The Great Mage Returns After 4000 Years - Season 1 Ch. 163

“Stop exaggerating.”

“What…?”

“I know what you’re showing isn’t your true strength.”

No matter how strong Frey was, he knew that he couldn’t defeat a Demigod in such an overwhelming manner.

This meant that Milled was still hiding his power.

No. It wasn’t that he was hiding it. It was that he didn’t want to reveal his true power.

In truth, this wasn’t surprising as it was the case with most Demigods. They considered it humiliating to use their full strength against a mortal.

Milled was no exception. Frey could tell from his expression.

His disbelief and suspicion had disappeared, replaced instead by fierce anger.

“…right. It’s as Lord said. We shouldn’t look down on you anymore.”

“What did Lord say?”

“He told us to admit that you were our enemies.”

Milled gritted his teeth as he spat out those words.

[I acknowledge the humans and other mortal races as our ‘adversaries’, and I will confront them with all of my might from now on.]

It hadn’t taken long for Lord’s shocking declaration to spread to all of the Demigods. But most of them felt more curious than anything.

Milled did, too.

Adversaries? The mortals?

Ever since the dragons disappeared, was there any other race who could compete with the Demigods?

No. There was none. Milled was certain of this.

Even if it was a fully enlightened human with a one in a hundred thousand or one in a million talent, they wouldn’t be much of a threat.

It was impossible to feel threatened by an insect who had simply stepped out of its shell.

But now, he was convinced.

If there were dozens of people like this man in front of him, the Demigods would certainly be threatened.

“I’ll admit that you are certainly my opponent.”

Paht.

Milled’s figure disappeared.

Frey furrowed his eyebrows.

‘Space-time movement.’

He didn’t run away.

His range of movement was definitely much shorter than that of the Apocalypses, who could also use space-time movement.

Milled simply increased the distance between them.

Was he trying to improve his situation?

‘If so, then I’ll close it.’

Just as Frey was about to use Warp.

He felt a strong force from behind him.

And as soon as he looked back, whatever it was had already come very close to him.

‘Fast…’

Frey forcibly twisted his body. But he was unable to completely avoid it.

Crunch.

It was different from before. His barrier shattered like glass, and he felt a hot pain in his left arm.

Well, it wasn’t right to say that he had been hit. It would be better to say that it had passed him. The problem was that in that instant, his entire arm had been broken, bent in a grotesque manner, and covered in blood.

Frey grabbed his left arm, wondering if he should be grateful his arm hadn’t been blown off completely.

‘Both the speed and power has increased significantly. It’s on a completely different level compared to before.’

It was obvious that the distance between them had increased, but the speed and strength of the projectiles had increased even more.

Was it acceleration? He couldn’t be sure.

No. He wouldn’t be sure.

His opponent was a Demigod. There was nothing strange about them having a bizarre trick.

Frey forced his mind to think logically.

‘Although, it came from behind…’

He couldn’t conclude that Milled would still be there. After all, he could use space-time movement. It wouldn’t be difficult for him to go around Frey in all directions.

Frey clenched his right fist.

‘Perhaps this is Milled’s true way of fighting.’

Shooting to kill from a distance.

No wonder he hadn’t used this method from the start. Such a method was far from a head to head combat.

In other words, it would be incredibly humiliating to the Demigods who enjoyed trampling rebels with overwhelming force.

Instead, it was the way of a hunter. Something was too much to use against the usually insignificant mortals.

He couldn’t be sure, but he believed Milled’s pride had been torn to shreds by now.

‘What should I do?’

He needed to find Milled first. However, tracking him wouldn’t be easy since Silkid was completely blanketed by divine power.

He couldn’t pinpoint Milled’s specific location since his scent was basically everywhere.

‘…I wouldn’t know unless I was as close to him as when I was on the basement stairs.’

At that moment, Frey paused.

Now that he thought about it, how did he sense Milled’s presence at that time?

When Frey was standing on the basement stairs, he was certain that a Demigod was behind the door. At that time, the conclusion he’d reached was that it was because of the dense divine power that covered that place.

He hadn’t thought it through at that time, but it was definitely strange.

Such a thing would have been impossible 4,000 years ago. No matter how close he got, he wouldn’t be able to tell if one was present or not.

Present and past.

What had changed the most?

‘Divine power?’

