The Great Mage Returns After 4000 Years (Web Novel KR)
chapter-416

There were certainly some things that he hadn’t known.

Lukas didn’t know that if he hadn’t stopped eating, he would have been destroyed. He didn’t know that he would be completely ruined.

His body had sent him countless warnings, both physical and mental.

Then why didn’t he stop eating?

Lukas slowly walked towards him.

He didn’t say anything, but the smile still hung on his lips. Of course, it wasn’t a friendly smile.

Lucid was poised to respond. But he was still thinking.

It was only then that he realised something. Lucid was also twisted, so it had taken him so long to notice.

His thoughts had been wrong from the start.

If it was the Lukas Trowman he knew, even if it was his own corpse, he wouldn’t have eaten it.

When that gap was all that was left, Lucid came to a trivial conclusion.

Probably even before he’d preyed on his own corpse.

Lukas must have been broken before then.

* * *

The distance shortened to two steps.

At that point, Lukas’ posture changed. He leaned forward and suddenly increased his speed. Between the two options, attack and defence, Lucid chose the former.

Buzz-

Deukid rushed towards Lukas’ face, a black streak trailing behind it. Naturally, at that moment, Lucid’s sword showed no mercy. It was full of piercing intent as it rushed towards the other person’s face. The advanced information that the opponent was an old friend and that he seemed to be out of his mind did not mean anything at that moment.

Puk!

There was the sound of flesh being pierced. But things didn’t turn out as Lucid expected. Originally, he’d planned to stab through Lukas’ left eyeball and into his brain, with the goal of killing him instantly. Of course, he also had a dozen other plans in case his stab didn’t go as planned, but Lukas’ choice exceeded his expectations.

He reached out with his right hand to accept Deukid. As a result, the black blade pierced through his palm.

“Ah. This really hurts.”

Just as he muttered those words, Lucid kicked him hard in the stomach. The boot of black armour was covered in dense black energy. Boom! With a loud explosion like the sound of something being fired from a cannon, Lukas was sent flying.

As he flew away, something flew towards Lucid*. (*: Author put Lukas here and I was very confused for a while.)

It was the spear. Without him realising it, Lukas pulled up the spear that had been stuck in the ground and threw it.

Of course, since he threw it from an unstable position, it didn’t have much power or speed behind it.

Clang!

He hit it away with Deukid… Hit it away? No. That wasn’t right. Lucid had swung his sword with the intention of destroying this shabby spear. In fact, it shouldn’t have been that difficult at all.

“Look look. The spear I made isn’t too bad either.”

[…]

The voice had come from behind him.

He looked ahead of him. The Lukas who had just been set flying while spitting blood was nowhere to be seen. He hadn’t lost sight of him, it was like he’d evaporated…

…It certainly was surprising to hear the voice from behind him. But Lucid wasn’t too bothered by it. His body moved before his head. He flipped Deukid over, held it in a reverse grip, then stabbed it behind him.

He felt his sword cut through the air.

‘He dodged it.’

For a moment, Lucid felt as if his body was floating. Lukas had grabbed him by the shoulders and lifted him up. In all honesty, at this point, Lucid couldn’t help but feel a little shocked.

That Lukas, who was using martial arts, was trying to get him to the ground.

—Of course, he couldn’t let him accomplish this unchallenged.

Lucid stretched out his left arm just before his back hit the ground. His gauntleted hand dug deep into the ground. Just as he clenched his fist after digging his arm in.

Boom!

The ground flipped with the sound of thunder. It wasn’t that big of an explosion. All he had done was detonate the black energy he’d condensed in his fist underground. But, of course, the power was great. The ground in about a 10 metre radius vanished in an instant.

In the process, Lucid looked carefully.

The fragments of the ground had become dull stones or sharp daggers that struck him all over. He’d realised it when he’d hit him with Deukid, his body didn’t seem to be that well trained.

Even if the ground hadn’t been mixed with Lucid’s black energy, he would not have had any way to defend himself.

A short while later, Lukas’ body disappeared over the bushes.

“This reminds me of the old days.”

Then he heard a voice from behind him again.

Lukas was grinning as he stood there without a scratch.

“You were ruthless even in spars. Ah. Or is that also a mistake?”

He wasn’t. This time, he was correct.

Treating spars like real fights was one of Lucid’s mottos.

However, Lucid didn’t comment on what he said.

“It’s like that now. Every attack is loaded with killing energy. You really have no hesitation to kill me.”

[Because that is my role.]

“That’s a boring role… Ah. It seems my head has cleared up a bit.”

As he muttered, Lukas grabbed the spear. Even while looking at him, Lucid’s thoughts didn’t stop.

…He’d killed him.

He’d killed him twice.

When his boot had kicked Lukas in his stomach, his black energy had corroded Lukas’ entire body. It was no different from him directly accepting the energy of death.

The only thing Lukas could do with his final bit of strength threw the spear.

Nevertheless, he’d appeared behind him in perfect condition. Then, when he tried to use martial arts, the debris from the ground turned Lukas’ entire body into a rag. Lukas had flown into the bushes after suffering great damage to his vital points.

