Chapter 102 – Cold Victory

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The eternal snow is melting.

The fading coldness.

The severe pain that is slowly felt.

Senios could intuit it.

‘Does it mean it cannot be overcome in the end?’

What is the purpose of life?

If someone were to ask.

Senios could answer that it was the proof of strength.

Even looking back on himself, it was a truly simple and ignorant life.

To think he would meet such an end because he could not cast aside his lingering attachments even after becoming an old man.

‘But it wasn’t too bad. Right.’

Extreme counterpart.

Fire Dragon, Karimzeva, and his own Ice Magic had a relation of extreme opposites.

At this moment, as you can see.

Craaaack!

Senios’s esoteric magic being manifested.

Countless icicles fall from the sky.

Everything that touches each and every icicle freezes in an instant.

Among the magic that Senios could manifest.

The magic that possessed the highest lethality.

“Useless act.”

Fwoosh!

However, the icicles did not reach Karimzeva.

It probably meant that even Eternal Snow could not freeze flames.

The icicles that came into contact with Karimzeva’s flames scattered magic power and scattered into the air.

“Hahaha…….”

Suddenly, Senios spat out a laugh.

Karimzeva became puzzled.

The magic power that was overflowing to the point where it couldn’t be controlled also calmed down.

Even he himself should have realized that there was no chance of winning.

“Have you finally lost your mind, Senios?”

Why are you laughing.

“Still, for the worst compatibility, wasn’t it quite decent?”

“What did you say?”

“I never had the thought of defeating you from the beginning. Karimzeva.”

Senios suddenly recalled the past.

Before opening his eyes.

That is, after entering the Mage Tower.

Even up until the time he was active as a Senior Mage.

-“My goal? It is to freeze flames.”

Senios believed in Ice Magic without a doubt.

Just like the current Senior Mages, he thought his magic was the best. However, time passed. He opened his eyes properly. When he became able to look at the realm of magic.

-“Limits can’t be helped.”

Senios ended up admitting it.

That limits exist in all magic.

And his Ice Magic was also not an exception.

However.

“Isn’t overcoming those limits also the task of life?”

Because he knew the limit.

He did not even think he could defeat the guy, Karimzeva, from the beginning.

Even if he thought about dying together with the guy.

Senios sneered.

“Flame and freezing. If I overcome the worst compatibility and achieve a draw. Wouldn’t the evaluation of future generations be higher for me, Karimzeva? How is it, don’t you think so too?”

Sounding like a draw.

“You have lost your mind.”

Karimzeva felt madness from Senios.

And clicked his tongue.

“What can you do when even your heart is stopping?”

“Hahaha. My heart is not stopping. I am adjusting the speed at which my heart beats. Did you not even know that? Exploration of magic is an important thing, Karimzeva. It seems you neglected this from being too engrossed in the truth.”

“……!”

His heart was not stopping.

He was adjusting the beating speed?

At the meaningful words, Karimzeva looked around.

……No, no strange points were seen.

Drip, drop

The ice wings that were wrapping around Senios had melted a long time ago.

Even the streams of water that were surging from the ground were being turned into water vapor by his hellfire. Right, if he had to point out one thing. The slight chill that could be felt…….

‘Wait, a chill can be felt?’

It didn’t make sense.

Because wasn’t he wrapping his body with flames?

Is it an illusion of the physical body?

Even as he thought that.

“!”

It wasn’t.

Hooook!

White breath was really spewing out from his mouth.

Karimzeva frowned his forehead.

“It is a bullshit trick until the very end. Senios.”

Those words are a little disappointing.

Senios let out a snicker.

Hoo

White breath also spewed out from the corners of his laughing mouth.

“You are ruthless indeed. Bullshit trick, you say. This is a magic that Senios of Eternal Snow manifested solely for Fire Dragon, Karimzeva. Only for you. Cannot you consider my sincerity?”

Stepping up to the realm.

And when he devised this magic.

