Chapter 66

“Your mother would be proud.”

When Ahur said those words, I felt my heart shake. A man who had once secretly loved my mother. Though our relationship was a bit awkward… he knew my mother, didn’t he?

I’d thought there would be no one left who remembered Sena School Nomad and my parents besides us…

Moved by this unexpected sentiment, I wanted to say something in return.

“Hey…”

I reached out to call Ahur as he was walking away. He turned back.

And then,

Shiver!

The back of my neck crawled with goosebumps.

“What, what’s wrong? Why that expression?”

Ahur looked flustered. But I had no presence of mind to explain. I quickly twisted my head to look around.

“Seven!”

“Six!”

“Five…”

Fel was enthusiastically counting down, signal flare held high.

“Jun-woo! This sacred rope is amazing! It seems to not only trap calamities but also prevents the aggro that comes from fighting them. Let’s take some!”

Yuria was waving the end of the sacred rope that had been used to form the sealing formation.

“You, you did well.”

Monggu, who had been sidelined throughout this fight, scratched his head awkwardly.

But… no. This wasn’t right.

No matter how I looked around…

[Found you.]

I couldn’t find the source of this spine-chilling voice that sounded like metal scraping against metal.

[Such a delicious smell… it is.]

Only then did my gaze fix on the Tower of Covenant.

At the center of the sky where all stars revolve. There, one would normally see only a grayish swirl of mana.

Never… would such an ominous dark blue magical power be stretching down like taffy.

Something sinister was… descending from the Tower of Covenant to the ground.

‘What is it? What on earth… why…’

A memory flashed through my mind like lightning.

What Fel had told me recently:

-Killing calamities draws significant attention from magical power.

-The Tower of Covenant isn’t something you can climb by being strong alone. Or rather… if you become that strong by yourself, you’ll probably die alone first.

Fel’s story about how with each level you climb, the more calamities you fight, increasingly more unbearable calamities would come hunting you.

‘But… wasn’t that supposed to start from 5th Circle? Besides, Fel and I killed this calamity together, didn’t we? And the sacred rope was supposed to manage the aggro, right?’

But what use were such excuses?

That thing was coming for me…

And it would be a disaster I couldn’t handle.

I instinctively shouted:

“Run!!!”

“One! Zero! Fire! …Huh? What did you say?”

Fel, who had just launched the flare, looked at me stupidly.

Boom!

The firework that had shot up from his hand toward the sky,

Fizzle.

Fizzled out pathetically,

“Why, why are you—”

Ahur’s face, which had been staring at me with wide eyes, exploded with a boom! and turned to mush. He flew like a puppet with its strings cut and tumbled across the ground.

That was just the beginning.

Boom!

Fwoosh!

Zwaaack!

“Aaaaargh!”

Indiscriminate spells rained down, tearing apart the people who had been cheering.

I watched the scene stupidly. I couldn’t quite comprehend it.

‘Why? The calamity hasn’t even descended yet?’

Fel roared, drawing his spear and deflecting the downpour of spells.

“What is the meaning of this!”

But what returned was a cold, languid voice.

“Quite a perceptive little boy. But it’s already too late.”

Flap!

Mages appeared from nowhere, surrounding us. Five blocking the Sky Bridge direction, three holding our rear.

Two 2nd Circle mages, five 3rd Circle mages. And one 4th Circle mage.

It felt like my throat was being strangled.

It was just a month ago that I had fought to the death with Han Se-hoon, a 3rd Circle mage. And now there were five 3rd Circle mages.

What’s more, we were all exhausted from the fierce battle we’d just fought.

Even thinking optimistically… if Fel and I could each handle one, what about the other three? And… the 4th Circle?

I looked at the imposing presence of the 4th Circle with jaded eyes.

The smooth, circular first Circle symbolizing the mouth.

The spiral-shaped second Circle overlaying it, symbolizing the lips.

The third Circle of saw-like teeth rotating rapidly within.

