Chapter 128
The core resting on Ceres's delicate hand radiated its energy.
Faced with the billowing energy, Ceres took a breath.
"Hoo."
Unlike a Swordmaster, who can contain aura within their body, a mage forcibly creates a channel for external energy to flow through tattoos.
However, the price for forcibly inscribing something that ordinary humans should never handle was never a light one.
'This is... a gamble.'
There was a reason why, at the mage tower, magical formulas were only passed on through master-disciple relationships.
Only those formulas whose stability has already been proven are inherited, and so, those tattoos bear great value.
Therefore, what Ceres was attempting now was a gamble that defied such tradition.
'To create tattoo for an unproven formula by myself.'
Many mages had tried similar things, but not many survived the process.
Still, it had to be done now.
After Laurenti removed her tattoos, she could no longer cast the powerful magic she used to.
But for the gamble she was about to attempt, she needed a sturdy circuit that could replace her previous ones.
― Vwoooong.
The core on Ceres's hand flickered with light. Powerful energy burrowed into her fair skin.
In that moment, the skin that met the energy turned red.
Despite the searing pain, Ceres's gaze stayed fixed. She overcame the agony with immense concentration, drawing the flow of energy deeper in.
All that remained were the burnt-out traces of her magical circuits. She couldn't restore them all, but the circuits touched by the energy lit up brightly.
'Don't get greedy. Only revive what can be saved.'
The magical formula of a mage, if one looked at the black tattoos, consisted of tiny patterns.
Each one contains immense power, linked together to unleash great force.
But Ceres focused only on the revivable patterns, leaving the dead ones alone.
Soon, little patterns condensed, densely sketching tiny tattoos. So far, Ceres could do this even without the power of the core.
'Now comes the important part.'
Now Ceres focused elsewhere: drawing a new formula with the energy surging explosively.
It was the most dangerous moment in the process she had envisioned.
"... Let's concentrate."
To use a metaphor, it was time for a feat akin to dunking one's hand into a plummeting waterfall to snatch an invisible fish beneath the surface.
Steam rose from Ceres's skin as it burned. The energy crafted a new formula, giving her searing pain.
Cold sweat ran down Ceres's cheeks. The pain was intense enough to make her scream, but she uttered no sound.
She simply felt the flow of incoming energy and focused on inscribing the formula.
The long lines she drew became channels for the energy. Along these, delicate patterns were engraved to capture the energy and convert it into mana.
Next, she drew sigils to use that mana destructively.
Above that, she added indicators to control direction and position.
But then—
"Ghk!"
Ceres bit her lip. Red blood trickled down her neck.
Explosive energy started to surge. The uncontrollable power felt on the verge of breaking loose.
Ceres's gaze trembled. The energy injected into her body had ceased to make circuits and was now flowing backward.
Was this the fate of mages who attempted forbidden acts? She suppressed the boiling despair.
But something surfaced in Ceres's mind.
'... The Swordmasters.'
Those who freely wielded the destructive energy called aura. Those who accepted, wholly within their bodies, the circuits that mages risked their lives to inscribe.
Among them, she recalled the golden flames Erich had wielded before her very eyes.
Why, she wondered, did she now feel that the nature of their power so closely resembled magic?
Most mages scorn the Swordmasters.
From the mages' perspective, they were merely barbarians who obtained such power by luck.
Until now, she too thought like a typical mage.
However,
After leaving the mage tower and meeting Erich, she made a different judgment.
They simply did not chase vague knowledge at a desk, but these people too could make rational and logical judgments, and in their own way were as remarkable as mages.
Ceres's eyes sharpened. She found a new direction.
Like grabbing the last straw, where she turned was...
not to another mage,
but to the Swordmasters.
'Perhaps... on the contrary, magic might have been an imitation of their power all along.'
At the verge of succumbing to death in the grip of energy, Ceres decided to take a gamble. To think in a completely different direction from before.
And then—
The energy in her whole body surged explosively, and black streaks appeared up to her eye corners. The tattoos shone with a bright light.
She felt heat rising through her entire body.
Soon after—
― Vwoooong.
A blue glow shimmered in her eyes. The previously lost flow of energy now circulated inside her.
Ceres's lips curled into a faint smile.
***
A keen standoff between Erich's squad and the dead. Tension hung in the air. Then, Frederick spoke.
"... Can we really trust and wait for that woman?"
"Do we have any other options?"
"What about attacking and withdrawing like before?"
