Chapter 69

According to the legend passed down in Colton Winery…

After driving out the great snake that had terrorized the village, the Guardian Tree of Wind took root on the highest hill in place of a stockade.

But that was only half the truth. In reality, the two beings had never rejected each other.

The Guardian Tree of Wind had simply lulled the earth spirit to sleep with its power, and the two had remained intertwined ever since.

SHREEEEE—!

Tekuros. The great earth-spirit snake that settled in Colton Winery.

Mikhail called up the lore attached to the beast shrieking before him and gauged what attacks would actually land.

Edwin's got the tail pinned, so it can't burrow or ambush through the ground. It won't be able to use the pattern where it corners its target with its mouth and tail at the same time, either. And on top of that…

TAP!

Mikhail kicked off the ground and closed in fast on Tekuros's head.

Tekuros drove its gaping maw into the path Mikhail was headed for.

CRUNCH!

The earth cratered inward, throwing up a thick cloud of dust.

But Mikhail stood just outside the attack's trajectory and its aftershock.

He watched Tekuros with its jaws buried in the dirt and narrowed his eyes.

…And it's gotten sloppy from frustration.

Tekuros raised its head. Roots and clumps of soil spilled from its gaping mouth.

The instant those slit pupils locked onto him, Mikhail thrust out his hand and fired a mana sphere.

CRACK!

The sphere hammered Tekuros's skull hard enough to wrench its head sideways.

But the snake corrected its posture almost immediately. It coiled back into an attack stance and fixed its glare on Mikhail once more.

Its tongue flicked in and out, hissing far louder than before.

"……."

Tekuros's razor-sharp gaze bore into him without pretense.

Mikhail absorbed the full brunt of that hostility and kept moving.

CRUNCH! CRACK!

The chase raged back and forth.

Tekuros lunged with its jaws wide open, whipping its massive body left and right as it pursued Mikhail.

Every strike looked ready to swallow him whole.

BOOM! KA-CRASH!

But Mikhail refused to make it easy.

He dodged another set of fangs slamming into the ground, then lifted his head toward the snake's body.

Crack. Cra-crack.

Behind Tekuros's head—golden crystals were pushing through the gaps in its scales.

"…!"

Mikhail's eyes narrowed to slits as he locked onto the golden growths.

Simply taking Tekuros down would've been a valid strategy… but that was never the best outcome.

In that instant, Tekuros let out a metallic screech and wrenched its body sideways.

GRRRRR!

Every time that massive frame collided with the earth, violent tremors ripped outward.

Mikhail held his balance, channeled mana into the soles of his feet, and launched himself skyward.

At the same time, he stretched his hand toward the emerging crystals and fired.

SHATTER!

A sharp burst rang out as the malformed golden crystals fractured and scattered in every direction.

Tekuros's body listed heavily toward the ground.

Mikhail kept his eyes fixed on the scene as he drifted back down to earth.

Preventing Tekuros from fully transforming into a magical beast. That's the best play.

The golden crystals sprouting from a living creature's body signaled the onset of full beast transformation.

Conventional wisdom held that once a creature was consumed by the crystals and turned, there was no coming back.

But at this stage, one hopeful piece of lore still applied.

If the host hadn't been fully devoured by the crystals yet.

If the original creature's consciousness still existed—

Then it can still be brought back.

Mikhail steadied his breathing and watched Tekuros haul itself upright once more.

Crack. Cra-crack.

That grotesque fracturing sound echoed again.

A fresh crop of golden crystals tore through scales in a different spot and jutted outward.

Two more rounds of destroying the crystals.

Mikhail clenched the hand hanging at his side and faced forward.

Those vertical pupils were glaring at him again—hungry enough to devour him whole.

Mikhail met Tekuros's gaze and murmured.

"Just hang on a little longer. This'll be over soon."

---

Meanwhile, on the ground below the Guardian Tree.

Nelia had just dragged another guard—knocked out cold by the sleeping sickness—behind a grapevine. She turned her head toward the hilltop.

THOOM! KA-THOOM!

Tremor after tremor, roar after roar—and Mikhail faced the beast alone.

GRRRRR—!

Nelia held her breath and reviewed what she'd observed so far. The massive snake fighting Mikhail had gone down twice.

But moments ago it had reared up again and resumed its onslaught. Just when she thought it might be tiring, its ferocity would spike without warning.

Could Mikhail really endure a drawn-out fight on his own…?

