The Rebirth Of The Hero’S Party’S Archmage [EN]: Chapter 152

152.

The Baelrisor River (Baelrisor; Lungs of Flame) was renowned for its extensive economic zone, stretching from its upper to lower reaches.

– “This river, which meanders greatly across the southern part of the Arkrad continent towards the sea, connects the northern republics with its waterways,” Fire Dragon Priestess, Friede, had explained.

Riverboats transported mountain products to the sea, while seagoing vessels brought marine products to the mountains, ensuring the Baelrisor River area was always bustling and prosperous.

Oltaaris, a fishing village nestled in the upper reaches where this riverine economic zone began, was incredibly lively even in the early dawn.

“……”

However, immediately upon entering the village, or even before fully crossing its threshold, an unpleasant sense of unease twisted in my stomach.

Unease?

No, was it déjà vu?

But what kind of déjà vu? The moment I crossed the stone bridge with Miria to head to the Oltaaris branch of the association, that unpleasant feeling crystallized into recognition.

“Hmph.”

It began with a man who brushed past me so closely that our coat collars intertwined, a strange smile plastered on his face.

My heart might have beat only twice.

Instinctively, I stopped walking as soon as I crossed the stone bridge. The man also halted about twenty paces away, at the bridge’s end on the opposite side. Simultaneously, the world seemed to slow to a stop.

“Come on, cheap price…….”

“Hey, hey…….”

“Mom, so…….”

The voices of fishermen haggling over the price of fish in the market, the shouts of children recklessly darting through the alleys, the harmonious whispers of a mother and daughter.

One by one.

All of it was cut off as if it were a fabricated illusion, and the village was enveloped in an eerily silent stillness.

“What are you doing standing there?”

Miria, who had been walking ahead and explaining the village to Aki, turned around, her voice the only sound echoing in this world where time seemed to have stopped.

Aki, sensing something amiss, trembled and hugged Miria tightly, baring her fangs.

About five seconds passed, and just as cold sweat beaded on my brow and trickled down the bridge of my nose, the man chuckled.

“Hehehehe, you remember it admirably. This great senior’s magic.”

Then, a woman wearing a dark blue robe emerged from the alley to the man’s right.

Wielding a living, wriggling whip seductively, a playful smile danced on her face. Among her comrades, she was known as Number 4.

“What is it~? You have a much cuter face than I thought. It’s too bad to kill you.”

As if to cut off our retreat, a black witch, her robe excessively large for her frame, appeared from behind.

Her attire was designed for quick changes, and she bore the number 5, bestowed upon her by the great Tureina.

“We’re on a mission, Velita. Don’t even think about doing anything weird.”

“I know~. I’m just saying.”

From that point on, everything felt like it happened in an instant, an explosion of chaos.

Witches wearing red conical hats burst through the dawn’s veil, surrounding us and menacingly brandishing their brooms.

If that was all, I wouldn’t have been surprised. The fisherman who had been cutting fish moments ago walked over unsteadily, still clutching his kitchen knife, and the children who had been running through the alleys approached with sharp stones in their hands.

“Thank you, Goblin Slayer. For bringing this guy according to the contract. I’ll pay you double the reward. If you feel like coming out of bed and playing, I’ll pay you triple.”

The man winked at Miria over my shoulder.

I didn’t look back.

Miria was silent for a moment, as if trying to grasp the situation, then tilted her head, answering coldly.

“What are you talking about? Who are you?”

“No way, why are you suddenly like this? After all we’ve been through.”

“Hey, you might not believe me, but I’ve never made a contract with someone like that. What I was talking about was─”

While Miria desperately protested, I didn’t press him for details. Instead, I glanced over my shoulder and chuckled.

Like Rista had done for me a long time ago.

“─I know everything. Don’t worry.”

And before those words were even finished, I focused magic into both eyes. The world, which had been dim with the light of dawn, lost its color and turned into a list of numbers.

The negative energies, invisible to ordinary eyes, were clearly captured, coiling around people’s brains and souls with tentacles, or something akin to tentacles. A 3-star possession spirit, huh?

I used to struggle just to eliminate twenty of them, but now I have more than enough magic even if I blow away a hundred at once.

“Bell Querious.”

The space around me trembled faintly, and then a red wave exploded. Soundless screams erupted from all directions in that wave.

The possession spirits, which had been shoving tentacles covered in disgusting mucus and membranes into their eye sockets, nostrils, and mouths, simultaneously sobbed as they were engulfed in the flames of transcendence.

The moment they touched the wave of that flame, people fell onto the stone floor one after another like puppets with their strings cut.

‘The 7th’s possession technique……?’

‘In one go?’

The moment Number 5 threw off her robe, her body swelled up enormously. Fur and claws sprouted, and she drooled from her terrifying maw.

“I’ll stop this guy, go!”

As Miria shouted, drawing her sword, I reached out into the air as I dashed forward.

The ancient flame that burned the darkness of dimensions was constructed in the form of a staff. The target was Number 7, the owner of the possession spirit.

The distance closed in an instant, and I tried to crush the man’s head, combining the reverberation of inertia created by stepping on the ground with my waist and arm strength all into one.

Whirrrrr!

A sound that sharply struck the air was heard, and suddenly something wrapped around my neck.

“Where are you looking!”

A sinister sound resonated from my cervical vertebrae as the force strangled my breath and pulled me towards the outer wall.

