Papak!
Every time his feet hit the ground, Theo’s body moved a few dozen meters at once. He was moving much faster than when he had been carrying Lee Seol, so much so that leaves only started to fall after he passed by completely.
However, the two spirits were keeping pace with him. Despite their size, they were astonishingly nimble, kicking off thin branches and rocky edges to accelerate more. As beasts, they were intimately more familiar with the mountains.
“Sigh…” Theo sighed as he kept three meters ahead. He couldn’t forget the forlorn expression of the girl who had just left a while ago.
– Yes, I will head back first.
The three months had been both a long and short amount of time, but she had become memorable. The link between Lee Yoonsung and Lee Seol, which had led to the Fairy Dance Lee Family… Lee Seol reminded Theo of his younger brother.
From now on, she would be a child living among adults. As the next head of the Fairy Dance Lee Family, she would pioneer her own life in this land without him.
– May luck be with you on your way back.
She had said farewell bravely, but Theo had been able to read the regrets on her face.
That child, she had a lonely expression.
Following behind Theo, the Tiger King said, “Hey.”
Theo glanced backward. “Why are you calling me?”
She grinned at him. “Don’t worry about it. My kids will send that girl back safely. Well, I don’t think there are females who hate being looked after by a male. But isn’t this situation too relaxed?”
“That―” Theo snapped his mouth shut. He hadn’t expressed it on the outside, but he couldn’t hide it from the Tiger King. Even if she had a partially human form, she still had her beastly instincts. It was difficult for a human to match beasts when it came to reading body language. After all, a beast could even read the movement of blood under one’s skin.
“… You are correct. I should be vigilant.” Theo sighed and released his worries.
Lee Seol was under the two boss spirits’ protection so what could hurt her in these mountains? It seemed that the several months he’d spent in the Fairy Dance Lee Family had softened him.
He shouldn’t be thinking about Lee Seol’s safe return but the threat that had to be dealt with; the shaman who twisted the dragon vein in the Baekun Mountains for his own purpose!
The most difficult thing will be that shaman.
Unlike magicians who systematically increased their abilities, there was no clear learning system for shamans. Someone would teach that A was right and B was false. Someone else would teach that B was right and C was false. Then someone else would teach that A, B, and C were false, and D was right.
Therefore, there was no room for an integrated institution like the Magic Towers. Every individual would claim the other was speaking heresy, resulting in disunity. Even shamans belonging to the same sect used different powers, so what about the other shamans?
As Seimei had said previously, there was no point in guessing. Theo wouldn’t know until he saw it for himself. In that case, it would be best to determine the common weaknesses of shamans.
Theo rummaged through Seimei’s memories. It was an incredible amount of knowledge, and there were many areas of shamanism that couldn’t coexist with magic, but he managed to find a way to deal with shamans.
The Divide Method… and the Nine Seals Method.
While Theo was coming up with two plans, he and the two boss spirits suddenly skidded to a halt at the same time, despite the fact that they seemed to be on an ordinary mountain slope.
The Tiger King’s eyes narrowed. “… What, this land? It feels strange.” 𝗼𝘃𝗹.𝗼𝐫𝗴
White Bear sniffed the air. “I also get an unpleasant feeling. I feel sick to the bottom of my stomach.”
The two spirits were much more sensitive than humans. Something was wrong, but they didn’t know what it was. Theo was also feeling the same way.
It was a feeling of discomfort. It was like blades were lightly scratching his skin and cutting his flesh. It was a sense that only spiritually aware beings developed, and it didn’t just rely on the five senses of the body.
At that moment…
[Hoing!]
Mitra jumped down and ran forward. The three of them, including Theo, chased after her, but after sprinting for a few meters, Mitra suddenly stopped. She leaned down to pick up a stone.
[Bad stone!]
She shouted as she hurled it down the slope.
Theo looked between her and the stone sailing through the air. “… Mitra?”
[Wait!]
Before Theo could ask what happened, Mitra ran to another stone. She threw it down the mountain again. As the two spirits and Theo just watched, she ran from stone to stone, throwing them haphazardly down the mountain. Finally, Mitra called out with a triumphant expression.
[This last one!]
The moment that rock was thrown away…
Wuooooong!
The peaceful mountain slope distorted, and a wall of darkness that seemed to even devour the sun’s rays, appeared before their eyes. The two spirits recoiled with shock.
Tiger King’s hackles were rising. “W-What is this?”
White Bear’s nose wrinkled. “Umm, it is a really terrible wall.”
However, unlike the spirits, Theo looked at the wall of darkness and carefully reached out. “Perhaps this is…”
Several types of analysis spells flickered on his fingertips. Detect Mana, Penetration, and Dissection… The 7th Circle spells latched onto the mysterious darkness. Theo even used spells from the Age of Mythology.
Dissection, unlike Dispel, didn’t neutralize spells, but explored it instead. It was a special spell that Theo had accidentally discovered in a certain book. He was certain he was the only one who had mastered it in this day and age.
Nevertheless, shamanism might be different from magic, but the roots were the same, so he knew he could deconstruct it.
“I knew it,” Theo spoke after doing a half analysis of the darkness wall. “It’s a large barrier of a very high level. Perhaps this is the source of what’s stealing from the dragon vein.”
White Bear eyed the wall of darkness. “Can you get rid of it?”
“The removal itself isn’t that difficult. I can destroy it. You could even do it, though it will take some time.” However, Theo’s eyes sank deeply. “The problem is the purpose of this barrier. It was built using the dragon vein as a source, and it seems like it’s restraining something inside…”
Theo concluded that it was some type of seal, and he couldn’t destroy it easily. It was the same problem as the mythical Pandora’s Box. What if there was something chained inside that he couldn’t afford to let out? Attempting to restore the sacred tree would actually bring more ruin. However, the answer to that came from an unexpected place.
