His Decision (4)

Magic has changed little by little with the passage of time . Awareness, cost and formatting method have all been slowly improved upon .

But in its long history there was only one thing that would not change .

In order to use magic, mana from the surroundings must be processed by the mage . This was an unchanged fact in what was an otherwise constantly changing system .

In the past when endless wars were waged, each country needed more power and the best way to produce that power was to figure out new ways to process mana more efficiently .

As a result, a number of magic systems were derived and ultimately fell out of favour and died . The most evolved magic system in-use nowadays was based around the application of mathematical formulas .

Mathematical formatting involves the calculation of a specific array of mana to actuate specific spells .

Naturally, this raises the question of whether a magic system based on maths would be the most powerful magic system, seeing as it is the latest magic system in a long line of magic systems?

The answer is that it most definitely is not .

In the distant past, there was a magic system used by races that were collectively known as magical lords . These existences have been completely lost in the annals of time, falling out of the collective memory of mankind .

[Proverb]

Desir started to clear his mind of all distracting thoughts .

The pain from the heat and his concern about the wellbeing of his party . All of those thoughts were pushed somewhere else for the time being .

He steeled his resolve for the mammoth task he had taken on .

Thousands of hectares of vast open space unfolded within his senses .

Desir focuses all of his senses on just one being .

And he started to arrange a spell using the draconic magic system . He had gained this in the past by inverting a dragon's magic .

*Rumble*

The magic spell arrays appeared in the air surrounding him . Initially, the magic appeared one or two letters at a time but within the span of a minute had rapidly increased to such a speed that the human eye could no longer keep up .

The symbols and patterns filled the air to such a degree that they began to overlap in a pure black mess, as if the magic could never tolerate sharing such space with anything else . Just like those prideful dragons, this magic system simply oozed such pride and arrogance .

Mankind's best anti-mage had staked his life on this magic .

"———— . "

An unrecognisable voice came out of Desir's mouth . It was as if hundreds of people started whispering at the same time .

At the same time, the spell in his head unfolded into reality .

As the technique was invoked, Desir's body tensed up . Excessive mana overwhelmed him and his mana circle was overloaded and destroyed continually while the cells in his body were burnt to ash . Just when it seemed like he would fall apart, he would be healed back to normal, allowing this cycle of never-ending pain to be continued ad nauseam .

He struggled to maintain consciousness . No matter how strong his mental fortitude was he could not maintain his sanity if he kept experiencing the pain of his whole body collapsing .

Without Priscilla, he would have instantly collapsed and his life would have been extinguished . She put all the power she had into restoring Desir .

Desir's body repeatedly went through cycles of destruction and recovery, each cycle taking mere seconds . But he continued to arrange the magic even as he struggled with the pain .

As the spell continued to be arranged, innumerable formations continued to appear in the air, densely packed around the cane that Desir held up .

Watching it all, Zod stared at Desir without even a thought about closing his gaping mouth .

Desir's magic was in complete contrast to all of the learnings of the established modern magic system . What he was doing was at the level where the most a wizard could do was stare at it dumbfounded .

But standing at the pinnacle of magical research, Zod Exarion was an exception . He felt like he was witness to a masterpiece beyond the level of anything achievable by a human .

Zod followed Desir's magic with his peerless intellect and wisdom and every time he gained a bit of enlightenment of what was unfolding in front of himself, his admiration of it could only increase .

"Beautiful . "

The extremes of beauty existed within the never-ending pursuit of magical efficiency by humans .

*Grrrrrr*

The roar shook Zod awake from his reverie . He looked at the source of the noise, Dadenewt .

It was finally freed from its icy bondage .

Dadenewt shrugged and spread its wings to fly up into the sky . It had long forgotten about the three humans on the wall, distracted by the horde of humans escaping by ship .

"Kiyaaaah (Screech)!"

*Booom*

As Dadenewt flapped its wings, hundreds of flaming rocks fell down on the city, harbor and evacuating ships .

Desir's warning was not an exaggeration . Compared to before, its attacks were bigger and definitely far more destructive . Ships that were not prepared for the falling rocks were sunk or wrecked . Smoke started to rise from the many structures and few ships that had caught fire .

There was a faint scream carried by the wind .

