The Problematic Child of the Magic Tower-Chapter 228

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Chapter 228: An Old Promise (2)

Whooooosh!

In an instant, all the air in the vicinity surged toward Oscar.

The wind, compressed to its limits and on the verge of eruption, seemed to scream to be unleashed.

『Air Burst』

Completing the spell, Oscar snapped his fingers toward Silmarion.

BOOOOM!

A deafening explosion roared, shaking the very eardrums, as everything in sight was swept away like a tidal wave.

Dozens of trees were torn apart, rocks shattered into pieces, and the terrain itself was reshaped.

—…

And within the full impact zone of the attack, not a trace of Silmarion could be seen.

“…Huh?”

Kaya, observing the results of the short but intense battle from behind, spoke up.

“It’s not over, is it?”

“No, it’s just beginning.”

As if to prove those words—whiiirrrl—a crimson whirlwind infused with demonic energy began to form, slowly taking on a human shape.

“…Is it even possible to defeat something like that?”

“It’s difficult.”

Spirits, by nature, are intangible beings.

And this one—of all spirits—was the Spirit of Wind.

‘Bad matchup.’

Oscar could manipulate wind as a mage, but he was wind itself.

Even after taking a powerful hit, Silmarion’s body just dispersed into wind again, making it nearly impossible to inflict lasting damage.

‘There’s only one way.’

Overwhelming firepower—to obliterate him completely, preventing any chance of regeneration.

But with Oscar only at level 6, that wasn’t even within the realm of possibility.

‘In short, all I can do now is buy time.’

As he bit his lip, Edna—still on his back—spoke softly.

“Oscar. The odds of winning this fight are close to zero. I strongly recommend evasion.”

“You think I don’t know that? The problem is—we’re already trapped.”

“Trapped?”

Kaya, listening in, asked, and Oscar let out a faint sigh.

“We’re already in the eye of the storm. No matter which direction we run, we’ll hit a wall of wind that grinds everything to dust.”

“What?”

Startled, Kaya looked around.

But the wind nearby was strangely calm.

The sky was clear, not a cloud in sight.

“…Just how big is this encirclement supposed to be?”

“Think of it as encompassing the entire First Peak.”

Oscar’s expression darkened as he spoke.

He hadn’t mentioned it earlier to avoid alarming them, but the storm's radius was gradually closing in.

Still, handing Sasha over like bait just to escape was never an option.

As she pondered deeply, Edna asked:

“Then are you really planning to fight the storm alone?”

“What other choice is there?”

Kaya couldn’t use her tattoo magic yet, and neither could Edna.

Sasha was still unconscious in her spiritual slumber.

Oscar briefly glanced at Silmarion, who had already completed his lower body.

‘…Oran risked his life to carve out an escape path for us.’

He had done his job perfectly as the party’s rear guard.

Now, as the vanguard, it was Oscar’s turn to fulfill his role.

That was all there was to it.

“Oscar, do you actually have some kind of plan?”

“A plan…? I do. Sort of.”

“Oh?”

Kaya looked hopeful and pressed further.

“What is it?”

“First, we wait for Sasha to wake up.”

“Not bad. And then?”

“That’s it.”

“…?”

Oscar could feel Kaya’s dumbfounded stare burning into the back of his head.

He just shrugged.

“Unless you have a better idea?”

“…Nope.”

“Then let’s not overthink it. We’ve been doing this all along—just one more time.”

They had never faced an easy opponent during this journey.

Every demon and calamity they’d encountered had been at least level 7.

‘Though this storm is easily the most dangerous yet.’

Estimated to be a top-tier level 8 spirit.

And unlike when they fought Yuribe, they couldn’t even rely on "The One Who Devoured the Mountain."

This was the First Peak—where that power was at its weakest, and there was no time to lure him here anyway.

‘Which means this time, I’ll have to settle it on my own.’

Oscar reached behind and grabbed Edna by the scruff of her neck.

Dangling like a kitten, she hesitated for a moment before muttering:

“…Don’t die.”

“I won’t.”

He set her down, and she ran off toward Kaya.

Once he confirmed the three were safe, Oscar wasted no time in gathering his mana.

“World Liberation.”

The best way to protect the others now—

Was to isolate himself and the storm spirit in a separate world. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

As his surging mana distorted reality, even the very concept of “land” was erased.

“Limitless Sky.”

In a world of endless sky, the storm spirit began to calmly assemble its upper body, clearly in no hurry.

Watching this, Oscar muttered an apology.

“Sorry. In the past, I might’ve patiently waited until you finished recovering…”

But now, he had no such luxury.

Fwoooosh!

Razor-sharp winds sliced through Silmarion’s forming body from all sides.

‘Slowing down his regeneration like this is my best bet for now.’

But even this method wouldn’t buy him time forever.

—…

Silmarion wasn’t brainless—just unhinged.

He quickly began regenerating at a visibly faster rate.

‘At this pace, he’ll be fully recovered in about 20 minutes.’

Watching this, Oscar slowly nodded.

That much time… was enough to prepare a final stand.

* * *

With his body fully reformed, the storm spirit slowly raised his head.

The human who had hindered his recovery licked his lips with a look of regret.

—…

Destroy the human.

The voice echoed in his mind, shaking him.

Who gave that command, or why—such questions were long abandoned.

Like a puppet, Silmarion moved according to that will.

Whump!

With a simple gesture toward Oscar,

A massive gust of wind should’ve lashed out like claws and torn him apart.

—…?

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But the wind did not move.

Only then did Silmarion realize something was wrong with the sky in this space.

