40. The Seventh Main Tower (6)
Everything I had to do outside Stella was finished.
I had learned how to resolve Kkotseorin’s curse, realized the existence of the Divine Relic, obtained an artifact in Malentaires that would be of major help in Black Magic Erosion, and after going to Pung Ryu-jin’s residence and exploring the ruins, I had even successfully acquired the “Divine Relic” itself.
I wanted to return to Kkotseorin immediately and break the curse for them, but by this point the opening phase of the Black Magic Erosion in Stella should have already been underway, so I had no choice but to head back first.
I was planning to go straight to Flame and proudly show off the Dead Spirit Talisman.
With this, I was going to tell her, the Seventh Main Tower would feel a whole lot more secure once the Black Magic Erosion episode started.
But when I actually got there—
“…Flame? Come to think of it, she said she was going somewhere to investigate the ghost stories herself……”
“What d’you mean, punk?”
I immediately sensed that the situation had gone thoroughly to shit.
The episode was progressing at a bizarre speed, and the ghost stories of the Seventh Main Tower had already begun their full-scale activity.
Damn…
Cold sweat poured all over my body.
Was it that I had never expected this?
No.
The episodes had already changed several times up to now, and every single time it had caused all kinds of trouble.
I had figured something like this might happen.
I had simply prayed it wouldn’t.
No matter how wildly the episode keeps changing on its own, this is just too much.
Since Professor Meizen Tiren, who was originally supposed to become the main agent of the Black Magic Erosion, had disappeared and someone else had taken that role instead…
I guess it was unavoidable.
Even so, I told myself it was fortunate I had not come any later.
It had not yet been more than a few hours since Flame’s group entered the Seventh Main Tower.
I finished preparing in a flash and headed toward it.
What was particularly unusual about this episode was that the player had to find the entrance to the dungeon personally.
Most quests simply marked the guide map with “Go here,” but this episode forced the player to unravel the riddles and ghost stories for themselves.
At first, a lot of people got confused and failed to progress the episode properly, and I had been one of those idiots too.
But what do you think veteran players are?
[★Must Read★]
[★Black Magic Erosion Final Compilation★]
Those lunatics had ultimately uncovered every dungeon entrance in the game, every ghost-story riddle, every route, every shortcut, and every possible clear method, then posted a final compilation to the community.
There was simply no other way to describe them but insane.
But thanks to that, all I could feel was gratitude.
Thanks to their efforts, there was nothing blocking me now as I made my way toward the Seventh Main Tower.
There was just one thing that worried me.
I only hope Flame doesn’t push herself too hard before I get there…
In the original game too, whenever something happened, she was always the type to drag out every last bit of her strength and make it explode, so there was no helping the worry.
And on top of that, there was one more thing I had been unable to tell Flame because of a lack of Narrative Power.
[For newbies clearing the Seventh Main Tower dungeon with Flame, there’s one thing to watch out for]
[There’s a full-length mirror behind the boss, so don’t go near it]
[No idea why, but if you touch the full-length mirror as Flame, your character dies instantly]
[Other characters are fine, so it’s probably just a bug??]
A bug whose cause was never discovered and never fixed, right up to the very end.
But what if it was not actually a bug, and there was a real reason for it?
…No point overthinking it. I just have to get there fast, before that happens.
A yielding, almost fleshy sensation wrapped around my entire body as I pierced through space, and in an instant I was sucked into another world.
A world where every color had been inverted.
There, I chose the fastest and most efficient path and sprinted toward Flame with everything I had.
The reason Meizen Tiren, the final boss of this story, had been dangerous was because she could wield the magic of every student who had entered the Seventh Main Tower.
In the original romance fantasy, Meizen had pressed Eizel using limitless mana and a wide variety of magic rather than dark mage abilities, and even in that extreme situation Hae Wonryang had shown astonishing powers of observation and identified the enemy’s weakness.
Even in the middle of battle, Professor Meizen Tiren had hardly used the physical abilities characteristic of dark mages at all, instead stubbornly remaining rooted to the same spot.
It had looked as though she were protecting something.
And at that moment, he realized it.
“The full-length mirror is the weakness.”
