The heaviest staff in the world moves. This is not just about weight.
With just one swing of his staff, the surroundings begin to change, and there’s no escaping the consequences.
Like raindrops on a painted picture, everything before me starts to blur.
I immediately cut off Ares’s restraints with my sword and got back up.
“Hold me steady!”
I grip my sword tightly. The two of them hold onto my clothes, nodding despite their confusion.
Then, from the undulating space, a torrent of pressure pours down like a fierce waterfall.
“Grr, ugh!”
I felt my veins bursting, and my vision turning red. Even so, I put strength into both hands and rooted my legs deep into the ground like an old tree.
The sensation of being crushed all over my body was something I had felt before, and it was an experience I’d never want to repeat. Yet here I was, doing it again.
At least this time I wasn’t in as bad shape from the Forest of the Demon Realm, and I was younger.
I lost track of time, but somehow I managed to hold on. Ares used his authority to lend me a bit of strength, albeit weakly.
With heavy breaths, I grounded my shaking knees with my sword, barely holding on.
I could tell from the red drips on my forehead that it wasn’t just sweat.
“Ugh, huff!”
A pitiful breath escaped me involuntarily. Still, there was no time to rest. This was just the beginning.
Seeing Sharcarl impassively continue swinging his staff, I bit down hard with determination.
If I let up the pressure here, I’d lose. Maybe it was the overwhelming force I pushed into, but the ground of the banquet hall I was stepping on dented, and I felt the muscles twisting like a whirlpool.
Thanks to that, the wind split apart, allowing me to surge forward. The speed startled Rin and Ares, making them scream.
Suddenly, an old memory surfaced.
It was the same when I first met Sharcarl. I had been overwhelmingly pushed back at the crossing. After taking the first blow, I tried to approach him, but my legs were trembling from the shock, preventing me from exerting any strength.
But now it was different.
I had grown enough physically. I wasn’t a Sherpa who had endured countless injuries living in the Forest of the Demon Realm.
I was a student from the Academy, grounded in a greenhouse.
Clang!
My sword interlocks with the trajectory of his staff.
Sharcarl’s inside skull flickers with surprise, the silver light rippling.
“I won’t let you swing it carelessly!”
“How intriguing.”
For most mages, their staff is used to enhance their magical efficiency or to draw mana.
It’s not that one cannot use magic without a staff, but the precision, casting speed, and power would inevitably diminish.
However, Sharcarl was different.
He could not cast magic without a staff.
To simply define Sharcarl’s power as mana is twisted, and to call it magic feels overly harsh.
Due to the extreme nature of his magical properties, if he tried to use magic without his staff, he would be consumed by his own power and might.
In other words, trying to use magic without a staff was akin to declaring one’s own death.
Ultimately, I just had to block Sharcarl’s staff.
Which, in reality, was incredibly challenging.
Unless I performed an ambush, it would be deemed impossible.
If I hadn’t been in the banquet hall at that moment, I would’ve received several blows by now.
The good thing was that Sharcarl, unlike Kurika, didn’t fight with all his strength once recognized as an unarmed.
He was a strong person, and because of that, he ignored the weak. That was the only breakthrough for me to win against Sharcarl.
“I’ll kill you with one blow!”
If I didn’t succeed now, there wouldn’t be a next time. I swung my sword to attempt to slice through Sharcarl’s staff.
Scrape!
A chilling sound trembled from my fingertips.
This was an opportunity.
A chance that would never come again, spanning both my past and present lives.
Given that I could only manage a small amount of mana, I had to fight with just my physical strength, so this chance to kill Sharcarl was rare, perhaps only once in a hundred battles.
And amidst that chance…
A miracle raised the hand of the mage living in the Forest of the Demon Realm.
Cracks began to form where my sword met the staff. And it shattered completely, as if it had never existed there at all.
“I took too much damage from that first blow!”
The sword my sister gifted me had certainly proved its worth. Considering how I had used it, one could hardly find a sword of such excellent value.
However, I had reached my limit.
I had diligently maintained my sword, yet after withstanding Sharcarl’s initial blow, it had met its end.
“I focused too much on Sharcarl!”
In my excitement and confidence that I could defeat a being of such extreme nature, I failed to accurately assess the condition of my weapon.
The obstacle that had blocked Sharcarl’s staff vanished. Without hesitation, he swung his staff.
“……!”
