The Archmage’s Destruction Strategy - Chapter 7

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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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007. From Teacher to Disciple

A member of the ‘Seven Calamities’ that once pushed Teacher’s home planet to the brink of destruction in the past.

The colossal serpentine monster Silermantis was a creature with abilities that no mage would ever want to fight against.

The ability to absorb and adapt to any attack directed at its body.

And tremendous regenerative power that could restore its shattered body hundreds of times until that adaptation process was complete.

Therefore, an archmage who had been defeated in battle against Silermantis in the past left behind the only method to deal with this terrible monster for descendants who might have to fight it in the future.

‘Do not use the same type of spell twice, and continuously attack with new spells.’

The problem was that this was a strategy only theoretically possible.

To begin with, dealing effective damage to a monster of that size required at least 8th Circle or higher supreme spells, and even 7th Circle mages who couldn’t break through the 8th Circle barrier were commonly called ‘Archmages.’

Magic so difficult that only a very few geniuses with exceptional magical talent could master perhaps one such spell after a lifetime of training.

That was the difficulty level of 8th Circle magic, so having one person cast hundreds or thousands of such spells was nearly impossible.

At least, that was true using conventional methods.

‘Yes, it’s impossible by conventional means. Originally, mages are beings with near-zero social skills who would rather burn down their entire magical workshop than share their research with others.’

While casting another 8th Circle spell, Minastrias recalled what she had learned from Teacher.

What decision her ancestors had made to prevent the world’s destruction and hunt the heinous monster that could be called the greatest nemesis of mages.

‘A mage who hadn’t left the 290th floor of the Ivory Tower even once in over 70 years since reaching it at age 20 came out of his magical workshop and began teaching disciples. Masters of black magic, previously called evil magic and designated as elimination target number one upon discovery, began researching new spells alongside the very mages who had hunted them.’

The ultimate goal of all those efforts was to nurture a ‘Super Mage’ capable of using over 1,000 spells of 8th Circle-level power.

Beyond the four major elements of earth, water, fire, and wind, there was black magic, white magic, illusion magic, arcane magic, dimensional magic, blood magic, necromancy, alchemy, transmutation, spirit summoning, creature summoning, and even elemental magic.

Consolidating all existing magic and teaching it entirely to one genius blessed with heaven-sent talent.

All the mages of ‘Palantia,’ the world where Minastrias lived, willingly shared their research for this common goal, and eventually they achieved their objective.

The Demon King.

A being no different from a living forbidden tome, freely wielding all types of magic across more than 20 schools.

Minastrias, one of the seven Pioneers who came to Earth and who called herself the greatest archmage in the universe, was the 21st successor to inherit that title of Demon King.

However, to Minastrias, who was the 21st Demon King successor, her teacher who was the 20th successor delivered a shocking truth.

-Silermantis cannot be defeated with current methods.

She was greatly shocked by this fact, too hard to believe coming from her teacher who was the strongest mage in history, capable of freely casting over 400 supreme spells.

But her teacher explained why he had reached such a conclusion, so she could understand despite her shock.

That the opponent could not be defeated through mere ‘learning.’

Even if one cast magic created with the utmost effort by one or dozens of mages, if the opponent couldn’t be defeated in one blow, it would quickly recover and gain resistance to that magic.

Ultimately, even using 1,000 spells, if the opponent couldn’t be eliminated in one strike, it would simply revive with resistance to those 1,000 spells—this was the ‘reason why Silermantis cannot be defeated with magic’ that her teacher explained to her.

-If magic is impossible, then what method could possibly defeat that thing?

-Who knows. I once had this thought. If a mad genius appeared who could endlessly create 8th Circle or higher magic in real-time, it might be possible. But that too would only be theoretically possible.

After hearing her teacher’s words, she dedicated her entire life to traveling the world searching for a disciple with the ‘genius talent’ her teacher had mentioned.

