by Road Warrior
Marakia was not only a powerful mage, but he was also a powerful warrior. He also had more confidence than anyone in his ability to fly. He looked down to the ground as he sustained the Army of Death.
BOOM!
Another explosion. A shotgun of bone fragments began to fly out. Marakia tracked every fragment and began to maneuver in the air. With a single flap, he majestically and agilely tore through the air to evade every fragment.
BOOM! BOOM!
Sungchul, who was buried within the skeletons, continued to shoot out fragments.
He is struggling, but his attacks will not work on me!
Marakia had faith in his wings and the precision of his eyes; he continued to evade the attacks easily.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Bones continued to fly towards him. Marakia put on a beautiful display of flight as he continued to evade the fragments, but as he dodged the fragments for the third time, another attack flew his way with a slight delay. Marakia scoffed at him and descended quickly.
Do you think these kinds of attacks will work?
The fragment flew by harmlessly over his head, and with that, Marakia was confident in his victory. But the moment he lowered his altitude to dodge the projectiles, something shot out of the pile of skeletons like a bullet. It happened so suddenly that Marakia could not respond in time.
Could it be?
He had a good guess of what had happened to him. The attack which he thought he had easily evaded was actually meant to drive him into a checkmate.
GRIP!
A human hand gripped onto the avian king’s wing. Marakia quickly tried to shake the human off, but the human hand was faster.
RIP!
The rough grip proceeded to separate his wing from his body. Following the traumatic pain shooting through his body, a fountain of blood shot out from the wound. Marakia’s vision grew dim as he fell towards the ground. What appeared next in his sights was the Army of Death that he had raised himself. Corpses of Cave Elves, ones on whom he wouldn’t even waste the words “lowly” on, began to envelop him as he lost consciousness.
BOOM!
The Avian King crashed in the middle of the mass of skeletons. The skeletons that had been animated due to the king’s power began to collapse as they lost their source of power. Sungchul lightly landed onto the surface made of bones. His usual appearance remained intact without a single injury nor any clothing out of place.
“…”
He turned his head and looked back towards a specific spot. Willie, who had been lying in that place, could no longer be seen under a mound of skeletons of nameless Cave Elves. It was a pitiful end to someone praised as the Seventh Champion of the Continent as well as the only one in over 500 years to have achieved the rank of Grand Swordmaster.
Sungchul walked over slowly toward Marakia, who was lying on top of the skeletal mound.
“Uuu… Kuuu…”
Marakia, who had one of his wings torn off, was trembling and groaning from pain. The sound of Sungchul’s military boots grew closer and closer. And for the first time in his life, Marakia felt fear blossom in his heart. He pushed aside the pain and immediately flipped himself over to look at the man who was silently approaching him with his violet eyes.
How could this be? This doesn’t make sense. This strength that I acquired at the cost of my entire race and era couldn’t overcome this lowly human?
Sungchul continued to walk towards him. The avian king had to swallow the insult of having to use his two arms and legs to crawl on his back to postpone the destined moment. He suddenly had a thought.
That’s right. This guy can only resort to physical attacks.
Within his body was near infinite amounts of magic power. The problem was that the vessel of this immense magical power had sustained a critical injury. It would be difficult to heal himself in the current circumstance. He needed something he could immediately use. A potion or another living creature.
Marakia who was now crawling on his back caught something in his sights. It was a human. The female magician who had claimed to have revived him. He may have been reawakened by that woman, but humans were nothing more than a snack to Marakia.
That looks good. The mage would also work great as nourishment.
Marakia was capable of sacrificing his own subjects; it would be impossible to expect mercy from him toward another race entirely. His eyes were those of a predator looking at his prey.
“W-What…?!” Mimi quickly figured out the intent behind Marakia’s gaze toward her, but by then, it was all too late. The sharp beak tore through her flesh and became lodged into her heart. Marakia’s throat gulped down the warm blood of a freshly killed human.
“…”
Sungchul only watched the scene with an indifferent expression.
***
Sungchul stood in front of Marakia, then raised Fal Garaz onto his shoulders as he spoke.
“I heard that you were in the class of lesser gods, but I guess you haven’t quite gotten there yet.”
“…What do you want?”
Marakia wiped off the blood off his beaks as he asked, looking exasperated. Sungchul looked down at the Avian King apathetically as he held his hand out.
“Crown.”
The Crown of the Nahak King was believed to possess an unimaginable amount of magic power. The crown was the sole reason that Sungchul hadn’t already torn Marakia to shreds. However, Marakia appeared as though it was the first time he heard of a Nahak crown.
“The Kings of Nahaks don’t wear crowns. The color of their feathers symbolize their royalty, and also…”
Once enough vitality returned, Marakia quickly chanted an aria under his breath that caused a mysterious square barrier to form around him. He then laughed loudly within his barrier.
“Kuhahaha! I’ve already caught on the fact that physical attacks are all that you’re good at. You will not be able to break through this barrier as long as my unlimited mana endures!”
