The Great Mage Returns After 4000 Years

Book 2: Chapter 197

The first one to get the strange feeling was Aram.

He was shocked by the sight in front of him, but at the same time, he was at least able to come to one conclusion.

‘No.’

He looked around.

Instead of looking at the two storms that were spreading from Lukas’ hands, he looked at the faces of those who were facing these storms.

He looked at the Fighters who were struggling fiercely without knowing what to do.

Why?

All the Fighters gathered here were elites who had undergone countless hardships.

The Lirua Arena was one of the largest and most popular among the major cities.

Even if they had lost their true sense of battle because of the match fixing, the strength that they had honed was not false.

More than half of the Fighters he’d gathered had experience fighting against Sorcerers, and the other half knew how to handle their sorcery.

“D-, dodge!”

“Ahhhh!”

“Sp-, spare me…! P-, please spare me!”

And yet, without even the chance to fight back, they were now being swept away like insects in a hurricane.

‘This isn’t sorcery,’ ????n????????????а????. ????????????

With his eyes wide open, Aram came to that conclusion.

This guy.

He only watched on as if all of this was natural. What had he said earlier? Wizard?

‘Mana.’

Storing the natural ki in the body? Calculating the laws of nature?

What exactly did that mean?

He didn’t know. He couldn’t understand any of it.

Nevertheless, one thing was clear.

Everything that was happening now far surpassed Aram’s scope of understanding.

“Kuh!”

Shik.

Aram bit his lip harshly. The pain and taste of blood from his torn lip seemed to help him clear his mind a bit.

“Spread out as far as you can! Don’t stick together! Then…”

…Then, then…

What should they do next?

He instinctively tried to use a technique before realising it was pointless.

The omnidirectional annihilation of ki was still active.

Unexpectedly, the technique he’d prepared to suppress the opponent was suppressing Aram instead.

“Kaytai! Capture Bargan!”

In this situation, they had no choice but to use Bargan.

After all, Lukas’ goal must be to rescue Bargan.

Since that was the case, they would attempt to negotiate using that guy’s life. Otherwise, they would have no other way out.

Kaytai nodded and began to approach Bargan.

Bargan, who was staring at Lukas’ spells in a daze, finally came back to his senses.

He hadn’t fully comprehended the situation at first.

But now, as he saw more than a hundred Fighters being easily tossed around by Lukas, he realised.

‘I cannot become a burden.’

He’d already been saved by his Lord twice.

Once when he’d lost in his fight against him.

And the other time when the Ancient Dragon appeared. (Note: Technically, it was the Dragonling that kicked their asses.)

And now, it seemed that Bargan owed Lukas his life once again.

‘Even if I die, reincarnate and die again, I won’t be able to pay off this debt.’

So at the very least, he couldn’t become Lukas’ burden. Or at least, that was his desire.

Groan.

However, despite his wishes, his body, devoid of even the slightest ounce of energy, remained motionless. The more he tried to force himself to move, the more it felt like his entire body was being torn apart piece by piece. He couldn’t even move a single finger.

‘Please move one last time.’

If he could move his body at that moment.

He wouldn’t care if it meant being crippled for the rest of his life.

“Ha!”

Was he still unwilling to give up in this situation?

Kaytai let out a cold snort as he rushed towards Bargan.

It was at that moment.

Crack crack!

The ground around Bargan rose up to cover him.

The raised ground joined together to create a solid barrier as if it was protecting him.

“Your wall is useless!”

Kaytai swung his greatsword towards the barrier.

Kak!

He’d swung with the intention of destroying it with one blow, but his sword ended up stuck in the barrier like a fork in a cake.

This swing had contained enough force to destroy the wall of a fortress, but it was stopped by this small barrier.

‘Is this not an ordinary wall?’

If he kept swinging, he would probably be able to break it eventually, but he didn’t know how long that would take.

Kaytai turned to glare at Lukas with a blazing gaze.

He looked into the glowing blue eyes of the Wizard, who was controlling the two storms as easily as taking a stroll.

