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Chapter 240 - In Vain (1)

Henry figured that Arthus’ ego had to be bruised because he had defeated Pim and Rim with just mana. So, he unleashed another burst of mana as he drew his Colt Sword.

“A sword, huh...”

Arthus wasn’t intimidated; rather, he examined the sword Henry had drawn with interest.

“You’re the disciple of the dead archmage, and yet you wield a sword...”

“Whether I use a sword or not is none of your business, since you’re going to be dead soon.”

Rumble!

Henry cut off Arthus’ rather sarcastic remark and concentrated his Aura into the blade of the Colt Sword.

Henry’s heart was pounding. With a few steps forward and a couple of swings with his sword, his killing spree would finally come to an end.

Thump... Thump...

How long had Henry been waiting for this day? Ever since the first day after his reincarnation, he had dreamed of beheading Arthus countless times. After days, weeks, months... For two years Henry had been anticipating this exact moment; he could finally exact his revenge.

Henry didn\'t think for a moment that he would fail.

The Arthus that Henry knew was a very intelligent man when it came to politics, but he knew nothing about magic or Aura.

Despite this, Arthus was still calm, looking Henry in the eye.

‘Ha?’

Seeing how composed Arthus was, Henry suddenly became angry as he couldn’t understand why Arthus was so confident.

“Disgusting,” Henry said out loud what he was thinking.

Smirk.

Arthus laughed, and at that, Henry could no longer contain his rage, so he swung his Colt Sword at Arthus with all his might... But his sword passed right through Arthus.

“...!”

Arthus was clearly in front of him, but Henry’s sword just sliced through thin air.

Henry felt like he was facing an illusion. He swung his sword again, but Arthus’ figure remained unchanged, his sword passing through him once again.

“ARTHUS!” shouted Henry, rage flooding every fiber of his being.

Seeing how furiously Henry shouted, Arthus merely laughed with satisfaction. “Hahahahaha!” Showing off his intangible body, he told Henry, “As much as I’d love to hang out with you...”

As he trailed off, Arthus stepped forward and grabbed Henry’s veiny forehead.

Henry could clearly feel Arthus’ fingers on his forehead. It was a strange phenomenon, and Henry’s thoughts ran wild.

Just what could it be? Why was it that Arthus could touch Henry’s forehead but Henry couldn’t cut him? Not even the former 8th-Circle Archmage, the most knowledgeable wizard to had ever existed, could understand this phenomenon.

Henry was enraged; his jaw was clenched, his teeth grinding against each other. He had pushed himself almost to the limit in order to crush Pim and Rim because he had thought that he would finally put an end to this dreadful quest for revenge.

Arthus took great pleasure in staring at Henry’s enraged face.

To Henry, Arthus’ smile was deceptive. It was certainly mocking, but it also looked as if Arthus knew everything about Henry.

Removing his hand from Henry’s forehead, Arthus continued, “...I don\'t think it\'s the right time yet, haha.”

With that, Arthus vanished before Henry’s eyes.

...

Henry was left alone in the palace. The silence was deafening, unbearable.

Stunned, Henry involuntarily opened his mouth, and with confused eyes, he stared at the spot where Arthus had been moments prior.

‘Just... What the hell did I see?’

No matter how many times he replayed the last sequence of events in his head, nothing made sense.

Henry was the continent’s first magic swordsman. He was also the continent’s only 7th-Circle wizard, and one of the continent’s strongest swordsmen, having reached the level of a Sword Master.

Despite that, Arthus had managed to deceive him, play him for a fool, and ultimately laugh in his face as he vanished out of thin air.

Henry didn’t feel any kind of mana when Arthus disappeared, the kind of mana one let off when they used Blink or Teleportation, which made it even more confusing.

‘Divine power? Artifact? No, it can’t be...’

Countless possibilities and speculations filled his head. At the same time, he was overwhelmed with regret and frustration because he still hadn’t managed to exact his revenge.

Znggg...

As Henry became dispirited, his Colt Armor, which had covered his body, and his Colt Sword, which had vibrated with rage, soon vanished.

His Aura, which had previously erupted like a volcano, also died out like a flame snuffed out by the wind.

“...”

Henry looked back. The imperial palace was deserted.

Why had they started the war in the first place and raided the capital in the meantime? And where had Arthus disappeared to?

Henry stared at the empty palace with hopeless eyes as if he were looking at a ghost ship in a vast sea.

Nothing had changed. Arthus had disappeared, and the palace was also empty because of Henry.

“Ha...” Henry sighed heavily in frustration, but after a few moments of thinking, he regained his composure. “...Okay, I didn\'t think it would be this easy anyway.”

Henry lightly shook his head and changed his mindset. Arthus had only disappeared from the palace, not from this world altogether. This meant that as long as Arthus was still out there, Henry’s revenge was still incomplete, but still achievable.

‘Arthus even managed to acquire Chimeras even though I prohibited them, so he must have more things that I don’t know about. Otherwise, this doesn’t make any sense.’

Henry tried to be optimistic. After all, Arthus hadn’t died.

Having regained his composure, Henry tried to think rationally and collect his thoughts.

‘Let me think about it. So Arthus can just vanish out of thin air and completely ignore any physical attacks, and yet he ran away instead of trying to kill me?’

