Chapter 139

Chapter 139
## Chapter 139

I remember the first time I opened my eyes in a corner of the slums. That was the moment Dereck’s journey began.

Without warning, he was thrown into a hostile environment where he had to scavenge for food to survive. While he struggled to resist, a question naturally became etched into his young mind.

It was not a profound question, nor something that would help him survive, but it was something everyone asks themselves at least once in their life.

*Why do we live?*

It was a trivial question the boy asked himself as he chewed on a piece of hard rye bread, sitting in a street corner and contemplating the sea of stars in the sky.

It was a cold street.

There were so many beggars lying on the ground that no one passing by paid attention to Dereck, but he didn’t stop looking at the sky, his eyes shining brightly.

***

!Bang! !Crash!

Dereck’s figure, which had just stood up, vanished in an instant.

Grand Duke Beltus frowned and looked around. In that brief instant, Dereck had used illusion magic to erase his presence and hide among the rubble, with the intention of surprising the Grand Duke.

He was already an experienced mercenary.

He instinctively knew that facing a grandmaster-level mage head-on was suicide.

No matter how much damage Fina might have left him with, Grand Duke Beltus was still a five-star mage, responsible for an entire noble house. To defeat him, one had to use every possible trick, not just pure magical skill.

Coordination and improvisation on the battlefield were Dereck’s specialties.

The Grand Duke, who had more or less understood this, immediately cast a defensive spell over his entire body the moment Dereck’s figure disappeared.

He didn’t know from where or how the attack would come. The only certainty was that, as long as he didn’t allow a critical hit, Dereck could never overcome him.

!Swish!

Beyond the destroyed outer wall, a fireball thrown by Dereck entered at full speed.

However, any magic lower than two stars could be dissipated and canceled with a single glance.

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Grand Duke Beltus possessed the ability to control magic with just his gaze.

It was a unique method of Beltus, something that not even veteran mages could easily master.

It is a common trait among those who reach the four-star rank or higher: the way they manipulate magic through their own interpretation goes beyond ordinary talent.

!Snap!

However, Dereck’s true intention was to attract Beltus’s gaze.

Jumping from among the rubble, Dereck lunged at him with his sword drawn. His leap was so fast that, before anyone could blink, the blade was already right in front of him.

!Clang!

But the two-star combat spell, *Protective Wall*, had the power to negate physical impact in proportion to the caster’s magic.

The sword, blocked right in front of the Grand Duke, shook violently.

“Do you think you can defeat me with such pathetic tricks?”

!Bang!

The Light of the Empire in Beltus’s hands shone once more.

In an instant, the shockwave that was unleashed threw Dereck against the wall. Dust rose while Dereck coughed in pain.

Even so, he stood up and increased the distance between them.

Was it a retreat? Or was he trying to lure him in? It was unclear, but the Grand Duke had no choice but to pursue him.

He could already feel it. If he didn’t kill that monster in that precise moment, he couldn’t imagine how powerful he might become in the future.

Even before becoming a five-star mage, Dereck’s mind was in constant activity: looking for opportunities, adapting, perfecting his use of magic, trying to turn the situation around.

His sensitivity to magic was elevated, and his growth rate was abnormally fast.

Who could doubt it? That monster had the potential to reach at least five stars.

It was a great fortune to find him when he was still a three-star mage, momentarily stuck after hitting an obstacle.

If the opportunity to root him out presented itself, it had to be seized.

And so, Grand Duke Beltus ran down the hallway, chasing Dereck.

!Boom! !Bang!

Dereck cast a confusion spell, scattering illusions everywhere.

Although numerous illusory doubles appeared, created by the confusion magic, Beltus, who also mastered detection spells, was not fooled.

Arrows flew, swords clashed against his body, but he ignored them all.

He already foresaw that they would disappear the moment they touched him.

Dereck crossed the semi-destroyed second-floor hallway and opened the door leading to the outdoor staircase.

“Groooh!”

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But what appeared before him was a giant demon.

The sight of its huge face approaching was pure terror.

The hellish demon, moving under Beltus’s orders, was already waiting for him, knowing he would try to escape that way.

Its eyes glowed, and soon a gigantic fist lunged at him.

