Love Letter From The Future
Chapter 433: Proof of Existence (21)

Chapter 433: Proof of Existence (21)

0% Not much is known about mana.

Despite countless individuals devoting themselves to its study, its origins remain shrouded in mystery. Uncovering all its secrets will undoubtedly take time.

Yet, through the long expanse of history, one truth has been keenly felt.

Mana is a dangerous power.

It’s dangerous even in its raw, unrefined form, but its greatest danger lies elsewhere—specifically, when someone has mastered this unknown power.

In this world, people with such a level of mastery are called a ‘High Expert’ or ‘Archmage.’

There were only about twenty such monsters across the entire continent. These were the ones who truly stood on the brink of becoming ‘Masters.’

And now, the person standing before me, revealing their full might, was one of these very ‘Monsters.’

A storm of light and heat overwhelmed my senses, painting everything white.

In addition to my vision, my senses of sound and touch were also dominated by this overwhelming violence. The deafening roar and heat that allowed no escape shook my retinas.

It was like facing the torrent of a thunderbolt.

Silver aura began to converge around the straight blade as I instinctively raised my sword.

Immediately after, a barrage of lightning struck my entire body.

I heard the sound of my gritted teeth nearly crumbling. For a fleeting moment, I nearly lost consciousness, but somehow, I managed to hold on and stood my ground.

The crackling charge hissed threateningly. Every so often, stray fragments of current jolted my muscles, delivering sharp stabs of pain. Still, I endured.

That was what mattered—

The fact that I was still holding my ground.

Despite my long since bloodshot eyes, my trembling arm that held my sword, and my groans that were constantly leaking through my clenched teeth...

I had withstood his attack, at least this once.

While I could barely open my eyes due to the flashing electricity, Mr. Reynold spoke in a rarely heated voice.

“It’s too early to start whining... We’ve still got a long way to go!!”

My eardrums were already scorched by the crackling sound of the charge—there should have been no way to hear anything else.

Yet strangely, Mr. Reynold’ voice came through clearly.

Perhaps it was survival instincts. My life was hanging by a thread, and to survive, I couldn’t miss even the tiniest piece of information.

I decided to close my eyes at such a moment.

The blinding white light left a crimson afterimage even with my shut eyelids. Only after the world was dyed pitch black did I realize what Mr. Reynold was doing.

A highly concentrated sphere of mana was drawing circles in the air.

Following its trajectory, spears of lightning materialized one by one—dozens, no, more than that.

No matter how much I focused my hearing, I couldn’t catch any sound of chanting.

What on earth is he doing?

A strong sense of doubt rose within me, but there was no time to dwell on it. I simply poured all my mana into my sword.

The silver aura ignited into a fiercer blaze.

By the time the wavering flames solidified like hardened metal, hundreds of stars of death were floating in the sky. The mana contained in each one was terrifying.

If it were to hit me directly, it wouldn’t end with just fainting or injury.

It would be certain death.

I had hoped he would face me with his full power, but I never expected him to actually use lethal force.

I had no choice but to respond with my full power as well.

A horizontal slash backed by all my might instantly pushed back the stagnant battleground.

And then, the world split in half.

The Milky Way cut through the darkened atmosphere. White star fragments scattered like shrapnel from the remnants of shattered mana.

My vision was now refreshingly cleared. I could even make eye contact with Mr. Reynold, who was aiming a pitch-black rod at me from afar.

I curled the corner of my mouth into a grin as a greeting.

Though my mask would hide it, I hoped that since our eyes met, my intent would be understood.

Soon, a scream burst from my mouth.

“ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?!”

“I told you, didn’t I? It’s a death sentence!”

At the same time, rain began to pour from the sky.

It was then that the aura, which had been flickering like mist, converged once again. Each time my sword struck a lightning spear, a sharp clang, clang from the collision rang out. However, it was mostly my sword that was screaming.

It trembled, sending faint currents up my arm.

No matter how skilled I was with the ‘Shackle,’ handling this much volume was too much. Worse still, the lightning spears weren’t just targeting me.

Thud, thud, thud.

The lightning spears that brushed past me easily penetrated the ground as easily as an awl piercing pudding. Suddenly, they began to glow an intense white.

What that meant was obvious.

I couldn’t even hear the explosion.

