Regressor of the Fallen Family Novel - Chapter 291
Section 291: Approaching a Sorcerer
The optimal strategy for facing a sorcerer remains a mystery. While it’s highly uncommon for a warrior to exceed their limits and transform into an Aura-user with distinct attributes, nearly every awakened sorcerer has a near-certainty of revealing new elements or qualities.
Moreover, as Mana transforms into magical energy, natural spells also grow significantly stronger. The range of tactics a sorcerer can employ in battle is known only to themselves.
However, if there were a suggested approach, it would be this:
“Swift and resolute!”
Defeat them before they can react.
Victor, dashing towards Greg, disappeared into thin air before reappearing in front of the sorcerer in an instant.
“What!?”
Using Ghost Shadow with full force to execute such movement even astonished Greg, an exceptional warrior, with its remarkable speed.
Victor swung his blade, intending to cleave through the sorcerer in one swift motion.
However.
Clang!
Ting!
His sword clashed against a peculiar gray shield that materialized out of nowhere, creating only a small fissure but failing to penetrate the sorcerer.
In the next moment, Victor vanished again, reappearing behind the sorcerer and the other accompanying sorcerers.
“Behind…!”
The only two individuals perceptive enough to catch Victor’s movements, Greg and Nat, shouted simultaneously.
After a brief pause, the warriors charged towards Victor.
While the sorcerer managed to turn around slowly, the other sorcerers couldn’t react in time.
That moment sealed their fate.
Slash.
A faint slicing noise marked the gray force blade tracing a long arc.
“…!”
Without a chance to even cry out, five sorcerers were cut in half and collapsed in a heap.
“Curse it!”
“Retreat!”
As Greg and the other warriors advanced, the sorcerer’s commanding voice rang out amidst the chaos.
Victor, noticing the sorcerer’s smirk beneath the dark hood, vanished like a phantom once more, abandoning his assault on the remaining sorcerers.
“Where do you think you’re running off to!”
Nat leaped towards the entrance like a bolt of lightning, having vaguely discerned Victor’s movement and its direction.
‘You won’t evade me!’
Despite the bewildering speed of his adversary, if he could anticipate the trajectory, he might be able to react.
After all, the opponent was a top-tier Force user unable to wield Aura.
‘Similar caliber!’
Unleashing his hidden technique, Meteor Shower, dozens of crimson Force constructs cascaded down like rain, obstructing the presumed path.
But then.
Slice.
Sensing a chilling presence, Nat narrowly avoided a gray force blade that grazed his side by a hair’s breadth.
Tch.
Victor clicked his tongue disapprovingly, his sword ready to strike once more. Before he could, the bodies of the fallen sorcerers disintegrated without warning.
Caught off guard, streams of blood that should have sprayed everywhere surged towards Victor, engulfing him like a torrential downpour.
“Ugh!?”
Boom!
The clash between the gray force blade and the myriad blood droplets produced a thunderous roar.
Nat seized the moment when Victor was pushed back by the impact and charged from behind.
Simultaneously, Greg lunged forward.
“Sinister Terror.”
With a soft command, the sorcerer’s finger pointed at Victor.
To others, it appeared as a faint gray glow at the tip of the sorcerer’s hand, but suddenly, Victor staggered.
“Now!”
As both Greg and Nat focused their gaze, a grinding noise accompanied Victor’s blade moving like a beam of light.
Boom!
Amidst the deafening explosion, Greg and Nat, attempting a coordinated attack from two sides, were repelled simultaneously.
The sorcerer, his pale eyes gleaming under the dark hood, revealed the visage of a gaunt elder.
“An intriguing candidate! Block any escape.”
At that calm instruction, Greg and Nat halted their advance, potentially saving Nat from harm.
Swoosh.
As Nat hesitated in his step forward, a residual gray force blade narrowly missed his neck by a hair’s breadth.
“Tsk.”
Wiping the blood from his mouth and staggering, Victor expressed his frustration with a click of his tongue.
Feeling an unprecedented chill, Nat’s gaze turned frigid.