!Boom!

After the impact, Dereck rolled once on the ground.

Breaking through the dust, he ran at full speed toward the ground floor.

*What a pleasure to see you run!*

The Grand Duke, shrouded in magic, floated and chased him down.

Even if he had to abandon everything, he was determined to kill him right there.

With that determination, he launched himself after him.

!Swish! !Thud!

Dereck lunged into the first-floor hallway, rolled, and kept moving.

The second-floor hallway was almost completely destroyed, but the first floor still retained some of the luxury of a stately mansion.

Of course, the carpet was stained with monster tracks and furniture lay scattered across the floor.

!Clang! !Bang!

Suddenly, all the windows along the long hallway shattered at the same time, and a swarm of bat-like monsters burst into the place.

It was impossible to calculate how many creatures Grand Duke Beltus controlled.

Each one was imbued with magical power, and yet, they all seemed to move in unison.

When Dereck launched the two-star combat spell *Fireball* down the hallway, many began to burn and disintegrate, but the number of those arriving far exceeded those that were destroyed.

Brandishing his longsword, Dereck struck down the monsters one after another until finally, the Grand Duke appeared at the end of the hallway.

He had entered floating through a window.

“Your words sounded grandiloquent, but you are nothing more than a coward running away. I will end your life right here…”

!Bang!

Before the Grand Duke could finish his sentence, the ceiling collapsed.

Startled by the sudden attack, he tried to cast a defensive spell, but he could not deflect all the falling debris.

*An ambush… reinforcements…?*

The entrance to the mansion was blocked by the Archlich.

At this point, there should have been no enemy left capable of intervening.

However, among the remains of the second-floor hallway, clear traces of magical energy were found.

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But when he looked up, there was no one.

Only then did Dereck’s gaze rest on the staff he was holding.

*’Echoes…’*

The staff, forged by a transmutation craftsman from the northern region of Rochester, had the ability to re-manifest a spell after a brief delay once cast.

The fireball Dereck launched in the second-floor hallway was not intended to directly subdue Grand Duke Beltus.

Taking advantage of the power of *Echoes*, he had re-manifested the fireball with a scheduled delay to cause the building’s foundation to collapse.

By casting the spell with that delay, he managed to lure Grand Duke Beltus into the first-floor hallway, causing him to be buried under the rubble.

!Crackle! !Bang!

Of course, the rubble alone was not enough to subdue him. His defensive magic was powerful enough to easily withstand such weight.

However, his attention was briefly diverted toward the second floor.

That single instant of distraction.

In a situation where the outcome can be decided in a fraction of a second, even the slightest carelessness could have irreversible consequences.

When Grand Duke Beltus turned his gaze forward again, Dereck had already drawn his sword and was lunging at him.

His movements were like lightning. The speed and lack of hesitation proved that everything had been meticulously calculated.

In that instant, which lasted barely a hundredth of a second—that fleeting moment where time seemed to stop—the Grand Duke’s mind began to race.

Even with necromantic madness consuming his thoughts and his body on the verge of collapse, the master-level mage never stopped thinking.

*The falling debris. Dereck approaching.*

If he had to defend himself first from one, it had to be from the second.

*Instinctive reflexes.*

Despite his old, tired body and the years he had spent away from the battlefield, his combat instincts resurfaced in him.

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If he blocked Dereck’s attack, he couldn’t stop the rubble.

But Dereck would be buried along with him.

*Better that both are buried,* he thought, *than to allow a unilateral attack.*

With that decision, he prepared to unleash a shockwave against Dereck.

!Swish!

But the instant the Duke’s magic touched him, Dereck’s figure, which was lunging forward with sword in hand, dissolved into magical energy and disappeared. It was an illusion spell.

Even in such an extreme situation, that madman had launched another feint.

Foreseeing even the unforeseen, responding to the response—the ability to see one step ahead is an indispensable skill for a duelist.

Had he done it solely to prevent the Grand Duke from blocking the falling debris, forcing him to react to the illusion?

Beltus realized his intention too late and directed his gaze upward to try to stop the collapse.

!Thud!

However, Dereck was one step ahead.

A sword protruded from Grand Duke Beltus’s shoulder.

