CH 350

Chapter 350. Father and Son (2)

With my father’s fist, one of my illusions was destroyed and a small mountain behind it disappeared. I was skeptical about what kind of monster I was dealing with such that a mountain disappeared when he wasn’t even trying his hardest.

"Oh my! It doesn’t feel like I can win."

I shook my head and had my illusions attack all at once. 

"Enlightenment! Heel Kick!"

One of the illusions quickly twisted his body and kicked up at my father’s chin.

"Enlightenment! Beheading!"

Another illusion flew high and using gravity to accelerate, he struck the back of the neck with his heel.

"Enlightenment Cutting leaves!"

Another illusion shot countless aura blades aiming at my father's eyes. Each of my illusions was worse than my grandfather’s illusions using his Spirit Sword, but they were illusions that existed in reality.

“Ha!”

Alongside my father's yelling, I let out mana from all over my body and extinguished my illusions at once. Still, while the illusions were drawing attention, the great magic was completed.

"Chains that Connects Stars! Come down here and tie the darkness! Chains of Seven Stars!"

Hundreds of chains thicker than a forearm poured out from everywhere, restraining my father.

"Is it the magic of Elder Mirpa? It's much stronger!”

My father began to break the chain one by one with strength. I kept creating chains before he was released to prevent him from moving. Then, I released the chirps to quickly form a magic circle.

"…God's punishment resonates in the sky! A Thunder God’s Spear!"

"…It is clear that it burns like the morning sun! Dragon Breath!"

"...Thorn Spears Are Cursed! Gaebolg!”

By the time my father broke off the chain, various kinds of great magic were completed and directly attacked him.

"Martial Arts Transformation! Flow Extreme Enlightenment! The Dance of Wind Flowers!”

White mana rose subtly from my father's whole body. Even though he moved very smoothly and slowly, he avoided all of my great magic. I was speechless by the ridiculous sight.

"What kind of technique is that?"

It was the first time I've ever seen that technique. Even at a glance, I could see that it was the opposite of the Dance of the Fireflies and had a little burden on the body. But instead, the delicate control of mana was no joke. How could an ignorant muscled guy like my father, who chased after only strength, do such delicate control that looked so graceful? I felt like I was going to have cognitive dissonance.

"Things return to natural order. It's different for everything, and it ended up becoming reversed. It hasn’t been long since I made this technique."

It looked more difficult than the Dance of the Fireflies. Certainly not easier.

"It's a technique that doesn't suit Father."

My father smiled.

"I think so, too. Men should be strong by all means necessary."

After saying that, he explosively boosted his martial aura.

"Now! I think this is enough for feeling each other out! Come at me with your full strength!”

The white mana that surrounded my father's body was removed. I let out a deep sigh and raised both mana and martial arts at the same time.

"Fusion Enlightenment! Transformed Dance of the Fireflies!”

"Extreme Enlightenment! Dance of the Fireflies!"

Golden grains of magic burst out of his and my body. With the Dance of the Fireflies, the whole body's senses were extremely activated and vitality soared.

This time, he charged at me first. I infused mana into the Holy Sword and shot a strong aura at him, but he twisted and easily avoided it, then penetrated into my guard. His fist quickly threw out at my chin.

"Enlightenment Breaking a Mountain!"

I hurriedly threw myself and did a backflip to dodge it. Even though I completely avoided it, I was slightly dizzy by the power that shook the space.

"Fusion Enlightenment! Lightning that Splits the Earth!"

Spinning in the air, I threw out a fist made by combining the Lightning that Splits the Earth and Breaking the Earth. As the huge chunk of strong aura was about to directly hit my father, he jumped high and avoided it.

Boom-!

The land my father was on, hit by the lump of my strong aura, was turned into a crater. He kicked at me as if brushing away the boulder-sized debris that flew out from when the ground was smashed.

"Enlightenment! High Kick!"

The boulders that he kicked contained his full leg strength. Attacks poured down on me, as if I was the center of gravity.

"Argh!"

Boom-! Boom-! Boom-!

I launched myself into the fire and avoided the boulders. The place where the boulders fell really exploded as if a cannonball fell. The difference was that a cannonball was fired indirectly, but my father fired it directly. In other words, his hit rate was much better.

"At the end of the legend! Argh! Beautiful and brave! Keuk!"

I chanted while avoiding the pouring boulders.

