Chapter 39: The Unwritten Law of Mages

Crackle!

An electric explosion burst in front of Yuren.

In front of him, a blue barrier shone.

Magic Shield, a fourth-level spell.

He had reacted by reflex and did not have a single wound, but he could barely contain the shock in his chest.

‘Was that Elemental Bolt just now?’

Elemental Bolt, a third-level spell.

More powerful than Mana Shot, and with effects that vary depending on the attribute assigned to it.

‘The attribute was electricity then it was Lightning Bolt.’

Electricity is a type of magic specialized in speed, ideal for catching an opponent off guard.

In Elemental Bolt, that attribute also translates into speed, being on average three times faster than others.

‘It was as if the arrow of a divine archer had been fired.’

If he had not reacted in time, he would have undoubtedly lost some part of his body.

‘Is that guy really a third-circle mage?’

Perda was a third-circle mage, but that did not mean he underestimated him.

He was a bearer of a Red Circle, and those who possess one always have great affinity with their attribute.

It was already known that he had defeated Tesalos Wolcher while still only first circle.

Because of that, even among mages of the same level, he was considered high-ranking.

‘I even thought he might be at the level of a fourth circle.’

But not even that was enough.

He was using magic with power that exceeded all expectations.

‘What kind of trick is he using?’

Yuren’s eyes scanned Perda.

He thought that perhaps he was receiving help from some hidden artifact.

Impossible.

Before entering the sealed warehouse, carrying weapons was not allowed.

‘Without a wand or support staff, he achieves that casting speed using only his mind?’

The only way to increase casting speed is repetition and mastery.

And it is not about superficial practice.

It must be as natural as breathing, to the point of being able to cast magic even while asleep.

That was something impossible for Yuren.

Perda’s talent was worthy of admiration.

“It seems you are curious about the spell.”

Perda spoke in a relaxed tone, provoking him.

“So you know, it is Elemental Bolt.”

“You arrogant brat.”

Yuren’s face flushed red.

No matter how high his status was, he was still just a third-circle mage.

A novice.

A magic circle formed in Yuren’s hand.

“Let’s see if you keep that arrogance!”

In a duel to the death, titles and ranks no longer mattered.

The magic circle did not disappear, but instead floated in the air.

‘A continuous concentration magic circle.’

Normally, circles consume their mana when they turn into magic.

But continuous concentration ones keep the circle active, feeding it mana to fire repeatedly.

A basic technique for a fifth-circle mage.

‘The circle is the same as mine Elemental Bolt.’

He deduced it from the shape and the runes.

And just as he thought, pure white ice spikes began to form.

Ice Bolt.

“Try dodging this too!”

And it was not a single shot, but a barrage.

Perda threw himself behind a pedestal to evade.

The ice projectiles struck the white stone structure, breaking it.

The cold was so intense that the pedestal began to crack under the continuous bombardment.

‘Continuous concentration circles are troublesome.’

It was not a minor disadvantage.

At that moment of hesitation, a dark voice whispered in his mind.

— Do you need my power?

It was the temptation of demons.

When someone is cornered, they offer absurd contracts in exchange for power.

‘They have noticed my talent.’

Demons do not seduce just anyone.

But Perda was not shaken at all.

Now he had to focus on the battle.

‘Mana is not infinite.’

Neither he nor his opponent had unlimited mana.

Before the pedestal was completely destroyed, the rain of Ice Bolts ceased.

Perda stood up immediately and looked at the magic circle.

The way to nullify a continuous concentration circle is.

‘Interrupt the opponent’s concentration.’

At the moment Yuren tried to resume the attack, Perda cast his spell.

“Lightning Bolt.”

An electric projectile fired in a straight line.

Extremely fast, but with a predictable trajectory.

Yuren read the attack and raised a blue barrier.

Crackle!

The Lightning Bolt disintegrated upon impact with the Magic Shield.

It was fast, but lacked great destructive power.

‘If I could combine two attributes, I would have pierced it.’

Combining darkness, the most destructive attribute, with electricity, the fastest.

But with only third circle, it was still impossible.

‘Then…’

Perda shifted his gaze to the magic circle.

Although Yuren had stopped injecting mana, three Ice Bolts were still advancing toward him.

‘Magic Intercept.’

A technique to intercept magic.

He created threads of mana to deflect the projectiles.

Although he had once been an eighth-circle Archmage, now he was only third.

He could not take all three.

If he abandoned one, he could take two.

‘I discard the one that is not vital.’

A quick and logical decision.

The Ice Bolt he let pass tore through his thigh.

The flesh split open, blood gushed out, and pain ran through his body.

But it did not matter.

The two projectiles he took now aimed at their creator.

“I will return them to you.”

A magic circle appeared in Perda’s hand.

The same Lightning Bolt.

But this time, it was fired from behind the Ice Bolts.

“Lightning Bolt.”

Whoosh!

The Ice Bolts, propelled at electrical speed, were launched.

They pierced through Yuren’s blue barrier.

Crack!

The ice shattered, and the barrier broke.

Yuren’s eyes widened.

‘My barrier broke?’

