Chapter 487 – Open the Heavens
In the depths of the Great Hall, at its deepest point, appeared the Black Hour executives, each belonging to different magical branches, fire magic, black magic, and enchantment.
Among them, Carindin Lerhar was a 6th-tier high-ranking flame Magus, and in terms of sheer strength according to his realm, he was said to be within the top three even among the very first members.
'...If compared to the magic tower, that would put him at the level of the highest elder.'
Clench.
Adrian's entire body tightened.
It was an instinctive reaction.
For before him stood, as an enemy, someone equal in power to the closest aide of the Bohemirn tower master, Balrog Bessias, the very one who had torn apart his master's limbs, subjected him to torture and experiments, and led him to death.
Kwa-gwagwagwang! Kwa-gwagwang! Kwaaaaaang!
From above, crimson rain poured down, staining the vision ahead in a blood-red hue.
Quite threatening indeed.
But compared to his lord's elemental magic, it was nothing more than a drizzle.
Thud!
Adrian charged straight in.
He cut apart every approaching spell, pierced through the explosions themselves, and then kicked hard against the wall to leap.
For one who wielded qi, it was difficult to deal with a Mage raining down magic from far above in the sky, yet Adrian had long since overcome such disadvantage.
Reaching the ceiling, he burst forth with explosive force, diving straight down.
Toward Carindin and Revana, who were looking up, he unleashed his martial art.
Ranmu (Wild Dance)
Violet afterimages embroidered the air.
Dozens of sword strikes spread apart, each shooting forth in widened intervals.
Sensing they could not dodge sideways, the two executives hastily dove down, splitting east and west.
'Kill.'
Adrian landed, pushing off the ground with full force, charging at Carindin.
His form blurred.
With his characteristic deceitful speed, he closed the distance in an instant, cutting a deadly line.
Fwoooosh!
Carindin blocked the sword strike with a shield forged through Mado
The flame shield exploded.
A bright yellow blaze spewed forward, creating a hellfire inferno before him.
But it did not connect.
Somehow Adrian was already behind Carindin, his sword aimed in earnest at the man's neck.
'That speed...!'
Carindin turned his head too late, unable to defend in time.
There was no choice.
Using himself as tinder, the manifested heat burst forth from Carindin's body.
Kakakakakakang!
Adrian was blasted away, braking his momentum with the Demonic Sword, Cadence, as he lifted his chin.
From the darkness beneath Carindin's robe came a burning glare.
Adrian was projecting onto his foe the elder of the Bohemirn tower, and his eyes seethed with hatred.
Naturally, Carindin Lerhar, unaware of the deeper circumstances, did not understand the source of such killing intent aimed at him.
Just as the clash was about to resume, Revana, who had been holding her breath, activated her unique mental magic.
Freeze.
Suddenly, Adrian's left ankle was gripped by strong resistance.
It was a spell that shackled the mind to temporarily rob the body of freedom, but for one with Adrian's powerful will, this was all it could do.
But even that was enough.
"Well done, Revana."
Carindin aimed his staff.
At his center, a blazing small-scale ballista formed.
When he pulled the trigger, a massive bolt pierced forward in a straight line.
Kwoooooooom!
The blast echoed like thunder.
Simple, yet powerful enough to bring down a fortress wall.
'Hit head-on, there's no way he survives unscathed.'
Carindin believed he had secured the advantage, but...
"Quite hot, isn't it?"
Isabella was already standing in front of Adrian.
Even having released her full frost power, she could not completely block the attack, and burns covered her body, yet she appeared unfazed.
Carindin frowned.
"Molovas! To fail at even drawing away a single person's gaze, what are you doing?!"
"That is...!"
Molovas staggered closer, using corpse fragments to heal his wounds.
His critical injuries had recovered, but his outer form was still a complete mess.
"I don't understand either...! I pierced her heart, shredded her organs, yet she neither died nor even collapsed...! Look at her!"
Before their eyes, Isabella's burns began to vanish, and within less than a minute her skin had returned to its pristine state.
It was neither Mado nor the use of a magic item.
Carindin asked.
"You... are you human?"
