Episode 58
* * *
“Do you mean a magical duel with me?”
“As the successor of the two towers, and also for the sake of the exchange between the black and red, and also because we are facing each other like this.”
To Dale’s question, Ray Uris nodded.
“It wouldn’t be a bad idea to gauge each other’s skills.”
“It must be just a trivial fight between kids.”
Dale answered as if it was someone else’s business. After all, what Dale had in front of him was just a kid his age. There was no need to show off his skills.
“Do you really think so?”
Ray Yuris asked, accelerating the two circles engraved on his heart.
‘2 circles… … ?’
Dale gasped as the circles accelerated and generated a flood of red magic. He realized this as he watched the RPMs of the two circles rapidly increasing.
‘It’s not the amount of magical power that a single 2nd circle wizard can generate.’
Moreover, the fact that he achieved two circles at that age is also not ordinary. Even if it is not comparable to Dale’s growth speed.
Just as Dale wields pure magic with a cold chill and refined darkness, the magic Ray generates has a fiery heat that is almost like magma.
An absurdly high-purity red magic that seems to be swirling with the karma of hell.
The number of circles is an indispensable indicator of a wizard’s ability. However, the number of circles cannot show the entirety of a wizard. Just like the 3rd circle wizard Dale and the 6th circle elf wizard Sepia.
I could feel it intuitively. Even though his fame and accomplishments were not known throughout the continent like the ‘Black Prince’, his name as the son of the Bloody Duke Yuris and the successor to the Red Tower was by no means an empty one.
Rather, it is a silence that is deliberately kept hidden in the shadows.
“Would you mind not taking out the artifact ‘Shadow Cloak’?”
Ray asked, generating red magic from two circles.
“… … .”
Shadow Cloak. Dale’s black artifact has a clear identity. Dale swallowed his breath as if he was surprised.
“I, too, happen to have a worthless artifact.”
Then Ray Yuris opened his mouth.
As the son of the Red Tower Lord, it wouldn’t be strange if he had a couple of artifacts. Also, unlike Leonard Walter, he would have the ability to control them.
This world is vast. And in that vast world, there were those like Leonard Walter who accepted the inside of the well as the whole world, and at least the young wizard in front of Dale was not like that.
The world of magic is a world where skill is paramount to the point of being ruthless. However, the irony is that skill ultimately comes from bloodline and wealth.
‘Okay, let’s take a look at the silver spoon in your mouth.’
With that thought in mind, Dale flapped the shadow cloak he was wearing in black. It was just a way to stop at a reconnaissance mission.
“Although it is nothing compared to that of Prince Dale.”
In response, Ray took out his red artifact. The favorite item of Ray Yuris, the son of the Blood Lord.
“Have you ever eaten a friend?”
It was at that moment that Ray asked before taking out the artifact. Dale remained silent at the unexpected question.
“I have.”
Ray answered, remembering the hell of that day.
“I was so hungry and had nothing to eat.”
Dozens of children were in that basement, where no sunlight reached. Together, with no water or food.
“At first, I survived each day by catching rats and eating bugs.”
However, people cannot live by catching rats and eating insects.
“So I ate it.”
Ray Yuris said.
“The flesh and blood and internal organs attached to the bones, the marrow inside the bones, the brain and cerebrospinal fluid inside the skull… … .”
Without leaving anything out. In front of Ray Yuris’ confession, Dale did not answer.
“Humans are truly delicious and nutritious creatures.”
It was only then that I realized that Ray Yuris had already taken out his artifact.
His mouth was torn open, revealing rows of teeth in dozens of rows deep within his jaw.
《Dragon’s Jawbone》.
Dale finally took a breath.
‘It’s a bio-fusion artifact.’
The most powerful and terrifying of the artifacts, the worst form that grants irreversible power.
Dale knew it too. The grimoire that was planting tentacles in Dale’s heart right now was also, in a sense, a type of bio-fusion artifact.
‘That’s the bloody ball monster… … .’
Monster. After saying that, Dale let out an involuntary laugh.
“What’s funny?”
“just.”
Dale answered blandly, controlling the swarm of shadows that followed his feet.
“Aren’t you scared?”
“What?”
Dale asked back.
“… … .”
Ray Yuris smiled at the sight.
“I think we’ll become ‘good friends.’”
Just then, a voice was heard.
“What are you doing here?”
Overwhelming the surroundings, as if restraining the reckless misconduct of a few children.
“Your Majesty the Black Lord.”
“father.”
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Dale’s father, the greatest black magician on the continent, was there, his black magic swirling around at his feet.
Before he knew it, Ray Yuris’s torn mouth had returned to its normal shape.
“I was just talking to the Prince of Saxony.”
Ray answered nonchalantly.
“As the successor to the Black and Red Tower, that is.”
“… … .”
The black ball did not respond to those words.
“It was late in the evening.”
After a moment of silence, the black ball continued speaking.
“Both of you, let’s go back now.”
It seems as if they will never allow any further conflict.
* * *
That night, in the Duke and Duchess’ bedroom.
“Dad! Are you back?”
