Chapter 44 – Seollang (6)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“Ice Crystal.”

At the same time he saw the massive wall of ice forming in front of him, Alon let out a deep sigh behind his blank face.

What the hell happened here?

He was seriously confused by the situation.

From Alon’s point of view, he had gone into the tower in the center of the city for a short while to hear a story. Then suddenly the whole cavern started shaking like it was about to collapse, so he rushed out.

And this was the sight waiting for him.

That was not the only thing outside his understanding.

Those two definitely seemed to have used Abyssal Cores.

Alon recalled the thick dark mana spilling from Maliam and Kalman a moment earlier.

How?

As far as he knew, Abyssal Cores did not appear at this point.

In the original progression, they only started spreading through the world after around two of the Five Great Sins had already appeared.

Their effect was to give the being that absorbed them a weak but still genuine divinity.

Psychedelia never explained by what principle they worked, so many players had suspected Abyssal Cores were just a setting introduced to balance late-game difficulty.

Because enemies who used them became overwhelmingly stronger than before.

That was why Alon found it strange that Maliam and Kalman possessed them already, but he quickly cast the thought aside.

Right now, that was not what mattered.

What mattered was breaking the situation in front of him.

He assessed it coldly.

Zero spells left.

He had already used three spells to create the field of extreme cold.

One more to shoot and kill Maliam, who had been about to kill Seollang.

And one more to protect himself against a possible surprise attack.

So Alon could no longer use magic.

Under normal circumstances, that was.

Gulp.

Without hesitation, Alon uncorked one of the bottles at his waist and drank it.

It was the top-grade mana potion Penia, vice tower master of the Blue Tower, had given him before.

This gives me one more spell. Maybe two if I can drag things out, but the barrier will vanish in twenty seconds.

After draining the potion, Alon immediately turned to Seollang lying on the ground.

Because he had spent some time secretly preparing his magic without being noticed, he had heard the rough outline of what happened.

The eyes she lifted toward him were full of emptiness, futility, and dark rage.

Looking at the bleak aura pouring from her entire body, Alon drew another potion from his waist.

It was a top-grade potion from the flood of gifts that had come to him half a year ago.

“Drink.”

Crouching down, Alon pushed the potion to Seollang’s lips and whispered.

“The ones who betrayed you are only those bastards, so don’t worry.”

“Is that… really true?”

“Yes.”

He answered clearly.

In truth, even Alon did not know how many of the Golden Mane clan had sided with Ralga.

And even if Seollang lived carelessly most of the time, a moment’s thought would have been enough for her to notice that what he was saying had no real basis.

Even so, he lied.

Because he desperately needed her help right now.

I get one chance. Until I finish preparing the spell, Seollang has to stop their attacks.

Alon’s magic took a long time to use, and he knew very well how foolish it was to expect enemies to wait patiently for that.

That was why he lied. He needed to make the grief-stricken Seollang move immediately.

“Can you hold them off until the spell is complete?”

At Alon’s question, after forcing the entire top-grade potion down her throat, Seollang staggered to her feet and nodded.

“Yes.”

Even with the top-grade potion, the poison was not fully diluted yet.

But there was no other road.

Alon decided to trust Seollang and prepare his magic.

As long as he finished the spell, handling Kalman would not be difficult.

It was true that Kalman had become stronger by absorbing an Abyssal Core.

But ironically, that also meant Alon could become stronger against him.

Because he had already placed the Constraint.

The Constraint that gave him power enough to twist the world when facing a godlike being.

“Hoo.”

The moment Alon exhaled lightly and formed a hand seal, the cold wall of ice that had been scattering frost vanished as if it had never existed.

“Ice and snow.”

He immediately spoke the next incantation.

Frost began to whip around him violently, and just as if they had been waiting for it, the assassins and the Golden Mane clansmen rushed in.

There were dozens of them.

But.

“Form.”

Even though her body still staggered, Seollang started striking down every enemy charging at them all at once. Watching her, Alon spoke the next phrase.

Then he closed his eyes and recalled what that shapeless being had said earlier.

The fools who are not even worthy of being called mages have lost the great inheritance of the past. But the original essence of magic is that a magus is one who implements the laws designated in this world.

The arrangement of magic, the incantation phrases, and even the names. All of them exist to implement the law. Only when all of it is arranged properly according to the natural order.

Can it be called magic.

“Renown of the Snowy Mountain.”

At Alon’s words, the round sphere formed between his middle and ring fingers froze over.

It did not merely freeze.

Every point he had laid out in the array to implement the spell bloomed, each one opening flower buds from six-sided plates like snowflakes unfolding.

It looks like you know only a few phrases, but you have to use sentences too. A phrase can twist the law, but a sentence is the key that opens the gate to a specific door leading closer to the law designated in this world.

Well, even the mages of this era have not lost names entirely. They have merely shortened and standardized them so severely that they lost the original words.

Apparently in this era they call this by some ridiculous name like Ice Spear.

“Blind Necessity.”

The flower buds bloomed fully.

By then, the sphere at Alon’s fingertips was no longer a simple orb. It had become a giant crystal of snow.

Crack.

And at the center of that crystal, a spear so beautiful anyone would have called it exquisite took shape before him.

But the spell’s real name was never something like Ice Spear.

“Frost Crystal Painted Halberd.”

That is its true name, the name the idiotic mages forgot.

After whispering that lowly, Alon opened his eyes.

He saw Kalman, wearing the dark gauntlet and looking stricken as he stared toward him.

He saw Seollang desperately holding him back.

Watching that, Alon tightened the hand seal he had formed and completed the implementation of the spell.

In the burning cavern, a snowfield arrived.

* * *

Riyan stared at the magic Alon had unleashed.

