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Chapter 432
The Elental King fell.
Those who had been watching the battle between the masked man and the Elental King held their breath.
“The Elental King… has fallen….”
The heir of the Marquis House of Belmud was that strong?
From their perspective, the Marquis House of Belmud of Boscal was not a particularly famous place.
How exceptional could an elentalist produced from a place like that possibly be?
But their expectations had been surpassed—by an absurd margin.
A re individual elentalist.
And not just that—a mutant elentalist, one mocked as a half-breed.
That such a person had pushed an Elental King, the absolute pinnacle of an elent, this far was simply unbelievable.
The shock was greatest for those who had faced him directly before.
Lerban Code recalled the ti he had clashed with Corison Jackper in the mountains and been caught in a landslide.
At the ti, he had thought the landslide was nothing more than a natural disaster born of coincidence.
But now, he realized it was not.
A catastrophe created by a single human whom they had thought insignificant.
Only then did he understand what might have happened had he actually attacked that man.
“It’s chilling, Eltemion. Did you know about him?”
When Behena Mobierty called out in a stiff voice, Eltemion shrugged.
“I knew he was strong enough to neutralize a high-grade spirit, even if unstable. I figured he was that level of expert. But… even I didn’t know he was this strong.”
He answered while shivering as though goosebumps had run over his skin.
“Could Elder Azure Star do sothing like that?”
At Behena’s question, he shook his head.
“I don’t know. It’s beyond what I can even comprehend. I’ve always been proud that I’ve never seen a spiritist surpass my grandfather in my life, but….”
After witnessing what was unfolding before his eyes, could he still say the sa thing with confidence?
He could not be sure.
And the one who received the greatest shock of all was none other than Corison Jackper.
That worthless bastard from the Marquis House of Belmud.
That naless half-breed spiritist nobody had ever heard of.
The fact that he had single-handedly suppressed the rampage of the Elental King was impossible to accept.
Praised as a genius since childhood, Corison had never doubted his own talent.
He had believed that one day he would defeat everyone and claim the title of Azure Star himself.
And since those around him constantly praised him, his pride had grown high from an early age.
Fortunately, his talent truly was real, and he had beco known as one of the most promising prospects.
Gradually, he began to look down on spiritists who lacked talent.
Naturally, the final target of that contempt was mutant spiritists—the so-called half-breeds.
—Talentless half-breeds? Forget them. Those obsolete things will only hinder your path.
The Jackper family, in particular, held severe disdain toward mutant spiritists.
And for good reason.
Among the bloodline of the current family head, there had occasionally appeared spiritists contracted with mutant spirits—a rare anomaly.
Infinitely weak, incapable of growth—discarded spiritists.
Such beings could not even be called spiritists.
For soone who had lived his entire life believing that, the masked Cotton Belmud—presud to be a mutant spiritist—was an existence that completely denied his worldview.
‘There’s no way. That’s obviously just trickery.’
He rembered the mont he had collided with Cotton Belmud while escaping the earth do he’d created to avoid the blizzard, clenching his fist tightly.
For a mont, he had been so terrified that he could do nothing.
The fact that if the kick the man had swung had struck him rather than the earth wall, he would have died on the spot was unbearably unpleasant and humiliating.
‘A talentless bastard. A re mutant spiritist.’
If he got the chance, he would show that bastard the difference between a genius and an ordinary man.
No matter how he thought about it, it was impossible for a mutant spiritist to face an Elental King alone.
He organized his thoughts.
That was a performance.
Sothing close to fraud.
He would tear off that loathso mask himself.
That was when—
The Water Elental King, who had fallen to the ground, slowly rose.
Much of her body of water had lost its shape and turned to droplets, but her gaze was enough to chill anyone to the bone.
—Too late.
With those words, the massive magic circle in the sky rippled.
The mysterious super-giant magic circle that had left everyone speechless had already completed its form and was slowly rotating.
The instinctive fear was not limited to Corison; everyone felt it alike.
And—
Before Cotton Belmud could even draw up elental mana, Elraim’s chilling voice was heard.
—River Styx.
Plop… glug….
Just one phrase.
Corison felt a horrifying sensation, as if he had sunk deep into the abyss of the sea.
His feet were firmly planted on the ground, and he could still breathe.
But every other sense felt as though it had been subrged underwater.
It even felt as if the surroundings had darkened like the deep ocean.
The spiritists all staggered, struggling.
And before long, their heads began to feel as if they were splitting apart.
“AAAH!! My head!!”
Those writhing in pain rolled on the ground for a long ti.
