I looked around. The intense heat generated by his fire magic had already been absorbed by the Phoenix’s egg.
“It seems your fire can’t overcome the coldness of the Phoenix’s egg. Well, that’s to be expected. It was the same at the river.”
“You bastard!”
Merlin shouted, extending both hands forward.
A heavy stream of lava-like flames poured towards me.
I glanced at Oshalo, and he immediately came in front of me.
Oshalo formed an ice crystal shield with both hands to protect me from the lava-like fire.
I also waved my staff, conjuring water magic in harmony with the mansion’s protective magic.
Then, it started raining magical water in the room.
Though it was dozens of times smaller than what Master Abana had shown me.
Oshalo and I easily blocked Merlin’s fire magic through water magic.
Merlin spoke as if he couldn’t believe it.
“Impossible. I’ve bet my life! How can you block my fire even when I’ve put my life on the line?”
I looked at him and calmly said,
“Senior Merlin. What do you think it means that I showed you death magic? I have the same determination you put into that declaration magic.”
Not to mention that I’ve employed the Undine from the fountain, the death magic from the skeleton with particularly strong psychic power, the Phoenix’s egg, the mansion’s protective magic, and even the water herbs, but I didn’t feel like explaining all that.
Merlin seemed to feel a sense of despair, his expression blank. He too had instinctively realized that he couldn’t penetrate my defense.
But then his expression suddenly changed.
Ecstasy?
Pleasure?
It was an expression I couldn’t comprehend.
At that moment, Merlin’s fire gradually diminished. Not only the flames spewing from his hands but also the fire flickering from his feathers subsided.
He brought both hands to his chest. Then he lightly shook the feathers that enveloped him.
Dozens of sparks fell to the floor.
With a slight wave of his hand, those sparks gathered together in his right hand.
Merlin stared at it intently and said,
“The skeleton holding the Phoenix’s egg is what you’ve prepared for a counterattack, right? You have no other means left.”
“You never know.”
Merlin smiled confidently.
“Then I just need to deal with that Phoenix’s egg. That’s all there is to it.”
“How? Even with all your fire magic, you can’t overcome this cold.”
“Just because you have that egg doesn’t mean you’re its master. If I awaken the Phoenix with my power, it will follow me.”
What?
Before I could say anything, Merlin stretched out his right hand. The sparks gathered in his right hand slowly flew towards me.
Just in case, I ordered Oshalo. Oshalo combined the ice shields in both hands into one and stood to block the sparks.
The moment those sparks reached Oshalo’s ice shield, they stopped in front of it and slowly began to emit a fiery aura.
An extremely gentle and soft aura.
That fiery aura passed through the ice shield and was transmitted directly to the Phoenix’s egg located in Oshalo’s heart.
Merlin, with his eyes closed, was dedicating all his efforts to transmitting the fiery aura to the Phoenix’s egg.
My mind became incredibly complicated.
If the Phoenix awakens like this, will it really listen to Merlin?
Or is he trying to catch me off guard, hoping I’ll withdraw Oshalo out of fear?
Should I keep Oshalo here?
Or should I withdraw him?
“Having trouble deciding?”
Merlin’s question, piercing my heart, was more threatening than all the flames he had spewed until now.
He spoke without hiding his smile.
“I don’t care what you do. If you leave that skeleton as it is, the Phoenix will be mine, and if you withdraw that skeleton, I’ll just burn your defenseless self. I noticed earlier that your robe seems highly resistant to fire, so even if I burn you, that robe will remain. Then the Phoenix’s egg you’ve withdrawn will be mine too.”
“If you thought I’d be swayed by such a low-level deception, you’re mistaken, Senior Merlin.”
“Then keep the Phoenix’s egg out there. Until I awaken the Phoenix and bring it under my control.”
His voice was drastically different from the anger-filled one he had used until now.
He clearly saw a real chance of survival.
“If that’s really true, why did you tell me, your enemy?”
Merlin bared his teeth.
“You’re cunning but extremely inexperienced. You know nothing about the battles of mages, hehehe.”
He didn’t explain further and concentrated even more on infusing his magic into the sparks.