I might have died like that.

If I hadn’t lowered my head in that instant and disrupted the strange power emanating from the whip with Bell Querious.

“Huh? The real magic just disappears?”

Bell Querious eliminates the power but cannot interfere with the entity. In other words, the object trying to pull me to the wall and break my neck was still there.

“P, P…… Pippi───!”

The moment I managed to force out a voice, the Sun Parakeet [a brightly colored bird] that was protecting Aki spread its wings of flame and rushed towards the whip’s wielder.

“What is this bird?!”

The opponent seemed flustered by Pippi’s counterattack, and the whip’s restraint loosened slightly.

That gap.

That momentary gap.

The moment I broke the magic circle on my palm while escaping the whip, swish, the flame ran like a snake along the whip, aiming for the hand holding the handle.

“──!”

Form 2, Wolf [a fighting stance].

A stance preparing for a counterattack.

The moment I lowered the end of the staff and kicked off the ground, I deflected the whip that flew again and immediately broke the magic circle on my palm.

Deploying the flames of annihilation in a specific coordinate like a prison, leaving no room to escape.

The moment the man tried to respond by chanting, the staff that I thrust out with all my might pierced his neck and slammed him into the outer wall with a bang.

The last tremor of life was transmitted harshly through the staff to my palm, then stopped abruptly.

“What a pathetic junior. You’re trying to save morons who have no value whatsoever when you’re in a situation where you can barely take care of yourself?”

At that time, four magic circles were woven instantly from both palms of Number 7, faster than anything I had ever seen in my life.

“If you had swept the area with that flame, we could have all been finished.”

I doubted my eyes.

He’s using 4-star magic with double casting? That fast?

“You don’t have even a speck of qualification. A guy who gets caught up in shallow emotions like you doesn’t deserve to use those eyes.”

The moment the magic circle broke with a squelching sound, a slimy substance wriggling with a disgusting color bound my limbs and tightened my breath. Simultaneously, a sphere emitting a bizarre and strange odor flew towards me.

Was it a highly corrosive liquid that could melt a human body in an instant?

Just when I thought my breathing was recovering, I was suffocated again. Because blood was not being supplied to my head, I couldn’t pierce through the two magics with Bell Querious…….

Then there is only one way.

It may be a suicidal move, but this is the only thing I can use in a fleeting moment that is not even 1 second.

Magic deployment.

The sensation of deploying magic widely outside the body… the sensation of pulling the infinite power that springs from within the body, the source of transcendence that runs wild, out of the body.

Just like Shar’Kars had done before, I overlay the same image onto reality as it is. No skill or art is needed, just a simple image of overwhelming power pressing down.

At that moment, the dimension around me seemed to twist in countless mirages, and the ancient flame swirled like a storm, burning the power of negation that was about to engulf my body.

“Hmm……?!

The power that had been shuddering throughout the area was reduced to ashes as if it were a lie, and an enormous heat swirled. Number 7’s eyes narrowed as he raised both arms in front of his face in that heat.

“A flame storm, is it……?”

That guy didn’t use any magic just now. He couldn’t have used it.

But what the hell is it?

Then does that mean he deployed magic as flame? That moment of bewilderment decided the match.

“───?!

Jesersweran [a type of binding magic]. Chains of clear flame soared from the ground, piercing Number 7’s soul. The runes engraved on the chains bind all powers and abilities.

“This is…….”

That magic that that smart junior used 300 years ago… In the end, he died by my hand, but thinking about it again, he was a precious guy.

‘Come to think of it, everything from start to finish is somehow strange…….’

This kid, is he a follower of Lynn?

The fact that he uses staff techniques and uses this magic, but as far as I know, only Tureina knows how to use that magic?

So Tureina only taught the method to that brat Rivadin, who she made with human transmutation…….

Kaaaaang!

Meanwhile, on the other side of the bridge, where countless sparks were flying and claws and blades were clashing in succession, the eyes of Number 5, whose body had transformed into a beast, narrowed.

Number 4 is dead and Number 7 is incapacitated… Here, I have no choice but to prioritize the goal that that person gave me.

If it’s the amplified leg strength while wearing the body of a beast, I can secure that baby dragon in one step and get out of the village in the next three steps.

The baby dragon can’t resist, and neither the dragon’s protector nor that Goblin Slayer can react to this speed……?

Her face was slammed into the ground.

Miria threw a hooked steel rope and pulled her, but it didn’t make sense. Can she overwhelm the power of this state right now? That silver-ranked adventurer?

No, wait a minute.

It’s strange. It’s strange.

The body, the body that had been transformed by magic, had returned to human form at some point. A flame that could not be seen or extinguished, along with the pain that surged from the lungs.

At that time, the last thing she saw was an object with golden, red, and crimson colors flickering in front of her eyes. The staff that Rein threw with all his might shattered her skull and scattered her brain fluid everywhere.

The staff soon engulfed that head in flames, and at the same time, it scattered red particles and disappeared.

“A, a, auuuu……!”

“Aki! It’s okay, um, it’s okay.”

Only after seeing Miria holding and comforting Aki, who had burst into tears, did a sigh of relief escape me.

One knee was bent in the midst of the continuous strain, but still, because all the situations had been resolved, I had the leeway to look back at the man whose soul was bound by chains.

I said, organizing my slightly rapid breathing.

“I have a few things to ask before I kill you.”