Chapter 117

"Kratos! Zeus! Greek mythology! Ugh, stop!"

Inside the Temple of the Sun, the elder desperately blocked Turan’s golden greatsword while muttering incomprehensible words.

His strange behavior began after hearing Turan’s last words.

Had the claim of being the son of the House Varaha’s family head given him a great shock, or was there some hidden implication in the words themselves?

Regardless, Turan had no choice but to keep attacking aggressively.

It was undoubtedly something related to the gods' secrets, and he had no confidence in answering it properly.

Fortunately, it did not take long for the scales of victory to tilt.

Originally, the overwhelming difference in magic power was balanced by the disparity in physical abilities and weaponry. Now that the weapon gap had been resolved, it was inevitable.

Only then did the elder realize that Turan had no intention of conversing and resumed his battle stance. However, his breathing, which had faltered while speaking, did not return quickly.

He might have been able to recover if given a brief moment, but Turan was not foolish enough to grant such an opportunity.

Moments later, six golden needles surged from Turan’s halo, piercing the elder’s arms and torso, slamming him onto the ground.

His tendons were pierced, and the two swords forged from the Light of Judgment slipped from his grasp, scattering into the air.

"Ugh, w-wait-"

Was it because he was using the power of the Guardian Bloodline?

For an ordinary high-ranking noble, dying instantly would not have been unusual, yet the needles seemed to have stopped halfway through embedding into him.

Turan swung his greatsword down at the elder’s neck as he coughed up blood.

Thud. The first strike severed about a third.

The head, hanging loosely halfway from the neck, was cleanly chopped off with the second strike.

"Hoo..."

Unlike Ymir, this elder of House Varaha did not seem to have become dramatically stronger even after revealing his hidden bloodline.

Strictly speaking, his overall skill had improved by wielding the power of two bloodlines, but he hardly used any mysterious forces beyond magic.

As he briefly reflected on the battle, the elder’s soul began to seep out of his dead body.

At first, Turan expected it to ascend high into the sky and disappear like before-

'...The ground?'

For some reason, the elder's soul seeped into the ground instead of flying away like the other gods.

As soon as the question arose, the answer became clear.

The place where the soul of the deceased was returning must be located beneath this building!

‘I have to find it.’

Initially, he had planned to search the family head’s study and see if there were any secret passages. But now, his thoughts had changed.

If he could find the base beneath the residence, he might uncover a way to eliminate them completely...

At that moment, he sensed approaching presences in the distance.

"There's an intruder in the inner sanctum!"

"Everyone, defend that area first!"

Though their battle had taken place indoors, the clash between two high-ranking nobles, surpassing even the highest level, had caused its impact to spread outside.

The wizards who had been chasing Solif noticed the disturbance and were returning.

"Tch."

Clicking his tongue lightly, Turan grabbed the elder’s corpse and absorbed his magic power before stepping inside the door the elder had been guarding.

The barrier set at the entrance detected his intrusion and emitted a sharp noise throughout the area.

‘Bathhouse, bedroom, lounge, study, office, bedroom…’

Turan tossed aside the elder’s magic-drained corpse and used wind magic to scour the building’s interior.

Hoping to uncover a passage leading underground.

But no matter how thoroughly he searched, ventilation ducts, carpets, drains, and any other conceivable hiding places, nothing turned up.

‘I don’t have much time…’

Due to their strong magic power, high-ranking nobles, who were much faster than ordinary people, had already approached the residence.

If they caught up to him, Turan would have to fight the entire House Varaha’s wizards head-on.

As much as he wanted to smash everything apart to find a way underground, he could not.

This building was part of the Temple of the Sun itself.

The ancient structures built during the Old Empire era were not something even a grand wizard of quasi-family head level like Turan could easily destroy.

At that moment, another explosion rang out from outside, followed by shouting.

[Where do you think you're going-?!]

[You bastard!]

It seemed that Solif, who had been circling around to buy time, had returned and was keeping the wizards of House Varaha occupied.

Thanks to that, Turan had some breathing room. After a brief moment of thought, he stormed into the study and stuffed everything in sight into his large-capacity pouch.

There had to be something useful among them.

The truly important documents might have been taken by the family head, as the bookshelves were somewhat sparse. However, since the room was massive, there was still plenty to collect.

After confirming that the study was completely emptied, Turan unleashed a large amount of the Spirit of Fire and detonated it, reducing the study and surrounding buildings to ruins.

This was to make it difficult for them to figure out exactly what had been taken.

As a bonus, it was also his last attempt to reveal a secret passage.

If there was a hidden chamber behind a bookshelf or under the living room floor, the explosion might expose it.

Unfortunately, even this method did not reveal any underground passage.

Clicking his tongue in frustration, Turan stepped outside, where he saw Solif, visibly exhausted, surrounded by House Varaha’s wizards.

