Chapter 243 — 화려한 귀환

Chapter 243

A Dazzling Return

“Damn it.”

Elric let the curse slip before he knew it.

Molten metal coming down while all his mana is bound?

In his eyes it looked like the River Styx itself, dividing the realms of the living and the dead.

『What are you doing, run!』

Fwoosh—

Elric shot forward the instant Mephisto finished speaking.

From the way it was swelling up, it didn’t look all that threatening at first glance.

But if it was a trap King Yulho had set, there had to be something more.

Sure enough—

Sploosh!

The spill of molten metal on the floor heaved once, then rose with terrifying force.

Like a tidal wave breaking!

Knew it!

Elric clenched his teeth.

The molten wave, higher than his own height, curled along the wall and was about to surge right up to where he was.

Scalding steam filled the passage, and he could feel the heat even here.

—Heh heh!

Of course.

King Yulho’s laughter seemed to buzz in his ears.

Damn it! What the hell did you rig in here!

—Heh heh heh heh heh!

“Goddammit!”

Elric’s face twisted.

Even if he tried to grill him for answers like this, King Yulho would only laugh more mischievously.

That was just the kind of man he’d been.

『At this rate it’s going to catch us. No other way?』

Mephisto stole frantic glances back as he shouted, anxious.

If Elric died here, he would die too—or be chained to this place like an earthbound wraith.

He’d only just begun to claw some power back, and now he was supposed to be trapped down here again?

He’d rather die for real.

But Mephisto’s hope guttered a moment later.

Elric didn’t answer. When Mephisto turned his head forward to see what was wrong, the breath caught in his throat.

『What…!』

Two hundred meters ahead, there was no footing left at all.

Only fathomless blackness without an end.

In his current state, a fall into that would almost certainly be a screaming, pointless death.

Molten metal at the back. A cliff in front.

What do you do then?

—Hahaha!

King Yulho’s laughter swelled again.

You think I set all this up just to die here?

For the briefest instant, Elric remembered the first time he met Augustine.

When he’d been trapped in the Cheongyeon True Palace. Back then his mana had been completely sealed like this, hadn’t it?

And yet he survived.

By forcing a trickle of mana to bloom somehow.

And now, far stronger than he’d been back then… he could do it.

“Haa—!”

Elric drew a deep breath. He forced the sliver of mana hidden in it to flower at once and provoked the dragon blood in his veins.

If there’s a difference between this place and the Cheongyeon True Palace… the True Palace tested magic skill. In that case, here—

Elric’s eyes gleamed.

—We test the Body Arts.

『Sounds like you’ve found your answer.』

With Mephisto’s relieved murmur—

Crack!

Elric hurled himself hard toward the black drop.

The Movement Formula. A Body Arts secret that demanded speed.

He had nearly restored the Body Arts, not only from prior arrangements but also through the journal King Yulho left behind.

So when it came to movements grounded in the Body Arts, he was more confident than anyone.

Even if King Velenche stood at his side as a saint.

Tap!

First he kicked off the wall on the right side of the passage.

The floor had fallen away, but the walls remained. He’d make use of them.

Fwoosh!

Next—!

Leaping high toward the ceiling, Elric swept his eyes down fast.

To find the next place to plant his foot.

There.

Thankfully, the floor wasn’t completely gone.

Scattered here and there were tiny footholds—just big enough for one person to toe down on.

『So he didn’t actually mean “fall and die,” huh. Not with those little things smeared all over.』

Mephisto muttered, half dumbfounded.

Perfect little squares, tiles so small that one slip would send you tumbling into the abyss.

Elric calmly dropped onto the nearest one.

And it crumbled away like a lie.

Knew it.

But Elric had more or less counted on that too.

If it was King Yulho, he’d have booby-trapped even these. Without flinching, Elric sprang up again.

Whirr—

Switching to the Wheel Formula, he spun like a top as he rose, and that let him damp some of the forward-tugging inertia.

Gush, rush—

By then, the molten metal behind had reached the edge and was dripping into the void.

Of course, it wasn’t going to stop there.

Just when he thought he could stop watching it, it suddenly angled up, racing along the wall toward the ceiling!

Like a beast bent on swallowing him whole, the molten flood lunged for where he was.

Get caught, and you die. Elric had to move faster.

Pop! Pop-pop!

Screee—

And the more he moved, the more his body remembered.

Ever since taking in the dragon blood and reforging his flesh, this was one of the dividends.

