The Return of The Mythical Archmage [EN]: Chapter 202

No matter how powerful a magic is, it always has its limits.

Hellios’s Heavenly Demon was no exception to this rule.

The firepower of Helios’s Heavenly Demon began to wane rapidly.

‘Its power is noticeably weakening.’

Parade, who was observing the situation while being protected by the Elysium Turtle, his eyes gleamed.

That unidentified magic was losing its strength.

That meant it was almost time.

‘Use the Elysium Turtle as bait, retrieve Bucephalus and Velvet Tiger, and then escape.’

It was the perfect time to flee.

‘No… should I counterattack?’

He briefly considered counterattacking, but quickly dismissed the idea.

‘There’s no reason to fight a guy who uses such unknown magic. It’s not even part of my mission.’

The risk of facing both Shin Hayul and Charles simultaneously was too great, and there was virtually no return to be gained.

Escaping was the right choice for now.

‘It’s a blow to my pride, but… it can’t be helped. I’m not at my best right now.’

He could repay this humiliation later, once he was fully prepared.

According to Shadow, that Shin Hayul guy was designated as a Class S threat.

There would definitely be a subjugation mission from the Black Magic Tower. [A powerful organization of mages]

He could wait for that moment to deal with him decisively.

‘The list of people I need to kill is getting longer.’

The Red Magic Tower Lord, the Blue Magic Tower Lord, and now Shin Hayul and that damned Hunting Dog’s leader.

That made four people.

‘Tsk. I’m not usually one to let my prey sit for too long.’

Parade scratched the back of his head and clicked his tongue.

It seemed that expending all his power at the Third Magic Stone Warehouse had taken a toll.

Heeeeeeeee-!

The Heavenly Demon of flames began to slow down.

As the firepower and output weakened, the Heavenly Demon itself seemed to be losing its strength.

‘The external changes are accompanying the decrease in magical power…’

It was as if the magic had a life of its own.

The questions he had about the magic only grew larger.

Parade’s resolve to escape became even stronger.

Whirr…

As the Heavenly Demon weakened, the firepower gradually diminished.

The flames died down, and his vision cleared.

‘Tch… only six survived, huh?’

Shin Hayul’s magic had annihilated a total of 103 monsters.

The surviving monsters numbered six, including the unranked disaster-class ones.

The three monsters besides the unranked disaster-class ones had survived because they had strong fire resistance.

The rest of the monsters were all burned to death.

Not even their corpses remained.

‘Is Shadow… dead? Or did he escape first?’

Amidst the flames that had spread to the surrounding trees,

Parade glanced in the direction Shadow had gone.

For now, since there had been no contact, it was safe to assume that he couldn’t rely on Shadow’s help.

‘If Shadow was okay, he wouldn’t have just watched someone use magic like that.’

Whatever the case, it was clear that he had to escape alone.

Parade immediately sent commands to the three monsters that were still milling about.

‘You three, charge at the Hunting Dog for now.’

He ordered the three remaining monsters, excluding the unranked disaster-class ones, to launch a diversionary attack.

‘Bucephalus and Velvet Tiger, keep them in check without overdoing it.’

Since he would retrieve the two unranked disaster-class monsters before escaping, he decided to position them at a suitable distance.

‘Lastly, Elysium Turtle. Use all your mana to create a fortress here.’

Finally, he prepared the bait, the Elysium Turtle, to be even more enticing.

He would use the Elysium Turtle’s renowned defense to create a massive fortress.

Then, they would naturally assume that Parade was hiding inside the fortress.

He would use that opportunity to escape.

‘Perfect.’

It was a flawless plan.

Parade smiled with satisfaction.

‘Go.’

As soon as Parade’s final approval was given, the six monsters began to move simultaneously.

Kuoohhhhhh-!

The five monsters, excluding the Elysium Turtle, immediately moved towards Charles.

The Elysium Turtle began to fortify itself.

A barrier began to form around the Elysium Turtle.

The barrier quickly grew denser, showing its powerful density.

This would completely deceive the enemies.

‘Now, it’s time for me to slip away.’

The remnants of mana left by Helios’s Heavenly Demon and the Elysium Turtle’s mana were mixed together, distorting the surrounding mana to an extreme degree.

With the mana in such disarray, it would be impossible for even Shin Hayul’s Divine Eye to detect him.

Parade quickly ran in the opposite direction.

