A Returner's Magic Should Be Special

Chapter 151. The King of Puppets (2)

The Prophet turned his head and looked in the direction of the sound. On the other side of the battlefield, the Homunculus was being completely overpowered.

When the Homunculus was unilaterally defeated without offering any kind of decent resistance, and after it felt like it was useless exercising its power any further, it finally snapped and went on a rampage using up all of its power in the one go. It was an act that put itself at a distinct disadvantage and would certainly lead to ruin.

The Prophet spoke with a look of surprise.

“… there’s a man here aware of the power of a Homunculus.”

His eyes turned to Desir, who had clearly been leading the battle. Desir’s command had certainly piled up pressure on the Homunculus. In fact, they had almost knocked it down for good.

Without further thought, the Prophet mobilized about half of the fragments of the Brionac and aimed them at Desir’s party. Feeling enormous power rocketing towards him, Desir ordered his party to hurriedly retreat.

“Your opponent is me!”

In an attempt to regain the attention of the Prophet and reduce his interference in Desir’s battle, Kei made full use of the gap in the Prophet’s defense and made a bold offensive.

“I can’t take even a moment to look away.”

As the situation changed, the Prophet decided he could not afford to use his power elsewhere. He even gave up attacking Kei, only using the Brionac for defense.

“Urgh!”

After consolidating all of his power into defense, even Kei could not easily break through the Prophet’s shield. In the end, Kei was forced onto the back foot.

Taking this opportunity, the Prophet revealed another item. It was a huge bow made out of what looked like wood.

“Sorry, but I can’t let them destroy it.”

Strangely, however, the arrow presumably nocked in the bow it was not visible. Moreover, the bow started to float in the air as if it had been lifted by an invisible hand.

[Load a Branch of Yggdrasil]

The bowstring drawback in response to the voice of the Prophet. At the same time, raw mana began to gather in front of the bow, forming an arrow.

Feeling grave, Kei tried to stop it somehow, but it was no easy feat to break through Brionac, which had been dedicated solely to defense.

Despite Kei’s best efforts, Yggdrasil’s branch accumulated its strength.

By then, Desir, who had been busy dealing with Homunculus, was able to grasp the situation. Feeling the amount of mana now concentrated on the bow, Desir shouted as his face visibly paled after measuring its power.

“Deploy defensive magic! Right now!”

It was too late to use a spell that could offset its attack right now, and it was also impossible to avoid it somehow.

[Sigh of Kizard]

Adjest invoked the spell with the highest defensive capabilities that she knew.

Desir and Romantica also rushed to gather as much mana as possible to deploy their own defensive magic.

Two ice barriers formed in front of them and a strong air current swirled to create a wall. It was a triple strength barrier.

The Yggdrasil’s branch was released at the barrier. It dissipated everything in the vicinity of its trajectory.

It was truly a tremendous power.

The triple defense magic shattered without enduring against its power for even a second. They had managed to alter its trajectory slightly though, saving their lives.

But Kei’s men were not fine. Desir’s party ran to hide behind their barrier and barely made it in time by just a hair's breadth. The soldiers, unfortunately, were swept away by the silver arrow, disappearing without even leaving a trace behind.

Kei’s face distorted at the sight. A violent rage consumed him.

He clenched his lips and rushed at the Prophet.

Dozens of aura flowers bloomed from all sides. Kei deployed aura to the absolute maximum of his ability, as if holding nothing back.

The Prophet, now freed of the worry for the safety of the Homunculus, turned his full attention back to Kei. He fired part of the Brionac towards the sky.

The ceiling collapsed with a loud noise. Moonlight poured down from the perforated ceiling. *Woooooooong*

The moonlit Brionac howled. Each of its fragments that were previously emitting a faint glow, began to emit dazzling light as the moonlight shone on them.

At the same time, the blades became more corporeal. This was the grand reveal of the hidden card that the Prophet had concealed until now.

*Crash*

Even though it was just light shining off the shards, the ground and walls were crushed, as if unable to withstand the force. The roof of the building collapsed too. Everything, stone or iron, was parted by the light.

But Kei didn't mind all those things and approached the Prophet. With each step he took, a stronger force struck him.

The armor he was wearing began to distort and countless lines of blood were drawn on Kei’s body. Soon after, his left arm burst, unable to withstand physical force, but Kei refused to back down.

“Ahhhhhhhhp!”

Kei, who had reached the Prophet’s, struck a blow.

Kei’s alluring blade, which emitted a light no dimmer than that of the light pouring out of Brionac, diagonally intersected the Prophet’s body. The extreme swordsmanship of a man who reached the top as a sword master pierced the most valuable treasure of the mythological era.

Kei’s ability was far above what the Prophet expected. “… … … !”

*Cuarang*

The Yggdrasil’s branch, which had been busy reloading all this time, lost its light and ceased functioning.

The Prophet was still alive, even though he was not able to get up properly due to the sudden attack.

“… … … It was too shallow.” Kei frowned.

The Prophet shouted, wiping the blood flowing from his mouth. “Free yourself!”

Numerous treasures then appeared. They were all priceless artifacts.

Desir could recognize two or three of them. From what he remembered. They were all artifacts known to have been long lost.

