episode_0099

“…….”

I’ve glimpsed countless moments of unavoidable death, I think. That’s because Jinseong Ryu’s teens and twenties were filled with such terrible experiences. But he had always succeeded in avoiding them. He had survived, defeated his enemies, and even reached higher realms… Because of that, had he become complacent? Jinseong Ryu asked himself. Was it complacency, or arrogance?

‘No.’ That wasn’t it. Even Manroe Cheon Sehee, who was classified as a Great Mage like himself, was half a step ahead of Jinseong Ryu. Besides her, this land also had the Sword Saint, the Fist Emperor, and the Dragon King residing within it. There were simply too many monsters in this small land to harbor arrogance based on ‘strength’. Therefore, he didn’t believe he had been complacent. He had always objectively assessed his own abilities and compared them to his opponents.

Today was no different. The initially arrogant attitude he displayed when facing the low-grade dark mages was, in fact, a rational judgment. They walked a path similar to Jinseong Ryu, who controlled darkness, but… They were so base that comparing them to ‘Black Heaven’ Jinseong Ryu would have been an insult.

Truly one-dimensional beings, who merely committed low-level evil acts like sacrificing lives to cultivate their darkness. He judged that all of them could be defeated by Jinseong Ryu’s own power without any hindrance. And indeed, his prediction was not wrong.

Jinseong Ryu subdued Christopher and the other dark mages with little effort. He proved the overwhelming difference in power by killing some of those who resisted strongly. Now, all that remained was to contact the Hero, Yang Chan-ho, personally.

Under normal circumstances, he would have made the final decision himself. But this was Cheongsong Academy. The decision-maker was the Hero, and Jinseong Ryu was merely a guest and a visitor.

Click, clack… “…….”

Somehow, it was very high-pitched. That was when the sound of footsteps echoed. Jinseong Ryu immediately stopped his movement to take out his cell phone, narrowing his eyes.

The aura he felt, the faintness of the presence that seemed intentionally revealed, the flow of mana. There was more than enough basis for his judgment. The owner of the presence steadily approaching from beyond the dark corridor far away was, unequivocally, a superhuman.

Sling! Jinseong Ryu didn’t hesitate. He didn’t even need to figure out if they were an enemy or an ally. In this situation, someone approaching with that kind of aura couldn’t possibly be an ally. Jinseong Ryu, having created a blade filled with darkness, twisted his wrist, and the black dagger that flew precisely pierced the owner of the presence.

Thud! “…….” “…….”

And then, silence fell. But the tension didn’t lessen in the slightest. He had struck, but inflicted no wound. He couldn’t bring them down.

It was a certainty, and Jinseong Ryu immediately decided on his next move. By now, he couldn’t possibly not know that this wasn’t a light opponent to consider subduing, so he would aim to kill.

Whoosh! The surrounding darkness, gathered in an instant, became Jinseong Ryu’s power, simultaneously swirling around him in the form of a storm, protecting his side. It was the optimal judgment in a situation where the enemy’s type couldn’t be precisely known. To reiterate, it wasn’t a misjudgment.

It was merely insufficient.

“Kya-ha!” The voice that rang out for a moment was that of a woman. High, thin, and somehow sharp.

“……!” The moment Jinseong Ryu’s expression twisted with displeasure, a small figure appeared, piercing straight through space. Right before Jinseong Ryu’s eyes.

His reaction was swift. He immediately condensed the gathered darkness into a barrier and placed it in front of him, but. KABOOM!!!

It crumbled. In a miserable and brutal fashion, a single punch directly smashing through the barrier — that was the outcome. There was no time to pull any more tricks. A mage who couldn’t buy even a single moment wouldn’t be granted a second chance.

The moment a flash of violet hair appeared beyond his vision, Jinseong Ryu couldn’t even move a handful of mana and allowed the attack. Crunch!

“──.” All the scenery before his eyes flickered blurrily, his posture twisted, and strength drained from his legs. Thump… Along with the very faint sound of ‘something falling’. Jinseong Ryu immediately lost consciousness.

*****

Losing consciousness was instantaneous, but no one could tell how long it would take to regain it. Only dark mages could be an exception to that rule.