At that single line from Hae Wonryang in the original romance fantasy, Professor Meizen Tiren had visibly flinched.
Certain now that he was right, Hae Wonryang had personally approached the mirror and cast magic at point-blank range, shattering it to pieces.
We can win this.
Whoosh! Boom!
Blocking the massive flames flying at them with a shield of light, Flame fixed her gaze on the mirror standing behind Chekiren.
That ominous, unidentified mirror was the object that had caused this entire ghost-story incident and the core artifact maintaining the Seventh Main Tower.
“Hyaaa!”
Anella let out an oddly cute battle cry and threw a punch, smashing apart half of the earthen wall protecting Professor Chekiren.
Through the gap, Eizel sent out a streak of lightning, but stone fragments scattered across the ground floated into the air and blocked the attack completely.
Pajijijik!
But lightly disregarding the laws of science, Eizel’s blue lightning chained through dirt and stone alike and struck Professor Chekiren directly.
Pakang!
“Mm…!”
The shield protecting Professor Chekiren did not shatter, but it cracked in a spiderweb pattern.
“For a first-year, that is impressive.”
But the cracked shield regenerated in an instant.
Far faster than the speed at which ordinary students could restore a shield.
As expected—even if he was a dark mage, he did not wear the title of professor for nothing.
At first glance, it looked like there was no chance of victory at all.
They were already at a disadvantage in a straightforward magic battle, and their opponent was capable of using even more powerful magic than they could.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
“Uwaaah!”
The shattered chunks of stone floated skyward, then came crashing down at horrific speed, forcing Anella to run wildly for her life.
“Hah!”
When Flame struck the floor with her staff, pillars of light shot up and shattered every descending stone fragment.
But the attack did not end there.
Kwarrrng! Boom!
A massive bolt of lightning fell from the sky, piercing straight through the dome!
Its power was easily above the 5-Class level.
If it hit them, their shields would never hold.
“Dodge!”
Pajijik!!
Sensing the lightning ahead of time, Anella threw herself aside, while Eizel spread an ice barrier up toward the ceiling.
“Hngh…!”
But it was not enough to block the bolt completely.
A few fragments of the lightning burst through and wrapped themselves around Eizel’s body.
“Ah, seriously…!”
Flame hurriedly pressed a hand to the floor and summoned green wooden vines, wrapping them around Eizel’s body like armor.
At once, the lightning died out and vanished.
How do I get close to the mirror?
She had already explained the plan.
If this place could create a space on this scale, then it definitely had a core, and she would destroy it, so they only needed to buy her time.
But Professor Chekiren was fighting far better than expected, making it impossible to approach.
Any spell I throw from a distance will just get blocked…
Coordinate-generation magic was too weak to destroy the mirror, and if she launched magic from far away, not only would its power be cut in half, Chekiren would obviously notice it during casting and defend against it.
There was no way he would simply leave the part that was effectively his heart unguarded.
This is driving me insane.
Professor Meizen in the original romance fantasy had been an alchemist.
There had even been a description explaining that, because her magical talent had been lacking, she had been forced into alchemy, and as a result she could not properly control large-scale magic like this.
That was probably why Hae Wonryang had found an opening to destroy the mirror.
But Professor Chekiren had been an elemental-magic professor.
He was experienced in combat.
No, to be honest, for a dark mage, he was far superior to most ordinary battle mages.
Because of that, even with Anella joining them, the three of them still could not get close.
No. There is a way.
Flame looked at Anella, who was bouncing around like a frog.
Having awakened her physical abilities and begun displaying superhuman strength, she was showing speed and power beyond imagination.
Not on Ahjussi’s or Ma Yuseong’s level… but I can use her as a knight.
The moment that thought formed, Flame shouted at the top of her lungs.
“Anella! I just figured it out—the mirror behind that son of a bitch is the weak point! Get over there and smash it!”
“Eh? Uh, wh-what?!”
Anella’s eyes went round in shock.
Her expression clearly seemed to say, Were you allowed to say that out loud?
Naturally, they had already talked about targeting the mirror before arriving here.
But making sure the enemy did not know what you were after was strategy 101.
And yet she had just blurted it out?
