It was right before everyone's ears went numb from the loud explosion. Only Cale who was the closest could hear it.
It happened a few seconds before the explosion.
"Aaaaaaah!"
He could hear someone screaming.
He assumed that it was Honte.
Then the explosion covered the world.
Black light came blasting out of Honte's heart at that moment and started to spread to the surrounding area.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Cale could feel his heart going wild.
'That black light.
That must be true black magic.'
Cale's heart was beating wildly for some reason.
It was fine when he had seen the black despair, but it was running wild now.
It was like when he had first seen the monsters that appeared on Earth as Kim Rok Soo. His body had shown an adverse reaction toward that disgusting monster he had seen for the first time in his life.
He had been scared at that time.
"You want me to be scared again?"
Cale clenched his fists. His eyes were currently bloodshot.
He twisted the reins with one hand. His other hand was creating a silver light at the same time.
That silver light headed down to the ground.
– It's not enough.
The shield was talking to him.
The Super Rock chimed in as well.
– Do not sacrifice yourself.
'What do you want me to do?! I'm not going to!'
Cale was getting extremely annoyed.
He could feel his body going past its limits. His sight started to get blurry.
Cael saw someone rushing past him at that moment.
"We must s, save them."
He could see a human jumping toward that black light, no, that black swamp while speaking with a stutter.
It was Mary.
The black robe was heading toward the black light. Her instincts as a necromancer were telling her something.
'This is a darker and more terrible power that is at a completely different level than the golem's cores. This is dangerous.'
The people below would die and even Raon might struggle.
Cale also had no strength right now.
"Black magic…can be purified."
A necromancer could purify it.
Mary was relying on her instincts to bring up the memories that were deep inside of her as she started to move.
She then reached her hand toward the black light.
Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiizle.
It happened in a split moment. The back of her hand started to burn the moment it touched the black light.
Mary could feel the tips of her fingers starting to shake.
An immense power was coming to her.
It was something that was stronger than her.
She could feel the true strength of not Honte, but the person connected to Honte.
It was immense.
It was like when she had first met Raon, no, when she had first met Eruhaben.
However, Mary kept her hand out.
< Necromancers are weaker than black mages. >
She recalled the line she read in the book.
< However, we are able to purify their powers. Unfortunately, it comes at a price. >
It was not free.
There was a cost to purify it.
It was the moment Mary saw the back of her hand burning and realized what that price would be.
"Are you crazy?"
She withdrew her hand after a weak hand grabbed her.
A hand that was shaking as it did not have enough strength had grabbed her. Cale started to speak the moment Mary saw the red blood coming out of Cale's mouth.
"Don't hurt yourself to do that."
Mary could see a silver light surround her and Cale at the same time. A small black Dragon also appeared in the area that was surrounded by the black light.
"Mary, I'm sorry! I can't save the black skeleton bird too!"
Raon had covered Cale, Mary, and himself with a silver shield.
Two layers, three layers, four layers. He covered them in four layers of shields as he continued on.
"We are too close to the explosion, so the three of us is my limit! I'm sorry black skeleton bird!"
Mary could see Raon supporting Cale's back.
"Human! I put a shield under us as well! You are an idiot! You are more of an idiot than the talkative Hilsman! You're more of an idiot than Toonka!"
Mary could see the silver shield getting eaten up by the loud explosion and the black light.
Mary subconsciously supported Cale and Raon's back.
"Thanks Mary!"
She could faintly hear Raon's voice through the explosion and could feel Cale leaning on her.
Mary recalled something else that was written in the book at that moment.
'However, we are able to purify their powers. Unfortunately, it comes at a price.'
< But we are already in pain for all of our lives as necromancers, so is there a reason to feel more pain than needed? Especially when purification is a good deed for the world? That is why I found a way to do it without paying a price. >
< Aren't you curious? >
< You just have to be almost unrivaled in strength. >
< Like me, the Sage of Death. >
Mary could suddenly see something.
She could see it even though everything outside the silver shield was dyed black, the shield was shaking and then breaking, and Raon was recreating the shields.
