Chapter 994

               

“It’s been a while.”

The Fallen One nodded calmly, as if he had expected Larian to appear.

“Magic Tower Lord Larian.”

He curled the corner of his mask’s mouth like human skin and bowed.

“Did you know I was coming with some kind of divination?”

Larian smiled wryly at The Fallen One’s calm reaction. Her voice sank coldly, as if frost had settled on her lips.

“Then you must be well-prepared to fight?”

She levitated the blue dagger in her hand into the air, as if to start right away.

The flow differed from Sword Control, yet the dagger danced gracefully like a living thing, scattering blue frost fragments.

“That’s not true.”

The Fallen One shook his head and moved his fingertips. The crimson bead Raon had dropped as he fell floated up on its own.

“I don’t particularly want to fight….”

Just as he was about to say he would quietly retreat and reach for the bead—

Whooooooosh!

The dagger Larian had levitated transcended space and fell beside the crimson bead.

Blue light surged from the blade and spread grandly, freezing even the space where the bead floated.

“You’ve brought an interesting toy.”

The Fallen One smiled faintly and flicked his fingers. The ice shielding the bead shattered into thousands of pieces.

“I wonder if it’s really just a toy?”

Larian tilted her chin in mockery. The blue dagger released its cold again, freezing the bead and the surrounding space.

“To try to take that bead before me….”

Larian narrowed her eyes at the crimson bead.

“It must be quite important?”

She licked her red lips, intrigued.

“Haa….”

The Fallen One sighed, placing a hand on his forehead.

“I wanted to return quietly, but you’re forcing me to stay.”

Gray killing intent rose behind his calm eyes.

“Your fate may change today.”

He clicked his tongue briefly, as if regretting it.

“Fate changes all the time. I don’t believe in the Heavenly Secrets you guys spout.”

Larian snorted.

“A magician only believes in their own head and heart.”

“You will regret it.”

The Fallen One lifted his chin as if offering a final chance. Contrary to his words, white and black light brimming with murderous intent swelled from his hand.

“I want to let you go too, but….”

Larian lowered her eyebrows slightly.

“I was asked to catch you no matter what.”

Behind her, daggers identical in shape to the blue dagger rose like the ribs of a fan. Strangely, every blade was a different color.

“That’s a shame.”

With The Fallen One’s faint smile, the white and black light blazing before him shone even more brilliantly.

“That the Magic Tower Lord will disappear here.”

He nodded calmly, as if the outcome was already decided.

“No. One head of Eden will disappear.”

Larian didn’t back down, lifting her chin.

Gooooooo!

The moment the eyes of the two Transcendents met under the blue moon, black light and daggers fired as if they were tearing through space.

Clang!

Black flashes and bright yellow daggers collided, splitting the dark clouds overhead as yellow sparks scattered in all directions.

Kwaaaaaang!

As The Fallen One glared at the yellow dagger contesting his black light, a red dagger burst through the sparks on the right.

Thwack!

It flew with savage speed, aiming to shatter The Fallen One’s heart.

“Are you trying to become a martial artist?”

The Fallen One chuckled as he watched the red dagger fly like Sword Control.

“A clumsy education only harms what you already have.”

He raised his hand and formed a wall of white light, stopping the dagger’s blade.

“Maybe you do….”

Larian lowered her eyebrows as she looked at the red dagger pinned in The Fallen One’s light.

“But I don’t.”

With a flick of her finger, a massive torrent of flame poured from the dagger’s tip.

Kwaaaaaang!

Each stream of fire carried transcendent magic, setting off a chain of explosions in midair.

Boom boom boom boom!

The night sky flickered red, like fireworks worth thousands of gold. A beautiful hell of flame unfolded.

Tssssss!

The Fallen One split apart like a reflection in glass and slipped out of the inferno. He nodded slightly as he looked at the black burn on the back of his hand.

“It’s certainly not a toy to be taken lightly.”

Brilliant light spread from him, extinguishing the flames. The wound on the back of his hand healed cleanly.

“You’re not tired already, are you?”

Larian shrugged, catching the returning red dagger with her fingertips.

“Of course….”

The Fallen One spread his hands and drew up enormous light and darkness. He curled his lips, shaping two incompatible powers into a sphere like a miniature sun.

“The real battle starts now.”

The Fallen One and Larian smiled in the same way and hurled a green dagger and black darkness toward each other’s hearts.

Kwaaaaaang!

‘Is that Magic Tower Lord Larian?’

