KB1 - Chapter XV - Echidna Stern

Chapter XV:  Echidna Stern — Book 1: Heir of the Kingdom.


Even during his interminably long life, Echidna Stern’s first impression about the boy was particularly interesting and buffoonish:

Under the dim candlelight, the black-haired boy appeared to be quite rugged and awkward. His forehead was bleeding, his small face was full of blue and purple bruises, his neck had a strangled red mark, his trembling body wore ragged coarse linen, and on his leg there was a dagger tightly tied to it.

After hearing about my identity, his expression seemed overwhelmed, unable to know what to do. He was slightly nervous according to the heartbeat in his chest, but seemed to vaguely know the meaning of the word "magus". The air pressure within his body changed drastically, as he even breathed out some quite roily air.

However, his eyes were really something special.

Yes, those strange eyes, they weren’t filled with fear and strangeness, frustration and cautiousness, but full of - curiosity and excitement?

Even Thales himself was amazed by the thoughts he was having at that moment.

At the instant of hearing the word "Magus", after being surprised, he suddenly had an impulse from his heart to ask what exactly a magus was after all.

Is this some kind of occupational disease?

But after that moment, Thales saw from the side of his eyes three irregular spheres that were placed quietly in a dark corner, each ball as big as a person.

It wasn’t until Thales recognized that vaguely revealed inside the spheres were human hands and feet, the transmigrator’s face turned somewhat pale.

"I suppose you already know the Tiryns Brothers and Moria from the Brotherhood," the magus Echidna noticed his gaze and opened his mouth: “Very ambitious fellows, when they had just arrived, they came straight to the center of Red Lane Street."

"I have to say sorry though, I don’t have the habit to suffocate or forcefully press down people like Maurice. In fact, I prefer simpler methods."

Is it really simpler to pinch a living person into a ball? Thales silently and unpleasantly muttered in his mind.

"Come, child." Echidna smiled softly, his voice was particularly beautiful to listen to, elegant and gentle, "Come and see my chess board."

Thales swallowed a sip of saliva. He turned his head back, drove the image of a few spheres made of human flesh out of his brain, and quickly thought about his situation. Then, after seeing the blue energy ball projected by Echidna’s left hand, which resembled something like the 3D special effect (but he knew it was absolutely not the case), he decisively clear out from his brain the idea of “pulling out the dagger and stabbing the magus’ neck.”

According to the method he used when defending his essays in the previous life, Thales deliberately and systematically exhaled three breaths, then slowly walked up.

If this is a blessing then it’s not a curse; if this is really a curse, I can’t avoid it anyway.

Echidna smiled jolly and looked at the boy's seemingly matured behavior, waiting for him to approach the chess board. When he was just about to open his mouth, he was surprised to see the boy didn’t hesitate to pull out a chair, sat up, then frowned, seemingly dissatisfied with the view from the chair, so he moved the chair a little toward Echidna, and climbed up to sit down again.

"Eh, my legs are a bit sour." Thales smiled embarrassedly at Echidna and accidentally stretched the wound on his forehead, it was so painful that he had to utter a “hiss” noise.

"My fault."

Echidna interestingly turned his head, his right hand gently pointed toward Thales. The wound on Thales’ forehead felt like it was being pressed by something, and the blood no longer flowed out.

"This is - have you raised and stabilized a partial of air’s pressure?" Thales touched his forehead in amazement and found an invisible membrane that blocked his hand from touching the wound.

Echidna put away his smile and leisurely nodded.

“Yes, your tutor has taught you about the science of physic?”

"Eh, nope." Thales embarrassedly drop his hand, it seemed that Echidna regarded him as a child of some noble house or rich family.

Echidna nodded slightly and turned back to the chessboard on the table.

"Do you recognize this?"

Thales looked at the map on the table in detail.

"A board game with the Red Lane Street as its map - no, this is the map of the battle outside right now! The red side is the Blood Bottle, the black side is the Brotherhood!" Thales said in astonishment.

"Obviously."

The expressionless Echidna stretched out his right hand, two black pieces and a crystal piece flew up from a distance and were caught in his hands.

"This should be a seamless and flawless trap."

"In a short amount of time, I would have ensnared all the Brotherhood members from Maurice to Vicenza. They all should have died here."

"But things always go not according to people’s wills, don’t they."

The three chess pieces danced in the air like the birds, flying around on top of Thales’ head.

Magic, magic, just think of it as a magic show, Thales tried his best to calmly look at Echidna’s performance.

