The rising currents were much stronger than what he had felt above.
It was not only hard to maintain balance, but the cold was so intense that he could lose consciousness with the slightest misstep.
Why was the sound of the wind so deafening?
Mephisto shouted something from behind, but the noise was so overpowering that he couldn’t be heard.
However, the real issue at hand was,
“This… isn’t easy.”
Concentrating on maintaining his sanity was energy-consuming, making it incredibly challenging for him to summon spirits.
And visualizing a clear image required extreme focus.
Due to the critical situation, this was nearly impossible.
“【Step… forward】!“
Elric gritted his teeth, spreading his magical field.
The spell he activated this time wasn’t the usual ‘Air Levitation’ or ‘Glide’ he preferred.
Such spells could be more of a hindrance in places like this.
Instead, he tried to improvise with an image he formulated on the spot.
Air Stairs.
From where he was falling to the midpoint of the cliff, he planned to create invisible stepping stones to tread on.
『If the ancient martial artists saw this, they’d foam at their mouths, saying it’s like ‘Walking on Air’. Hahaha…!』
With Mephisto’s lament mixed with exclamations still incomprehensible in the background, Elric managed to reach the mid-level of the cliff in a single attempt.
“Phew…!”
As soon as Elric touched the ground, he sighed in deep relief.
“Wow. I truly thought I was done for.”
If he had slipped, he would’ve been done for.
In a very short time, he felt as though he had brushed the threshold of the afterlife.
Chills ran down his spine. Despite the cold weather, his clothes were damp with cold sweat.
“Hehehehe.”
For some reason, a spontaneous laugh emerged.
There was a mix of pride, achievement, and thrill in that laughter.
『Such audacity.』
Mephisto could only shake his head in disbelief.
‘There might not be another demon, or even a Demon King, as audacious as him.’
As this thought lingered, Elric stood up, taking deep, measured breaths.
With his heart still racing, he approached the hut.
“At a glance… it looks quite ordinary. Hmm.”
It appeared the same even when viewed from the edge of the cliff.
Aside from its placement on the cliff, the hut looked much like the ones hunters made for rest.
It wasn’t too large, and it had a triangular roof to prevent snow accumulation and a small window. That was pretty much it.
According to the ‘Blue Snowflake’ tribe chief, who was looking at him in astonishment from the cliff above, the snow didn’t accumulate much on the roof. Given its age of several hundred years, the wood didn’t look too worn out either.
Elric used a mana scan in hopes of discovering something, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Just as he reached out to the hut’s door,
‘It’s locked.’
For a moment, Elric’s eyes narrowed.
Lock.
It was an ancient spell that could only be unlocked by entering a designated mana pattern.
The magic circle seemed to be installed inside, not outside.
‘What could the password be?’
Elric briefly considered trying to unlock it but ultimately decided against it.
Even if his ancestors from hundreds of years ago created it with more simplistic algorithm combinations than modern ones, he thought it wouldn’t be easy enough for a descendant of his skill level, not even close to a mage, to unlock.
However, he believed the password must be something a forgetful descendant could remember.
Using the words that came to mind, Elric tried to input a mana pattern.
Melvinger, Magic Seal, Mage, Demon King, Demon Hunter…
But no matter how much he combined them, they all failed.
Wondering if it was related to the King of the Yetis, who was once said to be a friend of his ancestor, he asked Mephisto for his name. But the lock remained silent.
“…Hmm.”
Elric thought he might freeze to death in front of the ice if he stayed like this, so he continued to think.
But even after over an hour, he couldn’t find the answer. Then suddenly, another idea struck him.
‘What if it’s not a mana pattern that’s needed but a key?’
“…Could it be?”
Elric took out the magic necklace hidden in his collar and held it to the door.
Instantly…
Flash!
Click.
A brilliant light erupted from the door, and it swung open.
Elric looked back and forth in astonishment between the magic necklace and the door.
If he had known it was this simple, he wouldn’t have been so nervous. It felt a bit unfair.
But now he was certain that this place belonged to his family. He was about to enter with a smile when…
“…?”
Elric remembered that Mephisto hadn’t spoken all this time and looked over at him.
“…It seems familiar. Was this the dwelling of the ‘Winter Sage’?” Mephisto mumbled with a pensive expression.
——————
faqwiki.us
Join our Discord for new chapter updates!
https://discord.com/invite/xr7SxG5T6V
——————
“Winter Sage? What’s that?”
Elric asked without missing a beat, but Mephisto remained tight-lipped, refusing to answer just as he did with the King of the Yetis. His face clearly showed he wouldn’t say anything about this.
Unless Elric was a fool, he could easily guess that the “Winter Sage” Mephisto mentioned might refer to his own ancestor.
However, what he was really curious about was something else.
‘What connection is there between the King of the Yetis, my ancestor, and Mephisto? What on earth is it?’
Elric thought of using silence and charm to get Mephisto to speak. But he felt that if he did, he would cross his last line of decency.
‘No matter how much I torment my opponent, I must maintain some integrity.’
If Mephisto had heard him, he would’ve thought Elric was mad. Then, Elric slowly stepped inside.
And then…
“Wow.”
He involuntarily exclaimed.
All his questions related to Mephisto were completely erased from his mind by the spectacle before him.