As a result, the fiery aura transmitted to the Phoenix’s egg grew stronger.
I calmly looked down at him.
The amount of magic Merlin was transmitting to the Phoenix’s egg through the sparks was too much to be just a deception.
Could he transfer so much magic if he wasn’t certain he’d become the Phoenix’s master?
I took a deep breath.
No.
Let’s stick to the original plan.
It’s about buying time.
I gripped my staff tightly and extended it slightly to the side. A streak of fire formed from Merlin’s sparks, connecting to my staff.
I had diverted some of the fiery aura Merlin was infusing into the sparks.
Feeling this, Merlin still smiled leisurely.
“I will add all the sparks I’ve gathered throughout my life and all the magic I possess. Do you think you can prevent the Phoenix from awakening by stealing such a small amount?”
Whoosh-!
As soon as he finished speaking, his sparks burned even more intensely. As he said, the fiery aura I was diverting to the side was insignificant compared to the fiery aura reaching the Phoenix’s egg.
We remained in this standoff for quite some time.
Feathers began to fall from Merlin’s body one by one. His eyes became hazy, and his face grew gaunt.
Instead, the Phoenix’s egg emitted an even stronger cold aura than before, as if it were the opposite of a candle flaring up just before it goes out.
Thus, I instinctively felt that it was closer to the birth of the Phoenix.
Then I heard Fabre’s voice.
[It’s almost time.]
Finally, the time has come.
I raised my head.
And looked at Merlin.
Merlin, with his eyes half-closed, barely managed to look back at me.
“You seem quite exhausted, Senior Merlin.”
Merlin slightly opened his mouth, but soon closed it without saying anything, with difficulty.
I continued speaking.
“If you’re this exhausted, I think I could win even without Oshalo. It seems the Phoenix’s egg demands more fiery aura than expected.”
Merlin’s lips moved again, but he couldn’t answer.
He was too exhausted even to speak.
“Rather than keeping an unnecessary risk factor, I’ll face you with my own power by withdrawing Oshalo.”
I raised the corners of my mouth and swung my robe.
Oshalo entered my robe.
At that moment, Merlin’s expression changed dramatically.
All the weariness that had filled his old face twisted into ecstasy.
Every wrinkle seemed to be laughing.
He shouted loudly and took a step forward.
“Hehehe. You fool!”
As he stretched both hands forward, the fire I had diverted suddenly moved and merged with the original fire.
And instead of the gentle and soft fire he had shown until now, it became an angry fire that devoured everything.
As its light gradually turned white, it was about to burst from within.
But then a small shadow leaped into the fire.
“Swallow it all!”
At Fabre’s words, who appeared from afar, the sparks lost their brilliant light.
The sparks spiraled into the small shadow at the center, as if space itself was being rolled up.
Soon the fire disappeared without a trace, and a small beetle with red patterns took its place.
“W-What is this!”
Merlin turned to look at Fabre in astonishment.
Behind Fabre were thousands, no, tens of thousands of beetles.
Fabre looked at Merlin with cold eyes, and then the beetles charged towards Merlin.
Merlin wildly swung both hands. But nothing happened from his hands.
He looked down at his hands with a bewildered expression.
“T-This feeling? C-Could it be? Have I entered the castle? How? Your castle should be limited to that room? N-No, no! Argh, Aaargh!”
Tens of thousands of insects covered Merlin.
Fabre, seeming uninterested, ran to me.
“Are you alright, Master?”
I turned my head to look at Fabre.
The same sense of authority I had once felt from Count Furst when I first entered the mansion now emanated from Fabre.
After midnight, the mansion had become his.
“I’m fine, Fabre.”
At that moment, the red-patterned beetle flew and landed on Fabre’s shoulder.
I looked at it and asked.
“Who is that?”
Fabre stroked the beetle’s wings with his finger and said. The beetle made a small sound as if in pain.
“It’s a Fire-resistant Scarab. It’s a special one with magical power, called Jangsit. It has strong resistance to fire and can even create water on its own.”
“You had such a creature?”
“I just discovered it. When the other 300,000 beetles burned, this one survived.”
“Oh?”
