1008. Well done.
The owner of white hair and flowing clothes, she is one of the Masters of Astrail.
“The one Nelma put so much effort into making?”
Master Nelma felt that one of his familiars had died. Someone had forcibly severed the ties of magical power.
Is it a wizard’s trick?
No, that is not it. With her brilliant mind and keen senses, she clearly perceived the current situation. It was this high-level thinking ability that made her one of the Empire’s Three Villains.
It wasn’t broken by a spell.
Then with what?
With a knife?
However, my familiar is already dead and cannot die again. The core that constitutes his life is within my spell world, so he will not die unless that is broken.
The only way to kill him is to sever the connection with my spell and put him to a momentary sleep.
It completely vanished.
He has gone to where he was originally supposed to go. By now, he is probably occupying a corner of hell.
It would be the very first place to come out to welcome him if he were to die.
Order Killer.
It is a conclusion reached by synthesizing several thoughts, visions, legends, and stories.
You sent a fellow with audacious talents.
“Emperor, Emperor. So, you want to have some fun, don’t you?”
The white-haired summoner Nelma muttered to herself as she activated the tools and magic circles she had prepared for the arrival of ‘that day.’
Fine, let’s play.
What will you do once I kill all the swordsmen and vain spellcasters you sent this time?
Crisis is opportunity. Nelma intended to use this incident as an opportunity to add a few more pieces of gold to the vessel called the Empire.
Come out.
Another nickname for her was the One-Man Legion; the army she had built up rose at the command.
At the same time, a crow flew into her inner world. The crow spread its jet-black wings, glided, and circled above her head.
Its eyes were deep blue, and they clearly showed signs of chasing and searching for something.
‘who?’
Someone was searching for him through his summoned body. To perform such a feat, one must be able to sense the subtly different properties of magical energy.
To give a stark example, it was like dividing a single color into dozens of variations. Not all blues are the same. There are light blues, darker blues, and countless shades in between.
One must grasp these variations solely through senses and then trace the traces of a spell in reverse.
It is a skill that even an exceptionally skilled mage cannot perform.
Is it the work of a wizard, not a spellslayer?
Who on earth could do such a thing? Even
if I keep Astrail’s Master in mind, no one comes to mind. Well, actually, there is one, but while he has the talent, he lacks the will.
‘devil?’
If you are the ruler of the Demon Realm, wouldn’t it be acceptable to display such a talent?
This makes even less sense.
No matter how powerful the Lord of the Demon Realm may be, he cannot pull off schemes in this land while hiding from the Emperor’s watchful eyes. Isn’t that precisely why he is acting in his place?
Nelma avoided the gaze of the crow frolicking above her head. She crouched and hid within the bushes, erasing the magical power around her.
However, for some reason, the crow stared intently at her and swarmed down from below.
‘how?’
The crow transformed into a four-legged beast in mid-air. It was a black panther with blue eyes.
Charlemagne’s Triple Veil.
He immediately recites one of the spirit summoning spells. The Triple Veil drains the vitality of the living, shakes their will, and scatters even their magical power.
Unable to penetrate the veil, the leopard scattered in the air. All of this took place in the mental world.
It was a battle fought from a distance between those possessing magical power.
The quality of the magical power.
Nelma felt that the level of spells the opponent displayed was beyond excellent and was special.
Did you come out of the Wizard’s Tower?
It is as if a wolf suddenly emerged from the sheep the empire was raising. No, this goes beyond a wolf; it looks like a tiger.
There’s no way something like this would come out of something raised in captivity!
Where did you come from?
Was it the work of the guy who peered at me from across space earlier? He was a swordsman, after all.
Whatever the case, getting out of here immediately was the priority. The fox carrying the hut took a step.
The opponent was chasing her with a spell. So this time, she would simply have to run away on foot.
She did just that.
* * *
I found it.
A faint sky-blue light flowed from Esther’s half-closed eyes. The magic had affected even her eyes. She looked more mysterious than usual.
Her shining eyes turned toward Encred.
Well done.
