Chapter 102
Chapter 102
Blood glinted black beneath the moonlight. The dark aura that had been surging from his body scattered like smoke and vanished. On the cross-section of the split sword, the last flames were still burning.
“Khk… A swordsmanship like this… it’s my first time…”
He staggered backward. A trail of bloodstains stretched across the icy floor in step with his retreat. The remnants of the split sword fell to the ground with a clamor.
“How… who…”
His voice trembled. Was it fear, or the chill of one standing before death? Blood ran down beneath his mask.
“I already told you.”
I raised my sword. The blood gathered on the blade turned into ice crystals and fell away.
“I’m a rich gambler who likes Ran Winterbell.”
“No… you clearly…”
His final words broke off in midair. His body toppled forward, and a black shadow stretched long across the ice-covered ground. The silence of death filled the alley.
The moonlight shone blue. Over the pool of blood that was growing darker and darker, ice crystals bloomed like flowers. As though mourning death, or celebrating victory.
The mages in the rear hastily unfolded their magic with flustered faces.
“Wandering Star of Hellfire!”
The moment I saw that, I immediately sent a slash carrying frigid energy straight into the sky. The frozen fireballs suspended in midair shone blue under the moonlight. They looked like cold stars embroidered across the heavens.
The mages who had cast the spell stared blankly upward.
“Impossible… This is definitely Wandering Star of Hellfire…”
The mages’ voices trembled.
This was probably the second time they had witnessed the sight of their pride, Seventh-Circle magic, being neutralized so easily.
I slowly began to walk forward.
There was not even the sound of footsteps.
“We need to form a defensive formation!”
“Put up a magic barrier!”
“FuXk! Hurry, mana resonance……”
The mages desperately chanted their spells. Three layers of blue magic barriers formed before them.
Drawing an arc at the corner of my lips, I said,
“It’s useless.”
The moment I raised my sword horizontally, moonlight flowed down along the blade. What had first looked like faint frost changed in an instant into black ice crystals. Mana, as thin as thread, coiled around the blade, then began weaving delicate patterns like a spiderweb.
“To stake your lives over such petty money.”
The sight of blue-tinged mana flowing along the blade looked like a single stream of water. That stream gradually turned colder, and wherever it passed, frost flowers bloomed. The ice crystals that began at the tip of the blade grew as if alive, dancing as they spread.
“Worm-like bastards.”
Winterbell’s frigid energy began dyeing the surrounding air. What had first seemed like a faint mist transformed in an instant into particles carrying a cold radiance. They danced in the air like an aurora, then suddenly turned into sharp ice crystals.
Centered on the sword, the frigid energy spread in a spiral. It looked like the heart of a winter storm. Wherever the cold passed, the air froze, and within it countless ice crystals bloomed and vanished.
As the moonlight illuminated the scene, it shattered into thousands of colors as though passing through a prism. The frigid energy pouring from the sword had now become a massive blizzard, cleaving through the air. At its center, I stood like the incarnation of winter.
Crack-crack-crack.
The sound of ice splitting rang out. The frozen fireballs suspended in midair began cracking one by one.
“Th-that……”
One of the mages cried out as if he had realized something.
“Run! Run right…!”
But it was already too late.
The ice masses suspended in midair first began to tremble ever so slightly. On their surfaces, which had been shining brilliantly under the moonlight, thin cracks began to appear one by one. Those cracks spread wider and wider, tracing delicate patterns like spiderwebs.
Crack… crack…
The sound of ice breaking rang softly, like the thawing ice of a winter lake.
And then, in an instant, everything collapsed.
Crash!
Thousands of ice fragments poured down like a waterfall. Each shard had a different size and shape. Some gleamed like sharp spears, some like flower petals, and others like stars.
As the moonlight passed through those fragments, it created a fantastical feast of light. Blue light, silver light, and cold white radiance crossed together, producing a scene like a thousand prisms shattering all at once. That brilliant rain of death came pouring down toward the mages’ defensive formation.
The sound the shards made as they fell was like the sound of icicles dropping in a winter forest. But unlike that beauty, each fragment carried deadly killing intent. The shining rain of death pierced through the mages’ bodies.
In an instant, the entire alley was filled with the cold radiance created by the ice fragments.
It looked as though the Milky Way of a midwinter night sky had poured down upon the earth.
“Uaaaaaaagh!!!!”
“Kraaaaaaagh!!!!”
The sharp ice shards pierced through their defensive magic circle. The blue barriers shattered like glass.
The last mage’s cloak had been torn.
Dark-red bloodstains had spread from every place pierced by the ice shards, and his mask was half-broken, revealing a face twisted in terror.
At his feet, the corpses of his companions lay scattered. Once powerful mages, they were now covered in cold ice crystals, sunken into eternal silence. Their bodies were already frozen white, and even their blood no longer flowed.
“…….”
