I Refused To Be Reincarnated
Chapter 576: The Price of Touching Misha

Chapter 576: The Price of Touching Misha

Despite his declaration, Baldur couldn’t help but pale each time his eyes darted to the deep crevice the strike dug along the cave’s wall. This strength was too unnatural. Yet, the seven-year-old boy’s physique dwarfed that of soul transformation realm cultivators.

But that was nothing compared to the unlimited mana he exuded. Just feeling it prickled his skin and birthed ominous feelings one after another. What if he could use it or if he mastered a few spells? Just what monster was in front of him?

The thought alone sent chills down his spine but also made his heart drum in his ears. Becoming an arcanist with this unlimited supply was a given. Hell, he could even reach the archmage level, become a region’s overlord, and lead the dark mages to reclaim their lost place on the western magic island!

As an icy wind howled around his misty body, his magic circuits blazed under the strain of the horrible spells he conjured.

"This opportunity..." His lips curled into a vicious smirk. "I’ll swallow it no matter what!"

A fog reeking of curses condensed, followed by hundreds of life-draining weapons, their edges glinting malevolence.

Debilitating magical traps covered the ground and walls, creating an inescapable net.

Finally, the air thickened as his scythe spewed souls one after another, each condensing into an armored fighter.

Their translucent frames glinting an icy scarlet caused Adam to frown before his face contorted into a disgusted and insulted grimace.

"This trashy scythe stores and turns powerful souls into evil ghosts." His fists trembled. "You dare twist souls for your petty usage? Get down, you bastard! I’ll show you true horror!"

Baldur’s grating cackles reverberated. "And enter your striking range? Don’t make me laugh!"

With a wave of his hand, his weapons hummed a song of death and sorrow as they cleaved through the air to impale his and Misha’s body.

Simultaneously, the ghostly soldiers shot to the ground, a layer of frost spreading through the rocky terrain under the influence of their billowing negative energies.

"Tsk." Adam clicked his tongue, the desire to rip the bastard to shred overwhelming his mind.

Yet, a cough attracted his attention to Misha. Then, his eyes widened as he saw dark blood trickling down the person he loved most’s lips and marring her immaculate robes.

The wind whipped against his robes as the ground exploded under his heavy stomps. Traps sparked, engulfing him in layers of vile curses: decay, soul-rot, and horrible diseases that would compel any government to quarantine the infected and kill them on sight if they tried to leave.

However, his heart roared against the invading spells, raising shimmering defensive barriers.

The curses dissolved into mist upon touching the spellbinding aegis’ radiance as he continued unimpeded.

He caught her collapsing body in a tight yet trembling embrace and lowered it gently.

Loud tremors rocked his mind, a tsunami of rage rising as he watched the painful twitch of her brows and twisted lips. Her declining life force made his vision flicker red as he raised his palm overhead.

A whirlpool of radiant light swirled above them. Like a divine protector, it absorbed the surrounding darkness and dissolved the vile projectiles whistling toward them.

However, his eyes never left Misha’s shuddering body. Instead, they exuded sky-blue mana wisps and revealed the spells ravaging her insides.

His fingers turned ethereal, and with a flick, he snapped the tendrils like mere threads and freed her of their insidious effects. Then, he encased her in a sacred ward that burned with unbound natural vitality and the fresh scent of nature.

Meanwhile, Baldur’s eyes widened in horror. He could already see colors return to the girl’s face. And what were those spells capable of counteracting his curses?

"A light mage?!" His face contorted in disgust as he spat on the ground.

Those pompous, sacred hypocrites who always covered their crimes under layers of righteousness? Hah, they were no better than him and killing one of their inheritors would fill him with more joy than devouring a hundred villages.

"Eviscerate him while he’s immobile!" His deep voice echoed as dozens of evil ghosts, all in the fifth tier, rushed toward Adam.

Scarlet scythes froze the air as they condensed on their already swinging arms.

