36. Magic Survival (7)
Kaboom!!
The dark crimson flames spread brilliantly and swallowed everything around them.
The damp hill, the thousand-year-old ancient tree, the pouring shower, even the crashing thunderbolts.
Everything was engulfed in black fire.
Fwoosh……!
Zeliel hurriedly unfolded a shield, but the magic cast in that virtual world could not properly defend against the dark crimson flames that burned away everything that was not reality.
Crack!
“Ugh……!”
Blown backward by a small shockwave, Zeliel slammed into the burning ancient tree and collapsed to a seated position.
Fwoosh…!
Only then did she notice that black flames had spread to her shoulder, and she tried to put them out, but they would not be extinguished easily.
‘This is……!’
Flames that ordinary magic could not put out—flames that burned reality itself.
She had read about them in books.
One of the strongest bloodlines among the dark mages who handled black flames: the ‘Bloodline of Iskaram.’
The dark mage before her had inherited the blood of Iskaram, a line that had existed since ancient times, and was wielding black flames freely.
However, perhaps because he had not inherited the direct bloodline and had instead received an offshoot seed, the color of his flames was murky and heavily mixed with scarlet.
Their destructive power itself…… was far inferior to the infamous Iskaram, who had been said to reduce an entire city to ashes all at once.
But even so, could she win?
‘……Impossible.’
A searing pain was already spreading from her burning shoulder.
That was enough to make her sure.
Those flames truly could devour her…… and burn her away.
Using the Level 4 artifact staff she had just acquired to support herself, she struggled to stand and looked calmly at Berunkal as he approached her.
She analyzed.
The chances of victory.
The chances of survival.
Even the method of escaping him by efficiently using the surrounding terrain and every item she had obtained so far.
Even with death approaching right in front of her, Zeliel was capable of thinking coldly, as though even she herself were nothing more than a game piece.
She did not love herself.
To her, the existence called ‘me’ was nothing more than the command tower that handled the pieces on the board; if it could be used, she was fully willing to use it.
“What are you thinking so hard about? Hm? You look awfully troubled for such a pretty face, miss.”
The corners of Berunkal’s lips twitched as he walked toward Zeliel.
He had already realized who the girl before him was.
A noble among nobles.
A high elf girl, Zeliel, whose status ranked among the very highest in the world.
If he burned her alive here—a girl born into a blessed family and gifted with innate talent—then his name would surely be recorded as that of a dark mage who had carved a great scar into the world of magic.
Thump, thump!
His heart pounded wildly.
The blood racing through his veins made his head and chest burn even hotter.
‘How should I torment her?’
She had probably lived her whole life believing herself superior to everyone.
He wanted to ruin that face, slowly…… artistically.
He would burn that beautiful face—praised by everyone—into something no one could ever love, and he would tear off her hands and rip out her tongue so she would never be able to use magic again.
“Haha, I can’t wait to see that cold look on your face twist apart! Women like you are the most fun to torment!”
Fwoosh—!
He casually swung his right arm and sent black flames flying, but instead of trying to defend, Zeliel hurled herself hard to the side and rolled.
It was filthy and ugly for a mage’s fight, but it was the best decision.
Then Zeliel leveled her staff at Berunkal.
Expecting a spell to come flying, Berunkal took a defensive posture—
but.
Bang……!
Instead of using magic, Zeliel used the ‘Jumping Shooter’ artifact to leap high into the air.
“Ha, petty tricks!”
But as if to show it wouldn’t help, Berunkal snapped his fingers, and a flame formed right in front of Zeliel’s face and exploded.
‘What—!’
Boom-boom-boom!!
“Ugh……!”
The recoil slammed Zeliel back into the ground.
Fortunately, she barely felt any pain from the fall itself, but flames spread across nearly her entire upper body.
It hurt so much she couldn’t even scream, yet Zeliel endured it and identified the cause.
‘The range at which he can generate coordinates is much longer than I imagined.’
Ordinary mages could not form ‘target’ magic at such long distance.
The drawback of target-type magic was that while it activated instantly in midair, its range was short and its destructive power weak.
Which meant the dark mage before her was highly specialized in target magic……
‘Running is impossible.’
The moment she finished that judgment and rolled backward with all her strength, a lump of fire crashed down where she had been.
“Hahaha, you were trying to run, weren’t you? Now that you know it’s useless, what will you do next? Hm?”
Fwoosh! Boom!
Berunkal casually tossed black flames at Zeliel with both hands like he was playing catch.
Every time he did, she either hid behind a tree or threw a shield artifact to cancel out the attack somehow, but there was no way she could keep that up for long.
‘There is a way.’
A dark mage estimated at 5-Risk.
Ordinarily she could never win, but this stage contained plenty of artifacts with special abilities.
In her mind, a single plan was already taking shape piece by piece, right down to the escape route after she broke away from this place.
Crackle, crack…….
Zeliel lowered her gaze and looked at her upper body, which was burning.
It was hot and agonizing, yet strangely, no scream and no tears came.
‘There isn’t much time.’
Soon the flames would consume her entire upper body, and then they would burn her whole body away.
