It had been 18 hours since Oscar started climbing this damned snow-covered mountain again.
He was walking through a blizzard so fierce that he couldn’t see an inch ahead.
His breath was ragged, and nausea churned in his stomach.
A sickly sweetness filled his mouth.
The higher the altitude rose, the thinner the oxygen became, and slowly, his legs began to go numb.
The thought of lying down and resting somewhere was tempting—just for 30 minutes, no, even 5 minutes.
But of course, it was just a thought.
Oscar's legs never stopped moving.
Because the only thing he could rely on right now was his own belief in himself.
“...Haa, haa.”
An hour later, Oscar finally emerged from the blizzard and slowly removed his goggles.
Spread before him was the vast, white snowfield, at the end of which stood the observatory where the Sage of the Stars resided.
However, standing in the middle of that snowfield was a lone man.
‘As expected, these ominous premonitions are always right.’
Eighteen hours.
He had suspected something was off when he hadn’t encountered a single attacker during all that time.
‘No fox would dare hunt its prey in the predator's territory.’
Oscar looked at the predator—a man with long hair, his eyes closed—as he stood there.
The mana emanating from him was so overwhelming it seemed to consume the entire snowfield.
‘...No matter what path I took to climb here, he wouldn’t have missed me.’
After all, this man was a 6th-level mage.
But something about him seemed unstable, unlike most 6th-level mages.
Oscar quickly figured out why.
‘He pushed himself too hard, installing circuits when he wasn’t ready. His whole body is like a bomb ready to explode.’
If he had to measure it, the man’s actual state would be closer to 5.5-level.
Considering he looked barely in his late twenties, he was undoubtedly a genius.
At the same time, Oscar could guess why this man wanted to meet the Sage of the Stars.
He probably hoped to learn magic to fix his deteriorating body.
‘...But that’s impossible.’
No matter how much magical knowledge Oscar possessed, there was no magic capable of fixing a body in this condition.
‘Well, there’s one method.’
It would require giving up everything the man had achieved and returning to being a regular person—starting over from scratch.
Even then, the chances of success were slim.
The process of dismantling the installed circuits might cost him his life.
“Hmm.”
Sensing Oscar’s presence, the man slowly opened his eyes halfway.
His gaze, calm like a winter lake, met Oscar’s.
“...You look even younger than I thought.”
“I’m just a twenty-one-year-old kid, after all.”
So don’t pick a fight with a child—just let me pass.
Hearing the veiled jab, the man laughed silently.
“Twenty-one, huh? You have a bright future ahead of you.”
“Who knows? No one can predict the future. That’s why I grab every opportunity that comes my way.”
“Kuh, I can’t win with words.”
The man shook his head, and Oscar made his request.
“Step aside, please.”
“Sorry, but I can’t. I have something I need to do here.”
“...You shouldn’t push yourself. If you use magic in that condition, you could die.”
“I know. The church has already given up on me.”
The man spoke in a calm voice, showing no sign of regret or lingering attachment.
Then he asked:
“Hey, young mage. What’s your dream?”
“To become stronger than anyone else, so no one can hurt my people.”
“That’s quite an ambitious dream.”
The man smiled faintly.
“I had a dream too. I wanted to be the greatest mage in the world, like Oscar Sage. To become someone great. But after my body ended up like this, my dream changed. Do you know what it is now?”
“...To fix your body, I suppose.”
“Ah, that used to be my dream too. But I’ve given up on that.”
He tapped his chest with his fist.
“Now, I want just one thing: to live as a mage and die as a mage. That’s all.”
It was too humble to be called a dream.
It probably meant he had no other choice.
Oscar wore a bitter expression and asked:
“So you’re waiting here, hoping someone will come to kill you?”
“That’s right. But I don’t want to die by just anyone’s hands. I want to die at the hands of someone who will become a great mage in the future.”
“...You’re the worst person I’ve met in a while.”
The man chuckled at the sharp remark and ran a hand through his hair.
“Come at me, mage.”
Oscar calmly gathered his mana.
‘Even though his body is in bad condition, the gap between us is still immense.’
A head-on fight would be pointless.
Any attack Oscar launched would be overwhelmed by the sheer difference in power.
‘Then the greatest weapon I can use right now is...’
The natural environment.
Specifically, the immense amount of snow covering the mountain.
Clap! Resolute, Oscar quickly clasped his hands together.
『Gust Hand』
At the same time, a pair of massive hands rose from near the mountain’s summit.
The two hands clenched into fists and then smashed into the ground with a deafening crash.
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
With a tremendous vibration, the accumulated snow began cascading down the mountain.
“Avalanche, huh? Not bad.”
The man watched the massive white wave barreling toward him with quiet admiration.
