Chapter 58

Right after the eyes and ears of everyone in the area were blinded by a pure white light.

When their stolen vision finally returned, what appeared before the mercenaries and Alon was…

“……!”

A massive crater.

Nothing remained there.

The grass that had been growing…

And the ruins that had stood on it for who knows how long, now vanished without a trace.

Even Argonia and Maverick, who had been standing close to him, had disappeared without a sign.

In the middle of that crater stood…

An Outer God, smiling darkly, twisting the corners of his lips.

The expressions of the mercenaries began to turn to despair.

Myaon, who had been holding her bow, and Himan, who had just moments ago been casting spells, both gaped in disbelief.

And then,

Grinning-!

The Outer God moved.

“…..”

Without hesitation, as if sentencing him to death, the Outer God, who had appeared before the previously stunned Himan, drew his hand from left to right.

Though Himan, knowing all too well what that action would result in, instinctively threw his body backward to dodge the invisible slash, he immediately tried to use Blink.

But then,

“How will you dodge what’s coming from above?”

With words that seemed mocking and a hand cutting from above to below,

Crack-!

By the time Himan’s body was split in two and fell to the ground,

The Outer God had already approached Myaon.

“Gasp!”

As soon as Myaon witnessed Himan being struck down, she had already drawn her bowstring and was ready to fire, but as soon as he appeared, she tried to release the string.

“Khak-!”

But before she could even release the arrow, the Outer God’s swift kick sent her flying into the ruins in the opposite direction.

“Now, only you remain.”

Kailas spoke with a dark smile.

***

With all four guild masters taken down before they could even put up a proper fight, the outcome of the battle was essentially decided.

For Alon, this was the worst possible situation.

His plan had failed right from the start,

The Ice Crystal Cascade, which had drained nearly all of his magic power, hadn’t inflicted any damage on the opponent,

And the guild masters, who were supposed to stall for time while he prepared his spells, had all been defeated.

Alon glanced down briefly.

Two empty potion bottles were already rolling on the ground near his feet.

Having consumed two mana potions, risking the danger of magic addiction, his small mana pool was refilling at a rapid pace.

But despite his mana increasing, his mind couldn’t come up with the next step.

Facing the Outer God with his plan in ruins was overwhelming.

What was even more problematic was the magic.

‘I’ve never seen that magic before.’

Alon had faced Kailas many times in Psychedelia and was well aware of his abilities and spells.

The reason the guild masters had held out as long as they did against the Outer God was because their knowledge gave them a decisive advantage.

But the incantation-based magic that Kailas had just used was something even Alon had never seen before.

In other words, Alon’s informational advantage had already disappeared by this point.

That wasn’t the only issue.

“…That’s magic.”

Alon felt a sense of despair as he stared at the crater behind him, where nothing remained.

Even though the essence was different, the magic must have used the same words and phrases, yet the Outer God’s magic was qualitatively different from the one Alon was using.

In short, from skill to information to planning, everything was overwhelmingly unfavorable, and even the mercenaries had lost their will to fight, merely looking up at the Outer God.

In this hopeless situation, where only death awaited, Alon glanced at the Outer God who seemed to mock him.

He was silent for a moment, then…

“Glory of the Snowy Mountains.”

He initiated his spell.

“Crystallize.”

At Alon’s command, the air around them gathered once again, forming dozens of particles.

“Rotation.”

With the next phrase, the particles began to spin clockwise.

Grin-!

Kailas, with a dark smile, moved his fingers at once.

A simple motion from left to right.

But…

Crack-!

‘There’s still hope.’

The invisible slash aimed at Alon struck one of the particles floating in the air, freezing on contact.

“Rine, help me.”

The battle resumed once again.

***

In a battle between mages, there were many factors at play, but two were of utmost importance.

The first was the speed of magic casting.

The second was strategy.

To defeat an opponent mage, one needed to predict what magic they would cast and how they would unfold it, then act one step ahead.

To gain the upper hand, one also needed a magic-casting speed similar to their opponent.

No matter how much one outmaneuvered the opponent, if the casting speed couldn’t keep up, there would be no way to respond.

In that respect, Alon’s fight against the Outer God seemed doomed to failure.

But…

Swish~!!

Alon had Rine by his side, deflecting the Outer God’s invisible slashes that slipped through the quickly thinning layers of magic.

Crack-!!

Even after casting defense spells more than three times, Rine continued to block the invisible strikes, swiftly weaving between the remaining bits of magic.

Alon could feel his hands trembling.

By now, over five empty mana potion bottles were scattered on the ground, and his skin had taken on a bluish hue.

Symptoms of mana addiction.

His heart was pounding wildly, and his mana pool was recovering at a speed incomparable to normal, allowing him to cast yet another spell.

Crack-!

But as soon as he cast it, the slash immediately blocked it.

In that fleeting moment, Kailas appeared right in front of Alon as if he had been waiting.

“Huh-”

Swish~!

With chains suddenly flying towards him, the Outer God backed off, creating distance and casting another spell.

