignited with intense light and vanished instantly, and Nariaduke's eyes widened.

"What…?!"

When Nariaduke extended his fan towards the baby dragon half a beat late, the target was no longer there. Instead, there were only the two women.

"Gaumlis!"

Millone swung the Ultimate Holy Sword Gaumlis, fiercely burning with pure white sword energy, clashing with Nariaduke's fan, and in that gap, Miria embraced Akki and put a significant distance between them.

'Again, time flew away.'

But Fay'querier, humanity's strongest soldier, would not fall for the same trick repeatedly.

He forcibly twisted the trajectory of his hammer's diagonal strike, both its inertia and the flow of power, and swung it in reverse.

Nariaduke, astonished by the way the human body was utilized beyond its limits, for the first time flapped his grotesque wings and soared high into the sky.

"This lowly creature…"

The storm of poison qi that arose from its reverberation was offset and dispersed by the dust storm when Millone fiercely struck the ground with Gaumlis.

"No one can stop the storm of fate, for my feathers shall guide this world from a false dream to a true kingdom!"

Nariaduke, who had soared into the rain clouds pouring down heavy rain, beyond Fay'querier's reach, spread his three pairs of wings wide.

Then, feathers glistening with a sickening stench were widely scattered throughout the mountain range… and astonishingly, the forests touched by those feathers melted away sluggishly.

Even the textual barrier of the Divine Ash Poem, into which Miria desperately threw herself, painfully shimmered under that power, and cracks began to form on its surface.

"Keu-heup…"

Yuliana, who was maintaining the power of the Divine Ash Poem, vomited blood, and Valensidis, who was bringing the few remaining survivors into the barrier, shouted.

"It's meaningless! Even using something that strong, he'll just make time fly away! We need to use powers that can be poured out continuously!"

The moment Rain shattered the five magic circles that were rotating, crackling with red electricity, on his palm.

'Instantaneous five-star conjuration?'

With the sharp, clear sound of flames igniting, a fragment of transcendent soul power was unleashed.

That power, which incinerates everything existing with form in this world, literally turns all creation (萬象一體) into ashes.

He manifested that absolute magic power as a rune of Fire (火), commanding it to open a 'hole' (穴) in the 'field' (場).

"Fire Field Block Hole (火場防穴), First Thunder (第一雷)."

As if dark clouds were torn apart, a red flash streaked across the sky, and the next moment, flames ripped through the heavens with an intense light that seemed to burn the retina.

'I realized it when I fought Sharu'kas. These guys, you have to finish them with full power when they're off guard.'

The moment Nariaduke, who had scoffed at the firestorm, flapped his wings once more to scatter feathers of decay, the ancient god screamed in pain, and his pupils trembled.

"What…?!"

His upper right wing was engulfed in a firestorm and evaporated in an instant. He must have made time fly away, but how?

"Bel'quierus."

Ability analysis, inverse calculation verification, correction… in the overwhelming surge of information that burned through his mind, blood streamed from Rain's eyes.

'The 10-meter diameter circle of power spread around him, that's the construction formula for space-time manipulation.'

The Forbidden Orbios is a rune made of the 6th substance symbolizing the abyss. Having seen its structure countless times and researched ways to counter it in battles with dark mages and Sharu'kas, solving its foundational equation is considerably difficult but not impossible. The price was a searing pain that made his brain and eyes feel like they were burning white-hot, but… Valensidis, who understood the situation, gasped.

'Is he controlling Nariaduke's space-time authority…?'

Nariaduke also immediately sensed the source of that anomaly, the epicenter of the power that disrupted his own authority, but.

"Second Thunder."

Once again, heaven and earth were dyed crimson… and all the rainwater in the area evaporated, sending an enormous amount of hot steam swirling. Into a powerful vortex of heat, strong enough to cause blisters from burns.

'What the… that guy…'

Miria, tightly hugging Akki, who was excitedly cheering and squealing, watched the spectacle of absolute power and swallowed dryly, dumbfounded.

'That's a power several times stronger than what multiple mages used simultaneously earlier…'

And for some reason, a stirring tremor somewhere deep in her soul. She couldn't possibly understand its cause. Just as tears had come to her eyes earlier upon seeing the frozen boy.

"R, R, RugabakkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkKKK──────!"

As the grotesque scream of the Lord of Time echoed across the mountain range, several feathers stirred up a storm of poison qi and rushed towards Rain, but.

"Gaumlis."

Millone, standing by Rain's side, plunged the Ultimate Holy Sword Gaumlis into the earth, and then, by exploding its power of light, continuously swept away the storm.

"Third Thunder, Fourth Thunder."

As the earth-shattering thunder, loud enough to burst eardrums, erupted, the third and fourth flashes consecutively struck the shadows of the sky…

The moment the fifth firestorm stripped light from the world, the ancient ruler plunged from the sky, hitting the ground with a resounding crash.

Around him, repulsive fragments of wings lay scattered, and an ineffably pungent stench emanated from that lump of madness.

"Ga, Gal be Cyclo, Cybia, you, you, you dare… the mission of I, Nariaduke, to open all, all eyes──"

Rain's eyes, as he looked down upon his old body charring into ashes in the flames, crawling on the ground, were chillingly cold.

"──Bark in hell."

Snap, the moment the red-eyed youth flicked his finger, the sixth thunderclap (爆雷) exploded.

