“Kuh!”
Zich barely managed to escape from the explosion, and looked terrible. His whole body was flushed red and pus oozed out. The scorched areas of his body were crumpled and exposed the bones underneath. However, the bones that were supposed to be white were burnt black.
‘I am going to die at this rate.’ Zich hurriedly gulped down some potions. The pain disappeared; as expected of Karuwiman’s top-rate potions, their effectiveness was on another level.
‘Ah, I suddenly want to really see Lubella right now.’ If she were here, she would have been able to heal Zich’s injuries instantly. Walwiss’ attacks were so brutal that Zich began to miss Lubella, whom he usually treated as the zombie maker.
‘Lyla wouldn’t even be able to compare against him.’ Of course, Lyla would be more than able to catch up to Walwiss given the time, but currently, in terms of skills, Walwiss was above her in every aspect. Yet, Zich couldn’t continue his private, half-escapist thoughts for long.
Whoosh! The fireballs rushed toward him again. Zich quickly took out a new robe and hid his body. The current robe he was wearing including his clothes were now handfuls of ash. The only thing he managed to save was his magic box. Thankfully, the explosion created a cloud of dust that covered the view and hid Zich’s face from becoming exposed.
Slam!
A fireball struck the area where Zich used to be.
‘I should avoid fighting head-on.’
Breaking just one fireball almost cost him his life. Choosing to fight head-on after that would be a stupid decision. Zich evaded the fireball that was coming from behind him. However, he couldn’t keep escaping. Not only were the fireballs extremely fast, but there were also many of them.
Slid!
Zich took out some daggers and threw them towards Walwiss who was hovering in the air. However, the remaining fireballs around Walwiss moved and blocked his view.
Crackle! The daggers rapidly melted inside the fireball.
‘It’s an all-in-one type of magic. I won’t be able to scratch him at all with some shabby attacks.’
The situation turned a bit grimmer. However, Walwiss didn’t even begin to officially attack.
“Wool! Cro! Shin! Win! Kul! Woen!” Walwiss started his incantation.
‘He’s adding more magic on top of everything. It’s too much, damn it!’ Zich hoped that the fireballs would stop moving or at least halt a bit during the incantation, but it was futile. The fireballs continued to swiftly move and hit Zich.
Swoop! Swoop! Swoop! Swoop!
New fireballs formed in the air. Their sizes were comparably smaller than the ones that were continually swooping down on Zich—they were about the size of an adult man’s fist. However, Zich couldn’t feel relieved. To compensate for their small size, the small fireballs boasted its incredible number—to the point that the sky seemed to have been colored in raging red.
‘Ah, please tell me it’s not what I think.’ Zich thought. However, since the beginning of this battle, hope had been completely turning its blind eye to him.
Whoosh! Walwiss’ staff’s movements dyed the sky red and small fireballs plummeted to the ground. It would have probably been an incredibly beautiful sight from far away. Perhaps, it could have looked like an asteroid drawing a beautiful line across the sky or a giant firefly landing on the ground. But for Zich, it was a hellish sight that would have left him unsatisfied even after hours of swearing.
Babababababam!
The sound of crashing and explosions showed no signs of resting. Red flashes bloomed and disappeared on the ground like flowers with short lifespans. The Jaewick family’s garden was already in a state that it could no longer be called a garden in any form or logic. It wasn’t even in a ruin. A magma lake had formed over the melted ground, and the place looked like the early days of Hell that descended onto the human world.
Crash!
The last fireball struck the floor and ended the magic.
Wayne had been looking at the magic show through the hole that Walwiss made inside the mansion, and he asked with a trembling voice, “…Do you think he will be alive?” He couldn’t imagine that the mysterious trespasser would be alive after those monstrous spells.
“I hope so.” Orland thought the same thing as Wayne. His eyes lingered on the devastated garden and shot towards his father.
As the master of the magical tower, Orland had always tried to calmly lead the different schools of magic as much as possible. Although he often butted heads with Orland over Elena’s education from time to time, their fights usually ended with yelling at most. For that reason, people began to grow comfortable around Walwiss, or in more negative terms, they began to think that he was a pushover. Even though they knew he was an amazing mage inside their minds, it had been a long time since they saw him display his skills.
Now, Orland and Wayne realized yet again how astounding Walwiss truly was as a mage. Walwiss was the master of the magician’s tower—thus, making him the strongest mage in the magical tower. He was also the strongest fire mage, and was once known as the ‘devil’s substitute that called forth Hell’. However, Walwiss paid no attention to the people behind him and quietly stared at the devastation he made below. His eyes scurried around to find his enemy.
Bang! The ground exploded. Smoke came out as particles of dust and dirt flew out everywhere. Zich came crawling out of a deep hole.
“I thought I was going to die!” Zich exclaimed without a shred of exaggeration; he really meant what he said.
“…I’m surprised,” Walwiss said with admiration in his voice. “I thought that you might still be barely alive, but I didn’t expect you to be able to move around.”
“I was a foot away from death, you shitty old fart!” Zich thought he should really send the Karuwimans a thank you gift.
“That’s what I said. I didn’t expect you to still be able to move around. If everything went according to my expectations, your whole body should have been burnt and you should be barely clinging to your last breath.”
Zich could no longer find any trace of the caring grandpa worried about his granddaughter’s future. The Walwiss Dwayne in front of him was a cold-hearted mage fighting against his enemies.
