Chapter 64: At the End of Despair (6)

[64] 9. At the End of Despair (6)

“Oppa!”

Irene came running beside me as I was sprinting.

“Can you stop the magic?”

It was a rare sight: Irene with a serious expression.

I raised an eyebrow and replied,

“You don’t have to…”

“I don’t want Parsley to die either, you know? Just answer me. Can you stop it or not?”

Irene’s blue eyes felt as if they were stabbing me in the chest. Suppressing a smile, I answered,

“I can stop it.”

I might have lost my voice and could only use the magic stored in magic tools now, but that didn’t mean that the knowledge I had accumulated had vanished.

I instinctively knew

that Sage, she was both the offering and the power source of this magic circle.

As with all large-scale magic spells, if the power source were to be removed, the magic would stop.

As I explained this, Irene suddenly bit her lower lip. She rummaged through her subspace pocket and then shouted,

“Catch!”

I barely managed to grab the sword she had tossed.

Puzzled, I looked at her.

“This is a sword that nullifies magic. If you can just cut Sage with it, then… Eek!”

A tentacle suddenly shot out, snatching Irene by the ankle.

“Irene!”

In an instant, she was dangling in the air.

I drew my sword and rushed towards the tentacle.

However, there wasn’t just one.

Another one came flying from somewhere, grabbing my wrist. I quickly detached my prosthetic hand and slipped free, but another one swung towards me.

Cursing inwardly, I stepped back.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the magic circles glowing brighter,

*We don’t have time for this…!*

It was at that moment that a black flash appeared.

*Slice-*

It happened in a moment, shorter than the time it would take a shot arrow to fly.

The tentacles that were coming for me,

the tentacles that were holding Irene,

and the tentacles that had been waiting for an opening…

…It was all severed into pieces. They fell to the ground, writhing.

Feya, wiping the mucus off her face, tossed my prosthetic hand back to me.

“So, we just need to save that lady with the sword, right?”

I smiled to show my agreement and put my prosthetic hand back on.

*Rumble-*

“…!”

My balance was thrown off as the ground trembled.

Simultaneously, the tentacles, wrapped around Sage, shot up toward the high ceiling. At a glance, it seemed to reach about the 30th floor of the magic tower.

*Surururu-*

To make matters worse, twice as many tentacles as before start to surge towards us.

“Big bro, I’ll take care of these bastard.”

Feya slung her axe over her shoulder and then walked towards the approaching tentacles.

I nodded and then looked up.

Sage was positioned right below the ceiling.

I could reach her if I detonated my prosthetic hand. It would hurt like hell, but…

“Oppa! Grab my hand!”

Suddenly, a white hand appeared before me.

I reached out and grabbed it without thinking.

“Ugh…!”

A weightless feeling washed over me as the ground quickly receded.

I looked up in surprise.

“Oppa…! Why are you so…! So heavy…!!”

Irene, with giant wings on her back, was holding onto me, her face flushed.

“You’re Icarus?” (TL Note: Icarus was a guy who flew with wings made of feathers and wax. But he flew too close to the sun, the wax melted, and he fell to his death.) (TL Note: Delete this later, they aren’t dumb)

“Of course it’s a magic tool! Don’t be stupid, just cast a weight-reducing spell on us!”

Finally snapping out of my confusion, I activated the weight-reducing spell on my prosthetics.

“Whew.…!”

With a relieved expression, she pulled me higher.

Slinging her arms under my armpits, she asked,

“You still have the sword, right?”

I silently held up the sword.

“Good, then we’ll fly up in one go… Kyaah!”

A fireball whizzed past us, right beneath her wings.

I reflexively looked towards where it had come from.

A place where magic and holy magic were clashing.

The flames consumed the light.

The light devoured the flames.

However, their powers are not equal.

The fire was gradually pushing back the light,

and as if it had more than enough energy to spare, fireballs came flying toward us.

“What the hell is going on, after showing off all that?!”

Irene screamed and quickly dodged the fireball.

What followed was an aerobatic display of dodging and swerving.

We soared, then dived down,

Spun around, then flipped upside down,

flew in zigzags, and then spiraled downwards.

“Urgh…”

“Oppa if you throw up, I’ll be seriously pissed.”

I desperately swallowed down the nausea and nodded.