And there was what he’d learned from Nahatram.

When he summoned the sense of possession, he could immediately catch exactly which landing led most smoothly into the next motion, and which muscle controls to use when pushing off a wall to adjust his angle however he wanted.

And not just that.

There were Tepes and Damir as well.

He hadn’t possessed them yet to test their strength, but after being locked in the subconscious realm for quite some time and watching their fights, he’d picked up plenty.

He could pull those pieces one by one.

Resonance.

The insights and martial theory that had stuck in Elric’s head without him knowing were slotting together in this moment.

『Merbingers, honestly…』

Mephisto let out a dry laugh as he realized Elric was trying to mimic Winter, Chapter Six, using the Body Arts as his base.

Tap!

Before he knew it, Elric had reached the far lip of the chasm—where new floor began.

Behind him, the molten metal could no longer give chase, plunging into the dark below.

“Phew… And now what?”

Raking a hand through hair drenched with cold sweat, Elric narrowed his eyes.

He took a few more steps and saw them: rows of statues.

Swords, spears, maces—each hefting a different weapon.

Different sizes, different shapes, even different faces.

He stared, thinking surely not—

Creak, creak—

As he came within a certain distance, the statues began to move in unison.

Heads turned. Stone dust cascaded off as their joints ground into motion.

“Ha.”

Elric gave a short, disbelieving laugh and settled into stance.

Looked like from here on, they meant to gauge his Body Arts for real.

『Layer upon layer.』

“Can’t argue with that.”

Elric’s eyes sank into focus.

* * *

How did he install this much and not get caught?

Thud, thud, crash—

Elric snapped the arm of a mace-wielding statue as it swung at him, then straightened his shoulder and drove in.

The statue took a shot to the solar plexus, staggered back twice, and on the third collision shattered completely.

Shhh—

He waved the drifting stone dust aside and pushed damp hair back.

The last statue in this section.

No more left.

Catching his breath, Elric still let out a helpless laugh.

For a facility of this scale to be hidden underground and never discovered—it boggled the mind.

Or maybe anyone who did find it got dissolved by the molten metal and left no corpse behind?

That, too, seemed possible.

Or maybe the lantern’s base had been so dark that no one ever suspected a secret space in a basement that was always so quiet.

What’s next?

Moving through the passage, Elric swept his gaze around in quick passes.

But for a long stretch, nothing happened.

Just a normal corridor.

『…This is somehow making me more nervous.』

“Right? What the hell is he going to pull this time…!”

Elric stopped grumbling and cut himself off.

He’d reached the end of the corridor.

“Is that it?”

At the end, a vast chamber opened up.

The moment he cleared the passage with a taut face—

“Wow.”

The word left him in spite of himself.

A domed ceiling.

Walls drenched in sumptuous color.

An altar you could only reach after climbing dozens of steps.

All of it radiated an overwhelming grandeur.

『Lavish.』

Mephisto offered a terse review, but he too was craning around nonstop, plainly surprised.

In his day, the beastkin hadn’t developed this far culturally.

Step.

Step.

『Hm?』

Then Mephisto noticed Elric walking forward. He turned, curious—and one eyebrow twitched.

Someone else… was here?

Only then did he spot a man sitting cross-legged on the altar.

A middle-aged man with hair gone completely white, eyes closed, resting in stillness.

Which left Mephisto feeling profoundly wrong-footed.

No matter how overawed he was by the chamber, if something like that had been there, he would’ve sensed it first.

But he hadn’t known—only ‘recognized’ it after Elric moved.

Nothingness.

As if he simply wasn’t there.

So dissolved into his surroundings he no longer seemed like a person of this world.

Mephisto couldn’t even tell if the middle-aged man was alive or dead.

Common sense said no one but Elric should be down here—so he must be dead.

No breath, no presence at all.

Like looking at one of the statues from earlier.

And yet calling him a finely carved statue, or a corpse, felt wrong too.

A corpse that felt alive?

That made no sense.

Elric stopped before the man.

No. Maybe there were exceptions.

Then Mephisto thought of a being that could resolve the contradiction.

A demigod. Someone who’d shed the limits and bounds of mortality.

What such beings wrought was, more often than not, indistinguishable from mystery and miracle.

The will saturating this underground space belonged to him.

Yes.

That middle-aged man was King Yulho.

“Been a while.”

The moment Elric spoke—

Flash!

King Yulho’s closed eyes opened.

The Mage Who Devoured Talent