Chapter 170. Conclusion
The Grim Reaper manifested in reality for only a fleeting moment.
Verden waited, holding back until the creature used its strongest technique, to stretch that instant just a little longer. To seize a surer chance.
'Though I didn't know it was a curse of the mental domain.'
This curse was impossible to evade.
But that was never in consideration. He had never lived such a peaceful life that a curse stirred up by the Undead could shake his mind.
This was the foreseen conclusion.
Comet, Rarenia.
Stellar Magic.
The second star shattered the strike of death without leaving a trace.
[...?!]
The Grim Reaper's body jerked, but it was already too late to avoid.
The comet of the night sky swallowed the Grim Reaper whole and pierced straight through.
────Kwoooaaaaaang!
A massive shock reverberated through the ritual field.
From the crater carved into the wall, cracks stretched upward. Soon the ceiling split, fragments raining down and landing before Nosa.
"Gasp!"
Startled, Nosa collapsed to the floor.
Even so, his eyes turned to Verden.
"Wh-what is that, just now, that magic?"
It was not elemental magic, nor imbued magic, nor black magic.
Having lived over 80 years, he had never seen nor heard of such a spell. And the magic power itself, just witnessing it, felt boundless.
"Could it be, the way of magic…?"
No, impossible.
That mage carried none of the presence unique to a Magus. Even if his magic power had been sealed, he would have sensed it.
Nosa shook his head, steadying his mind.
'Yes, even if it is the way of magic, it matters not.'
He did not deny that he lost his composure for a moment, overwhelmed by the foreboding.
Yet, recalling the scene just now, that galactic magic was nothing but brute force.
The Grim Reaper possessed extremely high physical resistance.
Even if it could not use
So there would be damage, but no great problem…
[Kaaaaaaaak!]
"Ugh?!"
The Grim Reaper's scream scraped at his eardrums.
The impact must have been immense, the darkness within the rags quaking violently, but what stole Nosa's gaze was something else.
'The Milky Way?'
Across the Grim Reaper's body shimmered a dark constellation.
No matter how it swung its scythe in resistance, the stars clung, unmoving.
The traces of the stars.
The torrent of the comet defies the flow. As long as the constellation remained, the Grim Reaper could never hide its corporeal form.
Of course, Nosa did not know this.
With a shocked face, he shouted.
"You! What did you do to the Grim Reaper!"
"You have been noisy for some time."
Fwoooosh!
Blazing flames of extreme heat consumed Nosa and engulfed the Grim Reaper.
Unable to conceal its form, the creature thrashed within the fire.
And then came the bombardment of flames.
From the cracked ground surged magma, burning the rags, spears of earth wreathed in flame pierced its darkness, and whirlwinds of fire coiled around the Grim Reaper's form.
Struggling, the Grim Reaper slashed its scythe downward.
Fwaaaash! The storm split apart, scattering fire in all directions.
'So this much is still not enough to deal a fatal wound.'
If so.
From the Oculus, a crimson sphere burst forth.
The spell vanished into the Grim Reaper's darkness. A moment later, fierce fire erupted from within. Much of the rags burned away, revealing the Grim Reaper's true form.
[Kaa… aaak…]
Patchy hair.
A body of skin and bones.
Arms and legs grotesquely misshapen.
The wretched figure was horrific beyond words.
"For a name like Grim Reaper, you are rather unimpressive."
Verden sneered.
The Grim Reaper twisted its body at the sight of him.
[Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak!]
The creature's scream shook the air.
A wave of evil energy pressed not only upon the body but upon the soul. The Grim Reaper lowered its scythe diagonally, eyes of blue flame flashing.
By then, Nosa had regained his body and shouted in panic.
"N-no! I did not permit this!"
Ignoring his master's cries, the Grim Reaper gathered power.
Nosa's soul was consumed in an instant. His body shriveled, his vision dimmed, and he collapsed lifelessly to the ground.
The contractor had fallen.
Regardless, the Grim Reaper focused all its power into one point.
Death was imbued in the scythe.
A crushing sense of dread.
Verden knew this was the Grim Reaper's final move.
'That is what I desire as well.'
He was weary, but more than that, the battle that began at the mausoleum had grown tedious.
Double Casting.
He drew the flames from around him and pulled them into the air.
Preparations to amplify the spell's true power to its utmost. And then Verden's Mystic Eye activated. The flame split into dozens of spears.
"Burn to death."
The rain of searing heat.
A hellfire deluge fell from the sky.
[Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaak!]
The Grim Reaper would not be outdone, slashing its scythe.
A strike that severed the spirit.
The worst 'curse', delivering unconditional death to any being of lower existential rank, their souls extinguished beyond redemption by any light.
The price, the soul of its contractor.
The unseen strike cut through the flames.
It bore no physical power, only inevitable curse. Before Verden even realized, the Grim Reaper's final curse had reached him.
To dare annihilate the human who defied him.
At that thought, the Grim Reaper smiled faintly.
But that expectation was shattered in vain.
Even though the curse was delivered, he did not die.
Far from his soul being destroyed, it did not even stir.
[...?]
In the brief instant of doubt, the Grim Reaper saw it.
Within the human's depths, a blue abyss harboring an unprecedented presence.
