The Return of The Mythical Archmage [EN]: Chapter 25

Resonance.

The mark of a Bytener-style 2nd Circle Master.

[Magic is a tree, and the Infinity Circle is a forest.]

[The Resonance Ring enhances the tree, but the state of Resonance enhances the forest.]

The effect is to apply the Resonance Ring to my entire circle, enhancing my circle itself rather than the magic.

[In the Bytener style, Resonance is also called transcendence.]

[Transcendence of the realm. A user who enters this state of Resonance transcends their own realm by one level.]

Transcendence of the realm.

A 3rd Circle user can use magic equivalent to a 4th Circle user.

A 4th Circle user can use magic equivalent to a 5th Circle user.

[It’s a powerful effect, but it’s not without its drawbacks.]

[The drawback of Resonance is its duration.]

[Since it involves linking and accelerating circles of different natures, it puts some strain on your body and mind.]

[Currently, as a 2nd Circle Master, your Resonance duration is about 3 minutes.]

[Once that duration ends, your circle won’t move for about 12 hours, so be careful.]

Considering it’s a powerful effect that breaks the boundaries of the 1st Circle, the penalty isn’t that significant.

You can see that just by looking at Baek Sa-hyuk.

Berserker and the IL chip.

Baek Sa-hyuk risked his life to transcend the 1st Circle.

Compared to that, a short duration and a 12-hour mana usage ban are not even penalties.

[Of course, this drawback will naturally be resolved as your realm rises in the future.]

[Until then, you must always be careful when using Resonance.]

Besides, the penalty will disappear later, so what’s the problem?

‘Three minutes is more than enough.’

I chuckled and rotated mana into the two circles, which were now one, spinning fiercely within my body.

‘Earth Needles.’

Mana imbued with my will took position around Baek Sa-hyuk.

Earth Needles, the 3rd Circle magic that Adela used before.

It surged up from beneath Baek Sa-hyuk’s feet.

“3, 3rd Circle magic!?”

The symbol of the 3rd Circle.

Space-designating magic.

Earth Needles is the mark of 3rd Circle magic.

“Kuh!”

Sensing the prelude to Earth Needles’ activation, Baek Sa-hyuk hurriedly kicked off the ground.

However, he couldn’t completely avoid the unexpected space-designating magic.

A single spike pierced through Baek Sa-hyuk’s thigh.

Blood trickled from the deeply embedded wound.

“How can a piece of trash like you use 3rd Circle magic… !”

Even with such a severe wound, Baek Sa-hyuk didn’t seem to feel any pain.

Diminished senses.

It meant that the Berserker was slowly consuming the body’s functions.

“Who knows? How could I have used it?”

“…You defective piece of junk.”

I heard something breaking from Baek Sa-hyuk’s molars.

I wonder if he actually broke a tooth.

“Die! You waste!”

Flame Shotguns activated around Baek Sa-hyuk once again.

Baek Sa-hyuk’s magic, which was so powerful that all I could do was dodge it until just now.

“I’ve always thought about this.”

I chuckled as I watched the magic approach.

“You seem to have no talent for insults, not just magic. Your insults are too cliché.”

‘Water Shield.’

A stream of water surged from below.

A reverse waterfall collided with Baek Sa-hyuk’s Flame Shotgun.

Pshhhhhh-!

Just like before, a massive amount of steam erupted.

“Heh heh! Is the defective product incapable of learning? A guy who couldn’t even block a Flame Ball dares to think he can block a Flame Shotgun?”

Baek Sa-hyuk laughed loudly at the same scene as before.

I couldn’t see his expression because of the steam, but he was probably sure of his victory.

“Well, before discussing my learning ability, shouldn’t you reconsider your mana sensing ability?”

“What?”

“No, before mana sensing, is it a problem with your brain? After seeing Earth Needles, I’m curious about the structure of your brain that thinks this Water Shield is the same as the one from before?”

My Water Shield, which had transcended the 1st Circle’s barrier with Resonance, easily blocked Baek Sa-hyuk’s Flare Shotgun.

“Your magic can’t even touch me now.”

Watching the Flame Shotgun almost extinguished, I formed a new magic with my other hand.

‘Wind Cutter.’

Two Wind Cutters curved like boomerangs and flew towards Baek Sa-hyuk’s rear.

Pshhh…

The Flame Shotgun completely vanished at that moment.

At the same time, the steam slowly subsided.

Whoosh!

I lightly stirred the air to restore my vision.