"First of all, the fellows that are my subordinates, each by each, every single one of them is more useless than the other. It is clear that they should have encircled Maurice and Vicenza first and tried to kill them at all costs. But they were frightened and evaded the strong enemies while using guerrilla tactic to cut off smaller forces instead, a typical case of harming the weak and fearing the strong."

"Secondly, I don't know whether it is the Brotherhood’s reinforcement or not. But I do know that the unexpected entry of this chess piece has disrupted my arrangement too early."

Along with Echidna’s emotionless narration, the chess pieces on top of Thales’ head suddenly fell down on the map one by one.

"This piece is your companion, who came all the way with you from the Undercity Districts. Its speed is quite scary, and once it faced Drano and Sebas, it simply knocked down their pieces, just like that. Until now Rolf can only chase behind its ass. And despite being the user of a tracking mystical power, Numenor also can’t even smell the dust behind its feet. I can only say I’m really glad that the Brotherhood still has such a skilled fighter."

From the air, a black swordsman fell into the map, and another red swordsman was placed there right after it, farther away, there was a red prime minister.

Thales knew that he was talking about Yara. He can only feel a drum beating in his heart, I hope she is safe, especially in the case of a red prime minister in the distance.

"This gap is really fatal, quite a lot of chess pieces has escaped from it although they are all only a bunch of miscellaneous fishes, but --" Echidna sighed. "Through them, the Black Street Brotherhood’s headquarter knew about the situation here one hour earlier than I expected - I can feel that Lanser and his men have taken control of the entrance."

"The rat cage - broken."

He bowed his head sullenly, full of regrets and sorrows. At that moment, Thales almost thought that he was a compassionate and soft-hearted priest from some divide temple, bemoaning the gods and pitying mankind.

But Echidna immediately raised his head, the sad expression disappeared without a trace. He gently waved his fingers and the two chess pieces in the air began to move again.

"This piece came from the other direction. I don't know which factions this fellow belongs to. The time it took to slaughter the Layton brother and sister is shorter than butchering two pigs. Since no one from the surrounding area can stop its advancement, I can only send Gaston, the man who was staying with me previously. And now, I don’t even have anyone to talk to."

Echidna said, seemingly having some dissatisfactions, the crystal knight in the air fell down and was placed next to a red royal guard.

"It’s probably a chess piece coming in from outside factions, either the aristocracy or the government – well, another unexpected accident."

Thales swallowed his saliva again.

"And finally, it's you, my little friend. Because no one is available, I can’t help but personally invite you."

Echidna looked askew at Thales, his eyes suddenly became sharp.

The last black paw on top of Thales’ head suddenly fell to the center of the map.

Next to a crimson king.

Thales got unrestrainedly more nervous.

"Tell me, what is your origin?"

Echidna leaned back on the chair, and the expression on his face was difficult to distinguish.

“Why do the Brotherhood’s people send you all the way to the center of Red Lane Street?”

"Are you some terrifying weapon? Send to assassinate me?"

"Or you have important information and parcels needed to be handed over to other chess pieces?"

"I hope that you can answer me voluntarily and amicably, instead of shouting 'Magus must die' and rush over here - to be honest, that is purely suicidal."

Echidna looked at him quietly, his eyes full of sincerity.

Compared to the kind of sincerity in Rick’s eyes, which obviously has ulterior motives, the sincerity in the Echidna’s eyes is emotionless, as if he doesn’t care about the answer to this question.

Calm, Thales, calm yourself.

The transmigrator reminded to himself, constantly recalled in his brain a few essay presentations and discussions, about how to use language to lead the audience from something they know to the areas they’re unfamiliar with.

I am very good at this, right?

Thales takes a deep breath

“Mr. Echidna Stern, you mean, you can just sit here and know every single blade of grass in the entire Red Lane Street’s neighborhood?"

He must first collect intelligence.


“Not exactly,” Echidna replied carelessly: “I can know even the most subtle air conditions in the entire street, from the pressure changes inside to the air flow outside of the body, in other words – in Red Lane Street, the breathing of all living beings is under my supervision and command."

This is his power? As they say, he is indeed the Magus of Air huh? Thales secretly said in his mind.

No wonder the Brotherhood was beaten to such a miserable state.

"Then you will naturally know," Thales began to sort out his words and logic, looking for opportunities to survive in this battle of language:

"Along the way, my companion and I carefully avoided any confrontation and only fought if it’s absolutely necessary - regardless of being against the Brotherhood or the Blood Bottle."

"I think this can prove that we are not Brotherhood’s members, or at least not coming to fight for the Brotherhood tonight. And as we are not interested in the battlefield, we have no intention to be your enemy."

