novelraw Chapter 136 : Chapter 136
Chapter 136 : Chapter 136
Chapter: 136 Devil and the Church (7)
The heart shimmered before my eyes.
The bastard was gently shaking it.
The half-eaten heart, as if it were a newborn baby, so carefully.
It was a clear temptation.
‘Is he mocking me?’
He’s offering it?
A heart addict, offering a heart he was eating?
It was a joke that wasn't even funny.
However, I couldn't sneer.
I could only endure. That was all I could do.
I swayed quietly before the bastard holding the heart.
In my mind, the sight of him devouring the heart flickered.
That form, that is why mages are called devils on the continent.
All mages carry the potential to become like that.
We can eat the hearts of our own kind, and we become addicted to our own kind.
If there are none of our kind, then even humans.
That cannibalism has no real effect, but it relieves a bit of the thirst. I had already experienced this when I tasted the bastard's blood.
‘Devil.’
Wimar had called him that.
He called all mages devils, but this was the first time his voice was laced with fear.
It meant he had never seen a real devil.
And yet he called mages devils and had been purifying them. To me, the reality of the Church was more laughable than the bastard's joke.
“You okay?”
The devil asked.
I understood but couldn't answer.
Saliva had pooled in my mouth like water. If I opened it, drool would pour out.
“Not gonna eat?”
The devil extended the heart a little, just a tiny bit.
I felt it touch my nose. It felt as if appetite was stickily dominating my mind. It was not my desire, but the sun's.
“Crazy son of a bitch.”
Just then, Ellen swung her sword.
The jet-black of Serzila. The sword of aura, which had grown a little closer to it, split the bastard in half.
Young Ellen had come to her senses before the veteran priest.
It was a sight that would normally have pleased me, but the result was not satisfactory.
The one split in half collapsed like ink with a splat and seeped into the ground. The magical beast’s heart, which had lost its palm, fell. Darkness rose from the ground, grabbed it, and dragged it underground.
“A shadow?”
Ellen muttered.
‘Manifestation.’
Before she even spoke, I too realized that the shadow was a manifestation. The magic where the Origin becomes clear. That shadow was the bastard's Origin.
Kwaang! The sword Ellen brought down shattered the ground where the shadow had spread. The shadow remained on the broken ground. A flat, black face grinned.
‘She didn’t want to cut it?’
No. She couldn't cut it.
If you want to cut it, you can cut it.
The past Elaine had said so, but in my opinion, that was because that Elaine was extraordinary.
Ellen's capabilities were still lacking.
She had only just realized her own talent.
The bastard's capabilities were greater than such an Ellen.
‘At that level...’
I can do it. I was certain.
It was an intuition I had built up as a mage. There would be aftereffects, but the magic in the Moon Orb was still sufficient.
The problem was Wimar.
Project in front of a priest? That was the same as saying I'd kill Wimar. A result Ellen would not want.
Just then, the shadow that had been mocking Ellen's series of strikes suddenly shot up.
It was darker than Ellen's aura, and on closer inspection, it was a hand. An arm stretched out like rubber and grabbed Wimar's neck.
Ttuduk. A small breaking sound came from his neck. Ellen's sword cut the stretched-out shadow arm.
‘It was cut this time.’
It wasn't that Ellen had gotten stronger. That stretched-out shadow arm was weak.
Because killing Wimar was not the goal.
Wimar, his neck bone broken, went limp.
Divine power slowly rose and fixed his neck bone, but Wimar did not wake up.
‘Unconscious.’
That was the bastard's objective.
It was an incomprehensible objective.
It was as if he had taken care of what I wanted. As if he had read my inner thoughts.
‘He's no ordinary addict.’
It was only natural that an addict would be strong.
The bastard, having calmed his withdrawal symptoms by eating a heart, was even logical.
“Is it okay now?”
The bastard's head popped out from the shadow on the ground. That face grinned.
He was right to have gotten rid of the nuisance that was Wimar.
“Thank you very much.”
I smiled back, certain.
Drool streamed from my open mouth. Blood trickled from my eyes. The bastard, with only his head sticking out of the shadow, tilted it in confusion.
As I raised my gaze, he followed and raised his head. There was a jet-black sun. The pure white flame it shed fell on his right eye.
Chiiik! The white flame that evaporated the pupil flowed into the eye socket. It worked, I sensed intuitively.
It was then that the bastard's head slipped back into the shadow. Then, the white flame that had certainly penetrated into his head fell to the ground.
It meant the bastard's head had turned into a shadow, and the white flame could not invade that shadow. Why? My calculation was wrong. And it wasn't just a calculation, but the intuition of a regressed mage.
“Oh?”
The shadow spoke. It seemed he didn't understand either. His speech was slurred, but he was clearly a brilliant mage.
“Ooh?”
The shadow pursed its lips. It was admiration.
I realized it too. The shadow had deepened. What was already dark had become even darker.
It was because of the sun, I intuited.
Mages who are not 6th Rank must consider affinities. Magic. Its ambiguity is because it conforms to the laws of nature.
‘Shadow.’
It is created by light.
The stronger the light, the darker the shadow becomes.
The sun is a source of luminescence superior to anything else.
A head peeked out from the shadow again.
He had lost his right eye, but he didn't seem to be in pain or angry. Rather, his one remaining eye shone.
“Eat this.”
The half-eaten heart was in front of his head.
It seemed like a kindness. But to me, it sounded like a provocation.
If the shadow grows stronger, then I just have to erase it in its strengthened state.
My intuition was realizing that such ambiguity was permissible.
‘Stronger than Avery Aquins.’
Hairline cracks spread across the jet-black sun.
