Independent Path (1)

“Hahaha. You’re insane.”

Elder Sebali burst into laughter as he watched Azadine challenge him.

“To think a mere low-ranking Messenger would dare challenge an Elder!”

As Sebali swung his sword, a crimson arc flashed through the air. In the midst of the storm, the dark blade blended into the shadows, making it invisible to the naked eye.

Azadine avoided clashing his sword directly against it.

‘I trust my strength, but just looking at that sword, I can tell something’s off. If I carelessly block it, my blade will snap.’

Keeping a wary eye on the Elder’s weapon, Azadine quickly drew an arrow from his quiver and threw it like a dagger. But Sebali simply brought his hand to his mouth and shouted.

“Gal!”

The arrow exploded midair, releasing a deafening roar above Azadine.

“Urgh!”

As his ears rang painfully, Sebali reached out his hand.

“You fool! I only humored you with conversation because I found it amusing that you made it this far. Did you really think I was afraid of you?”

Dark crimson energy stretched from Sebali’s hand, aiming for Azadine. He dodged the shadowy projectile and deflected it with his sword, but the instant they made contact, a numbing sensation surged through his fingertips. The sheer magical force traveled up his arm upon impact.

“Die!”

Certain of his victory, Sebali raised his sword high and brought it down toward Azadine.

The magic he wielded was Dark Moon, a technique from Flowers, Birds, Wind, Moon. If it struck a vital point, it meant instant death, and even the slightest touch would blind the target for a brief moment.

However, Azadine’s body was vastly different from ordinary people. He possessed extraordinary resistance to magic and had a unique vision.

‘He thinks I’ve gone blind. This is New Moon from Flowers, Birds, Wind, Moon, huh?’

Seeing Sebali relax and swing his sword confidently, Azadine waited until the last possible moment, evading by the width of a sheet of paper before countering with a leaping kick.

— Thwack!

Sebali managed to avoid the blade, but Azadine’s kick landed squarely on his face.

Since he had been moving backward at the moment of impact, he didn’t take the full brunt of the attack. But Azadine’s strength was terrifying—he could sever a person’s nose with a mere flick of his finger and snap a spine with a single kick. And now, that very kick had smashed into Sebali’s face.

Elder Sebali’s head was driven downward as he tumbled disgracefully across the ground.

“Ugh!”

Not letting his guard down, Azadine immediately threw his sword like a spear. It soared through the air with frightening force.

“Ugh!”

A normal person would have lost consciousness from the previous hit, but Sebali, though knocked down, quickly recovered and swung his sword to intercept Azadine’s thrown blade. His sword split Azadine’s weapon midair, sending fragments scattering.

“As expected. A direct clash of swords would have been dangerous.”

Azadine drew a dagger and a curved sword. The curved blade was a weapon he had taken from the bodies of the Nagas during the Wendigo incident, while the dagger had once belonged to a Wendigo itself.

“You… how dare you!”

Sebali staggered to his feet, trembling from the impact of Azadine’s kick. Blood streamed from his nose, and his vision spun wildly. It felt like lightning was flashing inside his skull.

Even though the attack had only grazed him, the sheer force of Azadine’s kick was anything but ordinary.

‘A fraction deeper and I’d be dead! That wasn’t human strength! And on top of that, my magic doesn’t work on him? Why?!’

Azadine smirked as he watched Sebali’s rage build.

“You’ve been out of the field for too long. Your instincts have dulled. Don’t you think you’re being too careless?”

An Elder of the Messenger Clan. A high-ranking member of the Ethar lineage. The supreme head of the Korasar Peddler Guild.

Compared to Azadine, Sebali’s status was immeasurably higher. And yet, he had been knocked to the ground by Azadine’s kick—a humiliation in itself.

Now, Azadine’s taunting only made his fury reach a boiling point.

— Flowers, Birds, Wind, Moon. Kazas Grimoire. Twilight Step!

Azadine slyly provoked the Elder before immediately lowering his stance and dashing toward him.

‘Fool! He’s charging in for close combat? Even if I’m injured, how reckless!’

An Elder of the Aragasa was the inheritor of their clan’s accumulated knowledge and techniques. Swordsmanship, magic, law, politics, stealth, espionage—every field of expertise was passed down to them.

That was the weight of being an Elder of the Aragasa. Sebali’s swordsmanship alone had already reached the level of a master.

Yet, rather than relying on technique, he chose to meet strength with strength.

Based on the power of Azadine’s kick, Sebali assumed he was confident in his raw physicality and had chosen to engage in a direct contest of force. However, Sebali’s enchanted sword could cleave through ordinary steel blades like brittle twigs.

‘He must be relying on brute strength, but that plays right into my hands!’

Sebali poured his magic into his blade, preparing to cleave Azadine in two with a mighty swing.

Seeing Azadine bring his weapons up to meet the strike, Sebali was sure of his victory.

However…

— Clang!

Azadine first met Sebali’s sword with the Wendigo’s dagger, supporting it with the curved blade to brace against the impact.

The Wendigo’s dagger was a relic of the Nether, a divine artifact of the Wendigo. It was impervious to destruction by anything of this world.

While Sebali’s enchanted blade could slice through material weapons with ease, it was utterly ineffective against the Wendigo’s dagger.

“W-What?!”

Elder Sebali was in utter shock.

His sword should have cut through Azadine’s weapons and bisected him entirely.

But the Wendigo’s dagger, impervious to both magic and force, had completely nullified the strike. And because Sebali had swung with full force, he had unknowingly moved far too close to Azadine.

— Thwack!

Azadine’s low kick struck Sebali’s thigh with bone-crushing force. His body spun violently in midair.