Such a thing could never be contained by a lowly human.
Something surpassing even the rank of existence the Grim Reaper held, something that even high Undead could not dare to look upon.
Thus, the worst curse failed.
And as always, a failed curse returned to its caster.
[?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!]
Black blood gushed from every orifice of its body, and unable to withstand the shock, the Grim Reaper dropped its massive scythe to the ground.
As its soul began to disintegrate, the Grim Reaper stared blankly ahead.
The heat drew ever closer.
The Undead who harvested death, the Grim Reaper, was certain of its own end.
Kwaaaaang!
***
The center of the ritual field was filled with smoke and the stench of burning.
Cough! Cough!
Nosa coughed as he slowly lifted himself.
"What in the world… ah!"
Startled, Nosa hastily patted down his own body.
'Alive.'
Though the Grim Reaper should have completely stolen his soul, he still lived.
Not fully restored, however. Perhaps only part of his soul had returned, for his withered skin remained.
'Still, it is fortunate to be alive… but why has my soul returned?'
Nosa tilted his head in puzzlement.
Then, as the smoke cleared a little, he saw the Orb of the Undead rolling across the floor.
And then—
Craaaack────!
"What…."
The Orb of the Undead shattered to pieces.
Crafted with the blueprint of the Glory of the Dead, the Orb was born of gathered magic power and spirit energy. In other words, it was impossible to break physically.
There were only two cases when such an orb could be damaged.
First, when the energy within fell below the minimum.
Second, when the contract was broken.
A completed Orb of the Undead held semi-permanent power. So, excluding the first case…
"The Grim Reaper was destroyed…?"
Nosa fell into shock.
The Grim Reaper, defeated? Unbelievable, and yet proven true as his sealed magic returned to him.
At that moment.
A nearby surge of magic power.
Nosa snapped his head in alarm, and from the smoke poured countless ice spikes, a strike of complete surprise.
"Gyaaaaaaaah!"
The frigid cold pierced his fragile body.
Then lightning strikes followed. With no resistance, Nosa was struck directly and collapsed to the ground.
"Ku, kuhuk…!"
'Damn it. My body…!'
His high magic resistance spared him from death.
But from the cold and the shocks, his limbs would not obey, nor would his mana circuits.
A fierce wind blew.
When the smoke fully cleared, Verden appeared.
The mage who single-handedly erased the Grim Reaper.
"Ah…!"
Only then did Nosa realize.
The disappearance of the black mage he had sent to Mildruen.
The ambush on the Union of the Marquisate of Esperanza, the death of Kunel who went to retrieve the Orb of the Undead. The survival of Calia who should have perished in the mausoleum, and the pursuit of the ritual field hidden in the wastelands.
And now, Viola's death, and even the Grim Reaper's annihilation.
'Come to think of it, all of it began when he appeared in the Kingdom.'
Yes, the variable was not Calia.
"You… you were the variable…!"
"To me, the variables were you."
Thanks to them, what began in the Union had reached this point.
Still, it was not all bad.
Not only did he earn compensation, but it helped him reach the Fifth Tier, and he confirmed whether his power could contend even with a Magus.
'Well, no doubt that wasn't what they intended.'
In any case.
"The Glory of the Dead, what is your purpose?"
"You, you… you kept me alive to ask that?"
"Until recently, I had little interest… but I changed my mind."
The self-destruction of the black mages.
The undead horde unleashed in the southern Kingdom.
Magus, and powerful Undead.
A group that concealed so much, that wielded such overwhelming strength—what were they hiding? If not curious, he would not be a mage.
Nosa coughed blood as he laughed.
"Ku, kuhu, do you think I would tell you? If I spoke so lightly, the black mages would not have carved curses into themselves. And that curse is upon me as well."
"Indeed."
"But… kuhuk, kuhuk! Khuu… I will say this one thing, so long as it does not provoke the curse."
Nosa bared his teeth.
Blood dripped from crimson-stained teeth.
"When the Great Dead rises once more into this world, an immortal world shall dawn."
"An immortal world?"
"A world where only death exists, where the very concept of life vanishes. Kuhuk, kuhuk! Not only you, but no city, no kingdom, no empire could stand against it…! And even Luas, that false god!"
His bloodshot eyes locked on Verden.
"This is the curse I cast upon your future. Kuha! Struggle as you will, none can escape death…!"
At last, the light faded from Nosa's eyes.
"We shall… await that day, within death itself."
Thud.
Nosa's hand fell, declaring his own death.
Boom! As with the other black mages, his body exploded, leaving nothing but blood. The stream flowed to Verden's feet.
His face reflected in the pool of blood.
'An immortal world. Another grandiose claim.'
Gluttony sought the end of humankind.
The Glory of the Dead sought an immortal world.
All alike sought to overturn the world.
Just how many more mad groups existed?
Verden once again felt the vastness of the world.
'At least this is finished, they are all dealt with.'
Verden had done all he needed.
Turning his steps, he approached Calia.
He glanced aside.
Fortunately, Gloss still lived, and his breathing was steadier than before. Judging by his state, he would endure until he received treatment.
Then, Calia asked, her voice trembling.
"Asher, you are… no, who are you?"