Silence vs Time

Wanstein’s pupils shook roughly.

“You were… alive…?”

“Hehehe, you look like you’ve seen a ghost. Is it amazing I’m alive?”

In the appearance that cast off his usual refinement, young Ruin’s youthful impetuousness reveals itself.

“I never knew you who were always composed could show such a dumbfounded look, time has truly changed many things. Don’t you think so, Wanstein?”

When he received Ruin’s sharp gaze, Wanstein felt like lightning struck down his spine.

‘He was alive? That Ruin?’

It’s from decades ago.

The mage association ordered Wanstein to bring materials from a dangerous demon beast, and by chance their intentions matched with Ruin’s mercenary band so they joined together.

After the two who got along quite well solved large and small commissions consecutively, they subjugated the dangerous demon beast.

Both were 7th level mages and had thoughts about joining forces together.

But she was the problem.

Baudelaire.

Cursed alchemy.

The academy’s heretic threatening magic.

The moment he learned Baudelaire was that descendant, Wanstein reported to the association and received permission for disposal.

All friendship was erased before the name of alchemy, and only the thought that it was an opportunity to achieve merit filled his head.

“Alchemy must disappear from this land forever.”

When the mercenary band blocked him, Wanstein couldn’t strike Baudelaire’s neck.

But his magic succeeded in ‘accelerating’ Baudelaire’s chronic illness.

Time that even silence couldn’t block stimulated the mercenary band’s bad parts.

After twists and turns, the mercenary band fled, but Wanstein didn’t pursue to the end.

Because time had already embedded itself deeply in Baudelaire and hastened her death.

To shake off Wanstein’s magic, a Magus’s help would have been desperately needed, but nowhere in this world existed a mage who’d help an alchemist.

Wanstein thought Baudelaire died and Ruin also followed after.

Because the couple’s devoted love couldn’t leave with one remaining, he thought Baudelaire and Ruin had already disappeared from this world.

“Why?”

Why are you alive?

At the short words containing numerous questions, Ruin smiled coldly and recalled that day.

The despair when Baudelaire’s cold hand fell from this palm sublimated Ruin’s magic to Magus Arts.

“Baudelaire was an ordinary human without mana. She left this world before me. I also tried to go comfortably, but heaven wouldn’t leave me be.”

Cold sweat flowed from Wanstein’s forehead.

Before he knew it, this island was split precisely in half.

Time’s domain and Silence’s domain.

Just the fact they formed tense opposition itself showed what level Ruin’s Magus Arts had reached.

‘An S2 Magus.’

This was also difficult to believe.

Ruin and Wanstein differ from birth.

He couldn’t accept the fact that his and vagrant mercenary Ruin’s abilities were the same level, when he received innate talent plus family support and sublimated time to Magus Arts.

When past specters suddenly appeared trying to strangle him, Wanstein’s face reddened.

It felt like an error that should have properly disappeared was toying with reality.

“Then, you should’ve quietly died. Why reveal yourself now? Did you come to take revenge at this late hour?”

“When did I already start, yet you still haven’t noticed.”

That moment, Tyr’s fleet incident grazed Wanstein’s mind.

“Don’t tell me… Tyr?”

“Would it be only the fleet?”

At the sneering words, when Wanstein recalled even his disciple’s death, his eyes widened.

“You drove a wedge between Tyr and the association!”

“When my small master even permitted private revenge, do you think it’d stop at just Tyr and the association?”

“Ruin!”

“Wanstein. I never thought this day would come. I tried to die putting aside everything, but when grace descended on me, how could I refuse it!”

“You still haven’t escaped from that absurdly preposterous fantasy called alchemy!”

“Alchemy and magic could have become one! If only it weren’t for your greed!”

As soon as Ruin struck his cane to the ground, Wanstein’s mana covered a 1-kilometer radius along the ground.

A double mana barrier creating another domain within space.

It’s a Magus’s mana domination technique where high-density mana condenses and pressures the opponent.

But leisure was felt in Ruin’s cold smile.

Because mana flowing along the cane enveloped Wanstein’s mana surging from the ground.

‘Silence!’

Ruin’s Silence magic can intervene in both the opponent’s magic and mana.

It makes even lifeless mana quietly sleep like a living being, making them lose control.

It’s the most troublesome among special-type magic and was Wanstein’s Time’s natural enemy.

‘Silence spreads contagiously through mana.’

If it were a Magus one rank lower, he would’ve pushed with mana quantity, but if it’s a same-rank Magus, the story changes. He must press down with denser power.

Because magic’s foundation is mana.

Only when this power spreads to the opponent does magic finally activate.

Rumble!

The moment he confirmed the ground sinking heavily, Wanstein leapt to a rock.

Though he scattered mana forward like thin fog so mana would permeate everywhere, when Ruin drew a circle with his cane, all mana was sucked into it and drifted away to the sea.

He absolutely can’t see an opening.

‘Mana control was the field Ruin was worst at, but when did the hasty Ruin learn to control emotions this much?’

Wanstein’s eyes narrowed thinly.

“Why didn’t you run around this diligently when Baudelaire was alive?”

The moment he detonated mana planted in the rear aiming for emotional fluctuations, Ruin lightly swept down his cane and drew the area’s mana before his eyes.

In the appearance where even Wanstein’s mana is swallowed by silence, even firm resolution is felt.

“Still sinister and gloomy. For you who toys with others’ emotions this way, even your disciple’s death would be no more than a means for honor.”

When Ruin struck down his cane, mana spread in circular waves.

‘I don’t want to show my hand first, but.’

