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Chapter 286 – All-Heaven Festival Contest Final Stage “Demon King Castle Bloody Field” (8) / Means to Keep Thinking, But…

286 – All-Heaven Festival Contest Final Stage “Demon King Castle Bloody Field” (8) / Means to Keep Thinking, But…

I haven’t told anyone about this plan.

And there’s a good reason for that…

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The “Unyielding Hero” descends.

Or should I say that he’s crashing down, instead?

He wasn’t coming down like a gentle rain. It was more like a lightning bolt.

「Me–」

I didn’t even have the time to finish calling Melania’s name.

Right after Altreed defeated the giant Ipos, the Miner Melania jumped to cover me and my friends around me.

At the edge of my field of vision, I could also see the “Frost Hero” Bella trying to deploy an ice barrier.

But it would only be able to protect a handful of team members from what was about to fall down on us.

I’m not in range.

And then the world spins.

Like petals blown away by the wind at 100x speed, pieces of the field and players start being sent flying.

Judging from the scene I saw right before my vision was blocked… It had been another “Storm Ocean”.

The “Storm Hero” Aerial’s “Storm Crash” sends out a strong gale in his desired direction, while “Storm Wrap” wraps his strong winds around his arms and sword.

However, in Altreed’s case, his “Storm Ocean” spreads a storm around.

As the spell’s name suggests, enemies hit by it receive a shock similar to having been thrown into a stormy sea.

— He can use Heaven-Base Magic spells one right after another just like that?!

Magical Energy organs, just like every other bodily function, deteriorate with age.

Altreed is already over fifty years old.

And yet, his ability to generate Magical Energy and unleash spells of such tremendous power is abnormal.

— That’s right. He’s just like me.

I train both my Black Magic and Magical Energy organs by constantly casting Black Magic on myself.

Since I’ve been doing this ever since I became Master’s disciple, I’m able to produce a huge amount of Magical Energy for my age.

I thought that this training method could only work with Black Magic and White Magic, which can be cast on oneself… But it’s not impossible to use other attributes as well.

It’s hard to imagine what it means to keep using Wind Magic all the time, but I guess that’s what he did. What he keeps doing to this day.

The great results shown by the best in the world prove the existence of the extraordinary efforts hidden behind them.

Once I was finally able to see, I saw the devastating amount of damage that we had sustained.

Melania is nowhere to be seen.

She was taken out trying to protect me before she could get a chance to prove her strength.

Melania believed that I was worth that much. Or maybe she protected me simply because we’re teammates.

My only injury was in my leg. It wasn’t bad enough to take me out just yet.

…But I couldn’t stand up.

「…Hey, could you hurry up and get back on your feet?」

It’s the Paladin Lark, the defender of the Fenix Party.

He had held up his shield to protect me. Now his shield was gone. And so was his armor.

He protected me. Not only Melania, but Lark also tried to protect me.

「Lark…」

「Really, it’s only at times like this that I fall right away… I really hate it.」

He’s remembering our battle on the Tenth Floor of the Demon King’s Castle, huh?

Back then, Lark was sent off by the Magic Sword I stole from Alba.

In Avatar battles, it’s a fairly common thing even for strong people to be taken out without being able to perform to their fullest.

Rogestilla’s teleportation ability randomly generated by her “Rebapkenz” had put her side in a very advantageous position.

Without that, the situation perhaps would have changed again… no, I shouldn’t be thinking about it now.

I can’t change what has already happened, after all.

「…I’ll leave it to you, Lem.」

Lark hadn’t fallen immediately, but his injuries must have been fatal. After saying his piece, he scattered into particles of light.

「Lem.」

A person’s upper half of the body was lying at my feet.

It was one of my own teammates. The “White Sorcerer” Josh.

Was his body unfortunately cut in half by the “Storm Ocean”? Josh grasps his staff tightly and casts White Magic. But not on himself. He instead starts healing my leg and other wounds.

「Josh.」

「I’m sorry… I wasn’t very useful…」

Josh’s fair face was distorted with frustration.

「What are you talking about? You’ve helped me many times. On this battle, too.」

He had more than once protected me from Orion’s arrows. Both Melania and Lark tried to protect me with their bodies. Because of that, he couldn’t avoid the sharp blades of Altreed’s spell. He’s still trying to fix me up until the very last moment before he’s forced out of the battle as well.

