Chapter 47 Whispering the Runes of a Spell Few in History Dared Attempt

Rein’s head snapped toward the sky.

“Damn it, Liora! This isn’t a time for spell like that—half the battlefield’s still down there! You’ll hit friend and foe alike! And you—You’ve been burning yourself out all day! You can’t—”

But she couldn’t hear him. 

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High above, balanced atop a spinning magic circle, Liora stood with both arms outstretched toward the titanic ice sword. The blade trembled from the power building inside it.

This was only the beginning.

Her lips moved, whispering the runes of a spell that few in history had dared attempt. Her magic surged beyond tier five’s limits, clawing into tier six. 

The ice sword began to crack. Tiny fissures spiderwebbed up the blade, each one glowing with blinding, white-blue light. The glow intensified, and the sound was like glass screaming.

Blood welled from the corner of Liora’s eye. Then the other. Her nose. She coughed blood into her palm, but she never broke the spell. Her gaze locked on Demon Lord far below.

Her glasses cracked from the pressure of her mana, a sharp line running across one lens. For just a split second, her face flickered like static distortion, showing something underneath.

Then the glow of her magic swallowed it, masking the moment as though it had never happened.

She threw her head back, screaming the final word with everything she had left.

“Tier 6 Magic! Glacial… ANNIHILATION BURST!”

Demon Lord gaze turn sad as the cold devoured the battlefield.

“Poor Liora… She’s tearing herself apart. Her body can’t withstand tier six magic without a price… She’ll pay for this in more than blood and mana.”

Rein’s fists clenched. His breath puffed white in the freezing air, but it wasn’t the cold that bit him.

“Damn it, Liora, stop! You’ll kill yourself at this rate!”

The sword shattered instantly, exploding into a tidal wave of ice shards and freezing mist, cascading downward with the force of an avalanche the size of a city.

 A pulse of impossible cold burst outward, faster than sound. The ground froze — then bloomed with frost so fast it looked alive. Giant ice roses unfurled across the battlefield, their crystalline petals shimmering before swelling to monstrous size… and exploding into giant fissures that split the ground.

The crater that Rein and Demon Lord's clash had carved was swallowed whole by the freeze, its blackened stone vanishing under a glassy sheet of white. Even the air felt heavy, every breath turning to needles in the lungs.

Beneath them, the frost crept like a living thing. Their boots vanished under climbing ice, shards racing up their legs. In seconds, their knees were sealed inside growing pillars of crystal, the sound of cracking stone echoing as the battlefield itself was locked in a frozen tomb.

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Mari’s face twisted as she looked up at the sky.

“Damn it… Lady Liora gonna kill herself if she keeps this up.”

Verron glanced skyward too.

“Tier six… Now that is something you don’t see every day. For a human to claw her way that high… impressive. Self-destructive, but impressive.”

Mari clicked her tongue. 

“Tch. I don’t have time to sit here and listen to you, handsome devil. Lady Liora will die at this rate—I need to stop her before she burns herself out!”

 Mari slammed her palm against the ground.

“Flash Bomb!”

Verron’s vision snapped white for an instant, and when it cleared, both Mari and Kaia were gone—vanished into the icy mist above the battlefield.

Verron chuckled low in his throat.

“Ah… that girl. Slips away from me so easily. How cruel. Well, no helping it. My queen may need a hand… and I should hate to keep her waiting.”

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The frost kept spreading, relentless as a living curse. Shards climbed higher and higher, wrapping Rein’s legs, sealing his arms, gripping his chest in glacial chains. He gritted his teeth, sparks crackling across his skin, but no matter how much he punched or lightning he poured into it, the ice just kept growing.

Across from him, Demon Lord stood silent, her body encased up to her shoulders, the ice swallowing her into a crystalline coffin. She didn’t resist. She didn’t even flinch. Her red eyes remained set on him as the ice sealed over them, freezing her into a towering formation of blue crystal.

“Damn it!”

 Rein roared, smashing his fists against the ice. Shockwaves cracked through it, but still it grew back faster than he could break it.

“This isn’t over! Do you hear me?! Our fight isn’t over! And neither is our talk!” 

His fists slammed again, sparks flaring against the frost.

 “You said my real name—how the hell do you know about me?!”

The ice splintered, but before he could break through, a smooth chuckle slipped into the frozen silence.

“Ah… now you want to talk.”

Rein’s head snapped toward the sound.

Verron stepped from the swirling frost, his black tuxedo untouched by dust, his smile like polished steel. He swept a gloved hand lazily across the frozen spire.

“I’m afraid it’s a bit too late for that now... Hero.”

With a swipe of his hand, the ice shattered in a thousand shards of glittering frost. Demon Lord’s prison collapsed—and before her body could fall, Verron caught her in his arms, holding her as though she were a sleeping queen. 

He dipped in a graceful bow, “Forgive us, Hero. My Queen seems to be tired from dancing with you. The curtain falls here.”

His body shimmered with void magic—and in the blink of an eye, they were gone.

One after another, the remaining demon warriors lit with teleportation circles, their forms dissolving into shadows. The battlefield fell silent, save for the groaning ice still spreading across stone and soil, and the voices of the knights who remained.

Rein stood frozen in place, chest heaving, his fists still clenched against the creeping frost that bound him. The echo of Verron’s mocking charm burned in his ears. The sight of Demon Lord slipping through his grasp—again—twisted in his gut like a hot blade.

His teeth ground together. Sparks snapped off his shoulders.

“DAMN IT!!”

He slammed both fists into the ground.

The earth quaked.

A shockwave of lightning burst outward, detonating through the crater like meteor blast. Ice split in hot red lines, shattering and melting in every direction—spikes exploding into shards, crystal towers collapsing in a storm of glittering frost. The crater floor buckled, cracking apart in a web of glowing fissures that swallowed the frozen battlefield whole.

When the dust cleared, Rein stood at the center, chest rising and falling, steam hissing off his shoulders as arcs of lightning crawled over his body. The battlefield was no longer a prison of ice, but a ruin of shattered stone and melted frost—his rage carved into the earth itself.

“This fight isn’t over! Do you hear me?! Not you, not her, not ANY of you! I’ll drag the truth out of you if I have to tear down the whole damn world!”

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Liora’s vision swam. The battlefield below was only a blur of colors and shapes, twisting in and out of focus. Warm trails ran down her cheeks—not tears, but blood, dripping from her eyes, her nose, the corner of her mouth.

Her thoughts stumbled just like her body. 

"Did it work? Did I buy enough time? Did I stop Rein from hearing what he shouldn’t? Or… did I just waste everything?"

Her chest burned, lungs scraping against the effort to breathe. She swayed, knees buckling atop the glowing circle of magic that held her in the sky.

"Kael… will I even get to see you again?"

A hollow laugh shook her throat. 

"Hah… how high am I, anyway? And with no mana left… how exactly am I supposed to get down? Silly me... didn't think of that."

Her hands trembled, the magic circle under her flickering like a dying flame. Then, with a sound like cracking glass, it shattered.

The world fell out from under her.

Her eyes slid shut. The sky turned upside down, and she let herself go limp, ready to meet the ground below.

But it never came.

“Got you!”

A bright glow wrapped around her body, weightless, halting her fall inches from the ground. Mari’s voice shook—not from strain, but from the rush of catching her idol before the world could break her.

Liora’s dull eyes slowly open, finding the young mage’s tear-glossed face.

“Mari…?”