The Rebirth Of The Hero’S Party’S Archmage [EN]: Chapter 194

194. The Reincarnated Great Magician of the Hero Party

I run through the forest as twilight settles.

Fruit trees with refreshing scents blur past on either side.

It was around then, as the leaves rustled, that something warm landed on my shoulder. A wave of relief washes over me.

“Pipi!”

“Pipi, Pipi, Pipi.”

You’re safe.

Does that mean Valensidice and Cora are okay too?

Pipi rubbed its beak against my cheek, answering my question.

“Danger, danger, Valensidice danger.”

* * *

In the hero’s biography, the Demon Slayer’s power was defined by only two words.

Overwhelm, Frenzy.

He didn’t have any special skills or unique abilities, nor was he particularly talented in handling strange weapons.

He simply possessed overwhelming power unleashed in a frenzy.

The iron chains he wore like weapons on both hands were merely there to maximize the power of his rampaging moments.

That was all… or so I heard, but that power was indeed worthy of being called overwhelming.

“Exterminating the target.”

The iron chains flew in, tearing up the ground with immense weight.

It was such a powerful blow that it cracked the ground, but someone met it head-on.

“Section Chief──!”

It was such an intense blow that it cracked the earth, but the iron chains were repelled with great force the next moment, sweeping through the forest beyond.

“Whoa, that’s amazing.”

At that sight, a woman with bandages wrapped around her hands bumped her fists together and let out a heartfelt whistle.

Not only her body but also her uniform was full of scars.

Her name is Somali, and she possesses the experience and spirit derived from decades of training.

“To withstand this much against the three of us?”

A mercenary who was infamous 500 years ago with the alias Fighter Slayer.

The name of the man revealed in the settling dust she was staring at was Doran Slade.

The sight of him catching his breath and recovering his posture while bleeding all over was truly a spectacle.

“What are you all doing? Get those children to the pier.”

Doran Slade smiled as usual at his subordinates, but unlike before, his eyes weren’t smiling.

The situation wasn’t this unfavorable from the start.

But it turned out this way because they realized that the boy soldiers rushing in from all directions… those children without reason or emotion were brainwashed soldiers.

– I will handle them. You all subdue these children and take them to a safe place.

All the wizards of the Special Task Force were subduing the boy soldiers and tying them up with ropes.

Needless to say, subduing was more difficult than killing in special missions.

The number of captured boy soldiers was about two hundred, and there seemed to be three hundred more.

“I really can’t understand it. Why use such a strong power like that?”

“I agree.”

Priest Slayer, Lucia, chanted a scripture to heal Somali’s wounds as she replied.

“The gods created the weak for the strong; to let them know the pleasure of reigning like gods. But to be bound like that─”

“─I’m sorry, but that interpretation is in the wrong order.”

Doran Slade once again took the stance of Seojin Style, replying.

“The gods created the strong for the weak.”

The Slade family, like the Chaihark School, is a Gang-type wizard [a wizard who enhances their physical abilities] who strengthens the body to fight.

However, unlike Chaihark, whose main focus is striking techniques, the Slade family’s specialty is Jujutsu [a Japanese martial art and a method of close combat for defeating an armed and armored opponent in which one uses either no weapon or only a short weapon].

Seojin Style is the power to circulate magic smoothly throughout the body, forcibly creating centrifugal force in every movement to handle the Bagua [an ancient Chinese symbol composed of eight trigrams arranged in a circle, representing the fundamental principles of reality].

“Don’t talk about theology when you don’t know anything!”

Lucia swung a hammer made of a wooden coffin and rushed in.

Slightly rotate the ankle, bend the knee. Then, inhale the air and turn the wrist.

A series of movements absorbed the blow that struck Doran’s right arm, creating a huge flow that was emitted from his left hand in reverse.

“───!”

The moment Doran placed his left hand on Lucia’s solar plexus, the flow of power caused chaos in the laws of physics.

As Lucia was thrown far away and rolled on the ground, Somali jumped high into the sky and then swooped down in an instant.

The collapse of the ground, the emission of shockwaves.

In that fleeting moment of chaos, two pairs of limbs collided and intertwined, exchanging dozens of blows.

Close-quarters combat unfolded by masters of martial arts.

“You’re really amazing!”

To ordinary people, only the crisp sound of magic sparks flying like electricity could be heard.

“How about becoming a Mage Slayer? I’ll put in a recommendation for you!”

To ordinary people, only two swirling tornadoes could be seen.

The ground was unevenly cut by the tornado, and the leaves and fruits that had thickly formed in the forest flew away like fallen leaves.

“Seojin Style Secret.”

The moment Doran took a deep breath was less than a split second.

“On Gyeong (蘊傾 – Storing Inclination).”

And concentrate the blows he had received so far into one point, forcibly twisting and distorting the flow of Qi [vital energy] and putting it on this fingertip.

It was only a moment that a pattern resembling snowflakes spread dazzlingly around Doran’s feet.

“Release (發).”

The moment Doran planted that power in Somali’s solar plexus and the moment Somali’s foot was planted in Doran’s chin were almost simultaneous.

The Mana Heart concentrated in Somali’s heart was forcibly distorted and twisted by the backflow of power, and then exploded from within the next moment.

