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〈 Chapter 331 〉 Gathering (4)
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“Are you okay, senpai?”
Do I look okay?
I wanted to snap back like that, but even speaking was a struggle. Raniel let out a hollow laugh and stood up with Kalt’s support.
Having drained all her mana, her chest ached with every breath. There wasn’t a single part of her body that wasn’t hurt from breaking through the Great Mage’s top-tier spell with nothing but her body.
‘And one of my eyes is…’
It had almost gone blind.
Healing would be necessary, but sharing senses with a unique constitution like the Watcher would be impossible again. It had been a crazy thing to begin with. If she wasn’t careful, she could have ended up as a cripple.
‘At least I shared a bit of the vision designed for the Watcher, so…’
That was something she had somewhat prepared for.
Her head throbbed, and Raniel frowned. She wanted nothing more than to lie down right away, but…
‘Still, I have to see.’
There were still things she needed to confirm with her own eyes.
She had to see them without fail.
With Kalt’s support, Raniel stepped onto the ground and then gave Kalt a gentle push on his back.
“…”
Kalt silently looked at Raniel.
She almost said something to him but ended up choking on her words, finally conveying her message with just her lips.
Get going, you brat.
Kalt nodded and walked ahead.
Raniel watched his back.
He had been supporting her for a long time. After facing countless trials together, he had risen to the level of Superhuman. The sword(?!) Kuntel had given him glimmered silver-white in the dark.
She felt a reassuring sense from that back.
It wasn’t just Kalt who had grown.
There were children around him, each in their own way, fighting against the Braver. Raniel gazed at the backs of the children she had taught.
Lac, Belnoa, Chloe, Ayla.
And Resti, who had descended from the shattered ceiling on her familiar, was also part of that procession. They had begun to stand out in just a year.
An unpredictable variable not anticipated by the Braver.
A variable created by Raniel.
Looking at their backs, Raniel smiled. Her time hadn’t been wasted. Perhaps until the day she dies, she thought she would be alone on this treacherous road, yet others had stepped in.
I taught them well.
With that thought, Raniel narrowed her eyes.
The sensory link with the Watcher had been severed long ago. The God’s eye, which pierced through and analyzed, had left her side. However, even without that eye, Raniel was certain.
Of the victory of her Disciple.
Though it was baseless intuition, Raniel had faith in it. She had no choice but to. The backs of her Disciple shone far too brightly in her eyes.
Holy (??).
The newly born stars took their steps toward the Braver, who had lived for centuries.
2.
The Braver frowned.
They were still young. They hadn’t yet reached the realm of Superhuman and were insignificant compared to the heroes who had stood against him centuries ago. They might have some outstanding points, but that was about it.
No matter how much they had been hurt by the Ashen.
Even if their bodies burned in Ashen flames.
He could win. He could trample them.
The Braver thought this way. To begin with, his calculations that they would become a danger to him were conclusions drawn with the premise that the Ashen Mage would join the fight.
Thud.
The Braver slapped his palms together.
Shadows stretched gooey between his hands. At the same time, dozens of circuits unfolded above the sky. Most of them burned away, infiltrated by the Braver’s mana, but…
Still, not all of them vanished.
That’s enough. He wasn’t awarded the title of Great Mage for decoration; hence, he utilized the remaining circuits in the most efficient manner.
“Rise.”
At the Braver’s call, shadows began to ripple.
They poured like a waterfall towards the hole opened at the top floor, and the poured shadows transformed into spears of shadow. Waves of spears created from shadows surged toward the Holy Ones.
And then, Lac and Kalt moved.
Boom.
At the exact same moment, both slammed down onto the ground. All swords(?) begin from that singular step. Lac and Kalt took the same stance, driving their weapons down with force.
Galatrick Style, First Move, Overwhelming Blow.
Grace Style, First Move, Overwhelming Blow.
Techniques with the same root burst forth simultaneously in a flash. With a crack, Lac swung the First Holy Sword. Kalt swung the sword passed down from Kuntel. The two techniques overlapped.
Whoooosh!
