The Great Mage Returns After 4000 Years Book 2 Chapter 622

In the face of that massive scene of destruction, Residue was able to regain his composure instead.

“Iris PeaceFinder─!”

His voice acted as a fuse, and his body, as though ignited late, flared up with heat. Residue welcod the heat, letting it course through his entire body, and swept back his cumberso bangs with both hands.

Crackle! The flowing lightning current electrified his entire body into an alert state.

“Wh-what, what’s going on!”

Iris appeared with a startled expression.

Then, upon seeing Residue's face, she made an "oh no" expression. Sharing the sa voice was that unsettling. She had montarily mistaken it for Lukas calling her.

“Move inside the giant tree, now.”

“Huh? What are you talking about all of a sudden...?”

“Do I look like I have ti to explain? Move before that tree collapses completely.”

His voice now carried a tinge of urgency, unlike earlier, but Iris firmly shook her head.

“I can’t.”

“Why not.”

“Don’t look at like that. Do you have any idea how much you’ve worked to the bone until now? I’m completely drained. I don’t have the strength left to do any teleportation or whatever.”

“Ah.”

Residue let his voice trail off with a slightly altered expression.

“I see. That’s my mistake. I didn’t accurately grasp your capabilities.”

…Even adding one more word that managed to infuriate soone was a skill. Iris glared at Residue while trying to calm the bubbling anger inside her, but seeing the playfulness gone from his face, she couldn’t even raise her voice sharply.

‘Is there no other way?’

Residue clicked his tongue.

Even though he was in a relatively clear-headed state, he was reluctant to use it, but this wasn’t the ti to be holding back on using his thods.

Taking a deep breath, he moved his hands in a gesture.

He had to use the authority of space.

But, in Residue's way.

‘Like lightning.’

He imagined a streak of lightning in his mind. It would flash as though to shatter the sky, followed a mont later by a booming roar. Thunder and lightning always startled people, both visually and aurally.

So Residue,

couldn’t move like Iris or the Lord. To appear silently and vanish like a ghost, that didn’t suit his temperant at all.

Residue would no longer hide. He would no longer hesitate to reveal himself.

If he was going to appear, then more dramatically than anyone.

With such force that the heavens and earth would shake, and the space would be torn.

So that even those beyond the seas would hear the resounding echo of his existence.

Bzzzt……

Lightning currents rippled across Residue's entire body.

“What are you do─”

Sensing sothing unusual, Retip spoke up, but Residue could no longer hear the rest of his words.

The lightning bolt that had flashed in his mind now seed to spread into his vision as well.

‘Lightning…!’

The mont a thrilling sensation pierced through his whole body, Residue beca a streak of lightning current.

This was not teleportation. It couldn’t be nad as such. He wasn’t skipping across space without a process, but was clearly charging in a straight line toward his destination.

It was just that the speed was fast.

Faster than anyone else. Even if not just yet, it would be so eventually.

And it would be dramatic.

So dramatic that no one could help but pay attention.

‘Hahaha!’

Residue couldn’t help but burst into laughter again.

Faster than anyone else.

The mont he recalled that phrase once more, he felt as if he had finally found his own way of fighting.

*

Reaching the inside of the tree wasn’t difficult.

Because the second destruction had already split the tree vertically, its insides were completely exposed.

Crackle!

Residue's body ca to a sudden stop. Near his shoulder, lightning currents squird like embers clinging to him. He brushed them off casually, then turned to look at the unique interior entangled with the trunk.

“Co out. Lu─”

“What have you done?!”

Before he could even finish his words, a loud shout rang out.

Luca appeared as if she had sprung up from the ground, instantly closing the distance and grabbing Residue by the collar. The aftereffects of high-speed movent still lingered. With a groan, Residue had no choice but to be dragged along by those small hands.

"What, what, what have you done! Is this what you ant to show ? This isn’t a miracle or anything! That’s just a catastrophe! My god, my god! What in the world did you do!”

Luca appeared to be in a rare state of panic.

The way she grabbed his collar and shook him, her eyes spinning, looked so absurd that Residue couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.

"You think this is funny!"

“Miracles are usually… wait. Let go of this. I can’t talk like thaaa─”

His head bobbed like a toy, and his insides were being completely stirred up. Just before Residue could vomit, Luca let go of his collar.

"...Originally, the most efficient way to bring about miracles is through madness. And seeing your reaction makes feel strangely satisfied."

“You crazy bastard...”

Luca even swore, which was unlike her.

Pleased by that human reaction, Residue's face lit up with a bright smile.

“So, how’s your ntal state now?”

“Huh?”

"The command, I an. Do you still find it difficult to accept our existence?"

“……”

Luca opened and closed her mouth a few tis, then finally clamped it shut. She let out a sigh and looked up at the sky.

“No. Right now, it’s shouting at to kill that intruder.”

“By any ans necessary?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Then there won’t be any problem with temporarily joining forces with humans. Although partial, you are now finally free from the coercion as a Destruction. Congratulations.”

Residue applauded himself, clapping his hands alone to commorate the occasion.

Of course, there was no response.

“…This can’t be a fundantal solution. It’s only a stopgap.”

“You know so pretty big words.”

“Don’t joke around! Do you even have a clearer solution? For what cos next─”

“Of course I do.”

─Of course, I don’t.

Residue’s thoughts were completely contrary to the confident words he just spoke.

A clear solution? If he had sothing like that, he would’ve used it already. But there was no need to say that out loud. It would only worsen Luca’s anxiety for no reason.

