novelThe Birth of a Kaleidoscope Arcane Master
| ← Ch.216 | Ch.218 → |
Translated by: Reiji
Zap!
Beams of light continuously shot out from the various eyes which dotted the Berserk Elemental Ghost's face. Each wave of beams contained at least ten, and they were all comprised of incredibly chaotic arcane energies of differing natures. They took all kinds of paths as they approached Liszt from various directions.
"Absolute Seal: Total Boundary!"
As Liszt's ten fingers danced through the air, the time and space around him seemed to freeze. However, of the numerous beams of differing colours with differing arcane energy properties, the lava-like orange-red beam was still flowing rapidly.
"The fight between these two has already intensified to such an extent. Liszt has been forced to use his Absolute Seal Boundaries!"
Outside of the training room, the members of the Office of Special Affairs' two arcane teams all felt the change at the same time.
"The arcane energy fluctuations are still so intense!"
"Liszt's skill actually wasn't able to completely seal all of the arcane energy! Leonardo is truly deserving of his title of 'Cocktail Grandmaster'. He can actually merge and create such chaotic arcane energy!"
Snook, the arcane master wearing the strange green crystallic spectacles, took a deep breath as he said, "It seems like he has improved greatly these last few years in the Demon Corps."
"It's the Berserk Elemental Ghost!" Armand, the white haired arcane master with asymmetrical eyes coldly said.
"Berserk Elemental Ghost?" The other members of the two arcane teams all sucked in a breath of cold air."He actually managed to form such a strong arcane power!"
"Boundary Grandmaster against Cocktail Grandmaster. We can only wait to see who is a little stronger, " Armand said slowly.
"This body... can move independently and also use strong arcane skills?"
From the doorway of the training room Liszt and Leonardo fought in, Ayrin's blood boiled as he watched the radiantly glowing "Liszt" in front of Liszt suddenly extend his hands and forcefully grab the orange-red beam of light.
It was clearly only an incarnation of himself which Liszt had created with some arcane skill, yet it seemed to be able to think and fight independently of Liszt. As the incarnation grabbed the orange-red beam, the countless mottled particles radiating from its hands began colliding with the orange-red beam.
"Whirlwind Art!"
The arcane energy fluctuations emanating from the Berserk Elemental Ghost were so strong that they had caused the expressions of the arcane masters from the Office of Special Affairs outside of the training room to change. Yet now, Leonardo seemed to have completely stopped caring about it as it fought Liszt's incarnation. Green whirlwinds abruptly appeared in front of him.
"Warlock Variation!"
"How can this be!" Ayrin shouted, unable to hold back.
Whirlwind Art was only an extremely ordinary skill. It was one which many arcane masters knew even though it was basically only ever used as a support skill for other movement arcane skills. However, the green whirlwinds Leonardo's Whirlwind Art created had a completely different appearance and gave off a completely different feeling.
The surface of these green whirlwinds were completely covered with golden flames.
Ayrin was quite certain that he wouldn't be able to deal with these golden flames even if he mastered Fire Embers.
"Space Rendering Boundary!"
Liszt suddenly reached out with his two hands and pushed his incarnation before him.
In the space in front of his incarnation, a chaotic arcane energy suddenly began spreading forward, forming a void tunnel.
In complete silence, Liszt's incarnation passed through the burning whirlwinds and appeared before Leonardo. Each of his ten fingers glowed a different color and contained an image of a different giant beast, such as the nine-headed bird, fire-eating beast, and giant lion condor, as his fingers moved towards Leonardo.
"Bastard!"
Leonardo shouted in a weird voice as he hastily stepped into a giant black door which had abruptly appeared behind him.
A giant explosion occurred the moment ten images of differing giant beasts touched the giant black door. Everything simultaneously shattered as Leonardo's figure reappeared right where he had been before. Only now, there were several holes on his body and his hair had become messily scattered.
At the same time, the several whirlwinds struck Liszt's real body and exploded, enveloping Liszt in a layer of crackling golden flames.
Liszt's clothes were completely fine, but the surface of his skin had been burnt black and was beginning to crack in several places.
"Teacher Liszt!"
Ayrin nervously clenched both of his hands so hard that his knuckles cracked.
As he watched, he couldn't help but feel like Liszt had been burned to death by the weird flames.
