Chapter 134

RMSBS – Episode 134 . The Pinnacle (2)

‘Is this really the pinnacle of alchemy?’

The Homunculus had a body that was superior enough to withstand Desir’s magic . However, as the attacks continued, the hard body began to be destroyed little by little .

It was far too weak . It was far from being called the pinnacle of alchemy .

[Burst Fire]

*Crash*

The Homunculus’s skin was cracked, muscles were torn, and bones were broken .

It had been thoroughly crushed by Desir’s magic .

Desir decided to end it; there was no need to drag this out any longer .

[Wind Press]

A Second-Circle spell that forcefully restrained enemies with wind pressure .

The Homunculus, whose body had been fractured, couldn’t overcome the wind pressure and flew into the wall .

Desir reached his hand out and aimed his next spell at the Homunculus . The spell quickly arranged itself in front of him .

[Fire Spear]

A fire spear fell down on the Homunculus .

*Baaaaam*

A heavy scream shook the basement . A cloud of dust billowed out . Accompanying the shockwave was a bright light; a sign that the defences of the Homunculus had been annihilated .

Desir turned his attention to Pureus .

“It’s over, Pureus . The Homunculus you were so proud of has been destroyed . ”

Despite the fact that the Homunculus had been completely annihilated, Pureus was still smiling .

“There is nothing you can do anymore . Surrender without resistance . ”

“Hahahaha . Foolish wizard . Do you think you have won? Do you not understand the meaning of eternal life?”

“What?”

Just as Pureus finished speaking, something stirred amongst the dust . Desir turned around to look at it .

It was the Homunculus .

It faced Desir, looking as it did when it stepped out of the coffin at the start of the battle . It was in pristine conditions, looking as if it had never even been in a battle .

‘Regeneration… It doesn’t look like that kind of thing… ’

If it had the ability to regenerate, it would have shown signs of restoring itself as he was attacking it . However, in the battle so far, no such thing could be seen at all .

‘This is something more than regeneration . It must be some kind of psychedelic magic that makes it look like it’s damaged . ’

Desir couldn’t tell for sure, but intuitively knew that there was something afoot here .

Desir reached out to the Homunculus .

While he was not sure, he just had to subdue it again to clarify his doubts .

‘Whether it be a hallucination or something else, I will subdue it again and find out!’

He didn’t know what power it had used, but the Homunculus wasn’t his opponent anyway .

After Desir finished arranging his thoughts, he started to invoke spells on the Homunculus again .

However, in reaction to Desir, the Homunculus’ body seemed to have shrunk . It disappeared from Desir’s sight in an instant .

Before Desir could even react, Desir felt a sharp pain on his left arm . The pain was unbearable, almost as if it were on fire .

*Baaaaam*

Despite feeling a tremendous amount of pain, Desir completed the arrangement of his spell .

An intense shock wave struck the Homunculus and it was blown off its feet by the force, burying itself halfway into the nearby wall .

Desir was astonished .

‘It managed to attack before the spell was activated?’

Its speed had become incomparably fast in comparison to the last clash .

Even with improved reflexes and muscle strength from his strengthening magic, he was completely unable to respond .

The Homunculus pulled itself out of the wall and looked at Desir . It stood still, as if observing Desir .

‘Something has changed . ’

This creature that had just jumped around without thinking before, now had a look of intelligence on its face . As if it were carefully contemplating the best way to attack next .

Desir invoked another spell . Simultaneously, the Homunculus began to move .

It was so fast that it left behind an afterimage, creating the illusion of there being multiple copies of it all over the place .

*Bang*

*Baaang*

Desir’s magic streaked through the air and smashed into the innocent wall .

The Homunculus had been slowly closing the distance before realizing that Desir’s magic couldn’t hurt it .

‘It has the ability to gradually improve its judgement . I can’t take my time dealing with it anymore . Since that’s the case… !’

Desir had internally admitted that he could no longer shoot down the Homunculus with a single-shot magic .

Upon reaching this conclusion, he decided to pour all of his effort into a long-ranged attack that it could not avoid .

[lce Crown]

It was one of the top-class spells amongst those of the Second-Circle .

He was planning to arrange this larger-scale magic while retreating from the Homunculus that would be preoccupied with that spell for a while .

“What… !?”

At that moment, however, the Homunculus rushed towards Desir .

Unexpectedly, it took the attack magic directly and approached him .

The speed it moved at was beyond imagination . It never even gave Desir a chance to unleash defensive magic .

Instinctively, Desir lifted his arms to defend himself .

*Bang*

A tremendous impact sounded .

With it, the mana capacity of the Clothes Line had dropped sharply . As the Clothes Line offset the shock, Desir’s body bounced back .

Immediately after Desir shook his head to clear it, he saw the arm of the Homunculus descending on him to split his head .

[Sigh of Kizard]

Fortunately, Desir was bounced back by the Homunculus shattering the defensive spell he barely got off in time .

Unfortunately, the Homunculus’s continuous attacks did not let up .

*Smash*

*Smash*

*Smash*

Explosions emanated from its simple yet powerful fist swings and kicks .

Moreover, as his vision on his right side was greatly reduced, this kind of close-range combat was very unfavorable for Desir .

‘In order to respond to this speed… ’

Desir remembered the way he handled the Chimera .

A spell arranged itself in front of him .

[Water Wall]

Desir summoned a cylindrical wall of water, blocking him off from the Homunculus on all sides .

