Ch.283Icarus’s Wings (3)

Here, there is a man named Anton Kehano.

Romantic, a man who loved a witch, an idiot blinded by love, and so on. There were countless names for him, but they all referred to Anton Kehano ‘after meeting Lapis.’

Before that.

Before meeting Lapis, that is, 400 years ago, Anton was called by a slightly different name.

‘Mad Anton.’

A hunter who hunted witches alone. A mad dog who would stir up anything related to witches. Madman, mad dog—the words used to describe Anton at that time were terribly ominous.

And Anton lived a life worthy of that name.

He killed witches. Killed and killed again. As if testing how far he could throw himself away for a single purpose, Anton abandoned everything and carried out his revenge. The achievements of a man obsessed with revenge were worthy of being called great feats.

He killed double-digit numbers of witches.

He even hunted the Witch of Scorching Heat with eight stars.

Excluding Merlin, Anton Kehano was the one who killed the most witches in history.

“……”

Recalling the memories of that time, Anton Kehano gripped his sword after 400 years. The moment he held the sword, Anton’s eyes sank coldly. When he opened his closed eyes, what Anton saw was a battlefield of stars colliding with stars.

Guooooooooo…

The low rumbling cries of whales. A battlefield where millions of whales swim and create waves.

Flash.

Countless stars colliding and scattering starlight. And even the jesters hiding among those stars.

It was a chaotic battlefield that could truly be called a melee. Taking in the battlefield at a glance, Anton curled up the corners of his mouth.

“Ah.”

A chaotic battlefield where forces intertwined so much that it was impossible to tell who was an enemy and who was an ally. This was exactly the kind of battlefield Anton loved.

Tak.

Anton began to run, kicking off a leaping whale. Though it had been 400 years since he had drawn his sword, the passage of time had not rusted Anton’s blade. Each time Anton’s sword flashed, a whale’s body was finely dismembered.

Splash!

Blood sprayed in all directions as Anton swung his sword widely, sending pieces of dismembered whale flying with the pressure he created. Using those pieces as stepping stones, Anton made leap after leap, traversing the battlefield.

“Ugh.”

“Kuhup……”

As Anton moved, suppressed groans burst out from all over the battlefield. Anton sprinted while cutting off parts of the bodies of constellations targeting Najin—shoulders, arms, legs, or ankles.

There were no large or flashy movements.

He repeated only restrained and concise actions.

It was difficult to kill transcendents with a single blow, but it wasn’t hard to chip away at parts of their bodies by taking advantage of moments when they were distracted. And victory is typically made up of such small things.

Slash.

Anton’s eyes flashed through the spurting streams of blood. Having crossed the battlefield, Anton slid across the sea and gripped his sword in reverse with a spin.

What Anton left across the battlefield was a single path.

Anton’s starlight was scattered throughout the battlefield. He thrust his reverse-gripped sword into the ground. Unlike the mad Anton of the past, the current Anton was not alone. He could use more efficient methods than before.

“Lapis.”

The woman who held half his heart, half his star. Anton spoke the name of the one who was like his other half.

Tak.

At that moment, the clear sound of someone tapping a staff came from far away. No matter how far away she was, Anton could now feel it. Lapis’s presence, her voice.

The path Anton created by scattering starlight.

That path became a fuse. Lapis, who shared a constellation with Anton, lit the fuse.

9th Circle Magic, Kalpa Fire.

Fire erupted.

From the wounds of the constellations Anton had cut, from the path Anton had traveled, crimson flames shot high into the sky all across the battlefield. The battlefield became even more chaotic with the screams of burning stars and the steam rising as the sea boiled.

Tak.

With steam added, making it impossible to see even an inch ahead, Anton plunged back into the battlefield.

The madman rampaged.

Streams of blood, flames, and screams erupted one after another.

2.

Catching his breath on a sailboat, Najin watched Anton racing through the battlefield and exhaled with disbelief.

‘I’d heard about it, but…’

It was beyond Najin’s imagination. The flow of the battlefield was being reversed by just one person. Lapis suddenly thrust her face toward Najin.

“What do you think? Isn’t he cool?”

Lapis smiled as if showing off her lover.

“Old habits die hard. Even though he’s been suppressing it since meeting me, his true nature is that of a son of a bitch. A truly outstanding son of a bitch.”

Najin wasn’t sure if this was an insult or a compliment, but judging by Lapis’s eyes looking lovingly toward Anton, it seemed to be a compliment.

“A man like that trembles before me and watches my every move? That’s what really drives me crazy. Hmm, it’s nice to see him after so long.”

“……”

“Oh my, what’s with that look?”

“Nothing… just thought it was unique.”

Lapis chuckled.

“Love is something that happens between uniquely crazy people who are appropriately mad for each other, kid.”

Still a child, she muttered, and pushed Najin’s back with a tap.

“Leave this to us and go.”

Lapis tapped the ground beneath Najin’s feet with her staff. As the magic for a leap was being completed, Lapis flicked her pointed hat with her finger.

“The place you need to be is not here.”

With a snap of Lapis’s fingers, the magic activated. Making a great leap with the help of the magic, Najin looked back. He could see Lapis striking down her staff on the sailboat.

Eight stars rose.

Nine circles interlocked in the air.

As storms and flames created by the great sorceress swirled, Najin turned his head to look forward.

“……”

He moved forward.

“Open the way!”

“Don’t let it be blocked. Break through somehow. Haven’t we gathered our strength for this day?”

With the help of numerous transcendents, he moved forward.

“Now!”

“Push forward! Hold on and persist!”

Passing through the transcendents, Najin headed forward.

Tak.