‘Is he in the same league as me? Not a superhuman?’
Sensing a shiver down his spine, he positioned himself at the door, as per his superior’s orders, prepared to bar the way.
Greg, seemingly sharing the same suspicion, readied his serrated blade, swordbreaker, amidst the debris.
The eighteen warriors, unable to find an opening amidst the onslaught of potent forces, aligned against the wall, encircling Victor. The formation was designed so that even if Victor attempted to break through the opposing wall, he would be met by at least two adversaries.
Observing this, Victor came to a standstill, and the seven remaining sorcerers behind the main sorcerer began emanating a malevolent black aura from their beings.
But it was short-lived.
“Hold.”
Sorcerer Gerohin, pallid in complexion, raised his white hand to halt his subordinates’ magic and directed his finger at Victor.
This recollection prompted Victor to muster all his Force, but Gerohin, with a wry smile, lowered the hood of his black robe to reveal his whole countenance.
“Let’s converse. It appears a fascinating individual has strayed from the correct path.”
If not for the eerie blue luminescence in his eyes, the elder, Gerohin, might have seemed quite attractive.
Though there was no real incentive to listen, Victor required time to regain his composure and heal his internal injuries.
Concealing his motives, Victor casually inquired, “Strayed from the correct path?”
It was merely a ruse to buy time, yet the foe initiated a truly captivating narrative.
“Your Force color is an unusual rarity. Do you comprehend its significance?”
Forces beyond the standard red – often a rarity among the numerous Force users, a phenomenon not yet elucidated.
“Merely a quirk to some, isn’t it?”
“Heh, that’s what most believe. I doubt they’ve gone as far as dissecting esteemed warriors for their investigations.”
The sorcerer’s words, delivered with a sinister grin on his ashen face, were unsettling, hinting that he might have conducted such experiments himself.
Victor’s brows furrowed involuntarily as the sorcerer continued.
“But ‘we’ are distinct. Are you intrigued by the secret held by those with uncommon Forces?”
“…It would be dishonest to say I’m not curious.”
Partly intrigued, partly stalling for time, Victor hoped his facade was convincing as he concentrated mostly on recuperating his internal wounds.
‘Just a bit longer, a tad more.’
Though Force users recuperated quicker than ordinary individuals, employing Force directly for healing was a different challenge.
Since it was the essence of life itself, it was indeed feasible to swiftly mend one’s wounds. Sealing a gash could be achieved with mere intent, particularly for external injuries.
However, addressing concealed internal traumas was a separate matter altogether.
It demanded a talent for precise Force control and an intuition to perceive one’s own interior akin to seeing it with one’s eyes.
Victor, endowed with all these rare talents, continued the conversation while covertly restoring his disrupted organs.
In the midst of that…
“The non-red Forces denote an ‘extraordinary’ aptitude. It’s what materializes when such an individual also awakens their Force.”
“…What?”
“However, most merely exhibit an affinity with spirits, a useless trait since they’ve disappeared from this land. But your gray Force is unique. It’s a valuable aptitude.”
Gerohin’s subsequent statements disrupted Victor’s concentration.
“…What do you imply?”
“You could excel greatly with ‘us.’ It hints that a top-tier warrior like you could also grasp ‘our’ sorcery.”
“That’s preposterous…”
A Force user wielding sorcery?
Wasn’t that confined to folklore?
Acknowledging Victor’s skepticism, Gerohin smiled.
“Our sorcery could make it feasible. With it, you could wield power exceeding your limits without being a superhuman. Tempting, isn’t it?”
The sorcerer, a gray shimmer of magic at his fingertips, grinned.
“It’s an opportunity. Join us. Pledge your allegiance. We can bestow upon you power that will astound the world.”
“Hmm…”
“Heh, pretending to contemplate? Your internal injuries should have settled by now.”
“!?”
Victor tensed at those words, then his body stirred—or attempted to.
Yet.
Whirring.
Pulling.
Gray chains, formed by a clandestine magic, had extended from the walls and ensnared his limbs.
