The Rebirth Of The Hero’S Party’S Archmage [EN]: Chapter 153

153

“I have a few questions before I kill you.”

For some reason, I felt a familiar, chilling, and unpleasant magical power… I wondered why I felt this déjà vu.

It was that guy from the barrier.

Judging by his pale skin, he was an Imperial, but even after being captured by me, he still had a smirk on his face, which was strange.

“The scheme in the North… and turning the Republic into this mess, that’s all your doing, right?”

“Us?”

“You couldn’t have lived that long alone.”

According to what Alakish said, the plot took about 500 years.

“Heh, heh heh heh heh. You’re so naive, probably because you don’t even know the basics of magic. And a scheme? Hmm, do these chicks call a little prank a scheme these days?”

Miria cautiously approached, wary of him, while Aki hugged him tightly, cowering.

“What are you talking about? Turning the Republic into this mess?”

“It’s a long story. Anyway, the one who ruined the Republic and created the era of the Seven States, Six Gates, and Three Symbols is probably this bastard.”

“This great senior’s name isn’t ‘this bastard,’ but Zernyx. It’s a bit different from a thousand years ago when Ryuken killed me, but I’m still alive.”

“What… Zernyx?”

For a moment, my perception went haywire.

Did I hear something wrong?

No, but he clearly added more. A backstory that seemed to fit the puzzle together. Perhaps sensing my confusion from my reaction, Miria asked.

“Zernyx? Do you know who he is?”

“Zernyx… a genius mage who became a Grand Mage at the age of twenty-two, but he’s been dead for over a thousand years.”

“Get your facts straight, junior. I reached the 5-star level at the age of nineteen. And check the history books. I’m not listed as dead, but as missing.”

“Nonsense. If you’re really Zernyx, how are you still alive?”

“Heh heh heh heh, that damn old geezer, my esteemed ancestor Ryuken Ludwig, did kill my body once, but the Abyss [a dark, chaotic realm in some fantasy settings] must have valued me highly, so it revived my brain like this.”

It was an absurd story.

Because Ryuken and Zernyx were famous for being master and disciple.

But he was killed by Ryuken once?

“The Black Church benefited from gaining a good force, and it was good for me too. I couldn’t chase after women much while learning magic. I thought I could finally live a life of luxury, but I couldn’t close my eyes with such regret.”

“How vulgar…”

Miria said with a cold voice as if she was disgusted, and he smirked. I said.

“Prove it. Prove that you’re Zernyx.”

“Prove, prove, prove.”

As Pipi landed on Rain’s head, a subtle glint flickered in Zernyx’s eyes.

How strange….

Is this Sun Conure [a type of parrot] the same one from back then? No, that’s impossible. There’s no being that can enjoy eternal life without making a deal with the Abyss.

“Immediately after the revival, the Black Church recruited me and assigned me the task of plotting. It sounds grand, but all I did was give them a little push.”

“What push?”

“Helping those who wanted power to gain power, and those who wanted to make money to make money… it wasn’t that difficult. It didn’t even take 100 years for it to end up like this.”

Miria replied in a shocked voice.

“Impossible. The priestesses would have stopped you.”

“Controlling the priestesses is nothing. Friede, who looked sexy when she smoked, was as tough as when the Fire Dragon was around when she was a priestess.”

“Shut your mouth.”

“Shut up, shut up, shut up.”

Rain and Pipi suddenly spoke in a voice so chilling that it made my eardrums tingle, and Miria and Aki shuddered.

But regardless, Zernyx kept rambling on.

“The Yongin Republic, you see, was founded on the belief that humans had realized the values of freedom and harmony like the gods. What the Fire Dragon didn’t know was that human nature is vile. Unlike the gods.”

“……”

“The priestesses would have stopped me? Hmph, even Toureina, whom you praise as great, is in the palm of my hand? She wanted to awaken the frozen brat, so I helped her a little, and she immediately rolled her eyes and learned black magic.”

The moment those words came out, I felt my body stiffen.

It felt like silence had fallen on the world, even though the guy who claimed to be Zernyx was still talking tirelessly in front of me.

My breathing is getting rougher. Blood isn’t flowing to my head. My body moves on its own, grabbing his collar.

“What the hell are you talking about? Toureina what? Learned black magic to awaken the frozen brat?”

My physical eyes were looking at him, but my mental eyes were looking beyond, at the sky-blue-haired girl hidden in the echoes of my soul.

It was the moment when the suspicion, not doubt, that I had buried deep in my heart since meeting Libeni, raised its head.

Still, in my head, it’s impossible, that guy is dead… only that thought swirled around.

“A priestess is also human. She succumbed to her instincts. Soon, the time of chaos that will awaken from her hands will dominate the Arkrad continent.”

“Answer my question, you are now─”

“─As a great senior, let me give you a lesson. A mage only becomes long-winded when they are preparing something.”

Zernyx smiled with just his lips, and the next moment, his lower body swelled grotesquely and rose up as tentacles of dark matter.

The chains of Jeser’s Iron Chain had been cut off at some point, even though it was a 5-star magic.

Miria sensed a crisis instinctively and stepped back, reaching for the hilt of her sword, but the tentacles had already pierced halfway through the visor of her helmet.

“I’ve been reading your shallow tricks since earlier, you bastard.”

In an instant, a dazzling white heat exploded, burning the source of the disgusting tentacles without a trace in a blaze of fire.

The tentacles that had rushed up to my eyes lost their power and drooped weakly, soon shattering into countless negative particles.

At that time, the boy gasped deeply, looking at the sparks and ashes scattering in his vision.

