Chapter 326: Chapter 326

* * *

「Demon Realm Summoning Progress: 41%」

「Human Realm Invasion Progress: 73%」

This is ridiculous. How on earth?

“Knight Commander, it is said that the movement of reinforcements is being delayed. If this is the case, there is no point in continuing the defensive battle.”

“Commander, in the area where the magic circle was destroyed, demonic energy has been detected…….”

“The city is rising again.”

Upon seeing the incoming demons, they called for support from their allies. When all the demons retreated, the allies realized the Empire’s crisis and quickly sent troops. Nations with relatively large numbers of magician troops promised to send at least some of their troops first, using traveling magic.

‘If we held on long enough, we could have surrounded and cornered the demons from the inside out.’

Cadel’s steady gaze turned to the system window.

‘All the demons have flocked to the Empire, and there are no reports of any demons targeting the destroyed magic circles, so how did they manage to restore them so quickly……?’

Unless the demons managed to restore the magic circles without the humans’ knowledge, there was only one person who could have done it. Emilia, the demon princess and master of the great magic circle. But even she couldn’t restore the entire magic circle by herself, could she?

‘The allied magicians returned to destroy their own magic circle before they even arrived. Without magicians, there is a limit to the distance you can travel even if you use a traveling gateway. We can’t maintain the ice barrier for that long, waiting for reinforcements to arrive. Moreover, in this situation, it is difficult for us to stay within the barrier.’

The magic circles were regenerating not only in other countries but also in the Empire’s own territory. To destroy them, they must be pushed through the countless enemies outside. It was too risky a venture to avoid the battle, and the consequences of neglecting the magic circle were too obvious. The rise of the Demon City was even more dangerous than the demon invasion.

The more he thought about it, the further away the answers became. Cadel ran a hand through his throbbing head and reached out to Garuel.

“Give me [Ullo], Garuel. Our first priority is to destroy the outer magic circle again. We will fight outside the barrier. We need to clear a path for the magicians to the traveling gateway.”

That was when Cadel, having gotten [Ullo], was about to deliver instructions to the Imperial forces.

“Ca, Cadel…….”

A shaky voice came from behind him. Turning quickly, he saw Lydon clutching his stomach with one arm and one hand over his bloody nose and mouth.

“My body, feels weird…….”

He staggered to his feet and fell to his knees.

“Lydon! Why, why suddenly……. Garuel! Please heal him quickly!”

It wasn’t some kind of joke to appease his sense of freedom. This could be seen from his pale face and his trembling eyes, which were more confused than Cadel’s.

Garuel hurried over and deployed his healing spell, but Lydon was unable to move even as the hated demonic energy infiltrated his body. His nose continued to bleed and he gagged. Cadel, Van, Yozen, and the healer, Garuel, could not hide their bewilderment at Lydon’s sudden change.

“……Mana rampage is about to start.”

“What?”

“The flow of mana is too strong. It’s not something Sir Lydon’s mana vessel can handle. It seems like this has been going on for a while…….”

Having temporarily stopped Lydon’s bleeding, Garuel looked back at Cadel with a serious face. Cadel stiffened, as if unable to comprehend his words.

‘Mana rampage……?’

Did [Frozen Core] have such a side effect? It was unknown. It was only meant to be a temporary buff, so Cadel only focused on the fact that it would increase the stats by 7 times when used on an ice elemental magician.

Whether or not Lydon’s body could handle the sevenfold increase in mana was never a part of his consideration.

‘Why didn’t I think of that?’

Because in the game, it didn’t matter if an ice magician ate it or a fire magician ate it? It was stupid. How many things hadn’t gone according to the game so far. Not considering the side effects before feeding his subordinate the demon heart. What kind of a dumb thing was that?

“I…… I’ll stop it.”

Cadel knelt down in front of Lydon’s writhing form and impatiently cupped his cheek. His red eyes, distorted with pain, trembled slightly. Lydon realized it was Cadel he was looking at, and pushed him away with a weak hand.

