I Pulled Out Excalibur Chapter 285

Wings of Icarus (5)

Everyone has a different way of defining a genius.

So say, "A genius is soone who dismisses an ordinary person's entire lifeti in a single instant." Others say, "A genius is soone who steps into territory no one has ever reached."

And Icarus was a genius.

In both senses.

From seventeen to twenty, over the span of three years, Icarus developed a single spell. A spell that had never existed before, magic that belonged to Icarus alone.

"You made a unique spell?"

"At only twenty?"

"Stop lying. That's impossible."

In an era when creating one's own magic was every mage's lifelong wish, Icarus stepped into that realm in only three years, a realm other mages spent their whole lives trying to reach. It was enough to throw the Magic Towers of the continent into chaos.

Mages who believed they were geniuses denied reality when the real thing appeared. As people like that always did, they tried to belittle and dismiss the genius's achievent.

'Creating a unique spell is impressive, sure, but it probably isn't useful. What would a twenty-year-old even know about magic?'

Thinking that way, the mages ca to see Icarus one after another. Then, the mont they saw his unique magic, they had no choice but to shut their mouths.

"......"

Before them, Icarus cast his spell.

It was intuitive and simple. Even soone who knew nothing about magic could see it once and imdiately understand what kind of spell it was.

"Wings."

A spell that would later bear his na and be called Wings of Icarus. Its effect was simple. It created wings from mana and let the caster fly through the sky.

Before the watching mages, Icarus flew. Freely. Tens of ters above the ground. A few jaws dropped open, and the ones who had grumbled that it would be nothing special fell completely silent.

They stared at Icarus in shock.

Daedalus, of course, was not among them. Daedalus, who had developed the spell alongside Icarus, watched him fly as if it were nothing special... and Najin, playing Daedalus, felt the sa way.

'Is that really that amazing?'

-What?

Najin gestured toward Icarus.

'Isn't flight magic pretty common? Even I could probably jump a few dozen ters if I really tried.'

-You're a Transcendent. And that's jumping, not flying.

'Isn't that basically the sa thing?'

-Ah, this is why sword users...

rlin shook her head.

-Like you said, in your ti this is common magic. But this is the world from 980 years ago.

She continued.

-In this era, the sky belonged to witches and dragons, and only a handful who reached Transcendence could fly. For ordinary humans, flying was impossible.

In that era, Icarus created it.

-A way for ordinary humans to fly.

rlin said Wings of Icarus beca the origin of the flight, levitation, and aerial mobility spells widely used in the modern era.

What felt obvious to him now.

The one who made it obvious was that man right there.

Najin slowly nodded. Seen from that perspective, their reactions made perfect sense.

'Then this is even more amazing.'

-Yeah. Even to , this looks even more amazing.

Najin pointed at what he was holding. It was an artifact designed by Daedalus. Without saying a word, Najin strapped the artifact to his wrist and jumped off a cliff.

For a mont, the mages watched him with eyes that said, 'Why is that guy suddenly trying to kill himself?'

Then Najin rose back up above the cliff.

Their mouths opened even wider.

What Najin wore on his wrist was an artifact made from Icarus's spell. If you inscribed magic into it, it let you fly. So of the mages beca even more interested in Najin than in Icarus.

It was an invention that could change the world's paradigm.

An artifact that let even non-mages fly. If it beca comrcialized, the world would change drastically. Their eyes lit up. They offered all kinds of terms to recruit the two of them, but...

"......"

Icarus did not look at them.

He was still looking at the sky.

Silently, he reached his hand upward. Even while already flying, he reached for an even higher sky. As if asuring the distance between himself and Arthur's star shining above.

"Ah."

Icarus let out a sigh.

"It's high."

The sky was high.

The star hung in the highest place.

"Still a long way to go."

Icarus's body was light, bound only by gravity, and his world was in the sky, not on land, too distant to be chained by how the world below worked. Nothing on the ground was attractive enough to keep him there.

Money, power, honor...

None of it could pull his gaze. His eyes were always fixed on the stars. He shook off the offers of mages and rulers alike and kept flying.

Toward a higher place.

2.

Najin watched Icarus's life.

The scenery rushed past at high speed. Those scenes were mories of Icarus preserved inside the Great Labyrinth, Labyrinth. Fragnted mories automatically assembled themselves whenever Icarus walked, piecing together into a single path.

Najin followed that path.

He could only do it because he had been given the role of Daedalus.

'If I hadn't gotten this role...'

This would have been an unbelievably complex and brutal run.

There was a reason this place was called the Great Labyrinth, Labyrinth. Normally, they would have had to collect countless fragnted mories one by one, then complete a map like solving a puzzle from torn pieces.

-There's a reason it's called a Great Labyrinth.

