Chapter 104. Message from the Illusion (1)
In the elaborately created illusion.
KWA-BOOM-!
“Ugh!”
Blanc ended up shrinking his body at the roar that seemed to shake the earth.
Although he knew it was an illusion, his body reacted first.
“The Neudorf explosion mage opened the path! Advance!”
Soldiers beside Blanc quickly rushed towards the place where the explosion occurred.
It was an explosion that could have created a huge crater just by the sound, but that explosion precisely erased only those stained by the Void standing on the ground.
Warriors of the Liberation Front jumped into one spot of the battlefield that instantly became a blank space.
“You have to protect me! Got it?”
Blanc looking at the woman calling him with a sharp voice.
“……That was always what I wanted to do. Petrica.”
Perhaps liking Blanc’s answer, Petrica messed up Blanc’s hair with a smile full on her lips.
“Rascal! It was worth educating you!”
Simultaneously with those words, she held her staff and moved with the soldiers jumping in.
The Illusion School emblem hanging on her neck was shining.
‘……For now, I have to follow the flow.’
Blanc realized that the vivid battlefield he was standing on now was an illusion created by Ulrich, but right now he had no choice but to follow his intention.
It was an illusion created too elaborately.
An illusion like a work of art where absolutely no gap to break it could be seen.
Blanc was following one fragment of that illusion.
“The world I created shall burn white…….”
Blanc tried to cut down the one stained by the Void rushing in front of his eyes by drawing up his Mental World, but.
“It doesn’t work.”
His Mental World was not implemented here.
As if to inform you that the one standing here was Blanc Scar, not Blanc Cadmus.
“Hup!”
Inevitably, Blanc swung the White Thunderbolt faintly forming on his sword and protected Petrica, the mage of the Liberation Front.
That was the duty Blanc undertook and what he yearned for.
The Void Tree distorting reality through the cracks of the scarred world and staining people with Void.
Mages of the Illusion School were needed to get close to it.
“I lock the door of reality and cover the ground you step on with the carpet finely spread in my heart…….”
As Petrica began to chant the spell, the gazes of Void wrapping around the soldiers of the Liberation Front began to scatter.
It was performing the same role as the flag Rakshar was holding, but the effect was the difference between a candle and the sun.
Petrica was bewitching the gazes of Void trying to contaminate the soldiers with her illusion.
Looking at Petrica from afar, a few eyes of the Void Tree closed softly.
“Pierce! Pierce through!”
“6th Platoon annihilated-!”
“The mages are in danger!”
“The Void Knight appeared! Simon Diez that son of a bitch!”
Hearing Simon’s name, Blanc turned his head to look there.
There was an ominous existence grabbing one warrior of the Liberation Front and squeezing out blood.
A dark knight who seemed to bring one closer to death just by looking.
Not far from that knight, hundreds of mages were creating a magic circle using themselves as pillars.
A huge flow of mana fluctuated massively above the mages’ heads.
The Void Knight Simon Diez watching that scene.
Void formed ferociously in his eyes.
“Block him!”
To stop the Void Knight moving towards the mages, warriors of the Liberation Front built a wall with their lives.
However, the Void Knight cut down their noble will with a single swing of his sword.
Warriors of the Liberation Front were collapsing.
The Void Knight captured their deaths in his empty eyes watching that scene.
-Break them.
Following Simon’s instruction, those stained by the Void were approaching the mages.
Pitch-black Void was contained in their eyes.
The moment they tried to jump at the warriors of the Liberation Front.
“I shall put unshakable heaviness eternally in my sword!”
There was a huge strike splitting them apart in an instant.
The Sword Saint of this era, Gornas Balthazar.
Gornas, who crushed the Void Knights with the magnificent and heavy Heavy Sword peculiar to the Balthazar family.
“……!”
Simon watching Gornas who crushed his subordinates in an instant.
Black Void flowed out incessantly from his eyes.
-Gornas…… I was always curious what color your blood is.
Warriors around were torn apart by the sword pressure the Void Knight wielded.
“Where do you dare!”
Gornas blocked the front of the mages facing the Void Knight alone.
Light created by the clash of Void and Sword Saint spread throughout the battlefield.
“Sir Gornas! You must not be tied up there!”
Berger, who commanded the mages, called Gornas loudly, but there was nothing he could do as he was already swept up in the offensive with Simon.
If he retreated from here, the mages behind were in danger.
If the Void Knight approached them, the plan the Liberation Front had prepared with great care might come to nothing.
“Sir Gornas!”
In an instant, an old man ran out from where the mages were gathered.
