Chapter 39: Chapter 39
Chapter 39 - The Unwritten Rules of Mages
Crackle!
A burst of lightning exploded in front of Yuren.
Before him, a blue barrier shimmered into existence.
It was the fourth-tier spell, Magic Shield.
Thanks to his instinctive reaction, he escaped without a single injury, but it took him a moment to steady his racing heart.
’That just now... was that Elemental Bolt?’
Elemental Bolt was a third-tier spell.
It possessed greater power than Mana Shot, and its effects varied depending on the attribute infused into it, making it one of the fundamental offensive spells.
’Since the infused attribute was lightning, that would be Lightning Bolt.’
Lightning specialized in speed, striking opponents before they could react.
The attribute granted to Elemental Bolt was speed itself, making it roughly three times faster than the other elemental variants.
’It felt as though the arrow of a divine archer had been fired at me.’
Had he failed to respond instantly, he would have certainly lost a limb.
’And that’s supposed to be the magic of a Three-Circle Mage?’
Ferda had indeed reached the Third Circle, but Yuren had never underestimated him.
He possessed the Red Circle, and Red Circle holders were always exceptionally powerful when using their innate elemental affinity.
The fact that he had defeated Teshalos Wolcher while still at the First Circle was already famous.
Because of that, Yuren had regarded him as one of the strongest mages within the same level.
’I even thought he might be comparable to a Four-Circle Mage.’
But even that assessment had been far too low.
The magic Ferda wielded far surpassed anything Yuren had imagined.
’What trick is he using?’
Yuren’s eyes swept over Ferda.
For a moment, he wondered whether Ferda was secretly receiving help from some external source.
Impossible.
There was no way anyone entering the Sealed Vault would be allowed to carry magical equipment.
’Without even using a wand or staff to assist with calculations... he’s achieving that casting speed with nothing but his own mind?’
There was only one way to increase casting speed.
Relentless repetition and mastery.
But that repetition wasn’t something as simple as copying notes during one’s academy days.
Only when tracing mana pathways became as natural as breathing—so instinctive that one could cast spells while asleep—could such speed be attained.
Even Yuren himself couldn’t achieve that.
Ferda’s talent was worthy of awe.
"You look curious about what spell that was."
Ferda deliberately provoked Yuren with a relaxed tone.
"For your information, it was Elemental Bolt."
"You arrogant little brat."
Yuren’s face turned bright red.
Regardless of Ferda’s status, he was still only a mere Three-Circle Mage.
A magic circle formed in Yuren’s hand.
"Go ahead. Keep acting so cocky!"
Once a duel became a battle to the death, noble titles meant absolutely nothing.
The completed magic circle in Yuren’s hand did not disappear.
Instead, it floated in midair.
’A sustained-concentration magic circle.’
Ordinary disposable magic circles consumed all of their mana as they transformed into spells.
A sustained-concentration magic circle, however, preserved its structure, continuously drawing fresh mana while firing spell after spell.
For a Five-Circle Mage, it was a basic technique.
’It’s the same Elemental Bolt magic circle as mine.’
Judging from its structure and engraved formulas, Ferda immediately recognized it.
Just as he expected, pure white ice spikes materialized from the magic circle.
Ice Bolt.
"Let’s see you dodge this too!"
And it wasn’t firing a single shot.
It unleashed a continuous barrage.
Ferda threw himself behind a stone display pedestal to avoid the attack.
The ice bolts smashed into the white stone display case, shattering against it.
The freezing power was so intense that the relentless bombardment threatened to destroy the pedestal itself.
’As expected, sustained-concentration spells are troublesome.’
To say he wasn’t at a disadvantage would have been a lie.
The instant a tiny opening appeared in his concentration, a sinister voice crept into his ears.
—Do you require my power?
It was the temptation of demons.
Whenever people were cornered, demons appeared, demanding an outrageous price in exchange for salvation through a contract.
’They’ve noticed my talent.’
Even demons did not tempt people indiscriminately.
Of course, Ferda wasn’t shaken in the slightest.
His entire focus remained on the battle.
’Mana isn’t infinite.’
Neither his opponent nor he possessed limitless mana.
Before the stone pedestal could be destroyed, the barrage of Ice Bolts finally ceased.
Ferda immediately sprang to his feet and looked toward the floating magic circle.
There was only one way to eliminate a sustained-concentration magic circle.
’Break the opponent’s concentration.’
The moment Yuren prepared to resume his bombardment, Ferda thrust out his prepared magic circle.
"Lightning Bolt."
A lightning projectile shot straight ahead.
Its speed was extraordinary, but because of that very speed, its trajectory was perfectly predictable.
