Chapter 306
The two clash.
The earth shook as Ipos and Vargan collided, leaving Plauros struggling to keep up with the fight.
Boom! Bang—!
‘Is that Curse Magic he’s using…? I can’t grasp the illusion from reality at all!’
Plauros held his breath while keeping close to Buer.
Just a moment ago.
The man who introduced himself as Alron suddenly seized Ipos’ wrist, revealing his malicious intent.
Until that point, Plauros had thought he was just a bit more talented, a figure with incredible spirit and vigor.
However, as he began to clash with Buer, Plauros found himself unable to narrow his large, widened eyes.
‘I’ve heard of Alron, but I’ve never heard he used magic like Schugenharz! And that mana pool and output… what the heck?!’
It felt as if he was fighting a mirage.
Vargan nullified all of Ipos’ attacks.
No… should we say nullified? He definitely hit, but before he knew it, Vargan popped up unscathed somewhere else.
For instance, Ipos’s hand strike sliced through Vargan’s neck as sharply as any sword could, yet the gushing blood and dismembered body acted like two creatures trying to hinder Ipos.
Meanwhile, Vargan appeared from a distance to provide support fire.
Plauros even wondered if he was dreaming.
But what was most unbelievable was.
‘He’s actually fighting evenly with Ipos!’
Ipos.
The peak martial artist who would later ascend to the position of Executor in the Goddess Church.
In this era, he hadn’t achieved full potential yet, but to Plauros and Buer, Ipos’s presence was shockingly immense.
‘This is no time to be dawdling! I have to quickly take Buer away!’
Plauros hurriedly pulled Buer’s hand.
Buer, who had been watching a small war unfold, froze up and was dragged along against his will.
Bang, bang—!!
“I don’t recognize your face.”
Meanwhile, Ipos murmured while engaged in a fierce battle with Vargan.
That voice echoed in Vargan’s ear, bringing a characteristic smile to his face.
“I’m quite shy, so I intentionally avoided getting close to the other apprentices.”
“…Making jokes in a situation like this. You’re remarkably calm.”
Whoosh—!
Ipos’s strike left a massive crater in Vargan’s chest.
Yet Vargan’s eyes did not lose their vitality. He wouldn’t let Ipos slip away.
Boom!
Before he could create distance, Vargan self-detonated.
Before Bargan self-destructs.
Extremely compressed mana bursts forth at once, releasing a tremendous amount of energy.
Once again, a great vibration shakes the atmosphere and the earth, and at the center stands Ipos.
“…”
Ipos, engulfed in the explosion, clears the smoke with mana.
“You’re quite robust, aren’t you?”
Bargan, reappearing, grins.
Even being struck properly by an Archbishop could potentially blow half your body away, yet his resilient and tough skin only bears a slight singe.
Bargan stands twenty paces away.
As Ipos gazes at what could be an illusion or reality, he quietly assesses his power.
“An unfamiliar form of mana… Did you really receive power from the Magic Instructor?”
“Well, I can’t really offer a definitive answer. It would just complicate things.”
“……”
Seeing that Bargan seems unwilling to provide a proper response, Ipos checks the mana of Plauros and Buer, who are fleeing.
“Did they not get far?”
“Are they bothering you? If you wish, you can turn your back to me just like this. I’ll gladly welcome you. I’ll just aim for your blind spot.”
“…No need for that. We have plenty of time.”
—!
Ipos readies his stance.
Thick veins surge up like snakes across his limbs.
The flow of mana shifts in an instant.
Until now, he was just assessing Bargan’s capabilities, but now the atmosphere is different.
His large pupils capture Bargan within.
His tightly condensed muscles seem ready to launch like a rocket, piercing through Bargan’s heart.
Ipos plans to take down Bargan first and then deal with Plauros and Buer in order.
‘Has it appeared? His second mode.’
Bargan smirks slightly while maintaining his vigilance.
In the original work, Ipos divided his total power into four stages.
The first stage was the usual state that Bargan faced a moment ago.
The second stage is the current ‘Awakening’ state, which enhances his achievements even further.
What makes Ipos terrifying is right here.
He can trigger an awakening using the power called ‘Awakening’ in addition to the power release that drastically boosts physical abilities.
The astonishing point is that he can use ‘Awakening’ “once more” even after activating the power release.
In other words, while already strong enough to devour most opponents, he still has two stages of power left according to the original work.
‘No wonder the other Archbishops trembled in fear of Ipos.’
I can assure you, at least one-on-one after reaching the second awakening, Ipos is stronger than the power release of Cardinal Amon whom he serves.
That’s the kind of guy Ipos is.
—Kuwung!
Ipos strikes first.
His arms, harder than iron, split Bargan’s body in two.
Although Bargan easily divided like tofu, Ipos does not halt the flow of his attack.
Extending his physical senses to the extreme, he finds the moment Bargan’s mana is reestablished.
Like chasing after smoke, he ascends and crushes Bargan again before his body can fully reconstruct.
In terms of time, it doesn’t even reach a second.
In battle, his sense of time is different from that of ordinary creatures.
“I won’t let you escape now.”
Ipos whispers softly.
Kwaghaghagak!
Several times, he chases and smashes Bargan before he can even fully complete his regeneration.
He seems relentless, repeating the same action as long as Bargan’s mana lasts.
He’s as persistent as if he will repeat the same act forever until the clock runs out.
“Not even a Familiar or ‘Gluttony’ or ‘Essence of Life’… things are getting tight…”
Vargan felt overwhelmed by Ipos’s speed, yet he calmly assessed the situation.
At this rate, even if he fought all night, it wouldn’t end.
