Chapter 276 - Episode Twenty-Three - The Second Trial (5)
Darras sits back and draws his arms wide.
I can feel the magic running finely through Darras’ body.
Darras’ body swells slightly.
The fibers of his muscles emerge, stretching his flesh and skin.
The size of his body hasn’t changed much, but his hardness seems to have jumped up.
“So you’re using magic to boost your muscle strength, huh ……”
I looked at Darras and said to myself.
I’m sure Darras is using magic to strengthen his muscles.
“As you can see. It’s a secret martial art that was handed down in the Maharaun Kingdom, where Darras is from, “Gouma”. It is a technique that is not widely known due to the fact that it requires too delicate control of magic power and has disadvantages such as deformation and necrosis of the body when it fails. It’s not the only one, though. It is not a technique that should be exposed to the public, but if you want to get people to give up quickly, this is probably the best way to do it.”
Strengthening the body with magical power, huh?
My chief was doing something similar, so it immediately hit me.
When I was on the alert, Mea looked at me anxiously.
“…… Um, you look like you’re taking it very seriously, is it really that great? Strengthening the body through magic?”
I nodded to Mea.
“I know of a similar technique, but I couldn’t control it, and I experienced such intense pain that my limbs rotted away for over a week.”
Strengthening the body with magical power is not an easy task.
It is only natural that the meticulous balance of the living body is forcibly repainted and controlled.
If there is even the slightest error, abnormalities will occur in various parts of the body.
Even if we try to bring it back to normal, another abnormality will occur in another part of the body. It’s a hell of repetition.
“A-Abel couldn’t control it!?”
“Yeah, in the end, no matter how much I thought about it later, I couldn’t figure out where I went wrong.”
I don’t really want to remember that time, but unfortunately, I remember it vividly.
It was when I was fourteen years old.
The chief who had taught me how to strengthen my body had a very pale face.
I was impressed by the fact that Firo, who usually adores the chief, grabbed the chief and cried out.
“No way, Abel has ……!”
Mea said in astonishment, and then glanced at my arm and Darras’s arm.
Then she twisted her mouth as if he had noticed something.
“What’s the matter, Mea?”
“No-, nothing! Mea didn’t say anything else!”
Mea shakes her head.
As I tilted my head, Myuhi narrowed his eyes and looked at my arm.
“You had no foundation, or rather, it’s sore muscles ……”
Peter put his hand on Myunhi’s shoulder, and Myunhi’s shoulder shook and fell silent.
Peter glared at Myunhi from behind the eye holes in his mask.
“Myunhi-chan, you don’t need to say anything else. Wouldn’t it be boring if we caused offense by doing this?”
“I’m very sorry, Peter-sama!”
“Do you apologize to me? No, right? It’s like we’re walking a tightrope right now, tossing a coin, you know?”
“Ah, yes ……”
Peter and Myunhi were talking to each other again.
I’m always curious about what they’re saying to each other, but now is not the time to be distracted by Peter and the others.
From the way Rupel was talking to me, he probably didn’t mean to harm me directly, but I had to be careful.
I took my eyes off Peter and the others and looked at Darras.
Darras unleashed a palm strike full of magic power into the wall on the side of the door we came in, about three people’s distance from me.
” “Palm of Heavenly Destruction”!”
In the next moment, the wall beside me dipped as if something had slammed into it.
The entire room shook, and I put my hand on the ground to somehow prevent myself from falling over.
The dimple, which must have been two meters long, was in the shape of a giant palm.
Even the five fingers were clearly visible.
I felt a cold sweat drip from my forehead.
Darras was not chanting or deploying a magic circle.
He didn’t even use any magic tools.
Yet, it is impossible for magic to have mass, unless Darras is a demon, from a magical point of view.
“With this, we have successfully defeated the Din Eaters. Believe it or not, this is not sorcery, but a martial art. It’s a mixture of magic and ki. This is the greatest technique of “Gouma”, and it is a legendary technique that no one has been able to master. It is said to be a fictional technique that was created by the ancestors in order to add credibility …… Darras succeeded in mastering this technique after he became a member of the “Balancer of the Scale of Time”.”
Is this a martial art?
The technique just now?
I’ve never heard of anything like that.
I still can’t believe what I just saw.
There was no suspicious flow of magic …… even though he’d activated it beforehand.
It would be more credible to hear that it was a trick via magic tools or that Darras was a demon or an artificial spirit.
“I-I can’t believe you’ve gotten this far. Just how much did you hold back when fought me ……! You didn’t even use that technique!”
Peter bit his lower lip and said in a high-pitched voice?
“What do you want to do? I’m not as flashy or powerful as Darras. However, I’m much stronger than him when it comes to fighting against people. Even if there were three Darras, I would win. If you still want to fight, then let’s do it thoroughly until one side or the other is destroyed, knowing that we will both lose.”
I too was frantically comparing Darras to the hole in the wall.
The logic is out of order, no matter how much I try. Is that even possible?
Just because the magical power is mixed with ambiguous things such as ki, it has that much power.
In the first place, what exactly is ki?
Is it the heat generated by the friction of muscle fibers and the movement of matter in the body, or is it the magical power that gives it directionality?
Or was there something else in this world, like magic in the martial arts, that could not be inferred from previous life knowledge?
I had no idea about martial arts, and I had never studied it because I had no interest in it.
Peter looked at me anxiously as I held my mouth and pondered.
He seemed to have changed his mind from earlier.
Peter puts his hand over his mouth and whispers to me.
“Um, Abel-chan …… do you think you can take care of that Rupel? As for the iron mask, I’ll try to buy some time with Me and Myunhi, but in the meantime, I’d be happy if you could help me with the Rupel …… but I’m not sure if that’s possible.”
