episode_0071

Before my regression, I enjoyed battles quite a bit, as much as I was strong.

My innate nature was gentle, but the acquired environment changed me.

If a battle seemed interesting, I’d find enjoyment in it, regardless of its form, for the most part.

In short, I liked one-on-one, one-on-many, and many-on-one fights.

Each form of battle has its own unique charm.

One-on-one fights, which basically feel like fair duels between men, are enjoyable because they give the feeling of properly establishing hierarchy.

In the case of many-on-one, there’s a certain enjoyment in teasing the opponent as they frantically face multiple foes and become exhausted.

And one-on-many…

Situations like the present one offer a different flavor of combat.

In a way, isn’t it a man’s fantasy?

To become a mountain-like existence, standing alone against a numerous and overwhelmingly powerful enemy army, and ultimately repelling them.

To become such a hero or valiant general, one that anyone might dream of being in childhood, there’s nothing quite like winning a one-on-many battle.

The small demon’s henchmen, surrounding and threatening me from three directions, are more than enough to make me a valiant general on the battlefield.

[Ras, I’ll heal the fallen first and then join you immediately. Can you hold out alone for about three minutes?]

Rosalie-nim’s telepathic message, filled with her feelings of regret for not being able to help first, reached me, but I actually refused the help.

“Three minutes… In the time it takes to eat a bag of bread, I can knock all those weaklings down. Please prioritize the injured over me. And, most importantly, protect Teacher-nim. That guy came for Teacher-nim.”

“Huh…? Three minutes?? Hey, there’s a limit to how much you can bluff. Isn’t our pretty one underestimating Antikrea too much?”

Of course, it was a total lie.

Actually, with my current skill, I’d be lucky to even knock one of them down in three minutes.

But a man is supposed to bluff a bit like this to look cute.

I had already laid the groundwork to receive some adorable nagging from Rosalie-nim after the battle.

However, this isn’t just the pathetic bluff of a man thirsty for affection; I’m letting you know in advance that it naturally has a strategic aspect.

No matter what I said, if I just fought them appropriately, our capable Rosalie-nim would surely join on her own.

However, whether it’s joining or anything else, it’s always best to strike the enemy’s weak point as much as possible.

Battles always have subtle aspects, so sometimes, foolishly believing the enemy’s words, which shouldn’t be trusted, can act as a fatal factor in victory or defeat.

For instance, let’s say conditions like, ‘I’ll fight without using my hands as a handicap,’ ‘I’ll fight without moving my feet from here,’ or ‘If I use mana, let’s say you win,’ were set before a fight.

And surprisingly, there are those who make such promises or restrictions even in life-or-death battles like this, not just mild sparring, and what’s more surprising is that there are those who believe these promises.

Victory or defeat in a life-or-death battle is ultimately decided by whether you die or kill, but some guys get disoriented during a fight and end up believing the opponent’s promises.

The current situation is similar.

I don’t know how naive that tiny demon’s mind is, and to what extent he’ll pay attention to the words I utter.

But if the words I casually throw out influence his thoughts even a little, that’s enough.

So I deliberately didn’t exchange telepathic messages in secret, but bluffed in a booming voice like Irha.

“Understood? Please focus on protection first..! Because I’m not the kind of person to be pushed around by guys like them.”

Rosalie-nim flinched slightly at my bluff-filled tone and looked at me, but like the clever older sister she is, she seemed to quickly grasp my intention.

[Ras is cute even when he bluffs~ Anyway, I understand what you mean, so fight comfortably. I’ll make sure you don’t get hurt at all.]

As expected, our Rosalie Mama, who understands perfectly even when I speak poorly, was the best.

Anyway, I assumed a combat stance and advanced towards them, looking relaxed and full of bravado.

I tried to look like a pushover, but these guys seemed to be somewhat capable, so they weren’t easily fooled.

[His words don’t match his actions. He’s not a rookie… He’s different from the guys earlier, right down to his fundamental aura, so don’t let your guard down.]

The headless knight, strangely enough, was pointing his sword in the right direction, as if he could see me.

Meanwhile, the voice had an enigmatic strangeness, making it impossible to tell if the guy was alive or dead.

He was listed as a ‘Living Armor’ or ‘Dullahan’ in a book I once read in Semere’s library called ‘Monsters You Absolutely Must Know in Our Time!’