Right. Frey could use divine power now. He also had a vague understanding of how divine power was compared mana.

Divine power boasted an explosive growth. The more you used it, the more of it you could handle and the more your power would increase.

But Frey rarely used Indra’s lightning power after Riki’s death.

He was also aware of the reason for that. He was reluctant to use it.

After all, it would mean that he, someone who walked the path of magic, needed to rely on the power of an opposing force. Moreover, it was the power of his enemy, who he hated more than anything in the world.

After reaching 9 stars, this thought had become much stronger.

‘I only intended to use magic in this fight.’

But the pain in his left arm was telling him that the current enemy was one that couldn’t be dealt with with such a simple mindset,

Buzz.

Lightning began wriggling around Frey’s body.

All along, the clue to kill Milled was in his body.

* * *

A wave of shame swept through Milled, almost making him lose his temper.

‘How humiliating…!’

In truth, if it hadn’t been for Lord’s declaration, he never would have used his full power against a human, even if he was to die.

But the leader of the Demigods had recognised the humans as enemies.

So, although he felt uncomfortable, Milled was able to adopt this method of fighting.

That didn’t mean his pride was undamaged, however.

The humiliation inside of him quickly became rage and murderous intent.

Milled’s eyes shined with a fierce light.

‘Just this one… just this one needs to be killed no matter what.’

Then, everyone on the continent who knew of this humiliation would disappear.

Of course, he didn’t intend to give him an easy death.

Since he had released his full power, he would make this man feel it properly. He would slaughter him to the point where even breathing was torture.

He would make him regret looking down on a God!

Crik.

Milled pulled on the bowstring once again. There were three main types of arrows that he used. One was the energy bolt, which was made with his divine power. Since it was shapeless, it was the most suitable when it came to dealing with all kinds of opponents.

But this arrow wasn’t suitable for dealing with Frey. He was too composed, and his heart and mind were like a still pond.

In fact, his composure, which did not gain any cracks regardless of the situation, was quite abnormal.

Just like at that moment.

Although he was currently feeling the pain of having his arm almost torn off, all he did was furrow his eyebrows once.

The other type was an arrow. Of course, these weren’t ordinary arrows. They were arrows made from a type of wood called ‘Dry Tree’, which was especially good at accepting divine power.

When Milled used these arrows, it was not hard to completely destroy the walls of a castle.

And lastly. They were arrows that were also made from Dry Tree wood, but they were much longer than the others. There were also special patterns engraved on these arrows. Milled had drawn them himself.

Thanks to these patterns, the further the distance the arrows traveled, the more their power and speed increased.

‘The distance between us is about 10km.’

These arrows, when shot by Milled, could even completely remodel a mountain, and the speed they traveled at completely exceeded human perception.

By the time they noticed, the arrow would already be right in front of them.

Crack crack crack!

Once again, an arrow was fired. Even the sand dunes cried out as their bodies were scratched.

Just as he was about to pull the bowstring again, Milled noticed something strange.

‘…?’

Suddenly, he could no longer sense Frey. To be precise, his mana had disappeared.

Pulling on the bowstring, Milled frowned.

‘What’s going on?’

The lingering mana aura, which he could sense even with his eyes closed, had suddenly vanished without warning. Almost like it had evaporated.

It was an incomprehensible phenomenon, but that wasn’t all.

Boom!

A lightning bolt suddenly struck the ground in the distance.

Milled looked up to the sky.

‘What’s going on?’ (TL: yes, twice)

It was a lightning bolt that had struck out of the blue. There wasn’t even a single cloud in the night sky.

Only the cold moonlight displayed itself proudly.

Kaboom!

Lightning struck once again.

This time much bigger and fiercer than before.

A black cloud appeared in Milled’s view, and at that moment, he was utterly speechless.

“…Indra?”

Wasn’t this Indra’s lightning?

That momentary hesitation revealed a flaw.

When he came back to his senses, Milled noticed a beam of dark red light shooting towards his head.

‘Absolute!’

He tried to twist his body away, but the beam still brushed past his right arm. The pain was so severe that the hairs on his body stood on end.

“Over there…?”

Millet raised his eyes to look in the direction whence the light had been emitted from. The mana, which had made a brief appearance at that time, had disappeared mysteriously once again.