“Shin Ha-yul… !”

Baek Sa-hyuk’s enraged expression was once again clearly imprinted on my retina.

And at that moment.

The two Wind Cutters sliced through Baek Sa-hyuk’s back.

Thwack!

A gruesome sound of flesh tearing.

Even though the magic hit him squarely, Baek Sa-hyuk didn’t turn his head or frown.

It wasn’t for some noble reason like not taking his eyes off the enemy during battle.

“So, you did illegal doping. That’s why your skills have improved so much!”

He simply didn’t notice.

He didn’t notice that Wind Cutters had swept across his back.

He didn’t notice that blood was flowing from the two huge wounds on his back.

‘His sense of touch is completely gone.’

The sensory dulling, one of the side effects of the Berserker, had completely eliminated his sense of touch.

‘It’s over.’

After today, Baek Sa-hyuk will no longer be able to call himself a mage.

He won’t be able to feel mana, and he won’t be able to move his body properly.

Since he used the IL chip, his brain won’t function normally either.

At best, a vegetable, an invalid.

That’s Baek Sa-hyuk’s future in 10 minutes.

“I won’t pity you. It’s all your fault for ending up like this.”

“What nonsense are you spouting again!”

Mental manipulation magic isn’t that powerful.

Suggestion or mental guidance. Amplification of emotions.

That’s the limit of the mental manipulation that Leng Smith can do.

“If you had any aversion to killing, or if you had hesitated to kill me, you would never have ended up like this.”

The murderous intent Baek Sa-hyuk harbored towards me was real.

Because he had no hesitation in killing me, Baek Sa-hyuk ended up in this state.

This whole situation is entirely Baek Sa-hyuk’s fault.

“Five years ago. It’s the price you paid for not taking your defeat to me as an opportunity, and instead living your life with resentment and regret.”

Five years ago.

A normal youth tournament.

If Baek Sa-hyuk had taken his loss to me as an opportunity to move forward.

If he had used his defeat as a new driving force, like Adela.

This wouldn’t have happened.

“The last bit of mercy I can offer you is to make you comfortable as quickly as possible.”

“Again, again, again!! That look! That look that says you know everything in the world! Don’t look at me with that look! You trash!”

Baek Sa-hyuk pulled out mana to his limit.

As if attempting a suicide attack, he rushed towards me, not caring about the aftereffects on his body, releasing mana to an extent that seemed unreasonable.

Streams of blood continued to gush from his pierced thigh.

“If only… if only you weren’t here! If only you weren’t here, my life would beee!”

“Well, back then, you would have been hating Adela instead of me.”

I raised my right hand towards Baek Sa-hyuk, who was approaching at high speed.

My body trembled.

Mana swirled around my body.

Mana laughed in sync with the Circle of the Mind and the Resonance Ring.

‘Giggle.’

‘It feels good here.’

‘What are you going to do?’

‘Are you going to play with me?’

Mana whimpered like an innocent child.

Feeling the will of such mana, I cast magic.

‘Darkness Blind.’

‘Earth Bind.’

‘Air Bind.’

Three magics activated simultaneously.

Darkness Blind was the first to eat away at Baek Sa-hyuk’s vision,

and at the same time, ropes of earth rose from the ground.

Ropes of mana from the air bound Baek Sa-hyuk’s body.

‘My magic processing speed has improved much more than I thought.’

Feeling the power of a 2nd Circle Master, Resonance, I immediately kicked off the ground.

“This much… Kugh!”

Baek Sa-hyuk used all the surrounding magic power for body enhancement.

He struggled with all his might, as if he would just smash through the vision block and holding magic with force.

With that much power, he could certainly break free from the binds.

But.

“Too late.”

It was already too late.

Thud-

Quickly taking position behind Baek Sa-hyuk, I immediately placed my hand on the back of Baek Sa-hyuk’s neck, where the IL chip was implanted.

“Besides the side effects on the body, do you know why you shouldn’t use illegal modified artificial intelligence?”

“You, you!”

Ignoring the flustered Baek Sa-hyuk, I focused mana on the IL chip on the back of Baek Sa-hyuk’s neck.

“Because its stability is significantly lower.”

“Kyak! You, you bastard! What are you doing!”

My mana seeped into Baek Sa-hyuk’s IL chip.

“A chip and body that have been overclocked to exceed their limits can easily collapse even with a slight external action.”

“Uaaaaaagh!”

Baek Sa-hyuk screamed in agony. Pain that could be felt even beyond his dulled senses.