The instant Yuren read the direction of the spell, a blue barrier appeared before him.
Crackle!
Ferda’s Lightning Bolt vanished the moment it struck the Magic Shield.
Though exceptionally fast, it lacked destructive power.
’If only I could combine two attributes, I could have pierced it.’
Combining Darkness—the element with the greatest destructive force—with Lightning—the supreme element of speed.
As only a Three-Circle Mage, however, such a feat remained impossible.
’Then...’
Ferda shifted his gaze toward the magic circle.
Although Yuren had stopped supplying mana, three Ice Bolts were already flying toward Ferda.
’Magic Intercept.’
A technique that hijacked an opponent’s spell.
Ferda extended threads of mana to seize control of the three incoming ice spikes.
Though he had once been an Eighth-Circle Grand Mage, he was now only a Three-Circle Mage.
Taking control of all three high-speed projectiles was impossible.
If he abandoned one, he could capture two.
’Abandon the one furthest from the vital points.’
A cold and instantaneous decision.
The discarded Ice Bolt tore deeply into Ferda’s thigh.
His flesh split open.
Blood flowed freely.
Pain surged through his veins.
But it didn’t matter.
The two ice spikes that Yuren had created now turned their fangs upon their original master.
"I’ll return these to you."
A magic circle formed in Ferda’s hand.
The same Lightning Bolt.
However...
This Lightning Bolt was fired from directly behind the two Ice Bolts.
"Lightning Bolt."
Whoosh!
The Ice Bolts accelerated to lightning-like speed.
They pierced straight through the blue barrier Yuren had created.
Crash!
The Ice Bolts shattered apart as the blue barrier itself exploded into fragments.
Yuren’s eyes widened.
’My barrier... was destroyed?’
The sturdiness of the Ice Bolt, combined with the speed of the Lightning Bolt, had produced an impact the shield couldn’t withstand.
His shock lasted only an instant.
Then Yuren sensed death approaching.
One Ice Bolt still remained.
"Lightning Bolt."
This time, the ice spike shot directly toward the center of Yuren’s forehead.
"AAAGH!"
Yuren immediately abandoned his concentration and threw himself aside.
His sustained-concentration magic circle instantly dispersed and vanished.
Feeling adrenaline coursing through his body, Yuren slowly rose to his feet.
"Hoo... You really caught me off guard. Are you truly just a Three-Circle Mage?"
Ferda answered calmly.
"Are you such a pathetic mage that you need to ask me that directly?"
"It’s because everything you do makes it impossible to believe otherwise. Even that old Grand Mage of the Imperial Court couldn’t respond like this if he were restricted to the Third Circle."
"That old man is still one of the wisest people in this Imperial Palace."
"You speak as if you know him personally, despite never having met him."
Never met him?
That old man had been the one who stood against him until even the Emperor finally bowed his head.
As Ferda was thinking that...
Yuren reached into his robe and pulled something out.
A magical tool consisting of a wooden handle with a round crystal mounted at its tip.
A wand.
Simply channeling mana into it activated the engraved magic circle inside, automatically casting its spell.
The fact that he had drawn it carried great significance.
"So you’ve admitted defeat in terms of skill?"
"Mock me all you like. As long as I kill you, that’s all that matters!"
Mana poured into the wand.
A magic circle appeared.
Ferda quickly analyzed its structure.
’From what I can tell... it’s a fourth-tier spell.’
Exactly as he expected.
The mana within the magic circle condensed together, releasing icy white frost as it sharpened into a pointed projectile.
Its appearance resembled the Ice Bolts Yuren had fired earlier.
But it wasn’t merely another Ice Bolt.
Insight flashed within Ferda’s eyes.
’It’s packed with excessive frost energy.’
It was Frost Bomb, disguised as an Ice Bolt.
The moment it struck something or shattered...
The frozen energy sealed inside would explode outward.
Trying to dodge it carelessly, block it, or intercept it would only result in being caught by the freezing blast.
’So I have to destroy it before it reaches me.’
Ferda flicked the small sphere of mana balanced on his fingertip, sending it into the Frost Bomb.
Fwoooosh!
A cloud of freezing mist erupted like steam, instantly covering the surrounding area in ice.
Even Ferda’s mana sphere froze solid before rolling across the floor.
The spell possessed enough freezing power to immobilize mana itself.
’He saw through my Frost Bomb.’
Yuren wasn’t particularly surprised.
A mage skilled enough to use Magic Intercept would never be fooled by such a simple trick.
While Ferda dealt with the spell, Yuren began chanting another incantation.
"O Shield of the Empire!"