The hardness of the Ice Bolt and the speed of the Lightning Bolt combined, and the barrier could not withstand the impact.

That confusion lasted only an instant.

Yuren felt death.

He still had one Ice Bolt left.

“Lightning Bolt.”

This time, the ice projectile was heading for his forehead.

“Uaaah!”

Yuren broke his concentration and threw himself to the side.

The continuous concentration magic circle collapsed and disappeared.

Feeling adrenaline rushing through his head, Yuren stood up.

“Phew… you caught me off guard. Are you really a third-circle mage?”

Perda replied.

“Are you so mediocre that you need to ask me directly?”

“It is just that everything you do gives that impression. Not even that old Archmage of the court could respond like this at third circle.”

“That old man is still one of the wisest in this palace.”

“You speak as if you know him. You have not even seen him.”

Had he not seen him?

It was that old man whom he had faced until the emperor ended up bowing his head.

While Perda thought that, Yuren took something out of his clothes.

A magic object a wooden stick with a round crystal embedded in it.

A wand.

With just mana flowing into it, the magic circle engraved inside activated and cast the spell.

The fact that he took that out had a clear meaning.

“Are you admitting that you lost in skill?”

“Laugh all you want. As long as I eliminate you, it is enough!”

He injected mana and the magic circle appeared.

Perda quickly analyzed its shape.

‘At a glance, it is a fourth-level spell.’

Just as he thought, it was fourth-level magic.

The mana of the circle gathered, releasing a white cold and sharpening into a pointed form.

Its shape was similar to the Ice Bolts he had launched before.

But it was not a simple Ice Bolt.

Perda’s perception sharpened.

‘It is loaded with excessive cold.’

It was a Frost Bomb disguised as an Ice Bolt.

At the moment it hit or broke, it would release the cold contained within it.

If you tried to dodge it clumsily, defend, or intercept it, it would hit you instead.

‘Then it must be brought down.’

Perda launched the mana orb he had on his finger to collide with the Frost Bomb.

Fwoosh!

A freezing vapor burst out, freezing everything around.

Perda’s own mana orb froze and rolled along the ground.

It was a magic so destructive that it could freeze even mana.

‘He has discovered my Frost Bomb.’

It was not surprising.

A mage capable of using Magic Intercept would not fall for such a simple trick.

At that moment, Yuren began to recite another spell.

“Shield of the Empire!”

A highly concentrated mana magic circle took shape and became a shield.

Aegis, a fifth-level defensive spell.

Named after a hero of the past, it offered absolute defense.

That shield would move on its own, detecting attacks without needing commands.

‘An annoying type.’

For someone who has never seen it, it is an extremely troublesome spell.

‘…that is what it seems.’

But Perda knew it well.

The more troublesome something is, the more clearly he remembers it.

That is why he waited.

For the moment when Yuren would trust his magic.

‘Now.’

That moment came when Yuren used the Frost Bomb with the wand.

At the same time, two orbs appeared in Perda’s hand.

One was a normal Mana Shot.

The other, a Mana Bomb, formed with a much larger amount of mana.

‘It cannot be…’

Upon seeing the Mana Bomb, Yuren’s intuition activated.

He tried to deny that premonition.

It was impossible.

A third-circle mage knowing how to counter fifth-level magic?

But even if he denied it, Perda’s orbs flew toward him.

The first to arrive was the Mana Bomb.

The Aegis shield reacted and moved to intercept it.

Boom!

The area filled with scattered mana.

And in that instant, the movement of the shield became clumsy and irregular.

Yuren’s eyes widened.

‘He knows how to counter Aegis?’

The fight between mages consists of playing hidden cards.

And normally, they are used assuming the opponent will not know what they are.

In fact, that is the norm.

If one tried to cover all possibilities, even the unusual ones, no spell could be used.

Yuren was facing the impossible.

‘Then, the second attack…’

It would target the Frost Bomb.

A spell that has already been cast can be canceled by the mage’s will.

But those generated by wands or staffs cannot be stopped midway.

Perda would wait for the Frost Bomb to complete, touch it, and make it explode.

‘So that is his plan!’

Yuren quickly cast Magic Shield.

A blue barrier covered his front.

A defensive spell that could not be broken with a single Lightning Bolt.

The mana orb would not be able to reach the Frost Bomb.

Once created, it would be enough to throw it elsewhere.

But, contrary to what he thought.

The spell Perda cast was.

‘Lightning Bolt?’

It was the same electric arrow.

Yuren did not understand.

‘It cannot pierce it why choose that?’

No matter how powerful it was, it did not have enough strength to break his barrier.

While Yuren tried to find the answer, something began to become visible.

In the dark background, there was something even darker attached to Perda’s back.

It looked like a hidden arm.

And that arm was making a throwing motion from a low position.

“Ah.”

What entered his field of vision was a frozen mana orb.

It had completely hardened due to the effect of the Frost Bomb.

So solid that it could be used as a metallic projectile.

He had picked it up from the blind spot of his vision.

“Lightning Bolt.”

At the instant the projectile entered its trajectory, the lightning was fired.

The Lightning Bolt advanced carrying the solid ice block.

Crash!

The Magic Shield broke.