The interior was entirely different from the exterior.
Endless shelves that extended tens of meters were filled with ancient books. The musty smell of these old books, numbering easily in the hundreds of thousands, filled the room.
It was impossible for this space to fit inside the small mound.
‘Spatial overlap, climate control, pattern detection… Plus, there seems to be damage prevention and automatic restoration. How is all of this possible on such a scale?’
This couldn’t just be a ‘family vault’. It was a library.
‘It seems comparable to the Central Magic Library or even the Imperial Library…’
Realizing the greatness of his lineage and the true depth of its arcane prowess, Elric’s heart raced.
He happily wandered the library.
For Elric, who had loved books to the point of addiction since childhood, this place was nothing short of heaven.
“‘The Fundamental Doctrine of Magic Studies’ was here all along? I thought it was lost all this time… If I take this out, the academic world will be in an uproar. ‘Martan’s Documentation’, ‘Gallery Decisions’, and ‘Law’s Manuscript’? Our ancestors have collected many magical books. Eh? There’s the ‘Satan Gospel’ too?”
Elric looked in awe as he perused the titles of the manuscripts.
Even with just a quick glance, most of them seemed to be of great importance.
Starting from those that were believed to be lost, to books that were said to contain magic within, to unknown fairy and animal-human magic, and even to forbidden dark magic.
It seemed almost all the books related to magical studies were here.
However, there was one regrettable part.
“They’re all replicas… Hmm!”
All of them were written in the same font, and the papers used were from the same period.
Still, the contents seemed to have been copied meticulously, possibly alongside the originals.
‘Did the Winter Sage transcribe all of these? All these volumes?’
Elric tried to put aside his slight disappointment and think positively.
In fact, just what was here alone could expand his unconscious horizons multiple times.
As a magician, it was like finding an invaluable treasure.
‘I’ll have plenty of time to go through these. For now, I should look for information related to magic rites.’
Elric prioritized books on his family’s history, especially those related to the founder.
However, many of the books didn’t have titles, so he had to spend a lot of time examining each one and reading a bit of the content.
『….』
Meanwhile, Mephisto stood in the middle of the library, quietly observing its interior.
One day, two days, three days passed.
After almost abstaining from food and drink and spending four days meticulously examining the manuscripts,
“…I found it.”
Elric finally found the manuscript he was looking for.
In a secluded place on one of the bookshelves, there was an old, thin book wedged in a corner.
However, the content it held was not insignificant at all.
「…Originally, we were merely a group of scholars in pursuit of the pinnacle of magic.」
「But at some point, driven by the desire for greater power, we were tainted by evil magic and caused great harm to the world….」
“It’s the same…? The voice I heard then.”
Elric slowly recalled the voice he first heard when he unlocked the magical necklace and murmured softly.
“Recognizing our errors belatedly, we were formed to correct our wrongs and atone for the past, thus giving birth to our lineage.”
「Recognizing our errors belatedly, we were formed to correct our wrongs and atone for the past, thus giving birth to our lineage.」
“To eradicate this evil magic is the sole duty left to our lineage.”
「To eradicate this evil magic is the sole duty left to our lineage.」
Even without any record, he remembered every word and every tone of the voice so vividly because it left such a strong impression on him.
And the content of the book was identical to that voice.
Elric flipped through the pages frantically, wondering if there was content following the voice.
And then…
「If so, then by consuming this evil continuously, one day, we can hide its tracks. And one day, true magical studies can flourish in this land, which can be said to be the mission given to our family by the heavens…」
「…Then, what does devouring evil mean? It means we take in the twisted, void, and fragile things first. If we can digest it correctly, can’t it also be called a new harmony of magic?」
「However, there are several requirements to execute this.」
「The first is a genuine desire to correct, the second is an unwavering determination, and the third is a peaceful and calm mindset. This is to resist all sorts of temptations and desires…」
Suddenly, Elric felt as if his vision was spinning around him.
“Drink the evil.”
“Swallow the evil.”
“Consume the evil.”
It seemed as if the characters in the book were popping out one by one. They danced in circles around each other.
Even though Elric thought it was an illusion, he strangely felt like he knew the contents inside.
Then, all of those characters shattered, and a loud echo rang in his head.
『Eat, swallow, and drink. And then, gather all the mana in you, and gather more. And bring forth new magic!』
At that moment, the magical book shone brilliantly.
『Having read this book means you have passed all the mentioned conditions and successfully swallowed the first evil after deciphering the test and mysteries of the magical necklace.』
『From now on, it will truly begin.』
As soon as that statement ended…
“…!”
Elric suddenly snapped back to reality.
He looked down at the magical book, which was still glowing.
Swish.
The rust that had been covering the magical book turned to dust and began to fall to the ground.
Much like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis, the now peeled magical book looked entirely different from before.
It had the shape of the symbol of ‘man’.
The four protruding parts, clockwise, were embedded with emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and diamonds, giving it an elegant impression.
‘Something seems different… What has changed?’
Elric, while holding the changed magical book in wonder, tried to figure out the change inside him and channeled his mana.
At that moment…
Whoosh!
The world surrounding Elric turned upside down.
And then…
“It seems like you are the promised descendant from the distant future who is to receive our legacy.”
An old gentleman stood in front of Elric, smiling warmly.
