Chapter 41 – Fate (4)
'What kind of misunderstanding led to this?'
The Magic Tower and Black Hour at war.
Verden turned over every possibility in his mind, again and again, but he simply could not understand. What clue had the tower master found, that he was so convinced, and went so far as to personally attempt to annihilate Black Hour?
Even if it was Bohemirn Magic Tower, if they waged a full-scale war against Black Hour while the tower was already in a collapsed state, they would suffer devastating damage.
'Is this… good?'
If the Magic Tower's attention was diverted elsewhere, then he could move more freely. That meant more opportunities to grow.
And if possible, it would be best if they even lost part of their main forces. After all, Verden considered Bohemirn Magic Tower itself an enemy.
'...Rovellin.'
She came to mind for a moment, but the worry was brief.
Rovellin wasn't just talented, she was a special mage. At least in the fire element, she had already surpassed Verden as he was now.
Turning his gaze forward, he looked toward Black Hour.
That pale man, judging by the oppressive mana he had just released, was about 4th-tier. The others were harder to assess, but they were likely of similar or lower level.
'We're outgunned.'
That didn't mean defeat, but on this side, there was someone he had to protect.
If it came to attrition, he might stand a better chance, but if he was to get Harkan out, he had to end it with a short decisive battle.
There was nothing more worth listening to. Moreover, they were off guard right now. Verden slowly gathered mana at his fingertips.
Just then, Cardin spoke.
"But who are you? In the information we collected, there was no──"
Scorching streams of flame surged down upon Black Hour. At the sudden attack, they widened their eyes and raised barriers.
Their durability was considerable. But Verden's magic was only just beginning.
Triple casting. Spears of ice targeted separate foes, then flew straight for their hearts.
Since spear-type magic had such strong penetration, even a 4th-tier would not recklessly attempt to block them with just a mana barrier.
As expected, they dismissed their mana shields and countered with magic.
Cardin with wind, Ferris with flame, Chen using telekinesis to distort the trajectory of the spells. Their faces, however, showed clear signs of surprise.
Even among Black Hour, triple casting was not so easily seen.
One had to simultaneously manage complex calculations and mana control, while also possessing the right mana circuits for the attribute in question.
No matter the effort, without innate talent it was impossible.
'Harkan's disciple?'
If so, it was understandable.
He didn't know much, but one thing was certain, Harkan was one of the teachers of the one they revered as Lord Dahit.
In other words, this gray-haired mage could become a serious threat to Black Hour in the future.
With killing intent in his eyes, Cardin commanded Ferris and Chen.
"Change priorities. Deal with the gray-hair first. Don't kill him, just cut off his limbs."
"What? If we do that, my collection will be ruined!"
"It doesn't matter. Dusting him to powder will be the same in the end."
"Tch. The process is what matters...."
Ferris pouted, then snapped her fingers.
A 4th-tier spell. A blazing crimson shroud flared around her.
The floor and walls seared red-hot at its touch. Smirking, Ferris charged at Verden. Blue lightning bolts shot back at her.
Crackle, zzzzt!
Flame and current clashed and tangled, the shockwave spreading in every direction.
"A high-rank element user? Not just a pretty face, you've got power too? That just makes me want you even more!"
As soon as the flame veil and lightning vanished together, Ferris formed a flaming whip and lashed at Verden's shoulder. At the same time, daggers driven by telekinesis and crushing wind pressure came at him from both flanks.
'Head-on won't work.'
Then, he would create an opening.
The ground rose up, encircling Verden.
The three spells crashed into the earthen shield, filling the area with dust. Thinking this would be an easy hunt, Ferris looked bored.
At that moment, Verden burst out.
He had already strengthened his body with imbued magic. His target, the nearest enemy—Ferris.
"Another spear? You seem to know a lot of elements, but your repertoire's predictable."
Confident, Ferris didn't even dodge, cloaking herself in flame veil. A mere 3rd-tier spear would melt away in heat anyway.
But she had overlooked one thing—Verden was a mage who had opened and owned his own magic tome.
Shhhrrrk!
The stone spear ripped apart the flame veil, and Verden himself lunged in, seizing Ferris by the throat.
Using her as a shield, Cardin and Chen, startled, hastily stopped their spells.
