The Return of The Mythical Archmage [EN]: Chapter 415

The next destination was set.

“We need to find the Saint Relic of Mora, the Goddess of Time.”

Mora, the Goddess of Time.

We had to find her Saint Relic and ask for her help.

That was the only way to overcome this inexplicable situation.

“The Goddess of Time…”

Mimir nodded, looking like she understood.

“Right. That’s a good idea. If it’s a god who controls time, seeing the past would be easy for her.”

“Yeah. If it’s Mora, she’ll be able to find out what happened between the End God and the Incarnation.”

Mimir’s eyes sparkled.

“Good. Let’s find Mora, hear about the past, and get some time magic while we’re at it.”

The benefits of finding Mora weren’t just information.

Mora was the Goddess of Time who controlled time.

If we could find her and get her help, we could obtain the mythical magic of ‘time’.

“The key is where and how to find Mora…”

Mimir was lost in thought.

“That’s the problem.”

I was lost in thought, just like Mimir.

It was good to set the goal of finding Mora.

But I didn’t know how to find her.

“Miho probably hasn’t seen her either, right?”

“Probably not. There wasn’t a magic called ‘Mora’ among the mythical magics that Father used.”

Miho could only find things she had seen in the past through her soul sensing.

She couldn’t find things she had never seen before.

“Of course, there won’t be any information about Mora in the Dante Roa’s Grimoire either.”

“No, there won’t.”

Miho not knowing meant that my teacher didn’t possess Mora.

There was no way my teacher would have left a record of Mora in the Dante Roa’s Grimoire [a magical book passed down through generations].

“What should we do?”

I couldn’t think of any way.

How should we find Mora?

“I do have one idea.”

“…You do?”

There was a way?

“What is it?”

“Mythical magic. Finding Phinis.”

“…Phinis?”

It was the name of one of the mythical magics my teacher used.

“It was definitely the magic of boundaries and gaps… right?”

“That’s right.”

Phinis, the god of boundaries and gaps.

The mythical magic Phinis, which honed her power, had the power to break all the boundaries of this world and create gaps.

…or so it was written in a certain book.

“Was there any connection between Phinis and Mora?”

As far as I knew, the god Mora didn’t appear in the legends of Phinis.

“I don’t know about the connection. There wasn’t anything recorded in the legends.”

“…Then why?”

But why was Phinis the key to finding Mora?

Why did we have to find Phinis?

“The mythical magic Phinis has a little bit of ‘time attribute’ mixed in.”

“In Phinis?”

That was news to me.

“The time magic that Father used was derived from Phinis.”

“…That’s even more news to me.”

I knew that my teacher had dealt with time.

Although it wasn’t perfect, it was recorded in the literature that he was able to stop time to some extent.

It wasn’t surprising that my teacher dealt with time magic.

‘Time magic was derived from the magic of boundaries and gaps?’

What surprised me was the story behind the birth of time magic.

The magic of boundaries and gaps, Phinis.

A mythical magic that didn’t seem to have any connection to time, no matter how I thought about it.

That time magic was derived from that magic.

It felt like hearing that a pig gave birth to a cow.

“I don’t know what kind of connection there is between Phinis and time magic. I just know it from what I’ve heard.”

“…You mean you heard it directly from my teacher?”

“Yeah.”

Mimir stared blankly into the air.

“A long time ago. The day I saw Father use time magic, I asked him about it.”

She smiled bitterly.

It was a smile that seemed to recall her immature past.

“Anyway… there’s a definite link between Phinis and time magic.”

“…It seems so.”

There was no way my teacher would have lied to Mimir.

If he didn’t want to answer, he wouldn’t have answered, but he wasn’t the type to lie.

“So that’s why you said we had to find Phinis.”

“Yeah. The fact that it’s related to time magic means that there’s a high probability that there’s some kind of relationship between Phinis and Mora.”

“…That’s highly likely.”

Phinis might know how to find Mora.

“Then let’s get Phinis first.”

We would get Phinis and then ask about Mora.

This was the best option among the options we could choose right now.

* * *

After that, I went outside to find Phinis.

“Miho.”

I left the site of Hallamanium and called Miho.

Miho, who had grown into a full-fledged adult, stood tall in front of me.

“I’m counting on you.”

Miho nodded as if to say, ‘Leave it to me.’

Kieeeing-!

An intangible energy emanated from Miho’s body and scattered in all directions.

The power of the soul that Miho wielded.

By scattering it into the world, she was sensing specific spiritual vibrations.

Prick!

Miho’s ears perked up.

“…Did you find it already?”

Miho’s ears perking up was a sign that she had found what she was looking for.

Miho looked at me and nodded.

Whoooong-!

The intangible energy that had been emitted began to be absorbed back into Miho’s body.

The energy that had spread out into the world in an instant was gathered back to Miho in an instant.

It was an incredible speed that couldn’t be achieved with mana.

‘As her tail grew to eight, her soul detection speed also increased tremendously.’

Compared to before, it seemed to be more than 10 times faster.

Before, she couldn’t even spread her energy throughout the world.

Now, she could cover the world in less than 20 seconds.

It was a truly remarkable growth.

“Where is it?”

Miho slowly approached me and pressed her cheek against mine.

At that moment, Miho’s thoughts began to flow into my head.