-“I am truly rotten.”

Senios thought like that and clicked his tongue.

-“Will a day ever come to use something like this?”

The Mage Tower he entered chasing Karimzeva.

However, he unknowingly ended up rising to the position of an Elder Mage like Karimzeva.

Even while knowing that they couldn’t settle the score with each other. To think he would make such a meaningless magic.

“But who would have known? That a day like this would come.”

That is why he didn’t even attach a name to the magic but.

“If I knew this would happen, I would have at least attached a plausible name.”

Karimzeva.

Because he came to know the fact that you were deceiving him.

The Mage Tower.

And the Tower Master.

Therefore, there was no hesitation.

Senios was able to manifest his final magic.

“What do you think is the essence of Ice Magic?”

Hooook!

The chill that does not go away.

At the unpleasantness, Karimzeva did not retort.

However, Senios immediately continued his words.

“Some say it is beauty. Because the figure of ice reflecting light is also as colorful as a jewel. However, they are wrong. Because the essence of Ice Magic lies in coldness.”

Hooook!

Hoooooook!

Karimzeva repeatedly clenched and opened his stiffening hand.

Both his movements and breathing became increasingly rapid.

‘Listening to this ends here.’

Karimzeva did not stay still anymore.

Although he couldn’t know what kind of magic the guy, Senios, manifested.

He couldn’t play along to his tune.

Fwoosh!

Karimzeva manifested flames.

He flapped his wings of flame towards Senios.

And he witnessed.

‘……What?!’

An unbelievable spectacle.

The extending flames looked far too slow.

‘What is it, has the flow of time slowed down?’

No, that wasn’t it.

Because Senios’s sneering mouth remained the same.

“How is the chill that freezes even the senses, Karimzeva. The moment you realized it, your physical body and internal organs will already be half-frozen.”

Karimzeva did not believe it.

Because he did not give him the gap to manifest magic of that level.

Hooooooook!

However, as if to say it wasn’t a lie.

Neither his body nor the flames listened to him.

Karimzeva racked his brain.

‘Just when did he cast such magic.’

Without even me realizing it……?

And soon, just like himself.

Looking at Senios spewing out white breath, he realized.

‘……It is his breath!’

He had cooled the air I breathe in.

As a result of cooling the air in the area without distinction.

The guy’s physical body is also freezing.

Then how is it that the guy can chatter at a perfectly fine speed?

“Didn’t I say it? I am not stopping, but adjusting.”

The chill that makes even the senses freeze.

Thump-thump-thump-thump…….

Senios’s heart was beating in time with that frozen sensation.

Senios counted numbers while looking at Karimzeva, who couldn’t even answer.

‘Even if it is just 1 second.’

If he could hold out longer than Karimzeva.

He could put the Fire Dragon to sleep under the eternal snow that does not melt.

‘Of course, regardless of the result, I will be frozen by the chill but.’

Right, just as expected.

Even at best, it would mean a draw.

‘Well, if it is a draw by sacrificing the life of a rotten old man.’

Wouldn’t it still be a not-too-bad trade?

And that would be his atonement to the Mage Tower.

Senios wore a smile.

‘Even if I was rotten, it was quite a decent life. Right.’

However, the Fire Dragon was not easy to deal with.

“To think you would put your life on the line. It is unexpected.”

“……!”

Karimzeva was spitting out words perfectly fine.

Even though his physical body should be more than half-frozen already?

Startled, Senios looked at Karimzeva.

Flames spewed out from his mouth.

“However, putting my life on the line is the same for me.”

……He swallowed flames.

So that’s how he melted his frozen physical body, his organs.

Senios spat out a hollow laugh.

“Damn it.”

He wasn’t called the Fire Dragon for nothing.

To swallow fire whole to melt his frozen organs.

Even making such a judgment was a phenomenal thing but.

To casually spit out words even after doing such a thing.

‘Does it mean you won’t even allow a draw.’

