A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special - Chapter 1

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 1. Prologue

Prologue

Dezir Armang stood amid the ruins of the city.
Freinopl, said to be the most beautiful city throughout the 3rd Age, was already so devastated that its form was beyond recognition.
He exhaled a long breath and cast his gaze toward the colossal shape before him.

Boromier Neapolitan—a Meteor-class Destruction Dragon.

Immense magical flames blazed like a second sun. The dragon Boromier Neapolitan glared down at the hundred humans standing before him as though he would devour them whole.
“Dare you insects block my path?”
His voice was unfathomably deep, crushing all who heard it beneath its weight.
Yet not a single person showed fear.
“It ends here, Neapolitan.”
Dezir spoke the words.
This place was called the Shadow Labyrinth—the very end of hell.
It was the final magical hell that the Shadow World had unleashed upon mankind.
Dezir had watched countless comrades fall, had witnessed the death of those he loved.
Friends who had shared his school years, juniors who had looked up to him with particular affection.
He had not been close with all of them, yet they were those with whom he’d shared some bond.
The battlefield had claimed every one of their lives.
Night after night, armies of shadows poured forth. With each passing day, countless more fell.
Those gathered here had survived by calling out the names of the dead, persisting through it all.
When ten years had finally passed since the Shadow Labyrinth began, only a hundred souls remained who had reached this final hour—Dezir among them.
“We will slay you and end this cursed hell at last!”
The survivors kindled their will to fight.
The dragon Boromier Neapolitan opened the battle with a Fire Breath that had brought an entire civilization to ruin.
It was a battle that would echo through legend.
Dragon Magic poured forth, and the survivors met it with desperate, savage struggle.
The radiant city crumbled into dust. The earth was torn asunder, the sky split open.
Their greatest defensive magics shattered, treasures once thought irreplaceable were obliterated.
Even those who had crossed through thousands of deadly trials began to bend one by one before such overwhelming strength. As hours of combat dragged on, the tide turned against the survivors.
Yet none of them yielded.
Their will alone held them upright.
There was nowhere to retreat. If they could not fell the dragon before them, the world would face annihilation.
They staked everything and fought the final enemy to the bitter end. Duty ignited their will, and will summoned miracles.
“…First spell, Absolute Zero Magic pattern analysis complete. Commencing reverse calculation via the Ilone System. Magic seal will be complete in eight minutes!”
“Destruction of the spinal exoskeleton complete! Concentrate all attacks on this point!”
“Wretched insects that you are!”
Crash!
A violent explosion roared through the air, and the dragon’s supreme magics erupted in all directions.
A tidal wave of magical power crashed down. Yet its force was far weaker than before.
The impregnable dragon was being breached, little by little.
“Thirteenth Dragon Magic pattern analysis complete. Seal of Geomagnetic Sun Manifestation has been successfully established!”
“Breath attack from the front! Mages, disperse the impact as much as possible. Forward units, fall back to blind spots or evade to the flanks!”
Crack!
At last, a complete countermeasure system had been established against each of the dragon’s attack methods, and tens of thousands of patterns in Dragon Magic had been analyzed.
The dragon’s formidable spells were being reversed one by one, and the mages erected defensive formulae accordingly. Gradually, the dragon began to weaken.
“That I, I should fall to mere insects!”
“Final spell pattern analysis complete! All Dragon Magic has been sealed!”
“Forward assault units, sever the dragon’s breath!”
“This cannot be!”
Thud.
At last, even the final spell was sealed in human hands, and humanity’s victory loomed at hand.
The colossal destruction dragon finally collapsed in the dirt, broken and still.
That was the end of everything.
Or so they believed.

