◈ Episode 451. Not My Taste (4)

As you’ve probably noticed, Grandfell’s temper is rooted in a high sense of pride. He never backs down in the face of the strong, but he doesn’t hold his head high in the face of the weak.

“Not my taste.”

So the current duel?

“Sometimes you need to think outside the box.”

I, Lee Hoyeol, was far too confident to call it a duel. Why, the majority of Transcendents didn’t know about the hierarchy of the social hall, right?

Lower to upper.

From the bottom to the top.

It’s not easy to climb the social hall ranks.

From Apprentice to Adept.

It’s even harder than moving from Adept to Senior Mage.

I can see the difficulty.

‘…… Of course, I’ve parachuted in from both sides.’

Anyway, now that I’m qualified, I’m qualified, right?

So I stood my ground in the face of the Five Transcendents.

Just then, a voice rang out.

“I don’t know what’s going on here, but isn’t this a golden opportunity? You’re giving us a chance to escape, and even if it’s not, it’s all we can do.”

Rumble.

In a flash, dark clouds filled the sky.

Crackle.

A lightning bolt at the speed of light.

Surely, the Lightning Child.

He lives up to his name.

I stared at the thunderstorm and chanted.

“Manipulate thunderstorms in your natural state freely. It’s a rare ability that’s hard to find but you tend to be overconfident in your abilities.”

To be precise, it was evaluated.

“What? Overconfidence? That’s ridiculous.”

Spitting out a laugh, the Lightning Child turned away.

Gooooo.

Increased magical power.

As evidenced by the fact that there are four senior mages in the Magic Tower who specialize in attribute magic. It’s nearly impossible for a single mage to master all of them.

‘Because the attribute magic is opposite to each other.’

But Grandfell, who is naturally gifted, is different.

What’s more, whereas in the past he could only mimic the manifestation, now he can perfectly repair the leaking poison. This means that his magic has no loopholes in logic or structure.

‘Imitating the structure of a lightning rod.’

If you add my, Lee Hoyeol’s, knowledge of obscure science to that, and transform it into [『Anomaly』]……. Whether it’s an attribute magic or a natural ability different from magic.

kudeudeudeug.

That means I can’t make a single hair on my head stand on end. By the way, our Grandfell-nim knits a bit more than I do, so he’s not skimping on the aesthetics.

The Lightning Child is astonished.

“What, what is that……?”

Rising from the ground is a statue clutching a large shield.

Knowledge of all minerals.

This allowed me to navigate and interfere with them to the extreme.

‘Even if it is an intricate sculpture that mimics a lightning rod.’

The ability to manifest in a single breath.

Boom.

The lightning bolts were absorbed by the shield in unison.

The lightning child was stunned.

There was a louse rushing at me at high speed.

Thud.

Sunrise Warrior.

As the name suggests. A man with an oriental appearance, a rarity in Arcana. I have already competed with any transcendental person who uses weapons.

Shegwin, the Sword Saint.

‘Sword Saint and Sunrise Warrior.’

We don’t know who is stronger, but one thing is certain. Lee Hoyeol, the man who left everything to Gwicheol and won a narrow victory over Sword Saint, is no more.

jiiing.

The state of divine body and sword unity.

The Gwichel at my waist transmits its own heartbeat to me.

It’s been a while since you’ve seen the swordsman, and your heart is pounding.

But now is not the time, Gwicheol.

“This is not a duel, but a discipline.”

Strong to the strong, merciful to the weak, the pride of our Grandfell, yes. I was not truly engaged in a duel against the Transcendent of Five.

“Is this your sword path?”

“?”

“Not bad.”

What was the purpose of this duel in the first place?

To beat up the transcendents just enough to break the [Brainwashing].

Of course, I didn’t forget the goal of killing their spirit properly.

‘That’s why it’s called discipline.’

A preliminary test, of course, before the regular meeting. Considering the looks on the faces of the mages who walked out of Topaz Hall, my teaching will never go down well.

seug.

