The Return of The Mythical Archmage [EN]: Chapter 294

The Rebirth of the Mythical Archmage-295

After that.

The battle continued on a parallel course for a while.

Shin Inhyuk kept breaking Levi’s body.

And Levi just kept restoring his body.

There were times when the offense and defense were reversed, but most of the time, Shin Inhyuk was overwhelmingly dominant.

The situation was clearly flowing in Shin Inhyuk’s favor.

However, Shin Inhyuk’s expression was not so bright.

‘It feels like I’m showing off my strength in front of an endless ocean.’

It was true that Shin Inhyuk was overwhelming.

But this was just an empty, meaningless dominance.

‘How long is this going to continue? He should be running out of mana to restore himself soon.’

What’s the point of attacking?

Because of his regenerative power that surpassed common sense, he couldn’t inflict any real damage.

In fact, the damage on both sides was not much different.

It just looked like he was dominating.

In reality, a tight battle was going on.

So, Shin Inhyuk’s expression had no choice but to be stiff.

‘A war of attrition. A stamina battle, is it?’

Shin Inhyuk had no way to definitively deal with Levi.

And Levi also had no way to damage Shin Inhyuk.

Neither side had a way to gain a decisive advantage.

If this pattern continued, the side that ran out of mental strength first would eventually lose.

‘Will I collapse first? Or will he collapse first?’

Just as the disadvantage of Shin Inhyuk’s magic, ‘All Elemental,’ was the vast consumption of mental strength, Levi’s magic, ‘Metamorphosis’s’ body restoration, also consumed a considerable amount of mental strength.

It wouldn’t be strange if either of them collapsed first.

The odds of winning were 50:50.

‘Fifty-fifty, huh?’

From Shin Inhyuk’s point of view, who had the upper hand in compatibility, it was not a very pleasing probability.

If it were the usual Shin Inhyuk, he would have changed his strategy at this moment.

He would have devised a new plan to increase his odds of winning by even a fraction.

However.

‘Not bad.’

This time, there was no need to do that.

Even if the odds of winning were fifty-fifty, that was only the odds for a 1:1 match between Shin Inhyuk and Levi.

The story changes when you include the people waiting outside.

‘Even if my mental strength runs out first, it doesn’t matter. Then, I can just switch with one of the three Tower Masters waiting outside.’

This was not a 1:1 match, but a tag match.

It didn’t matter if the odds of winning a 1:1 match were fifty-fifty.

There were still three more Archmages left on this side.

No matter how vast his mana and mental strength were, it was impossible for him to face four people.

‘My chance of winning is 50%, but his chance of losing is 100%.’

Shin Inhyuk just needed to maintain this state and consume as much of his mental strength as possible.

If he did that, victory would naturally follow.

‘There’s no need to change the strategy here.’

Fzzzzzz-!

Shin Inhyuk used magic again to turn Levi’s body into ashes.

The fusion magic of fire and lightning attributes burned Levi’s body twice over.

Flames burned the skin from the outside.

And electricity ignited the body from the inside.

Levi’s body became like coal and fell to the ground.

Thud!

Levi’s body collided with the ground, making a pathetic sound.

Immediately after the collision, Levi’s body began to restore itself to its original form.

Shin Inhyuk narrowed his eyes as he looked at Levi.

‘The regeneration speed has slowed down.’

Before, the regeneration was completed before he fell.

Now, his body only started to regenerate after he fell.

It was proof that Levi’s consumption was not small either.

As expected, there was no need to change the strategy.

He just needed to keep going like this.

Shin Inhyuk regained his confidence.

Whoosh!

An overwhelming offensive that showed no hesitation.

Shin Inhyuk burned and crushed Levi’s body with all his might.

As Shin Inhyuk’s mental strength was depleted, Levi’s regeneration speed gradually slowed down.

At this rate, it seemed like it would be over before he had to switch with the next person.

During the battle, Shin Inhyuk glanced at Shin Hayul, who was waiting far away.

‘It seems like you won’t have to step up.’

Shin Hayul was currently in charge of connecting the inside and outside of the barrier.

He was reporting the situation inside to the outside and, if Shin Inhyuk had a problem, he would exchange Shin Inhyuk’s position with someone from the outside.

That was Shin Hayul’s current mission.

…But.

It seemed like he wouldn’t have to perform that role.

Levi’s regeneration speed was noticeably slowing down.

It was clear to anyone that he had reached his limit.

On the other hand, Shin Inhyuk’s mental strength was still fine.

It was close to the limit, but not yet at the limit.

The victory had already shifted more than 70% to this side.

Shin Inhyuk turned his gaze back to Levi.

Just in time, Levi’s body finished restoring itself.

Before Levi could even come to his senses, he launched a new magic.

Levi’s body turned to ashes again.

‘Come to think of it…’

As he was looking at Levi, Shin Hayul’s words suddenly came to mind.

