LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 46 - Night of Mana
Chapter 46 – Night of Mana
—–CROW—–
Having defeated Astra after a fierce battle, Annerose dragged her weary body towards the Vulcan Ruins.
“I have to… stop it somehow…”
Though she felt as if she would collapse at any moment from exhaustion and injuries, she continued her unsteady steps.
“The Night of Mana… is coming…”
Annerose paused, leaning on her magic sword, Aventa, and looked up at the sky.
The sun was setting.
As the red sunset shifted to purple, the darkness of the night sky deepened.
The Night of Mana was beginning.
Due to an anomaly caused by the two moons, not only did the flow of mana accelerate, but the concentration of mana in the atmosphere also became much denser than usual.
As if to prove it, a new color was added to the darkening sky.
Purple, spreading from the two moons.
While the purple of dusk was close to deep darkness, this purple was much brighter and more vivid, giving it a completely different feel.
Ominous, eerie, yet mystical at the same time.
Annerose, momentarily mesmerized by the two moons nestled within the purple haze, snapped out of her trance and looked ahead.
The air was trembling.
No, her hand gripping Aventa was trembling.
Cold sweat trickled down her back, drenching her forehead, neck, chest, and back.
Annerose instinctively sensed it.
A calamity was beginning.
Something irreversible was about to happen.
Exhaling raggedly, she gritted her teeth.
Tightening her grip on Aventa to steady her trembling hand, she resumed her steps.
And then she saw it.
The Vulcan Ruins.
Upon that land,
Calamity was descending once more.
* * *
Demon King Valakia.
The monster that destroyed the Lizardmen city-states a thousand years ago.
Annerose collapsed at the roar of the beast, freed from its long imprisonment.
Even the Solar Maiden couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by the calamity before her.
The black monster stood atop the pyramid, roaring at the sky.
And at its feet, thousands of skeletons rose, radiating hatred for the living.
That wasn’t all.
Dragons and monsters were converging from all directions.
As if Valakia’s roar was a summoning call, the dragons and monsters, succumbing to fear, rushed to gather.
And the destruction began.
Valakia and the undead army destroyed villages and cities.
The dead, resurrected by Valakia’s power, rose as undead, and Valakia’s forces swelled with every battle.
Luther opened his eyes.
Instead of replaying the cinematic from the original story, he looked up at the night sky.
It was the Night of Mana.
Just like in the original story, the sky was filled with a bright, mystical purple light.
But the landscape below was completely different.
And that’s why Luther couldn’t hide his smile.
“Phase 1.”
Demon King Valakia’s undead army.
“Groan-”
“Moan-”
Undead monsters rose from various parts of the Vulcan Ruins, accompanied by eerie groans.
Most of them were skeletons, primarily the Lizardmen who once thrived in this land.
The army of the dead.
The army of the deceased that had destroyed and burned Venus City in the original story.
In the original story, Annerose had gasped in fear at the sight of the army of the dead beginning to cover the land.
But the current Annerose reacted very—no, completely differently.
“Wow.”
A look of genuine admiration.
Her face held not fear or terror, but bewilderment and amusement.
“Kyaa!”
“Kee!”
Skeletons that had poked their heads out of the ground screamed and thrashed.
Right above where they emerged, holy symbols of the gods were erected.
Lete, the Goddess of Purification.
Over a hundred markers bearing her divine mark were placed throughout the Vulcan Ruins.
‘From a distance, it looks like a church village.’
It felt even more so because Lete’s divine mark resembled a cross.
And that wasn’t all.
Hundreds of adventurers, centered around the clerics of Lete standing beneath the markers, were singing hymns energetically.
A song of life, celebrating the beauty of life.
The melody and rhythm were a mess, as they had only taught the rough-and-tumble adventurers for a few days, but the energy of hundreds of voices singing together was truly impressive.
“Gah!”
“Graaa!”
Skeletons caught in the waves of the hymn screamed and collapsed or stumbled.
And the adventurers swung their blunt weapons and splashed holy water on the fallen skeletons.
The wicked army of the dead was being repelled.
No, the poor bone fragments were shattered and broken as soon as they rose.
“This is… kind of fun.”
“Isn’t it exciting?”
Singing together and smashing skeletons.
Lete’s hymn had become a work song, and the adventurers laughed as they eradicated the skeletons.
Several large bonfires blazed fiercely, as if to set the sky ablaze.
A hundred holy markers emitted a soft, sacred light.
Lete’s hymn resonated powerfully.
The clerics of Lete watched with satisfaction.
While their influence wasn’t small in the vicinity of Venus City, it wasn’t particularly large either, so it was the first time so many people had sung Lete’s hymns with one heart and one mind.
“Lete will watch over us.”
“May Lete’s blessings be with us.”
Making the sign of the cross and praying, the clerics of Lete resumed supporting the adventurers with satisfied smiles.
And after about 10 minutes,
Luther, watching the swift annihilation of the skeleton army, shifted his gaze further afield and said,
“Phase 2.”
Following the undead army, dragons and monsters, subjugated by the Demon King Valakia’s power and authority, would appear.
