The Rebirth Of The Hero’S Party’S Archmage [EN]: Chapter 129

129

As Shar’kas extended his right hand, grotesque spiderwebs sprouted not only from his fingertips but also from his back and waist, wriggling like wings and tails.

Shar’kas didn’t rush or show impatience. He simply walked with the dignity of an ancient royal.

Yet, no one could stop his advance. In fact, most were paralyzed by primal fear, unable to move.

“Light of Radiance, Shalwen.”

Frisvia had personally excavated relics of the gods, mastered their use, and equipped them.

The reactor now revealed as Frisvia’s mechanical breastplate opened, exposing a pure white core that emitted a dazzling beam of light.

It was a legendary light said to incinerate everything, turning it to ash, but when Shar’kas waved his hand… Huh?

Chachachachachachachang────!

The light scattered wildly along dozens of spiderwebs, piercing and instantly killing three hapless warriors and one adventurer.

“!”

Frisvia’s eyes widened slightly. ‘Amazing, can those spiderwebs deflect the very concept of power itself?’

‘Heh, I’ll find out by testing it myself.’

Frisvia charged at Shar’kas, dodging, evading, and avoiding the tentacle-like spiderwebs as she approached.

“Then, what about point-blank range?”

She tried to kick Baek Do-ryeong’s head, but Shar’kas casually extended his hand and effortlessly caught her foot.

However, as if that too was part of Frisvia’s plan, a hatch opened on her knee armor, revealing a muzzle where light was concentrated.

“Baptism of Dawnlight, Garinbella.”

Oh, ohhhhh… The warriors and adventurers marveled at her seasoned combat sense, while.

「Insignificant. A half-baked creature made by Karenden.」

Shar’kas’s spiderwebs ensnared Frisvia’s leg, forcibly twisting it at the hip joint with a sickening crack, turning the muzzle towards Frisvia.

Her body would have been annihilated by the light that incinerated the air as it was fired.

If Frisvia hadn’t severed her own leg at that very moment and rolled backward. Blood spurted as her leg flew off.

“L, Leader!”

As her mercenary band rushed forward to protect her, Shar’kas smirked as if he had just thought of something amusing.

「Very well, shall we play soldiers for a change?」

Suddenly, half of the warriors and adventurers surrounding Baek Do-ryeong began to move their joints stiffly.

“……?”

“……?”

“……?”

The next moment, they began attacking those who had been their friends, family, and comrades until just now, with horrified expressions.

The warriors were accustomed to fighting against the Abyss, but this situation was….

When someone becomes a zombie, the expression disappears from their face. The skin all over the body rots, and the king’s mark appears here and there on the flesh.

Therefore, they can be struck down without hesitation because they believe that is the way to give them rest.

But this is… the ones attacking them right before their eyes are definitely alive. Living friends who retain their reason.

「Aha ha ha ha, always a spectacle to behold…!」

Amid Shar’kas’s wicked laughter, beastmen’s claws pierced the hearts of their friends, and fangs tore at the necks of their comrades.

It was a hellscape, a hellish realm so gruesome and cruel that one could hardly bear to look.

Those controlled by the spiderwebs continued their mad dashes, even as their joints dislocated or twisted due to the unnatural movements.

“Alakish!”

As the blood staining the snowfield red emitted a mist, Gryphon finally set Rain down on the ground. Specifically, in front of Alakish.

“R, Rain…!”

Kasena, who had been watching the unbelievable carnage with a haunted expression, let out a moan of despair upon seeing the corpse of the boy with a pierced heart.

「Where, where is it… Where is Rain’s forehead?」

Alakish’s vision was already blackening, unable to distinguish anything around him.

Pipi flew urgently and desperately in front of him, guiding Alakish’s hand to Rain’s head with her sound and warmth.

In his dying breaths, Alakish pressed his forehead against the dragon egg for the last time, bid farewell, and then placed his hand on Kasena’s head.

「Do not grieve, for this is the final mission Karenden has ordained for me, Alakish…」

And after offering a final prayer to the heavens, he kissed Rain’s forehead. That was where the miracle began.

* * *

Did the gods have the same thoughts as they watched the twilight?

When my eyes, which I thought would never open again, fluttered open, what warmly colored my vision was a world of twilight.

Coming to this land from the monochrome, frigid land makes the sense of reality fade… I would like to say, but it is quite a familiar land.

‘Is this the Red Mountains?’

At least it could be said to be similar… To have this appear in the last moments of my life, did I like this place so much that I even have a sense of longing for it?

Still, it’s not bad.

With the warm spring sunshine pouring down, the trees rustling quietly, the insects chirping, and the birds singing, everything felt like a harmony.

