Chapter 255
Episode 78: The Feats of a Prospective Mage (4)

Thanks to his small frame, it was easy to wrap him up in the robe. If he had the build of an average adult male, hiding even his shoes would have been impossible.

Thud.

‘Did I just hear something prick? No, it must be my imagination.’

Even if it wasn’t, there was no way to pull Dante out again.

Jin looked down at the collapsed Veradin. He was twitching and convulsing, clearly on the verge of losing consciousness.

The best way to break through the encirclement of the Ziphl mages was to use Veradin as a hostage.

But if he paraded Veradin around like a flag to force the mages to retreat, the fact that Veradin had been captured by him would become an official record.

Countless reporters would witness the scene.

Veradin’s fainting had to remain strictly internal information within Ziphl—if possible.

‘He wouldn’t cause another uproar within the family after waking up from this beating, would he? Even if he dies, I thought that stubborn, headstrong streak belonged to Dante, not Veradin.’

It wasn’t without reason that the two were close. Both Dante and Veradin were the type to risk their lives for fiery convictions rather than efficient choices.

Flare…!

As the flames grew fiercer, the gold bars began to melt. The molten gold flowed not toward the fallen Veradin, but out toward the sea.

“There he is!”

“We’ve found Jin Runkandel!”

The mages all turned their gaze to Jin.

But unlike their earlier panic, they were no longer flustered.

Some raised shields above in preparation for the Demon King’s Sword, while others readied complementary offensive spells, coordinating their attack on Jin.

There were twenty Ziphl mages targeting him, yet Jin felt no tension.

He had revealed his identity as Runkandel and his alias Bamel at the square, so there was no need to hide the fact that he was a ‘magic swordsman’ anymore.

Of course, Ziphl might later pressure Runkandel by invoking their family’s oath.

But Jin thought to himself:

‘That’s a matter for the family to handle.’

If Runkandel lacked that level of ability, he wouldn’t have revealed himself at the square today.

In fact, he probably wouldn’t have even set the goal of becoming the family head after his reincarnation.

Vwoooosh—!

Magic power gathered in Jin’s palm. The mages of Ziphl didn’t miss how the ambient magic quickly condensed and concentrated in his hand.

Yet even seeing it, they couldn’t believe it.

“Magic power? He gathered that much?”

The lead mage flinched.

His reaction wasn’t just because Jin had gathered magic power.

Even the mages who had been hailed as prodigies before entering Ziphl were shocked by how quickly Jin completed his incantation.

The magic power was purer than anything the Ziphl mages had produced.

They had always thought such mastery of magic power was only possible for pureblood Ziphl.

But Runkandel? And a green, young prospective mage at that!

“Begin the attack!”

The lead mage gritted his teeth and shouted. Whatever trick that damned Runkandel had pulled, it felt like a personal insult.

The thought of Runkandel wielding magic superior to theirs was terrifying.

No sooner had he spoken than beams of light shot from the mages’ staves in volleys. Shuri’s eyes gleamed as he twisted his body.

Swish! He dodged the magic beams by leaping left and right, slashing with his claws those he couldn’t avoid.

The mages seemed to have anticipated this, calmly following up with the next spells.

Lightning summons, flame barriers, freezing prisons—elemental magic poured down relentlessly. Shuri had no time to rest on the ground.

‘And they even prepared a barrier.’

From Jin’s perspective, the Ziphl mages were responding excellently.

Despite their numerical advantage, they calmly chose orthodox tactics to eliminate variables, and the three or more elemental spells harmonized to pressure Jin without waste.

But that was as far as it went.

They hadn’t accounted for the unpredictability only a ‘true genius’ could wield.

It was natural—they couldn’t fathom that they themselves weren’t geniuses, nor that Jin possessed magical insight far beyond theirs.

Flash!

Suddenly, Shuri leapt high to avoid a burst of flames shooting from the ground.

The Ziphl mages immediately raised their staves, aiming at Shuri as if they had been waiting for this.

Just like when they first fired the magic beams, ten of them—excluding those with shields—were simultaneously chanting the same spell.

“Tear him apart!”

Hellwind—the essence of an 8-star wind-element attack spell.

Opaque, artificially formed winds surged toward Shuri and Jin. Sharp as blades wrapped in aura, their blurry forms made their trajectories unpredictable.

Most importantly, Shuri couldn’t dodge because he was airborne with no ground to land on.

‘They must have chosen this because it’s impossible to miss due to its range, and too difficult to slash away with a sword.’

But the Ziphl mages firing Hellwind was exactly the development Jin wanted.

Reverse Heaven!

Just before the Hellwind struck, a small crack appeared in the air above Jin’s head.

It was the fissure where the Reverse Heaven sphere would form. Magic swirled violently inside, expanding the crack until the sphere took shape.

