Chapter 336

335. The Immortal and the Mortal (4)

Under the night sky, a dark, shadowy forest stretched out. *Plop*, a drop of dew fell and hit Fernandez’s nose. *Startled*. He twitched his brow slightly and quickly checked his condition.

His limbs were intact, and his senses were fine. There were no signs of life around, and his weapons…

‘One dagger.’

Only the blunt hilt of a dagger could be felt in his embrace. It had been a while since he had traveled with such light armament. He frowned and slowly opened his eyes.

A cool night breeze brushed through his hair. His long, shaggy hair scattered messily in the wind.

“This time, the hallucination is quite vivid.”

In that void he arbitrarily named the afterlife, Fernandez had been enduring endless hallucinations to keep his sanity.

How much time had passed since then? In a dimension where the concept of time didn’t exist, he lived a second like a thousand years and a thousand years like a second.

And the result was now. His mind had developed to the point where it could conjure such intricate hallucinations. He had reached a stage where he could simulate touch and vision through imagination alone.

‘Is this the sensation of going insane?’

Long ago, he had faced many mages who were dying from addiction to drugs and magic. Most of the mages who survived until the end of his previous life were in such a state. Old losers flailing in hallucinations as they died…

It was utterly ridiculous that he had become like them. Perhaps the final stage of a sufficiently matured mage always ends in madness.

-*Crunch*.

Fernandez walked through the bushes, thinking. He knew himself better than anyone else. Even if it was a hallucination, since he had created it himself, it wouldn’t be a directionless, reckless delusion.

This hallucination, too, must have something he wanted to tell himself. Regret, sorrow, hardship, or longing. Whatever it was.

-*Rustle*.

By the way, the shape of the forest felt oddly familiar. Although he wasn’t a seasoned enough woodsman to navigate a forest at midnight, it still felt as if he had seen it often…

“The Crimson Tower…”

When he reached the edge of the forest and pushed through the thick bushes, a wide clearing appeared. Exposed lava glowed fiercely, and a geometrically intricate black tower with crystallized decorations emerged from the heat-glazed ground.

The magical engravings on the tower’s surface, from the most basic foundations to the pinnacle of craftsmanship, were all carved by him. It was no wonder it felt familiar. This forest was his stronghold, and this tower was both his final years and his tombstone.

Faijashi’s Crimson Tower and the Forest of Sorrow. That was the name of this place. The tomb of countless heroes and warriors. The eye of the world’s destruction. The stronghold of the ‘Traitor’ Faijashi. The epitome of the Calmburg Magic Academy and the meeting hall of the Great Demons, where the corridors of the five thrones were located.

The fact that the hallucination had recreated this place so meticulously… didn’t require much thought. He took a moment to steady his breath and slowly opened his mouth.

“Were you waiting all this time just to play this prank?”

-*A prank?*

-*Kugugugugung!*

The entrance of the Crimson Tower began to open with a heavy noise. Thick steel gates parted, and a drawbridge descended over the moat of flowing lava. Fernandez stood at a distance, arms crossed, glaring into the darkness that flickered inside the tower.

-*If you think this is a prank, you’re going to die, Fernandez. Though, even if you take it seriously, I doubt much will change.*

“Are you demanding control over my soul?”

-*In the face of death, I have always existed as myself. Just as you have. As you once said, if you and I can no longer be the same being… I will die as myself.*

Fernandez smirked and stepped onto the drawbridge. At that moment, a hot wind blew through the gates. A sticky, eerie magical force began to press down on his entire body.

This wasn’t Faijashi’s magic. This was just his presence. The presence of Faijashi in his prime, at the peak of his power.

A mage whose level rivaled that of a transcendent. A being whose mere breath, subtle gestures, gaze, and footsteps could spontaneously generate magic, and whose magical power could craft itself. The presence of someone who had reached such a sublime level.

The pinnacle of a mage. The majesty of a grandmaster who dared to establish his own school and unified all the dark magics of his era, creating a new lineage called Enmagika, was now materialized in magical force, pressing down on him.

It’s quite a new feeling to experience this from someone else’s perspective. Fernandez lightly shrugged his shoulders and walked into the drawbridge.

-*Face your past, Fernandez. I will grant you the right to die as yourself.*

“Interesting. Has my mind finally reached its limit?”

-*What?*

“It’s the kind of thought an overly arrogant old mage might have in his final moments, unable to endure eternity. Such a complicated way to commit suicide.”

-*Haha, if you think of this as suicide, would you hand over your soul to me without resistance?*

“Hey, Faijashi. Even when I was you, I never gave up.”

In the darkness, red eyes glowed. An old man stood on the high steps of the corridor, looking down at him and smiling.

Fernandez stared straight at him and smiled back. Their twisted smiles mirrored each other perfectly.

“I’ve always wondered.”

-*Between the me of that time and the me of now. Which one is stronger?*

“Whose prime was truly purer, and whose life followed the more righteous path?”

-*That… Well, to put it this way, it would be clearer.*

-*“Was my choice truly the best for me?”*

The choices of that time and the choices of now. At the ends of two completely different paths. In the culmination of each possibility pushed to its peak. Who could truly claim to be more right?

Fernandez drew the dagger from his embrace. He gripped the hilt and spun it around once. As the thought crossed his mind, the dagger in his hand had already transformed into a massive greatsword.

It was a familiar sensation. An ancient weapon that had never been damaged through countless battles over the years. The totality of sword energy deeply engraved somewhere in his soul. The swordsmanship forged from King Dane’s compassion.

It had already been years. Since the moment their souls mingled when he passed King Dane’s trial…





The essence that sprouted from the depths of the soul was now grasped in his hand.