“So when I looked closely, I noticed it absorbs heat well. Since I was trapped in the room with nothing else to do, I infused it with magic, and this is what happened.”
I silently looked at the beetle. Strong heat was hidden within its patterns.
Even though it was after most of it had been taken by the Phoenix’s egg, absorbing all of Merlin’s sparks was not something possible at Fabre’s level.
“It must have been possible because it’s within your castle. If we take this one outside the mansion as it is, the fire energy inside would probably burst out immediately.”
“Then it would die, right?”
I gestured to Oshalo. Oshalo trudged over and stood in front of me, then, reading my mind, extended his hand and opened his palm in front of the beetle.
“Put it on Oshalo’s palm. I’ll absorb the heat inside the patterns. This beetle seems to be in pain.”
“Yes, that’s good. Please do, Master.”
Fabre picked up Jangsit and placed it on Oshalo’s palm. Jangsit fluttered its wings a bit as if surprised, but then, apparently liking the cold palm, spread its legs and pressed its body close.
The red patterns on its wings faded and then completely disappeared.
It was then.
Suddenly, one side became bright.
Boom-!
With a violent explosion, Merlin reappeared, cloaked in dark red flames.
He had now lost even his human form, transformed into a giant bird.
Was he not dead yet?
“You bastards! If you think this is the end, you’re mistaken! Even if it’s within your castle, you won’t escape death!”
Merlin held a small, dark red jewel in his beak.
The dark red jewel caught my gaze and wouldn’t let go.
For a moment, time slowed down.
‘The world is wide, and treasures are many, Ran.’
Master Avana’s advice echoed in my ears as several scenes flashed through my mind.
Come to think of it, when I first saw it with clairvoyance magic, and the second time I saw it too, Merlin was holding that jewel close to his chest.
Just as I had prepared many things, he too had prepared the dark red jewel.
Seeing him use it at the last moment, it’s clearly meant for mutual destruction.
Merlin’s beak opened slightly, and the jewel began to fall to the ground.
In that moment, I saw a vision.
Like a volcanic eruption, the mansion would be obliterated, leaving no trace behind.
Merlin’s final struggle to burn everything in the moment when death was certain.
I swung my robe to embrace Fabre. While doing so, I summoned Oshalo and placed him in front of Merlin and us.
Well then.
Can we survive?
I’m not confident.
The moment the jewel touched the floor, a powerful explosion occurred from within it, and the magic Merlin had cultivated for dozens of hours burst out in all directions.
And nothing happened.
“……”
“……”
“……”
Sunlight seeped through our bowed bodies.
Did the sun suddenly rise?
Fabre, Merlin, and I all looked up at the sky with blank expressions.
In the night sky, a giant Phoenix was replacing all the light in the sky.
It shone so brightly that just looking at it could blind you, and it was so hot that merely existing beneath it felt like being burned alive.
No object could move in the face of its majesty.
The Phoenix slightly opened its beak and made all the surrounding air vibrate.
[Ptooey.]
With a disdainful expression, the Phoenix shivered its body before speaking again.
[Not even good enough for an appetizer, let alone an amuse-bouche.]
The Phoenix disappeared in an instant, just as it had appeared.
However, its aura remained for a long time, weighing down on everyone.
I barely managed to turn my head to look at Merlin.
Merlin had become like a statue made of pure white ash. He had offered both his body and soul in casting his final spell.
“What happened?”
Looking down, I saw Fabre looking up at me as if he didn’t understand.
Was it real? Or was it an illusion?
Even Merlin, who could have answered that question, was already so dead.
I turned to look at Oshalo.
Oshalo was emitting a cold aura several times stronger than before.
To think it gets colder the more it consumes fire energy.
I swung my robe to put Oshalo back inside.
“Well. I’m not sure either.”
I slowly approached Merlin.
Even the small breeze created by my steps scattered Merlin’s body.
At this rate, I won’t be able to revive him with death magic either.
As the thought that everything was over came to me, a sense of relief washed over me.
Drip. Drip drip.
Blood dripping on the floor.
I tried to raise my hand to touch my nose, but before I could, I lost all strength in my body.
And then, darkness.