Instead, the sound of thunder grew louder.

When Milled grit his teeth, a beam of light came from the opposite direction.

This time, he couldn’t avoid it. His left thigh was pierced through cleanly.

“Kuk…!”

He almost collapsed.

If it was made by normal means, a hole like this would have regenerated in a second. However, the power used to make the hole was the power of Absolute.

This force, which could tear apart space itself, was preventing Milled’s cells from joining together.

Reduced healing power. It wasn’t just this. Even before he revealed his true power, he’d gained many large and small injuries.

As a result, his entire body was crying out in pain.

Pain.

This was a sensation that Milled, no, that all the Demigods hadn’t really felt since the early days.

He might have been able to handle it better in the past, but as it was now, Milled was slowly losing his cool.

In addition, the method his opponent was using now was the exact same method that Milled had been using before. Making life-threatening attacks while hiding in the distance.

Was he using the same method just to mess with him?

After thinking that, he couldn’t be cool-headed.

Paht.

He used space-time movement.

Milled had moved several kilometers from his previous location.

Shortly after, Milled sucked in a cold breath. A beam of dark red light had appeared in front of him.

“…!”

He ducked.

Luckily, he could avoid it this time. But he didn’t feel relieved. On the contrary, his head wasn’t working properly because of his increased anger.

‘How is he finding me?’

He didn’t understand.

He suddenly disappeared, he could use Indra’s lightning, and now, he knew exactly where he was. All of these things were impossible unless he was able to use divine power as well.

“…huh?”

At that moment, Milled felt as though cold water had been poured down his back.

A human who could use divine power?

“Frey Blake?”

Leyrin’s test subject, a human who could use both divine power and mana at the same time.

He even had a mask made by Hector to hide the identities of the Apostles!

Milled had heard rumors that Hector had gone missing.

The barrier that Lord had made in the general store where he’d been staying had been destroyed. Such a thing was only possible for 9 star Wizards who reached the peak of magic.

It was obvious now. It was this man who’d also taken Hector.

‘I have to tell Agni-’

Milled couldn’t finish his thought. His consciousness suddenly paused as though he’d blacked out.

Chut.

An Absolute Line had pierced Milled’s forehead. He’d felt nothing even after his head had been pierced.

Milled’s body flopped onto the cold desert.

“…”

Frey appeared on the spot.

He had succeeded in finishing off a Demigod single-handedly.

Originally, an irresistible thrill would be running down his spine at this moment. A sense of accomplishment similar to when he’d reached 9 stars in the past would have filled his heart. It was such an achievement.

Even in the thousands of years of history, he was probably the only man to kill a Demigod on his own.

However, Frey’s mind was only filled with questions and doubts at that moment.

After using the power of Absolute, Frey would immediately use his divine power. Because he’d remembered Riki’s advice from long ago.

Magic leaves a lingering trace, and Lord could sense it. Therefore, he needed to use divine power continuously in order to erase it. At that time, it took him two months to completely erase the traces of his mana, but he didn’t have that time now.

Therefore, he simply overlapped the usage of his powers. He hadn’t been sure if it would work or not, but the effect was much better than he expected.

Milled, who was shooting at Frey from a distance after confirming his location and was hunted in the same way, received a bland end.

Even until the moment he died, he didn’t know where Frey was.

Perhaps, this was a merit of the mask made by Hector.

Frey looked down at his hands with disbelief.

‘In that last use of Absolute Line.’

He was certain. In that last beam of dark red light, Indra’s lightning power had been mixed in.

Frey hadn’t intended to use them together.

Instead, like magnets, the divine power and mana were naturally attracted to each other.

‘Right. Magnets.’

It was an appropriate analogy. This was true especially since the powers, which were considered to be opposing poles, had attracted each other.

He tried to figure out what exactly that power was. It had far exceeded the power of Absolute.

Was it because of the added divine power?

Milled didn’t even realise that the Absolute Line was approaching him even after it had already pierced through his head.

It wasn’t intentional. Everything had simply happened naturally.

The power of Absolute Line and Indra’s lightning power had simply combined on their own. And because of this, the divine power and mana within his body seemed to have harmonised perfectly.

Frey couldn’t believe what was happening in his body at that moment.

It didn’t make sense.

Mana and divine power.

Two forces, which he never thought could coexist, had combined.