His eyes widened and he looked back.

Even if both were buried under the rubble, that blow was fatal.

Dereck took another step and drove the blade in once more. The attack from behind was impossible to block.

In that situation, he would also be trapped under the collapse.

But if he managed to land a truly lethal blow, the risk would have been worth it.

If he could claim the bone, he was willing to sacrifice the flesh.

The reckless spirit of that young mercenary, drenched in blood, was nothing like that of a noble who had too much to lose.

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“You are… a damn… lunatic…”

Blood gushed from the pierced shoulder.

!Crash! !Bang!

The debris from the second floor collapsed on top of both of them.

***

—Crackle.

The sound of dust falling onto the pile of ruins echoed faintly.

The collapsed remains had broken through the floor of the hallway, sinking down to the basement.

The starlight filtered through the destroyed ceiling, and a presence emerged from the rubble.

—!Crack, Thud! !Boom!

Duke Beltus, with a wound on his shoulder, groaned as he sat up.

Blood was gushing out and his legs were not responding.

His luxurious noble attire was covered in dust and blood; his battered body creaked audibly.

Even so, he was still alive. Somehow, the protective magic he had cast had managed to preserve his limbs.

—!Crack! !Thud!

But as soon as he emerged from the pile of ruins, his knees gave out.

The necromantic madness threatened to consume his mind once more, and the veins in his body burned like fire.

His body was shattered, his mana almost exhausted, the mansion collapsing, the gathered armies scattered, and monsters running wild.

In the midst of all that chaos, the Duke’s blood ran violently through his veins.

He had to resist, overcome this crisis, and take one more step toward the ambition he had pursued throughout his entire life.

Thinking only of that, he gritted his teeth and resisted.

That was how Duke Beltus accumulated power.

“Cough, gasp… gasp…”

He perceived the scent of grapes.

It was the wine cellar. The rubble from the first-floor hallway had fallen into the basement.

Broken bottles covered the floor, and the wine spilling from the barrels soaked the earth like blood.

The red liquid running down his hand—was it wine or blood? Or both?

He did not know, but he had to stay conscious.

“Gasp, cough… ugh…”

Beltus wiped his hair from his forehead with a wine-soaked hand and pressed it against his bleeding shoulder.

His vision was blurring.

He punched his face to keep from fainting.

!Boom!

!Crash!

But another figure broke through the rubble and stood behind him.

There was no need to identify him: it was the monster that had fallen with him into the depths.

His red eyes shone under his white hair. Wine stained the tips of his boots and blood covered his face.

He had a broken nail and a deep scar crossing his left eyebrow, perhaps caused by debris. The sword was gone.

But the man didn’t care and jumped from among the rubble, hitting Duke Beltus in the face.

—!Thud!

“Ugh!”

The Duke fell to the ground, sliding, but managed to gather magic and launched a shockwave toward Dereck’s feet.

—!Thud!

A situation pushed to the limit.

Even so, magic flowed from his fingertips, invoking a sword that pierced Dereck’s shoulder and thigh.

The blow hit him squarely, piercing through him.

Blood gushed out, and Dereck rolled on the wine-soaked floor, groaning.

“You… bastard… do you even know who you are talking to…?”

Just by invoking a few swords, Beltus coughed up blood.

Every spell he cast now clung directly to his own life.

Even on the verge of collapse, the man, like a walking corpse, did not stop.

He ripped the sword from his own flesh, opened his eyes wide with fury, and lunged forward, grabbing the Duke by the neck.

He threw him to the ground, grabbed a fallen sword, but Beltus tripped him.

!Crash! !Bang!

Dereck, lying on the ground, tried to get up, but he had already reached his limit.

The Grand Duke twisted his bloodied lips into a twisted smile and tried to stand up, reaching for the fallen sword, but Dereck threw a nearby stone.

—!Thud!

The sharp stone hit his hand, leaving a deep wound.

As Beltus stumbled back with a groan, Dereck, barely on his feet, rammed into him with his shoulder.

—!Thud! !Thud!

He lunged at him and hit his nose several times.

Blood splattered and a tooth rolled on the floor.