‘The Monster Gate’s storage range is 1km. I’ll escape 1km away in this state, then retrieve Velvet Tiger and Bucephalus. I’ll leave the Elysium Turtle as bait and escape on Bucephalus.’

Bucephalus’s speed was among the fastest of all monsters.

Once it started accelerating, no one could catch it.

If he took advantage of the moment when they were focused on the Elysium Turtle, he had a 100% chance of escaping.

‘See you later, Shin Hayul. Hunting Dog. Next time, I’ll chew you down to your gold teeth.’

Parade gritted his teeth in anger as he ran.

100 meters. 300 meters. 500 meters.

Parade was quickly moving away from the battle zone.

He could hear the sounds of Charles clashing with the six monsters in the distance.

He could even feel it through their shared senses.

Charles was still at that location.

‘It’s a bit concerning that Shin Hayul’s location can’t be confirmed, but…’

There was no need to worry about it.

The amount of mana being emitted by Charles and the six monsters as they fought was extraordinary.

Shin Hayul had probably gone there as well.

As he said, there was no way he could accurately detect Parade’s mana amidst this chaotic mana.

With that, Parade accelerated his pace.

700 meters, 900 meters.

And then.

‘1km! Now!’

He had reached the maximum distance for retrieving monsters with the Monster Gate, his destination.

‘I’ll open the Monster Gate here…’

Just as he was about to open the Monster Gate to retrieve Bucephalus and Velvet Tiger.

Zzzzzzzzzzzap-!

“… !”

A bolt of lightning suddenly struck above his head.

Parade quickly canceled the Monster Gate and cast a barrier to block the lightning.

The lightning was completely extinguished by the barrier.

However, only the form of the lightning bolt had disappeared. The unique properties of lightning-attribute magic remained.

Crack, crack.

‘Damn lightning-attribute magic!’

Lightning-attribute magic was not truly blocked even when it was blocked.

To block lightning-attribute magic, one had to use a special barrier that could completely block the electrical energy.

And Parade didn’t have the time to use such special magic just now.

Therefore, he couldn’t completely block the electrical energy that flowed through the barrier and into his hands.

Tingle, tingle.

Electrical energy flowed through Parade’s body, slowing it down with paralysis.

“One of the weaknesses of a Monster Tamer.”

Shin Hayul appeared behind Parade.

“… !”

“Since they focus all their magical power on controlling monsters, their own strength is very weak.”

He lowered his center of gravity, spread his legs wide, and pulled his right hand back.

He was preparing a punch.

“You, you bastard… !”

Parade desperately turned around. Or, he tried to.

‘My body won’t move as I want it to!’

However, Parade was currently paralyzed by the electrical energy, and his body was not moving properly.

In his current state, Parade could not respond to Shin Hayul’s attack.

‘Absolute Shield!’

Therefore, Parade cast a barrier again.

It was only his body that was paralyzed by the electrical energy.

He had no problem using magic.

A barrier formed between Shin Hayul and Parade.

It was a fairly dense Absolute Shield, proving that he was a high-level mage.

However.

“Magic listed in the open-source library. It won’t work on me.”

Absolute Shield.

To Shin Hayul, such common magic was like a glass wall made of sugar.

‘Resonance!’

All of Shin Hayul’s magical abilities temporarily increased.

With this, Shin Hayul’s level temporarily reached the 6th Circle. [A measure of magical power]

Shin Hayul threw a punch.

However, its speed and power were not that intense.

Shin Hayul’s fist stopped right in front of the Absolute Shield.

Shin Hayul then spread his palm and placed it on the Absolute Shield.

‘Interference!’

And then, he reverse-engineered the magic formula, infiltrating mana according to the appropriate composition.

‘If it were a proper 8th Circle mage’s Absolute Shield, interference would have been impossible…’

Parade was not a proper 8th Circle mage.

‘If the opponent is a Monster Tamer, my current level is enough to interfere.’

Clang!!

The Absolute Shield that Parade had cast shattered into pieces.

“… !”

Parade’s eyes widened in shock. He had not expected the Absolute Shield to break so easily.

Shin Hayul clenched his hand back into a fist.

And then, he pulled his fist back slightly before swinging it again.

Whoooosh-!

Mana, starting from the tip of his right foot on the ground, traveled through his body and gathered in his right hand.

Even though his fist was only cutting through the air, it sounded like a missile flying through the sky.

‘I have to block it!’

Parade desperately racked his brain as he watched Shin Hayul’s fist grow larger.

He had to block it somehow.

Somehow!!

However.

‘There’s no way!’