At the same time, Doran, who was hit by a powerful blow, flew backward with his jawbone shattered. His neck bone seemed to be cracked as well.

“Keuheok…….”

Pain that turned his vision bright yellow.

He spat out blood as he rolled on the ground like a ball several times and crashed violently into a tangerine tree.

There was a shadow rushing towards Doran… At the moment he sensed his end, more than a dozen wind blades flew and blew that shadow away.

‘That guy is…….’

Although the color of his hair had changed, there was no way he couldn’t recognize those unique features and magic.

Because he was a person of interest.

Valensidice, who appeared with Cora’s support, was as battered as Doran.

“He regenerates right away as expected…….”

Earlier, he had saved Cora from the Demon Slayer’s sudden attack and was about to be crushed to death by falling objects, but he barely escaped death with Pipi’s help.

“I’m so jealous. Someone has to chant healing spells one by one like this.”

Valensidice flew a healing rune towards Doran, wary of Millea, who was regenerating the legs that had been cut off by the wind blade in an instant.

It didn’t heal the serious injuries at once, but he could feel that his broken jawbone was being repaired enough to speak.

The moment the executives of the Special Task Force belatedly recognized Valensidice and tried to antagonize him.

“I am indebted to someone I am meeting for the first time.”

Doran dragged his feet and took a stance as if facing back to back next to Valensidice.

“I would like to have a serious conversation over a cup of coffee later.”

Is Doran blind? Or is his memory broken?

No, the wizards of the Special Task Force couldn’t imagine the section chief saying such things without any meaning.

Does it mean to focus on the enemies in front of us now? But isn’t there a high possibility that Valensidice is on their side?

‘I have received confidential information that Valensidice made a great contribution during the last incident.’

I will ask deeply about the affairs of Luenen and Tyrintide later, but now is not the time.

“I prefer tea to coffee.”

“I prefer coffee.”

The gazes of the two men, who were second to none in being black-hearted, met in the air for a moment, and soon they took a fighting stance.

If they could only focus on defense instead of attack, it would be worth trying a one-on-two match, even against such monsters.

The Priest Slayer was holding the Fighter Slayer, who was kneeling and crying sadly, spitting out blood from all seven orifices due to the recoil of the heart explosion.

“Ah, how could this be…… How could you allow such a tragedy, how…….”

Huh?

I just blinked for a moment.

But a heavily armed warrior, who had not been seen until now, was placing his hand on Lucia’s head.

“Big Brother…….”

“Oh come on, why are you praying? The gods have never listened to anyone’s prayers.”

A sensation as if the spine was freezing.

An incomprehensible fear tears at the hearts of the two wizards.

“To make our Lucia cry. I’ll have to punish you myself before going out to hunt dragons.”

With those words, the world was enveloped in a gloomy silence.

With the sound of sparks flying, the Dragon Slayer’s figure disappeared from sight.

And the absolute pressure felt from behind…… There was no time to even turn around, let alone for the heart to beat wildly.

‘I’m going to die.’

Even if they sensed it with the instantaneous footwork shown in that heavily armed state.

The opponent in front of them was of a different level. Different from the other slayers, and from themselves.

‘This is the end…….’

In the rapidly concentrated nerves, the sensation of a huge, heteromorphic spear smashing the ribs and tearing the internal organs was felt.

Is this emptiness that suddenly strikes eerily…… death?

At that moment, when the world seen in Doran’s eyes turned black and white and everything seemed to end.

Clang.

Along with that clear sound, the echo of childhood rippled in my ears.

– Doran, do you know about Rin?

The story that his sister, who died at the age of twenty with a sickly body, told eight-year-old Doran for the last time.

– He was a great wizard who carried an old bamboo hat and a staff.

– Wherever there were people who needed him, he would appear with the sound of his staff clanging, you know?

– So from some point on, that staff sound was regarded as a sound of hope.

Is it a wave of memories that one feels just before death?

No, I’m not dead.

There was no trace of the brutal death that had just struck me.

– A wizard who spread hope in a world full of despair, doesn’t that sound cool?

But it wouldn’t have been a simple delusion.

If I hadn’t heard that sound.

To be exact, if he hadn’t appeared with that sound, it would have been the reality that would have actually come. It was that intense of a murderous intent.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

My gaze was drawn to the shadow that appeared with the fiercely rising pillar of fire, as if I was fascinated. I couldn’t take my eyes off it.

An old bamboo hat and a staff…….

A sense of elation arose for a moment, as if the figure drawn in the hero’s tale that my sister read to me in my childhood was embodied in reality.

“You’re my opponent, Dragon Slayer.”

“It’s me, it’s me, it’s me.”

Doran, who had escaped from the hallucination, opened his eyes wide.

He seemed like a boy he had never seen before, but he was familiar. He was able to recognize who the red-haired boy was right away.

A face with clear features, and the blood-red eyes unique to the Ludwig family.

‘Yes, Rin is dead. A long time ago.’

Even so, even so.

I felt like I understood in an instant what kind of thrill those who had received help from Rin 300 years ago must have felt.

I could almost hear my sister’s voice putting a bowler hat on my head, telling me to become a wizard like Rin.

“I’ll settle this.”