Chapter 145: Seventh-Order Grand Soul Master (Part I)

By agreement, Barick had to remain where he was for five minutes before he could give chase. Three minutes had already passed, which meant only two short minutes remained before he set out. In theory, with so little time left, Rodin and Rosdy should have been hurrying onward even faster. Yet the two men had stopped where they were. Rosdy was barely able to stand while leaning against a branch, while Rodin paced anxiously back and forth, his complexion growing unusually grim.

“Stop pacing. Knowing that girl Pepero, if she isn’t with us, then she must still be in the Mercenary City!”

Rosdy sighed and waved for Rodin to sit down. “But don’t worry. Pepero may be headstrong, but she isn’t the sort of thickheaded fool who would knowingly throw her life away against a powerful opponent. She’s probably still in the Mercenary City because that boy Weil is there too. Weil is clever—and sly. He may well be the one among us who understood our situation most clearly. With Pepero at his side, nothing too disastrous should happen.”

“Let’s hope so…”

A bitter smile touched the corners of Rodin’s mouth. Rosdy patted him consolingly on the shoulder.

“All right. We’ve probably already wasted too much time. We can’t delay any longer. Do you remember what Weil said to Barick just now? Barick is afraid, which means our leader is still alive! He may even be on his way back to the Mercenary City. Our task now is to head north at once and bring him home!”

“Right!”

At last, a spark of spirit returned to Rodin’s eyes. He immediately pulled Rosdy to his feet and glanced around, preparing to move. But at that very moment, a rapid succession of hoofbeats rang out from the depths of the silent forest.

Though the source was still far away, both men could already sense the terrifying killing intent carried toward them. Rodin and Rosdy instantly tensed. As the hoofbeats drew closer and closer, Rodin even began releasing his energy barrier, ready to face whatever danger might emerge.

Three hundred meters.

Two hundred meters.

One hundred meters.

At last, when the shadow of a rider came into view, the tension on both Rodin’s and Rosdy’s faces first loosened—then their entire bodies collapsed limply to the ground.

“Boss, you’ve finally come back!”

……………………..

Barick kept his eyes closed, his lips moving slightly. He was not actually counting how much of the five minutes had passed. Instead, he was murmuring a strange series of numbers.

“West, thirty meters. East, thirty-five meters. North, twelve meters. South, forty meters…”

“Boy, didn’t I already tell you? You aren’t an assassin, so you don’t know how to conceal your presence. And your footsteps are far too heavy—far too obvious. Come out already!”

Barick suddenly turned his head to one side and shouted toward the darkness in the distance. Sure enough, a clear laugh immediately rang out from that direction. Weil emerged from the darkness step by step, the divine staff in his hand.

“You did that on purpose, didn’t you? You lured me into staying behind so the others could escape first, while you remained here to play the hero and buy them time?”

Barick glanced at Weil and asked with a cold sneer.

“A hero? No, no, no! I have neither the interest nor the inclination. You should know that heroes rarely meet pleasant ends. And I’ve already told you—I don’t want to die!”

Weil waved a hand dismissively.

“Oh? How interesting. Then what is your purpose?”

Weil’s answer was simple.

“Nothing much. I just couldn’t accept defeat, so I thought I’d try again.”

“Try again? Try to kill me?”

Barick looked at him as though he had just heard the funniest joke in the world. His gaze was filled with contempt and icy murderous intent.

“Come over and heal my injuries. I promise I’ll leave your corpse intact. And don’t tell me you can’t use healing magic. Didn’t you deliberately show it to me just now?”

“I did. It was only to keep you here…”

As Weil spoke, he completely undid the bandages wrapped around his divine staff.

“Presence, movement, strength—those are the weaknesses you pointed out, aren’t they? Very good. You struck at the heart of the matter. To be honest, I didn’t pay much attention to those things at first. But once I entered actual combat, I realized that they were the most important aspects of all.”

“I admit that I can’t kill you. But you must also admit that you can’t kill me, either. Isn’t that so?”

“I can’t kill you?”

At Weil’s words, Barick burst into laughter once more. Weil remained unmoved. Having fully gathered away the bandages, he looked at Barick and spoke one word at a time.

“First, presence. I am indeed no assassin, and I don’t know how to conceal myself. But I am a mage, and naturally I have a way to solve that problem!”

As he spoke, faint wisps of black aura slowly appeared around Weil’s body. The smile on Barick’s face stiffened little by little. At that moment, he was astonished to discover that he truly could no longer sense Weil’s presence.

Damn it! The boy was standing perfectly well right in front of him, yet he seemed no different from a corpse. Barick could not even sense his breathing. Weil was like a body, like a dead thing.

Necromancy was itself a branch of dark magic, so casting it posed no difficulty for Weil. As its name suggested, necromancy could release a form of deathly aura capable of concealing the caster’s own presence. That was why Barick could no longer sense Weil. The boy’s presence had been completely covered by the deathly aura. To ordinary senses, all that remained was the breath of death—or, in other words, nothingness.

“Next is movement. I’m only a mage, so I can’t train my body to be as agile as a soul warrior’s. But I’m a mage all the same, and I have a way to solve that problem too!”

As Weil spoke, threads of green light radiated from his body. Barick was astonished to find that Weil’s footsteps had become several times lighter than before. If he had not seen with his own eyes that Weil’s feet were truly touching the ground, he would never have believed what was happening before him.

“So now, are you going to show me the strength you lack as well?”

Barick’s expression had turned solemn. As he watched Weil slowly advancing toward him step by step, a strange feeling rose within his heart.

He was clearly the stronger one.