Chapter 541
Just for This Moment. (1)
Boom!
“Ugh!”
Helgenik suffered a severe wound on his back from Jerome's sudden attack.
“You… You’ve already recovered…?”
“I told you, I’ll definitely kill you, didn’t I?”
Jerome grinned. He was kind-hearted, but like a true mage, he was also relentless.
Without responding, Helgenik immediately unleashed his mana.
Kwaaang!
Jerome’s shield shattered. Clicking his tongue, he retreated. The sheer force was overwhelming completely different from the last time they fought.
It was obvious that Helgenik was now using a hidden trump card. Even his appearance was far from normal.
However, he couldn’t push Jerome back, as Ghislain and Julien swung their swords at him.
Papapak!
“Guh…”
His body was slashed so thoroughly that it was hard to find a spot untouched. The black smoke emanating from him had noticeably weakened compared to the beginning.
Jerome shouted toward the two.
“I’m not your enemy! I came to help! My name is—”
“We know! Focus on the fight!”
Ghislain yelled. He already knew that guy liked to talk too much.
Come to think of it, he had never seen a quiet mage before.
No matter how kind they were, they all fundamentally thought of themselves as the center of the world. That must be why.
“Yes, sir!”
Jerome immediately responded and moved, understanding the urgency of the situation. Still, he wasn’t in as bad a shape as Claude.
Kwaaang!
Ghislain’s crimson eyes gleamed as he swung his sword.
At that moment, he had activated five cores. He couldn’t maintain it for long, but this wasn’t the time to conserve his strength.
A flurry of red streaks slashed through the air, leaving dozens of wounds on Helgenik’s body. Ghislain repeatedly aimed for his heart, trying to destroy it.
“Graaagh!”
Helgenik was also a mage. He wasn’t skilled in close combat.
Yet, he endured Ghislain’s attacks with his body while continuing to cast spells. He focused solely on defending his heart his last line of survival.
Kwaaang!
Dozens of dark arrows rained down on Ghislain, pummeling his body. He coughed up blood and was flung backward.
Slash!
Julien’s sword relentlessly targeted Helgenik’s neck, an incredibly bothersome assault for him.
He could afford to lose other parts of his body, but if his heart, the source of his mana, was destroyed, it would be over. He also had to protect his head, which controlled his magic.
So, whenever Julien attacked, he concentrated his energy around his head and neck.
Kwaaang!
Suddenly, a massive black hand emerged from the ground and struck Julien. As a high-ranking necromancer, Helgenik wielded bizarre and unpredictable magic.
Unlike the other two, Jerome didn’t engage Helgenik in direct combat.
‘That energy… It’s continuously depleting. Could it be…?’
He quickly grasped the situation and made an excellent deduction, just as one would expect from a mage.
‘So that was the hidden power? The fact that he can’t reanimate the corpses anymore… it means he used that power on himself.’
Helgenik somehow seemed desperate. This was nothing like a mage’s battle.
It was more like a common brawler’s fight someone who merely knew how to use magic.
There was only one reason why someone who had been so cunningly hiding his true self would act this way.
‘It’s a power with a time limit. His mana is constantly draining.’
The black energy surging wildly from his wounds was clearly visible. It was slightly different from mana, but not entirely foreign either.
That energy was erupting from Helgenik’s body like an explosion. That must have been why he could exert such monstrous strength.
If they stalled for time, he would eventually collapse on his own. But if they ran away now, their allies would be in danger.
That was probably why those two weren’t fleeing either.
‘Alright, let’s do this.’
Ziiing—!
Jerome cast a shield over Ghislain and Julien. At the same time, a healing spell was invoked.
Helgenik’s counterattacks were too strong, and the two were getting battered.
Though not as potent as divine power, Jerome’s healing magic was still highly effective, befitting a high-ranking mage. Trusting in that, Ghislain and Julien charged at Helgenik even more aggressively.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
As the two engaged Helgenik up close, Jerome took a step back.
He couldn’t use large-area magic. He couldn’t risk getting them caught in it.
Even targeting only Helgenik wasn’t easy. The three of them were moving at an incredible speed, tangled together in the fight.
For now, Jerome cast an appropriate spell.
Fwaaash!
