Midas pushed people out of his way and continued forward. Everyone thought he was going to the auction house, but his target was Zich, not the building. Zich slowly looked around at the auction house’s building from his terrace.
‘It’s going to disappear soon, so I should look at it again carefully.’ Since he had called a skilled demolisher, Zich was sure the place would cleanly disappear from the world.
‘Hm, good! I’ve finished bidding farewell to this place!’ Zich finished his light-hearted farewell with the auction house and took out a gold bar from his magic box. It was the gold bar he had gotten from Midas.
Spark!
Midas felt the gold bar suddenly appear near him. He stopped moving and lifted his head up to look at the terrace. Zich clearly came into his view, waving at him while gulping a drink down.
Crash!
The gold lump suddenly lengthened and struck the terrace. Stone rails crumbled into pieces, and the attack made a large dent in the window frame. However, it couldn’t accomplish its goal. Zich had moved and was now sitting on the other side of the terrace. As if he were exaggerating how well he was doing, he took the alcohol bottle from his lips and burped.
Breeaak!
The gold piece began to move again. With its lengthened body, it tried to wrap around Zich—rather than encircling Zich’s throat, it looked as if it were trying to squeeze his whole body dry. But as if somebody else were pulling him from behind, Zich moved naturally and evaded the gold piece again.
Zich got up and opened the remaining half of the terrace’s door. Then, he waved his hands at Midas.
Craaaash!
Pieces of gold swooped towards him again. However, Zich was no longer on the terrace, but rather inside the building.
‘This rat bastard!’ Midas would never forgive Zich. Soon, he began to give chase.
* * *
Zich and Midas’ cat-and-mouse chase continued inside the auction house. Midas chased after Zich while crushing everything in his surroundings. Yet, he kept failing to catch Zich, and the auction house fell deeper into ruins.
‘It’s still nothing much,’ Zich thought while evading the gold spear that came his way.
Midas was only able to control a carriage-sized amount of gold and lacked the destructive power he had possessed in Zich’s pre-regression days. When Midas was called ‘Golden Castle’, people used to say that a golden fist that stretched out from his castle could destroy a village without a trace.
‘But, well, it’s enough to destroy the auction house.’
Craaash!
Gold poured down like rain and made holes in the ground. After the floor shook in its worn-out state, it finally crumbled.
“Ah, what a waste,” Zich said, as the gleaming marble turned to dust and scattered about. “Even if you know how to make gold, aren’t you being too wasteful?”
While Zich spoke, Midas’ attacks continued. The walls and ceilings broke down and expensive decorations became piles of trash. Still, Zich spitefully escaped Midas’ attacks.
‘Let me see...’ Zich observed his surroundings and looked for the place he had come from. It was quite a wide space, supported by thick pillars. ‘Should I try breaking this area?’
Zich ran and hid behind one of the pillars, leaving his head poking out slightly. His light movements alone were enough to stir up Midas’ rage. He called out, “Why are you getting so angry? Didn’t you also want me to put my item up for auction?”
Crash!
Gold pieces flew and crushed the thick pillars. Zich penetrated through the scattering cloud of dust and stone and hid behind another pillar.
“Weren’t you the one who helped me forcefully put that item up for the Black Market when it wouldn’t even be accepted in a normal auction?”
Craaash!
“Don’t think you were tricked. It’s really true that what you got was the Earth’s Tear.”
Crash!
“I’m really telling you the truth. That’s the name I gave it. If you think about all the trouble my companion went through to make it, you have no reason to get so mad—”
Crash!
“Ah, now that I think about it, she didn’t go through that much trouble to make it.”
Crash!
The pillars were destroyed one by one. The auction house was a gigantic building, made completely out of stone. Thus, its weight was unimaginable. So, if the pillars that supported it broke…
Craaaaaash!
…It meant ‘pure destruction’ would ensue. The whole building didn’t collapse since it was only a couple of pillars, but the top of the auction house, which had been the symbol of Tungel, collapsed. Zich didn’t plan to finish the matter with just this, however.
Pop!
The piles of rock that formed from the building’s destruction burst out. Zich walked out while holding his Windur.
Craaash!
Midas penetrated through the building’s remains, and the gold enveloping his body pushed away the surrounding stone pieces. Zich and Midas confronted each other. Zich’s Windur exuded a sharp spirit, while Midas’ gold swayed around and looked for openings.
Then...
Flip!
Zich turned around and ran again. Because Zich had raised his sword as if he were going to fight, Midas froze in shock for a moment.
But in the next moment, Midas shouted, “I’m going to kill you!” He realized that Zich had played him and chased after Zich again.
Craaaash!
The destruction of the auction house continued.
* * *
Zich had grasped Midas’ skills and abilities while fighting him; he used that knowledge to escape and make Midas destroy the rest of the auction house. But Zich didn’t leave all the work for Midas to do.
“Ah, my mistake!” Zich swung his Windur. His movements were incredibly sluggish and awkward. There was a considerable amount of mana imbued in his attack, but it was incredibly sloppy.
Swish!
