Chapter 348 - Providence (1)
Adrian dashed unhesitatingly near the ruined castle site.
Even as his view changed rapidly, his sky-blue eyes did not miss a single enemy movement.
He raised the rhythm by a half beat.
He cut hard toward the foe's opening as he sharply changed direction.
Yet again, a massive blade slipped into the path without fail.
A heavy shock thudded through his fingertips.
He bent back to shed the blade, then spun his body.
Adrian slammed a kick into the thing's head with fluid grace, then widened the distance at once.
'I felt it.'
He had put real force in.
Even with a helmet on, the impact should have reached inside.
[…]
Yet the Undead only leveled the tip of a flamberge at Adrian as if nothing had happened.
They called it a Knight of Apocalypse.
It felt like facing a solid city wall.
'A bad matchup.'
Adrian's specialty was the swift blade.
Cutting in a single breath at a speed the enemy could hardly react to, that was the essence of the swordsmanship he had built.
But this foe was a top-tier Undead.
Prodding or slashing vital points as with a human would not budge it.
On top of that, the bizarre armor protecting its whole body kept his sword strikes from biting true.
How to handle it.
It was as Adrian pondered.
[The end, returns.]
The Knight of Apocalypse drove its sword into the ground.
A chill, amaranth-hued wave swept the area, and nature began to wither.
The life of forest and earth gathered into the Knight of Apocalypse.
Its vicious momentum grew stronger and fiercer.
Boom. A tremor rolled once, and in the blink of an eye the sword fell straight down.
"…!"
A baleful sword aura shot into empty air.
With the trees turned gray, the dead ground split wide.
Adrian, having skimmed past it, narrowed his eyes.
'A power that absorbs the life around and converts it to strength.'
And it seemed the category of "life" included humans as well.
Judging by the unpleasant force that, moment by moment, tried to dig into Adrian's own body.
Resisting it wasn't hard for him, but what of ordinary soldiers. Their life force would have been stolen away in an instant.
A being that scatters endings.
Knight of Apocalypse.
He naturally understood why such a name had attached to it.
But Adrian felt no particular emotion.
"..."
His attention turned back for a moment.
Dark clouds draped the gray sky.
Thunder rumbled irregularly, and beneath it waterspouts were rising.
At their center, the presence of the one standing there was so immense it made one's skin crawl.
'Verden, this is the power my lord bears…!'
He recalled standing against him when his mind was dominated by Balrog Bessias.
It had been fierce.
Yet at that time, with Adrian's strength, he had not drawn out Verden's true skill in full.
He had not expected it to be like this.
He understood with head and heart that his lord's realm was close to a Transcendent.
Not that he had ever doubted it to begin with.
The force Verden would build, transcendence through awakening, and with that to topple the Bohemirn magic tower.
Vengeance had not even begun.
The road was long.
'All the more reason I can't be held up by a mere Undead.'
Adrian bared his full power.
Killer light flashed in his eyes, and his heels left the ground.
Zzzeo-o-ong!
[…]
At some point Adrian had already passed the Knight of Apocalypse.
The sound of the air being torn followed late.
Unable to fully guard the blow, a great scar opened on the Knight of Apocalypse's armor.
No vital points exist? It doesn't matter.
'If there's no weakness, I'll make one.'
Adrian twisted the other way and unfurled a great art.
New Moon 新月.
A violet crescent shot toward the Knight of Apocalypse.
***
Triple casting.
A crimson wall burned an entire face of the ground bare. A moment later a vast vortex swallowed him and spread flame in all directions.
Tssssss!
The heat was so intense that even stone could not endure long and melted.
Magical senses tangled by mana scattered everywhere. The rising shimmer warped his whole field of view.
'…It comes.'
Kessilus, reacting swiftly, gripped his old staff with both hands.
A defensive black magic that bestows a random mind-type curse upon contact.
Verden emerged from the flames and swung Orient without a care.
KWAJijijijik!
A shockwave laced with the gravity attribute shattered the veil.
He had expected that, yet Kessilus could not respond to the next spell.
Through the Mystic Eye, a destructive magic was unleashed that blasted away Viola's full power head-on.
───KWA-aa-aang!
Swept by a dark-azure wave, Kessilus was slammed into a crumbling castle wall.
Debris poured down over his head.
Thanks to the high-resistance robe he wore there were no wounds, but it was impossible to block the shock completely.
That brief opening.
As Verden was about to blow away the whole vicinity, an Arch Lich interposed itself.
[Base human, freeze.]
With a voice like scraping iron plate, the Arch Lich's grimoire flashed.
Within the turbulence, a vortex of killing cold arose. Meeting it, Verden hurled a massive boulder.
The rock, grinding the storm to paste, fell.
Right after the crash thundered out, the next magics collided.
Rattle-rattle-rattle.
In that time Kessilus rose to his feet.
When he lifted his head, the sight of the Arch Lich being driven back without recourse spread across his vision.
'Even after touching
Mind-type curses did not work.
And that strange eye, inscribed with some unknown magic circle, a bizarre sight that ignored the distance to magical computation.
It was exceedingly dangerous, but its ability had been grasped beforehand through the deaths of Viola and Nosa.
The problem was the immense presence formed by mana volume and realm.
