“Keuh-heuk!”
Throwing his body, Maxim rolled across the dirt ground.
No sooner had he risen, without even a moment to register the pain, and dashed forward—
Th-th-th-thud!
Bone Spears drove densely into the spot where he had just stood.
‘There’s no opening.’
A fierce onslaught that granted him neither room to catch his breath nor time to gather his thoughts.
At the absurd, brute-force magic Silgrim poured out in wild volleys, Maxim gritted his teeth.
‘I’m reaching my limit soon.’
Minimal enhancement magic, and a trained physical body.
Presently, he was fighting relying solely on these two things.
What held him by the ankles was the world he had unrolled himself, 『The Last Survivor』.
A world that originally should have drained and choked the opponent to death was instead strangling his own life away.
‘No, it’s not even just me....’
Casting a fleeting glance to the side, he saw Oscar being relentlessly pushed back by Radan and Magiro.
That fellow, too, was in a situation where he could only use the bare minimum of mana because of his world.
‘I miscalculated.’
He had believed his world would be more than enough to suppress Silgrim Fonerth, but that was a grave misconception.
To that black mage who had surpassed even death, a restriction of this degree was practically meaningless.
—You still seem to have the leisure to look away.
“Keuk!”
A Bone Spear grazed his back, slashing past.
Though he had ducked as much as he could, his stamina was gradually hitting its threshold as well.
In the end, Maxim tightly closed both eyes and withdrew his world.
—A trivial world it was.
Seeing the surrounding scenery revert to normal, Silgrim muttered in a low voice.
Despite that sneer, Maxim could not make any retort whatsoever.
‘Frustrating as it is... he isn’t wrong.’
His world had not worked on him.
After all, he was a being that could never be overcome with the physical capabilities and basic magic Maxim had trusted in all this time.
Regrettably, now that he had retracted the world release, the disparity between them had widened even further.
‘Conquering Silgrim Fonerth... I give up on that.’
The number of corpses remaining on the plains still exceeded five thousand.
Fighting and defeating a being who possessed thousands of lives was an impossible task even if their skills were evenly matched.
Without looking back, Maxim sprinted toward Oscar.
“Oscar! I’m joining you!”
Kwa-ang!
Kicking away the corpse of a White Tower mage, he placed his back against Oscar, who was breathing roughly.
“Is your body holding up?”
“...I’m dying here.”
Looking at Radan and Magiro, who were once again settling into stance, Oscar said:
“They’re strong. Above all, the exquisite coordination between those two is....”
It was the spitting image of how they were back when they were alive.
Swallowing those words down his throat, Oscar muttered with a self-derisive smile.
“It hurts. A lot.”
“The situation is at its worst. We have to retreat toward the fortress.”
“We won’t be able to.”
Oscar judged coolly.
Loath as he was to admit it, the initiative on the current battlefield belonged to Silgrim.
Meaning he could do whatever he wished if he so willed.
‘Retreating all together is impossible.’
Because if that had been viable, they would have succeeded when retreating via the portal earlier.
Oscar’s eyes narrowed.
‘The one he wants is me alone.’
The moment his thoughts reached that point, Oscar felt conflicted.
If he blew Maxim and the Mad Fiend away toward the fortress once more, the two of them would be safe.
‘At any rate, Silgrim has no intention of killing me right this instant.’
Since he said it himself, it was likely true.
If he had intended to kill him, he would have had several opportunities to do so already.
‘The problem is....’
Falling into his clutches could, in a sense, be far worse than death.
The moment he was captured, he would examine his soul and try to surface the existence of the Great Emperor.
It was then.
“Don’t harbor useless thoughts.”
Through their touching backs, Maxim’s warmth was felt.
“Even if you blow us away with that spatial magic, we will come back to this place again to save you.”
“Why do you go that far for me?”
“Have you forgotten? A mage of the White Tower does not abandon a comrade.”
“....”
At those words, Oscar wore a faint smile.
It was something he used to say all the time, yet it had been a long while since he actually heard it from someone else.
