Chapter 58 - King of Hungry Ghosts (3)

Pure white light had blotted out everyone's sight and hearing. When their stolen vision returned, what appeared before Alon and the mercenaries was...

"...!"

An enormous crater.

Nothing remained there. Not the grass that had been growing, nor the ruins atop it, whose age was impossible even to guess. Even Argonia and Maverick, who had drawn close to the Outer God, had vanished without a trace.

At the center of the pit stood...

"..."

The Outer God, its lips twisted into a broad smile.

"..."

Despair began to spread across the mercenaries' faces. Myaon, still holding her bow, and Himan, who had been casting magic only moments before, gaped in disbelief.

Then, with a wide grin, the Outer God moved.

"!"

It appeared before Himan, whose face had been blank until that moment, and swept its hand from left to right without hesitation, as though pronouncing a death sentence. Knowing what that gesture would do, Himan instinctively leaned backward to evade the invisible slash and immediately tried to use Blink.

"And how will you dodge one from above?"

With those mocking words, its hand swept downward.

CRUNCH!

By the time Himan's body split into two halves and fell to the ground, the Outer God was already standing before Myaon.

"Hup!"

Even as she witnessed Himan's death, Myaon had readied her bow. The instant the Outer God appeared, she tried to release the drawn string.

"Gah!"

Before she could loose her arrow, its kick sent her flying into the ruins in the opposite direction.

"Now you're the only one left."

Kailas spoke with a broad smile.

####

With all four guildmasters defeated before they could put up any real resistance, the battle was effectively decided.

For Alon, too, the situation could hardly have been worse. His plan had never even gotten off the ground. Ice-Crystal Painted Halberd, which had consumed nearly all his mana, had failed to inflict any damage. And every guildmaster who could have bought him time to prepare his magic had fallen.

"..."

Alon glanced down. Two empty potion bottles already lay scattered at his feet. He had drunk two mana potions despite the risk of mana poisoning, and his tiny mana reservoir was refilling fairly quickly.

Yet even as his mana recovered, he could no longer devise another plan. With all his plans in ruins, the Outer God he now faced was simply too overwhelming.

An even greater problem was its magic.

'I've never even seen that spell.'

Having fought Kailas countless times in Psychedelia, Alon knew its stats and spells well. That information had given the guildmasters an overwhelming advantage in knowledge, allowing them to hold out as long as they had.

But even Alon had never seen the magic Kailas had just used—magic employing phrases and sentences, just like his own. In other words, his informational advantage was already gone.

And that was not all.

'... That's magic.'

Alon felt hollow as he looked at the crater behind Kailas, where nothing remained. Though their magic differed in character, both surely used the same phrases and sentences. Yet the Outer God's magic was on an entirely different level from his own.

... His skill, information, and plans all left him at an overwhelming disadvantage. Even the mercenaries had lost the will to fight and merely stared up at the Outer God.

In this hopeless situation, where every path led to death, Alon looked at the Outer God that seemed to be mocking him.

"..."

After a brief silence, he cast his magic.

"The Snowy Mountain's Shadow—"

"Determination."

At Alon's words, the air gathered once more, forming dozens of tiny spheres.

"Axial Rotation."

At the next phrase, the spheres began rotating clockwise on their own.

Grinning broadly, Kailas immediately moved its finger. A simple sweep from left to right.

But...

CRACKLE!

'There's still hope.'

The invisible slash heading toward Alon touched one of the spheres drifting through the air and froze.

"Rine, help me."

The battle began anew.

####

Many factors came into play in a battle between mages, but ultimately, only two truly mattered.

First, the speed at which they manifested their magic. Second, their tactical exchange.

To defeat another mage, one had to predict what magic the opponent would cast and how, then act a step ahead. And to seize the advantage, one needed a casting speed at least comparable to the opponent's. No amount of tactical superiority would help if one's casting was too slow to respond.

From that perspective, Alon was inevitably at a disadvantage against the Outer God. But Rine was beside him, ready to deflect its attacks.

CLATTER!

CRASH!

Though Alon had already cast the spell more than three times, invisible slashes slipped through the few remaining magical spheres in an instant. As he watched Rine knock them aside, he felt his hands trembling.

More than five mana potion bottles now littered the ground, and his skin was turning blue.

Mana poisoning.

His heart pounded, and his mana reservoir replenished itself at a speed incomparable to its normal rate, allowing him another spell.

CRACKLE!

The slash was blocked the instant his magic manifested.

As though it had been waiting for that fleeting moment, Kailas moved in an instant and appeared right before Alon.

"Hah!"

CLATTER!