And soon after, the light began to fade from their eyes.
As if sothing had influenced their minds.
“I’m just trash without any talent….”
“Why doesn’t it work…? Why can’t I do it no matter how hard I try…?”
Most collapsed where they stood, blaming themselves in agony.
Behena Mobierty clutched her head with both hands, trembling in pain.
“I’m sorry. I’ll definitely bring honor to the family na. I’m sorry. I won’t fail….”
Lerban Code scread.
“I can do it! I told you to trust !”
The others were all in similar states.
Except for one person.
Corison Jackper silently drew a dagger from inside his coat.
“How dare a half-breed. Talentless trash like you don’t deserve to be called spiritists. You’re one of them too, aren’t you? It makes no sense. How can a half-breed spiritist like you possess that kind of power?”
Muttering like a madman, he summoned his spirits around him and let out a shriek with dagger in hand.
And then—
Without hesitation, he charged toward the man facing Elraim and aid his blade at his back.
* * *
[You are immune to ntal corruption.]
River Styx.
This felt like sothing even an Elental King shouldn’t be able to wield.
It looked like water, but it wasn’t water.
Which ant… Elraim had brought these droplets called the River Styx from sowhere else.
Though it appeared to be a white snowfield, this place was already no different from the deep sea.
To the extent that movent itself suffered severe penalties.
In fact, she rushed toward at incredible speed like a rmaid swimming through the ocean, grabbing my throat and lifting .
—As long as you’re gone… just a little longer and I can save them.
Madness flickered in her eyes.
I did not resist.
Held by her, I simply looked down silently.
“UAAAAAAAH!!!!”
At that mont, Corison rushed from behind with a mad scream, sword raised.
“Die!!!”
Thud!
He stabbed the knife into my back.
At the sa ti, the mask on my face fell off with a light tok, its durability finally spent, revealing my face.
No matter now—what use was a fake identity at this point?
“Mind control or sothing?”
—No. More precisely, it amplifies desires, worries, anger—those emotions lifeforms possess. Honestly, I’m a little surprised. I only gave him a slight push. I didn’t expect him to charge at you with a blade this quickly.
She laughed lightly.
—Guess you weren’t that well-liked?
“Not really.”
—Then why are you fine? The River Styx isn’t sothing humans can endure.
“Like I said before. It just turned out that way.”
Thud!!
Corison stabbed again.
His spirits followed up by spewing flas at .
Still shrieking madly, Corison suddenly froze.
“Why….”
Only then did he realize sothing was wrong.
He looked at the sword in his hand.
Then at .
“Why… are you fine?”
The blade he held was bent horribly, as if stabbed into tal plating, and his attacks had caused no damage whatsoever.
“Sylphid asked to co find you.”
—…….
“That’s the only reason I ca here.”
—Sylphid….
She growled in frustration.
I asked her,
“Do you know your subordinate spirits in the lake are being contaminated and twisted?”
—Just a little longer! If I can just bring them back!!
At her desperate scream, I inhaled shortly.
Then said,
“Yeah. Everyone has their own story.”
[Spirit Fusion]
Explosive elental mana poured through my entire body.
And—
The body of the heat spirit Sur, which had been dodging the streams of water Elraim created, scattered with a pasasak, then began to seep into my body.
A fairly advanced technique where spirit and spiritist temporarily fuse.
“What….”
[Supernova]
While still held by the throat, I slowly raised one hand, palm facing the sky, and muttered.
At the sa ti, sothing colorless and formless began spinning above my palm at terrifying speed.
SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!!!!!
With an enormous noise, the surrounding scenery began to disperse, boiling away like water evaporating under extre heat.
—Kyaaaak!!!
Elraim shuddered and released as though she had grabbed sothing burning hot.
Thud….
Landing lightly on the ground, I said,
“While you were preparing that.”
—…….
“You think I was just standing around doing nothing?”
—What… did you do…?
“Nothing much. It looked like you were trying to do sothing with all the elental mana packed into this icy snowfield. So I borrowed so too.”
While she prepared her spell, I had manifested elental magic I had practiced hundreds and thousands of tis in Labyrinthos.
The thod to raise the hierarchy of contracted spirits.
Surprisingly, this space had far denser elental mana and better conditions than expected.
And thanks to the strong resonance between and Grivy, Sur, and Serqet, it succeeded far more easily.
To be precise, maybe it worked so well because their power had already far surpassed lower hierarchies.
Of course, even now, with hierarchy restrictions gone, spirits like Grivy could still be affected by Elraim.
