Chapter 182 - THE ROAD NOT TAKEN (1)

Correction:?I found out that the line, “a thunderbolt that was faster than the wind,” from episode 165 was actually an attack name. This was the first step of Thunderbolt Twelve Steps that Jude used in his fight against First Sword. So I’m naming the attack as?Hyper-Fast Thunderbolt?from now on.

***

Jude had his moment in his fight with First Sword, so it’s Cordelia’s turn to shine now!

In the game, the Palace of Mirrors was a fairly popular dungeon.

Because the battle against oneself, who took a different path, gave players some room for thought.

Did I choose the right job? Should I have chosen another skill tree? Perhaps another job is better than this job?

Whoooosh!

Flames were added to the violent wind. An intense heat filled the stone chamber, and the vortex of fire headed towards Jude.

It was strong and fast.

Moreover, the surrounding air was burned at a terrifying speed. Therefore, Jude understood what the other was planning.

The goal of the mirror man – the wizard Jude, was not to burn Jude directly with the flaming wind.

It was to actually induce suffocation by filling the surrounding area with a huge swirl of fire while making it look like he was only planning to burn the real Jude.

‘He’s cunning.’

Or rather, should I say that he’s vicious?

Jude praised the familiar tactic he had seen before, and immediately used his golden whirlwind.

He pushed away the flaming wind with his golden wind and rushed over the wall of flames, towards the wizard Jude.

Whooooooosh!

The wall of flames split. The wizard Jude was reflected in the eyes of Jude who kicked the ground at that moment. He narrowed his distance to wizard Jude and sent a punch at the same time.

Black Dragon Cross Strike!

Roooar!

The energy of the Black Dragon roared as it soared. And what happened afterwards was something he expected. Just before the Black Dragon Cross Strike hit the wizard Jude, the air seemed to fluctuate, and the wizard Jude disappeared.

‘Blink!’

A short-distance space leap magic.

He had quickly responded since had predicted it. As soon as he turned around and spread out his senses, he found the location of wizard Jude.

‘As expected, it’s the back!’

<Blink> users liked to leap behind their opponent’s back.

Because they could gain advantage if they headed for the back at once.

Furthermore, while the place was quite spacious, the space was still limited.

The wizard Jude had to move to the other side in order to widen his distance from the real Jude.

“Bingo!”

The wizard Jude shouted, and powerful curses was cast over Jude’s entire body in an instant.

<Slow>.

<Fear of Banshee>.

<Weakness>.

<Mind Break>.

Four simultaneous magic spells that were simple yet powerful.

So how did he do it?

Even if it was the real Jude himself, it would be impossible to simultaneously cast four magic spells at a fast speed.

The answer was actually simple.

The real Jude had seen what the wizard Jude had done at the moment he turned around and was beset with curse magic.

‘Scrolls!’

Just because he was a wizard didn’t mean he no longer used scrolls.

Rather, he was able to make even more advanced-rank scrolls because he had become a wizard.

“<Waterfall!>”

In the instant Jude’s knees weakened because of the curses, the wizard Jude loudly cried out before an immense amount of water poured over Jude’s head.

Shaaaaaaa!

The high-speed chanting continued!

“<Gravity!>”

An invisible force crushed Jude. It made Jude completely kneel on the floor that was completely wet because of the water that fell.

And as Jude had expected.

If wizard Jude had used <Gravity> after casting <Waterfall>.

Then it was obvious on what wizard Jude would do next.

“<Levitation>.”

The wizard Jude soared from the floor after using magic that made him float. He then tore a magic scroll again.

He invoked the punishment from the heavens.

A thunderous white lightning!

“<Lightning>.”

The wizard Jude’s words quickly became reality.

A white lightning struck the ground and spread throughout the water that covered the stone chamber’s floor.

***

Flap!

The mirror woman flew up, but Cordelia ran forward instead of stopping. Because she instinctively had a hunch on what the mirror woman – the warrior Cordelia, was planning to do.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Booming sounds were heard in succession as daggers stabbed the spots where Cordelia had been standing earlier.

Their impact was so powerful that it broke the stone floor.

“Angel Mode!”

The Cordelia in front of her was a warrior.

She did not take the wizard route, nor did she learn witchcraft. One could say that she devoted everything into her Angel Mode.

‘She’s strong.’

Because angels were beings that surpassed humans.

It wasn’t just their mana that was stronger. Their basic physical abilities were significantly different.

Cordelia could also use Angel Mode. But it was impossible to become an angel like the warrior Cordelia in front of her.

‘Battle Angel.’

Among the angel classes, they were a kind of knight who specialized in hand-to-hand combat.