If she survived, it could all be healed cleanly without leaving a scar.
So she had to survive, no matter what.
Firming her resolve, Zeliel raised her staff toward the sky.
Glowing green magic circles formed one after another, the body of the thousand-year-old tree shuddered, and its branches shook violently.
Ruuumble!!
‘Spirit Magic, Summon Elpion.’
A high elf’s top-tier spell, capable of awakening and commanding the will dwelling within plants.
Though she was only 4-Class and could not summon a powerful spirit…… this was enough.
Boom, boom!!
—Kwoooooar!
The spirit Elpion, intertwined with branches, grew stronger during the day when showers fell.
Though it was night, so it would only receive half of that buff, the pouring rain would still make Elpion even sturdier.
“Ha, elves really do know some amusing magic, don’t they?”
Berunkal lightly snapped his fingers in mockery.
Kaboom!!
The instantly cast black flames—without even the use of a staff—burned away Elpion’s upper body in one go, and yet it did not stop walking as it advanced toward Berunkal.
“Haha! Do you still not get that it’s useless?”
Even while hurling flames at Elpion, Berunkal sharpened the dark mage’s characteristic senses and scanned the surroundings.
If Zeliel slipped away from her position, it would become troublesome.
Fortunately for Berunkal, this place was the open summit of a hill, and the only place anyone could possibly hide was the thousand-year-old tree itself.
In other words, once he brought down the Elpion in front of him, Zeliel would be able to do nothing.
“You! Thought! Of! Nothing! Better! Than! This!?”
Each time Berunkal’s flames exploded, chunks of Elpion’s body fell apart.
Its arms were torn off, its legs collapsed, and even while its entire body was engulfed in fire, Elpion continued trudging steadfastly toward Berunkal.
“Ha…… beating on a puppet isn’t very fun.”
Just as he was about to finish Elpion off, having grown annoyed—
‘Hm?’
Craaaack!!
Roots from the thousand-year-old tree suddenly shot up from all directions.
She was trying to erect obstacles to block his vision.
‘What a pathetic little trick!’
Berunkal stomped the ground, scattering waves of dark crimson flames in every direction.
Most of the ancient roots burned and were severed, but the thousand-year-old tree did not stop growing.
“Have you given up? I’d heard you were smart, but I guess that was just a rumor. What a waste of mana on something so pointless!”
Of course, Zeliel was replenishing her mana with the survival-only artifact ‘Mana Recovery Potion,’ but Berunkal, unfamiliar with the game’s rules, didn’t know that.
Boom! Kaboom!!
“Haha! Where are you hiding? Did you really think this would let you escape? You play cuter than you look!”
That pointless attempt to block his sight did not work.
His intense flames burned away even the shower itself and cleared the surroundings wide open, and there was nowhere at all for Zeliel to hide.
Tap, tap……!
“Hmm?”
At that moment, a black orb rolled to his feet.
Sensing instinctively that it was an artifact, Berunkal wrapped his body in black flames.
Flash!
A fierce burst of light exploded, but Berunkal took no damage whatsoever.
Even if the flashbang had hit him directly, he would have recovered quickly anyway, since he had already fully released his dark power.
“Your little tricks are getting cuter and cuter.”
Using artifacts in such crude ways on top of her magic meant only one thing.
She really had been cornered.
Berunkal slowly walked toward the ancient tree.
Dealing with the roots that lunged at him along the way was laughably easy.
Beep-beep-beep—BOOM!
A mine-type artifact planted in the ground activated, but he erased it by spitting flames from the sole of his foot.
A ‘Mana Erasure Bullet’ artifact fired out from between the gaps in the old tree, but it turned to ash in midair without accomplishing anything.
A contest between fire and wood.
A horrific mismatch.
And on top of that, the fire was of a higher level.
“Hahaha!”
At the thought of ravaging Zeliel, the finest student of the prestigious Starflower Tree Magic School, the high elf, however he pleased, Berunkal burst into loud laughter.
“Come out already!”
For the finale,
he summoned a massive lump of fire in the air.
Even up to that point, Zeliel did not reveal herself, doing nothing but control the tree’s roots.
‘Stupid bitch!’
He had no intention of killing her like this, so he adjusted the power appropriately.
He made it large enough to burn all the wood away, but not enough to kill Zeliel behind it, and fired it forward.
……Fwoosh, KABOOOM!!
A violent blast covered the world.
It did not merely burn the tree—it shattered it outright in an absurd explosion.
“Now then, come on out!”
Black flames did not even produce smoke, so his vision was not blocked.
Berunkal shoved his way into the gaps of the ancient tree, now wholly engulfed in flames, and shouted loudly.
“Come on, where are you? Hurry up and come out. If you’re not careful, you might actually die, you know?”
No response.
Zeliel did not reveal herself.
Pat, pat…….
The ancient roots that had kept pestering him from every direction lost all strength and sank limply to the ground, and no other presence could be felt anymore.
“……Hm? Huh?”
Berunkal looked around with a startled expression.
“This can’t be right……”
He had definitely controlled the power.
He had made sure it would not deal serious damage to Zeliel hiding behind it.