Still, it was worth it.

Looking up, I saw Sage was now at eye level. She wasn’t that far away.

“Now all we have to do is stab her with the sword… What the hell, again?!”

*Sssss-*

A blue barrier covered Sage.

Judging by the form of the magic circle, it wasn’t meant for close-range combat.

Its durability and mana capacity were on another level.

Gritting my teeth, I looked down, but there was no solution in sight.

The light was being overwhelmed by the fire, and Feya was covered in tentacles.

And dozens of fireballs were now shooting up at us.

I needed to do something drastic.

Biting my lower lip, I looked at Irene, whose face was pale.

“Irene, you trust me, right?”

“No, not since you dumped all that paperwork on me and ran off.”

This bitch…

Having no other choice, I pulled out my trump card.

“I’ll cut your workload in half when we get back.”

“Really? I’m recording this right now, you know?”

Her words made my shoulders flinch, but I quickly pushed my hesitation away.

“Yeah! I’ll even write it down! Just charge at the barrier!”

“Are you serious? That’s… Ah, whatever! If I die from a concussion after crashing into the barrier, it’s your fault!”

And with that, Irene started to charge towards the barrier.

The barrier quickly approached before my eyes.

Suppressing the rising fear, I waited for the optimal distance.

Now!

“Close your eyes!”

Squeezing my left eye shut, I shouted,

[Laser Eyes!!]

*CRACKLE-!!*

A flash of light filled my vision, and the sound of something breaking filled my ears.

But I didn’t hear the sound of a barrier shattering.

“Irene, let go!”

I shouted, trying to break free from her grip.

“Oppa, are you crazy…!”

The sound of her wings spreading as she pulled away.

I opened my left eye as the light subsided.

The barrier was now right in front of my nose.

Countless cracks covered its surface, proof that my attack hadn’t been completely ineffective.

I raised my leg and shouted.

[Rider Kick!!]

*Shatter-!*

With a clean, sharp sound, the barrier shattered.

Sage’s face is literally right in front of me.

I gritted my teeth and raised the sword.

*Whirl-*

But skilled mages always have a trump card.

“…!”

The tentacles that had been wrapped around Sage suddenly grabbed my waist, and, before I could react, it pulled me away.

Sage’s figure receding quickly.

Beyond her, I could see the magic circles, almost fully activated.

The word ‘End’ flashed before my eyes.

But again,

skilled mages always have a trump card.

[Rocket Punch!!]

My prosthetic hand shot out, trailing fire. It flew toward Sage, the sword clutched in its grip.

A tentacle swung out to block it.

But the prosthetic hand was too small and fast to be caught in one go.

And so the sword,

*Thump-*

With a sickening sound, the sword pierced Sage’s shoulder.

And winter came for the tentacles.

The rampaging tentacles all went limp, one by one, falling to the floor. The moment they touched the ground, they crumble and turn into a handful of ash.

Evidence that the magic was disrupted.

But I couldn’t feel any joy.

“What?”

This was because the tentacles holding me and Sage also met the same fate.

I started to fall as the tentacles lost their grip.

“Waaagh!”

*Grab-*

A hand suddenly grabbed my forearm.

When I look up, I saw Irene, holding Sage in her arms.

She looks at me with a slightly disappointed expression and says,

“Laser Eyes? Rider Kick? Rocket Punch? Sorry, Oppa, but that’s… kind of cringe. How old are you…”

It was then that I wondered if it would have been better if I had just fallen to my death.

***

By the time we landed back on the ground, things had been more or less taken care of.

The tentacles had all turned to dust, and Feya’s axe was now at Parsley’s throat.

It was an inevitable outcome.

No matter how skilled Parsley was, she couldn’t have handled Feya and Clara at the same time.

“I’ve sealed her mouth with holy magic, so she can’t use magic. And here.”

Clara, with a pale face, handed me Alain’s pocket watch, then glared at Parsley.

“And you. Don’t expect me to let you off a third time, so be prepared.”

… Third time?

I was curious about what she meant, but quickly pushed aside the question.

There were more pressing matters at hand.

I approached Parsley.

Parsley, restrained, looked like a doll. She simply stared at the empty air with a blank expression.

I opened my mouth, feeling my voice cracking,

“Parsley.”