From the Ela Tribe, said to possess the greatest magical aptitude among all races, to the Toin Tribe, who ironically could never learn magic due to being born with magical resistance.

But even after dedicating her entire life to the effort, the disciple with ‘genius talent’ that Teacher had mentioned never appeared.

Not until she arrived on this planet called Earth, where the mana concentration was so thin that even an archmage like her was reduced to an ordinary grandmother, a planet that seemed abandoned by magic itself.

-Teacher, about that random teleport spell you taught me—if we modify this part here, couldn’t we directly specify the desired coordinate system? Rather than using a higher-level spell, modifying and using this would consume less mana, wouldn’t it?

A human who had never encountered magic in his life, who learned magic only through theory, fearlessly criticized the spells of a high-ranking mage who had researched magic her entire life.

And what was even more amazing was that each of the magic circles this ordinary human youth had modified possessed theoretically perfect forms.

‘Perhaps this child might be able to do it.’

It was regrettable.

If only she had a little more time.

If only she had time to perfectly pass on everything she had learned.

The fact that she might have been able to raise this child into the strongest mage in history, surpassing even herself, weighed heavily on Minastrias’s heart.

And amid the weight pressing on her shoulders, this was the conclusion she reached.

‘What a teacher can do for her disciple. And what the disciple must accomplish without betraying the teacher’s expectations.’

Buy time.

While her disciple was out doing delivery part-time work to earn living expenses for both teacher and student, Minastrias began using all her talent to create a spell that could seal Silermantis.

Though it was a spell that couldn’t even be tested due to lack of mana, she bet everything on the slim possibility that someday she might be able to use magic.

And through the numerous materials and combat data left by previous Demon Kings, she derived a single conclusion.

The ‘Existence Seal’ spell left by the 18th Demon King, who was a master of sealing magic.

And the ‘Predecessor Summoning’ spell left by the 1st Demon King for future Demon Kings.

‘Push Silermantis to its limits through the strongest spell that can summon all previous Demon Kings to one space-time, then cast ‘Existence Seal’ while Silermantis regenerates its body.’

Previous Demon Kings who continuously cast supreme magic capable of vaporizing even massive mountains were protecting her side.

An endless symphony of surreal magic that burned the air, crushed space, destroyed theory, ignored laws, and denied reality itself.

As if to end hundreds of years of long battle, her teachers were pouring everything into this moment.

And Minastrias, the final successor of such a Demon King army, was quietly completing the ‘Existence Seal’ spell behind those teachers.

‘I know too. That a mere sealing spell cannot stop that thing.’

The ‘Existence Seal’ created by the 18th Demon King was an 11th Circle-level sealing magic that made the very information of the sealed target inaccessible throughout all parallel worlds.

Originally a terrifying spell that wouldn’t just seal but completely delete the existence and even traces left by that existence.

However, Silermantis, called the ‘Mage Killer,’ was a being that even such a powerful spell could barely hold for a brief moment, let alone permanently seal.

Knowing this fact, a small smile appeared on Minastrias’s lips as she cast the spell.

‘That’s enough.’

If it was the disciple she knew.

If it was Sung-jun, possessor of demonic talent who instantly analyzed high Circle spell formations despite only learning the basics of magical theory, she believed he could definitely create a spell to kill Silermantis during the brief time she had bought.

And true to her faith, Sung-jun was analyzing and dispelling the 10th Circle sealing magic she had placed on him in real-time.

***

‘Damn complicated. Really.’

The sealing spell Teacher had placed on Sung-jun had a more complex structure than any spell he had seen before.

A completely complex formula where touching even one part wrong would completely reconstruct the previously dispelled parts into an entirely new structure, requiring reanalysis from the beginning—so complex that anyone who didn’t know the complete dispelling method wouldn’t even dare attempt to break it.

Due to the overly complex structure, his eyes watching the magical formula swelled red as if blood vessels might burst.

The pain in the back of his head, which had been screaming with insane headaches from the moment he began dispelling the formula, was pressing on his brain as if a giant blood clot was filling his skull.