“I should’ve warned you, you can’t touch Bargan.”

“Right. I guess you want to die first.”

Kaytai grit his teeth before pulling his sword out.

“I don’t care if you’re a Wizard or whatever, but do you really think these ice and fire storms can stop me? Do you think a Fighter is that easy to deal with?”

He took a step forward.

A reddish glow began to rise up from Kaytai’s body.

His muscles began to swell.

The leather armor that covered his body began to stretch as if it was going to burst apart.

The skin that was visible under the armor became red, and his veins protruded.

“This is nothing…!”

Kaytai raised his greatsword into the air.

Boom!

And as he brought it down, a storm appeared.

Kaytai’s sword cut the arena ground in half. The crack in the ground quickly spread to Lukas like a snake moving beneath the earth, but Lukas simply rose into the air.

Aram was shocked when he saw this.

This wasn’t floating, instead, it seemed to be an ability close to true flight.

But Kaytai was determined to not be surprised by anything he saw anymore.

Taht!

Without paying attention to it, he tightened his grip on his sword, and kicked off from the ground, quickly narrowing the distance towards Lukas.

His large figure leapt 10 meters into the air in an instant.

His muscles ached like they had been torn by his actions.

Because he was making many forceful movements one after the other, he was putting great strain on his body.

But Kaytai chose to ignore the pain. The grip on his sword was firm.

And after stretching his back to the limit, he swung it forward.

Clang!

His wrist throbbed.

This was unbelievable. With the power that he’d put behind his sword just now, Lukas’ body should have already turned into a pile of meat. And even if it didn’t he should have at last been cut into two pieces.

But he hadn’t been…

‘Something blocked it…’

A round, invisible membrane was surrounding Lukas.

“Barrier.”

Lukas murmured in a soft tone.

“You have all kinds of tricks up your sleeves. However…”

“You.”

Lukas interrupted him.

At that moment, Kaytai felt that Lukas was looking at him for the first time.

“Why are you mad?”

“What the hell are you…?”

“Do you think you have the right to be mad right now?”

“What the fuck are you talking about you bastard…?!”

“I don’t understand. The one who has the biggest right to be angry here is Bargan, not you.”

Lukas’ voice reached the ears of Bargan, who was groaning on the ground below.

Urk.

At that moment, Bargan’s chest felt stuffy and his throat became tight.

In the thirty or so years after he’d left Lirua, he had never felt this way before.

It was a feeling of pleasure as if there was finally someone who understood him.

Moreover, the person who understood him was the man he admired the most.

“And after him, I’m the one who is most angry.”

Anger flickered deep within Lukas’ eyes.

He looked at Kaytai.

Then he turned to look at Aram.

He looked at the hundred Fighters, and looked into the distance to where he knew Kangki was.

What was it that separated humans that should be saved from humans that shouldn’t?

This was one of the first concerns Lukas had when he became an Absolute.

That’s why he saved many races.

There were humans.

And there were also non-humans.

Years went by.

He wandered through countless universes, repeatedly saving and destroying. And after a long time, Lukas came to a conclusion.

Humans were beings who were shaped according to the journey they walked, the teachings they accepted, and the bonds they created.

Some said that they were beings of choice and possibility.

Throughout the entirety of the multiverse, it was rare to find a race in which good and evil could collide so violently.

There was no human who didn’t have any evil in their hearts.

No matter how good a human might appear on the surface, there was at least one time in their life when they had a bad heart. There was no human who didn’t get a little dirty after walking near the dust.

Therefore, the thing that Lukas considered the most important was their attitude towards their inner evil.

They couldn’t turn a blind eye to it.

Nor could they give in to the darkness wriggling in their heart.

Accepting inner evil meant the loss of the soul, and the death of the possibility to become a better being.

And that’s exactly what these Fighters reminded him of.

They had been devoured by their inner darkness.

They had given up the path of fighting beautifully and had tarnished their pride. Not only that, but they also insulted those who continued to fight.

‘Disgusting.’