Episode 48: Escape (1)
The journey to find the fragments continued. Muriel no longer had nightmares. Her sleep became more comfortable, but her mind grew more restless. It was strange.
Things were going well… Breaking into Thompson Gray’s mansion, which she thought would be difficult, turned out to be a breeze. Now, if she could find just one more piece, Muriel’s ultimate goal would be achieved.
She should’ve been feeling happy, but Muriel couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was amiss.
Were the two fragments in Sharan’s possession the problem? But just as Muriel had no way of retrieving them, it would also be difficult for Kaiton to take away the pieces from Sharon.
So, what was the problem?
To soothe her anxiety, Muriel started taking out the fragments she’d kept in her Nihil more often.
“Hello, Muriel.”
Ah, it was this.
It was only after meeting Kaiton that Muriel realized the cause of her anxiety. It was in front of the magician’s house she had visited to find the last piece.
“What are you doing here, Mr. Crawford?”
Upon seeing Muriel’s pale face, Jaron stepped forward as if to protect her and spoke. Kaiton let out a cold, mocking laugh and smiled at the sight.
“I think Muriel knows already. Why don’t you tell Sharan’s dog?”
“…”
“What am I doing here?”
“Jaron…”
What should she say?
Tell him to run? Or defeat Kaiton?
Jaron looked at Muriel as if asking why the Chief Court Wizard was here, but Muriel couldn’t easily open her mouth.
Why was Kaiton already here? In the novel Muriel had read, Kaiton hadn’t retrieved the fragments until Muriel sat on Sharan’s throne.
Had his pacio already dropped too low?
Or did he know Muriel’s plan…?
Muriel gazed into the distance beyond the path blocked by Kaiton. Kaiton must have already recovered the piece, right? She could have obtained the third piece if she had gone a little further… What will happen now? Her mouth went dry. Her head turned white. No solution came to mind on how to overcome this railing.
As Muriel remained quiet for a long time, it seemed like her silence was answer enough. Jaron stiffened his back, ready to draw his sword at any moment.
Muriel glanced down at the white creature beside her. If a fight were to break out, who would this guy help? It would undoubtedly be Kaiton, wouldn’t it…?
“I wish you hadn’t come here.”
A somber voice broke through Muriel’s complex thoughts. He made no secret of his cold anger. He had the eyes of an obvious enemy. Ah… looking at Kaiton’s eyes, Muriel realized he knew everything.
“Draw your sword, Jaron.”
When Muriel whispered softly to Jaron, Kaiton chuckled coldly. He was relaxed even when Jaron pulled out his sword and blocked Muriel’s front.
“You came here at last, Muriel.”
“…”
“To die at my hands.”
Just as a foreboding sound seemed to echo, a pitch-black lightning bolt struck from above. It was such an immense energy that it momentarily blinded her because of the overwhelming darkness in her view.
If she hadn’t known that the man in front of her had conjured the lightning bolt that seemed to split the sky, she might have mistaken it for divine punishment. It was that merciless and terrifying. At the same time, it was desolate. Kaiton’s face was expressionless, yet it carried a sense of solemnity, as if he were imposing due punishment. No emotion could penetrate his chilly face. A fleeting thought crossed her mind that he seemed lonely.
What the hell do you mean lonely?
Muriel quickly erased the impression, for there would be nothing as eerie as wearing a lonely expression while trying to take away someone’s breath.
Sigh.
Muriel was slammed onto the hard floor. It meant her life had been spared. The person who had thrown her to safety was Jaron. He had thrown himself into the massive lightning bolt, which seemed certain to kill him, to save Muriel.
A pristine white barrier, like Jaron’s magical protection, appeared above his head, but it seemed precarious, as if it would be torn apart at any moment.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Along with the sound of colliding forces, the sound of the ground tearing apart under the black lightning resonated painfully in her ears. Dirt flew in all directions, and Muriel struggled to properly open her eyes.
“Jaron…!”
Perhaps because she’d inhaled dust, her throat felt dry and itchy, and her mouth was parched. Her heart, which had belatedly started reacting to the urgent situation, pounded madly. She could clearly feel the flow of her blood like never before. With each painfully pulsating heartbeat, hot blood gushed fiercely.
With trembling hands, perhaps a result of the sudden hyper-sensitivity, she reached for the Nihil box.
It was ironic that she had to face Kaiton with the fragment of Ur, but if this continued, not only her, but also Jaron would meet their demise.
“Heh… to think your supposedly pathetic-back looks like this.”
Jaron recognized at a glance the identity of the black thunderbolt that fell without warning and confronted it head-on. To think that a black sorcerer was residing in Sharan’s palace. Jaron had no loyalty, not even as much as a demon’s pacio, but he still trembled with disgust.
It seemed to occur to him why black wizards were known as followers of the Demon King. Their power was so rampant and destructive that it felt eerily calm. The place where the distant darkness had passed was nothing but ruins. No, it hadn’t been destroyed; it had been annihilated. There was nothing left in the wake of the darkness.
He was said to be a genius wizard capable of all four elemental magics. To think he was even proficient in black magic, encompassing all elements. He was a monster. His talent was so unrealistically overwhelming. It was mind-boggling to see him effortlessly casting complex three-tiered spells without an incantation or magic circle that it made his breath tickle. But there was no laughter, not even a hollow one. His spine chilled, and his throat, still marked by wounds that hadn’t properly healed, felt stiff.