‘Father. If Levi targets me in a way that is completely unexpected…’

Ten minutes before the start of the operation.

He had said this with a strangely serious expression, as if he was half-doubting.

‘Then, instead of trying to save me, please focus on dealing with Levi in front of you.’

Even thinking about it again, it was an incomprehensible statement.

If you think about it simply, it sounds like he’s just saying, ‘Don’t worry about my life and focus on dealing with Levi with all your might.’

But it was strange.

‘The Levi in front of me… in front of me…’

It was too simple to think of it that way, the modifier ‘the Levi in front of you’ was bothering him.

At the time, he just brushed it off, but the more he thought about it, the stranger it became.

Why did he put such a modifier?

If he was going to talk about it from a self-sacrificing point of view, he could have just said, ‘Focus on dealing with Levi,’ without such a modifier.

Why did he bother to add such a strange phrase?

‘And why that staff…’

Why was he holding such a huge staff?

It wasn’t necessary to perform the task of connecting the outside and inside.

Why?

Such minor questions flashed through Shin Inhyuk’s mind.

‘I’ll have to ask him after this is over.’

Just as Shin Inhyuk finished thinking about it casually.

Woo-woo-woo-woo-!

Suddenly, a chilling mana resonance rang out from Levi’s body.

A sound like air being injected into a huge balloon.

Sure enough, Levi’s body began to swell like a balloon.

‘Is he planning to self-destruct?’

It looked like he was about to self-destruct.

“Die, all of you!”

A voice of resignation.

Was he giving up everything and choosing to go down with them?

‘Foolish bastard…’

Shin Inhyuk frowned and prepared the next magic.

‘I’ll deal with him before he explodes.’

He was going to use ‘Black Core’.

He would make him disappear from this world without even having a chance to explode.

Just as he was concentrating and compressing the four attributes into one point, that was when.

Thud!

The ground shook.

A very minor tremor, the kind you feel when an object falls to the floor.

It was faintly transmitted from behind Shin Inhyuk.

Shin Inhyuk ignored the vibration.

It was just a minor tremor that didn’t need to be paid attention to.

And he didn’t have time to pay attention to such things.

Right now, stopping his self-destruction was the priority.

Shin Inhyuk accelerated the preparation of the Black Core.

A very rational choice.

Anyone, not just Shin Inhyuk, would have made that choice in this situation.

However.

“You have lost to me! Shin Inhyuk!”

That was a mistake.

“… !”

Levi’s voice suddenly came from behind.

He thought he was using his voice to fake him out like before.

But something felt strange.

He had a feeling that he shouldn’t ignore it.

Shin Inhyuk turned his gaze to where the voice came from.

And as soon as he confirmed the owner of the voice, his eyes widened.

“You bastard…!”

Levi was flying towards Shin Hayul, with his back to Shin Inhyuk.

He was rushing in, transforming his entire body into a hedgehog, as if he was going to turn Shin Hayul into a beehive.

‘A fake? Did I completely miss him? No. There’s no way I could have missed his presence.’

Shin Inhyuk’s brain spun like a top.

He acquired and organized all the visible information, desperately trying to sort out the current situation.

The conclusion was quickly reached.

‘I don’t know how he moved, but the Levi who is targeting Hayul right now is real.’

That body transformation speed. That amount of mana. That presence.

It was certain.

That was the real Levi, not a fake.

If he didn’t move right now, Shin Hayul would be in danger.

‘Then the self-destruction is a fake!’

He must have disguised it as a self-destruction, changing his mana to be unstable. That’s how he hid that he was a fake.

Shin Inhyuk immediately turned his body and flew towards Shin Hayul.

No, he was about to fly.

“… !”

He would have done so if he hadn’t accidentally made eye contact with Shin Hayul before completely turning his body.

‘Those eyes…’

A look of conviction that showed no sign of panic.

Looking at those eyes, Shin Hayul’s words from earlier came to mind again.

‘Then, instead of trying to save me, please focus on dealing with Levi in front of you.’

The Levi in front of him.

The modifier that was a question until just now.

The meaning of that modifier, which he thought was unnecessary, was slowly beginning to be understood.

‘The… Levi in front of me.’

There were two Levis right now.

The Levi behind him and the Levi in front of him.

The modifier that was thought to be unnecessary had become a necessary modifier at this moment.

Shin Inhyuk’s eyes trembled.

Could it be.

Could it be that…?

Did Shin Hayul predict this situation and say those words?

Did he know that Levi would target him in this way and warn him in advance?

‘If that’s the case…!’

Shin Inhyuk stopped turning his body and turned his gaze back to Levi, who was about to explode.

He re-implemented the Black Core that he was about to cancel.

‘The real one is this guy!’

The Black Core was completed in an instant.

