Weapon-Eating Bastard [EN]: Chapter 276

Magic.

The power that makes the impossible possible, existing at the root of everything in this world.

Magic exists everywhere and permeates all things.

Thump!

The mana core pulsed greatly, rapidly drawing in the magic in the atmosphere.

As spring rain seeps into parched ground, the magic circuit seemed to rejoice greatly at the sudden injection of magic.

However, my sixth sense warned me.

That I shouldn’t accept this as it is.

I immediately pulled on Ron’s shoulder.

“Ron, stop absorbing magic right now.”

“Huh? Why, Lee Cheol?”

“Didn’t you feel anything strange?”

Ron, who had been feeling a sense of fulfillment from absorbing magic, hesitated for a moment at my words, then quickly came to his senses.

“Oh, my God.”

Immediately, Ron stopped absorbing magic and began to check his condition.

I did the same.

I used magic to prevent any more magic from entering.

Following that, I immediately observed my body and began analyzing the situation.

‘The thing I just absorbed is definitely magic.’

However, it’s not the magic we know.

I can tell because I absorbed it directly into my body.

The magic of this era is much denser and rougher than what we know.

It had a density that I would only feel in a spirit domain with an incredibly overlapping spiritual vein, one that was so strong that its balance was broken.

In fact, at this level, it’s no different from poison.

If I had been spacing out and continuing to absorb it, I might have had a problem.

‘No, has the problem already arrived?’

The magic circuit has been deformed.

The mana core and the major meridians are fine, but the detailed minor meridians… especially the magic circuit near the crown of my head, the area around the Baihui point [a pressure point on the head], which receives magic for the first time, felt slightly deformed.

Suddenly, I remembered the story the dwarves had told.

-Be careful. The world nearing destruction will target you.

‘Could it be that the world targeting us also has this meaning?’

The magic of this era is different from the magic we know.

Ron spat out some of the magic, then looked back at me, breathing roughly.

“To think that magic with such a nature could exist… Thank you, Lee Cheol. If I had focused on absorbing it, I would have been in big trouble.”

“It seems to have ended at this level because neither you nor I have ordinary bodies.”

Just as my body is special, Ron also has a special body that has accepted the blood of a dragon.

“Could this be what the dwarves meant by the threat of the world?”

“Maybe. It seems like we’re becoming more assimilated into this era as time goes on. But…”

I stopped speaking and created a spear by conjuring black energy.

And.

-컹! 커어엉!

콰아아앙!

I pierced through a wolf-shaped, jet-black monstrosity that flew right in front of me.

The monstrosity was impaled on the spear from its mouth and immediately died.

I turned my gaze away from it and looked towards the top of the fortress wall.

“…It seems like those things are targeting us as well, not just that.”

-크르르르!

-컹! 크르르!

-케에에엑!

Below the barrier.

Countless black figures writhed.

The moment the sun set and the moon hid behind the clouds, those beasts, dyed in a black light darker than the night sky, began to attack the city.

* * *

If you were to knead shadows to create a living being, would it become something like this?

Except for the shining eyes and the fiercely sharp teeth and claws, the entire bodies of those monstrosities were dyed completely black.

-커어엉!

“Archers! Keep shooting!”

“Shoot! Shoot more!”

“Bring more arrows!”

Thudududud!

Filling the night sky, fire arrows rained down.

The rain of arrows poured down.

Each and every one of them contained magic.

콰아앙! 콰앙!

Rough and enormous explosions erupted, to an extent that one could not believe they came from slender arrows.

“How on earth do they handle such magic?”

Ron muttered blankly.

Their magic was different from the magic known in the modern era.

A system where it was not easy to judge which was higher and which was lower.

And… I couldn’t help but feel shocked as I looked at that magic.

‘Could it be.’

I couldn’t take my eyes off the magic being unleashed by the ancients.

It was clearly an unfamiliar system of magic.

But to me, at least to me, it wasn’t that unfamiliar.

“Lee Cheol? What’s wrong?”

“…Just protect me for a moment.”

“Yes?”

Slowly.

Very carefully.

I began to operate magic.

-키에에에엑!

