「Hio Pavlenko - zl존☆Heavenly Demon★」
「Stats」
「Strength: 410」
「Agility: 410」
「Stamina: 410」
「Mana: 693(+45)」
「Spiritual Power: 100」
「Divine Power: 500」
「Skills」
「Thunder Emperor」
「Azure Flame」
「Summon Grim Reaper」
「Heaven」
「Domain of Void」
「Fire」
「Fire - Variation(Sustained Enhancement)」
「Aqua」
「Aqua - Variation(Sustained Expansion)」
……
「Blink」
「Earth Break」
「Flare」
「Flare - Variation(Expansion)」
「Flare - Abyss」
「Explosion」
「Explosion - Variation(Enhancement)」
「Explosion - Abyss」
「Ray of Frost」
「Ray of Frost - Abyss」
「Wind Blade」
「Wind Blade - Variation(Branching)」
「Wind Blade - Abyss」
「Sarcophagus of Death」
……
「Teleport」
「Dark Dome」
「Gravity」
「Traits」
「Can’t Live Without Style!」
「Everything Is Double!」
「Hidden Trait: No Violence!(Patience: 844 / 1000)」
「Authority」
「??? - Growing.」
「Fame」
「Stories of the ‘Hero Who Was Once Great’ are spreading.」
「Stories of the ‘Last Mage’ are spreading.」
「Stories of the ‘Vanished Hope’ are spreading.」
……
It was a widely known tale among mages that mixing the power of the abyss into magic caused its might to rise sharply.
Though, by mages, that meant only two humans—Kreutzwald and Hio—but in any case, the important point was that the same applied to skills.
The proof was that, right there in the skill window, beside the skill names, (Abyss) was attached in plain sight.
Of course, he had not tested it as a skill.
The source of Hio’s power was magic, and his training had always been for the sake of magical growth.
Mixing the power of the abyss into magic was no easy task, requiring an extreme degree of concentration. He could hardly let such an excellent training method end with a simple skill-click, could he?
That was not the only thing in the status window that bothered him.
First, the hidden trait’s patience.
It was patience he had painstakingly built up over a year and a half.
Looking back, this was normal.
Had it not been fiendishly difficult to raise in the first place?
At least after he became certain that Kreutzwald had some impure intention, his patience had risen fairly quickly, which was how he had managed to accumulate this much.
If he lowered his gaze a little further from there, the window he saw was “Authority.”
The final gift of the goddess Rifyue.
Though he still could not tell what it was, a line of explanation had been added after the ???, saying it was growing.
If it was going to be added anyway, it would have been nice to have a more detailed explanation, but what could he do?
Since it said it was growing, all he could do was hope that its effects would be overwhelming once it completed all of its growth.
In any case, the thing he had no choice but to place the greatest expectations on at present was the Authority.
Lastly, it showed what rumors were spreading across the continent and how many fame points he was earning because of them, but……
He could roughly guess what sort of misunderstanding had given rise to those rumors, so he decided to move on.
The important thing was that he had now entered the 6th Circle, the realm of superhumans, with magic alone.
No, if one considered only his actual combat power, he would likely be able to perform well beyond that.
Not only had he mixed magic and the abyss to raise its destructive force by more than double,
he had also become able to make full use of his trait that let him see mana with his eyes, and because of that, even the same magic could be used in various ways depending on the situation.
On top of that were the three 6th Circle spells he had learned from Kreutzwald.
A unit of 255 undead enhanced by the abyss.
And even the power of the abyss that Hio himself could control directly.
Even at the edge of this ruined world, Hio was an undeniable powerhouse capable of advancing straight toward his destination.
If one added to that the highest-tier skills he could cast faster and more powerfully than magic, he could confidently say that there would be very few beings above him.
‘……I still have a long way to go.’
The problem was that most of those few were at the same edge of the world as Hio.
The closer one drew to the central region where Tetradia existed, the higher the level of the aberrations and the thicker the abyss became.
There were the Watchers he had to avoid, and the master of the abyss who would be peering into the edge of the world through those Watchers’ eyes.
There was Kreutzwald, the progenitor of necromancy and black magic, whose realm Hio could not even begin to fathom.
And lastly, there was the unidentified being presumed to be a mage, who kept leaving traces along Hio’s path.
“Again.”
Again.
A trace appearing blatantly before Hio and Teordo as they traveled.
It was a trace of mana.
Since it was currently daytime, when aberrations were not active, it was unlikely to be the result of combat.
It was a trace left deliberately.
And one so faint that no one but Hio could recognize it.
“The traces of mana are getting weaker and weaker.”
The traces, already faint to begin with, were growing weaker.
It did not feel like they were weakening because the person’s strength was failing or they lacked mana.
Though the mana was so faint it would be difficult to sense from afar, when examined up close, the fineness and delicate power contained within it could be clearly felt.
Then why was this unidentified figure leaving traces of mana that grew weaker and weaker?
There were two possible reasons he could think of.
Either they intended to test how far Hio could recognize them, or they did not want any being other than Hio to discover the traces themselves.
Or perhaps both.
The important thing was that he had yet to grasp their intention.
Except for the first day, when the unidentified figure had clearly revealed their presence, all the remaining traces had been left during the “day.”
What was the reason for that?
“……What are they trying to say?”
He asked Teordo, who was beside him, but if even Hio did not know, there was no way Teordo, whose mana sensitivity was inferior to his, would know.
Teordo gave a small shake of his head.
After carefully examining the trace beneath his feet once more, Hio moved again.
There was something.
The people who existed at the edge of the world were not only Hio and Kreutzwald.
And Kreutzwald had not once mentioned this person in over a year.
What was in Tetradia that made Kreutzwald want to send him there?
What relationship did he have with the abyss, and what was he hiding?