「As long as you’re here, Lem, things will work out somehow. That’s what I always think.」

Josh smiles, and his body turns into magic particles.

「…Yes, things will work out somehow.」

When I stood up, Altreed was standing in front of me.

「It seems that my son has found some good friends.」

Many young adventurers prioritize being noticed.

However, both Josh and Melania are team-oriented hard workers, dedicated to the victory of the party as a whole.

Both of them would throw away their chance to shine in order to protect a Black Sorcerer, someone relegated to a support role.

It’s hard to find companions like these. They are the best teammates.

「I agree」

I take out my Holy Sword.

「And you are one of them as well –Fran.」

He seems to have noticed the “Destroyer” Fran, who was closing in on him from the side.

Altreed retreated to a distance where Fran’s arm would barely miss him.

His movements are spontaneous and at the same time extremely sophisticated.

「You’re quite hard to take out. Then… I guess I can leave it for later.」

Right after that, Fran turned to where Altreed would end up being next — and suddenly accelerated.

She ended up going farther away from us.

Altreed had sped her up with his Wind Magic.

By using the magic that he’d normally use to accelerate himself on his enemy, he widened the physical distance between Fran and us.

If his enemy’s ability for destruction surpassed his own, he’d keep them away without getting himself destroyed.

If the enemy’s board has strong pieces, disabling them is a good move. If those strong pieces can’t do their thing, it’s the same as if they weren’t there at all.

He’s exactly like me.

Well, it’s actually the other way around.

I’m the one who built an image of “a hero who will definitely win in the end” for himself, based on his videos.

I fire my Black Magic at him, but his “Resist” wards everything away.

…It seems that he still has plenty of Magical Energy to spare.

It’s unlikely that ordinary Black Magic will be able to pierce through his “Resist”.

But I keep firing Black Magic at him anyway. There’s a good reason for me to do so.

Two reasons, in fact.

“Resist” is a skill that prevents the enemy’s Magical Energy from reaching them by releasing the caster’s own Magical Energy.

It cannot block any magical attacks after they have assumed physical forms such as those from Ice and Earth Magic, but it can block those that are purely in Magical Energy form until activated, such as White and Black Magic.

In other words, while blocking my Black Magic, he also can’t benefit from Panacea’s White Magic.

That’s the first reason.

The second is simpler: the idea is to get him to keep using up his Magical Energy.

When the fog cleared, if Altreed had used his magic, he would have been able to deal a lot of damage to Wraith. In that scenario, Wraith could have dealt with it using his own Water Esoteric Spirit Arts, but it was a powerful option nonetheless. And yet, he chose not to use his magic.

Why is that?

I just found out.

It was just because his top priority was to take me out of this contest.

For that reason, he had to use his Magical Energy sparingly.

Since he had saved up on Magical Energy, he was able to unleash his second “Stone Ocean” soon after the first one.

And now, Altreed is using his Resist to block my Black Magic away, which will continue to drain him of his own Magical Energy, of which he has already used up a lot.

If he doesn’t do that, he will be defenseless against my Black Magic, but by defending against it, he’s also depriving himself from the protection of Panacea’s White Magic.

「What are you going to do, Lem?」

「Dark.」

Being in those circumstances, if he were to be on the receiving end of an “Ebony Flames”…

「I know, right?」

He thrust his left hand toward my face.

— Most of the time, the aim of magic is to rely on vision.

At this distance, he could tell where the “Ebony Flames” were coming from thanks to his sense of vision.

The moment the “Ebony Flames” were unleashed, Altreed’s left hand started to burn, and at that very moment he used one of his Wind Blades to cut off his own burning hand at the wrist.

He dealt with my Spirit Arts in exchange for his left hand.

And there, at that very moment… Aerial arrived.

Aerial, who has a contract with the Wind Spirit, can use all the powers controlled by that Spirit.

And being derived from the Wind attribute, he also had access to the Lightning attribute.

To use super-acceleration while clad in lightning requires extreme concentration as well as a large amount of Magical Energy, but it’s doable.

A lightning bolt approached Altreed, who lost his sword in the fog and just lost his left hand as well.

Probably less than a second has passed.