A magic circle formed from densely compressed mana.
It quickly took shape...
Becoming a shield.
Aegis.
A fifth-tier defensive spell.
Named after the legendary hero Aegis of old, it boasted nearly impregnable protection.
The shield would move on its own, detecting hostile magic without requiring commands from Yuren.
’A troublesome spell.’
To someone encountering it for the first time, there were few spells more annoying.
’...Or so most people would think.’
But Ferda knew it well.
The more troublesome a spell was...
The more vividly he remembered it.
So he waited.
He waited for the exact moment when Yuren became completely confident in his own magic.
’Now.’
That moment came precisely as Yuren cast Frost Bomb with his wand.
At the same instant, two spheres appeared in Ferda’s hand.
One was an ordinary Mana Shot.
The other was a Mana Bomb, compressed from a far greater amount of mana.
’No way...’
The instant Yuren saw the Mana Bomb, an overwhelming sense of dread pierced his mind.
He desperately denied the possibility.
It couldn’t be.
How could a mere Three-Circle Mage know the method for countering a fifth-tier spell?
Yet despite his disbelief...
Ferda’s spheres shot toward him.
The first projectile to arrive was the Mana Bomb.
The Aegis shield detected it and immediately moved to intercept.
BOOM!
The surrounding area was engulfed in dense mana.
At the same time, the shield’s movements suddenly became sluggish and erratic.
Yuren’s eyes widened.
’He knows how to counter Aegis?’
A mage’s battle was all about revealing one’s cards.
More often than not, a mage played a card while assuming the opponent wouldn’t know what it was.
In fact, making that assumption was only natural.
If one tried to account for every possibility—including completely abnormal situations—then no spell could ever be cast.
Yuren was now facing one of those abnormalities.
’Then the second sphere...!’
It was aimed at the Frost Bomb.
Once a spell had been cast, a mage could dismiss it through their own will.
But spells created through a wand or staff couldn’t be stopped midway.
Ferda intended to make contact with the Frost Bomb the instant it was completed and detonate it on the spot.
’Not if I can help it!’
Yuren swiftly cast Magic Shield.
A blue barrier spread out before him.
It was a defensive spell that couldn’t be pierced by a single Lightning Bolt.
The mana sphere wouldn’t be able to reach the Frost Bomb.
Once the Frost Bomb was complete, all he had to do was throw it somewhere else.
But contrary to what he expected...
The spell Ferda cast was—
’Lightning Bolt?’
The very same bolt of lightning as before.
Yuren couldn’t understand.
’It can’t break through my shield. Then why choose that spell?’
No matter how strong it was, it lacked the power to penetrate his barrier.
As Yuren searched for the answer, he finally noticed something.
Hidden against the dark background...
Something even darker clung behind Ferda’s back.
It looked like another arm.
And from near the floor, it made a throwing motion.
"Ah."
What entered his vision was the frozen mana sphere.
It had been frozen solid by the aftermath of the Frost Bomb.
It was hard enough to be used as a metal projectile.
Ferda had secretly picked it up from Yuren’s blind spot.
"Lightning Bolt."
The instant it rose into the spell’s trajectory...
Lightning shot forward.
The Lightning Bolt carried the solid block of ice with it.
Crash!
The Magic Shield shattered.
Yuren’s entire body staggered violently.
Even so, he was an experienced mage.
He never closed his eyes in front of an enemy.
Within his vision, he saw the mana sphere Ferda had been saving flying straight toward him.
’I have to find a way—!’
But by then...
The mana sphere had already touched the Frost Bomb.
Fwoooosh!
Pure white frost exploded outward.
The surrounding area instantly became a frozen wasteland.
The icy mist lingered, refusing to disperse.
’That should have killed him.’
Judging by the spell’s destructive power, Yuren dying wouldn’t have been surprising.
His defenses had already been neutralized.
Even with natural resistance to magic, no one could survive taking the freezing explosion head-on.
Yet...
Ferda didn’t lower his guard.
This was the Sealed Vault.
And the will to survive was humanity’s strongest instinct.
’Demons sometimes grant that wish.’
His concern soon became reality.
Crunch—
The figure of Yuren, now completely covered in frost, began to move.
His frozen clothes and wand shattered into countless ice fragments.
But he himself remained unharmed.
Before anyone realized it, a single book had appeared in his hand.
"Kihihihit...!"
A laughter steeped in madness echoed through the room.
"Ah... So this... this is what it feels like to obtain the power of a demon."
It was the typical voice of someone intoxicated by demonic power.
The book in his hand was Marbas’s Art of Frozen Rings.
