Chapter 87: Salvation

“Mr. Mateo.”

“Yes, Saintess.”

“You need to stay and help me.”

“Of course.”

While Mateo instructed his followers to take Claire and leave, I stared at Karelin and Licht as I spoke.

“Draw Karelin’s attention. I’ll handle that egg myself.”

“…Are you sure you’ll be all right?”

Mateo squinted at Licht and asked me in a worried voice.

“That’s enough. It’ll be fine.”

“Understood. I can’t disobey the Saintess’s words, after all.”

Mateo stepped toward Karelin.

Mateo probably knew Licht’s abilities. That must be why he was worried. But I’d already verified it.

It was possible to subdue Licht with my skill alone. As long as Karelin didn’t pull any tricks.

‘And I have no intention of letting her get away.’

Even if I succeeded in subduing Licht, if I let Karelin — the root cause of all this — escape, everything would be for nothing. Even if I managed to severely disrupt her plans and destroy her faction, given time, Karelin would threaten us all again.

Just like I rose again.

Karelin might rise again too.

Above all else.

“Ludwig…”

Facing Licht, I gripped the Mana Sword I’d conjured in my hand.

The Hunter I’d admired was dead. But he wasn’t the kind to die like this.

He should have weathered every crisis that came, and in the end, met the rest he wanted, in the place he wanted.

At least, that’s what I thought. Back when I faced him during Dark Moon, he didn’t look at me.

No, thinking about it now, he wasn’t looking at anyone. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

That guy who saved everyone from the crisis — he showed no emotion at all. And then he vanished without a trace.

They said he showed up during the End Cave raid… but I didn’t see it myself, so I don’t know what that was like.

Anyway, what matters is.

He was strong enough to be called the world’s strongest Hunter.

And he wasn’t the kind to lose to a low-level mage like that.

She must have pulled some kind of trick. For example…

‘The Master of Crescent.’

The whereabouts of the Crescent guild master were still a mystery. Before Hames took over as acting master, Moonlight must have held that position.

Like Glare said, there was a high chance the Crescent master was connected to Karelin.

‘Glare said… she didn’t think the Crescent master was a bad person.’

If her words were true, then a possibility emerged: the Crescent master might have been threatened or captured by Karelin as a hostage, and Moonlight might have sacrificed himself to save the master, with no other choice.

‘Is that it?’

At the same time as that question.

I kicked off the cave floor and charged.

Licht moved too. He raised his sword high and swung it down. Dodging wasn’t hard. I sidestepped, and Licht’s sword rushed toward me.

It had a grandiose title — the sword that erases space — but if you just dodged it, it was no different from a toy sword.

‘And this is supposed to be Moonlight.’

The slash I saw at Dark Moon wasn’t something you dodged — you could only run from it. And running wasn’t easy either. It made you feel like you could only survive if your opponent showed mercy.

But his swordsmanship now was pathetically sloppy. I easily exploited that gap and quickly swung my Mana Sword.

Just as I thought I’d stabbed him in the side.

‘…!’

Licht moved his sword before it touched his body and parried my Mana Sword. A Mana Sword was, as the name implied, a sword formed from mana. So the moment it touched Licht’s sword, it dissipated.

Because I’d put force into it, my body staggered. In that instant, his sword came at me.

I smirked, as if claiming I’d planned it from the start.

[ Gravity Element — Gravity Manipulation ]

I manipulated gravity to lift my falling body, defying the laws of physics.

Licht, sensing it, swung his sword at me, but his blade didn’t reach me.

I’d already forged a Mana Sword to seal him off.

Thunk!

A Mana Sword flying from somewhere pierced Licht’s sword hand. But Licht didn’t drop his sword. As if insisting he was a zombie, he tried to swing it anyway, unfazed.

But he couldn’t.

Thunk!

Another Mana Sword flying from somewhere pierced Licht’s leg, and his body lost balance, collapsing. Even so, Licht slowly rose again.

It seemed he’d barely manage to get up, but—

Swoosh!

Another sword flying in pierced Licht’s other foot, and he fell over once more. He tried to get up again even after being pierced like that, but this time he couldn’t. Both feet were completely sealed. Light flickered from the mana swords that had pierced him, and they pinned him to the ground as they were.

Another Mana Sword shot out from somewhere and pierced Licht’s stomach.