"Eh?"
Whooosh────Boom!
He slammed Ferris into the floor, knocking the breath from her lungs. The unexpectedness left her unable to react.
As she momentarily blacked out, Verden brought his staff down like a guillotine, mana concentration gathered at its tip.
Craash!
It collided with daggers, its path deflected. Shards of stone flew everywhere.
Ferris, snapping back to awareness, scrambled away. Feeling a sting on her cheek, she touched her face—her flawless skin torn, blood trickling down.
"Y-you dare…!"
Her mana surged, veins bulging across her forehead. The air warped from the heat.
From her body, waves of fire blasted outward, indiscriminate of ally or foe.
Verden shielded Harkan and cast Tidal Wave, quenching the searing blast. Steam exploded, filling the cave completely.
Taking advantage of the haze, Verden created a wall to divide the cavern.
Harkan was secured, so there was no need to hold back. He used terrain manipulation to force the entire wall forward.
"What…?!"
Rumble rumble rumble! With tremors, the wall surged out of the steam.
Alarmed, Cardin hastily opened a hole in the wall, while Ferris wrapped herself in blazing fire. Chen, the only 3rd-tier, shielded himself with telekinesis but was swept aside and slammed into the wall.
Though not crushed, he clawed his way out of the debris.
'Terrain manipulation…? How could such a minor spell have this kind of power…!'
Cardin, Chen, and Ferris.
Before joining Black Hour, each had already been infamous criminals across their nations.
Every one of them had bounties in the tens of millions.
Ferris, in particular, had a twisted hobby—capturing men who matched her tastes, torturing them, burning them alive, then collecting their ashes.
Despite such heinous crimes, she had survived thanks to her talent as a mage. The other two were the same.
And yet, despite superior numbers, they were being pushed back by a mage much younger than them.
'He hasn't even used 4th-tier yet, so he must be 3rd-tier.'
It was humiliating.
If they failed to subdue this gray-haired boy now, Black Hour's dignity would plummet. Even if they completed their mission, they would have no face to show Lord Dahit.
Thus began the full-on battle.
Though Cardin's side had greater firepower, Verden's wide array of elemental spells, immense mana, and the power of his magic tome stood like an unyielding fortress.
Boom! Krrrash!
Spell clashed against spell, striking in equal measure.
The shock shook the cave, parts collapsing, a huge boulder crashing down beside Harkan.
Verden shielded him, countering the enemy's spells.
Then, the daggers moved by telekinesis began targeting Harkan in cunning arcs. With this new variable, Verden began to be slowly pushed back.
At that moment, Harkan spoke.
"You've held out well."
Thoom!
The magic circle carved into the floor flared to life, collapsing the ground.
Verden carried Harkan upward. Looking down, he saw a bottomless chasm yawning wide.
'A trap? Without flight, I'd be dead.'
With the cavern falling apart, the enemies were nowhere in sight.
As Verden prepared to fly up and escape, Harkan pointed toward a narrow gap in the wall.
"We must go that way."
Verden gave a small nod.
Once inside, a narrow passage appeared, just wide enough for a single person to pass through. Following Harkan's lead deeper in, they reached a small chamber.
It was a laboratory, cluttered with objects related to magic. Verden carefully laid Harkan down on the floor.
***
To activate the magic circle, Harkan squeezed out the last of his mana.
His already short remaining lifespan was drastically reduced, his face turned pale, and dark blood dripped from his nose and mouth.
'There is no more time.'
With difficulty, Harkan raised his arm and pressed against the wall. A hidden button sank in, and the wall slowly opened.
Inside lay a potion, one of the two masterpieces Harkan had created in his lifetime.
"That is...."
"Cough, cough! Ha… you feel it as well, don't you? That strange and unfamiliar mana inside the potion. It took me fifteen years to make this."
Over five thousand days, grinding rare herbs, refining and refining them under moonlight and starlight.
His lifespan had dwindled all the more for it, but he had never cared. Brewing a potion that contained exalted light, a task no one else could do and no one else would ever attempt.
This potion, born of life exchanged for effort, was no less than an artifact.
"This is… a key that allows a mage to embrace an 'attribute that never existed before.' If you drink it, you will step into a realm that no mage has ever reached."
