EP.479 Best Efforts, Trust, Power (4)
For a mage, the tower is a symbolic word.
Mages describe their growth as building a tower, often likening their magic to the structure of a tower. If we consider that the long-cherished aspiration of mages—the enlightenment of truth—is also the process of ascending heaven by building a tower, then the connection between mages and towers is inseparable.
Magic (魔) and tower (塔).
A tower built by accumulating one’s own magic—the Mage Tower (魔塔).
Thus, such a mage tower can truly symbolize the mage themselves. A tower built within oneself. A tower erected in one’s own manner. Such a mage tower embodies both the path walked by the mage and their life.
Thud, Boom, Thud!
So, with the revelation of all 37 towers she possesses, Raniel has laid bare her life. The 37 towers embedded in the vast wilderness stand as Raniel’s full power and her best efforts. As the shadows of the 37 towers loom over the wilderness, Raniel took slow steps forward.
Chirr!
Raniel stood atop a platinum chain connecting the towers like a spider’s web. The shadows of the towers were unaffected by the height and altitude of the stars. They merely converged as if existing in a realm unbound by providence.
“Death’s Blade, Ganikalt.”
At the center of the towers.
Where the shadows of the 37 intersect.
“Ganikalt van Galatrick.”
Looking down at Ganikalt, Raniel spoke. The moment she opened her mouth, Ganikalt’s eyes narrowed. A balance appeared between her and him.
“I stand here as both a hero and the descendant of the contract you forged in the past.”
The starlight emanating from the balance highlights the contract made in the past. Yet, the starlight does not only shine on Ganikalt. It also points to Raniel van Trias.
“Welcome the descendant of the contract.”
The descendant of the contract.
The Death’s Blade could not possibly misunderstand that statement. From within his cracked helmet, the laughter of Ganikalt van Galatrick seeped out. His laughter was light, yet it did not disperse lightly.
“Is that so?”
The ancient hero gazed upon the current hero.
“Belial, Gleria, it seems it’s now my turn.”
As he saw the old companion in the wizard who had defeated calamities one by one and approached him, Ganikalt slowly raised his sword, recalling an ashen elf.
“…I’m sorry.”
Ganikalt halted the sword he was raising.
With that statement from Raniel, Ganikalt stared at her, as if questioning the true meaning of her words.
“I wanted to provide you with a favorable conclusion as well, but given the circumstances… that has become difficult.”
Originally, it should have been Lac standing in this place, not Raniel. It was supposed to be the young man and knight who inherited the wishes of Grace, Ganikalt’s only disciple.
“Perhaps, I will face you in a way you do not wish for.”
37 towers.
In the past, just as the Goddess of Ashes cornered Ganikalt with six towers, Raniel would employ a similar tactic. Of course, the shapes and sizes of the towers held by the Goddess of Ashes and those held by Raniel are different, hence the strategies would differ as well…
“It’s unfortunate that I am not a knight in moments like this.”
Facing a proud knight, it wouldn’t be a very honorable method. Knowing this fact, Raniel smiled bitterly.
“So, I must apologize to you…”
“It doesn’t matter.”
Ganikalt cut off her words.
He moved the sword he had halted once more. The tip of the blade was now aimed at Raniel’s neck.
“I am the Death’s Blade, Ganikalt.”
Not a hero, but a calamity.
“A calamity threatening humanity, and a trial you must overcome. Therefore, there is no right or wrong means to confront such a calamity.”
The Death’s Blade, Ganikalt, declared.
“You may use everything at your disposal.”
It was something he had mentioned long ago.
“Use the starlight. Use magic. Seek the help of allies. It matters not what you use. Unleash everything you possess in this place. Do so. A calamity must be stopped by any means necessary.”
With a human’s arm gripping the sword, he spoke.
“If all of that is done of your own will.”
The First Hero asserted.
“Then all of that is right.”
“…Just like you.”
No more words were exchanged.
Raniel contained her smile and exhaled deeply. Indeed, it seemed like the words of such a proud knight. Wiping her face with one hand, she extended the other, bringing her thumb and index finger together.
Ignite.
Click.
The sound echoed.
The flame that was supposed to leap between her fingers was nowhere to be found. Instead, something entirely different responded to that spell.
…Ignite, the spell to ignite.
A spell that sets a fuse alight and creates the starting point of a massive inferno. Thus, over the years, this spell has come to signify ‘ignition’ or ‘beginning’ for mages.
Diddidi-diddidi-didididididik!