Moonlight poured down over the corpses, casting eerie shadows. The wreckage of the shattered magic barriers lay scattered across the ground like pieces of glass, and frost flowers were blooming over those fragments.
His voice trembled, and every time he exhaled, white breath streamed out. His eyes, once full of pride, were now filled with despair and fear. His legs shook, but it seemed he did not even have the strength left to run.
The magic staff in his hand was already covered in ice crystals. That tool, which had once held powerful magical force, had now become nothing more than a useless ornament. Like his shattered pride.
The surrounding temperature kept dropping, and only the sound of his breathing broke the stillness of death.
“Th-th-there’s no way… What in the world am I even looking at? I-is this truly reality?”
Smiling, I said,
“No. It’s a dream.”
“Right. Then that makes sense. So it really was a dream……”
In an instant, the sword flashed.
His neck was severed in a blink.
The blood froze in midair and fell.
Everything was over.
Moonlight shone over the alley.
Frost flowers bloomed across the floor covered in ice and blood.
I heard Cecil’s voice.
“Young Master.”
As I wiped the blood from my face, I looked at her.
“Yeah. Cecil.”
Cecil came over to me, holding a handkerchief, and personally wiped away the bloodstains from my face and the rest of my body.
“Let’s return. You need to rest if you’re going to compete tomorrow.”
“We should.”
I had wasted strength for nothing. You could say it was only enough to loosen up, but I had suffered a slight injury in the fight with the leader earlier. He had used unusual mana, and the wound he gave me seemed to be rotting little by little.
‘I’ll have to go back and get treatment.’
Just then, Cecil asked,
“Young Master. Are you feeling unwell anywhere?”
Her instincts were truly ghost-like.
I shook my head.
“No. I’m fine.”
But Cecil did not seem to believe me. Narrowing her eyes, she looked over my body here and there.
Then she suddenly reached out and touched my side.
A stinging pain struck my spine, and my body flinched before I knew it.
“Khk!”
Cecil spoke in a chilly tone.
“What did you just say? That you were fine?”
“Haha. Guess I’m not fine?”
“Get on my back.”
“Hm?”
What was she talking about? It was only a slight scrape. It was not even my leg that was injured. So how could she tell me to get on her back? I had never done such a thing even once in my life, nor had I ever imagined it.
“I said, get on my back.”
“No. What are you talking about? I’m perfectly fine, Cecil. It’s just a small scrape. So how am I supposed to let you carry me?”
“…….”
“…….”
“Young Master.”
“Yeah?”
“Stop talking back and get on.”
“No. I’m really fi……”
Cecil’s gaze was far too cold. I tried to open my mouth, but somehow it would not move. Had her stare frozen my lips? I could not bring myself to speak.
“…O-okay.”
Only then did Cecil smile warmly.
Before I knew it, I ended up climbing onto her back and heading home. If someone who did not know the circumstances saw this scene, I would probably look like trash making a woman missing one arm and one eye give me a piggyback ride.
Still, it really was comfortable.
She was even fast.
It felt like Cecil carrying me while running was much faster than me running on my own. The surrounding scenery kept changing in an instant, to the point it made me dizzy.
The sound of fierce wind rang in my ears.
I closed my eyes for a moment.
And before I knew it, when I opened them again, the Annex was in sight.
‘We’re already here?’
“……Get down.”
Cecil took my hand and led me to her room. Then, after sitting me down on the bed, she said,
“Take it off.”
“…Hm?”
“Are you going to make me repeat myself? Take off your top.”
For a moment, countless thoughts flashed through my mind, but I silently undid the buttons of my shirt.
Then Cecil applied disinfectant to the wound, and after that, she spread an ointment I had never seen before over it.
“It’s an ointment made from Armid’s poison. It’s specially made for purifying corrupt energy.”
After finishing the ointment, Cecil said,
“You may go now.”
“…….”
“You’re not planning to sleep here, are you?”
At her teasing tone, I rose from my seat and left the room. It was because my heart was pounding too hard for me to endure it.
I headed to my room and promptly fell asleep.
The dream I had that night was very sweet.
---
The next day.
I headed to the training grounds where the friendly match was being held.
At last, it was my turn.
My opponent was…….
Ian Helios, the youngest son of the Helios Family. Unlike me, who had been half-crippled, he was said to have resembled the current Patriarch perfectly since childhood and had lived his whole life with all sorts of titles attached to his name.
A promising genius even within the Helios Family.
He could be called a rising talent who had never once failed to meet the Patriarch’s expectations.
‘Did they say he recently reached the Ninth Star?’
There was a reason why he was considered a strong candidate for Patriarch despite being the youngest. He was someone who possessed flames fierce enough not to be overshadowed by the glory of his other siblings.
‘As expected of the Helios Family. For every one of the siblings to possess such outstanding talent.’
When I arrived at the training grounds, I came face to face with Ian Helios.
“Ian Helios?”
When he spotted me, he let out a faint smirk.
“Ran Winterbell?”