There was no way to counter it.

His body wouldn’t move, and his magic was broken.

There were no monsters around to protect Parade.

All means were blocked.

The only option Parade had at this moment was to accept the hopeless situation and get hit by Shin Hayul’s fist.

That was all.

Thwack-!

Parade, who was directly hit by Shin Hayul’s fist, was sent flying into the sky.

His nose wrinkled, and his jaw joint twisted. Even though he had been protecting his body with mana, the power was immense.

‘Ugh! I need to fix my posture first…!’

While flying through the air, Parade moved his mana to regain his posture.

The paralysis was also gradually wearing off.

If he could just get himself together, he could definitely fight back.

‘Calm down. Calm down and prepare.’

As expected of an 8th Circle mage.

Being quite experienced in combat, he managed to calm himself down quickly.

Parade twisted his body and began to prepare for a landing.

It was a near-perfect landing motion.

In this state, he would be fully prepared the moment he landed on the ground.

However.

“You won’t be touching the ground anymore.”

Shin Hayul was not going to wait for that.

Once he had seized an opportunity, he had to take full advantage of it.

Shin Hayul moved faster than Parade, who was freely flying in the sky.

Shin Hayul instantly arrived at the location where Parade was about to land.

Kooong-!

The ground that Shin Hayul was standing on cracked like a spiderweb.

“Hoo…”

Mana circulated around Shin Hayul’s core, the center of his body.

It rotated twice along the path of mana created by the Infinity Circle. [A technique to enhance mana flow]

The mana that had finished rotating then gathered in Shin Hayul’s right foot.

“I won’t even give you the chance to command your monsters.”

At the same time, an explosive energy surged through Shin Hayul’s body.

The secret magic of Shinmugangga, Shinmu, was activated. [A powerful martial art technique]

Kwaaaaaaaaaaang-!

Shin Hayul lifted his right foot and kicked upwards.

The right foot, which was swung in a large arc, cut through the air and struck Parade’s side.

“Kuaaaaaaak!”

With the sound of bones shattering, Parade’s body flew into the sky.

Kooong-!

Shin Hayul compressed his body like a spring and then leaped high into the sky.

Once again, Shin Hayul positioned himself faster than Parade.

He then formed a barrier in the air.

He rotated his body 180 degrees, using the barrier as a stepping stone to rotate his body.

He used the force of the recoil to kick downwards.

Parade’s body was once again falling towards the ground.

Kwaaaaaaaaaaang-!

Upon impact with the ground, the ground cracked.

The ground was cratered.

Parade was in the center, barely breathing, half-dead.

Thud.

Shin Hayul, who had slowly landed on the ground, approached Parade.

“You, you…”

With his mangled jaw joint, he repeated ‘you’ in a daze.

“From the moment you chose to abandon your monsters as a diversion and escape alone, your defeat was decided.”

“Ugh, how… how did you… know…”

“How did I know you were here?”

Parade looked up at Shin Hayul with blurry vision.

How did Shin Hayul know that Parade would come here?

Even with the most powerful magic eyes, he shouldn’t have been able to detect him properly in this distorted mana.

“I didn’t come here through detection. Even with my eyes, it’s impossible to detect anything in this distorted mana.”

“Ugh, how…”

Then how?

“I predicted it.”

Predicted it.

Parade’s eyes trembled at those words.

“The maximum distance for retrieving monsters with the Monster Gate is 1km.”

“… !”

Parade’s eyes widened.

How did he know about the Monster Gate?

“It wouldn’t have been easy to abandon all three of the unranked disaster-class monsters you had captured. I predicted that you would escape 1km in the opposite direction from where Captain Charles is, and then try to retrieve your monsters.”

Shin Hayul answered nonchalantly and extended his right hand towards Parade.

“Well… I guess it’s time to finish this. The monsters you hastily summoned should be about 500 meters away by now.”

The reason why Shin Hayul hadn’t launched a finishing attack on Parade was simple.

By intentionally stalling for time like this, he would gather all the monsters, including the unranked disaster-class ones.

Then, Charles, who was pushing himself to the limit to create this situation, would be safe.

That was why Shin Hayul had deliberately stalled for time.

“Gi, give… me… infor…mation…”

“I don’t need your information.”

He cut off Parade’s words about giving information and completed his magic.

A special blue flame.

Infernal Hellfire.

“I sincerely hope you suffer eternally in hell.”

Whirr-!

“Aaaaaaaah!”

The blue flames engulfed Parade’s entire body.