The Great Mage Returns after 4000 Years – Chapter 162 – Proof (2)
Translator: Seven
Editors: Ana_Banana, Yahiko
Suddenly, a huge bow appeared in Milled’s hand.
‘A longbow?’
It was much larger than a regular longbow as its size easily surpassed 2 meters.
Frey narrowed his eyes. He hadn’t expected the Demigod to draw a weapon at that moment.
‘Is he a Demigod with a power similar to Riki’s?’
For example, the power of the bow. Of course, he couldn’t just jump to conclusions simply because a weapon had been drawn.
Although he wasn’t as strong as Riki, Frey still decided to stay cautious in case this Demigod had something up his sleeve.
Moreover, the moment Milled pulled back the bowstring, Frey became suspicious.
There were no arrows to be seen touching the taut bowstring. In other words, Milled was just pulling back the string.
“…!”
Frey instantaneously gathered his mana and cast a barrier spell.
Pit.
The sound of the bowstring being released was very faint, but the power behind the attack was beyond imagination.
Crack!
“…!”
This barrier, which could stop even the strongest 7 star spells, was shattered in an instant. Frey bent his back to the limit, and something shot past his chin.
It didn’t touch him, but he still felt chills from the attack.
‘Invisible arrow.’
No. It was something else.
Nothing was actually launched into the air. Perhaps he was shooting his divine power like an arrow.
Boom!
The sound alone was enough to send shivers down his spine. Despite losing some of its power because of the barrier, the invisible projectile still smashed the dunes behind him to pieces.
He didn’t look back, but he could already imagine how horrific a sight it was.
Paht.
Frey quickly reapplied his barrier while Milled smirked and pulled back his bowstring once again.
“Are you just going to keep using your barrier? Wouldn’t it be better to use your Absolute Field?”
“You’re so meddlesome. I know what I’m doing, so don’t worry about it.” (TL: strange conversation…)
“Kukuku. Right, you wouldn’t want to use it from the start. After all, even if you are a 9 star Wizard with a lot of mana, you wouldn’t be able to maintain Absolute Field for a long time.”
He knew about Absolute Field. That meant that he’d either fought a 9 star Wizard before or he’d heard about it from someone.
Most Demigods would be the former, but it was possible that Milled was the latter. After all, he was a Demigod who was unusually interested in humans.
‘If that’s the case, then there’s a chance.’
There was a very large difference between something you were told about and something you experienced personally.
Pipipit.
The bowstring snapped once again.
Frey was also concentrated on the sound, so he didn’t miss the three separated sounds from the bowstring.
Crack!
Once again, his barrier broke. However, Frey had perfectly avoided the three arrows.
In a way, they were much easier to avoid than the first. It was a small difference, but it was still noticeable.
Milled’s expression changed a little.
‘He’s a Wizard, yet he was able to move so quickly…’
It was impossible to avoid his arrows so easily. The arrows he fired traveled at the speed of sound.
There was no need to reload, and there was less wind resistance since the object that was traveling was just a mass of divine power without a real physical body.
Even Master class Knights or First class Magic warriors who had trained their bodies to the limit would not be able to easily avoid his arrows.
At this sight, Milled couldn’t help but feel a chill for a moment.
‘What kind of human…’
The threat of the invisible arrows when they first appeared was beyond imagination. Even the vast majority of skilled fighters would lose their lives to the first arrow without knowing what happened.
However, this man had been able to immediately grasp the fact that he had no arrows on his bow and deploy an omnidirectional barrier to defend against whatever attack that might have come.
His instantaneous judgment and level-headedness were so surprisingly sharp and accurate that Milled was dumbfounded for a moment.
Even at that moment.
Frey’s eyes were locked onto his bow.
By looking at where the bow was being aimed, he was able to predict the approximate path that the invisible arrows would take.
Then, with his barrier, he would be able to slow the arrow down enough, allowing him to avoid it.
Composure, observation, and reaction speed. If even one of these was not up to par, then such a thing would have not been possible.
‘With Demigods… no. This guy is experienced in every way.’
A Demigod, who had lived for thousands of years, was thinking this.
This fact alone increased the man’s danger level by several times.
He had to kill him here.
Suddenly, Milled’s expression changed.
From the tip of Frey’s foot, ice spikes began shooting up. They were so powerful and sharp that even steel would be torn apart.
The power of this spell, which was cast silently and without any prior warning, was extremely shocking.
But Milled’s response to it was simple.
He lifted his right foot, and he stopped on the sand lightly.
Kakakang!
This simple stomp shattered all of the ice spikes.
Frey clicked his tongue.
This was certainly a Demigod. Not only his power but even his physical abilities were beyond imagination.
Although it wasn’t easy to spread an impact over sand, he was still able to destroy the spell completely.
“Show me more.”
He could win.
Thinking this, Frey called up his mana.
The opponent was an archer. Although Frey had already shown the ability to crush the thought of archery, it shouldn’t be forgotten that his opponent was a Demigod.
In any case, the important thing was that the man’s main weapon was a bow. Therefore, this meant there were two ways to deal with Milled.
One was an ultra close-range battle, and the other was to not give him the chance to draw his bow.
And Frey, a Wizard, naturally chose the latter.
Paht.
He spread both his arms wide.
Motion casting.
Ice spread out from Frey’s feet and covered the entire area. The night sky and the darkened ground also brightened up considerably.
The sun hadn’t risen. It was simply a rain of fireballs from the sky.
Milled looked back as he felt a strong gust, only to find hundreds of Hyperbolts pouring in from all sides.
‘And his barrier is still up.’
Milled snorted as he saw this.
He was operating five different spells at the same time. The power of this attack was enough to destroy the entire area.
But this much wouldn’t be able to kill him. He was sure this human knew that as well.