Raon gasped as he watched Larian manipulate mana-imbued daggers and push The Fallen One back.

‘She’s completely different from when she’s in the conference room.’

Whenever she attended the Five Kings Conference, Larian always looked listless and lazy.

He’d assumed it was because she was a researcher, but seeing her fight here, she felt like a different person entirely.

‘I was worried she’d be passive, but she’s too aggressive.’

She wasn’t just blocking The Fallen One’s attacks. She kept striking first, forcing out his true power.

It was the most aggressive fighting style he’d seen among the Five Kings so far.

‘And she’s quick-witted too.’

While he’d been defending against The Fallen One’s magic, he’d dropped the crimson bead he’d been holding.

When it was about to fall into The Fallen One’s hand without resistance, Larian immediately grasped the situation and froze the space itself. The more he watched, the more he doubted she was the same slouch from the conference room.

‘And I didn’t know she could use daggers.’

Larian was pressuring The Fallen One by storing magic in ten different-colored daggers. It looked like she was amplifying the spells through formulas carved into the blades, then detonating them all at once.

(T/N: Lol. Larian is badass. She’s like Gusion. Haha. MLBB players should know. )

‘That should be enough to stop The Fallen One.’

The Fallen One was so busy dealing with Larian that he couldn’t spare Raon a glance. Now was the time to move and save the others.

‘Quickly…’

Raon forced himself up without even stopping the bleeding from his chest wound.

“Heeugh….”

Mark Gorton trembled, clutching his chest as if he couldn’t bear it, and Blood Horn was too injured to move, only panting in place.

Hoo….

Merlin was in the worst condition. Black blood and life force spilled from her mouth and chest.

“Merlin!”

Raon rushed to her first and pressed his hand against her chest.

‘Damn it….’

Not a single speck of divinity is left.

It hadn’t been long since he’d healed her, so the divinity born from darkness he’d used then was still empty.

If he used the Authority of another Monarch without that divinity born from darkness, it would only poison Merlin faster.

“Damn it!”

Raon sprinkled holy water onto Merlin’s chest and tried to use aura to stop the bleeding, but the wound had been torn open twice. It wouldn’t close anymore.

‘Her life force is dropping fast.’

With the bleeding continuing, Merlin’s complexion was turning pale, almost yellow, and her breathing grew irregular. The shadow of death hovered over her.

‘What do I do…?’

Raon bit his lip as Merlin’s blood ran between his fingers.

– “Hmm….”

Wrath’s lips trembled.

– “It’s uncertain, but there is one way.”

He looked at Merlin, saying there was only one method.

‘What is it? Tell me!’

Raon stared at Wrath with desperate eyes.

– “Freeze this crazy woman with my Glacier. But it wasn’t made for treatment, so there may be aftereffects, or she may never wake up.”

Wrath shook his head, saying it wasn’t perfect.

– “Even if I do it, it might fail. If you do it, it’s fifty-fifty.”

He lowered his eyebrows, saying she could die either way.

‘I have no choice. If I leave her like this, she’ll die for sure….’

Just as Raon was about to ask for the method—

Thwack!

A pure white dagger stabbed into the ground in front of him, not aimed at him or Merlin. A soft light spread from it, like stage lighting.

Whooooooosh!

As that light expanded, bushes and flowers that had been crushed as if dead unfurled their leaves as if given new life.

But the mysterious light didn’t stop at plants.

Crack!

Blood Horn’s broken leg snapped back into place, and the deep wound that had nearly split Mark Gorton’s waist began to knit together.

Even the spear scar that had split Raon’s chest filled with flesh and stopped bleeding.

‘Th-then….’

Raon lowered his gaze in a rush and checked Merlin.

Hoo….

Merlin’s chest wound sealed as well, new flesh sprouting like seedlings. The wounds all over her body began to recover.

‘What is this…?’

Raon gasped and raised his head.

Larian deflected The Fallen One’s magic with a blue dagger without even looking his way, as if she’d done nothing at all.

‘This doesn’t make sense.’

There were magicians who used multiple attributes. Merlin herself could use all four major attributes, though it was rare.

But magicians who used light, darkness, and healing magic were nearly nonexistent, and those who did usually devoted themselves to a single attribute.

‘She’s different.’

Larian was breaking the rules of the world, wielding not only the four major attributes but healing magic as well.

“T-the pain is almost gone.”

Mark Gorton approached with stunned eyes, and Blood Horn limped forward as if it couldn’t believe it either. Both said their wounds and pain had vanished.

