novelraw Chapter 79 : Chapter 79
Chapter 79 : Chapter 79
Chapter 79: Psina (2)
The Origin is like all of creation.
It means that all sorts of things exist.
‘A brush.’
Psina's Origin was a brush.
Though called a brush, its form was closer to a short spear.
However, at its tip was not hair but pitch-black magic power.
It looked as if it had been thoroughly soaked in ink.
‘It's suffocating.’
Just looking at it was enough to make my head spin, such was the darkness of the magic power.
The projected sun emitted light. The ink faded slightly. The dizziness remained. The source had merely shifted from Psina to the projection.
Thus, the projection was still a burden.
The more I drew out the fire, the more it would become so.
“Wretched vessel.”
Psina sneered.
The projected sun was larger than when it had shone on Ios.
But it was smaller than when it had faced Cassion. This was because this place was not the Sanctuary of Fire.
I didn't particularly deny it.
I thought it was wretched too.
It was a meager size to be called a sun yet.
‘It's rather unfair.’
A bitch who would have died long ago in my past life.
The atmosphere trembled.
The stroke the brush had drawn upon the world stirred.
It was the stroke Psina had drawn as soon as she manifested.
‘Magic takes quite a bit of time.’
So this is the Ivory Tower.
The brush didn't seem to be an Origin suited for combat.
I couldn't ignore it. Manifestation was manifestation.
It was a short, thin stroke, but as it moved, it grew abruptly.
The stroke, now large enough to completely cover my field of vision, rushed at me like a slash.
I can't dodge it. I expected that. The projected sun was already spilling Crimson Flames. The Crimson Flames covered the stroke and they annihilated each other.
‘This is a really bad trade.’
It was a single blow, and I had simply materialized the corresponding Crimson Flames.
But just that made my vision blur. My wavering sight turned red. My nose felt wet. The aftereffects were already appearing.
In my wavering vision, Psina was drawing a stroke. It seemed more like the action of the brush than Psina's own.
“Have mercy.”
What the deified brush drew was, yet again, a stroke.
It takes time for a completed stroke to move.
The pitch-black sun spilled Crimson Flames. More, and more. The pouring stream grew thicker according to my will.
The ground melted away, creating a pit between me and Psina. Crimson Flames pooled in it like a lake.
Not enough. Blood gushed from my eyes.
The waterfall of Crimson Flames pouring into the lake grew fiercer, then was instantly bisected. A stroke had cut across it.
The lake of Crimson Flames surged. It rose like a turbulent wave and swallowed the stroke. Half the lake was gone to block a single stroke. In the meantime, Psina had already completed a new stroke.
“Truly a king.”
As she drew a new stroke next to the completed one, Psina let out a short admiration.
A projected Origin handles a manifested Origin.
In the Otherworld, it was a mere joke. But for the Sun, it was the truth.
“Your Origin is shabby.”
I said, spitting blood from my mouth.
Psina ignored me. The brush drew a few more strokes. Then, the previously completed stroke vibrated once and was shot.
I failed to react in time.
The stroke that crossed the hastily made lake of Crimson Flames bisected me.
...And scattered like smoke. A mirage. Psina's eyes, noticing it, widened slightly. Clang! A small impact was felt beside her.
“Tsk.”
Holding a sword wrapped in Crimson Flames, I was clicking my tongue. The sword could not pierce the strokes.
Seven strokes surrounded Psina.
Instead of trying again, I widened the distance.
“Wretched, and vile.”
Psina, noticing that the blood I had spilled earlier was a deception, grew enraged.
I was just as dumbfounded.
It was blood I had intentionally spilled in an exaggerated manner.
But seeing it, Psina had drawn strokes for defense, not attack.
And seven of them at that.
“You're a coward, for a 5th Rank.”
“A tongue that pierces.”
The brush pulsed like a heart.
It broke free from Psina's hand and floated on its own.
She muttered towards the brush as if in prayer.
“Have mercy.”
The brush moved on its own, drawing a stroke.
Its direction pointed at me. At that moment, the stream of Crimson Flames flowing from the pitch-black sun weakened.
The stream of blood that had started from my eyes grew thicker. Condensed Crimson Flames dyed the lake redder.
The completed stroke was shot.
Though six strokes were drawn on the world, only one was shot. Condensed Crimson Flames leaped up, devoured the stroke, and was neutralized along with it.
The brush drew another stroke. In the meantime, one of the previously completed strokes was shot again. This time too, it disappeared along with the Crimson Flames.
By then, I also let out a hollow laugh.
The intention was too obvious.
“Do you intend to keep doing that?”
“...”
Psina didn't answer.
The shot stroke consumed more Crimson Flames.
That was the fighting style of the Ivory Tower mage, Psina.
* * *
‘As expected of the Otherworld.’
With an Origin like that, to 5th Rank.
The Otherworld was indeed worthy of being known as a mage's paradise.