During that time, there must have been dozens and hundreds of exchanges. The countless sounds tell the intensity of the battle.

In the end, it was Aerial the one blown away.

He didn’t seem to have sustained any serious injuries, but it was still enough to force him back.

「Using the Lightning attribute to generate super-acceleration is something usually hard to control. If you want to make sure you can control it, you need to prepare beforehand, so if you try to use it in a pinch like you did just now, it’ll come out half-baked. That was hasty of you, Aerial.」

I understand the reasoning here.

Even if you speed up your body, your own consciousness won’t be as fast as a lightning strike.

Therefore, if you try to attack by generating super-acceleration using the Lightning attribute, the attack itself will usually turn into something that rampages chaotically within its range.

World Ranked 5th “Thunderclap Hero” Scathach could do it through a combination of resourcefulness and hard work.

However, as I just said, it is simply not possible to accelerate one’s own consciousness enough to match the speed of a lightning strike.

Therefore, the trajectory one will follow while the body moves at the speed of lightning should be set in advance.

Aerial tried to help me.

For that reason, he used his access to the Lightning attribute and set his sights on Altreed.

But in an emergency, there is no time to carefully plan an attack.

That’s why he settled for whatever movement his own unconscious could produce.

It’s a move that the “Storm Hero” often does when holding a sword.

In other words, it’s a move that anyone who knew him well enough could have seen coming.

Therefore, so long as Altreed could guess the right time Aerial would arrive, all he had to do was to accelerate himself accordingly.

He can set himself to respond to Aerial’s movements one by one and accelerate himself with Lightning as well.

Having mastered the Wind Attribute, Altreed was able to use the Lightning attribute in the same way as Aerial.

Still, can he pull that off against the “Storm Hero” himself?

— No, someone like Altreed can do it.

Over ten years ago, he was the Hero who stood at the top of the world, even if only for a single year.

Even though the Aerial Party already existed at that time, the fans of adventurers at that time – those who were paying attention to the industry – chose the Altreed Party as their number one choice.

I was reminded of the battle with Fenix at the Tenth Floor of the Demon King’s Castle.

At that time, I fought against the Fenix Party with the friends I summoned with my ring.

And then, when Fenix was left all by himself.

He took out everyone else of them despite being on his own.

Even though all my friends were very strong.

The overwhelming presence of the “Flame Hero” left a big mark on me.

A hero is someone who can change the situation by himself.

I know that, but every time I see something like that with my own eyes, I am reminded of what outrageous creatures these heroes are.

「Friend and foe alike know how terrifying you are. It’s wonderful.」

It was unthinkable during my time as part of the Fenix Party.

To be able to witness such a thing is certainly a privilege.

But now, the battle in front of me is all that matters.

— I just need a few more seconds.

And yet, I know how difficult it is to earn those seconds.

「I’m not dead yet！」

It’s Alba, Warrior of the Fenix Party.

He screams, and his Extensible Magic Sword… jumps out of the ground.

But by that time, Altreed had already dodged it, and the sword was heading towards me.

And Alba grinned.

His eyes hadn’t been set on Altreed to begin with.

It was me that Alba was looking at.

He knows. He knows that Lem is Lemegeton.

He knows that I’m the Demon King’s Army’s Chief of Staff who, during the battle on the Tenth Floor, read the trajectory of his own Magic Sword, avoided it, grabbed the extensible portion of its blade, and took it away from him.

This magic sword is for him.

This time, I once again saw the trajectory of his Magic Sword, and grabbed the extensible portion of its blade by matching its speed.

My body begins to float, the momentum of the blade doesn’t stop, and I… I move along with it.

「– I see.」

Altreed unleashes a Wind Blade at Alba without turning around, and Alba grabs the handle of the sword to allow me to escape, but because of this, he forgoes any attempts at dodging the incoming Wind Blade, which ends up slicing his chest open.

— Thank you, Alba…

With Alba’s exit, the Extensible Magic Sword disappeared, and I landed on the ground, killing my momentum.

Altreed draws near.

「There’s always something new about you. You’re very hard to read, but fun to watch.」

「Still」, the “Unyielding Hero” continued, 「I’m the one who’s gonna win this.」

His fist comes at me.

— Now.

Now’s the time.