Chapter 151

Chapter 151

* * *

Lydon slowly raised his head. Jeriel, lying before him, was no longer shivering, and the flood of mana had subsided.

Confirming it, Lydon pulled the hand that covered his face away.

“......Wow.”

Even though he only spat out a short exclamation, the blood was welling up in his eyes. Every time he laughed, a thick stream of blood flowed down his chin, and drops of blood that seemed to flow at any moment filled his bloodshot eyes. Lydon succeeded in subduing Jeriel’s rampage, but he could not escape the backlash.

“Ahaha! It really hurts. That’s a lot of pain.”

Lydon’s head was spinning, and he felt as if he might lose consciousness at any moment, but his body was not. Rather, the flow of mana was more active than ever, burning through his body, uncontrollable and causing a bitter cold to swirl around him. It was powerful enough to crack the barrier he had put up.

Sharp icy spikes sprouted and shattered all over Lydon’s limbs, chest, and back, each time accompanied by the horrifying sensation of his mana vessel bursting. His smile cracked at the excessive pain. The upturned corners of his mouth twitched briefly, and his brow creased.

“So troublesome.......”

He’d stopped Jeriel’s mana rampage for Cadel’s sake, but at this rate, it was about to explode into something worse. Lydon caught his breath, carelessly wiping away the blood that was dripping from him. He was determined to stop the rampage by somehow capturing his mana.

But his plan was thwarted before it could be executed. An unexpected blow to the ice barrier.

There was no time to reinforce the barrier. An irritated gaze turned to the source of the shock, and from beyond the shattered barrier, an unwelcome visitor emerged.

“It’s your turn.”

Sellev. A vicious gleam flashed through her eyes as she spotted Lydon.

* * *

“Wake, wake up, Van.......”

Van’s eyes remained closed, unmoving at the trembling call. Cadel twisted out of Van’s body, the pain in his left arm excruciating. His fingers throbbed from the strain of bearing Van’s weight.

When Sellev charged with the unconscious Van, Cadel disarmed the fire barrier, knowing that if he hit the fire barrier with that momentum, Van wouldn’t be able to wake up forever.

Cadel chose Van over his own safety, and went flying through the air with a murderous shockwave. It was a ridiculous altitude. It was also a murderous speed, with the wind whipping past his ears. If Cadel hadn’t unfurled the wind barrier in time for his descent, they would have been blasted to death.

The two at the forefront were pushed all the way to the rear. Cadel tried to protect Van from the advancing monster army and knights.

“Van, open your eyes. Okay?”

Sellev’s [Black Grasp] was a near-instant death skill for all but the bloodiest tankers. Van Herdos was a berserker in the tanker position, so even if he was severely wounded, he wouldn’t die easily. If her attack had been directed at Lydon or Cadel, the outcome could have been much worse. But did that mean they should feel lucky that Van was hit? Of course not.

Cadel fumbled on Van’s abdomen, which was stained black as if it had a black hole. The wet, viscous liquid that touched his fingertips was clearly blood. Reaad the latest stories on novelbin(.)com

He felt sick to his stomach. Cadel bit his lip hard as if to swallow the nausea. He knew better than anyone that he shouldn’t break down here, but he couldn’t stop himself from shaking.

Cadel raised his free right arm and cradled Van’s head. He could hardly feel the warmth. A bead of sweat dripped from beneath the bowed head, wetting Van’s cheek.

“......You too, me too. It never ends here.”

To see the end of the story without losing a single subordinate. That was his determination in this new world.

“Do you know the location of Battalion Captain Dreyfe? And what is his condition?”

“I’ve put up a barrier, so he won’t get hurt in there. We’re running out of time, Sir Sorin. See an opening and run.”

Cadel looked at the mangled gateway. It would take a delicate magic spell to avoid the gate and the knights and hit the monsters alone.

‘I can’t go off the rails even a little bit.’

If the gate was broken, the tide of battle would spiral out of control, and if the knight was harmed, he would even gain the distrust of his allies on the harsh battlefield.

‘......I have no choice but to do it.’

Drawing on the mana of the wind. Taking a deep breath, Cadel eyed the Red Men near the gateway’s entrance and slowly curled his outstretched right hand.

The spell he deployed was [Wind Prison]. It was a familiar spell, but this time it was used differently.

Simultaneous casting had created dozens of [Wind Prisons]. These intangible prisons would consume the monster hordes in front of him, one by one.

Once inside the prisons, the Red Men rampaged, punching at the barrier that imprisoned them, and every time they did that, Cadel poured mana over the barrier to adjust its strength. The imprisoned monsters were lifted into the air, away from their allies. The members of the Guardian Knight Order were taken aback by the sudden containment of the monsters, but quickly regained their composure when they spotted their captain, Sorin, and the mercenary commander.

Cadel felt the mana drain from him like water as he restrained the Red Men, step by step. More than ever, a perfect balance of mana was needed. If the mana was lopsided, the prison would not withstand the monsters’ rampage and would crack.

His right arm shook from the exertion. Cold beads of sweat trickled down his nervous spine, and finally, Cadel had succeeded in clearing the entrance of all the creatures that had blocked it.

“Go.”

Cadel, barely able to speak, dismissed Sorin. Sorin checked out the army of monsters in the sky and ran straight for the gate.

Van, on his back, still showed no sign of returning to consciousness. Cadel stared nail-bitingly at Van’s broad back until they disappeared beyond the gateway, gathering the [Wind Prisons] into a single point in the air.

Just moving each prison consumed three times the normal amount of mana. It was all because of Red Men’s destructive power. They hit the prisons without getting tired, and each blow made the prisons vibrate heavily.

‘The longer I hold out, the worse off I am.’

He didn’t have to keep them bound for long. Cadel maintained the [Wind Prisons] and drew upon the mana of lightning, and a large amount of current began to condense on the sides of the prisons.

The electricity flashed and twisted erratically, then took the form of a giant spear. The glowing tip of the spear was aimed at the huddled Red Men.

That would be enough. Cadel carefully adjusted his mana, nervously waiting for the perfect timing.

And.

‘Now!’

At the same time as he released the [Wind Prisons], he activated the lightning spear he had loaded.

Mana like a literal bolt of lightning pierced through the falling Red Men’s bodies. The current skewered through all fifteen of them, glowing a bluish color, and in the blink of an eye, the spear of lightning plunged to the ground.

As Cadel withdrew all of his mana, the Red Men’s blackened, electrocuted corpses dripped down the drain. It was a magic spell made of the holy trinity of silent chanting, silent casting, and the simultaneous manifestation of two attributes.

The man who accomplished it was busy gasping for air, but the knights who witnessed the near-supernatural magic were all mesmerized. They had heard rumors that the commander of the Scarlet Scales Mercenary was a magician of monstrous skill, but they hadn’t expected anything like this.

Ignoring all the arrow-like stares, Cadel took a breath and focused on the system window in front of him.