And again, he had appeared behind him without a scratch.

What the hell kind of trick was he using?

No. Before that.

Why hadn’t he used a single spell yet?

Magic was the power that symbolised that man named Lukas Trowman and it was his main focus. It was the weapon he was most confident in, and there was a possibility that he would be able to threaten the current him.

There was no way he wouldn’t be aware of that fact, so why hadn’t he shown any signs of using magic?

Taht.

Lukas narrowed the distance between them and stabbed forward with the spear. It was just like before. Once again, he was choosing close combat, and this time, it was spearmanship.

The spear swayed wildly and the tip of the spear began to vibrate. Although the principle of deception was simple in that it obscured the path of attack, it was difficult to practise and even more difficult to apply in real combat situations.

It was a technique that was too excessive to use with such a weak body, but it only felt like a trick to Lucid.

With definite power, his sword rose up from below in a rising cut. This time, Deukid really cut the spear. But Lukas grabbed the other end of the severed spear, then swung the spear, which had been cut in two, like dual swords.

Ppapapa!

There was a flurry of strikes, but the results were minimal. Such simple blows wouldn’t be able to penetrate Lucid’s black armour, not to mention the black energy surrounding it.

Sama Ryeong. If it wasn’t at least as good as the attacks of the Swordsman he had just fought, it would be impossible to deal significant damage to Lucid.

Lukas had to be aware of that.

‘He must have a target.’

He was not a man who fought without meaning or purpose. Of course, this fighting style was also not something that Lukas would adopt.

The means that Lukas was using now… it was frivolous. His attitude was the same. He knew he was a much more serious man than this.

If there was anything he was aiming for in this state…

Puk.

This time, the sword pierced through his chin. There was a soft sensation. Without any resistance, the blade pierced through the soft meat under his tongue before continuing to his brain.

Gurgle.

In an instant, blood poured from Lukas’ face. It had been the most obvious attack. It wasn’t a fatal injury, it was an attack that instantly killed the opponent.

However, it wasn’t enough.

Lukas withdrew his sword and stabbed it into his chest this time. Deukid cut through his flesh and bone before accurately piercing his heart.

[…]

Through the sword, he felt the beating heart slowly stop beating. The ending of life signs. He experienced a lot of sensations that pointed to death.

He pulled Deukid out. The wound hole was not very wide. After he withdrew his sword, it was small enough to be mistaken as a stain in his clothes. Blood gushed out of the stain.

Lukas’ body slowly leaned towards him, but Lucid refused to catch it.

Plop-

The corpse fell to the ground and the blood began to soak the ground below.

—Lucid,

Hadn’t let his guard down.

Of course, his keen senses that told him Lukas was dead were not mistaken, but the world had not yet disappeared.

He hadn’t let his guard down.

And yet, without him realising it, his arm was torn off. (TL: *Fangirling*)

And a few steps away, Lukas was smiling at him.

“Look Lucid, you bled. While undead.”

The blood wasn’t dripping, but there was clearly blood on the torn flesh. It was very red. This made him curious. Lukas had watched Lucid’s head get cut off.

There hadn’t been any blood at that time.

But now, there was blood, and it was clear and bright. He didn’t know why, but he didn’t really care.

That was because there was a fragrant smell.

He knew. This was probably a delusion. However, this delusion excited Lukas. He licked some of the blood on the arm. First, he rolled it gently over the tip of his tongue before swallowing it slowly. He had a cautious attitude as if he was tasting fine aged wine. (TL: Oof, if Lukas remains like this forever… *melts*)

Suddenly, Lukas’ body began to tremble.

This couldn’t be called the blood of the dead. That taste…

“Ahh…”

A small sigh of ecstasy leaked out.

It was no different from the best fine wines. At least that was what Lukas felt at that moment.

It was also easy for him to guess the reason.

Everything he’d eaten in the dump site was, in a sense, corpses. There was no way that rotting corpses mixed with other kinds of waste would be delicious.

But Lucid was different.

Even if his heart didn’t beat, his skin was pale, and his internal organs didn’t exist.

For Lucid, there was a crucial difference between him and the corpse in the dump site.

Lucid was moving.

That alone created such a difference in flavour.

‘Pale.’

He suddenly remembered the scene where he’d watched her devour a corpse. He didn’t understand it at that time. He’d even felt disgusted.

However, now, he envied her.

Ahhh. If even the flesh and blood of an undead were so addictive, then how amazing would the flesh of a fresh corpse taste, or even the flesh of a being that was still alive?

Turning slowly, he looked at Lucid.

Then, a bloody smile stretched across Lukas’ lips.

“Hey, Lucid. There’s something I’d like to ask you, for old time’s sake.”

The moment he heard the next words, Lucid could no longer consider the being in front of him as Lukas.

“Can I eat some of you?”

(TL: Unhinged Lukas T^T Subarashii!! I hope he becomes a connoisseur in search of the supreme flavour. Perhaps taking a bite or two out of the king as well.)