Chapter 121 – Sajators (1)

An unforgiving bombardment of magic landed on the pyramid. One blow after another, each strike contained destructive power as if conveying the wrath of god itself. Cracks began to form around the pyramid and it began to collapse.

Sajators made a satisfied smile as he watched the cloud of dust rise towards him and cover the surroundings. A magic formation appeared beside him at this point revealing a small girl in its place. The girl had the figure of a miniaturized version of Vestiare of the Seven Heroes. The small child looked at Sajators with intelligent eyes as she spoke with a clever tongue.

“Lord Sajators. You cannot act in this manner. Didn’t our captain give the order to avoid direct contact with the Destroyer?”

“So annoying. Is there any way I’d lose to that sort of Summoned? Huh? Look at it. The idiot’s grave.”

The dust slowly settled and revealed the messy ruins of the collapsed structure. There didn’t look to be anyone that survived within this pyramid that once had been maintained in its pristine state; now destroyed to the point where its original form could not be determined.

“Look. This is the power of the Multicast Magician Sajators!”

The white gemstones lining the inside of his robe gleamed suddenly. Each stone was illuminated by a strange seemingly living and dancing light, and a magic formation appeared above one of them.

The little Vestiare looked at the ruins dumbly before replying to Sajators with spite.

“Do you think the Destroyer would die to something like this?”

“What?”

Sajators’ expression became twisted.

“He is one that stood before god, and through some method different than ours. I do not believe an attack of this caliber will be able to kill him.”

“If he’s not dead then why do you think he hasn’t come out yet? Is it because the rubble is too heavy for him? Well, what can I say? It’ll take more than a hundred years to be able to dig himself out of this one.”

“And if he does manage to come out alive? You are someone that is more important than you yourself realize. Remember that.”

“Even if he does manage to crawl out of this one, he won’t be able to catch me. You should know that no one can catch me if I put my mind to running. I am the Multicast Magician, Sajators.”

Sajators continued to brag, but the little Vestiare did not bat an eye. Instead, she chose to move on to the next topic.

“Captain has made an order. Immediately activate the next giant. The preparations at the next location are already…”

The miniaturized girl who had been with speaking intelligence was cut off suddenly. Sajators’ hand, or more accurately a massive phantom of a demonic hand that sprouted from his hand, had grabbed the entirety of her tiny body.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Vestiare! Captain may have given you importance because you know how to do some tricks, but remember this, the greatest magician among the Seven Heroes is me, Sajators.”

More strength poured into the hand that gripped the tiny body of Vestiare. Crunch. Crunch. The miniature figure began to deform into a grotesque shape. But in spite of it all, the child did not so much as change her expression and continued to speak in her distinct all-knowing voice.

“You can play First Place all you want. I don’t care either way, but don’t forget to activate the giant. Captain’s orders…”

The tiny figure was destroyed entirely. Sajators spat as he put his hand down. His hand that had appeared like a phantasm disappeared as it tossed her meaty remains below. The wind lifted Sajators’ mantle revealing the jewels strung along beneath it. Two of the six gems were already lit with active magic formations glowing on top of them, one of which soon faded.

“Fucking… Wasted my good mood.”

Sajators looked down toward the ground below and swiftly waved his hand.

“Inferno.”

A massive flame rose up from rubble of the pyramid, and he poured some combustible liquid with a repulsive smell from the air with a bucket at various parts of the pyramid. Soon fearsome flames comparable to the flames of hell flared up from the pyramid along with some black smoke.

“…”

Sajators quietly looked at the flames with passionless eyes while flying when he heard some noise below to the east. It was the sound of a whistle.

“Hm? A human in a place like this?”

Along the riverside with running mudwater, an old man and a young woman were sitting on the docks. A cruel light flashed across Sajators’ eyes.

“Should I go recharge some of my magic power?”

Sajators lightly descended toward the ground and landed before Clarise who blew upon the whistle that much harder in contrast with the sudden appearance of the monster.

“Clarise!”

It was only after Kruut gave warning from the back that the sound of the whistle stopped.