* * *

The survivors drew breath at the mere fact of their existence.
In the end, only six had made it through alive.
They stood gazing down at the corpse of the dragon before them.
Memories of years past swept across their vision like a phantom.
Days when death had walked closer than life. During those ten years, watching comrades fall one by one, they had crossed thousands of thresholds between survival and oblivion—and somehow, they had endured.
“At last we can escape this forsaken hell……!”
The survivors who had lived to the bitter end felt the tension drain from their bodies, and they sank to the ground where they stood.
Raphelo, the Paladin of Light who had led them all, spoke then.
“You have borne much, all of you. We have succeeded in saving the world.”
A man bedecked entirely in golden jewelry spoke with puzzlement in his voice.
“But why hasn’t the Clear Message appeared? Wasn’t the Clear condition to defeat the dragon?”
He was Doneif Aslan, king of Esteban, a tribal nation nestled in the northern reaches.
Raphelo seemed to recognize the problem only then.
“Ah, quite right. Normally upon clearing the objective, one returns to the original world at once. Yet the Shadow Labyrinth itself operates under laws foreign to the ordinary Shadow World—it follows no standard rules. I confess I cannot explain it readily. Let us wait a moment longer and see what transpires.”
It was then that a voice, shadowed in tone, emerged from beside him.
“Six survivors out of fifty million. A survival rate of approximately 0.000012 percent. An absurd figure indeed.”
The man wore his hood pulled low, cradled a Staff in his hands—it was Jord, the great Sage.
To his words, Priscilla, the spotless Saint, responded with irritation.
“I would prefer you keep such grim observations to yourself. Speaking of them won’t bring the dead back to life.”
“There is always need for accounting at the end of things. And when catastrophe claims ninety-nine percent of the continent’s mages, the need is all the greater.”
And Dezir Armang, the Mage who had been observing the exchange between sage and saint, brought it to a close.
“Either way, we have saved the world. That is what matters.”
And so the survivors lingered in the aftermath of battle, drawing comfort in conversation.
The only one among them who had spoken not a single word was Azest, the Sword Mage.
She sat apart from the others, listening in silence to the words passing between them.
“Without you, Raphelo, it would have been far more difficult.”
At Priscilla’s words, Raphelo waved his hand in denial.
“No, I merely protected you all as was necessary. As a Paladin, I only did what was expected. Dezir deserves far greater credit than I.”
Dezir, who had been staring at the ground, lifted his gaze. As his eyes met Raphelo’s, the Paladin smiled warmly.
“Without Dezir, clearing this would have been impossible.”
Doneif echoed Raphelo’s words. Dezir had saved his life twice over.
“To be honest, I thought I was dead a long time ago.”
Jord, who had been radiating gloom, turned his gaze toward Dezir.
“Even with the Artifact’s aid, for a 3rd Circle mage to analyze and seal the pattern of Dragon Magic itself—that defies comprehension. Your computational ability is nothing short of miraculous. I myself, a 7th Circle mage, have never possessed such staggering power. I’ve never even heard of it. How is it you possess such talent and yet remain only 3rd Circle?”
All eyes fixed upon him.
Dezir spoke in an even tone.
“I am a commoner, so I never received proper education. My academy discriminated in its teaching based on station. Had I been trained more thoroughly and reached a higher stage, I could have saved many more lives. That is my regret.”
“…… That is indeed unfortunate. Had someone like you been in the Magic Tower, we would have spared no resources to aid you.”
“Come, let us leave such dreary talk of the past behind.
At Raphelo’s words, Dezir turned to look at him.
The Paladin shaded his eyes with one hand, surveying the survivors gathered around.
“We are the heroes who saved the world, are we not? When we return, surely countless people will welcome us with open arms. So I ask this: what are your plans for the life that lies ahead?”
Doneif, seated on the opposite side, spoke first.
“I must find the families of my fallen companions and return what remains to them. And I will honor their memory eternally.”
The hundreds of pieces of jewelry adorning his body each bore a different set of initials.
All of them belonged to comrades now dead.
“I will return to the Western Kingdom Alliance. There I will comfort the families of the fallen soldiers and provide for their livelihoods. And if we raise a memorial tower or temple for all who sacrificed themselves in this place, I know the dead would find peace in that.”
While Dezir fell into thought, Priscilla spoke. And then Jord continued where she left off.
“I will simply resume my research as before. Though I will change my focus—henceforth I dedicate myself to studying the Shadow World. Should another Shadow Labyrinth of this scale manifest again, the world would truly be lost. We have no soldiers left, no resources, no time. I will pour my efforts into preventing the resurgence of the Shadow Labyrinth.”
As Jord finished, Raphelo turned his gaze toward Azest, who had not spoken a word the entire time.
“What of you, Azest? What will you do?”
……
Silence.
Azest did not open her mouth. Her expression remained blank as she met Raphelo’s eyes for a moment, then turned her gaze away.
Raphelo offered a strained smile and turned to address Dezir.
“What about you, Dezir? Wherever you went, you’d be welcomed. You could join the Western Kingdom Alliance, or perhaps the Magic Tower under Jord’s leadership—that would surely work out fine. Or would you prefer to return to the Hebrion Empire?”
“I…”
It was the very moment Dezir opened his mouth to speak.
Beep-beep-beep.
A spine-chilling alert echoed across the entire space.
The survivors felt an enormous flux of Mana flowing through the air. An ominous presence began to swirl all around them. The survivors’ elated mood evaporated in an instant.
“There’s still something left?”
“Wait, hold on! Wasn’t this Shadow World supposed to be over? The objective of this Shadow World was to defeat the dragon, wasn’t it?”
“There’s no way we didn’t finish it properly! I clearly confirmed that it stopped breathing!”
Voices of disbelief mingled together all at once.
While everyone spiraled into confusion, Jord’s voice rang out softly.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————