Usually, whenever she saw a spell, her head would start racing. She would run through simulations in her mind again and again, recalling every scrap of knowledge she possessed so she could dissect it.

But now, her mind had stopped.

She could only stare.

Everything along the path of the spear Alon fired had frozen.

Whether it was earth.

Whether it was air.

Or Kalman himself, whose heart had been pierced clean through by the spear.

Everything was frozen.

At that abnormal, and therefore beautiful, sight, the mages including Riyan could not take their eyes off it.

“Impossible….”

“Is that… really a mage?”

The mercenaries who had been filled with despair just a moment ago all stared at Alon and muttered in reverence.

Their eyes held endless respect and awe.

Naturally so.

The desperate situation had turned around dramatically because of the being standing before them.

And so, even Seollang, who had escaped the spell’s full range by the smallest margin, was staring at Alon when.

Something moved.

“Ah.”

The first one to notice it, absurdly enough, was a mercenary watching the scene.

What had moved was Ralga, who everyone had assumed was already down after taking Seollang’s blow.

“Die.”

With his right arm ruined, Ralga still raised the poison-coated dagger he had used earlier and charged in.

He was Golden Mane clan, and because the authority Seollang had distributed from the Essence had not yet been severed, he moved like a ray of light and appeared near her at the exact moment she was most off guard.

“!”

Seollang, who had assumed it was all over, realized she would not be able to block in time and tried to jerk her body backward.

But it was too late.

Her whole body was already covered in wounds from stopping Kalman and the charging enemies.

The effects of the poison still remained.

All she could do was watch the dagger race toward her heart.

Ralga’s face filled with ecstasy.

If I kill her, I can steal ownership of the Essence and escape. I can start over. Start over again.

He drove more force into the dagger.

“!?”

But Ralga’s dagger did not pierce Seollang’s heart.

Benefactor…?

Like that mercenary, Alon had also seen Ralga charge in. He reacted instinctively and reached out, pulling Seollang’s body backward.

But.

Because of that movement, Alon’s own body was naturally swept forward.

And the sideways slash of Ralga’s dagger struck him instead.

“Kuh.”

Blood burst from Alon’s mouth.

Pitch-black dead blood, obvious to anyone who saw it.

Then, right after Ralga’s last move failed and his head was smashed apart by Seollang’s furious kick.

“Count!”

Evan’s voice rang out.

* * *

In conclusion, nothing had happened to Alon.

Of course, to be precise, a dagger had struck his side.

But aside from that, really nothing had happened.

The reason was simple. It was true that Ralga’s dagger had hit Alon’s body.

But it had only barely brushed him and torn his clothes.

So he was not actually injured.

Then why had Alon, who had not really been stabbed at all, coughed up blood?

Pure mana depletion.

Even though he had prepared enough mana to cast more than one spell, the moment he used that magic, so much mana had been consumed that it had gone beyond mere depletion and actually damaged his body from the inside.

The power is definitely beyond what I expected. But I clearly need an additional item that can support the mana I’m lacking.

Even after drinking a top-grade potion, Alon rubbed at his uncomfortable insides and looked back toward the ruins growing distant.

He had not gotten to read the stone slab in the east, but since the ambush had broken out, they had decided to withdraw from the ruins for the day.

After watching the ruins recede for a long while.

Alon turned his head toward Seollang, who was staring at him.

By his original expectations, he should have been comforting her right now.

Because he knew she would become one of the future Five Great Sins, he could not afford to let her nurture any dark resolve here.

And yet, contrary to his expectations, he could not find rage or hatred in Seollang’s eyes.

Just then.

“Benefactor.”

“What is it?”

“Can I ask you something?”

“What is it?”

Seollang asked.

“Earlier, when Kalman attacked, why didn’t you dodge?”

“…When Kalman attacked?”

Alon thought for a moment, then remembered the gauntlet that had come right up in front of his face while he was using Frost Crystal Painted Halberd.

I didn’t choose not to dodge. I couldn’t.

But saying that probably would not sound very good, so he answered differently.

“Because I trusted you.”

“…Me?”

“Yes. You said you could do it.”

In truth, it was closer to Please do it for me than trust.

But at his neatly packaged answer, light slowly returned to Seollang’s eyes.

She asked another question.

“Then why did you save me when Ralga tried to kill me?”

“…Why?”

Alon could not think of any grand reason.

The person I’ve supported for years was about to die right in front of me. Isn’t it stranger to do nothing? Honestly, I never expected the dagger to reach me at all.

Just like with her last question, he thought for a moment and then this time answered exactly as he felt.

“Do I need a reason?”

“You don’t?”

“You don’t need a reason to save family.”

To Alon, Seollang had already become something like a daughter he had raised and fed for more than five years, so the answer came out naturally.

Ah.

Then he immediately realized he had made a mistake.

After spending several days with her, he had learned that family held an extremely special meaning for Seollang.

So he cautiously raised his eyes.

“But… Benefactor isn’t family. Family is blood kin.”

At Seollang’s murmur, Alon nodded, meaning to agree.

But then she continued.

“Even so… I want to become family with Benefactor.”

At those words, Alon felt his heart grow warm again.

Was this what it felt like for someone who had never been acknowledged as a father to finally be recognized as one after years had passed?

He had never experienced it himself, of course.

So, just as Alon was about to nod in satisfaction rather than simple agreement.

“But.”

Seollang suddenly moved and climbed on top of him.

She planted herself on his thighs and set both hands on his shoulders. Her eyes were brighter than ever.

Then she smiled at the bewildered Alon.

“In this state, we can’t become family. I’m Golden Mane clan and Benefactor is human. So.”

She said it with a smile.

“Let’s get married!”

“???”

Alon’s thoughts stopped.

On the other hand, Seollang’s tail was wagging more certainly than ever.