The fourth Circle consisted of two transparent hemispheres rotating in all directions, encasing everything else. Sometimes the two hemispheres completely overlapped to form a single hemisphere, and sometimes they faced each other to create a complete sphere. Depending on the movement of these hemispheres, the three Circles inside would be sealed, widely opened, or slightly opened.

‘Does it serve the role of the palate, nose, and larynx…?’

Roughly comparing it to a human voice, it seemed to correspond to the articulatory organs that create palatal, nasal, and guttural sounds.

After seeing the fourth Circle, suddenly… the third Circle that had looked so formidable now seemed skeletal in comparison. The four Circles resembled an instrument with a massive resonating chamber.

How powerful could it be…

The 4th Circle mage was a woman in her early thirties with wine-colored hair. She spoke in a languid voice.

“What a shame… I wish more of you had died. I thought it would be easy… but more survived than I expected.”

Then she licked her lips with her tongue as she looked at me. It felt disgusting, like a snake’s flickering tongue.

“Still, it seems like you’ll be more useful than I thought, which makes me want you even more…”

Is that… what she had to say after massacring people who were excited about going home?

My chest boiled with anger.

But conversely, my mind grew increasingly cold.

The chilling truth stabbed into my chest like a dagger.

‘We can’t win.’

They were stronger.

I laughed bitterly.

‘At this point… is this actually fortunate?’

I glanced toward the Tower of Covenant.

Unlike what the 4th Circle mage assumed, I hadn’t noticed their ambush. What I had noticed was… not them, but the ominously dark blue magical power descending from the Tower of Covenant… now almost completely descended… and the eerie, scraping laughter that hadn’t left my ears.

Just the mages before us were enough to make me feel strangled… but this laughter, growing ever closer, felt like it was crushing my heart.

A flash of resentment arose.

‘Not a single peaceful day.’

As if it were my fate.

But… yes. At this point, this might actually be fortunate.

“Fel. We need to retreat.”

Fel firmly rejected my suggestion.

“What are you saying? Where could we retreat to? Our only option is to hold our ground and wait for reinforcements.”

“That woman is a 4th Circle.”

“What, what?!”

Fel’s eyes quickly turned toward the 4th Circle mage. She shrugged her shoulders and spoke leisurely.

“That woman? Why don’t you call me by name? Nice to meet you. I’m Kasha Boronin, the Iron Blood Mage. I’ll allow you to call me Kasha. Today I came for that little boy. You all are just unfortunate witnesses and obstacles, so you’ll die.”

Fel gritted his teeth.

“The Iron Blood Mage… I’ve heard that name. Are you perhaps a mage from the Society? What are you doing? Are you declaring war on the Academy?”

His eyes bulged.

Meanwhile, Kasha smirked as if finding him ridiculous.

“What? War? Kid. Do you think there would be a war just because I, a mere individual, killed someone like you? Do you think you and I are such important figures? You have quite an inflated sense of self-importance.”

Then she smiled like a mischievous child.

“Besides, everyone here will have been annihilated by the Lightning Calamity… what would the Society have to do with it?”

She mocked.

“Consider yourselves fortunate. If you had entered the city, I might have had to destroy the entire city. Yes. So you’re saving the city with your lives.”

Hahaha,

Her laughter mixed with the sandy wind.

I looked around.

Despite 80-90 people being slaughtered by the Lightning Calamity and the recent indiscriminate attack, over 100 still remained. Including those who hadn’t participated in the lightning hunt, the numbers were quite substantial.

I saw their faces. Tense and frightened faces. Eyes yearning for life. No one wanted to die.

‘I’m sorry…’

I gritted my teeth and moved my weary Circle to recite the primordial incantation.

“Transportation!”

[T-rans-por-tay-shun!]

Swish swish swish!

Twenty-nine circular discs appeared, tearing through space. They were Mobility discs, one of the supplies from Arsenal #7. Each could carry only one person but could reach speeds of up to 270 km/h. They could accelerate from zero to a hundred in just one second and fly up to 10 meters high.