If it were the continent, she would have been caught and killed by the Church before she grew that strong.
Perhaps because of that, Psina was cautious.
No, she was timid.
“What are you afraid of? Me? Or fighting?”
“...”
Instead of answering, Psina shot another stroke.
Just one. Safely, one step at a time.
Thus, Psina's intention was extremely blatant and simple.
My Rank, and the blood I was spilling from the aftereffects, must have inspired her.
I coughed up blood and replenished my Crimson Flames.
The heart spewing magic power shriveled once in strain.
Thus, every time I nullified a single stroke, I shed blood. I consumed magic power.
It was because my Rank and magic power were meager compared to Psina's.
Therefore, Psina did not close the distance.
She didn't overexert herself either. Because if they wore each other down, the victor would be Psina anyway.
However, if Elaine had seen it, it was a war of attrition that would have made her die of frustration.
It was not the way a 5th Rank should treat a mere 3rd Rank.
‘Perfect in theory, just like a shut-in.’
However, I couldn't deny its certainty.
It was the reason I was constantly provoking Psina.
I couldn't see a way out.
I had to create a variable somehow.
“This is why the Ivory Tower gets treated like shit.”
As I provoked her, blood gushed out.
More than before.
It meant that the taunts, which were already ineffective, had become even more so.
The more blood I shed, the more the corners of Psina's mouth rose.
“A tongue is all you are. You will self-destruct.”
Psina seemed to be reading all of my inner thoughts.
It was an inevitable situation.
I was self-destructing from the aftereffects of the projection, and Psina was watching it from a distance.
If a 5th Rank was going to be that petty, even the regressed me had no way out.
No, actually, there was one.
The fire that had melted Cassion's dot. That was the fire of a 5th Rank.
‘The white fire is a one-time thing.’
At my current level, the white flame was my last resort.
However, that fire is slow. It's because my Rank is still meager.
So it had to be used when it was most certain.
‘Approaching is not an option.’
Seven strokes surrounded Psina.
The white flame had to be used on Psina or the brush, not those strokes.
‘Standing still is suicide.’
It's a matter of time.
If I stay like this, I'll die soon. The one at a disadvantage right now was me.
Usually, the one at a disadvantage makes a move.
‘I have to try something.’
I had no intention of dying in a place like this.
This regression is for Elaine. If I die, I must die for her.
For now, I had to survive, even if it was unsightly.
I suddenly ran.
As if she hadn't expected it, Psina's pupils widened slightly. The completed strokes could not change direction. They cut through the empty space where I had been.
The brush hastily drew a stroke.
It stopped mid-draw and drew a new one. Again, and again. The reason was clear. It was because I was constantly running around.
The speed was like that of a knight without Aura.
It wasn't a very impressive speed. But her brush repeatedly drew strokes in the innocent empty air and stopped.
‘She doesn't know how to predict.’
Looking at it this way, her lack of experience was obvious.
And...
‘Stroke.’
Literally, a stroke. A straight line.
‘You are the great stroke.’
Psina had said so.
But her Origin was a brush.
“So you were a brush that could only draw strokes.”
Even that stroke, when it was first drawn, its direction was decided.
That was why the brush kept stopping mid-stroke and drawing new ones.
“Your Origin was really shabby.”
Realizing that fact, I grinned.
“You must have been jealous of Ios.”
The Ivory Tower was originally the tower of inquiry and art.
In Psina's eyes, Ios's paintings must have been beautiful.
“Aren't you even angry? You're not qualified to be a teacher. Ios is lamenting, in hell.”
This time, it got through, I intuited.
Psina's hair floated into the air. The arc of the brush, composed of magic power, grew thicker and longer.
Such a brush slashed the air as if in a frenzy.
Its range was enormous yet detailed. Countless strokes were completed in the world.
My vision turned pitch black. Horizontal and vertical strokes overlapped, as dense as a net.
The strokes, completed like a net, were in the shape of a sphere.
The way the strokes were shot was like a balloon inflating.
However, its scale was enormous.
It seemed to sweep away everything in the vicinity. Both the air and the ground were targets of attack.
Its density, I could not find a gap.
Instead, I found what I had to do. My eyes stared directly at the black sun floating in the sky.
The projected sun resonated with the meeting eyes and disappeared.
At last, my blinking left eye was dyed pitch black.
That small, black sun was dyed even blacker.
The light surrounding its surface flared. It spewed out a wind. A wind that did not apply to the world, one that only drove out magic power.
Driving everything out is greedy.
The solar wind raged towards my front. It struck the strokes that would reach me. Erasing them completely was also greedy.
I had to leave some leeway.
The original goal was survival. Now, it was to kill that bitch.
The ground was split very finely, in the shape of a net. Such strokes reached me as well.
I gritted my teeth. It felt as if my entire body had fallen into a net made of blades.
