The Mage’s Nemesis Has Reincarnated - Chapter 84

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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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The Natural Enemy of Mages Has Been Reincarnated – Episode 84
‘Rescue the princess of House Deporte?’
I glanced around the area.
There was only one person who could be the princess in question.
A middle-aged man I’d seen earlier was cradling a woman who appeared to be his daughter.
‘That man is likely the head of House Deporte. And the daughter must be Princess Sillis.’
According to the quest details, Princess Sillis was caught in a hallucination, convulsing as she stared at empty air.
“Sillis. Please, come to your senses. Sillis!”
Her father was desperately shaking her, trying to pull her out of the hallucination.
The moment I moved toward them, Azrahil’s eyebrows twitched.
“Why aren’t you answering? Are you ignoring me right now?”
I glanced at him briefly but didn’t respond, continuing forward.
Bewilderment spread across Azrahil’s face.
“Heh. One more person I’ll need to kill….”
That was when Azrahil tried to unleash a mana projectile at me.
“Wait. I’ll handle this.”
“Huh? You….”
I looked at Princess Sillis and placed my hand on her head.
Instantly, her convulsions ceased and her expression became peaceful.
“It’s done. The hallucination has been lifted.”
“What? Is that really true!?”
Duke Jose, her father, examined his daughter’s face.
Unlike before, she now wore a serene smile as if sleeping peacefully.
Duke Jose’s eyes widened slowly, as if witnessing a miracle.
Meanwhile, Azrahil was astonished for an entirely different reason.
‘…He dispelled my hallucination?’
Having completed my task, I withdrew my hand from the princess and stood up.
Duke Jose, tears threatening to spill from relief, suddenly lifted his head.
He needed to see the face of his daughter’s savior.
“Who are you…?”
“My name is Zeke McLafflin.”
“Zeke McLafflin…?”
The name meant nothing to him.
That made sense—my name wasn’t particularly famous.
Though the McLafflin Family name certainly was.
[Hallucination Magic Dispelled!]
[Sudden Quest Cleared!]
[You have gained 5,000 proficiency in 5th-tier skills as a reward.]
[Remaining proficiency until 8-star achievement: 22,080/100,000]
Having rescued the princess and received my reward, I smiled with satisfaction—then my expression hardened.
Since the Main Quest still remains.
My gaze shifted toward Azrahil.
“Is it you? The one who cast the hallucination on Princess Sillis?”
“You bastard. How did you break my hallucination?”
“My question comes first. But before that.”
Conscious of the surrounding gazes, I deployed an illusion veil.
Whoosh—
The space where Azrahil and I stood became obscured by the veil.
More precisely, I overlaid it with a different illusion.
“Now our conversation won’t leak out. Even if we fight and strike each other within this space, to everyone else we’ll simply appear to be standing still.”
As I casually deployed the illusion magic, Azrahil’s mouth fell slightly open.
He looked genuinely shocked.
“…How did you do that? There shouldn’t be anyone else who’s mastered illusion magic besides me.”
“Shouldn’t there? Well, here I am.”
At my nonchalant response, Azrahil wanted nothing more than to tear my mouth to shreds on the spot.
But at the same time, he was desperate to know.
How I was using the illusion magic he himself had created.
How I could wield the exact same form of illusion magic as him, who had risen to the rank of Forerunner through illusion alone.
“But I have many questions for you. Azrahil.”
“…How do you know my name?”
“I never gave you permission to ask questions.”
It was an arrogant response, but Azrahil was far more curious about my identity.
‘Now that I think about it, did he say Zeke?’
It was a name I’d heard somewhere before.
As the memory surfaced, Azrahil let out a low chuckle.
“Ah, I see. The Blade Mage who led the territorial war to victory. And the target that Esca was pursuing. So that was you all along.”
“Who’s chasing me?”
“I’m sorry to that bastard, but now that things have come to this, I’ll have to intercept the target myself.”
Azrahil, muttering incomprehensible words, raised his hand.
There was no need for a staff to deal with a mere pup.
A single Mental Collapse like the one I’d cast just moments ago would leave the brain throbbing as if it were melting.
“Tell me. How are you using illusion magic?”
“Why would I tell you that?”
“…?”
Azrahil’s brow furrowed at my unexpectedly composed appearance.
‘What’s going on? I just cast Mental Collapse on him.’
The spell had clearly seeped into Zeke’s head as if being absorbed.
Yet he neither frowned nor showed any sign of pain.
As if nothing had happened at all.
Of course, I knew the reason why.
“So the magic you were planning to use on me was mental collapse? You were going to torture me with it until I opened my mouth?”
‘He saw through my magic…?’
Azrahil’s eyes widened once more as Zeke reached out his hand.
“That won’t do.”
A spell materialized in the blink of an eye within his grasp, and I felt the surge of mana.
‘Shadowless incantation?’
Startled, Azrahil hastily erected a mana barrier.
The only way to block an opponent’s magic was to counter it with greater mana.
Boom—!
The magic I had cast shattered against the barrier.
“Oh, what? You blocked it?”
I was genuinely astonished as I reversed the mental collapse.
I never expected him to withstand my magic.
But Azrahil was equally shocked.