"Would you believe me if I said yes? Besides, that one over there recovered even after losing limbs. Not very human either, wouldn't you say?"
Isabella mocked the three executives, then glanced back slightly.
"How's your opponent?"
"The name of a first-generation member suits him well."
Adrian flexed his once-bound left leg lightly.
"But I can kill him."
"If I hold off the other two?"
"I'll cut him down that much faster."
He was always prepared to give flesh to take bone.
"Heh, you may be holding on better than expected, but to declare openly that you'll kill me, such arrogance knows no bounds."
Carindin inscribed a blazing magic circle with his staff. At his side, Molovas and Revana each computed their own spells.
Adrian and Isabella were just about to move against them when—
An unforeseen event occurred.
Whoooooong!
The sound of wind echoed.
Every gaze shot upward in bewilderment.
The 49 circles, which had been moving, merged and divided, taking on a peculiar form before halting.
The most shocked of all was Carindin himself.
"Al, already...?"
Boom!
The 50th small ring, embedded at the center of the ceiling, flew down and fixed itself precisely before the device controlling the Ring of Myriad Changes.
The slowly rotating circle revealed, from within, the hidden [Hourglass of Perpetuity].
Isabella's eyes widened.
'Alpha...! What, far quicker than expected?'
Cayman had believed that Dahit and the other original members would naturally relocate the hourglass within the Ring of Myriad Changes, and indeed they had.
Thus, he had decided to trace the natural magic power embedded in the hourglass to locate it, and that was their method.
Yet less than half the allotted search time had passed, and already they had succeeded.
Perhaps that was why.
Alpha realized that the magic power in his core had been consumed far more than usual.
Forced to reveal himself, Alpha waved an arm down toward them.
[Success.]
Before anyone could say a word, he reached toward the [Hourglass of Perpetuity] with his small arm.
But then—
Fwoooosh!
[?]
Suddenly, darkness rippled around the circle where the hourglass was housed, a curtain of black flame forming.
Alpha flinched, and as his hand brushed against it, nearly half of his right arm vanished, blown away.
Carindin shook his head.
"To think such a thing was controlling the Ring of Myriad Changes. Was it something Melard and Cayman prepared? A pity indeed. We were so close to success, yet it all becomes futile."
The magic circle blocking Alpha was none other than one personally inscribed with Mado by Dahit.
'So that's why, even as the Ring of Myriad Changes moved, it only restrained passively...!'
A variable had appeared.
A thick obstruction, the power of a Transcendent, stood in the way.
As Adrian wondered what to do, Isabella, eyes fixed on the [Hourglass of Perpetuity] with her Brilliant Eyes, murmured.
"...I think it's possible."
He did not ask what she meant.
He already knew.
Adrian said.
"What do you need me to do?"
"I'll deal with that. Just hold those three off for me."
"Understood."
Adrian nodded with confidence, as though it were only natural.
Revana narrowed her eyes.
"Who sent you───"
Brilliant Eyes flashed.
The mana tumors that had been slowly growing inside Carindin, Molovas, and Revana reacted, distracting them for just a moment.
Isabella soared backward.
***
With a simple leap, she skipped the stairs and reached the platform where the Ring of Myriad Changes was controlled.
Alpha, now one-armed, awkwardly rose to greet her.
Isabella asked with concern.
"You okay?"
[Stable.]
Thankfully, Alpha seemed unharmed otherwise.
Nodding, Isabella stepped before Dahit's magic circle.
The transformed circle of Defying the Heavens glowed with golden lines, visualizing its essence.
'A flame that erases everything except the [Hourglass of Perpetuity]... worthy of a Transcendent. Not just excessive, it's downright terrifying.'
An ordinary human would die instantly at the slightest touch.
Had Alpha not possessed high resistance, he might have suffered the same fate.
'But it has a weakness.'
To Isabella's eyes, it was clear.
She knew how to extract the hourglass safely from within.
All it required was a small resolve.
Fwaaaah!
She flared open her Mado of Erosion, Brilliant Eyes flashing, pouring all her might into corroding a portion of the magic circle.
Drip.
Sticky blood ran down her face from her eyes and nose.