She could see something from the black thing outside.
< I hope you become even stronger than me. My disciple who will be reading this book. >
Mary saw the path she needed to take.
She would become stronger.
She would become unrivaled in strength.
Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang-!
She did not close her eyes even as she heard the explosion.
However, the majority of the people plopped down on the ground and blinked.
"Barf!"
"Baarf-!"
Some of the people could not help but barf.
They felt the need to barf after seeing Honte, the Tower Master's disciple's body glow black before exploding.
They felt an unknown sense of nausea and repulsion.
They also felt fear.
"Oooooo, ah-"
The black light shot down along with the explosion as if it wanted to attack the people.
People had dropped their weapons long ago.
The soldiers were putting their hands on the ground or clasping their shaking hands to pray.
The black light was still not disappearing.
It looked ready to come down at any moment.
"…S, shield-"
However, they could see a faint light that was blocking that black light from coming in.
It seemed extremely thin and weak compared to that overwhelming black light.
Baaaaaang! Baaaaang!
The silver shield shook over and over.
The silver light weakened and strengthened over and over again in order to hinder the black light.
"…Cale."
Toonka, the Whipper Kingdom's Commander, was blankly staring at the sky and the large silver shield. The shield was created with the Empire's dirt wall at the center. The black light looked ready to gobble up the dirt wall.
Furthermore, he was certain that he had seen Cale and Mary who were the closest to Honte being swallowed by the black light.
Toonka slowly started to walk toward the spot Honte would fall.
The remaining Empire's forces, as well as the valiantly charging Whipper Kingdom's forces, had all forgotten about the battle.
The black light slowly disappeared.
Finally, they could see the clear sky again.
Paaaat-
The silver shield slowly became faint before it disappeared.
Plop. Toonka let go of his club.
Screeeeeech- screeeeeeech-
A large white skeleton bird cut through the clouds in the sky and quickly fell down once the darkness disappeared. It stopped once in the air before coming all the way down.
Everybody moved aside to let it descend.
Clopeh, the commander of the white skeleton birds who had escaped to the sky while the black light covered the ground, put the people who were in the white skeleton bird's beak down on the ground.
"Huff, huff."
Cale sat down on the ground and tried to catch his breath before looking up.
He could see Toonka's face. He had that expression of a children's cartoon protagonist again. However, Cale didn't even have the strength to frown at that.
Raon had turned invisible at some point and Mary was supporting him.
He had no strength left in his body.
– You should have just left it to the Dragon. Why did you use the shield?
The Super Rock's concerned voice could be heard.
'Then what do you want me to do?
You want the Whipper Kingdom's forces, the Empire's forces, and everyone else on the continent to know about Raon just because Arm realized the existence of a Dragon?'
He couldn't let that happen.
That was why he pulled out the last remaining bit of his strength to use the ancient power.
The Super Rock continued to speak.
– Why don't you just be honest?
He sounded full of pity for Cale.
– Just say you moved while following your instincts.
Cale bit down on his lips and ignored him.
It was annoying to listen to the nagging when he had no strength.
'Plus, I'm fine.'
He had no strength left, but he was fine.
– Human! You're going to die like this! It's not an issue of your plate now, but you'll die from a lack of strength!
He let Raon's comments in one ear and out the other.
However, there was a different concern on his mind. It was an extremely serious concern.
That concern soon revealed itself to Cale.
"Cale-nim."
Clopeh Sekka. That bastard got off of the white skeleton bird and approached Cale.
"Cale-nim, you were truly a hero! A legend! No, you were even more than that."
'Ah, he's driving me nuts.'
It was slightly awkward because the Fire of Destruction had been stronger than he had expected. But he ended up using the shield as well.
This was something even he had not expected.
His goal was for Mary to capture the Tower Master and for Choi Han to capture the Imperial Prince.
He had thought that would have equally spread the merits of this battle.
But now, he might end up as a hero among heroes at this rate. He needed to prevent that from happening.
'…I need to become just a small hero so that I can retire without any issues before I go live in a remote corner of the world.'
Cale had a small hope like that again as usual.