Pointing at the ground beneath Najin's feet, rlin spoke.

-Finding your way in Labyrinth is almost impossible. I could do it, of course, but there aren't many guides as capable as .

Bragging aside, what she said was true.

The Great Labyrinth, Labyrinth.

Even after barely reaching this place through hundreds of thousands of whales, the run was not over. They still had to wander through a labyrinth of swirling mories and find the path to the Heaven-Wandering Star's True Body.

Most died in that process.

They got lost, wandered, eroded away, and beca food for sky whales. rlin said the number of Constellations that t that end was at least in the dozens.

'Can't we just destroy this whole Starfield?'

-Ah, sure. That's possible.

rlin shrugged.

-If you're as strong as .

Normally Najin would have given her a lifeless "Ah, yes, I see." But after seeing her magic earlier, he could not respond like that.

"Hoo......"

Anyway.

Najin exhaled and kept walking.

At tis it felt like he was swimming through a sea. Currents made of mory brushed past him, and so of those currents even pushed him away.

The fast flow of ti began to slow.

Najin focused on Daedalus's role. He had to, if he wanted to avoid being swept away.

Blink.

When he opened his eyes, Najin, as Daedalus, stood in a field. It was a field in his hotown, and also the one with the clearest view of the sky.

'And...'

It was where Icarus always ca to nap. Tracing Daedalus's mory, Najin moved. Sure enough, Icarus was lying there.

"Icarus, you were here again."

"Oh. Daedalus."

Icarus waved.

"The breeze is good."

"You're saying that again."

Najin sat on a tree stump. Icarus stayed sprawled out, staring up at the sky.

"I think I need to leave on a journey."

It ca out of nowhere. No context at all.

But Icarus had always been that kind of person. No one could ever tell what he was thinking. Najin asked him a question.

"Where to?"

"I gave it so thought. If I want to reach the sky, my body alone isn't enough. It's ti for a fine ship."

"A ship? What, are you planning to ride a dragon or sothing?"

Was he really talking about riding dragons?

Daedalus tilted his head, and Icarus curled one corner of his mouth.

"A dragon could be a fine ship, but it's not enough."

Icarus sprang to his feet and spread both arms wide.

"If you fly while riding a dragon that can already fly by nature, that's not impressive. Anyone can do that. I have no intention of doing sothing that boring."

"Then what?"

"You give wings to sothing that looks like it could never fly, and make it fly. That's the kind of thing that deserves to be called a feat, don't you think?"

Only when the word feat ca out did Najin realize what Icarus was saying.

"You want to gain a star?"

"Of course. If I want to reach Arthur's star up there, I need to gain a star too."

"You seriously an to reach Arthur's star?"

"I've always been serious, Daedalus."

Icarus's eyes were shining. As always.

"......"

At that point, a question rose in Najin.

And it was also the sa question Daedalus, the role given to Najin, felt at that mont.

"Why?"

A simple question.

"Why are you so obsessed with the sky? What does reaching Arthur's star even an to you?"

"Well."

Icarus jumped in place. After a short leap, he landed again. He had stayed airborne for only a few seconds, then let out a long breath.

"There are too many things on this land that bind us. Power, status, class, honor, money... as long as your feet are on the ground, you're tangled in all of it."

He leaped again.

This ti with magic.

"But the sky is different."

Floating in the air, Icarus said it. This was no few-second hang ti. Tens of seconds passed, then minutes, and Icarus still did not fall.

"The sky is beautiful because you're free from gravity, and not bound by status, rank, honor, money, and all that useless garbage. Beautiful, and..."

He looked at the endless blue sky and shouted.

"Free! More than any place else!"

Born in a city piled with trash, Icarus had always grown up looking at things that were clogged and shut tight. A city buried in garbage. Narrow alleys with no way through. Choking spaces where trash was piled so high you could barely find a place to step.

But the sky was different.

Nothing blocked it. The first open view Icarus had ever seen was the sky. In the field above the cliff, where trash could not reach, Icarus had faced the sky.

"If the first thing I'd seen wasn't the sky but the sea, maybe I would've beco a sailor."

He gave a crooked grin.

"But I saw the sky first, and I saw the stars."

"So?"

"So I have to travel. Through that endless sky. And Arthur's star at the end of it is my destination."

Destination, Icarus said.

"I'll carve proof that I flew in the sky. Proof that I flew to the highest place no one could reach."

He pointed to Arthur's star.

"I'll carve my star at the highest place."

Pointing at the star, Icarus smiled.

"That way, everyone who looks up at the sky can rember my na. That there was an idiot who tried to fly. An idiot who flew all the way to the highest place."

For a mountaineer, the mountaintop is the destination.

For a sailor, so continent is the destination.