Yuren’s body shook violently.

Even so, Yuren was an experienced mage.

He did not close his eyes before the enemy.

In his field of vision, he saw the mana orb that Perda had saved, flying toward him.

‘I have to find a way…!’

But it was already too late.

The mana orb had touched the Frost Bomb.

Booom!

A white vapor exploded and the area turned into a field of frost.

The mist did not dissipate easily.

‘He must be dead.’

Given the magnitude of the attack, it would not be strange if Yuren had died.

His defense had been neutralized, and even with magical resistance, he could not survive a direct explosion of cold.

Even so—

Perda did not lower his guard.

This was the sealed warehouse.

And what keeps a human alive is their will.

‘And demons can make that will come true.’

And his concern became reality.

Crack—

Yuren’s figure, turned into an ice mage covered in frost, moved.

His frozen clothes and the wand shattered into fragments of ice, but he did not.

And at some point, a book appeared in his hand.

“Khihihihit…!”

A laugh filled with madness echoed with ecstasy.

“Ah… so this is how it feels to obtain the power of a demon…”

It was the typical reaction of someone who has surrendered to demonic power.

The book he held was the Ice Manifestation Technique of Marbas.

‘Marbas, demon of extreme cold and destruction.’

One of the seven great demons, lord of the frozen hell.

Perfect for an ice mage like Yuren.

‘He made a contract just before the explosion and survived.’

Whoever sells their soul to Marbas receives the blessing of resisting extreme cold.

Seeing that, Perda let himself fall to the ground.

He had lost too much blood, and his thigh no longer responded.

His concentration, which had been superhuman, was reaching its limit.

“Well… where did that confident regent go? Come on, let us keep fighting.”

Yuren mocked him.

Everything was tilting against Perda.

At that moment—

The malicious presences that filled the room began to move again.

All the demonic books in the sealed warehouse trembled.

— Give me your soul. I will give you the power to kill that insignificant one.

— I will give you the power to burn that insolent one! Give me your soul!

— I will give you power. Is it not better to live, even if crawling in the mud?

The whispers of the demons shook Perda.

It was as if they were trying to tear him apart and take over his body.

Proof that he had been pushed to the edge of the abyss.

Perda, barely breathing with difficulty, opened his mouth.

“When one is about to die…”

A smile appeared on his lips.

It was different from the few smiles he had shown until now.

It was a smile born from his emotions.

“They say that when you are about to die, the first thing you see is the face of the person you love.”

Yuren frowned at seeing Perda say such nonsense all of a sudden.

“And do you know what I am seeing right now? You. Do you know what that means?”

“What the hell are you talking about? Do not tell me you are going to say you love me.”

Perda’s blue eyes stared at him.

They shone while he used magic.

That unwavering glow was pride.

And those eyes made Yuren feel insignificant.

“It means that it is not my time to die yet.”

At that moment, Yuren’s intuition activated again.

‘Can I not… defeat this man?’

Even after making a contract with the demon Marbas?

‘That cannot be.’

Then what was he, who had sold his soul?

What did it mean that, even after abandoning everything in the face of death, he could not defeat a third-circle mage?

As he tried to compose himself, Perda asked.

“Do you know what the unwritten law of mages is?”

The unwritten law of mages.

Never reveal your final trump card, not even at the moment of death.

In other words, a joker capable of turning everything around.

“So you are going to use your final magic? You do not have enough mana left for that.”

Yuren was right.

Perda only had enough mana left to cast, at most, an Elemental Bolt.

The blood flowing from his thigh had not even been stopped.

He no longer had strength.

The one who was cornered was clearly not Yuren, but Perda.

Perda smiled broadly.

“Do not jump to conclusions. When did I say it would be magic?”

Not magic?

At that moment, Yuren felt a presence behind him.

“It seems it is not too late yet.”

A male voice sounded suddenly.

Yuren turned his head.

There was a brown-haired man dressed as a guard.

‘That… cannot be a guard.’

A guard could not be in a security zone like this.

He was clearly an intruder.

And not just any intruder someone skilled enough to infiltrate the sealed warehouse.

The first to move was that man.

He closed the distance with agility.

‘I have to react.’

Yuren drew a magic circle.

At that instant, the man’s ordinary eyes turned deep red.

‘What…? Why is the mana…?’

At the point where that gaze landed, the mana that was gathering in the magic circle was forcibly dispersed.

‘It cannot be…!’

In his mind appeared a race he believed extinct.

“Are you of the red-eyed race?!”

Also known as mage killers.

The dagger in the man’s hand pierced his neck.

“Ggh…!”

It precisely pierced the trachea and the artery.

The only thing he could produce was a choked sound.

From behind, watching everything, Perda spoke familiarly.

“Be careful. That one sold himself to a demon.”

“I know.”

The man gripped the dagger with both hands and took a stance.

“After all, I have quite a relationship with demons.”

He pulled out the dagger and drew a wide arc.

Yuren’s field of vision inverted as his head went flying.

In the consciousness that had not yet faded, he saw Perda.

He was casting a Lightning Bolt toward his head.

“Have a good trip. Beast that lost its pride.”