Chapter 197: Contrast of Black and White (3)

Under the magic of Arien, who illuminated the darkness, the sharp eyes of the two people met each other.

In the silence, only their rough heartbeats echoed in their ears.

They had exchanged provocations once, but they both understood that it had no great meaning.

From the moment they faced each other here, they must have realized that they did not like each other.

The important thing was not words, but actions.

“——Blaze.”

Whoosh.

A hot flame magic wrapped around Arien’s hand.

It was a magic that showed strong power among the ones that could be activated quickly.

The opponent was a swordsman who used a white holy sword.

Persistent magic was meaningless when he had a white holy sword in front of him.

That’s why Arien was preparing a single-shot magic that had strong power compared to the amount of magic he put in.

“I was waiting for you to move first.”

“······What?”

As Arien prepared to fire his magic, Peter, who was facing him, opened his mouth with a smile.

Arien couldn’t help but show a puzzled expression at Peter’s appearance.

He looked like he was waiting for a prey caught in a trap, showing a confident attitude to Arien.

He must have had some hidden trick.

As if to answer Arien’s curious face, Peter stabbed his black sword into the ground and opened his mouth.

“Sanctuary Declaration—— Logration.”

Sanctuary Declaration.

The power of the gods to proclaim their domain on the ground.

As Peter, who borrowed power from an evil god, declared his sanctuary, the light sphere that Arien had set up began to lose its light.

Zap. Zzzap.

Beyond the crumbling light sphere, a huge shadow area surged in like a wave.

“······Sanctuary Declaration?”

Arien looked around with a sigh as he faced the evil god’s sanctuary for the first time in his life.

The shadow that rose so deep that the ground was not visible was already at a level where it could cover his knees.

The light sphere that he had made to secure his vision also faded away.

To create a new light sphere, he had to push in more magic than before to face the result.

The area of darkness that settled around me was interfering with my magic.

“This is… the evil god’s sanctuary.”

The evil god’s sanctuary that I, Arien Crost, was facing was a very fatal space for a mage.

Any mage would have to pay a price in this place.

No matter how great I was, it was impossible to ignore the influence of the evil god’s sanctuary.

There was only one way to overcome this situation.

To get out of the sanctuary where the evil god’s power was spread.

“Arien Crost. This is a gift I prepared for you.”

“——Teleport.”

As Peter looked at me with a confident voice, I felt a sense of crisis and prepared a long-distance transfer magic.

No matter how I thought about it, the fight in the sanctuary was disadvantageous for me.

Besides, it was impossible to intervene in the outside battlefield from here.

So I decided to avoid the sanctuary for now and fight again somewhere else.

The moment I quickly prepared the teleport magic and tried to use it.

Zap.

The space twisted and the magic lost its power.

“What is this…!”

The use of transfer magic was difficult due to the effect of the sanctuary.

The coordinates inside the sanctuary were distorted every moment and interfered with my teleport.

If I forced myself to use it, I could jump over a short distance, but long-distance transfer to the outside of the sanctuary was completely impossible.

It meant that the means to escape from the sanctuary by myself were completely blocked.

Peter, who had pulled out the divine device that he had stabbed into the ground, spoke to me, who was biting my lips.

“You seem to like the gift very much.”

“You, bastard…!”

Peter, who created the sanctuary with the power of the evil god, was still smiling with a relaxed face.

He was a fool who didn’t know the greatness of magic, and he was satisfied with somehow hindering me.

Gnash.

I clenched my teeth and raised my magic power, glaring at Peter.

In the end, there was only one choice left for me.

I had to put off intervening in other battlefields and finish the fight with Apostle Peter first, while carrying a penalty.

“——Dainsleif.”

Among the two people facing each other, Peter moved first toward his opponent.

The dark purple magic sword in Peter’s hand roared and expanded its territory.

My eyes, enhanced by magic, calculated the area of Dainsleif that spread out.

Even if I used teleport as far as possible, it seemed difficult to get out of Dainsleif’s area completely.

I had to fight in the space and way that the enemy wanted.

“——Teleport.”

I, Arien Crost, was a great mage who could skillfully fight in an unprepared battlefield.

But I was not someone who didn’t know what it meant to have an area prepared by a swordsman.

I had to end this fight as quickly as possible.

Only then could I move on to the next battlefield with minimal loss.

Therefore, I decided to pour out all my power from the beginning and finish it off.

“——Dainsleif.”

“——Teleport. Blaze. Fire Storm.”

From within Peter’s spreading afterimage, my magic spewed fire.

I pushed myself beyond space with several times more magic power, and gathered powerful flames in my hand several times over.

Flames and heat. A raging storm of fire.

And beyond that, a hidden, intense and majestic explosion.

Arien, who had cast five spells at the same time, revealed himself on the opposite side of Peter.

“——Explosion.”

Peter’s spreading figure converged to where Arien had been, and behind him, Arien’s hand released the power of the blazing flame.

Boom! Bwaaang!

The dazzling flames and the deafening blast shook the air.