Dozens of streaks of light shot out from Jerome’s outstretched hand.
Unlike the crude projectiles he had used when fighting bandits before, this was a true Magic Missile.
Dozens of guided magic missiles streaked toward Helgenik, weaving through the gaps between the three combatants with perfect precision to strike only their intended target.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
It was a low-circle spell, but the caster was an 8th-circle mage. Each missile carried immense power.
Ghislain and Julien instinctively widened their distance whenever the missiles approached.
No matter how precise the homing function was, if the combatants moved too fast, the projectiles could easily miss their mark.
“Grrr…!”
Helgenik took the brunt of the Magic Missiles and turned to glare at Jerome.
The mage was dodging his attacks with irritating ease.
He was sure Jerome had run out of mana earlier where had he replenished it?!
Even Jerome himself was slightly surprised as he cast his spells.
‘Wait… was that guy really just a 5th-circle mage?’
It contained far more mana than that of an ordinary 5th-circle mage. Moreover, it was incredibly pure.
A mage with such mana was rare. It surpassed even the elders or Tower Masters of most Magic Towers.
‘Why hasn’t he reached the 6th circle with mana like this? Why did he lose all his mana to me so easily? Judging by the quality of his mana, he must have trained with strict discipline, accumulating it meticulously.’
Alfoi had even consumed a Dragon Heart and regularly wielded immense amounts of mana due to his construction projects. In terms of mana quality alone, he was second to none.
However, his willpower fell short, making him a mere ‘lucky mage.’ This was a truth that Jerome had no way of knowing at the moment.
Even so, Alfoi’s mana was undoubtedly a great help. With Jerome joining the fray, Helgenik began depleting his energy even faster.
Moreover, Jerome wasn’t just attacking. As a mage capable of using a vast array of spells, he was particularly skilled in the fields of spatial manipulation and absorption.
‘I can extract it!’
Fwaaah!
As Jerome stretched out both hands, Helgenik’s wound tore open further, releasing an even greater amount of black energy.
And that energy began to be drawn into Jerome’s hands.
“Guhh!”
Jerome’s robe swelled up. His body bulged irregularly in various places, and dark veins surged violently to the surface.
This was a power beyond his capacity to handle.
‘Damn, that bastard really is something else.’
Jerome clicked his tongue inwardly. To withstand such power and still fight like that no ordinary body could endure such strength.
How could he possibly withstand this power? No, in the first place, it was already absurd that he could even move with those kinds of wounds.
Having no other choice, Jerome ceased the absorption and instead dispersed the energy back into the air.
“Kraaaagh!”
Helgenik let out a scream of agony.
Even for a brief moment, a significant amount of his energy had been drained. As expected, his opponent was indeed a mage. Rather than attacking him directly, he was weakening his strength.
The damage from divine power had severely shattered his energy barrier. Worse still, that divine power remained inside his body, hindering his regeneration.
“Damn it, if only it weren’t for that wench!”
Had it not been for the divine power, he would have finished this fight long ago. That alone was infuriating beyond measure.
He desperately wanted to kill the Saintess, who lay collapsed in the distance. However, dealing with Jerome took priority for now.
He couldn’t risk another instance of having his energy absorbed like before.
Flash!
Helgenik used Blink, appearing right in front of Jerome.
But Jerome was also a mage. He instantly distorted space, evading Helgenik’s attack and retreating to Ghislain’s side.
“You bastard!”
Flash!
Helgenik moved again. However, in front of him, Ghislain and Julien were swinging their swords.
Kwaaang!
A large wound opened on Helgenik’s body. Meanwhile, Jerome shifted through space and reached out his hand once more.
Kwaaaaaa!
Another wound split open, and his energy seeped out. Although Jerome couldn't sustain his interference for long, for Helgenik who was already losing energy just by standing still it was fatal.
"Krghhh!"
Helgenik relentlessly cast his magic.
The surroundings were already so devastated that they were unrecognizable, yet he still hadn't managed to kill his enemies.
Jerome fought wisely. The mana he received from Alfoi isn’t infinite.
No matter how pure, mana that was not originally his was difficult to absorb properly it was nothing more than a temporary substitute.
Moreover, the quantity itself was far from sufficient compared to his original capacity. It might seem like a lot for a 5th-circle mage, but in the end, it was still just 5th-circle mana.
