Chapter 99
Chapter 99
[SYSTEM: Would you like to learn the ancient magic ‘Prometheus’s Flame’? Y / N]
The message from the Status Window that floated before my eyes stole my attention for an instant.
In that fleeting gap, Gremory must have taken it as an opportunity, because she moved the golem enveloping her and launched an attack on us.
“Keugh?!”
The Count of Sheffield let out an urgent groan and hurriedly tried to control the flames, but the golem leapt toward us with absurd ease, crossing over the wave of blue fire.
Huuung-!
As the compressed, overwhelming mass at the end of the golem’s arm swung down, a bone-chilling roar of tearing air brushed past my ears.
Without any time to think things through, I reached for the Status Window.
[SYSTEM: You have acquired the ancient magic ‘Prometheus’s Flame’.]
The moment I pressed Y, countless pieces of information appeared to one side of my vision.
Skimming through them quickly, I saw everything from now-useless explanations about the magic’s origins and its influence up to the modern era, to pages filled with intricate formulas and magic circles that composed the flames.
‘What about the chant?!’
I hurriedly scrolled down to find the chant that could activate Prometheus’s Flame.
Just as my eyes were about to reach it, the golem’s hand came right up to my face.
Boom-!
I hastily raised my sword and blocked its attack.
But against that overwhelming mass and power, it did not matter whether I was a Sword Master or wielding an Aura Blade.
With a single punch from the golem, the blade of my sword was damaged and dented inward.
Seeing that, I could not help but click my tongue.
‘Brutally strong.’
I had thought that once I reached Sword Master, I would no longer have to engage in such ugly fights, but reality had not changed at all.
I could not afford to just take the hits, so I immediately launched a counterattack.
The sword wrapped in the Aura Blade emitted a bluish light and swept across the surroundings.
It slashed through various parts of the golem’s body, but unfortunately failed to deal a decisive blow like before.
Shushushuk.
Even while burning away in Prometheus’s Flame, the thing repaired its own body.
The speed was so fast that most of the wounds vanished in the blink of an eye, but I had no intention of merely watching.
“[Flow, dwell here. Enchant].”
The Enchant magic that imbued a specific material with an attribute unfolded from my hand.
Soon, streams of deep-blue water began to coil around the Aura Blade.
There was a saying: earth is overcome by water.
In other words, a golem made of soil, wood, and rock was weak to water.
It sounded like something straight out of a novel—but wasn’t I inside a novel right now anyway?
“Hup!”
When I brought the blade down with all my strength, a different sensation than before traveled up through the tip of my sword.
Large rocks blocked my blade here and there, but I drew up mana until my dantian throbbed, and barely managed to cleave through the golem’s torso.
Boom-!
The creature’s body, split in half, fell to the ground to either side.
As thick dust rose, the Prometheus’s Flame that had been covering its body was extinguished.
I thought I could finally focus on dealing with Gremory now that I had taken down the golem, but the groan that came from behind me soon made me realize that something had gone wrong.
“Ugh…….”
“Count!”
While I had been distracted by the golem, the two who had been facing off had, at some point, closed the distance until their noses were nearly touching.
If they fought using only magic, the Count of Sheffield would not be pushed back too badly, but demons possessed superior physical abilities by default.
Even if she had possessed the body of the still-young boy Randolph, she would have been able to subdue a middle-aged mage with ease.
I had overlooked that.
“Such dreadful love for your son. Even while rushing to choke my neck, you can’t bring yourself to attack.”
“Dirty… bitch…….”
The count, seeming unwilling to give up yet, grabbed at Gremory’s arm that was choking his neck.
Then he once more ignited blue holy flames, but when she lightly exhaled, they were snuffed out in an instant.
“Anyway, thanks, Father.”
“……!”
At those words, the Count of Sheffield’s eyes widened.
I thought it was rage at Gremory for imitating his son, but soon his skin began to age rapidly.
“You wretch……!”
“Don’t move, young prince. This is as far as my leniency goes.”
Gremory used Drain Touch to siphon away the count’s mana and life force.
I hurriedly took a step to stop her, but at the same time, a suffocating presence pressed down on my entire body.
“……!”
I held my breath and resisted her pressure as it ceaselessly invaded my domain.
Perhaps because she had adapted to Randolph’s body, the momentum was on an entirely different level compared to when she had possessed a Dark Elf.
It was so overwhelming that if I relaxed even a little, my knees would buckle on their own.
“The mana of a human mage. Quite rich.”
Tuk.
Gremory released his neck.
Freed from her hand, the count’s once-plump frame was nowhere to be seen; reduced to a gaunt, mummy-like state, he collapsed onto the floor.
“Count—!”
It was a blunder.
If the two of us had targeted her together from the start, even Gremory, a high-ranking demon, would not have been able to relax.
The evenly matched fight she had put on must have been nothing more than a means to separate me.
“As I said before, the ones I fear most are those with firm convictions. This man even offered up his life to save his son, but you—at the slightest chance, you looked ready to cut off my head if that’s what it took.”
That was why she had created the golem and scattered my attention.
And it had worked perfectly.
“…….”
The Count of Sheffield, collapsed on the floor, showed no sign of getting up.
It was a bleak situation where I could not even tell whether he was alive or dead.
Because of that, I abandoned the thought of saving Randolph, just as she had said.
“Care to try in earnest?”
She wore an alluring expression, as if trying to tempt me with Randolph’s face.
