“…I had always thought that flame magic was the only answer. Until I met you, Sein.”
To those words, Sein Sears responded calmly.
“What nonsense.”
It wasn’t sarcasm—he meant it sincerely.
Because from the mouth of the head of the flame magic noble house Flameforce, Harman Flameforce, who stood before him, fresh blood continued to pour out even now.
Harman’s lower body had already rotted and collapsed, staining the earth black.
Where his organs should have been, there was only a hollow void.
The fact that he was maintaining consciousness at all showed just how tremendous his mental fortitude was—his condition was that severe.
“…Sein.”
He called Sein’s name.
The one who had mastered ice magic—difficult to learn and hard to increase in power despite the effort and difficulty involved, thus looked down upon—and earned the title of Archmage.
And the one who had elevated the Sears family to the ranks of the Empire’s four great noble houses.
This was Sein Sears.
“Speak.”
Of course, the number of ice magic families was still absolutely fewer compared to flame magic families, and their influence was proportionally lacking.
But by handling countless unsolved cases across the continent and personally proving the potential of ice magic, and by dedicating himself to training disciples below him, bringing the Sears family this far could be said to be an achievement that would remain in history.
However, Sein Sears had no intention of showing off about this to anyone or demanding recognition.
Recognition naturally follows when you produce results and achievements, and those who won’t be grateful will never appreciate any good deed he might do.
It was better to spend that time doing a bit more magical research to reach higher realms and find ways to provide enlightenment to descendants and disciples.
But then.
“Thank you.”
He never expected to hear words of gratitude from that guy of all people—Harman Flameforce.
“Sein, without you, the continent would have been finished at that bastard’s hands.”
Harman’s gaze passed beyond Sein to the other side.
Though he was dying, his red eyes were clearer than ever.
Like flames burning brighter just before going out.
[…Keheheh.]
The sound came from atop a mountain made of rotting, festering corpses.
In the vast plains covered entirely in pure white ice, the only place stained black.
A man radiating black light sat there.
The one who called himself the incarnation of the Demon God and brought terrible disaster to the continent.
“Desmond…”
It had been an all-out war.
Those skilled enough to inflict even the slightest damage on Desmond had gathered on these Heren Plains, while the rest fought battles against Desmond’s followers across the continent.
But the result was right before their eyes—devastating.
At the hands of a single man, countless renowned knights of the continent and numerous mages from magical noble families had lost their lives.
“If I had known it would come to this, I would have supported your family despite the opposition… I should have.”
“Don’t talk nonsense. Even someone like you couldn’t handle inter-family affairs unilaterally. You know better than anyone what kind of relationship exists between flame and ice magic families.”
“It’s all just empty posturing.”
“And I already know about your unnecessary meddling. You’ve been secretly providing support to the Sears branch families on the continent’s outskirts.”
“You knew.”
“If the other members of the Flameforce family find out, even you won’t escape responsibility.”
“…Haha. Responsibility. Cough.”
Harman closed his mouth.
Even now, fierce wars were being fought across the continent.
How many people who could hold him responsible were actually still alive?
No, could he even survive long enough to take responsibility in the first place?
Harman swallowed those words.
As always, Sein’s cold words carried thorns, but Harman now understood that they meant ‘try to stay alive long enough to take responsibility.’
‘I’m sorry, Sein. I…’
Harman instinctively knew that the wick of life he had kept burning with his will didn’t have much left.
Sein, perhaps knowing this fact as well, spoke calmly.
“Of course, since I’ve come this far, I’ll have to take responsibility and see it through to the end.”
Sein took a step toward Desmond, leading his wounded body.
Just taking a single step sent waves of pain through his entire body.
Crack
A splitting sound came from parts of his body that he had frozen to prevent collapse.
[Hehehe… Truly remarkable. To think you can still move with that body.]
Desmond grinned wickedly.
“I’ll move at least one more step than you, so don’t worry about it.”
Many people had died and both Sein and Harman had suffered fatal wounds, but Desmond wasn’t unscathed either.
All he could do was sit precariously atop the mountain of corpses, catching his breath.
His arms were burned and melted, and a massive ice spike was embedded in his chest.
[Yes… That’s how you should be. Keheheh…]
The next moment, mana began pouring out of Desmond’s body.
Fire, frost, earth, wind.
Not the mana of the four natural elements, but black mana with dark and evil attributes swirled around.
“He still has that kind of power…”
Harman’s eyes, barely able to watch the two, wavered.
“Sein, it’s dangerous…”
BOOM
“…!”
Harman’s eyes widened.
He couldn’t continue speaking due to the pressure of mana bursting from Sein’s wounded body.