There was no answer.

So I carefully chose my words.

“I…”

And then I stopped.

Not because I couldn’t find the words,

But because of a sense of unease.

Why wasn’t the light in the magic circle fading?

And why was Parsley’s mouth constantly moving?

A scream cut through the cracks of my doubts.

“Wait, how…!”

Sage, who had been lying on the floor, suddenly sat up with a loud scream.

At the same time, the magic circles started glowing again.

I turned towards Parsley and shouted,

“Parsley! No, stop it…!!”

And the world stopped.

The dust particles that had been fluttering in the air,

the beads of sweat rolling down Clara’s pale face,

Irene rushing towards Sage,

and Feya’s fist, about to knock Parsley out…

…All froze in place, as if they were held by invisible threads.

Only three things were moving:

My eyes,

Alain’s pocket watch in my hand,

And Parsley, the caster.

“Skilled mages always have a trump card, you know,”

Parsley, ducking under the axe, slipped free and walked toward me. Pushing Feya’s hand away, she said,

“I fed Mother a love potion beforehand. It worked better than I thought. I didn’t realize it would make her so obsessed with activating the magic circle.”

I wanted to shout at her to stop, but my mouth wouldn’t move, as if frozen.

Parsley’s rests her hand on the pocket watch.

“Don’t worry, Rem,”

Parsley’s lips curved into a gentle smile.

“From now on, no, even in the past, your life will be filled with only happiness.”

My heart pounded heavily, and my muscles twitched and convulsed as if in agony.

However, my hand didn’t move until Parsley lifted the watch.

“Goodbye, Rem.”

And then the dust particles, which had been frozen in the air, started to move once again.

“That crazy… Huh? What?”

“Big bro! I… Huh?”

“Rem…? What on earth…?”

But Parsley and Sage were nowhere to be seen.

***

The boy was blind and was missing a hand.

And he had no family, money, or a guardian.

And the world, as always, was cruel.

There’s no need to explain how shitty his life was.

But today, the boy felt that his life was particularly shitty.

It all started, as always, with hunger.

His inconsiderate stomach had already digested the piece of moldy bread he’d eaten yesterday morning.

No matter how much river water he drank, his stomach would soon be empty again.

The boy thought that he needed to take drastic measures.

Yes, it was to go to the shelter run by the church.

Of course, the boy had been branded as a heretic.

Meaning he could never be friendly with anything that had the word ‘church’ attached to it.

Even if the boy went there, he was more likely to be beaten and chased away than to taste any food.

However, the stomach is the master of the body.

When the boy came to his senses,

his feet had already arrived in front of the shelter.

And, at first, things went better than expected.

The priests, Whether they were new or not, didn’t recognize the infamous boy.

He was even able to receive a bowl of warm soup and a piece of bread.

But good beginnings do not guarantee good endings.

Just as he was about to soak his bread in the soup and take a bite…

Another beggar, looking at him, shouted…

‘Heretic!’,

‘A devil’s bastard is defiling the table!’.

… He said.

What followed was the usual routine.

They checked,

Beat him, kicked him.

Beat him again.

Dragged him out.

And now we’re at the present.

The boy felt his whole body aching as he looked up at the sky.

Of course, even when he looked up, all he saw was darkness. Only a gentle breeze tickled his nose.

Once again, no tears came.

It wasn’t the boy’s hobby to be sad about his own fate.

Instead, the boy thought about the future.

What awaited him at the end of this begging and starvation.

What he could become.

Needless to say, his imagination couldn’t conjure up a positive future. Most ended with him becoming a cold corpse.

That’s why the boy stopped thinking about the future. He stood up, his aching body leaning against a branch for support.

He was going to live another shitty day.

“Hello.”

It was then that a beautiful voice came to the boy’s ears. Startled, the boy turned his head towards the sound.

“Wh-Who…?”

He heard a soft laugh that sounded almost like a sob.

“Someone who’s going to give you happiness.”

The boy made a puzzled expression at these strange words.

***

Author’s Afterword:

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(Thank you for reading!!!)

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Bau bau bau!!!

(To show my gratitude, and to celebrate my summer break…)

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(I’ll be uploading two chapters a day until 12/19!!!!)

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(Thank you again!!!)