The Great Mage Returns after 4000 Years – Chapter 176 – Choice and Awakening (2)
Translator: Seven
Editors: Ana_Banana, Yahiko
Shortly after Frey woke up, he realised that the place he was in was not real.
It was his mental world.
Frey was floating there.
“You’ve reached your limit.”
Then, he heard a voice.
Turning around, he saw a man with shining blonde hair and a beard.
He’d seen this face before.
Right.
He’d only seen the face.
This was the Demigod, Indra, whose head Riki had brought and shown him. He was currently looking at Frey with a cold smile.
“You worked pretty hard for a human. However…”
Boom!
Frey didn’t even get the chance to scream.
It was as if every cell in his body cried out at the same time.
Frey thought he had developed a strong tolerance for pain, but the pain he felt from the bolt of lightning was beyond imagination.
“That doesn’t change the fact that you’re mortal.”
“You can’t defeat the Demigods.”
Puk.
An arrow was shot into Frey’s charred body, causing it to spaz and convulse.
It was Milled who had made his appearance this time.
“You guys…”
Frey tried to use a spell.
However, his mana refused to move.
His expression hardened. He recalled what happened just before he lost consciousness.
The feeling that he couldn’t even move a muscle was still vivid.
Reality and the mental world were closely connected.
This was inevitable.
After all, this was where Frey’s consciousness resided.
That was why he could not move as he desired. The situation in reality was affecting him even now.
“Hahaha! They’re quite interesting, those memories of yours. Right… so you turned out to be the Great Mage Lukas Trowman.”
“The tenacity to not give up even after being trapped in the Abyss. I’d say you were worth a lot just because of that.”
Was it possible that their egos* existed in the mass of energy known as divine power? Or vice versa? (TL: Ego here meaning their sense of self)
Or was this all just an illusion?
He wasn’t sure, and he couldn’t continue that line of thought because his mind was hazy from the pain.
“You didn’t think you’d completely absorbed the divine power, did you?”
“Or did you think we Demigods would easily give our strength to a mortal like you?”
The Demigods approached Frey while asking these questions.
“You won’t be able to make a comeback this time. It’ll be different from that time in the Abyss.”
“Because we’re going to tear your mind apart. It’ll be in such a miserable state that you will never be able to put it back together.”
“Then, we’ll use your disgusting body.”
“You should be grateful. Kukuku…”
They wanted to take his body?
‘Don’t talk rubbish.’
Frey wanted to shout those words. But he couldn’t even open his mouth.
“First, let’s see if we can destroy your mind.”
“I wonder how long you’ll last.”
With those words, torture that Frey had never experienced in his life began.
….
….
Time passed.
How much time had passed?
Frey had no idea.
He thought he’d get used to the pain, but he didn’t. Indra’s lightning wasn’t just burning Frey’s body.
Every time the lightning struck, it cut Frey’s soul.
Once, twice. No, even if it happened dozens or even hundreds of times, he would be fine.
However, when that number changed to thousands and tens of thousands, it became a different story entirely.
“You’re a monster.”
It was Indra’s voice.
But he didn’t hear what he said.
Boom!
The lightning struck once again. And he felt the pain once again.
Frey wished the Lightning wouldn’t strike him any more.
“If you were any other human, your ego would have already crumbled by now.”
“It doesn’t matter. He seems to be at his limit.”
Frey was confident that he wouldn’t break.
He thought that his mental power was stronger than anything else.
However, they weren’t trying to break Frey’s soul.
‘They’re trying to get rid of… my ego.’
His consciousness had already drifted many times by now.
Frey knew what that meant.
They were trying to remove Frey’s image from this mental world. (TL: T~T the author keeps using words with similar meanings and it’s really hard to translate it properly)
This meant that Frey’s ego was dying.
Their plan was to destroy Frey’s spirit.
“…”
No way. Absolutely not.
Frey struggled.
He had the confidence that he would never back down.
However, being broken was a different story.
‘The next one.’
He was certain.
If he was hit again, Frey would lose consciousness.
That was it.
The two Demigods would then take control of his empty body.
“Goodbye.”
Indra’s voice sounded out again, and Frey was sure it was the last thing he’d hear.
“…”
“…”
The lightning didn’t come.
No. That wasn’t all.
The atmosphere suddenly changed. For the first time, silence lingered in the mental world.
Then he heard the sound of footsteps. Footsteps that didn’t belong to either Indra or Milled.
There was another person in this world.
“…how?”
Who was he looking at?
Frey wasn’t sure.
His eyes had been burned. But his vision was slowly returning. This was only possible because it was the mental world.
As soon as he saw the man standing in the distance, Frey forgot how to speak.
Indra roughly chewed out some words.
“How can you be here?”
“…”
“Answer me…! Riki…!”
Riki didn’t answer.
Chuk.