Dale’s younger sister, Lize, ran towards her father, now a young lady who could freely express her own opinions and even move around on her own two feet.
“Oh my, this guy too.”
Mother Elena smiles happily at the sight.
“Yeah, Lize.”
The father, the Duke of Saxony, bent down and embraced the young Lise. Lise kissed her father on the cheek, and the Black Duke smiled silently at his daughter’s affection.
A loving wife and daughter.
And furthermore, a proud son with incomparable talent.
He wanted to break away from the old darkness of the Black Tower and become a father who would not be ashamed in front of his son and wife.
They were the family of the House of Saxony, and they were the precious treasures that the Black Duke possessed that could not be exchanged for anything else.
At the same time, he looked back at himself, who had no choice but to bow down to the empire and join in their evil in order to protect the treasure.
In the end, he too was a weakling who had no choice but to bow his head and kneel before the justice of the empire and the Red Tower.
A coward who can only think of his own self-preservation and submit to power.
“Elena.”
That’s why the black ball smiled silently and very complicatedly at his wife.
“Thank you very much.”
“Oh my, you too.”
Elena bursts into laughter as if she is delighted by the sight.
“Why are you suddenly like that?”
“… … .”
The black ball remained silent in response to Elena’s question. He simply took a few sips of the wine Elena gave him and looked out the window.
In the darkness of the night, with no bottom, just silently.
* * *
Some time later. Necropolis, upper level of the Black Tower.
When the man came to find him, Edgar, a high-ranking elder of the Black Tower and a 7th Circle black magician, was not flustered.
The third unit commander of the Black Red Training Corps, the Devil’s Unit. He has trained with the Duke of Saxony at the Black Tower since childhood, and is one of the few close friends of the Black Duke who does not spare competition.
“You’re here, Alan.”
He simply accepts it as if he had expected it to happen. He casually mentions the name of the Duke of Saxony, which he dares not call lightly.
“Why did you betray me?”
The Duke of Saxony, Lord Black. And ‘Alan of Saxony’ asked back.
“You have changed.”
Edgar smiled bitterly at that question.
“I became weak.”
“… … .”
“Forgetting the spirit of the Black Tower, and being bound by such trivial morals as the weight of life… … .”
I refused to become a monster of truth.
“That day, our Black Red Training Corps’ experiment was a success. No, it was a success.”
Edgar continues, revealing the true purpose of the Black Red Guard, whose identity the Empire is desperately trying to hide.
“Beyond the veil of death… … Haven’t you reached the ‘truth’ there?”
The truth that the Black Tower had been longing for so desperately.
“Why did you come back from ‘that world’ without taking anything?
Edgar asked back, as if he couldn’t understand.
“──Why did you give up on reaching the 9th Circle?”
An unknown realm that even the five wizards standing at the top of the five-colored towers of black, white, red, blue, and green could not dare to reach.
An experiment to reach the level of the 9th circle.
The truth that could not be hidden flowed from Edgar’s mouth, and the expression on the Duke of Saxony’s face became agitated.
The true purpose of the Black Red Priesthood that the Emperor desperately wanted to hide. Furthermore, the real reason why the Empire went to such extreme lengths to wage a war to unify the continent.
An experiment to reach the realm of the gods with a human body.
A ritual to be reborn as an artificial god and demon god.
For that, two colored magic towers that seek power and truth joined hands.
“Why did you give up on becoming a god?”
The black ball did not answer that question.
“So you betrayed me, my old friend?”
After a period of silence, the black ball opened its mouth.
“Thanks to you, I see the Black Tower growing weaker and more decrepit day by day.”
Edgar answered coldly.
“This tower is left with nothing but cowards who are afraid of getting blood on their hands, and whose spirit has died. The weak and ridiculous figure of the black magic tower lord trembling at the weight of such a mere life!”
“I don’t want to kill you.”
Alan answered Edgar’s words.
“No, you will kill me.”
A wizard of the 7th circle. Following the five peaks, he is one of only a few dozen peaks in the entire continent.
“And I want you to go back to being the monster you were back then.”
“… … .”
“What could make you return to the monster you were back then?”
A monster of that time.
“Can the grief of losing your family turn you into a monster?”
At Edgar’s question, Alan’s expression lost all emotion. A pitch-black magic began to swirl around his feet.
“Ah, I see you hit the nail on the head.”
Only then did Edgar smile. In front of the ‘monster of that time’ he remembered.
“I won’t let it be.”
“No, that’s what will happen.”
Edgar, the black magician of the 7th circle, continues.
“They should have arrived at your castle by now.”
“… … !”
The blood drained from the black-haired man’s face. He thought of his wife Elena, his daughter Lize, and his proud son Dale.
“And even if you are an 8th circle warlock, you should be able to hold me back to the extent that I am now.”
“That won’t happen.”
Black Magic Tower Master, one of the five wizards standing at the top of the Five-Colored Magic Tower. The greatest black magician on the continent, unfolding the ‘World of Thought’.
The world of black balls.
Foodduck!
─ Caw! Caw!
Behind the black ball, several birds flew up, flapping their wings. They were black and ominous crows, and their black feathers fluttered in a mess.
