Chapter 102: The sunset was crimson red.


    I was weaving through the alleyways when I stopped at a secluded empty lot where I had once stepped on Taylor.


    As I was enjoying the moonlight at dawn for a while,


    Arin, who had followed me, red at me from a few steps away.


    “What do you want to say?”


    I abruptly beckoned with my finger.


    “Come at me.”


    Arin scoffed, thinking I was up to some strange trick.


    “This is noughing matter.”


    “What are you trying to do now?”


    “I said,e at me.”


    “Stop messing around.”


    When I opened my circle without a word, Taylor and ir, who were watching from the side, sensed the unusual atmosphere and intervened.


    “Exin what happened from the beginning.”


    “If there’s some misunderstanding, exin first. Arin is usually quiet.”


    The two of them realized I was serious. I didn’t think they would understand even if I exined, but it made sense, so I nodded.


    “You’re not wrong. I’m going to tell you your problem, soe at me. You’ll know if you do.”


    “Why would I? I said stop messing around. You’ve been trying to get my attention with strange words, and it’s disgusting, so stop it.”


    For a moment, I seriously thought about my image. What in the world does she think of me?


    I took a deep breath and said,


    “There’s a problem with your mana control.”


    Arin red at me.


    “So what?”


    “We can’tmunicate. You’re the type who will chase after La’s tail all your life and eventually die without catching up.”


    “….What?”


    Arin suddenly lost her temper and trembled.


    Her eyes rolled back as if she were having a seizure, and the waves of mana in her body fluctuated.


    ‘It works well.’


    Arin red at me and moved her hand.


    “You… bad bastard.”


    With a whooshing sound, the distance between us instantly narrowed.


    It was the mark of Wind Push.


    I also threw myself back with only one circle open.


    The distance did not widen, maintaining the same gap.


    ‘As expected.’


    As soon as I lowered my head, a hot fireball passed over my head. Arin had instantly conjured a fireball and thrown it at me.


    When I raised my head, I saw a spark ignite once again at Arin’s fingertips.


    I also roughly created a fireball with one circle and threw it back at her.


    When the two fireballs collided, there was a loud bang, and sparks flew into the air.


    I grasped what had happened in that split second.


    Arin’s fireball and my fireball had disappeared simultaneously.


    With that one collision, I confirmed that my intuition was not wrong. Arin was a woman of outstanding talent.


    As soon as a lull ensued, I opened one more circle.


    I conjured a me spear in my right hand and threw it at Arin. A me spear also emerged from Arin’s hand.


    With another bang, sparks erupted in the air again.


    ‘One more.’


    When I opened up to three circles, Arin’s expression suddenly hardened.


    As I threw a Wind Cutter as if I were throwing it, Arin hurriedly unfolded an ‘Wind Barrier’. This time, cracks appeared in the shield.


    Following that, I opened up to four circles in my heart.


    Feeling the surge of mana, Arin made apletely different expression than before.


    ‘Compression, Wind Press.’


    “I said stop messing around!”


    Arin bit her lip in the middle of drawing a 4-star spell and hurriedly threw herself away.


    As ifpressed air were exploding, it swept past the spot where Arin had been standing.


    I nodded and looked at Arin.


    Definitely different.


    Arin’s spells weakened as the star rating increased, and when they reached 4 stars, their power dropped to a mediocre level. Arin herself knew that, so she chose to evade.


    “Let’s see if you can avoid this one too.”


    I chanted a short incantation once again and spoke to Arin.


    “La’s tail.”


    “What?”


    “Chasing after it.”


    Anger filled Arin’s eyes as she was about to dodge, and she started drawing a spell.


    The distance between the two of us was quite close.


    ir urgently tried to intervene, but Taylor grabbed him.


    Taylor quietly shook his head. Meanwhile, Arin’s spell waspleted.


    4-star, Fire Burst.


    The moment the mes exploded from Arin’s front.


    I, with Wind Barrier d around my body, performed a headbutt.


    “Ugh!”


    With a crashing sound, Arin, who had rolled three times in the air, copsed onto the ground.


    The 4-star explosion Arin had set off disappeared without a trace the moment it collided with me.


    It was a level inferior to Taylor, the Azure Dragon’s Members, or even Bayern’s Cyan.


    With this collision, I confirmed it for real.


    I thought it couldn’t be, but the conclusion was there.


    The source of that strange feeling I had whenever I saw Arin….


    ‘It’s the same.’


    An overwhelming talent for mana resonance.


    Despite this, the reason for this phenomenon was simple. She was walking the wrong path, so it couldn’t be helped.


    At that moment, Taylor, who had been looking back and forth between Arin and me, approached with a hardened face.