‘This is…’

What Miho had seen and confirmed was being visualized and flowing into my head.

It was an amazing experience.

“…You can do this now too.”

I knew that I could read her thoughts to some extent, or share her senses and emotions.

But I didn’t know that she could convey what she had seen in this way.

The soul was something I couldn’t understand.

“Where is it?”

While I was admiring Miho’s mysterious power.

Mimir asked me.

“Unfortunately, it’s not in an easy place to find.”

If possible, I had hoped it would be in an easy place to find.

It seemed like a pipe dream.

“Phinis is in West Africa.”

“…Of all places?”

“Yeah.”

Far from being in an easy place to find, it was in the most difficult place to find.

“Of all places, Africa. Of all places, the west…”

The most dangerous land in the world.

A place filled with thick miasma [a noxious or poisonous atmosphere] , so much so that it couldn’t even be detected by satellites.

That was West Africa.

“The schedule will be longer.”

I had planned to finish it within two days at the latest.

It seemed like that would be a bit difficult.

* * *

After that, we immediately moved to the African continent.

The movement itself wasn’t very difficult.

Now that I could control shadows without any restrictions due to my contract with Umbra, distance was no problem.

I easily rode the shadows and moved to the African continent.

“…It’s worse than I heard.”

The problem was after the move.

It was now.

“Successor. How long do you think you can last in there?”

“Well, if I really push it, maybe two days? I’m not confident beyond that, to be honest.”

West Africa.

A land of death filled with miasma and poison.

Even if it was me, I wasn’t confident that I could last more than two days in there.

“Two days won’t be enough to finish all the search at once.”

“It’s impossible in one go.”

We had to search this place by going back and forth with a gap of about a day.

If we pushed ourselves too hard, we could be consumed by the poison and an irreversible situation could occur.

“Then shall we set a base of one day and make a search plan?”

“Hmm… no. Please make it 12 hours.”

“12 hours? Why?”

“If we were just searching, 24 hours would be plenty…”

I answered, staring beyond the barrier of poison and miasma.

“I don’t think there won’t be any battles in there.”

Because of the miasma and poison, it was difficult to sense the mana inside, so I couldn’t say for sure.

But there would be monsters inside.

Assuming that a battle would occur, 12 hours would be tight.

“Okay. Then 12 hours is right. Let’s set the initial plan to 12 hours and increase it little by little depending on the internal situation.”

“That would be better.”

Mimir nodded and immediately started making a map.

She was creating a search route based on Miho’s soul detection.

…

Miho made a dejected sound with a sorry expression.

‘I wish I could have detected it more accurately. I’m sorry.’

That’s what Miho was saying.

“No, it’s not your fault that the inside is a mess. It’s amazing that you didn’t miss Phinis’s location.”

I stroked Miho’s head. Miho cried as if she was happy.

“Okay. I’ve got a rough estimate.”

Mimir, who had quickly created a search map, approached me and displayed a hologram map in front of my eyes.

“There are many shortcomings because there’s a lack of terrain data for West Africa. But it shouldn’t be a big problem.”

“…It seems so.”

The route was quite clean.

If we proceeded like this, there wouldn’t be any major problems.

It was a map that gave me that confidence.

“Then let’s go.”

I put the map in my head and closed the hologram map program.

“Miho, then go back for a while.”

The miasma and poison were so thick that it was hard to protect even my own body.

If I had to cover Miho as well, I wouldn’t be able to last even 6 hours, let alone 12 hours.

…

Miho looked at me with a displeased expression, as if she didn’t like something.

She didn’t want to go back like this.

That’s what Miho’s eyes were saying.

She was worried about me going to a dangerous place to search.

“I’ll call you right away if I need help.”

I stroked Miho’s head again and said.

I knew how she felt, but there was nothing I could do.

The Divine Beast Gumiho [a mythical nine-tailed fox].

The guardian of the soul had the characteristic of being greatly affected by the surrounding environment.

This place, filled with miasma and poison, was the opposite of Miho.

…

Miho lowered her head with a helpless expression.

Miho herself knew that she couldn’t last in there.

Miho leaned her body against me as if she was hugging me for the last time.

Miho’s worries were conveyed to me.

“Okay. I’ll be careful.”

I reassured Miho once again.

Miho slowly moved away from me.

“See you later.”

She took a step back from me and sat down.

And the next moment, Miho’s body was enveloped in transparent energy.

And the next moment, Miho disappeared.

She had returned to the Dante Roa’s Grimoire.

“Let’s go.”

I confirmed that Miho had returned safely and moved my feet towards my destination.

“Successor. Be careful. It’s ominous from the very beginning.”

One step, one step.

With each step I took, the miasma became thicker.

I hadn’t even entered properly yet, but I was already out of breath.

‘…I should gather air from here and go.’

I was going to use it after getting a little closer.

But it seemed right to make it now.

I applied wind magic to compress as much air as possible.

The air was compressed to the size of a tennis ball.

I held the air in my hand and brought it to my mouth.

“Hoo.”

My breathing became much easier.

With this, my worries about breathing were gone.

‘Let’s go.’

I took another step.

About 5 minutes later.

The moment I stepped into West Africa.

Whoooooooosh-!

Suddenly, the miasma and poison began to expand as if they were exploding.