“Don’t do it, Cadel.”

“You have at least 7 times your normal mana right now. You’re never going to make it out of this unscathed, Lydon.”

“……Don’t.”

Lydon shook off Cadel’s hand that was tugging at him, and drew in a sharp breath.

There were two ways to calm a magician in the throes of a mana rampage. Either they could drain the overflow of mana themselves and absorb it all, or they could use the power of others to drain the mana beyond their capacity.

Both methods were tricky, but the second one was more dangerous because the person draining the mana was more likely to get hurt. In the previous Battle of the Gateways, Lydon had tried to stop Jeriel’s mana rampage, only to find himself in the middle of one himself.

“I can handle it.”

Contrary to his firm words, the blood that had stopped for a while began to flow again. Thin ice covered his white cheeks, the backs of his hands, and up his thighs, and a chill flowed out.

“What can you handle?!”

The sight of Lydon coughing up blood made Cadel’s temper flare. It wasn’t Lydon’s stubbornness that angered him; it was his own ignorance that had brought him to this point.

Barely able to gather his composure, Cadel tried to calm Lydon down and stop the mana rampage, but to no avail.

“Just…… Just release the mana. Just use as much as you can, and I’ll take care of the rest.”

His face, which was always smiling no matter what, was strangely distorted. He couldn’t even afford to fake a smile. He knew better than anyone that he was in far more danger than any crisis in the past. Nevertheless, Lydon pushed himself to his feet.

“The demons are coming, right? Pathetic humans can’t even kill demons properly, so they’re in danger, right?”

“Lydon. Listen to me.”

“I’ll freeze everything. After that, it’s Cadel’s turn.”

No matter what he said, it didn’t seem to catch. Lydon looked at Cadel, who was at a loss for words, and forced the corners of his mouth upward. The smile did little to reassure the other man, for the pain still lingered.

“With this much mana, I can do some really exciting magic. So Cadel can just sit back and watch me do my thing, and then give me a hug for a job well done, okay?”

Unable to stop him, Lydon took flight, sailing away into the sky. Unwilling to let him go, Cadel called Kunra to go after him, but Van stopped him. Van said, pulling Cadel’s arm away from his grip on the pendant.

“Lydon can do it, Commander.”

“It’s not a matter of can and cannot! If he goes on a rampage like that, Lydon will be……!”

“What if Commander tries to stop him and goes on a rampage as well? That’s the end of it. You know you have to trust Lydon for now.”

Van squeezed Cadel’s shoulder, who squirmed, and surveyed the barrier in the distance.

“If Lydon succeeds, we can get through this crisis unscathed, and then we can call in the other magicians to fix that fairy properly.”

“…….”

“Commander. That guy is the one who never let you down, at least not in battle.”

He tightened his grip on Cadel’s shoulders and stared into his anxious, ashen eyes. He could feel Cadel’s body slowly relaxing. Turning to face Van, Cadel bit his lip and lowered his head.

“……Okay. But if there’s even the slightest hint of danger, I’ll call Kunra to go find Lydon, and you’ll all help me subdue him.”

So far, the barrier Lydon had created was still intact, meaning he could still control the mana at will, so it was best to hope that Van was right, and that Lydon would heal himself before he went on a full mana rampage.

* * *

The arrival of reinforcements had been delayed, the great magic circle that had once been stopped had been reactivated, and the demons were attacking in increasing numbers by the second. The situation outside the barrier was now a living hell.

Lumen frowned as he slashed through the demons that had managed to climb the barrier.

‘This is going horribly wrong, and if reinforcements don’t arrive in time, some of us must cross the barrier to stop the magic circle from activating.’

Cadel’s thoughts were probably similar. If Lydon’s barrier was breached here, the Empire would be in shambles in no time, so it was important to maintain defensive warfare and pick off the headaches one at a time.

“Sir Dreff, I’m going to move on to the northwest gateway.”

“Do as you please!”