In the original story, there were hundreds of them, and the sound of their approach alone shook the heavens and earth. But this time, the situation was different.
There were fewer of them.
Not hundreds, perhaps not even dozens.
The reason was simple.
‘The battle at Asain Gorge.’
As the fairy Bidel had said, after the powerful dragons and monsters, strengthened by the fragment, were eliminated, fierce power struggles erupted among those below them.
As a result, countless dragons and monsters had killed each other in the past ten days, and the adventurers led by Karen and Annerose had easily hunted down the weakened survivors.
“The dragons are coming!”
“Monsters are approaching!”
“Formations!”
At the shouts of the lookouts, the adventurers reacted quickly.
“Clerics, fall back!”
“Switch weapons!”
“Execute the plan!”
The Venus City Guild Master, usually idle, seemed excited by this rare opportunity and commanded the adventurers in a booming voice.
And there wasn’t much to command.
They were already prepared.
“Kyaaa!”
“Aagh!”
Dragons and monsters charging frantically towards the Vulcan Ruins screamed and collapsed.
They had fallen into pre-dug traps.
“Even a mindless charge must pass through certain paths.”
That’s why they had dug traps.
Not just holes in the ground, but pits filled with sharpened stakes.
“Groan…”
As the trapped dragons and monsters groaned in pain, the adventurers began throwing javelins into the pits.
A rain of arrows filled the sky, and the dragons and monsters were slaughtered without a chance to fight back.
“Charge!”
“Finders keepers!”
Having exhausted their javelins and arrows, the adventurers charged towards the dragons and monsters, wielding their heavy weapons.
It was because of the agreement Count Glasstone had made beforehand.
‘All spoils obtained during battle belong to those who claim them.’
In other words, all the loot would be given to the adventurers.
Unlike the skeletons, which were just bone fragments, there was much to be gained from the dragons and monsters.
The adventurers, who had taken up swords to make a living, wouldn’t let such a bounty go to waste.
They slaughtered the dragons and monsters with more enthusiasm than ever.
“M-Master Jenadu…”
Marion, the dragonman, watched the scene unfold through a crystal ball with a dismayed expression. He looked at Jenadu, who was also watching through the crystal ball, seeking his opinion.
The current situation.
The skeleton army had been annihilated before they could even do anything, and the dragons and monsters were being hunted down helplessly.
The Demon King Valakia’s army was practically neutralized.
“Not yet.”
But Jenadu remained calm.
The most important part was yet to come.
“They were clearly prepared.”
They had mobilized the clerics of Lete and holy markers to annihilate the skeletons and prepared dozens of traps to defeat the dragons.
But that was all.
Such measures couldn’t stop the Demon King Valakia.
“It begins.”
The advent of Valakia.
The calamitous demonic beast that had destroyed the Lizardmen city-state of Vulcan a thousand years ago.
Jenadu’s words were true.
As soon as she finished speaking, the Night of Mana began to churn.
“Phase 3.”
Luther’s voice was laced with tension.
Everyone at the Vulcan Ruins instinctively knew.
Without anyone shouting a warning, they stopped what they were doing and looked in the same direction.
The center of the Vulcan Ruins.
The pyramid where the sealing formation was inscribed.
The purple sky rippled violently.
The ground trembled as if an earthquake had struck, and a bright light erupted from the pyramid.
Something was awakening.
This time, something truly terrifying was about to happen.
The adventurers’ continuous singing ceased.
Fear began to creep onto their faces.
The air crackled.
As the light from the pyramid intensified, the ripples in the sky grew larger.
And then, suddenly,
The light from the pyramid shattered.
Purple light poured down from the rippling sky, swallowing the light.
Jenadu, beyond the crystal ball, smiled.
Marion’s eyes gleamed as he clenched his fists.
-Rumble-!
Thunder shook the sky.
As the sealing formation shattered, mana swirled, and something dark began to emerge from within.
It was a powerful presence.
Even though only its head had emerged, its malice seemed to pollute the surroundings.
The adventurers collapsed, trembling.
Fear spread across the faces of Lete’s clerics.
“F-Fall back! Fall back!”
“Run!”
The Venus City Guild Master and the clerics of Lete shouted at the top of their lungs.
But those whose legs had given way couldn’t even stand properly.
They stumbled and fell repeatedly, trembling in fear.
The Demon King Valakia on the first day.
The deadly demonic beast that couldn’t be challenged in the original story until it weakened after five days.
It opened its eyes.
With reptilian, vertically-slit pupils, long and black within yellow irises, it beheld the world after a thousand years.
Screams erupted again.
Those who met its gaze shrieked, driven mad by overwhelming terror.
But one among them swallowed her cries.
Though trembling with fear, even as she wet herself, she didn’t avert her gaze.
Staring directly into Valakia’s eyes, she carried out her task, trembling.
“Light… of… life.”
The Spirit’s Jewel, embedded in the ground.
And a giant magic circle, centered on the jewel and connected to the sealing formation.
