RUMBLE—!

"……."

BOOOOM—!

“…It’s noisy out there.”

CRASH!

“Hm, is this taking longer than expected? How peculiar.”

He never cared for what happened outside.
Always locked away in his secluded space, reading books and conducting research.
Yet today, it was unusually loud.

The noise just wouldn’t stop.

BOOOOM—!

Rather than subsiding, the clamor only grew louder.
Noise pollution like this could drive someone to murder.

“Tsk.”

THUD.

In the end, he rose to his feet.
He hadn’t intended to step outside.

“Did something too dangerous for the others to handle show up?”

It felt like something troublesome had arrived.
So, he decided to take a step forward.

To silence the noise.

BOOOOM—!

The Empire’s most impenetrable fortress.
A stronghold that no one had ever breached.
The Ivory Tower of Mages.
A castle in the sky, unreachable by ordinary men.

Now, the so-called sanctuary of mages, known by countless titles, was being reduced to rubble.

By a catastrophe falling from the heavens...

Not once in its thousand-year history had such a thing occurred.
Most places would have already collapsed without even knowing what hit them.

But—

“[Winds of the North, blow!]”

“[Stronger, fiercer!]”

“[Earth, lend me your strength! Harden, become unyielding!]”

This was the Magic Tower.
Mages were everywhere.

Instead of trembling in fear, they burned with rage and unleashed their spells against the intruder who dared to attack their sanctum.

Some worked to repair the crumbling structures, others cast defensive spells, and several tried to stabilize the Tower’s magic field.

And the rest…

“There! That bastard’s the one attacking the Tower!”
“You bastard…!!”

The mages fired off spells without hesitation.

Some might imagine mages to be elegant, refined, and graceful in battle.
But right now? They looked nothing short of savages.

Well, to be fair, anyone would be furious if their home were being destroyed.
Still, for mages, who prided themselves on composure, their current behavior was unbecoming.

And so…

‘What’s wrong with these guys?’

The intruder—the one responsible for the Tower’s collapse—frowned.
He had been toying with the mages one-sidedly, yet he couldn’t shake an odd sense of unease.

Ihan knew mages all too well.
He despised them.
But that hatred had made him the most knowledgeable mage hunter of his time.
No one had hunted mages more fervently than him—an expert born of loathing.

…Which is why this felt wrong.

‘Why are they so pathetic?’

Incantations rang out.
Spells meant to threaten him.

“[Strike down those who stand before me! Burn brighter—brighter!]”

“[Leaves, whisper to me! Earth, bring down your hammer!]”

Flaming arrows made of fire, daggers of leaves, and hammers of earth—all aimed at him.

Yet despite it all—

WHOOOSH!

‘This is too easy….’

Ihan’s fist lashed out, generating a shockwave that obliterated the incoming spells.

Not only did it erase the magic itself, but the frail mages—unprepared for direct combat—were blown away like leaves in the wind.

Overwhelming.

Ihan was utterly overwhelming the mages.

“…….”

Yet, his expression was far from satisfied.

‘They’re not weak….’

Weak wasn’t the right word.
The spells were high-level, sharp, and lethal.

They weren’t even remotely comparable to the magic cadets practiced at the Academy.

…But that was it.

‘These guys are sheltered.’

Ihan quickly understood why his opponents felt so fragile.

A lack of real combat experience.

The Magic Tower—their sanctuary—had been their poison.

‘They’ve been coddled in safety for too long. They don’t know how to hunt. They can toy with weaker enemies, sure, but they rarely face actual battles.’

The more he fought, the clearer it became.
These mages were no different from zoo animals—tigers that had never hunted.

Not wild predators, but creatures fed by hand.

Pathetic.

No wonder they’d been caught off guard.

They were so weak it was almost disappointing!

And so—

—This can’t be all, can it?

Ihan raised his guard even higher.

He knew mages better than anyone.
He hated them but never underestimated them.
If anything, he respected the danger they posed.

