Ch.38Meeting Place (2)

“What are you doing, punk?”

I couldn’t stand it anymore. Not only was he sitting in the seat I was supposed to take, but his posture was absolutely unbearable.

It felt like the Confucian values I never knew I had were screaming at me to teach some manners to the guy right in front of me.

“I am Ignius, Archmage of the Red Tower, the Great Flame Mage.”

The man with flaming red hair answered with a smirk.

Red Tower Master, huh.

Come to think of it, I had seen some posts about the Red Tower Master before.

Something about how he was desperate to fight me, and comments saying that with his personality, it wouldn’t be strange if he just launched a meteor at the Blood Tower.

I didn’t believe it until I saw him.

‘Even so… launching a meteor at another Magic Tower…’

Logically, someone in the position of Tower Master should be able to control their emotions no matter how angry they get.

So I thought it would be fine.

Even if he did come looking for me, I expected him to observe the proper etiquette between Tower Masters…

‘This is ridiculous.’

Who would come looking for someone with such blatant disregard for manners?

He looked quite young, and since this was my first meeting with another Tower Master, I thought it would be wrong to act on impulse right away.

So…

“I’ll give you one chance.”

I’ll give him just one opportunity.

“A chance?”

“Get out of my chair right now and go back to your proper seat. Then I’ll pretend this never happened.”

The Red Tower Master blinked at my words, offering to overlook his behavior if he would just show some manners now.

Deep down, I already knew.

I knew that this man in front of me would never accept what I was saying.

Sure enough.

“I don’t want to.”

The Red Tower Master openly refused.

To make matters worse, he committed the outrage of putting his crossed legs up on the table.

“W-what…?”

Razak’s jaw dropped at the sight.

Even Razak, who should have left the room by now, couldn’t hide his shock at what the Red Tower Master was doing.

It seemed like he never imagined that even the Red Tower Master would do something this crazy.

“Hmph.”

Meanwhile, the man himself seemed satisfied, smiling smugly.

If this were on an online forum, he would have typed “lol” with that attitude.

Seeing the Red Tower Master deliberately provoking me, I was finding it harder to hold back.

‘This bastard…’

As I was grinding my teeth, Irina, who had been watching with puffed cheeks, stepped forward.

“I-Irina?!”

Razak called out to her, but Irina’s gaze was already fixed on the Red Tower Master who was lounging with his legs crossed on the table.

“You’re being mean, mister! Listen to my sister!”

“Huh? Who are you?”

“I’m Irina!”

The Red Tower Master looked down at Irina with one eye open, then chuckled at her as she stood with her hands on her hips and puffed cheeks.

“Why should I? I’m stronger than your sister. I don’t listen to people weaker than me.”

“No way! My sister is stronger! She could blow you away with one hit!”

“Oh, really? Then tell your sister to show me. If she’s so strong, why isn’t she doing anything even though I’m provoking her like this? Doesn’t that mean she’s weaker than me?”

“Ugh… nnngh…!”

Irina trembled, clenching her fists in frustration.

“You’re stupid! Waaah!”

Apparently upset that I was being disrespected, Irina ran out crying.

“Kids these days…”

“Aren’t you included in that ‘kids these days’ category yourself?”

“So what are you going to do about it, Blood Tower Master?”

“What am I going to do?”

I understand why he’s acting like this.

It seems like he’s trying to provoke me because he wants to fight.

No matter how impulsive the Red Tower Master might be, he’s still someone who rose to the position of Tower Master.

He’s not stupid enough to act like this.

In other words, he’s acting according to plan.

Which makes it…

‘Even more infuriating.’

Well then.

I should establish dominance first.

“How pitiful and pathetic. You’re such a fool that you can’t recognize the overwhelming gap between us even when it’s right in front of you.”

“Huh? What did you just say…”

“First… I should teach you some manners. Come on, try bowing once.”

I used my power.

Thud!

The Red Tower Master’s body suddenly twisted and moved into a bowing position as I wanted.

“Ugh…?!”

The Red Tower Master tried to resist with force, but my command was absolute. His body rebelled against his brain’s resistance and began to forcibly create a bowing posture.

Eventually,

“Hmm.”

The Red Tower Master forcibly resisted by circulating his magical power.

He managed to pull himself up from the bowing position, and laughed while gasping for breath.

“You… what did you just do…?”

“What did I do? What a strange question. Why should you be concerned about how I move what’s mine?”

