The Rebirth Of The Hero’S Party’S Archmage [EN]: Chapter 245

The pale silver hair and skin, so unlike anything human, felt alien.

She wore a sand-silk robe that fluttered ethereally and a turban on her head, a style unseen in any region.

Her fangs were unusually long, and she carried a sword at her waist with a shattered, almost nonexistent blade.

“You… I think I saw you briefly at some adventurer’s guild before.”

My heart pounded wildly.

*This aura, this supernatural force… it’s the same despairing sense of overwhelming power I felt when facing the Dragon Slayer.*

Sensing danger, I gripped the hilt of the Demon Sword, but the blade rattled madly. My hand trembled with instinctive fear.

“Hmph, it would be stranger if an adventurer like you *didn’t* recognize me.”

The woman placed a hand on her chest and arrogantly raised her chin.

“My name is Kashanu! I am a Diamond-rank adventurer, a supreme rank granted to only one in an era.”

*That arrogant, talkative personality… I think I’ve seen it somewhere before…*

No, focus now.

With a deep breath, I calmed my excitement, planted Shirping [likely a magical artifact or weapon] in the sand (I probably won’t be able to use it), and drew the Demon Sword from my sword belt.

“Aki, I’ll handle this. Go up to the lighthouse.”

“Amut?”

“Quickly!”

“How strange? You don’t seem strong enough to afford such leisure!”

The moment his hand moved towards his sword hilt, Miria’s figure dashed towards Kashanu in an instant.

The Demon Sword’s blade cut through the air, leaving only a straight, red afterimage…

But I felt none of the heavy sensation of piercing something in my palm. Instead, I heard a voice from behind.

“Faster than I thought? Your form is sharp too. You must be in the upper ranks of Gold.”

Driving my heel into the ground, I rotated my body with the recoil. Adding the force of inertia to the strike, I dominated the surrounding space.

“And you have an interesting sword?”

But even that strike was met with derision… Kashanu leisurely widened the distance and placed his hand on his sword hilt.

“I have something similar. It would be rude if only I showed you mine, right?”

In an instant, a flash of starlight, eerily glowing in the moonless night, filled my vision.

“Shine.”

Before I could grasp the nature of that light, my body instinctively went into a defensive stance, and a searing shock tore through the skin and bones of my fingers.

“Starfall.”

From the edge of my vision, two fingers flew away. I only realized in the next moment that they were my left middle and ring fingers.

‘What…’

The blood spurting from the severed ends was crimson. Pain threatened to drain all strength from my body.

‘Is the sword’s name Starfall? Or is it a technique?’

There was clearly no blade, but from the base of the sword that Kashanu was casually wielding with his right hand, a starlight blade was dazzlingly sprouting.

“Only two fingers with that attack?”

Is the weapon type similar to the Demon Sword, or is it simply the realm of Sword Qi [a martial arts concept where energy is channeled through a sword]?

The weapons might be similar, but the speed was completely different. The level itself was different.

But I can’t give up here…!

“Did you hear some information about my power from somewhere? Otherwise, there’s no way you could have blocked that with your skill.”

There was nothing I could do.

It’s not that I was caught off guard or that I couldn’t do anything.

In terms of time, it was probably about 15 seconds.

No matter how much I swung, cut, and stabbed with the sword, my stance was strangely collapsing, and it was Miria who was being driven into a corner.

“Strange. It feels like there’s a hint of a master, but not really.”

This is simply an overwhelming difference in skill.

Something was different from when I fought Rista. Back then, unfamiliar memories flowed in every time our swords clashed.

It was as if I was looking in a mirror, and I could receive those attacks…

“So, all you have is talent?”

I need to defeat this guy quickly and get to Aki, and help Rain, who’s fighting Zerniks alone.

I can’t see ahead.

My breath started to catch in my throat, and my whole body was already covered in cuts. Blood flowed down like sweat.

The moment I deflected a starlight blade and thrust out a crimson blade, Kashanu instead grabbed Miria’s wrist and slammed her into the ground.

A painful mass of air escaped from my lungs.

After that, flashes of crimson and starlight created afterimages as they crossed countless times, but the crimson blade invariably failed to reach the enemy’s body and was always deflected.

And I couldn’t even understand what had just happened.

“Too bad. I wanted to recommend you to my dad.”

I clearly thought the swords had met, but when I came to my senses, I was rolling uncontrollably on the beach, swallowing gravel and seawater into my mouth and nose.

“Well, I don’t think so. You’d probably get more love than me. My dad is crazy about beautiful women.”

I tried to get up, but once again, a fierce starlight filled my vision.

My breastplate split in half, creating a long cut running from my right collarbone to my left side.

The unimaginable pain of the wound, where blood poured out and was scraped by gravel and saltwater, erupted.

‘Did I really think I could beat a Diamond-rank adventurer?’

The only Rista’s swordsmanship I can use is Space-Time Slash.

Even that is only a beginner compared to Rista, who performed that swordsmanship in a single moment.

All the Space-Time Slashes I’ve succeeded with so far were only possible because my companions created the time for me. I couldn’t even use it once against Pulladon.

‘What delusions was I having?’

Was I mistaken in thinking that because I have Rista’s soul, I could unleash Rista’s perfect power?

‘Even if the souls are the same, the years that the body has accumulated are different.’

Rista was born as the eldest daughter of the Apeltas Sword Family (劍爵家) [a family that earned nobility through swordsmanship], a prestigious swordsmanship family in the central empire.

Born into this family, which had earned a noble title with only a sword, Rista had received systematic swordsmanship training from the moment she could walk.

