First of All, I’m Drinking - Chapter 29

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 29

Shwaaaaak-!

In an instant, darkness spread around us.

Darkness rushed between the trees of Gerpelt Forest.

In a moment, it occupied the surroundings in pitch black.

It felt like being cast away from the world, thrown into a space of nothing but darkness.

Lipton, who noticed the strangeness, also paused his attack and retreated far from me.

“This is…”

Lipton looked around, turning his head.

“The scenery has disappeared.”

He was right.

Just a few seconds ago, the battlefield had been a forest densely packed with trees.

But now in this dark space, nothing existed.

Lipton and me.

Except for the two who were the subjects of battle.

“This kind of ability. It’s rare, but I’ve seen those who use it before.”

A look of tension appeared on Lipton’s face, which had been full of confidence.

“Prince, were you also a Battle Field awakener?”

In the Intermediate Realm, there are rarely those born with something called ‘unique abilities.’

A third power different from magic and aura.

A one-of-a-kind ability that only the user themselves can handle.

And Battle Field was a special ability that appeared extremely rarely even among unique ability users.

It was a technique that transformed an area into a battlefield favorable to oneself.

“Battle Field. Does it look like that?”

I casually asked Lipton.

Lipton carefully examined the surroundings and soon shook his head.

“No, it’s different. I’ve fought against an ability user who handled Battle Field before. The feeling from his space is subtly different from this.”

A space of nothing but darkness.

I let out a smirk while facing Lipton.

‘I wondered if it would work.’

I can’t believe it actually did.

Though it was precarious deploying it with only 3-star magic, what mattered was that it worked.

Now that this ability was deployed, the match was already as good as decided.

“Curious? About what the identity of this power is.”

“…”

“If you beat me, I’ll tell you.”

The exact same line Lipton had said earlier.

Lipton ground his teeth, realizing my words were a provocation.

“…Right. I certainly told you to reveal everything you’re hiding, and you’ve just done that. Nothing changes.”

Lipton took a battle stance again.

The hundreds of thorns embedded in his body fiercely displayed their presence even in the darkness.

“Until one of us dies, this fight won’t end!”

Lipton charged at me again.

Making such resolve and momentum seem pointless.

Thud!

Suddenly, Lipton’s charge stopped.

As if hitting an invisible wall, it was cut off instantly.

That wasn’t all.

“My, my body…”

Lipton’s entire body trembled, but he was just held still in midair as if time had stopped.

Even in his confusion, he did his best and launched blade attacks.

The blades shot from long range had certainly been threatening attacks until just now.

Thud.

As if blocked by an invisible wall, they couldn’t advance further and stopped in midair.

Only then, as if grasping the situation, cold sweat began to form on Lipton’s forehead.

“What… how did you do this.”

He did his best to twist his body this way and that in the air while shouting at me.

“I asked what you did! Prince Cael!”

“Kuk.”

I found that sight so amusing I held my stomach and cackled.

“You’re just like a cornered dog. Did you think I’d be scared if you barked with such a loud voice?”

“Shut up! Someone like you… in one strike!”

Lipton summoned his demonic power with desperate will.

The demonic power gathered in the form of blades and showed signs of rushing toward me.

A similar situation to the first exchange at the Empress’s Palace.

But the location was wrong.

Swish.

With one wave of my hand, the cloud of demonic power scattered without a trace.

As if it had never been there from the beginning.

“…!”

Lipton’s complexion became bewildered.

Even in this situation, he did his best to think of the next move and struggled desperately to resist somehow.

None of those moves worked on me.

As if the irresistible will of a deity was stripping away his freedom.

“What is…”

The magic consumed in restraining Lipton was gradually decreasing.

He was losing his will to resist.

“I’ve never heard or seen such power. What on earth… what.”

Lipton seemed shocked that all his actions were thoroughly blocked.

A bastard who would die soon anyway.

I obediently told him the secret.

“In this space, I become a deity.”

Mugan.

The name of the space made of darkness.

The darkness that formed Mugan was all my magic.

However, not ordinary magic, but specially refined strange magic.

“This space built using special magic is like implementing my mental image. As long as magic permits, everything I desire becomes reality.”

Literally a deity’s miracle.

However, it’s not a technique that can be used carelessly at any time.

The special magic needed to cast Mugan takes an extremely long time to refine.

In other words, it means the cooldown time is long.

Moreover, since the amount of magic I can use now is also meager, I don’t know how long it will take until I can use Mugan again next time.

‘Once deployed, there’s no ability quite like this though.’

Actually, when I met my end in the Demon Realm.

Vergil and the other Demon Lords had attacked taking advantage of the gap when I couldn’t use Mugan.

If I had been in perfect condition, I could have taken a few of them as companions on the journey.

What a pity.

“Such… that’s impossible…”

Lipton, who had somehow regained his senses and began burning his will to resist again.

It was time to show the struggling bastard reality.

Crack crack crack-!

“Kraaaaaaah!”

The spear of demonic energy pierced through the bastard’s limbs.

Then blades made of Mugan’s demonic energy began slicing away Lipton’s flesh.

Strand by strand, carefully and slowly.