「Not you, but this Alakish has always cherished and longed for the scenery of his homeland.」

A familiar voice returned, and when I turned around, I couldn’t help but smile. Bathed in the lonely twilight, Alakish was looking at me.

“I guess I liked Alakish more than I thought.”

「Hmm?」

“Maybe it’s because I’ve lived a more difficult life than I look, but I really liked this story. The story that when a person dies, the people who went ahead come out to greet them.”

It would be a lie to say that I had never stayed up all night thinking about who would come out.

If Rista had come out, it would have been very noisy. What kind of life did you live, who did you like, what places did you go to… She would have asked endlessly about this and that, so I would have been the first to get tired.

If Freede had come out, we might have had a few playful conversations before he suddenly blew out a puff of cigarette smoke and said, “You lived hard!” making me startled.

If Keyes had come out, we would have laughed together for a long time without saying a word to each other. Just like when I met Pipi.

If Turayna came out, it would have been a bit awkward. My disciple lived for over three hundred years after dying and achieved even greater feats than me, so what would I say? We would have only been embarrassed.

If Headmaster Ajumma [Korean for ‘aunt’ or ‘middle-aged woman,’ often used as a term of endearment or familiarity] and the schoolmates of the school came out together… I might not have been able to hide my tears then.

“But Alakish came out. I never imagined it, but it’s not bad.”

As the words I couldn’t say and the things I couldn’t do in this life came to mind, it was true that I felt a deep regret, but it was also true that I felt a strange sense of relief that it was all over.

It’s over now.

Now I can go too.

I gave up on following them by giving up my own life because I didn’t know what I would hear, but if it ends like this, well….

「A face full of regrets about the life you’ve lived.」

“……”

「Stop it. You haven’t lived enough to have such regrets yet.」

I thought he was making a clumsy joke and gave a weak smile, but Alakish’s expression was not joking.

「You asked this Alakish to go south with you, didn’t you? When I heard your words then… I felt revived. My dying heart.」

“Yes…?”

「Going south with my daughter, to the homeland where my people are. Just dreaming about it made me feel happy for the first time in a long time, heh heh heh.」

As Alakish smiled brightly, for some reason, my heart ached as if it were being torn apart, and my eyes turned red.

「This is a deal, Rain Ludwig. I will give you my soul. In return, can you actually show my daughter that dream?」

“Alakish, what are you saying…?”

「It’s you. You are the only one I can entrust my daughter to. Only you, who knows how to shed tears for the beastmen and told me to go south with you. Other than you, whom Karenden himself chose and called.」

With those words, the outline of Alakish turning around blurred like mist in a dream.

No, not only Alakish but also this twilight mountain range, the entire appearance of the homeland that Alakish had longed for all his life, began to fade.

Only my form was intact there, and feeling a strange anxiety, I urgently called Alakish’s name.

「The name of this Alakish’s daughter is Akiraea. It means freedom. Now I entrust everything to you, so that the child can live a life that fits her name…」

When that voice came out of my mouth, the world of dreams disappeared like morning mist, and the cruel snowfield empire once again spread out vast and uncontrollably.

“Rain….”

Kasena’s tearful voice awakened my hearing.

Kasena’s figure, hugging Alakish’s body and sobbing with a comfortable smile on his face as if he had accomplished everything, awakened my sight.

And the warmth of Pipi, who landed on my shoulder and frantically flapped her wings and rubbed her head, awakened my sense of touch.

“Ah….”

When I blankly lowered my gaze, I saw that the wound near my heart, which had clearly been pierced, had completely healed.

And from within, I could clearly feel the beating of a heart pulsating with a power I had never felt before.

The magic circulating within my body was not freezing cold but as hot as flames. The core of overwhelming and absolute power, not allowed to humans, was sending the energy of transcendence throughout my body.

When I pressed my chest hard with my clearly severed right hand, a quiet sob leaked out from the end of a sad relationship.

“Alakish….”

At that very moment, a flame was drawn long in the air, and soon it was concentrated into a clear form, revealing a mystical figure.

It was a staff with four rings symbolizing the four forms of fire, the Four-Ring Staff.

The staff part gleamed with an impermanent gray color like ashes, while the metal part with the shape of a dragon shone majestically in gold like a living flame, then sparkled in vermilion, and rippled in crimson.

The Orb of Power.

It is said to be the authority that Karenden breathed into the souls when he created the Dragon race, and the power contained within is close to infinite.

The last step the Feyguerrers take when performing human body modification is to receive this Orb of Power from the Yellow Dragon and imbue it into their souls.