The pressure subsided after the initial burst passed, but only a bitter laugh escaped from Harman’s mouth.
“Haha… Sein, you really are…”
The fresh thrill he had felt when first meeting Sein Sears, and the memory of that time, flashed through his mind.
‘Sein Sears. You’re a genius. I acknowledge it.’
‘So?’
‘…I’m saying that Harman Flameforce, the young head of the Flameforce family, acknowledges you.’
‘Is that so? If you’re done talking, get out of the way.’
‘……’
Sein Sears was the only genius Harman had ever acknowledged.
The continent’s greatest flame magic family.
In other words, the genius acknowledged by Harman, who was the eldest son of the Flameforce family, the continent’s greatest magical noble house, who, had grown tired of being called a genius and had no opposition to becoming the next family head.
‘Why did you learn something like ice magic with such talent?’
‘I don’t understand the intent of your question. If you’re trying to insult the Sears family, I’ll drive an ice spike through your heart.’
If Sein Sears hadn’t learned inefficient ice magic.
If he had learned flame magic with that talent from the beginning, he could have achieved far greater success as a mage.
‘Because flame magic and ice magic can never be learned together.’
Fire mana and water mana are complete opposites.
Having already accepted water mana into his heart and built the foundation of ice magic in his body, Sein couldn’t learn flame magic unless he was reborn.
That’s why he had genuinely regretted that Sein had learned ice magic in the Sears family.
‘But I was wrong.’
Sein Sears had perfectly proven this by driving his magic into Desmond’s chest.
Harman looked at Sein’s back as he stood precariously.
He was trying to cast magic with the same power as before even in extreme circumstances by freezing parts of his collapsing body to maintain their form and preserve his mana circuits.
‘No, he’s preparing magic even stronger than before.’
Harman could tell.
Right now, Sein Sears was accepting permanent damage to his circuits and instead freezing them while expanding his mana circuits beyond their usual capacity.
‘If that happens…’
Harman had a premonition.
Everything would be decided in this one exchange.
‘I’m sorry I couldn’t help until the end, Sein.’
Instead of those words, what poured from Harman’s mouth again was thick, clotted blood.
“…”
Sein Sears didn’t take his eyes off Desmond.
Blood flowed from his lips, which he had bitten to endure the pain.
And in the middle of the plain, both of their incantations rang out simultaneously.
“Eternal Frost.”
[Death.]
It was hard to believe these were their final incantations—intense storms of mana collided at the center.
And Sein Sears’s magic succeeded in freezing even death itself.
Crack, crack crack!
The body of Desmond, who had used dark mana to drive the continent to the brink of destruction, froze completely.
Crash.
Soon, the collapsed ice fragments decorated the peak of the mountain of corpses.
The plain that had produced the most screams was dyed in silence.
“…It’s over.”
Sein Sears let out a faint breath.
Without turning his head, he opened his mouth while gazing into the void.
“Harman, you said earlier that you thought flame magic was the only answer.”
Crack.
The ice holding his neck in place to prevent it from falling cracked, making his voice split, but Sein continued speaking without concern.
“Of course, that thinking was wrong. But the current ice magic was only close to the answer—it wasn’t the answer either.”
If the path he had walked until now had been the only correct answer, Sein should have killed Desmond before things got to this point.
Sein Sears, who had mastered ice magic, ironically realized this while watching the magic of Harman Flameforce, a master of flame magic.
The remarkable stability that ice magic pursued.
But if he had stepped just a little outside the framework that had hardened due to that stability.
If he could have utilized the advantages of freely burning flame magic.
‘I might have been able to reach an even higher realm.’
And he might have been able to stop Desmond before things came to this.
‘The research on how to accept and handle both powers together was almost complete. But it’s too late now.’
Sein slowly caught his breath.
“…It’s useless to say this now, though. Isn’t that right, Harman.”
Cough.
Sein barely managed to turn his body to look behind him.
“…”
But no answer came back.
“…How lonely.”
Those words, spoken for the first time by Sein Sears who had silently fought solitude for half his life, scattered along with his frosty breath.
‘What happened to the family…’
The faces of the disciples he had left behind suddenly came to mind.
Had those guys successfully defeated Desmond’s followers?
‘If I had realized it a little earlier. I could have taught them a more correct path.’
Crack.
But now there wasn’t even much time left for regret.
Having used up all his mana, the ice that had barely been holding his entire body together began to break and melt.
Accordingly, Sein’s body naturally began to collapse helplessly.
Even so, Sein moved toward Harman, who lay collapsed without moving.
Thud.
His right arm fell to the ground.
