The Rebirth Of The Hero’S Party’S Archmage [EN]: Chapter 156

156

“Rin, Rain, Rin, emergency, emergency, super-emergency!”

Before I knew it, Pipi was circling above my head, warning me of the approaching enemy threat from beyond the thick fog.

I could feel hostile presences all around… but I couldn’t use Bell Siderius. Just like then, this fog is interfering with everything.

If this is how they seal Bell Siderius and Bell Quirius, then I just need to find another way.

“Mind Construction… Hwagyung, Yuryang Sejon.”

A large fire rune spread out on the ground centered around me, and then triangles containing runes floated up in sequence at the five cardinal points of the magic circle.

Flow (Yoo).

Quantity (Ryang).

World (Se).

Venerable (Jon).

Alert (Kyung).

The mind rune to use is Quantity, and the magic I want is a detection spell to clear away this fog. Soon, the runes of Search (Tam) and Capture (Po) flashed in the Ryang formation.

“Deploy….”

A sensation of extending the five senses, extracting magical power out of the body and deploying it widely. Detecting the presence of other powers filled with murderous intent.

Soon, vague outlines began to be captured in the fog. Seven witches unfurling scrolls and chanting, amplifying the power of the spell by reciting all the verses of the Dragon Mirror.

Hundreds of ice spikes, born from the magnificent array of characters, flew in unison with sharp, piercing sounds.

“Rune Inscription Conversion… Rend (Yeol), Explode (Jak).”

The moment the Ryu rune flashed, the wave of other power detection, which had been wriggling like a heat haze, spread out over a radius of 30 meters and transformed into a fierce blaze.

The ice spikes and fog in the area were completely vaporized, creating a tremendous amount of steam, and the witches caught in the middle were engulfed in flames, screaming in agony before collapsing into charred lumps.

At that moment, the boy had to clutch his Ju Gyeol [a magical artifact] near his shoulder blade with a short groan.

‘Magical power depletion…?’

The Yeouiju [a wish-granting orb]’s infinite magical power resonated with Heuk Yang-rin, immediately injecting new power into my body, but it was an extremely strange phenomenon.

‘I think it was like this when I used Bell Quirius during [the previous battle]. Is it because of this fog?’

There was no time to dwell on it.

As the stench of sulfur and the reek of burning flesh permeated the fog, I supported myself with the Four Illusory Kings and stood up.

“Which, which way, Pipi… Aki, Miria…?”

I asked, spitting up blood once more.

I felt the dull pain of the transcendent flame flickering inside my skin, reassembling broken ribs and regenerating severely damaged internal organs.

It was closer to an emergency measure that the power of transcendence manifested to protect my weak body, a level of regeneration that was shameful compared to ultra-high-speed regeneration.

“North, north, north!”

The fog, evaporated by the heat, formed dew on the eyes of Friede’s marble statue holding a long pipe. As the dew flowed down like tears, the boy dragged his legs and came out onto the main street.

Then, footsteps echoed from somewhere again, spearmen poured out, and a flock of crows flew from the sky… Pipi spread its fiery wings and flew fiercely towards them.

“Go, go, go, go.”

Meanwhile, in the northern downtown area of the city, a squelching explosion soared once again, and a two-story brothel building melted down while burning.

Some citizens woke up from the commotion and squinted their eyes… but as an overwhelming murderous intent approached, suffocating them, they foamed at the mouth again and fainted.

Thus, a woman wearing a bamboo hat crossed through the gaps between the sleeping or convulsing citizens with a graceful gait.

“……”

After walking so leisurely for a while, the woman carefully listened to somewhere beyond the fog, suppressing even her own breathing and footsteps.

‘I hear it, a cry.’

The moment she pinpointed the direction, she stretched out her long pipe towards it, and the fog parted to both sides, engraving the source of the noise in her mind.

“Ah-bah… Ah-bah… Ah-bah….”

Hair the color of flames, or rather, the flames themselves, and golden eyes.