“Regrettably for you, my magic is already perfected.”
“Gasp!”
Cracks began to appear on every wall of the chamber as Victor tensed his muscles.
Given enough time, he might have shattered them, but the foe wasn’t patient.
“Heh-heh. Struggle all you wish. Mind Breaker.”
Swoosh.
As a misty gray mist emanated from the sorcerer’s fingertips and seeped into his mind, Victor’s most harrowing memories resurfaced as vivid as if they happened the day before.
– Flee!
– Remember, survive!
– Son! Look after your sister, Ria!
– Aaaah!
Soon, the cherished faces he always yearned for invaded his thoughts.
Etched deep into his mind was the belief that this was the sorcerer’s manipulation, and these vivid memories overwhelmed his consciousness.
“I, I’m the cause… because of me, mom and dad…”
Unknowingly, Victor felt diminished, reverted to his childhood, hands tainted with the blood of his loved ones.
Small, feeble hands.
The anguish that once seemed to rend the world asunder now consumed his mind.
– If not for you…
– If you hadn’t been a burden…
– We could have survived!
The most dreadful memory warped into something more ghastly, assaulting him with a surge of guilt so real it drowned him in despair.
“Uhhh… it, it’s my fault…”
In the profound darkness, tormented by visions and voices, Victor struggled until a faint glimmer of light pierced through, promising deliverance.
A light beckoning salvation.
Instinctively recognizing it, the young Victor reached out with his wounded hand.
– Bind your agonizing memories and be reborn. This is true deliverance…
A gentle visage and voice.
The conviction that following the light would bring solace enveloped him.
– I am Gerohin Einhard, your rescuer. Entrust your sorrow to me, and live for me in happiness.
The voice entreated, but the young Victor hesitated.
“Oh, I cannot…”
Ignoring the warm glow and staring back into the darkness, Victor’s countenance contorted anew.
– Erase the pain. I will save you; follow me, and forget the pain.
Although the compassionate voice enticed him once more, the young Victor did not turn towards the light.
“I, I must live for Ria, my sister. That, it’s a vow…”
Despite quivering with fear, bathed in tears, the young Victor refrained from reaching out to the light again.
“The vow means… I must forgive.”
He refused to disregard the weight of a promise made to the parents who perished in his stead, fully comprehending the burden upon his soul.
– Forget!
“I cannot…”
– Forget!
“No!”
– Forget!
“I refuse!”
As the inviting radiance persisted, the young Victor matured until he regained his present form, and with a glimmer of sanity returning to his eyes, he bellowed.
“…I refuse!”
Crash!
With a thunderous cry, the enveloping darkness shattered.
“Heh. You resisted it, eh? That makes you even more appealing.”
Struggling from the shock but composed, Gerohin remained unfazed.
However, only briefly.
“I’ll dismantle you, sorcerer.”
Coughing.
With a sickly pallor, Victor spat out a mouthful of blood as a gray flash emanated from his hand, severing the chains that bound him.
Though the achromatic light masked much of its supernatural nature, Gerohin, a sorcerer himself, immediately grasped the profound distinction.
“The power…!?”
Gerohin’s expression hardened.
Cough.
“Let’s intensify.”
Victor exuded an intense determination throughout his being.
Reeling, with the remnants of the chains dissolving, his body, contrary to his volition, barely moved—the gray flash fading from view.
“Heh… As I suspected. You won’t easily evade my sorcery!”
Gerohin’s countenance lit up with a smirk.
“Seize him! Capturing a new Aura-user would be a grand achievement!”
At Gerohin’s directive, Greg, Nat, and the other warriors surged towards Victor.
While Victor struggled to mobilize his enfeebled frame.
Boom!
With a resounding boom, the wall opposite the entrance exploded, and projectiles began to soar in.
“Aaaah!”
“Argh!”
“Projectiles (Arrows)!?”
The warriors, struck by the projectiles, cried out and dispersed in all directions.
Then a ‘orange’ dazzling radiance flooded the chamber.
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