‘What is this crude mana? How is this possible? Could he possibly possess mana equal to mine…?’
Feeling the barrier tremble precariously, Azrahil bit his lower lip.
The barrier that even an aura blade couldn’t scratch was on the verge of crumbling from a single spell cast by this man.
It could only be explained by one thing—he possessed mana comparable to my own.
‘I must kill him. Forget the information about illusions—I need to eliminate him here and now.’
Originally, I had planned to slowly torture him with mental collapse and extract information about illusions.
But that was only if his abilities were inferior to mine.
Against an opponent with no significant gap in power, there was no room for torture.
He wouldn’t yield to such things anyway.
Whoosh—
Azrahil, employing a subspace, retrieved his staff for the first time in ages.
It was a declaration that he would face this opponent with proper respect.
“A subspace? Then that means you’ve learned demonic sorcery….”
I muttered and smirked.
There was additional information I needed to extract from Azrahil.
“I doubt you’ll talk if I ask nicely.”
Watching him draw his staff and gather mana, it seemed unlikely he would cooperate willingly.
I decided to postpone conversation and approached him leisurely.
After casting mana suppression.
“…!”
The moment the mana he had gathered vanished in an instant, bewilderment flooded Azrahil’s face.
‘What’s happening? The mana completely disappeared?’
He had accumulated tremendous mana to crush his opponent, only for it to evaporate in a heartbeat.
For Azrahil, this incomprehensible phenomenon was almost laughable.
Pushing past his confusion, he tried again, but it was futile.
No matter how much mana he gathered, it leaked away somewhere, like pouring water into a bottomless vessel.
‘What did he do? Dispel? No. Dispel can’t continuously evaporate mana like this.’
Whatever it was, one thing was certain—my opponent had done something.
The leisurely smile spreading across that approaching face was proof enough.
“What’s wrong? Something happen to your staff?”
“What did you do?”
“Does that matter right now? You might be dead in seconds anyway.”
*Whoosh—*
I drew a feather blade from my subspace.
Azrahil’s pupils dilated at the sight of me using the same subspace technique.
“Could it be… something you received from that person?”
“That person? Who are you talking about?”
“I suppose not.”
Azrahil clamped his mouth shut.
He had no intention of divulging any further information.
His expression was so resolute that even severing his limbs wouldn’t pry his lips open, but I decided to ask anyway.
“I already know the gist of it. What you’re scheming. You’re doing all this to obtain materials from the Hamilton Mine, aren’t you?”
“Then why ask if you already know?”
“Because there are a few more details I’d like to understand.”
“….”
“There are three main things I want to know. First, what materials you’re trying to extract from the mine. Second, what you plan to create with those materials. Third, what you intend to do with the villagers after drawing them into the Mados Religion.”
“Why would you care about that? It has nothing to do with you.”
“It does. Though I can’t tell you why.”
If I understood the purpose of the 12 Pioneers, it would be easier to locate the remaining Forerunners.
Once I found them, Quests would be issued.
‘Then I could grow stronger much faster.’
There was no need to reveal that fact, so I kept silent.
Azrahil seemed equally unwilling to open his mouth.
“Do you think I’ll talk?”
“Then I’ll make you talk.”
I activated the hallucinatory magic I had acquired from Azrahil.
My plan was to inflict mental anguish by making him see his limbs being severed through illusion.
But Azrahil merely scoffed.
“Using illusion magic? Unfortunately, illusions don’t work on mages of the 9th Circle and above. It won’t have any effect on me.”
“Ah, is that so? Thanks for the useful information.”
Just as he said, the illusion showed no signs of taking effect.
I immediately canceled it, sheathed the feather blade, and decided to try a different approach.
“Banish with Poison.”
I cast the skill without incantation, and with a small explosion, my body vanished in a cloud of toxic mist.
That was when Azrahil’s brow furrowed.
‘This… isn’t this the poison magic of Nox Venomayer?’
How is that bastard using the seventh-ranked spell?
And his own illusion magic too.
Questions flooded my mind, but only for a moment.
“Cough.”
Crimson blood trickled from Azrahil’s lips.
Zeke’s voice echoed from somewhere within the mist.
“You’re poisoned now. By my estimate, you won’t last even a minute before you die. Since it’s your colleague’s poison, you should know better than anyone, right?”
“Hmph, colleague my ass.”
Azrahil let out a bitter laugh, clutching at his chest as he fell to his knees.
The effects were beginning to manifest gradually.
“There’s no time. Speak quickly. Answer just one of my questions, and I’ll give you the antidote.”
“Hehe, do as you wish. It’s not like you ever intended to let me live anyway.”
As if resigned to death, Azrahil maintained an air of composure.
This put me in a difficult position.
“You’re really going to die like a dog without saying anything?”
“If I die, I die. There’s no information I’d share with the likes of you.”
Carbollearos’s urgent voice came through, as if he could see Azrahil dying before his eyes.
-Zeke! Ask him about that! Hurry!
‘Understood.’
I accepted the suggestion immediately.
“Then let me ask you just one thing. Do you know anything about the Lich Dragon?”
“The Lich Dragon, you say…”
At his response, I doubted my own ears.

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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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