Chapter 63

Caldeon and Rahar were subtly pleased that Tearen didn’t appear in Enria’s dream, while Roseanne wondered why he was absent.

‘That’s because Tearen is a character who didn’t appear in the original story itself…’

Enria swallowed the part she couldn’t share with Roseanne or the others. She felt vaguely uncomfortable because Caldeon and Rahar kept picking on Tearen.

“So you didn’t appear in Enria’s dream.”

“Not appearing even in a prophetic dream—is his presence that negligible?”

“Well, it would be awkward if he did. How dare he appear in my woman’s dream.”

While Caldeon and Rahar conversed back and forth, Tearen snickered with a look of disbelief, and Roseanne shook her head at Caldeon and Rahar, as if finding them incorrigible. The spirits, seemingly uninterested in their conversation, looked at Hayden or tried to make him laugh throughout their journey deeper into the center.

They proceeded deep inside and finally encountered the mutant monster. The monster immediately thrust out its long, huge tongue—the same one that had injured Caldeon’s shoulder in the original story—to strike Roseanne. Enria quickly cast a divine barrier to block Roseanne, and Rahar’s spirit, Lonn, used earth magic to create a sand wall. However, the long tongue easily pierced through both the divine barrier and the sand wall, aiming for Roseanne’s heart.

“Rose, Bind!” At Enria’s shout, Roseanne quickly cast binding magic, and the mutant monster’s tongue was restrained in mid-air.

‘It worked!’

Just as Enria sighed in relief, another tongue shot out from the mutant monster’s mouth, aiming for Roseanne. A startled Enria quickly cast a divine barrier, but the mutant monster’s tongue was faster. The huge, sharp tongue of the mutant monster pierced directly through Roseanne’s heart as she paused in momentary surprise.

Everyone froze instantly.

“Roseanne!” Rahar shouted Roseanne’s name. Windel tried to slice off the tongue piercing Roseanne’s heart with wind, but the spirit’s power could not cut the mutant monster’s tongue.

At that moment, binding magic was cast on the tongue piercing Roseanne’s heart.

“I’m here!” At Roseanne’s voice from the back, everyone’s gaze turned behind them. Simultaneously, Tearen used illusion magic to put the mutant monster—which was about to attack Roseanne with a third tongue pulled halfway out of its mouth—to sleep. The mutant monster fell asleep with its third tongue half-extended.

“Rose, are you okay?!”

“Yes! Lord Tearen used illusion magic to switch places!” Roseanne explained that just before the mutant monster’s second tongue pierced her heart, Tearen had used his illusion magic to put a fake Roseanne in the true Roseanne’s spot and moved the real Roseanne behind the group.

‘Illusion magic can switch places too?’

Enria was surprised by the completely unexpected situation, but she was truly relieved that Roseanne was safe thanks to Tearen.

“Thank you so much, Lord Tearen.”

“It’s nothing. I’m just relieved my illusion magic worked.” Tearen said with a charming smile in response to Roseanne’s thanks, and Roseanne’s face immediately flushed red.

In the original story, Caldeon was able to protect Roseanne when she was in danger because he could at least obscure the mutant monster’s vision with black magic, as no magic worked on it. Enria felt a strange sensation seeing Tearen save Roseanne through a similar process but with a completely different ability and method. It was understandable, as only the person had changed, but the point where Roseanne fell for him in the original story remained the same. In any case, it was a relief for Enria that Roseanne felt that way about Tearen instead of Caldeon.

“Sleep?” Blizzan, who went closer to the mutant monster to check its condition, asked Tearen.

Tearen nodded and replied that the effect would last for about half a day.

“Then human illusion magic works on this fellow. Is there no way to kill it?”

“My illusion magic is literally just deceiving the eyes. Sleep is just one route of that deception.” He added that it was difficult to kill a monster with illusion magic, which is why he, an illusionist, learned swordsmanship separately.

Blizzan nodded once at that and muttered, “It’s ambiguous.” He looked at Enria, saying it felt uneasy to leave the mutant monster, which was immune to attribute magic, divine power, and black magic, alive.

