The AI Archmage - Chapter 68

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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AI Grand Mage Episode 68

“That rootless trash from the Blue Tower!”
“Hey, where do you even come from!”
The Red Tower students shrieked in unison, hurling insults at Tult.
But Tult remained unfazed.
More than unfazed, in fact.
“Ah, that bastard! He just flipped us the middle finger! Hey, hey?! He’s coming straight at us!”
He even thrust his middle finger at the Red Tower mages with brazen contempt.
In just a few minutes, Tult had become the most despicable wretch in the eyes of the Red Tower mages.
Regardless, the duel continued.
Hayden prepared his magic once more, while Tult stood opposite him, readying something of his own.
The atmosphere among the Red Tower mages was thoroughly sour, but the Blue Tower mages watched with eager, expectant eyes.
What on earth would Tult do?
With the joker card of physical magic already blocked, what spell could he possibly unleash?
And before everyone’s watchful gaze, the magic Tult used was.
“Magic Missile.”
“……Huh?”
Nothing special—perhaps the most contemptible of all existing magics, a 1st Circle spell.
……It was Magic Missile.

* * *

“……Magic Missile?”
Serentia, the Vice Tower Master watching the duel, asked worriedly.
“Lumia, will it be all right? No matter how I think about it, there’s no way he could win with such a Magic Missile…….”
“No, there isn’t.”
Lumia readily agreed with her.
Though she had been quite flustered moments ago, she had since composed herself.
Once she regained her calm, new things came into view before her eyes.
‘There’s a strange mana woven through Tult’s body.’
What could it possibly be?
After a moment’s thought, Lumia concluded that the strange mana felt oddly familiar.
Moreover, that mana moved in a thoroughly systematized manner.
Among everyone she knew, only one person possessed such precise mana control.
Lumia’s gaze drifted carefully toward Sion.
Sion moved as she always did, watching the duel unfold.
By her understanding, it was nearly impossible for someone to manipulate another person so freely while simultaneously moving so naturally with their own body.
But.
“Sister, Sion isn’t exactly someone bound by common sense, is she?”
“Sion and common sense?”
“I understand.”
Lumia quickly grasped that Serentia’s thoughts aligned with her own.
Indeed, she was hardly a woman of common sense.
Which meant.
“Perhaps the one fighting out there right now isn’t Tult at all—it might be Sion.”
“……What?”
Serentia looked at Lumia with confusion.
“The one fighting now is Tult, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is. But perhaps Sion’s soul is there alongside him.”
“Ah, are you saying shamanism?”
“Something like that, perhaps.”
“So right now Tult has Sion as an ancestral spirit accompanying him?”
“Beyond merely accompanying—I suspect they may have merged into one, though it hardly matters.”
“……?”
It was difficult for Serentia to grasp Lumia’s meaning precisely, but she nodded along nonetheless.
“So to your eyes, it looks like he actually has a chance of winning.”
“Exactly.”
“Then the Magic Missile Tult just manifested must also be…….”
“There’s a reason. There has to be.”
Lumia nodded and scrutinized Tult’s magic closely.
For the moment, nothing unusual registered to her eye.
Just a 1st Circle spell, after all….
“……Wait.”
Then her pupils trembled as she observed the magic.
Serentia spoke up.
“What is it? Did you see something?”
“Looking more closely, that magic…….”
Lumia’s expression turned incredulous.
“It’s the height of inefficiency.”
“Huh? What?”
Serentia’s eyes widened at words she hadn’t expected.
“What do you mean…….”
But before she could finish speaking—
In the duel arena, Tult’s and Hayden’s spells shot toward each other simultaneously.