The moment I carefully reached out my hand trembling with sorrow and grasped that noble soul.

“……This time, let’s fight together.”

The ancient flames surged fiercely, burning the dark clouds that had been endlessly snowing on this empire of impiety and opening a path of light in the night sky.

「───?!」

The snow clouds that covered the sky were, of course, not a natural phenomenon but the providence of power derived from madness.

It was not something that could be burned by human fire or pierced by mortal light.

Therefore, the moment Shar’kas saw Rain walking out from within that raging flame, the smile disappeared from his lips, and terror surged in his mind.

「You… How are you alive?」

The boy did not respond to that empty question. Instead, he simply glanced around lightly.

With the eyes of a divine actor with seven petals in full bloom.

Then, the spiderwebs that had been adorning the sky with countless numbers were engulfed in flames… and the bodies of the warriors who had been engaged in fratricidal tragedy collapsed to the ground.

‘My authority in an instant…?’

He must have consumed a corresponding amount of power to burn all those spiderwebs, but why isn’t there a sign of fatigue on that guy’s face?

I shouldn’t have been so flustered.

I shouldn’t have given the boy time to form the transcendent hand seal by planting the Fire Staff into the ground.

“Mind Construction.”

The hand seals constructed by reverently clasping both hands are three:

Ra (羅) [Net].

Gyeong (警) [Warning].

Hwa (火) [Fire].

As light shines in the world of darkness, the achromatic realm that had dominated this vast white world begins to be devoured greedily by the light of extreme colors.

“Fire Mirror: Wandering World Honored One (火警 : 流量世尊).”

First, a massive amount of magic power is rapidly concentrated, and then a ring of fire centered on me spreads to a radius of 3 meters. And in the very center, the rune of Hwa (火) is engraved, scattering sparks.

「That character is definitely Karenden’s…?」

The eight elements that form the basis of magic—Fire (火), Water (水), Earth (土), Wind (風), Ice (氷), Iron (鐵), Poison (毒), and Lightning (雷)—all exist as runes themselves.

When magic is combined with these runes, called ‘Root Runes,’ transcendent attribute energy is granted, but it was not a power that mortals could dare to handle.

The only Root Rune that Lynn could handle was Lightning (雷), which she used for Lightning Burst Bloodletting, and even the difficulty of using that Lightning (雷) was child’s play compared to Fire (火), the leader of the four major elements.

‘Because the amount of magic power required by the root is unreasonably enormous….’

The next moment, as fire spreads along the oil, the five triangles attached to the Hwa (火) circle sequentially rose from within the flames.

Yu (流) [Flow].

Lyang (量) [Quantity].

Se (世) [World].

Jon (尊) [Honored].

Gyeong (警) [Warning].

The ancient flames that flickered fiercely and licked their tongues illuminated this evil mystery’s polar region as a city that never sleeps, and Shar’kas’s body momentarily paused.

“Don’t miss it, Rain… I smell fear from Baek Do-ryeong Shar’kas right now!”

Gryphon, who saw something in that series of actions, shouted urgently, and Kasena, who had been blankly staring at the boy’s back, asked.

“The smell of fear?”

“Something that a frightened prey emits. Something that is shed just before running away!”

Mortal beings are merely insignificant creatures swept away by the flow of cause and effect.

The immortal being who turns the wheel of such cause and effect has bestowed upon this Shar’kas the authority to reign at the pinnacle of all ecosystems.

That is a firm truth that no one in this land can deny… Is it possible that I, of all people, am feeling fear towards such a trivial being?

「Hoo, hoo hoo hoo hoo… Unbelievable. What are those things that are less than worms? This Shar’kas is running away?」

Crack, creak, snap… Suddenly, four pairs of eerily shaped bones like spider legs protruded from Shar’kas’s back.

From those four pairs of spider legs, a foul-smelling mucus flowed out, shimmering like an evil shadow.

At the same time, a repulsive and pale absolute abyssal power exploded, paralyzing the consciousness of all mortals around.

「If you’ve been revived once, you can just kill him again. It’s a simple problem.」

Primal fear was before my eyes.

Fear had the form of a boy with a mucus that instantly rots and melts everything in the world.

A nobleman from a forgotten era, one who was granted the power of transcendence by the old king….

「Close, Heavenly Net of Spiders (天羅蜘網).」

As that loathsome power of negation was divided into countless strands and swirled, space trembled, heaven and earth melted, and nature wept.

If it had been before, I wouldn’t have been able to withstand it for even a single second, but now I can see it. Now I can stand against that power.

In a sense of omnipotence as if swimming in a dream.

“Bell Curious.”