But hierarchy elevation didn’t just remove limits—it multiplied the spirit’s raw power.
In other words, the strength of my three contracted spirits had beco several tis greater than before.
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After saying that, I casually turned my back to her.
And my gaze landed on Corison Jackper, frozen with sword in hand.
“I told you before. I spared you because of Emperor Credos.”
If he lived suffering under a curse, I had planned to let him be.
But this was different.
The River Styx had played a large part in him stabbing my back.
But unlike the others who were rely confused, Corison attacked imdiately for one simple reason.
He had always wanted to kill .
The River Styx simply brought that emotion to the surface and amplified it.
In that case, what I needed to do was obvious.
“W-wait!?”
Stab!!! Pbbbbbuk!
Rock spears erupted instantly from the ground, piercing his heart, kidneys, liver, intestines, and forehead.
His wide-open eyes fixed on .
I t his gaze directly.
With his vital points and forehead pierced, he was effectively dead already.
But I didn’t stop there.
“Wraithification.”
KRAAAAAAH!!!
With a horrific scream, his body collapsed.
A wraith erged from his corpse, twisting in agony.
[Gr… gray hair… The Marquis House of Belmud isn’t gray-hai… ]
“That’s right. Cotton Belmud was a disguise. My na is Leon.”
[Grrrk… grrrrk….]
“Leon. Cascadia. But that’s not what matters, is it?”
In truth, it never mattered to him whether I was a son of the Belmud house or not.
He despised because he thought I was weak.
He couldn’t accept that soone he believed to be a half-breed was stronger than him.
And realizing he had feared wounded his pride beyond repair.
His arrogance about needing to be the best—I could have overlooked that.
But the mont he tried to compensate for his inadequacy by eliminating others, his fate was sealed.
[Grrk….]
With that, his soul fully beca a wraith.
CRUNCH!!
A giant wolf’s maw burst from the shadows, swallowed him whole, and vanished.
With Sur fused into my body, his power moved like my own limbs.
The ultra-compressed sphere of extre heat gathered in my palm vaporized everything nearby, even erasing the River Styx Elraim had created.
She looked up at blankly, then desperately reached out.
—Even so, you think I’ll stop?!
She unleashed an unknown power explosively, whipping all surrounding energy into a storm.
—It doesn’t matter anymore. I’ll use all the power I’ve gathered and achieve my goal.
It looked like she was trying to complete her plan without proper preparation.
At the sa ti, a level of power incomparable to before—the full might of an Elental King—began pouring out.
But—
CRACK!!
With the sound of sothing breaking, her body collapsed.
—What… is this…?
“Well now. I don’t know what’s going on, but… Glaysia? Doesn’t look like she intends to cooperate with you.”
—That can’t be! She’s the one who called !
Ignoring Elraim’s shout, the energy sweeping across the snowfield gathered toward the central core, stealing even her power.
At that mont, Lucifer’s voice echoed in my head for the first ti in a while.
—Ah. Didn’t I ntion? Glaysia is….
Mockery dripped from his voice.
—The first fallen spirit. Pfft.
That bastard.
He hid it on purpose.
Elraim looked utterly confused, unable to accept she had been deceived.
anwhile, a mysterious heartbeat began pulsing from the core as it absorbed enormous power.
As though sothing long asleep was awakening.
Perhaps sensing the ominous cold filling the air, the spiritists freed from the River Styx froze stiff.
Their faces turned pale blue—more horrified than when Corison had suddenly attacked .
“W… what is this now…?”
“There’s still more?! What now?!”
They had thought it was over after subduing the Elental King.
The fact that sothing else remained was absurd.
Ignoring their confusion, I surveyed the surroundings.
The vast amount of water-elental mana leaking from Elraim was slowly freezing.
At first glance it looked like simple freezing water.
In reality, it was Elraim’s power being suppressed and absorbed by Glaysia.
If left alone, everything would freeze and beco the power of the Ice Spirit, Glaysia.
Elraim seed to have completely lost control over her power.
Watching it drain away, she let out a hollow breath.
—I… I was deceived?
I didn’t know what she had intended to achieve with this ritual, but with this much water-elental mana….
I moved before thinking further.
The mont I raised both hands, the elental mana inside poured out wildly, mixing with Elraim’s power.
Elents.
Rampaging power without a master.
A place overflowing with spiritual energy.
The conditions were roughly satisfied.
What I was about to do had a limit on how many tis it could be attempted, so honestly I hadn’t planned to try again.