Dreff was busy yelling and giving instructions to his subordinates. Lumen found a traveling gateway in the midst of a battle between allies.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

He did not have mana to activate the traveling gateway, but he had a ‘mana injector’ that Cadel had given him before coming here. Using it, he could jump through the gate and check its status.

‘The southern barrier is intact. Lydon is holding up better than I thought…….’

Lumen was about to pull out the injector and activate the traveling gateway when he froze. A flurry of white snow surrounded him. Lumen’s expression hardened as he quickly looked away. The snowflakes were not only all around him, but they were also burrowing into the crevices of the allies on the barrier, the demons they were fighting, and the demons below.

The temperature was dropping rapidly, and a bitter chill settled in. The Inte Snowfields. No, it was worse than the cold he had felt there.

The snow flurries began to blow harder and harder with the freezing air. Lumen stared at the backs of his red, frozen hands, then looked up at the sky with a grim expression.

There it was, a gushing mass of ice crystals. And around them, dozens of blue magic circles. Lumen couldn’t see him, but he knew. At the center of it all was Lydon.

At the same time as that brief realization, a searing heat enveloped his body.

* * *

A secret technique passed down only to the heirs of the Pinhai tribe. That second magic spell.

[Permafrost].

It was the perfect way to release the mana that was expanding to the point of bursting the mana vessel. A spell that never quite worked. There were two reasons for this. One, because it was a great magic that even he, who had inherited Pinhai’s power, could never achieve complete success with. He had yet to become the Fairy King.

The other reason, it wasn’t supposed to succeed.

[Permafrost] was a spell that froze the earth and all life on it to an area equal to the range of the mana he released.

‘I never thought I’d have to try this again.’

His blue lips drew a fine arc. He could feel the mana draining out of him with maddening force. Still, the mana vessel swelled rapidly, and the ice covering his body shattered and regenerated. The sensation of his entire body being pulled taut was also vivid.

Lydon steadied his unsteady breathing, completing the [Permafrost] formula one by one. [Permafrost] was not a magic that could be completed with just one formula. It required dozens of complex formulas, and he had to keep every single one of them in order to succeed.

The countless magic circles that surrounded him were proof of that. The circles constantly absorbed their masters’ mana in a fierce blizzard, and the mana-soaked circles emitted a withering glow and scattered an even sharper chill.

The magic threatened to freeze everything in the lands of the Empire and beyond, friend and foe alike. Despite his awareness of this, Lydon did not stop working his magic.

Because he believed in Cadel. Cadel would protect the humans, protect his comrades, protect himself, no matter what. As always.

“……I’ve made it, Cadel.”

The ice crystals surrounding Lydon slowly dispersed as the blindingly intense glow of the magic circles slowly dissipated. Then, when the blizzard ceased, and the glow of the magic circles faded to their limits. Lydon lost all power and fell.

If he continued to fall to the ground like this, he would die without the fruits of his efforts to release mana. His survival instincts kicked in even as his consciousness faded, and he barely managed to flap his wings and send himself plummeting into a small hole in a building.

“Ugh…….”

Lydon curled into a ball on the hard floor. Even though the fire was quickly put out, the flow of mana continued. If he didn’t get it under control soon, it would run wild again.

‘Get, a grip…….’

He tried to think of something sweet: Cadel’s loving eyes on him, his bright laugh, his warm embrace, his soft voice, his pleasant scent. Over and over again, Lydon thought of those things and endured the excruciating pain. He forced the overflowing mana into his body, whipping his tattered consciousness again and again.

“…….”

It was a long time before he could feel his mana returning. Lydon cleared his throat and slowly squeezed his eyes shut.

He’d done it. He wanted to run up to Cadel right now and berate him for his foolishness, demanding to know what the hell he’d been feeding him. Actually, he’d take anything Cadel gave him, but if he pretended to be angry, his panicked human would reward him handsomely.

Lydon could already see Cadel’s troubled face. Beneath his slowly closing eyelids, Lydon’s mind never stopped picturing Cadel’s face.