“You won’t be able to manipulate wind here. I’ve erased it completely.”

Because within the space Oscar had created—there wasn’t a single breath of air.

Unique Magic, "Solitary Cage."

It was a spell modified from "Solitary World," developed over the past 20 minutes, and its effect was to eliminate everything except mana in both the opponent and their surroundings.

It was like creating another world inside this liberated one.

-……

To make matters worse, Silmarion, made of wind, couldn’t even escape the area.

All he could do was quietly remain captured until Oscar’s magic ran dry.

Oscar watched his response with a slightly tense expression.

‘Let’s see what he does.’

Silmarion tried to stir up wind in all directions, but it was no use.

All he could do was forcibly hold his wind-formed body together, which was trying to scatter in every direction.

‘It’s working.’

The moment Oscar realized that Silmarion couldn’t move recklessly, he clenched his fist tightly.

This meant that he could hold the opponent captive without any damage, at least until he ran out of magic.

-……

But Silmarion didn’t give up.

In a space without wind, he continued trying to summon it in an attempt to shatter the cage that imprisoned him.

‘Impossible.’

Oscar shook his head.

Unless the spell itself was broken, wind couldn’t exist in that space.

After struggling for quite a while, Silmarion seemed to reach the same conclusion and stopped resisting.

“…?”

But he overdid it.

Silmarion gave up even maintaining his form and scattered into a puff of wind.

‘Wait, wind?’

As Silmarion’s reconstructed form collapsed, a breeze stirred momentarily in the airless space.

At that instant, a chilling thought flashed through Oscar’s mind.

Whooooosh!

The wind that Silmarion left behind suddenly began to absorb a massive amount of mana.

“Kh!”

Soon, sharp, red winds began rotating like gears, destroying the cage from the inside.

Oscar hurriedly poured in more magic, realizing something had gone wrong.

“...Damn it.”

But once a contest of raw power had begun, a Level 6 mage like him had no chance of holding on.

As the blade-like red winds dug into the cage, "Solitary Cage" shattered like a broken window, and Oscar coughed up blood from the aftermath.

“Cough!”

Even a single cough sent pain rattling through every bone in his body.

But there was no time to stop just because it hurt.

‘Where’s Silmarion?’

Silmarion’s form, which had escaped the shattered cage, quickly reformed.

Once he returned to his original appearance, he closed his eyes, feeling the wind drifting in the sky.

And the next moment—

CRAAASH!

A massive claw of wind, formed solely by willpower, came crashing down on Oscar.

‘As expected.’

Watching this, Oscar gulped but felt a hint of relief.

Just like in his past life, this spirit wasn’t in its right mind.

It was still a sharp blade, but it was being wielded by a baby—that's what it meant.

‘All its attacks are based purely on instinct. That means the attack patterns are extremely simple.’

Of course, that didn’t change the fact that it was a deadly sharp blade.

In other words, one wrong move would lead to death.

‘Focus.’

Oscar used "Flight," stepping through the air as if it were solid ground, maneuvering his body.

Whoosh!

With a fierce sound, the claw of wind narrowly grazed his skin.

‘Plan A failed. In that case…’

Time to move on to Plan B—but honestly, Plan A was all he had prepared during those 20 minutes.

Which meant, from this point on, all he could do was survive using quick instincts and dodging well.

-…Destroy.

Murmuring to himself, Silmarion made a light gesture, and the red wind began to consume the world.

The blue sky vanished, replaced by a crimson hue that spread like a sunset, filling the entire field of vision.

Looking at the countless spears of wind crowding the sky, Oscar clicked his tongue.

A sight enough to crush one’s willpower just by looking at it.

He forced himself to push back the sinking morale and muttered,

“...Sasha.”

Looks like you’ll have to hurry, just a bit.

* * *

“We can’t just sit here and wait like this.”

Edna, staring at the space blocked off by mana—“Infinite Heavenly Night”—spoke up.

“Based on my calculations, Oscar can last about 40 minutes at most. That leaves around 15 minutes now.”

“He can only hold out that long?”

“Silmarion is strong. It’s only because Oscar is a wind mage himself that he can hold out this much.”

If it had been Kaya, she wouldn’t have lasted even ten minutes.

Edna didn’t voice that part out loud, feeling proud of her improving social awareness.

She gently placed her hand on Sasha’s forehead, who was lying carefully on the ground.

Watching her, Kaya flinched and asked,

“Wait, what are you doing?”

“I’m planning to enter Sasha’s inner consciousness and help her wake up.”

“…You must not know much about inner demons just because you’re a dragon. That’s dangerous—she could die.”

“Sounds like you’ve forgotten what my profession is. I have a deeper understanding of human inner demons than anyone else.”

As someone who has recorded the history of all stars, there’s no way she wouldn’t understand human inner demons.

Still skeptical, Kaya asked,

“If that were possible, why didn’t you do it earlier?”

“Because it’s dangerous for me, too. I’ve never attempted it before. This will be my first time.”

Edna uttered something that would make any guardian faint, then continued,

“Unfortunately, we’re out of options. We have to try something.”

“…Success rate?”

“I’d say it’s fairly high. Around 31%, I believe.”

“Tch.”

Kaya made an uncertain expression.

It wasn’t a high enough percentage to encourage, but not low enough to stop either.

As Edna looked up at her, she said,

“Don’t worry. I’ll do everything I can to bring her back.”

“…I’ll make sure not even an ant gets near while you do.”

“I’ll count on you.”

Closing her eyes slowly, Edna moved her lips.

“I will now enter the inner world of Sasha Maestro.”

[Translator - Night]

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