NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 858
“The beast had been caught, and along with it, the false prophet who performed miracles before it. This was because they had deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into a lake of fire and brimstone. Ah, behold! Clearly see! The deceiving demons are thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet will be tormented day and night forever.”
Skin of black and red.
The body grotesquely transformed by the flames that burned and melted it.
Fingers and toes had melted and fused together into a mass due to burns, while the melted skin evoked an overwhelming revulsion, reminiscent of a long-suffering plague victim. Meanwhile, the face, unscathed aside from its bright red hue, created a dissonance with its body, evoking an alien sensation.
Park Jinseong, holding molten metal, murmured the scriptures, appearing truly as an evil being or a sinner from hell.
“The sinners of Zion, filled with fear, tremble, saying, ‘Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?’ But the faithful answered, ‘The wise shall ascend by the path of life, departing from that below. Do not fear those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.'”
Having witnessed that sight, Ashtosh Singh realized.
Park Jinseong had deliberately set his body on fire.
Even though he could have moved faster to protect himself, he had chosen to let his body burn.
“How can the demons in hell fear fire and brimstone? How can they die by flames and sulfur? Ah, he endured the burning pain to endure, and thus changed his form! He draped himself in the symbol of a demon!”
“Moreover, within the magic circle, there is a demon; it feels like seeing a twisted existence summoned in a magic circle, as well as someone trapped inside a circular barrier unable to escape.”
“The wall separates the inside from the outside, protecting from the beings beyond it. But what meaning does the inside and outside hold then?”
“For those inside, it’s a wall to protect against outside dangers, while for those outside, it’s a prison wall to keep the dangers inside from escaping. Regardless of position, the nature of the wall remains the same; Bug Sorcerer, you tried to block the fire with a wall.”
Ashtosh Singh outputted these thoughts and transformed the flames into another shape.
If a wall has meaning in blocking something, then there are also ways to make such a wall useless.
“What good is a wall to those with wings, no matter how high it is?”
“What good is a wall to a small rat sneaking through even if it’s thick?”
The little rat easily crossed the wall’s boundaries through a tiny gap.
The bird fluttered its wings, soaring in the sky.
Ashtosh Singh shaped the flames into the forms of a rat and a bird and shot them at Park Jinseong.
And Park Jinseong, seeming to counter such an attack, began to recite an invocation.
“There is a woman who advises the king while cloaked in secrecy, whispering to him in bed, ‘No matter how secretive the words are, the moment two people know, it is no longer a secret. The ears of men are stuck to the wall, and the rat that crawls within the wall and the bird that flies in the sky hear this secret and spread it everywhere.’ Thus, the king spoke.”
Is it an incantation to block the rat and bird?
Park Jinseong recited the invocation as if playing a song at high speed, moving his empty hands to form a sign.
*Whoosh.*
The rat and bird, trying to burn Park Jinseong before the spell was completed, accelerated their movements, and as they closed the distance, they launched themselves toward him.
The rat leapt with all its might towards Park Jinseong’s face, while the bird aimed fiercely at his torso as if trying to become a living arrow.
As the rat and bird shot forth—
*Whoosh.*
Just before they touched Park Jinseong’s body, they transformed.
Not into rats and birds, but into the form of a wolf.
Yes.
The mention of the rat and bird.
The flames shaped into a rat and bird.
All were deceits of Ashtosh Singh.
He had led Park Jinseong to use spells to defend against the rat and bird.
Even the speed of their launch was cunningly controlled, making it a trick that beginners in magic had no choice but to fall for.
A fatal feint.
As the wolf, shaped from the flames, lunged to swallow Park Jinseong whole, he too completed his spell.
“-Oh Father Mars, I earnestly beseech you, turn the divine protective wall around my land; O Mars, O Mars, please ward off all disasters and tempests, and safely protect the shepherds and their flocks.”
-This was not the spell to protect himself from the earlier creatures of the rat and bird, but a completely different incantation.
Yes.
Just as Ashtosh Singh had used a feint, so had Park Jinseong.
The invocation he recited earlier was fake.
The real spell was in the swift gestures made with empty hands.
*Whoosh.*
Flames scattered in all directions.
As the wolf’s teeth, biting down on a boulder, shattered and scattered everywhere, sparks flew from its mouth, bursting all around, while the wolf, seeming to writhe in agony, lifted its head, shook it, and began to roll on the ground.
“With one white divine protective wall at the front, I split the earth with a plow to create the Pomerium; O Mars, I beg of you, having made the furrows with the white ox, I performed the Amburbium. I plead with you that your grace may descend upon this place, protecting me and my family and all that my family commands from death, contamination, external invaders, soldiers, disease, disasters, and famine. Please, receive it, receive it! O Father Mars, I solely beseech your grace, making the divine protective wall as an offering—may you become strong!”
