Ch.104Chapter 104. First Elder Kilbis (3)

The Elder floating in the air released the same mist I had seen earlier.

That black mist that had Ordin panicking earlier—clearly dangerous just by looking at it.

Whoosh—

Just to be safe, I blew wind toward the mist spreading below me, but as expected, the mist didn’t budge at all.

‘Well, that confirms one thing.’

As I felt during my fight with Landgar, Black Magic was a type of magic that couldn’t be countered with ordinary magic.

More precisely, it wasn’t that ordinary magic couldn’t counter it, but that ordinary mana couldn’t.

This was one of the reasons most people were helpless against Black Magic.

No matter how simple the Black Magic spell, people couldn’t counter it with the magic they normally used.

Even Yuria, who had been researching Black Magic for a long time, hadn’t found a proper countermeasure yet.

Woong—

Instead of shooting wind at the descending mist, I opened a space around me.

The rapidly spreading mist disappeared as if being absorbed into the subspace.

Swish—

While the mist was spreading toward me from the front, a rapid attack flew at me from behind.

Just like Landgar had used before, black mana formed into sharp thorns and rushed toward me.

Woong—

Creating a distraction with mist and then ambushing from behind.

But it wouldn’t work on me.

Unlike the First Elder’s barrier, a more effective barrier was activated around me.

As the black thorns were absorbed into the subspace like the mist, the First Elder quickly fled.

As if he knew I would leap toward him immediately.

‘He’s quick-witted.’

I noticed it from the moment we first met when he immediately left.

Unlike Landgar, this First Elder was quite perceptive.

He also seemed to handle Black Magic better than Landgar.

Last time, Landgar’s attacks felt like he was just swinging around lumps of mana without forming proper “magic,” but the First Elder was definitely using actual spells.

Especially that mist-type magic was very tricky.

I could just send it to subspace, but I couldn’t do that all day.

Simple teleportation was something I could do with my eyes closed, but other techniques were different.

Even though I used space manipulation techniques, I still needed to concentrate.

It might look like I was using them effortlessly to others, but in reality, it wasn’t that easy.

It consumed a lot of mental energy, and overusing it would make me mentally fatigued.

“Where did he go now.”

I looked around but couldn’t see him anywhere.

This place was definitely advantageous for the First Elder.

After the First Elder appeared, he must have cast a new barrier because it wasn’t easy to detect him.

When I first arrived at this place, only the area around the tree house felt hazy, but now the entire surroundings were foggy as if shrouded in mist.

The First Elder must have done something.

‘Ugh, how annoying.’

My plan didn’t include fighting the First Elder for long.

I wanted to quickly take him down, rescue Elaine, and leave.

Besides, it wasn’t good to show myself in front of the O’Neil Kingdom’s army for too long.

Swish— Bang—

While I was looking around and organizing my thoughts, attacks suddenly rained down.

It was the black thorns I had blocked earlier.

The black thorns hit the ground quite far from me and made an explosive sound.

They looked small but seemed to contain considerable power.

‘But why there…’

Swish— Swish— Bang—

Several more black thorns followed, embedding themselves around me.

I couldn’t tell where they were being fired from, but the black thorns were becoming increasingly accurate.

At first, they hit about 5 meters away from me, but now they were coming within 3 meters.

Swish— Woong—

Finally, the First Elder’s attack entered the effective range.

This time, instead of embedding in the ground, it grazed my spatial barrier and was absorbed into the subspace.

After that, the attacks stopped briefly.

After these attacks with unclear intentions, the First Elder finally revealed himself.

This time, not in the air but standing on the ground right in front of me.

“So where is the student?”

“The diameter is about 2 meters, surrounding you in a spherical shape.”

“…Huh?”

“I’m not sure of the exact principle, but you’re utilizing ‘space,’ right?”

The First Elder spoke excitedly.

It seemed those earlier attacks were meant to determine the range of my defensive capabilities.

Indeed, the First Elder had figured out quite a bit about my abilities with just a few attacks.

He was definitely different from Landgar, who just relied on his own strength without knowing anything.

“Stop changing the subject. Where is the student?”

“…Well, where could she be?”

Poof—

“Hey, you!”

The First Elder disappeared from my sight again with a sound of bursting air.

It was really annoying, but I couldn’t track where he went.

Instead, I felt massive mana vibrating around me.

Rumble—

With the sound of the ground shaking, huge walls began to rise around me.

Walls surrounded by black mana rising in all directions.

