CHAPTER 149……………………………………………….
The Squinting Magician
A massive boulder floated in midair.
From within it, flames surged as if boiling from the inside.
A small sun, conjured by magic.
“W-What… is that?!”
“Move! I said move!”
“Back! Step back, you crazy…?!”
It fell over the heads of the enemies swarming into the castle.
Kwaaang—!
With a deafening roar, flames exploded in all directions, creating a massive blast.
The soldiers couldn’t even open their eyes against the searing heat spreading outward.
The falling snow melted instantly, disappearing without even leaving steam.
All that remained were charred black lumps where the lion-shaped armor had partially melted and stuck to the ground.
“D-Damn… wha… how…”
Hagen, the owner of the Quad Chain, staggered and collapsed to the ground after exhausting all the mana stored in the four engravings.
His consciousness barely clung on, blurred from the backlash of mana depletion.
“Snap out of it, commander!”
“What are you doing, looking like that?”
“Sh-Shut up… you… you guys…”
Hagen gritted his teeth and rose at the teasing voices of the magic corps soldiers.
Although he had completely expended his mana and couldn’t use magic for the time being…
“See that?! See?! Even that armor isn’t… invincible!”
He could at least boost morale.
“Kill them all!”
“!”
“!”
Encouraged by his magic and voice, the soldiers pressed the attack more aggressively.
Amidst the raining flames and arrows, the enemies who charged without a commander floundered and died helplessly.
“W-What… is that!”
Alberto’s face, which had been twisted in a manic grin, went pale.
“This… this can’t be… Ugh! Balleric! What is this bear doing?!”
“He’s probably dead.”
Saiphas, standing behind him, said in a dry voice.
“Are you saying that now?!”
Alberto turned to shout at Saiphas, only for…
“Shut up.”
“Ugh—?!”
Saiphas drove his staff into him.
“You insect.”
“Ugh… ahh…”
With a swift sideways swing, he ripped Alberto’s upper body apart.
Alberto died with a vacant expression, unable to comprehend what had happened.
“W-What… are you doing?!”
“Is an imperial mage… allowed to do this?!”
The Silverwing mercenaries nearby shouted at Saiphas, pale with shock.
Saiphas didn’t care.
He pulled the staff from the dead Alberto’s hand.
“I am allowed. But…”
“…?!”
“You are not.”
He swung the long staff, which had torn Alberto apart, toward the mercenaries.
A staff he had carried since serving as an archbishop in the Eastern Church.
It, too, was an artifact crafted by Jeras Grimm.
Simple yet powerful enchantments were engraved upon it:
.
Like a ghostly scythe that brings death, as its name implied.
Chaaak—!
The staff ruthlessly tore through the bodies of the mercenaries.
“Eek?!”
“Ugh…!”
“Mo-Monster…!”
Those who saw their comrades’ limbs and heads scattering through the air stumbled backward in horror.
“Not that way.”
Saiphas pointed the silver staff, taken from Alberto, toward the walls of Icecrown.
“Go there. If you don’t want to end up like these people.”
He tapped Alberto’s corpse in front of him.
“Now, quickly.”
His slight smile made the mercenaries even more afraid.
“If you survive, I will pay you the promised wages.”
“…?!”
“After all, mercenaries just care about the money, right?”
“Y-You’re sending us into that hellfire?”
“That’s a death sentence!”
“Do you think he could keep using that magic repeatedly? Stop whining and look carefully.”
The mercenaries glanced at each other.
Money.
For mercenaries, money was everything.
The reward for risking their lives in battle.
And, as Saiphas said, it was nearly impossible to continuously use magic of that scale.
Even seasoned Silverwing mercenaries rarely saw magic of this magnitude.
They quickly calculated their odds.
They nodded…
“Damn it…”
“Whether we die this way or that way…”
“We came for money anyway! No time to chicken out!”
Passing Saiphas, they ran toward the castle walls of Icecrown.
Though they had contracted with Alberto, it didn’t matter who paid them.
With Alberto dead, a new employer was even better.
“Let’s go! Avenge our comrades!”
“Forget that, damn it, let’s get paid!”
“Time to work, you bastards!”
The Silverwing mercenaries charged toward the walls with momentum.
Watching their backs, Saiphas scoffed.
“They’re like moths diving into the flames.”
He shook his head gently, then looked up at Sirina atop the walls.
A blatant stare.
“I have nowhere to retreat either.”
Pointing his silver staff at her, he muttered to himself.
He had already been given one chance by Jeras Grimm.
He knew well that there would be no more.