‘This doesn’t feel good… The mastermind who manipulated the barrier for 500 years, causing Alakish to die and even dividing the Republic, died this easily?’

It wasn’t just the ominous feeling.

Toureina used black magic to save the frozen brat? And he taught her?

“Miria, where is the priestess of the Northern Republic now?”

Perhaps it was a sudden question, Miria looked bewildered, but soon answered seriously.

“I don’t know exactly. Wouldn’t she be in one of the three major cities?”

Among the seven major cities, the cities located in the Northern Republic, that is, the Arkrad continent, are the following three.

The Blue City,

The Indigo City,

The Violet City.

It was the closest from my current location, and according to Miria, the place where Priestess Yuliana mainly stayed was located in the middle reaches of the Velisor River.

If she’s a priestess, if she’s Yuliana, Toureina’s disciple, she must know something.

“Then let’s part ways here. I’m going to The Violet City. You stay here and get paid when those witches wake up.”

I don’t know when they will wake up.

Wasn’t the commander-in-chief of the barrier still unconscious?

Of course, that was a 5-star possessed spirit, and this was a 3-star difference because it had to control the entire village, but I don’t have the luxury to wait for that.

‘It would be a lie if I said I wasn’t sad to part ways.’

There were so many things I wanted to ask and know. Whether she was really the reincarnation of Rista, or just looked alike.

But it’s okay now….

Friede said. She didn’t want to chain me to the past, who had to live a new life. But now I think like this.

‘If Rista really came back to life… it’s enough if she’s alive somewhere.’

Wishing for more than that would be greedy. Above all, even if it’s real, she has no memories, so there’s not much difference between real and fake, and I don’t want to take her to a dangerous place.

“No.”

When I approached to take Aki, Miria didn’t readily hand Aki over, but instead walked past me towards the pier where the barge was docked.

“I’m going too.”

What… When I asked blankly, Miria looked back at me over her shoulder.

The look in her eyes, visible through the gaps in her broken visor, was as cold as ever, but it felt slightly softer than usual.

“I have something to check too. And am I just supposed to be used and then go back empty-handed like this? I’ll be too uneasy to do anything.”

* * *

Somewhere on the Adrion continent, where the heat of the polar region poured down, and the weather vane turned with a desolate and dry sound in the sandstorm.

A young man sitting cross-legged in front of a folding screen with a sinister painting in the Albraham style from the Age of the Abyss took off the eye patch with seven eyes drawn inside a triangle.

At the same time, the puppet doll placed in front of the altar over there was split into five pieces and burned.

‘That guy, he’s several times stronger than when I met him last time… What’s strange is that his fighting style is too similar to that little kid Lin from before.’

Heh, who cares.

I hope he gets even stronger than he is now.

That way, when I steal that body, Ryuken, that bastard’s body with awakened eyes, I can enjoy it to my heart’s content.

‘Still… If he only has that much skill, he’ll die to Toureina, so will his growth end there?’

Should I say their compatibility is bad?

Heh, I’ll know the result soon. Whichever one dies.

Let’s wait happily while doing the work the old hag entrusted to me.

* * *

Southeast of the Red Mountains, the highest and most noble peak, Mythical Peak, was shrouded in night fog.

Hundreds of years after the Red Dragon Corps left the mountain range, the peak, which had boasted noble beauty during that time, rotted the soil itself, and all the oak trees that covered the area rotted and festered.

The roots and branches of such trees intertwined grotesquely, creating chilling shapes like tumors in various parts of the ground.

On the altar of the temple located at the end of that cliff, there was originally a Beltar Divine Stone that burned brighter and hotter than flames. In the long history of the Republic, the priestesses had received the Fire Dragon’s revelations through this divine stone.

But now, as the priestess in a bamboo hat standing in front of it began to chant an unknown spell, something dirty boiled inside the Beltar Divine Stone as if pulsing, and the divine stone turned dark blue.

“All the black witches of Arkrad serve you, one of the Three Sages of the Queen of Time, Naboriakshi.”

Soon, a crazy color flickered over the surface of the divine stone.

It was three eyeballs.

Even though there was no light shining through… the disgustingly torn three eyeballs flickered bright yellow inside the divine stone, pouring an absolute voice into the target’s brain, not their ears.

「Bal surudui gun de kan…… Ah, the time when all eyes will be opened is near…….」

“Give your command.”

「The time has come to awaken the sleeping time…… On the day the light disappears…… Pile the blood of light on the Queen’s altar…… On that day, the false veil will be lifted…… And the dream of your destiny will be realized, Doha, buretaris…….」

The priestess wearing an old bamboo hat, Toureina, put a pipe in her mouth, and the chaotic colors flickering in the divine stone soon subsided.

Only then did the man standing behind the pillars of the temple walk out. He was wearing a dark blue robe and covering his face with a sinister iron mask.

Unusually, his left arm was not a human arm, but only had the shape of an arm as the demonic energy writhed with a dark light.

“What orders did the Three Eyes give?”

Toureina did not answer for a while, or rather, for a long time. In the thoughts that filled her head.

Lin’s body, which she would receive as a reward for her resurrection, or rather, return to its original state with her soul… As soon as she confirmed that her master had been resurrected, she would immediately seal him.

She had been waiting for such a long time to prepare that ritual. From the moment she learned black magic to save her master.

“Summon all the black witches scattered throughout the continent. We need to start preparing for the ritual in earnest.”

“The ritual… But we have not yet received contact from numbers 4, 5, and 7 that they have secured the remains of the True Dragon.”

“Just do as I tell you. Don’t worry about the remains of the True Dragon. I’m going to go myself.”