Even though it’s such a small body, the ultimate power that is faintly felt… there’s no need to consider other possibilities, it’s a True Dragon’s hatchling.

Left alone on the side of the road, desperately searching for its parents, crawling somewhere. The woman paused for a moment as she was about to move her feet towards it.

‘Why is the baby dragon alone? Where did the swordsman who was with the guardian go?’

He was right behind her.

An arrow might have pierced her neck, cutting through the gaps in the fog. If the woman hadn’t turned around and swung her long pipe at that moment.

Thus, a blade sprang out, aiming for the heart, targeting the flow of distorted breathing. He was a great assassin.

But when the woman reached out her hand, the power of the spell condensed at high speed in her grasp, taking the form of a staff… and the blade was deflected by the staff she thrust out while lowering her stance.

“……!”

Was it an unexpected counterattack? The eyes of the Goblin Slayer, who had popped out of the fog, widened.

If the magician from 300 years ago had seen this beautiful counterattack, he would have called it ‘Rin’s Staff Technique,’ and if a modern magician had witnessed it, he would have shouted ‘Osarius-style Staff Technique.’

It was no surprise. The woman was there when the great magician Rin was learning staff techniques from the hero Rista.

“No, you are….”

But the reason Miria was in a state of bewilderment was somewhere else…….

No.

This doesn’t make sense.

The woman’s appearance imprinted on her retina is so similar to the marble statue holding a long pipe and wearing an old bamboo hat just beyond her.

A national hero that the citizens of the Republic would know even if they didn’t want to… the Tobacco Ash Shaman, Tureina.

Apart from that, for some reason, a dizziness that seemed to resonate deep within her soul struck her mind. That moment of bewilderment determined the victory or defeat.

The moment the staff that the woman spun and thrust into the depths of Miria’s abdomen, the power of the spell concentrated at the end of the staff exploded and blew Miria away.

“───!”

Miria spat out blood as she smashed through the wooden frames of street stalls piled high with fruit, collapsed a wooden pillar, and crashed into the fruit flying around in a chaotic mess.

As the woman aimed her long pipe at her and quietly chanted a spell, the power of the spell became so fierce that it swirled the atmosphere, at that moment.

Immediately converting the runes invoked for attack into defensive runes, just as a square barrier spread around the woman, a torrent of fire rushed in.

Kwarurururu───!

The moment the fiercely raging power of the fire was offset by the barrier, the runes changed once again. The power that formed the barrier split into countless wind blades, rushing in the direction from which the fire had flown.

────Shwishshwishshwishshwik!

Rune Inscription Conversion, he said……?

The boy was dumbfounded and raised a wall of fire to block all the sharp winds, but the fog had thickened again, making it impossible to distinguish the surroundings.

‘As expected, this fog was the problem….’

Not just Bell Quirius.

The original power cannot be exerted. The dull pain of feeling the limit of magical power is pressing down on my heart and Ju Gyeol.

‘Is it some power that controls the dragon’s power…?’

In the thick fog where only the opponent’s magical power is faintly detected, magical and spell offensives and defenses are exchanged several times, and one corner of the street collapses miserably, with rubble and dust swirling around.

Fire burns the abyss’s poison flames, and the light of the spell repels the transcendent fire demon.

My whole body was slick with cold sweat. I fired 3rd and 4th level magic enhanced with the Mind Barrier’s Venerable ten times, without holding back, but he blocked them all and even launched a counterattack?

‘Roughly speaking, he’s several levels above the Magic City Seigan. Maybe equal to me 300 years ago, or even one level above….’

That’s not all, but something is strange.

The way he uses the attributes of other powers is so similar… to the old me, Rin. How can it be so similar?

I thought I could gain the upper hand if we reached close combat, but the staff of fire lightly brushed off the staff of spells, and sparks scattered.

‘This is……?’

There was something else that was hard to accept.

