The Archmage’s Destruction Strategy - Chapter 89

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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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#089. Limits

Unlike humans who cannot continue fighting after suffering fatal wounds such as a crushed spine or pierced lungs, a mage who has surpassed the 9th Circle and reached the 10th Circle becomes a demigod-like existence that cannot be brought down by simple flesh wounds.

Without even needing to chant spells, healing magic automatically activates the moment their body is injured, and countless defensive spells protecting the heart—where the circles that are like life itself to a mage are located—make the mage an existence that cannot fall even if they want to.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that a mage who has reached the 10th Circle becomes an absolutely invincible existence that can never be defeated.

A strike that can wound the mage’s very existence beyond mere flesh wounds.

If it’s an attack that can carve the very concept of being ‘wounded’ into the opponent’s soul rather than visible injuries, even a mage who has reached the level of an absolute being could be harmed.

And Sung-jun was certain that the opponent before his eyes was an existence capable of killing him.

‘It’s not simply fast. That knight’s movement itself is like a spell.’

Just moments ago, the opponent had escaped his binding spell ‘magically’ without any resistance.

Since this meant the opponent’s ‘escape’ authority was stronger than his ‘binding’ authority, Sung-jun used teleportation magic again and began gathering information to defeat Karcerion.

‘With authority magic, not ordinary magic.’

The magic Sung-jun could use was broadly divided into two types.

One was ordinary magic that directly manipulated the energy called mana according to formulas to manifest desired effects in reality, and the other was authority magic that granted specific authorities to the magic itself to achieve absolute effects.

If ordinary magic was powerful and large in scale, authority magic was characterized by being strange and mystical.

To defeat powerful enemies at the level of the magical beasts that appeared on the 99th Floor, ordinary magic had to be cast with tremendous destructive power capable of piercing even mountains like the Void Heaven Spear.

Authority magic, however, could achieve the same performance by granting the authority to ‘pierce’ even to a projectile the size of a fist.

Therefore, most authority magic could be considered superior versions of ordinary magic.

The problem was that when contradictions arose, authority spells had the effect of forcibly ignoring authorities containing lower-grade powers, just like how Karcerion had used the authority to ‘leap over’ to forcibly escape the bundle of binding spells containing the authority to ‘bind’.

Of course, with Sung-jun’s abilities as an archmage and the 31st Demon King, it was possible to cast binding spells granted with binding authority that surpassed Karcerion’s escape authority, but to cast spells containing such level of authority, Sung-jun had to pay an equivalent price.

‘I can’t just draw and use it like mana.’

A mage who has reached the 10th Circle can control naturally existing mana with their will without mana limitations, enabling rapid-fire casting of ordinary magic close to infinite levels.

However, in the case of authority magic, since the grade of one’s soul defines the limits of usable authority, casting overly powerful authority magic results in restrictions on simultaneous activation and requires time for recovery.

That’s why Sung-jun implemented and used most of his magic in the form of ordinary magic.

In fact, even the Void Heaven Spear, which had penetrating power at the level of authority magic, was essentially a spell belonging to ordinary magic.

Most enemies Sung-jun had encountered so far could be dealt with at that level.

However, since the enemy currently before his eyes possessed abilities at a level impossible to counter with ordinary magic, Sung-jun was abandoning his previous combat style and trying to test a combat method that relied on authority magic in earnest.

‘Dimension first.’

Among the 12 sect schools of Dimension, Mystery, Element, Summoning, Necromancy, Illusion, Mind, Life, Transformation, Protection, Fate, and Prophecy, the authority of dimensional magic manifested.

Then, with an explosive sound, Karcerion’s magic spear that had been charging toward Sung-jun while tearing through the atmosphere passed right through Sung-jun’s body and pierced through to the other side.

It was the moment when the authority to ‘pierce’ contained in Karcerion’s magic spear was neutralized by the dimensional authority ‘let pass through’ that Sung-jun had activated.

‘Authority enhancement? Dimension alone will be difficult to block.’

The moment he recognized that his spear had passed through Sung-jun’s body without causing any damage, the aura emanating from Karcerion’s body greatly intensified.

Realizing this was an attempt to strengthen the ‘piercing’ authority to neutralize his activated dimensional authority, Sung-jun immediately canceled the dimensional authority and activated illusion authority.

-Thwaaaaaaang!!!-

Karcerion’s magic spear charge, which generated tremendous explosive sounds just from the shockwaves of rushing forward without any collision, this time shot toward a completely different location from where Sung-jun was.

Rather than directly confronting the opponent’s authority, Sung-jun had used illusion magic granted with the authority to ‘deceive’ his position, forcibly redirecting Karcerion’s attack direction.

Since it was authority magic designed to make the opponent set the wrong attack target from the beginning, no matter how much the opponent strengthened their ‘piercing’ authority, it was impossible to attack Sung-jun.

Then, realizing through the sensation at his spear tip that he had failed to attack Sung-jun, Karcerion closed his eyes and began concentrating his mind.

‘Mind’s eye? As expected of a knight’s spirit, he has all sorts of skills.’

Since the strength of authority the opponent could deploy and the strength of authority Sung-jun could use were at comparable levels, Sung-jun immediately used another authority magic affecting the mental realm.

Since the technique called mind’s eye itself was an authority technique requiring tremendous concentration, he aimed to prevent the mind’s eye from activating by blocking concentration itself through spells that could interfere with focus.

When Karcerion, having his mind’s eye activation blocked, angrily swung his spear through the air, giant wind blades with physical force began spreading in all directions.

“Can’t find the target so you’ll sweep everything with area attacks!”

Fortunately, since the area attack the opponent used wasn’t a technique containing authority, Sung-jun easily activated elemental spells to forcibly seize control of the wind the opponent had scattered.