But the stage was set too perfectly.
Not trying would be a waste.
Whether it succeeded or failed—I would try.
I didn’t even consider failure caused by my own mistake.
I slowly opened my mouth.
“Your engraving is flow. Your essence is the rushing current.”
At my voice, Elraim jerked and turned toward .
—You… what are you doing…?
“What I give you is a chance. What I receive is the flow that carries everything away.”
At the sa ti, a giant elental magic circle—similar in size to the one Elraim had created—appeared, and the raging energy began gathering before instead of the core.
Elraim, as the Water Elental King, possessed extraordinary control over water.
But the powers she had used here—controlling blood, wielding the River Styx—were fundantally different from ordinary water.
She must have gathered every possible power for this plan.
In terms of pure potential, she may have even tried to surpass an Elental King.
Enormous energy?
I’ll borrow it well.
“Your na is Tiat. Your symbol is the primordial sea.”
I imagined the form of a dragon from mories of my past life.
And as if answering my command, an unstable existence that normally would not even possess a self began gathering.
There was so much elental mana that such beings were far more nurous than expected.
They gathered together.
rged.
And ford a single shape.
“I request a contract.”
It reacted to my voice.
Everyone watched blankly.
Certainly, the spirits I contracted were far different from conventional thods.
Even Elraim, a being born as a spirit, seed unfamiliar with the scene.
—What is this? What kind of lunatic even tries this? Are you trying to beco a Spirit God or sothing?
Lucifer muttered in disbelief.
Well, I was creating a spirit that shouldn’t exist.
Hearing it put that way made realize how absurd the unique contract thod I’d built in Labyrinthos truly was.
—Hey. If you fail, your entire body will explode and you’ll die.
That was fine.
Ordinary beings could not repeatedly practice sothing that killed them on failure.
But I could.
I had repeated it countless tis, breaking through impossible odds to find the thod.
“W-what is that…? Is that a spirit?”
“Is he forming a contract? A mutant?”
“No. Mutant spirits don’t look like that… that’s….”
“Creation…?”
I didn’t bother correcting them.
How could giving color to abandoned beings be called creation?
Explaining it would be pointless.
The spiritists who had barely regained themselves stared, frozen.
Even Corison Jackper’s death drew no attention anymore.
No one wanted to make an issue of it.
After all, he had been the one to strike from behind.
How little virtue did soone accumulate to receive no sympathy at death?
Soon, the form stabilized completely.
What appeared before was a massive white-furred bear.
…Huh?
I imagined a dragon.
Regardless, the spirit nad Tiat rose with its huge body and roared.
The massive chaotic energy that had been rampaging wildly beca nourishnt for a single being.
Then the creature slowly looked down at .
And—
Flop!!
It dropped onto its back right in front of , exposing its belly.
As if asking for belly rubs.
“You… do you maybe like cola?”
At my question, it tilted its head.
Right.
Cola probably doesn’t exist in this world.
I slowly approached it.
My other three spirits had started at lower hierarchy, but Tiat had been born at upper hierarchy from the beginning.
Because of that, it didn’t feel much weaker than its senior spirits.
While rubbing its belly as it acted cute, I said:
“Alright, Tiat. First request. Could you break that for ?”
I pointed toward the violently pulsating core at the center of the snowfield.
The core where Glaysia—the Ice Spirit and first fallen spirit—resided.
At my request, it leapt up, cracking its neck side to side.
Then—
It raised its massive claws and slashed through the air.
CRACK!!
The space touched by its claws tore open with a ripping sound.
At the sa ti, five huge claw marks appeared in the sky above the core, each dozens of ters long.
Water began to pour from the rifts.
And—
That stream ford a colossal whirlpool, striking directly into Glaysia’s core and shattering it.
Whatever kind of spirit Glaysia was, as long as she had not yet revived, the core itself was vulnerable.
Originally, Elraim’s power should have protected it.
But Tiat intercepted that power midway, creating a fracture.
Perhaps because of that, the core resonated desperately to preserve itself.
Apparently, the thod I used was shocking even to a fallen spirit.
Hmm… only that much?
This was already the fourth ti.
—Glaysia… Ahaha! So ticulous. Even dead, your obsession is impressive.
Lucifer mocked.
As the core shattered, the snowfield began disappearing from the center outward like paper burning away.
Soon, the true appearance of the Spirit Corridor was revealed, and the ritual barrier that had nearly swallowed it collapsed as well.
Elraim’s ritual magic—Elental Law—lost the power sustaining it and began collapsing completely from the inside.
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