Enria shook her head and said, “You don’t have to worry about that. The mutant monster never leaves this forest, and it can’t.”

Enria added that in her dream, the mutant monster was one that survived without eating anything, unlike other monsters, and she speculated that it probably absorbed the energy around its habitat to survive. At her words that it would never leave its habitat, Blizzan nodded and said that was fortunate.

“The sleep effect lasts for about half a day? Can we destroy all the paths the Black Mage created within half a day from now?” Silri asked. Enria paused to recall the memory, then nodded.

“Since it’s a path that can be made to disappear with black magic, the work shouldn’t take that long. But Lord Caldeon will use quite a lot of black magic, posing a risk of a rampage…”

“It’s fine, since you are here.” At Caldeon’s words, Enria looked at him for a moment and then nodded. The suppressant Roseanne created would be the most useful thing right now, but Enria chose not to mention it because her desire to protect Caldeon was strong.

Enria began to move to find the path the Black Mage created, thinking that since the episode where Roseanne and Caldeon first felt love for each other had significantly changed, she no longer needed to worry about the two of them.

***

“Ah, it’s here!”

Since the area around the path created by black magic was thickly covered in black smoke, finding the path was not difficult. There were a total of four paths, stretching long in the east, west, north, and south directions.

“Lord Caldeon, if you pour black magic into this path, you can neutralize it.”

At Enria’s words, Caldeon quickly generated black magic and streamed it into the path created by the Black Mage. The path made of black magic gradually faded where the black magic passed and completely disappeared over time.

Enria felt regretful that there was nothing she could do but watch Caldeon erase the path created by the Black Mage with black magic. The others stood guard in case monsters reappeared, while confirming that the path was disappearing.

“Eubya, eubyabya.” At that moment, Hayden, who was intently watching Caldeon use black magic to eliminate the unpleasant black smoke path, pointed his hand toward the path heading west. That path, in particular, was covered in a dense layer of black smoke among the western paths.

Windel, who was carrying him on his back, slowly moved toward the entrance of the path, followed by Silri and Graum. Upon reaching the entrance of the path, Hayden began to emit black magic from his entire body. The black magic instantly streamed into the path, erasing the black magic.

As the black magic, much darker and jet-black than Caldeon’s, erased the faint black smoke instantly, gasps of admiration erupted from those watching Windel’s direction.

“Caldeon, your son seems stronger than you.”

“As the Master of the Oracle, that’s natural.”

[Hayden eliminates it instantly.]

Silri spoke to Caldeon, and Graum and Windel muttered in admiration, looking at Hayden. Caldeon let out a small, empty laugh as he looked at them. It seemed he felt both pleased and conflicted that his son wielded stronger black magic than him.

“Keep a close watch so he doesn’t go on a rampage.” Caldeon requested. Silri nodded once and said, “Since he is a child who also possesses divine power, a rampage itself seems unlikely. Judging by how stable he is even after using this amount of black magic.”

“That’s fortunate.” Caldeon, relieved by Silri’s comment that Hayden would not go on a rampage, nodded once and then focused on the path he was neutralizing.

Enria looked at Hayden’s dense and massive black magic, which was visible to the eye, and then checked Caldeon’s black magic. It was certain that the color and quantity of the black magic emitted by Hayden were superior.

However, this was due to Caldeon’s effort to neatly erase the black smoke path created by black magic without any gaps. Hayden was still young and could not properly control his black magic, merely emitting and streaming it, leaving black smoke in places. In contrast, the path Caldeon’s black magic had passed through was clean, as if the path had never existed.

Silri and the others surely knew this, but they seemed to have made those comments intentionally to provoke Caldeon.

Fortunately, Caldeon was not at all displeased that his son was stronger than him; instead, he looked pleased. He even meticulously erased the paths that Hayden had erased sparsely and told Windel to make sure Hayden’s black magic didn’t run out too low.

As Hayden and Caldeon neutralized the entire path created by the Black Mage with black magic, the monster attack that occurred in the original story was averted.

Enria was relieved, and she began to worry about whether the next step was to prevent the plague around the Imperial Capital from happening.