But it was only for a single moment as a warm and gentle breeze began to swirl around Liszt's body in the next instant. Flakes of burnt skin began to slowly fall from Liszt's body as new, healthy skin quickly regrew in its place. Liszt was like a snake shedding its scales.
"You bastard! How can you seem so fine and composed after experiencing such pain? To think you actually used this kind of method to deal with me!"
As Liszt grew new skin, Leonardo became even more irritated. Even though he was in pain and short of breath, he continued to loudly curse at Liszt.
"Is it really necessary for you to even complain about how your opponent fights against you?" Liszt casually threw his head back and laughed.
"This is Materialization? How come the fluctuations of arcane energy are so strange?!"
Ayrin subconsciously gulped as he felt his throat dry up.
Two exquisite longswords releasing a mottled glow, as if covered in crystals, materialized in Liszt's hands.
The two longswords seemed incredibly heavy, and reminded Ayrin of a permanent materialization skill. As the two longswords traced a path through the air towards Leonardo, they seemed to be dragging the space within the entire training room with them as the air within the room began to surge and recede like the tide.
"What kind of materialization is this... it seems like two domains have been compressed into the form of two physical swords!"
Leonardo's expression became ugly.
"Ghost Layers!"
"Warlock Variation!"
Countless black shadows appeared in front of Leonardo. Immediately afterwards, the shadows burst, releasing a ring of light, as they suddenly transformed into countless blood red eyeballs.
Liszt, who had yet to move a single step from his original position this entire fight, suddenly accelerated as he quickly approached Leonardo.
"Boom boom boom..." The sound of explosions constantly rang through the room.
The two longswords in Liszt's hands constantly danced. A blood red eyeball disappeared with every casual swing of his longsword.
"Ring of Flames!"
"Warlock Variation!"
Upon seeing Liszt break through his defenses so easily, Leonardo hastily made several more movements. Two rings of flames abruptly blossomed from his body in succession.
"Ah!"
But in the next instant, it was Leonardo who let out a wretched scream.
Raging white flames and smoke suddenly began to spurt out from under Leonardo's skin over his entire body as his figure swelled up, making him look like a white fire giant.
"Haha!"
Liszt abruptly stopped attacking for a moment as he waved his swords to clear away the clouds of white smoke before him, "Leonardo, this secret skill of yours is truly too unpredictable at times."
"Bastard!"
Upon hearing Liszt's laughter, Leonardo's face became a purplish red as he swore loudly. His hair began wildly flying behind him as his eyes suddenly turned a dark purple.
"Book of Evil Spirits!"
The entire stone training room rumbled and began to show signs of collapse as a black gas spread across the ceiling. From within the gas, a giant black book descended.
As the book opened, an evil spirit with a horned skull and wielding a giant, two-handed sword emerged from within.
At the same time, the veins on Leonardo's body all bulged and began to contort and tremble under his skin. It seemed like his body was about to explode due to the sudden intense surge of arcane particles.
"Stop!"
"I'll accept it as my loss alright?"
"We are only sparring, there is no need for mutual destruction!"
At this moment, the two longswords in Liszt's hands abruptly disappeared as he hurriedly waved his hands and appeared behind Ayrin.
"You bastard!"
Leonardo angrily roared as his whole body abruptly froze. Several seconds later, he seemed to have finally abandoned any remaining thoughts of acting as the arcane energy fluctuations atop his body began to calm and the black gas and book above his head disappeared.
"Have you finally recognized my power and accepted your loss?"
After completely returning to normal, a heavily panting Leonardo fiercely glared at Liszt with an expression full of vengeance and joy.
"Helloooo?... I said I accepted my defeat, but it was only because I didn't want both sides to grievously wound each other." Liszt nonchalantly pinched his nose as he said, "I didn't even use my secret skill, Holy Gate of Life. You don't really believe that I can't defeat you, right?"
"You!" Leonardo hadn't expected Liszt to act this way. His face immediately stiffened once again as it became slightly tinged with blue. It seemed like he was on the brink of going berserk again.
"Alright, since both sides have already seen pretty much everything the other side has to offer, let's just consider this one a draw. I don't wish to waste my energy by fighting another round, and it's also not a good time for us to become exhausted." List nonchalantly chuckled, "In all honesty, you have indeed improved greatly through your years in the Demon Corps. As long as you are careful and don't get killed, I'm fairly certain that the position of Demon Corps Commander will fall to you.
"Hmph!"
