The Greatest Warrior of All Time Returns-Chapter 425

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Chapter 425

At the suffocatingly absurd situation, Eltemion’s expression twisted into a frown.

“What are you… what are you doing?”

—Guuuuuu……

At the short resonance cry of Murden, the high-rank spirit, he once again drew out spirit mana and tried to pull out more of the power of Murden, the High Earth Spirit.

But… sensing that something was strange, he knitted his brows.

“What is this?”

He looked around as if trying to grasp something, then repeatedly spread and reabsorbed spirit mana while staring down at his own hand.

“Lord Eltemion?”

“The forest is strange. Spirit mana is being sucked away.”

Hearing those words, the others looked around in confusion and tried to sense the spirit mana.

However, no one noticed the change in the spirit mana that was being absorbed so subtly.

On the other hand, Eltemion, who had clearly sensed the anomaly, forcefully injected spirit mana with greater intensity and shouted.

“Murden!”

At once, a large amount of spirit mana began to seep into Murden, and in response Murden restored his body once more and charged toward Grivy.

But.

Grivy was the one who had even ranked Serqet—who possessed the heat of Krutger and the poison gland of the Heaven-Destroying Venom—below herself, despite having consumed only the power of earth.

That meant Murden could hardly be a major threat to her.

Grivy hopped lightly, dodging Murden’s attacks several times.

Then she smiled brightly.

“Grivy wants to try too!”

And then.

She made a little hop and swung her small white hand onto Murden’s shoulder.

“Smack!”

KWA-A-A-ANG!!!!!!

An enormous shockwave slammed into the ground, kicking up a circular storm of dust.

Struck by Grivy’s palm, Murden staggered as if a sandcastle had been smashed by a giant club, taking massive damage.

Of course, the dignity of a High Spirit did not disappear so easily.

Even if the contractor could not properly draw out its strength, its inherent capacity did not vanish, and it launched a counterattack toward Grivy.

The problem was that Murden was fighting, while Grivy was playing.

If their battle were evaluated coldly, it became more and more one-sided as time passed.

Grivy seemed to think even Murden’s attacks were merely playing together, and simply laughed cheerfully as she took them.

In reality, every time Grivy giggled and swung her hand, Murden’s enormous body shattered and collapsed, only to barely restore itself again and again.

Certainly.

For a High Spirit, he was quite weak—perhaps it was an issue of the contractor’s ability.

“Kuht?!”

It was only a matter of time before Murden, who was resisting desperately, collapsed.

He had endured this long only because he was a High Spirit, but Murden, who had not even been properly summoned and was in an unstable state, was ultimately reverse-summoned.

At the same time, pain from the reverse summoning surfaced on Eltemion’s face.

“Lord Eltemion!”

With urgent cries, Eltemion’s team moved to protect him, summoning spirits and standing on guard.

At the same time, the staggering Eltemion restrained two of his teammates and slowly rose to his feet.

“I surrender. In this state, I can’t win.”

The calm manner in which he accepted his defeat felt entirely different from the rumors.

Whether Grivy understood the confusion of Eltemion and his teammates or not, she merely widened her eyes with a puzzled expression.

“Huh… where’d the dirt friend go?”

“Murden must’ve gotten tired and gone first. Grivy, come here.”

“Okaaay……”

Afterward, I picked Grivy up and let her sit on my shoulders, then turned around.

“Y-You’re just leaving?”

“What else? It’s not like we’re fighting to the death. He surrendered. What, should I turn him into a bloody mess?”

Taking the two boys who had fallen silent with nothing to say, I walked away.

“What’s your name?”

That was when Eltemion quietly looked at me and asked.

“Cotton Belmud.”

I had decided to operate under an alias for now, after all.

“Belmud Marquisate?”

Taking my continued silence as confirmation, Eltemion seemed to think for a moment, then declared his surrender once more without any lingering attachment.

“I’ll be waiting at the next event. I won’t get beaten like this then.”

As if he disliked the unpleasant sensation of spirit mana being drained, he frowned and turned away.

After that, even as the forbidden zone gradually expanded and battles intensified, in the end no one else came looking for me.

It was only natural.

After parting from me, Eltemion—having lost his spirit beast—started hunting down nearby spirit summoners like a man possessed, and the result was that no one ended up coming this far.

Even the seven prodigies seemed reluctant to clash head-on with Eltemion and kept their distance.

And then.

Around the time the sun was setting.

A sound announcing the end of the contest echoed out.

* * *

With all teams except the 16 that had captured spirit beasts being eliminated, most spirit summoners swallowed the bitter cup of defeat.

Three people per team.

Only a total of 48 participants remained alive in the main tournament.

Of course, there was still the first round of the main tournament that would cut everyone down to just 16, and then a second and final round to determine the ultimate victor.

But none of that was important to me right now.

The moment the contest ended, I sprinted back to the luxury lodging I had prepared in advance.

The reason?

Simple.

I hadn’t seen my emotional sanctuary for two whole days.

“Elpiria! Daddy’s home!”

I dashed down the elegant corridor and burst into the room, panting, and Luna—who was sitting in a rocking chair holding Elpiria in her arms—smiled brightly when she saw me.

Elpiria, who had been yawning softly in her embrace, struggled to open her small eyes and took me into her field of vision.

Perhaps she couldn’t see properly; she stared blankly for a moment, then, as if she recognized her father, broke into a beaming angelic smile.

“Kya-ha-ha!”

“Oh my. Our youngest. Who did you take after to be this cute?”

“Kyaa!”

Afraid she might get hurt, I lifted Elpiria very carefully and gently rocked her back and forth. She only giggled happily and flailed her little limbs.