Then he reversed the direction and returned it to the opponent.

-Craaaaaaack-

With the sound of the incredibly hard dungeon floor cracking, invisible wind blades mercilessly slashed the location where Karcerion had been.

However, Karcerion, who had escaped the danger zone with his escape authority, seemed untiring as he cast his next attack, surprising Sung-jun.

-Bang! Bang! Kwakwabang! Kwabang! Bang!-

If he couldn’t find the target, he just needed to pierce the entire expected range in an instant.

Fierce point charges exceeding the speed of sound began activating continuously with momentum to cover the entire dungeon.

‘Just grazing would shatter my entire body.’

Seeing attacks like hundreds of Void Heaven Spears being fired randomly, Sung-jun couldn’t help but be horrified.

The Void Heaven Spear was a spell that accelerated ultra-high hardness metal columns refined by magic in vacuum subspace because even they couldn’t withstand friction from air resistance, yet the opponent’s will to endure such strong resistance with pure physical toughness was nothing short of miraculous.

He must have been called the strongest hero of his time when alive.

Sung-jun smiled seeing the bloodstains on the wall where Karcerion had collided.

‘Right. There’s no way he’d be fine. He’s covering the physical damage from continuous charges with undead-specific regeneration abilities.’

What the opponent was doing now was like swinging bare fists at full force to pound walls.

Since human fists aren’t harder than rock, they would naturally get wounded.

Moreover, if he activated continuously at such speed, no matter how excellent an undead’s regeneration ability, destruction would inevitably be faster than regeneration.

An endless will to defeat the opponent even if it meant his own body being destroyed.

To Sung-jun’s eyes, the opponent’s will to rush at him to end his life appeared incredibly attractive.

“If I could obtain you, you’d become the most trustworthy subordinate. I like it. As the 31st Demon King, I’ll respond to your will with full power.”

Originally, Sung-jun had no intention of using full power against Karcerion.

Subduing Karcerion was merely to obtain a card to use in the battle against the Corrosion Entity he would face on the 100th floor.

But seeing the opponent’s will to truly kill him even while destroying his own body, Sung-jun came to want to face the opponent with sincerity.

Even if he had to accept the result of the opponent he wanted to obtain being destroyed as the price.

“Full circle release.”

As Sung-jun crossed his hands and spoke, 10 magic circles appeared around him.

Not magic circles glowing in primary colors like red or green, but beautiful magic circles sparkling in dozens of colors like light shining on transparent gems.

These weren’t magic circles for casting spells, but the very source of magic itself carved into Sung-jun’s heart.

‘To think I’d use full release now when I didn’t even use it against Yeojiggwi.’

‘Full release’ that brings the circles sealed in the heart outside temporarily grants the caster god-like abilities.

The problem was that if the circles brought outside in that state were attacked, the grade of the circles themselves—equivalent to a mage’s strength—would drop.

Even if one gained god-like abilities, if the opponent to be defeated was also a divine existence, there were almost no advantages to be gained from releasing circles, so it was a technique even previous Demon Kings rarely used.

‘Instead, I can draw authority beyond my physical limits.’

Sung-jun, having released his circles, immediately swung both arms to begin continuous casting of highest-grade authority spells.

Then the 10 magic circles behind Sung-jun began rotating fiercely, starting to manifest the will Sung-jun had put into his spells into reality.

“Nothing exists faster than sound.”

As Sung-jun’s divine words echoed, Karcerion’s body, which had been rushing at hypersonic speed, stopped as if caught in mid-air.

He was actually moving at near-sonic speed, but because his previous speed had been too fast, he appeared as if suddenly materializing from thin air.

“Those who do not run with their own legs cannot walk forward.”

As Sung-jun once again twisted reality’s rules, Karcerion’s body, which had been moving relatively quickly, became fixed in place.

Feeling the sensation of highest-grade authority spells binding his entire body, Karcerion began trembling violently.

The most powerful authority granted to the Knight among the six pieces—the authority of ‘escape’—was trying to nullify the binding authority Sung-jun had cast.

“Those who flee cannot achieve victory.”

The most powerful reality-altering authority among all the authorities Sung-jun had activated so far began dominating the inside of the dungeon.

He didn’t particularly block the opponent’s ‘escape’ authority.

Instead, he imposed a rule on reality that even if one ‘escaped’, they would inevitably be defeated.

Having bypassed and neutralized the opponent’s authority this way, Sung-jun slowly reached out toward the death knight who was still burning with fighting spirit and glaring at him.

“Void Heaven Spear: Ultimate.”

Not the Void Heaven Spear with only physical destructive power, but a Void Heaven Spear containing the authority of a Demon King who had reached the 10th Circle shot forth, cutting through space.

The contained authority was absolute penetration that pierced through all defensive means the target possessed.

It was the ultimate attack that absolutely could not be blocked unless a mage of the same 10th Circle created defensive means containing authority, or a sword master who had reached demigod status deployed defense containing authority.

-Kwaaaaaaang!-

The death knight, whose entire upper body had been blown away beyond just having a hole pierced through his body, began slowly crumbling to the floor.

And at that moment, Sung-jun, having returned all the circles he had released back into his body, began rushing toward Karcerion’s corpse with an urgent expression.

“Huh?! Hey! You’re not really dead, are you?! You bastard! You said you were immortal! You should be able to withstand this much! Hey! Can’t you hear me!? If you die like this, I really won’t let it slide!”

Wondering what he could possibly do to an already dead opponent if he wouldn’t let it slide, Argen clapped his hands.

Then his clapping sound echoed through the wide cave, and Karcerion’s body, which had been scattering as powder, began rapidly returning to its original form.

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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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