“I can buy time, but the pursuer wouldn’t welcome this situation. Is he trying to find a gap in my Unique Spell?”
Ipos was already aware that he was trapped in Vargan’s spell.
Thanks to his ‘Awakening,’ he could capture the results of magic, and he could see the tiny ripple caused by Vargan’s death.
He planned to amplify that ripple until he could grasp and rip it apart.
This was the miraculous escape technique of his extraordinarily enhanced physique.
“…but just taking it lying down doesn’t suit my temperament.”
Vargan’s voice resonated like smoke, spreading outwards.
Simultaneously, the atmospheric pressure shifted.
“……!”
Ipos noticed the mass of the air becoming heavier.
A tremendous pressure, as if a giant were pressing down with its palm.
His legs, which had been chasing after Vargan like lightning, were now caught.
“Is he using pure mana mass along with an unknown spell?”
Ipos was restrained.
Just as he suspected, Vargan was utilizing an overwhelming amount of mana and his Unique Spell simultaneously.
The gravity where Ipos stood was now 500G.
That’s 500 times normal.
Boom—!
The ground he stood on buckled under the strain.
Yet, Ipos began to move, stepping forward a leg at a time.
Vargan poured even more mana into increasing the gravity.
550… 600… 650….
Only when it reached 700G did Ipos’s expression change, which had been so stoic until now.
Creeeak—.
He clenched his teeth tightly.
Blood streamed from his eyes.
“To think you could endure this. Truly impressive.”
Vargan, pouring his magical energy with outstretched hands, commented honestly.
Having succeeded in restraining Ipos’s movements, Vargan still wore a sardonic smile, but the problem was, he was also exhausting all his energy, leaving him unable to perform any other actions.
Boom boom boom—!
Even as his bulging veins burst, Ipos resisted by channeling his mana.
One trying to suppress, the other trying to escape.
Facing an opponent of a type he’d never seen before, Ipos focused all his strength to surpass his limits.
His upper body was already bending under pressure, yet his legs remained steadfast.
The tough skin was not just tightening; it was about to burst.
And just at that very moment, when Ipos was nearing the bodily limits he could exert—
Kaboom—!
Vargan beheld a dreadful nightmare.
Ipos, defying the 700 times gravity, leaped high into the air.
His straight gaze was filled with intent to kill Vargan.
His tightly compressed body was like a masterpiece forged for combat.
“This is what they call martial artists…”
Vargan couldn’t help but click his tongue inwardly.
At this moment, Ipos was in the early stages of power liberation, if following the original lore.
He crashed head-on with his limits, surpassing the initial Awakening.
Shwoosh—!
In an unstoppable thrust, Ipos’s hand struck.
He precisely wedged into the gaps of Vargan’s destabilized Unique Spell, aiming for his neck.
There was no way to dodge.
The reality he had to face was a stark death.
The harsh reality that must be faced is a clear death.
However, Vargan…
‘…Unfortunately, I’ve already seen that number twice.’
“……!”
He dodged Ipos’s movement with precision.
A move impossible to execute without seeing the future.
Vargan instead dove into Ipos’s arms, pushing ‘purple mana’ into his abdomen.
This power was entirely different from what Vargan usually wielded.
It was heavily infused with the energy of a great Altife.
The authority of Cardinal Gamigin.
Memory loss.
With a shockwave, Vargan unleashed the ominous power once again.
*
“…I almost died three times.”
Barely managing to secure victory over Ipos, Vargan looked down at the unconscious figure and exhaled heavily.
Having taken the full brunt of Gamigin’s authority, his brain was rattled, causing him to lose the accomplishments he had just built.
When he wakes up, he’ll have forgotten all memories and will have to climb the same path once again.
‘Ipos… what a tricky opponent. If I go out, I should avoid combat as much as possible.’
Vargan concluded thus about Ipos, who had reached the pinnacle of martial prowess.
Thinking about how he had lost two lives due to him this time was painful.
Vargan turned his head and checked the number visible in his peripheral vision.
「2」
What had initially read as 5 had now dropped to 2.
Once when he had observed the goddess’s march.
Once again when Ipos awakened anew.
And finally, once for not realizing the existence of the magic tool he held in his arms.
It was fortunate that the regression point shifted to when Schugenhartz ran from the magician, or else he would have repeated the same year.
“Lafez, making useless stuff…”
Vargan rummaged through Ipos’s belongings and pulled out a magic tool the size of a fist.
Thanks to this small tool, his third life had absurdly vanished.
He thought feeding authority to Ipos, who had jumped under gravity and struck hard, would cause great damage, but suddenly the final boss, the magician, appeared.
‘…Well, at least now I can use shockwaves and authority together, so it’s not completely useless.’
The shockwave utilized existing mana techniques.
Authority was the power of Altife’s purple mana.
Combining both would amplify the effect.
Though it was a somewhat reckless state, seeing how Ipos, who had such a strong physique, fell like this was clear evidence.
“……”
Placing his hand on Ipos’s forehead, he activated the authority once more.
He removed all potentially troublesome information, like Ipos discovering Buer and Plauros, and the fact that he fought with him.
He could kill him right now, but that would be like poking a stick into a beehive.
Compared to the magician, the current Schugenhartz forces were in dire need of hiding.
Drip—.
As Vargan completely cleared Ipos’s memories, a trickle of blood flowed from his lips. He nonchalantly wiped it off and stood up.
“The remaining mission must be completed to the end.”
Vargan glanced in the direction where Buer had fled far away.
The only heir of the magician, Buer’s naturalization.
This incident would bring about a seismic shift in the world.