"The Symphony of Falling Star!"

When the magic was completed, the sky was filled with rune words and magic circles.

"Stardust of Falling Star!”

A white ray of destruction fell from the magic circle. Unlike with Hillis's older sister, who should not be killed, this time I poured in as much mana as I could. Faced with the ray of destruction falling directly on him, my father laughed pleasantly.

"Hahahaha! Yes! This is a fight! Basic martial arts skill! Fist!"

He did not put any technique in his fist but just threw out the fist wrapped in strong aura. Martial art’s enlightenment was literally the compilation of enlightenment. These techniques ranged from how to clench a fist to how to breathe, and how to walk. However, my father gave a straight fist as if denying the history he had accumulated. 

"Crazy…!"

My great magic, which confronted my father's fist, was severely split after a fierce struggle.

"Hu... Your eyes seem to say you don't understand. If you had crossed the limit with martial arts, you would have recognized it right away. That's too bad."

Crack! Crack!

My father smacked his lips, rotated and stretched his right arm, that had just thrown the fist.

"No way, no that’s not possible."

Suddenly, a ridiculous possibility came to mind. The possibility was that my father's individual achievement was higher than the martial arts that our family built up from generation to generation. 

Seeing me shocked, my father smiled.

"Oh! Did you realize it?"

"Crazy! How can I beat this?"

My father burst into laughter at my cry.

"Ahahaha! So you were indeed thinking about beating me!"

"Am I not allowed to do that?!"

I thought the odds would be good enough if the equipment was added, but it was such an arrogant idea. My father was a monster beyond my expectations. When I had just run away, I was foolishly calculating the probability of being able to run away if I encountered him without even knowing this fact. It was an incredibly idiotic thought.

"No! Now! If you want to beat me, take out your hidden secret weapons!”

He shouted as if he had already guessed it.

Damn, to think I would even need to do doping. I took out the Turtle Carrying a Mountain’s mana stone, the phoenix's mana stone, and the Demon King’s horn. When I took out the Demon King’s horn, the Holy Sword cried piercingly, and so I put it back into my pocket space. I improvised the phoenix's mana stone on the fly.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The large mana stone was compressed into the size of a candy-like turtle's mana stone. I put the two mana stones in my mouth and attached the horns of the Demon King to my head.

"Fusion Enlightenment! Mad Banquet!"

The mana circuit quickly rotated the mana as if being over-clocked by the intense mana spreading inside my body. Black mana spread from the horns of the Demon King to my whole body, amplifying my power several times.

"Your right eye has become black. Is it the power of the Demon King?!"

Due to temporarily using the power of the Demon King, the burden on my body was no joke, but I maintained my composure.

I smiled at my shocked father.

"You told me to bring out my secret weapon. What, is this not enough either?”

I combined the Mad Banquet and the Dance of the Fireflies into one. About half of the golden grains of mana turned black.

"Transcended Enlightenment! Banquet of Fireflies!"

Because it extremely overloaded my body, I couldn’t hold it for a long time. I had to achieve victory quickly.

"Hahahaha! I like it! Then I'll go along with you until the end, too!”

My father raised his martial arts to the limit and suddenly his hair began to turn half white.

"Transcended Enlightenment! The Sabbath of the Fireflies!"

About half of the golden grains of mana around my father turned white. It seemed to be a technique fused with the Dance of Windflowers.

My father and I rushed toward each other.

-o-

I could see the sky.

In the aftermath of the clash with my father, the sky became clear without a single cloud. The sun was rising over the east.

But why is the sun rising, not setting?

"Um, how long did we fight?”

To my question, he smiled and replied with a tired face, withdrawing the white and gold mana grains.

"I don't know. I was too focused on the fight.”

"Me too."

We might have even fought for about two days, not just a day. It was such a hard fight where he or I could have lost if we didn’t keep focus the entire time. As a result of the fight, unlike my father, who was standing proudly, I couldn't feel a handful of mana in my body.

It was a perfect defeat.

"Okay, then the youngest. Since you lost, you're going back to the village obediently, right?”

I smiled lightly at his question.

"No way."

He questioned my answer. 

“But you don't seem to have the strength to stand up right now?"

"It's natural that I can't move since I've run out of mana. But I told you before I came up here. I'm going to ‘run away’."

"What are you... Huh?!”

His eyes opened wide as he noticed the strangeness of what I said.