“What?”
I was thinking about something else entirely, so I was puzzled when Peter spoke to me unexpectedly.
I look again at the hand-shaped indentations in the wall.
I don’t know how hard the walls are here,……, but I think I can handle this well enough.
I’m not sure why the two guys on the other side are so confident, so I don’t know what to say.
“How is it …… It looks like the other side hasn’t shown their bottom line yet. And if there’s a time limit, isn’t it better not to fight without warning?”
It’s not clear to us what the time limit is, as we didn’t hear Priest Yohanan’s words, but judging from his fear, it could be a very specific penalty.
We should avoid that at all costs.
If possible, I would like to get the specific rules of the second trial from Rupel, but if we know that, we may be able to move in a different way.
Rupel wouldn’t bother to give up his advantage in this situation.
“But is there any way to avoid an engagement other than for us to retreat? Should we pretend to run away and attack when the trial is over?”
It would be possible.
Rupel’s first priority is to solve the puzzle.
Even if we lie and say that we will back down, there is a good chance that he will be suspicious of betrayal.
“For now, how about we use the same move to check him? If not, we can move on to another move.”
“The same move?”
Peter asked uneasily.
I waved my wand and conjured up a magic circle.
“Flame, form, ball”
I wrapped it in a spherical ward, compressing the flames and connecting them with an inexhaustible supply of magic power.
“…… Abel, what are you doing?”
“No, I was thinking of putting this next to, uh, Darras…”
“Indeed, it destroyed the statue of Kudor, then ……!”
Peter said, and then looked at Darras.
Rupel snickered.
“…… Hoh~, you are confident that you can do something more powerful than what Darras just did? If you’re thinking of taking us by surprise, you’d better not. We are on alert and will not take such a direct attack. If we do, we will use that as a signal to engage you.”
Peter looked at Rupel for a few seconds, and then his cheeks quickly paled under his mask.
“Wait, wait, Abel-chan! On second thought, no! It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just that I have a feeling it’s no good …… Ple-, please stop for now! I don’t know, or rather, I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I have a feeling it’s not good! Let’s go in another direction! Let’s go in another direction!”
“Eh ……? Don’t worry, the force will be enough to keep the building from collapsing …… Ah”
After I said that much, I realized something.
The wall behind Darras has a sealed door, and around it hangs a disc from the “Sun and Moon Din’s Game”.
Perhaps to prevent the wall from being broken down and passed through, wards and techniques that kill impact and magic can be seen.
It is a disadvantage to attack this wall.
“I’m sure the other side will take that into consideration as well.”
It was a hassle, so I decided to just shoot.
It’s okay. I’ll avoid the “Sun and Moon Din’s Game” discs just in case.
If it breaks and becomes impossible to go through, it’s a big deal.
I’d like to go deeper and see the Wand of Destruction for myself.
If left unattended, it is possible that someone will somehow come into possession of it.
“That’s not what I’m talking about, stop! Really! Please!”
Peter grabbed my shoulders and shook me.
“Whoa, w-wait, Peter-san ……!”
I was about to send the ball flying in the wrong direction, so I forced the unfinished Abel ball into shape and shot it forcibly forward.
The Abel ball drew a parabolic trajectory and approached Darras in a strange motion.
Perhaps because it was released so forcefully, its movements were quite different from the usual.
“Whoa! Excuse me, dodge, please dodge! I’m sorry, but it’s not really my fault!”
“I knew you were coming for me! Darras, scrape him off!”
Rupel shouts.
It seems that they have entered into a state of engagement as declared, and they roll up the huge grimoire they were carrying.
“Uooooooooooh!”
Darras howled and somehow rushed towards Rupel.
“Darras!? What are you thinking!”
Darras’s body dove to the ground with Rupel in his arms.
The Abelian ball just barely slipped past the side of the disk and flew to the side of the door.
“Tha-, thank goodness, the “Sun and Moon Din’s Game” is safe ……”
I was relieved.
Suddenly, Peter grabbed my shoulder, and it was a near disaster.
As the Abel ball collides with the wall, it is blocked by a wall of light.
A large number of unseen magic circles appeared in the air, flickering one after another.
“It seems that the countermeasures were sufficient after all.”
I feel a little bit defeated.
I was expecting to see some damage to the wall, but the skill of the sorcerers of the mythical age is quite good.
Rupel pushed Darras’ huge body away.
Darras shows no signs of resistance and lets Rupel go.
Rupel stood up and glared at Darras.
“I asked what are you doing, Darras! Even though it’s you, depending on your response, you’re not going to get away with it ……”
I was looking at the whereabouts of the Abel ball.
The Abel sphere had been engaged in a close battle with the warding for some time.
But eventually, the protective magic circles ran out, and suddenly the barrage of magic circles stopped.
The trajectory of Abel’s ball resumes. It collided with the wall, sending a shockwave of hot air into the surrounding area.
With a roar, an explosion occurs, and the area where Rupel was standing before he was tackled by Darras is enveloped in red light.
“You’re not, not……”
Rupel says, stunned.
There was a huge hole in the wall.
“I’m glad we survived. If I had been caught in it, I would have died instantly.”
Darras said in a hushed voice, choppy.
As I was thinking, “W-What’s the point of this test then ……?” the crack spread all over the wall at once.
“Ah ……”
I reached for the wall, but there was no way I could reach it in time.
The whole wall collapsed, and the disks of “Sun and Moon Din’s Game” slammed into the wall one after another.
Debris rained down on them.
Darras tried to escape with Rupel, but he was caught in the collapse and soon disappeared from sight.