WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 618: The Disappearance of Black Tower Master Ryune

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In the floating castle, magic was part of everyday life, and magic towers and Tower Masters were close to the chosen people who lived there. That was why visitors who happened to come here often forgot something.

Magic was not nearly so common in the lower realm, and Tower Masters were not to be taken lightly.

The Black Tower Master, Ryune, was a small mage with an uncertain expression. Their thick robe concealed their body, and the pointed hat pulled low over their face made them look more like a witch than a mage, but the magic they wielded was entirely different.

Black spheres rose into the air. Small black beads that devoured all energy, light, heat, and wind, circled the Black Tower Master as though protecting them. After a moment, one of the spheres flashed and fired a red heat ray.

"Tch!"

Sensing the threat, Shei raised Jizan at an angle. The heat ray struck Jizan's black blade and scattered. The sparks flying behind it proved that the ray had substance.

The Black Tower Master muttered at Shei.

"...Stop resisting pointlessly.... It's a hassle for both of us."

"I wouldn't have had to resist if you hadn't come after me!"

Sigh. Another fight. Couldn't she just quietly escape prison and live in peace like me?

I was watching from afar and criticizing Shei's lack of finesse when the Black Tower Master spoke again.

"The black mage who escaped my prison was said to have come with you.... Naturally, I have to question you."

Oh? Had Shei gotten into trouble because I escaped from prison?

Who told her to enjoy freedom while leaving me behind? This was punishment for abandoning a companion. She should accept it gladly.

As Shei dodged the heat rays, she snapped back.

"You're the ones who locked Hughes up! I didn't help him, and you were the ones who let him escape, so why are you questioning me?! I don't know where Hughes is either. I was about to look for him myself!"

At Shei's shout, the Black Tower Master stopped attacking and fell into thought.

"Uh.... I-is that so?"

As the offensive briefly paused, the Green Tower Master's voice came from the resonant crystal hanging near the Black Tower Master's shoulder.

[What do you mean, is that so? A black mage who arrived with her escaped from prison. Of course it's natural to suspect she helped with the escape. Hurry up and arrest her.]

"B-but.... If she resists with everything she has, it will be difficult to capture her alive...."

[I'm on my way to help as well. With you and me, restraining her should be easy.]

"Huh? What's gotten into you...?"

[What do you mean?]

"You, of all people, who are so stubborn and unreasonable, are going to help me with my work...? Are you dying, or is that black mage really that dangerous...?"

[The latter. I'll explain when I get there, so capture her first!]

By then, Shei was fleeing through the sky. The Black Tower Master quietly watched her back, then raised their brush-shaped staff and marked a black dot ahead of Shei through space.

Innate arcane, Vanishing Point.

Unlike the White Tower, which controlled light, the Black Tower controlled color. Color was a property of matter that absorbed and emitted light. White and black had begun from the same branch called light, then advanced in different directions.

The Black Tower was a school that studied the space where light remained rather than light itself. It only carried a negative image because it had chosen black as its color. By all accounts, it was white magic. The Black Tower's mages cared so much about that perception that every weekly meeting included a proposal to change their symbolic color, but traditionalists opposed it every time, and the matter always faded away.

And the Black Tower's strongest traditionalist had placed a Vanishing Point before Shei.

"Ugh...!"

A vanishing point was an imaginary point marked to express perspective. The closer something came to the vanishing point in a drawing, the smaller its amplitude had to become.

The Black Tower Master's innate arcane was the same.

Everything slowed. Sound, speed, energy. All of it converged on the point the Black Tower Master had marked.

It did not vanish. It was trapped, unable to ever reach the Vanishing Point.

The Vanishing Point devoured even light so that nothing could escape. It looked like a black monster consuming everything.

Shei abruptly twisted her direction while flying. Yet the Vanishing Point consumed even Skywarbler's space, and she spiraled downward like a butterfly that had lost one wing.

The Black Tower Master leisurely followed Shei's path and muttered.

"...How did a black mage break through my gravity barrier? I made the barrier by applying the Vanishing Point. I do want to ask him when we meet."

"Then...! Ask Hughes yourself!"

As Shei spun through the air, she poured her rotation into Skywarbler. In an instant, she unleashed the swirling wind within Skywarbler and thrust it at the Black Tower Master.

Heavenly Sword Technique, Dragon Spiral.

A single strand of storm stretched toward the Black Tower Master. As it drew closer, the Dragon Spiral gradually sharpened, resembling a keen spear. Then, at some point, the storm became so thin that it...

Was trapped in the Vanishing Point.

Seeing the storm disappear into the Vanishing Point, the Black Tower Master spoke without surprise.

"Rene's pouch in the shape of a sword...? It's an unusual form. But your wind won't work.... It takes the form of vibrations. It will only become prey for my Vanishing Point...."

The storm absorbed by the Vanishing Point now became the Black Tower Master's power and bared its fangs at Shei. Seeing her troubled expression, the Black Tower Master mentioned Jizan.

"Th-that heavy sword might be different...."

Jizan could probably break the Vanishing Point. Given its overwhelming mass, Jizan's shape would not be made to vanish.

But after weighing her options for a moment, Shei suddenly fled.

'Jizan could smash that innate arcane, but...! Don't be tempted! It's a trap! No mage would openly reveal their weakness!'

A mage's true power had not yet been revealed. The synergy between white magic and innate arcane was what made a mage a mage. When Shei noticed that and fled, the Black Tower Master, who had laid a trap and waited, sighed in disappointment.

"Good instincts.... And so energetic. Seeing that makes me a little envious...."

It was exhausting how she refused to give up and ran even against such an overwhelming difference in strength. Still, the gap in power was simply too vast.