However, the Duke, bloodied and dazed, managed to gather magic and pushed Dereck away.

He kicked him in the stomach, stomped on his thigh, and raised the blade to finish him off.

Blood splashed and wine spilled.

A red liquid flowed from a shattered barrel.

The fight in that basement was no different from the brawls that happened in the slums.

And yet, both men belonged to long-standing nobility.

With trembling hands, Duke Beltus grabbed a dagger, but Dereck, who suddenly rose, grabbed his wrist.

The Duke did not let go of the weapon. With trembling hands, he tried to stab him as best he could, but Dereck blocked the movement with the strength of his grip.

Dereck’s fingernails dug into the Duke’s wrist, and blood dripped.

Beltus gritted his teeth and screamed, but his body no longer obeyed him.

“Die! Die! Damn you… die…!”

“…”

Two men struggled over a single dagger.

At that moment, Dereck, with his eyes wide open, spoke.

“I suppose you have no strength left to use magic.”

“…”

“How pathetic.”

In that instant, a chill ran down Grand Duke Beltus’s spine.

Even in the middle of such an extreme situation, where both their lives hung by a thread, that madman was still observing and absorbing his magic.

—!Bang!

In that instant, a first-tier combat spell, *Shockwave*, was fired directly into the Grand Duke’s abdomen.

Beltus was sent flying through the air, crashed into a wine barrel, and rolled on the ground.

The wine leaking from the barrel soaked his shoulder.

His trembling pupils rose slowly from the river of blood toward the young wolf.

That man was crazy.

He had arrived there driven solely by the desire to master magic, and it was impossible to understand the fervor that burned within him—a fervor that bordered on madness.

“Cough… cough… cough…”

Dereck could also barely stay on his feet, coughing as if his body no longer obeyed him.

He stumbled several times, his feet slipped, and he had to lift himself from the ground over and over again.

Even so, he straightened himself completely without changing his expression.

In his hand, he held a dagger.

The man who was staggering toward him was Death itself, the Reaper who had come to end Grand Duke Beltus’s long path.

When that reality became evident, the Duke’s toes began to tremble uncontrollably.

“You… damn lunatic…”

“…”

“Why… why are you so obsessed… with magic…?”

Dereck’s cold gaze pierced through Grand Duke Beltus.

The latter tried to move his battered body, but even the wine running down his shoulders felt unbearably heavy.

“Magic… was nothing more than a means to ascend for someone of such low birth as you, wasn’t it…?”

“…”

“Then I will do as you wish. Take my hand… I will show you what true power is…”

The stench of death permeated the air.

It was so thick, more penetrating and dense than the aroma of grapes that permeated the cellar.

The Duke’s sharp sense of smell did not overlook that abominable fear.

With trembling hands, he leaned on the floor and spoke to Dereck.

“If you wish to learn magic… I can help you reach the highest peaks… I am the master of Beltus…”

“…”

“Your skill and talent… have already been proven without a doubt. Your courage and determination… you possess the qualities of a leader… Trust me and take my hand… I will guide you to the top…”

“Why are you so obsessed with magic?”

Dereck stumbled and approached slowly.

—!Clang! !Clang!

He dropped the dagger he was holding in his hand. It rolled weakly across the floor, disappearing into the river of wine.

Soon, Dereck’s hand was imbued with magical energy.

*Could he still use magic?*

Duke Beltus clicked his tongue in disbelief.

After completely exhausting his energies, all that should have been left for him was pure willpower.

Only by extracting every last drop of energy from the body through superhuman willpower can one reach the next level.

That was what the Duke had demonstrated throughout the entire battle.

Not subject to the magical system established by Adelbert, but rising above it, brushing against the very essence of magic.

The clash of swords, the clash of spells—the sensation that affected the man’s senses was fleetingly reflected in his memory.

It was incredible that Dereck still had enough energy to channel magic.

He had already suffered multiple mortal wounds, his body was covered in cuts, and blood did not stop flowing.

And yet, he tried to cast a spell that exceeded one or two stars in level.

From that moment on, it could very well cost him his life.

Everything in this world has a price.

But Dereck, without hesitation, exhausted every last drop of energy he had left, trying to manifest everything he had seen, heard, and felt.