Anyway, creatures classified like that are usually puppets controlled by someone, either a lingering thought or an unpurified soul.

Thanks to the headless knight, I was able to get a sense of what the little demon, who was inappropriately acting flirtatious, actually was.

He’s a necromancer.

Beings who summon spirits, commonly referred to as ghosts, and convert them into their own power to wield.

Actually, most necromancers are insignificant in terms of combat power, but very rarely, there are powerful ones.

And if it’s a necromancer of the level standing before my eyes right now? He’s probably top-class by necromancer standards.

‘So that’s why everyone was defeated so badly. It’s a structure where you’re bound to be easily defeated if you don’t know their true nature.’

I muttered to myself, allowing the enemies to quietly surround me.

The moment they moved to devour me, I activated the condensed Nine Heavens Extinguishing Flame Art.

Nine Heavens Extinguishing Flame Art, Aeram (Haze)

It was the power that allowed me to pass through the blizzard-swept snowy fields within Mirha’s mindscape.

Aeram, which covers oneself in flames strong enough to create a heat haze, is a basic stage of the Nine Heavens Extinguishing Flame Art, but conversely, to progress to more powerful and complex stages, one must master it to its extreme.

If one fails to properly master and withstand this, they could be consumed by their own flames while manifesting the higher stages of the Nine Heavens Extinguishing Flame Art.

The flames, ignited from my lower dantian, traveled through my heart, coursed through my entire body, licking out like scarlet tongues, covering me and dancing like a fire demon.

I had only used it in the mindscape before; this is the first time I’ve used Aeram in actual combat since my regression.

It’s hot. Damnably hot and agonizing, but I’m ecstatic to feel like I’ve returned home.

My welcome friend Aeram grants me flames that are both offense and defense, making it a natural enemy to necromancers.

The attacks of those necromancers often contain their peculiar, sinister ‘trickery’.

It’s a sly follow-up attack using a ‘ghost’ that trails thinly behind the main attack like an illusion, and it’s actually quite tricky to deal with.

According to Semere’s naming, it’s a peculiar trick of necromancers called ‘Ghost Shot’.

But Aeram completely burns away the ghosts themselves, preventing follow-up attacks from reaching me, so as long as I maintain Aeram, Ghost Shot cannot harm me.

With my whole body ablaze, I cackled like a madman and rampaged through the encirclement.

“Do you like it hot? You half-baked corpse-like bastards. If you’re dead, just quietly disappear to hell. Don’t come out into the living world and cause trouble for no reason.”

I dodged the swift sword strike unleashed by the headless knight for now.

In a battlefield like this, it’s basic strategy to leave the armed ones and target the unarmed ones first.

In such cases, the armed ones get tangled up because of their allies’ presence, which interferes with their unique attack timings and sense of distance.

So, I first charged towards the valiant-looking werewolf with a wolf’s head.

[Howl…!]

The werewolf, with a wolf’s head and a sturdy man’s body, launched an offensive, attempting a powerful paw strike at me, but it was useless.

Animals are inherently weak to fire; tigers or lions naturally shy away and flee when they see flames.

What could a mere wolf do, then?

Before his paw strike could gain acceleration and destructive power, my flaming hand was already where his wrist would extend.

The werewolf’s feigned ferocity was naturally read by me, and he was helplessly caught by his hairy wrist.

[Whine…!!!]

Even a valiantly howling werewolf becomes a pathetic dog-like creature under fire-torture.

However, true to being a werewolf, he had good regenerative abilities, endurance, and magic resistance, so the Mark of Annihilation didn’t fully imprint.

This was because my level was still low, so I settled for a compromise.

After cleanly letting go of the struggling creature, I delivered a powerful side kick to its abdomen, sending it flying.

[Yelp…!!!]

The kick didn’t land perfectly, but it was still a fairly satisfying beating for the wolf-dog.

Instead of pursuing further with greed, I broadened my vision and deflected a cunning sword strike coming in from my flank, feigning a move to my rear, using a fist attack reinforced with mana.

[Truly impressive. You look young, but your movements and vision are incredibly flexible, aren’t they?]

The armored guy, who would obviously look as unlucky as Leon if he had a head, praised me.

“Looks like you’re embarrassed your attack was blocked. You idiot, can’t even beat bare fists with a sword~”

Of course, I wasn’t happy with that kind of praise at all, so I repaid him with insults and mockery.