Her head felt like it was about to burst.
Yet she did not retreat, but stepped forward instead.
Isabella thrust her right arm, filled with every ounce of magic power, without hesitation.
Fwaaaaaaah.
"Khhuuuuup...!!!!!"
[Danger. Recommend withdrawal.]
"I'm fine, this much is nothing...!"
Her magic gradually vanished.
Soon even her living tissues began burning and scattering.
The agony was indescribable.
But her unique regenerative ability, that kept her alive even when her heart was crushed or her head destroyed, slowed the rate at which her body disintegrated.
'Yes, if it's me, I can do it.'
She poured the magic nestled in her heart into her right arm, barely bolstering her resistance.
Bit by bit.
Her hand edged closer and closer to the [Hourglass of Perpetuity].
***
From the mana tumors embedded inside, frost seeped out, yet none of the executives had died.
Their realms were too high, and the tumors grew too slowly to inflict fatal damage.
'Those eyes, I thought they were ominous... so she was secretly triggering some magical phenomenon. Not Mado, but... hm.'
Carindin melted away the frost within seconds.
Seeing Isabella's reckless act, he chuckled in disbelief.
"Heh... to throw herself into the flames of Deathflame with no hesitation. Surely she must have felt even a trace of what that power holds. Never have I seen a Magus so devoid of attachment to life."
The other executives reacted similarly.
Sssh.
Regardless, Adrian gathered his qi, readying his stance.
No words exchanged.
The weight balanced extremely forward upon his toes burst forth all at once.
An invisible speed.
Now accustomed to such movement, Carindin leapt into the air, burning everything indiscriminately without fixing a target.
Meanwhile, Molovas and Revana
Kwooooom!
Adrian, scorched as he evaded with utmost effort, narrowed his eyes.
'The black Magus is not much threat... but mental magic is troublesome. If I get caught even once, it could be fatal.'
Enduring would be a poor choice.
Forcing time to pass would only worsen the situation.
'A swift decision then.'
That was the breakthrough Adrian chose.
Gukye (Extreme Insight)
Through his Secret Art, his senses sharpened.
With perception beyond measure, he read the flows surging from every direction, and the moment he sensed the weave of magic, his sword gleamed.
Every spell within range was severed, losing shape and vanishing.
Even intangible mental magic.
Revana gasped.
"Insane, cutting through it with a sword...."
Adrian sprinted at full speed.
Without slowing, he kicked off walls, sharply changing direction.
Advancing diagonally, raising his altitude again and again.
At the same time, with every moment, countless afterimages left behind retained the same level of presence as the true body, forming a kind of clone.
The technique that had even succeeded in disturbing Verden's senses now fragmented the focus of the three executives who faced it head-on.
'First, these two.'
Adrian raised his arm.
At once, his clones mirrored the motion and swung their swords together.
Purple sword lines split the air.
Wasun (Spiral Whirl)
Kwa-gwagwagwagwagwagwagwa───!
What had numbered in the tens only months ago had, through training, increased to nearly a hundred sword strikes.
They rampaged indiscriminately, stirring a storm of blades.
"Gaaahhh?!"
"...!!"
The bony armor Molovas hastily wrapped himself with cracked apart, his skin, muscles, joints, and organs torn deep.
In an instant, his whole body was marred with wounds. He barely held onto consciousness, narrowly avoiding a fall.
Carindin had come down to the ground to respond, but he too could not block everything and was struck by several sword strikes.
Some severed strands of his hair fell, and blood ran from his shoulder where the bone showed.
"W-what... what is this...."
Naturally, Revana had been on guard, yet she was unharmed. Simply because she stood precisely outside the range of the technique.
That was Adrian's intent.
To deal with the troublesome mental Magus, the first step was to shake his mind.
And in this world, the current time was night.
"Hide your fangs, melt into shadow."
Adrian whispered the activation words of the deep-blue robe, [Shadow Spider], obtained from the secret treasury of the Tersau in the Republic of Beldirn.
In an instant, his form melted into the darkness, rendering him unidentifiable.
Revana had completely lost Adrian's position.
A clear opening.