Whistles heralding unavoidable death followed, yet Adam’s cracking voice shattered them.

"I told you to get down!"

RUMBLE

The ground cracked, sending splinters flying everywhere as it caved in a circular radius around him, the noise of bodies collapsing reverberating.

As if shoved down by the heavens themselves, the evil ghosts’ faces crashed on the ground. Their souls groaned and, their limbs distorted under the crushing pressure until they exploded into a scarlet mist.

Despite the distance and his gaseous form, Baldur felt it, too.

Dread’s icy fingers wrapped around his heart as he understood how wrong he had been—No, not wrong... nothing made sense anymore.

"You’re a force mage, not a light one! No, that influence." He gritted his teeth, pushing against the pressure as he saw the air curve. "Gravity?!"

But even if his ghosts died, yielding to the pressure could serve him. By adjusting and propelling himself, he’d gain incredible speed and cleave the monstrous boy in half.

Acting on his idea, he lunged like a ravenous beast, his dark scythe blurring in an evil arc. He simultaneously emptied his reserves to condense hundreds of weapons wafting a stomach-churning power capable of bypassing flesh to rip souls.

"Give me your mana!"

Calm rage danced in Adam’s eyes as he gazed at the fool’s desperate assault.

"Why don’t you give me yours?"

With his icy tone came the swipe of his hand. And with it, his chaotic mana circuits rumbled to life. Like a living creature craving blood, they formed a mana-roaring vortex.

The wind picked up around it, gulping the ambient energy first, then Baldur’s spells.

The dark mage’s blood froze at the sight before a terror he had never felt struck him in the gut. Eyes trembling, he felt his mana leave him. He saw it, too: wisps drifting powerlessly out of his body to disappear into that surreal vortex.

’What is happening?!’

Yet, he’d never find the answer. He could see it in the kid’s eyes and hear it in his vengeful tone.

"You’re less than an ant we wanted to play with, but you dared to overstep your role as a toy to touch Misha?"

The coldest laughter he had ever heard reverberated in his ears. But if he felt terror before, the boy’s next words shoved him into the deepest pit of hell.

"A bastard like you doesn’t deserve to find peace in death."

Adam shifted the gravity’s momentum, slowing Baldur’s descent, and reached for his face, the movement slow and deliberate.

His fingers, coated in somber mana wrapped around the hateful prick’s skull, releasing faint traces of intensifying lateral gravity.

"ARGH!"

With each second crawling by, Baldur’s skull cracked more, and his agonising screams echoed.

"Kill me! Please, just kill me!"

The bastard pleaded when he felt the slow pressure crush his brain and the pain drive him insane. Yet Adam continued.

"How many innocents begged you to spare them? How many did you torture and turn into evil ghosts?"

Truthfully, he would have killed him painlessly if he hadn’t wounded Misha. But now?

"Suffer and regret. Repent to whoever you believe in, for I will not listen to you."

Cries filled the crushed mountainous region for five agonising minutes. But at least Baldur escaped the torment by dying.

Before he could rejoice and escape as a ghost, an icy grip clutched his soul.

"I told you you wouldn’t find rest."

"W-What?"

Another wave of soul-chilling wails filled the mountain as Adam ripped his soul out of his body and condensed it into a dark sphere.

"N-No. I regret! I’ll redeem myself! I’ll serve the people and fix my mistakes. Please!"

"You will after I bind and shackle you in a random village, forever to protect it, never to leave, and unable to control your own body. You’ll become a spectator to the life you could have had, forever cursing your choices."

With his words, ethereal shackles rattled and bound the sphere. Bright symbols covered its surface as he branded it with his inviolable commands.

Then, he sent the sphere into his soul sea and sighed.

"I really became soft..." His voice trailed off as he muttered. "If you genuinely change and come to favor someone’s life over yours one day, my bindings shall disappear."

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AN: Another long Chapter!