"That bastard?!"

"Are you the one who infiltrated the family head’s residence?!"

"What did you do to Elder Rownel?!"

Rownel seemed to be the name of the elder who had just died.

Turan quickly moved to Solif’s side and whispered briefly.

"I’ve searched as much as I could. Let’s go."

"Which way?"

"West."

After their short exchange, the two of them sprinted in the same direction at the same time.

The wizards blocking their path widened their eyes in shock as they saw Turan’s halo rising up behind him.

"No......!?"

However, despite their surprise, they immediately unleashed their magic, proof that they were well-trained wizards.

Turan and Solif formed the Light of Judgment into whips, slashing away the incoming spells as they dashed southward.

"Get out of the way!"

As Solif broke through the encirclement at the front, Turan focused on deflecting the spells that flew toward them from behind.

Moments later, they passed through the gates and emerged outside the Temple of the Sun.

"Where to now? South?"

"Let’s stop by your parents' house first. We need to erase all traces there as well."

"Got it."

If he had known that the bond between House Varaha and the House Zahar nobles was strong enough for them to be residing in the main estate, he would have eliminated them sooner.

It was regrettable, but there was no use dwelling on the past.

As expected, the entire city of Helio was brightly lit.

The commotion inside the Temple of the Sun had spread across several kilometers.

Ignoring the frightened stares of ordinary citizens, they hurried toward the mansion located on the outskirts of the city.

The building came into view, a relatively modest noble residence, three stories high with about a dozen rooms, where the noble couple resided.

"Anyone there?"

At Solif’s question, Turan used Tracking Magic once more before nodding.

It seemed that there had been guards stationed before, but perhaps because it was nighttime, the place was currently empty.

"There are a few traces. It’s too much trouble to search for them one by one... Let’s burn it down."

"Tch, I was somewhat fond of this place."

Solif grumbled but still unleashed a wave of flames upon the mansion.

With their combined power, it took barely a dozen seconds for the entire mansion to be engulfed in flames.

Naturally, things like hair and nails could not withstand such intense heat.

Turan confirmed that all traces of Solif’s parents inside the mansion had been completely erased before stopping the magic.

"Let’s go. They’re chasing us again."

From the distant Temple of the Sun, powerful surges of magic were rapidly approaching.

Unsurprisingly, they were none other than the enraged wizards of House Varaha.

*

The chase that began in the middle of the night took quite a long time to come to an end.

Of course, with his immense magic power and the exceptional physical abilities granted by the Guardian Bloodline, Solif’s speed was something ordinary nobles could not hope to match.

The problem, however, was the presence of magical beasts.

Several pursuers mounted on magical beasts specialized in running, ranging from horse-like creatures akin to House Berk’s Tilly to massive reindeer and cheetahs, relentlessly followed behind them, constantly relaying their location.

To counter this, Turan used one of the magic artifacts taken from the deceased nobles of House Zahar.

A staff that fired spears of frost.

It consumed a considerable amount of magic power, but the ice spears it shot were nearly as potent as those wielded by true nobles of House Carmine. Additionally, by using Wind Path to eliminate air resistance, he increased their speed.

One by one, the magical beasts chasing them died, struck down by the silently flying spears, until their pursuers no longer dared to continue the chase.

How many hours had passed like that?

With their backs to Helio, the two had run and run again, only stopping when they saw the sun rising.

Drenched in sweat, Solif collapsed onto the dirt ground and groaned.

"Ah, damn it. I'm terribly exhausted... I swear, even if you beat me to death, I can’t run anymore."

If it had been just running, he wouldn’t have collapsed after a few hours. However, having already exhausted himself in intense battles against hundreds of wizards, running long distances afterward was simply too much.

In contrast, Turan, who had taken to the skies with Flight Magic as soon as they were out of sight, was in relatively better condition.

Though he had consumed more magic power intercepting the pursuing magical beasts.

"Their presence is completely gone now. We’ve put at least several dozen kilometers between us, so let’s disguise ourselves and rest for a while before moving on."

Turan removed the disguise mask and handed it to Solif before using Meisa’s magic artifact to age his appearance.

This time, he raised his age a little further, to about his mid-sixties.

A short while later, the two of them had transformed into a traveling grandfather and grandson taking a rest.

As he steadied his breathing in the guise of a gray-haired boy, Solif turned and asked,

"What about Meisa? Did she escape safely?"

"Seems like it. If we travel about three hundred kilometers north, we should be able to meet up with them."

As planned, Meisa and Solif’s parents had escaped first, then fled far away on Bije, who had been waiting on the outskirts of Helio.

Through their soul bond, Turan tried to convey to the worried Bije that he was safe and unharmed.

Such communication was far less natural than direct conversation, but it allowed emotions to be conveyed with absolute sincerity.