"That's.... a dead end."

"Kyah!"

A headwind wrapped around the fleeing Shei. She tried to respond with Skywarbler, but the wind of One-Way Street allowed no flow in the opposite direction. Shei fell to the ground like a fly.

When she came to her senses and stood up, the Green Tower Master was before her, aiming an umbrella at her. The Green Tower Master, suppressing Shei with One-Way Street, spoke in a hoarse voice.

"I was distracted by you and overlooked it. That black mage. What is he?"

It would not have mattered if she revealed that I was the King of Humanity. Yet Shei, rebellious to the core, gritted her teeth and retorted.

"Why are you asking that? You decided he was a black mage and locked him up, didn't you?"

"...That's..."

I was curious too. Why was she suddenly so desperate to find me? Taking advantage of the opportunity Shei had created, I read the Green Tower Master's thoughts.

'...If I wasn't mistaken. When I first met him. I felt as if my innate arcane was being analyzed. Like when I faced Lord Demon King....'

Well, I had mind reading. Since I could read mental images, it probably felt as though her innate arcane was being analyzed. What was so remarkable about that?

'Analyzed...? No. That doesn't fully explain it. There was clearly a problem with One-Way Street back then. A blind spot in my innate arcane. If I can't identify it, I can't continue my other research....'

The Green Tower Master organized her thoughts before speaking.

"I sensed an unknown power from that black mage. My analysis is that unless we identify it clearly, it will become a great threat to the floating castle."

"And the conclusion of that analysis is to seize Hughes, lock him up, and pursue him with dozens of people? If Hughes becomes a threat to you, it will be because of your own extreme actions!"

"Perhaps. But if we eliminate him, at least we will no longer have to feel threatened."

Shei's eyes widened.

"You're going to kill Hughes?!"

"If necessary."

"Are you insane? Do you think I'll just stand by?!"

"You are no exception. Know your place."

The Green Tower Master raised a cube containing lightning and a storm.

The cube of One-Way Street was a prison of wind. The air trapped inside, unable to escape and compressed, produced lightning and sparks as it waited to be released.

If that cube were released at this distance, Shei would not escape unscathed. As Shei gritted her teeth, the Green Tower Master looked down at her indifferently.

"You're strong, but only awkwardly so. It would be easy to kill you, but difficult to capture you alive. So if you resist to the end, I can't guarantee your safety."

"You are acting however you please...!"

"However I please? That is the right of the chosen people. So."

The Black Tower Master, with a Vanishing Point floating beside them, had also approached Shei by then.

One-Way Street in front of her, Vanishing Point behind her. There was nowhere to run and no way to escape. If she resisted any further, she would have to risk her life, and it would most likely end with Shei's death.

'Death is fine! But I can't end this cycle here without even properly getting a message to Hughes...!'

"Put down your weapon before I count to three. One, two..."

The Green Tower Master folded down her fingers as she counted.

"Everyone."

The Cyan Tower Master stepped between the Green Tower Master and Shei.

The Cyan Tower Master forced her way into the space pressed down by two absolute mental images, Vanishing Point and One-Way Street, then finished her calculations with calm, lowered eyes. White breath rose from her lips.

"Stop."

The world froze.

The wind stopped in an instant. The atmosphere quietly froze and bloomed with ice flowers. The air that carried vibrations disappeared, and every sound ceased. A vast silence stopped everything. The wind, the noise, and this battle.

"Haaa...."

Within it, the Cyan Tower Master had descended in a crouch, like a butterfly. A thin layer of frost covered her clothes and skin. The pieces of frost scattering over her shoulders made her look like a butterfly.

Innate arcane, Crystal Theory.

An innate arcane at an extreme freezing point that could freeze even air.

This glittering powder, made from frozen air rather than water vapor, was a substance that could not be born on the ground. Clumped air that should only exist in distant space coiled around her like a ring.

A power that should not exist. What kind of shock would strike the world the moment she dispelled this innate arcane?

They said ignorance made one brave. Put another way, knowledge was fear. The Green Tower Master and Black Tower Master, who knew the Cyan Tower Master's power better than anyone, shouted at the same time.

"You crazy bitch!"

"...Are you in your right mind...?"

Innate arcane, One-Way Street. Triple Pane.

A domain of innate arcane that forced One-Way Street. The Green Tower Master layered three domains of One-Way Street around herself. Mana flowing through the gaps she created formed a magic circle.

Innate arcane, Vanishing Point. Three-Point Perspective.

A solid formed by three Vanishing Points floated in the air. A fallen drop of water traced a star-shaped figure with the three Vanishing Points as its vertices. The Black Tower Master also drew out power to confront the supernatural ability.

Mages were strong. And dangerous. Innate arcane, the power to impose the rules of the world, could easily destroy the world if mishandled.

When different rules collided, their power grew uncontrollably. No matter how great the floating castle was or how full it was of powerful magic, it could not withstand the full power of three Tower Masters.

It was a precarious situation where the floating castle would collapse the moment even one person upset the balance.

"Young and brilliant pillars of the Arcane Federation. You are passionately exchanging ideas again today, day and night!"

Then, light moved.

From Babylon, the center of the floating castle. Dazzling light stretched from the heart of the city that pierced the round floating castle from top to bottom. After blinking against the sudden brightness, I found him standing beside the Black Tower Master with an arm around their shoulders.

A man who seemed delighted by the fight itself, even though he should have been stopping it, shouted with a broad smile.

"Yes. Exchanging ideas, competing, and debating are the first steps toward progress. Explore! Clash! Advance further! That will become a new step toward progress!"

The being called the Demon King.

Footnotes:

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