But my heart was already nothing but cold.
With the single-minded resolve to kill my opponent, I tightened my grip on the sword.
“Ostia, sir!”
Just as I put strength into the hand holding my sword and stepped forward, the reinforcements that had departed from the fortress arrived.
Given the ominous situation, they were all elites of the Sheffield family.
“What in the world is this…….”
Sensing the wicked demonic energy dwelling in Randolph’s body as he faced me, they all stopped in their tracks and let out groans.
“L, Lord Patriarch!”
Someone seemed to have noticed the Count of Sheffield collapsed on the ground and let out a shrill scream.
They tried to rush forward, but I stretched out my arm to stop them.
“An opponent even the count couldn’t handle.”
“…….”
Those words snapped the mages back to their senses.
At that, Randolph, who had been watching us, also seemed to regain his composure.
“I was planning to deal with this quietly, but fine, fine. To think the prey would come looking for me on their own.”
Gremory slowly stepped toward us.
I stayed wary of chimeras appearing around us, but suddenly I felt the surrounding temperature plunge sharply.
“What, cold?”
She asked that as she raised her hand.
Up until now, I had thought her traits were limited to chimera synthesis or golem summoning.
But as if she had read my thoughts, Gremory let out a mocking laugh and snapped her fingers.
“I am the frost that comes with calamity.”
Jeojeojeojeok-!
The surrounding air froze, and countless minute ice crystals formed throughout the air.
Gremory lightly touched them with her finger and spoke.
“Chimera synthesis is nothing more than a hobby. The real thing is this.”
Ssaesaesaesaek-!
Each ice crystal had been sharpened to a keen point.
Since they were her creations, they were surely more threatening than ordinary arrows.
The moment they began to pour down, I kicked off the ground and scooped up the count’s body lying on the floor.
Then, to block the rain of frost pouring down, I hurled myself into the shield formed by the mages of the Sheffield family.
“Father!”
As soon as I entered and laid the count down, Leysias, her face still marked with tear tracks, rushed over.
With frantic hands, she checked the count’s heartbeat and breathing.
“…He’s alive!”
At her tearful cry, the others also hurriedly turned their attention to treatment.
I finally let out a sigh of relief and asked about the situation outside.
“Right after you disappeared, chimeras started appearing everywhere. Fortunately, there weren’t many, so we split our forces and chased them down, but…….”
Unable to finish her sentence, Leysias looked at Randolph, who was firing a frost storm at her father and us.
“Ostia, please…….”
At her plea to save her younger brother, I let out a deep sigh.
Killing Gremory was not impossible.
But with the Count of Sheffield already incapacitated, asking me to save Randolph was a task that bordered on the impossible.
If I had been the protagonist of this world, I could have said something dashing like how I would bring him back even if it cost me my life.
Unfortunately, I was not the protagonist.
‘Even so…….’
I straightened up.
If there was no protagonist, if there was no real one, then couldn’t a fake fill that empty spot, even if only for a moment? After a brief moment of thought, I steeled my resolve and opened my mouth.
“I’ll bring him back even if I have to beat the hell out of him, so don’t worry.”
“…Please.”
At my words, Leysias nodded vigorously.
At the same time, the mages maintaining the shield shouted at us as if screaming.
“The enemy’s attacks are too fierce! The shield is on the verge of breaking!”
At that urgent warning, I pointed forward and gave instructions to her behind me.
“Leysias, the moment the shield breaks, I’ll rush straight at him.
When that happens, you all pull back to a distance and form an encirclement so that he can’t escape.”
“…All right.”
Once more, I ignited the Aura Blade over my sword and prepared to dash out in sync with the moment the shield shattered.
And finally, just before the cracks in the shield were about to give way, a faint, hesitant voice called out to me.
“Ostia, if, if by any chance you seem to be in danger…….”
She didn’t finish the sentence, but I could feel her pained heart all the way here.
Soon the shield shattered, and without giving any reply, I kicked off the ground and charged forward.
Ssaesaesaesaek-!
Dozens, hundreds of ice crystals slammed into my entire body.
Each one was imbued with extraordinary demonic energy, enough that even formidable warriors would have fled in terror, but I hadn’t earned the title of Sword Master for nothing either.
Susasasak-!
Each time I swung my sword, the crystals aiming for my body shattered to pieces.
They scattered into the air and dissipated into pure white mist, and I closed the distance straight to Gremory’s front, slashing with all my might.
“As expected, I like you.”
Even with me right before her eyes, Gremory showed not the slightest sign of concern.
Instead, as if welcoming me, she spread her arms, and behind her back, a left wing made of ice crystals unfurled and fluttered into being.
At the same time, the air froze at a different speed than before, and ice spikes as thick as my torso surged up from all directions, stabbing toward me.
“Hup!”
The cutting power of the Aura Blade was second to no famed sword.
When I swung with all my strength, they split apart and collapsed as if blocks of tofu were being sliced away, but faster than they vanished, new spikes covered their place.
If this battle of attrition continued, I would collapse from exhaustion.
Before that happened, I had to find a way to drive him off without killing Randolph.
‘Two keywords, then.’
The keywords that could become a solution were two: ‘Excalibur’ and ‘Prometheus’s Flame’.
But the former was sealed, and the latter had failed to bring him down even when wielded by the Count of Sheffield, whose realm surpassed mine.
“Then…….”
Suddenly, something flashed through my mind.