However, even faced with pain at a level that made normal thinking impossible, Sung-jun absolutely could not stop dispelling the formula.

Even within the formula so complex it was hard to believe it was made for humans to dispel, there were problem points placed here and there like deliberately hidden hints guiding him.

It felt like hearing Teacher’s gentle voice saying ‘You can do it.’

‘Just a little more.’

Understanding a formula begins with grasping the caster’s intention.

Like human fingerprints, every formula reflects the style of its creator.

Which parts to emphasize and which parts to use shortcuts.

The unique style of a ‘sect’ that takes shape as it passes from teacher to disciple, and from that disciple to their disciple.

By tracing endlessly backward, he could understand what mindset the person who originally created this spell had when writing it.

And Sung-jun, in his tremendously accelerated thinking, finally succeeded in reading the heart of the ‘founder’ who created this spell.

‘This… isn’t a sealing spell but a protection spell.’

The most precious thing in the world.

A spell cast on someone you want to protect at all costs, even if your own life ends.

The condition needed to cast that spell was nearly infinite ‘love.’

‘A spell where the difficulty of dispelling increases nearly infinitely based on the caster’s affection for the protection target. Such a spell at this ridiculously urgent time. What, does she think she’s some kind of romanticist?’

Interestingly, the simplest way to dispel this spell was to counter the opponent’s emotion with the same emotion.

And Sung-jun was a disciple who prided himself on loving Teacher even more than Teacher loved him.

‘Crack, crack. Snap!’

The flames that had glowed orange when he tried to force dispelling were now emitting a mysteriously beautiful pink color.

And finally, he succeeded in dispelling Teacher’s sealing spell that seemed impossible to break ‘from inside the seal’ and escaping.

Crash!!!!

With a sound like glass shattering, the magic circle that had trapped Sung-jun broke into pieces, and he immediately looked toward where Teacher was.

And there, he could see Teacher’s bent back figure, looking more haggard and struggling than any appearance of Teacher he had ever seen.

“Teacherrrrr!!!!”

Seeing Teacher like that, Sung-jun was already casting medium-range teleport toward Teacher before even thinking about casting spells.

However, before the spell he cast could even be completed, Teacher turned her head to look where Sung-jun was.

‘…llo.’

Teacher’s cracked lips seemed to be trying to say ‘Hello.’

And at that moment, five massive black shadows burst forth from Teacher’s entire body and swept over the Giant Monster that was fighting the summoned Sages.

“Queeaaaaaaaaaaaaak!!!!”

Despite having endured countless attack spells with its body until now, the monster’s scream from this attack contained pain of an entirely different dimension.

And as if to prove that power, the monster began twisting its island-sized body frantically to shake off the black shadows binding its entire form.

Kwaaaaaaaang!!!!! Bang!! Kwabang!!!

Despite the intense thrashing that could turn parts of the city made of solid reinforced concrete into powder, the monster’s body began to be rapidly eroded by the black shadows.

And simultaneously, a surreal phenomenon began to occur, as if a giant eraser was erasing reality itself.

‘It’s being deleted?!’

Sung-jun already knew of spells that deleted by decomposing the opponent’s body.

11th Circle spells that decompose the opponent’s body at the atomic level regardless of magic resistance, by removing the electrical bonds that bind the target’s atoms themselves.

However, the spell Teacher had just cast was completely different from such ‘decomposition.’

‘God’s eraser that deletes reality.’

The absolute sealing magic that denies the very existence of enemies who adapt to all magic was erasing from reality the apocalyptic monster that had come to destroy humanity.

And at that moment.

Flash-!!!

With a black light that could only be described by the contradictory term ‘black radiance,’ the Giant Monster that had been nearly twice the size of Yeouido vanished without a trace.

Along with the 20 Great Demon Lords who had been pouring spells until the very last moment to stop it.

And from the empty sky, Teacher’s frail body began falling helplessly downward like a falling leaf.

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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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