After several such shots repeated, Licht’s body became a pincushion of mana swords.

But.

“…”

With the same eyes as ever, Licht tried to rise again. He attempted to swing his sword to erase the blades stuck in his body, but he couldn’t. The hand gripping his sword was pierced by dozens of mana swords, completely sealed off. As a zombie, he had neither the strength nor the ability to break free.

If Karelin had been pulling strings from behind, Licht could have escaped from there, and wouldn’t have been caught by that in the first place.

The mana swords were still aiming at Licht. If he tried to resist, I could shoot them out and seal him up immediately.

A swordsmanship that freely moves a sword out of reach to attack.

‘It’s called flying sword technique, isn’t it?’

I copied what those who were good with swords did. Honestly, I don’t know how high that level is, but it wasn’t that hard for me. It’s just casting several spells, that’s all.

Every time I pull out a Mana Sword, I chant a spell, repeat that, grant stealth to the swords I’ve pulled out to hide them, move them to the desired position with Gravity System magic, and shoot them out with Vacuum System magic at the needed moment. For me, an Incantationless Casting mage, it’s nothing but a very simple act.

Yeah, no one but me can do this very simple act.

“…!”

Pierced by dozens, hundreds of mana swords, Licht was still struggling, but he couldn’t escape the swords’ binding.

‘Pathetic sight.’

If this is the final end of Moonlight, who was called the world’s strongest Hunter, it’s truly as pathetic as it gets.

‘…Or is it not?’

But I soon denied that thought.

If Moonlight had been in his right mind.

If he’d brought out even half of his true strength, I probably wouldn’t have been able to beat him.

If that ability to erase space itself was also his ability.

Anyway, this was the reason I denied that thought.

The master of Crescent. Maybe Moonlight chose sacrifice to save him.

Not wanting to be used by Karelin, Moonlight made a choice close to death.

And this is what that ending looks like.

All of this is just speculation.

“…”

Looking down at Moonlight, I felt a mix of emotions.

I can’t say I beat the world’s strongest Hunter. Winning like this isn’t a proper victory.

What I wanted from Moonlight wasn’t victory in the first place. I just wanted him to look at me and recognize that someone like me existed.

The current Moonlight probably doesn’t even have the intelligence for that. He’s just a zombie being controlled by Karelin.

For that Moonlight.

For Ludwig Light, this is the only way to save him.

‘I will save you.’

Saintess, my ass.

But maybe because I keep hearing that word, only “save” came to mind.

I reached out my hand.

The largest magic circle I had ever crafted so far.

A spell so massive that even I, an Incantationless Casting mage, took a long time to cast it.

Its power is just as certain.

Light shot out from the magic circle. Aiming at the mana swords stuck in Moonlight’s body.

The mana swords flickered and began to lift. Licht’s body, pierced by the mana swords, rose along with them.

“Licht!”

Karelin’s voice rang out from afar.

“You cannot touch a single hair of the Saintess!”

I was on edge, worried she might pull some trick, but then Mateo’s shout followed.

CRACK!

As if interfering with the magic, the sound of sparks flying rang out.

“You cultist!”

My guess was right—Karelin had tried to pull something, and Mateo seemed to have blocked it.

…But what the hell was that about the Saintess’s hair?

‘Fuck, I shouldn’t be thinking about that.’

Thanks to that, my concentration wavered.

I focused my attention back on the magic circle.

It didn’t take long to complete.

Now, all that was left was…

‘Resolve.’

The backlash from this magic would be severe.

When I erased Licht’s Mana Shield, I felt dizzy for a moment.

Probably an even stronger strain than that would come over my body.

But aside from that, I couldn’t think of any other way to ‘save’ that bastard.

So.

[ Mana Explosion ]

This was the method I chose.

The mana flowing through my body is nearly infinite.

A spell that detonates that near-infinite mana all at once.

Originally, it was meant for the boss of End Cave, but I backed off before that situation even came up.

Well, still…

‘You’ll be a fitting target.’

Though he’s a zombie, that body is Ludwig Light.

The one called the world’s strongest Hunter.

I was certain this was the right magic to save him.

I raised my finger. And then, as if giving a signal, the moment I lowered that hand—

BOOOOOOM!!

A violent explosion, blazing with the light of mana, engulfed the entire cave.