Although it was an old body, he was showing movements no less than a young man by deceiving the flow of time through illusion.
“Give me the meteorite!”
“……I am sorry!”
Gornas, who could not pull his body out at all, gritted his teeth and threw a gray stone he had kept in his bosom towards the old man.
That meteorite was something the Night Watchers, to which Blanc belonged, brought risking their lives.
“I got it!”
“Knights, protect Lord Ulrich!”
At Gornas' command, his knights stuck to Ulrich and created a path.
Seeing that, the Void Knight Simon tried to stick to Ulrich, but.
“Isn’t our story not finished yet.”
The Sword Saint’s eyes shone ferociously.
“We have to join up!”
Petrica, who was watching the scene from afar, ordered the platoon members.
Platoon leader, mage of the Illusion School, and Ulrich’s only disciple; at her command, the members reacted swiftly.
“Protect Lord Ulrich!”
“Pierce the front! Open the path to the Void Tree!”
Under the collapsing sky.
There was a desperate struggle of the Liberation Front risking the survival of humanity.
It was a war gathering all remaining heroes and warriors to break the greatest Void Tree existing in this world.
Pitch-black things flocking endlessly.
Warriors of the Liberation Front piercing through them and creating a path.
“Haha! This seems difficult even for the Quiesco Cavalry!”
Blanc looked at the warrior chattering jokes mentioning a legend that no longer existed.
He spat out a joke mixed with resignation in the despair the Void gave.
“……Still, if it were the Quiesco Cavalry, they would have done it.”
Blanc answered his words quietly.
Even though the warrior who spat out the joke had already fallen to the ground and could not hear Blanc’s words.
“Master!”
“Petrica!”
Ulrich brightened his face seeing the platoon members approaching them.
Warriors of the Liberation Front poured all their remaining strength into where Ulrich was.
They pierced a path for him, blocked the Void for him, and struggled to protect the one move that could create a huge turning point in the war between humanity and Void.
Like that, they created a path to the Void Tree.
Blanc raised his head and looked at the huge Void Tree buried in his long memory.
A Void Tree so huge that it could not be compared to the one cut down at the highest place of Norington.
The eighth Void Tree that became the largest and strongest, eventually driving humanity to the crossroads of destruction.
The Liberation Front failed to cut this down.
“Give the signal!”
At Ulrich’s instruction, Petrica raised her staff high and shot up a brightly shining ball of light.
Berger, seeing that light from afar, shouted to the mages.
“Begin!”
Following Berger’s instruction, hundreds of mages composing the magic circle began to chant the spell simultaneously.
To find the huge meteorite floating in space and bring it into their world, dropping it exactly at the desired location by calculating precisely the part each was responsible for.
To execute the single magic surpassing all schools.
Large-scale magic, Meteor.
The legendary magic said to have been realized only once in human history was about to be implemented now.
“We have to get the coordinates!”
The flow of mana surrounding them began to fluctuate violently.
A huge magic circle began to be created in the pitch-black collapsing sky.
And inside it, there was something revealing a massive body.
A huge meteorite, looking like a mountain ridge torn off, was cutting through the sky burning its body bright red.
It was crashing to the ground, collapsing the already collapsed sky once again.
Towards the shining meteorite Ulrich was holding.
“Done!”
Ulrich shouted, clenching the meteorite he was holding.
His idea to use the small meteorite as a coordinate had worked.
Beings in all battlefields looked up at the sky, forgetting even their fighting at the overwhelming spectacle Meteor created.
The sky was burning bright red.
“……!”
The Void Tree, possessing thousands of eyes, also watched that spectacle.
Realizing it fell into great danger, the Void Tree began to blink its thousands of densely blooming eyes incessantly.
It began to manipulate reality contaminated by Void.
“My god! Even that huge thing!”
The meteorite was slowly veering off.
The thing that was flying exactly towards the meteorite Ulrich was holding was slowly twisting its body trying to fall to the outside of the battlefield.
“I can’t let that be!”
Ulrich, the Archmage of the Illusion School, lifted his staff and began to chant a spell.
He tried to reconstruct reality by covering the reality encroached by Void with his illusion again.
Cold sweat began to form on the faces of Ulrich trying to guide the huge meteorite again and the hundreds of mages chanting the spell.
Matching that, the eyes of the Void Tree began to blink incessantly.
An invisible power struggle between the Void Tree and the mages began.
Everyone in the battlefield realized.
That now was the turning point.
“Block it!”
-Break them!
“We have to inflict damage on the Void Tree!”
“Call the explosion mage!”
Void and Liberation Front.
They clashed roughly trying to bite off each other’s hearts.
