He had no arms. He had no legs. He only had one eye left. At every moment, he felt pain in the cross section of his wounds and his empty eye socket as if they had been set ablaze, but that didn’t really bother him. Lukas knew how to handle pain.
Clink.
Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t move around because his severed limbs were bound in chains.
But even with all of this, he was still granted some freedoms.
He could still close his eye. He had no problem controlling his rate of breathing, and he could continue to think. Therefore, he had no problem creating the conditions needed to concentrate.
—Meditation.
An absence of thought was required for mediation. The only time this wasn’t needed was when one’s mind was free from distractions in the first place. But that wasn’t the case for Lukas now. On the contrary, his mind was more active than it had ever been before.
“Huuuu…”
He slowly let out a breath.
The fog in his head seemed to escape through his mouth. It was faint, but it was clear that his mind was slowly regaining its intelligence.
There were two things that he had to think about at this point.
What he had to do.
And what he could do.
‘What I need to do is…’
The first thing he had to do was regain his body’s freedom. If possible, it would be good if he could regenerate his limbs. It was difficult, but not impossible. There was certainly a way, if he could succeed.
“Father, it’s time for dinner.”
Sedi opened the cell door and walked in. She was holding a single piece of jerky the size of a knuckle in her hand.
…Sedi didn’t want Lukas to die. What she wanted was to keep Lukas’ presence by her side and have complete control over him.
Even if she had lost her mind. No. Even if her mind was broken, that goal only made her obsession stronger. And in this world, if you didn’t eat, you would eventually begin to disappear from the tip of your toes. It was an unannounced death that was twice as terrifying than normal starvation.
Sedi gave Lukas the jerky. Lukas opened his mouth and bit the jerky before chewing slowly and swallowing. He felt the barest amount of energy return to his body.
This made it possible for him to ‘exist’ for the time being.
Sedi smiled contentedly.
“You’ve become a bit more obedient. That’s enough. Huh.”
“…”
“Later, when Father can really make good judgements, I’ll even let you regenerate your limbs too. So stay calm. Alright?”
Sedi left the dungeon without waiting for an answer. Gradually, she was beginning to spend less and less time in this place. Was she working on something? Or…
Lukas shook his head. He couldn’t afford to think about what Sedi was doing now.
He waited until he could no longer feel Sedi’s presence, and her footsteps could no longer be heard.
When he was convinced that she had left completely,
Twet.
Lukas spat the beef jerky out of his mouth. The beef jerky, which had been carefully cut by his molars, glistened with saliva.
Pale had said that in order to maintain one’s existence in the World of Void, one had to eat before the sky changed colour five times, but that wasn’t the complete answer. There were subtle differences depending on the individual.
So when Sedi gave Lukas jerky for the first time, she had no choice but to feed him a larger amount than usual. This was because, if Lukas were to disappear because she didn’t give him enough jerky, that would be the worst.
At first, she gave him two pieces. As soon as he ate them, one of his arms had regenerated. When that happened, Sedi had frowned before cutting it off again.
“Now that I think about it, there’s one more thing I need to break.”
After saying that, Sedi pierced Lukas’ mana room with a thorn that she produced from somewhere. The small bit of mana he had replenished disappeared once again, and the amount of jerky he received from that point was reduced by half.
After she realised how much was needed for Lukas to barely maintain his existence, from that day onward, Lukas’ meal was a single piece of jerky. But that turned out to be a trick.
In fact, Lukas only swallowed half of the jerky that he took into his mouth. It was a method that took some finesse, acting skill, and a fair share of luck, but in the end, he still succeeded.
‘This is far from enough.’
It would take at least ten pieces of jerky for him to fully regenerate his limbs. If he were to swallow all of the stored jerky at one time, he would be able to heal all of the wounds on his body.
‘Eight more times.’
Lukas would need to have eight more meals in the future. It was a gamble because there was still a chance that he could get caught, but he couldn’t think of a better plan.
Lukas forcibly moved his severed leg to cover the jerky.
* * *
He’d collected five pieces of jerky in total.
He’d received a total of five meals.
At this point, Lukas agonised inwardly.
‘This won’t do.’
Even if he ate the ten pieces of jerky and regenerated his body, that didn’t necessarily mean he’d be able to break free from the chains restraining him. Not to mention escaping from the dungeon.