It was too close for that. Only a ringing sound echoed in my ears. I lost consciousness for a moment and tried to get up, but my knees buckled and I sank into the mud again.

The surroundings were already a mess.

The once deserted road now had holes formed here and there and the once solid ground had long since been blown up, overturned, and turned into soft soil.

All this in just a few seconds.

*Is this the power of an Archmage?*I fixed my blurry gaze straight ahead.

There stood Mr. Reynold with a solemn face.

He asked in a heavy voice.

“Want to keep going?”

It was the same line I’d used to taunt him earlier.

A faint Heh escaped my lips. To anyone watching, my skill clearly fell short of an Archmage’s.

Just as mages who are almost at the level of ‘Master’ are called ‘Archmages’, knights have an equivalent title called ‘High Expert’. If an ‘Expert’ is one who awakens aura and manipulates it freely, a ‘High Expert’ is a being of an entirely different caliber.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t reached that level yet.

But someday, my path would lead there. Even now, I could see the entrance to that path before my eyes, just barely out of reach.

I stood up while gritting my teeth. While I was staggering, I could still endure.

“......Of course I do.”

“Don’t blame me if you die.”

Three layers of magic were already waiting for me.

In the sky were spheres of lightning, approaching from the front was a wave of lightning, and from the ground rose a net of lightning.

His intent was clear—

To bind me with the net, lock down my sword with the wave, and finish me with the spheres. It was rare for someone to reveal their strategy so openly.

The implication was equally obvious—

He thought I couldn’t break through this even if I knew.

I took a deep breath and straightened my sword. The lightning assault resumed.

Bang! The lightning tsunami shot forward and struck my blade like a cannonball. I proceeded to plant the hatchet I had been carrying at my waist into the now-crackling, boiling ground.

Then, pressing the hatchet with the sole of my foot, I began to disperse my aura.

Will this work?

Aura is transmitted from the heart through the arms and hands to the weapon. I had never tried any other method until now. But inwardly, I thought it might be possible—spreading aura throughout the body is a basic skill for a knight, after all.

But there was another point that worried me even more.

I intended to wield two auras at once—‘Shackle’ with my sword and ‘Liberation’ with my hatchet.

It was absurd. I’d never heard of anyone handling aura this way before.

Yet the reason I was making such a reckless attempt was simple.

‘Shackle’ and ‘Liberation’ were originally one secret technique. I was just arbitrarily dividing and using them separately. Their origin traced back to a Great Witch said to have seen the end of magic.

Surely, she’d considered dual casting.

And whether my belief was correct was revealed not long after.

“What......!”

Mr. Reynold’s voice rang out in surprise. The silver aura was cutting through the ground, emitting light while clashing against the boiling electric net.

My brain was spinning. The mana flowing through my veins was thrashing about painfully. Despite this, I was smiling.

It works.

Bang! The earth ruptured, causing the ground to explode outward. The net of lightning vanished into the spreading silver mist in an instant.

The recoil sent the hatchet flying back into my grasp.

Without hesitation, I threw it. While trailing silver mist, the spinning hatchet struck the lightning spheres repeatedly.

Clang, clang, clang!

With sharp collisions, the spheres burst one by one. Golden mana particles drifted down from the bursted spheres like fireflies.

The wave of lightning heating my blade finally showed a crack.

It seemed Mr. Reynold’s bewilderment was directly reflected in his magic. For me, it was an opportunity I couldn’t miss.

Crack. My blade dug into the cylindrical lightning wave.

I’d already used too much mana. It was impossible to erase this wave of magic in one breath like I had before.

But if it was just to cross through?

While my sword held the wave at bay, I shifted to the side. Then, gritting my teeth and kicking off the ground, my blade sliced horizontally through the wave.

Sprint, sprint, sprint!

My vision, focused on a single thought, gradually narrowed. My breathing became heavy, and soon, it felt as if time itself had stopped.

In a black-and-white world, only I raced forward.

After a few leaping strides, Mr. Reynold was already right in front of me.

One swing, and it would be over.

But just as I was certain of victory—

Swish. A black rod floated into the air. And immediately after.

Two lightning spheres that had been drifting in the sky plummeted down—

Between me and Mr. Reynold.

With a boom, my body, which had been rushing forward without knowing its limits, was thrown backwards. Mr. Reynold wasn’t free from this impact either, as he too was forced to roll on the ground.

