novelraw Chapter 63 : Chapter 63
Chapter 63 : Chapter 63
Chapter 63. Black Light (Heuk-gwang)
Sanhae Magic Tower.
A cradle for ‘Outer Arts’ such as Summoning, Necromancy, Spirit Arts, and Puppetry.
Wong Chen studied and grew up as a Mage in such a place.
The path he chose was Summoner.
A Mage who summons and commands extraterrestrial creatures or their projections.
However, as scholarly Mages often do, he paid attention not only to his own domain but also to other fields.
The field that caught his interest was Necromancy.
Scanning through introductory books on Necromancy, Wong Chen concluded that Summoning and Necromancy might intersect at some point.
‘The principle of Burnt Offering…….’
Burnt Offering.
A ritual act of offering a sacrifice and aspiring for something.
Usually, what is generated as a result of a burnt offering is calories (heat energy).
Burning a sacrifice generates heat, and sharing and consuming the sacrifice after the ritual absorbs it as calories.
However, if Necromancy intervenes in this process, the result changes drastically.
Necromancy uses mana to twist the exchange relationship between the sacrifice and calories.
In exchange for offering a sacrifice, it brings about results like an increase in mana, amplification of power, or the birth of a new curse.
Seeing this, Wong Chen thought.
‘Is it possible to offer a summoned creature as a sacrifice?’
Surprisingly, there were Summoners in the past who had this idea.
It's just that the efficiency wasn't very good.
A Summoner is a type who summons a creature to perform magic, so sacrificing such a creature didn't make sense financially.
But Wong Chen's thought was different.
What if sacrificing a summoned creature could summon a stronger one?
Or what if one could reach a higher state?
It seemed possible to develop a new magic that was sufficiently profitable.
However, he soon faced a difficulty.
No matter how much he calculated the formula, to achieve what he envisioned, he had to make even his own life force the object of the burnt offering.
Still, he did not stop his research.
Like that, after several years of research, finally.
Wong Chen developed a single formula.
[Concept Manifestation (Gaenyeom Hwanhyeon)]
Magic that overlays and manifests the characteristics or authority possessed by a summoned creature onto the space itself.
If Gyeryong's ‘digestion ability’ is manifested in space, one can forcibly digest the opponent without even swallowing them.
A technique powerful enough to guarantee victory just by hitting.
However, the most serious problem still remained unsolved.
‘This is virtually a semi-suicide skill.’
The fact that he had to consume a significant portion of his own life force remained unchanged.
However……
‘Still, if I succeed in this, I can reach a dimensionally higher state.’
Of course, as a result, his lifespan would be drastically cut.
Still, it didn't matter.
Reaching a higher state meant being able to encounter more miracles.
If he reached that point, the remaining lifespan might not even be a problem.
So Wong Chen forced [Concept Manifestation] toward Riman.
Betting his everything, to advance to the next state.
And above all, to completely crush that monster in front of his eyes.
Like that, Riman was completely swallowed into the virtual stomach.
* * *
Tzzzzzz—
Riman felt it.
His head was gradually becoming lighter.
Digestion of consciousness was proceeding rapidly.
“This f……!”
He had to break through somehow.
No, he had to at least struggle.
Fortunately, the surrounding mana concentration was still the same.
Riman quickly sucked in the surrounding mana and prepared magic again.
However—
‘…Uh?’
He couldn't use magic.
It wasn't a problem like jamming.
Because holes began to appear in the knowledge related to magic, magic itself wasn't established in his head.
“Shit, damn it……!”
Even if he sucked in and rotated mana like crazy, that was it.
Riman couldn't drag the gathered mana to magic.
Like that, he gradually sank into an endless swamp of ignorance.
Knowledge slipped away like sand in an hourglass, and eventually, even his past blurred.
Conversely, inside Wong Chen's head, all the memories and knowledge Riman held were filling up.
Wong Chen's eyes flashed with euphoria.
The magic Riman wielded was something far beyond Wong Chen's common sense.
Because he thought he could finally figure out that secret.
But that euphoria didn't last long.
“…What is this guy?”
Unexpectedly, the knowledge in Riman's head was useless to him.
It was natural.
Because the magic knowledge Riman possessed was shallow and superficial.
Even Riman didn't properly know the principles of the power he wielded.
Why all his magic emitted black color, why magic activated automatically just by going through basic processes.
Riman's power was a mystery even to Riman himself.
Therefore, there was nothing Wong Chen could gain either.
Moreover, as Riman's past flowed in, only incomprehensible information piled up.
“What is
And……
“Why does this bastard have so many names? Leman White, and Ri… Riman?”
Riman Solaris.
The moment that name floated in his mind, Wong Chen's thinking stopped.
Because the extraordinary weight that name possessed pressed down on his mind.
‘…Where did I see that name?’
Wong Chen opened the cabinets in his mind again.
Ransacking memories.
Using the unknown name Riman Solaris as a keyword, he scanned down as if searching through points in the past.
And finally, Wong Chen found it.
Back when he was still attending the Magic Tower.
The preservation archive in the library basement.
The most secluded corner of that archive, out of even the librarian's interest.
It was there.
An old notebook stuck there.
He saw the name Riman Solaris there.
And even the terrible records listed under that name.
Wong Chen unwittingly recited Riman's alias.
“Heukshin (Black God).”
That wasn't the end.
“…The Slaughterer on the Snow, the Apostle of the Beginning.”
Meaningless aliases popping out randomly.
But the person named Riman Solaris clearly stood at the intersection of these aliases.
Wong Chen slowly raised his eyes.
And looked at Riman again.
Riman, who was rolling his eyes whitely inside the closing eggshells.
