The Great Mage Returns after 4000 Years – Chapter 178 – Choice and Awakening (4)
Translator: Seven
Editors: Ana_Banana, Yahiko
Frey had a hint.
Absolute.
It was the power gained upon reaching 9 stars, and its source lied in mana. Unfortunately, it was basically an independent power that couldn’t really be considered a derived ability.
So what Frey had to do was dig into the transformation process.
The analysis had to be repeated. And he was confident in his ability to think about the same topic over and over.
When it came to concentration, Frey was certain that he would never lose to anyone.
In addition, he was in a place where he didn’t have to worry about his biological needs at all.
He didn’t need food or water, he didn’t need to pass waste, and he didn’t need to sleep.
As long as his mental power could support it, he could concentrate on one thought for as long as he wanted.
Wasn’t this basically a heavenly training space?
“…”
Riki was the only one who paid attention to the passage of time. He cut down the Demigods who appeared at regular intervals while Frey immersed himself in his thoughts with his eyes closed.
After Riki had killed the Demigods about 10 times, in other words, roughly two months and ten days later, Frey opened his eyes for the first time.
It was faint, but he’d grasped a hint. And in truth, he had grasped it in a completely unexpected moment.
It wasn’t Absolute. It was his divine power.
It occurred while Frey was paying attention to the moment when his divine power devoured his mana.
At that time, he watched the scene when the nature of his mana was changed. And he noticed that there was a moment, short enough to be called an instant before his mana transformed into divine power.
At that moment, something that was neither divine power nor mana appeared within him.
It wasn’t something that could be explained in one or two words.
Frey wanted to examine this power more closely.
Unfortunately, such a task was by no means easy. It only happened for a short moment as his divine power did not let it survive for very long.
In the end, it took him about half a year before he was able to get a hold of the power.
“…”
As he inspected it, Frey couldn’t help but wonder how he could describe this power.
It was neither divine power nor mana. But it had the properties of both powers. The ferocity of divine power, and the harmony of mana.
“Divine magic power.”
Frey decided to temporarily call it this name.
“This is it.”
It was this power.
He was certain.
This power was the key to gaining control over both divine power and mana. The only problem was that it was still scattered.
First of all, simply collecting the divine magic power was hard enough. It took him half a year just to get an amount that was only about the size of a fingernail.
In addition, it was easily swept away by either side because it was a third party.
If it went too close to divine power, it became divine power, and if it went too close to mana, it became mana.
In fact, it didn’t take very long for his hard-won divine magic power to be devoured by his divine power.
When a half year’s worth of effort disappeared in an instant, Frey couldn’t help but feel a burst of helplessness.
‘I have to be more careful.’
Frey settled his mind and began to work on it once again.
Since he’d accomplished it before, it was much easier the second time around. It took him about a month before he could once again get his hands on divine magic power.
He definitely wouldn’t let this one disappear in vain…
Unfortunately, even with this determination, it only took a few days for Frey to lose his divine magic power once again.
This wasn’t because his concentration was lacking. He didn’t make any mistakes.
It was simply because the divine magic power was extremely hard to deal with.
Frey knew there were many types of energy, including his mana and divine power, but he was certain that there was no energy as sensitive as that one.
‘Good.’
This thought gave him a burst of fighting spirit.
But despite his thoughts, Frey decided to relax a little.
He still had a lot of time. And as he worked with it, Frey felt that he was becoming more and more familiar with it.
So this time, he would certainly be much more efficient and faster than last time.
Let’s do it.
No matter how long it took, he was going to make the divine magic power his own. This ever changing power which could be used as either divine power or mana.
If he got this power under control, he wouldn’t have to worry about the worst case scenario or, in other words, transforming into a Demigod.
* * *
At some point, Frey stopped counting dates.
Originally, based on the cycles of Milled and Indra’s appearances, he could calculate the time, but there was no room for such things in his head.
Instead, he concentrated so much that all of his hair turned white.
And before he knew it, his divine magic power, which was minuscule at first, had become quite large.
The divine magic power was like a snowball. When it was small, it broke easily and melted, but after it grew bigger, you didn’t really need to worry about it anymore.
What was even more surprising was the aggression displayed by the divine magic power.
This power was much more aggressive than divine power. And after confirming this fact, Frey decided to change his actions.
Instead of extracting the divine magic power after feeding his mana to his divine power, he decided to make the divine magic power fight against the divine power directly and conquer it.
And so, a full-fledged war began.
Even this was not an easy task. It took a very long time.
Sometimes, his divine magic power lost, but it won many more times.
And eventually, Frey was able to transform all of his divine power into divine magic power.
The power in his body right now was ferocious yet harmonious; it was completely under Frey’s control.
He had suffered a lot to reach this stage.
Frey was only human.
Even if he had experience in the Abyss, it was natural that he would also get tired.
But what was important was to never break, to never give up.
‘Step one is complete.’
The minimum preparations had been completed.
Frey turned to Riki.
He had started training in earnest and hadn’t even bothered to talk to him at all. It must have been quite boring.
Frey didn’t say anything. He simply looked at Riki.
All he’d done this whole time was cut down the Demigods who appeared every week. But today, he was going to lose even this job.
“This time, I will fight.”
Riki nodded as if he had been expecting this.
* * *
-Defeated.
It couldn’t even be called a fight.