He was probably feeling a pain as if someone was directly stabbing his brain.

“In cases like yours, where the chip itself is over-fused, you just need to flow mana in accordance with the mana frequency and…”

“Kueok! St, stooooop!”

“It becomes like this.”

I could feel a hot heat from the palm of my hand touching Baek Sa-hyuk’s neck.

The already hot IL chip was overheating even more.

Now, only the finishing touch remained.

“Ah, right. I’ll say thank you one last time.”

I infused the last mana, adjusting the frequency to stop the IL chip’s function.

“Thanks to your crazy actions, I think I can get something good from Baekga again.”

“…What?”

“This scandal is so much bigger than the previous one, so I think I can get 30%… no, maybe even 40% of the mining rights.”

“You… !”

“Thank you. You were a tree that gave everything until the very end.”

“Shin Ha-yul!!”

With Baek Sa-hyuk’s scream of my name, Baek Sa-hyuk’s mind and body collapsed.

The battle was over.

‘Now, for the cleanup.’

Looking at Baek Sa-hyuk, who was slumped over in Earth Bind, I took out the phone I had put in my pocket.

“Father. It’s Ha-yul.”

And I immediately called my father.

-Yes. What’s the matter at this late hour?

I looked up at the dawn sky and said quietly.

“You don’t have to pretend you don’t know. I know you’re watching.”

* * *

-You don’t have to pretend you don’t know. I know you’re watching.

“Hmm.”

Listening to Shin Ha-yul’s words over the receiver, Shin In-hyuk hummed with amusement.

“Why do you think I’m watching?”

-Even though it’s a deserted park at dawn, it’s been such a large-scale fight, and the police haven’t shown up yet. It’s impossible unless someone is blocking the police from coming.

“Blocked the police from coming. That alone doesn’t prove that I’m involved.”

-No. It can only be you, Father.

Shin Ha-yul stated definitively.

-There are many people who can suppress the police. But among them, the only one who would just watch until the end of the fight is you, Father. If it were someone else, they would have helped me a long time ago, or they would have stabbed me in the back.

If the Black Magic Tower or Shin Ji-han had controlled this situation, they would have started moving the moment they saw Baek Sa-hyuk start to lose.

-In the first place, the only person who could have kept an eye on me on the way home after finishing the conversation with my brothers is you, Father. My brothers wouldn’t be able to put a watcher on me because of your two-month protection declaration.

Shin In-hyuk chuckled.

“Alright. You’re right. I had Seok-hyun keep an eye on you today.”

Kim Seok-hyun.

Shin In-hyuk’s most cherished subordinate.

Since the children were gathering today, he had him keep an eye on Shin Ha-yul in case something happened.

“I thought you didn’t notice I was watching because you didn’t ask for help, but it was the opposite.”

Shin In-hyuk laughed as if it was the most interesting thing in the world.

“You knew everything, but you didn’t ask for help. To show me your 3rd Circle magic.”

-Yes. That’s right.

“You couldn’t have made any additional achievements in this short time. Did you hide the fact that you could use 3rd Circle magic?”

It was unreasonable to think that his magic realm had risen in this short period.

That meant that Shin Ha-yul could use 3rd Circle magic from the beginning.

-Yes.

Shin Ha-yul affirmed.

“Why did you hide it?”

-Because I still lack power.

“Hoo.”

A different light flashed in Shin In-hyuk’s eyes.

-3rd Circle magic and 2nd Circle magic are different. If I had revealed that I could use 3rd Circle magic, my brothers’ checks would have been unimaginable.

“So you hid it?”

-Yes.

“Why did you show me the 3rd Circle magic that you had been hiding so carefully now?”

-I thought it was an opportunity to show my true achievements only to you, Father.

“Show only to me?”

-Yes. It’s a golden opportunity to appeal my value only to you, without being discovered by my competitors.

Shin Ha-yul smiled brightly.

-How is it? Have you started to see my true value now?

“What? Hahaha!!”

Shin In-hyuk bared his teeth and laughed loudly.

“You really have the most confidence in the world! I’m curious what you’ve been doing for the past year!”

-So, do you dislike it?

“No.”

Shin In-hyuk grinned.

“It’s not bad.”

Unfounded confidence is just arrogance. But well-founded confidence is pride and dignity.

And dignity is a virtue that the head of the Mado Shin family must have.

He couldn’t help but like Shin Ha-yul’s actions.

-I knew you would say that.

Shin Ha-yul smiled brightly.