"That won't work anymore. Albrecht isn't a fool. The formation of the dead has changed. He's made sure we can't use the same trick twice."
"Damn, I feel like something's gonna go wrong if we just keep waiting like this."
Erich nodded. Frederick's intuition pointed in the same direction. Clearly, Albrecht was preparing something.
And if they just waited, they'd never know when whatever he'd prepared would be unleashed.
Moreover, on closer inspection, the number of the dead was subtly increasing.
The death knights, whose numbers had receded, were rebuilding as well—a most troubling situation.
It was then that the commander of Fortress 2, Hern, who had been observing, placed a hand on each sword at his side.
"Damn it, should I have asked the old man for more troops?"
"That side's got problems of its own. I heard the forces of Ungrim keep crossing the valley."
"... Really? But aren't there other fortresses over there?"
Erich nodded. If the valley was not properly managed, it meant the fortress commanders stationed there were being negligent.
'Whether it's negligence or rebellion, I can't tell.'
Before the regression, August had faced a major crisis. The fortress commanders split in two and civil war broke out, causing heavy losses.
The Watch now seemed united, but that was far from the truth. Each fortress commander held far too much authority.
Especially, 'someone' whom Erich marked as a key suspect required particular caution.
In any case,
For these reasons, getting reinforcements from the main force, as Hern suggested, was practically impossible.
In fact, even the current number of troops was already more than they could reasonably expect.
― Tatatak!
At that moment, a squad member hurried over to Erich. He appeared to be one of the guards from the rear.
"Captain! Someone is approaching from this direction."
"... From the front?"
"From the rear."
Erich's eyes narrowed. Someone from the rear? But soon, a smile crept across his lips.
Mikhail spoke up as if echoing him.
"... That's?"
"Yes. Do you feel it?"
"A mage? She doesn't seem like one, though."
Ceres approached, her blue hair fluttering in the wind. Both her eyes twinkled with a blue light. Erich, too, smiled faintly.
'Looks like she found her own way.'
Erich sensed a familiar energy, one like a Swordmaster, radiating from her.
Mages and Swordmasters are very different, but the essential nature of their powers is the same.
A Swordmaster can generate and utilize energy within his body.
Mages, who cannot, must draw in external power and channel it outside their bodies.
But the present Ceres seemed to be somewhere in between.
As Ceres approached, she gave a bright smile.
"Seems you already had a bit of a scuffle."
"We got a little bored waiting."
Erich's eyes drifted to Ceres's skin peeking through her collar. The tattoos, which had been burned away, now overlaid anew.
He didn't know how she'd done it, but the energy radiating off her felt stronger than before. Erich felt validated in having trusted Ceres.
"Did you get what you were after?"
Ceres placed a hand on her hip and answered.
"So will we advance right away?"
"We can't give them time. Albrecht's cooking up something suspicious."
"Then before we go, let's give them a little taste."
"... Sorry?"
Ceres confidently strode forward, spreading her arms to either side. Even from behind, a blue aura streamed from her, leaving a trailing glow.
Her robe whipped in the wind, revealing the black tattoos traced on her skin.
The black tattoos absorbed the subtle energy radiating off her, shining with light.
Erich slowly closed and opened his eyes. In his gaze, the magical circuits woven like a spider's web across Ceres's body burst into rapid circulation.
'A mage through and through...'
The energy itself was stronger thanks to the core, but as it flowed along her tattoos, it amplified to new heights.
A pinnacle of efficiency.
For someone who cannot generate their own aura, it was the greatest strength possible.
The power gathered at the ends of her arms burned so brightly that even someone who wasn't a Swordmaster could see it.
― PAANG!
With a sharp sonic boom, energy blasted out from beneath Ceres's feet, shooting toward the dead.
Before the enemy could even react—
― KWAANG!
With a wrenching distortion in space, the dead were instantly sucked in.
The explosion spread.
― KWAANG! KWAANG!
With a chain of detonations, holes were blown through the ranks of the dead.
It felt like magic on a whole new level compared to before. Ceres shook her head wearily to the side.
A faint blue light spilled from beneath her closed eyelids. After a brief moment of calm, she waved at the squad.
― Wheeeeee!
Erich smiled as the heat radiating from Ceres shielded his body. It was enough to counter the frost of the enemy.
― CLANG!
Erich unsheathed his sword with both hands and announced,
"Full advance!"
― BUUUUUUUU.
With Frederick's horn, the entire squad began to march forward and quickly closed the distance to the dead.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】