The incoming wave of shadow spears split apart. Mud sprayed everywhere. Following the made path, Lac and Kalt began to run.
Wriggle.
The Braver’s shadows swelled.
He continued to weave more circuits to counterattack. From the muddy ground, thorns surged and the terrain shifted as a massive spell burst forth from the completed circuits.
High-tier spell, Hellfire.
The shadows began to boil and bubble.
The temperature of the surrounding area skyrocketed instantaneously. However, Lac and Kalt did not stop their charge. They merely ran, kicking off the altered terrain. What on earth were they trusting?
What did they believe in?
It didn’t take long for the Braver to realize that. A distortion occurred in the space dominated by the Braver’s mana.
Child of the Star, Stella.
Ayla was stealing the initiative in this space, sweating cold. The mana that had been about to be completed dispersed. The Braver frowned as he tried to move the shadows, but it was all in vain.
Keening!
In an instant, the Braver tilted his head.
It was a judgment born from instinct. Right after, a platinum flash zipped past the Braver. The shadow touched by the flash crumbled as if burned.
The one blessed by the stars, Hero.
Chloe extended one hand, glaring at the Braver. Starlight began to gather in her outstretched palm. The mana that surged from her body was once again directed by Ayla.
Acceleration and Stabilization of the spell-casting.
‘…What is this?’
The Braver slammed the ground.
He tried to break free from the two knights tearing through the shadows, but it didn’t last long.
Snap, bang!
Kalt suddenly accelerated.
A space filled with walls and terrain.
That was the most familiar ground for Kalt, the Hound. He began to accelerate, kicking off the walls and obstacles. The silver-white flash entwined chaotically, approaching the Braver.
Rustle.
A shadow’s layer was cut as the flash zipped by.
Kalt landed smoothly, making a spin and letting out a short breath. The light in his eyes glimmered ominously even in the dark.
‘What the hell is this?’
Now, the Braver felt a wave of confusion.
He scattered his spells. He even tried to push with familiars. But it didn’t work. When he tried to confront them with sheer numbers…
“Arise.”
Resti’s familiars, rising by the same measure, grabbed hold of the shadows. The Ashen mana intertwined with the shadows, disrupting them.
At that moment, as attention was drawn, Kalt and Lac used the familiars as footholds and jumped repeatedly. They closed the distance in an instant.
“Concentrate.”
With a massive spell, interception was impossible.
All spells were focused on restraining the Hero accelerating from a distance.
‘What a bother.’
They were not easily defeated.
They have all risen in their own ways.
Each had their sharp facets, and when they gathered in one spot, their advantages amplified. While they had their shortcomings, they supplemented each other’s strengths.
They were already complete.
They had come to this realization. The Braver realized one fact. There was someone not in his field of vision. By the time he recognized that fact, it was already too late.
Tap.
Stepping on the rippling shadows, someone cloaked in shadows stood right beside the Braver. The Sorceress who had contracted with the Primordial God. Belnoa gripped the air with her claw transformed into a dragon’s talon.
Snap.
In the Braver’s eyes, he saw the figure of the Goddess wrapped around Belnoa’s neck. He heard her sweet voice. The Goddess smiled at the Braver.
【What are you looking down at?】
Belnoa swung the space she grasped.
【Come down, you impious one.】
The currents of wind began to shift.
In the tower where there hadn’t been a breeze, a tempest began to sweep. The raging winds intertwined shadows and entangled the floating Braver. He was dragged down below.
Crack-a-lackin!
The tempest pressed the Braver down.
Grinding his teeth, the Braver disrupted the wind and in that moment, he saw the starlight circuits that entwined all around. A circuit of starry lights that was overwhelmingly gigantic.
“This is freakin’ ridiculous.”
The Braver let out a hollow laugh.
For an instant, he tried to protect himself with his shadows, but the blazing starlight burned away the shadows. The starlight circuits unleashed spells.
Mid-tier spell, Scorching.
The shadows were squashed by the heat.
Even as a mid-tier spell, its power rivaled that of a high-tier spell, causing the Braver’s shadows to scream. The remnants of the Ashen mana remaining devoured the starlight and flared up once more.
