Chapter 25

“Dodge!”

Lirael and I immediately dodged to the side the moment the now tendril-covered Dark Mage lunged at us. The cave floor where I had been standing cracked from the sheer power of his punch. Lirael flew to my side again as I skated away from him, hiding behind one of the rock pillars.

“What the hell is that!? How the fuck is he not dead yet with a hole in his chest!?”

“He’s dead, Hwi.”

“What?”

“The Demon Worshipper is already dead.”

Lirael’s eyes were shaking, her hands trembled, and her voice turned low.

“Dead? Look at that! He’s clearly moving!”

The Dark Mage, who was supposedly dead, turned his head toward where we were hiding and shot the black tendrils at us. I immediately skated away again with Lirael flying beside me, dodging the black tendrils’ onslaught.

“What do you mean he’s dead!?”

“Exactly what I said! Right now, the Demonic Energy inside him is going berserk and has taken control of his body!”

“But I thought the Demon couldn’t take over their contractor’s body unless their contractor died after exhausting their entire lifespan!”

A tendril shot toward my head at high speed. I ducked quickly, twisting my body to dodge another two tendrils coming at me, then immediately skated behind another rock pillar for cover.

“Isn’t killing him supposed to mean that he didn’t live his entire lifespan, so his body cannot be taken over!?”

“I told you, it’s the Demonic Energy controlling his body! Very rarely, when a Demon Worshipper gets killed, the Demonic Energy inside them goes on a rampage like this!”

“How rare!?”

“Very rare! We basically hit the jackpot!”

“I don’t need this kind of jackpot!”

KABOOOOM!!

We were blown away by the sheer shockwave from the Dark Mage’s punch as it destroyed the pillar we were hiding behind. Shards of rock hit my body as I covered Lirael from them, blood coming out from a cut on my forehead.

“Damn it! Can you still use the silver beam you used before!?”

“Impossible! The amount of Lady Arianrhod’s power left in this cave is almost gone. There’s not enough left to use for another attack!”

Come to think of it, the glow that had been surrounding her was gone, and her wings looked frayed too.

“There’s still a way we can win!”

“How!?”

“The Demonic Energy controlling his body will eventually run out! All we need to do is hold on until then!”

“How long!?”

“I don’t know!”

“Fuck my life!”

We kept dodging the tendrils’ onslaught and its punches every time it lunged at us. The miasma was still coming out of it and was gradually affecting us. Strength was slowly leaving my body, and I could feel my body becoming heavier.

‘I’m almost out of mana too.’

I glanced at Lirael floating beside me.

‘No other choice.’

“Lirael, I have an idea.”

“What?”

“Can you use the rest of Arianrhod’s power left here to create a protective layer around my nose and mouth so I won’t breathe in the miasma?”

“Why?”

“I’m almost out of mana, so the only choice is to fight it in melee combat.”

KABOOOM!

The tendrils kept attacking us and destroying the cave’s interior as we continued dodging them. I could see that Lirael was hesitating.

“There’s no time! Can you do it or not!?”

“AAH, DAMN IT! Okay!”

A faint glow of silver gathered around my nose and mouth like a mask. Now I could be somewhat protected from the miasma.

“How do you plan on fighting it without magic anyway!?”

“With this!”

I used Earth Magic, and earth formed in my hand.

‘Remember what Master Elara said about basic magic.’

My mind went back to when I had just started learning basic magic from Master Elara.

‘Basic magic is very simple. With a strong enough image, it’s possible to change its shape.’

The earth that had formed in my hand changed its form, gradually getting longer and thinner, taking the shape of a double-edged Jian sword. The familiar sword I had trained with for years.

“A sword?”

“Stay hidden, Lirael. Unfortunately, I suck at martial arts, so protecting you while fighting that thing is impossible for me.”

Activating my Dantian, I started to circulate my inner energy through my meridians.

‘It’s been a while since I last used inner energy. Looks like the delay in my energy flow is still there.’

“Haaaah…”

‘Not like I have any other option.’

I focused my Inner Energy on both of my feet. If I kept focusing my inner energy on just one part of my body like this, then the delay could be somewhat lessened. It would get delayed a lot if I moved my Inner Energy to my hands when I wanted to attack, though.

‘The sword is just a support. My priority is to keep dodging its attacks.’

“Let’s do this!”

…

THWACK!

THWACK! THWACK!

‘It’s fucking heavy!’

Deactivating Skate, I switched to using my leftover mana for body enhancement, specifically to strengthen my upper body and arms while using inner energy to strengthen my legs. This was the first time I had ever attempted to use both mana and inner energy simultaneously.

It was hard. The two different energies felt completely different inside my body, and trying to control them at the same time made my concentration feel like it was being torn apart. My arms felt heavy despite the mana strengthening them, while my legs burned from forcing inner energy through my sluggish meridians. Every time I moved, I had to consciously control which energy was flowing through which part of my body.

If I divided my focus between the parts of my body I was using mana on and the parts I was using inner energy on, it was somewhat possible.

Hard emphasize on the ‘somewhat’ because my mana and inner energy were already starting to slip out of my control. My breathing became rough, sweat ran down my face, and my muscles trembled from the strain.