These spells were probably just to deceive him. Perhaps the real dagger would be hidden among them.
Milled then put his hand in the pouch at his waist before pulling something out of it.
Frey drew a breath.
‘An arrow?’
It wasn’t an ordinary arrow.
This was natural. After all, a normal arrow would not be able to handle divine power. Instead, it would gain numerous flaws and impurities, and its power would be greatly reduced.
Milled smiled as he nocked the arrow on his bow.
Then, the smile grew larger.
Tung.
The bowstring sounded, but this time, it was accompanied by powerful air pressure.
As if it had been concentrated in one place before bursting in an instant, the air exploded, causing a massive, omnidirectional shockwave.
The spells Frey cast disappeared in an instant, and even his barrier shook heavily.
That wasn’t all.
Rather, that was just the beginning.
The wind pressure was simply akin to the wind that came when a Magic Warrior swung his fist.
The real threat was the arrow that came out of Milled’s bow.
Kwakwakwakwa!
Calling it an arrow was not good enough.
Frey felt like a Dragon was opening its huge maw in front of him.
Milled’s attack literally destroyed the surroundings as it shot towards Frey.
This wasn’t an attack that could be blocked by clumsy spells. It was also not small enough to easily dodge.
Frey was forced to take out the dagger that he’d hidden.
Flash.
A dark red light shot out from Frey’s finger. This light, which he named Absolute Line, collided with Milled’s arrow.
Gong!
A huge explosion occurred.
Gusts of wind, stronger than any sandstorm, swept through the area without mercy.
A cloud of dust filled the surroundings, making it impossible to tell one direction from the others.
Milled was stunned by the fact that his arrow was blocked.
‘Absolute. They weren’t kidding when they said it had the power to tear space.’
It was truly ironic.
The power that those who stood at the peak of the mortals had was very similar to the power of Lord, who stood at the peak of the Demigods.
Of course, compared to Lord, they could only be compared to chicks who’d just started learning to walk.
This could be seen from the fact that the red ‘light’ that he’d just used didn’t pierce through his ‘arrow’ and, instead, destroyed it.
If it was Lord, his power would have instantly disintegrated the arrow together with Milled’s body.
Of course, this fact didn’t make Milled feel any better.
After all, it meant that Frey’s mana and his divine power were on the same level.
“I’ll admit it. You’re the most annoying human I’ve fought in almost 1,000 years.”
Milled threw his bag into the air.
Charuk.
At that moment, arrows poured out of the bag, neatly forming a line behind Milled.
They looked like a hundred majestic knights waiting for the Emperor’s order to charge forward.
“As expected, the power of Absolute truly is amazing. But the reason why you’re not constantly using that power is quite obvious.”
“…”
“I’m certain that it must take a lot of mana to use. Which is natural. After all, it’s not easy for a mortal to use such power.”
Milled laughed happily.
“On the other hand, I’ve trained my powers for thousands of years. We’re on completely different levels. As long as I drag this battle out, I’ll win easily.”
“You trained for thousands of years? Haha.”
Frey laughed at those words.
“Enough of your bullshit. If you trained your powers for such a long time, the continent would already be in your hands.”
Demigods weren’t hardworking. They just ‘had’ the divine power they received from birth.
They never tried to think about how to develop their powers further or how to use them more efficiently.
That was at least one thing Frey knew about the Demigods for certain.
Frey grit his teeth.
“If you guys had the dignity to match your years, maybe this hatred I feel would not have existed.”
“Hmph…”
Milled grabbed one of his arrows before knocking it and pulling the bowstring as far back as he could.
“Let’s have a war of attrition, then. Every arrow behind me is equivalent to the attack I just did. But you? How many times can you use that beam of light?”
Milled laughed as he said.
“I hope you can enjoy it at least a dozen times.”
“Is that the only conclusion you’ve reached after our conversation? To push through with brute force? That’s a pretty lousy tactic.”
“Kuku. That’s a pretty cheap provocation. Should I take that to mean this method is the most troublesome for you?”
Frey’s eyes sank.
Then, the bowstring sounded.
* * *
9 stars was a completely different level of existence.
Mana.
Only by fully understanding this energy that formed the basis of Magical Science would one be qualified to handle the power of ‘Absolute’ which interfered deeply with space and matter.
The precursor appeared during the period of 8 stars. By integrating their mana rooms, Wizards would be able to interfere with a small portion of space, in which no one but the user would be able to use mana.
However, the power of Absolute wasn’t limited to mana. It directly interfered with space itself, which was a higher concept.
In other words, using the power of Absolute meant to become the absolute being in a certain portion of space.
Milled’s words were right. It wasn’t a power that a mortal could easily make use of.
Even if the mana consumption was overlooked, the mental toll it took was quite significant.
That was why this match actually turned in Frey’s favor.
“Haak…! Haak…!”
Milled panted heavily. His blood shot eyes staring at Frey.
‘This can’t… this can’t be…’
There were times in the past when Demigods were defeated. However, none of the Demigods who heard about this ever thought they would join that group.
Milled was the same.
He’d heard that humans were being especially daring these days, but he’d never been wary because of this news.
He simply thought that if they came to him, he would trample them; that was all.
However, that turned out to not be the case.
Frey’s expression remained unchanged. He was still calm after using the power of Absolute a countless number of times.
His powers were also beyond imagination.
In the second clash, Milled realised that his hidden reserves had dropped by 30%.
Only
Then, there were the subsequent clashes.
3rd… 4th… 5th…
By the 7th clash, Milled had collapsed to one knee.
This couldn’t have been any more ironic.
Lord had imprisoned Frey in the Abyss in order to break his mind. That was the worst punishment that Lord could think of at the time.
However, Frey had escaped that hell.
He had endured it. And in the end, that torture ended up becoming the fuel for his growth.