And what about after that?
If Lukas managed to escape, Sedi would probably still be able to recapture him again with ease. Even if she only noticed his escape after a long time, that would still be the case.
He didn’t know if he’d be safe if he went to the territory of another of the Twelve Void Lords, but even the closest one was very far away from this place. And even if he did arrive at one of their territories, there was a very slim chance that one of the Twelve Void Lords would fight Sedi for Lukas.
‘I have to fight.’
His options narrowed. Running away was pointless.
To overcome this crisis, he would need to defeat and subdue Sedi.
—But, how?
He couldn’t use void. He’d been trying to use that power for a long time, but it remained silent.
The most powerful, almighty and dangerous powers that Lukas had used before. Mana, divine power, divine magic power, and of course, the Absolute’s external force were nothing compared to it. At the very least, in the World of Void, void was the power that was closest to the concept of invincibility.
When he’d gained the ability to use that power, Lukas realised that he had entered a higher level. (TL: And still got his butt handed to him xD)
But he’d lost that power.
No, it rejected him*. He didn’t even know if any of the ‘Lukases’ were left. (*: Could also be ‘he rejected it’.)
He felt the sense of loss once again.
…Then, what did he have left?
Subconsciously, Lukas checked his mana room.
“…”
His mana room had been pierced by black thorns. Naturally, there wouldn’t be any mana there. The mana that was regenerated when he ate the jerky quickly fled through the gaps.
A mana room without mana was still called a mana room. Lukas smiled twistedly as he thought of the pun. He couldn’t. It wasn’t a mana room, it was just a space in his body.
He scoured every inch of that space. It could even be said that he turned on a light to look for even the thinnest residue. Seeing himself like this was ridiculous. It was no better than going to a lover you’d abandoned and kneeling down to beg for forgiveness.
Nevertheless, Lukas was desperate.
He was so desperate, he searched for even the slightest hint of mana in his body. It didn’t matter how little.
His mind became hot and his consciousness ignited.
Meanwhile, a corner of his head gradually cooled down.
‘What is the reason?’
When he had been using void to fight in the past, Lukas… hadn’t used the fighting style he was most familiar with. It would have been entirely possible for him to do so because void was an infinitely applicable ability.
He could have used magic.
But he didn’t.
Instead, Lukas used weapons he was unfamiliar with, and sometimes even resorted to hand to hand combat. Of course, there was no discomfort in that behaviour because he had the memories of the countless ‘Lukases’.
But it was by no means his strongest fighting style.
‘What was I afraid of?’
He asked himself.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t use magic. He chose not to use it. And the reason for that lay within him.
He had to ask. He wanted to know for sure.
Why the hell did he hesitate, what exactly was he afraid of.
“-ah.”
His voice leaked out without him realising it.
A bit.
He felt like he could sense a bit of mana now.
He had sensed a reverberation. Nevertheless, the reason it took him so long to realise it was because the trace didn’t come from within Lukas.
The frog.
The hint of mana he’d sensed came from the spot where the Beginning Wizard had stood.
“…”
Lukas hesitated again.
Even though he’d found the mana he desired so much, he couldn’t reach his hand out to it so easily. However, this wasn’t the time for hesitation. He couldn’t expect the mana to remain there forever.
…He focused his attention.
He approached it with utmost respect and caution, and also with the slightest hint of fear.
‘Please come here.’
And the mana.
As if it had been waiting, it began to approach Lukas.
“…”
Tears threatened to escape.
Lukas clenched his teeth, his expression unsightly.
In his head, he understood. This was nothing more than a simple reaction.
Mana was just energy, it did not have a will of its own. Therefore, for a Wizard as talented as Lukas, it would not be difficult for him to make it do his bidding even if it was further away. In fact, it could be considered a natural phenomenon.
Nevertheless, he was so grateful that it had so willingly answered his call that the faint touch of mana warmed him enough to bring tears to his eye. Lukas had a hard time keeping the tears at bay.
There was only a bit of mana.
There was so little that it would almost be used up if he cast even a 1 star spell. It was far from enough to reverse his situation.
But it was by no means useless.
This mana allowed Lukas to take the first step. It gave him hope.
So what he had to do now was the simplest but also most difficult thing.
That was to be patient and move forward slowly, step by step.
But, of course, that was one of Lukas’ specialities.
