Chapter 37: Oi, Remember This?

Looking at Mankor’s mountain-like body, an unspeakable sense of despair rose in the hearts of all four people.

A sea of nearly solidified dark energy surrounded him.

Kaili was the first to take a stance, standing at the very front.

Compared to the mountain-like darkness ahead, the golden light on her body was like a firefly—but it was unyielding and, if anything, grew even stronger.

“You all go.”

The golden-haired Valkyrie placed the Cold Light Crystal used for illumination on the ground, then restored the shattered Knight’s Longsword lying there, gripping it tightly as she strode forward.

That beam of golden light was dazzling in the darkness.

She didn’t like using famous swords of the world.

She always worried that relying on a sword’s power would make her give up on forging herself.

Li Qiuchen froze in place, as if he’d returned to that night when he first met the red-haired Princess.

Even when the girl was ambushed and gravely injured, she only glanced at him before charging toward the high-ranking demon general.

A girl’s voice echoed in his ear, sharp and beautiful like a steel rose.

“Go.”

Do all those who study swordsmanship become the same in the end?

To such an extent that they’re almost identical?

Li Qiuchen looked down at the white ash formed from blue crystals on the ground.

The Source of Mana in his body was completely depleted—there was not a shred of magic left.

His only chance was to wait for it to recover, then use the red tattoo on his abdomen.

He’d never used those flames, but he knew his body most likely couldn’t withstand the fire of the Lion King Bloodline.

Hestia and Reina’s powers were gentler, but Belinda’s flame…

He had seen with his own eyes what price Her Highness the Princess paid to tame that fire.

He wasn’t afraid of pain.

But whether this body could bear such power was still unknown.

The weak Source of Mana within him meant he only had one chance.

He had to seize it.

Uncle Wright tore a strip from his shirt and simply wrapped the wound on his left hand, holding his longsword in his right as he came to Li Qiuchen’s side.

“I left the package under the seat in the Temple of the God of War.”

He said, then charged forward as well.

Jocelyn grabbed the beast’s tailbone from behind, pulling with all her might, but even Wright’s steel blade couldn’t pierce the dark energy.

After slicing through three shadowy demons, he was struck by a shockwave of dark energy and sent flying.

Li Qiuchen helped him down, staunching the bleeding on his ruptured wrist.

Li Qiuchen understood.

He had to stay calm and think of a solution before things reached the worst possible state.

Mankor was now in a controlled state.

Its power was being usurped by Aescher, meaning they were now facing a monster with Aescher’s cunning and Mankor’s strength.

If they could reverse that—

Li Qiuchen looked at the blood flowing from Wright’s wrist.

A bold idea took shape in his mind.

On the battlefield, Jocelyn struggled to restrain Mankor.

She, possessing the Destruction Armor, could actually hold back its mountain-like form.

Kaili used this rare opportunity to launch an all-out attack.

Dark energy around Mankor took shape into the forms of Contaminated by Dark Energy, carrying deadly threat as they lunged at Kaili.

Its massive front leg lifted and slammed down.

Kaili dodged, but the impact sent her flying, her back slamming into the mine wall.

The golden light flickered, but instead of being a dying ember, it burned even brighter.

She split a charging shadow in two with a single strike, her golden brilliance weaving around the beast, destroying countless shadowy figures.

She’d entered a state she had long sought in her training—her energy seemed endless, and wielding her sword felt effortless and clear, even under the intense pressure.

The longsword in her hand was unstoppable, cleaving all before it.

But she knew—if she kept wielding such a powerful sword, the blade would eventually reach a breaking point and shatter!

At this moment, her body itself was like a divine blade.

Her thoughts whirled.

Had she not trained for years in the temple for this very purpose—to destroy all magical beasts?

Now was the time to unleash her full strength.

If she died here, it would be an honor for the Temple of the God of War.

She dared not look back.

Since uttering those words to Li Qiuchen, she hadn’t heard his voice again.

If he left, that was fine.

Only, she regretted not telling him her true name…

Was she crazy, thinking about this now?!

She forced herself to calm down.

She carried the Saintlight Compass this time, having learned from past mistakes.

Once Li Qiuchen got out of the mine, she’d find a chance to use it.

Jocelyn was dragged by Mankor, gouging two deep ruts in the ground.

In the distance, Wright spoke weakly to Li Qiuchen at his side.

“I know…

If you want to leave, there’s still time to escape.”

“Why?”

Li Qiuchen asked.

A teasing smile appeared on the middle-aged man’s face.

“Did you forget?

You’re an Old Sorcerer disguised as a boy.”

