The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 96

ARTHUR LEYWIN'S POV:

Tessia was okay...

Bruises and scrapes were visible on her smooth, pale skin. Thankfully they were only surface wounds.

She was okay.

It seemed like she had been drugged with an anesthetic to keep her unconscious temporarily...

Yes, this was better. That way, she wouldn't have to be awake for all of this…

She wouldn't have to witness what I was about to do.

Sylvie, protect Tess. I'll be enough to handle him, I reassured my bond.

This was my fault. I was a fool for letting Lucas live this long. This world had made me soft.

My head continued to pound as I walked towards Lucas.

Nothing else mattered. Not now. Not until I took care of the pest.

"S-Stay back!" Lucas stammered, a crazed look visible in his eyes.

He prepared a spell as he retreated. I wonder if he'd realized that his spells were in fact eating away at his lifeforce. It didn't matter; I'd kill him before he did himself.

[Hell's Rain]

He released his spell, dozens of flaming orbs scattering and floating around, growing increasingly larger.

He continued to grin madly as his body visibly withered at the burden of the spell. The red flaming spheres turned blue as he further refined his magic.

It seemed as though he was planning on taking not just me, but half the school down with him.

'Papa…' Sylvie's worried voice echoed in my mind.

It's fine.

I could let him kill himself with his own spell right now, but he didn't deserve that; that would be too merciful a death for him. I needed him alive, at least until I got some answers.

I wanted to destroy him instantly, but the attack—the whole disaster—couldn't have been done by Lucas alone. Someone had to have forcibly overexerted his mana core— to the point where even if I didn't kill him now, he would probably die on his own.

Whatever it was he had taken made it possible for him to convert his life force into mana, thus draining him of his vitality. The odd discoloration of his skin and the mana beasts present were too much of a coincidence to not assume that it had something to do with the Vritras.

"By the look on your face, it seems you don't know what's about to happen. Do you think you could come out of this alive?" Lucas hissed, drooling from the side of his mouth. _{freeweɓnovēl.coɱ}

"Die!" he spat, releasing his spell.

The dozens of flaming blue orbs, each capable of burning down a building, shot towards me like cannonballs.

I let out a crisp breath and muttered, "Second Phase."

[Dragon's Awakening]

My vision shifted into monochrome, the only colors I could register being the particles of mana.

[Absolute Zero]

The very air seemed to freeze as a curtain of white flame erupted around me before I was bombarded with Lucas' spell.

I didn't have much time left in my second phase before the recoil hit. I needed answers before that happened.

As the cloud of steam and debris began to clear, I could make out Lucas' figure, the deranged look on his face wiped clean, replaced by one of utter shock.

"H-How is that p-possible? N-No, it wasn't supposed to be like this. How are you suddenly able to use ice-attribute magic?" he babbled, as if he had just seen a ghost.

Unrelentless, Lucas began chanting another spell, which surprisingly, by the amount of mana gathered in his right hand, was more powerful than the one prior.

"CREATION FORM!"

[Infernal Lance]

It was a type of spell I'd never seen before. As mana congregated, it manifested into a flaming blue partisan spear. What amazed me was that the mana particles hadn't simply formed the shape of a spear, but instead seemed to have transmuted into an actual burning spear.