episode_0045

“Wha… what is this?”

Along with a burning pain from the skin that touched the slime’s tentacle, immense magic began to flow into my body.

“This is…”

The true nature of that magic was the magic itself that filled the slime’s body.

But it wasn’t just magic flowing in.

Magic was an intangible force intertwined with the soul.

Within the magic seeping into my body, there was a faint memory of a stranger, whose magic and soul were intertwined with it.

-Run, Rai!!

It was undoubtedly Ariel’s memory, trapped by the slime.

It was her last memory, holding the fragment that had just fallen to the ground five years ago.

-What are you talking about?! I can’t run away and leave you behind!

In her memory, Rai was desperately fending off the slimes swarming around them.

The arrows for his favorite bow had run out long ago, and countless throwing knives he had strapped to his thighs had all vanished, save for one he held in his hand.

Despite being covered in slime and mucus, he stood in front of Ariel, single-handedly fiercely blocking the rushing slimes to protect her.

-You can definitely control that magic!! You’re the best mage in our village!!

Ariel, holding the fragment in her hand, was in agony, unable to handle the magic surging from it.

And the slimes, sensing the resonant surge of that immense magic, were instinctively swarming towards the location of their ultimate prey.

-Sorry… I’m sorry, Rai. This isn’t a power I can handle…

The veins in Ariel’s arm, holding the fragment, were turning bluish and abnormally swollen.

She wasn’t a mage skilled or experienced enough to fully control the power of the fragment, which contained a portion of Killua’s immense magic.

Ultimately, the failed magic would violently surge within her body, slowly destroying her.

-And it’s a power that absolutely must not fall into the slimes’ hands…

Ariel, a mage, knew very well what would happen if the slimes swallowed the fragment she now held.

-This… this is the only way…

With hands trembling from pain, she began to draw a magic circle in the center of her chest.

It was a magic circle for sealing magic.

It was a magic circle that used an object inscribed with it as a medium to isolate a specific item from the outside.

-Roar!!

Rai stomped on the last charging slime, then used the final throwing knife in his hand to savagely hack its body, forcibly tearing out its core.

And he let out a scream-like breath, heavy with exhaustion, as he looked back at the numerous slimes wriggling while surrounding them from all directions.

-Damn it! Are all the slimes from the Lime Forest gathering here?!

As more slimes than he had killed began to swarm, targeting Ariel, Rai’s face turned ashen, and he bit his lower lip hard.

He clutched the mucus-covered, heavily chipped throwing knife firmly, as if he had no intention of retreating.

-Leave this place to me and run, Rai.

Meanwhile, Ariel, who had completed the magic circle she was drawing on her chest, gripped the fragment in her hand tightly.

-We’ll run away together!!

Rai didn’t even look back at Ariel, who was telling him to run, and declared his intention with a voice full of firm resolve.

-Please… protect our village so it can remain peaceful.

But Ariel, as if certain that this was the only way, uttered a single phrase like a final will.

At her will-like words, Rai turned his ashen face to look at Ariel.

But when he looked back at Ariel, she had already thrust the fragment into her chest, where the magic circle for sealing it was drawn.

-Ariel!!!

Simultaneously with Rai’s scream-like cry, a furious storm of magic began to rage around her.

-Ugh!!

The colossal surge of magic created by the sealing of the fragment containing Killua’s immense power literally began to sweep away everything around it like a storm.

Rai, who had swallowed a short scream at the fierce storm that felt like it would sweep him away if he let his guard down, desperately lowered his stance and clung to the ground with his hands, only then barely managing to withstand the raging storm.

-What… what in the world are you doing!!!

Rai, an ordinary hunter with no knowledge of magic, despaired at the fact that he couldn’t help Ariel with his own power.

-Leave… Rai!!

As the pendant containing immense magic was sealed in her chest, Ariel screamed as if her body was being torn apart and burned by the pain.

-You… leaving you behind… how can I…

But Ariel’s cry, filled with agony, instead broke Rai’s spirit.

There wouldn’t be many men who could turn their backs and leave the woman they loved to bear such horrible pain alone to save them.

Ultimately, Rai dropped his chipped throwing knife, as if intending to share Ariel’s fate here.

-This is the only way to protect the village… Please, leave here, Rai!!

If the fragment had come into direct contact with the slimes, the slimes would have explosively proliferated with the fragment’s magic, covering the entire forest, including the village.

Sealing the fragment using her own body as a medium wouldn’t be a perfect solution, but it could at least prevent the slimes’ explosive proliferation.

-Without you… how can I…

Rai despaired at the reality that Ariel had no choice but to sacrifice herself.

The moment Rai hesitated, several gigantic slimes broke through the fierce magical storm and slowly approached Ariel.