As the world flipped upside down, Sebali instinctively curled up, covering his head. He hit the ground elbow-first and rolled across the floor.

A wave of excruciating pain surged through him. It didn’t feel like he had been kicked by a human—it was like being hit by a speeding carriage.

‘M-My thigh! The muscle’s torn, the bone’s fractured! What kind of kick was that?! It felt like being struck by a warhammer!’

Despite the agony, Sebali’s instincts as an Elder did not fail him. Even as his consciousness wavered, his combat-honed reflexes kicked in, allowing him to plant his hand on the ground and steady himself.

A lifetime of training had turned battle into second nature—his body moved even when his mind was overwhelmed.

But Azadine was an Aragasa as well. He knew exactly how an Elder would react in a situation like this.

— Whoosh!

Azadine’s curved sword closed in on its target.

In a desperate attempt to evade, Sebali planted his hands firmly on the ground, using only his upper body strength to propel himself away.

Despite suffering a devastating injury—his thigh muscles torn and his femur fractured—he still managed to perform such acrobatics to dodge Azadine’s attack. It was a testament to his skill as an Elder of the Messenger Clan.

However, the battle was already decided. His leg wasn’t just wounded; it was completely destroyed.

A fresh wave of pain surged through his head, making his vision blur and causing dizziness. Blood poured from his nose like rain, making it difficult to breathe.

‘Damn it. Am I really losing to this brat?!’

For Elder Sebali, the thought was beyond humiliating. He still had many sword techniques, spells, and skills he hadn’t used yet, but the injuries had piled up too fast.

From the start, he never should have engaged in close combat. He should have kept his distance and relied on magic and archery.

Had he known this brat possessed such monstrous strength, he never would have made such a foolish mistake!

He couldn’t accept defeat.

The idea of an Aragasa Elder losing to a mere low-ranking Messenger—one who had even been rejected during the selection process—was a blow to his pride he couldn’t tolerate.

“You little—!”

Sebali attempted to bring his hand to his mouth to shout another spell, but Azadine’s curved sword slashed toward his wrist.

With no other choice, Sebali yanked his hand away, but the sudden movement, coupled with his injured leg, caused him to lose balance and crash back onto the floor.

“Elder Sebali. The battle is over. Will you surrender, or do you wish to die here?”

Azadine’s cold killing intent, along with the tip of his curved sword, was aimed directly at Sebali’s throat.

At that moment, a flash of lightning illuminated the window, casting long shadows of Azadine and Sebali across the floor.

When the lightning faded, another shadow had appeared inside the lighthouse.

— Rumble!

Thunder roared through the sky, trailing behind the flash of lightning, shaking the heavens and the earth.

— Clap, clap, clap…

The newly arrived figure applauded Azadine.

“Impressive.”

A young woman leaned casually against the window frame.

“To think the famous dropout actually managed to defeat an Elder. Is that the power of Flowers, Birds, Wind, Moon: Kazas Grimoire? Now I see why Lady Arael insists we must recruit you.”

“…Janis?”

Azadine frowned.

“It’s been a while, Azadine. You’ve changed completely since childhood. Back then, I thought you were just an ugly little monster, but now? Quite charming. Ha, once that baby fluff fell off, you really did start resembling Lady Arael. You’re even handsome enough that I could overlook the fact that you have no eyes.”

Janis was two years older than Azadine but had joined training late, so they had trained together.

Even back then, she had been renowned for her beauty. Now, she had grown into a voluptuous woman with thick, slightly wavy brown hair. Her mature allure was almost unbelievable for her age, ensnaring many under her charm.

“Hmph.”

And of course, she had been one of those who had stood by, watching Azadine suffer abuse and ridicule—or even joining in herself.

Azadine casually picked up an arrow and threw it like a dagger, impaling Sebali’s arm where he lay on the floor.

“Gah!”

“You might want to stop talking. Are you planning to kill an Elder?”

“I have no choice if I want to keep him from using magic. Fortunately, I have someone on my side who can heal him immediately, so he won’t die.”

“Oh, you mean that?”

Janis snapped her fingers.

“C-Captain!”

From inside Azadine’s bag, a panicked voice called out—Scott’s voice, coming from a tiny mouse.

“We’re surrounded! And the enemy is….”

The next moment, the mouse trembled violently and collapsed, dead. The necromantic spell controlling it had been forcibly broken.

“…….”

“Well now. Seems I’ve got a hostage.”

“You people value Elder Sebali’s life more, don’t you?”

“Oh, don’t bluff, Azadine. You’re not the kind of guy who would abandon his comrades. Or are you really that much of a heartless bastard?”

“Heartless?”

“Would you really go so far as to kill your own comrades—those who followed you, trusting you to protect the people of Hubris—just to fight us?”

“I’ve lost contact with my comrades, but they won’t be easy to subdue. I have no reason to believe they’re your hostages.”

“Ahaha. Is that what you think? Your servants are of the Ethar bloodline, aren’t they? Now, what do you think happens when someone higher in the Ethar bloodline gives an order?”

“…Sion Ethar?”

“Oops. Did I just spill that?”

“I already considered that possibility the moment communication was cut off. Still, I must say, I’m impressed. Arael… just how did she manage to control so many people?”

Azadine let out a bitter chuckle.

It made sense now. Arael’s ambition had swayed the hearts of many Aragasa.

But it was a path of absolute dominance—one that crushed other clans underfoot, willing to sacrifice countless lives in the pursuit of power.

The fact that so many in the Aragasa Clan were supporting this…

‘…I might have to fight the entire Aragasa Clan.’