A full Reverse Heaven required 9-star magic power, but Jin usually summoned an incomplete version with about 7-star power.

However, this time Jin wasn’t using his own magic power to cast Reverse Heaven.

The ten Hellwinds engulfed Shuri. Their magic intertwined, completely obscuring his falling form.

Ssshk, sskrk, rumble—!

But what the mages heard wasn’t the sound of flesh and bone being cut, but a strange noise—like the Hellwind’s magic being sliced by a saw.

Though brief, the mages instinctively sensed something was wrong.

Lightly!

Shuri and Jin landed on the ground unharmed, without a single scratch.

And in less than a second, the crack that had spread to summon Reverse Heaven now formed the largest sphere Jin had ever created.

To the mages, it felt as if the sky had momentarily darkened.

A monstrous roar, like a beast’s, echoed.

While the mages scrambled to understand what was happening, Jin canceled the Reverse Flow he had simultaneously cast in the air.

He only activated Reverse Heaven with minimal magic power.

Then, wielding the Reverse Flow like a shield, he deflected the incoming Hellwind’s trajectory.

Thanks to this, the Hellwind was sucked straight into the Reverse Heaven’s fissure, fueling its full manifestation.

In other words, Jin absorbed the Hellwind and planned to send it back to the Ziphl mages.

Though the Reverse Heaven’s power exceeded 9 stars, Jin had only actually used magic to cast the Reverse Flow shield.

For most mages, this was only theoretically possible.

The Reverse Heaven Jin had just cast in midair contained at least five divine techniques.

The speed at which he completed the incantation in seconds, the strategy to precisely gauge the number of opponents, simultaneous casting, the delicate control to choose the magic’s origin point even on a moving mount.

And the confidence to pull it all off flawlessly in a life-or-death situation.

“This is how magic should be used.”

A thin trickle of blood dripped from the corner of Jin’s mouth as he smiled.

It wasn’t from reckless magic use causing backlash. When he swung the Reverse Flow shield to block the Hellwind, the recoil hit his forearm like a punch.

His mouth tingled.

In other words, aside from that, Jin had suffered no damage.

“Everyone, raise your shields!”

The lead mage, the first to grasp the situation, shouted like a madman.

Half the mages still had no idea what had just happened.

They were on a completely different level of understanding magic.

The lead mage thought this as he looked at Jin.

If he had known Jin possessed such talent and had mastered the Kidard Hall’s secret techniques, he would have responded differently.

There were twenty Ziphl mages—not elite or special class, but still twenty. Who would have expected to lose the magic battle of wits to a prospective mage not even twenty years old?

Kiiiiing—!

The Reverse Heaven, having absorbed all the Hellwind’s magic, began to actively draw in magic power.

The shield that had been prepared in advance against the Demon King’s Sword was already buckling. The attack team hastily raised new shields, but frantic incantations were poison to mages.

“Ugh!”

Mages caught in the backlash began to fall one after another. Raising a shield immediately after casting a large spell like Hellwind was too much even for prodigies.

The moment the Hellwind was absorbed into Reverse Heaven, the Ziphl mages’ defeat was sealed.

“They should have lowered their magic power and scattered to escape, not raised shields. If they’d been lucky, at least one might have survived.”

Jin had often felt inferiority and defeat watching his brothers and knights in his past life.

But he had never once envied the Ziphl mages.

Back then, Jin had started magic at twenty-five and reached 5-star power in just three years, so there was no need to be intimidated by prodigies.

He had at least once felt something close to affection for Veradin, but even then, he believed that if he had started practicing magic earlier, he could have easily surpassed him.

And now, that belief had become reality. Veradin was the only person in Ziphl who had earned his favor.

Swish!

Sigmund drew his sword from its sheath. The blade gleamed in the sunlight, and the mages felt as if they were condemned prisoners.

Bound by the restraining spell called Reverse Current, they had no means to resist.

“Break through, Shuri.”

Lowering her stance, Shuri shot forward like an arrow.

The mages who hadn’t yet been caught in the backflow launched counterattacks, but their strikes were sliced away like leaves by Jin’s sword, charged with lightning energy.

From this point on, it was no longer a fight—it was a massacre.

Jin had no intention of sparing a single one of them.

“I have no personal grudge. Blame your affiliation with Ziphl.”

“Nenooooom…! Ziphl will—will definitely kill you!”

“Good. It would have been more disappointing if you begged for your life.”

Shk—! Thud.

With every swing of Jin’s sword, the mages collapsed to the ground like puppets with cut strings.

A group of reporters who had just arrived at the harbor instinctively covered their mouths at the sight.

“W-What on earth is happening…?”

The Golden Castle of Ziphl was burning and melting away.

And in front of it, Jin was slaughtering the mages of Ziphl.

From this evening onward, the world’s headlines would be flooded with news about him.