“What do you mean…”

“It’s quite amusing to see you desperately trying to resist as if this body is actually yours.”

I unfolded my arms and approached the Red Tower Master.

Still maintaining his arrogant gaze, trying somehow to look down on me.

I walked toward him with calm steps, grabbed his chin, and made him look into my eyes.

He still has that look in his eyes…

I lit up my red eyes and said:

“You’re starting to annoy me.”

At that moment,

CRASH!

The Red Tower Master’s body shot out like a bullet.

After breaking through several walls in an instant, he landed in the magic practice arena.

Since I already knew where it was located, it wasn’t difficult to send him there.

“What, what happened?!”

“The practice arena wall collapsed?!”

Blood Mages who were walking outside the practice arena pulled out their MagicPads in shock when they saw the walls being smashed one after another and a person flying into the wall.

I walked step by step through the broken walls toward the Red Tower Master, who was coughing as he came down from the wall he was embedded in.

“You little brat…!!”

Facing the growling Red Tower Master, I smiled slightly and spread my arms.

“Well… here you can use any magic you want, can’t you?”

The magic practice arena.

A creation of Eterna that can warp space to expand a small area as much as needed.

Here, he can’t claim that he couldn’t use his powerful attacks because of limited space.

Especially since the walls of the magic practice arena,

Swoosh

“…”

Even if destroyed, they repair themselves.

“Go ahead, show me your little tricks.”

As I gestured with my hand, the Red Tower Master began casting magic.

Incredible speed.

He cast a fire spell in an instant and hurled a house-sized fireball at me.

It’s an impressive spell, but for an Archmage, it’s a terrible spell…

‘Or maybe not.’

This is just a distraction.

“I’ll turn you to ashes…!”

Double casting.

Just as I was preparing for the fireball, a blue pillar of fire erupted from the ground and engulfed me.

However,

“Is this all you’ve got?”

I was completely unharmed.

I hadn’t even drawn blood, yet he calls himself the Great Flame Mage with just this level of firepower? That’s almost pitiful.

“Ha.”

The Red Tower Master smirked.

“I won’t give you a chance to use magic…!”

Soon, multiple magic circles formed in the air.

Beyond double, it was triple casting.

From the beginning, he unleashed powerful fire magic continuously as if intending to crush me without letting me do anything.

The Great Flame Mage, Ignius.

The magic he possessed had one common characteristic.

The flames he controlled were not ordinary flames.

Flames that burn everything.

Blue flames turning red, reducing everything to ashes.

They call it “Hellfire.”

Each of his fire spells was threatening.

Even a simple fireball would leave nothing but ashes if it just grazed you.

However…

“What…”

Even a high-temperature beam doesn’t work.

I stand unharmed in the midst of a high-temperature storm.

Even turning the surrounding ground into a flaming landscape that burns everything doesn’t affect me at all.

“Damn it…!!”

The Red Tower Master flew up into the sky, sweating nervously.

As he reached the edge of the space, the magic practice arena expanded.

It was consuming more magical power, but that was fine for Ignius right now.

“With this… I’ll blow you away!!”

The one spell he had been preparing with double and triple casting all this time.

The ultimate magic that drops a meteor capable of destroying the world.

It’s said to have enough power to blow away this entire area because it drops a fireball so condensed that it could actually be called a meteor.

“Meteora…”

It’s fortunate that this is a distorted space created directly by Eterna, because doesn’t he know everyone would die if he dropped that?

I guess it’s true that anger makes you lose your reason.

Or is he going all out because he knows we’re in a safe space?

Either way, I sighed deeply, finding it pathetic that someone acting like such an immature child was the Red Tower Master, even if we were in a space where no one would get hurt.

“Get a grip, you fool.”

I drew my blood.

This isn’t even worth dealing with properly.

It wasn’t his true power, and I didn’t need to worry about the aftermath.

I just needed to neutralize that attack.

“I’ll intercept it.”

Slash!

I gathered and condensed my blood, instantly launching a slashing attack.

Then,

“What…”

The meteor was split exactly in half by my slash.

The moment the meteor, which should never have been split by any attack, was cut precisely in half all the way to its core, Ignius felt the magical power holding the condensed core suddenly release.

“This is crazy…”

Ignius’s words were cut short.

BOOM!

A massive flash of light engulfed the entire space, causing a tremendous explosion.