Even without flames blazing, the sound of fire burning echoed across the wilderness. The source of that sound was the 37 towers standing proudly in the wilderness. All 37 towers vibrated simultaneously, resonating with a single flame.
Kihihihihihing!
The towers began to shimmer violently as they resonated.
The light bursting forth from the towers instantly lifted the shadows that loomed over the wilderness. Thus, what was created was a space solely for Raniel van Trias.
Crick, Crack, Crickity Crack!
The space twisted around the tower planted in the ground. Twisted spaces resonated with one another. Thus, the area where the tower stood transformed into a complete star realm, untouched by starlight, shadows, or even providence.
The Mage Tower initiated.
Watching the intense light emanating from the Mage Tower, Kalt gritted his teeth and rose to his feet. Aligning his twisted bones with a crack, Kalt gulped down a potion and exhaled deeply.
“Phew…”
The place shrouded in the shadows of the 37 towers was a completely isolated space. Having heard of the true nature of those towers from Raniel, Kalt understood—albeit vaguely—what kind of space this was.
‘…The battleground of mages, their stronghold, their fortress.’
It was written in the Hound’s (하운드) education manuals.
Warnings stated never to engage mages in their space, and pages detailed how much of a troublesome and dangerous opponent they became within their own fortress.
What Raniel had just unleashed transcended that concept of the mages’ ‘fortress’.
Only those close to truth could execute such a strategy. By twisting the space surrounding the tower, she created a space of her own. The Master of the Ashen Tower, Resti, mentioned it clearly:
「To reach the divine, this is what it means?」
She said that in the space isolated from reality by the 37 towers, Raniel would become a mage who approached divinity itself. Even Resti, who had reached the realm of the superhuman, showed her disbelief at the scale of it.
“Anyway.”
Kalt chuckled and cracked his neck.
“I thought it was just a joke that you could build dozens of towers…”
Was that really true?
Staring up at the 37 towering structures almost touching the sky, Kalt licked his lips. So, if I survive here, does that mean one of those towers could be mine?
‘I must survive, definitely.’
It’s nice to have motivation after a long time.
The best motivation is said to be a reward, isn’t it? Truly, it’s just as they said. Kalt chuckled and kicked the ground, dashing toward the space where the towers stood. As he grabbed the chains that extended outside the tower with a clang, Kalt’s body was instantly pulled into the interior of the space.
*
Thousands, ten-thousands of chains connecting the towers.
As Raniel began to walk the chain spread out like a web, her initial light steps turned into a rush as she counted steps—one, two, three…
Chirr!
As the chain swayed, Raniel’s figure vanished for an instant. Her movements, layered with acceleration, became so fast that even a superhuman would find it hard to follow…
Slessh.
The single sword held by Ganikalt moved with a slow precision, precisely following Raniel. Wherever Raniel intended to go, Ganikalt’s sword was already aimed at that direction. As the chain swung wildly and Raniel swung her arm, Ganikalt also swung his sword.
However, the quiet swish that had resonated like before was absent. Instead, the sound echoing in its place was the kakkang of chains breaking.
The web-like chains turned into a net, capturing Ganikalt’s sword energy. Regardless of how they broke, they never relinquished their hold on the sword’s energy. They twisted and redirected the blade’s path into the ground.
Slash!
As the sword energy scratched the earth, raising dust, a burst of light emerged from within the dust. From that light surged a tremendous amount of mana.
Cataclysm.
Rebuild.
Graviton.
Layered higher-tier spells struck the ground. The ground began to sink, the terrain twisted, and cracks formed under the overwhelming gravitational pressure. The massive pressure sought to engulf Ganikalt, yet his blade continued to move at the same speed.
Tick, Ti-diddidi-dik.
The speed of the blade was the very same speed at which the spells tore apart. As the gravitational field surrounding Ganikalt faded away, he stood still on the trembling ground as the tip of his sword touched the earth.
But that calm wouldn’t last long.
Kihihihihihing!
The spells thought to have been torn apart began to reattach.
The spells that had been sliced away re-emerged as if time was rewinding. The layered spells incessantly shook the earth. With a boom, the ground broke forth, shaking Ganikalt’s balance.
The earth rises. The balance falters. There is nowhere for his feet to land. In that moment when Ganikalt’s body tilted over the sunken ground, the descending chains ensnared him.
Flash!
Immediately after, a blinding light overwhelmed the vicinity. Together with the flash came a deluge of heat. As Ganikalt looked to the sky while bound by the chains, there appeared suns ascending into the air. The thirty-seven suns signifying the pillars of the towers plummeted all at once.
