Infinite Mage [Remake]-Chapter 169: The Reversal of the Law (Part 6)

Guardrak soon found the place he was looking for.

It was a spot where the valley had sunk, creating a fissure. A crack just wide enough for one person to enter, with a beam of light streaming down through it.

Guardrak pointed to the center of the light and said,

"Look here."

The light was concentrated in that one spot. It looked like a fluffy snowflake, but upon closer inspection, you could see particles of light swirling around.

Shirone stared at it and scratched his head. How should he explain this? For light particles to naturally clump together like this was impossible under normal circumstances.

Of course, the Noor's thought the same.

Guardrak emphasized the peculiarity of the phenomenon as he cupped the light particles in his hands.

"Do you see how the light is concentrated only here?"

Shirone asked,

"Yes. But how is this possible?"

Guardrak explained,

"It's called 'essence.' The essence of light has settled here."

Shirone tilted his head,

"So... you're saying the essence is gathering the light?"

Guardrak shook his head,

"No. The light has lingered here for so long that the essence has settled. Essence can settle anywhere—in the wind, in water, even in thoughts. Of course, only if those thoughts remain unchanged for a long time."

Shirone thought it was similar to the concept of magic stones.

It was a phenomenon where a certain property, after being preserved for a very long time, materialized into a concept.

Guardrak continued,

"When essence settles in one place for a long time, it becomes a spirit. A spirit is... an essence with activity. It can even form contracts with humans. If you make a contract with a light spirit, you can draw on the power of light anytime, anywhere. But finding one is like plucking a star from the sky."

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Shirone pointed at the essence and asked,

"Then will this light become a spirit someday?"

Guardrak laughed,

"Haha, I suppose so. It might take a thousand years or so. As long as it doesn't disappear in the meantime."

A thousand years. That was far longer than the time given to humans. Perhaps the time it took for a property to become essence was similar. It made sense why finding a spirit was like plucking a star from the sky.

Guardrak said,

"Anyway, we can use this place to get to Noor's sanctuary. Everyone, gather here."

Shirone hesitated,

"The space is narrow. Shouldn't some of us go to the other side?"

Guardrak reassured him,

"It's fine. Come to think of it, the magic of the earthly kingdom doesn't have a wide radius. With the essence of light, we can expand the scale as much as we want. Like this."

Guardrak clenched the clump of light. His fist turned gold, and the light spread up to his shoulder.

It looked like his entire body would soon be covered in light.

The power of nature was infinite, so humans who borrowed that power could expand the scale as much as they wanted.

However, it seemed to take quite a bit of time.

After a while, when the light still hadn't passed his shoulder, a look of doubt crossed Guardrak's eyes.

"This is strange. Why is it taking so long? Usually, five minutes is enough."

Clove suggested,

"Master, could the essence of light have weakened?"

Guardrak shook his head,

"That is impossible. I did this just three days ago without any problems. For the essence's energy to change, it would take at least hundreds of years. Unless something is weakening the essence's energy."

Clove replied,

"But that is impossible. Only one law exists here. That is why we use it as a midway point."

From Clove's words, Guardrak realized something. It might be a delusion, but looking for another factor when the only answer was right there was an even greater delusion.

Guardrak muttered,

"Could it be...? But why?"

The essence of light began to shake. Then the ground, and finally the entire valley, trembled as if an earthquake had struck.

Shirone asked, alarmed,

"What is happening? What is wrong?"

Guardrak shouted,

"Get out of here! It is the Law Whirlwind Serpent! The essence is being disrupted!"

If the cliff collapsed, they would be crushed, so Shirone and his group hurriedly escaped through the valley's fissure.

From outside, they could see the entire area shaking. At this scale, it was clear that something powerful was nearby.

But no matter how much they looked around, they couldn't see anything resembling a serpent.

Rian cursed,

"Damn it! Where is it? Where's it coming from?"

Rian drew his great sword and stood in front of Shirone.

The mages also formed a formation and prepared for battle.

Tess focused her senses to scan the surroundings. The tremors on the left and right were different. The creature was circling around the right corner.

When the ground shook so violently that it was hard to stand, Tess finally sensed something was wrong. Her senses and reality didn't match. With tremors of this magnitude, the creature should have already appeared.

Shirone pointed in shock,

"There! Over there!"

On a rock three meters away, a small, white creature crouched on all fours.

No, could this even be called a creature?

It had no eyes, no nose, no mouth. Its shape resembled a salamander, but its surface was smooth, as if carved from jade.

They had never seen such a pure white creature in their lives.

Amy asked, confused,

"What is that? Is that the Whirlwind Serpent?"

Guardrak shouted,

"No, that's not it!"

Shirone reflexively stepped back. As his field of vision cleared, he finally saw it.

The shadow of the Whirlwind Serpent loomed over the valley. Unbelievably, it was large enough to cover the entire cliff.

Shirone looked back at the rock. The salamander-like creature's body was glowing intensely.

It was using the light from its body to amplify the shadow.

By the time he realized this, the shadow had already torn through the cliff and was flying toward them.

A curtain of darkness blocked their vision. The sheer size of it was beyond common sense, so they couldn't even process that they were under attack.

As Shirone and his group were enveloped in darkness, Guardrak, who had been watching from the fissure, shouted,

"Watch out!"

Shirone's light burst forth.

As the light spread, everyone realized that the sharp shadow claws had come within inches of them.

If they had been even a second slower, their flesh would have been torn apart.

Kyaaaaaa!

The Whirlwind Serpent, torn apart by the light, let out a scream.

It was likely a mechanism similar to Harvest. A creature without a mouth couldn't have vocal cords.