* * *

“Magic Missile, really!”
Hayden let out a hollow laugh, mocking Tult’s inadequacy.
That brawl from before had clearly been a cheap trick to hide his own deficient magical prowess.
‘……I won’t let this end cleanly.’
He touched his cheek where Tult had struck him, his smile dripping with murderous intent.
Simple magic wouldn’t do.
He had to make the man pay for desecrating a sacred duel.
Hayden began chanting immediately.
He was a different caliber from the Red Tower mages he’d brought along.
Born with talent, born with bloodline.
From his earliest years, he had become the Archmage’s disciple and inherited his Secret Magic.
Yes, Secret Magic.
That—alongside his natural gifts—was the single most decisive advantage that set him apart from ordinary mages.
“Ring of Fire.”
Whoosh!
The moment the words left his lips, crimson mana kindled and blazed into being behind him.
In an instant, flames of mana enveloped his entire body.
The entire process unfolded without a single word of incantation.
“Oh, oh…….”
“Is that the Ring of Fire!”
The Red Tower mages gazed up at him with eyes full of longing.
Of course they did.
The Ring of Fire was Secret Magic of the Red Tower that only the Tower Master’s disciples could learn.
Its effect was simple.
When it came to Fire Magic, Hayden gained an advantage bordering on invincibility.
Shortened incantation time. Amplified power.
There was a time limit, and it applied only to fire spells, but even so, the Ring of Fire was worthy of the name Secret Magic.
The time limit was three minutes.
But for Hayden, it was enough.
He had already resolved to punish that Tult with the greatest magic he could muster.
“Fire Arrow.”
Five Fire Arrows materialized in an instant, trained toward Tult.
Without hesitation, Hayden released them.
Shriek!
Five Fire Arrows shot toward Tult in a heartbeat.
But that wasn’t enough.
Hayden prepared yet more Fire Arrows in mid-air.
And that still wasn’t sufficient—he gathered mana to form Fire Lances, a 4th Circle flame spell, as well.
“Hgh.”
As vast quantities of magic materialized, immense mana drained from him.
At that moment.
Boom-boom-boom!
The Fire Arrow shot earlier detonated.
‘As expected.’
The spell must have struck true.
Hayden detected no sign of Tult preparing another spell.
All that was ready was a single Magic Missile.
Could a mere 1st Circle spell really stop his fire magic?
‘Impossible!’
Confident in his victory, Hayden glanced at Lumia.
“Lumia, you see it too, don’t you? I’ve won. So this duel belongs to the Main Tower…….”
“Says who?”
“What?”
Hayden was still processing her words when it happened.
Screech!
A blue sphere suddenly burst from the explosion and rocketed toward Hayden.
“Huh?”
Crash!
“Ugh—wait, what—?!”
Before Hayden could even think to defend, the sphere struck him square and sent him tumbling across the ground.
‘What was that?!’
The Ring of Fire absorbed the impact in his stead, sparing him serious injury, but he couldn’t make sense of what had just happened.
Could that have been… a Magic Missile?
“That’s impossible!”
Hayden lifted his head sharply, his eyes snapping forward.
Through the settling dust, Tult stood without a care in the world.
“How did—how could you——.”
Hayden stared at him, shock painted across his face.
Tult met his gaze calmly, then let out a bitter laugh.
“You… that thing…….”
“What?”
“Ah, I see. He must have stolen it. There’s no way he wouldn’t have.”
Tult muttered these cryptic words, running his hand through his hair in agitation.
Then he fixed Hayden with a distinctly displeased glare.
“I’ve changed my mind.”
“……What?”
“You need a lesson.”
Still speaking in riddles.
And naturally, Hayden found this infuriating.
“Who do you think you’re talking to!”
“.”
This time Tult summoned the same 1st Circle spell again.
On the surface, nothing about it seemed remarkable.
But then he added one more thing.
“.”
In that instant, Magic Missiles erupted from Tult in a volley.
Still nothing but simple Mana spheres, for all appearances.
Hayden scoffed at them.
“Ha, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but in the end they’re still just 1st Circle——.”
“.”
Before Hayden could even finish, a Magic Missile flashed past the edge of his vision at incredible speed.
Screech!
“……?!”
Hayden barely had time to react.
His eyes widened.
The Magic Missile he knew didn’t move like this.
This was… different somehow.
Instinct took over. He unleashed the Fire Arrow he’d had ready.
Screech!
But the Fire Arrow he released vanished without a trace before it could even reach Tult.
It took Hayden only moments to understand why.
‘Surely he didn’t just dispel my magic head-on with a Magic Missile?’
Impossible.
And yet the vanishing of his magic left no other explanation.
Hayden felt a nameless dread creeping over him.
Tult regarded him quietly, then began preparing his next spell.
Hayden couldn’t fathom why his magic was being broken by mere 1st Circle spells.
Teeth gritted, he unleashed a 4th Circle Fire Lance.
“Even this much, surely he can’t—”
Boom!
But before the words left his mouth, the Fire Lance detonated in mid-air, never reaching Tult.
“What…?”
“Run through your arsenal already?”
Tult tilted his head slightly.
Hayden stared, dazed, and shook his head.
“No, I don’t… how is this…?”
“Looks like you have.”
Hayden found himself with no response.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t cast 5th Circle magic.
But even with the Ring of Fire at his disposal, manifesting a 5th Circle spell instantaneously was nearly impossible.
‘Am I really going to lose?’
Hayden’s eyes went wide as he glanced around the arena.
The Red Tower mages were staring at him with shock written across their faces.
Everything hung in the balance of this duel.
If he lost, he would have to perjure himself before the Council, and then compound that lie with endless others to keep it buried.
And that wasn’t all.
Thanks to the condition Sion had added, he would lose the Fire Dragon Pendant—one of the Red Tower’s most precious symbols.
All of it was bound by a mana oath; there was no changing that.
“This can’t be happening…!”
Not like this—not at the hands of some mere 4th Circle mage.
But in that instant, Hayden’s eyes snapped open as his vision filled with Magic Missiles.
Tult’s voice had turned cold and brittle.
“I told you. I think you need to take a hit.”
“No, why are you suddenly—”
“That’s just how it is.”
And with those words, Tult brought his hand down.
The Magic Missiles that had filled the arena descended like a meteor shower.
“Ahhhhhhh!”
With Tult’s scream of agony echoing through the Duel Arena, the match ended in victory for the Blue Tower.

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