Nelia furrowed her brow mid-assessment and turned to Julien, who sat beside her.

"Julien."

He met her eyes at the sound of his name.

Nelia glanced toward where Mikhail was fighting, then leaned closer and spoke.

"Wait here. I'm going to help Mikhail and—"

She'd barely turned back toward the hilltop when her arm jerked to a halt.

Nelia looked back slowly. Julien was shaking his head.

"No. Don't interfere. You'll only get in the way."

"Get in the way?"

Nelia trailed off, stealing a glance at him.

A spark of defiance flared at his blunt certainty that she'd be a hindrance—but what caught her attention more was his voice.

Julien's refusal came out unusually cold. Rigid.

For a split second, she wondered if something personal was eating at him.

That was when it happened. Julien flinched, whipped around, and thrust out his right arm.

Pzzt!

A flash of blue light burst from his fingertips.

A chunk of rock that had sailed within arm's reach shattered into fragments and clattered to the ground.

"……."

Nelia stared at the falling debris in shock, then turned to Julien.

His expression was the same composed mask as before.

He slowly withdrew his outstretched arm and settled back into a crouch behind the tree.

A brief silence passed.

Julien blinked a few times, as if sorting through his thoughts, then slowly began to speak.

"Because Mikhail is a mage."

Nelia realized this was an extension of his earlier answer.

So she watched him in silence as he continued.

His voice came low and level—monotone, even.

"And magic isn't the most flexible ability. Swordsmen can channel mana into their weapons or their bodies and control the force all the way to its peak. But for a caster, the moment a projectile leaves their fingertips, they lose most of their control over it."

"……."

"So when something unexpected appears mid-battle, the calculations multiply. And if that variable is something the caster needs to protect, the hesitation gets even worse."

Nelia listened to the clinical explanation, then let her gaze drift downward.

"……."

Julien's fingers, wrapped around his drawn-up knees, trembled faintly.

Just barely—but his hunched shoulders had drawn narrower than before, and his voice carried the uneven cadence of someone struggling to breathe.

Everything about him looked like a person drowning in worry. In dread.

"Hesitation in a real fight is an opening waiting to happen. It's better not to create variables. So right now… at least… just for right now…"

Julien had been holding his composure together as he spoke, but his voice cracked at the tail end. He swallowed the fracture and fought to steady his tone.

"……."

Nelia raised her hand slowly.

She laid it gently over Julien's, which shook harder now than before.

Tap.

Nelia met Julien's violet eyes.

She saw the expression threatening to crumble at any second, and let a small smile settle on her lips.

Right now, nobody was more worried about Mikhail than Julien.

But he had no choice except to trust him and watch from here—so he'd been reciting logic like a litany. Hinting at rational possibilities to keep himself from falling apart.

And as it happened, the most fitting thing she could say to someone like that was something Nelia knew better than anyone.

"You've already decided to trust him. Haven't you."

Julien's eyelids twitched wide. Nelia put conviction behind her next words.

"Then close your eyes and believe. Don't let yourself spiral any deeper. Don't doubt."

"……."

"The first time is always the hardest. You let yourself be fooled, you take the leap, you put your faith in someone… and eventually it feels as natural as breathing. It only gets easier from here."

Julien stared at her as though trying to see through her.

For a moment he parted his lips, looking as if he wanted to add something—

"……."

But he seemed to change his mind. His gaze drifted downward by slow degrees, and his head dropped.

He sat like that, swallowing a small silence down the back of his throat.

At last, the corners of his mouth drew into a faint, fragile smile, and he spoke in a voice he'd fought hard to find.

"Yeah. I'll… take that leap."

Nelia smiled brightly again.

That was when it happened.

FWHOOOOSH—!

The ground shook on a scale unlike anything before, and a savage wind tore down from the sky.

The raw, wild scent of grass surged from every direction.

Dirt and leaves blanketed across the hillside erupted into the air.

SHREEEEE!

A splitting roar tore loose from in front of the Guardian Tree.

Nelia and Julien snapped their heads toward the source.

RRRUMBLE.

The great snake shuddered once, then listed sharply and crashed onto the ground.

"!"

Nelia's eyes flew wide with shock.

But before she could react to what she was seeing, the scene shifted once more.

Fssshhh.

A fierce gust swept through as the Guardian Tree shook its trunk and scattered teal leaves high into the sky.

Golden crystals shattered and flew apart in a burst of blue mana.

Like a candle blazing in its final moments, they swallowed the sunlight and burned red.