Standing on the edge of a cliff, he faced a formidable opponent in Sirina…
“If this continues, it’s disposal.”
He had no other choice.
Kiiing—! He immediately activated engraved on the silver staff, consuming mana.
Kwah-zhik—Paoong—!
A storm of lightning shot straight at Sirina.
Stronger and faster than what Alberto had used… but
“<Holy Ice, perfect spherical roof, cover and protect>.”
From the moment she sensed Saiphas, she had never let her guard down.
“.”
A perfect sphere of ice enveloped her.
Kwaaang—!
The lightning storm collided with the ice sphere and instantly vanished.
In that brief instant…
“I expected you would stop me.”
“…!”
Saiphas had already climbed the walls and gotten behind her.
“If it’s you!”
The staff that shredded the mercenaries flew at Sirina.
“!”
She stomped the ground, skipping incantation, and deployed magic.
A frozen night that had once stopped even the calamity of the East.
Padduduk—.
Though skipping the spell, it was enough to hold Saiphas, who was swinging the staff.
“I too…”
Sirina’s sharp eyes glinted, staring at the half-frozen Saiphas.
“I knew you’d come.”
With her furious gaze, sharp ice crystallized around him.
Naturally, she extended her hands and sent the ice at Saiphas.
Chaaeng—!
Breaking , Saiphas moved quickly, like a cat, shattering all the incoming ice with elegant, fluid motions.
Meanwhile…
“<Under the blazing sun, in the searing flames, exhale winter’s breath>.”
“<Thousands of snowflakes layer upon layer, frozen earth sprouts peaks>.”
“<Bloom here, O winter>.”
Sirina quickly chanted the spell.
.
Exactly beneath Saiphas’s feet.
Padduduk, ice began to freeze from that spot.
Paaang—!
In an instant, it bloomed into a gigantic ice flower.
“Haa… haa…”
Though ice magic was slow, Sirina poured immense mana to forcibly accelerate it.
She succeeded in trapping Saiphas in the giant ice flower before he could move.
He was frozen solid among the thick, layered petals.
“It’s… over…”
Sirina felt the backlash of mana for the first time.
The circle’s mana had completely drained, and more than half of the mana in her eyes was gone.
Her eyelids trembled from the unprecedented backlash…
…but she had captured him.
As she exhaled in relief…
“…?!”
Saiphas, frozen in her view, disappeared.
His presence and mana were gone.
Just like when he vanished from the East.
Sirina gritted her teeth.
Forcing her trembling eyelids open, she scanned quickly.
Before she could detect him…
Chaaak—!
Saiphas’s staff suddenly slashed her side.
“Guh?!?”
A groan escaped Sirina as she twisted her body, but a chunk of her side had been sliced off.
Pressing the wound, she felt hot blood and soft, squishy organs.
Amid dizzying pain, she patched the wound with ice.
“You dodged that… impressive.”
“H-How…?”
“Oh, this?”
“…?!”
Saiphas disappeared from view again.
Though she couldn’t detect him, she didn’t hesitate and used magic.
!
Before the ice sphere fully formed, Saiphas’s staff shattered it from behind.
Chae-aaeng—!
!
She used the shattered ice to hurl an ice spear at Saiphas.
But he swung his staff, destroying all the ice flying toward him.
“Huh… huff…”
“You’d better not overdo it, miss.”
Saiphas, keeping his distance, chuckled at her panting.
“Blocking with ice won’t heal the wound.”
“Shut… up…”
“You asked how I do this? Simple.”
Saiphas opened his squinting eyes wide.
“Having special eyes…”
Two pupils hidden beneath his eyelids suddenly flashed.
No, they weren’t pupils.
“You’re not the only one.”
“…?!”
Where pupils should have been were…
“…Artifacts?!”
“Yes. Truly Dragon’s Eyes. To recognize such precisely carved magic stones at a glance.”
His eyes were artifact prosthetics made of magical stones.
The left violet one bore , similar to teleportation but limited to the user.
The right blood-red one bore , absorbing the blood of those he killed and converting it to mana.
Thanks to this, Saiphas never ran out of mana, no matter how much magic he used.
“But this is my victory.”
Pah!
Saiphas, vanished from her view, suddenly appeared before her.
“Interesting girl.”
This time, she had no time to cast magic.
Mana was nearly empty, and the backlash delayed her reaction.
Just when she thought it was over…
Pajijik—.
“…?!”
“Wha—?!”
Blue lightning from her hand struck Saiphas, who was swinging his staff.
While his body convulsed from the shock…
“Who dares touch my disciple?”
Esric appeared.