‘Sigh, this is really annoying.’

The rapidly rising walls covered even the ceiling as if trying to trap me.

There was no way I could be trapped by something like this, but I didn’t want to just stay put according to the First Elder’s intentions.

Woong—

‘If I can just find where Elaine is.’

I decided to finish this quickly.

Visualizing the tree house I had seen earlier, I took a step.

My foot left the ground and when it touched down again, I was already outside the black walls.

Ignoring the massive mana I felt behind me, I quickly opened the door of the tree house.

This was the most likely place for Elaine to be right now.

Click—

“Hmm.”

But of course, things in life don’t work out so easily.

It would have been nice if Elaine was inside as soon as I opened the door, but there was no one there.

“How did you escape from there? What kind of—”

Whoosh—

Hearing a voice from behind, I reflexively swung my sword wide as I turned around.

The First Elder, still wearing his robe, was standing there.

He stopped mid-sentence and dodged my sword.

“Looks like I need to take you down first.”

Crack—

“Ugh.”

The barrier around the First Elder broke one layer as my sword cut through space.

I had planned to ignore him and find Elaine first, but that was a wrong decision.

Instead of ignoring him, I should first beat him up and make him tell me where Elaine is.

“Here I come?”

I rushed at him quickly so the First Elder couldn’t escape like before.

So fast that he wouldn’t even have time to use teleportation.

**

‘It’s either magic that absorbs energy itself, or magic related to spatial movement.’

Kilvis formulated a hypothesis as he watched the Black Shadow Corps commander absorb his attack.

Seeing how the sword had penetrated the barrier earlier, it wasn’t a method of absorbing and eliminating energy.

If that were the case, the barrier itself would have disappeared, but the barrier didn’t disappear from the earlier attack.

Then there was a high probability that this technique was related to spatial movement.

In fact, the Black Shadow Corps commander was an expert in spatial magic, able to cast teleportation very quickly.

‘Is he opening space to transfer incoming attacks to another dimension?’

Kilvis thought calmly while hiding his presence.

If this hypothesis was correct, it would be problematic in its own way.

If he could handle not just teleportation but space itself so skillfully, it would be very difficult to land an attack.

Swish— Woong—

‘The defensive range is about 2 meters around him.’

Kilvis deliberately threw attacks off-target to confirm the opponent’s defensive range.

The range where the opponent felt threatened was about 2 meters around himself.

If an attack fell within that distance, the Black Shadow Corps commander would absorb it.

‘Let’s see if he can escape from this too.’

Rumble—

Kilvis quickly created a wall made of Black Magic that couldn’t be overcome with ordinary mana.

The massive wall rising from the ground surrounded the Black Shadow Corps commander in the blink of an eye, but it couldn’t keep him trapped.

The Black Shadow Corps commander passed through the wall as if it were nothing and immediately teleported to the tree house.

This confirmed it.

The technique this guy was using wasn’t a technique utilizing ordinary mana.

It was a new technique that could counter Black Magic.

“How did you escape from there? What kind of—”

Whoosh—

While Kilvis was expressing his surprise and admiration, the Black Shadow Corps commander swung his sword.

Not only was it fast, but its range was impossible to predict.

Despite being a magician with considerable close-combat experience, Kilvis had never encountered an attack that closed a distance of over 5 meters in an instant.

Whoosh— Slash—

‘Ugh.’

The black blade smoothly passed through several layers of barriers and cut his clothes.

If he had been a little slower, his flesh would have been cut.

‘I need to hide first…’

Whoosh— Crack—

“Argh!”

Kilvis tried to hide his presence like before, but he failed.

The Black Shadow Corps commander attacked without giving him any chance to escape, not even a fraction of a second.

‘What is this?’

Kilvis couldn’t help but be flustered.

It was similar to how he felt when he first encountered Black Magic.

No matter what he tried, he couldn’t block the commander’s sword.

He tried to push back the sword with numerous Black Magic spells he knew, but the commander’s sword penetrated all those spells and came at him.

Whoosh— Slash—

“Ah!”

Kilvis bent forward in surprise as he felt a chill down his spine.

He almost had his back cut by an attack from behind.

Thud—

He barely avoided having his flesh cut, with only his clothes being sliced.

Of course, as a result, the robe he was wearing was cut vertically in half and fell to the ground.

“Finally I see your face.”

“What in the world are you…”

Kilvis had no time to worry about such things.

He could only stare at the Black Shadow Corps commander with a bewildered face.