*Was it a revolving lantern? Or a dream?*

Now that I think about it, he had always been contemplating the starry sky.

In the corners of the slums, in the tavern streets, by the side of the road, in the barony.

The people by his side may have changed, but the scenery always seemed the same.

On each occasion, the people by his side asked him similar questions.

An old man from the slums once asked.

“Dereck, why do you study magic?”

The boy who was eating hard bread replied.

“Simply to survive.”

A fallen noblewoman who roamed the streets asked him.

“Dereck, why do you strive so hard to learn magic?”

The boy, who was already starting to look like a mercenary, replied.

“To make us stronger.”

An old wandering mage, exhausted by hardship, once asked.

“What do you intend to achieve by learning magic in this way?”

The man, who was starting to make a name for himself as a magic instructor, replied.

“Because it’s fun.”

The answer changed every time. It was inevitable.

As he grew, matured, survived, became stronger, and his circumstances improved, his reasons for seeking higher levels of magic varied, but the result of moving forward was always the same.

In that context, answering Grand Duke Beltus’s question was not difficult at all.

A long explanation was not necessary.

When asked why he was so obsessed with magic, he replied that the answer had already been decided long ago.

When he woke up on the streets of the slums, thrown into a cold world without rules or direction.

That naive boy wondered why he had to live.

Perhaps he had already understood it then.

To live well, it is good to be obsessed with something.

A life without purpose or ambition lacks motivation.

So he decided to be obsessed with magic.

That is why, when people asked him why he clung so much to magical success, there was no grand answer.

*”Just because.”*

That was all.

Grand Duke Beltus’s eyes widened.

He was overcome by an incomprehensible fear, similar to what one feels before a being that escapes all logic and understanding.

When humans sense that death is approaching, they often cry.

He gritted his teeth, looking for a way out, but there was none.

!Crackle, Bang! !Swish!

In Dereck’s perception, the magical system intertwined and soon radiated light.

The magical energy emanating from the tip of his arm felt familiar, and he deliberately twisted it.

Three-star combat magic, *Freeze*.

He knew the sensation of magical flow, but he twisted and distorted it by force, combining methods of illusion and invocation magic.

Beyond the rules established by Adelbert, when one looks directly at the essence of magic, a completely new landscape is revealed.

The euphoria that ran through his whole body upon reaching that limit could not be compared to any potent narcotic.

!Crackle, Bang!

It felt as if his whole body was burning and as if electricity was crackling through him.

Using magic of such magnitude with a body at its limit would inevitably bring consequences; he knew it.

But he could not stop now that he had come this far.

Dereck’s eyes shone with a strange light, and the magical energy emanating from him began to envelop the entire wine cellar.

In that instant, Grand Duke Beltus felt an unknown chill.

Then, with a deafening roar, Dereck’s magical energy exploded.

***

“It’s gotten colder. Is it winter?”

Fina, who had just come out of the forest, stretched lazily.

She planned to pass through a nearby town, get a horse, and return to the Ravenclaw barony—yes, that’s how far her brazen plans went.

Seeing her so relaxed after the catastrophe she had caused at the Beltus mansion made it clear that she was far from being a normal person.

Even she was starting to believe the saying that there were no sane six-star mages.

As she walked through the clearing under the moonlight, she glanced toward the distant Beltus mansion.

That hell, plagued by uncontrolled monsters and restless spirits, was exactly what she was looking for. She wondered when she would again enjoy such chaos.

But the appearance of the mansion had changed drastically since she left.

The moon shone brightly.

The main building, which was glimpsed under the silvery light, was completely frozen.

“It looks much better now.”

Four-star combat magic: *Large-scale Spatial Freezing.*

A spell that paralyzed not only its surroundings, but the entire battlefield, something that had only been seen during the Great Northern War.

Back then, it was Melverot who used it, and magic in times of war had always been distinguished by its colossal scale.

“♬ ♩♪”

Humming a melody, Fina left the mansion behind.

She crossed the clearing at a leisurely pace and disappeared into the darkness.

The sight of the frozen mansion under the moonlight was beautiful.

Taking into account the horrors that unfolded inside, the contrast was truly ironic.