However, everything turned dark in front of him.
"…Cale."
Toonka was looking at him.
The Whipper Kingdom's forces were looking at him as well.
Furthermore, the Empire's forces that had lost their commander were looking at him.
The soldiers were watching Cale's weak appearance before turning away. That led them to see the empty area that was swept with the black light as Cale's shield was not around it.
They believed that this would be what hell looked like if hell was to be visible from the world.
The soldiers turned their gazes back toward Cale.
Cale was debating what to do about this.
'I didn't expect that Imperial Prince bastard to throw his soldiers away.
No, I didn't expect him to make them into sacrifices for the explosion.'
Cale never expected Adin to try to kill them all.
He really was a thoroughly crazy bastard.
However, that bastard had teleported and Cale was too busy protecting the people from the explosion to catch him.
Furthermore, he had thought that Honte was the Tower Master. He had been tricked there as the Tower Master's true body was somewhere else.
He was angry.
Cale's sight was getting blurry and he felt his mouth becoming dry, but he still could not help but be angry.
It was at that moment.
"Cale-nim, I'm sorry."
He could see Choi Han through his blurry vision.
Choi Han had his head down and seemed to not know what to do.
"Huuu, for what?"
It happened as Cale took a deep breath and barely managed to ask. He saw something fall to the ground.
Plop.
Cale's eyes opened wide after barely managing to see what it was.
He suddenly became fully alert.
'Huh?
This is?'
Choi Han lowered his head and started to speak once Cale turned toward him.
"I hesitated during the explosion and did not manage to catch the Imperial Prince."
'Huh, well, that's fine. It's fine since Raon couldn't help either.'
The corners of Cale's mouth slowly started to go up.
"That is why I caught this person who was the last one to teleport."
Vice Tower Master Metelona was tied up on the ground.
Choi Han lowered his head again.
Plop.
Something else fell to the ground.
He continued in an apologetic tone.
"I apologize. I couldn't capture or kill the Imperial Prince."
Cale couldn't help but laugh at what he could make out with his blurry vision.
"Instead, I cut off his right leg. I also cut around the right side of his heart with aura."
Choi Han was apologizing while dropping Adin's leg on the ground.
'T, t, this viciously crazy bastard!'
Cale was flabbergasted at this unbelievable main character of, 'The Birth of a Hero.' He could also see Clopeh walk over and hand him something.
"What's this?"
Clopeh quietly answered his question.
"It is a video recording orb I had on me to leave a record of the legend."
'Perhaps?'
Clopeh opened his shoulders up a bit and responded back to this rare look of anticipation on Cale's face.
"The explosion of the golems and Honte. All of it is recorded here."
Clopeh's eyes curled up like a snake as he continued to speak.
"You will not be at a disadvantage in the battle for justification, no, the battle for truth on the Western continent in the future."
"T, this smartly crazy bastard!'
Cale raised his head.
He could see the clear sky and hear Mary and Raon's voice.
– Human! Goldie gramps called back! I think I can find the answer now!
"Let's become stronger to protect everything."
Cale continued to laugh.
He lowered his head back down.
"Mm."
He felt the world shake for a moment.
The ground and the sky were spinning as if he was lacking blood.
– Human!
A small front paw supported him.
Mary supported him as well.
Cale lifted his head up.
He could see the Empire's forces and the Whipper Kingdom's forces looking at him, but he saw his group first.
He started to speak.
He focused his blurry vision and tried his best to get the words out.
"Choi Han."
"Yes Cale-nim."
Cale spoke quietly but firmly.
It was the most important thing right now.
He could not allow something like the golems or Honte to happen again.
That was the most urgent situation.
"We will head to the Jungle first."
"…Yes, Cale-nim, I understand."
Cale closed his eyes as Choi Han respectfully answered back.
"Cale-nim!"
"Cale!"
"Young master-nim!"
– Human! You good but idiotic human! This is not okay! Cale!
Cale could hear the voices but could not open his eyes.
He started to think.
'Ah, I'm fainting. Damn it.'
Everything then turned black.