Only Wisdom Awakened - Chapter 144

Chapter 144: Past the line
“Now… die”

Even if the skeleton was still sitting on the throne without moving an inch, countless enormous shards of ice appeared in the sky.

The peak of the mountain had been completely surrounded by those ice shards, that were soon thrown against Hans.

Every single one of them was a sixth-tier magic with a strange power imbued in it, that seemingly allowed the caster to control its speed and accuracy even better.

Tens of spells were flying at him at the same moment, and Hans, not sure if he would have success with the mana shield, decided to avoid them instead of parrying the hits.

His body began to rush from one side of the peak to the other, and every moment that passed, he saw a shard of ice smash against the surface where he had stood just a couple of milliseconds earlier.

Not even half of the shards had impacted the terrain, and the skeleton had already started casting many others.

The remnants of the frozen attacks that had shattered to the ground, combined with the slippery surface of the ice mountain, had already started to incapacitate Hans’s dodging ability, and it got worse with every avoided spell.

The remaining block of ice restricted his path, limiting the ground he could move to.

But he continuously changed direction using every trick in his book.

He used the gravity path to lighten himself while he was jumping around, and used the same path to add weight to his shoulders in order to have a better grip on the ice.

He also moved around or slightly altered the spells’ trajectory with his two movement spells: {repulsion} and {telekinesis}.

The skeleton, seeing that the human in front of him wasn’t dying, decided to use up some more of his powers to ensure a hit.

“Human… freeze, and accept your destiny”

Hearing those words, Hans’s body froze on the spot, and the tip of one of the shards managed to pierce his liver from behind.

After a few seconds, he vomited blood.

The transparent ice on top of the mountain had just been painted by two stains of red.

One coming from Hans’s mouth, and the other dripping down from his open wound.

‘I thought…..He couldn’t use his powers anymore… fuck’

Hans was now stuck, just a little movement could’ve worsened his wound, and trying to get that ice shard out of his body was anything but possible.

Luckily, no more shards were in the sky, meaning the skeleton’s attack had ended.

“Do you regret it now? Foolish human”

“This is the price you have to pay for having ravaged our world, I hope your your master will soon follow you in this destiny”

{winter goddess’ judgment}(tier-8)

A huge beam of frost mana was shot from above the skeleton’s head, closing onto Hans at an incredibly fast pace.

In a last attempt to survive, Hans raised his hands, shielding himself with the spell {frozen dragon armor}(tier-6), a new spell he hadn’t yet found the chance to try.

The attack didn’t stop, hitting Hans’s body, and blowing off a whole part of the mountain.

When the white light emitted by the beam disappeared, no traces were left of Hans’s incapacitated body.

“It seems like… This is as far as I go.

Oh goddess, allow me to rest beside you for my last moments”

The skeleton lay on the altar as if embracing it, and remained motionless from then on.

Three hours later…

“Cough… cough cough…”

Something was blocking Hans’s throat,

“Coug- hpm.. Cough cough cough…”

He finally managed to free his lungs, by turning his head to the side and letting out the stagnant blood that had been residing in them.

‘It’s… cold’

He thought, observing the raging blizzard right in front of his eyes.

‘It hurts… it hurts so much.

Why does it hurt so much?’

Hans felt a deep pain in his abdomen, but he could not even lift his head to see the reason.

Ha was lying on the soft snow, whose color had been altered by the blood coming out of Hans’s body.

The disgusting taste of blood covered every single one of his taste buds, but other than that and the pain, he could not feel anything else.

He could tell his life was slowly slipping away from his body, as his breath began to lack while the pain disappeared.

‘I’m losing too much blood, I need to stop this’

Hans tried to bring his arm up to the abdomen in order to seal the wound, but he couldn’t.

‘My arm… isn’t moving.

Was it fractured when I parried that attack earlier?

Is this as far as I go?

Fuck no! I won’t die even if the heavens themselves force me to.

I still have something to do.

Wouldn’t it all be in vain if I gave up here?

If… I have learned something in the last few months, that is that my powers have no limits.

If I can think of it, then I can do it, that is how it worked whenever I created or upgraded a spell, that is why… please, please world, give me the strength to make it out once again.

…please… work!’

Hans began gathering light mana just beside the wound.

His light path had reached the fifth tier because Hans intended to create a healing-type spell in the future.

But he had no future, he either made it now or never.

Imbuing his body with light mana, he cast on his own cells the fifth-tier spell: {accellerate} quickening their reproduction speed, increasing exponentially the number of cells being created by the second.

And right after being done with those, he did the same thing with his blood cells, basically recreating the missing parts of his body with mana.

It was a long, painful, and difficult process, that kept Hans in place for almost an hour before he could finally take a breath of relief.

‘I… lived’

“Cough… cough”

Hans managed to get back on his feet, before watching behind him.

‘I see… the snow managed to soften the fall a little bit, and my armoring spell absorbed the rest of the damage.

I would’ve been dead if things hadn’t worked out like this.

‘I am hungry, and my body is craving some rest, but I still have something I need to do…

That monster, he used up his last powers, I must know what is happening here.

And if this really is another world, then I have to discover why no one is inhabiting it.

I only hope for our own world to not end up like this, because if it did, then I would have nowhere to spend the rest of my life with my family.’

Thinking about all these questions without an answer, Hans got back to climbing the mountain, even if slowly because of his hurt body.

He repaired his arms while walking, draining most of his mama.

[congratulations on obtaining the light element (tier-4) spell {medium heal}]

[congratulations on obtaining the light element (tier-5) spell {blood production}]

By the time he got back up for the third time, the sun was already painting the sky red on the horizon.

That time, nothing stopped him even when taking the last few steps, so he had confirmation that the skeleton wasn’t able to cast spells anymore.

He passed by the part of the mountain that had been blown off by the blast shot many hours earlier.

‘Woah..’

He couldn’t help but admire the effect of the spell, since even his best one didn’t come close to such destructive power.

He was also surprised to have survived it.

The skeleton wasn’t seated on the throne anymore, instead, its arms were wrapped around the broken altar.

Hans could still feel the mana keeping him alive.

“Is it something worth dying for?”

Asked Hans, referring to the altar.

Replying to him wasn’t a strong voice like the one the monster had before, but a wavering deep voice.

“You… are still alive?”

“Did you think I would die to a skeleton such as you?”

“I am not-”

“So? Is that something worth dying for?”

“No… it’s something worth living for”

“What happened here?”

“You already know it, don’t you?

Don’t bother with me, I won’t tell you anything, and I barely have a couple of minutes before disappearing forever.

I forfeit, just let me pass on right here”

“I have some questions, could you answer them?

I am not from where you think I came from, whatever place it is”

“Don’t lie to me, I can smell the authority of a higher being on you, since it’s different from mine, it must be “theirs”.

“Who are “they”?”

…

No reply came…

The skeleton had run out of mana to speak, and it barely had enough to keep its mind conscious.

“Well then… I heard you asked for your sins to be forgiven, I hope this will help you a little bit”

{purgatory’s flames}(tier-7)

A flame enveloped the skeleton’s body, which in the last moments of his life felt like a warm blanket.

‘These flames… they burn evil, but then… why are they burning me?

Have I gone past the line of being good? Was it when I transformed into an undead? Or was it when I hesitated to kill Khalin?

Whatever… I shall worry no more about those matters.

However, a question still persists in my mind.

How does an evil being have the power to burn evil?

….

Oh….

I see.

It seems like I made a mistake.

This boy…

He is not their servant…

He is !*#~$ successor”