But unlike the ground, I was not split apart. The strokes dug into my entire body and then disappeared.
One-third. No, a little deeper than that was cut.
Thanks to covering with my arms, my head and heart were intact. It was thanks to the strokes being weakened by the solar wind.
‘That was close.’
Blood gushed from my entire body.
The strokes were so dense that there was no place that didn't hurt. But my form was preserved. I still had the strength to move.
My projected left eye had burst.
But I smiled. Beyond the scattering fragments of the land and the lowered ground, Psina was bleeding.
“You overdid it.”
It was her first time bleeding. The amount was considerable. The blood flowing from her eyes hid her cheeks, and the blood from her nose and mouth covered her chin.
“You are dying.”
That was true.
But I smiled again. Because Psina had answered. It was proof that she was flustered.
“I am meager in magic power, and you are meager in experience. It shows you haven't fought.”
My eyes secretly turned to the right.
Crack, crackle. A strange sound was heard. I drowned out the sound with my voice.
“Wearing down. It is a sure-win method. But it is not a method to choose in the Boundary. Who knows what might happen.”
Because she was from the Ivory Tower, with little combat experience.
That's why Psina had waited here instead of crossing the Wall.
Praying that I, the enemy of Ios, would come to this place.
“If you're Ivory, you should have just stayed cooped up in your room like one.”
I openly mocked Psina.
And thus, I captured her attention. Her venomous gaze was fixed on me.
“...How many have you pierced with that tongue?”
“Many. Among them is the Ivory Tower Master.”
“Do not mock me, you vile man.”
I smiled with my one remaining eye.
Then I pointed to the right with my finger.
“Well now. Something is happening.”
The space was torn.
Just as Cassion had once broken through this area's alteration with his dot, the brush's stroke had split the once-severed space.
“Harad!”
A voice was heard from beyond the scar of the stroke, the torn gap.
“That's Derrick. The 1st Deputy Commander.”
There was not just one gap.
Psina had used her strokes too recklessly.
“Harad!”
“That's Pisaro. Derrick's contemporary.”
Again.
“Harad!”
“His name's Kubel, a mage of smoke, a good match with fire.”
“Harad!”
“There's a guy named Gullen.”
Crack, crackle. The sound coming from all over grew louder. The space was being torn.
It was the sound of them attacking the gaps in the space.
No matter how sturdy it is, the moment a crack appears, it becomes fragile.
Derrick and Pisaro would arrive soon.
“Have you ever fought against multiple opponents?”
“...”
Psina glared at me as if to kill me.
I staggered. My whole body, slashed as if it would break apart with a single touch. One remaining eye. My insides must be in an even worse state.
“Harad!”
The voice grew louder. No, it grew closer.
A knight of Serzila cut through the space and revealed himself. Their eyes met. Two of them.
Psina bit her lip.
I was visible. The bastard was smiling, even as he was dying.
Yes, I would die soon.
But I was still alive.
Until when?
Psina's mind grew dizzy.
She couldn't quite picture me dying.
She couldn't kill me even when I was alone, so if knights were added...
“I'm coming now!”
A rough voice roared like a battle cry.
That became the signal. Psina ran.
Stroke. The one that draws it is the brush, the arc at its end.
It is a natural principle that the arc is stronger than the trace it leaves on the world.
The distance closed. No, it was close.
Was that bastard originally this close?
“Found you!”
Another roar echoed.
It erased Psina's thoughts. She held the brush like a sword. And stabbed my heart.
Plunge. That unpleasant sensation of piercing something soft.
...That sensation was short. It only went as far as digging into the flesh. The arc of the brush stopped right in front of the heart.
How? Psina's pupils widened.
It was impossible. It wasn't a sword, but a brush. The Lord. My Origin.
“Finally caught you.”
I said, as if whispering.
At that moment, Psina saw the ring on my pinky finger. That was what had made my body stronger than steel.
“A Magical Item, tempered with my Sun.”
The King, I described as my own.
Psina could not be angry. My hand was placed over hers, which held the brush. She couldn't pull it out.
Even in that state, I still had strength left.
No, maybe I had strength left because I was in that state. I looked down at her. I was dying, yet the bastard was smiling.
“An impatient mage fails.”
My one remaining eye blazed and was dyed pitch black. It shed fire instead of blood.
...A pure white fire.
Seeing it, Psina's eyes widened.
That was not the fire of projection. It was the fire of manifestation. Not the fire of the Sun's shadow, but the fire of the Sun.
That the Sun's fire was originally white... she knew.
And so she finally realized.
I was not 3rd Rank, nor 4th Rank.
“5-5th Rank...!”
My Rank was not perfect.
That was why I had been deceiving her all along.
While dying, until the opportunity fell into my lap.
“Vile...!”
“Is there such a thing in war?”
My one remaining eye drew a smile.
The white flame flowed along that arc. It fell towards Psina's face like a tear.
Thud.