〈 Chapter 330 〉 Gathering (3)
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A twisted circuit floats.
It’s a circuit that Raniel has never encountered before, a circuit she only knows through shallow knowledge. In other words, it’s the circuit of Arcadia created in ancient times.
Magic erased from human history.
Spells that have disappeared into the annals of history.
The ancient magic that humanity has lost now reveals itself here. As a mage, she would love to marvel at this situation, but Raniel knows she cannot. Her expression stiffens.
‘…This is bothersome.’
The ancient circuit.
She has faced it a few times against Skebal, but the circuit that comes to mind now is of a higher completeness than Skebal’s. The roots are the same, but the number of branches that extend is different.
It’s unpredictable.
Since it’s unpredictable, she can’t move rashly.
There’s no telling in what direction the ancient circuit might have set traps. She needs to be cautious, but…
‘But, I don’t feel well.’
Having come this far, she has burned countless beasts.
She rushed to draw mana to end her engagement with Skebal quickly. Using too much mana, her heart’s engraved circuit is overheating, causing her mana to plummet rapidly.
Moreover, time isn’t on her side.
“……”
Raniel fell silent.
Her opponent is a mage who can handle at least four classes. She still doesn’t know the limits of her opponent. There’s no telling what function that circuit will have.
The unknown.
Something still unrecognized.
What strategies does she need to formulate against that, and what should she do here? Raniel begins to derive the answers. Her eyes, moving quickly, discover a seed writhing in the middle of the top floor.
“Crazy bastard.”
Raniel muttered without thinking.
The Braver, having overheard this, nodded.
“Thanks for the compliment.”
Immediately afterward, the circuits began to emit light in succession.
As flashes erupted, Raniel lightly stepped to the side. Then she extended her arm. Extending, she grasped the clue that would turn this fight in her favor.
A girl standing quietly against the wall, holding her breath.
Raniel seized Resti Elenoa.
2.
Resti Elenoa is confused.
What did she just hear?
When Professor Rania opened the firmly shut door and appeared, Resti felt relieved. With Professor Rania around, anything seemed possible. However, Resti fell silent after hearing the words of the Braver that followed.
“Raniel van Trias.”
“I’ve been waiting for you, Ashen Mage.”
Not Raniel, but the Ashen Mage.
Not the descendant, but the Ashen Mage.
The Braver had certainly said that, but Raniel didn’t specifically deny it. It was akin to an affirmation. Resti glanced at Raniel’s side profile. Her expression remained unchanged.
…Professor Rania is… Raniel?
Resti couldn’t process that information for a moment.
Having been compared to Raniel for many years and looked down upon, Resti carried a tinge of resentment in her heart. Although it has diluted significantly now…
Resti Elenoa still doesn’t hold a good impression of the Ashen Mage.
To her, Raniel van Trias is a wall she must eventually surpass. But what is Rania to Resti? The person who became her second master. Also, a lifesaver.
Caught in that gap, Resti feels flustered.
As she swallows her breath, unable to comprehend the information, thump, someone grabbed her wrist.
“…Professor?”
It was Rania.
Rania said nothing. She pulled Resti’s arm, carrying her in an embrace. Then with a thud, she kicked off the ground and began to run.
Flash!
Immediately, a dazzling light erupted.
An unrecognizable spell swept through the area. Raniel instinctively dodged the spell and began to dash along the wall.
The very top floor of the Tower.
Running through that place where all the walls had crumbled into a massive chasm, Raniel flicked her fingers. The ground trembled and the terrain shifted. The Tower is a construction made of mana stones.
Kugugugu…!
The joints of the mana stones.
While she may not know how the entire Tower is connected, Raniel does know how the mana stones on this top floor are interlinked. She releases that connection now.
The mana stones part ways.
The mana stones float along the flow of mana.
The collapsed floor rises into the air, and the ceiling begins to collapse, allowing sunlight to trickle in. Stepping on the floating ground, Raniel dodges the spells aimed at her.
Kiiiiiing!
Heat rays sweep past.
Dozens of spikes fall from above, aimed straight down.