Time began to flow again.

Panting, I clutched my chest. The pain was excruciating—had I ever sprinted this hard before?

Mr. Reynold also staggered as he got up.

A faint groan escaped from his lips.

“What was that just now.....?”

I turned a puzzled gaze to him. He looked genuinely shocked.

“For a moment, it felt like time stopped... No, that’s impossible.”

And so, He dismissed the topic he had arbitrarily raised. After shaking his head a few times, he soon regained his composure.

Blue flames flickered in his eyes again. It was an even more intense wave of light than before.

“Impressive. I acknowledge your skill—you’re worthy of taking Elsie.”

“Then... huff... is it over now?”

He swallowed a scoffing laugh, as if my breathless question was absurd.

“Ha, so you had your fun all by yourself? Look here, nephew-in-law.”

Thud. I felt an impact reverberate from somewhere.

But since no actual shock wave appeared, my eyes blankly looked around. The air then began to vibrate with a hum.

All the mana in the world was being sucked into one place.

Only then did I notice the origin, and silently looked up at Mr. Reynold.

The flames burning in his eyes had become uncontrollably fierce.

“I haven’t reached the end of truth yet. But I’ve seen its edge... What do you think I felt then?”

My body staggered up, looking like it might fall over at any moment.

A gale was raging indiscriminately. The magic hadn’t even been cast yet, but just its precursor was already violence.

The Archmage’s cloak fluttered chaotically.

“It was fear.”

As if he was spitting them out, his confessions followed.

“Despair, and helplessness... Before that great law, how insignificant and lacking is a human? I struggled with all my might, but I was only falling into an endless abyss.”

Behind him, arrays of magic circles began to spin, glowing with light. Faster and faster.

Until the crackling, bursting electric charge became blindingly intense.

This is a different level.

I could only tremble. This was the full power of one who had seen a fragment of truth.

“So I ran... Because it felt like my very existence would vanish forever in the sea of truth. In the end, I couldn’t prove myself.”

At the same time, the mage flicked the pitch-black rod he was holding.

Crash.

A rupture blared—one that shouldn’t exist. My eyes blankly turned upward.

The night sky was crumbling.

Cracks spread like shattered glass and electricity sparking through the fissures, as if to swallow the darkened world whole.

What lies beyond?

Infinite lightning?

Either way, it was clear Mr. Reynold was giving his all. No other explanation could account for this miracle.

Through my senses, now more open than they had ever been in my life, a faint smell briefly brushed my nose.

The Dark Order.

For some reason, that name flickered in my mind, but the overwhelming sight before me quickly erased it.

The Archmage asked, like a judge pronouncing a death sentence.

“Well, would you like to see my pathetic struggle?”

A dry swallow passed down my throat with a gulp.

I shouldn’t.

I will definitely die. This magic had an overwhelming power that I couldn’t even begin to compare to.

The sky itself was crumbling.

There was no way a mere insect living under it could resist.

Yet... why?

Why did I want to see beyond it so badly? The scenery that would be revealed behind the crumbling sky.

I desperately wanted to see it. So I couldn’t reply in time.

As if he expected this, the Archmage nodded slightly.

“Then take a good look... Though I can only show you a very brief moment, given what you are now.....”

It was then—

Smack! A crisp impact sound suddenly reverberated through the area.

My eyes blankly turned to its source. There, Mr. Reynold’s body was limply tilting over...

For a moment, my thoughts stopped. I couldn’t understand what was happening at all.

Behind the Archmage who had fallen to the ground, a black-haired girl appeared, breathing heavily.

Golden eyes that shone even in the darkness. The shovel in her trembling hand was particularly noticeable.

Only then did an ‘Ah’ escape my lips. I vaguely understood what had happened.

The girl trembled and roared.

“Hey, you... crazy old man! W-What are you trying to do?! How dare you try to kill my Oppa... Die, die, die... DIE!”

Thwack, thwack.

The shovel blade hit the unconscious middle-aged body a few more times. Meanwhile, the gale had already stopped and the cracks in the sky disappeared.

I could only smile helplessly.

Indeed, an angry little sister was invincible.

Moreover, Ria wasn’t the only unexpected guest.

Behind Ria, a strange shadow was visible. A young man wearing glasses with a troubled expression.

It seemed I’d need to hear the full story. As her older brother, of course.