The Archmage’s Destruction Strategy - Chapter 6

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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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#006. Paradox

“What, a summoning? Tsk tsk… I’d heard about it, but never thought I’d actually get to do it.”

“What’s this? This batch seems to be a very cute little girl. She looks young, what a pity.”

“Disciple Iason greets the Sages!”

“Stand down, descendant. You should know the rules well enough.”

The ‘uninterpretable’ spell that Minastrias cast by summoning her staff didn’t create meteors falling from the sky or magic cannons powerful enough to twist space, but instead created 20 small dimensional gates the size of a person.

And what emerged from within were 20 elderly figures holding staffs identical in shape to the one she carried.

[Who are those people exactly…?]

[They are the Sages. My teacher’s teacher, and that teacher’s teacher… They are the most powerful mages who represented each era in the world I lived in, and the ones who created most of the magical theories you’ve learned.]

Sung-jun could understand why he hadn’t been able to read the magical formula of the spell his teacher had cast.

For the magic his teacher had just explained to work, it required going beyond logic and laws to literally shatter the rules of the world—a ‘paradox’ itself.

[Because it’s a spell that ignores laws, it couldn’t be interpreted through logic.]

[As expected of my beloved disciple, you understand quickly.]

[If I’m your beloved disciple, why didn’t you teach me that spell?]

[Well, try to figure out that reason yourself. I’m sure you can do it.]

Though his teacher spoke gently like a teacher giving homework to a child, Sung-jun couldn’t bring himself to answer.

Even without hearing the answer, he could guess the reason well enough.

The price required to shake the very laws of the world.

Since magic itself is fundamentally a kind of loophole for adjusting the world’s laws, every spell must pay an appropriate price.

The cost needed to trigger phenomena that could never normally occur in the desired form.

For ordinary spells, paying mana as a medium is sufficient, but some spells sometimes demand a price beyond that.

The blood of living sacrifices, parts of the caster’s body.

And sometimes even life itself.

And as far as Sung-jun knew, there was only one thing that could be paid as the price for a spell capable of distorting the world’s laws to such an extreme degree.

[No… you can’t.]

[Sung-jun?]

“I know what you’re thinking! I know what you’re trying to do! But you can’t! Please don’t do this!”

Before he knew it, Sung-jun had become a madman screaming alone on the building rooftop.

Because he felt like he couldn’t bear it without pouring out his emotions through his voice.

However, even after hearing Sung-jun’s consciousness filled with intense emotion, his teacher spoke in a calm voice.

[It can’t be helped.]

“Teacher!”

[From the beginning, my coming from the world I lived in to the Earth where you live was itself magic that twisted the laws. Something that should never have happened. My colleagues and I, no. Former colleagues would be the right expression now.]

This was a fact his teacher had never told him once despite sharing countless stories until now.

That their visit to Earth was temporary.

And that once the erosion began in earnest, they would be forcibly summoned back to their original world.

[The reason I can remain on this planet now is because I’m forcibly bypassing the summoning spell by burning the circles in my body as the price. And there isn’t much time left for that either.]

For a mage to offer the circles carved in their body as sacrifice.

That was tantamount to giving up everything they had built over decades or centuries.

“Then just go back! I’ll handle things here somehow! Please return to your original world!”

[But you wouldn’t be there, would you?]

The monster that saw the 20 archmages suddenly appear let out a shriek and charged at Minastrias, but before the monster’s attack could reach her body, another mage blocked the monster’s attack.

There was a left arm the size of a building that gleamed like metal, attached in a form that didn’t suit the shabby old man’s body at all.

“I originally planned to deflect it, but it seems I made a mistake since it’s been a while since I used this spell.”

The monster tried to wrap around the old man’s arm with its snake-like long body before the old man finished speaking, but a suddenly appearing wall of flames burned the monster’s skin black.

“That doesn’t seem like something the 12th Patriarch, called the founder of body enhancement magic, should say.”

“Seeing unfamiliar magic, you seem like a later successor. Could you introduce yourself?”

“I am Harion, the 16th successor. During my active period, I was known by the name Yeom Je.”

“The Emperor of Flames. For something like that, it looks like simple fire-based magic.”

“It may appear that way on the surface.”

The old man pointed to the monster touched by the flames.

There was the snake-shaped monster that had tried to bite off and regenerate the entire body part that caught fire, just as it had responded to the petrification magic Minastrias used earlier.

“Ho… flames that attach to the soul rather than the body… Indeed. I understand why you were called Yeom Je.”

Surprisingly, the monster’s body did not regenerate.

No, it did regenerate, but it would be more accurate to say the regenerated parts burned endlessly.

No matter how many times it bit off and regenerated its body, the flames attached by the old man who called himself Yeom Je wouldn’t go out and continued to burn the monster’s body endlessly.

“Krwaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

Finally giving up on regeneration, the monster let out a roar filled with rage and charged toward the old men, and soon a fierce battle began between 20 archmages who had dominated an era and a giant monster of incomprehensible size.

And Minastrias still maintained her youthful appearance, but she had stepped back tiredly, looking much older than at first.