“Leon. You did well?”

“Yeah. I checked a few things. To be certain, I’ll have to watch until the next contest.”

As I said that and kissed her forehead, she chuckled as if pleased.

“Elpiria will get jealous.”

Come to think of it, ever since Elpiria was born and began recognizing her mom and dad, it did feel like she especially favored me.

Because of that, Luna sometimes showed a faintly disappointed expression, but she only looked for me relatively more; normally she wouldn’t leave Luna’s side, so it wasn’t anything new.

“You’re back?”

Soon Rebecca, who had apparently been discussing something while spreading out a map with Melissa, approached.

“How was the contest? I heard all the genius spirit summoners gathered this time.”

“They had talent. Even if only for a moment, there was one who handled a High Spirit.”

“My goodness… a High Spirit?! There was someone at master level?!”

“It’s a bit much to compare him to a master. More like he has potential.”

Certainly, a High Spirit could be said to be comparable to master level.

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But spirit arts didn’t end simply because you summoned a high-rank spirit.

How well you handled that spirit and how deeply you could commune with it—

That was what mattered.

Rebecca, being from a spirit summoner background, seemed quite intrigued at the mention of a High Spirit and nodded while looking over the list.

“Oh right. I received the message you sent. You said spirit mana was being absorbed little by little throughout the entire bamboo forest.”

“Yeah. I tried tracking it, but it was all converging in one place and heading outside the bamboo forest, so I couldn’t trace it any further.”

“So I did some additional investigation.”

I had sent Rebecca and Melissa the information that the spirit mana of spirit summoners in the bamboo forest was being slowly absorbed and then heading somewhere.

It seemed Rebecca had secretly searched for the spirit mana that was slipping out beyond the forest.

“So. Which direction?”

“That’s the thing… it’s strange.”

She guided me toward a map that showed the overall layout of the Spirit Corridor.

A map this detailed was normally a tactical asset, but Melissa had taken care of that part well.

“Here. Here. Here. And here.”

After that, she drew lines with a quill pen along the paths where the spirit mana flowed.

“I can’t understand the intention. Moving spirit mana like this.”

“Could it be… some kind of ritual?”

At Melissa’s question, I examined the map closely.

The irregularly spreading flow of spirit mana looked incredibly complex, like the flow of ley lines or human blood vessels.

“Is there any other information?”

“With my ability, this is the limit…”

At her words, I shook my head.

“No. You did well. I learned spirit arts a bit crudely myself, so I can’t grasp it precisely.”

For something like this, it would be better to ask a specialist.

I released a large amount of spirit mana and once again materialized a spirit that normally could not exist here.

“Jin.”

—Yes.

“Do you know what this is?”

—……

Jin slowly scanned the paths of spirit mana.

—It appears to be a unique spirit magic circle… but even I do not know exactly what it is.

Jin was a top-tier wind spirit, just one step below a Spirit King.

If even he did not know, then manifesting this kind of ability could only be done by a being above him.

“Elraim?”

—I cannot be certain of that either. I cannot even determine whether this is of ill intent or good intent. Hoo… If Lord Sylphid were here, it would have been better.

It did not feel like a Spirit King who was out of their mind enough to twist even their subordinate spirits would be doing this with good intentions.

“Can’t we just go directly to Sylphid and ask?”

—That is… Lord Sylphid is currently expending much power purifying the twisted spirits within Lord Elraim’s domain… and has now entered slumber.

That probably did not simply mean sleeping.

Because of one runaway water spirit, many others had become inconvenienced.

—And for this kind of spirit magic, humans may actually know more than we spirits.

“Humans?”

—Yes. A great deal of spirit magic was created by humans.

With an apology for not being of more help, Jin concealed his form once more.

I hadn’t discovered anything immediately, but I had a gut feeling.

That Elraim was plotting something.

Until I figured out what it was, it was awkward to move recklessly.

That was when it happened.

With a knock-knock sound, someone came to the lodging, and instinctively I covered my face with a mask and checked the visitor.

The visitor was an attendant dressed in a neat black formal uniform.

“Um… I was sent by Young Master Eltemion Rubakara.”

“What is it?”

At my question, the attendant took out a luxurious envelope from his chest and held it out to me.

“This is?”

“A small banquet will be held to encourage exchange among spirit summoners. Young Master Eltemion said he very much hopes Young Master Belmud will attend and grace the occasion…”

Suddenly?

Eltemion was the contractor of the High Spirit I had clashed with.

“Th-That… I heard you returned immediately after the contest and didn’t receive an invitation. He said it would be unthinkable for Young Master Belmud to be absent from a gathering of talented spirit summoners…”

Only then did I understand.

It was a banquet where the prodigies who had passed the contest would gather.

Since I had returned immediately without even receiving an invitation, Eltemion had delivered it on my behalf.

Still, to be honest, it didn’t attract me at all.

Rather, the word “banquet” itself was drenched in annoyance.

I did consider that I might learn some information about the flow of spirit mana, but if even Rebecca didn’t know, and even Jin—the top-tier spirit—didn’t know, it was unlikely that those fledgling youngsters would.

So I was about to refuse.

“By the way, it is said that Azure Sage, whose fame is renowned, will also be attending this banquet.”

Algran Tevne!

I had heard the name.

I hadn’t met them in person, but I knew of their reputation.

The continent’s greatest authority on spirit magic.

“Please tell them I will attend.”

If I learned what Elraim was plotting, it would be easier for us to respond as well.

And since I had received the invitation, it wasn’t something I could now refuse anyway.

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