Chapter 30

Rian ran through the darkness like a beast. The map of the capital that Argos had mapped spread perfectly in his mind. He darted through deserted back alleys and over rooftops, racing toward the oldest, deepest sewer that connected to the Duke of Valois’ mansion basement.

The cold night air pierced his lungs, but his body was burning. The evil magical waves beginning to blanket the capital stabbed his skin like needles. It was a horrible force that would have made an ordinary person collapse coughing up blood.

At last Rian reached an old manhole cover and, without hesitation, opened it and threw himself into the darkness reeking of filth. The sewer inside was as complex as a maze, but he followed the map and headed straight toward the secret altar.

How long had it been? The water dripping from the walls began to feel tepid. The mana in the air grew denser, making it hard to breathe. Finally, a wall blocked with old bricks, strangely out of place, appeared before him.

Rian concentrated mana in his hand. It was his own “Vibration Shatter” spell, an application of 3rd-circle Magic ‘Wind Cutter’.

Kwah-ji-ji-jik-!

When he touched the wall, high-frequency vibrations arose and the bricks crumbled to dust. Beyond the wall, a red light spewed forth like the mouth of hell.

There stood the Duke of Valois, consumed by madness. He was on the altar pouring his life force into the ‘Demon’s Tear.’ His body had already withered like a living mummy, but his eyes flashed with ecstasy and hatred. The red-throbbing relic was about to emit a death wave that would steal all life in the capital.

“So it’s you… Rian Aster…!”

The Duke of Valois discovered Rian and laughed in a grotesque voice.

“Well come! Bless my funeral together with this city you tried to protect!”

The relic’s throbbing intensified. Rian instinctively knew: less than a minute remained.

‘Charging it head-on is suicide. I have to invert or neutralize the energy in that relic.’

Rian frantically combined his past life’s scientific knowledge with the Magic of this world.

‘Resonance… yes, resonance! Every magical wave has a natural frequency. If I generate a wave of opposite phase and collide them… I can produce destructive interference!’

It was a physics-based solution no magician in this world would imagine. Rian immediately drew up all his mana. Blue mana swirled around him like a storm.

“Such foolishness…!”

The Duke of Valois sneered, but then was horrified. The magical wave Rian produced flowed in exact opposite phase to the red wave emitted by the ‘Demon’s Tear.’

When the two massive waves collided, a roar sounded as if space itself were twisting.

Kruwaaah-!

“Guhk!”

Blood burst from Rian’s mouth. The clash of power was far too great for a thirteen-year-old body. Pain like bones crushing and organs rupturing washed over him. But he gritted his teeth and held on. Before his eyes flickered the faces of his brother Kaion and sister Lily.

‘I can’t fall here…!’

Rian squeezed out his last life force and unleashed a surge of mana. At last, the balance began to break. Blue cracks appeared in the red light the ‘Demon’s Tear’ had emitted, and with the sound of glass shattering it broke into pieces.

“Im… impossible… my revenge…!”

Having exhausted all life force, the Duke of Valois screamed as he watched his plan collapse in front of him. His body rapidly turned to ash and crumbled, leaving only black dust on the altar.

When the death wave vanished, Rian also fell to the cold floor, exhausted. Just before losing consciousness, he saw a group bearing torches rushing through the broken wall. It was the royal knights and magicians.

All they saw was the rebel reduced to ash and a small boy collapsed in front of him, bleeding.

The shadowed struggle that saved the capital thus seemed to end without remaining in anyone’s memory.