“Everyone center on me!”
Petrica raised her staff high to block those stained by the Void rushing to bite Ulrich.
Knights escorting Ulrich and Petrica’s platoon members stuck shoulders to each other forming a solid square formation.
They gave their bodies to protect the one move humanity threw from the pitch-black malice.
“I lock the door of reality and cover the ground you step on with the carpet finely spread in my heart…….”
Petrica’s illusion bewitched the Void.
In an instant, warriors freed from the huge pressure the Void gave.
However, even if they escaped the gaze of Void, holding their ground from the countless ones stained by the Void rushing at them was another problem.
Warriors’ swords were instantly dyed pitch-black with the blood of those contaminated by Void.
“Endure it!”
Nevertheless, they did not back down even a little.
Because they had already prepared for death.
Transcending borders, organizations, affiliations, and races, the will of all things graced by the Goddesses was concentrated on this battlefield.
And on this glorious battlefield, Blanc Scar was standing.
Making a sad expression.
The Regressor who knew the conclusion of this world shed tears deep in his heart while violently reenacting meaningless movements.
The wound he had barely closed opened up, and blood was gushing out.
The wound was named Petrica.
Even knowing it was an illusion, Blanc could not take his eyes off Petrica.
Her end was approaching.
Ulrich, the Archmage of the Illusion School, covering the Void with illusion while hiding himself sweating profusely.
“……!”
However, the Void Tree ended up noticing his existence.
Thousands of eyes manipulating reality turned towards Ulrich simultaneously.
To remove Ulrich, who could be called the source of Meteor.
“Aaaargh!”
“Void! Void is inside my eyes!”
Pressure given by the Void Tree’s gaze struck down on Ulrich and the warriors.
Just the Spiritual Pressure given by the Void Tree’s gaze was enough pressure to make the ground they were standing on sink deeply.
“Heup!”
Although it was the gaze of Void created by illusion, it was enough to make one of Blanc’s knees stagger.
All warriors except Blanc were kneeling to the Void clutching their two eyes.
“Th……is…… Damn it!”
Ulrich, barely opening one eye and looking at reality, watched that scene with a pale impression.
He was flustered, but nevertheless, he continued to twist the falling meteorite.
Only this was the sole hope.
If he failed to encroach on the Void with illusion here, Meteor would fail.
If that happened…….
“Please continue. Master.”
Blanc and Ulrich looked at the brown-haired woman standing up clutching her staff.
“I will block it.”
The Illusion School emblem hanging on her neck shone.
“No…… No. You cannot!”
Ulrich realized what his disciple was trying to do, but he could not stop her.
He had no strength to do so, and deep in his heart, he admitted that this was the only way.
“You have to protect me, Blanc.”
Petrica closed her eyes and began to chant a spell.
“……Of course.”
Blanc Scar, the warrior of the Liberation Front, answered with sad eyes.
When she closed her eyes.
The one protecting her was always Blanc.
Petrica finished the spell she was chanting and raised her staff high.
“Over here! You son of a bitch!”
Petrica succeeded in swapping the existence of herself and Ulrich through illusion.
Thus, thousands of eyes began to look at Petrica.
“Kkeuaa…… Kyaaaaa……ack!”
While she screamed in pain, Ulrich succeeded in correcting the direction of Meteor.
The one move concentrating everything of the Liberation Front exploded over the head of the Void Tree.
The sky burst apart.
***
“B, Blanc…….”
When Petrica had her eyes closed, protecting her was always Blanc’s share.
She wanted it, and Blanc wanted it.
“……I know.”
Petrica’s eyes were becoming void.
She was dragged into the darkness from which she could never wake up.
“K, Kill me.”
Blanc Scar, who swore to protect her, drew his sword for her until the end.
“……Petrica.”
When Petrica was maintaining her reason for the last time.
SHUNK-!
Blanc’s sword pierced Petrica’s heart.
“……Ha, Haah…….”
Blanc saved her from the Void through death.
Ulrich watching that scene made a beast-like crying sound from behind Blanc’s back.
Two men failed to protect.
Blanc Scar, the woman he loved, Petrica.
Ulrich Tiedemann, not only his disciple but even this world.
The sky was collapsing.
The evil tree half-burnt.
Eyes surviving there were looking down at them.
The huge meteorite broke the Void Tree, but could not completely erase it from this world.
The Liberation Front failed.
Humanity failed.
“…….”
Blanc held Petrica’s corpse and met eyes with her empty gaze.
Drops of blood starting from her eyes were flowing down to the ground.
And the moment those drops of blood were about to fall to the ground.
The world stopped.