50. Noble Soul (12)
Points and curves, and rune words.
A phenomenon in which incantations and magic circles control and resonate with the flow of mana running through all things in nature—magic.
For an ordinary mage, both incantations and magic circles were absolutely essential in the use of magic.
Because controlling and capturing the flow of mana through incantations, then shaping magic through magic circles, was considered the most obvious common sense.
But a very tiny number of mages sometimes shattered that common sense. Whether by inheriting a special bloodline, possessing a special trait, or perhaps—
“Turn over.”
—being a 9-Class mage.
Kugugugugung—!!!
Aryumun Bleushun.
At his single low-spoken command, the earth overturned and rose high into the sky.
Then Kkotseorin stretched out a hand into empty air, and thick branches of the World Tree grew from the land itself to support that mass of earth.
“Oh, oooh…”
Cheolribeon stared at the outrageous spectacle they were unfolding with mildly widened eyes.
So that was it. He had wondered how they intended to fight inside the World Tree without harming ordinary people… only for them to lift the entire land and move it somewhere else.
‘Impressive….’
Whether it was Aryumun overturning such a vast, heavy mass of earth, or Kkotseorin supporting and moving it with the roots of the World Tree, both of them were monsters not to be underestimated.
“Whew, now that’s a nice show. I can’t do anything like that.”
“…Coming from someone with a blessed ability, that is a rich thing to say.”
Anyone who knew anything knew that Cheolribeon was loved by the earth because he had contracted with Dusk Soil February.
So when he spoke so calmly like that, Aryumun had no choice but to glare viciously at him—but Cheolribeon had been completely sincere.
“I’m serious… but no one ever believes me.”
He was only loved by the earth, not capable of controlling it.
Just because one received the protection of one of the Twelve Divine Months did not mean one automatically gained mastery over that power.
After all, this ability was called exactly what it was—
“a blessing.”
“You people have no idea how horrifying a curse the blessing of the Twelve Divine Months can become.”
“Hah. Is that the kind of thing you say after contracting with Dusk Soil February, which can make you invincible the moment you form a contract?”
Aryumun had mainly trained in earth-based arts, so he naturally held hostility toward Cheolribeon, who wielded the earth without any special cultivation—but Cheolribeon truly meant it.
“…Yes, invincible.”
Cheolribeon muttered bitterly.
“That’s the problem… it stays that way even when I don’t want it to.”
“What nonsense.”
Aryumun wiped the languid look from his eyes and spread both arms.
Without even the slightest preparatory movement, brown magic circles materialized and interlocked like gears, and then—
Boom!
A steel gate shaped like a twisted dragon dropped down from the air.
Creeeak—!
The steel gate opened, and from within emerged a black giant.
The giant, well over thirty meters tall, held a hammer in its right hand and an axe in its left. The way it sparkled strangely in the sunlight made it obvious at a glance that it was made of no ordinary metal.
“Don’t tell me… a golem made of Heukjeongam…?”
Considering that it took dozens of alchemists an entire year of research just to create even a palm-sized chunk of Heukjeongam, its size was truly absurd. Cheolribeon was sincerely impressed, but he couldn’t just stand there marveling.
Woooooong!!
The black giant began to bring down its axe.
And yet Cheolribeon did not move.
Because as he waited, the earth overturned of its own accord and formed a ceiling above him.
Jjeong—!!
The giant’s hammer collided with the earthen ceiling, generating a shockwave so immense that it was hard to believe it came from mere physical force.
The earth caved in… and a crater dozens of meters wide was carved into it, but at the very center, Cheolribeon stood there without a single hair harmed.
Still, Cheolribeon could feel it clearly.
Cracks were beginning to form in the earth’s protection, the shield once praised as absolute invincibility.
“Haha… Well, this is no joke.”
As expected of a 9-Class mage.
Wasn’t it said that, long ago, there had once been an age when mages stood against the Twelve Divine Months? Seeing present-day 9-Class mages wield power like that, it no longer sounded entirely false.
Shiver!
“…Huh?”
While quietly watching the black giant, Cheolribeon suddenly felt a chill and instantly unleashed his mana with full force.
The earth absorbed that mana and layered more than three tiers of earthen armor around him. Then, the next moment—
…Siiiiik—!!
Together with a grotesque sound, as if a snake had licked across something with its tongue, every layer of earthen armor melted away and vanished.
‘Y-you’ve got to be kidding…!’
Rolling quickly across the ground and leaping backward, Cheolribeon finally grasped the true nature of the magic that had targeted him.
‘Sunlight…?’
From the World Tree high in the sky, branches had extended and created transparent droplets like magnifying lenses, hanging them toward the sun. The instant sunlight passed through them, it turned into a laser and came crashing down to the earth below.
“What kind of monster is that…?”
Kkotseorin, who had one hand raised high in order to control the World Tree, gazed coldly at Cheolribeon.
A woman with a mysterious, beautiful appearance—so mesmerizing that merely looking at her made one’s heart waver.
“Far more vicious than you look….”
Shaaak!
When Kkotseorin flung both arms wide, the World Tree’s branches coiled like snakes and split to both sides. From the fan-like canopy of branches that spread wide enough to cover the sky, green mana began to gather.
‘…So it looks like she can’t just spam that sunlight attack from earlier, after all.’
Well, even a 9-Class mage probably couldn’t fire something like that repeatedly. If they did, they might overturn an entire nation in the time it took to boil instant noodles.