“R-right! Got it!”
But what else could Anella do?
Assuming there had to be some meaning behind it, she charged toward the mirror exactly as Flame had said.
“Not so fast!”
Kwaddeuk! Kuung!
Anella’s sudden leap was not quite on the level of a power jump, but it was still fast enough that Chekiren began marking her intensely.
He gathered up debris into gigantic boulders and sent them rolling, ignited explosions of flame in midair, and fired lightning strikes and icy spikes to obstruct her path.
“Uaaaaaah!”
No matter how you looked at it, this was wrong.
I’m seriously going to die!
Seeing the magic flying toward her without even the slightest gap to evade through, tears welled in Anella’s eyes.
Ahh, so this is how I die in the flower of my forties. And I never even got to date anyone.
But at that moment, a golden magic circle spun around Anella’s body, and dozens of bundles of chains were summoned, smashing aside every incoming spell.
The lightning ran down the chains and disappeared, the boulders were bound and halted in place, and the ice spikes were all battered away as the chains lashed like whips.
This is…!
There was no mistake.
It was Flame’s magic.
Each individual chain was only around 4-Class in level, but for there to be dozens of them…
That meant Flame was overexerting herself to use this spell in order to protect Anella.
Damn it. Then I can’t stop either!
Rather than relying on the chains completely, Anella made full use of her dynamic vision and leg strength.
The spells she could evade, and the spells she could punch away herself, she handled as much as possible so that Flame could conserve mana while she advanced.
“A traitor being protected by a mage—what a ridiculous sight!”
Grinding his teeth, Chekiren clenched his fist.
At once, a massive golden wall rose from the floor, trying to trap Anella, but—
Drip.
“Mm!”
The gold failed to take shape and instead melted straight into the ground.
Why?
Any student whose sense of self was consumed by the ghosts and shadows of the Seventh Main Tower had all their magic stripped away and taken by Chekiren.
Jeremy Scarlven too must have been completely consumed by the ghosts.
He had thought he had fully absorbed Jeremy’s magic…
Damn it!
Now was not the time to think about that.
Because the spell he had prepared to bind her feet had failed, Anella had now come even closer.
Killing one of them should be fine.
Magic absorbed through ghosts and shadows was difficult to take in cleanly.
That was why, in order to absorb Eizel’s and Flame’s magic in a purer form, he had been holding back his power and trying to subdue them without killing them.
But Anella could die.
After all, that girl was a dark mage, so there was nothing worth absorbing from her anyway.
“Stop being such a nuisance and die.”
Sssss.
Black aura coiled like a snake around Chekiren’s wrist, forming a small sphere.
Not absorbed magic, but Chekiren’s original ability as a dark mage.
The instant it completed and flew toward Anella—
Pakang!
Something cold and sharp stimulated Chekiren’s sixth sense.
Dangerous.
His instincts screamed at him.
If he did not defend immediately, something terrible would happen.
Halting his spell halfway through and turning his head, he saw that Flame had already approached to within arm’s reach, a cluster of light gathered at the tip of her staff as she ran forward.
Not toward him.
Toward the mirror behind him.
Ah.
The power in that spell was definitely above 4-Class.
He had placed a degree of defensive magic over the mirror, but whether it could fully withstand Radiance magic was uncertain.
I have to stop her…!
Chekiren grit his teeth and calculated the spell needed to stop Flame.
At this range, he could stop her easily enough without killing her.
That conclusion had just formed—
—Do not stop her.
“…Pardon?”
The Voice, which had remained silent throughout the battle and had not intervened in the slightest, suddenly gave an order.
By the time Chekiren had momentarily gone blank in sheer confusion, Flame had already reached the full-length mirror.
“Hyaaaa!”
Even shouting as she did so, Flame drove the tip of her staff straight into the mirror.
Flash—!
For a brief instant, a tremendous burst of light erupted…
But it was swallowed whole by the black aura pouring out from the mirror.
“…Huh?”
Flame realized at once that something had gone wrong and tried to pull back—
But it was already too late.
—Child of the Stars, do not resent me.
Because the black shadow had swallowed Flame as well.
—This too is fate.
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