The Knight Who Devours Magic - Chapter 48

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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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Episode 48. The Real High Mage
“This… this can’t be…!”
As chains clattered and Muno turned, a plump woman leaning against the opposite wall came into view.
“That Enoch Trian — to think he’s been standing watch in secret every night for two whole days.”
The moment this woman spoke a fact that Muno had no idea about.
“A mage — what kind of place does she think this is?!”
Wheeeee!
Crash, crash, crash, crash, crash.
With Rashmia’s roar, a gale so violent it made the broad chamber feel cramped came rushing in.
But.
“Be quiet.”
The woman chuckled softly, flicking her fingers — and the gale subsided in an instant.
‘No, she’s not just 5th Circle.’
Muno watched as Rashmia’s snow-white mana was overwhelmed by an oppressive dark magical aura, powerless to push back.
And the tiny wind elementals — barely perceptible to human sight — scattered with piercing cries.
Yet in that same moment, Rashmia’s clenched mana stirred once more.
Boom!
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
The flames from the torches and lamps hanging on the walls swelled a hundredfold and engulfed the mage from all sides in a single instant.
But.
“How tedious….”
Crash, crash, crash, crash, crash.
The moment the mage murmured, a wave of bitter cold spilled from her body and consumed the flames entirely.
The cold that had smothered the fierce fire left ice forming across every corner of the chamber.
“Die!”
With Rashmia’s cry, that ice melted and became blades of water that crashed down upon the mage anew.
Of course.
“Hmm. That’s not bad?”
It was useless all the same.
Crack, crack, crack.
With a single gesture from the mage, the water blades froze once more.
‘The elementals scatter again.’
Just as the fire elementals had moments before, now the water elementals were driven away by the mage’s dark aura, vanishing from sight.
At the same time.
“Cough.”
Rashmia spat blood as if she could endure no longer.
But the mage didn’t stop.
“A distasteful spirit mage, wasting my energy for nothing.”
“Gasp! Gasp!?”
When the wind the mage had been wielding was seized entirely by her dark aura, strangling Rashmia’s breath.
“Don’t think killing her will make me follow meekly!”
Crack, crack, crack.
The gray shackles binding Muno’s hands and feet became a dark greatsword in an instant, sprouting in his grip.
A black blade modeled on the form of his father’s beloved Slayer, holding darkness and faint mana within.
His first spell, ‘Blade,’ boasted sufficient presence.
But.
“Knew it — you’ve been learning Spirit Magic? Though it won’t matter.”
To the mage, even that posed no threat.
Crack, crack.
Just as with Rashmia’s Spirit Magic, the mage’s single gesture reduced it to dust.
“Ugh!”
Among those of equal rank, mages typically held dominance over spirit mages.
Spirit mages, once outmatched in elemental control, could do nothing — but mages handled a far wider array of elements from the start, and could even command elements that didn’t exist in their surroundings.
Precisely as now.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
A ball of flame, large as a human face, erupted from the mage’s hand.
“Burn your face away and you’ll fall silent, won’t you?”
Pop.
At that moment, staggering from the shock of his ‘Blade’ being banished, Muno suddenly drove off the ground and lunged at the mage’s face with his fist.
But.
Bang.
The spell that seemed to be already unfolding simply shattered against the transparent Barrier.
“……You really startled me. How could you punch a beauty like me without warning? If you treated me nicely, there might even be some reward in it for you, you know.”
Muno’s face twisted at the languid, whisper-soft voice that betrayed no surprise whatsoever.
‘What is she talking about? This pig…….’
Loanna was still just a young girl, so her plumpness read as endearing.
But this woman, whose entire frame was nothing but soft curves, stood a million light-years away from his taste.
“Hmph!”
Bang. Bang.
Crash!
As Muno thrashed against the transparent Barrier with successive blows, the woman’s eyes narrowed, and she ran a glance over his knuckles, now beginning to bleed.
“You’ve got quite the temper……. Well, I like that.”
Snap.
The moment she flicked her fingers, Rashmia—who had been moments from asphyxiation—dropped from the air and slumped to the floor.
“Hack-hack. Gasp. Gasp…….”
