Chapter 164

“No! Damn you, Starweaver! How dare you interfere!” Though driven back, the Flute of the False King didn’t give up. His stores of accumulated mana had been drained, but he could still control spirits. If he scraped together enough of those left, he might be able to buy enough time to flee. Aiming to do so, he moved—or rather, he moved Emanuel’s body—to blow the flute. He drew the instrument out of the ground and raised it to his lips. But just then, one person moved. It was the petite girl hiding her mouth behind a veil—the Silent Witch. Her eyes glinted green as she wordlessly cast a spell. Wind blades. Did she intend to destroy the flute? In the span of a single moment, Galanis’s thoughts raced. This group of humans had put up barriers to prevent any harm from coming to Emanuel. They didn’t want to kill him. This girl wouldn’t be targeting him, either. She was probably after Galanis. But, as far as he could tell, her wind blades were a far cry from the sixfold strengthening spell or Starspear. He could withstand them if he mustered all his remaining mana. Galanis gathered all the mana he had left onto the surface of the flute. Impassively, the Silent Witch flicked her finger. The compressed, mana-dense blades of wind sheared through Galanis’s defenses like a knife through butter. Her spell wasn’t normal magecraft. A four-layered strengthening! And without even chanting! Galanis had lived for many years, but he had never seen a mage who could cast such a powerful spell without chanting. Ah, I should have made her my master! Had I but lured this girl with her merciless gaze to the battlefield, I could have demonstrated my true worth! As Galanis lamented, the wind blades sliced him in half. The flute cracked in half and dropped to the ground. At the same moment, Monica’s knees gave out. The witch who had so coldly destroyed the ancient magical item covered her face with her hands. Her fingers trembled, and she cried out in anguish. “Nooo… Formula segmentation on a four-layered strengthening spell… It’s so ugly…so flawed…” While Bradford could perform his fourfold strengthening magecraft all at once, Monica needed to split the formula into two segments. The process went against her entire aesthetic as a mage. But she’d had no choice—they’d needed to destroy Galanis. As Monica wailed, Louis stared at her with equal parts amazement and exasperation. “My fellow Sage, you just used a four-layered strengthening spell without chanting. An inhuman feat. Could you please refrain from complaining about it?” Louis collected the pieces of the flute from beside the fallen Emanuel and sealed them, just to be sure. Then he checked the Gem Mage’s pulse. “Well, his heart is still beating. We’ve destroyed the Flute of the False King and sealed its broken pieces…which means we can finally go home.” Bradford stretched his arms, and Raul cheered. Ray simply sat on the ground, mumbling about how much he wanted to leave. Monica heaved a sigh of deep relief from where she had collapsed. Then she looked up at the sky. She couldn’t tell where the sun was through all the clouds, but it was probably afternoon. She could still make it back to Serendia Academy before the end of the day. Suddenly, she remembered the gemstone she’d put in her pocket. A spirit had been sealed inside it to serve as the power source for one of the magical armored soldiers. The seal on Miss Ryn…should wear off soon, I think. That one would fade with time, but Monica would have to release the weaker spirits manually. She stood up and positioned the gem in her palm, but Louis stopped her. “Let’s wait to release the spirits until we’re outside the forest, my fellow Sage.” Monica looked up and saw the pained grin on his face. “I suspect the spirits here bear us no shortage of ill will,” he explained. “…Oh. Right.” Monica and the others had liberated the spirits from Galanis, but they’d also fought a number of them along the way. Some of those spirits had dissipated. From their point of view, both Emanuel and those opposing him were the same—humans. It would be difficult to gain their understanding. When Monica hung her head, Louis continued breezily. “Oh, don’t let it bother you. Because it shouldn’t. Humans act with their own interests in mind, and so do spirits. That’s all there is to it.” “…I guess so.” Clenching the stone in her pocket, Monica quietly reflected on Louis’s words.