Ducking and dodging them all, Raniel opened her mouth.
“Listen carefully, Resti.”
Resti looks up at Raniel.
“In ten seconds, I’ll align all the floating mana stones back in place.”
Raniel keeps running forward.
“That will be our chance.”
She leaps into the air.
With chains hanging from her in the air, Raniel lands and takes a quick breath. She looks at Resti. The bluish eyes gaze at her.
“It’s crazy, but it’s the only answer I’ve got.”
Raniel said something.
At that moment, Resti’s eyes widened. It was indeed crazy. At least, it wasn’t a viable option in this situation.
“…Are you serious?”
Raniel nodded.
Resti swallowed hard.
Her mind is a jumble. She doesn’t know how to treat the woman in front of her, now that she has suddenly learned the truth. In the midst of confusion…
“I trust you.”
The moment Resti looks into Raniel’s eyes, she feels her mind clear. The bluish eyes. Among countless eyes, only those eyes saw her.
“Can you do it?”
“I believe in you.”
It was a gaze that saw Resti Elenoa, a human, not the next Ashen Master. In the same eyes that maybe always were, Resti finally realizes that what she has to do hasn’t changed at all.
To respond to the trust given.
Resti nods.
Raniel lets out a smile.
“Thank you.”
Raniel grazes her foot against the ground.
The mana stones that had risen begin to settle in place in an instant. The structure of the Tower is restored as if time rewinds, obscuring the Braver’s view.
When everything has found its rightful place.
Resti stands firmly on the ground.
She slowly opens her eyes.
The platinum rings overlap in Resti’s wide-opened eyes. One, two, three.
“…What’s that?”
In an instant, the Braver is taken aback.
Three platinum rings overlay her eyes.
Before the girl who has awakened the eyes of a mage’s god, the Braver holds his breath.
And then, he realizes another fact.
Raniel van Trias has closed her eyes.
With her posture lowered, she shows no signs of opening her closed eyes. In the narrow eyes of the Braver, he sees the spell Raniel has used.
Shared Sight.
Just as a Summoner connects their sight with their summoned beast, Raniel has connected her sight with Resti. The Braver understands what this means.
Resti closes one eye.
Raniel opens one eye.
“Damn it.”
Raniel bursts into laughter.
“This is the feeling, huh?”
Drip.
Blood flows from Raniel’s nose and eyes. Those without the talent of a Watcher have sought the sight of a Star. Paying the price, bloodshot veins appear in Raniel’s eyes.
Yet, she does not close her eyes.
Enduring the pain, Raniel takes a step forward.
“You’re dead.”
3.
All that enters the vision of the Watcher gets hammered into her mind—the essence of everything. There’s no way she could maintain this sight in a human body for long.
‘At most, just over 10 seconds.’
That’s the limit given to Resti and herself.
Raniel chews on that fact as she moves.
The moment she takes a step forward, ash dust erupts wildly from her body. Raniel vows to stake everything on those 10 seconds.
She ignites all remaining mana.
Surrounded by ashen mana, Raniel begins to run. The Braver’s circuit fills the surroundings with light. Though the ancient circuit had been beyond her understanding just moments ago…
It’s not for Raniel now.
‘I see it.’
The instant she perceived, understanding follows.
Raniel reaches out toward the glowing circuit. It’s a circuit she’s never seen before, yet she comprehends its structure fully.
She hooks her bent fingers onto the circuit and pulls.
Chwaaarak!
The circuit disassembles.
The moment one circuit dismantles, Raniel grasps the trick. Immediately, she puts her knowledge to use. She launches dozens of powerful strikes in all directions.
Kwa-chiik!
A strike pierces the core of the circuit.
The ash mana contained within the strike obstructs the circuit’s completion. Instantly, dozens of circuits are neutralized. Remaining circuits spray light aimed at Raniel, but…
Their trajectory, the path they take, is all read by the Watcher’s eyes. Amid the pain of her corneas burning, Raniel focuses harder.
Don’t sense it. See it all. Understand it.
The Braver summons his beasts to the best of his ability.