They possessed tremendous physical abilities.

The warrior Cordelia smiled.

She smiled brightly and beautifully, throwing a dagger again which Cordelia evaded in response.

Boom!

The roar caught Cordelia’s attention again.

But she did not look back.

Because she felt that there was no need to do so.

And her beast-like instincts were correct again this time.

Shortly after throwing the dagger, the warrior Cordelia took advantage of her wide wings’ ability to fly freely and dived down, rushing towards the real Cordelia in a low position like a snake slithering on the floor.

Her move was so swift and silent that it would feel that the warrior Cordelia ‘disappeared’ if the real Cordelia had turned her head for a moment because she was surprised by the roar.

Cordelia opened her eyes.

She had clearly seen it, but warrior Cordelia was too fast. So she left it to her instincts instead of her thoughts.

As soon as the warrior Cordelia dropped sharply, she spread <Grease> on the floor.

‘Trip!’

Slip on it.

The warrior Cordelia would definitely slip the moment she stepped on the floor that had its friction coefficient lowered greatly.

But the warrior Cordelia was still Cordelia.

Her combat sense surpassed that of wild animals, making her a real beast.

She stepped and slid on it.

But she didn’t slip. Her body seemed to spin in the air, but she balanced it like a cat and beast. And instead of kicking the ground again, she slid her body and dashed as if she was skating on ice.

“Fu-”

The real Cordelia didn’t have the time to completely let out a curse. She threw her body backwards and swung the detonating cord at the same time.

And in one move.

Shwaak-!

The detonating cord was split.

Before it had ignited and caused an explosion, the sword wielded by the warrior Cordelia had sliced it.

It was quick and accurate.

She moved one step ahead as if she saw the future.

The Cordelia who became a warrior.

The aloof beast who raised her wild instincts to the limit!

“Khooong!”

The warrior Cordelia bellowed as she pursued the real Cordelia who retreated.

Her cry was not something simple, but was actually ‘chivalry,’ the so-called magic used by knights.

Booooooom-!

The sound exploded, causing ripples in the air. It struck Cordelia who had jumped backwards, making her lose her footing.

“Kya?!”

Cordelia lost her balance and fell onto the floor.

The warrior Cordelia was then in front of her. The moment Cordelia raised her head, the warrior Cordelia swung her sword.

***

Boooooom!

Lightning struck.

The white lightning covered the ground, causing a series of small explosions.

Water.

A conductor.

Lightning filled the stone chamber.

The curses ate at the real Jude.

Gravity magic held him down.

The wizard Jude truly was like Jude, blocking all possible places to retreat as he checkmated the real Jude.

The wizard Jude smiled.

And at that moment, Jude strongly stepped on the ground. The energy of Ninth Heaven’s Nine Doors exploded!

Baaaang!

The water that covered the ground splashed upwards. The electric current in the water caused by the lightning was negated in that instant.

And he activated Hyper-Fast Thunderbolt.

He went against the suppressing force of gravity.

He escaped the trap with a force stronger than it.

Bang!

Jude soared high. He escaped from the gravity magic and jumped nearly 20 meters or more, and caught sight of the entire stone chamber at the same time.

He saw the wizard Jude.

And the real Jude thought.

‘He’s also a cheat.’

The wizard Jude’s magic chanting was too fast.

He also simultaneously used more than one magic, and erased the blind spots of his spells by using advanced-rank scrolls.

He was what Jude would be if he had become a wizard.

A wizard who made the most of his inhuman calculation ability.

He was strong.

He was impressive.

But a smile came to Jude’s face instead of regret.

He had no choice but to do that.

‘Imperfect.’

The wizard Jude wasn’t perfect.

He failed to fully utilize the talents of his present and previous lives.

The only thing he could use was his previous life’s talent, Outboxer009’s talent.

So he was imperfect.

Therefore, he couldn’t reach the current Jude’s talent.

‘Cheonmujiche.’

The incarnation of martial arts from the heavens.

The wizard Jude couldn’t properly utilize his Cheonmujiche.

Even though he was born with the finest jewel in his hand, his failure to utilize it was no different to throwing that jewel into the trash.

‘No, it’s not just Cheonmujiche.’

The Jude of this present life.

The Jude from the original?Legend of Heroes 2.

He wasn’t as strong as the present Jude now.

He couldn’t be as strong as the present Jude now.

What would happen if the original Jude had his Gueumjulmaek cured as soon as possible and began walking on the same path that the present Jude had walked?

Would he be able to have the same strength as the present Jude?

‘Impossible.’

It was unattainable.