“A sword aura as bright as the sunrise.”

But that’s all.

I dodge the sword strikes from the warrior with minimal movement.

Once again, I use my aesthetic sense to draw my sword.

kudeudeug.

A statue rises from the ground.

A kneeling stance.

I raise the sword it holds.

A rustling sound is heard.

“It’s like a formidable holy sword?!”

Judging by the large bag she’s carrying……. Is that the general store over there, Pocom? Well, it might seem that way. Why, even in real life, people saw this and misunderstood it as Excalibur.

‘It’s just a sword I drew out of my enchantment.’

The sword’s performance is proportional to my knowledge of Enchantment. Even if it has similar attack power to most unique items, it can’t match the power of a legendary item.

That’s why I chose it.

“A cane is enough.”

Chang.

My sword and the warrior’s blade clashed.

I warned in a calm voice.

This is not the time to grit your teeth and be stubborn, warrior.

“Your blade is sharp, but not flexible.”

“……!”

“If you hold on, it will break.”

……pas!

Swordsmanship is forged in life and death. Even if you’ve held the sword longer than I have, you haven’t come closer to death than I have, have you?

‘I’ve even died a few times.’

He seemed to recognize that I wasn’t bluffing.

The Sunrise Warrior moved away from me, exchanged a glance with the Lightning Child, his face turning white and muttering to himself.

“Impossible. He’s reached transcendence in both sword and magic.”

If that’s the case, isn’t it too early to be surprised?

Don’t underestimate my struggle.

Among my many insurances, I have only shown magic and swordsmanship.

I’ve only shown you two.

Let’s see.

‘Has your fighting spirit already broken?’

The two Transcendents have been crushed.

If not, is it because they don’t even see a gap?

The other three froze in place, unmoving.

Pocom rummaged through her bag.

“I surrender, my lord.”

Pocom surrendered outright.

‘Then.’

Has the goal of breaking down overflowing self-confidence been achieved?

All that’s left is to get the [brainwashing] to release with shock therapy.

That shouldn’t be too difficult.

I channel the suitable magic.

I have manifested black magic.

I don’t need to directly damage their physical bodies.

[Brainwashing] is a condition that affects the mind.

It requires a short, sharp shock to the mind.

‘It was worth it to look through the magic books.’

This is how people learn.

Isn’t it true that if you have a weak mind, your body will suffer?

Of course, it’s not my body that suffers, but the bodies of the transcendents.

‘Anyway, it’s only for a little while.’

What manifests is high-level black magic, [Endless Nightmare].

Even if it’s painful, endure it for a little while.

I’ll break the [Brainwashing] once and for all.

[Status Abnormality, ‘Endless Nightmare’ occurs in the Lightning Child.]

[Status Abnormality, ‘Endless Nightmare’ occurs in the Sunrise Warrior.]

[Status Abnormality, ‘Endless Nightmare’ occurs in the Rotten Shaman, Uriah.]…….

*

……What the hell?

The Transcendent of Five thought in the darkness.

High-level black magic, Endless Nightmare.

An illusionary effect that causes the target to see and feel what they fear most.

Every human has a different life and different ages.

Their fears are bound to be different as well.

But in this moment.

Everyone was seeing the same thing.

It was an infinitely deep darkness.

Eyes opened and closed.

Mouths opened and closed.

I moved my hands and feet.

The senses of the body were fully felt. But there was not a single light to be seen, not even in their own body. All they could feel in the darkness was.

‘……I feel like I’m sinking!’

An irresistible pressure.

A pressure that was irresistible.

An irresistible force made the legs loosen.

It made their heads spin.

Pushing through it, he recalled the last scene in the dueling arena.

‘The darkness enveloped us.’

……cheolkeog.

The Sunrise Warrior drew his Sunrise Sword and struggled to chase away the darkness, but his body could not hold. Eventually, he fell to his knees on the ground.