"You! No way! That body! Is it magic?!"

I smiled playfully at my father who responded like he couldn’t believe it.

"Correct! Unfortunately, there's no prize."

The mana stones, the horns of the Demon King, and the magic wand I used were previously recovered to my pocket space.

"No, how...!”

He sat on the ground with a hollow face.

"You can say it’s a puppet made with doppelganger magic with a performance that can generate about 98 percent of my power. By now, my main body must have sealed his mana, and is working to escape without being caught by Father."

Actually, just the doppelganger's consciousness was not enough to deceive his instincts. Because of that, I had to split my consciousness and control the doppelganger's body myself. Since most of the consciousness was in this body, my real body must be crawling in the direction of the empire with a weak consciousness.

"I thought you would give that saintess lady the coordinates or whatnot and escape by teleporting."

At my father's words, I giggled and laughed.

"It's not that I hadn't thought about that method, but no matter how I thought about it, I thought I'd get stopped before being able to use the magic. But of course, I did hand Tristan the coordinates in case the doppelganger was caught.”

"Khmm!"

It was a magic that replicated me close to perfection, and I was able to deceive him because I deliberately controlled it myself.

The doppelganger's body fat, completely depleted of mana, quickly began to break apart.

"But when was it? When did you swap with that fake body?"

"When Father was catching the bone dragon he saw excitedly?"

He laughed absurdly at my words.

"Ahahaha! You're such a mischievous boy.”

After laughing for a long time, my father smiled and said again with an excited face.

"But 98 percent means that the main body is 2 percent stronger, right?”

When I saw his deep smile, I felt it.

Damn it! I'm screwed! I need to run faster!

"I'll write you a letter later! Then bye!" 

I quickly returned my consciousness to my original body. I felt a little dizzy due to the sudden change in vision, but I quickly returned to normal. I should stay as far away from my father as possible for the time being.

I looked around and examined the surroundings.

"Let's see. Despite sealing my mana, I’ve come a long way. My original body's mana is intact too."

I tried stretching while moving my body lightly. Unlike the doppelganger's body, whose fat had become a rag due to excessive mana operation, mine was lively.

I took out the watch my maternal grandfather gave me from my pocket to see how long it had been.

"What?! We fought for 3 days? I did think that I came a long way. It’s more than enough time for Tristan and Hillis to have arrived at the empire."

Time had passed more than I reckoned. If he followed my orders, Tristan would have taken Hillis to Albatoss and should be moving with Arwen and the Debt-Ridden Knight, who hadn’t paid off his interest to me.

I released the seal on my mana and took out my magic wand from my pocket space. Then, I immediately made a space leap to Tristan’s coordinates.

The scene I saw as space split apart showed Tristan pulling a shabby cart.

"Teacher-nim!"

"Den, you’ve arrived!"

"So you’ve come."

"You came a lot later than I thought.”

The four people sitting on the cart waved at me.

"Wait, why are you here?"

The people who greeted me were Arwen, the Debt-Ridden ahjussi, and Arietta. And also Hillis.

I didn't understand why Hillis, who was supposed to have returned to the temple in the empire, was here.

Hillis proudly answered my question.

"I quit being a saintess, so I'm here. I'm free now is what I'm saying!"

She had a pretty bitter face for speaking confidently.

"Actually, Unni decided to become a saintess instead of me. I've never shown my face externally, so most people won't know anything except a few people even if the saintess changes."

Hillis tried hard to smile, but she couldn't hide her regret.

"I said she didn't have to do that for me, but Unni said she was going to spend the rest of her life in the temple to atone for her mistakes, including summoning the Demon King, so… She said she’ll give me the freedom I've been wishing for so far...”

Hillis wiped the corner of her eyes and handed me a letter.

"And it's a letter to you. She asked me to deliver it to you."

I read the letter right on the spot after receiving it from Hillis. The contents of the letter were short and simple.

- There will be no such thing as becoming close with you, but please take care of my sister.

I folded the short letter and put it in my pocket space, then sat on piled up luggage and muttered…

"That request, of course I'll do it."

Then I pointed in the direction of the Republic and shouted,

"Now! The destination is Milion, a port city in the south of the Republic! Go! You servant knight!"

"Yep! Let's hurry and go, Master!"

With this, my life as a civil servant in the empire ended.

What should I do next? I didn't think it'd be bad to roam around the world freely.