Regressor Of The Fallen Family [EN]: Chapter 303

It was so dark in the thick forest that even starlight could not get through. Figures ran quickly through the plants on the ground.

“Hah… hah!” The middle-aged man gasped for air. He wore old leather armor. “Bloody hell, how did I get into this mess?!” he groaned.

He carried a young man on his back. The young man wore fancy robes made of very expensive cloth. He was not moving. Even with his eyes closed, you could see his yellow skin and black hair. This was different from most people in this land and showed he was from the famous royal family of the empire.

For the middle-aged man, the young man was just heavy weight. But he was also very important. *I must protect the Second Prince, no matter what,* he thought. *He is the Emperor’s son. Only someone from the Emperor’s family can protect us from the Emperor’s enemies. He is our way to become powerful.*

*Is this even going to work?* he wondered. *We kidnapped the prince when he came to talk peace. Will he ever trust us?* He remembered hearing that their last job went very badly. *It will be a miracle if he doesn’t try to get revenge on us all when he wakes up.*

He knew a little about how the Emperor’s family acted because he had secretly worked as an officer in the Central Army. He didn’t trust them. *They are fools who think they are better than everyone, just because of the Emperor. They are full of pride but have no real skill.* Maybe the Emperor’s own family is different, but that could mean they are even worse. *This whole mission feels pointless. Why did I have to be the one to do this? Bloody hell!*

But in the ‘Tower’ where he worked, you had to obey orders completely. He had no choice.

– We found them!

– They are above us!

– Beep!

A whistle sound from below the mountain made him jump. He ran even faster. *Already?!* he thought, panicked. He knew exactly who was chasing them. The Imperial Inspection Department. He didn’t know who they worked for exactly, but he knew they were the best of the best. No matter how many times he tried to lose them, they kept following like death itself. He couldn’t understand how they kept finding him.

But the Inspection Department wasn’t the real danger. If they were here, it meant one of two terrible people was close: the Sword Demon, Tris Hornsby, or the Frostwind Sorcerer, Galen Dicaid. *Bloody monsters,* he thought, terrified. Even though he was strong, an Elder in the Tower, he knew he couldn’t beat either of them. He really didn’t want to find out which one was chasing him, but he soon had no choice.

Suddenly, the air around him felt like it turned into sharp knives, attacking him from everywhere. *Frostwind?!* he thought in horror. The wind blades were icy cold and blue, each one deadly.

*Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!* He gritted his teeth and quickly pulled out his sword.

*Wham!* His ‘grey’ Force Blade flashed out, blocking the wind blades all around him.

“Damn it!” he yelled. The loud noise would tell everyone where he was, but he had no other choice.

Even more terrifying, he saw the sorcerer in the sky, far away but looking right at him.

[Give me the Prince!]

*Zzzzzing!* “Ugh!” The magical message hit his ears like a punch, much stronger than most simple spells. His ears rang loudly. The sorcerer’s magic was amazing to reach him from so far away. But the real problem was… *I’m trapped. There’s no way out.*

If it was the Sword Demon chasing him, maybe he would have a small chance. He wasn’t a superhuman, but he had skills that even superhumans didn’t. These skills could sometimes be stronger than a superhuman’s power and could change the fight in unexpected ways. But against the Frostwind Sorcerer, shooting magic from above, he had no chance to escape.

*Then… we die together!* he decided. *I will take the Frostwind Sorcerer down with me.* It was unlikely to work, but maybe, just maybe. *Even if I fail to kill him, I can slow him down.* That would give his friends time to get the prince away. Determined, the middle-aged man threw the prince into the dark bushes. Then, he focused his grey magic inside him. *Berserk. Mind Control, target: wizard. Battle mode, ready.* He used a berserker spell to make himself much stronger, but not just crazy. And he used mind magic to make his anger focus only on the wizard. He also used the Tower’s secret magic, the Macro spell, which started pre-set battle spells automatically. His eyes started to become cloudy. At the same time, grey energy grew stronger in his body, and soon, three grey balls, as big as heads, floated around him, moving in strange circles.

Suddenly, a strong wind blew. In a blink, the sorcerer was standing in front of him. His hair was half-white, showing he was old, but his face still looked young. “Palman Lihalt, leader of a thousand soldiers in the Central Army… hmm?”

*Wham!* Galen’s calm words stopped as a Force Blade hit the barrier in front of him. The Force Blade burned like fire. At the same time, black vines with thorns grew quickly from the ground where the sorcerer stood, wrapping around him. *Bzzzt!* Even as he saw his wind and ice barriers breaking, the sorcerer smiled, looking impressed. “Oh? A master swordsman, the best from the Cassel Magic Tower? I’ve never met one before.”

“Grrrr.” Palman just growled like an animal. He didn’t care about the sorcerer’s words.

*Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Wham!* His sword moved incredibly fast. At the same time, the three grey balls around him shot out clouds of poison that made it hard to see, or made thorny vines grow, or sent bolts of black lightning. They attacked again and again. Galen Dicaid frowned a little. “Giving in to madness? Interesting that you can still use magic, but in the end, it’s nothing compared to my amazing…”

*Thwack.* Galen’s relaxed face changed suddenly as a grey Force Blade got through his broken barrier.

*Wham!* Galen jumped back, surprisingly fast for a sorcerer. But now, his handsome face, now high in the air, had a small cut.

“Blood…?” He felt a tiny pain he hadn’t felt in years. Galen’s face became ugly when he touched his finger and saw red. “My precious blood!!!”

The Frostwind Sorcerer. The most powerful magic fighter in the Empire, who controlled wind and ice. People who knew him well also called him the Mad Narcissist. They said he was the best of the best mages, but also, like many mages, completely crazy. “I will rip you to pieces and kill you!” he screamed. His blue eyes rolled back so you could only see the whites. Suddenly, blue wind blades started spinning around Galen in a huge circle, a hundred meters wide. “Rip apart, freeze to ice!”

*Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!* “Kraaah!”

A howl echoed through the trees.

A sudden, strong wind ripped through the quiet forest in the dark night. Leaves rustled loudly, and small animals woke up, sensing danger. They scurried away into the shadows.

Palman had run straight into the attack. Now, bright red blood sprayed out from his body as he slammed onto the ground with a heavy thud.

Boom.

“Ugh, ugh…”

His entire body was covered in wounds, as if he had been hacked to pieces.

But with a groan, Palman staggered to his feet, his wounds healing rapidly.

And that only fueled Galen’s rage further.

“You endure? You actually endured!? How dare you, you stubborn insect!”

With a roar that shook the air, a storm of blue frost began to pour down around Palman, who had barely managed to stand.

Kwa kwa kwa kwa kwa kwa.

It was magic, like a super-powerful ice spell, much stronger than normal. Ice exploded everywhere for a moment.

Saaaaaaah.

The midsummer forest had been transformed into a wasteland, struck by an unseasonal midwinter cold. And in the center of it stood Palman, turned into a transparent ice statue.

“Kahaha! Serves you right, you trash!”

Clang.

Perhaps it was the vibrations caused by the laughter.

Even though everything else was destroyed, Palman’s ice statue stayed standing for a moment. Then, it broke into tiny pieces.

At that moment.

“This one’s even crazier than I heard.”

A chilling voice echoed through the ruined space, and Galen’s mad laughter ceased abruptly.

“Have you forgotten why you were chasing after that child? If I hadn’t been here, this child would have died a meaningless death, tsk tsk.”

With a clicking of his tongue, an old man revealed himself.

His face was covered in lines, like a dried fruit. He was small, the kind you might commonly see in the rural areas of the southern continent.

His clothes were ripped and patched, barely covering his thin body. They were so thin that they made you feel cold even in the middle of summer, and he looked so frail that he seemed as if he would crumble at any moment.

A young man floated in the air next to the old man. He was much bigger than the old man, and they looked like they were not connected.

However, Galen, knowing that this could not possibly be the case, could not help but wear a hardened expression.

“…Who are you?”

“Me? The person you and that old man Triss are chasing after.”

At those words, Galen’s face froze over as if covered in frost.

“The Archmage of Kassel?”

“That’s what they call me.”

“You’re the ‘Snake Who Swallowed the Truth’?”

“Ho. You know that saying too? You’re not like the youngsters these days.”

“Ha…”

Youngster.

The old man’s words treated him like a child.

Normally, Galen would have flown into a rage, but he simply glared at the old man with cold eyes.

“To think you’d show your face in front of me. You’ve got guts.”

“I should have come sooner. Because I didn’t, I lost a precious child. Tsk tsk. That Dark Sword lived up to his name.”

“Dark Sword?”

“You don’t even know who gave him the order? You don’t know as much as your reputation suggests.”

Galen’s face hardened even more at the old man’s words, as he grinned, revealing his yellowed teeth.

“Old man, your tongue is filthier than you look. Let’s see how long you can keep talking.”

White energy surged from Galen’s entire body, and a brilliant white light began to form in the air.

Naturally, everyone’s attention was drawn to it.

Crack.

The old man took a small step.

With a faint noise erupting from beneath his feet, the bluish energy that had risen near the old man shattered like a broken window.

“Kuh…”

At the same time, Galen’s body, which had been floating in the air, trembled, and a faint trickle of blood flowed from the corner of his mouth.

“…I thought you were just crazy, but you’re also insidious. Was that insane appearance just an act?”

The old man’s face, which had seemed ordinary and aged, was now set with a sneer.

But Galen could no longer laugh as he had before.

A situation where his trump card had been shattered by a light move.

“Don’t be ridiculous!”

The mage with the distorted expression began to emit white and blue radiance from his entire body.

And it soon turned into a transparent, cold storm that began to sweep through the area.

Kwa kwa kwa kwa kwa kwa kwa.

The transparent wind became a storm of tiny, invisible blades, turning everything it passed into dust.

A wind that scraped away everything.

If the enemy was a small number of strong individuals, it would use concentrated destructive power; if it was a large army, it would use a range attack that defied common sense.

Galen used his special, secret magic. This magic was made to be useful in any situation. It turned everything in the frozen forest into dust.

But.

“Is this the famous Gale Force?”

A leisurely voice echoed from within it.

An old, raspy voice that cut through the noise of the raging storm.

As Galen’s expression hardened at the strange and bizarre situation, a black ray of light split the air like lightning from the center of the Gale Force.

Skkkk.

“Cough!?”

Blood gushed from Galen’s right chest as he reflexively tilted his upper body.

At the same time, the wind that had been raging as if to obliterate the forest slowly subsided.

“You dodged?”

And within it, the old man reappeared, sounding surprised.

Even though he had inflicted a serious wound on someone who was among the top fighters in the Empire, the old man clicked his tongue as if he was not satisfied.

And Galen, who had unknowingly escaped death, blankly asked, forgetting even the pain.

“Could it be… a Grand Mage?”

“Grand Mage? Real Grand Mages would laugh at that title.”

“What…”

“If the real Grand Mages from before the ‘Great Migration’ saw you, they would be ashamed. Of course…”

“That’s…”

“But you are much worse.”

With a cold sneer, a pitch-black darkness began to engulf Galen’s surroundings.

And Galen’s face turned pale as he realized the change only after the old man’s expression had changed.

“Aaaaargh!”

With a sound that was neither a shout nor a scream, the blue and white radiance surged once more.

But that auspicious light gradually lost its brilliance to the darkness that swallowed everything.