“Yeah, but I’m not planning to run.”

Li Qiuchen smiled as blood pooled in his hand.

“Rest for a bit. Soon, it’ll be fine.”

Far away, Kaili finally seized her chance.

Jocelyn was being flung by Mankor, her feet leaving the ground, the Destruction Armor scraping sparks across the rock wall.

She clung desperately to the beast’s tailbone, like a flea refusing to be shaken off—

“If you’ve got a move, use it now! I can’t hold on—”

Her last words were drowned out by a tiger’s roar.

Aescher’s face, twisted into a rift, appeared on Mankor’s forehead.

Dark energy solidified into tentacles, lashing toward Kaili like a storm.

Now!

The Valkyrie did not evade—instead, she leapt high.

With a chanted incantation, the compass at her waist flared with golden light.

A terrifying power filled the space, making everyone’s scalp tingle, that focused force gathering at the sword’s edge.

At that moment, the sword seemed to possess the power to sever all.

It locked onto Aescher’s head and struck downward.

The sea of dark energy parted first, then Mankor’s mountain-like body was slowly cleaved by the sword’s sharp aura, falling away on either side as the entire mine shook.

Morning mist filled the sky.

Suppressing her own anxiety, Kaili was suddenly pinned face-up by a giant claw emerging from the darkness.

“So this is your trump card? Still too weak.”

Aescher’s languid, mocking voice came from the black mist.

Mankor absorbed the sea of dark energy back into its body, its massive form twisting and reforming rapidly, soon returning to its original state.

In the darkness, Aescher’s cold voice echoed again.

“But for someone with such a divine artifact, your background must not be simple.

Keeping you alive might be quite valuable.”

With that, he loosened his hold on Kaili.

Nearby, Jocelyn’s Destruction Armor reverted to an iron box and fell beside her, the girl lying quietly on the ground as if unconscious.

The bleeding at Wright’s wrist had just stopped; he couldn’t even move.

The vast mine, after such fierce battle, had fallen silent.

Only the Cold Light Crystal at Li Qiuchen’s feet offered a sliver of illumination in the suffocating darkness.

Yet Li Qiuchen slowly stood up.

He was like a newly unsheathed blade, exuding a sharp aura that made Aescher, despite his overwhelming advantage, feel a chill.

Li Qiuchen’s expression was calm, but his heart was bitter.

Fate seemed to be playing a cruel joke.

He found himself back on that night, suppressing his fear and forcing himself to stand tall in the face of a powerful enemy.

He wasn’t born a hero—quite the opposite.

He was a high school student terrified of death.

Even after coming to this strange world, forced to face all manner of strong foes, his instinct was to run.

But he was easily moved by the trust of others—a person who would try his best to repay kindness.

It started in a small town, where villagers treated him as a mage fallen from the sky, hoping he’d solve their magic beast problem.

He felt he had to try.

Then he met Belinda, wounded from an ambush.

She didn’t want to involve him and told him to leave, but he stood in front of her anyway.

He’d been lucky—four times, he’d gambled like this and barely survived.

Counting this, it was the fifth time.

A one-in-thirty-two chance.

From a classical probability perspective, independent events shouldn’t affect each other, so his odds should still be one-half.

Facing danger, he could only distract himself with such thoughts to suppress his urge to flee.

Now, only by relaxing could he follow through with his plan.

“I thought you’d hide in the back forever.”

Aescher sneered.

Under Mankor’s giant body, the pressure increased, and Kaili’s bones creaked ominously.

“Ah—!”

Kaili couldn’t hold back a cry of pain.

“Aren’t you curious why it hates me so much?”

Li Qiuchen replied with a faint smile.

He could no longer delay.

Kaili’s predicament forced him to place his bet early.

Hearing Li Qiuchen’s voice, Kaili’s eyes filled with tears for reasons she couldn’t understand.

Idiot!

Why didn’t you run?

Moron.

Why doesn’t it hurt anymore?

But she still couldn’t move.

Everything she had given was worth it.

Kaili suddenly understood the words of the old priest: when someone stands up after you’ve fallen, you will know the will of the Lord.

Li Qiuchen met the enemy’s gaze calmly.

He needed his mana to recover just a bit more.

His Source of Mana was already weak, so every trace restored was a lifeline.

Aescher, controlling Mankor, released the crushed, immobile Kaili and stepped forward.

“You’re almost dead anyway, so why not tell me why?”

“You could ask it.”

Li Qiuchen smiled, stepping on the Cold Light Crystal and extinguishing its light.

