What ensued between me and Cain was a life-and-death battle. At present, the two of us were evenly matched, but no matter what attack I landed on him, Cain immediately regenerated. I couldn’t land a single decisive blow.
“I told you, didn’t I? I completed Immortality Magecraft. All your attacks are useless against me!”
It’s true. Defeating Cain will take a backbreaking amount of work. He had extremely powerful Healing Magecraft. The addition of demon cells additionally granted him bottomless self-regenerative abilities. If I was able to activate my Infinite Domain as I’d done with Zeke, then all his regeneration would become negligible, but the barrier took too long to compose. It wasn’t a magecraft that could be completed unless the opponent was taken by surprise. Since Cain had already seen it before, it wouldn’t work on him.
“Let’s get to the finale!” Cain said, taking the initiative to kick things up a notch.
His attacks became faster. It was clear that he was trying to end things quickly.
“And...now I’ve caught you,” he said.
I couldn’t believe how fierce his attacks were. His speed was unreal, and with his countless arms, I couldn’t continue to dodge him. He’d inevitably caught me between his transformed hands.
“Don’t fret. It only hurts for a second. But since you’ll be able to live with me forever, it’ll be totally worth it!” Cain said.
I see. He really thinks that he’s surpassed me with this attack.
But during his bout of confidence, my body crumbled to dirt.
“This... This is my magecraft!” he exclaimed.
That’s right. This is the same magecraft he used to create those dolls from the ground. Granted, I mimicked it on the fly with barely any time to analyze or practice it, so it took me everything I had just to make it in my likeness. Regardless, it still gave me the opening I needed to get behind him and begin my counterattack with my blade.
“It’s pointless! That won’t work on me!” Cain shouted.
You think so? I’m fully aware that cutting you only buys me some time, but won’t lead to victory.
“Absolute Blizzard!” I said.
With that in mind, I used the strongest magecraft from the Azure-Eyed repertoire: Absolute Blizzard. Unfortunately for him, my objective wasn’t to cut him into bits—it was to inflict necrosis onto his cells.
“Urk... This magecraft...” he groaned.
Hm. Looks like it’s finally kicking in.
Once a body’s internal temperature is lowered past a certain degree, its cells will begin to die. This rule was universal, and applied to all creatures. It didn’t matter how amazing one’s regenerative capacity was if I destroyed their cells entirely. With his body’s temperature lowered to a hundred below freezing, Cain’s body itself began to crack.
“It’s over, Cain.”
Ever since reincarnating into this world, I’d been racked with guilt that I couldn’t teach Cain anything important. But now, I could stop him from the wrong course he’d set out on. All I’d learned from the modern world had, at some point, become priceless knowledge.
“Burning Bullet!” I said.
By heating the rapidly freezing cells, one could completely eradicate them. Since my magecraft couldn’t compete with specialists who’d honed their skills, I relied on my strength as a generalist to be able to use all types of magecraft—together.
“Urk... I underestimated you... This is your strength, Mr. Abel?!”
These were Cain’s last words as he turned to ash.
Well then. This is the important part. I’m sure that killing Cain won’t actually kill him for good. I knew that better than anyone.
“I’ll have to use my trump card...” I heard Cain’s voice from somewhere, and in the next moment, the world shook.
There was a large, fearsome explosion of mana. The ground began to split to the point that even simply standing became almost impossible. The rubble that was strewn around began to start flying at me. I knew that Cain, being reduced to nothing but a soul, was using his final attack.
Even after losing his physical body, as long as he still had his soul, he could revive as many times as necessary. It was the same as my old enemy, Grim. Most likely, he was using this as a way to buy time so he could move to a new body.
There you are. After looking hard, I saw a dimly glowing shape.
Suddenly, Cain’s past words played in my head. Treating the dead as if they’re your neighbors, huh? Good grief. Without even realizing it, I’ve really grown as a mage. It seemed that I’d finally become able to see human souls despite not being able to in the past.
“Rest in peace for eternity, Cain,”
I kicked off the unstable ground, dodging the rubble flying at me until I got close to his soul and cut it in two. I could feel my blade slice through his soul.
Magecraft had a lot of intricacies, and Cain’s past advice had come in handy. It seemed that by raising my abilities as an Ashen-Eyed mage, I became able to interact with the world of the dead in a way that I’d never been able to previously.
“Impossible... How could I...lose?!”
Even if Cain was an Ashen-Eyed prodigy, after losing both his body and soul, he had no more tricks up his sleeve. The outline of his soul that I’d split in two began to fade.
“No... How could I lose?! I should have gained the ultimate body! This isn’t possible!!!” Cain screamed, his death throes becoming faint echoes as he faded away.
Goodbye, Cain. You went down the wrong path. I should’ve guided you down the right one sooner.
Finally, I understood why I reincarnated two hundred years into the future. Cain was by far the most talented of all the mages I’d raised, but also the biggest calamity. Stopping his rampage was the biggest duty I had in the modern age. With this, I’d successfully laid my past regrets to rest.