He had planned to keep playing with her instead of killing her……
‘No way, did she die?’
Snap!
With a flick of his fingers, he extinguished all the flames and focused his senses into his eyes as he searched through the wreckage of the old tree.
But within the totally destroyed remains of the tree, there was no corner at all where a person could have hidden.
Thinking perhaps she had dug into the ground with earth magic, he probed the earth with mana as well, but felt nothing.
“She really…… died? Just like that? Without me even getting to enjoy it?”
It was true that he had been toying with her with the intention of killing her eventually anyway, but somehow the result still left him empty.
Because he had not gotten to indulge in the pleasure properly.
Then—
a thought suddenly struck him.
Berunkal spun around, rushed toward Elpion’s corpse, and plunged his hand into it.
Fwoosh! Bang—!
“Ahk……!”
At once, Zeliel was flung out from inside Elpion and rolled across the ground.
Her whole body was already burned black with severe burns, teetering on the line between life and death……
but she still was not dead.
“……You. You really are insane.”
A chill ran through Berunkal’s chest.
To think she had hidden herself inside Elpion, which he had assumed was nothing more than bait.
“You didn’t even think you might burn to death in there? Stupid bitch.”
No—actually, it was the opposite.
Zeliel had put her body into Elpion fully prepared to burn to death.
Because…… this had been the only possible way to escape from this place.
If Berunkal had not noticed something suspicious at the end, Zeliel might really have slipped away like that, reached outside the match area, chosen elimination, and received treatment.
But she had failed.
Zeliel looked up at Berunkal with cold, dead eyes.
She no longer had any strength left to move.
She was at the point where she was barely clinging to breath.
Even if he wanted to torment her more, he no longer could.
How was he supposed to toy with something that would break if he touched it even lightly?
Berunkal’s face twisted like a demon’s, and he ground his teeth.
“Damn it. You’ve completely killed my mood.”
For him to revel in the pleasure of tormenting someone, the target had to suffer and scream in pain……
but that woman truly looked like nothing more than a ‘doll.’
A wind-up doll, that simply moved in silence toward its objective without emotion.
Perhaps—
even at this very moment, as she stood on the verge of death, she was accepting it with cold calm.
But unlike Berunkal’s thoughts, Zeliel’s mind was in turmoil.
‘I…… can’t die…….’
Not because she clung to life or cherished her own survival.
The reason she lived was solely because of one person—her father.
‘If I die…… there’ll be no one left to treat Father…….’
Her father, Melian, had suffered from an incurable illness for a very long time.
He had called in the greatest doctors from all over the world, but there had been no way to cure it.
He had searched for decades, yet no path appeared, and Melian had long since given up cleanly, deciding it would be a waste to spend his one life on that, and had instead thrown himself into business.
That was why he was passing management on to young Zeliel.
So that when he died someday, Zeliel would be able to live by her own strength.
But Zeliel had no intention of letting her father die.
‘The ancient ruins of Carmenset.’
I’m almost there.
I’ve found nearly all traces of the ruins.
If I can just enter that place, I can save Father.
And now I have to die like this?
‘If I die, no one will ever find the ruins.’
Because even now, everyone still treated the ruins of Carmenset as nothing more than a legend.
Because they believed immortal life—something even the progenitor mages had failed to achieve—did not exist in this world.
‘If I can just go a little farther, I can save Father…….’
Shaaahhh—!
The shower poured down violently.
Even though she knew it was artificially created rain, Zeliel felt a strange sense of realism from it.
Was it because true death was approaching right before her eyes?
“……I don’t like those eyes of yours, not even at the very end.”
Zeliel’s clear eyes, which seemed to look dryly upon everything in the world, filled Berunkal with irritation.
Perhaps she was exactly the sort of person dark mages—those who lived drunk on pleasure—hated most.
“There’s no point in playing with you anymore.”
Even as Berunkal stretched out his hand, countless branches of thought spread through Zeliel’s mind.
How could she get out of here?
If she begged for her life, would he spare her?
No—wouldn’t he enjoy that even more, and torment her all the more viciously?
Was there another method using artifacts and elemental magic strategy?
……No.
No matter how much she thought about it, there wasn’t one.
Even Zeliel’s mind—which had always found an answer no matter what happened—could not produce any solution this time.
And thinking that, she felt as though she could understand the emotion called ‘sadness,’ if only a little.
Sadness, and not fear or anger, right before death.
What an ironic emotion.
‘I’m going to die.’
Unless, like a miracle, a bolt from the heavens were to fall.
To think that her last thought was nothing more than an empty delusion singing of hope.
Was she becoming just like everyone else now that death stood before her?
And for some reason, that made a laugh slip out.
So Zeliel smiled.
It was also the first smile she had ever shown sincerely.
Seeing that Zeliel, Berunkal stretched out his hand.
“Die.”
Dark crimson flames rose like death itself.
Watching them, Zeliel quietly closed her eyes.
……Flash!
KABOOOM—!!
Suddenly,
a massive bolt of lightning crashed down.
As though—
it were a miracle.
— Read only on MugenCodex —