"Make sense." Echidna nodded, still having an emotionless expression, but his tone didn’t soften by any mean: "But you still ate my chess pieces. I don't care about the life of those miscellaneous fishes, what I care about is my plan and purpose have been interrupted – whether it’s intentional or unintentional, even a corrupted judge will not turn a blind eye to such a manslaughter crime, am I right?"

"Furthermore, you didn't answer my question - who are you? Why you’re so important?"

Hearing that, Thales quickly adjusted his words: "I am the enemy of the Brotherhood!"

Only this sentence made Echidna look up slightly.

Thales figured out the cause of the matter and determined to tell a part of the truth.

"I am just an ordinary beggar. I offended the high-level members of the Brotherhood and then fled. Since the Undercity District is full of their eyes and ears, only the Red Lane Street, the adjacent area next to the Blood Bottle Gang, is my chance!"

"But my companion and I didn't expect the gang war that happened tonight. So, inadvertently-"

"I apologize for our recklessness, and what I can do is - I mean, I will make compensation after I have the necessary ability."

"I believe that my future value is definitely worthy enough for you to spare my life today."

"I am destined to be an enemy of the Brotherhood, even if it’s weak and humble one, the enemy of the enemy is a friend, and the Blood Bottle doesn’t have to eliminate potential enemies for the Brotherhood, right?"

Echidna’s eyes narrowed.

Not bad eloquent skill for his age.

"That’s it?"

"That’s it."

Echidna was silent for a long time, the expression on his face vaguely resembled something like a jolly smile.

"There is no big oscillation in your body's air pressure. Your respiration is tense but steady, hmm, although you haven't said all the facts, you are not lying."

The magus shook his head with a bitter smile and said sincerely:

"So, your appearance, the interruption of my game – they all seem to be a coincidence."

"Alas, actually, I don't care about the chess pieces that were eaten by you. After all, those are only some small pieces. The so-called Twelve Strongest, the Thirteen Great Generals, the something mystical power warriors and Six Great Leaders, except for Vicenza, they are only beings at mortal-level or transcended-level."

"Even the Blood Bottle, it is just a quite big piece. Even if you disrupt my plan and get through my trap, I don't care much about that."

Echidna only showed a bitter smile on his face while looking at Thales.

"It’s just that I didn't expect my plan was destroyed by accident and coincidence."

"It makes me very depressed."

"Coincidence, accident – hah ha, I began to understand the source of Empress Black Magnolia’s power."

He’s really a bizarre and freakish man. Thales nervously watched the Magus of air and added a sentence in his mind.

"The world is truly amazing."

Echidna suddenly let out a hysterical laugh.

"Child, do you know? The birth of magicen is also purely an unexpected accident."

Thales’ heart began to accelerate, and from the magus with bizarre expression, he inexplicably sensed a danger!

"A very long time ago, there was only magic in this world, there was no magicen." Echidna’s face revealed a longing and complicated expression.

"The mages explored the truth of the universe, using various kinds of ingenious methods and wisdom, exploiting the resources and energy of this realm, all but to serve a better world."

"Until one day, a poorly qualified mage apprentice discovered by accident that his magic wasn’t very stable. It was just like, as if magic had a life of its own, it began to lose control, it began to rebel against its master!"

Thales was shocked to find that he actually began to float in the air!

He was flustered and wanted to grab the edge of the table, only to find that he was getting higher and higher, and his arm could not reach the table!

He quickly looked at Echidna, but found with fear that this time the magus's expression was full of pain and madness!

"Yes, that's how it all started! An unexpected accident caused by a mage apprentice!" Echidna mumbled frantically, and gently picked up the black pawn that had just fallen on the map.

Thales looked at the pawn and felt a chill in his heart: he knew what the magus wanted to do next.

"From instability, to complete loss of control, to being dominated by it, the world you are familiar with began to collapse, fear and panic began to strike you, no one can save you, except yourself!"

Thales painfully discovered that the air flow inside his body began to accelerate, while the air pressure outside began to change!

"No one knows what happened to him, only when he returned to this world again, people found that he is no longer a mage."

"No longer a human being, no longer a mortal."

"It was also in an unexpected accident, he unintentionally killed two gods."

"Just like unintentionally stepping on two ants."

Echidna’s words were extremely cold, he slowly turned his head and raised his lips.

You maniac!

Thales let go of the biting teeth and wanted to speak, only to find that the sound couldn’t get out of his throat!

