Chapter 76

RMSBS – Episode 76: At the End of Nightmare (3)

[Dimension Burst]

The Fourth-Circle teleportation magic .

*Crack*

With the noise of glass breaking, Desir's surroundings started to collapse . Endless explosions continued to overwhelm the senses and before long the magic had almost reached Desir .

[Raise Earth]

A magic spell firmly in the territory of a Third-Circle . It built walls by shaping earth that had been raised . Unfortunately, these walls were not enough to withstand the continuous explosions . They were quickly demolished .

*Smash*

One of the pieces of the wall hit Desir's arm and the force activated the `Clothes Line’s` defense magic . Unconsciously, Desir touched and felt out the affected arm . If it wasn't for the `Clothes Line`, he'd probably have lost his arm .

Crow Mask was a magician that belonged to the highest class, the Sixth-Circle, and Desir was only a Third-Circle magician with the support of an Artifact .

At this moment, all Desir could do was gather all of his strength, leaving nothing in reserve .

‘Let's do a little bit more… just a little bit more…’

*Thud!*

The conclusion of this fight was inevitable, with one side attacking unilaterally and mercilessly, while the other side was preoccupied with just blocking . It was hardly a fair match . The inevitability of Desir’s defeat was so apparent that even a layperson would recognise this after seeing it with their own eyes . Desir intrinsically knew this fact as well . Thus, his only objective was to delay Crow Mask from reaching and interfering with Zod’s work .

*Rumble*

[Destruction Area]

The Fourth-Circle spatial magic .

When Crow Mask cast his magic, enormous energy gathered and built up around him . In a matter of moments, the magic had destroyed the roads and shattered buildings as if it would swallow the entire city . Crow Mask’s intention was to use this in a head-on confrontation with Desir .

*Boom*

All of a sudden, the magic that had fanned out from Crow Mask disappeared .

[Inversion]

The flow of this battle had turned on its head .

‘You've already reversed my magic…?’

No matter how good he was at reversing, it was nearly impossible to analyse and inverse the high-class magic in just a few seconds . However this boy in front of him was surely capable of doing it .

"… He's been figuring out the structure of my spells since he first saw my magic . "

Desir had been analyzing Crow Mask's magic formula ever since he came to the council room and battled against Zod earlier . He wanted to be prepared for this kind of situation . Crow Mask quickly changed his magic formula . The flow of the magic cast – was entirely changed and a totally new method of magic appeared . Even Desir couldn’t defend against this as he wasn't capable of converting Sixth-Circle magic on first sight .

But that assumption lasted very shortly . His magic didn't last any longer and was soon inverted .

‘The inversion is getting faster…!’

This time, even though the structure of the formula was not even fully analyzed yet, the inversion was quickly completed . It was because Desir had read the basic logic fundamental quirks to the spells that Crow Mask had cast . This was a problem endemic to humankind due to their lack of flexibility and imagination . No matter how Crow Mask tried to change the strategies of his magic, the necessary foundation of it had not been changed .

Structure of magic .

The idea of a magician .

Paths of development .

As time went by, the flow of became more familiar to Desir . As a result, the speed of his reversing only accelerated . People say that battles of high-class sorcerers are like a chess game – players assume, read, and challenge each other's strategies .

Magic battle .

Desire had a relatively poor mana pool compared to Crow Mask, but he was confronting high-class magic very calmly . On the other hand, Crow Mask had ever decreasing time to cast his magic before it was inverted . He was being fully read . His thought process was being analysed and countered by Desir .

‘…It is only a matter of time before all of my magic gets blocked . ’

Crow Mask started to break out in cold sweat . Little by little, he realized the momentum was shifting against him .

‘I've never had this kind of battle before . ’

It was quite different from the battle with Zod . Zod and Crow Mask had equally competent mana pools . So, it was really up to who developed and deployed the more powerful magic in a more effective way .

But the battle with this sorcerer was clearly different . A fight that depended solely on inversion . No matter how strong the magic ⎯ since the formula was being inverted ⎯ there was nothing he could do .

It felt as if Desir was slowing taking over .

Crow Mask would be defeated when all of the magic he had at his disposal was analyzed and inverted by Desir . Crow Mask changed his opinion of Desir .

‘This is an oppponent as strong as Zod . ’

Low magic power .

Low circle .

The physical attributes were also terrible .

*Crash!!!*

But, he made up for all of these weaknesses with only his prowess in: inversion, judgment, and battle experience . He made up the power difference by predicting what his opponent would do and even attempted to counter it . He freely used all kinds of different magic . That alone was greater than a Sixth-Circle ability in terms of magic dueling .

[Devour la gravitia . ]

*Paaawww!*

The magic missed and hit the fountain . The water fountain broke, and the stream of water shot up in the air and soaked Crow Mask’s robe and feet . Desir didn’t just sit down and miss that golden opportunity .

[Freezing Field]

The flooded floor started to freeze and Crow Mask’s feet and robe froze since they were in contact with the water .

Desir continued to invoke magic . He invoked magic with all of the power that he had . The crest on the back of his hand flashed .

[Ice Orb]

An attack magic that poured out countless ice bolts . A myriad of ice bolts shot out and nailed against the body of Crow Mask .