Shhhhk!
Adrian reappeared with a piercing ambush, the Demonic Sword, Cadence, slicing across Revana's body, blood scattering.
'...? Shallower than expected.'
It seemed, as befitting a high-ranking executive, he had prepared at least one countermeasure to avoid instant death.
Of course, that did not mean the strike was shallow overall.
It was deep enough to reach bone.
"Khk...!!"
Spinning in midair, Adrian drove his heel into Revana's torso with full force, sending him flying far away.
Huff.
Adrian descended.
Twisting through threatening rotations, he aimed straight for Molovas below.
Crackkkkk!
The enemy's hastily raised right arm was severed, his left half-cut, his trapezius cleaved with it.
Just a little more force, and he could have been split clean in two.
Whirr.
But then, from below, a fiery snare shot out, binding Adrian's calf and slamming him hard into the ground.
"Kh."
A searing pain.
Springing right back up, Adrian lowered his upper body close to the ground and charged.
Catching his path, Carindin conjured a greatsword-like blaze from his staff.
Fwaaaaaah!
Their paths crossed.
"...! Kuh, kuh!!"
The thick flames flying head-on grazed Adrian's torso, the sensation of boiling organs making him grit his teeth.
His stomach acid, bubbling from the heat, surged up his throat.
"Hhhuup...."
Carindin, on the other hand, was slashed near his ribs.
His bone cracked, and heavy bleeding followed.
Clutching the wound tightly, he turned his head to finish it.
'How.'
Carindin's eyes widened.
'How can he still move when his organs should be half-cooked...?'
It was a wound one should not survive, yet he still stood, sword in hand.
No, his aura grew fiercer.
Strangely, as the battle prolonged, Adrian seemed only to grow stronger.
Then, suddenly.
Paaaaaah!
From high above radiated the pure light of natural magic.
"Phew, I nearly really died just now."
[Scanning... no fatal damage. True success.]
Isabella, willingly cutting off her right arm that burned with jet-black flame, raised the [Hourglass of Perpetuity] in her remaining left hand.
The objective was accomplished.
And the impact spread even to the two Transcendents.
***
The battle between Verden and Grand Duke Rivandale was close to a spar that resembled real combat. Neither intended to kill the other.
In fact, neither suffered more than light wounds.
But this time was different.
Most of all, both Transcendents sought extreme power.
Naturally, their magic duel was savage, rough, and utterly offensive.
Between the central research hall of the Great Hall and the second gate, the cavern of the lake was dyed in deathflame.
All was painted black.
The deep-blue bridge and the emerald lake beneath it were covered in black and white.
And it was not just color that changed.
Dahit's domain, moment by moment, erased all foreign matter.
'Just existing here could mean disappearing without a trace.'
A truly merciless unique magic. Yet Verden had no reason to restrain himself.
[Ainber]
Powered by destructive mana, this function enhanced Verden's physical abilities beyond the reach of 6th-tier enchantments.
It also constantly blocked external influences, and added the concept of "chain" to magic using Mado
Flash!
At the instant Interis struck Dahit, crimson lightning crashed down, exploding thrice in succession. Flame and thunder satellites flared together.
By consuming two satellites, the shock of thunderfire was further added.
Teab was auxiliary magic, consuming satellites of elements to add additional damage.
Its power varied depending on the mana consumed when cast.
Currently, each satellite orbiting Verden was nearly equivalent to 7th-tier.
"Impressive indeed...!"
Dahit crossed his arms, lessening the blow, then pointed at Verden with all ten fingers.
Babababababang!
Black embers rained from all directions, exploding on impact.
Forcing through the barrage, Verden crushed Dahit with sheer strength, both of them crashing into the center of the bridge.
Kuguguguk...!
Dahit held Interis's shaft with his left hand, restraining it.
The distance was close.
Both let out a gasp, extending their free hands at the same time.
Kwoooooooom!
The chained shockwave of destruction and the wave of deathflame clashed in a deadlock.
They were evenly matched.
Suddenly, Verden kicked Dahit's stomach with his foreleg, then swung Interis horizontally with all his might.
Crackkkkk!
