The Return of The Mythical Archmage [EN]: Chapter 347

“Successor!” Mimir shouted, his voice filled with urgency. “Evade!” Almost at the same moment, the dragon moved. Kuung-! The entire space trembled, a vibration unlike an earthquake. It felt as if a giant boulder had fallen. The dragon had merely stepped on the ground, yet it felt like a mountain had collapsed. ‘It shouldn’t be able to move…’ That thing, which should have been incapable of anything but blinking, was standing upright, glaring at us. ‘How…?’ There was no way it could move. Due to the separation of its body and soul, it shouldn’t have been in a state to move. How on earth was it moving? “Get a grip, Successor!” Mimir filled my vision, his expression telling me to stop thinking and just move. In an instant, I snapped back to my senses. Right. This wasn’t the time to be thinking. How the dragon started moving didn’t matter. What mattered was that the dragon was moving, and it was showing hostility towards us. Now was the time to focus all our efforts on escaping. “Miho!” At my shout, Miho moved. She positioned herself to protect me and Adela from the dragon, creating transparent flames. She was ready to respond immediately, no matter when the dragon attacked, her focus entirely on the dragon. ‘It’s coming.’ Then, the dragon moved with the force of obliterating the insignificant beings before it. Gathering mana, it condensed it within its mouth. “Breath!?” Mimir shouted in a panicked voice, conveying the severity of the situation. “Successor!” No more words were needed. I knew without being told. There was only one thing I had to do now. “Ignis!” ‘Ignis!’ Hundreds, thousands of mana codes floated around Mimir. The incantation of the coded mythical magic instantly filled the surroundings. And those codes soon became one. Whirr-! It became the mythical flames of Ignis, the primordial flames that created this world and burned it. It flew towards the dragon’s gaping maw. ‘Even if it’s a dragon, it can’t be unscathed after being hit directly by Ignis right before using its breath.’ A counterattack using the gap that inevitably occurs before using a big technique. I didn’t think this would be enough to defeat the dragon, but it should create enough of a gap for us to escape. I made that judgment and began preparing to leave the battlefield. However. “No! It’s too late!” That was my misjudgment. Kwaaaaaaa-! The dragon’s breath was released faster than my Ignis could reach its maw. ‘It released it before it was complete.’ It released an incomplete breath, as if anticipating that waiting for completion would cause greater damage to itself. It poured the incomplete breath towards Ignis. Whirr, whirr, thud-! And that incomplete breath completely swallowed Ignis. It was released out of necessity, so it should only be about half its original power, but with that half power, it crushed my Ignis without any trouble. ‘Dangerous…’ As if it still had energy left after erasing Ignis, the breath was coming towards us to burn us. ‘I can’t use magic.’ As a consequence of using Ignis without incantation, I couldn’t use magic for about 2 seconds. I had no means to stop that right now. Awooooooo-! But thankfully, I wasn’t alone. Miho stood in a position to block the incoming breath, pouring out her soul fire at maximum output. Kwaaaang-! Miho’s soul fire momentarily stopped the momentum of the dragon’s breath. Perhaps because Ignis had initially weakened the breath’s momentum to some extent, Miho’s soul fire was holding out on its own for quite a long time. However. ‘Miho can’t do it alone.’ Even with Miho’s valiant fight, it was only a matter of time. The breath soon began to engulf Miho’s soul fire as well. Thinking about it, it was only natural. In terms of power, Ignis was far superior to soul fire, and that breath had swallowed Ignis in an instant. Even if it was weakened to some extent, there was no way Miho’s soul fire could stop it. ‘One second. I just need one second.’ In one second, my cooldown would be over. In one second, I could use Ignis again. If Miho could hold out for just one more second, we could turn the tables. But. ‘…No. It’s impossible for Miho alone.’ No matter how valiantly Miho fought, it was impossible to buy any more time. Miho’s soul fire could disappear at any moment, like a candle in the wind. At this rate, it wouldn’t even last 0.1 seconds, let alone 1 second. ‘Something. Isn’t there something I can do? A way for me to help Miho right now. There must be something. Surely there is something…!’ As I was thinking at the speed of light, it happened. Ku-gu-gu-gung-! Once again, the earth trembled. A faint vibration, different from the giant’s steps I felt earlier, and different from the earthquakes I had been feeling. If I had to describe it, it was a faint tremor that inevitably occurs when something breaks through the ground and rises. That vibration was spreading out from the ground beneath Miho’s feet. ‘This vibration…’ I had experienced that faint vibration before, with my own body. ‘Could this be Elena’s…?’ The premonitory phenomenon of magic that I had seen countless times while training in the third test page. I knew that magic. “Rise.” Adela’s voice was heard. “The origin of life. The source of all things.” Elena’s voice overlapped with that voice. “Thorn Lamp.” At that moment. Crack-! Dark blue thorn vines burst through the earth, a plant I had never seen before, a thorn tree of a form I had never seen in any literature. It pierced through the space where the breath and soul fire were struggling. And at that moment. Ku-gu-gu-gu-gu-! It expanded. The frail thorn vines that seemed to exist anywhere instantly transformed into a huge tree. ‘It’s absorbing the dragon’s mana… and growing?’ That growth was still continuing. The thorn vines, which were at the sapling level, soon became a giant tree. And that giant tree soon became a thousand-year-old tree that had lived for centuries. And when that thousand-year-old tree grew once more and became a ten-thousand-year-old tree. “…” Only silence remained in the world. The dragon’s breath, Miho’s soul fire, the only sounds filling the space were the rustling of the flowers and leaves that the dark blue giant tree, which had swallowed everything, had produced. “Elena… ? What is this…?” I turned my gaze towards the magician who had created this scene, Elena Ro Greenwood. I had heard that forest magic was powerful, but I hadn’t heard it was this powerful. How on earth was this possible? I looked at Elena with those questions in my mind. But. “What is this…” Elena didn’t seem to be in a situation to answer my questions. The person who created this situation was more surprised than anyone else in the world. “There’s no way Thorn Lamp could grow to this extent…” As if she hadn’t expected this either, she was utterly shocked, with an expression that seemed to ask how this could be possible. She was glaring at Adela with that shocked look. “Adela. Just how much is your talent…” “…?” Adela only tilted her head, meeting Elena’s gaze. “Elena! Save the surprise for later!” Then, Mimir shouted again. “…!” “Let’s get out of here!” At that, everyone turned at the same time. Miho, Adela, and I all pushed off the ground at the same time. After releasing a breath, it shouldn’t be able to move immediately. If we take advantage of this timing, we can escape. We all became one and ran towards the path leading to the third basement level. And just as we stepped onto the stairs leading to the third basement level. 『No one may leave this space without my permission.』 A voice was heard from somewhere, an alien and terrifying voice, as if it wasn’t a living person speaking. Hwaaaaaaak-! Along with that voice, an intangible energy spread out, and that intangible energy soon became a translucent barrier. “…It’s solid.” A solid barrier that didn’t seem like it could be broken by any ordinary means. Even if I used Ignis at full power, I wasn’t sure if I could break it. Breaking this barrier was close to impossible. “This is really not fair…” Mimir’s voice trembled. It wasn’t just because the escape route was blocked that he was reacting like that. There was another reason why Mimir was shocked. The cause of this barrier being created. He was so shocked because he knew the identity of the unidentified voice that was heard before the barrier was created. “Dragon Words…” Dragon Words. Like breath, it was a magic that was like a symbol of dragons. According to legend, anything a dragon says using Dragon Words becomes reality. It was no wonder he was shocked that such an extraordinary magic had appeared. “How can it use Dragon Words in such an incomplete state…!” Drake’s body and the dragon’s spirit, a fusion of different bodies and souls. Such an incomplete being was using not only breath, but also the high-level magic of Dragon Words. What on earth was going on? 『I have seen it.』 Then, the dragon’s voice was heard again, a voice that pierced directly into my brain. 『Your deaths.』 Words forged with mana bound our entire bodies. 『Being crushed miserably, twisted in death.』 I could clearly see its words. Like a giant noose, it was coming towards us. It felt like a great death was approaching. ‘Is there a way to avoid it…’ A death that cannot be resisted, a death that cannot be understood with my divine eyes, a death that cannot be countered with my divine eyes. A heresy that predates the Bytenian style of origin [Bytenian style of origin is a reference to a specific magic system or school of thought], so there was no way to respond. ‘There isn’t.’ I bit my lip, watching it slowly approach. And then. ‘Death.’ Just as those two words began to fill my head. Chi-i-i-i-ing-! From somewhere, the sound of metal scraping against metal was heard, the sound of a sword being drawn from its sheath. ‘This sound is…’ From somewhere, I had heard it before, a familiar sound of metal friction. “In the end, I’m going to have to bear this risk.” Following that friction, a voice that I had heard somewhere before was heard. “That’s why I said it would be better to take care of it.” A familiar voice and a familiar way of speaking. But, something was awkward. It was definitely familiar, but something didn’t fit. “Don’t blame it on me. This is entirely your fault.” The voice and the way of speaking were definitely familiar when considered separately, but when they were heard together, it was very awkward. Immediately after that, something passed through my body, an intangible energy, whether it was sword energy or mana, I couldn’t tell. It passed through my body. Swish-! It cut the noose of death that was approaching. ‘This is…’ It didn’t stop even after cutting through the death that I had declared could never be stopped. ‘This sword is…’ I know this sword. I know the sword that can cut through everything, the sword above all others. ‘Mind… Sword?’ I slowly turned my head and looked in the direction where the voice had come from. A blue robe with a unique cross-shaped emblem. The face of the person wielding the sword under the fluttering robe came into view. “Stay there and reflect for a while—” The face of the person I had been searching for for two and a half years. “—Sophia Anescheffri.” Sophia Anescheffri. Sophia was there, with an uncharacteristic expression and an uncharacteristic stiff tone, with a nostalgic atmosphere, standing proudly, holding an uncharacteristic sword.