His divine magic power to be called very obedient—it wasn’t wrong to say this, but it seemed that this only applied to peaceful situations.
As soon as he entered battle, the divine magic power began to rage so violently that it absolutely could not be compared to its docile state.
He’d obviously thought about summoning lightning, but he’d received mana instead.
Conversely, when he tried to cast a spell, he received lightning power.
The divine magic power was shaken like a reed in a storm, unable to showcase its power even slightly.
“…”
Riki simply watched on from the side.
Even when Frey was burnt to a crisp by Indra’s lightning, Riki showed no intention to help. And Frey also didn’t intend to ask for help.
-Defeated.
He got used to using his divine magic power to an extent.
Nevertheless, it was still incredibly hard to fight Indra.
In particular, it was almost impossible to deal with him when he entered his Thunder God form. Usually, all he would see was a flash of light, and his entire body would become a piece of charcoal.
He felt the pain every time.
If a normal person were to go through something like that dozens or even hundreds of times a day, they would certainly break down. But he didn’t break.
It wasn’t that he didn’t feel anything. After all, it was impossible to be insensitive to pain.
However, he had developed a bit of a tolerance.
Physical pain no longer had any effect on Frey. Even if it was the pain of being burned by lightning.
-Defeated.
Has it been a decade yet?
He wasn’t sure. And in all honesty, he didn’t particularly care.
As had been mentioned earlier, Frey didn’t pay much to the passage of time.
Perhaps if he asked Riki, he’d get an answer of how long they’d been staying there, but he wasn’t interested.
By the time Frey gradually began to fight back, Indra tried to persuade Riki.
“It’s not too late, Riki. If we work together, it wouldn’t be hard at all to claim this body. Won’t you correct your mistakes? I’ll talk to Lord. I’m sure he’d forgive you.”
It had no effect.
Riki only responded to them by swinging his sword.
So he drew his sword and turned to Frey.
“Will you keep going?”
“I still have a long way to go.”
“Right.”
And so, the first conversation in a decade ended in such a way.
Silence fell once again, and more time passed.
* * *
Victory.
He’d finally defeated Indra.
He’d used a lot of tricks, and his entire body was covered in grievous injuries, but it was undeniable that he’d won.
The decisive factor was the difference in willpower.
As time passed, Indra began losing concentration. His sharp reflexes began to dull, and he occasionally made mistakes while controlling his divine power.
Frey, on the other hand, continued to improve his control of his divine magic power.
It was now possible for him to differentiate between the two powers to an extent. And from that point on, his proficiency exploded.
The vessel was enough.
Not to mention controlling mana, he was somewhat used to using divine power as well.
Now, all that Frey needed was the opportunity.
It was only difficult at first. But once he began to win, his win rate steadily increased.
Every ten fights, he won once. But even then, it was usually only by a fluke.
But as time went by, the winning percentage went up.
Two out of ten, three, four…
Soon, his winning percentage exceeded half.
Indra took a step back.
[Impossible…]
This was the mental world. Indra had viewed Frey’s memories here and found out he was Lukas Trowman, the Great Mage from 4,000 years ago.
Not only that. He’d also seen memories of the time Frey spent in the Abyss.
‘What’s going on?’
At first, he only thought Frey was pretty good for a human. That was it.
But it was different now. Indra couldn’t help but feel that he was lacking when compared to Frey’s mental power.
‘Is this human’s mental power really stronger than mine?’
It was unacceptable.
Even with all the evidence in front of him, Indra refused to believe this fact.
But it was also true that he was thoroughly shaken now. His divine power didn’t move as he wanted it to.
This was the best proof that his composure had been broken.
What was more, Frey was even learning his abilities.
Indra knew that he used the power of lightning. But in the eyes of the true master, Frey’s abilities were not much.
Sure, the technique which combined the lightning with the power of Absolute was powerful, but that only utilised the speed of the lightning.
But that wasn’t it.
The true power of lightning wasn’t just limited to speed. Simply by having this power, Indra could rank among the top Demigods.
‘He’s dangerous.’
Indra could no longer pay attention to stealing Frey’s body.
If this guy completely mastered this strange and unknown power that he had and if he learned to use the power of lightning as well as Indra himself…
It wouldn’t be a joke.
He would become the worst ‘enemy’ the Demigods had ever faced. Indra didn’t even feel this sense of crisis when they fought the Dragons in the past.
Therefore, Indra went all out in his fights against Frey. He no longer looked down on this opponent because he was human or mortal.
But it was already too late.
Frey had become completely obsessed with divine magic power.
He’d fallen in love with divine magic power as much as he loved magical science in the past.
In a way, this could be considered the first time Frey’s true talents had been revealed since his return.
It was different from magical science.
He wasn’t walking down a path he’d already pioneered long ago. Instead, he was once again traversing into unknown territory.
Divine magic power was a completely different realm.
New theories were established through analysis and research, and inefficiencies were constantly found and fixed through his fights with Indra.
And because of this, he was able to grow at an astonishing rate.
‘What is this…?!’
Indra knew that ridiculous geniuses would sometimes appear among the humans.
Every few centuries, there would be some who could even threaten the Demigods, but they only survived for a short time, a century at best.
That was why no Demigod ever feared them.
But Indra was different.
He was currently feeling deep horror because of Frey’s talent.