This time, satellites of gravity and space joined Hyunroe's flow.
"Hm."
Dahit caught him with one hand.
Shoved back far, he concentrated mana into his grip.
A spell cloaked in pitch-black flame, erasing existence entirely.
The fierce battle raged on.
Dahit pushed his domain's flames to the utmost, trying to engulf his foe, while Verden consumed satellite after satellite to resist.
Yet the toll of endlessly pouring out powerful magic began burdening his mana circuits.
"...!"
Verden faltered for a moment.
Not missing the chance, Dahit gathered his power at full force.
Quinter casting.
Five meteors, forged entirely of deathflame, curved down in arcs.
Barely regaining focus, Verden unleashed a beam of lightning from Hyunroe, cutting a line.
The collision shattered the center of the bridge in shockwaves.
Tap.
Verden, shoulders heaving, barely kept balance with Interis.
He closed his right eye, resting his overstrained mystic eye.
Dahit too could not fully hide his fatigue.
But that was all.
...
The two Transcendent Mages faced each other across the broken bridge.
"Since attaining Transcendence, this is my third battle of such scale. If the world could see this sight, it would be recorded forever in history."
Dahit sounded genuinely regretful.
"But something else will do. Of course, I do not mean to offer surrender. A being that bends its will and submits cannot reach Transcendence."
He continued.
"I shall personally research your corpse, untouchable by any other. Your eyes, your heart, your mana circuits, all of it."
"Like the frozen corpse of the ancient Mage?"
"Ah, you mean the one in the central research hall? Indeed, there's no way you missed it, as it is the only passage here."
Dahit flexed his weary hands.
"Though you discovered that the ancient Mage lacked mana circuits, it seems you failed to grasp the true value of that body."
"...True value?"
"What I uncovered from that ancient Mage's corpse will overturn the entire magical world. By me. Yes, the world that follows will stem from me. None will ever forget my name."
In his dark-moon eyes surged endless madness.
"And you will be part of it. If you cannot remain forever in someone's memory, then being the foundation of that memory holds great worth as well. I promise, your remains will never be defiled."
"Sorry, but I refuse."
He had lived as a specimen, he would not die as one too.
Absolutely not.
Verden's gaze shifted downward.
'Dahit's domain has shrunk considerably. Its cost is heavy. If I seal my next magic with the fourth star, Constellation of Shackles, and seize the initiative....'
The magic duel was not yet done, so he calculated move after move ahead.
Then, the situation shifted drastically.
────!
Beyond the second gate behind Verden, natural mana surged.
There was only one meaning.
The [Hourglass of Perpetuity], containing all of Black Hour's research records, had left the Ring of Myriad Changes.
'They did it. Adrian, Isabella, Alpha.'
Dahit clicked his tongue.
"Even prepared, to still lose it, useless... no, better to say those you brought are of more use. To think they even broke through my magic circle."
But then.
"Does it matter? Whatever happens elsewhere, if you cannot escape my grasp, it is meaningless."
Indeed.
Without
"Well, best to be thorough then."
Fwooooshhhhhh!
Half of the remaining
An immense density.
There was no need to confirm. This was the prelude to a super-tier spell.
"As you know, super-tier magic is costly, so I rarely use it... but here it seems most fitting. Now, what will you do? Will you oppose with super-tier magic as well?"
Verden drew a breath.
He pondered briefly.
'If I cast the super-tier spell I completed recently, I can cancel it all out.'
He might even deal Dahit a fatal blow, turning the situation around.
It was no certainty, but the possibility was not small.
'But above all, priority is escape.'
The objective was already achieved.
So concealing his most vital card for the future battle with Dahit would increase his final chances.
Yet to leave the Great Hall, Dahit had to be suppressed.
At least kept from hindering their retreat.
Just as Verden weighed his remaining cards carefully...
'...! Yes, that possibility.'
A new idea struck.
The best option.
Nothing could be more fitting for this situation.
Boom!
After a moment's hesitation, Verden decided. Gripping his staff with both hands, he slammed it firmly against the floor.
"Open the heavens, Interis."
The low activation phrase resounded.
Interis blazed with light.
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