“I suppose so.”
Looking at the subordinates of his past life gathered before his eyes, he murmured:
“If you’re going to come back anyway, it would only end up wasting my mana, so I absolutely shouldn't do it.”
“Sensible thought.”
Silgrim was watching this way again with his hands clasped behind his back.
—A battle among the mages of the White Tower, how fascinating.
A hundred and fifty-one corpses lumbered and lunged toward the two men.
Radan and Magiro stood still in place, watching the scene unfold.
“Forgive me. Seniors!”
Koong!
Gathering his mana all at once, Maxim stamped one foot down.
The fierce tempest that arose simultaneously literally ground the rushing corpses to dust.
Kka-ga-ga-gak!
Thirty corpses were pulverized in an instant, and right at the moment the corpses dared not rashly approach—
Watching the situation, Radan kicked off the ground and closed the distance, and simultaneously—
Kwa-aa-ang!
Clutched Maxim’s throat with one hand.
“Keu... euk!”
As Maxim tried to resist that absurd grip strength, his body gradually rose further from the earth.
“Keo, keok!”
Seeing this, Oscar also moved urgently.
Magiro’s magic flew in perfectly aimed along his path of movement, but—
“Deflect.”
Receiving the command, the Wind Archive deployed Wind Shields all across the trajectory.
It deflected every piece of flying magic with flawless curvature.
Having finally closed sufficient distance, Oscar steadied his breath.
Oscar-style Taijutsu, Secret Art Chapter 1:
Sound of the Waves.
Jjeo-eo-eong!
Twisting through his waist, the punch he threw drove into Radan’s flank, and simultaneously—
That massive physique floated slightly into midair.
“Kuh-huh! Kuh-huh!”
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
The force in the grip loosened and Maxim dropped down, while Radan stared expressionlessly toward Oscar.
“What are you looking at?”
The appearance, the magic used, the method of combat.
They perfectly imitated his friends, but there was one thing that was different.
‘The gaze in the eyes.’
Eyes like dead fish made him realize that they were the deceased.
He engraved it into his mind again and again that they were not living beings, but merely dolls mimicking them.
“....”
Because only by doing so could he attack those bastards.
Pa-ak!
Maxim, who had fallen to the ground, kicked Radan directly behind the knee.
The moment his balance broke and he stumbled from the impact—
Oscar raised one hand.
And pulling as if drawing down air from the sky, his lips moved slightly.
“Wind Press.”
Kwa-aa-aa-a!
The air pouring from the heavens was compressed multiple times, bearing down on Radan.
Radan endured that tremendous pressure purely with his physical capabilities for only a brief moment.
“Breath of Steel.”
Kka-deu-deu-deuk!
As the wind crushing Radan grew heavier, strange noises began to rise from his bones.
Beginning with a twist in the shoulder, one knee buckled, and his head was forced down.
‘Just a little, just a little more.’
Taking care of at least Radan’s corpse here would make things easier afterward.
It was the moment Oscar was about to pour out mana without restraint to drive Radan in even harder.
—Corpse Explosion.
Kwa-aa-aa-ang!
Several corpses that had been charging toward them detonated on the spot, sweeping across the entire area.
“Oscar!”
Simultaneously with Maxim wrapping himself around him while enveloped in a veil of wind—
Accompanied by an impact that felt as if the bones of his entire body were shattering, the vision before his eyes turned bright yellow.
“Ah, ah-euh....”
Rising with a groan, Oscar stared at Radan, whose upper and lower body were severed.
Watching this with amusement, Silgrim spoke.
—To me, corpses are tools. And broken tools merely need to be fixed once more.
“...You bastard.”
He wanted to snap back, but had no strength even for that.
Gritting his teeth tightly, Oscar first checked on Maxim.
‘His condition is more critical than mine.’
With his back completely exposed to the blast, Maxim had passed out as he was.
It was only because the opponent had no intent to kill this side that it ended at this level.
—Bring him.