* * *
The Corpse Ghost had said.
-Because there is a high chance that the Beginning Wizard is a higher level version of you.
He’d said that after seeing Lukas use void.
-Of course, the effects and direction are a bit different. But at least, you are not a perfect pioneer in that power of Void.
In other words, the Beginning Wizard could use void, just like Lukas. Probably more perfectly than Lukas, too.
But when the Beginning Wizard blew up the Snake Apostle, he hadn’t felt any activity of void.
‘No. At that time I’d already been rejected by void, so I might not have been able to notice.’
If that was the case, then he’d have to change the direction of his question.
How had the Beginning Wizard left mana in this place? Mana was not a part of the World of Void’s atmosphere. In other words, it couldn’t remain here. He now knew that it wasn’t just the case for mana, but for other types of energy as well. The power of void erased everything it touched.
[The ignorant call anything they can’t understand ‘magic’.]
Suddenly, he heard a voice. At the same time, he felt the mana, which had reached almost to the front of his nose, melt like a candle.
Lukas was surprised, but he soon calmed his surprise as he grasped the situation.
‘The Beginning Wizard.’
This was all that man’s arrangement.
He’d left the mana here, then set a certain spell that would activate once certain criteria were met.
[It’s ironic that the thoughtless remarks of these people are infinitely close to the true essence of magic. Because magic in its truest sense is something that cannot be understood by anyone.]
The voice continued to make remarks that were difficult even for Lukas, the Great Mage, to understand.
[Magic is not a field of study. Or rather, it shouldn’t be a field of study. If there are hundreds of Wizards, then there should be hundreds of different kinds of magic.]
Nevertheless, Lukas was deeply focused on that voice.
[The nature and interaction of mana? Structured teaching and discipline? That is all false. It’s the same for the word magicology. In fact, that word in itself is a contradiction.]
[Create your own world in your head. Do not be understood by anyone, and do not share with anyone. You have to be outrageously self righteous. Remember. The moment your world is understood by someone else, your identity as a Wizard fades.]
[The knowledge of a Wizard is self righteous.]
The voice stopped there.
In the cell, Lukas became lost in his thoughts.
He’d come to realise after talking to the Beginning Wizard.
He… For some reason, he seemed to favour him. He couldn’t tell if it was a lie or calculated behaviour.
What was clear was that he had a certain reason for leaving this arrangement.
“…self righteous.”
Lukas slowly rolled those words around in his mind.
The Wizards from Magic Planet.
They were completely different from the Wizards Lukas had known before. It wasn’t that they used an energy that was completely unrelated to mana, but they didn’t seem to use the system of magic that he knew before.
Was that the answer?
Was the magic they were seeking and using right?
He could not even guess how powerful the Beginning Wizard was.
Sedi had said she’d killed the Beginning Wizard. But he’d appeared before him in the form of a frog, and there hadn’t seemed to be any urgency in his voice. To put it simply, this meant that he was safe and without injury.
In other words, that meant that even Sedi, who had borrowed the Black Horned Demon God’s power, had not realised that the Beginning Wizard’s death was fake.
‘A being superior to me in the field of magic.’
His heart beat strangely in his chest.
For the first time, Lukas looked forward to meeting, or reuniting, with the Beginning Wizard, for a reason other than Jacob.
This was a crossroads.
He could see two choices before him.
He could either take the Beginning Wizard’s words as a lesson or simply dismiss them as simply advice.
But that thought didn’t last very long.
“…!”
Lukas raised his eye.
“This…”
A voice that could not hide the surprise he felt leaked out of his lips.
The presence of mana had suddenly appeared in the void around him.
No. That wasn’t it. It hadn’t suddenly appeared. Lukas focused his gaze a bit more.
Then he realised.
“The void… is changing into mana.”
It felt like a current passed through his brain. Like a scholar who had gained a glimpse of the truth, Lukas looked at this scene with a wide mouth.
Eye wide, Lukas made sure to capture the entire scene in his gaze.
And he had a thought.
If he could fully understand what was happening at that moment, he might have a chance to obtain clear victory in the fight against Sedi.
(TL: For anyone getting a sense of deja vu, the words in the [] are exactly what the Beginning Wizard said to Jacob as quoted in chapter 411. The Author likes to reuse dialogue.)
Comments