Which is why this felt so unsettling.
Was this all the fearsome mages of the Tower had to offer?

…No way.

Ihan never let his guard down.

These parasites had survived a thousand years within the Empire.
There was no way it would end like this.

His hatred only made him trust them more.

And sure enough—

[Uoooo—!]

The mages answered his expectations.

“Well, finally. Now we’re talking.”

Mages—or spellcasters—were often called “the prepared ones.”
It had many meanings, but to Ihan, it simply meant they were schemers always ready for a crisis.

And those schemers had finally—

“The Bronze Giant is moving!”
“That intruder is finished now.”
“Ha! I never thought I’d live to see it activated.”
“…Tch. Too slow, though. Too damn slow.”

RUMBLE!
BOOM!
THUD—!

From within the half-destroyed Tower, footsteps echoed.
Something massive stepped forward.

A bronze giant—standing 10 meters tall—appeared, towering like a walking fortress.

And not just one.

“…Twelve of them.”

Hah.

‘So that’s what they were hiding.’

Ihan grinned as he stared at the twelve giants advancing toward him.

This was more like it.

‘Now this is what I expected from a mage den.’

CRACK!

Ihan clenched his fist with a grin.

*****

The mages of the Magic Tower, though momentarily shaken by the destruction of their supposedly impenetrable magical barrier, did not feel much fear.

And why should they?

The Tower was brimming with means to eliminate intruders like this.

Take the Bronze Giants, for example—they were marvels of arcane engineering, said to embody the collective wisdom of the entire Tower.
A single one could devastate and annihilate an entire territory, and yet twelve of them now stood ready.

The intruder’s death was already a certainty—

CRACK!

“…??”

The mages froze, unable to believe their eyes.

“T-The giant’s arm…?”
“…It’s been ripped off?”

The Bronze Giant’s arm had been torn away.

No spells, no rituals.

CRUNCH!

The intruder—a knight—had ripped it off with his bare hands.
Raw, overwhelming force.

Yet if the knight had heard their thoughts, he would have laughed.

He hadn’t used brute strength.
He’d used technique.

A method known as [Internal Breaking Method].

RUMBLE!

The ground shook as the remaining giants closed in.
Yet the knight didn’t so much as flinch.

He stepped forward.

SWOOSH!

Moving like the wind, he slipped effortlessly between the massive forms of the Bronze Giants, weaving through their attacks as if mocking them.

It was almost absurd, watching someone move so fluidly while surrounded by monsters of such size.

The giants, despite their bulk, were surprisingly quick.
Yet he danced through their strikes as though they were standing still.

The mages were left stunned.

And then—

THUD!

The knight struck.

His fist slammed into one of the Bronze Giants.

For all their size, they presented plenty of vulnerable targets.

And the result—

CRACK!

The internal mechanisms shattered.
The giant’s leg buckled, crumbling from the inside.

BOOM!

The knight was toying with them—mocking their strength.

Had the giants always been this fragile?

THUD—!

The earth shook violently as one of the Bronze Giants smashed its fist into the ground.
It was enough to shatter bones.

No. The giants weren’t weak.

They were weapons of war and destruction—harbingers of death.
They couldn’t be weak.

Which only meant one thing—

“What the hell is that guy?!”

The knight wasn’t just strong—he was monstrous.

The mages couldn’t hide their fear, but they quickly snapped back to focus, raising their staffs.

Now wasn’t the time to panic—they had to act—

SLASH!

“!?!”
“D-Devric!”
“A comrade has fallen!!”

One of the mages—mid-incantation—suddenly lost his head.

While their attention had been fixated on the giants, another predator had already arrived on the battlefield.

A predator that never let its prey escape.

Just like now.

“You fools. If you were going to act, you should’ve done it earlier. Instead, you sat back and waited to interrupt someone else’s fight? Pathetic. You disgrace your name.”

Raq.

The Wolf of Galahad had arrived.

With a sneer, he raised his spear, glaring at the dishonorable mages.