Chains shot fiercely toward the Outer God, forcing it to retreat. From that renewed distance, it cast again.

Like a cat playing with a mouse, it watched his final struggles with the detachment of an absolute being. Though it could end this at any moment, it was merely toying with Alon.

Yet even in this humiliating situation, what filled his mind was not anger, but cold reason.

"Crystallization."

And so Alon continued to defend himself once more.

He defended, and defended, and defended, and defended.

As though he had no strength left to attack, he kept defending, the blue discoloration having spread from his fingertips all the way to his shoulders.

Everyone watched this struggle, so desperate it seemed a final, frantic resistance.

"..."

Some watched with despair in their eyes. Others with disappointment. Others still with emptiness and frustration.

Even so, Alon stubbornly blocked the slashes. As though this were his final struggle, his eyes now bleeding blue from mana poisoning, he simply kept casting whatever magic he could.

Then, at last, the chains Rine wielded to block the Outer God's attacks alongside him snapped.

Kailas grinned, as though the inevitable moment had arrived.

'Now.'

With that brief thought, Alon raised another screen of spheres to obscure Kailas's sight.

"Crystallization."

"Ice and Snow."

Alon led with a different phrase this time. White frost began clinging to the mana gathering before his sealed hands.

"Form."

The frost soon spread through the space around him.

"The Snowy Mountain's, Shadow—"

Forcing down the blood in his mouth, he barely managed to utter the sentence. A massive hexagonal crystal formed before him.

"The Blind Man's... Inevitability—"

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

No, something too beautiful to be called a spear.

But after creating it while forcibly swallowing the blood welling in his mouth, Alon did not speak the final phrase.

'This won't be enough.'

This was the move that offered him the best chance of defeating the Outer God now. For this moment alone, he had drunk every mana potion he carried. He had sustained a battle of attrition that could only be fatal for someone with a mana reservoir as small as his, and succeeded in making Kailas lower its guard.

His body, now practically at death's door, had also unlocked another Constraint he had imposed beforehand: a Constraint that granted him the ability to distort the world's laws when casting magic in a near-death state.

All that remained was to prepare one final killing blow while the ice that had blocked the slashes obscured Kailas's vision.

But he knew. This alone would not be enough.

Even so, Alon had manifested this spell because of what that being had once told him.

The stage beyond the Natural Order.

Manifestation of One's True Nature.

["But, as I thought, you still know nothing."]

Alon recalled the Outer God's words. Surely, that was what it had meant.

So he had to accomplish it. Here and now, he had to manifest a final move the Outer God could not block, one he could unleash while it had its guard down.

'Think.'

His thoughts accelerated. His head, feeling ready to burst from mana poisoning, frantically conjured and discarded countless thoughts all at once. His heart hammered ceaselessly with a maddening rhythm.

The pain felt as though his brain were melting.

Yet he did not stop. He searched every corner of his mind for a hint that would let him advance beyond the Natural Order.

And then, at that moment, a voice sounded in Alon's mind.

["The seal."]

["Delusion and enlightenment are, at their root, one and the same."]

["Reach it, and you shall obtain the key."]

Something spoke those words amid a black wavering presence. Then, as though it had said all it wished to say, the wavering vanished in an instant, and it disappeared.

Before he could identify it, Alon found the final piece that would take him beyond the Natural Order. Without hesitation, he released the seal he had maintained until now and formed a new one.

He held only his left index finger upright, then wrapped his right hand around his left so that the two touched.

The Fist of Wisdom seal was complete.

And Alon saw it: the spear, which had borne beautiful patterns only moments before, twisted strangely into the shape of a key.

At the same time, the ice dissipated, revealing the Outer God that had been so relaxed moments earlier.

"!"

Its easy expression stiffened. As though everything until now had been a game, it appeared before Alon faster than he could blink and tried to thrust out its hand without hesitation.

"!"

CLATTER!

Rine's chains blocked the space before Alon, as though they had been waiting from the start.

Then an unexpected turn arose.

The Outer God immediately pivoted and approached Rine, who had left herself defenseless to protect Alon, sweeping its finger.

"Ah."

Rine let out a quiet gasp, foreseeing her death.

But Alon had already anticipated this. His hand was already gripping her clothes and pulling her toward him.

SLASH!

The slash narrowly missed her.

"—"

Instead, blood burst from the hand Alon had used to pull her in. Yet without hesitation, he formed the Fist of Wisdom seal again and uttered the final phrase.

"Ice-Crystal Painted Halberd."

The newly formed key embedded itself in the enormous crystal and turned—and a glacier descended upon the meadow.