As always, he only drew his sword.
* * *
Boom!
A thunderstorm raged around Indra. This wasn’t a Lightning Barrier.
It wasn’t a curtain, but instead, it had become a pillar of lightning.
This was the first time Frey had seen something like this,
It was probably because the Apostle, Lukes, did not have the power to use such an ability before he died.
Frey thought about the principles behind it.
Paht.
Indra’s figure disappeared.
Frey’s eyeballs had finished regenerating, but he still couldn’t follow his movements.
It was truly a scary scene.
He was clearly moving at the speed of light.
A thunderstorm raged in the mental world. Lightning striking down everywhere.
Standing in the center of this storm made Riki’s situation appear precarious. But there was nothing to worry about.
If this man was really the Riki Frey knew, then there would be no problem.
Riki didn’t change his stance. He simply stood there with his eyes staring off into the distance, his sword hanging at his side.
Then, his eyes turned to his left.
—
In that instant, it was as if the thunderstorm that had been crashing down all around him had stopped.
Riki drew a diagonal line with his sword.
And after a brief sound, the dark clouds scattered and the lightning went away.
[H…ow…]
It was Indra’s voice.
However, his appearance was very different from before he disappeared. His entire body appeared to be made out of lightning.
Frey realised that it was the transcendent body that some of the Demigods had.
In this state, most attacks wouldn’t have any effect on the Demigods. They might even be able to resist the power of Absolute to an extent.
Despite this, Indra’s body had been cut in half diagonally. From his left collarbone to his right waist.
The cause of this went without saying.
[How did you cut me so easily…?]
Indra seemed to plead to Riki for an answer.
But Riki still refused to say a word.
[Riki…]
Ssss.
Indra’s large figure faded before disappearing completely.
Milled pulled his bowstring with a stiff expression on his face. His reaction had come too late.
He should have collaborated with Indra when he was alive. It was a belated regret.
If he had to make an excuse, he would say that he didn’t expect Indra to die so easily.
“Huh?”
As he looked down, his bow string snapped. It had been cut.
“When the hell…”
Crack.
Suddenly, his bow was also sliced into two pieces.
Riki returned his sword back to its sheath.
It was only then when Milled was able to vaguely understand what happened.
He stuttered in disbelief.
“I can’t…”
Puuk!
Then, Milled’s chest cracked open and blood spilled out like a waterfall.
The fallen Milled faded and disappeared like Indra had.
“…”
Frey wasn’t surprised.
It was hard to imagine the egos of two Demigods disappearing in an instant, but if their opponent was Riki, it became easy to understand.
He forced himself to get up off the ground, his entire body screaming violently.
Frey clenched his fist shakily.
He wasn’t fooled. This was just an over-exaggeration from his mind. This place was just a mental world, after all. And his body wasn’t real.
Although he felt the pain, there was nothing wrong with his real body.
“I didn’t think I’d see you again.”
It was his own voice, but it sounded strange. Maybe it was because his tongue had also been burnt.
Frey mumbled to himself a few times.
Every time, he felt an indescribable pain, but he forced himself to put up with it and continue talking.
“Are you the Riki I used to know?”
“I’m just a residual thought.”
Riki opened his mouth for the first time.
He wasn’t exactly sure what being a residual thought meant, but he still somewhat understood what he was saying.
A residual thought. In other words, it meant that this Riki wasn’t the real Riki. And the Indra and Milled who disappeared were the same.
“I haven’t absorbed your crystal yet…”
“You were poisoned by Ananta. The poison he uses is an extremely potent one known as the liquid of death. If it hadn’t been for the crystal I left, you would be dead.”
Frey let out a breath.
“Does that mean I’m still alive?”
“You’re barely alive, but that doesn’t matter in this world.”
“Why?”
“Because the moment before death is like an eternity. You don’t need to hurry.”
The moment before death.
This moment, which was less than a second, was in fact extremely long.
This was also possible because Frey was in his mental world.
After understanding Riki’s words again, Frey spoke up.
“In any case, thanks for your he-”
“Make a choice.”
Riki cut off his words of gratitude and raised his hand.
In it, was a bead.
Frey was stunned.
This was the crystal Riki left after his death.
(TL Rant: I’ll try to explain just how bad this chapter was for me. I won’t put the hangul since you wouldn’t understand/care, I’ll just use the words I used.
Ego, consciousness, soul, spirit, mind. The words that the author used that I chose to represent using these words could all be used interchangeably in Korean. And in fact, for some of them, I didn’t even know that they could be translated differently until I was forced to find an alternative since I’d already translated another word in that way. It even got to the point of the author using one word to represent two things when they had used two separate words before.
So for me, this chapter was quite difficult and gave me a severe headache, which kind of dampened just how amazing this chapter was for me.
I hope you guys enjoyed it at least. Thanks for reading.)