Book 8 Chapter 23

Episode 197

- Aren't you going to get married, Link?

Link, who had inherited the blood of the ancient giants, thought his head was dull.

Even if he were to fall in love with a woman, how would he educate and discipline their children? How would he help them when problems arose?

Listening to Link's complaints, Rin said:

- Don't worry if it's like that. If anything happens to Link's children, I'll go help them.

Of course, she quickly waved her hand self-consciously and hastily added an afterthought.

- Only a few times! I'm not going to keep going.

0101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101, Bell Quirius.

Hurry faster.

You must hurry faster.

So that the time Rem and Bart created isn't wasted.

"Damn it!"

The Dragon Slayer, who incredibly easily swatted away Bart's axe blade and cut down Rem's two-shot arrows in mid-air, shouted.

"Stop them!"

But roots instantly sprouted from the arrow embedded in the ground, grabbing his ankle. Giving Bart, who was several ranks below him, a chance to attack.

"Don't let that bastard pull any tricks!"

A bloody wavelength spread from Raine's eyes, and then he felt a sense of crisis upon seeing Millea engulfed in a storm of magic.

Come to think of it, where did they go?

Where did Herman and Lucia disappear to? Have they already been defeated? By whom?

"I obey your command."

The Demon Slayer broke free from the binds of the White Spear Palace twice as fast and began to sprint towards Raine.

'Quickly.'

He disassembled each rune and mathematical formula that was encroaching upon Millea's body into a meaningless sequence of numbers and scattered them.

'Faster.'

A state of extreme concentration, close to oblivion.

He had to maintain delicate magical control to the very end, passing a thread through thousands of needle holes without a single mistake.

As if resisting the spell interference, disgusting red tentacles shot out from Zernix's magic circle.

"Reversal effect of the spell…?"

Valensidius, his whole body drenched in blood, moved his lips.

"Are you thinking of saving *that* in this situation…?"

"What are you talking about? Save…?"

Cora, who was helping Valensidius to his feet, asked in a flustered tone.

"That guy's eyes are Bell Quirius… If he can just analyze any magic, he can nullify it…"

"What…?"

"But the target is so fast and violent, it can't possibly…"

He rolled his body to evade the Demon Slayer's chains, which flew with a dull, piercing sound.

Jesose-ranyeon: Revised.

As the ground sank slightly from the impact, chains of flame surged up and pierced Millea's body.

"…!"

However, the chains of Jesose-ranyeon, which should have sealed all her internal magic, corroded and melted away.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!

Zernix's tentacles, rampaging in defiance of Bell Quirius, corroded and melted them.

"Sister, stop it!"

Miria drew her sword and blocked the way, but she couldn't possibly stop a being wielding Link's power.

If she had resembled Lista not only in appearance but also in power, it wouldn't have been a problem, but…

After blocking the chains once, her sword shattered. The chain on her right hand surged up to crush Miria, but.

"Seojin Style, 12th Form."

The flow of its power twisted, rebounding in the opposite direction and striking the Dragon Slayer instead.

"…?!"

Raine, who had been severing the structure of the formation with Bell Quirius, couldn't help but doubt his eyes.

'Doran Slade, how could that human…'

He had driven a longsword into the severed cross-section of his cut-off leg, standing on it as if it were a prosthetic leg.

"I will buy you 5 seconds."

Arranging his broken breathing, Doran recalled a memory from the spring when he was eight years old.

- Unlike me, Doran was given immense talent and a healthy body by the gods, so Doran can become like Rin-nim.

A mage who can splendidly extend a hand to those who need help…

- Like Rin, who willingly left for the ends of the earth at a young age for the suffering.

Whether he could do it or not, why he did it—such monistic questions were buried along with his sister's ashes that year.

He just did it.

Then, and now.

Because when his sister put a fedora on his head, he promised to become that.

- Doran, will you become such a mage?

He couldn't become a great mage like Rin, but he tried to live such a life.

'Now that one leg is cut off, I'll have to retire from the front lines, though.'

Therefore, this was the final battle of that life.

It was but an instant when a magic circle of snowflakes flashed around Doran's intact foot.

The chains and arms crossed dozens of times at speeds imperceptible to the eye, creating a storm on the ground where they stood.

0101010101010101010010001

Rutry = 7.22.

0101000101010101010101011

The moment he found data on body possession and reason erosion, Doran's balance collapsed, and the Demon Slayer's fingertips aimed for his heart.

'Initiating inverse verification.'

Just before he could correct the formula binding the Demon Slayer's power to the body, just before those fingertips dug into his heart.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!

Suddenly, a dimension tore open lengthily, and an arm extended from it, pulling Doran into the dimensional rift.

Valensidius.

After pulling Doran out from the other side, he collapsed, spitting blood.

"Finish it… Raine Ludwig!"

Millea's true body must not be harmed.

Body possession, reason erosion, memory manipulation… Only the spell that forcibly binds Link's power to that body must be eliminated.

Sever it.

'Only the link to the barbaric spell that seeks superhuman strength and regenerative abilities at the cost of reason…!'