Her father intended to make Rista a Fey Quarier [a powerful warrior or knight] to prevent a succession dispute with his eldest son, so he subjected her to strict training from a young age.

Even when teaching etiquette, history, and language, he made her swing a sword, and she was made to wear a sword even when eating.

It was training that a child could not possibly endure, but Rista persevered to the end.

With a combination of genius aptitude and training, Rista had already defeated all the renowned knights in the empire in real sword fights by the age of thirteen.

At fifteen, she entered the Pseudo-Valor Sword Hall (僞勇劍殿) [a prestigious sword-fighting academy], received the choice of the Supreme Star Sword Shirping in just one year, became a Fey Quarier, and made her name known to the world.

The moment all her goals were achieved, Rista became lonely.

After gaining everything, everyone who approached her wore a mask and treated her as such.

When making the Fey Quarier’s oath, she had to sever ties with blood and relationships, so she didn’t even have a family.

Behind her ever-bright smile, a swamp of loneliness and isolation that no one could understand was growing deeper and deeper.

The only friend she found was the Republic’s priestess, Friede, but even seeing her once a year was difficult due to her heavy workload.

– I’m not a genius or a kid. I have a name, Rin.

The name of the boy she met at the beginning of the final chapter of her life was Rin.

The meaning of that name was spring breeze, and as the name suggested, it blew into Rista’s life like a spring breeze.

A boy who had no pretense, no deception, and was just seriously honest.

Originally, it was a journey to decorate the end of her life, because maybe her father would be happy.

I couldn’t smile sincerely, but I thought it would be nice to create a world where other people could smile happily.

But the companionship with that boy, the companionship with Rin, who seemed honest but was shy and couldn’t hide his emotions well… made me wait.

It made Rista look forward to the future, to tomorrow, even if it was a frail ending like a dwindling candle.

‘If I were Rista herself, could I have defeated that Kashanu in one go?’

Through the human body modification process, my limbs would have been lengthened, and my muscle strength and reflexes would have been greatly amplified, making me much stronger.

‘Rista is lucky. If that guy was here, Rain would have liked him much more.’

I could have been several times more helpful.

I could have had several times more happy conversations.

And I wouldn’t have had such a sad smile.

“What are you talking about now?”

In the slowed-down world, someone else appeared in front of Kashanu, who was approaching.

It was the afterimage of a past life, a fragment of a soul, the shadow of a hero remembered by an era 300 years ago….

Rista Alter Shirping brushed her white hair, fluttering in the sea breeze, behind her ear and looked down at her with a blank face.

“I am you, and you are me.”

No, it’s different.

I’m just a goblin hunter, fundamentally different from you, a hero.

If I were really you, I could have finished something like that in one shot.

“Don’t you remember desperately dreaming of a normal woman’s life, not burdened with the mission of a hero, while being with Rin?”

“…….”

“You wanted a body, a body that wasn’t terminally ill, that could be with each other until the very end. The result of that prayer, that miracle, is you.”

You think that you liking Rain and me liking Rin are separate, but they’re not.

Our souls attracted each other.

The connection gifted by the gods has finally blossomed. After a wait close to eternity, 300 years later.

“So don’t give up.”

Rista, who had been looking down at me with the cold and stern eyes of my old father, suddenly embraced Miria with tears.

“Before meeting Rin, when we were struggling in solitude, call the name of the friend who was always with us.”

Our friend?

Friede? Kies? Who are you talking about… The moment Miria realized what it meant, her eyes widened.

“Just like 300 years ago, she will lead us forward even now. She will give you my power.”

Kashanu, who was moving to finish the job, stopped abruptly at that moment.

‘Is she getting up again? Is she coughing like that because her airway is blocked by blood?’

Does she have some kind of belief and won’t die easily? Is she going to die with a sword in her hand? Or does she think she can beat me?

“You dropped your sword over there, should I throw it to you?”

Miria did not answer the question, which was almost mocking.

Instead, she just reached out her hand.

Towards the greatsword that had been deeply embedded in the beach earlier, towards the place where her soul’s friend was.

“Shirping.”

Shirping emitted a dazzling light and soared into the sky, then spun around and flew into Miria’s grasp.

“I am Rista Alter Shirping.”

The sword’s invocation.

The phrase of invocation that only a hero chosen by the holy sword can recite was recited, and the holy sword began to burn more dazzlingly than the spring sun.

“I want the land to be filled with genuine laughter.”

The holy sword responds to that invocation.

The power of the Supreme Star Sword Shirping’s special ability, ‘Internal Time Acceleration,’ is manifested.

That power permeated Miria’s body, and a pure white mist spewed out from her entire body.

‘What?’

Is that girl crazy because she’s on the verge of death?

She’s Rista? Rista died 300 years ago and has already been embalmed into statues all over the country.

Even while thinking that, Kashanu couldn’t suppress the tremors that were wildly shaking his entire body.

‘What’s going on?’

The atmosphere has changed.

The very presence has changed, like a completely different person.

“Unlike you, I don’t have a hobby of tormenting weak opponents.”

This is the fear I only feel when facing an overwhelming powerhouse, the feeling that Kashanu hated so much as a child.

“I’ll finish this quickly.”

Too weak and only getting beaten up until now, where did you get the nerve to… I remember trying to say that.

That voice was buried in the pain that surged as my left arm was cut off.

I clearly thought that her body was swaying and scattering like a heat haze, but my arm flew off, and he was standing far behind me.

“I didn’t know I could only cut off your arm with this attack. But next is your neck.”