Realizing that Rai, whose spirit was broken, would take his own life with her if things continued like this, Ariel bit her lower lip hard.

-Shriek!!

And letting out a monstrous, scream-like cry, she pulled a portion of the magic storm swirling around her into her arm.

Her arm, which had forcibly pulled in the fiercely raging magic, began to convulse with pain as if it were being torn to shreds.

Although it was only a tiny fraction, the fierce magic she pulled from the storm began to pulse in her hand, transforming into a flame spell that emitted intense heat.

-If you don’t want to die with the slimes, hold your breath, Rai!!

Enduring the pain of her arm feeling as if it were being torn, she pulled a part of the storm’s magic and created her final flame spell.

It was a powerful flame spell capable of incinerating this entire area around her.

Rai had almost no knowledge of magic, but he could at least discern that the flame spell completed in Ariel’s hand was more powerful than any he had ever seen.

-You… wha… what are you doing!?

At the terrifying flame magic, which condensed such immense power that it instinctively sent shivers down his spine just by looking at it, Rai asked Ariel with a voice trembling from anxiety.

-Please protect Eaton Village, where our memories reside, so it can remain peaceful.

With her final request to Rai, Ariel cast her completed ultimate flame spell from her hand down at her feet.

-Ariel!!

As soon as the flame magic condensed in her hand was unleashed, it erupted into a colossal pillar of fire, turning everything in its vicinity, including the approaching slimes, into ash.

-Aargh!!

But the flame storm, imbued with her final will, turned everything to ash, yet it gently blew Rai alone out of the magical storm’s range without burning a single strand of his hair.

—————————————————————–

-I can help you!

At the end of the memory, Ariel’s voice, seemingly the owner of this memory, echoed like an reverberation in my head.

-With this spell, it’ll be enough to finish off that damn monster!

The magic that had seeped into my body began to move on its own, as if it had its own will.

The magic that had flowed in from my shoulder, which had contacted the slime’s tentacle, slowly ascended my right arm and began to draw a strange magic circle on my palm.

“This is…”

Even though no magic had manifested from the magic circle drawn on my palm according to Ariel’s will, I felt a fierce, pulsing heat.

It was clearly the elemental flame magic she had wrung out as a last resort in her final memory to send Rai away.

It was undoubtedly the flame magic that had turned that entire area into a massive clearing.

-Heh heh. It’s my ultimate flame spell. One shot of this and it’ll blow them away with a bang.

Ariel was right.

If the power of the flame magic from her memory remained unchanged, it could instantly incinerate the slime monster’s body, along with Ariel’s body, which was the source of its magic.

The creature, having lost a part of its body and the source of its magic, would be greatly flustered, and that huge opening would provide Killua with enough opportunity to grasp the fragment.

-So, please sever my dog-like fate tied to this monster as well.

“……”

Listening to Ariel’s voice and gazing at the elemental magic circle inscribed on my hand, I turned my head to look at Killua.

Her body was slowly plummeting towards the ground, but there was no light of surrender in her eyes.

With eyes still filled with intelligence, wisdom, and strong will, she swiftly scanned her surroundings, searching for a way to overcome this situation.

My eyes, as I was being buried by the slime, met hers.

Just for a fleeting moment.

From Killua’s black eyes, which shone as clear and beautiful as tiny stars, her firm resolve and unyielding will seemed to transfer to me as well.

“No. I won’t give up on you.”

I clenched my right hand, where the magic circle was drawn.

Then, the flow of magic swirling within my right hand broke apart, and the magic circle for activating the ultimate flame spell crumbled.

-Wha… what are you doing!? My ultimate spell?!

At my sudden action, Ariel, greatly flustered, stammered and questioned my actions.

“Killua-nim hasn’t given up on you yet!!”

The soul’s memory intertwined with the magic that flowed into my body wasn’t Ariel’s memory alone.

I could feel one memory, like a thin thread, so faint and tenuous that it was almost invisible.

It was the memory of Killua, the true owner of this magic.

I grasped the subtle edge of that memory, barely able to recognize it because I had directly felt her magic seep into my body before.

“Gasp!!”

Using Killua’s magic circulation know-how, I instantly drew the magic supplied by Ariel into my right hand.

“So I won’t give up on you either!”

In an instant, an immense amount of magic began to gather, enough to completely fill and burst out of my right hand.

And a thin thread of memory contained within Killua’s faint, faint magic that I grasped.

It was the memory of her favorite and strongest offensive spell.

“O Light!!!”

I didn’t know the name of that spell.

I simply recalled the moment she used this spell, and the words that naturally came to my lips spilled out as I fired the magic condensed in my right hand towards the nucleus of the slime monster, which was glaring at the falling Killua.