At Silgrim’s gesture, the corpses swarmed like wild beasts and reached their hands out to seize his limbs.
“Wild Leaf!”
As a final desperate struggle, he severed several wrists, but the endlessly swarming corpses eventually dragged him before Silgrim and forced him to his knees.
—Let’s see now.
Kwa-deuk!
Silgrim’s gaunt hand raised the bound Oscar’s head.
Smirking at that fierce gaze, he placed a hand upon his forehead.
“Keo-heuk!”
Instantly, his stomach heaved, feeling as though his insides were turning into a bog of mud.
It was the rejection reaction of a body exposed to demonic energy.
—...I see.
Silgrim, having swiftly completed his diagnosis, narrowed his eyes.
—You succeeded in germination, but failed to blossom. A repulsive energy is interfering.
The presence of divinity was discovered.
Calming his heaving stomach, Oscar growled lowly.
“Take your hand... off.”
—It has permeated fairly deep into the soul.
Completely engrossed in his research, Silgrim kneaded his forehead with both hands as if intrigued.
Every time he did, a wave of nausea akin to vomiting surged up.
—Now, what about this?
Ordering the corpses to pry Oscar’s mouth open, Silgrim shoved demonic energy right into it.
“Eup, eu-eup!”
Starting from the reaction, it was entirely different from before.
Surpassing the level of merely feeling foul or nauseous.
A sticky, sickening energy seeped into his physical form.
‘This son of a bitch....’
It felt as though wherever the demonic energy passed through was burning away.
Perhaps because this was a body chosen as the vessel for divinity, the repulsion was even more violent.
At the sensation of demonic energy gnawing away at him from the inside out, the tips of his fingers naturally curled.
Had he not been bound, he might have cleanly expelled the demonic energy within his body, but right now it was impossible.
—Ho-oh.
It was then.
From deep inside his body, a familiar warmth welled up and cleanly incinerated the demonic energy.
Divinity, Ithaca.
It had reacted to the external demonic energy that abruptly invaded.
—Indeed, then this will do nicely.
Grinning insidiously, Silgrim injected fresh demonic energy.
“Kkeu-euh-euh...!”
Once more, divinity flared and eradicated the demonic energy.
Yet that too was brief, and he could feel that sickening aura squirming within his body.
Kwa-aa-ang!
Every time divinity discovered the demonic energy within the body, it purified it.
—As expected. Protecting the body takes precedence over suppressing the Great Emperor.
Understanding the meaning behind those words, Oscar’s expression stiffened.
He hastily examined his interior.
The divinity was still potent.
It immediately arrested and eliminated the demonic energy being indiscriminately generated throughout the whole body.
Yet by that same margin...
‘It has grown faint.’
Deep in the recesses of the soul, the power that had been suppressing the Great Emperor had grown slack.
“You....”
Oscar twisted his body as if to lunge, but the corpses’ grips pinned him down firmly.
Smiling faintly, Silgrim looked down on him arrogantly and said:
—Getting angry at merely this much? The proper surgery hasn’t even begun yet.
The moment his insidiously smiling hand descended once more toward Oscar’s forehead—
The hand that should have touched the forehead grasped empty air.
The arms of the corpses that had been holding Oscar until just moments ago were severed, rolling across the floor.
While their train of thought failed to catch up to the current turn of events—
Hoo-oo-oong!
A beat late, the sound of fluttering wind hovered through the air.
And simultaneously.
Far in the distance, a man who had not drawn the slightest attention throughout the entire battle was seen setting Oscar down.
“...You?”
Looking at the man before his eyes, Oscar’s pupils trembled minutely.
Upon that face which had always been impassive, the distinctly cheerful smile nested within his memories was present.
And those eyes, which once never revealed what he was thinking, were shining with overflowing confidence.
“Honestly, after saying you’d return, you didn’t come, so I really resented you a lot, you know?”
The Mad Fiend.
No, Gilliot Dominic sheepishly grinned and replied:
“Turns out I’m late too, Master.”

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