The erupting knights and a raging dragon entangled in sludge roar, but they won’t last long. An ashen silhouette brushes past them. A delayed explosion follows with a loud Kwaaaang!
“…It feels like a Berserker.”
The Braver murmurs as he leaps back.
Proving that he is rightly called the Great Mage, the Braver simultaneously handles four types of spells.
Necromancy, Sorcery, Elemental Spells, and Summoning.
He offers the spirits of the dead as a sacrifice with sorcery, unleashing an immense elemental spell with the transformed mana. He scatters his summons to bind Raniel’s movements.
The completed spell is divine punishment.
Kwaaaarrrgh!
A colossal flash descends from the sky, shattering the ceiling of the Tower. The resistance spells layered on the Tower shred like paper, engulfing Raniel’s body in the brilliant light.
It’s the highest-tier magic.
Having restricted the area with several constraint circuits, someone suddenly bursts through that blinding light.
Covered in blood.
Ignoring her own body.
Only focused on running forward is a mage.
In those bloodshot eyes, the Braver feels a certain mania. Having pierced through the highest-ranked spell relying solely on ash mana resistant to magic.
The distance closes.
Clicking his tongue, the Braver attempts to distort his shape. He is, after all, a shapeless shadow. If he just momentarily sheds his body to escape…
Just when he thinks that.
Thud,
A summoned beast bursting from the void bites the Braver’s body. The physical attack of the summoned beast shouldn’t work on him, made of shadows. So thinks the Braver, yet he doesn’t dodge the attack.
However, it was a miscalculation.
The Braver’s eyes widen.
He feels the burning pain. The teeth of the wolf that bit him. Within it, ash mana is swirling. Eyes wide, the Braver looks at the girl who stands behind Raniel.
That mana, which he thought only the Ashen Mage could wield, is hesitantly in the hands of that girl too.
The ash mana coursing in the wolf’s bite holds the Braver in place, preventing him from fleeing. Unable to become a shadow, the Braver lets out a hollow laugh.
“Ha…”
Before he knows it, the distance has completely closed.
The ashen mage, now right in front of him, reaches out with blood-soaked hands. The ash mana entwined in that hand finally touches the Braver.
“I got you.”
Raniel bursts into laughter.
Grasping the Braver by the head, Raniel slams him into the ground. The amassed mana detonates in an instant.
Ashes to Ashes.
A moment of blinding light.
A flash more dazzling than when divine punishment struck fills the area, followed by a tremendous roar.
Kwaaaang!
The ground collapses.
The earth explodes as the two plummet down to the lower levels. The Braver tries to reclaim his shredded body, but it’s challenging. Damn that ashen mana, it hinders his regeneration.
‘But…’
Unlike the ashen mage who poured everything into one strike, he has remaining mana. As the Braver reaches out toward the plummeting ashen figure…
The ashen mage smiles.
Even in a situation where defeat seems certain, she smiles.
Is there a hidden move? There can’t be, can there?
While thinking this, the Braver realizes his vision narrows. Outside of his sight, someone leaps off the ground and into the air.
Guarder, Kalt.
He catches Raniel as she falls, landing smoothly. In contrast, the Braver, crashing awkwardly to the ground, slowly rises.
“…Huh.”
Then, the Braver lets out a hollow laugh.
With the support of a superhuman, Raniel rises to her feet with great effort.
To protect her, several figures step forward. Reading the hues of their souls, the Braver starts to feel an overwhelming sense of dread.
Lac von Grace.
With his axe planted in the ground, he reaches for the air. As if answering his master’s call, the Holy Sword grasped by the First Hero now sits in Lac’s hand.
Belnoa van Dragonik.
Around the boy, who contracted with the primal god, dry winds swirl. Beneath him, the shadow of life so different from the Braver’s existence dances.
Stella, Ayla.
Surrounded by the blessings of stars, she is loved by them. The Braver cannot approach Ayla. Instinctively, he feels a rejection by the life born to stop him.
And two heroes glowing with dual radiance.
“Hero, Chloe.”
The hero of the rivers, Chloe.
“We will join the fray.”
Those who will lead the next stage have gathered.
The game board has been overturned.
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