Kududududud!!
The earth trembled as the roots of the World Tree surged upward, and without warning an active volcano grew from the ground and began spewing eruptions.
A natural disaster in the truest sense.
And yet, even as Aryumun and Kkotseorin’s full-scale assault began in earnest, Cheolribeon remained as calm as ever.
“Haha… You still don’t truly understand me.”
Beneath the soles of his feet, a breath writhed.
Dusk Soil February had opened its eyes, having sensed the threat against Cheolribeon.
It loved him too much to forgive the cause of the danger created against him.
Even if the opponent were a god.
‘…Must someone die because of me yet again?’
It wasn’t that he couldn’t understand them. Cheolribeon was a dark mage.
And a butcher.
But Cheolribeon had never, ever killed innocent people without reason.
It was simply that—
his ability,
the blessing of Dusk Soil February,
wanted to brush aside every kind of threat that came near him.
It wished for that far too strongly.
And so countless children, old people, women, young men, homes, villages, cities, and nations had collapsed.
He was evil.
Whatever the reason, disaster had always followed wherever he went, and massive casualties had occurred.
If he were being honest, he would rather die at their hands.
No, perhaps… on the day he went to the Dark Mage King in order to kill himself, he should have died completely then and there.
‘But I couldn’t die.’
Because he had been a coward.
And so today as well, he creates more victims.
Because he is loved by the earth,
he can no longer be loved by anyone.
…Meanwhile, in Iphanel’s garden.
After sending Soya away, Baek Yuseol looked at Iphanel, who was still frozen stiff.
He had roughly expected it, but seeing the reason she had fallen with his own eyes made his chest ache terribly.
‘She chose corruption herself.’
Soya’s ability had not shown up even in the Bulbul Glasses, but at the very least he had managed to learn that she was a “half-witch.”
‘A clone body….’
That was not an ordinary clone.
It wasn’t some simple principle like in a comic, where a clone suddenly popped into existence out of nowhere after using a clone technique. There had to be a “doll” that served as the body of the clone.
The caster then infused that doll with her own soul and mana, and at that point, the value of the clone changed depending on the quality of the doll.
At the low end, there were wooden dolls, and at the high end…
actual living people were often used as the material.
And to grant selfhood to a conscious human, the only possible way was to “contaminate” the target with one’s own energy.
In other words, it meant draining all of a living person’s blood and mana and filling them with one’s own.
“…Disgusting woman.”
The reason that woman who had stolen Iphanel’s heart had returned here
was not simply to absorb the heart.
She had planned to corrupt Iphanel with her own energy and turn her into a doll.
But who was Iphanel?
Even if she spoke like a child and had the appearance of one, she was still a spirit who had lived for a thousand years.
Even after losing nearly all of her energy, she had not lost her wisdom, and in order not to be corrupted by Soya, she had chosen to corrupt herself first.
…Even giving up the “noble soul” she had spent hundreds of years cultivating in order to become a spirit.
His fists clenched on their own.
The more he thought about it, the more pitiful Iphanel seemed, and the more violently he wanted to kill Soya.
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‘No.’
He must not let himself be consumed by anger.
A simple death would not be enough punishment. Soya needed to be made to suffer pain worse than death.
Enough to make her regret ever daring to lay a hand on Iphanel’s heart.
“Just wait a little. I’ll get you out of here soon.”
Iphanel had been bound to this garden for far too long.
After losing her heart, she had grown far too weak to adapt to the outside environment.
But if she had truly fallen completely now…
then after purifying her soul once more, perhaps it might actually be possible to bring her outside.
‘That woman definitely went after Cheolribeon.’
The emotion he had seen at the last moment had been none other than desire.
The burning desire to take Cheolribeon’s head and completely absorb the spirit’s heart.
Could there be any better moment to be grateful for the blessing of Crimson Spring March?
Because it gave him certainty, he could move according to a plan.
‘More importantly… purification is the real problem.’
He couldn’t let himself be blinded by rage and ignore the urgent issue right in front of him.
If Iphanel had chosen corruption of her own will, then restoring her to what she had been would be extremely difficult. Even in the original game, if she had never fallen in the first place, that would be one thing—but once she had fallen, there were almost no episodes in which she was returned to normal, which made this even more troublesome.
‘If there’s one and only one hope…’
That hope was Flame, the one and only girl in the world capable of restoring a fallen dark mage.
But even then, he had no idea whether that would work in this situation as well.
Because this was not corruption forced upon Iphanel by another.
It was corruption chosen by her own will.
“Hoo… I don’t know. Just hold on a little longer. I’ll deal with Soya first and come back right away.”
With a face full of worry, Baek Yuseol gently touched the violet barrier surrounding Iphanel’s surface, then stepped outside the garden.
Now, in the moonlit garden where no one remained—
Srrk….
The fallen spirit slowly opened her eyes.
The air was clearly polluted by fallen dark mana, and yet, strangely enough, Iphanel’s eyes were clear and pure, still worthy of being called those of a spirit.
She remembered Baek Yuseol’s back.
The back of someone carrying a heavy burden.
The back of someone who endured all of it and still moved forward.
‘I’ll be back soon…’
Iphanel desperately transmitted her thoughts toward Baek Yuseol, but it was useless.
Still, it didn’t matter even if he couldn’t hear her.
Because they would meet again.