Leonardo coldly sneered.
"You should spend more time caring about yourself."
After saying this, Leonardo no longer paid any attention to Liszt as he directly walked past Liszt and Ayrin and exited the stone training room.
"This guy, he actually managed to learn the Demon Corps Commander Custer's Book of Evil Spirits."
As he looked at Leonardo's back, Liszt let out a quiet sigh and shook his head.
"Teacher Liszt, what kind of arcane skill is Book of Evil Spirits? It can actually cause mutual destruction?" Ayrin couldn't help but ask as he watched Leonardo slowly disappear.
As images of Liszt and Leonardo's fight flashed through his mind again and he remembered his the terrifying arcane energy fluctuations once more, Ayrin felt his whole body shaking.
"The arcane skill is like an eternal curse. Even if you kill the caster, the arcane energy of this arcane skill will continue to plague your body, producing pain and abnormalities which will follow you forever. You will become neither human nor ghost, but a monster eternally tortured by ailments, " Liszt responded as he glanced at Ayrin.
"It's so powerful!" Ayrin's face paled as he shakily asked, "Can this kind of arcane skill be blocked?"
"Of course it can be blocked. But if even a single part of your body becomes invaded by this kind of arcane energy, then your doom is certain. Moreover, the caster also experiences this risk. I assuming that you don't wish for your hand to suddenly become filled with tumours like a giant monster or for two horns to suddenly sprout from your head, right?" Liszt shook his head as he casually gave an explanation. Then, he suddenly became serious as he said, "Ayrin, you've been watching since the start. Did you manage to learn any arcane skills?"
"Teacher Liszt, your skills were all to fast. Moreover, you only used each of them once. I was completely unable to sense the flow of arcane particles within you, so how could I learn anything?" Ayrin shook his head.
Liszt's expression abruptly darkened, "Ayrin, I intended for you to secretly learn his arcane skills. You didn't just focus on mine, did you?"
"His Book of Evil Spirits is too complex. Moreover, he only showed half of it. There's no way I could learn it. But if I can watch it a couple more times, then it should be okay, " Ayrin felt some regret as he shook his head again.
"I..." Liszt's face darkened a little bit more.
"But his Warlock Variation seemed to be quite simple, " Ayrin suddenly added at this time.
"What did you just say?" Liszt's face suddenly froze as his eyes widened.
"The Warlock Variation that he used so many times, it seems pretty simple, " Ayrin obediently repeated before looking at Liszt and asking, "Teacher Liszt, this Warlock Variation actually transforms the arcane power of the arcane skill used prior to it?"
"Since he sensed it... perhaps he can indeed learn it? Truly a terrifying Kaleidoscope arcane master... indeed worth spending all of that energy." Liszt breathed a sigh of relief as his usual nonchalant smile once again emerged on his face.
"Ayrin, this arcane skill of his doesn't simply change the arcane power of a skill, but instead mixes and matches different portions of previously used skills to create a new skill and effect, kind of like mixing a cocktail. Even portions of the opponent's arcane skills can be mixed in." Liszt watched Ayrin as he continued explaining, "This is why Leonardo is nicknamed the Cocktail Grandmaster."
Ayrin sucked in a breath of cold air."So strong! But I remember there was one time where he used it and seemingly ended up harming himself?" Ayrin couldn't help but ask.
"That was because the arcane energies of my arcane skills always differed since I didn't want his skill to always demonstrate the same effects. As a result, even he, the person using the arcane skill, had no way of knowing just what kind of cocktail skill would come out or what kind of power it would have. Thus, while the caster is guaranteed to have affinity with the chaotic arcane energy produced by this skill, there are still times where self-immolation occurs due to the chaotic energies, inflicting self-damage on the caster." Liszt laughed and continued, "Even the caster cannot predict what kind of result will be produced. That is the greatest weakness of this arcane skill. The only certainty is that this skill will create results which cause more powerful effects and damage to the opponent as the arcane energy it condenses is more powerful and chaotic."
"Even the caster cannot predict what kind of power will come out, this arcane skill is so interesting!" Ayrin's eyes suddenly became filled with countless little stars.
"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" As he observed Ayrin's excited state, Liszt couldn't help but shake his head while a chill ran through his heart."As his cultivation and insight improve, this fellow's learning abilities will only become even more terrifying."
| ← Ch. 216 | Ch. 218 → |