Why was he teaching him magic and trying to make him grow?
What intention did the unidentified mage leaving traces have, and what truth did they know?
Ashen powder followed behind Hio as he moved his steps, as heavy as his thoughts.
* * *
A series of events repeated itself.
During the day, they moved without rest.
At night, they hid as best as they could while avoiding the Watchers.
The closer they got to the central region, the more frequently Watchers appeared, and the number of nights when they could not rest increased.
Among them, there was one night when they fought through the entire night once again, and another time when they nearly reached the crisis of being discovered by a Watcher’s eye.
Even so, the unidentified mage did not help them as they had on the first day.
When daytime came the next day, they had merely left a trace as if to show off.
When such days repeated five more times, Hio finally made a decision.
Shoving the artifact marked with the path to Tetradia deep into his pocket, he called Teordo.
“Teordo.”
He had roughly figured out and inferred the meaning and intent contained in the traces.
“Let’s change our destination.”
They would change their destination.
Not to Tetradia, but to the place the traces were calling him.
To the place where that unidentified mage was calling him.
Teordo, who also wanted to leave the edge of the world and return to the continent as soon as possible, agreed with Hio’s decision.
He, too, found Kreutzwald deeply unsettling.
Until now, there had been no other alternative.
They did not know how to get to the continent, and in this place that was the abyss itself, there had been no way to survive other than listening to Kreutzwald.
Even after realizing that the voice of the abyss he had once heard resembled Kreutzwald, and even while knowing there were many parts of his explanations and actions he could not understand, Hio had continued acting as his disciple without revealing any of those things.
As long as Hio continued acting as a disciple, Kreutzwald also did not cast aside his act as a master.
Though they harbored different thoughts inside, at least on the surface, they had spent over a year together as an adequate master and an adequate disciple.
But now, another alternative had appeared.
Kreutzwald was not nearby, and the traces left by the unidentified mage were clearly calling Hio.
In a direction other than Tetradia.
As if telling him not to go there, they were steadily guiding him to come in another direction.
“……Good.”
After spreading out his senses and confirming that there was no presence caught nearby, Hio changed direction.
The map artifact leading to Tetradia that Kreutzwald had given him had been shoved deep into his pocket.
He probably would not take it out again for some time.
Thinking so, he took a step.
One step.
His right foot sank deeply into the ashen powder.
Ashen powder scattered familiarly.
At the second step, thoughts brushed past him.
How many hours were left until nightfall? Was this direction right?
The movement with which he had been waving his hand to brush away the ashen powder flying all the way to his face
came to an abrupt stop at the third step.
Goosebumps rose from his fingertips to the nape of his neck.
There was only one reason.
A voice that absolutely should not have been heard, and could not be heard, had suddenly sounded right behind his back.
“My disciple.”
Empty.
A voice like the abyss itself.
“Where are you going?”
It was Kreutzwald.
“That should not be the right direction.”
He had definitely checked thoroughly.
After leaving the safe zone, there had been no magical movement whatsoever monitoring him.
Since he had a body capable of seeing mana itself directly with his eyes, he could be certain of that.
“…….”
Frozen in place, he slowly turned his body.
When he did, he met pitch-black pupils.
A distant abyss in which no emotion could be found.
And because of that, the smile on his lips seemed all the more unnatural.
The fine wrinkles on his face looked benevolent, as if they had been crafted that way.
And then, as always, he let out a hearty laugh.
“Heh heh heh……”
That laugh that had irritated him from the very first moment he heard it.
As if he were forcibly imitating someone.
In other words…… yes, Verga Pavlenko.
A laugh that seemed to have copied Hio’s first master exactly.
“It seems you mistook the path. Heh heh.”
Facing such a Kreutzwald, Hio also forced the corners of his mouth upward.
“Ah…… Was this not the right way? Hahaha……”
Kreutzwald had appeared behind his back in just three steps, without any magical action whatsoever.
What had he used to monitor him?
How had he moved in an instant from a distance far enough to avoid detection?
Without leaving even the slightest trace of mana, at that.
He knew the answer immediately.
“That is why I told you to look carefully at the map I gave you when you travel.”
“Haha…… You’re right. I’ll check again.”
The abyss.
The abyss spread in all directions.
The abyss clinging thickly to everything.
The thing covering the entire sky and his entire body had become Kreutzwald’s eyes and ears, and the abyss was no different from Kreutzwald himself.
From the moment he set out, the abyss had become eyes and was watching him.
He forced his stiffening face to move and made himself smile.
A line of cold sweat carefully slid down his forehead, but he could not bring himself to wipe it away.
Kreutzwald was already the abyss itself.
“You’re right. The scenery all looks so similar that I must have mistaken it.”
“Heh heh…… You truly do all sorts of things, as expected of my foolish disciple.”
Neither of the two spoke at all about the current situation, which was strange in every way.
How had Kreutzwald suddenly appeared?
Why had he monitored him when he said he would not accompany him, and why had he revealed himself?
Why had Hio decided to change his destination?
If not Tetradia, where had he intended to go?
The two acted out an ordinary conversation, not asking about what was terribly unnatural.
Kreutzwald wore the mask of a master.
Hio wore the mask of a disciple.
Even though both of them already knew that, how were they continuing this ridiculous play?
“Hahaha…… Then, Master. Your foolish disciple will set off again.”
He did not know Kreutzwald’s true thoughts, but the reason Hio was doing this came from an instinctive intuition.
No, it was not simple intuition.
It was certainty.
The moment this grotesque play ended, at the hands of the dreadful monster named Kreutzwald.
At the hands of the abyss wearing the skin of a human.
“Do that. Be careful on your way.”
He would die.
[Hidden Trait: No Violence!(Patience: 921 / 1000)]