Amidst the roar that ripped apart the mountaintops, was the ancient Archmage's death throes, erupting in a cracked, hoarse voice, mercilessly buried?

Along with the intangible tremor of a formless power vanishing, a fatal stench poured out from the huge crater created by the lightning strike.

'Who is it?'

'Who on earth is it?'

Only a few elders of Rivendell, two Grand Witches, and fewer than ten individuals watched that unreal display of power with their sanity intact, holding their breath.

'Does a human exist who can perfectly wield the Root Rune, Fire (火), like this?'

If it were someone from 300 years ago, they might have cried out, "Archmage Lin has come to save us," just by seeing his back with a conical hat and a staff. Of course, it would be a lie to say they didn't have such thoughts, but it was an imagination that couldn't be fulfilled. For Archmage Lin died 300 years ago, and his body is now consumed by the ancient ruler.

And according to the doctrines of the Church of the Mad Dragon, there is no such thing as a soul's next life (來生). Reincarnation is a notion only heretics would conceive.

"……"

Rain, who had been staring at the crater with a tense face, forgetting even how to breathe, finally exhaled the lump of breath caught in his throat.

'Is it over?'

His presence had definitely vanished.

Dangerous. It feels like every nerve cell in my head has ruptured from controlling ancient authority with Bel'quierus.

At that moment, Millone, who seemed about to reach out an arm to support him, watched the smoke-filled air with a puzzled gaze.

"What is that?"

He braced himself for the dull pain rising in his brain and reopened Bel'sidius… but the pain flew out of his mind in stunned shock.

The caws of crows that had occupied the mountain range began to stimulate his mind bewilderingly, like a cosmic melody.

At the center of the crater lay an unnaturally transparent hoarfrost. It was ice of an unforgettable form.

"Ju-yeo-so-gye-dae-ban…?"

But something was different. Something fundamental. The red youth doubted his eyes.

Cold sweat dripped down.

First of all, for some reason, he couldn't even interfere with Bel'quierus…

'No way.'

Inside it, a being of cosmic oblivion writhed blackly, instantly reassembling its burned and torn body back to its original form.

'Even Sharu'kas, who was unstable but had a main body, couldn't immediately regenerate at superhuman speed when hit directly by this…'

Honestly, he understood it theoretically (because it was that kind of technique), but he just couldn't theoretically comprehend it. How is that guy using that? Did he think to combine Ju-yeo-so-gye-dae-ban's temporary invincibility and healing power amplification with an absolute being's hyper-regeneration?

Crack…

…Crrraack…

……………Crack…

Amidst the twisted laughter of crows from space, cracks began to appear in Ju-yeo-so-gye-dae-ban's ice wall…

────Paaakaaaang!

Soon, as ice shards scattered everywhere like an explosion, the great Nariaduke, awakened from a momentary slumber, spread a pungent stench across heaven and earth.

"This can't be…"

"Nariaduke's body…"

"It's completely restored…!"

As everyone trembled in unutterable fear, Nariaduke, inspecting his own body, erupted in joyous madness.

"Hee, heehee, heeheeheehee, hahahahaha… Ro a kusas! I despaired at not being able to manifest a living body with all authority… but what a splendid mortal body this is… a human body can be this beautiful…!"

At that moment, the seventh lightning bolt struck the ancient Archmage's body with a thunderous roar that seemed to carve out the mountain range.

He didn't evade it.

He didn't manipulate time either.

Above the body being incinerated by the transcendent firestorm, only the ice wall, said to have been created by the youngest Archmage in history and a legendary shamaness together, was once again deployed…

'No, no…'

It felt like being in the middle of a nightmare.

To see the Archmage's body, along with three pairs of wings and a third eye, instantly regenerating within that ice coffin.

And then the ice began to crack again, and with a grotesquely twisted laughter, the nightmare descended upon this land once more.

'Does this mean he can't be killed, no matter how fatal the wounds inflicted…?'

Millone could clearly hear the echoes of doom implied by this desperate situation.

'He has transcended death with that… there are no weaknesses now… it's clear that no magic or spell will have any meaning…'

Yuliana, the shamaness of the Star Cluster, also recognized the voice of destruction whispered by this absolute madness.

'This isn't an incomplete resurrection.'

Here, at Myth Peak in the Red Mountain Range… Nariaduke, the Three Wheels of Time who dominated the ancient era, had been resurrected in perfect form.

The ancient god, who had lived for an infinite time with the authority of immortality and invincibility, was reborn. To rule humanity again, just as before.

"This body shall exist in infinite time, just as it always has… Aaaaaa, kneel before the maelstrom of fate…"

As everyone, including Fay'querier, trembled with primeval fear inherited from oblivion, flames calmly flickered in the red youth's eyes.

'If destruction (滅) isn't enough, then I'll have to face it with restraint (縛)… Do I really have to use "that"?'

To do that, I need time… The moment that decision formed in his mind, he turned around and began to run down the slope leading to the summit of Myth Peak.

"Hehehehehehehe…"

Nariaduke gazed at the sight of the mortal, overwhelmed by fear, turning his back and fleeing, for a long time, as if greatly pleased, then finally spread his wings and ascended to the sky.

"A struggle befitting your lowly origin… Bel has… As a gift for that, I shall take that impious soul and flesh without pain… right now!"