"Feeling any better?"

"Yeah. Somewhat."

Despite his nonchalant response, Solif’s face still bore clear signs of fatigue.

Instead of moving immediately, Turan took the time to rest and explained to Solif what had happened while they were separated.

From the sudden appearance of House Zahar’s nobles to the killing of House Varaha’s elder and the looting of the family head’s residence.

"Elder Rownel was a possessed vessel?!"

"You knew him?"

"A little. Not well enough to say we were close, but he was always fairly kind to me…"

Solif clicked his tongue, his expression filled with complex emotions.

It was understandable, despite having run away from his family, he had a strong attachment to its members.

Even when they came to capture and oppress him, he had felt bitter about their deaths.

Of course, looking back now, wiping them out had been the correct decision.

At the time, there had been three nobles of high-rank strength among the pursuers. If they were still alive, escaping the encirclement this time would have been even more difficult.

‘Come to think of it, were there no gods among the ones who came after Solif back then?’

At that time, Turan had no disguise abilities, meaning he had fought with his real face exposed. He had also used the sacred relic to fully unleash the power of the Sun Bloodline.

If there had been a possessed body among those he had fought back then, word of it would have spread. Since that had not happened, it meant that only pure nobles had been present.

‘Or… could they have only learned about it recently?’

A sudden thought crossed his mind, what if one of those who had died back then had only recently regained a body and been revived?

That would explain why the family head of House Varaha, realizing that Turan had used the bloodline abilities of both House Zahar and House Varaha, personally went after him in Lavitas...

The mere thought of it was terrifying, but it was a hypothesis worth considering.

If that were the case, then all the effort to disguise himself would have been in vain. They would soon realize that the one who infiltrated with Solif was Turan.

His earlier act of pretending to be the family head’s son would become useless.

After a moment of deep thought, Turan shook his head, clearing his mind.

He was already exhausted and did not want to dwell on such complicated matters any longer.

"What’s wrong?"

"Nothing. More importantly, I should check the documents I found inside."

Turan retrieved the jewel box containing the librarian from his large-capacity pouch.

"What is it?"

"I’d like you to look at these with me and remember them. If there’s anything you can advise on, feel free to help."

"So now I’m just your external memory storage, huh?"

Turan gave an embarrassed smile and lowered his head at the librarian’s grumbling.

Regardless, since the librarian was essentially a guest freeloading off him, it did not argue further and simply stared at the documents Turan had taken out.

The first item from the pouch was a large map marked with various symbols.

"Hmm, this is…"

"A resource map of House Varaha’s territory."

A map detailing the distribution of key resources within the great noble house.

It was undoubtedly classified information, but it was far from the kind of intelligence Turan was looking for.

He flipped through it quickly so the librarian could memorize it, then immediately burned it.

The next document contained information on the major members of the house.

Starting with publicly known details, it included internal reputation assessments, criminal activities, and even discreetly recorded sexual preferences.

As Turan skimmed through the pages, he paused upon reaching the section about Solif.

[Has a strong preference for married women and older women. Do not allow him to start a family until he is at least seventy years old.]

[Secretly bringing in related books to develop masochistic sexual preferences...]

After reading through it, Turan hesitated for a moment before showing it to Solif.

Solif took the document with a composed expression, but his hands soon trembled violently before he incinerated it with Magic.

"D-Did you read all of it?"

"Sorry."

Since he had unintentionally stumbled upon a very private matter, one that Solif likely never wanted anyone to see, Turan offered a sincere apology.

A long silence followed before Solif let out a deep sigh.

"Dammit, don’t apologize. Fine, I swear I’ll never chase after older married women again."

"Well, you shouldn't be chasing after married women in the first place."

Turan quipped playfully before resuming his review of the documents from the family head’s residence.

Unfortunately, there was nothing about communications between the gods or any other useful insights.

Given that it was the family head’s study, he had expected to find something of greater value…

Clicking his tongue in disappointment, he suddenly picked up a book with an oddly flesh-colored, sticky leather cover.

Even more strangely, faint traces of magic were emanating from it.

Turan, regaining his focus, read the title on the cover.

"This is…?"

[An Introduction to True Magic]

An introduction to true magic?

He had no idea what "true magic" even referred to, and the fact that such a book was in the family head of House Varaha’s study made even less sense.

Why would one of the strongest wizards in the world need an introductory book?

Puzzled, Turan opened the book and read the foreword.

Normally, it would contain a dedication to a patron or an explanation of the author’s purpose for writing it.

As his eyes fell on the crimson, blood-like letters inside, his brows furrowed.

Then, as he read the content, his expression hardened.

[…This book records the way to initiate oneself into true magic, not the false magic spread across the world by those so-called gods, but the magic that we humans have inherited from ancient times.]

***