"He is the first magus, and also the most powerful magus ever. The mages were afraid to discover that, comparing to him, their spells and curses were like children’s magic tricks and frauds’ swindles! The panicking gods found that their power and divinity that were once ‘all high and mighty’ became such a vulnerable, ridiculous joke!"

"The colorful but childish and ludicrous era of Mages ended there. The new Magus Masters stand on the sky, beyond the gods, and looked down on all living beings!"

Thales began to feel the pressure from all directions!

His limbs were squeezed close to his body while his whole body shrunk into a ball shape, floating in midair, horrifyingly.

It was like being stuffed into a washing machine in his previous life!

"Fear, of course, human beings will fear us! An uncontrolled, unrestrained power, but only a very small number of people can possess, how could they not fear!"

In midair, Thales felt that his whole body began to lose its strength, but he couldn’t help to notice that in Echidna’s tone, he had placed himself outside of mankind.

"So the war began."

Echidna gently stood up, the energy ball in his left hand was still spinning.

"However, probably because of unexpected accident."

"We lost."

Echidna lowered his head with a lonely expression, raised his right hand, didn’t even look at Thales in midair, and clenched his fist tightly.
“Boom!”

Thales's whole body joints began to creak, his eardrum seemed to be crushed by something, and all the blood in his body stirred up!

Is this "killing then laughing it off like something normal"?

Am I going to be squeezed to death?

Thales hopelessly thought as his mind wasn’t very clear at this time.

Just like pinching an ant?

The wound on his forehead that was sealed by Echidna suddenly spurt out blood.

So this is a magus?

It feels no different from a mystical power?

Before his death, Thales saw from the side of his eyes Echidna’s left hand where a blue ball of light continued to rotate, its inside seemed to turn into an infinite storm.

He suddenly felt that the burned wound caused by a silver coin on his chest began to get hotter, and the muscles inside his whole body seemed to start burning.

Getting hotter and hotter.

Burning more and more.

"So, we magi, and the magicen power, have become taboos."

Echidna said the last sentence, but he frowned slightly.

His last sentence should be accompanied by the death of the target.

Is my control falling? The magus didn't think much, just clenched his right fist again with no expression.

But at this moment, Thales, in an illustrious burning sensation, felt a bit of comfort, and the pain of being squeezed by the air seemed to have been reduced.

He found himself being able to talk again.

Thales opened his mouth and looked at the energy ball in Echidna’s hand.

I hate the most,

Those holding a ball to show off,

Bastards.

"Fuck you, magicen."

Thales heard himself say this.

Then, a heat came out of his body.

Echidna’s eyes showed amazement.

In the darkness of the chess room, suddenly appeared a red light seemingly coming from nowhere.

Echidna shockingly looked around, but then he found the source of red light and looked down at his left hand.

There, inside the sphere of blue light, a sight of red light revealed itself.

And started to erode the blue storm inside!

A tiny bit.

A point.

A line.

A side.

The red light spread.

Until all the entire energy ball was consumed.

"No! This is -- this is --" Echidna murmured, as if he was seeing the most extraordinary beauty.

The translucent energy ball on Echidna’s hand suddenly stopped rotating.

Then, the red energy ball disappeared from his left hand.

The Magus of air jerked his head up and looked at Thales in midair.

There, in front of Thales's right hand, the red energy ball was floating quietly.

Excitement arose in the eyes of Echidna.

"You are--"

However, before the magus could finish, for Thales, the world seemed to be shattered.

"BOOM!"

The energy ball suddenly blasted open!

Invisible energy was transmitted from its inside!

If you say that the cellar of the chess room is like a balloon, now it was like the balloon being blown from inside!

Doors and windows, glasses, chessboards, candles, were all blown up then crushed at the moment!

The house, from the girder to the column, suddenly exploded!

"BOOM!"

Echidna also seemed to be hammered by a huge force and flew back! Crashed into the wall!

Thales was also pushed by the huge force and slammed into the ceiling, while the wall of the ceiling was also blown up!

But the force that bound and squeezed him had disappeared.

Along with his consciousness.

——————————————————

Somewhere, on a street.

"BOOM!"

Maurice put down two Blood Bottle members that were suffocated by his ability and listened in surprise to the explosion next to his ear.

The extent of this explosion...

It is at least a battle of “Absolute Boundary”!

Is it Vicenza, he met the Magus of air?

The elites around him were also in doubt and astonishment.

"Boss!"

The assassin Lucas, who was covered in blood, swiftly rushed there from a distance. Trying to catch a breath, he had a mixed expression:

"The air wall -"

"The air wall has disappeared!"

End of chapter XV – Next chapter: Joel Gatos, at your service