“You’re flustered, can’t even open your mouth. Oh, right, you don’t have a head, so you don’t have a mouth to open?”

It was a shame I couldn’t see his enraged expression, as he had no head.

[As an impudent and rude fellow, I promise to definitely quarter you.]

Meanwhile, the guy trying to set a chilling atmosphere and saying ‘quartering~’ was so ridiculous that I just ignored him.

[Growl…!!!!]

I turned my head and saw that the pathetic wolf-dog had seemingly recovered, as it was now drooling and baring its teeth at me.

However, even if the Mark of Annihilation didn’t fully imprint, the burning pain would still hinder its ankle for a while.

Whether in its movement or psychologically.

Right now, the wolf-dog is trying to act fierce to maintain its momentum, but in its slight trembling, I can see that its fighting spirit is already dead.

Swoosh-

The front line had felt like it briefly entered a lull, but I hadn’t forgotten that this fight was fundamentally three-on-one.

As I remained highly alert, sure enough… dozens of hard, large ice arrows, imbued with unusual mana, swiftly flew towards me.

I couldn’t dodge them all, so I shattered a few, evaded others, creating distance from them, and caught my breath.

A woman, radiating cold and sharp ice mana like hoarfrost, was rapidly casting multiple ice spells.

[Annoying… flames… are you just showing off with those kind of flames?]

Snow-white hair, gray eyes, skin so pale it was almost white.

Her appearance reminded me of Yoringda, whom I killed before my regression—or rather, Mirha, who survived and grew after her Extreme Yin Body went berserk.

However, seeing her long ears…

“Look at this long-eared bastard trying to backstab me. Is she a snowman? Perfect to melt to death.”

[Long… long-eared…! I’ll freeze you to death…!]

As evident from her excessive trembling at the derogatory term ‘long-eared,’ that’s an elf.

Tree-lovers who live clustered together at the western edge of the continent and supposedly don’t interfere much with human affairs.

Did I know one or two of them before my regression? It wasn’t a particularly beneficial relationship; we met at swordpoint.

Anyway, that pale long-eared witch is quite skilled, unlike the wolf-dog.

Her casting speed is incredibly fast, her mana manipulation is precise with no wasted mana, and her spell conversion is overwhelmingly quick.

Most troublesome of all is that the power of her ‘ice magic’ itself is high enough to freeze flames.

Originally, weak ice magic is nothing more than a dessert for a flame man like me.

But truly powerful ice magic can actually subdue and freeze flames.

‘Hehehe, Ras. You’ve frozen again. It seems our Ras’s cute flames only melt women’s hearts. But that won’t do. Don’t act cute with other women. You are mine, so whether it’s tricks or hand-warming, you must only do it for me. Understand?’

‘…….(I get it, so please unfreeze me. I’m freezing to death.)’

That’s why I would always freeze completely under Semere’s ice magic whenever we sparred.

Of course, after completely mastering the Nine Heavens Extinguishing Flame Art, no ice magic other than Semere’s highest-tier ice magic could bind me, but my power is currently drastically depleted.

Therefore, to keep my flames from freezing now, I have no choice but to intentionally strain myself and keep increasing their output.

My focus must be divided between increasing the power of my flames and simultaneously evading and deflecting the continuous incoming attacks.

I evaded and melted ice spears, frost-cold blizzards, and ice vines erupting from the ground.

At the same time, I dodged the headless knight’s swift thrusting and slashing attacks, and sometimes parried them with my flame-engulfed hands and feet.

[Howl…!!!]

The wolf-dog, having seemingly switched careers to become an ally cheerleader in the corner, was howling energetically, but what was it doing?

[My Ghost Howling isn’t working…?]

Meanwhile, his form, shouting in confusion with a foolish voice, was quite pathetic, like seeing the old Irha.

Why was he advertising to everyone that his attacks weren’t working?

It was a sight that made me sigh involuntarily… but since the battlefield had heated up appropriately to some extent, I, now enjoying myself, could advance one step further.

“Hey, everyone..! Maintain the combined attack tighter. My casting is finished too…! Alright, come out, my cute skeleton brigade!!!”

Antikrea, as if she hadn’t just been sucking her thumb and watching, activated the summoning magic she had diligently prepared.

Thousands of skeleton soldiers, sprouting rapidly from the ground like bamboo shoots.