Wanstein scattered mana to block Ruin’s mana while simultaneously deploying magic outside the range.

‘The moment that mana touches, my voice and actions are forgotten and cognition eventually disappears. Silence is like a mage’s poison.’

Not a speck must touch.

Therefore, he activated Magus Arts that pressures from outside, not magic generated from inside.

Time.

Simply escaping from magic that makes opponents fast or weakly slows them, Time sublimated to Magus Arts reached the realm of distorting specific things.

All places his time touches rewind or age and newly regulate ‘laws’ as if disconnected from the world.

“Time.”

Revert to before mana was generated.

Thus the generated magic couldn’t maintain form and disappeared in midair.

But his time is still tuned.

Because this law was one-sided cost imposed only on the opponent.

‘You and I don’t know each other’s capabilities after becoming Magi.’

He couldn’t know what Magus Arts Ruin’s Silence sublimated into.

At minimum, he should have drawn out that clue, but Ruin was like an impregnable fortress.

Clumsy mana domination didn’t even scratch him.

Thud!

In that dizzying time when objects bouncing around rapidly aged and turned to ash, Ruin quietly raised his cane.

Time was trying to return mana and magic to nothingness.

No matter what natural-type or enhancement-type is mobilized, all become useless before the law time created.

Irresistible power was no different from disaster, but only Ruin could receive it.

“Baudelaire…”

The softly announced voice rode mana and knocked on Ruin’s domain.

That moment, Wanstein suddenly got goosebumps.

Though silence was also disappearing before rewinding time, some unknowable thing swirled and began sucking everything in.

It was a hole like the abyss.

Silence’s Magus Arts so absurdly vast it would swallow even the viewer’s mind.

Loss.

This makes all magic and mana empty.

“The mining site!?”

Wanstein recalled how mages at the mining site lost magic and mana.

The moment the hole expanded and spread wide like a barrier, he finally realized the fear Ruin’s Magus Arts possessed.

‘That erases mana and magic from this world.’

Not reversing to the beginning like time, but a contagious form that swallows, devours, and expands.

But normally there’s an acceptable limit, yet this barrier extends infinitely.

It feels like facing a great sea, but somehow loneliness rather than bleakness was felt.

“I realized only after crossing death.”

A voice containing chill flowed from inside the barrier.

“Baudelaire’s sacrifice made a hole within me, and death permeated there birthing emptiness. This Magus Arts is the product of my emotions that became empty.”

When the barrier expanded, Wanstein’s space covering the island began to shake.

“Ruin…!”

Wanstein ground his teeth.

Silence and Time are mutual natural enemies, making it difficult to judge either’s superiority.

However, even after becoming Magus Arts they devour each other like natural enemies, so Wanstein shuddered at this tiresome ill-fated relationship.

“Did you dare hope to live?”

Ruin’s sneer stimulated Wanstein’s fury.

“If you want to find a place to die, go back to that woman’s grave!”

Wanstein poured all mana he’d spread in space into time.

As soon as Loss devoured mana, time returned it to original state again continuing the tense opposition.

‘They’re special-type Magus Arts where each intervenes in the other’s magic and mana. Unless one side’s mana runs out, this structure won’t collapse.’

Though he should have prepared for a war of attrition, Ruin generously connected mana.

While also guarding against even variables rising from the ground, so not even a slight opening showed.

“Is dying together truly your ending!”

“If I can kill you, what can’t I do?”

“Surely your confidants are on this island!”

Wanstein ground his teeth and shouted spitting words.

“Like Baudelaire and your mercenary band! Do you plan to kill them together too!”

Though he hoped for even a trace of excitement by reviving nightmares, Ruin’s pupils remained cold and quiet as ever.

“Just because they’re your disciples doesn’t make it different.”

“Ruiiiin!”

When he exploded emotions he’d endured and added to Loss, even Wanstein had no leisure to expect other mages’ support.

Special-type mages who are natural enemies’ battles can’t conclude until power runs out by clashing each other’s rules.

The only variable is external intervention.

But Pedson’s side also isn’t simple.

No, before he knew it, strange presences began gathering around this island.

‘What the hell. What are you hiding on this island!’

At presences that swelled to thousands in an instant, Wanstein sweated coldly and finally released the space.

He intended to gather even the mana covering the island all at once, shake off Ruin, and retreat from this island.

“You were always like that.”

But this war of attrition’s end was already decided.

“You had too much so you tried to grasp everything. I thought someone as greedy as you would be full of attachment to life.”

Ruin also retrieved the mana covering the island.

“One who covets honor and power tries to flee, like you.”

From the start, he’d expected that if Ruin pushed Wanstein, he’d choose retreat.

Wanstein at that moment would definitely retrieve Time’s domain covering the island—Pernok also agreed.

Therefore, he could take it out.

When all Magus domains disappeared, the product of aspiration that swallowed even the sky’s moon.

“There was one more person to repay debt.”

The floating island scattered brilliant light.

Lionic’s mana all concentrated on the improved tactical weapon.

It’s the essence of alchemy that Baudelaire designed, Pernok completed, and Ruin polished.

“Baudelaire and I. From the start, it was the two of us.”

Beside the chillingly smiling Ruin, young Baudelaire seemed to stand side by side smiling.

Wanstein screamed like a shriek toward the illusion that couldn’t exist.

“This cursed alchemy or whateverrrr!”

Loss surged like waves and the floating fortress’s Lionic blazed fiercely.

Trident Force.

Lionic’s ultimate weapon swallowed Wanstein like a giant pillar of light.