Rebirth of the 8th-Circle Mage

Chapter 282 - Nephram (1)

Rumble—!

The well continued to rise as though some invisible force was forcefully pulling it out of the ground. But unless this well was the mystical needle of a god, it was bound to fully emerge to the surface.

Henry could finally see the bottom of the well.

“It sure is long.”

Henry gazed at the deep well that rose into the air, at the vines that clung onto it and the weeds that grew from its crevices. It was a spectacular sight.

As the well was fully above ground, Henry drew mana into his right fist and extended his arm, twisting the well like a wet towel.

Crack—!

Henry’s mana caused the well to twist akin to someone breaking their joints in a martial arts fight, the power of his spell being as spectacular as the well’s ascension from the ground.

Crack—!

After twisting the well in various directions, Henry finally shattered it into pieces, revealing the stone blocks that had been concealed by that impenetrable darkness. He then proceeded to spread apart those stone blocks and inspect them.

“I knew it.”

There were countless inscriptions on these parts of the well, words which seemed to be from the divine language.

‘Divine language, huh... I guess every church uses this.’

This language was also used for demonology, for illusions, and for black magic, but religious people called this the divine language and considered it sacred, the language spoken by the gods.

Henry had seen this before in the Holy City.

‘I don’t know why I just brushed it off back then...’

He hadn’t noticed this back then because he hadn’t known the context in which the language had been used, but now that he did, it stood out to him.

He hadn’t cared for gods in his previous life, and he had been too busy with magic to bother learning about how this language was used in religious contexts.

Henry used magic again to smash the stone fragments against each other, turning the well into dust.

Crack!

Henry didn’t have the time to put together all those fragments written in the divine language and interpret the text. However, he knew that they were forming some kind of barrier to prevent intruders, so he had destroyed the well in order to give out a sign to the Church of Nephram.

Thump—!

The moment the well shattered, a sound resembling a heartbeat pierced Henry’s ears, and he was overcome by vertigo.

Shhh—!

The autumn leaves were noisily rustling on the ground.

Having shattered the well, Henry also dispelled the barrier, and he could now see what it had been concealing.

‘So that’s where they were hiding.’

The barrier had been hiding a single flight of stairs leading down into the hole where the well had been moments ago. Looking at the stairs, Henry thought to himself, ‘After all this trouble, you guys have no intention of coming out yourselves, huh?’

Henry couldn’t tell if those from the Church of Nephram were dull or bold, but he nonetheless found their response, or the lack of one, quite amusing, so he decided to play along with their little game for now.

Swoosh—!

As Henry went down the stairs, dirt and grass filled the hole where the well had been as though nothing had transpired here.

***

The stairs seemed to be unending, and Henry had no intention of walking down all of them. He cast Fly and bolted down the stairs.

Swoosh—!

Thud!

After flying for a while, Henry eventually reached the bottom, bouncing off the ground to stop himself and landing gracefully.

However, there was nothing but darkness at the bottom of the stairs. He was almost in disbelief; after going through all this trouble, he had expected to at least see some frightened worshipers from the Church of Naphram or to be attacked by a monster hidden by the church.

But much to his disappointment, Henry was only greeted by darkness, which baffled him.

Snap!

Henry snapped his fingers and murmured, “Light.” He figured that since the host hadn’t bothered to light up the place for their guest, he would take it upon himself to light it up.

But to Henry’s dismay, the darkness and the silence persisted even after he snapped his fingers.

‘Huh?’

Snap—!

Snap! Snap—!

Snap!

...

It was still dark and quiet as a graveyard. Something was wrong.

The snap of his fingers should’ve activated the mana from his Circle and instantly illuminated the area. But even though Henry was a 7th-Circle Archmage, his Light wasn’t working. Rather, he felt that his mana wasn’t responding at all.

‘What the hell...?’

But just then...

Swoosh!

Swoosh!

Henry instinctively bent over backward when he heard something cutting through the air in front of him. He felt the pressure of the wind inches away from his face; it had to be a wind blade, a murderous gust of wind created by the powerful swing of a sword.

“A sword?”

Clank, clank!

As soon as he muttered that, Henry sensed countless other things around him.

‘Damn it.’

“Squawk!”

He also felt numerous murderous entities around him, very nasty ones. Hector also felt the imminent danger and jumped out of Henry’s arms, crying at the top of his lungs. “SQUAWK! SQUAWK!”

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Spears, swords, and arrows flew at Henry from all directions, each of them aiming for his heart. Henry instinctively dodged them with his fast reflexes and distanced himself from them. He then urgently called out, “Klever! Elagon!”

- Yes, Master!

- Khu khu khu!

Thud!

Both Klever and Elagon responded to Henry’s call, and Hector soared into the air, covered in blue Aura.