White flames coursed through the cracks. Between the cracks, a single sunspot formed. The solar wind it generated shook the shadow.
The head that rose above the undulating shadow swayed back and forth. Just then, the white flame flowing through the cracks gathered at the sunspot.
“That will kill me.”
“Die.”
“Don’t want to.”
The shadow that swallowed the head stretched out.
It was in the shape of fleeing.
Its speed was quite remarkable.
But not faster than light. I aimed my palm at the shadow. It was the moment I was about to clench my fist tight.
“Stop.”
My intent shattered. In my hand, which had symbolized an explosion, was Ellen’s hand. Our fingers intertwined.
“Stop. It’s a waste of the orb.”
“That bastard provoked me.”
“I know. But endure it.”
My intertwined hand hurt. Ellen was squeezing it. I released the projection.
“You endured being treated like a bug, didn't you?”
“That bastard is a mage.”
It was hard for me to endure being pushed back in my own field.
“...You know, you’re like a child sometimes?”
Ellen wiped my face with her other hand. It came away stained with blood.
“I’m fiery. Not childish.”
I furrowed my brow.
I was a regressor. I couldn't tolerate being treated like a child. Especially by Ellen.
Just then.
“See you again.”
The voice echoed through the forest.
It was him.
“That fucker?”
This time, Ellen was the fiery one.
“....”
* * *
Twenty percent of the Moon Orb’s magic was consumed.
It was the price for not enduring for a moment.
‘Only half remains now.’
I smiled bitterly.
It wasn't the wrong choice. My judgment and Ellen's judgment were both correct. It was a matter of preference.
The bastard had been chasing us for over a fortnight.
There was no telling how long he would follow. He had to be eliminated when the chance arose.
However, Ellen hated me getting hurt more. It was probably because of the moon's prophecy. As long as my death was foretold, it was necessary to conserve the Moon Orb as much as possible.
“Are you mad?”
“No. It was a valid choice.”
It was only twenty percent because I stopped at the conceptualization stage.
The shadow. I had estimated that mage's level to be higher than Avery Aquins.
If the magic had been realized, the orb’s magic would have been consumed more than it was against Avery Aquins.
“It couldn't be cut. That ba... I mean, the shadow.”
Looking at her now, Ellen had an angry face.
It was anger at herself.
“He was stronger than Avery Aquins.”
“A continental mage?”
Ellen looked surprised.
“There are exceptional mages on the continent, too. They’re just in hiding. Like the leadership of the Liberation Tower.”
Of course, while I said that, I was also impressed.
A 5th Rank of the continent. That was certainly a very rare existence.
‘Shadow, huh.’
It was an Origin I had never heard of in my past life.
Even though I had regressed, I was weak on information about the continent.
‘He would be of no use.’
An Origin that grows stronger next to the sun.
That shadow is coveted. But I had to stop at just the thought.
The bastard was a severe heart addict.
He seemed to regain his reason after eating a heart, but in the end, he was no different from a bomb that could go off at any moment.
There is no reason to keep an uncontrollable mage by my side.
“Don't be too angry with yourself. As I said before...”
“That I'm special?”
“That’s right. You still have a long way to go. It’s a welcome thing. To be this strong already, when you still have so much room to grow.”
I smiled gently.
At that, Ellen's expression softened.
“Next time we meet, I’ll kill him for you.”
Ellen said something chilling with a smile.
“But the magical beast was weak.”
“Because it’s a continental magical beast.”
Magical beasts grow stronger by consuming magic.
Also, they cannot live in hiding like mages.
“But it was a magical beast that killed dozens of knights and priests?”
“Because it's the continent, and the Church.”
I answered nonchalantly.
“Didn’t I say that even if you combine the continent and the Church, the Otherworld would win?”
“Yes.”
“The continent and the Church are weak. It’s because they have no strong enemies.”
They simply regard mages as bugs and exterminate them.
Among the bugs they've caught, there are no high-Rank mages.
“On the other hand, the North has the Boundary and the Otherworld. To you, the continental magical beasts are bound to be unimpressive.”
Ellen was someone who had cut down Avery Aquins’ manifestation not long ago.
There was no way a continental magical beast would satisfy her.
“...Does that mean the North could become weak someday too?”
“Precisely.”
At Ellen's point, I widened my eyes and smiled.
I liked this sharpness that Ellen sometimes showed.
The Empire placed restrictions on the Boundary.
For now, the knights who experienced that unknown death line remained, but they were bound to disappear with the passage of time.
Someday, only knights who walk the designated search routes like machines would remain.
The 3rd Knights Commander Kalinos was an example of that.
He became a Sword Master as soon as he left the boring search path. Of course, the catalyst was special, but anyway.
The Empire was, in a sense, blocking the North's potential.
“The restrictions on the Boundary are a problem that must be solved someday.”
“....”
“You should think about it too.”
I said with a smile.
I wanted Ellen’s mind to become more complicated.
She needed to make a habit of thinking.
“Me?”
Ellen tilted her head.
Her expression had completely relaxed, as if asking when she had ever been worried.
“Why me?”
“You're from a collateral line, aren't you.”
You're the Grand Heir.
“But you’re here?”
The Elaine of my past life was smart.
The problem was she didn't use it.
I had pointed that out countless times.
-When you’re here, why should I.
Grand Heir Elaine had answered that way.
-When you’re here, why should I.
Grand Duke Elaine had answered that way.
“When you’re here, why should I do it.”
“....”
Ellen was doing it too.
“You do it for me instead.”
“Why should I.”
“I feel like I won’t have any regrets that way.”
“....”
“You’ll listen, right?”
Ellen smiled cunningly.
-If I’m told to, I have to.
I felt like I could hear the voice of the past life's Elaine.