When they regained their senses, everyone saw the Whirlwind Serpent's shadow retreating like a storm cloud.

Blocking the first attack was a relief.

Most prey died from the Whirlwind Serpent's initial strike. Trapped in darkness, they couldn't even see the attack coming.

Amy wiped the cold sweat from her brow and asked,

"What the hell is that? Is it a creature or not? Is that salamander thing controlling it?"

Guardrak, who had emerged from the fissure, explained,

"No, the Whirlwind Serpent's true form is the shadow. There is no main body. What's on the rock is just an 'avatar' created by the Whirlwind Serpent's shadow."

Clove protested,

"How can that be? Shadows can't exist without a main body!"

Guardrak replied,

"I don't know either. We call this phenomenon the 'Reversal of the Law.' That thing is an extraterrestrial species. I don't know where it came from, but it's definitely not from a world we can imagine."

The Whirlwind Serpent hesitated to approach. It had never encountered humans who could emit light, so it was naturally cautious.

As the avatar's body glowed, the shadow grew larger. It was like a wild beast showing off in front of its prey.

Shirone realized something. Perhaps this place wasn't his grave after all.

"It's similar to a wild animal. In its original world, it might have been a common predator. Like a cat or a mouse. If it were an apex predator, it wouldn't act so defensively."

Kanya exclaimed,

"A cat? A mouse? Are you joking right now?"

Everyone had been thinking the same thing, but Kanya said it aloud. However, there was one other person who had realized the truth.

It was Canis.

He watched the Whirlwind Serpent's every move with awe.

'So it's true. A world where darkness rules over light.'

The Reversal of the Law. What was written in Arcane's note was true.

Canis said,

"Shirone's right. If this is truly a world where the rules are reversed, then all creatures exist as shadows. That means the Whirlwind Serpent isn't particularly strong. Of course, the situation is different here."

Guardrak examined the fissure in the valley.

As expected, the Whirlwind Serpent's law had weakened the essence of light.

In this state, escape was impossible.

But it wasn't time to give up. The light wave Shirone had shown earlier was powerful enough to make the Whirlwind Serpent retreat.

Guardrak warned,

"Hey, we've overcome the crisis but stay alert. Its weakness is light. That's why it doesn't move during the day. I don't know why the law has been disrupted, but if we use light magic, we have a chance."

Shirone recalled his battle with Harvest. What he had learned from that fight was that shock didn't matter to darkness. The key was the total amount of energy.

Shirone cast Photon Cannon, and eight photons were born in irregular positions on the left and right.

The eight flashes slammed into the Whirlwind Serpent. A terrible scream erupted.

Amy unleashed a Fireball. Since fire also had light, it should have an effect.

The Whirlwind Serpent's shadow caught fire.

But it was like an ant pinching an elephant's skin. Honestly, the shadow was so massive that it felt like cheating.

Canis couldn't even attempt his magic. He tried attacking with the power of darkness, but it was absorbed instead.

In battles between the same attributes, strength determined the winner.

If he couldn't control a darkness greater than the Whirlwind Serpent's, he would be the one devoured.

Shirone broke away from the group. If the serpent's curtain enveloped them again, it would be truly dangerous.

True to its name, the Whirlwind Serpent moved by spinning through space. When Shirone slammed a Photon Cannon into its side, it writhed in pain and chased after him.

As the Whirlwind Serpent sharply changed direction, its massive tail swung toward Amy and the others.

Clove screamed, clutching his head,

"Aaaaah! It's coming!"

Amy spread a Fire Mist. The smoke protected everyone, but it wasn't enough to burn the tail.

As the tail swept toward them like a broom, Amy added a Fire Wall.

The tail caught fire, but its trajectory didn't change.

Amy bit her lip and increased the firepower. She was determined to hold her ground, even if it killed her.

The tail, which had been flying toward Amy's torso, suddenly veered away and grazed her face. The Whirlwind Serpent, unable to endure the pain of the fire, had pulled back.

Amy shouted, without even catching her breath,

"Shirone!"

The Whirlwind Serpent opened its jaws and swallowed Shirone whole. At the same time, a burst of light exploded, tearing apart the serpent's face.

The rapid-fire Photon Cannon erupted.

Amy estimated it was firing at least two hundred shots per minute. Shirone, who had set the school's speed record in the speed gun test, could easily achieve that.

The firing speed increased even further. Then, it became a single flash of light, pushing the shadow against the opposite wall.

Shirone had removed the mass from the photons.

Without impact force, it couldn't tear the shadow apart, but the light slowly ate away at the serpent's body.

Clove exclaimed,

"What kind of magic is that? It's impossible! Something like that can't exist!"

It was good that their ally was winning, but Clove couldn't accept the reality unfolding before his eyes.

Kanya and Rena were equally bewildered.

Unlike the Mecha tribe, the Noor's could wield great power alone. But they had never seen anything like this, even in Heaven.

The sight of Shirone fighting the Whirlwind Serpent alone, which everyone feared, was awe-inspiring.

Most importantly, he was winning. Seeing the Whirlwind Serpent writhing against the wall sent shivers down their spines.

Shirone's light turned red.

The Photon Cannon shifted to photon output, and as the energy level increased further, it compressed into a single-wavelength laser.

The Whirlwind Serpent tried to push back the laser by restoring its shadow domain, but even that was scattered in a chain explosion.

Kyaaaaaa!

It was a fierce roar.

The Whirlwind Serpent was afraid.

In its original world, it had been a low-tier predator. Then, it had passed through a strange tunnel and entered Heaven 10,000 years ago.

In this place without natural enemies, evolution was impossible, and it had lived comfortably.

But now, that comfort was about to be shattered. By the insignificant humans it had torn apart for fun.