Does it mean limits cannot be overcome no matter what?

‘Damn it.’

His eyes are slowly closing.

His senses are becoming dull.

It was the moment Senios gritted his teeth.

Step

There was the sound of shoes stepping on the frozen ground.

“Senios. Your magic was excellent.”

There was a voice calling him.

“However, the interference process was a pity.”

And a voice pointing out his flaws.

Senios barely answered.

“……Is that so?”

He could know who it was even without deliberately checking.

Because Senios knew the owner of this bold voice.

Right, it was Chief Lee Ho-yeol.

“In order to overcome limits, a new concept is needed.”

His figure confidently stepping forward in front of Karimzeva.

Right, there was a memory of seeing that back as well.

During the regular conference, pointing out Senior Mage Bangrit Tom’s presentation.

It was a consistently straight posture just like that time.

“The search that the essence of Ice Magic is in cooling was excellent. However, a pity exists in the interference process. If you cool the target, indeed, up to where must you cool it. Because an abstract interference without limits like now will only be followed by an inefficient manifestation.”

Karimzeva’s flames flickered.

‘How dare a kid chatter about anything.’

Wasn’t that sight no different from giving a lecture with him placed in front?

If it were up to his feelings, he wanted to burn that arrogant guy right this instant but.

The senses of his physical body were not yet fully intact.

Because a physical body that repeated freezing and burning could not be perfectly fine.

However.

‘Senios is practically finished.’

Dealing with an adventurer kid left alone was nothing.

It is sufficiently possible even with a not fully intact physical body.

Karimzeva thought so and opened his mouth.

“I will definitely kill you.”

However, Ho-yeol’s lecture continued.

It continued without caring about Karimzeva’s shout.

Senios could know the reason for that.

‘He is being considerate of an old man. Right.’

He knows that he does not have much breath left.

That is why he must be hurrying to finish his words.

Senios focused on Ho-yeol’s words.

“If you had set the goal concretely in the interference process, a more effective manifestation would have been possible. But even if you did. You probably wouldn’t have been able to overcome the compatibility of magic. However, if it’s not magic but an [『Anomaly』], the story changes.”

[『Anomaly』]……?

To understand that concept immediately.

Was an impossible task even for the two Elder Mages.

That means a demonstration is needed.

Of course, Karimzeva was not going to quietly watch that sight.

‘……Done.’

His senses returned.

He would immediately turn the kid fellow into…….

“In the interference process, add a [Concept] that is fundamentally different from 『Magic』.”

Craaaack!

“?!”

In an instant, Karimzeva’s physical body stopped moving altogether.

Karimzeva could intuit it.

That it was on a different dimension from Senios’s magic.

‘I cannot resist……?!’

If Senios’s magic stopped at breaking down the senses of the physical body, this really felt like his physical body had stopped. Even the flow of magic power……!

“What did you do to me……!”

It was something he could not understand.

Magic that even makes the flow of magic power stop.

Karimzeva racked his brain as expected.

‘There will be a clue to overcome this magic inside his words.’

Just like how he saw through Senios’s magic.

But no matter how much he chewed over Ho-yeol’s words.

The conclusion was one.

“Right. That is exactly [『Anomaly』].”

That this was not magic but an [『Anomaly』].

“It is the manifestation of an anomaly that cooled the target of interference up to a concrete goal, Absolute Zero.”

Absolute Zero.

Although he could not know what that meant.

One thing was sure.

Senios quietly opened his mouth.

“Absolute Zero, let’s go with that name for the magic. The resonance is good.”

In his blurring vision.

Senios raised his head.

‘I worried pointlessly. Right.’

Chief Lee Ho-yeol.

Wasn’t he the man Marcelo acknowledged?

Senios knew with what feelings Marcelo recommended Ho-yeol.

So he had no more lingering attachments.

‘The one lacking isn’t Ice Magic, but me.’

As you can see, isn’t he helpless against the anomaly Ho-yeol manifested?