“You look like a normal human now that I get a good look at you. How did you arrive here?”

Sajators spoke with a soft voice, but Clarise’s group could feel it; the unending evil reeking from this stranger.

When the group did not answer, Sajators lifted his hand slightly. A massive demonic hand rose like a phantom before him. The demonic hand seemed to mimic his movements as Sajators closed and opened his hand.

“Mmm. Now that I think about it, it might be better to leave one alive. That idiot will let the world know of my name once again if I did that.”

The demonic hand disappeared. Sajators glared at Kruut Assam as he tossed out a question.

“What is your relationship with each other?”

In that instant, Sajators’ eyes were dyed yellow. Kruut who was faced with that golden eye squarely in the face could feel his hair drain of color and found himself unable to defy the youthful magician. Kruut involuntarily answered the question.

“Clarise… is my Granddaughter.”

“Oh ho? Blood related? That is good.”

Sajators had a mischievous smile on his face. He soon noticed that Clarise was armed with an axe, so he took out a single sword from his Soul Storage and tossed it over to Kruut.”

“Receive it, and fight.”

“What…?”

Kruut who had received the sword made a dumbfounded expression and hesitated causing Sajators to fly up into the air and shout with a whimsical voice.

“I said fight! Both of you. Until one of you falls. The one who survives shall be given permission to live. If either of you does something like hesitate or try to spare the other, you shall end up like this.”

Sajators lifted his hand and pointed toward the north. A magical formation rose around his body, and there was an explosion powerful enough to shake the earth. When the explosion ended, the dense forest that was once overgrown was left with only a mound of dirt in its place.

As Clarise and Kruut looked back at him with fearful eyes, the smile upon Sajators face grew wider.

“I am the Multicast Magician, Sajators. The greatest magician among the Seven Heroes. I have been rebirthed in this world to suck the life out of humanity! Someone like this is giving you the opportunity to live. How generous am I? So, hurry up and fight, grandfather and granddaughter!”

Sajators viciously goaded them to fight. Clarise’s eyes shook restlessly while Kruut’s eyes were calm like the surface of a lake.

‘I thought my luck was unusually good of late.’

The spire of the ruins that he had sought for all his life was now buried under the collapsed jungle by the magician named Sajators.

‘If I knew this was going to happen, I should have trailed that Summoned in secret. I wouldn’t have had any regrets if I had died after witnessing the ruins.’

Kruut lifted his sword.

“Clarise.”

He walked toward Clarise with his sword in the air.

“Gramps.”

Clarise shook her head, but Kruut didn’t stop. Instead, he whispered to his granddaughter at a volume at which Sajators would not be able to overhear.

“Pretend the fight for now, we’ll find a way later.”

Clarise immediately understood his intentions and lightly nodded, but Kruut’s body moved on its own. To be exact, the sword he held in his hand moved on its own.

“W-what?!”

Kruut’s eyes became wide. He tried to put the sword down, but his arms refused to listen. It felt as if everything below his shoulder to the hand that held the sword was not his own.

A flippant laughter exploded from behind them.

“Kyahahaha! Dumb old man, do you think I wouldn’t be able to know of your stupid schemes? The sword you hold is cursed. It won’t stop until your opponent is dead!”

Sajators laughed to his content before reclining sideways in the air while observing Kruut and Clarise down below.

“Hey, hurry up and start. I want to witness a tragedy one can’t watch with dry eyes.”

Kruut’s arms moved on its own and mysterious ancient letters appeared on the otherwise unsuspecting surface of the blade. Kruut who understood a bit of the Ancient Language could decipher some of its content.

[I shall not stop until the thirst for blood had been sated.]

“This is wrong.”

Kruut let out a shout that was more closer to a scream.

“This is wrong! I don’t care what happens to me, but spare my granddaughter!”

Sajators who saw Kruut’s state began to laugh mockingly while holding his stomach.

“What did you say? I can’t hear you. Why don’t you try shouting a bit louder, old fart.”

The sword that was now dyed red continued to strike toward Clarise on its own. Kruut continued to scream. it was because the strike which exceeded the strength of his body gave him pain equal to having his shoulders pulled out.