“You’d better keep quiet, emaciated Spirit Magic user. My patience ran out long ago, you see?”
As the Female Mage swept her eyes over the gasping Rashmia, Muno felt a hollow laugh beginning to rise in his throat, but he forced his expression to remain controlled.
“I’d advise against doing anything pointless. Specimen.”
Though you won’t even kill us anyway…….
“If things go wrong, I’ll kill you both on the spot.”
Muno couldn’t help but flinch at the killing intent that flashed momentarily through the mage’s crimson eyes.
‘……Is she serious?’
He’d spent the last two days wrestling with the same question.
How to face this monstrous mage—on a level he’d never encountered before—without Enoch Trian’s help.
But in the end, he’d only arrived at the obvious conclusion: exploit any opening he could find.
Fortunately, he had one piece of information he could work with.
The simple fact that the mages had tried to capture him rather than kill him until now.
But this woman seemed different.
‘This is troublesome……. No, as long as she isn’t trying to kill me outright right now…….’
The moment his mind raced to find a way forward.
Crack-crack-crack.
Black thorned vines suddenly erupted from the stone floor and coiled around his entire body.
“Be careful, specimen. One wrong move and these will shred your mouth first.”
Crack.
A sharp, stinging pain and nauseating sensation bit into his nerves.
The problem was that this thorn vine binding wasn’t being applied to him alone.
“Ugh!? Ugh!?”
The same spell was coiling around Rashmia’s body across the way.
“Ugh!?”
His eyes flared in protest—this wasn’t what they’d agreed to.
But all he saw was the woman’s face, letting out a mocking laugh.
“Heh-heh. Did you think I was doing you a favor? I never had any intention of killing that scrawny woman here anyway. You two are supposed to have killed an Ashlan administrator and escaped from the Trian Prison.”
At the same moment the mage swept her hand.
Crack-crack-crack.
Screeeee.
The metal bars dividing his cell from Rashmia’s twisted and warped, leaving a gap.
“Judging by the poisoned dart that attacked me in daylight and that sword just now, your Spirit Magic is the metal variety, isn’t it? This will look like your doing.”
The mage then extended her opposite hand, and black winds gathered in her palm before shooting toward the wall behind Muno.
Boom!
“And this will look like her doing.”
Damn.
As the wall exploded outward, Muno had to make a decision.
It wasn’t for nothing that he’d been flailing about barehanded until now.
Deliberately, he’d kept his other abilities sealed away—revealing only the Spirit Magic to his enemies.
All of it was an act, designed to create a moment of carelessness and seize the decisive opportunity.
‘Damn, will it work?’
Even if he absorbed her spell with the strength he’d been hiding and launched a surprise attack, would it even touch this mage?
‘It doesn’t seem like it will. Damn.’
She was far too monstrous an opponent.
No matter how he exploited her guard and aimed at the back of her head with all his power, nothing seemed like it would land.
‘Definitely not just a 5th Circle mage.’
She was far beyond that.
From the way she regarded the Count warily, it seemed unlikely she was a Seven Star, but that alone was enough to make Muno feel the weight of helplessness settle over him.
“Come now, let us depart, you insignificant creatures.”
At the mage’s gesture, both his body and Rashmia’s began to rise into the air.
‘Damn it… if only someone could draw her attention…’
Whether that fervent wish reached the heavens or not,
– It’s the Prison!
In that instant, the voices of soldiers echoed from somewhere distant.
– Rashmia!
Bang!
Along with a thunderous roar that tore through the corridor, the iron door leading to the Detention Cell burst open.
And what emerged was—
“You!?”
A muscular giant, billowing smoke from his body as if he were a steam engine incarnate.
“Where did you—!?”
As Muno watched the Female Mage’s face twist in shock at the sight of him, he felt a surge of vindication bloom within.
“I was certain I’d confirmed…?”
It was precisely as bewilderment flickered across the mage’s expression that—
“So it was true!?”
Robero, the captain of Trian’s knights—or rather, a man who bore the likeness of a wild boar—came charging directly at her.
“Tch!”
Fire erupted from the Female Mage’s palm, blooming into a torrent of flames that engulfed the chamber and crashed down upon Robero.