His Cheonmujiche alone would not be able to reach the present Jude’s level.

There were reasons why the present Jude had become so strong at a very fast rate.

It was because of their quick level-ups, which he had talked about with Cordelia several times.

It was also because of the rare ‘elixirs’ that he periodically consumed.

But one more added to these two reasons.

Perhaps it was the most important reason.

‘My understanding of Ninth Heaven’s Nine Doors.’

If one thought about it, Cheonmujiche was a talent on how to properly utilize the body.

It was an ability close to the beastly instincts that Cordelia was born with.

But Jude’s calculation ability and high intelligence were added to this.

He understood the Ninth Heaven’s Nine Doors and applied it to his body exactly like a machine. By doing so, the power of Ninth Heaven’s Nine Doors was added to his Cheonmujiche.

‘It’s like I’m praising myself.’

But it was true.

The reason why Jude and Cordelia were strong now wasn’t simply because they had their memories of the time when they were rotten waters.

A combination of two inborn talents.

It became possible because they had the talents of two people in their present bodies.

The calculative ability and intelligence of Outboxer009 was added to the Cheonmujiche of Jude Bayer.

The beastly instincts and the terrifying and outstanding combat talent of Yellow Storm were added to the innate magic talent of Cordelia Chase.

‘So I’ll show you.’

The reason why I didn’t choose the wizard path.

The proof that my current choice is the best.

Jude soared into the air at that time.

He used Hyper-Fast Thunderbolt again.

***

The warrior Cordelia’s sword cleaved the top of Cordelia’s head.

Her head should have split, and blood would have splattered, but nothing happened.

At the moment when the warrior Cordelia’s sword attack hit the head of Cordelia.

The warrior Cordelia realized it.

The Cordelia in front of her was a fake and not the real one.

When did she replace it?

No, how did she do it?

Fsssssh!

The illusion created by <Illusion> magic dissipated like smoke.

The warrior Cordelia turned around in a hurry, and found Cordelia crouching and smiling in the corner, in the place where the dagger was thrown first.

Cordelia was covered in cold sweat.

She was quite exhausted, and her breathing was also rough.

But she was clearly smiling.

She did not lose her smile as her slightly exposed teeth glistened.

The reason.

The reason why she was not afraid or scared.

‘As I thought, she’s not that good.’

The warrior Cordelia was only a warrior.

She wasted Cordelia’s talent.

The warrior Cordelia was also cool, but the wizard route suited her better.

If the warrior route was stronger, if training as a warrior was the path to becoming stronger…

“Why would I, a Cordelia fan, take the wizard route?”

Cordelia said in a whisper as she raised herself up. She continued her words as she faced the blue eyes of the warrior Cordelia who was watching her.

“I was hiding this to surprise Jude…”

Come to think of it, Jude is in another room and having a one-on-one fight right now.

He probably won’t be able to even see this fight.

So I’ll show you.

What Cordelia who chose the wizard path can do!

Tak.

One step.

But the moment she took that one step, the scenery of the stone chamber changed.

Smoke appeared like an explosion as a fierce wind blew it and filled the stone chamber, and the warrior Cordelia raised her senses instead of moving prematurely. She strengthened the grip on her sword in order to immediately respond to whatever the other would do.

So the real Cordelia smiled.

Because it was what she had thought the warrior Cordelia would do.

The warrior Cordelia seemed to be on guard instead of moving.

Then the smoke was lifted.

The warrior Cordelia unconsciously turned pale at the sight that was revealed to her.

“Shadow Clone.”

The Cordelias who filled the stone chamber all said at the same time.

Thirty shadow clones.

No, forty shadow clones.

In any case, it was a number that could be described as in the dozens.

The dozens of shadow clones created by high-speed chanting and Spell’s Echo all smiled at the same time. They then charged towards the warrior Cordelia.

“Rooooooar!”

The warrior Cordelia roared like a lion and swung her sword in succession, slashing and cutting down the dozens of illusions.

Then the warrior Cordelia realized.

The real one was not among the rushing crowd.

She thought she couldn’t tell apart the real one because all the illusions that rushed at her looked the same, but that wasn’t it.

In the first place, all of them were fake so it was impossible to detect who the real one was.

“Khooooong!”

The warrior Cordelia wildly swung her sword once again.

She split at once the powerless waves of illusions that charged at her.

And right after that.

The warrior Cordelia realized a new fact.

What the other was planning in the time she was distracted and tried to get rid of the dozens of illusions.

‘Buying time.’

The illusions were simply just a diversion.

The mana and effort involved in the creation of the shadow clones were clearly not small, but Cordelia managed to do it anyway.

