The Great Mage Returns After 4000 Years (Web Novel KR)

Min Ha-rin struggled to hold her breath under the pressure that was crushing her entire body.

“If I wanted to keep playing around, I wouldn’t have submerged this area.”

After capturing the two who had been annoying him the most, Nodiesop looked around one more time before he finished them off once and for all.

Lukas’ presence… He still couldn’t feel it. This caused him to be increasingly more certain about his suspicions.

Was he no longer on this island? Maybe he’d thrown these pieces of trash out to distract him so that he could quietly leave the island. Right. That was a judgment that was worthy of an Absolute. After all, it was extremely foolish for a being like an Absolute to risk their life just to save a few mortals when they could save dozens of universes in the future.

Arid was a bit further away.

He was also underwater, and he was currently glaring at Nodiesop with wide eyes.

That was all he could do. Unfortunately for Arid, there was nothing someone like him, who specialised in support, could do to reverse the current situation.

‘The Priestess… is over there.’

He couldn’t see her, but he could sense her.

But in the next moment, Nodiesop’s expression became stiff.

‘Where’s Sedi?’

Clang!

Just as he had this thought, he felt a tremendous impact and pain at the same time.

In an instant, Nodiesop’s body shot through the water before soaring into the sky.

“Cough…!”

He spat out a mouthful of blood.

With wide eyes, he looked beneath him. There, he found the missing Sedi.

He couldn’t understand. His vigilance towards her… while it couldn’t be compared to Lukas and the Priestess, he had still been paying close attention to her.

Enough that he should have been able to immediately notice if she tried to do anything funny.

‘This much power…’

She would have needed to build up for at least a few minutes in order to unleash such an attack. Right. It was possible that he’d missed that.

However, was it possible for him to miss Sedi’s approach with the intent to attack? In water no less?

‘…was it the Priestess? Or Arid?’

He wasn’t sure. But he knew that it was one or even both of them.

Whoosh!

Min Ha-rin and Leo shot after Nodiesop.

Their sword and fist were aimed at his vital points at the same time. Strange flames also covered the sword. It seemed a spell had been added to it. The momentum behind the fist was enough to destroy several buildings one after the other. It was also not something that could be ignored.

Nodiesop knew that he had to block these attacks, but he couldn’t move a finger.

Demonic energy was interfering with the circulation of his external force. He would only need about three seconds to flush it out of his system, but in other words, it had created an opening for the same amount of time.

“Don’t mess with me!”

Nodiesop roared in rage. He coughed out another mouthful of blood that had pooled in his throat. As if it had a mind of its own, the blood floated in the air for a moment before quickly taking shape.

Paak!

The blood, which coagulated into a ball, shot down and hit both Min Ha-rin and Leo sending them both flying without even having the time to scream. Min Ha-rin was able to forcibly stop her fall with a flight spell, but her gaze turned to Leo, who was still falling.

Crack!

She grabbed his arm, but the force of his fall was considerable. It felt like her arm was about to be dislocated. However, she knew that if they let themselves fall into the water again, it would all be over.

“Uah!”

With a loud cry of exertion, she borrowed the force of Leo’s fall to throw him in a different direction. His body flew in the air for a while before he was finally able to catch himself on an exposed tree branch.

“Huff, huff…”

Min Ha-rin panted heavily. Although she’d prevented Leo from falling into the water again, she still had a heavy expression on her face.

She knew that the opportunity they had just missed was not something that was easy to come by.

“In the end, I wasn’t able to gather all of my strength.”

Sedi, who appeared beside her, clicked her tongue.

If she had managed to gather for two or three more minutes, they might have been able to critically injure him. Min Ha-rin was silent for a while before finally opening her mouth.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. Although things didn’t go according to plan, I still managed to learn something interesting.”

“Something interesting?”

“That bastard’s body.”

Min Ha-rin blinked, unable to understand the meaning of Sedi’s words. Sedi frowned for a moment before deciding to explain.

“When one becomes an Absolute, they break free from their flesh and blood body and instead take a near perfect form that is known as a Transcendent Body. Generally speaking, the only things that can affect a Transcendent Body are the attacks of another Transcendent Body or external force.”

“…my sword cut the tip of his chin.”

Although it was just a small scratch, she’d clearly cut his skin and caused him to bleed a little. She’d felt the feedback through her sword, so she didn’t think it was an illusion.

“And that’s our key to victory. It’s true that Nodiesop regained most of his power as an Absolute. Although he’s under many restrictions right now, it’s obvious that he can use his external force. Nevertheless, it doesn’t seem like he was able to break free from that flesh and blood body. It was the same for Father, too. The same might be true for Letip and the Demon King, although I haven’t seen them yet.”

“I’m not sure I understand what you’re talking about.”

“Nodiesop’s existence is bound to that body.”

Their bodies were something that was arranged by the Rulers. Regardless of how much of their power they regained, it was impossible for them to escape that fact.

In other words, Nodiesop’s existence was closely connected to his body. And if their opponent was an Absolute with a flesh and blood body, then they would have a higher chance than they expected.

At the very least, as long as they were able to kill his body, they would be able to defeat him, regardless of whether they managed to kill him or not. (TL: Just in case anyone is confused, killing Nodiesop and killing his body are separate)

“My demonic energy is currently interfering with his body. So he will have to use his external force to deal with it first. This should decrease the amount of external force he can use from now on, even if it’s only a little.”

Rumble-

Suddenly the water around them began to surge again and the water level gradually began to rise. Then, in the blink of an eye, a huge wall of water that seemed to cover their field of vision appeared.

It became dark.

The wall of water, which was at least a few tens of meters tall, was created in an instant.

“…what did you just say?”

“…at least it didn’t reach the sky like last time…”

Sedi muttered in a sheepish tone and Min Ha-rin had to suppress the urge to roll her eyes. Right. In a sense, it was clear that his power was much weaker.

But as Nodiesop said, although his power had been restricted several times, he was still not an opponent they could easily deal with.

Min Ha-rin once again realised just how ridiculous the beings known as Absolutes were.

The good news was that despite coming to this realisation, her will to fight didn’t disappear.

“But how will we attack him while he’s in the sky?”

There was still a limit to what she could do with magic. Min Ha-rin didn’t think Nodiesop would stay in place and wait for her to come to him.

Leo was also incapable of flying or even attacking from a distance, which made the situation even more frustrating.

However, Sedi responded in a nonchalant manner.

“Ah- That’s fine. He’ll be coming down soon.”

“What?”

Paht-

Suddenly, a red beam of light shot from somewhere on the ground and instantly pierced Nodiesop’s stomach.

The beam had moved so quickly and with such force that it seemed to tear apart space itself.

“…!”

Min Ha-rin’s eyes went wide. She’d heard about something like this from Lukas not long ago.

Was it a similar technique? No. That wasn’t it. Min Ha-rin was currently 7 stars and it seemed that she wasn’t very far from reaching 8-stars.

The point was that her perception was completely different from before.

That beam of light that pierced through Nodiesop was a skill that every Wizard wanted to obtain.

A power that could only be used by those who had reached the very end of the path of magic.

Absolute Power. (1)

“Ma…ster…?”

(Note:

1.If you guys can remember, Absolute Power was what separated 9-star Wizards from 8-star Wizards. In Korean, the ‘Absolute’ for Absolute Power is Konglish (앱솔루트), while the ‘Absolute’ for Absolutes(like Lukas) is ‘절대자’ which is closer in meaning to ‘Absolute Person/Being’. I just shortened it to Absolute cause I felt saying Absolute Person/Being was too clunky.)