Silence vs Time

Immediately after landing on the island, Pedson felt two massive mana burst out.

‘Besides master, there’s one more S2 Magus!’

If it were natural-type or enhancement-type, they wouldn’t have been Wanstein’s opponent.

Because any Magus Arts is powerless before time.

But the mana that now split this island precisely in half has something that opposes time.

Extremely empty, special-type Magus Arts that will suck in everything as it is.

‘Power that’s master’s natural enemy.’

To collapse the tense balance requires external intervention.

Half-baked mages can’t do it.

At minimum Magus-level power is needed to crack the space.

‘I must remove that dangerous S2 Magus first.’

Pedson looked back at the branch heads.

“Branch heads will have to take charge here.”

“What?”

“Master’s mana is serious. Breaking this tense structure comes first now.”

He grasped what takes priority, befitting a Magus.

But the opponent was the same.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen you swayed by emotion, Ruin.”

As soon as he heard the unfamiliar voice, Pedson looked up at the hill.

The robed man who’d attacked the branches was looking down at this place.

“Well, how many could maintain their wits with an enemy before their eyes, but at minimum you guys shouldn’t interfere and make a mess.”

When Pernok slowly removed his robe, Pedson widened his eyes.

“Prince Pernok?”

However, his marker remained on that body.

“Don’t tell me…”

“Marco.”

Marco revealed himself from a dark corner.

“Prevent the mages from reaching Ruin.”

“Yes!”

When Marco spread Origin in the darkness, Pedson felt eeriness at the unfamiliar power.

‘He’s not a mage. But what is this?’

Chilling and creepy feelings like squeezing his heart burst from everywhere.

Children who’d been hiding appeared and released Origin.

When darkness squeezed in and colorful elements mixed within swirled fiercely, mages raised mana.

‘Dangerous.’

The moment natural-type and elements collided, instinctive warning that something would be distorted shook his head.

Though the Magus’s intuition feeling danger despite first encountering Origin was worth praising as excellent, Pernok’s moves were just beginning.

Kaboom!

Roars burst from mages who entered the island.

And a massive monster shaking the axis appeared.

“Mooooooo!”

Horn Tribe armed with full-body Tunnel Folk armor shook the battlefield gripping axes in both hands.

“Prove the Horn Tribe’s might to the great chief!”

The former chieftain added explosive power to his innate body with the mana application method he learned from Pernok.

Bang!

With one axe swing, an enhancement-type mage flew into seawater.

Natural-type mages who positioned themselves in the rear urgently squandered magic at that fierceness.

But the armor just slightly singed.

Without heeding even fire clinging to their fur, the Horn Tribe fiercely crossed enemy lines.

“Wh-what’s that!”

“A monster?”

It became a melee in one moment, but the mages’ experience was exceptional.

All were excellent combat mages following Wanstein.

Tactics to surround the Horn Tribe leading with enhancement-type and special-type and finish with natural-type were about to connect cleanly.

Until they popped out from the sea.

Splash!

The Scale Tribe surged tearing apart mages who fell into seawater.

They who had chains and bows drew bowstrings at the mages.

Their number reached as many as several thousand, so they couldn’t gather their wits.

“F-form a defensive formation! Gather!”

When branch heads urgently tried to gather mana, Pernok grasped the flow with Observation Eye and swung the artifact.

Kaboom!

As the barrier mages made easily crumbled, the Horn Tribe and Scale Tribe’s offensive began coveting tender flesh.

Origin’s children carried out support from the rear, showing the skill of flowing seawater inland so the Scale Tribe could display power even on land.

Whooong!

Pedson’s mana spread widely.

He tried to swallow the intruders along with the space.

Pernok who’d already experienced that domain’s danger instantly closed the distance.

When Pedson made a thin membrane before his solar plexus, a fist embedded there.

But he couldn’t shake off Pernok.

‘He’s enduring?’