Whoosh!

As soon as Klever appeared, he generated a huge vortex of nothingness. This was a skill of his Chest. Only Klever could create a vortex that looked like a black hole.

- Khu khu khu!

Crack!

At the same time, Elagon used an empowered version of Ice Wave to shoot out ice spikes in all directions. Simultaneously, Hector’s Aura reflected off the ice spikes, the blue glow finally giving Henry some vision on his surroundings.

“...!”

With the basement now illuminated by Hector, Henry could finally see his foes. The murderous creatures that were trying to kill him were skeletons.

‘Skeletons? They’re like a byproduct of black magic, but why are they here?... It can’t be—!’

Henry had thought he was sensing a murderous aura in the dark, but it was something else entirely. The skeletons were letting off a tremendous amount of demonic energy, which one would normally only feel in the Demonic Beast Forest.

Besides high-level demons, there were very few people who could control skeletons. Those that could were usually necromancers, wizards who had evolved greatly in the practice of black magic.

‘You damn Pope! Where the hell did you send me?’

Henry was horrified by how many skeleton soldiers he could see through the blue glow. They continued to attack unrelentingly, and they didn’t seem to care that they were being shattered by Elagon’s ice spikes or sucked into Klever’s Chest.

Still, despite Elagon and Klever’s efforts, more and more skeletons seemed to come from out of nowhere.

Snap! Snap! Snap! Clap—!

As the fight dragged on, Henry became increasingly frustrated and desperate, constantly snapping his fingers and clapping, but nothing seemed to work. His mana didn’t react to his spells.

In the end, Henry was forced to completely give up on using magic.

‘Tsk! Something is preventing me from using my mana!’

Henry composed himself and tried to think of an explanation for this. However, it was hard for him to think as he was constantly attacked from all directions, and the visibility from the dim blue light wasn’t great either.

He eventually noticed that the stairs from which he had come down here were gone, which led him to one terrifying conclusion.

‘It’s a trap! A perfectly designed one! Shit!’

Henry couldn’t use his mana and his only exit was gone. To make matters worse, the skeletons kept swarming no matter how hard Elagon and Klever were trying to clear them off. There didn’t seem to be an end to them.

Henry figured that this had to be a trap designed to kill anyone who intruded here. Whatever this was, Henry was determined not to die here. He couldn’t use spells, but Elagon and Klever could still do many things for him.

“Elagon!”

- Khu khu!

“Flood this entire place!”

- Khu khu khu!

Elagon cheerfully acknowledged Henry’s command. He proceeded to absorb a huge amount of mana from Henry and used his own spiritual skill.

Splash—!

Like a dam with holes, Elagon unleashed giant streams of water in all directions.

Henry then shouted, “Klever! Swallow me and Hector!”

- Yes, Master.

Of course, Henry didn’t urge Klever to devour them, but to move them into his Chest like he had done with Benedict in the past.

After getting both Henry and Hector in his Chest, Klever vanished.

Gurgle!

In a matter of seconds, the area was completely flooded with Elagon’s water.

***

“Klever, show me what’s happening.”

- Yes, Master.

After a while, Henry peered from within Klever’s Chest to see what was going on outside. He could see countless skeletons floating in the water.

‘If the skeletons are floating, does it mean this place is real...? But for the stairs to disappear like that... Just what is this place?’

This underground area didn’t seem to be an illusion or something created with magic, given that the water was physically there and a skeleton had grazed Henry with his spear earlier.

Henry snapped his fingers again.

Flash!

A sphere of bright light formed in Henry’s hand, which meant that Klever’s Chest was somehow blocking whatever was preventing Henry from casting spells in that room.

“Elagon and Klever can use their powers freely, but I can’t...?”

Being out of harm’s way, Henry could now calmly assess the situation. After a while, he concluded that this trap hadn’t been created with the purpose of killing him specifically, but had been here all along to protect this place from any intruders.

‘Alright. Given that nobody showed up despite the huge commotion I’ve caused, this could mean one of two things.’

Henry suspected that either there was no one here to begin with, or that he had been looking in the wrong place and accidentally found his way into this trap.

Neither explanation was satisfactory.

Frustrated, Henry decided to destroy this whole place, just as he had done with the well that had been concealing the entrance.

“Klever, on my signal, release my magic outside.”

- Yes, Master.

Henry dismissed Elagon. He was planning to use a wide-area offensive spell from within Klever’s Chest, where his mana worked just fine, to blow up the entire underground area.

But just then...

Vvrrrr—!

Something in Henry’s pocket started to vibrate, so he took it out.

It was the Shalka he had received from Herarion. Its needle was spinning wildly, and then...

Flash!

Henry was suddenly blinded by an explosion of light from outside the Chest.