The foolish skeleton bastards, each holding translucent glowing bone spears or bone swords, shuffled forward in a battle formation.

Ah, damn, it’s exciting, but also a bit tough…

“Whether it’s one, ten, or a hundred thousand… empty skeleton bastards, I’ll just burn them to ash.”

But a flame man shouldn’t show weakness here. Especially when the woman he likes is watching.

Just as I was about to raise my spirits and step back into the battlefield, I felt a new power fill my entire body.

Yes, your backing, you half-baked corpse horde, is a pathetic necromancer with a mischievous grin… but behind me is none other than a ‘Saintess’..!

Rosalie-nim moved her utterly sacred lips to chant a solemn holy word, wrapping me in a meticulously prepared buff.

“The boy who rowed alone beyond the edge of the icy sea shall bear the sun in his heart. May the flickering grace of the Heavenly God dwell upon the valiant boy.”

‘A Prayer’ is a high-level buff completely different from typical divine power buffs, one that only the highest-ranking priests in the Heavenly God cult can occasionally use.

It’s a complex buff that grants much more powerful and diverse effects, unlike common, widely used priestly buffs like Blessing or Striking which have fixed effects.

Before my regression, I had received it about twice from a high-ranking priest I fortunately met during the war with Azhulda.

A slit-eyed woman with a very suspicious impression… was she called ‘Mina of the Slit Eyes’?

Anyway, the ‘Prayer’ I received from a woman with such a name was so remarkably effective that I still remembered the feeling of that buff even after my regression.

And the buff Rosalie-nim cast on me was so potent that it made the buff I received back then seem trivial.

Much more intense, addictive, sweet, deep… no, isn’t this a holy buff…?

[Ras, this is a buff that contains… all the feelings I have for you. So for now, will you fight only for me, and no one else? I’m behind you, so don’t worry about a thing. And… after this is over, let’s go on another date. There’s something I hesitated to say on Saturday.]

Rosalie-nim’s voice, imbued with her sweet and honest emotions and will, filled me completely.

Whatever it was, a buff that perfectly filled, even burst and overflowed, my mana heart, brain, and all five senses, was utterly delightful to me right now.

The necromancer had turned a radius of about three hundred meters into a closed-off forest, claiming it as his territory, which meant the fight would be a war of attrition, becoming difficult without Rosalie-nim. So, this perfectly timed buff arrived.

With a buff of this caliber, I felt I could show Rosalie-nim just how dependable I am.

I replied to her earnest date invitation with my whole heart.

What I etched into Rosalie-nim’s heart was the resolve I desired more intensely than anything else at this very moment.

[Whoever targets you, tries to harm you, or tries to take you away… I will burn and melt them all away. No one, absolutely no one, can lay a finger on you while you are by my side.]

Whether it’s an Emperor, a ghost, a phantom, a Demon King… or even the Apocalypse that I ultimately couldn’t defeat before my regression… none of them will take Rosalie Berhart from me in this life.

Since my regression, I felt the flames surge more intensely than ever before.

Laughing maniacally, my clear eyes gleaming with madness like a rakshasa, and amidst it all, with the nameless’s loving nagging to maintain an unmoving heart quietly, I summoned a burning hell to this ominous-smelling forest.

Nine Heavens Extinguishing Flame Art, Laulava (Screaming Hell)

Laulava, in other words, Screaming Hell (叫喚地獄).

A place where mountains of blazing red copper and rivers of lava flow, and ghosts and spirits shriek bloody screams.

I am the judge, master, and king of that place, and now of this place, Screaming Hell.

Those who covet what belongs to others shall burn to death, howling in this hell.

“Welcome to the Nine Heavens Extinguishing Flame Art’s Hellscape. The peaceful forest is no more. So all of you…”

The darkly grown trees, grass, ground, flowers… all blazed with enormous karmic flames, and those who stood before me were rendered speechless by this inexplicable phenomenon.

As I burned the forest, which had been continuously generating darkness, in waves of fire, I concluded my speech.

“Burn to death.”

Thus, for the first time since my regression, I was able to properly manifest a mindscape.

However, perhaps because it was a mindscape manifested through Rosalie-nim’s affection, I was able to maintain my sanity even while forcibly manifesting power beyond my limits.

As I always feel, love truly is the cure for madness.