It was a solid strategy—compensating for his lack of firepower with nature’s destructive force.
“But.”
Just before the avalanche reached him, the man unleashed a surge of magic.
“You picked the wrong opponent.”
Crack!
The ferocious wave of snow froze in its tracks, transforming into a beautiful, crystalline sculpture.
The scene was as if time itself had stopped.
Oscar’s eyes trembled with shock.
‘That’s...’
Which meant—
The man was a unique-type mage.
“As you can see, my magic isn’t exactly known for its mercy. So...”
The moment the man placed one hand on the frozen landslide—
“If you don’t want to die, you’d better move.”
KWOOM!
With a deafening roar, the ice exploded into hundreds, no, thousands of shards, rushing forward like a tidal wave.
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
Countless ice shards colored the sky, reflecting the sunlight like a sea of stars.
Oscar clenched his teeth as countless countermeasures flashed through his mind, only to be dismissed.
‘Defend? No chance.’
If it were just a few dozen shards, perhaps, but there were far too many to block.
More importantly, the moment he switched to a defensive stance, the initiative would shift to his opponent.
‘If I lose control, it’s all over.’
Even in a battle between mages of equal rank, the one with the initiative holds overwhelming advantage.
Against an opponent of higher level, losing that initiative meant certain defeat.
‘In that case...’
The remaining options were evasion and offense.
Oscar chose both simultaneously.
‘I’ll break through the front.’
The moment his resolve solidified,『Acceleration』 strengthened his body.
“Hm?”
Using acceleration here?
Did he intend to evade all those shards?
The man’s suspicion deepened for a moment.
“...Acceleration.”
A second surge of wind engulfed Oscar’s entire body.
In an instant, it was as if his form had sunk into the earth and vanished.
Pabababam!
The sharp ice shards densely embedded themselves where he had passed.
‘I’ll dodge what I can and block what I must.’
The shortest path connecting himself to his opponent.
Oscar sprinted forward without hesitation, his eyes locked solely on the man.
“...Impressive.”
The man watching the young mage approach couldn’t help but admire him.
Oscar’s steps showed no hesitation, his gaze unwavering.
It was the face and movement of someone who trusted themselves fully—100%.
‘I was like that once, too.’
Though now his body was broken like a rusted tool, there was a time when he shone just as brilliantly.
A time when his light dazzled others and made everyone stop to look.
Trickle.
A thin stream of blood slid from the corner of his lips.
‘But that was before I became this worthless wreck.’
To be in this condition after just a spell or two...
But he had no regrets.
If he couldn’t live as a mage, he’d rather die.
The thought he’d harbored while guarding this snowy land solidified once more.
“I’m still a mage.”
Faded and tattered, his spirit burned hotter than ever.
The man prepared to show the advancing young mage every last bit of strength he had.
Though it lasted only a few seconds, the fleeting moment felt like an eternity.
With the gap sufficiently closed, Oscar unleashed all of his remaining mana at once.
“I’m sorry.”
He apologized in advance.
This was likely not the outcome the man, who had wished for an honorable, final duel, desired.
“Cold Death.”
The man completed a massive ice spear.
It was magic imbued with the essence of destruction—freezing anything it touched.
Meanwhile, Oscar’s creation was neither an offensive nor defensive spell.
More bluntly put, it wasn’t even magic.
FWOOOOOOSH!
All he had done was release every ounce of mana stored in his body.
“Cough!”
Exposed to the intense surge of mana, Oscar vomited black blood.
His already delicate magic circuits had twisted and frayed from the immense, condensed force.
If he was in this state, his opponent was undoubtedly worse off.
The man stared blankly at the ice spear he had created.
Trickle, trickle.
Blackened blood, evidence of shattered organs and circuits, seeped from his mouth.
The ice spear he gripped tightly crumbled into scattered magic.
From within, his body was collapsing.
“...What a shame,”
he muttered softly.
To fight like a mage and meet a mage’s end was a luxury he could not afford.
His life spent, the man collapsed onto the snowy plain.
Rather than feeling triumphant, Oscar felt relieved to be alive.
Instead of joy, he was overwhelmed by guilt.
At the observatory, an old man was waiting.
It was a face Oscar had seen once before—the Sage of the Stars.
“You’ve endured much to get here. This may come as sudden, but let me ask you one thing first.”
The old man gazed at him with eyes brimming with unfathomable wisdom.
“Who are you?”
“I’m Oscar, a Level 3 mage of the White Tower...”
“No. I’m not asking for the name of the shell you wear. I wish to know the name of what lies within.”
Unfazed by the shock of his words, the Sage of the Stars asked again.
“Who are you, truly?”
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]

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