Osarius-style staff techniques were also skillfully used by Libena and Libadin, so it’s not particularly surprising that other black magicians use them. But even so, it was somehow clumsy compared to me.

But this guy’s staff technique… even if I put aside the fact that I’m injured and my body is slow, he’s one level above me, who can be said to be the founder.

‘How is this possible? It would be one thing if his swordsmanship or spear skills were superior, but the staff technique that Rista taught me is more skilled than mine?’

Strange.

It’s so strange.

In the midst of the countless exchanges that crossed in the fog, the moment the staff hit my wrist and the sound of bone fracturing burst, the staff struck the guy’s side and blew him away into the fog.

“Ha, cough, haaa…….”

I thought I had ruptured a couple of internal organs and took a breath, but the moment I felt an eerie resonance of power in the fog, my heart jumped.

“Taichoseonggwangchangsecheonji, jinaegonggwanghondon, yeonmyeonhoemyeong, seonggwangjiyeongunhaengeo sumyeon [Primordial Holy Light Creation Heaven and Earth, the Earth is Empty and Chaotic, the Abyss is Dark, the Spirit of the Holy Light Moves on the Water].”

The recitation of holy and magnificent language, the very act of which ignites ultimate power. Space creaks and power gathers, language combines into sentences and forms paragraphs, calling forth even greater power.

The moment I realized the identity of that language, goosebumps rose all over my body.

I’ve heard it before. Not just heard it, but I remember it clearly. How could I forget it, Friede’s main Changmyeong Poem [a sacred verse].

“Holy (Seong), Light (Gwang), Said (Wal), Ought (Dang), Have (Yoo), Light (Gwang), That is (Jeuk), Have (Yoo), Light (Gwang).”

Seven scrolls containing the most sacred, noble, and holy verses in the Dragon Mirror’s large and broad story, exactly as the gods’ letters.

In other words, the Seven Chapters of Genesis (Changsechilpyeon).

The shamans were also the guardians and representatives of these poems, and they could wield powers called miracles by reciting the letters written in these poems. And that’s the Holy Verse (Seonggwi) of the Changmyeong Poem that Friede used most often.

“Holy Light Sees Light as Good, Thus Separating Light and Darkness (Seonggwangsigwangwiseon, subungwangam).”

I heard that it was lost along with Friede’s disappearance, along with the Myeongse Poem and the Omun Poem, but how…… There was no time to be so flustered.

Already, dozens of layers of dazzling chains of light were unfolding around me, establishing the foundation for a seal. The moment the recitation ends, it will bind me.

My wrists are broken, so I can’t form hand seals, but I have to use it. The moment I get caught there, it’s over…….

‘Brain Burst Bloodletting won’t work.’

Strands of light rose above my palm, and soon formed a five-layered triangular magic circle, with red currents frantically sparking around it.

‘I’m going with Fire Field Bloodletting (Hwajangbanghyeol).’

Even ten great witches right below the shaman wouldn’t dare to use the poem, but how can a black magician use it…….

The power of the poem is the power of God, and the object bound there will have its body, matter, soul, and everything bound.

However, using that poem is the opponent’s miscalculation. I know the characteristics of that poem better than any other magician.

The brilliant light emitted by the poem’s scroll when casting is so intense that it pierces even this fog.

‘Thanks to that, coordinate identification is complete.’

I had to quickly calculate it in the Yorhen type, and this fog limits the total amount of magical power, so I could only create two lightning generation formulas instead of the original seven, but it’s enough with two shots since it’s a 5-star magic of the origin rune.

The moment the magic circle shattered above my palm, the ultimate fire magic borrowed from the power of the origin soared into the sky with a long tail of fire.

The night sky was cut long and red by the flames, and the next moment, it spewed out a comet like blood. A vortex of fire that burns the heavens and the earth plummets to the calculated coordinates.

A flash that would blind both eyes.

A roar that would tear the eardrums.

A heatwave that swept low across the earth, half a beat late, as the shock itself, blowing away all moisture.

It was my victory by a hair’s breadth.