The significance of that image was invincibility. A spirit that would not bend or break, no matter what hardships lay ahead. Fernandez had never forgotten it since that day. Beyond his attitude toward life, the soul of King Dane, which he had inherited, served as a guiding coordinate for his existence.

“Alright, Faijashi. Let’s try to kill ourselves.”

Two entirely different possibilities, built from the same origin, began rushing toward each other in the ancient corridors of the past.

* * *

A crimson robe intricately embroidered with golden threads, various sinister artifacts, and geometric tattoos covering his entire body. Every single ornament and pattern was a magical tool, each carrying its own meaning.

When he raised his hand to swing, he counted four beastmen with a single gesture. Quadra Spell with a single casting. Even that alone was enough to be called a grandmaster of magic, but—

*Clink!*

The crystal bracelet around his wrist rubbed against the ornaments at the hem of his robe, weaving a new spell. Mana flowed like lightning between the ornaments, intersecting their movements and drawing different patterns!

*Kugugugung!*

Thus, seven spells were summoned with a single gesture. Like arrows, or like thunderbolts. Twisting their trajectories in the air, they leaped toward Fernandez—!

*Kaaang!*

In that moment, a dark trajectory pierced through. Cleanly severing the red flashes, it struck once! Fernandez’s body spun, continuing the trajectory.

*Quaddeudeuk!*

The pouring magic reached its peak, on the verge of manifesting. Each spell was destroyed with the sensation of driving a mana wedge. Fernandez, without blinking, stared straight at Faijashi’s face, never stopping his charge.

He was like a storm of steel. A destructive assault that left black afterimages in its wake. Even as magic was fired and curses bound his body, Fernandez’s sword pierced, shattered, and tore through the very fabric of the spells.

*Like a wild boar!*

“Didn’t I say that before?”

*Haha, who else but Diemonica!*

*Kwaaang! Boom!*

Perhaps because they had both reached the pinnacle in their respective fields, the two laughed and joked while swinging swords and weaving magic. As the clash of spells and steel continued, the distance between them gradually closed.

If he could reach him, if he could close this gap, he could kill him. Fernandez’s eyes seemed to say just that. Faijashi, in that moment, couldn’t help but laugh.

*Using the tip of a sword to unfold a magic battle. Truly like me.*

He had mastered all of his techniques to an annoying degree. Even before the beastmen were counted, he read the angle and trajectory of his arm, predicting the spell and stabbing his sword precisely into its weak point.

This was a high-level magic battle. Except the mana wedge was replaced with a brute weapon like a greatsword. Faijashi bared his teeth and laughed.

*Fernandez. You understand me through experience…*

*Kugugugung!*

Both hands counted the beastmen. And simultaneously, a hand reached out from behind him. Three heads, six arms. The auxiliary spell Faijashi was weaving was undoubtedly a precursor to a great magic, on par with a signature spell.

Fernandez quickly kicked off the ground and leaped. The remaining distance was barely five meters. With his jumping power, he could cover it in a single breath and strike.

In that moment, Faijashi’s words continued.

*But I counter you through analysis.*

The Faijashi Fernandez remembered was a specter of the past, merely a part of the memories he held. As a product of experience, he had fully grasped Faijashi’s methods. Of course. Faijashi had been his previous life.

But Faijashi saw Fernandez through observation. Over three short years, he had coldly analyzed the ever-changing swordsmanship, techniques, and the limits of that body from an observer’s perspective.

Always running with death at his heels, he knew better than anyone what that body was capable of. If a day like this ever came, how should he handle it? How would the battle unfold?

How should he face a swordsman who had reached the pinnacle of understanding a mage, Faijashi’s magic?

This was the product of analysis, prediction, and research.

In other words, the domain of a mage. A feat only mages could achieve.

*Kugugugung!!!*

In mid-air, Fernandez’s body suddenly stopped. At a distance where their breaths could almost touch. Fernandez’s sword lightly cut through Faijashi’s beard, stopping just an inch from his throat.

“Stasis… Barrier?”

Fernandez’s mouth twisted open with a creaking sound. He forced his stiff tongue to move and speak. Faijashi chuckled at the sight.

The spell Faijashi’s right hand had cast was a Stasis Barrier. Too crude to be called a signature spell, not difficult to break, and even Fernandez could easily resist it.

Fernandez’s eyes quickly moved to the other side. To understand the nature of the spell that had stopped his body. If that was a defensive spell, then this—

*Stasis Barrier.*

The beastmen counted by his left hand were also Stasis Barriers. And.

The four spectral hands reaching from behind him. The auxiliary spell of Three Heads, Six Arms was also forming Stasis Barriers.

The magical formation created by the artifacts wrapped around Faijashi’s body was also pointing to… Stasis Barriers.

*Sixfold Amplified Stasis Barrier. Each spell linked in parallel, every component meticulously… connected from start to end.*

It wasn’t just amplification. Stacking the same spell wouldn’t double its power. But by endlessly repeating the cycle of the spell’s start and end, connecting and reconnecting—

Until the spell itself became an incantation. The mana woven was so pure, it could almost contain divinity. A spell closer to the essence of magic, using mana to shape reality, purer than any signature spell created in that era.

The culmination of an old, seasoned mage’s understanding and knowledge of mana, achieved through repeated research after rising from death.

*Faijashi’s Horizon.*

A spell so refined in the concept of stasis that it could even freeze time. Fernandez, suspended in mid-air, laughed inwardly.

This monster. Even after death, he’s still evolving.

If his other signature spells were focused solely on destruction, this spell was entirely different. It was almost an art form built through mana. Fernandez couldn’t help but admire the old man before him.

Magic cannot reach the realm of the gods. But if the concept of magic could contain mystery and divinity, wouldn’t this be it?

*Now you’ll have to admit it, Fernandez? You’re weaker than me.*

The god playfully laughed, brimming with pride.