Besides, Residue felt no guilt in telling this lie. In fact, he even felt a sense of pride.

Historically, the best answers had always co after stalling for ti. If they could just delay the situation and hold out sohow, a thod would eventually erge. After all, they had already avoided the worst possible ending.

“I don’t know if this is the right path.”

Luca sighed.

“When things are unclear, just smile.”

“Even if it’s not fun?”

“Isn’t that a hundred tis better than frowning?”

“……”

Then Luca forced a clumsy smile.

“What a funny-looking face. I should give you a lecture on how to smile later.”

“No, I don’t want to smile like you, hyung…”

“What’s wrong with my smile?”

“No matter what, a girl can’t go around laughing like ‘Kuhaha’, right?”

“That’s such a fixed way of thinking. More importantly, were you a girl?”

“That’s seriously rude.”

“You were cross-dressing and now you’re offended? Besides, I was referring to whether Destruction even has a gender.”

Luca paused, then bowed her head.

“Hmm. That sounds like a philosophical question.”

“……”

Looking closely, this kid also has so odd quirks.

Like what she just said. That wasn’t a joke in response to a joke; it was filled with pure seriousness. She didn’t know how to respond playfully to playful banter, just like Lukas.

No, rather, wasn’t she a being who had been heavily influenced by Lukas to begin with?

In that case, Luca could be said to be like a daughter of Lukas.

“Hoho.”

Residue ford an intrigued expression.

The mont of reuniting with Sedi Trowman was sothing to look forward to.

Right. If they were going to make a scene anyway, might as well go all in, take Iris along and et Sedi and Pale. And then, with Lukas’s face, with his voice, he would say:

‘Say hello. This is my wife and daughter.’

Chaos was bound to erupt.

“So what now?”

Residue replied, snapping out of his delusion.

“We run.”

“Well, that’s refreshingly straightforward.”

“Because we don’t stand a chance. You saw it too, right? That main tree, which we could call your true body, got cleanly sliced in half, so it must’ve taken a pretty heavy hit.”

“It’ll probably recover in ti… but yeah, for now, that’s true. More importantly, I’m having a hard ti grasping how to control my own power in ‘this state’……”

“In this state?”

After hesitating for a mont, Luca finally spoke with difficulty.

“To be honest, I’m not sure I can even be of help to you, hyung.”

“As long as you don’t whine like a baby, that’s already help enough.”

“…Why are you so an? I’m starting to miss when you were sulking like a loser.”

“Hahaha. Rember that version of Residue for as long as you can. That was ‘Residue Premium Edition: The Movie.’ Almost no one’s seen that rare footage.”

Even Luca couldn’t help but let out a snort at his shalessness.

Residue grinned back at her and said,

“Shall we really get going now? The guy up in the sky even opened the gate, swept away the storm clouds for us. We ought to bask in the sunlight once in a while.”

“There’s no sun, though?”

“It was a joke, you boring kid.”

He had made up his mind.

At the very least, he wouldn’t let this girl beco like Lukas, rigid, solemn, and always serious.

“You’re leaving quietly now, huh?”

“Hmm?”

“I an, when you showed up, it was so over-the-top. Crashing thunder, blinding lights, all that.”

“Since the entrance was flashy, the exit has to be quiet.”

“What kind of logic is that… Ah.”

Suddenly Luca’s face stiffened.

“Hyung, your face… blood…”

Blood?

Residue instinctively wiped his face. Blood sared thickly on the back of his hand. Where had it co from? Maybe from his eye, or a gash on his forehead… he wasn’t sure. Only then did he realize just how dull his sense of bodily awareness had beco.

Was it a side effect of using the new authority, ‘Thunder Step’?

“Luca.”

“Yes?”

“Is this tree itself you? Or is it more like a summoned entity, another form of Destruction?”

Though puzzled by the sudden question, Luca answered for now.

“I can’t say it’s . And calling it a summoned entity is also kind of off. It’s a being that branched off from , but once it was created, it beca independent, rooted itself into the land, and began performing its role. It was only possible because it took most of the power I had.”

“I see. So the reason you’re weakened now is because you gave most of your nutrients to the tree?”

“Yes.”

“In that case…”

Residue stopped speaking, and stopped walking.

He saw the exit.

But it wasn’t because he had discovered the exit that he froze.

There, beneath the pitch-black sky, in the hazy cityscape veiled with rising smoke, stood a monstrous entity.

The reason for describing it as a 'monstrous entity' rather than a 'monstrous creature' was because, even in this mont of facing it, he couldn't feel any vitality from it whatsoever.

Vines that had stretched from the ground’s roots were wrapped around its entire body, and its posture was bizarre. It was bound in the shape of a cross, as if shouldering the sins of soone else. On its unmoving shoulders, a ray of starlight from the exit settled quietly.

But more than the atmosphere or the posture, Residue focused on its appearance.

If things were going as expected, this thing should still be in the sky, fighting the tentacle-tree.

“How did it get here─”

Just as Luca’s face paled, the thing spoke.

[Gggggrrrrrrrrrrrr.]

Residue and Luca simultaneously grimaced and clapped their hands over their ears.

Its voice was like a blade, shredding their eardrums. At the sa ti, their hearts thudded as if about to explode, and their bodies began to heat up dangerously.

[Urk.]

The dragging voice was suddenly cut short.

Boom.

Their bodies burst apart at the sa ti, flesh scattering like torn pieces of at.

*****

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