Darkness both sucks opponents in but also bounces like a reflection membrane.

But whatever power it was, it didn’t budge like a mountain.

Rather when Pernok stepped firmly and twisted his fist.

Bang!

Pedson’s membrane shattered to pieces and he floated in midair.

“Kuk.”

When he blinked, Pernok was closing the distance again.

He didn’t even give time to land and take position.

When Over Impact’s brilliant light burst from the gloves, magic just reflexively spat out darkness.

Bang bang bang!

Unrefined darkness shattered to the light.

Amid mana scattering like fragments, Pedson wiped cold sweat.

‘He won’t give me time.’

As if refusing to permit even that short time of converting from magic to Magus Arts, Pernok’s offensive continued fiercely.

‘Was enhancement-type this troublesome a type?’

Judging there’s no answer on the ground, Pedson kicked the ground hard.

In an instant, distance from Pernok widened.

Though he bought just 5 seconds, for a Magus, leisure more precious than gold arose.

Whooong!

Finally the domain swallowed this area.

Pedson’s Magus Arts ‘Deep Night’ scattered pitch-black darkness to all heterogeneous races.

Offense-defense integrated Magus Arts that restrains those it touches and detonates darkness where mana heads.

Branch heads judged the opportunity had tilted this way and boosted mana, but Pernok cut off hope.

“The line.”

When Pernok floating in midair grinned, Pedson’s back became empty.

“…!?”

Pedson’s domain was narrowing.

No, it was being devoured.

The space of two S2 Magi that split the island in half.

Certainly, he’d deployed his Magus Arts within Wanstein’s space, yet at some point Ruin’s ‘Loss’ was pushing back time.

“You crossed the line.”

Wanstein is being pushed?

An unimaginable thing tangled Pedson’s calculations.

Though just a very small gap was extinguished by Loss, to Pernok that moment looked like prey as wide and large as the great sea.

Boom!

When spider web-like cracks reached the domain, darkness covering the heterogeneous races cleared.

The moment Magus Arts weren’t controlled as intended, Pernok rushed at Pedson using mana’s explosion as a foothold.

Circulation Link.

Light completed by sucking in all energy around became a pure white blade and split the crack.

‘We need to reorganize our stance again.’

His Magus Arts displays efficacy when space backs it.

Night broken once doesn’t rise deeply until new darkness is overlaid.

‘Damn!’

Pernok’s light that severed the deep night didn’t make a hole to flee.

It was also impossible to receive with clumsy mana.

Therefore, Pedson quickly contracted the domain and shifted judgment toward increasing mana’s density.

Domain’s condensation like a Magus’s formula.

Shallow night gathered like a shield and clashed with the blade of light.

Clang!

Power that couldn’t penetrate each other seemed to continue a tug-of-war flickering in midair.

But.

Crackle!

A new power Pedson couldn’t understand rode Over Impact.

It was pure white lightning.

Accompanied by a roar splitting the night sky, everything before his eyes swallowed it all.

“Kuaaaaa!”

Pedson burst out a battle cry and desperately resisted.

Hope close to insistence that he just needs to endure this was trampled by Pernok’s chilling smile.

“Don’t you keep crossing lines that shouldn’t be crossed?”

From the start, Pernok had no thought of breaking Pedson’s Magus Arts.

Pedson had already turned his back to the line, and he just needs to push so he’s caught in Loss.

“It’s time.”

Pedson who couldn’t maintain mana and was falling looked up at the night sky.

Before he knew it, the world was dyed pitch black.

Something massive was blocking the moon.

That’s also an unknown product that can’t be thought of with a mage’s cognition.

Before he knew it, Loss had disappeared.

Even Time’s space was erased.

The massive space the two S2 Magi wrapped around the island all condensed at the center.

Pedson’s mana also tried to return, but before that overwhelming might, there was no leisure to think of anything else.

Pernok smiled and shouted.