’Marbas... the Demon of Extreme Cold and Destruction.’
One of the Seven Great Demons of Hell.
The ruler of the Frozen Hell.
A demon perfectly suited for an ice mage like Yuren.
’He made a contract with Marbas just before the explosion... and survived.’
Those who sold their souls to Marbas received the blessing to survive even the harshest cold.
Watching him, Ferda slowly sank to the floor.
He had lost too much blood.
His injured thigh no longer had the strength to support him.
Even his superhuman concentration had finally reached its limit.
"My, my... Where did all that confidence from the Regent go? Come now... let’s continue."
Yuren sneered at Ferda.
Everything had turned against him.
Then...
The malevolent presences filling the room stirred once again.
Every demonic grimoire inside the Sealed Vault trembled and began moving.
—Offer me your soul. Then I shall grant you the power to kill that insignificant creature.
—I’ll give you the power to burn the one who insulted you! Offer me your soul!
—I’ll grant you strength. Better to crawl through filth than die, wouldn’t you agree?
The whispers of countless demons swirled around Ferda.
It felt as though they were all tugging at him from different directions, each trying to claim his body.
It was proof that Ferda had truly been driven to the edge.
Ferda, who had been breathing heavily...
Finally opened his mouth.
"When you’re about to die..."
A smile appeared on his face.
Unlike the few smiles he had shown before.
This one came genuinely from his heart.
"They say the first face you see... is the face of the one you love."
Yuren frowned at Ferda’s sudden nonsense.
"And do you know whose face I see right now? Yours. Do you know what that means?"
"What kind of ridiculous crap is that? Don’t tell me you’re saying you love me."
Ferda’s blue eyes fixed upon Yuren.
They shone brilliantly as mana flowed through them.
That unwavering light was his pride.
Those eyes alone made Yuren seem pitiful.
"It means... this isn’t the day I die."
At that moment...
Yuren’s instincts screamed once more.
’I... can’t defeat this man?’
Even after making a contract with the demon Marbas...
He still couldn’t defeat him?
’That’s impossible.’
Then what had selling his soul even meant?
Even after abandoning everything in the face of death...
If he still couldn’t defeat a mere Three-Circle Mage...
Then what exactly had he become?
Just as he struggled to steady his heart...
Ferda asked,
"Do you know the unwritten rule of mages?"
The unwritten rule of mages.
Never reveal your final trump card...
Not even in the very moment of your death.
In other words...
Always keep one wildcard capable of overturning everything.
"So you’re saying you’re about to use your final spell? But you don’t have enough mana left for that."
Yuren was right.
Ferda had only enough mana remaining to cast Elemental Bolt once more.
The blood pouring from his thigh hadn’t even been stanched.
His leg had nearly lost all strength.
The one cornered...
Was clearly Ferda, not Yuren.
Ferda smiled broadly.
"Don’t jump to conclusions. When did I ever say it would be magic?"
Not magic?
At that very instant...
Yuren sensed someone’s presence behind him.
"Looks like I’m not too late."
A man’s voice suddenly echoed behind him.
Yuren turned around.
Standing there...
Was a brown-haired man dressed in a guard’s uniform.
’A guard...? Impossible.’
No ordinary guard could enter such a heavily secured place.
He was unmistakably an intruder.
Not just any intruder, either.
Someone skilled enough to break into the Sealed Vault itself.
The man moved first.
He closed the distance with astonishing agility.
’I have to respond!’
Yuren immediately began drawing a magic circle.
At that moment...
The man’s ordinary-looking eyes suddenly turned a brilliant crimson.
’What...? Why is the mana...?’
Wherever those crimson eyes looked...
The mana gathering into Yuren’s magic circle was forcibly scattered.
’No way...!’
A race he had believed extinct suddenly came to mind.
"You’re... one of the Red-Eyed Clan?!"
Also known as...
Mage Killers.
The dagger in the man’s hand pierced straight through Yuren’s throat.
"Ghk... Ghhk!"
It struck perfectly through his windpipe and artery.
Only the sound of escaping air left his mouth.
Watching from behind, Ferda spoke to the man as though greeting an old acquaintance.
"Be careful. He’s sold himself to a demon."
"I know."
The man gripped his dagger with both hands and adjusted his stance.
"As it happens... I’ve dealt with demons more than a few times myself."
Without hesitation, he pulled the dagger free...
Then swung it in a wide arc.
Yuren’s vision flipped upside down as his severed head flew through the air.
Even as consciousness lingered...
He saw Ferda.
Ferda was calmly casting Lightning Bolt toward his detached head.
"Farewell...Beast who abandoned his pride."
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