It was because he sensed the familiar shadow of death.
“Yes, indeed. The saint being on the side of the Demon King. There could be nothing more absurd than that.”
Jaron braced for death and fought against the monstrous man’s magic, but the chief wizard didn’t even consider him worthy of attention.
He hid his blazing anger behind a cold expression as he kept his gaze fixed on Muriel. No matter how much Jaron unleashed his attacks towards Kaiton, they seemed to be futile. The defense was there, but it was as if it was only half-hearted, and the destructive lightning bolts poured down only towards Muriel.
As if impurities like Jaron were invisible.
He couldn’t understand why the relationship between the chief mage of the palace and the saint had led to such a frenzied desire to kill her. That’s when Muriel joined the intense battle that was already underway. She came up close behind Jaron, as if telling him to leave the rest to her.
“We need to prolong the fight.”
He wondered if she had come back to die after he had saved her. He yelled at her to stop doing something foolish and to escape, but surprisingly, Muriel calmly responded. However, her strategy was too absurd. To prolong the battle meant to restrain his pacio. To think of restraining the pacio of such a monster.
It was impossible. Even if they combined all of Jaron and Muriel’s pacio, it seemed impossible to defeat Kaiton.
“Stop talking nonsense and escape…!”
“There is no other way. I’m going to take a gamble. Stopping Crawford’s pacio… it’s the only way we can survive right now.”
“….”
Jaron felt like he had heard a cruel joke, but Muriel was serious. She had even cast magic.
“You…!”
To think that someone born from the Saint’s Star possessed magic.
Jaron’s eyes widened in astonishment.
“…Are you crazy?! What do you expect to happen if you use that?! Have you forgotten who you are…? No, more than that, are you trying to become a demon?! Your pacio is terrible!”
Jaron lowered his voice, afraid that his words might reach Kaiton’s ears. It was clear that Muriel’s clenched fist held a fragment of Ur. The heart of Callahan Ur, who tried to bring about the world’s destruction. It was absurd and mind-boggling that the Saint’s Star was borrowing the power of the Demon King, but Muriel didn’t even flinch in the face of Jaron’s ridicule.
Only Jaron’s blood ran cold.
He did not know that Kaiton was the owner of the fragment, and he was worried that the insidious court wizard might discover the true identity of what had fallen into Muriel’s hands.
However, the magic Muriel had created struck back at Kaiton steadily. It was a wave of deep blue. It was refreshing to see it break through the suffocating darkness and move forward like a clear blue wave.
Perhaps due to being the Saint’s Star, unable to fully harness magic, even with the use of Ur’s fragment, Muriel could only cast a first-level spell. However, it was a fairly effective attack. The blue wave opened its mouth wide, as if ready to devour the court wizard.
As Muriel’s attack approached him, Kaiton’s magic became even more ferocious. The world trembled in resonance with his anger. Trees were uprooted, split by lightning, set ablaze, and swept away, leaving no trace.
Only the ruins of a vacuum, where even the air was taken, remained around Kaiton.
For humans to use magic meant borrowing the power of scattered mana and spirits, fueling the fragment of Ur by burning his pacio. Kaiton unleashed immense magical power, absorbing all the mana in his surroundings. Jaron couldn’t even begin to fathom how vast Kaiton’s pacio. The flames he possessed were unlikely to ever go out.
Nevertheless, Muriel did not back down. Even though she was sweating because of handling unfamiliar magic, she didn’t flinch in front of the massive wall. It was strange. If one was weak, they were weak. But her resolute back looked sturdy, reassuring. He even felt like he was being protected.
Jaron’s heart fluttered. Something boiling beneath him surged up. He had never witnessed someone protecting him before. He had almost sacrificed his life to protect Sharan, but it wasn’t about protection. It was about survival. It was about fulfilling his own desires. However, in front of Muriel, he felt ashamed of that. He wanted to become more knightly. He wanted to watch over her.
“Damn it…”
Jaron hesitated for a moment, then muttered beside Muriel’s determined face.
“Give me that too…”
“What?”
“That. What you’re holding in your hand…”
Jaron intended to take a fragment and maximize his magical power. However, at that moment, a chilling gaze fixed upon him. It was Kaiton. Kaiton’s gaze was locked onto Muriel’s clenched fist.
He knows.
Jaron had a gut feeling. He was after the fragment.
“Muriel, who is that bastard?”
It was then. Kaiton’s magic, which had been striking the two with increasing force, vanished in an instant.
“This…!”
Then Kaiton struck Jaron’s heart. No, to be precise, he struck where his pacio gathered, near the heart.
As the pacio was forcibly escaped, Jaron let out a strange sound, gritting his teeth. A chill engulfed Jaron’s body, which trembled not even when all his blood drained.
As if he’d had enough of the cold sense of loss, Jaron banged his head, and his eyes snapped open. It was because he realized the true identity of the man who mercilessly aimed for the life of the Saint with his black eyes.
“The Demon King!!”
“No…!”
With Jaron’s enraged shout, Muriel’s despairing cry burst out.