“Fire!”

And.

Swooosh!

Powerful mana descended like a pillar of light from the floating fortress to the island’s center.

* * *

“Kuaaaaaaaaa!”

Trident Force and Loss swallowed Wanstein from above and below.

Though he tried to spread Time’s Magus Arts around and return all attacks to nothing, the amount of mana possessed is different.

He poured all of Lionic’s mana accumulated over long time in the floating fortress into the cannon.

Even that isn’t enough, so Ruin’s Loss devours Wanstein’s Time.

“Aaaaaaaaaa!”

Wanstein writhed desperately.

The primal instinct to live burned everything of the Magus.

When Trident Force no longer struck down, Wanstein finally survived and knelt in that place.

Though half his body burned pitch black and his Magus Arts were lost, his eyes were still full of fury.

Bang!

Looking at what fell beside him, Wanstein’s face contorted like a demon.

“Ma… master…”

Pedson cried out desperately in the appearance of being cooked red.

Wanstein reached his hand toward his disciple’s heart.

He thought to somehow grasp that mana and activate time again.

Stab!

Ruin’s cane struck Wanstein’s face.

Pernok landed before him who collapsed.

“Tenacious one.”

“If not for Your Highness’s help, I might have died together.”

“I clearly told you…”

“Yes. You said if I can’t survive, don’t take revenge either. So didn’t she and I handle that poisonous one together?”

Pernok smirked.

When Ruin who he thought would be swept by fury and throw himself away revealed clear eyes, he relaxed and split defenseless Pedson’s heart with a hand blade.

“Keheok!”

He pulled his hand from Pedson’s crushed body and absorbed the flowing mana and spiritual power, taking Deep Night into his body.

This special Magus Arts felt more valuable than the faintly risen synchronization rate.

Eyes heated from feasting after a long time turn toward Wanstein.

He quietly watched the appearance trying to somehow crawl with a body burned pitch black and extend life.

Because Ruin was trampling his body.

“Wanstein.”

“I’ll curse you! I’ll curse you even in death!”

He didn’t beg to be spared.

Whether that poisonous appearance pleased him, Ruin smiled and whispered.

“Then, watch well. How I topple the tower you built with care.”

“You subject who’s just a heretic of the magic world buried in alchemy!”

“The world where that alchemy soars together with magic is not far off. Well, I never expected you’d understand that sublime intent.”

Ruin’s cane pierced Wanstein’s heart.

Wanstein expired with eyes wide open.

When he absorbed that brilliant spiritual power and mana, the synchronization rate rose 2 percent at once.

And while gathering even the obtained Time’s Magus Arts, he asked Ruin.

“Should we massacre all of the mage association?”

“That would also be a method. But I don’t want to become the same as Wanstein.”

“Then?”

“I want to settle the long-continued ill-fated relationship.”

“You’ll become association head?”

Ruin nodded.

“Alchemy and magic can’t oppose forever. If we must cut this vicious cycle, I think it’s only now. Please permit alchemy and magic to harmonize and advance proudly.”

“Grasping the association… It’s also something I’d welcome, but can you inherit Wanstein’s things as is?”

“I didn’t try to end all revenge just by killing Wanstein. Just as he tried to massacre alchemy, I’ll also completely erase all achievements and records he accomplished in the association, even those traces. So the name Wanstein won’t remain anywhere in the world!”

“If that’s your decision, I must certainly respect it.”

Pernok placed his hand on Wanstein’s soul.

Though he thought to extinguish it, Ruin wanted Wanstein to suffer eternally.

There’s one method.

If it’s the Netherworld’s absolute beings, they’ll understand this intent.

Squeak!

Only to Pernok was the sound of an engraving being carved on the soul heard.

This engraving’s meaning was a kind of punishment: ‘Don’t let him reincarnate until I ascend and grant him despair.’

Wanstein’s soul with the engraving carved soared to the Netherworld.