For Icarus, the destination was Arthur's star.

"Let's go, Daedalus."

Icarus shouted.

"To the highest place."

People who cry out their dreams always shine. And in this world, countless fools get enchanted by that light and throw themselves into foolish challenges.

"Yeah, fine."

A laugh slipped out.

"I'll join your idiotic stunt."

Daedalus was one of those people too, and drawn by Icarus's dream, he began the journey with him.

3.

Daedalus was drawn to Icarus's dream, and he admired Icarus. Najin, playing that role, felt sothing a little different.

Not admiration, but kinship.

Najin felt kinship with Icarus.

-He definitely resembles you.

As Najin began that journey with Icarus, what he felt was simple: this guy was truly hopeless.

"We should go first."

"What about preparation?"

"Eh, we'll figure it out while traveling."

You could not call it a good start even as a joke. They were just two boys who knew nothing of the world, so naturally the trip was rough.

"Fucking hell."

"Wait, Icarus..."

They got pickpocketed, got into tavern fights, then found out the guy they beat up was a noble, and ended up in jail...

"What can hold down? Nothing!"

Icarus suddenly shouted about freedom and smashed the bars, so they had to run for their lives. It was a trip that made you sigh in every possible way.

At first, the journey was clumsy beyond belief.

As ti passed, Icarus grew, and Daedalus began to bloom into his own talent too. The two traveled all over the world and started creating story after story, big and small.

"Two adventurers save a city from being subrged, transford into a floating city overnight! Hah, look at this, Daedalus. We're in the paper too?"

"Because of my artifact."

"Because of my magic, Daedalus."

"Hah. Your magic would run dry in a day or two at most. The one who made it semi-permanent was my artifact."

They saved a city that had nearly sunk.

"Now, Icarus."

"Ah, this thing, right!"

Then they dropped huge piles of stones they had suspended in the air in advance, all at once, to stop a magical beast assault. They began to gain fa as heroes in several villages.

"I want to fly one last ti."

"That's not a difficult request."

They flew with a princess dying from illness.

"How is it? Beautiful, isn't it?"

"Yes... truly."

As a result, they beca benefactors to a king of a small nation.

"So this is that aerial ruin?"

"The place rumored to hold a masterpiece."

They also succeeded in clearing an aerial garden no one had ever conquered, and obtained a masterpiece.

"Now it's ti to move to a bigger stage."

"You want to go to the Outland?"

"Of course. My ship is there!"

After earning stars through one feat after another, Icarus headed for a bigger stage. As if that had always been his goal, he moved toward the sea of the Outland.

A sea, or a great lake.

At that giant lake, Icarus suddenly went looking for whales. Relying on a single sailboat, Icarus and Najin sailed the great lake and eventually t the oldest whale.

"Are you the oldest whale?"

Before an ancient and powerful whale that could swallow soone like Icarus whole in one bite, Icarus made his declaration.

"Hey, friend."

Standing before the whale, Icarus smiled.

"Ever thought about flying in the sky?"

The mother of all whales had lived for ages, and she was intelligent enough to understand human speech. She also knew exactly what to do with a human standing in front of her and spouting nonsense.

Splash, her tail slamd the water.

The mont that gigantic tail ca down, massive waves surged up.

Icarus and Daedalus, drifting on that little sailboat, nearly got swept away and turned into fish food, but because they rose into the sky, they avoided that fate.

-......

The whale beca interested in the two humans who still had not disappeared from in front of her. As if telling them to explain themselves, she watched them, and Icarus began to speak.

"You said you can only swim in the sea?"

A flying sailboat.

With one foot planted on its edge, Icarus spread both arms wide.

"Friend, we need to break the fra of our thinking."

Before a whale that had lived for thousands, tens of thousands of years, a human spoke.

"It's not that you swim in the sea. Wherever you swim is the sea! The blue sky, dried-up land, deserts, anything can beco a sea."

Icarus curled one corner of his mouth.

He smiled as he spoke of his dream.

"Isn't it boring to rot away in a tiny lake like this? The world is far wider than you think, friend. It stretches out endlessly."

Icarus reached out his hand to the whale.

"So let's travel."

"Sail with ."

"Until we reach the star in that sky."

Humans who spoke of dreams always shone. But the whale had lived too long to be drawn in by a little light.

The whale's pulse rang out in a low sound.

It was close to a laugh. Then do it, if you can. Only the sea can bear this massive body, so by what ans will you move from here?

To that question, Icarus answered.

"Well, we have to start thinking about it now."

Then he said:

"I promise, oldest whale."

Pointing at the sky, Icarus said,

"Before long, I'll make you fly through the sky."

Twenty-six years later.

【Ocean of All Phenona.】

After reaching Transcendence, Icarus kept his promise.