He couldn’t understand how one person could possess so many artifacts. “There’s no way… How many artifacts does he have?”

There was no time for admiration though.

Artifacts are, despite what they saw in front of them, things that were hard to obtain. Dozens of artifacts began to operate simultaneously.

*Boom*

The ‘Wind of Leroy’, crushed everything in its vicinity after being injected with mana.

The ‘Crystal Ball of the Rotane’ that supported other artifacts by responding to any reaction of someone approaching.

In addition, dozens of other artifacts poured out their capabilities at the same time. Their combined power was beyond any bombing that a magic unit could perform.

*Booom

*Boom*

If Kei hadn’t stood in front of them, Desir’s party would have died.

The situation was urgent.

There was no time left to focus any more on the Homunculus.

The Homunculus had already consumed all of its mana and was unable to even move its arms and legs properly anyway.

‘I’ll finish it up later… ’

Right now, the first priority was to deal with the Prophet in front of them. Desir decided to use a spell with the highest power he was capable of producing.

Desir began to arrange ‘that’ magic.

Beautiful figures appeared in front of him as he wove intricate spell arrays. [Flame Storm]

Desir unveiled a spell at the maximum power he could currently use. *Booooom*

A storm of intense flames burned not only the dome but also everything in front of it.

The Prophet, who had not been able to properly walk due to the wounds he received from Kei, was swept away helplessly.

The flames, which had surpassed the power of the numerous artifacts, ended up consuming everything without restraint.

What emerged when the flames stopped was the scenery of the multitude of artifacts that had been vanquished and a half crushed Prophet. Judging from the number of artifacts stretched around him, he seemed to have fought back with defensive artifacts.

The Prophet’s body was a wreck, but he was still breathing. Desir attempted to arrange one last spell, to end this without letting his guard down, but soon found himself falling down in exhaustion.

The Prophet muttered with an expression of disbelief. “How do you know the language of the Sun-ju people… … …” The Sun-ju people.

A tribe of people otherwise known for being an exclusive club of mald frogs (patreon.com/maldfrogsclub).

While he couldn’t quite place where he knew this from, Desir could vaguely recall this being the word used by a draconic tribe to describe themselves.

Doubts about his identity grew bigger as the Prophet possessed a lot of artifacts and even knew about draconic language.

“Soul, I never thought you’d be able to burn it to power a spell. Although it hadn’t worked perfectly… … I can see this is the end for me.”

The Prophet’s body crumbled like pottery cracking in a kiln.

He spoke to Kei and Desir.

“Congratulations. You’ve performed a feat much greater than you could ever realize.” The skull mask worn by the Prophet cracked before crumbling.

“There has never been a man in my very long history, who has driven me this far.”

When the mask was removed, the Prophet’s face was different to what they had seen when first meeting him.

“The Dwarves, who were dexterous, were blinded by greed and their bodies melted into the magma. The Elves fell into eternal sleep due to their faith in a far-off prophecy. And the believers of the Goddess offered their whole country as a sacrifice. But I… It’s like being destroyed by the most poorly treated beings in the kingdom of magic.”

The Prophet had a very adrogenous face, leaving one unable to tell whether he was a woman or a man.

‘I think I’ve seen this face somewhere else… ’

Desir, who had been agonizing for a long time, was finally able to recall the frame hanging in Wilhelm Evernatten’s office, when he participated in the Shadow World test last year.

He was shocked at this revelation.

“… … … I remember seeing your face. Izmael, the last pope of the Holy Kingdom of Artemis.”

“Yes, I was once referred to by that name.”

Desir was confused. It was hundreds of years ago that the Holy Land collapsed. It was impossible for figures from that era to still exist in this time period.

‘Maybe one or more of his artifacts have an ability that allows that.’

Artifacts all had powers that exceeded common sense. Even if there was an artifact with that kind of ability, it would not be a huge surprise.

Desir spoke to the Prophet after calming himself. “I have a question.”

“You may ask as much as you like. You guys deserve it. I’ll answer for as long as time permits.”

His body was becoming more and more fragmented. There was clearly not much time left. “What’s the purpose of creating Homunculus?”

“The purpose… is simply to fulfill the promise. To fulfill the promise… I need it… ” “What the hell is that… ”

“The great… Goddess… of all… ”

The Prophet was out of breath even before he could finish speaking. His body collapsed into dust that soon spread in all directions. It was a death that left countless questions.

Desir was overwhelmed with a wave of fatigue at the thought of this finally ending, but the Shadow World did not close just yet.

“It’s time to finish things.”

After eliminating the collapsed Homunculus, the quest should be cleared. Desir stepped towards the Homunculus.

Suddenly, someone stopped Desir.

It was Sword Master, Kei Hazmaryoon. He had lost his left arm in his fight with the Prophet, and at a glance seemed very tired.

Bet he was pointing his sword at Desir. [You have entered the final quest.]

[Sword-master, Kei Hazmaryoon has killed the mastermind. Kei Hazmaryoon needs a homunculus for his true goal. He would do anything to achieve this goal. Kei Hazmaryoon has been revealed as the true mastermind.]

[Kill him and destroy the Homunculus. This is the only remaining clue to the manufacturing of Homunculus left in the world.]