At the end of his advance was the largest whale. The mother of all whales, bearing the castle of the Star of Heaven, roared at Najin as he approached.

A cry that echoed across the sea.

With the resonating throbbing sound, columns of water rose from the ground. The rising water columns were made of whales, and they all rushed toward Najin. The largest whale did the same.

Numerous whales and the largest whale.

In front of the whales rushing to devour Najin’s star, Najin gripped Excalibur. Waiting for the distance between him and the whales to close sufficiently, when the moment came that everything could be captured in a single glance, Najin opened his mouth.

“Merlin.”

And called her name. Najin brought out the means he had been saving. As if she had been waiting for this moment, Merlin placed her hand over Najin’s.

Rings unfolded behind Najin’s back.

One, two, three… nine rings. Created by borrowing Najin’s starlight, the rings creaked but nonetheless began to interlock and rotate.

“……”

With coldly sunken eyes, Merlin looked ahead. Taking in the rushing whales, the sea, the water columns, and the stars at a glance, she lightly flicked her finger.

Unique Magic, Desolation.

The whole world turned white.

3.

While holding Excalibur, Najin is a transcendent.

Though only half, having ascended to transcendence, Najin could now perfectly transfer his mental imagery into reality… which meant that Merlin, who resided in Najin’s mental landscape, could materialize.

Of course, this was not perfect.

What resided in Najin’s inner world was merely Merlin’s soul form, while her true body existed elsewhere. The power that a soul form could wield was limited, and even that depended on Najin’s power.

Not very efficient, Merlin had said.

It ultimately meant drawing on Najin’s power.

“If I deliberately draw on your power, you’d collapse after just one or two spells, wouldn’t you?”

“You know, like how you used to collapse after using one of the Sword of Reformation’s techniques? That kind of feeling.”

In short, the cost-effectiveness was not good.

So she had said it would be better for her to just provide support.

“But in a battlefield of stars, things are different.”

Except for a few special cases.

“Excalibur has the ability to absorb residual starlight in the surroundings.”

Of course, the starlight released by Najin crumbles and scatters, making it impossible to absorb, but it is possible to replenish power through starlight created by other stars.

“A battlefield full of stars.”

“In a battlefield full of starlight where stars collide with stars, I can draw on as much power as I want without worrying about efficiency.”

“Combined with Excalibur’s function of emission, I could produce output equivalent to about half of my true self.”

A single opportunity.

If they gathered all the starlight in the surroundings and focused it on a single spell, it would be possible.

That’s what Merlin had said.

“Now.”

And now, they were putting it into action.

The battle had raged sufficiently.

Enough starlight had been scattered, and they had approached the being who created this stage.

The conditions were met. Now was the right time.

Kiiiiiiing!

Nine rings interlocked around Excalibur. The interlocked rings rotated violently with a grinding sound.

The starlight filling the surroundings.

The residual mana.

Everything created by the collision of stars.

It was all sucked into Excalibur. This was power that Najin at his current level could never handle. If the power Najin could use at once was like a cup of water, the power gathering around Najin now was like a vast lake.

Power that would overflow and be wasted.

But Merlin was by Najin’s side. She captured all the overflowing power in her circles. Though it was power too burdensome for a soul form to handle, Merlin interlocked and rotated the circles through her computational ability and experience.

And thus was completed Merlin’s unique magic.

In terms of circles, it was close to a 10th Circle magic.

Merlin demonstrated the miracle of deploying 10th Circle magic with 9 circles. Transcendents who witnessed the torrent of mana overflowing in the air widened their eyes. It was a phenomenon astonishing and appalling even to the stars in the sky.

Young stars could only stare blankly, unable to grasp the situation, but stars that had lived for ages, or those who had experienced the era when Merlin lived, began to flee the battlefield without looking back.

Because they knew.

The Sorceress of the Lake, Merlin.

How terrifying was the magic of the great sorceress who had single-handedly brought down hundreds of stars from the sky.

“……”

Looking down at the world with coldly sunken eyes, Merlin flicked her finger.

Unique Magic, Desolation.

The nine rings shattered. The gathered starlight and mana erupted in an instant. The torrent of power became a massive wave that swept across the battlefield.

And then, flash.

The world turned white.

This was not a simple metaphor. In an instant, everything “froze white.”

The rising water columns, the whales rushing toward Najin, the largest whale, the stars, even the sea and everything in the area completely froze. And thus came a silence without a single sound.

For stars friendly to Najin, the ice was merely a thin layer, but not for others. Stars whose entire bodies had frozen began to crack.

Dozens of stars crumbled.

“Huu……”

Najin looked at Merlin beside him as she exhaled deeply. She had said she could wield power equivalent to half of her true self.

Reflecting on those words, Najin thought.

Half, she says? This?

It was a scene unbelievable even to his own eyes. Recalling Merlin’s prime that he had seen in the Black Tower, Najin swallowed dryly.

“Admiration is fine, but.”

Merlin’s body, having used excessive power, dispersed into starlight. No longer able to maintain materialization, Merlin returned to Najin’s inner world.

-Now, we have a long way to go, don’t we? Hurry up.

She pointed ahead.

There stood the castle of the Star of Heaven, borne by the frozen largest whale.

Najin landed on top of the whale.

Was it because Merlin’s magic had frozen even time, making everything slow, or was it because the flow of time was different at the center of the stage? While all the scenery outside flowed slowly, Najin moved forward.

The frozen sea.

The frozen whale and the frozen castle.

In a world where everything was frozen and still, Najin alone walked the stage and flung open the gates of the Star of Heaven’s castle. Najin moved toward Icarus, who would be at the center of the castle.