An invisible wave crashed over me. He was one who manipulated distortions. It was mana, yet it felt like something else.
“Gurk!”
My body was shoved back, floating away. In an embarrassing state, the two rushed towards me.
“Daniel!”
Rin, half in tears, tried to cast a healing spell on me.
“Is…is that magic?”
She probably felt no mana at all.
Rin waved her hands multiple times, but there was no mana in this space. No, there was mana, but I couldn’t say it could be called mana.
And this was precisely why he was the master of distortions.
Even with Arianne’s Flower, which devours all mana, he could not be defeated.
Sharcarl’s mana was immune to Arianne’s Flower.
The power to reverse the properties of all mana around him. Whether this was a talent, a skill honed over centuries, or a product of effort, I couldn’t say.
In any case, he possessed the power to reign over all mages merely by existing.
“I’ll try!”
With fear in her eyes, Rin flailed her hands, desperately trying to gather mana. Opposite her, Ares reached out a hand.
The symbols of Helios on the backs of his hands began to glow, slowly seeping into me.
If mana’s healing felt like ice reducing swelling, this was a feeling of warmth wrapping around me gently.
Moreover, its healing ability was much better, allowing me to get up quickly.
“Daniel!”
“Grr, I did it!”
Rin drew me into a tight embrace while Ares beside her complained about a headache. It seemed he was also unsure about his technique.
I wanted to say thank you, but I immediately pushed them back and regained my stance.
If I allowed someone like Sharcarl this much time, I anticipated magic that could only be described as violent would soon rage.
Strangely enough, instead of immediately swinging his staff, Sharcarl unexpectedly sat in his throne, looking down at me.
Such an abrupt turn of events. I wondered what on earth was happening.
“How did you know?”
Sharcarl asked me solemnly.
“You mentioned Daniel? You knew that I cannot use magic if I’m not swinging my staff.”
“……”
“That’s why you closed the distance with effort and blocked my staff. If your sword hadn’t been a bit more worn, it would have been me sprawled out here.”
Clench.
I involuntarily clenched my fist.
For him to say that, it meant I had come incredibly close to victory.
He, too, sighed begrudgingly, shaking his head.
“Relying on a mere divine miracle to achieve victory holds no meaning whatsoever.”
Sharcarl, who utterly despised the weak and never showed mercy to the victor, operated with cold logic regarding wins and losses. In his eyes, the conclusion became clear.
He concluded that he was the loser in the recent battle.
“However, I have one question. How did you know I could not use magic without my staff? No one else knows this.”
“……”
“Can’t answer?”
“If you acknowledge me as the victor, I will exercise that right.”
Pleased with my reply, Sharcarl chuckled and nodded vigorously.
“Ah, good! The victor has the right to do as they please.”
Having regained my composure, I subtly glanced at Rin, who looked ready to kill Sharcarl at any moment.
How did I know a secret of Sharcarl that even Kurika did not?
To know he could use magic without his staff, I had to witness Sharcarl ‘die.’
And I had seen it.
I watched as he wiped out a third of the Forest of the Demon Realm, about to perish engulfed in the calamity that overran the continent.
In his past life, Sharcarl was killed by the earliest apocalypse.
Even as he took a death-defying blow, clad in full armor, the calamity seemed to suffer no damage at all as he walked out unscathed.
“One more question.”
“Quite well received, huh?”
Perhaps it was the thrill of facing a strong opponent after so long, but Sharcarl seemed cheerful. He, who usually exuded gloom, appeared more animated than I expected.
‘Could it be that he felt the threat of death?’
Feeling that one could die meant one was alive, in a sense.
Perhaps his survival instincts, worn down over time, rose to the surface, making him treat me a little more humanely.
“Why are you in Nirva and what on earth is happening?”
“Hmm?”
Just as Sharcarl was about to tap his staff on the ground and say something, a massive explosion resonated.
KABOOM!
A gigantic blast slammed into us.
Half of the mansion split open, and colossal rocks flew in like meteors, obliterating the spot where Sharcarl was.
He probably wouldn’t die from that, but I had no time to worry about him.
The killing intent pouring from outside was far more threatening than the incoming rocks.
Through the gap of the split mansion, I saw a werewolf with a black mane dashing straight down the streets of Nirva.
With a speed so tremendous that I couldn’t keep up, the surrounding space distorted.
“…Kurika?”
The emperor living in the Forest of the Demon Realm, Kurika.
He had appeared in Nirva.