[Winter Ice]

The water around him froze immediately as it formed .

*Chkhk*

“Kiaaaaah!”

The body of the Homunculus approached Desir with the exact timing he had hoped for . As it was partially through the water wall, it also froze under the influence of the spell combo .

It was trapped on his right-hand side .

Desir unleashed a spell of the Third-Circle while feeling a bloodcurdling sensation at how close this encounter was .

[Summon Lighting]

So far, with the exception of defensive magic, the only attack magic he had been using was at the Second-Circle to conserve mana .

However, Summon Lightning was a Third-Circle spell . It may not be the pinnacle of Third-Circle spells, but it definitely could not be discounted .

An intense thunderstorm swept the ice wall that had temporarily trapped the Homunculus .

There was a dazzling flash as lighting filled the enclosed room .

Within an instant, an extreme current of electricity penetrated the body of the Homunculus .

Using such a spell while surrounded by water definitely wasn’t safe, but it was certainly effective . As Desir expected, the Homunculus’s face was soon burned black .

The current was so powerful that Desir could see its red and blue blood vessels bursting all over its body .

“Khaaaaaak!

It screamed in pain .

*Crack*

At the same time, the ice sphere that had restrained it was broken, and thousands of shards of ice were flung out .

A blue hand reached through the ice shards and made a swipe at Desir .

‘What the hell is this ability?’

He couldn’t make any sense of it .

It truly felt like he had done significant damage to the Homunculus . The manner in which he had done it was even completely different from last time . How exactly the Homunculus was recovering was far beyond his comprehension and outside of his realm of experience .

Although he couldn’t figure out what it was, it was easy to figure out what it wasn’t . From the amount of damage it sustained and how it seemed to instantaneously revert to a perfect condition, it wasn’t a form of regeneration or an illusion effect .

‘Within a moment, it was back to its original shape . ’

It was as if this was its natural state .

Anyone would be dumbstruck

Desir could only feel bitter at the mana expenditure for such inconclusive results .

[Raise Wall]

A stone wall soared out of the ground to block its path . The Homunculus didn’t care and charged straight through it .

The sturdy stone wall was torn apart like a sheet of paper under the Homunculus’s strength .

“… !”

But Desir wasn’t there when the Homunculus smashed through the wall .

The Homunculus’s eyes swivelled from left to right in search of Desir . Instinctively, it then looked up .

Desir was standing on top of the collapsing wall and had just finished arranging a spell .

[Burst Fire]

Dozens of fireballs, each drawing different paths, rushed at the Homunculus .

The Homunculus kicked against the ground, leaping backwards as it read the fireball’s trajectory, and nimbly escaped . It appeared to be reading the paths as if it were one step ahead at all times . An absolute feat of aerobatic mastery .

Fortunately, with the Homunculus preoccupied, there was a brief respite for Desir to gather his thoughts . This window would be brief though, as Desir had barely managed to distance himself from it .

With how the Homunculus had evolved, Desir struggled to find a solution to his predicament . Before, attacks were easy to get off, but functionally useless due to its healing ability . Now, however, Desir was struggling to find opportunities to attack; even if he did damage, it would just regenerate itself . In effect, any attack Desir could make would be meaningless .

‘But that doesn’t mean that I can solely rely on defensive magic . ’

Defensive magic was not able to respond to the variety and strength of attacks from the Homunculus .

Unfortunately for Desir, the Clothes Line had begun to approach its limit .

[Warning: Clothes Line has less than 20 percent mana remaining . The defensive capabilities have been significantly reduced . ]

Desir’s position could only get worse, the longer the battle went on . It was clear that Desir had lost the advantage .

During the battle, the Homunculus began to handle its power with a higher level of finesse . There were fewer gaps in its defenses and its attacks became even more relentless . Attacking and defending against this creature had become significantly harder .

It was clear now that it would continually evolve .

The more it battled against Desir, the more difficult it was going to be for Desir to handle .

Desir’s mana, on the other hand, became increasingly exhausted . Less than half of his mana pool remained .

‘If it continues like this, it will be rather dangerous . ’

If the essence of Homunculus’s ability was regenerative power, it could be dealt with in the one-go by any attack that had overwhelming might .

If Desir used all of his remaining mana, he might be able to finish things off once and for all .

However, he was not convinced that Homunculus’s ability was regeneration . After hitting it with [Summon Lightning], he was almost certain that the source of its longevity was something else .

Desir’s expression slowly distorted .

“What a pathetic display . ”

Pureus smiled, savoring Desir’s expression .

“It’s very sad that you cannot even comprehend this great wisdom . The truth that your trivial brain dare not even imagine . I at least want you to know what truth is overwhelming you in this battle . ”

Pureus stared at the Homunculus with ecstatic eyes .

“The truth that I have embodied into this creature is not just eternal life . A truth on that level would just allow one to live forever . This is the true pinnacle of alchemy . And that power is… !”

*Baaam*

An explosion shook the room slightly .

Desir had succeeded in blowing an entire arm off the Homunculus using a Third-Circle spell .

However, the fragments of the arm that were scattered across the floor soon re-attached themselves to the stump of its arm and reformed a perfectly functional arm .

Desir couldn’t believe his eyes .

It wasn’t anything like a regenerative ability . It felt like an ability that reversed time, restoring it back to its original state .

“It’s controlling Causality . ”

—-

Chapter brought to you by the Patrons .

ED2: Purplemen101

TLC: N/A

QC: Nhan & Dr Lock