Shake.

The most physically capable of the five transcendents could not hold on. Let alone the Lightning Child with the body of a boy. They all fell to their knees in the face of the infinite darkness and clutched their heads.

Except for one.

‘I will not give in.’

The lone survivor was Uriah, the Rotten Shaman.

Before Matisse founded the art of black magic.

On the Arcana continent, black magic was also known as unholy witchcraft.

That’s why Uriah could recognize it as black magic.

‘It’s just a hallucination.’

It was just a hallucination of the fears I had.

The pressure on my body is also an imaginary illusion.

It was the moment when Uriah scolded herself.

‘…… Wait.’

Suddenly, I realized my discomfort.

‘I, this Uriah, am afraid of the dark?’

As I said, all I could see was infinite, deep darkness.

But Uriah was used to such darkness.

The Land of the Dead, where even the sun in the sky and the moon and stars in the night sky were rejected.

It was her home.

‘This is not just darkness.’

So Uriah squinted. To see, in the depths of this infinite darkness, the true source of the terror that weighed down her flesh.

And she saw.

“!”

A stream of silver hair.

It was so brilliant that she recognized it at once.

It was the silver hair of the man she had just faced in the Spacetime Duel Arena.

But…….

His hair was too long to be called hair.

She struggled to look up to see his face.

Uriah’s struggle was over.

The voice spoke.

“□□ □□ □□□□ □□□.”

Why?

It sounded like the language of the Arcana continent, but she couldn’t make it out. But by forcing herself to look up, she was able to see the falling lips.

The way the lips moved, she understood.

-I did not give you permission.

You didn’t give me permission.

……what?

Uriah was stunned into silence.

“……!”

A split second.

Her pupils dilated once, then shrank again.

And then, just like that, the effect of the Nightmare faded from everyone.

“Ha.”

The first to speak was the Lightning Child.

How had he gotten himself into this terrible mess?

Yes, that bastard was the cause of everything.

“Oxidin, if it weren’t for that bastard, I would’ve been able to……! Huh?”

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get the words out.

Oxidin’s name just comes out of his mouth like that!

Sunrise Warrior followed suit and spoke the name.

“……Oxidin.”

I don’t know what happened.

Oxidin’s tricks.

The aftermath seemed to fade away from him.

Everything Pocom said as she took a sedative.

“I guess he was the one who freed us from Oxidin’s control? Which is why he dragged us to the dueling grounds in the first place.”

“Heh? No way, he was toying with us for that.”

“If he wanted to kill us, we’re done.”

“But…….”

If Pocom’s story is true, we owe the man a great debt.

If so, they’d better pay him back.

The Sunrise Warrior rose from his position.

The experience of being on his knees and having his head screwed was not pleasant.

‘I must confess everything to be worthy.’

The experience was more educational than humiliating, as it expanded his horizons from a frog in a social hall, and he stepped forward to tell the story of Oxidin and the Transcendent Alliance.

“……?”

I realized.

One, two, three, four.

Uriah, the Rotten Shaman.

“Hey, ugly brother, there’s one of us left.”

The fact that she was nowhere to be found.

.

.

.

At this moment, my emotion wasn’t pride that I had overwhelmed the five Transcendents, nor was it relief that they had figured out the cause of the Oxidin trick.

I, Lee Hoyeol, was afraid…

[Understanding Darkness].

And as my mastery of the [Heavenly Infant Solitude] increased.

Grandfell’s full power and personality deepening.

I asked Grandfell, still in his usual posture, still the same as ever.

The level of understanding is only 40%.

Then, there is only 60% left.

‘What are you still hiding so much from me, Grandfell?’

‘Is this what happens between us, really?’

.

.

.

[Winner: Grandfell Claudi Arpheus Romeo]

[Loser: Uriah, Rotten Shaman]

[Disqualified: Lightning Child and 3 others].