Three discs appeared beneath the feet of myself, Monggu, and Yuria, while the remaining twenty-six appeared randomly in front of the strong warriors that caught my eye.

“Get on!!”

I shouted.

Fel blankly scanned the discs before realizing something and cursing.

“No!”

Twenty-nine discs. About 110 people remaining.

“No! We can’t leave them behind!”

Fel had instinctively recognized that these discs were tools for retreat. That’s why… he didn’t get on one.

The members of Jack Caravan were all strong warriors with deep spirits of sacrifice, heroes supporting Lanciel City. And Fel’s precious comrades.

From his position, he might not be able to abandon them and run first.

I understood. But I also didn’t want to see Fel die here. Moreover, didn’t that Kasha mage say she had business with me? The moment I heard that, I thought of Han Se-hoon and the bird of light that flew up when he died.

Probably… this was because of me. Their annihilation here. As such, I wanted to save as many as possible.

I gritted my teeth and shouted. In my urgency, I slipped into informal speech.

“Fel! Get on! Order a retreat! Do you want everyone to die?!”

By this point, the people around also realized what was happening.

“Oh? Do you think you can escape, little boy?”

<Blood Blade>

Another wave of magical attacks poured down, led by Kasha’s memorized spell. Severed limbs flew in all directions.

“Protect him! Protect the young master!”

The entire Jack Caravan brought out shields and magical devices to guard Fel,

“Young master! You must go!”

Fel’s personal guards forcibly grabbed him and placed him on a disc.

“Kugh… But!!”

“Young master!! Remember the annihilation protocol!”

His guard shouted back.

Hearing those words, Fel seemed shocked into silence. Then, with a severely hoarse voice, he gave the order.

“Retreat! Get on the nearest disc and follow Baek Jun-woo! Those who can’t get on discs… hold the enemy here!”

As he shouted this, crimson tears flowed from Fel’s eyes.

“Well done, young master.”

One of his 2nd Circle guards patted Fel’s shoulder with a carefree smile, then said to another 2nd Circle mage:

“You’ll attend to the young master.”

He turned his back, his two Circles writhing, to face the wave of enemy spells. Magic alone wasn’t enough. He simply used all his magical devices and equipment to act as a human barrier, protecting Fel’s retreat.

I forcibly swallowed my bitterness and regret.

“Departure! Departure! Everyone hold tight! The mobility disc can be controlled with your thoughts! Just imagine the direction you want to go! Full speed!”

I activated the mobility disc while shouting.

Whiiine!

All twenty-nine mobility discs took off simultaneously.

The three 3rd Circle mages holding our rear quickly tried to respond, but,

Fwoosh!

It was difficult to target a mobility disc that broke 100 km/h in just one second.

Whoosh!

The wind from the front hammered our eardrums.

Riding that wind, the grumbling of magical powers could be heard.

‘Are you running away?’

‘Are you scared?’

I retorted through gritted teeth.

“Shut up! We haven’t lost yet.”

Pushed back by my intensity, the magical powers closed their mouths. But they didn’t withdraw their suspicious gazes. Whether they did or not, now wasn’t the time to worry about that.

“They’re fast… but the opponent is a 4th Circle. We’ll definitely be caught.”

Fel came beside me and spoke.

I glanced back. We’d already gone quite far, but my eyesight, enhanced through physical training, could precisely capture the situation behind us.

Indeed… the caravan members left behind had already lost formation and were being massacred indiscriminately. I could see the wine-haired mage leading two others, advancing at a terrifying speed.

But my gaze went even further back.

The dark blue magical power that had just escaped from the center of the sky was shooting toward us at an unbelievable speed. Its path lay on a direct line connecting Kasha and us.

My lips twisted sadistically.

“They will certainly catch up to us.”

I said.

“But something else will catch them first.”