"…"

At least the number of ships not yet destroyed was much higher than those sunk thus far . Their only saving grace was that Dadenewt's attacks, while destructive, were not very accurate .

But to Dadenewt, what was a consolation for humanity, was actually a source of joy for itself . It was a devil that revelled in destruction and misery, after all .

Its giant body started turning .

"Grrr?"

The Dadenewt, that was attempting to fly towards the ships, momentarily paused .

Its eyes swiveled to gaze upon the walls of Deltaheim .

*Wingggg*

Desir's magic was still being arranged . A plethora of magical arrays that one could instinctively feel the danger from at a glance . His arrangement by way of verbal technique continued .

The devil's body shook after seeing this .

Fear .

It was a threat that even this great demon had never encountered before . Its devilish instinct was ringing, telling it that danger was imminent .

Dadenewt roared at Desir .

"Khewahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh . "

An enormous power began to concentrate in its mouth . A mighty spell with the power to melt mountains and destroy an entire city began to arrange .

*Kaboom*

Dadenewt's surroundings began to vibrate .

The massive mana flow manifested as a physical phenomenon in of itself . And it was the same with Desir .

Space was trembling .

"This… is my limit… Desir . "

Priscilla squeaked out in a tiny voice . Her face was blue . Although the energy in her eyes was somewhat diminished, one could still make out her ferocious will to survive .

The collapse of his body started to accelerate as a result of the restoration and resilience weakening .

*Crumble*

But .

Never-the-less

'I must defeat you here . '

Desir didn't weaken his grip on Zod's cane .

As Dadenewt screamed and expelled its fire attack, a faint voice leaked out from the cracked lips of Desir .

[Earth Nourishing the Sun]

***

Far away at Hebrion Academy .

Professor Brigiet, who was watering the pot plants in her classroom, suddenly felt something and approached the window .

A warm breeze blew and tousled her well-groomed hair .

*Whoooosh*

Leaves from various plants and trees from the garden were carried by the wind .

Brigiet's gaze was focused on something that could not be seen in the far distance .

***

On a mountain much closer than Hebrion Academy, but still far from Deltaheim, a man was standing on a street . From Deltaheim, he would be seen as just a dot in the distance .

The man, wearing a hooded shirt, stared at the horizon of the ocean while forgetting to cover the burns on his face .

***

The start was just a dot .

A dot of ultra-high temperature plasma continued to be compressed at high pressure .

A temperature of up to tens of millions of degrees and a massive pressure converging at a single point that accelerated the particles caught within .

The particles that were accelerated to such an extreme began to bump into each other at such velocities that they began to fuse .

The mass lost in this process was released as energy in the form of heat and light .

*Wuuuung*

The body of Dadenewt swelled up as if about to burst . The dot was swollen and was now as big as a fist .

The amount of light had doubled . The brightness was so great that it could no longer be looked at with the naked human eye .

Countless particles accelerated, collided, and gave off an endless amount of energy .

The nearby ocean had split, pushed back by the force of the spell .

Dadenewt's body which was stronger than anything was divided and split up . An enormous amount of light spilled out of the cracks on its body that had appeared .

"Khhh!"

Reactions began to take place in the rocky ocean as the intense light bursting out from the cracks covering Dadenewt's body, hit it .

The color of the deep dark ocean had changed to gold even though there was no sunlight . The water that looked like melted gold was greatly agitated by the huge amount of energy poured into it as a byproduct of the magic .

"Kaa-aa-aa-ah!"

Dadenewt twisted on what looked like a dazzling golden furnace . The rocks and magma that made up its body sloughed off .

The ocean finally swallowed up Dadenewt .

"…!"

The only thing left was a sense of tranquility so great that it felt like the world was finally at peace .

A golden sea of stars sparkled like starlight . The world was plunged back into a pitch black darkness .

Dadenewt was nowhere to be seen . All that could be seen was magma that encircled the entire city, devastating debris and a terrain so destroyed that it looked as if it had been inverted . These were the only remaining signs of the resurrection of a devil, a so called disaster .

The crashing sound of the sea trying to fill the void left behind, like a wound to its own body, resonated all over the world .

Desir closed his eyes . He felt as if he had been thrown into an endless pit . The last thing he saw was the appearance of Zod and Priscilla approaching him .

—-