That’s because they were adept at separating their consciousness from their physical bodies. If they put their minds to it, they could even awaken their consciousness while unconscious.

Naturally, for Jinseong Ryu, who could be called the best among such dark mages, it went without saying. Although he lost consciousness, his awakening was swift. The moment he opened his eyes, he calculated the time.

Not certain, but around five minutes? ‘…Was it too late?’ Jinseong Ryu’s expression twisted sharply.

Five minutes might sound like an early awakening, but it was more than enough time to kill a defenseless human. Given that he could think right now, it seemed he wasn’t dead, which was a relief, he supposed.

Still, there was no telling what situation he was in, so he had to regain full consciousness as quickly as possible. Jinseong Ryu used the pure blue mana within his body, not his ‘darkness,’ to stimulate his brain.

It wasn’t anything remarkable. It was merely giving his brain a couple of concise shocks. What the Great Mage did first after regaining his senses, of course, was to assess the situation.

“…….” It wasn’t a long process. A brief four or five seconds. That alone was enough time for Jinseong Ryu’s complexion to change completely, and the current ‘situation’ was such that it couldn’t be otherwise.

“──Damn it.” Jinseong Ryu shot up to his feet. Although pain lingered, it wasn’t a moment he could afford to care about such things.

The presence he felt nearby was that of the being closest to him. The only disciple who had mastered the same unique magic as him, and thus could find him. …His adopted daughter.

Smash! He shattered the black barrier, which seemed to have been intended to hide and protect him, with a single blow, and emerged outside.

As expected, the scene laid out before him was exactly what Jinseong Ryu had feared most. First, a fierce-looking woman was raising her fist in the distance. And the girl standing in front of her, holding only faint mana, was undoubtedly Ryu Seeun.

“──!” Jinseong Ryu couldn’t properly recall what happened the next moment. It was something he had never experienced since reaching the realm of a Great Mage. Losing his reason, his eyes half-rolled back, he kicked off the ground in a manner quite unbefitting a mage.

Even amidst that, the reason he could gather darkness in one hand must have been purely due to instinct.

“……What?” The woman, clenching her fist, noticed Jinseong Ryu’s presence and frowned. It was a reaction that suggested she hadn’t expected him to wake up so early.

It didn’t matter. Without hesitation, Jinseong Ryu pushed Ryu Seeun behind him.

“……!?” Ryu Seeun looked up at her adopted father’s back with a surprised expression. Jinseong Ryu immediately unleashed an explosion of mana.

KABOOM!! It was crude and clumsy. It wasn’t a proper attack, nor was it even a spell or a magic circle, just a single, hastily drawn strike. It was merely a one-time maneuver, solely to make the opponent move away from his sight.

Of course, it couldn’t have properly worked. The woman merely narrowed her brows, retreating lightly to evade the magic without further reaction.

And without leaving any gap, she took a deep step, approaching right in front of Jinseong Ryu’s nose. The woman’s fist was reflected in Jinseong Ryu’s eyes. More precisely, the bluish energy dwelling within that fist, its density and hardness.

The moment it landed a direct hit, he might die instantly. Even knowing that intellectually, he couldn’t pull his body back. If he wanted to avoid it, he would have had several magical evasion methods left.

“…….” Jinseong Ryu tilted his head slightly to check on his daughter behind him, then let out a hollow laugh.

He had thought that anything resembling emotion had been castrated since that day ten years ago. Had he now awakened paternal love? It was truly ludicrous, an utterly ridiculous farce.

Jinseong Ryu raised his head. The enemy’s fist strike was complete; now all that remained was for it to be unleashed. Even so, the thought of evading it…

Was still absent.

It was around then that Jinseong Ryu began to overload his mana circuits.

‘…Even if I die, I’ll die.’ He never expected to consider his end in such a place, but he would at least leave an indelible scar on the opponent who killed him.

It was the moment Jinseong Ryu’s two eyes were dyed a vivid, clear black.

Crack, crackle… Far away, amidst the dark mages subdued earlier by Jinseong Ryu. Cracks appeared on a dark-red blade hanging from one of their waists.

CRACKLE! What arose was light. The exact colors were blue and golden. Perhaps like ice and lightning.