Lipton thrashed and screamed in agony as his skin was peeled away while still alive.

“Kraaaaaaah! Hi, hiiiiiiiuuuuaaaah!!”

After the skin came the muscle.

Then the bone.

The demonic blades stripped away the membranes that made up Lipton bit by bit, like filleting fish.

Eventually, when even the bones became thin as thread and there was nothing left to strip away, they tore his limbs completely from his torso.

“Gurgle, gurrrgle.”

Lipton no longer had the strength to scream, foaming at the mouth while only his eyes trembled.

‘I’m reaching my limit too.’

While Mugan has a high cost, it usually has almost no recoil after use.

But perhaps because this was my first casting since reincarnation, I could feel the strain on my body growing.

Judging that continuing would be too much.

I immediately released Mugan.

As the darkness scattered, the fresh scent of Gerpelt Forest welcomed us again.

“Uh, uhhh, uahhhhh.”

Lipton’s limbs, which were spouting alien gibberish, had already vanished, leaving only his face and torso.

The grass field was soaked with Lipton’s blood.

Resisting was impossible.

Crawling away to escape was impossible.

“Now, I won.”

The bastard had clearly said it.

That if I defeated him, he would tell me the reason.

“Now it’s time to keep your promise. Tell me. What was your reason for trying to kill me?”

“…”

There were mountains of other things I wanted to ask as well.

Bishop Caluto didn’t know, but Cardinal Lipton might.

The method to cross the dimensional barrier and enter the Demon Realm.

That was supposedly the long-cherished wish of the Baal Sect he belonged to.

“If you don’t want to suffer more.”

I glared fiercely and pressured Lipton.

Did the threat work?

From Lipton’s mouth, which had only been spouting screams, human language finally began to flow.

“…Da, Jesus, Uli, Maidra, Kan, Pobius…”

Of course, the content was still difficult to understand.

“What are you saying, you fucking bastard.”

I tapped Lipton’s head with my finger.

“Want your body filleted too? What spell are you chanting? It won’t work anyway, so just answer what I’m asking…”

That was the moment.

Suddenly something fast and sharp grazed my ear and flew toward the back.

Thunk.

The sound of flesh being pierced split the night sky.

Soon after, another smell of blood different from Lipton’s began to waft up.

“…”

The reason I couldn’t respond was.

Because I was exhausted.

The battles up until now and the forced deployment of my authority had already worn my stamina down to nothing.

Thinking it was all over, I had momentarily let my guard down.

If it had been an attack aimed at me, I would have at least reflexively blocked it.

Lipton’s final desperate attack wasn’t aimed at me.

The target was behind me.

‘No way…’

I slowly turned my head back.

The moment my vision turned felt as long as eternity.

“Kehehehe…”

Lipton’s bloody sneer struck my ears.

“Did you think… I would tell you that… you fucking idiot.”

With those words as his last, Lipton breathed his final breath.

It was the moment when our long, long grudge was finally settled.

But I couldn’t fully savor that joy.

Because Lipton wasn’t the only one who met their end in this space.

“Mother?”

Ellia was.

Bleeding from her head.

With a thin blade made of demonic power piercing through her forehead.

She lay collapsed on the ground without moving.

“Mother!”

I kicked off the ground and ran toward Ellia.

I carefully embraced her as if handling the most precious jewel in the world.

Maybe she was still alive.

Maybe it could be reversed.

Such shallow hopes were shattered the moment I checked her condition.

“…”

It was instant death.

The heart might have been different.

But the brain, which governs all human conscious activity, had been pierced by the blade.

Even if the most skilled priest came, resurrection would be impossible.

“…Ha.”

There was no chance for a final farewell.

There was no chance to hear her last words.

The bitter curses she had poured out at me before entering battle.

Those were the last words Ellia left me.

Drip, drop.

Whoooosh-

Just then, rain began falling from the sky.

The raindrops pouring from the night sky as if holes had been punched in the darkness gradually washed away the blood pooled in the grass field.

As if death wasn’t anything particularly special in this world.

I stood there blankly, quietly looking down at Ellia’s corpse.

“…”

Right.

Death had always been with me since the Demon Realm.

It didn’t matter.

Just another life had crumbled as usual.

Like always.

Trickle.

Something flowed down my cheek.

Rain?

Or tears?

I can barely remember the last time I cried.

But judging by how warm this sensation feels against my skin.

It probably wasn’t rain.

How long had I been standing there like that?

Whooooom—

I felt the flow of mana nearby.

A red magic circle was rising between the trees.

Soon after, a group of humans emerged from the magic circle.

Knights wearing armor emblazoned with the Imperial House’s crest.

In the center stood a middle-aged man with red hair and eyes that gleamed even under the night sky.

An attractive baritone voice flowed from his lips.

“So you were here. No, you are here.”

Gregory van Ifrit.

The world’s only 9th Circle Grand Mage.

I slowly turned toward him through the rain.

The Grand Duke’s gaze fell upon Lipton’s corpse, crushed beyond recognition.

And then upon Ellia’s corpse, blood flowing from her head.

“What are you doing?”

The Grand Duke looked at me with cold eyes and commanded.

“Escort the criminal Cael to the Imperial Capital.”

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