“However, since you were able to fight the attacks I made so far, I should use more powerful attacks.” Walwiss began gathering mana into his staff again. “This is a spell that I’ve only recently created. In a way, this is an experimental test. But I assure you, this spell power would probably be better than all the other spells I’ve used so far.”
“Didn’t you tell me that you just wanted to destroy my body and make me spit out information?”
“While I was fighting you, I realized something. You have quite a lot of talents. Even though I’ve been working hard to make this magic, it’s still not complete yet. Judging by your skills, you might be able to endure it.” The mana that Walwiss let out began to spread around its surroundings.
Walwiss continued, “This is a thank you gift for fulfilling my request to not die. So I’ll ask you once more.”
Thuuuuuud!
The ground shook.
Whooooosh!
The wind blew.
Crackleeeee!
Flames began to rise up.
“So don’t die this time either.” As soon as Walwiss finished saying this, he began reciting his incantations again. He spoke very fast, and his speed didn’t lose to Lyla’s speed at all. He spoke so fast that it wouldn’t have been surprising if he accidentally bit his tongue a few times, but on the contrary, even his pronunciation was good.
The surroundings became even more dangerous and threatening. Flames grew even bigger, the wind blew even stronger, and the earth shook even more fiercely.
‘He’s using triple combination magic.’ Zich thought Walwiss was really employing all kinds of methods to crush him. The problem was that those ‘all kinds of methods’ were serious threats to Zich’s life.
‘Huh? I think I’ve seen this magic somewhere?’
It was not time for Zich to leisurely contemplate over a question he had. Zich could sense the magic that Walwiss was going to complete was extraordinary by just looking at his surroundings. However, he couldn’t get rid of the itch in the back of his mind.
‘Where did I see that magic?’
Walwiss said that he had created this spell; it was unlikely that a mage, especially the master of a magical tower, would lie about creating a new magic. Therefore, if Zich saw this magic before, he probably saw it before his regression.
‘I didn’t meet Walwiss Dwayne before I regressed.’
In the first place, when Zich began fighting with the mages in the magical tower before his regression, Orland Dwayne had been the new head of the magical tower.
‘Perhaps, did Orland use this attack after learning it from his father?’
However, the magic that Orland mainly used during that time was ice-related magic. This was also consistent with Elena’s words.
‘Then where did I…’
However, Zich could not think more about this. Walwiss finished his incantation, and he activated his magic. So far, Zich had compared Walwiss’ magic as a path of fire from hell, but he was wrong. Compared to the magic in front of him, all the magic that Walwiss let out could not be categorized as magic from hell.
The flames began dancing; they moved with passionate, blazing energy as if they could turn everything they touched into ash. The blistering wind helped the flames move even more fiercely. The winds held hands with the flames and spread their blazing heat all around their surroundings and made an enormous whirlwind of flames. The earth also participated in their dance. Dirt and rocks rose, left their bodies to the wind and mixed in with the raging flames.
The size of the magic that Walwiss activated was much too great to defeat one measly human. It looked as if it could easily sweep down an entire army.
‘This blasted old fart!’ However, Zich still felt a sense of déjà vu that he experienced this magic before. A magic that combined fire, wind, and earth magic. A scenery that looked as if Hell was opening up in front of him.
‘…Hell?’
Realization suddenly dawned upon Zich’s mind.
‘Inferno!’ This was the name of the magic. As soon as Zich recalled the name of the spell, he began to remember other memories associated with this magic. He recalled when he saw this spell, how powerful this magic was, and the identity of the person who used this magic.
‘Haha! This old fart really was that guy?’
Zich smiled. He hadn’t expected to meet someone he knew before his regression. Zich stared at Walwiss who was floating in the air.
‘Now that I think about it, I think I’m starting to see similarities.’
The person that Zich was thinking about had looked very pathetic and weak; it had not been an exaggeration to describe that person’s appearance as a human with just skin and bones. However, there was no one who looked down on him. The power that had come out of that person’s stick skinny body was close to being omnipotent.
‘The Demon Lord of Magic!’
Like Zich, that person was one of the Demon Lords who reached the pinnacle of power during the Era of the Demon People. In regards to magic, even Elena Dwayne, who had been a Hero Party member, was unable to even match his level. That was how strong the Demon Lord of Magic was.
‘Wait! Then the Demon Lord of Magic and Elena are related?’ Even Zich was surprised by this information.
‘I definitely heard that Glen Zenard and his Hero Party killed the Demon Lord of Magic.’
As mentioned before, Elena Dwayne was also part of the Hero Party.
‘Then does that mean she killed her own grandfather?’
However, Zich thought that was possible. Before his regression, the Demon Lord of Magic was someone who received the title of Demon Lord like Zich. His actions had been evil to a level comparable to Zich.
‘Well, I guess Elena had no choice during that time.’
Moreover, these were all events that happened before his regression.
‘If Walwiss Dwayne is the Demon Lord of Magic, I should remove him as a possible collaborator with the robed figures. On the contrary, he’s probably the target of the robed figures.’
Since Zich planned to completely crush all the robed figure’s plans, Walwiss wouldn’t be corrupted and become a Demon Lord, and Elena won’t have to experience a tragic fight against her grandfather.
‘Since Elena is a disciple that Lyla cares for, I should do at least this much.’
However, this was only possible if he came out of this alive.
‘If it was some other spell, it would have been even more troublesome to deal with. Thank goodness it’s Inferno.’
Zich had been hit by this spell before, and for that reason, he knew how strong it was.
‘And I also know its weakness.’
Zich adjusted his grip on Windur.