    “What did you confirm, Ruin?”


    I approached Arin, who was gasping for breath on the ground.


    “Discard your Mana Core.”


    I spoke to Arin, who was ring at me with venomous eyes.


    “Use Circles.”


    “….What?”


    Arin spat out the blood in her mouth and gave a hollowugh. Taylor and ir’s expressions also hardened coldly.


    * * *


    “Get lost.”


    Arin, spitting out the blood that had pooled in her mouth, slowly raised herself. Taylor blocked Arin’s path.


    “Sit down, Arin.”


    Taylor slowly turned his head and looked across.


    “What are you doing, Ruin?”


    “Exactly as you see.”


    “I misjudged you. You caused thismotion just to tell her to use Circles?”


    “It’s wrong to say ‘just’, fool.”


    “If you act like this, how can we trust and follow you?”


    Taylor felt something hot boiling up inside him.


    “You selfish bastard. Do you think everyone else is the same just because you are different? We told you we tried making Circles.”


    “So?”


    Taylor slowly started walking.


    “Don’t mock Arin. Even if you noticed Arin’s problem, nothing will change. Abandoning the right path and using Circles won’t create talent that wasn’t there.”


    Arin’s expression, who had been listening, grew colder by the moment.


    Taylor muttered in a low voice.


    “Answer me, Ruin.”


    “Are you done talking?”


    Ruin, who had slowly walked over from the other side, looked down at Arin, ignoring Taylor.


    “Open your Circles. Right now.”


    Arin let out a hollowugh.


    “….What do you know?”


    “I know better than you.”


    “….”


    Arin’s eyes were iparably cold, but anger was seething inside her.


    It was the first time in years that she had faced such intense emotions.


    A w she had hidden for so long.


    It was disgusting how he casually exposed it like a joke.


    “Still messing around till the end.”


    Circles? She had already used them countless times long ago. Something like that couldn’t solve her problems.


    “Get up instead of sitting there like an idiot. Open your Circles.”


    “I said shut up!”


    “Then get hit more.”


    Suddenly, mana waves surged from Ruin’s body. Arin hurriedly rolled on the ground.


    Bang— mes swept past where she had been just a moment ago.


    The mana waves fluctuated more intensely.


    Arin hurriedly drew a spell. That bastard was serious. He was serious about doing this. It was at that moment that Taylor jumped in.


    “I said stop it, Ruin!”


    With an enormous surge of mana, Taylor was thrown back.


    Arin suddenly felt goosebumps all over her body.


    ‘What…’


    It was different from before. Arin definitely felt it. A strong mana wave that made all her nerves stand on end.


    ‘At least 5-star level, no. Could it be 6-star…?’


    Taylor and ir were equally surprised.


    However, anger soon began to ze in Taylor’s eyes.


    “Ugh!”


    The moment Taylor, spitting out a mouthful of blood, started drawing a spell, Ruin stopped walking and looked at her.


    Taylor red at Ruin and said,


    “Stop now if you don’t want to die together. Don’t tarnish Samael’s name. Don’t force your uniqueness on us.”


    Suddenly, Ruin turned his head and looked at Taylor.


    “You know Samael?”


    “Th…”


    At that moment, Taylor’s anger subsided involuntarily.


    He didn’t know why.


    The moment he met Ruin’s gaze, his anger was forcibly extinguished as if cold water had been poured over his head.


    Or to be a little more precise.


    He felt a chill.


    “Don’t pretend to know with your shallow sense of justice, you brat. I know better than anyone what Samael was like. Don’t force my uniqueness on you?”


    “….”


    “I can force it. Because you guys are also the damn Samael.”


    While Taylor stood frozen, Ruin approached Arin.


    “Open it. I’ll show you your talent.”


    As Ruin continued to press without stopping, Arin’s suppressed emotions finally erupted.


    “Fine, you bastard.”


    Wheeing—


    Arin opened the Circles of her heart that she had created long ago.


    Like oiling rusty wheels, the Circles opened one by one, two, and then three, imbued with mana.


    “Come at me, now.”


    Arin chanted and fired me Spears in session. It was at a level simr to when she drew them as spells.


    Fwoosh—


    As Ruin stood still and only defended, Arin attacked him, firing a 3-Circle incantation. This time, it was even worse than a spell.


    Arin, catching her breath, scoffed and red at Ruin.


    “What’s different? What’s my talent? Are Circles my talent? Is this what you meant by talent?”


    “Yes. You have talent.”


    “You know nothing and yet you keep…”


    “I know. I know you better than you know yourself. Better than anyone else.”


    Arin was speechless.


    She felt the same.