“Please protect me.”

Raon asked Mark Gorton to act as his Guardian and looked back at Merlin.

‘It’s still bad.’

She lost too much blood.

Even though her wounds had healed, Merlin wasn’t regaining vitality the way Raon and Mark Gorton had. Her complexion was turning dark, and her hand was as cold as a corpse.

‘There must still be traces of the elixir in her body.’

Raon took a deep breath and activated Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation, trying to burn out the traces of the elixir remaining inside Merlin.

‘Please. Please….’

He circulated aura endlessly as he watched Merlin’s face, which looked as if it would never open its eyes again.

Hoo….

“Recovery….”

The Fallen One clicked his tongue as he looked at Mark Gorton and Raon, both healed enough to stand.

“Now I remember your alias.”

He raised his gaze to Larian and nodded.

“Sage Larian. The incarnation of an omnipotent being who can do everything under the heavens.”

The Fallen One smiled faintly, as if he finally understood why she carried the title of Sage.

“Is that all you have to say before you die?”

Larian tilted her head, levitating daggers above her fingers.

“You won’t have time to say anything else, so why don’t you say your last words?”

She turned her toes, aiming the multi-colored daggers at The Fallen One.

“I can’t die yet, so I’ll use a little more power too.”

The Fallen One smiled and brought his hands together. White and black light burst outward, and eight wings sprouted from his back.

The right-side wings emitted pure white radiance.

The left-side wings spread sharply like a bat’s, spilling darkness.

“Let’s start the second round.”

With a flick of his fingers, a gray crack opened in the air and powerful light and darkness poured out.

Crackle!

Larian drew a square with four daggers, raising a mana barrier, but she was pushed back, unable to withstand the crushing flood of light and darkness.

“So four aren’t enough now?”

She added a fifth dagger and glanced down.

‘That girl….’

Larian clicked her tongue as she looked at the masked woman Raon was trying to save.

‘She’s going to die.’

Even after throwing the healing dagger, the girl’s vitality wasn’t returning. If this continued, she would die.

“Where are you looking?”

The Fallen One’s smiling voice rang out as he fired a blade wrapped in white light.

Clang!

Larian twisted her dagger and barely blocked it. If she’d been a moment slower, her forehead would have been pierced.

“You’ll be in trouble if you don’t concentrate.”

The Fallen One lifted his chin as if he held the advantage.

“Okay….”

Larian drew circles with both hands, as if caressing beads. Ten daggers floated in front of her chest, forming a wheel.

Brilliant mana light seeped into the slowly rotating blades, and bizarre patterns rose across the daggers.

Oooooong!

Blue light flashed from Larian’s eyes as the Twelve Demonic Constellation Blades revealed their original form.

“I’ll sweep you away first.”

‘No….’

Raon bit his lip as he looked at Merlin, who was growing paler by the moment.

‘Her life force isn’t returning!’

Even after he pushed in the elixir’s remnants and his own energy, Merlin kept losing vitality, like someone who had already reached the end of her life.

It felt like forcing flame into a candle that had already burned down to nothing.

‘Please!’

Raon poured every last bit of heat from Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation—purified by the Ring of Fire—into her, but Merlin’s body only grew colder.

‘Wrath!’

Raon clenched his jaw and called out to him.

‘Tell me the method you mentioned earlier!’

He pressed his palm to Merlin’s chest, compressing and releasing her heart as he shouted.

– “Hmm. In this state, there is no hope.”

Wrath let out a low groan, saying it seemed too late.

‘It’s fine. Quickly!’

– “Haa….”

Wrath took a deep breath and moved closer.

“The method is….”

Even while saying there was no hope, he quickly explained how to freeze a human body.

– “Did you understand?”

‘Yes….’

Raon refined Glacier’s cold energy through the Ring of Fire and sprinkled it across Merlin’s body.

Crackle!

Just as the cold was about to freeze her, a faint energy seeped from the old woman’s mask and interfered.

‘What is this…? No. Again!’

He didn’t have time to investigate. He tried again, but the energy flowing from the mask blocked the freeze once more.

‘This damn mask!’

Raon grabbed Merlin’s mask. Like before, it was stuck to her face and wouldn’t come off.

‘Then I’ll break it.’

He was about to shatter the mask outright with Glacier’s cold—

Crackle!

A thin crack spread across the old woman’s mask, and a massive light surged from within, so bright he couldn’t open his eyes.

Kaaaaa!