“In the end, the Contaminated Fusion Body outside the mine wasn’t sent by you, was it? It must have been released by Mankor during your struggle.”

In the darkness, only Mankor’s massive red beast eyes remained, fixed on the Northernlands youth’s face.

The boy still wore that reliable smile, walking forward as if strolling in a sunlit garden.

“It hates me so much it would even give up its own control just to kill me. Aren’t you curious? Why a guy who’s not even a magic apprentice could draw such attention from Mankor?”

He hadn’t escaped.

Instead, he walked straight toward the enemy.

“I have no reason to care about such things.”

Aescher’s cold gaze locked onto Li Qiuchen.

His mana was pitifully low, and he had no more magic crystals to use.

“You spent all those years searching the tree hollow for power, didn’t you?”

“Are you not curious why, with such weak mana, I know so much magic?”

“Or how I could make a beast like Mankor hate me so much?”

Li Qiuchen stopped ten meters from Aescher.

Aescher couldn’t help but deepen his fusion with Mankor, searching through the beast’s memories for images of this Northernlands youth.

A sea of blood.

A leaping dance.

A taunting voice.

A surge of fury burned inside.

“Remember now?”

“Dulala, dulala, dulala, la…”

Li Qiuchen smeared blood from his hand across his face, singing a silly tune while hopping and skipping in the taunting style he himself had devised.

He was sure Mankor wouldn’t forget.

Since he arrived here, he’d always sensed the beast’s malice.

It clearly remembered him vividly.

The anger within, like oil on a fire, blazed uncontrollably.

Mankor began to regain control—or rather, its own memories began to override the fusion body’s consciousness.

It had always wanted to kill him.

Ever since sensing his existence, that useless human named Kerry failed, as did the three Contaminated he first sent from the mine.

That damned restraining Magic Array prevented its soul from controlling more to kill him!

Watching Li Qiuchen’s shameless dance and ridiculous song, its rage drowned out all reason.

This scene—damn it!

That filthy creature, covered in blood, singing and dancing, goading itself and its brothers to kill him.

Even as his three brothers died beside him, he kept dancing and taunting, driving it mad with anger.

Mankor’s massive body became lightning-fast, lunging at Li Qiuchen in an instant.

A huge, ferocious tiger’s paw aimed to crush him, the beast’s face almost touching Li Qiuchen’s.

It wanted to flatten him and then eat him whole.

“If you remember me, you should also remember…”

Li Qiuchen raised a finger.

“This.”

Crack!

In the oppressive darkness, a small red flame flickered at the boy’s fingertip.

The fire was faint, only enough to illuminate half his face, yet the massive tiger paw frozen midair, unable to move.

A familiar aura.

A familiar death.

Terror and helplessness followed.

A terrifying memory filled Mankor’s mind, overriding its hatred.

A woman with a greatsword, wreathed in blazing flames, cutting down its three brothers one by one.

They were all mountain-sized beings, invincible in its eyes since childhood, but felled with a single sword stroke.

That flame…

The threat of death—it was the thing it had always feared.

Five years had passed.

The red-haired madwoman had finally caught up.

She had chased him down!

Ah—!

Mankor’s body trembled violently.

In an instant, it lost all will to resist.

The Flames of Belinda responded eagerly to Li Qiuchen’s will, as if desperate to lend him all their power.

But his frail body couldn’t bear it.

He felt his mana draining at an alarming rate, his whole body burning in agony as if submerged in molten lava.

Each breath was torment, the pain from his lungs reaching all the way to the tip of his nose.

The weak Source of Mana within him was showing signs of collapse.

Aescher tried to seize back control, but failed.

Looking into the Northernlands youth’s face from his memories, fear swept through him too.

It was Allen!

He saw it clearly—the man standing beside the Supreme Swordsman Belinda was the one before him.

The Philosopher Mage was not dead!

“You are… Ah! Ah—!”

Aescher’s words were cut off by the searing flames.

A sword of fire formed, its light faint yet unstoppable.

It slowly sliced through Mankor’s head, the beast’s flesh curling and blackening from the heat before bursting into flames.

Aescher’s scream faded quickly into ash.

All the dark energy became fuel for the fire, and the entire beast burned, even its Magic Beast Crystal Core consumed.

At last, his Source of Mana shattered.

Li Qiuchen collapsed backward from exhaustion.

In the final moment before darkness claimed his vision, he saw Jocelyn, who had been lying unconscious in the distance, suddenly spring up with a kippup.

“Li-zi, are you okay?!”

She shouted, running toward him.

Playing dead?

Old Four, you really are something!