Chapter 51 - Prologue - Departure

The raging flames of black that emitted from the volatile spears he planted into the creature's mouth held no mercy towards their own caster, roaring with a heat that began to pull away at his own flesh, turning his pale skin to a bright red, then a charcoal black. At this point, pain was hardly something he had focused on--only experiencing ecstasy after feeling the raw power of the spell to come, confirming to him that it was capable of ending this monster's reign of terror.

His own lips were scorched and torn by the sharp winds generated by the spell's ferocity, exhibiting a smile to match the monster's natural ghast. Every last ounce of mana he could find within his body was forced into the bursting spears, sizzling as they could barely maintain their form with the overflow of magical energy being thrust into them.

The blood that ran through his veins boiled under the unyielding flames, feeling his own lively essence cook him from the inside, his tongue bubbling up as it boiled all the same.

As stiff as his arm became, as weak as his body turned at the loss of mana, he continued to hold his hand forward as the relentless flames of his own making ate away at his flesh, giving everything he could to those spears that would rid Iris of her fears. The fact that time seemed to slow itself down to a near halt told him that he had indeed set himself on the path to the afterlife.

--Is my life going to start flashing before my eyes? If so, I'd like to see her smile then. I wish I had the strength or time to turn around and see her--even if I have to see those puffy, tear-filled eyes. Shed some of those tears for me, okay?

The black spears began to lose their form, releasing an air of dark mana as they heated up in front of his eyes even further, scorching the creature's tongue before finally, the volatility he wished for manifested itself. An explosion of abyssal flames erupted all within a moment as time resumed for him, engulfing him in his own spell of destruction.

As he met with the utter destruction he caused, his own vision fell to the same darkness his magic invoked into reality.

--Ah. I'm dead, aren't I?