And all of it, Muno observed with perfect clarity from where he stood.
– Mages may seem omnipotent at first glance, but they are far from it.
– First, their fundamental weakness is their fragile bodies. Second, precisely because they defy the natural order of things, they can only unleash spells they have prepared beforehand. Certainly, the variety and frequency of incantations differ by rank, but the limits are absolute.
– That is where we Spirit Mages differ—with the aid of spirits and Mana alone, we can pour forth spells without limit.
Just as Rashmia had explained, the flames unleashed without preparation in this sudden moment could not withstand Robero’s charge—that living battering ram, that human war machine.
“Rashmia!”
Whoosh.
His skin barely singed from tearing through the inferno, Robero swung his enormous Warhammer down like a thunderbolt.
“…Get away!”
Crash!
Crack.
The transparent Barrier that had deflected Muno’s fists countless times spiderwebbed with fractures like glass.
No matter how far Robero’s strength transcended mere speed, a high-level Body Strengthening Technique user moved far beyond what a fragile mage could follow.
Before the mage could even react—
“Die!”
Boom!
The Barrier shattered entirely under the second hammer blow.
But it seemed she had anticipated even that,
and the mage’s body slid backward, slipping deftly away from the hammer’s path.
And only then—
“Cursed—”
The Female Mage’s expression darkened as she swept her fingers across the Ring adorning her left hand.
The moment that Ring blazed with azure light, a gust of frigid wind erupted between Robero and the mage.
And at that instant, Muno moved.
‘Now.’
Whoosh.
The black Protective Guards that had kept their presence hidden transformed into armor enveloping his limbs.
Click.
The moment the Combat Gloves and Combat Boots resumed their form and he poured his full strength into them—
his metallic body began to absorb the black thorned vines pouring down upon him.
Tss-tss-tss-tss.
But—
‘Damn it!?’
The absorption rate was far slower than he had anticipated.
Though alarming, fortunately his overwhelming ally was now drawing the mage’s attention entirely to himself.
“Impossible!!”
That righteous wild boar—or rather, Robero—charged directly into the frigid tempest.
Crack-crack-crack.
Unlike the inferno moments before, it didn’t break through cleanly.
But.
“Unh……. I’ll kill you. You chunk of…….”
The Female Mage too was pouring most of her Mana into that spell.
Robero’s desperate struggle as his entire body froze in an instant was anything but reckless.
Crack-crack-crack.
The moment Muno finally absorbed all the magic binding his body and reclaimed his freedom.
Whoosh.
Four Chains shot from his limbs and flew toward the Female Mage’s back.
But then.
Flash.
Crack-crack-crack-crack.
A red light suddenly flared from the Female Mage’s Robe, and a Barrier rose to block the Chains’ attack.
“What!?”
Only then did the Female Mage notice the turn of events, wheeling her head to face him directly.
In that instant, he felt her Mana waver distinctly.
It was a golden opportunity.
Sip-sip-sip-sip-sip.
The Chains were still absorbing the reddish Barrier’s Dark Magic.
‘Damn it……. Huh?’
Then Muno registered the shifting situation ahead and instinctively recalled the Chains.
He formed a Two-Handed Sword anew using the Spell ‘Blade’ and charged at the Female Mage.
“Ha!”
And in that moment.
Boom!
Robero finally broke through the frigid tempest and appeared before the Female Mage.
Simultaneously.
“Die!”
“Die!”
A massive Warhammer and Two-Handed Sword swung at the Female Mage from front and back.
But then.
“Ahhhhh!!”
With a cry that mingled desperation and fury, the Barrier surrounding her shattered outward.
Kaboom!
“Ugh!?”
In that moment Muno felt a dizzying impact as his body was hurled through the broken wall into empty air beyond.
‘Damn it. Damn it.’
The moment the explosion erupted, he’d reflexively twisted the sword to protect his center of gravity.
Yet fragments imbued with red-tinged Mana pierced clean through both his sides, and his body wouldn’t obey him properly.
And worst of all.
[See you later, test subject!]
A curse-laden voice that echoed only in his ears, and.
The Female Mage soaring skyward like a red meteor in the meantime.

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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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