Thus, rather than attacking Helgenik directly, Jerome prioritized defensive magic.
He shielded himself and the other two from Helgenik’s indiscriminate barrage of spells, and whenever he found an opening, he drained Helgenik’s energy.
Kwang! Kwang! Kwang!
The three of them began pressing Helgenik in that manner.
Ghislain's eyes gleamed. He and Julien were also exhausted, but Helgenik was weakening even faster now that Jerome had joined the fight. Just a little more just a little more pressure.
"Graaaah!"
Helgenik realized he couldn’t hold out any longer. If he kept dragging this out, he would simply collapse.
No, he was already losing ground. True death was creeping upon him, despite being the Master of the Dead and Lord of Death himself.
‘No...!’
Helgenik was a wielder of souls. He knew full well that his karmic burden towered to the skies and blanketed the earth.
If he died like this, his soul would wander the River of the Dead for eternity, suffering in agony.
Just as he had condemned so many others to that same fate.
This was the inevitable end of one who had dabbled in black magic yet failed to reach transcendence.
In the end, Helgenik resolved to truly risk his life.
Drdrdrdrdr!
Helgenik gathered his energy. It wouldn’t be as powerful as before, but it would still be enough to inflict a fatal wound.
Seeing this, Ghislain shouted.
"Jerome! Interrupt him! Hold on however you can! I’ll finish this!"
Jerome also sensed the gravity of the situation and exhausted all his remaining mana to absorb Helgenik’s energy.
Kwaaaaaaa!
"Krghhh!"
Helgenik couldn't endure the pain and let out a scream. The disruption twisted his energy into complete disarray.
However, Helgenik could wield this energy far better than Jerome. It was a force incredibly similar to his original mana.
As he focused his mind, the energy stabilized and gathered once more.
On the other hand, Jerome was still struggling to withstand the power of the Orb.
"Urgh…."
Jerome, who had been enduring with black veins bulging across his body, finally coughed up blood.
His mana was too depleted, and his body too exhausted to withstand this energy any longer.
Unable to endure, Jerome released the absorbed mana into the air and collapsed.
But the brief opening he created was nothing short of extraordinary.
For Helgenik to use that technique, he needed a moment of preparation. Jerome had just extended that moment a little longer.
Ghislain sprang forward and shouted.
“Julien!”
Paah!
With his ever-cold gaze, Julien appeared before Helgenik.
He poured all his mana into his sword. Seeing Julien emerge, Helgenik instinctively gathered energy in his throat.
However, Julien’s sword, which had persistently aimed for his neck all this time—
Puk!
—pierced deeply into Helgenik’s heart.
“Kuugh!”
Helgenik let out a scream. His energy raged violently within him, spiraling out of control. The rampaging force had escaped his grasp.
But it didn’t matter. He could still detonate it now. At the very least, the enemy before him would be blown to pieces.
Just as Helgenik was about to unleash an explosion—
Julien quietly spoke.
“Ghislain.”
Paah!
In an instant, Ghislain leaped high from behind Julien.
Whooosh!
A blazing, dark aura completely enveloped his body, leaving only his crimson eyes glowing fiercely.
Since reaching the Fifth Stage, Ghislain had never used Amplification.
Not because he didn’t want to, but because if he used Amplification with the power of the Fifth Stage, he wouldn’t be able to endure even for a moment.
But now, he was willing to take that risk to seize the opportunity that Jerome and Julien had carved out.
Kwaaaaaaa!
A massive storm of mana surged into his sword.
Faced with the attack unleashed in that fleeting moment, Helgenik’s eyes widened.
Time…
Even without realizing it, time seemed to slow down. The overwhelming force approaching him distorted everything around it.
Nothing could move. Everything had frozen still.
Helgenik was trapped in that rupture of time.
Ghislain clenched his teeth hard. Even just swinging his sword placed an unbearable strain on his body.
It felt as if he might drop his sword before reaching his target. No, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say his body might explode.
But he endured.
With this overwhelming power, he would sever the head of that monster.
At least, at this moment.
For now—
He had surpassed the power of his previous life.
Kwaa-jik!
Ghislain’s sword tore through space itself as it struck.