Sungchul picked up his hammer and took a swing at the barrier as a test. He felt no vibration nor impact, but the hammer did not budge any further than the boundary of the magic wall. Sungchul’s Soul Contract, the Eye of Truth, activated which let him peek into the nature of the barrier.
A barrier technique that nullifies all physical attacks. It can be sustained for as long as the caster desires.
In other words, it was the perfect defense. However, it is impossible for mortals to make something perfect. Marakia had to place a critical weakness in exchange for a perfectly sustainable defense against physical damage. Sungchul used the Eye of Truth to look into the constraints.
The barrier can nullify all physical attacks, but he had to include a form of weakness, so he increased his vulnerability to magic by several times.
In other words, even the weakest of spells would become quite powerful once passing through that barrier. That was the vulnerability placed within his own technique. It was because the power of the spell increased proportionally to how crippling the weakness was and so Marakia took advantage of this method.
This would have been effective a year ago, but Sungchul had gone through a similar ordeal and had been looking far and wide for a method to break through this obstacle. Now was the moment of truth, to find out if his efforts were not in vain.
Sungchul put down his hammer and extended his finger.
“Glare.”
A magic formation flashed for an instant at the tip of his finger. Marakia’s violet eyes grew wide as he saw this. That bastard. He can use magic too?
In the next moment, a beam of light extended from the tip of Sungchul’s finger directly onto Marakia.
“Keuk!”
He used his last remaining wing to shield his body from the piercing light from Glare. Bone-numbing pain scraped through his entire body. In addition to the plentiful mana in the surrounding area, the barrier further amplified the enemy's magic attack. One factor weakens him and the other strengthens the enemy.
It was the worst possible situation. But Marakia was not just anybody. He who was called the Last King calmly calculated and assessed the situation despite it being seemingly hopeless.
This guy’s magic power is insignificant. It’s a low-grade magic that doesn’t even reach the third circle. It might hurt like I’m dying, but this isn’t lethal.
As he expected, Sungchul’s magic attack stung, but it didn’t leave a mortal wound due to Marakia’s exceptionally high magic resistance. Generally, magicians with extraordinarily high magic power would have equally remarkable levels of magic resistance. Marakia was no exception. His magic resistance reached the levels only a Transcendent could, around 600. Most half-assed magic wouldn’t even be enough to put a scratch on him. If it had been anywhere other than inside the barrier, or if he had been hit by Sungchul's magic outside of the dungeon on the surface, the Magic Resistance that covered his entire body might have nullified the spell entirely. He sustained this much of an injury because he was within the barrier and because he was in the underground labyrinth overflowing with mana. But Marakia would not die from this level of damage.
He thanked the corpses of Mimi Azrael and her Homunculus that were sprawled out in the corner and refocused on the battle. A shadow wrapped around the burnt flesh that Sungchul’s Glare had seared, and it quickly healed.
If I hadn’t resorted to emergency measures by eating that human, it might have been really dangerous.
Sungchul was pouring in Glare from beyond the barrier. Marakia felt intense pain on every strike, but the shadow continued to heal him every time.
“…”
Sungchul felt annoyed.
This guy. He recovered his Magic Fingerprint.
When Sungchul tore away Marakia’s wing, he felt that he had torn away one of the pillars that supported Marakia’s magic system. However, it had recovered after Marakia devoured Mimi and the homunculus.
“Why did you just watch him eat that pitiful Homunculus and that rotten woman?” Bertelgia who was somehow already out of the pocket asked bluntly.
Sungchul sighed lightly. “I wanted to see the potential.”
“The potential?”
“…”
Sungchul didn’t reply. Instead, he circled around Marakia who was still behind the barrier and tried Glare several more times. Marakia spat out cries of pain, but as time passed, he regained his confidence and began mocking Sungchul.
“Your flesh might be fearsome, but your magic is pathetic. This place might be overflowing with mana, but how long can you continue to fire off blindly with your pathetic amount of magical talent?”
He had a point. Sungchul had also been thinking on that point, and he knew the answer. He pulled out a sleeping bag from his Soul Storage and laid it out on top of the skeletons. Marakia, who did not know what a sleeping bag was, watched puzzled as to what Sungchul was up to until Sungchul lay down on it.
Wait, is this human planning to…
His speculation soon became a reality when Sungchul turned his back and spoke in a composed voice. “It’s ok. I’ve got a lot of time. I’ll just take a snooze and knock on you some more afterwards.”
It wasn’t just empty words. Marakia could feel the truth in his voice. That stupid oaf with more brawn than brain would never give up before he got what he wanted. And thus, Marakia asked the question, “I do not have a crown. But if there is anything other than the crown that I can give, I wish to make a deal with you. What is it that you desire, human?”
Sungchul, who was facing away from Marakia, turned his head over his shoulder. He looked at Marakia indifferently and put forward his demand. “Magic Power.”
“Magic Power?”
“That’s right. There is a conniving one who's exactly like you, and I think both of you have similar levels of strength. I want to get rid of him with magic.”
“Are you perhaps telling me to give you my Magic Power?”
“Anything is fine. Magic Power or relic. As long as it’s acceptable to me, I’ll take it,” Sungchul said as he lay back down.