It completely swallowed Levi’s body, which was swelling like a bomb.

Levi’s body completely disappeared without leaving a single speck of dust.

Shin Inhyuk hurriedly turned around.

‘I eliminated the real one. Then the fake one behind him too!’

As Shin Hayul said, he eliminated the Levi in front of him. Then the fake one should have disappeared as well.

However.

‘…It didn’t disappear?’

The Levi behind him did not disappear.

As if he didn’t care that the other Levi had died, he was glaring at Shin Hayul with joy.

‘Hayul’s prediction was wrong! That guy is the real one!’

It was true that Shin Hayul was strong for his age, but the opponent was a body transformation mage who couldn’t even pierce his skin with ordinary firepower.

He was in danger as he was.

Just as Shin Inhyuk was about to kick off the ground and focus his body’s center of gravity on his lower body.

‘Kailum.’

Mana surged from Kailum as if it was exploding.

‘Great Memorize.’

Shin Hayul smiled leisurely and recited the incantation.

“Ignis.”

And at that moment.

Whoosh!

“Kuaaaaaaak!”

Suddenly, Levi’s body burst into flames.

“This fire is…”

A flame that Shin Inhyuk had seen once before.

A fire magic that was so shocking that he couldn’t forget it even if he tried.

“Ig…nis?”

The primordial flame, Ignis, was burning Levi’s entire body.

‘Without incantation… how…?’

Shin Inhyuk looked at Shin Hayul with a shocked expression.

Could it be that he had already reached the realm of no incantation?

No. That couldn’t be.

Shin Hayul had said that a considerable amount of research would be needed for no incantation.

There was no way he had already reached no incantation.

It wasn’t no incantation.

‘Then what is it?’

What on earth was that Ignis?

How on earth did he activate Ignis without incantation?

He didn’t know. He couldn’t understand.

“You guys… did you know…? That I could split my body in two…?”

A new question was added to Shin Inhyuk’s already complicated mind.

“…What?”

That he could split his body in two?

Shin Inhyuk’s eyes widened even more.

Shin Hayul looked at Levi and spoke slowly.

“I knew that if you trained Metamorphosis to the extreme, you could perfectly separate your body and mind into two. Of course, I didn’t know that you had reached that level.”

The information received from Shadow did not include the information that Levi could split his body.

“Just in case, I took out some insurance. I didn’t expect you to actually reach the final stage.”

Because it was uncertain information, he didn’t tell anyone.

There was no point in saying uncertain information, it would only interfere with the battle.

“I’m glad I took out insurance.”

That’s why he had said those meaningful words to Shin Inhyuk just before the start of the operation.

To not leave it in his mind right away, but to make him remember it later when the situation came.

“Thank you too, Father. For believing my words there and focusing on dealing with the Levi in front of you. Thanks to that, I was able to deal with this guy for sure.”

“…So both of them were real.”

“Yes. Both were fake and real at the same time. It’s impossible to kill this guy unless you eliminate both entities at the same time.”

If Shin Inhyuk had moved to stop the Levi behind him there, it wouldn’t have ended so easily.

Reaching the level where he could split his body meant that the consumption of mental strength was not that great with simple body regeneration alone.

If he had missed this opportunity, he would have had to grapple for at least 3 hours.

If things went wrong, this side could have suffered great damage.

It was a good thing he had taken out insurance.

“…Heh heh. So you knew all that. It feels like I’ve become Sun Wukong playing in the palm of Buddha’s hand, huh?” [Sun Wukong is a character from Chinese mythology known for his trickery, and Buddha is a symbol of enlightenment and wisdom.]

Levi chuckled as if he found it amusing. He even had a refreshed expression.

“Thank you. For answering my questions. You didn’t even have to answer.”

“It was my own last gift. I’m glad you’re satisfied.”

“Last gift. A gift, huh. I see.”

Levi’s body was now less than half left.

“Then I have to return the favor.”

Levi’s right eye turned to dust and scattered.

“Earlier, you said this, right? That the ultimate of Metamorphosis is the separation of body and mind.”

The remaining left eye shone with a murderous light.

“That’s wrong. The ultimate of Metamorphosis is not something like the separation of body and mind… It’s about 100% implementing the body and mind of others.”

Levi’s fading body suddenly began to change.

It was a body transformation that squeezed out his last strength.

“Despair. Be amazed. And kneel down.”

The body was slowly changing.

The broken parts remained broken.

But the changed body did not break any further.

“This is the King’s Court!”

At that moment.

The air changed.

Based on the point when Levi’s body had completed its transformation.

Everything changed.

“…Ho.”

Someone who was half-broken grinned.

“A final burst of glory. You succeeded in implementing me at the cost of everything you had. Not bad. Quite interesting.”

Black.

The only color that came to mind was that of the man.

“The Black Magic King!”

The Black Magic King looked at me and slowly smiled.