But it wasn’t just the suns that were falling.
Highest Order, Flare.
Dozens, hundreds, thousands of rays of heat.
Highest Order, Ignis.
Thirty-seven blue lightning spears.
Highest Order, Tear.
Thirty-seven torrents of storms.
Thus, the combined three highest-order spells fell alongside the suns. Spells that take a mage in charge of a single tower a long time to weave and often require assistance to complete were typically… and simultaneously unleashed in a layered manner.
All by the hands of just one person.
The storm, the lightning spears, the rays of heat, and the suns.
A torrent of spells capable of decimating the battlefield targeted a single individual.
“…”
And Ganikalt remained unfazed before the storm of spells pouring down upon him. He lightly tightened his grip. The chains that bound him shattered. The rising ground. The trembling earth. Ganikalt lowered the tip of his sword and drew an arc toward the heavens.
Swish.
All the rising ground was sliced away.
While the severed ground attempted to reshape itself, Ganikalt had already set his foot upon the ground. With a thud, he stamped down. The earth trembled again, but… even upon that trembling ground, Ganikalt remained steadfast.
Once raised, he brought the sword down again.
The blade that had descended swept across the ground and rose once more.
Two strikes condensed within a heartbeat. The time taken for all this action was just one second. Shortly after, the swish of calm cutting sound resonated along with the kakka-kakka-kakka of chains breaking in response.
Thud!
The thirty-seven suns that were descending from the sky were all severed. The lightning spears, compressed to their limits, disintegrated into remnants. The howling storm was reduced to a gentle breeze. The torn spells could no longer hold their form and scattered away.
And that fact was known to Raniel as well.
‘No way I expected it to hit from the start.’
The mana that should have scattered began to converge in one place. Ganikalt’s sword carved through the ground toward that point where mana was accumulating. There stood Raniel, charging toward him, having broken through the chains.
Kihihihihing!
The remnants of mana created by the layered highest-order spells pulsated brightly.
Originally destined to scatter, all of those remnants were drawn together and clasped tightly by Raniel’s fist. Acceleration (Accel), and then acceleration (加速). Raniel, accumulating speed after speed, dashed toward Ganikalt with her fist clenched.
Chirr!
Raniel stomped hard on the chains.
It was a signal. Responding to the signal transmitted along the web to the towers, two of the thirty-seven towers shone brilliantly for an instant.
Flash!
With the flash, two towers, releasing all the spells embedded within them, emitted a boom before their lights were extinguished. What purpose did the spells immersed in the Mage Tower serve?
Ka-boom!
Precisely that.
Cataclysm, Graviton, Rebuild. The ground, laden with spells that shook the earth, was struck by all the spells embedded in the two towers. The accumulated spells fused into two different orders.
Reverse Gravity, and Agitation.
The ground, struck by the two spells, began to tremble uncontrollably and ultimately collapsed. The divided earth, pulled upwards by reversed gravity, churned toward the sky. Just as the ground and sky were flipped, everything within that area turned upside down. Ganikalt, who had been standing on the ground, was no exception.
Launched into the sky, Ganikalt was flung upward as Raniel dashed along the chain after him. From the very beginning, it was this very thing that had been intended by not planting his feet on the ground.
Kihihihihing!
The fist clasped tightly by Raniel gleamed brightly.
What she held in her hand was a torrent of mana far beyond her personal capacity. Mana that Raniel had long accumulated, drawn from the 37 towers.
She converts that mana into a single spell.
If this spell manifests without warning at close range, it could deal a meaningful blow. Believing so, the moment Raniel leaped toward Ganikalt over the chains.
…It should have overturned the ground.
It should have destroyed the ground that served as the axis for the knight, flipping it over and breaking his balance. He should have no ground to stand upon, and thus, his posture should have faltered.
“…!”
The moment she saw Ganikalt, flipped into the air, Raniel’s senses rang an alarm. Despite being upside down, and with nowhere to step upon, Ganikalt’s sword remained calm amidst the chaos.
The single sword held by him became the center.
That upright blade became the axis.
Whether the ground flipped or the sky and earth became entangled, the moment he held the sword… the world reconfigured around that blade. Even in a space claimed only for Raniel, that reality did not change.
Galatrick Style, Formless (無形式).
Though she was sure she was the one standing straight, in an instant, Raniel felt as if she herself was turned upside down. Everything was rearranged around Ganikalt’s sword.
Reverse Heaven (逆天).
The upturned ground and sky flipped once more.