And Park Jinseong, witnessing the wolf rolling about, recited the invocation, swinging his arm with the molten metal.
Not for an attack, but for destruction.
Not toward Ashtosh Singh, but toward the ‘flame’ that was rolling around.
Thus, the whip swung by Park Jinseong struck the wolf, and the molten metal, empowered by the spell, instantaneously lost its shape like ice melting.
It was a sight as if water and fire had met.
The flames extinguished almost instantly as if water had been splashed onto them, and the water evaporated without leaving a trace as it touched the flames.
What remained there was but a thin wisp of smoke.
A lingering trace indicating that a wolf of flame had once been there, and that the whip of molten metal had struck.
“Ah, Mars. Thank you for receiving the divine protective wall I offered as a sacrifice!”
As Park Jinseong shouted in gratefulness, looking at the rising smoke, he began to use telekinesis to draw the scattered items around him.
Then, as if attempting to mimic a star, he quickly spun the gathered items around himself, and when he deemed the acceleration sufficient—
*Boom!*
He exploded the telekinesis, shooting it toward Ashtosh Singh.
Metallic projectiles.
Though composed of trash scattered around, with enough acceleration, they can be dangerous.
Especially for a sorcerer, who possesses knowledge of magic yet holds a body that is no stronger than an ordinary person; such an impact could easily crush their skull and shatter their bones.
*Boom!*
Ashtosh Singh ignited flames in response to Park Jinseong’s attack.
A flame of immense power.
The fire that surged from the ground leaped up to the ceiling in an instant, forming a wall of flames.
Due to the incredible temperature, both the floor and ceiling began melting before even touching the fire, evaporating into ash or completely disintegrating without a trace.
A flame that deletes space.
Did the ancients associate flames with ‘destruction’?
The flames conjured by Ashtosh Singh were indeed such.
Flames that evaporate everything they touch.
A pure power, unmatched by anything else, the flame of God.
“Those who step on the earth look up, saying the goddess spins a robe woven of light and flames, wearing it as she strolls through the heavens, leaving traces that flutter like a curtain.”
Wrapping himself in the divine flames like a cloak, building walls to create a maze, shaping them into the form of a serpent, he began to circle around, as the serpent opened its mouth wide and began swallowing the metallic shards shot at it.
The wall of flames restricted the path of the metal that was shot.
The flaming cloak protected Ashtosh Singh.
And the serpent began to easily devour the metallic stars like the Ouroboros that swallows planets.
Among the metallic shards shot by Park Jinseong, none were able to touch Ashtosh Singh.
Yet not everything vanished without a trace.
The smoke generated as the metal hit the flames drifted through the gaps of the flames, heading somewhere.
As if flowing along a stream, the smoke swam through the flames’ terrain and reached its destination.
The destination of the smoke was where the White Girl was.
A place sheltered by Ashtosh Singh’s magic.
“Uh…? Suddenly?! Wait—!”
As the slender smoke reached Anastasia, it expanded, engulfing her whole body, erasing her like a person swallowed by fog.
Thus, Anastasia, who had been watching in a daze, vanished without a trace.
The spell Park Jinseong had just cast was concerning “kamikakushi” (神隠し) acquired from Japan.
A spell that temporarily distorts the space, resembling a deity hiding or abducting a person.
Though it sounds grand when described like this, in reality, it has a similar effect to formations.
The only difference being that it was performed with sorcery.
“Are you trying to protect her?”
Ashtosh Singh asked Park Jinseong, looking at him with deep-set eyes.
Did he think the protective spell he cast on that girl was insufficient?
Or perhaps, was he worried, using his power to isolate her from the external world amid the battle?
Ashtosh Singh asked him in that way.
“That’s one reason.”
And Park Jinseong, nodding as if affirming that, slowly raised both hands.
“But there’s another reason.”
Gathering his Qi, he sharpened his nails and began to scratch down his own body without hesitation.
The strength and sharpness of the claw-like nails, reinforced by the Qi, matched a piece of metal in intensity.
Moreover, his skin was already weakened and soft from being burned.
Every time Park Jinseong dragged the claws across his skin, it tore open, mixing blood and pus, beginning to flood the ground.
Ah, what a dreadful sight.
Here, blood and flames abound.
The metallic death throes shaped in the form of smoke reveal only themselves.
This place is a realm of metal and flame, blood and smoke.
The one cloaked in flames and the one in the form of a demon face each other.
Who is the sinner?
Who is the jailer?
The scent of blood and ash tickling the nose seemed to whisper the future of this place…