    Suddenly, the moment she saw Ruin’s expression, her heart sank. An inexplicable feeling of dejection.


    “….What?”


    “You were born with it. You must have felt it yourself. But you must have been frustrated as you learned magic, right? Because mana wouldn’t move as you wanted. That’s not because you can’t control mana. Everyone just misunderstood. You simply…”


    “….”


    “ck the ability to sense elements.”


    Arin shuddered.


    He was right. Arin had guessed it too.


    Because the perfectly condensed mana only scattered at the moment it was converted into a spell.


    But what was she supposed to do about it?


    “Attack again.”


    Arin shook her head and gritted her teeth again.


    Ruin only defended against Arin’s attacks. The firmly condensed Wind Barrier did not allow a single attack to prate.


    Through it, Ruin’s voice reached her.


    “There was a guy like that in the past. He had no talent for all four elements, just like you. What do you think happened to him? Aren’t you curious?”


    Arin met Ruin’s eyes. An irresistible voice came.


    “Open them all. I know you have one more.”


    “You… bastard!”


    Arin’s eyes rolled back as she opened thest Circle.


    In that moment, she wasn’t thinking about incantations or spells. All she could think about was shutting that mouth. That was the only thought in her mind…


    “Ugh!”


    Suddenly, Arin felt an intense pain in her lower abdomen as her Mana core twisted.


    The mana that escaped her body mixed with the mana in the atmosphere and returned to the Circles of her heart, as if guided by someone.


    Moonlight reflected in Arin’s chilling eyes, and madness swept over her.


    Arin threw a punch.


    Crack— Bang—


    For the first time, Ruin was pushed back a few steps.


    The center of his Wind barrier was caved in, and bright white sparks flickered around it.


    Taylor and ir stared at Arin with dumbfounded faces…


    Suddenly, Ruin threw his head back and burst intoughter like a madman.


    “As expected, it was lightning.”


    .


    .


    .


    “Commander.”


    “What?”


    “I don’t see the kids.”


    “They must be with the Patriarch.”


    While I was sitting cross-legged on a damp rock, I heard a voice again.


    “We’re left behind again. I think I blew off 30 heads this time.”


    Looking over, I saw Azeta stretching out his right hand, which had only two fingers left. It looked so pathetic that I couldn’t help butugh.


    “You only have three even when you spread out all your fingers?”


    “Cut the crap and tell me how many.”


    “I think I crushed about 40.”


    I also stretched out my left hand, which only had four fingers left.


    At some point, we had started a bet on crushing demon heads, and usually, I would blow off 40 demon heads in one battle.


    My left hand with only four fingers left couldn’t have been more efficient.


    Azeta said with augh.


    “I lost again, damn it.”


    “Why aren’t you arguing for once?”


    “You can tell just by looking. The traces of death are different.”


    I looked around and nodded.


    “Let’s fill our stomachs first. We need to eat quickly and join the others.”


    “Perfect for two.”


    Azeta licked his lips and picked up the wild boar lying below.


    It had been months since we had seen an uncontaminated one, so I was also looking forward to it.


    The surrounding scenery was enhanced by the corpses of demons with their heads blown off. This damn appetizing scenery made my mouth water.


    ‘Good.’


    At the crackling sound, I hurriedly turned my head to see that one of the boar’s hind legs was already ckened.


    “Ah, that idiot.”


    “What?”


    “Take it easy. You can’t even handle fire. Are you trying to burn it all?”


    As if he had been waiting, Azeta tossed the boar to me.


    “You do it then, Commander.”


    “…”


    I felt really annoyed. I was momentarily pissed off, so I grabbed the boar’s front leg and injected it with dark lightning.


    In an instant, with a whooshing sound, Azeta snatched the boar away. The front leg had already disappeared without a trace.


    “Ah, this Crazy Commander really…”


    “So I said take it easy, you fool.”


    “Alright, alright.”


    I nodded as I watched Azeta carefully handling the boar with his fingertips.


    “Still, electric barbecue is better.”


    I continued to watch Azeta and suddenly let out a chuckle.


    It was quite funny to see the guy who used to shoot dozens of lightning bolts concentrating on a single boar. In the meantime, he kept burning the meat.


    “Heh.”


    Once again, we were fools who couldn’t do anything properly.


    The Commander didn’t know how to handle mana properly, and the Vice-Commander only knew how to use lightning.


    Mages who couldn’t even grill a boar properly… Tsk.


    As I giggled while looking at the boar that was being ckened, Azeta also suddenly pointed at me and giggled.


    “Hahahaha!”


    Weughed like fools and then looked up at the sky at the same time.


    After a long time, the sunset was painted crimson red.


    ———-