Lilia, sitting in the center, poured her magic power into the Spirit’s Jewel.
She was doing the exact opposite of what Hecatonchires had tried to do in the original story.
-Fwoosh-!
A blinding light erupted from the magic circle.
The power of dozens of magic stones, gathered by hunting dragons in Asain Gorge, activated the Spirit’s Jewel, amplifying and converting the remaining power within the sealing formation.
The resulting light of life.
A green radiance exploded outwards, enveloping the world.
“Kyaaaaa!”
The Demon King Valakia screamed.
It struggled to escape the life-giving light that surrounded it, but it wasn’t easy.
The life force, exploding in all directions, merged with the torrent of mana, altering the very atmosphere.
Valakia continued to scream.
Its wings, which should have been filled with darkness, revealed bare bones, and the malice that should have polluted the surroundings was neutralized by the life force and dissipated.
“I… did it.”
Lilia whispered, smiling through her tears.
Though drenched in sweat and paralyzed by fear and tension, she had fulfilled her role.
Arma Valentine looked at Lilia with admiration.
Jenadu, beyond the crystal ball, widened his eyes.
They had prepared for the Demon King Valakia.
He could understand the first two measures.
But not the last one.
Pouring life force using the Spirit’s Jewel wasn’t an easy feat.
Moreover, Jenadu knew.
The light of life, released by the explosion and merging with the torrent of mana to alter the very nature of the atmosphere, wasn’t a coincidence.
They had clearly anticipated this, calculating the flow of mana.
A genius.
A monster beyond human comprehension.
It wasn’t Arma Valentine.
She was certainly a monster, but she wasn’t capable of such calculations.
Someone else.
Another monster—
“Master Jenadu!”
Snapped back to reality by Marion’s shout, Jenadu looked at the Demon King Valakia again, a flicker of relief in his eyes.
Valakia had managed to escape the light of life.
“Graaaaaaaaa-!”
Free from the swirling green light, Valakia roared and spread its wings.
Pitch-black darkness began to fill its wings, which had been stripped bare by the life force, revealing only bone.
The Demon King Valakia.
The demonic beast that had brought ruin to the flourishing Lizardmen city-state a thousand years ago.
It opened its mouth again.
As a demonic beast that had usurped the body of the divine beast worshipped by the Lizardmen, it resembled a dragon.
Spreading its pitch-black wings wide, it unleashed another deathly roar towards the sky.
It was suffocating.
The entire world seemed to cower at the roar of the 30-meter monster.
The adventurers and even the clerics of Lete trembled in fear.
But their preparations weren’t over yet.
“Gaaaa!”
As Annerose roared, a giant earth golem erupted from the ground.
Resembling a Lizardman, it lunged at the Demon King Valakia, who had just spread its wings and roared, tackling it to the ground.
-Crash-!
The ground shook like an earthquake as the monster and the giant grappled and rolled across the earth.
The Vulcan Mud Golem.
An object prepared for the battle against the Demon King Valakia in the original story.
In the original story, while Valakia was wreaking havoc in the west, Annerose had to gather information and materials to revive the Vulcan Mud Golem. But this time, things were different.
Luther already knew.
Where the golem’s core was.
What materials were needed to awaken it.
That’s why the Vulcan Mud Golem, which would have taken at least four days to awaken in the original story, was active from day one.
“Graaa!”
Valakia, sprawled on the ground, thrashed, trying to throw off the Vulcan Golem that had pinned it down.
Annerose, atop the golem’s head, glared at Valakia, counting down.
Karen and Max carried Lilia away from the battlefield.
The adventurers and clerics of Lete retreated, and Arma Valentine closed the chest plate of her giant armor, entering combat mode.
“Graaa!”
Valakia, having thrown off the Vulcan Golem, raised its head and roared again.
A purple orb formed above its head as it spread its wings wide, radiating deathly power.
Death magic.
A purple sun that brought ruin to everything it touched.
But they already knew.
So, instead of trembling in fear, Luther raised his right arm.
Facing the growing purple sun, he commanded,
“Combine Sequence.”
[System all green!]
The drone merged with Luther’s right arm.
Valakia glared at the Vulcan Golem, which had fallen to the ground.
A pure white, massive muzzle formed, and Luther’s feet dug deep into the ground.
The ever-expanding purple sun radiated a sinister aura.
[Long-range bombardment mode, twin drive system activated.]
[Energy charge 100% complete!]
Balboa and Astra’s Dragon Hearts, within Luther’s chest and right arm, glowed brilliantly.
The swirling light, connected by blue lines covering Luther’s body, converged on the cannon on his right arm.
Luther held his breath.
The targeting reticles displayed on his HUD merged into one.
The purple sun, nearing completion, blazed above Valakia’s head.
And at that moment,
[Shall we give him a taste of his own medicine?]
At Integra’s gentle voice, Luther responded.
He silently pulled the trigger of the Buster Cannon.
And then,
The instant a streak of light struck the purple sun,
-Kaboom!
The purple sun, on the verge of completion, imploded, raining down on Valakia’s head.
—–CROW—–