His left arm was about to fall to the ground next, but he held on with all his strength.
Thump.
His right leg collapsed.
His left shin melted away.
He pressed his left arm against the cold ground and moved forward.
And finally, he reached out to Harman, who had died with his eyes open, and closed them.
Thud.
Sein Sears’s head fell to the ground.
For reasons unknown, Sein Sears’s consciousness remained.
‘What… what happens to me now?’
He had never thought deeply about time after death. When he was alive, he had been preoccupied with using the time given to him.
It wasn’t that he had no regrets about his previous life, but it was all already in the past.
‘At least I definitely killed Desmond.’
[Kehe… I thought I would surely obtain it this time. But next time, I will definitely…]
Desmond had muttered something meaningful before freezing completely, but that’s exactly why he had made sure to end the bastard’s life more certainly and checked repeatedly.
Desmond was dead.
Although it bothered him that he couldn’t confirm the family’s safety, with his disciples’ skills, they should have been able to defeat Desmond’s followers sufficiently.
Sein quietly organized his thoughts and calmly settled his floating consciousness.
And then.
“…”
“The family head has finally stepped forward.”
“This time it’s really the end.”
“He lasted quite a while.”
Suddenly, Sein Sears heard people’s voices.
‘…What? Wasn’t I dead? There shouldn’t be any humans left on the Heren Plains…’
The next moment, his vision brightened.
‘…This isn’t the Heren Plains.’
It wasn’t the Heren Plains where corpses were scattered so densely they blocked the horizon.
“Cain Sears.”
The middle-aged man in front of him looked at Sein and spoke.
‘Cain Sears?’
“Yes.”
An answer popped out before he knew it.
Sein’s mind was immediately busy trying to understand this strange situation, but his body was naturally accepting it as if he had always been here.
‘What is this…’
Meanwhile, the family head didn’t stop and shouted with wide eyes.
“Listen, children and disciples of the Sears family, including Cain Sears! The 17th head of the Sears family, Blake Sears, declares!”
A thick voice echoed through the cavity.
The murmuring sounds from around quieted, and everyone’s attention focused on the two of them.
‘So now… no, wait. The 17th head?’
Given the confusing situation, Sein reached a quick conclusion with minimal information.
He didn’t know how it happened, but judging by the circumstances, the man before him was the head of the Sears family.
And Sein Sears had somehow become someone called Cain Sears.
No, it would be more accurate to say that Sein Sears’s memories had awakened within Cain Sears.
To express this from Cain Sears’s perspective…
‘I’ve regained memories of my past life… you could say.’
If there was one problem, it was that Sein currently couldn’t recall ‘Cain Sears’s’ memories.
The vast memories of his past life that had flooded in all at once seemed to have covered and suppressed the memories that Cain Sears originally had.
‘The 17th… That means five generations have changed below me. Roughly over two hundred years have passed. For now, I need to understand the situation while listening to the declaration.’
While thinking this, the family head’s formal declaration began.
“Our Sears family has long protected the Empire from monsters at the border of these Gahril Snow Mountains.”
Gahril Snow Mountains. It was a place name he hadn’t heard in a very long time.
‘It was where we originally stayed before moving the castle to the capital.’
Before Sein Sears elevated the family to the ranks of magical noble houses, the Sears family was tasked with exterminating monsters in the border snow mountains.
They called it a sacred duty, but in reality, it was no different from being stuck with an area that other families avoided due to lack of power.
‘It seems they came back here after I died. It’s unfortunate, but it can’t be helped.’
Anyway, the fact that Cain was now listening to the family head’s declaration meant that the Sears family had ultimately survived against Desmond’s followers.
That alone put his mind at ease for now.
“This is a very sacred mission given by His Majesty. The increasingly ferocious monsters of the snow mountains, our Sears family has perfectly defeated them until now.”
Cain nodded slightly.
‘Yes. Even though we came back to such a place, the foundation hasn’t crumbled.’
It seemed worthwhile to have left his teachings as magic books.
“And all of this can be said to be thanks to our Sears family’s successful inheritance and mastery of powerful flame magic, even though our scale has diminished.”
Yes. The powerful flame magic passed down through generations…
‘Huh? What did he say?’
Cain Sears, who had been nodding while focusing on the family head’s statement, could only freeze at the words that followed.
“Therefore!”
And to such Cain Sears, the family head shouted in a resounding voice.
“Cain Sears, as a direct descendant of the family, has failed to master even basic flame magic despite reaching the age of 15.”
The head of the Sears family, who had mentioned flame magic.
Blake Sears declared.
“I hereby banish you from the Sears family.”