Because she had to completely divert the warrior Cordelia’s attention.

Because she needed time to prepare for the perfect shot.

Above the sky.

The sky above the stone chamber that did not have a ceiling.

The warrior Cordelia stared up the sky in a cold sweat, while the real Cordelia charmingly smiled. It was quite strenuous that she felt like dying, but she still brightly smiled and said with a pale face.

“A hundred magic missile shots.”

There was strength in numbers.

The warrior Cordelia screamed and dashed towards Cordelia, but the magic missiles were faster.

Dozens of magic missiles shot down from the sky like a bombing attack.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Babababababang!

The rain of magic missiles were created by high-speed chanting, <Double Casting>, and Spell’s Echo.

Each one of it was weak.

But there were a lot of it, and Cordelia’s combat sense and spatial perception that was on a level of genius made it possible for her to manipulate each magic missile as naturally as breathing – something that seemed to be impossible.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

It wasn’t just a random bombing attack.

The rain of magic missiles persistently aimed at a spot, hitting the same place again and again.

And another more added to it.

The skill that Cordelia gained because she walked the witch’s path now!

“Don’t move!”

She used her <Evil Eye> to paralyze the other.

The warrior Cordelia froze when she met eyes with the real Cordelia, and the magic missiles continued to rain over her defenseless body.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The explosions continued.

Which was followed by a sword attack!

Slaaaaaash!

The warrior Cordelia slashed the magic missiles.

The <Evil Eye> magic was dispelled with the power of her Angel Mode, and a space was created when she expanded her wings of light and moved her sword freely as she cut the surrounding area around her in an instant.

“F*ck.”

The warrior Cordelia was indeed Cordelia.

A combat genius!

Bang!

The warrior Cordelia kicked the ground again. As her angel wings of light spread out, her speed became so fast that it was difficult to follow her movement with just the eyes.

So Cordelia left everything to her senses. She felt it instead of seeing with her eyes, and she moved her body to evade the sword of the warrior Cordelia.

Slaash!

The sword grazed Cordelia’s shoulder. Red blood spurted out, but Cordelia used one of the attack techniques of the Bayer family.

Because the present Cordelia was not just a wizard.

Because she was a fighting wizard with ferocious power, having been created from the addition of her past life memories as Yellow Storm!

Baaang!

A thunderbolt struck.

It wasn’t lightning.

It wasn’t <Lightning> magic either.

Lightning Punch.

The seven quick strikes like a thunderbolt hit the warrior Cordelia.

Obviously, not all of her strikes hit. The warrior Cordelia also possessed the same beast-like instincts.

But that was enough.

Cordelia chanted the magic at the moment of the final blow.

It became possible because the present Cordelia was born with genius magic senses.

“<Gravity Pull!>”

Gravity magic.

The body of the warrior Cordelia was bent at that moment.

She could quickly dispel the <Gravity Pull> if she unleashed the power of her Angel Mode and spread out her wings of light, but it took time to do that.

So in that time.

There were a lot of things the real Cordelia could do at that time!

Booom!

The force of the gravity magic became more than three times stronger in an instant, and the warrior Cordelia fell to the floor as if she was almost slammed into it.

What the real Cordelia had been hiding.

What she had thought of hiding in order to surprise Jude.

Cordelia’s hair turned black as it fluttered everywhere.

With red eyes instead of blue, she looked down at the warrior Cordelia who was stuck in the ground.

It wasn’t just a witch transformation.

The pitch-black wings that spread behind her back proved it.

The combination of an angel and a witch.

A choice she made because she walked the path of a wizard.

What will Jude say if he saw this sight now?

How will he react if a cute, pretty, and lovely girl becomes sexy?

‘No, what am I thinking now?’

Cordelia bitterly smiled at her own thoughts, and she looked down at the warrior Cordelia again.

She gathered all of her mana in order to finish everything within one blow.

Her mana was explosively reinforced by her Fallen Angel Mode.

Added on to it was Arkeman’s treasure that amplified all kinds of magic.

Naturally, there was a price.

Her mana consumption was incomparable to her usual mana consumption.

But for one shot.

If she bet everything in this one shot.

The warrior Cordelia glared at Cordelia with bloodshot eyes. She cried like an animal chained down by <Gravity Pull> which had frighteningly become stronger.

And Cordelia raised her left hand.

She made a spear of black lightning as she said.

“Cordelia is a wizard.”

This Cordelia fan can guarantee it, okay?

A charming smile spread on Cordelia’s face, and the spear of black lightning exploded as it struck its target.

It was her strongest blow that shook the entire stone chamber.