Marakia closed his beak and began to contemplate. Something acceptable. The weight of those words fell heavy on Marakia’s shoulders. The human in front of his eyes was a being that even he could not contend with. How much would such a person require before he could be satisfied? Marakia, who was thinking carefully, came to such a very shocking conclusion that he couldn't breathe.
Could it be… does this human want my entire Magic Power?
In other words, stat transference. Dreadful suspicion rose in Marakia’s eyes as he continued to contemplate what this human could possibly want.
There were largely two ways through which a being transferred stats to another being. One was through quests, but the creation of a quest required a long time and effort as it required the permission of a god and the stats that could be given were limited. Creating an Objective, which was a superior form of quests, or using quest as a way to set up a gamble with stat points as wager were some of the few ways to raise some stat points, but it would not satisfy someone like Sungchul. In order to hand over the acceptable amount of plentiful stats, it required another method: Soul Inheritance.
But this method had a dreadful unavoidable prerequisite: It resulted in the death of the one giving his stats.
The Soul Inheritance required strong will, desire, and the death of the giver. This was considered as the greatest form of inheritance a denizen of the Other World could leave for their posterity.
Even if the amount of stat that could be transferred via Soul Inheritance was roughly a tenth of the sacrifice’s original stats, being able to raise stats by even one for those who are close to becoming Transcendent was an immense boon. But as already stated, this method requires the death of the one transferring the stat; a prerequisite Marakia could never come to accept.
Do you really think I would hand over my Soul Inheritance to some lesser species like you, who isn’t even my child?
No, it would not matter even if he were his child. Marakia made up his mind inside of the barrier and resolved himself.
First, I have to heal my wounds in here till my wings recover. Once my wings recover, I’ll find a way, human. I’ll show you that time is not only on your side.
At that moment, something at the edge of his sight began to stir. It was the green monster with the avian skull that was covered in mucous. It was the Despair of the Abyss.
Why is that accursed monster in my kingdom? And it's even in the form of a Nahak. How strange. Our kingdom has nothing to do with the Ancient God.
The Despair of the Abyss dug through the skeletons that blanketed the ground to seek out a single corpse. It was Willie Gilford’s corpse. The creature lifted the corpse, opened its maw, then swallowed his body whole. It was an unrealistic scene that couldn’t be believed, and it sent shivers down Marakia’s body.
Sungchul rose from his knapsack a bit later. Feeling a bit rested, he began shooting out Glare without warning. Marakia continued to endure Sungchul’s attack and ultimately managed to protect himself. This continued for a while longer until Sungchul realized that he was making no progress.
Do I have to bring Deckard? No, he’s too weak. He might crumble to some mental attack before he can use any magic.
Sungchul rethought his plans as he turned to his rectangular friend. “Bertelgia.”
“Hm? Why do you seek me, Bertelgia, Oh Mr. Scary, Scary Man?”
“Do you know any way to resolve this situation?”
Marakia who was hunched over within the barrier lifted his head to see Bertelgia flapping behind Sungchul.
Is that a living book? Wait, now that I look at it, it’s not just a normal living book. I can feel a faint trace of life force and a soul within.
Curiosity rose within Marakia’s eyes as he could hear Berltegia’s voice from afar.
“Mmmm… how about you keep bashing at it with your hammer? That bird brain’s mana can’t be infinite, so just keep bashing away at it until it br
eaks.”
“Wait!”
Marakia’s voice interrupted her.
“Do you think that method will work? My mana is infinite.”
To this Bertelgia flew listlessly around Sungchul and replied as if she was disappointed with Marakia's answer.
“Well, this mister’s strength is also infinite.”
“Ah, that’s a good idea.”
Sungchul picked up Fal Garaz once again, and fear rose within Marakia’s eyes.
Shit.
Bertelgia’s words were correct. He may call his mana infinite, but it was something earned through the death of tens of thousands of Cave Elves and the lives of his own kind. There was an end.
However, what about the man that stood in front of him? It wasn’t clear how he obtained his strength, but each and every strike of his hammer seemed to possess the might of a god. What would happen if he were to engage in a battle between infinities against someone like him? Marakia already knew the answer.
STOMP.
Sungchul stood before the barrier with his hammer in hand. Marakia’s eyes grew wide, but Sungchul stopped and placed the hammer before the barrier.
“On second thought, I want to use a different method.”
It was an unexpected opportunity. Sungchul wanted to dominate the Avian King through a method other than his own strength.
Marakia fought with all his strength to maintain his expression, but the danger had not yet passed for him. When Sungchul put down the hammer, he asked Bertelgia another question.
“Bertelgia, do you know of any way to enhance magic in your alchemic library?”
“Why wouldn’t there be?”
Bertelgia spun up into the air with vigor as she answered. Marakia felt intense desire to tear apart that chattering book in the air, but despite his wishes, Bertelgia’s mouth did not rest.
“There is a drink and a powder. Which do you prefer?”
“Doping, eh? I personally don’t like strengthening up temporarily by drinking. I’m not weak,” responded Sungchul.
“How about the powder?”
“It is a type of item that lowers enemy magic resistance?”