[At first, I despaired seeing a world where I couldn’t even use magic. There was a time when I gave myself false comfort, watching the mana in my body gradually decrease, telling myself it was just a temporary phenomenon.]

[Seeing myself become an ordinary grandmother who couldn’t use even the most basic magic no matter how hard I tried, I thought more than once about giving up everything and going into hiding.]

[And then I met you.]

[Your appearance, taking down my every word with sparkling eyes as if seeing me learn magic for the first time, reminded me of memories from my homeland where I taught magic to apprentices.]

As if leaving final words to her disciple, his teacher was conveying her thoughts to Sung-jun with consciousness filled with affection beyond what a disciple could dare imagine.

And Sung-jun, in the flood-like wave of emotions and memories, could approach the truth of the ‘erosion’ his teacher had spoken of.

[Are you saying Earth was just a sacrifice from the beginning?]

[That’s right. The secret lies in why erosion entities that had never once appeared on Earth began appearing only after the Pioneers emerged, and why the erosion entities became stronger as the Awakened grew stronger.]

At the moment when over 90% of the world had been taken by monsters and accepting death seemed like the only future, seven heroes who defended the world until the very end.

To them, the strongest warriors of the other world and the final bastion who prepared for their last battle ready to die, the final blow given was not painful death but sweet hope.

‘Go to another world. And raise superhumans like yourselves there.’

‘The stronger the superhumans you raise become, the stronger the connection between the two worlds will be.’

‘The moment the two worlds are completely connected, we will send you back to your original world.’

‘If you do that, we will give your few remaining kinsmen a chance to live.’

It was truly a massive fraud against humanity, the dominant species of the planet Earth.

The stronger the erosion entities that appeared because of them became, the more they could accelerate the growth of superhumans, saying it was because the time was approaching.

However, what was more shocking to me than this all being a planned fraud was that my most trusted teacher in the world was also part of that massive fraud.

[So that’s what it was?]

[That’s what it was. I’m sorry for hiding it until the end.]

It should have been a situation to be angry about, but Sung-jun couldn’t feel rage.

Because along with the shocking truth, his teacher’s true feelings were also conveyed through the flowing memories.

In those memories were his teacher’s memories of trying somehow to stop the situation.

-Calostro! This won’t do. Please try to find a way with me!

-Nehillie! If you’re called a saint, you’d understand my feelings, right? I trust you wouldn’t want to subject over 7 billion humans to the same fate as our kinsmen!

-Drenex! My friend who used to explode like fire when seeing injustice. Please try to resolve this situation with me!

However, the six Pioneers who came to Earth with his teacher only responded coldly to such desperate pleas.

-Aren’t you showing weakness because you suddenly can’t use magic?

-What you’re trying to do is betraying our kinsmen.

-Humans? Every human I’ve seen was lowly trash that only pursued their own advancement. Even their faith was nothing more than a means for their own glory, not praise toward god.

Unfortunately, the Pioneers who came to Earth had ‘restrictions’ that prevented them from conveying the truth to the life forms of this planet by any means, so there was nothing his teacher, who could no longer use magic, could do.

[…I’m sorry. If only I could use magic, I would have found some way to tell you the truth beforehand…]

[No. It’s enough that I learned the truth even at the last moment. Whether your change of heart was because of one person like me or guilt toward all humanity, at least I learned that you’ve been living with unspeakable pain alone.]

Sung-jun sent his honest current emotions toward where his teacher was, as if in reply.

[I’m sorry for making you worry alone without being able to speak.]

And at that moment, tremendous emotion that made his eyes sting without knowing it colored his consciousness.

[Don’t cry.]

[You… you’re truly a good disciple… Even in this situation, you think of the pain I received first…]

[Teacher…?]

Sung-jun couldn’t help but be flustered.

The wave of emotion that had been gripping his heart until just moments ago disappeared like a lie, and only thick breathlessness filled with resolve captured Sung-jun’s consciousness.

From a distance so far he could barely confirm with his eyes, he was sharing his teacher’s emotions as if she were right beside him.

[Yes… You are a good disciple. Far too good for someone like me who has done nothing but lie until now. And if I am to be a true teacher, I can never show such a disgraceful sight to such a disciple.]

Minastrias straightened her back, her robes fluttering in the wind.

And at that moment, the powerful binding spell she cast seized Sung-jun’s entire body.

“Teacher!!!!”

[Do not move. And watch from there. See that the words of your boastful teacher, who always bragged about being the greatest in the universe, were never lies.]

Minastrias.

The greatest mage of the other world and the legendary genius called the strongest mage in history looked toward where the monster was with an expression of fury.

There, the invader that grew stronger with each attack and had begun to overwhelm the twenty archmages was writhing its entire body, mercilessly destroying the sanctuary where she and her disciple had lived.

“Silermantis, devourer of rivers, listen well. I, the 21st Master of the Ivory Tower and the strongest archmage of Palantia, hereby break our contract! To protect the planet called Earth where my beloved disciple lives! From now on, I shall eliminate you with all my power! And finally!!!”

Light like the sun burst forth from her entire body as she shouted at the monster with the appearance of a mythical being.

“I shall pay the penalty with my life!”

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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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