Now that He thought about it logically, it was strange. If Arthus had the power to not only run away, but also deceive Henry, the best magic swordsman on the continent, why didn’t Arthus just kill him? After all, Henry was Arthus’ biggest obstacle in his pursuit of power.

Henry had a few guesses.

The most plausible theory was that although Henry didn’t know exactly what kind of power Arthus had, it was likely that he couldn’t control that power well. Otherwise, Henry believed that Arthus would’ve had reason to run away and abandon the empire he had built.

After a few moments of calming himself, he finally managed to organize his thoughts. Henry then remembered what he had to do, and that was to end the bloodshed in Zipan.

Henry decided that if Arthus still didn’t show up by the time the war was over, he would claim the empire that Arthus had built for himself.

Of course, Henry wouldn’t do that because he was interested in owning the empire or anything like that. He would do it simply to see how Arthus would react to him seizing control of his precious Aenia Empire that he had spent so long building.

When he no longer had to worry about the politics of the empire and of the continent, Henry would focus all of his energy on tracking down Arthus.

‘I will hunt you down to the ends of the earth if I have to.’

Henry’s eyes sparkled with a vicious killing intent.

Having concluded his thoughts, Henry returned to the battlefield.

***

After running for days and nights, Hector could finally step foot in the desert.

“Finally...!”

Hector was genuinely happy. He wasn’t thirsty, nor were his feet burning from the arduous journey, but the fact that he had left a young boy behind in Killive was still bothering him.

Thus, the scorching sun and sandy land of Shahatra couldn’t have been more welcoming.

After entering the Shahatra gorge, Hector traveled for several days again, and finally, he reached the capital city of Khan, located in the southern part of Shahatra.

Fortunately, there was no magical barrier as he had feared, so he continued to move forward, feeling relieved.

When he finally reached Khan, Hector rushed into the palace, searching for Herarion. However, no matter how much he searched the place, he couldn\'t find him.

Hector grew impatient.

Part of him wanted to grab anyone in the palace and ask where Herarion was, but Hector had never shown his face in his spirit form, so he didn’t want to cause any trouble.

“Damn it...!”

In a hidden corner of the palace, Hector racked his brains, trying to think of a way to solve the problem, and after pondering for a while, he came up with an idea.

“Right! I can use him!”

Having thought of a person who could help him, Hector started moving.

After passing through dozens of walls, he arrived in Kale’s office. Kale had just finished teaching and was lying in his chair with a book over his face, fast asleep.

In an urgent voice, Hector said, “Hey.”

“...”

“Hey!”

“...Huh?”

Not even his students were allowed to enter this room, so to hear an unfamiliar voice obviously woke Kale up.

After he opened his eyes, Kale found himself facing the spirit form of Hector right up close.

“A-AAAHHH!”

A scream echoed through Kale\'s office.

***

“Slurp!”

Dracan cradled a handful of grebells in his arm, and bit into them savagely, like a pig. With each bite, he felt a tingling sensation all over his body, filling him with more mana.

‘A little more. Just a little more and I’ll be...!’

Having reached pure enlightenment through satisfying his curiosities, he had reached the 6th-Circle for some time now.

He had become knowledgeable enough in anthropology that he could be considered a 7th-Circle Archmage. Nonetheless, he still hadn’t awakened as a 7th-Circle.

The reason was simple — the amount of mana required to reach the 7th-Circle was unimaginably high compared to the amount necessary to evolve from a mage to an Archmage.

However, Dracan had a vague feeling that he would soon awaken as a 7th-Circle after having consumed hundreds of grebells.

With ambition glowing in his eyes, Dracan took another bite off from a grebell, but just then, a familiar voice greeted him.

“You look well, Dracan.”

It was none other than Arthus, who greeted Dracan with a familiar smile.

Dracan put down the grebell he had taken a bite from and bowed.

“This is all thanks to you, Your Majesty.”

“I’m sure it is. So you’ll awaken soon, right?”

“Of course. It’s really only a matter of time now.”

“Is that so?”

Arthus’ eyes sparkled at the news that Dracan was close to awakening as a 7th-Circle, as to him, Dracan was the most important person.

“I’ve just come back from meeting Henry Morris.”

“Henry Morris...?”

Dracan was shocked that Arthus had just met Henry. He, too, knew of Henry’s existence, the one and only disciple of the late Archmage.

“Yes. He has grown so strong that he’s even more powerful than his master. In fact, he’s so strong that he managed to destroy Pim and Rim, who were deliberately created to capture him, solely with mana.”

Pim and Rim had been Dracan’s creations, made from a mix of Black Mythril and humans, created solely for the purpose of capturing Henry.

But to think that Henry had managed to destroy Pim and Rim that easily, with just mana...

Dracan looked at Arthus in disbelief, who ignored his surprised reaction and continued, “He’s an interesting guy. I was worried that he might be boring, but he exceeded my expectations, so I’m quite pleased. On this note, Dracan, I’m granting you permission to consume the capital.”

“...Really?!”

“Yes. I think the time has finally come, Dracan.”

Consuming the capital.

Recognizing what this meant, Dracan couldn’t resist smiling.