As expected, Midas easily avoided Zich’s attack. Zich’s attack, which was high in power but awkward in movement, missed Midas and hit an object next to them. It was a pillar.
Crasssssh!
The building began to collapse even more. The ceiling crashed down and a part of the wall collapsed. Stones and debris flew everywhere. Zich quickly drew back and ran away toward the side of the auction house that was still intact.
“Oh no, it collapsed.”
Zich sighed, but his voice was incredibly awkward. He sounded like an acting student who had just begun his acting lessons. However, Zich’s actual acting skills were so good he could immediately get into the best theater group. In other words, Zich’s super awkward acting had purposely been done to humiliate Midas.
“I didn’t want to do this, but!”
Whish!
Zich wielded his Windur again. Like last time, Zich awkwardly moved and missed Midas again; he hit another pillar.
“The enemy is in front of me!”
Whish!
“It’s sooo scary!”
Slice!
“Oh nooo! Someone save me!”
From a certain point on, Zich had begun destroying the auction house even more than Midas had. The building began to collapse at a faster rate. On the other hand, Midas’ eyes were full of bloodthirst, and he couldn’t think about anything else other than attacking and killing Zich.
Crashhh!
Zich stepped on the collapsed stones and observed his surroundings. ‘Hmmm, the whole place has more or less been destroyed.’
Zich had done such a good job leading Midas that the auction house was now thoroughly shattered and broken. The auction house held up only its most basic shape and barely managed to stay upright.
‘Should I stop for now? If I destroy more, wouldn’t it be too much?’ How generous and soft his heart was to think such thoughts. Was he actually becoming a kind person from doing so many kind acts?
‘Crazy bastard. I should stop playing around.’ Zich insulted himself and chuckled.
Swish!
Zich heard a loud sound from behind; he immediately swung Windur behind him.
Slice!
Midas had shot a lump of gold at Zich, and the latter had sliced through it. The sliced gold rolled through the air and then came to a halt. Zich turned around. Stretched-out lumps of gold were moving around after losing part of themselves.
Crawl!
The gold that had been sliced off changed into liquid and crawled back to Midas. It soon merged back into the main body.
“Your ability is pretty useful,” Zich said sincerely. He really thought it was useful to have an ability that made gold and allowed the user to completely control a part of the gold they made. The auction house’s guards, who were experienced in their field, had also been one-sidedly annihilated by Midas’ gold controlling ability.
But this was the extent of Zich’s thoughts. He merely thought it was useful, and didn’t think anything more of Midas’ ability.
“You bastard!” Midas cried as he spread gold everywhere and tried to corner Zich.
But Zich had already destroyed the auction house as much as he wanted, so he no longer felt the need to continue his strange and awkward acting while running away. ‘I also need to get the ‘Lake’s Tear’ from him,’ he thought.
Crash! Crash! Crash!
The gold pillars all bounced off of Zich’s blade. Midas seemed to have increased the durability of his gold, as it had stopped being split in two when struck. But Midas’ gold still had no effect on Zich.
Crawl!
The gold stopped moving for a bit. As if to prepare for another attack, it went back to Midas’ side.
‘I should bring this to an end,’ Zich thought. The plan was roughly over. Since he had achieved his main goal, there was no need for him to play around with Midas anymore.
‘It was pretty fun.’ To express his thanks, Zich infused mana into Windur to give a clean death to Midas.
“…You bastard, as I thought, you were working with those guys,” Midas murmured to himself.
“Bastards! Did you think I was going to steal it?!”
‘What the hell is this guy saying?’ Zich tilted his head in confusion.
But the furious Midas paid no attention to Zich’s reaction and continued to shout, “If you guys weren’t working together, how else could you know my ability so well?! Fine! No wonder it was strange! You gave such a perfect ability to a stranger! I should have known from the very start!”
By ‘perfect ability’, he was probably meaning his alchemist ability. Zich smirked. ‘Like hell it’s a perfect ability.’
Neither the yet immature Midas nor the ‘Golden Castle Wips Midas’ in his prime had ever been above Zich in skills or power. But this guy was saying that his ability was perfect with such confidence. Zich thought his beliefs were so ridiculous, he snorted.
But Midas interpreted Zich’s action however he wanted. “I should have never believed you guys! I’m the stupid one for believing in people who wore robes and hid their abilities!”
‘Was this guy also created by the ‘robed figures’?’ Zich thought. In terms of influence, the ‘robed figures’ were really at the top of their field.
“But do you think everything will go according to your plans?! I’m going to kill you guys using any means possible! And I’m also going to find the guys who tricked me and kill them! I’m going to kill everyone in your organization!”
“Ah, that’s impossible,” Zich said calmly, thinking, ‘The person who’s going to wipe them clean isn’t going to be you, but rather me, and you’re going to die here.’
Zich fixed his grip on Windur. Midas interpreted Zich’s words just now as Zich looking down on him. But since Zich really did look down on him, Midas’ thoughts weren’t far off either.
“You, you…!” With bloodshot eyes, Midas stared at Zich. “Dieeeeee!”
Baaaang!
Midas’ gold moved again. Zich, who had been staring coldly at Midas, also swung his sword.