In the meantime, monsters leaped over the fortress walls and charged, and Ron had no choice but to draw his sword and begin guarding me.

“Lee Cheol?! What are you doing!”

Ron shouted urgently.

I ignored Ron and continued to operate magic.

‘Lee Cheol! What on earth are you doing!’

Magic is like water.

If water is an indispensable element for living beings, magic is like the source inherent in all existence.

Therefore, just as the color of the petals of a flower placed in water with dye changes, a living being that has absorbed altered magic suffers internal injuries or undergoes transformation accordingly.

The uncharted territories were like that.

Dungeons are like that.

But.

‘This place is different from those places. It’s not a place with altered magic or a broken magic balance.’

The magic of this era is simply so dense that it feels toxic.

It was a fleeting moment.

I began to absorb magic again, and the absorbed magic soon traveled through the magic circuit and settled in my touch.

Whirr!

A black light swirled and blazed like a flame from my fingertips.

The purification of magic, Aura.

Ron was astonished when he saw it.

“Lee Cheol? How on earth?”

“I have a different system of magic than you do.”

I raised Aura all over my body.

At the same time, I didn’t use the mana core at all.

“…Ron, I think I know what era this is.”

I raised my head and looked at the ancients engaged in battle.

I could tell because it was me.

This era was not just an ordinary, long-ago past.

It was inevitable that Ron and I would feel a sense of alienation as we looked at the 모습 [aspect/appearance] of the era.

This world was a deleted history, an era unknown to the world.

* * *

Once, I had a conversation with my aunt while studying the history of magic.

“Aunt. Average temperatures and air quality change slightly over time, right? So wouldn’t magic also have some changes?”

“Hmm… But the mainstream view in academia is that magic is immutable. Only a few scholars argue that the amount or nature of magic differed by era.”

My aunt flipped through a thick book of magic theory and answered.

Magic only increases; it never decreases.

It is consumed, returned to nature, and then refills.

The immutability or cyclical nature of magic.

It was the basis of magic.

But I questioned this.

“What do you think, Aunt?”

“I think it changes.”

There is nothing unchanging or absolute in the world.

My aunt said that and asked me.

“What do you think?”

“I agree with you, Aunt.”

Magic is not absolute.

The biggest proof of this lies in the Black Night, which has the power to annihilate magic.

“If magic also changes, the amount of magic in ancient times might have been as high as it is today. Although it’s different from us, they created such highly developed magic.”

I said, using ancient magic based on the magic circuit.

Modern magic only deals with the mana core.

Ancient magic only deals with the magic circuit.

Output and stability are better with modern magic, but after research with my aunt, we found that magic that handles the magic circuit is superior in terms of diversity and control.

If they developed magic based on the magic circuit to that extent, wouldn’t the ancients have had considerable magical development as well?

“I think so too, but I think it might have been a little different.”

My aunt shook her head at my words.

“Wasn’t there a reason why they had to use the magic circuit back then?”

“What do you mean?”

“The reason why modern magic developed in the direction of using the mana core is because the nature of modern magic was suitable for that.”

And similarly, the reason why magic using the magic circuit flourished in ancient times was because it was more suitable then.”

It was a story similar to the theory of evolution.

The nature of magic changes, and magic has changed accordingly.

If magic was so rough that it couldn’t be controlled with just the mana core, and if it was denser than it is today, they would have had no choice but to use the magic circuit, which could secure control.

My aunt said that and added a mysterious story that was unlike a scholar.

“Baby. What do you think is the origin of magic?”

“Isn’t that still unknown?”

“Yes, yes, that’s true… But some eccentric professors talk about magic being created by ‘God’.”

“God… What kind of absurd story is that again? That’s the kind of story that shamans would tell.”

I scoffed at my aunt’s words at that time.

“Listen for now.”

In the distant past.

After the primordial time when they couldn’t handle magic, when magic first appeared in this world.

Those who handled that mysterious power that they had never known before appeared.

And people…

“May have called them gods.”

“What is that…”

“If an ordinary human flew in the sky and walked on the sea, wouldn’t they naturally be treated as a god?”

“That’s ridiculous.”

I dismissed it as nonsense at the time.