“Kwaaak!”

The evil blade of magic continued to pierce at Clarise’s heart. She managed to parry it away for a while by lifting up her axe blocking the first round of attacks, but the power behind the sword was tremendous. The axe blade rang like a bell and trembled, and her arms that she believed were well trained felt numb as though they were paralyzed. It wasn’t Kruut’s strength. It was strength held within the magical blade itself.

In truth, the rough movements of the blade were destroying Kruut physically while using his shoulders as its fulcrum.

CRUNCH. CRUNCH.

Whenever the sword moved on its own, the uncomfortable sound of bone grinding against bone from Kruut’s skinny arm could be heard along with Kruut’s screams.

‘Both gramps and I will die at this rate.’

The magical sword lunged toward Clarise once again, but this time, its movements were different. Not only was it fast, but it was extraordinary enough to leave an afterimage. Clarise desperately moved her eyes to seek out the path of the sword, but it was impossible with her level of skill.

“End it.”

Sajators spoke coldly as though he had lost all interest, the sword began to strike toward Clarise once again. Clarise looked upon Kruut’s face that was distorted with pain and surprise and smiled wide.

“Gramps. You know, I haven’t really changed my family name.”

It was in that moment. Something akin to a black light quickly shot out from the dense jungle and wrapped around the magical sword. The magical sword thrashed about, trying to free itself from the black something that bound it, but it was struck by a hammer that followed and shattered it to pieces.

BOOM

A single hammer embedded itself to the ground, and only one thing came to the minds of everyone that recognized it. It was the hammer forged from the sky itself, Fal Garaz.

“Huh?”

Sajators, who was in the sky above, raised his eyebrows. A single man appeared from the jungle with a book that flew in the air accompanying him. There was not a single injury nor speck of dust on him.

“I’m sorry I was late. I would’ve come a bit faster if you had blown the whistle.”

“I was blowing it since a while back!”

Clarise protested as she raised her axe.

Sungchul walked over to Fal Garaz and retrieved his weapon before he grabbed the shoulder of Kruut, who was groaning in pain, and lightly pushed it in.

CRUNCH.

“Kwaak!”

Kruut’s body curved like a bow. Clarise lifted her axe and ran toward Sungchul.

“What are you doing?”

“Clarise, stop. This man was just fixing my dislocated shoulder.”

Sajators simply watched the scene unfold below him with an unpleasant expression on his face.

‘The bastard… he’s unscathed?’

In truth, this was a heavy blow to him. Even if he hadn’t directly targeted Sungchul with his assault, he was confident that it should have delivered some level of impact. Didn’t he also burn down everything in that vicinity as insurance as well? However, the fact that Sungchul appeared without a single injury to his body or even his clothes was enough to make him deeply uncomfortable.

He also felt wary. He had come to realize that Sungchul was definitely much stronger than he had expected and that he could be defeated here if he was careless.

‘It might be better if I slip away from this place for now.’

Sajators quickly changed his mind about engaging him, but he still had no intention of leaving empty-handed. He wanted to at least sucker punch Sungchul before leaving. It was with these thoughts that Sajators dug through his mantle with his hand. Different patterns of magical formation rose from each gem glowing with a milky light which were hung in a row under his mantle.

‘I’ll show you the might of the Multicast Magician.’

However, Sungchul disappeared from his sight in the next moment. He then felt a chilling aura of hostility from behind. Sajators immediately summoned the demonic hand to protect his rear as he glared with his eyes. Fal Garaz was flying toward him.

He tried to use the demonic hand to stop the hammer, but the moment the hand came into contact with the hammer, Sajators knew. That the man who was after his life was not a man that could be stopped.

“Kwaaaak!”

The demonic hand shattered and Sajators shot toward the earth like a cannon before being lodged into the jungle below. Sungchul who now lightly hopped over let out a shallow sigh before landing toward where Sajators had crashed. He looked down toward the ground without any expression before fixing his grip on Fal Garaz.

‘Quite easy.’

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