‘Fuck. If I lose focus for even a moment, I feel like I might lose control of both.’

THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!

The tendrils kept attacking me like whips as I dodged and parried the ones I couldn’t avoid. Every hit I took, and every attack I parried with the rock sword in my hand, felt incredibly heavy. The impact traveled through my arms and shook my entire body, making my grip tighten around the sword every time.

In the first place, I had to resort to doing something this stupid, using inner energy and mana at the same time when I had never even tried it before, because I simply wasn’t strong enough to parry the tendrils without strengthening my upper body somehow.

I was already using inner energy to strengthen my legs. With the delay in my inner energy flow, the moment I needed to block an attack with my sword, the inner energy would be too slow to move up to my arms. If I tried to rely on it for both my legs and upper body, I would simply end up dead.

‘So I have no choice but to use mana for my upper body.’

UWOOOGGHHHH!!!!

Seeing that all of its tendrils were either dodged or parried, maybe out of frustration, it suddenly lunged at me with its right arm pulled all the way back. Its entire body twisted as it put all its strength into the punch.

Then, like an arrow released from a bowstring, its fist shot toward me.

‘HIII—!’

The fist came at me so fast that I barely had time to react.

KABOOOM!!

I threw myself to the side just before the fist reached me. The punch missed me by a hair and slammed into the stone pillar behind me with enough force to make the entire cave shake.

The pillar exploded into countless pieces of rubble, sending chunks of stone flying in every direction.

‘Just how many stone pillars have already been destroyed here!? At this rate, the cave will cave in before it runs out of strength!’

Glancing down at the sword in my hand, I saw that it already had a visible crack, making me click my tongue in annoyance.

‘Tch! Making a sword was a mistake. I should have made a shield. It’s not like cutting those tendrils will do anything. As long as the Demonic Energy hasn’t run out, it can just regenerate. Not that I can cut them in the first place.’

While I was anticipating another attack, the silver light protecting my nose and mouth from breathing in the miasma flickered and dimmed until it was gone completely. I looked at Lirael, who was quite far away from where I was, and saw her slowly shake her head, making it clear that the traces of Arianrhod’s power remaining in this cave had been depleted.

‘Great! Now I don’t even have any protection against the miasma.’

Our condition kept getting worse as time went on, but there was still no sign that the dead body was going to stop anytime soon.

Every time the black tendrils attacked me, I had to hold my breath so that I wouldn’t breathe in the miasma coming from them. The moment the dead body lunged at me and started throwing punches, I had to dodge and parry everything while trying not to lose my breath.

‘Fuck! I can’t hold on like this!’

THWACK!

I twisted my body as I jumped to the side, avoiding the incoming tendrils. Right after that, the dead Dark Mage quickly closed the distance and threw another powerful punch.

KABOOOM!!!

The whole cave shook violently. Pieces of the stalactites and the cave ceiling began to fall off. I successfully dodged the punch again, but I couldn’t help but breathe in some of the miasma in the process.

The concentration of the miasma was so thick that just breathing in a little bit of it made my body feel sluggish.

Quickly regaining my footing, I raised my rock sword above my head to block its whip-like attack.

THWACK!

CRACK!

My rock sword broke, and at the same time, the body enhancement I used on my upper body disappeared. I had already run out of mana completely.

‘Damn it.’

Another tendril quickly came at me while I was slightly distracted. It was too late to dodge, so I put both of my arms up in front of me and used them to guard against the tendril’s whip.

THWACK!

CRACK!

“UGH—!”

CRASH!

I was sent flying toward where the stone altar was and smashed my back against the wall.

“Ughhh, AGGGGHHHH!!!”

Lirael quickly flew to my side, checking on my condition.

“Hwi! Are you alr—!”

Before she could finish her question, she stopped, her eyes widen and her pale complexion turned even paler.

Both of my arms were broken. No, it was more accurate to say that both of my arms had been crushed. The bones were probably already broken into countless pieces. I couldn’t feel anything from them besides pain, and I couldn’t move them anymore.

“UGGHHH!! AAAGHHH!!”

Cold sweat drenched my body as I kept letting out guttural sounds. The pain was so unbearable that the only thing I could do was lie on the ground.

Lirael was saying something beside me, but I couldn’t make out what she was saying through the pain and my own screaming.

‘FUCK! IT HURTS! IT HURTS! I’M GOING TO DIE! FUCK, I’M DYING HERE!’

The tendril-covered dead Dark Mage still showed no sign of stopping and prepared to unleash another attack, fully intending to finish us both.

Crack!

But then, I heard a loud cracking noise coming from the ceiling directly above us.

Crack! Crack!

CRASSSHHH!

The cracking noise continued until the ceiling eventually collapsed, but none of the debris fell on Lirael or me. Instead, the pieces of rubble simply floated around us.

Then, all of them moved in unison, forming a staircase.

Step. Step. Step.

The sound of someone walking down the staircase could be heard clearly, followed by a very familiar voice.

“I finally found you, idiot disciple.”

It was Master Elara.