The explosions that went off in sequence pressed Peter’s position alternately.

Even if he used his afterimage to avoid Arien’s magic, it was an attack that made the chain explosions from all sides wrap his clone in flames.

“——Dain… sleif! Oh, goddess…!”

Peter, who faced the flames, tried to quickly get out of its range, but Arien’s magic did not let him go.

Even while moving, the flames that he had overlapped kept exploding again.

Whoosh! Bwaaang!

A fierce fire that momentarily drove away the darkness rose up, and right after that, another explosion shook the whole space.

It was the ultimate combination that did not give any chance to escape even to a fast swordsman.

Arien, who had poured out his magic on Peter with all his might, breathed roughly.

“Huff, huff… That should do it.”

Even if the white holy sword weakened his magic, it was an attack that focused on firepower to ignore the durability of the armor even in a weakened state.

The result would not be much different even if the opponent was an apostle of the evil god.

Arien, who had used his magic recklessly, stared beyond the rising smoke, and heard a rustling sound from there.

Splash. Scraaape.

The sound that felt like scraping the floor was unmistakably a sign of a person.

“Ugh…!”

“He’s still alive…?”

Arien’s eyes looked at the person’s silhouette wavering beyond the smoke.

Beyond the thick smoke.

There was Peter’s figure wearing a black cloak upside down.

He had suffered minor injuries from the explosion, but he still looked like he was not badly hurt.

He only had some burns on his face.

“It’s impossible! How did he…?”

I exclaimed in shock as I saw Peter’s unscathed appearance, surpassing my expectations.

It was an attack that I had calculated to be reduced by a quarter of its power by the white holy sword.

But it was unbelievable that he didn’t even suffer a proper injury.

My shocked voice echoed loudly in the sanctuary, and Peter emerged through the smoke, smirking and advancing again.

He still looked down on me.

Peter flapped his black cloak and opened his mouth toward me, who was in front of him.

“You must be curious how I came out unharmed?”

“It was an attack that would inflict a great damage even to a dragon. But how can you stand there so fine?”

It was impossible according to my common sense.

When I asked Peter for the reason, he lifted his two swords with a relaxed expression.

I didn’t feel any fear from Peter’s appearance as he stepped forward.

Peter’s mouth smoothly spilled the reason.

“The white holy sword greatly reduces the output and duration of magic.”

“I already know that. But no matter how white the holy sword is…”

“Besides, the cloak I’m wearing has an effect of lowering the output of weakened magic by almost half.”

Flap.

My head quickly calculated the numbers as I looked at his fluttering cloak.

Single-shot magic would be reduced by 25 percent by the white holy sword.

If what Peter said was true, then I was only delivering 12.5 percent of the power.

“Half again…”

“And the sanctuary you’re standing on has an effect of lowering the output of consumed magic by half and reducing the power of magic by a quarter.”

And if you cut it in half and then cut it by a quarter again, the output of my magic would be only 4.6 percent of my full power.

4.6 percent.

It was an absurd number for me, a mage.

To produce the original power, I needed a level of magic amplification that exceeded 20 times.

I knew best how impossible it was to implement that in reality.

“I can only deliver… 4 percent of my original power…?”

“That’s the difference between you and me in this sanctuary.”

Peter took a short breath and ran fast toward me.

Bang!

The apostle’s puppet that flew in the air shattered by the power of the divine device.

Peter’s target was obvious to anyone as he moved too fast for my eyes to follow.

Arien Crost.

His heart that was standing still after pouring out his full power.

“——Dainsleif!”

“——Teleport. Blaze.”

It was an unreasonable area of death.

In it, I tried to fend off Peter who was coming at me.

But the situation now was completely different from before.

“——Dainsleif…!”

“——Tel… eport. Blaze.”

Even the magic that I poured out with all my power only remained 4 percent in this space of death.

I didn’t have to think deeply to know how poor the power of my attack was.

Peter, who borrowed the power of the divine device, ignored my attack and charged at me, and it was hard for me to repel him who ran at me without defense.

Peter ignored my check with teleportation and continued to attack me aggressively.

“——Teleport.”

“——Dainsleif!”

It didn’t take long for the fight between the two people with extreme compatibility to end.

The moment I lost my balance due to severe exhaustion, Peter’s sword mercilessly chased after me.

The flames burst.

And the white sword that cut through the flames.

The dark purple magic sword that ignored all attacks and approached me shone brightly.

Before I knew it, a blade flashed in front of my eyes, and only one name flowed from my mouth, Arien Crost.

“…Aurora.”

The saint of knowledge, Aurora.

As I muttered the name of my long-time lover, red blood splashed in my sight.

The blood that spurted. The dream that scattered. The truth that I couldn’t reach.

And beyond that, the fleeting oath that promised eternity that I sought.

In the collapsing dream, my eyes reflected the image of my lover shrouded in darkness.

“…I love you. Forever.”

Splash—.

I, engulfed in shadows, slowly closed my eyes.

It was a second life that I had obtained by chance, but the end was a futile one that didn’t suit me.