He’d thought all the worthy prey had already been taken.

But, thankfully, there were still plenty of targets.

‘Tch. Looks like the best prey is already spoken for.’

The Bronze Giants.

CRACK!

Even as the knights tore them apart, the giants repaired themselves, regenerating their shattered limbs.

And—

CLANK! CLICK!

They began to change.

No longer human-shaped,
their forms twisted into beasts.

Lions, bears, tigers, wolves, panthers, and apes.

‘What a freakshow.’

This was the Magic Tower—no shortage of bizarre creations.

And it pissed him off.

If only he’d arrived first.

‘I’m stuck with the scraps.’

Raq clicked his tongue.

But—

CRACKLE—!

“—Lightning, strike!”

BOOM!

Raq’s eyes sharpened.

FLASH!

He swung his spear, deflecting the bolt of lightning, but his arm numbed from the impact.

He hadn’t deflected all of it.

“Elder!”
“The Masters are here…!”
“It’s over now!”

WHOOSH!

Five figures descended from the sky, and the mages’ panic turned to triumph.

These weren’t ordinary mages.

If the Bronze Giants were weapons of destruction,
these figures were forces of nature.

The High Mages.

First-Class Mages of the Tower.

Or more commonly known as—

Grand Mages.

Only seven existed in the entire Empire.

And now, five of them had arrived.

[He deflected that?]

[Not an ordinary warrior.]

 

[Still, they’re nothing more than inferior creatures.]

[Agreed.]

[Ho… Seems like they’d make excellent test subjects—]

CRACK—!

The moment the Grand Mages spoke, their words became spells.

Every utterance bore the weight of oppressive mana, warping the air and shattering structures.

They were like living masses of magical energy—beasts more terrifying than any monster.

It was easy to imagine why, in ancient times, Grand Mages were often revered as gods.
Faced with them now, the reason behind such worship was painfully clear.

And the man who stood before these five beings, who had once been treated as gods—

“…Well, this is finally getting interesting.”

—felt nothing but satisfaction.

Yes. This was more like it.

“So the trip to this damned Empire was worth it after all.”

FWOOOOSH!

From Raq’s body erupted a dense, suffocating killing intent.

So thick it hung in the air like fog, enveloping the battlefield.

A beast like him—born with the bloodlust of thousands—needed moments like this.

Normally, it was Duke Blake, his master, who helped him vent such urges.

But today?

‘Looks like I can let loose as much as I want.’

The justification was already there.

These arrogant bastards had dared to target his master—the Sword of Galahad.
Their punishment could only be one thing.

‘Death.’

Raq charged toward the mages.

“…He’s really enjoying this.”

Ihan shook his head.

The same man who had once called him crazy was now acting even more unhinged.

Like an uncle who had complained about going to an amusement park,
only to end up having more fun than the kids.

“Tch. Those mages look like fun.”

Ihan felt a pang of regret.

He’d wanted to take on those walking mana furnaces himself.

FWOOSH!

Instead, he was stuck dealing with these damn mechanical golems.

Fire spewed from the mouths of the Bronze Giants—
flames reminiscent of Greek fire.

Ihan drew his sword and swept it in a horizontal arc without hesitation.

He already knew one strike wouldn’t be enough.

These things would just keep regenerating.

So—

VROOOOM!

Ihan infused his blade with Starlight.

SLASH!

[Uoooo—!]

“…You things can feel pain?”

His sword cleaved one of the Bronze Giants in half—no, it erased it entirely.

The overwhelming force imbued in his blade’s energy completely disintegrated the golem,
leaving it unable to regenerate.

But—

“…So this is how strong it is.”

Ihan hadn’t intended it.

It was his first time using this power in combat.
He hadn’t expected it to hit this hard.

—Sword Qi Manifestation.

The pinnacle of sword energy, often called Sword Aura, lay before him.

And Ihan learned something that day.

‘Don’t ever use this on a human. Ever.’

Not unless he wanted to become a mass murderer.