It wasn’t that she particularly wanted praise, but for some reason, she had retained the habit of patting heads or praising whenever someone did something well, ever since she was a leopard. Esther didn’t exactly smile at Encred’s words, but everyone around them knew she was happy.
So which one?
Next was Rem’s turn.
Esther silently pointed her finger, then transformed into a leopard and ran. Since the opponent had felt her gaze and repelled her, they would run away.
Otherwise, they would set a trap.
It would actually be easier if they set a trap and held out, but they wouldn’t do that.
She sensed it instinctively, but if Cryce had been here, he would have easily explained it to her.
If someone has been running away and acting like they have an incurable disease, they have likely developed a habit of running away whenever things go wrong. Repeated behavior creates certain rules.
Anyway, the witch who creates the phenomenon called Malapais has escaped.
The flow of magical power has been cut off.
Esther at that moment was like someone running in broad daylight searching for a thin white thread, but that thread had also snapped.
Then Rem looked at the floor.
“A normal fox wouldn’t suddenly run away, you know. But if there are no other footprints, yet there is a single fox footprint showing signs of hurried movement, what does that mean?”
“What is it?”
“What else could it be? It means it’s what we were looking for.”
Rem smiled and looked at Encred. Encred met his gaze with a look that asked what he was looking at, so Rem opened his mouth.
“You don’t tell me things like ‘You did well,’ ‘That’s excellent,’ or ‘That’s great’? Ugh, that’s hurtful. You’re discriminating against people.”
Rem, having uttered a remark a dog with a human face might spew, took a step. It was a joke from the start. Esther let out a chuckle.
Please tell me I did well too.
In the meantime, Sinar stood by and spoke, and Temares grasped the rule that had just formed between them and asked.
“So, you praise me when I do something well? Then, if I’m helpful, will you do the same for me?”
They are truly insane. Enkrid pulled himself together. Since he was the only sane one, wasn’t he the only one they could even think of?
Trimache looked at them all and thought that the word “madman” suited them well in many ways.
Then, a hand suddenly shot out of the ground in front of them.
Legion of Death.
Esther muttered. It was one of the High-Ranking Proverbs. The ‘Legion’ spell is completed when at least five Death Knights are gathered, and more than fifty Death Warriors—a lower-tier spell—are assembled.
They are an army that forms formations, executes strategies, and does not die easily. Imagine an army where five knights work in perfect coordination.
Among the Proverbs, it was one that would go down in history. During the Empire’s unification wars in the past, a single necromancer had once held back an entire order of knights with this spell alone.
It was a spell of that caliber, yet it was now a story from the past, slightly removed from the era.
“Rem.”
As soon as Enkrid saw the group coming up from the ground, he called out to Rem, but Sinar took a position to his left first.
“Temares, you figure out the beat on your own.”
Rem stood to the right of Enkrid, speaking. Enkrid formed a trident formation with himself at the forefront. Temares joined them, transforming it into a ballista formation, which requires four members. It was a
tactic where three acted as launchers while one charged wildly to cut and return, with Temares handling the arrows.
The arrows would shoot out and return to the center of the three to catch their breath and rest. It was a formation designed to unleash full power in a short period of time.
“I should be told I did a good job too!”
He shouted and flew. Yongin wielded his cloak with greater ease than Encred. His dark green cloak wrapped around his body, spreading out like wings to send him flying further. As he landed somewhere in the middle of the Legion of Death, he stretched his sword, Baek-a, to the left and right.
Boom!
As the air burst out, the heads and limbs of the four legions of death warriors were torn off and flew away.
One of the severed forearms struck a tree, and with a loud crack, the tree—thicker than an adult’s forearm—tilted and fell.
thud!
As the tree fell, Temares kicked off the ground again and flew like a butterfly. He formed a circle centered around the three led by Enkrid.
That’s great!
Rem let out a hearty shout. It was no longer a ballista formation, but a sling formation.
From the center, Death Knights came running to find their opponents. Two of them held large square shields, and one held two rapiers in each hand.
Each was a summoned creature that retained the characteristics of their lives.
-Fight!