So that it can change into mathematical formulas whose results converge to 0, that is, completely meaningless numbers.

'It's late, but.'

He couldn't undo the sorrow and pain Link's descendants must have suffered for 11 years.

'It's too late, but.'

He couldn't entirely relieve Miria of the deep-seated resentment she had carried since childhood.

- Don't worry about that.

I know.

I know very well.

- If anything happens to Link's descendants.

He cannot touch the past that has flowed by. The past that went wrong flows as the present.

- I'll go help.

But.

He can change the direction of that wrong present and change the future. He can open a new future.

1001010101001010100101010010101010101111111001101110100111110111.

Look into it, interpret it, understand it, then break it. The door that was blocking the path to the future.

- It's a promise, Link.

So that the river of the present can flow.

- Link, Link, Link.

The moment he thought he had destroyed Zernix's formula, his vision exploded in white.

"Here is…"

For an instant, reality vanished from his sight, replaced by a space where blood pooled up to his ankles.

'My eye level is lower.'

This body and clothing… Could his spiritual body have materialized as Rin?

As he checked his changed physique, a muffled sob came from somewhere.

In the middle of a space where blood stretched endlessly like a vast ocean, a girl, barely ten years old, hugged her knees.

A child trapped in this horrible space for 11 years. Constantly, waiting for someone…

"Stop crying and come here."

The girl, who lifted her head at the voice, had eyes swollen with tears, and her voice was even hoarse.

"Who… who are you…?"

How should I explain who I am?

The moment he thought about it, a voice from a memory, like an ink painting, etched itself into his mind with a single stroke.

Link's laughter, foolishly laughing while carrying him on his huge shoulders.

"I'm Link's friend."

As I said that, I think I wore a very sad smile. With that smile, I knelt before Millea.

"You resemble Link a lot."

"Me…?"

"Yes, it feels somehow nostalgic."

Perhaps because of those words or that smile, a hesitant Millea took my extended hand.

"Come on, shall we go outside now?"

The moment their hands met, cracks spread through the illusionary space, eventually shattering into countless fragments.

'Reality again…'

The red tentacles shrieked painfully, then I saw them emerge from Millea's convulsing body and surge up into the sky.

"Calibration complete."

At that moment, the pillar of light scattered into tens of thousands of particles, fluttering like snow across the night sky.

It was beautiful, a dreamlike spectacle that made someone murmur absently.

Then, those particles re-coalesced into a pillar of light and plunged towards Miria, or more precisely, towards Gin's sword.

Pwooooooong────!

With a deafening roar that made eardrums throb, a shockwave laden with dust spread in all directions.

'What.'

Silence.

And then more silence.

'What happened?'

From Gin's Shaman Sword, which had clearly been broken, a dark red sword energy formed a blade and then quickly vanished.

'That.'

Raine, who knew the source of that power, had to doubt his eyes in bewilderment.

'Why did Link's power move there?'

At that moment, Millea's convulsions stopped.

"Miria! Sister Millea!"

Miria, regaining her composure at Cora's call, ran to Millea's bedside and embraced her head.

Her eyes, which had been eerily rolled back to show only the whites, closed and then opened weakly again…

A faint light of reason flickered in those pupils.

After gazing at Miria for a moment, a hoarse voice escaped Millea's lips.

"Miria…?"

There was no time to see Miria's expression of disbelief.

"Quite good for small fries!"

A sharp roar, the dragon bone spear shattered Bart's black iron helmet and flung him to the ground.

Then, the mind sword he had constructed in his left hand spat out an intense current.

It bisected the surrounding space with a speed the eyes couldn't follow, suppressing all the arrows flying from afar.

'Is this guy really human like me?'

Simultaneously, with just his right hand, he spun the dragon bone spear and struck Bart's black iron axe seven times.

"But!"

The moment the axe finally yielded to the immense pressure of the dragon bone spear and his stance broke, Arthur's foot slammed into Bart's abdomen.

"Meeting the wrong opponent!"

His leg strength, amplified to its limit, crushed Bart's breastplate and sent his heavily armored body flying far away.

"This is what it means!"

And while still in the air, the dragon bone spear spat out a bolt of lightning aura towards Bart, who couldn't regain his posture.

He might have been incinerated by that transcendent lightning.

If the dragon's flames hadn't intervened in the battlefield at that critical moment.

"…!"

A ranged magic that mimicked a dragon's breath, pushing only its destructive power to the extreme.

Flashfire Heaven-Strike Cannon.

The Dragon Slayer raised an eyebrow in dismay at the fierce fiery breath that engulfed the area.

'That guy's checking me? What about that useless bitch, the Demon Slayer?'

He seemed to have some trump card, did he release it?

It's useless anyway.

He would kill those guys here and ask his master or Zernix again. Including resurrecting his dead brothers.

"You did very well, Bart."

Bart panted heavily and looked back at Raine.

The skirmish with the Dragon Slayer had lasted only 10 seconds, but his entire body was already reaching its limit.

Raine gave Bart a thumbs-up, then twirled his staff and took his stance.

"I'll finish it in 30 seconds. Cover me."