Ch.82Decisive Battle: Second Half (9)

Cold sweat ran down Ignius’s back.

Midir’s demeanor had changed drastically.

Ignius gulped as he saw the gleam in those red eyes and the eerie smile Midir directed at him.

The moment he let his guard down, he would be devoured.

That inexplicable thought dominated his mind.

‘Hah…’

Ignius clicked his tongue inwardly in disbelief.

Me, of all people…

The master of the Red Tower and ruler of flames, afraid of an opponent who looked like a mere young girl?

How could that even make sense?

Ignius let out a sigh and raised his arm.

Simply spreading Hellfire on the ground wouldn’t work.

There was only one spell he could try right now.

‘I need to buy time to use Supernova…’

The decisive move would be using Supernova.

Of course, he had seen the battle between Seria and Midir.

One might wonder how he could be so confident when, having witnessed that match, a Supernova wouldn’t seem to offer much chance of success.

But after watching that match, he had come to the opposite conclusion—there was a possibility.

‘Back then… she definitely dodged it…’

He had replayed it countless times.

Only after watching it over and over again could he finally understand how Midir had avoided Seria’s attack.

‘She dodged it, but not in the conventional sense…’

She had definitely avoided it.

The incoming arrow had been dodged.

But her method of dodging—precisely identifying the arrow’s trajectory and opening her body wide at that exact spot—was why no one had noticed.

It was a shocking technique.

How could any human possibly do that?

Such a dodging method must be unique to Midir alone.

‘The shockwave aftermath is powerful too, but not as much as the arrow itself…’

Considering the raw power contained in that arrow, it was no wonder the Demon King himself had suffered significant damage.

The power in that arrow was truly overwhelming.

But…

‘Supernova is no less powerful.’

It just requires longer preparation time.

To say he had researched this spell specifically to counter Midir might sound absurd, but Ignius was determined to capture Midir with this magic.

He had developed this spell for that purpose and prepared various methods to ensure its success.

In the limited space of the arena, there would be nowhere to escape.

If he could just activate the spell, victory would be his.

That’s what Ignius believed.

That he had a good chance of winning this match.

“Well, have you made enough plans?”

“Thanks for waiting, you old hag.”

“Old hag, is it…”

Midir chuckled.

“I suppose that’s not wrong from your perspective.”

With those words, the match resumed immediately.

Ignius tried to rise into the sky, attempting to get as far away from the arena as possible.

Since the arena had limited space, he judged that a full-power Supernova covering the entire area would inevitably lead to victory.

However,

“You’re slow.”

Before Ignius could escape, a hand shot up from the ground and grabbed his ankle.

“Guh?!”

Ignius desperately tried to break free, but this was no grip that could be escaped with mere struggling.

The hand, clutching him as if it would never let go, began pulling him down to the ground.

“Don’t underestimate me…!”

A magic circle appeared, and Hellfire erupted, burning the blood hand.

Surely a hastily created blood hand couldn’t withstand Hellfire…

‘Could it…?’

But it did.

Though the outer layer of the hand was burning, it was clearly resisting the Hellfire.

‘In that case…’

He needed to use Blink magic, temporarily setting aside the Supernova he was casting.

His decision was swift.

Ignius scattered Hellfire where he had been standing and teleported high into the sky using Blink.

‘This should work…!’

While he was quickly making his assessment and deploying his magic circle,

“All you mages are the same.”

“What…”

When had she gotten there?

Despite teleporting a great distance with Blink, Ignius broke into a cold sweat seeing Midir right beside him.

How had she come up here so quickly…

KWAAANG!

“Kheuk…?!”

A powerful impact broke through his magic barrier.

Ignius coughed up air from the strong blow and fell to the ground like a shooting star.

SHUUUUUK!

“I’m taking you seriously, so struggle with all your might.”

‘What kind of magic is this…!!’

Ignius cursed inwardly at those words.

This wasn’t magic.

This was absolutely not how mages fought.

This was…

‘Is she just some crazed berserker…?!’

She was engaging a mage in close combat.

It made sense.

Mages were weak in close quarters.

Of course, high-level mages or battle mages could hide this weakness or even turn it into a strength, but most who entered the Magic Tower did so to research magic.

These people naturally found it difficult to apply magic in combat.

While Ignius himself didn’t often engage in direct magical combat, he knew this fighting style was far from normal.

‘This isn’t… Blood Magic…!!!’

And she wasn’t even a Blood Mage.

Ignius couldn’t help but think that.

KWAAANG!

“Urgh…”

Ignius groaned as he was slammed into the ground.

This was with his barrier absorbing most of the impact.

Midir, still gripping Ignius’s ankle, lifted him again and asked,

“Do you prefer close combat or ranged combat?”

“…What did you say…?”

“I’m asking you. I’m confident in either.”

“Ha.”

Was she mocking him now?

But this was an opportunity.

Ranged combat would be much easier for him to handle.

“Let’s go with ranged combat.”

“Very well.”

Midir smirked at Ignius’s answer as if she had expected it, then threw him far away with a confident expression that said “try your best.”

Ignius, who had been thrown and rolled across the ground, got up without concern and prepared his magic.

“I’ll make you regret this…!”

“Your spirit is admirable.”

Provoked, Ignius began deploying flame magic.

Countless magic circles appeared in the air, and one by one, powerful Hellfire descended upon Midir.

Some erupted from the ground, others shot out as extremely compressed pillars of flame, and still others fired as continuous beams.

However,

“You seem weaker than before.”

Midir deflected them all with ease, commenting with disappointment.

“Ha, hahaha…”

What kind of monster was this?

Ignius laughed with a dejected expression.

“Well, if you’re done with everything, I suppose it’s time to end this…”

Midir’s words trailed off as she noticed Ignius’s expression.

His expression was strange.

“You…”

Midir called out to Ignius, looking at him oddly.

It was a natural reaction.

“Kuk kuk…”

Ignius’s laughter was not one of dejection at all.

It was a joyful laugh, filled with the certainty of victory.

“I’ve won this match.”

It was already too late.

Ignius silently pointed to the sky.

Up there…

“…?!”

A star created by Ignius was already falling, on the verge of explosion.

Seeing this, Midir momentarily failed to understand, but after retracing what had happened until now, she finally realized how this spell had succeeded.

“Ah…!”

Only then did Midir understand the true nature of the magic circle Ignius had deployed when he rose into the sky.

It was natural that Midir hadn’t noticed.

She couldn’t have imagined that he would remotely form a magic circle that would autonomously create a stellar explosion, and since she didn’t know much about magic to begin with, this was an inevitable mistake.

“It seems even the great Blood Tower Master didn’t know about this.”

Ignius chuckled gleefully.

He was completely immune to his own magic.

That explosion was a phenomenon created entirely by his magic—though it appeared like a star exploding, it was an explosion manifested by his magical power.

Even if he got caught in it, it wouldn’t be a problem for him.

Midir instinctively drew up magical power to intercept it but soon abandoned the attack.

Unlike a meteor, this looked ready to explode at any moment.

Moreover, its structure was completely different from a meteor.

The moment it was touched, it would act as a fuse and explode.

And even if left untouched, it would explode anyway.

Midir chose defense instead of interference.

And then,

───────!!!

A terrifying shockwave accompanied by an ear-numbing explosion.

And a brilliant white light filled the arena.