*Crumple*

With control of the magic that he could counter with wrested out of his control, the ice bolts started dug into Crow Mask’s frost-covered body .

One, two, three, and soon tens of ice bolts . Now, the figure covered by ice arrows could hardly be considered a human body . It was as if he had transformed into a snowman .

“…this tickles . ”

The snow covered figure exploded . And…

“GASP!”

*Crunch!*

In an instant a jolt of pain plagued Desir’s body, wreaking havoc with his nerves . The barrier fragments of the `Clothes Line` were circling in the immediate surrounding . A surge of pain coursed through Desir’s body, threatening to reap his consciousness . He felt his vision slowly fading to black . The whole world felt like it was turning upside down . Desir’s body flew back and tumbled towards the corner of the building .

*Crack*

The crunching sound of bones vividly rang throughout the surrounding area . Desir spat out blood as his organs felt like they were shredded and he fell down to the cold stone ground . Desir’s `Clothes Lines` nonchalantly chirped out a warning .

-Warning . Less than 10 percent of the `Clothes Line` mana remains . Defense ability shutting down .

It was the force strong enough to overwhelm the defensive power of the `Clothes Line` .

“I didn’t expect to use this here . ”

Crow Mask’s robe was a-light and it made short work of melting the ice covering it . He shook off the ice particles as he was walking across the water puddle left from the ice . Desir could only look at the magic Crow Mask was invoking in his hand .

The magic that was going to be deployed from Crow Mask’s hand was something bizarre that he had never seen before . The formula in his hand was making geometric formations and spinning endlessly .

[Supercube, Tesseract]

The formula was continually changing .

“…against a half-assed sorcerer like you . ”

Desir got up, wiping the blood from around his mouth . He felt burning pain from what must have been several broken bones . His thought process never stopped or slowed down as he surveyed the damage .

‘What in the world is that . . ?’

Something fell on top of Desir's shoulder . It was a partially destroyed piece of stone construction . Desir turned around . The top portion of the building he collapsed against was destroyed, and rubble was tumbling down, littering the ground . The building was ruined beyond repair . Desir was at the periphery of this scene of destruction .

‘He didn't have enough time to cast high-circle magic…’

Even if he was casting magic while defending, he could've only had about 10 seconds, but the magic deployed was well above the Fifth-Circle . The building was completely demolished and he was critically wounded with the `Clothes Line` defense utterly diminished even though the magic didn't fully hit him .

Desir bit his lips .

‘… Is it vision magic?’

It was a magic that he couldn't even understand the governing principle of .

Crow Mask reached for Desir . The Tesseract started shaking again .

"…!"

Unexpectedly, Crow Mask sensed something and quickly developed defense magic .

At the same moment, a shock rang out loudly . Something flew towards his defensive magic . It was sniper magic . Crow Mask turned and stared in the direction that the sniper magic came from . Then there was a tremendous amount of fighting aura .

*Swoosh!*

The noise was so loud that it could hurt ears by itself . It was a lightning-fast sword .

“You get away from Desir!”

It was Pram's sword, reaching the super-sonic realm, moving at an astonishing speed .

Crow Mask had cast his Fourth-Circle magic in between attacks, but Pram broke through the flame wall without hesitation . Crow Mask couldn't avoid it . He was not allowed any time to react . Pram’s sword stabbed into Crow Mask’s side .

“This is dangerous . ”

He invoked special movement magic without any preparation time . He instantly felt his body begin to break down into particles .

… And Desir’s inversion immediately followed up . Crow Mask’s special magic was interrupted . Crow Mask’s body immediately formed again . An ice palace appeared above him .

[Freezing Palace]

“…!”

Hundreds of ice spells rained down on him .

*Kaboom!!*

The area around him was devastated . Fortunately, there were no civilians nearby .

Desir lifted his head . Adjest and Pram stood in-front of him, demonstrating a unified front protecting Desir .

“You guys… how…?”

“We’ve been following your location via the communication device . ”

The communication bracelet had a location tracking function between party members .

Pram grabbed his sword . His face crumpled into a frown and his eyes betrayed how furious he was .

“…you left us because we were not competent enough, Desir?”

Pram asked, while remaining vigilant and guarding against Crow Mask . His face was as red as fire; and his breath was as rough as a bull .

Desir had never seen Pram as angry as this .

“I thought you couldn’t handle it . ”

“But… But! We were so worried . Did you know that?”

“I’m sorry . ”

Desir had nothing to say . Adjest glanced at Desir and found that he was covered in blood .

“You’re right . We are absolutely not enough to fight with a demon . But, Desir, look at you . It’s not only us who couldn’t handle the situation . ”

“… Oh… Um . ”

“Well . Enough . ”

*Ring*

At that moment, a message arrived from Romantica who was observing them and preparing to snipe Crow Mask .

“ Will you tell us to stay out here, Desir? We’ll be very disappointed . ”

Everyone was thinking about Desir . They were worried about him .

“The formation has been deployed as you have trained us for . We have deployed a sniper, and Pram and I will lead the charge . ” Said Adjest .

“Well, this is the party that you have taught and trained . Can’t you believe in us at least once?”

Desir looked into everyone’s eyes, and soon found his answer . What he saw told him that they would rely on him, but would back him up at the same time .

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