'It was far, far beyond expectation.'
Within the concept of existence dwells a force that cannot be clearly defined.
Take humans, for example.
Those who have reached a realm, by revealing power alone, oppress others and shift the airflow, exerting influence outward.
This means their grade has risen as their realm ascends.
On the surface it may look similar to concentrating aura, magic power, or holy power to cow an opponent, but in truth it is wholly different.
Phenomena born of the stature of existence vary from person to person.
But the common point is clear.
It is precisely the non-coerciveness, making the opponent move of their own accord.
'The sky trembles because of Asher's existence.'
The world had reacted on its own.
The range might be narrow, but unless one is a Transcendent, it should be impossible to stir such a phenomenon…
'Don't tell me…'
Kessilus furrowed his brow.
After a brief pause in thought, he soared into the sky once more.
Even as he computed a high-tier black magic, he drew mana to himself.
***
A single Quasi-Transcendent.
An Arch Lich and Kessilus, each standing at mid and upper ranks of the Sixth Tier.
Even across the entire world, national-level forces such as these were never many, and they now clashed at full power.
The aftershocks were greater than expected.
Most of the ancient ruins had been utterly blown away, and in the gouged-out earth, frost and flame intertwined.
Verden exhaled heated breath.
'Truly troublesome.'
Undead and human.
It was his first time facing more than one Sixth-Tier mage at once.
What's more, they were slyly aiming only at his blind spots.
If one was pressed into danger, the other struck from afar.
Even with the Mystic Eye, he could not keep both within his sight, and so it was difficult to claim absolute dominance.
'So this is their countermeasure.'
No wonder they opposed the Luas Church.
Even if it drew out into a long war, he was confident, yet he had no intention of being bothered.
Eliminate one first, that was the simplest answer.
Verden struck his staff to the ground.
Kugugugugugu…!
The ground shook as mana surged out in an instant.
Soon numerous earth pillars speared into the sky and formed a tidal wave of land.
"To use a low-tier magic like
Kessilus muttered low, and at the same time he and the Arch Lich cast the same spell.
Quadra casting.
Eight black magics combined.
Life drained from the cursed land, and it departed the concept of terrain.
The great wave collapsed silently, like a toppled mountain.
The immense weight sent a massive earthquake shuddering through the ground.
Then, through the thick dust, Verden raised Orient high.
A flickering blue light, staining the sky, fell toward the earth.
"This…!"
Kessilus hastily conjured a wall of bone.
Kwa-gwa-gwang! Kwa-gwa-gwang! Kwa-gwa-gwang!
Countless bolts of lightning rained down without discrimination.
Dodging was impossible.
And each strike bore power that could not be ignored.
"…! …!"
[This, mere mortal…!]
At last the bone wall shattered, and lightning smote them.
They immediately spread
And when at last they left the range.
Verden, waiting, pointed his finger at them.
"Fall."
───Kwoong.
Suddenly strengthened gravity dragged Kessilus and the Arch Lich to the ground.
Reactions alike, all steeped in dismay.
But it was too early to be shocked.
For now both were within range.
A Sixth-Tier gravity magic, fused with spatial attribute.
A tremendous pull seized the whole surrounding space.
"…?!"
Kessilus and the Arch Lich were drawn from both sides.
Sensing they could not resist, each desperately computed a spell.
Left and right.
Judging their speed, Verden released the pull. At once he bent the trajectory of the beam of denial with mana control.
And without hesitation, hurled himself into the poisonous current.
[A pitiful choice. You will melt away—]
Ainber's first function, Sanctuary.
Its master Verden was immune to all toxins.
Passing through the magic with ease, Verden spun and swung Orient.
[Ah.]
That was the end of the Arch Lich.
Kwaaaaaaang!
The Arch Lich's head shattered to pieces.
Undead or not, it could not escape death.
Its rotting body, bereft of master, toppled, and with its robe, slowly dissolved.
Now only Kessilus remained—
"To deal with the Arch Lich in such a way. Impressive, but it was a misstep, Asher."
Kessilus's staff leveled precisely at Verden's head.
A black magic famed for its curse of infection, overwhelming speed, and piercing force.
Even the slightest mortal wound meant instant death.
To cut down the Arch Lich, Verden's balance leaned forward.
Indeed, like this, evasion was impossible.
That is, if he had not pioneered infinite Mado.
Verden's body transformed into light.
Countless branches of blue lightning scattered and then gathered again.
And then.
Kwa-jik.
The spear of mana pierced straight through Kessilus's center, from his back.
"Keugh?!"
He coughed blood.
But Verden did not stop.
He struck with his staff, splitting head and torso in half.
Then a small gravity sphere burst, blasting Kessilus with its shockwave.
Flames all around surged up, blanketing the sky.
Rain of extreme heat.
Hellfire fell.
The raging blaze melted the land.
The body of the Fourth Servant, fallen powerless, sizzled in the flames.
...
After a time, the fire died.
Half-split, burned remains clung to the wall.
A mortal wound enough to confirm death.
But Verden's peculiar intuition whispered.
The foe still lived.
Verden, staring coldly at Kessilus, spoke low.
"Not dying, that is your Mado?"
A silence fell.
The fingers of Kessilus, a corpse in all but name, twitched.
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