Burning as they ignited, the Braver resisted.
He unleashed a massive spell to sacrifice the lingering grievances. Shadows laid all around leaped up, transforming into a phenomenon like a giant beast’s mouth. The spell of the defiled mud was meant to devour layers whole.
However, there was something the Braver had overlooked.
He saw it.
The boy stepping toward him, walking on fragments of stones floating in midair. In the boy’s hand was the brilliantly shining First Holy Sword.
Exhale.
The Braver’s body crouched.
He would never forget the pain of having his soul bisected by that damn sword. Shrinking back, the Braver inadvertently took a step back. He tried to escape by weaving shadows.
Whoosh!
At that moment, a passing flash cut through the shadows the Braver had woven. Kalt, who was spinning around, looked at the Braver expressionlessly as he pulled his hilt.
Clink.
Chains wrapped around the hilt dug deep into the Braver’s shadows. A brief moment of movement became sluggish. In the stretched time, the Braver saw the situation he was in.
Ka-boom!
Kaboom!
The starlight burst forth like an explosion.
A dragon’s tempest enveloped in starlight.
That tore apart the mouth of the defiled mud beast he had summoned. The mud splattered everywhere. The splattered mud incinerated, consumed by the Ashen mana intermingled with the shadows, disappearing.
The bouncing mud.
The sizzling shadows.
And amidst it all, the figure of a boy approaching him with the Holy Sword. The boy’s eyes sparkled in the darkness, drawing a red tail as he stepped on the crumbling stone floor. Lac jumped once more.
Acceleration (Accel).
Lac’s body accelerated.
Steam rose from his heated flesh.
Lac unleashed all the spells he had stacked up. His body strengthened, his fingers gripping the hilt made a crack as they broke.
Galatrick Style, Canine(?).
Grace Style, Soundless Blade.
A shapeless sword drew an eerie trajectory.
Rustle.
In an instant, a flash cleaved the area apart.
A diagonal line cut from the ceiling to the floor of the layer. That line slashed through the Braver’s body. Along the path left by the sword, starlight overflowed.
‘Familiar swordsmanship.’
The Braver let out a hollow laugh in the last moment.
It was familiar. A strike that felt all too familiar.
While its form and perfection were insignificant… its core resembled that of the First Hero, Ganikalt van Galatrick. It was ridiculous.
“…Everything is falling apart.”
Freaking Ashen.
With words resembling a skeleton, the Braver’s vision whitened immediately afterward.
3.
The layer crumbled down.
Struggling to rise from the crumbled stone floor, the Braver sought to get up, but it didn’t happen as he wished. The connection with the defiled mud he had laid out broke. Entangled in the overflowing starlight, the shadows burned away.
What was revealed was a human body.
From the gaps in the squirming shadows, the body of an old man became visible. The Braver managed to rise, but that too was only for a moment.
Snap.
Something bit at the Braver’s ankle.
Unable to stand, the Braver kneeled. When he turned around, a familiar, dog-like figure had bitten at his ankle. Then, tap, the sound of heels echoed.
The owner of the familiar approached him.
“…”
Resti Elenoa.
She halted in front of the Braver.
There was a knight who had followed her. Originally, the Braver’s summoned knight, but that knight had already had the initiative seized by Resti.
The knight knelt before Resti.
With both hands, the knight offered the sword to Resti. Ashen mana surrounded the sword she received. Resti looked down at the Braver, grasping the sword. The Braver tried to mock her but couldn’t bring himself to laugh.
The initiative wasn’t just seized from the knight. The Braver also lost his initiative to his original master. The last human, who hadn’t lost his will, raised his head.
“…Resti.”
The Elder, half-swallowed by the shadows, looked at Resti.
Resti bit her lip, gazing at the Elder.
“Yeah.”
The Elder smiled.
He didn’t say anything more.
“You’ve grown well.”
Handsomely.
Saying this, the Elder closed his eyes.
Resti, lips pressed tightly together, raised the sword.
Thud.
The sword pierced the Elder’s heart.
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