Thus, the potion was not something just anyone could take.
Only one chosen by fate itself.
"What happens if it fails?"
"There are no side effects. I swear it. A fate that does not match will simply pass you by."
He wished he could be more certain, but the end was before him now.
Lifting the potion, Harkan held it out to Verden.
"There is no time left. I won't beg pity to secure my wish… please, just accept it. I simply want to see… where my fate is destined to reach."
The last act of a mage who had left behind a brilliant past and lived in a cruel present.
Verden took the potion Harkan handed to him.
Aside from the unfamiliar mana, he sensed nothing else. There was no feeling that it would harm him. Besides, Harkan had no reason to kill him.
But before drinking, he had to say this.
"Harkan."
"..."
"There is no such thing as a predetermined fate in this world."
That was Verden's essence.
Glancing once at Harkan's dazed face, he downed the potion in a single gulp. Something refreshing seeped into his body.
Moments later, light began to shine from Verden. From the Defying the Heavens magic circle engraved upon him.
An unforeseen phenomenon.
Harkan tilted his head back, staring up at the ceiling. Through a gap in the collapse, the night sky was visible.
But something was wrong.
"The stars…."
The stars that symbolized fate began to vanish one by one.
Before long, only darkness remained. Nothing was visible. No fate could be read. Only then did Harkan understand Verden's true nature.
'The Star of Defying the Heavens!'
Fate, had been overturned.
"What… what have I done…!"
He didn't know why, but because of his own choice, the fate of all life had disappeared.
The end of the world.
Blood and tears poured from Harkan's eyes, crushed by despair he could not bear, filled with regret and emptiness.
But then, from the center of darkness, light began to flow.
Small and faint, yet never fading. Not bound, not fixed, the only fate unshackled.
Humanity called it "possibility."
'Could it be....'
Harkan turned his gaze to Verden.
Having fully absorbed the potion's power, Verden's mana gleamed more powerfully than before. Exhaling softly, his steady eyes turned toward Harkan.
"Did it succeed?"
It did. It succeeded indeed.
'No such thing as a predetermined fate….'
Harkan chuckled.
He had always been swayed and subdued by fate, yet this young mage before him had already carved his own path. More than that, he had overturned the fate of all life.
As if declaring that reading fate itself had been a mistake.
'Had I met this man earlier, would my life have been different?'
He didn't know. But of one thing he was certain.
That this gray-haired mage was more than worthy of entrusting everything to.
Harkan took Verden's hand.
"There is still one more. It can never harm you, so accept it fully."
Having awakened a new attribute, he needed to learn the magic to match it.
It was unfinished, but the fruit of decades of effort. It would surely be of help. And Verden would complete it himself. Harkan trusted him.
Then he released his mana.
A privilege of those who had reached the way of magic.
It allowed a mage to hand over a part of their memory whole, but in return, it inflicted irreversible damage on the caster's brain.
Long ago, a magus had created this spell to pass magic on to his disciple.
Verden accepted the memory without resistance.
The new attribute, the knowledge, the magic. His hands moved on their own, leaving traces of gray mana in the air.
'He has already awakened the first spell?'
An absurd existence. No wonder he was the Star of Defying the Heavens.
"Khak…!"
Spent of strength, Harkan collapsed to the floor. Verden rushed to check on him, but Harkan shook his head, a relieved smile on his lips.
"Now that I think of it, I never even asked your name."
"My name… is Verden."
Not Asher, but his true name.
Verden, a good name.
Taking one last breath, Harkan looked up at the night sky.
What final words should he leave? No, there was no need. Even without him, Verden would walk his own path.
"Burn my body."
Slowly, Harkan's eyes closed.
With his final breath, all movement ceased. Verden stayed beside him for a while, then rose to his feet. Activating his mana circuits, he contemplated his state.
And thought.
Didn't Harkan ask him to stop Black Hour, for the sake of the world?
"That much, I can easily do."
Fwoosh! Flames engulfed Harkan's body, the ring he had left behind with it.
Soon, the fire spread to everything Harkan had left. But it was not a loss. All of it already lived on inside Verden's mind.
Now it was time to leave.
Vermin worthy of testing his new power on were lurking nearby.
Verden tapped his staff against the ground.
4th-tier attribute magic.