“Really? Sometimes weapons from mythology, hidden relics, and mysteries that can’t even be analyzed magically are discovered, right?”

“If it was an actual history, there should be some evidence. Mythology is just a story made up by people in the old days.”

“Hmm~. But isn’t it strange? It’s the distant past where they couldn’t even interact with each other, but why do the myths of each region have common aspects?”

The existence of a flood that swept the world and led to its destruction.

The existence of demons or monsters in the shape of snakes that tormented humans.

The existence of a giant world tree whose branches are known to reach the sky.

The existence of the father of omnipotent gods who uses lightning.

And… the existence of a monster that leads the world to destruction, which exists in any mythology.

“That’s why I think there was a mythological era.”

Even if it wasn’t an era of omnipotent gods like in the stories, there must have been an era when magic began and built up countless mysteries.

My aunt finished speaking like that.

I listened to my aunt’s story, which sparkled like it contained stars, with one ear and let it flow out.

At that time, I dismissed it as nonsense.

At that time, I didn’t know the primordial monster yet.

I didn’t know the special powers it had.

I hadn’t experienced the erased histories either.

But now I have a 창 [spear] that the beings in mythology wielded, I know the primordial monster, and I have the history that the aerial fortress shows before my eyes.

‘Aunt.’

I felt a strange tremor as I looked at the scene unfolding before my eyes.

‘It seems that the mythological era actually existed.’

This era was the mythological era.

A distant ancient time when they cultivated civilization while handling the magic circuit.

A lost history that has been dismissed as a legend.

And at the same time, I could understand why I was taking this test with Ron.

───Weeeeeee!

Far away in the rear, towards the city.

A terrifying noise, like the flapping of wings of tens of thousands of bees, echoed.

Following that, an outrageous radiance burst out, pushing back the darkness of the night sky.

It’s the center of the city.

A power that is too enormous to be wielded by a single individual.

Tuwhaaaa!

Something was fired, and the roar of the air exploding echoed.

The next moment, a line of light was fired, cutting through the sky.

The outrageous amount of light stretched out and passed over the fortress walls, and soon fell over the heads of the monsters.

“Prepare for impact…!”

The ancient on the fortress wall shouted urgently.

Immediately after.

Kwaaaaaang!

A tremendous explosion erupted.

After that, sound and color briefly disappeared from the world.

Darkness could not be seen anywhere, and only a dazzling white radiance and a terrifying vibration that seemed to collapse the earth were felt.

-Kieeeeeek!

The only thing that echoed after the 사라진 [vanished] noise was the screams of the monsters.

Color returned to the world a beat late, and the scene beyond the fortress wall, which had been 초토화 [devastated], was reflected in my eyes.

Crackle! Chiiii!

A tremendous crater had been created by something that had flown through the sky.

The monsters that had been rushing in like a tide seemed to have been caught up in the destruction without leaving a trace.

Whoosh! Thud!

The next moment, a man stood on top of the fortress wall.

“The King has arrived!”

Waaaaaaa!

A thunderous shout echoed over the fortress wall where the battle was continuing.

The man reached out his hand towards the sky.

텅! [sound of something being caught]

Soon, something that seemed to be made of light flew from the scene of destruction and was caught in the man’s hand.

“Could that be.”

Ron looked back at me, seemingly flustered.

The light that had been emitting a brilliant glow subsided, and the appearance of the object held in the man’s hand was revealed.

It was a 창 [spear].

That 창 [spear] was something that both I and Ron knew.

I looked at the man holding the 창 [spear].

Long arms that seemed to reach his knees, brilliant golden hair that seemed to be made of gold, a thick eyepatch on one eye, and intense light flowing from the other eye that was raised.

“….”

Suddenly, the man turned his head towards me.

I felt the 은한 [hidden]’s 저고리 [Korean traditional jacket] vibrating.

It was as if a weapon stored inside was about to jump out right away.

-What you are looking for is related to you; recall the history that dwells within you.

I recalled the contents of the test that the dwarves had said.

Something related to me.

The history that dwells within me.

‘Was this what they were talking about.’

I could be sure.

That man was the singularity of the era that the dwarves were looking for.

I looked at the 창 [spear] that the man was holding.