Not to mention the flames, he completely froze the Fire Dragon just like that.

Senios continued his words.

“Although you will do much better than me.”

That was the first and last grandmotherly anxiety of a rotten Elder.

“Nevertheless, I ask you to take good care of the Mage Tower. Chief Lee Ho-yeol.”

He added one word with a smile.

“The final lecture of my life was wonderfully excellent.”

.

.

.

Senios died.

Karimzeva looked at Ho-yeol.

‘……How did he deal with me?’

He still could not understand.

The felt magic power was at a terrible level compared to not only himself, but Senios as well.

The doubt does not disappear. Come to think of it, he could not understand from the beginning.

‘He was completely fine even in my flames.’

No, on top of that, the guy was definitely dealing with demons. Karimzeva knew well what kind of tribe demons were.

Putting aside strength, those who come into contact with demons have their mental power devastated.

‘It means he shouldn’t be fully intact.’

Just like how the Elder Mages had been swayed by them until now.

However, Ho-yeol was completely fine.

No, going beyond that, he was composed.

To the point of chattering endlessly about the structure of magic.

‘Wait.’

At that moment, Karimzeva felt a sense of incongruity.

‘How did the guy recognize a possessed Acampatam?’

Unless one is a demon worshipper like himself.

It is close to impossible to realize a demon possessing something.

And an absurdly low magic power for a mage……. A ‘could it be’ thought passed through his head.

“……Could it be, are you a Demon Hunter?”

Step

At those words, Ho-yeol turned his back and looked at him.

Karimzeva was certain.

That’s right, this guy is a Demon Hunter.

Karimzeva racked his brain.

‘Maybe…….’

He might be able to escape.

From this damn magic. No, from this so-called anomaly.

Karimzeva opened his mouth.

“Demon Hunter. What I want is to witness the true truth. True truth! Demons are nothing but a means. Wouldn’t you know? That what the Arcana continent needs is the true truth!”

Right, if it were none other than a Demon Hunter.

He would have no choice but to understand the true truth.

Karimzeva thought like that and spoke.

By the way.

‘……Why?’

There wasn’t the slightest change in Ho-yeol’s expression.

His cold gaze was as if a chill had settled in it.

If he was a Demon Hunter.

Thinking about Akshan’s end.

He definitely shouldn’t be able to show such a reaction.

Karimzeva couldn’t believe it and opened his mouth.

“……By any chance, do you not know the truth behind the ‘Holy War’?”

.

.

.

Holy War.

What is that.

Is it something that happened during the days when Arcana was a game?

Whatever it was, naturally, it is an incident I do not know about.

Because there was a blank of ten years and then several more years for me.

Karimzeva babbled on.

“If you release me, I will tell you everything. About the Holy War and about the true truth! If it is you, a Demon Hunter, you will definitely be able to fathom my intentions. I swear on the name of Fire Dragon, Karimzeva!”

I could intuit it.

Holy War, that must be Demon Hunter.

And a matter related to Akshan.

However, I did not answer.

At this moment, to me.

Because to Granfel, Karimzeva was no different from a demon.

I told you didn’t I.

Because I did not converse with prey.

True truth my ass. What kind of truth makes a mess of the world on top of having to resurrect the Demon King. Of course, there was no reason to hesitate at such baits like Holy War.

Holy War.

The moment Karimzeva brought up that word from his mouth.

Because a message popped up.

[Class Quest : Extermination of Akshan]

Right.

So I immediately manifested magic.

No, [『Anomaly』].

Absolute Zero.

The extreme temperature where even molecules stop their movements.

“I……!!”

Soon, Karimzeva with whom pride couldn’t be found anywhere.

Froze with an ugly expression.

At the same time, messages popped up.

[You have cleared Broken Dimensional Crack : rift.]

─Dispose of the escaped demon worshipper. (Success)

●Stop the resurrection of the Greater Demon King. (Success)