It was as if a cat was toying with a mouse.

With the attitude of an absolute being watching Alon’s last desperate struggle, he could have ended it at any time, but he was merely playing with Alon.

However, despite this humiliating situation, what filled Alon’s mind wasn’t anger, but a cold, rational thought.

In that state,

“Crystallize.”

Once again, Alon continued his defense.

Defend,

Defend,

Defend,

Defend.

As if he had no strength left to attack.

Before he knew it, the blue skin that had spread from his fingertips up to his shoulders continued to block the attacks.

That desperate struggle, more like a last-ditch effort, was watched by many.

Some with eyes full of despair.

Some with disappointment.

Some with emptiness and frustration.

Everyone was watching.

Yet, even in such a situation, Alon relentlessly blocked the strikes.

As if it were his final stand.

With his eyes, now turned blue from mana addiction, bleeding,

He simply continued to unfold the magic he was permitted to cast.

And then,

Just as the chains wielded by Rine, who had been defending alongside Alon, finally snapped.

Grin-

Kailas smiled as if he had been expecting this moment.

‘Now.’

With a brief thought.

“Crystallize.”

Once again, Alon raised the particles to obscure Kailas’s vision—

“Ice and Snow.”

—But this time, he uttered different words.

The mana that gathered in front of him formed a seal, and white frost began to cling to it.

“Form.”

The frost soon expanded its power, spreading around Alon.

“Glory of the Snowy Mountains.”

The sentence, barely forced out as Alon swallowed back the blood rising in his throat, created a massive hexagonal crystal in front of him.

“The inevitable… of the blind—”

The hexagonal crystal rapidly expanded, devouring the surrounding air, and formed a spear just like before.

No, it was something so beautiful that it couldn’t simply be called a spear.

But Alon, suppressing the blood surging in his mouth, didn’t utter the final words.

‘This isn’t enough.’

At this moment, it was the situation that presented the highest chance of victory over the Outer God.

He had consumed all the mana potions he’d been saving for this moment.

Despite his small mana pool, he had continued a war of attrition that was nearly fatal to him.

And with that, he had successfully led Kailas into complacency.

His body, now close to a state of collapse, had unlocked another restriction he had placed on himself in advance.

A restriction that allowed him to bend the laws of the world when using magic while on the brink of death.

Now, all that remained was to prepare the final strike to kill Kailas, hidden behind the ice that had blocked the slash.

But Alon knew.

This alone wouldn’t be enough.

Even so, the reason Alon cast this magic was because of what it had said.

The next step in the natural order.

The manifestation of true essence.

‘But, in the end, you still know nothing.’

Alon recalled the Outer God’s words.

Surely, his words were referring to that.

And so, Alon had to achieve it.

The final, unavoidable move that could strike when the Outer God was off-guard.

Here and now, it had to be manifested.

‘Think.’

His thoughts accelerated.

His head, on the verge of bursting from mana addiction, frantically conjured and erased countless ideas at once.

The maddening sound of his heartbeat pounded relentlessly in his chest.

It was as if his brain were melting from the pain.

But even so, he didn’t stop.

Searching through every possible thought, Alon sought a hint that could lead him to the next step in the natural order.

And at that moment.

[It is the seal.]

A voice echoed in Alon’s mind.

[Delusion and enlightenment are fundamentally the same.]

[When you reach it, you will gain the key.]

With those words, spoken alongside a black ripple, whatever had uttered them disappeared, as if it had said all it needed to.

Before Alon could even grasp its identity, he had found the final piece to advance to the next stage of the natural order. Without hesitation, he released the seal he had been holding and formed a new one.

He clasped his right hand around his left, raising only his index finger straight, bringing the two together.

The completed seal: the Wisdom Fist Mudra.

And then,

Alon saw it.

The spear, which had just moments ago been adorned with a beautiful pattern, began to twist in a strange manner, transforming into the shape of a key.

Along with it—

“!”

As the ice melted away, the once-relaxed expression of the Outer God became visible again.

His previously leisurely demeanor hardened, and before he could even blink, as if realizing it had all been a game until now, he appeared in front of Alon and reached out without hesitation.

“I”

Swish~!

As if it had been waiting from the start, Rine’s chain swiftly moved in to block the Outer God in front of Alon.

And at that moment, a variable was introduced.

The Outer God immediately shifted his attention, turning toward Rine, who had left herself exposed while protecting Alon, and waved his fingers.

“Ah.”

A low gasp escaped Rine, foreseeing her own death.

But,

Alon, who had already predicted this outcome, grabbed hold of her clothes and pulled her toward him.

Swoosh-!

The slash narrowly missed them.

“_”

In return, Alon’s hand, which had drawn her to safety, burst with blood. But without hesitation, he formed the Wisdom Fist Mudra once again.

“Ice Crystal Spear.”

He uttered the final words.

The key lodged itself into the giant crystal, turning—

And in an instant, a glacier descended upon the plains.