At that moment, if I had blinked my eyes blankly instead of dropping the second lightning strike in the instant when the surrounding fog was extinguished and my vision widened greatly.

The poem scroll seemed to have wrapped the caster in a whirlwind of light to mitigate the damage, but the transcendent flame pierced even the scroll of divinity and inflicted considerable damage on the caster.

The problem was not the power of the magic or the resulting consequences, but the opponent’s appearance that was finally revealed by the result.

‘No…….’

A sense of déjà vu washes over me. No, not a sense of déjà vu, but a more dizzying, confusing, and chilling sense of incongruity rushes in.

A worn bamboo hat with a blue tint and a long pipe with a dragon-shaped relief hanging from its waist.

Elegant features, as if carved, are revealed on the copper-colored skin where transparent light lingers. Perhaps because of the expressionless eyes beneath the dark blue hair, the overall atmosphere is filled with gloom.

‘Clothing and tools can be imitated somehow. But that appearance, that face…….’

It’s so similar to what I saw in the book’s illustrations, the paintings I saw at the memorial hall earlier, and the statue right behind me.

– Sabu [Master], Sabu!

As if the second hand had broken, the echoes of the past reverberated in my mind like dizziness in a stopped time where even the rhythm of my heart could not be heard.

Has the possibility of reunion that I had been dreaming of and trampling on since waking up from a long sleep, and the suspicion that painfully raised its head when dealing with black magicians, and the incomprehensible prophecy that Yereserica made, taken shape in this one moment?

What the shadow of the past did at that moment, which could not even make a sound in that time of stillness, was…… unbelievable.

He narrowed his eyes as if seeing Pipi for the first time, then waved his right hand to shake Pipi off. Immediately after, he clutched his forehead and groaned painfully.

‘He doesn’t know Pipi……?’

The moment I confirmed that, I should have recognized it was fake and fired the second lightning strike. Just like that guy started reciting the poem’s verses again.

Just one command.

It would be over with just one command.

Reason was screaming for me to do so, but my heart, my soul…… would not allow it. I could only stare blankly at the heat of the tears flowing down my cheeks and the dizziness of my trembling vision.

That was my downfall.

As the recitation of the holy words ended, the letters that densely filled the poem’s scroll with elegant handwriting soared into the air, huge and dazzling…… and were woven into a single rope, binding my body and soul all at once.

‘There’s no way that’s real…….’

Since my Jeseosweranyeon [a powerful spell] was created by imitating this Changmyeong Poem, all resistance becomes meaningless the moment I’m bound here.

Because it turns all the target’s power into nothingness. The power to move the body, the infinite magical power, all matter, phenomena, and soul…….

A strange chill arose from the parts bound by the rope of letters and gradually spread throughout my body.

‘There’s no way it’s real…….’

My body stiffened, my consciousness tore apart in confusion, and my head drooped uncontrollably. Beyond the distorted and shaking five senses, I heard muffled voices.

“……I’ll take the hatchling first.”

“……Abu, Aba, Abaah!”

“……What should we do with those things?”

“……We don’t need the woman. The man…… is the dragon’s guardian, so you never know. When the power of the poem stabilizes, drag him to the altar.”

A powerful presence gradually faded away and eventually disappeared, and then only a suffocating silence continued for a while, followed by women’s screams not far away.

“……What, what are you doing now? Are you betraying him? You should have been his faithful servant, why?”

The flashes of magical power and spells poured down so dazzlingly even beyond my closed eyelids that my eyes hurt.

How much was my head shaken, just as I thought silence would fall again, this time a new woman’s voice rang out.

“……This one has been hit by the Changmyeong Poem.”

“……Please.”

A prayer that comfortably eased the tense consciousness echoed in my ears.

How long had I been listening to that, the curse of language that had been binding my whole body so that I couldn’t even move a finger fell away.

As soon as that happened, an overwhelmingly intense sense of liberation plunged my thoughts to the bottom of my consciousness.