A low mutter flowed from Wong Chen's mouth.
“…What did I lock up?”
His voice was trembling shallowly.
Click.
The last eggshell fitted together like a puzzle.
Like that, Riman was completely trapped in the egg.
* * *
Darkness.
Complete darkness.
Not a single point of light enters, and even hands and feet are invisible.
A place where one cannot distinguish between open and closed eyes.
Riman was there.
“…….”
And did nothing.
Silently like the darkness, just staring blankly.
The memories he held in his head had almost all drained out.
Now even his own name was blurry.
“…….”
But there were things left.
A little language ability, and instinct.
Getting used to this darkness, one emotion submerged at the bottom of instinct began to creep up.
Fear.
The fear of darkness that humanity possesses fundamentally.
It began to fill Riman's head tightly.
“…Ugh.”
Fear hinders breathing.
Difficulty in breathing promotes fear.
Truly a vicious cycle.
Riding the slide of this vicious cycle, Riman constantly slid down.
“Keuk……!”
Darkness is scary.
I want to escape this darkness, or I want to eliminate this darkness.
Fear soon evolves into longing, and longing into desire.
Following the spiral of instinct, Riman soon reaches a single desire.
Escape from darkness.
And Riman's instinct remembered what the only means to achieve that was called.
“…Light.”
The opposite term of darkness.
The only means to drive out darkness.
Riman wanted light.
Riman aspired for brightness.
He just longed for bright light to break this darkness.
He reaches out his hand.
As engraved in instinct, he sends the sucked-in mana to his fingertips.
Tz-tz-tz-tz—
Images are not needed.
Aesthetic grounding to extract meaning from the superimposition of images is not needed either.
High-level formulas to facilitate the reconstruction of mana are also not needed.
Just desire.
Desire for light.
Pure desire, infinitely uncontrolled by reason and un-commanded by intellect.
Magic blooms on that white paper.
Just as the magics performed in the beginning did.
Wishing for light.
Therefore, emitting light.
Above Riman's palm, a lump of light blooms.
Sa-a-a-a……!
It was an impossible thing.
Because all magic performed by Riman unconditionally emitted black color.
Black is the color of darkness.
And darkness and light are perfect opposites to each other.
There is no darkness where light touches, and darkness is established only by the absence of light.
Light and darkness, light and black.
A relationship where each is a perfect contradiction to the other.
Therefore, light and black cannot coexist or be compatible.
That was why Riman couldn't use Light magic until now.
‘Black light’ was a perfect contradiction in itself.
But at this moment, that very black light bloomed above Riman's hand.
Pa-at……!
The construction of magic depends on how the Mage perceives the world.
Current Riman is in a state where both reason and intellect have evaporated completely.
A perfect blank slate.
There is no control device to tighten the reins saying this phenomenon is a contradiction.
Infinitely incompetent, infinitely pure, and therefore infinitely free.
Enough to step into the realm of incomprehensible contradiction as if it were nothing.
Pa-a-a-a……!
Black light, Heuk-gwang.
The sphere of that light grows larger and larger above Riman's hand.
Black but not darkness, light but not bright.
Heuk-gwang swallows darkness, and at the same time drives darkness away.
Deu-deu-deu-deu—
Accordingly, the eggshell trapping Riman began to tremble.
Wong Chen finally began to realize that something went wrong.
“No… No……!”
But at this moment, there was nothing he could do.
Jjeo-jeok……!
Cracks began to appear on the shell.
The moment of hatching (Paran) had come again.
“No……!”
Pa-ga-gak……!
The egg breaks.
One Mage struggles to come out of the egg.
Carrying a newly conquered state, the Mage breaks the egg and comes out.
A state reachable only after being deprived of everything and thrown into the field of ignorance.
Heuk-gwang.
That finally broke the egg from the inside.
Peok!
Black light bursting out, eggshells scattering in all directions.
Only Riman stood intact in that spot.
And it wasn't just the egg that broke.
The spreading Heuk-gwang began to gnaw at the very foundation of Wong Chen's magic, [Concept Manifestation].
Eventually, the formula itself collapsed.
Naturally, the spatial severance was also restored in an instant.
Wong Chen fell into a panic just like that.
Because his final move was crushed close to perfection.
Wong Chen muttered watching the Heuk-gwang.
“Why… such a thing wasn't in your memories!”
It was natural.
Because Heuk-gwang was a state Riman obtained only after losing all memories.
No matter how much he searched the stolen memories, it was natural that he couldn't find a clue.
Jeobeok—
Riman began to walk toward Wong Chen.
Still holding a lump of Heuk-gwang in one hand.
Wong Chen tried to step back with all his might.
But in a situation where walking itself was impossible with a broken body.
Wong Chen gathered the last remaining mana at the bottom and recited a chant.
“Fallen fruit, satellite, sealed library……!”
[Weight (Gajung)] activated.
Hu-uk!
Gravity magic is auxiliary magic that can be used regardless of lineage.
Hypergravity grabbed Riman's ankle.
But that was all.
Riman countered at an almost instinctive level.
‘Dream of an astronomy student, deconstruction of the center, materialization of optical illusion.’
[Anti-gravity (Yeok-junglyeok)]
Hu-uk!
Hypergravity is neutralized in an instant.
Wong Chen, whose last move missed, shouts as if begging.
“D, Don't come!!”
There was no reason to listen to those words.
Reaching in front of Wong Chen like that, Riman thrust the Heuk-gwang into Wong Chen's lower abdomen.
As if stabbing forcefully with a dagger.
Pa-a-a-a……!
“Kue-a-a-a……!”
A flash bursting black devoured his body.
At the same time, the memories he took away began to return to Riman.