With a layered voice, he proved that he was not a living person. It was a voice exhaled by shaking the air with his will, rather than from his vocal cords. Should one call it skillful?
Whatever the case, Encred felt the desire of the one wielding two rapiers. And he agreed with that desire to fight even in death.
“I.”
With a brief word, he clutched *Ol-eul* and charged towards him. They faced each other with two rapiers, neither drawn.
Encred stopped only after the blades had reached each other in an instant, a moment when they seemed to be on the verge of touching; from the perspective of the one who had braked in a split second and was racing against him, it was almost as if he were seeing a hallucination of his body leaping forward. That was how sudden the braking was.
In that state, *Ol-eul*, imbued with a blue light, was drawn out, displaying the blue of dawn, and slashed the Death Knight’s throat. The
headless man thrust his sword across Encred’s, but it was futile, slicing through thin air. Encred had already moved away from the spot by accelerating rapidly after the sudden brake. This
was thanks to his mastery of *Indules*, a nature transformation of Will.
While he was slicing down one of them, Rem also shattered another’s shield with an axe and smashed his head with a fist. The head, exploding with a bang, emitted black smoke instead of blood.
It was a sight that indicated the rule governing their presence on this land belonged to a certain spell.
De Muller’s mace, mace, mace, mace, mace.
Another knight was bound by Esther’s spell. His attempt to lift his feet and rush in to narrow the space was pushed back by the mace of the wind.
Trimache, their guide and inwardly half-proclaimed protector from the dangers of the Empire, revised much of his thinking once again.
It is not a danger to the empire.
It seemed more important to ensure they did not become a danger to the Empire.
Among the maxims, the Legion of Death is literally a threat in its very power, but it was meaningless against these madmen.
How pitiful. So die.
The fairy Sinar wields a blade imbued with the spirit of spring. The blade, called Naidul, seeped in subtly like a spring breeze and split the Death Knight’s body in two.
On the surface, it looks like a light slash.
The essences of wind and fire mingled.
It appeared to be a sword strike of that nature. It is meaningless to determine which is superior between the essence of the Four Seasons and the essence of the Four Elements. They merely possess different characteristics.
Therefore, who is wielding it was the most important factor. In that regard, Trimache admired the technique Sinar used, which instantaneously mixed in Will, more than the unique characteristics of the fairy’s swordsmanship.
* * *
What is this?
As I fled as a fox, the summoned creatures I left behind were torn apart and exploded one by one. Even the legion of death created with the Golden Word spell was annihilated.
“What is this?”
Nelma could have been flustered, but calmness and patience were her forte.
Summoning the spirit.
She had prepared magic circles and offerings wherever I moved so that no trace of the spell would remain.
Then, she cast spells one after another and poured out the things arranged to block my rear.
‘ah.’
The arrangement , which was supposed to awaken in an instant to turn an entire Imperial Forest into a Forest of Spirits and intensify the suffering of this land, is crumbling one by one. Even
spells that were deliberately left unactivated in the interim are breaking. She did not know it, but Esther had passed by and ordered Encred to cut down that spot.
Pushed back repeatedly, Nelma stopped the fleeing fox and expanded the hut to its original size.
If she were pushed back now, everything she had prepared would fall apart. She had no intention of repeating this whole ordeal from the beginning.
She would catch it here. She made up her mind and, for the first time in a very long while, fully opened the spell world within her.
In doing so, she connected reality with her own world and unleashed dozens of hidden spells.
Then, a black shadow fell abruptly over her head. Dozens of defensive and barrier spells activated, and her body scattered like a mirage. Every mage carries a Glint spell, and hers was a spell that allowed for a short leap through space.
A blade with a rough, jagged edge tore at the spot where she had been. The mirage shattered into pieces.
I was wondering when it would come out!
A scream erupted at that spot. He had been caught because he failed to notice the approaching figure while being chased.
Nelma immediately summoned an illusion. She presented him with hallucinations and auditory hallucinations, attempting to seize control of his mind.
Stop your bullshit, you bitch. Do you think I’m going to let you get away right now, considering how much time I’ve wasted trying to catch you?
The other person had a foul mouth.