“Hoh, that is completely accurate. Truly great.”
It wasn’t Theo, the Tiger King, or the White Bear. Instead, it was a fourth person, an unfamiliar voice that came from above!
“You, who―!” The White Bear was the quickest to find the mysterious voice and let out a thunderous roar. The roar was closer to a sound wave attack, destroying everything in its path.
However, the mysterious stranger casually jumped over the sound wave. He was wearing a black mask over his entire face, matching the rest of his robes. Theo’s super sensitivity told him that this man in black was the perpetrator of their problems.
The man in black examined Theo closely as he said, “What a difficult situation. I’d opened this section to check, but to think there is a being who untied it and looked into the ward…”
Open?
Theo was puzzled for a moment, before realizing that the man was talking about the ward that Mitra had released. The ward had assimilated this space into nature and concealed it. The two boss spirits might have been sensitive to the change in the material world, but that sensitivity was nothing compared to that of Mitra, who was the embodiment of nature itself.
Theo stepped forward, “If you are innocent, identify yourself!”
“What if I don’t want to?” The man in black chuckled. “Would you answer?”
“Then…” Theo didn’t respond to the sarcasm as his blue eyes flashed and he raised both hands. “―I will force you to confess!”
There was some room for dialogue, but Theo abandoned negotiations instantly. It wasn’t just because of the man’s suspicious clothing or selfish behavior. Mitra was still in hiding, and Theo, who shared her perception, could see past the black robes to the malice that hid beneath. It was an evil malice, like tar boiling up from the bottom of hell.
Forced Harmonization.
Theo’s seven Circles used two types of attack spells—Lightning Vortex X Fire Storm and Integration Complete: Volcanic Thunder. He produced a blow purely focused on destructive power. Fire and lightning were the strongest offensive attributes, and their combination was fearsome. They would usually be undermining each other, but Theo’s Sorcery removed that weakness. This was literally lightning fire.
Kwarururung!
A storm of devastating power swallowed up the man in black standing in the sky. He had no chance to avoid it. The spell was also incredibly fast, since the two attributes had synergized completely. It was a destructive power that could even wound an adult dragon.
“… Cough! Attacking out of the blue… That is too much.”
But Theo’s opponent didn’t die. After the attack soared into the sky, the man looked down at Theo from midair.
No, he didn’t block it completely.
The man’s left arm was gone. However, he simply grabbed his left shoulder and shrugged like he didn’t care. There were a few drops of blood on his masked face. It was a surprisingly mellow reaction considering one of his arms had been destroyed.
“Western magic… You aren’t an opponent I can compete with when it comes to power. I focused on defense, but… I didn’t think it would be like this. But I didn’t intend to fight from the beginning.”
“… What?” Theo’s eyes suddenly widened.
The man’s left arm, that had been completely destroyed, started growing from the left arm socket. First, the bones formed, and muscles swelled over blood vessels and nerves. Lastly, skin tightened over the arm as it hung limply.
Theo had seen this once before.
Top grade recovery ability.
Even if it wasn’t on the same level as Superbia, this regenerative power meant that the man in black couldn’t be killed unless they aimed for his head. Theo may even need to burn his flesh.
Theo raised his guard and dropped into a combat stance. However, the mysterious shaman turned around without hesitation. “I will leave this place to you to handle. In any case, I don’t expect much from that trash.”
Theo guessed his intention and shouted, “Are you going to run away?”
The shaman snorted. “Is it wrong to run away from an opponent I can’t beat? We’ll be meeting again anyway.”
Theo stared at him. “What?”
The shaman reached into his robes. “Okay, I shouldn’t say any more. Then I’m going.”
Theo and the two spirits didn’t have time to react as the shaman took out an odd amulet from his clothes and cracked it in half. Space around him twisted, and the man disappeared.
“… An object that forcibly transferred him through space?”
Artifacts, teleport scrolls, and other items like these were rare on the East Continent. That amulet was a talisman that only a master level shaman could produce, so the man in black must be at least of that level.
Theo raised his threat assessment of the man in black by two stages and looked at the two spirits. “The man in black seems to have abandoned this place, so what would you like to do?”
“Of course, we have to destroy it! Isn’t that right, Bear?” The first answer naturally came from the aggressive Tiger King. Perhaps her blood was boiling from the short fight between the shaman and Theo, but her two fists were clenched more tightly than usual.
“… Go inside. My intuition is telling me that there’s something too worrisome to leave alone.” White Bear thought about it for a while before arriving at a similar opinion.
“I understand. Then let’s open this ward.”
It was decided that it would be better to destroy the ward. Theo gathered both of his hands together and prepared to get rid of the ward.
Forward Force Array.
It was a technique that followed the shamanism recorded in the grimoire, Baopuzi. It was a spell that boosted shamanism’s strength, but incorporated laws of destruction.
The lacking power of shamanism is boosted by this law.
Theo concentrated as the air grew taut. The two spirits were surprised by the unbearable intimidation and reflexively stepped back.
A thunderous shout burst from Theo’s mouth, “Hah!”
The wall of darkness cracked, leaving an opening the size of a doorway. It would close soon, so the three of them approached the crack and stiffened. A familiar scent tickled their noses.
The smell of blood. It is also extremely dark…
Theo was now convinced there was nothing good inside.
“Let’s go.”
He took a step forward into the darkness.