Supreme Magus novel Chapter 3580

With his life on the line and Thrud’s minions hunting him down like a priceless treasure, Phillard studied magic like never before and his brain helped him along the way. Nightmares of his head mounted on Thrud’s wall and the reports of the tragic end of her victims fueled him with endless willpower.

He learned Spirit Magic at an astounding speed that reinforced the trust and confidence the Lindwurm bloodline had in his abilities.

By the end of the war, Phillard’s contributions were so great that the Kingdom offered him a fief and a noble title. The Lindwurm proved smarter than Morok and turned the offer down, preferring gold over power accompanied by the invisible shackles of duty.

As a self-Awakened, he was freed from his apprenticeship as soon as peace returned. Surviving the conflict and mastering Spirit Magic in life-or-death battles were proof enough of the Lindwurm’s skill and wisdom.

Phillard had learned the importance of money the hard way and gotten too used to a warm house and good food to go back to living in the wilderness. He had used part of his gold to build the Twin Axes palace where he currently lived.

He had also become a mercenary at the service of Baron Crank Zaseer of Mirana. He liked the Divine Beast’s no-nonsense attitude, and the two had become good friends while fighting the same campaigns in the War of the Griffons.

The Hyperion considered Phillard a crazy but harmless buffoon and the Lindwurm returned the feeling in spades.

’Beasts understand each other and this idiot doesn’t annoy me with etiquette and formalities.’ The Lindwurm thought.

Being a mercenary worked wonders for Phillard. He could take missions from the Kingdom to amass merits and be dispensed from taxes or accept private missions from nobles and Awakened to fund his lavish lifestyle.

He was an accomplished killer who left no trace of his work behind, mostly because he always ate his victims’ mutilated remains.

Phillard’s name was well-known and respected in the black market and among the mercenary guilds. There was never a shortage of work for him and he could afford to be picky when choosing his next assignment.

"Really?" Phillard’s eyes narrowed as he heard an offer that was too good to be true. "All this money to capture a magicless human woman?"

"Yes." Sigmur Blackhand, a broker of the black market, answered a bit too quickly for the Lindwurm’s taste. "But she’s worth every gold coin. The difficulty of this mission doesn’t lie in her abilities but in those of her protectors.

"If you can take her alive, that sum will be just your advance payment. The client is willing to pay you with two powerful Adamant enchanted axes for your services. Here’s the mark’s full file."

The black market dealt only in ink and paper, making their documents easy to destroy and impossible to crack through the communication amulet network. After all, no one was stupid enough to think the Royals wouldn’t put a few safeguards in the communicator’s standard blueprints.

Phillard looked at the details of the woman’s protection detail and immediately assessed the payment was far from generous. He was about to demand way more when he flipped the page and looked at the picture of his mark.

The Lindwurm shook his head, rubbed his eyes, and then slapped himself a few times, confirming beyond all reasonable doubt he wasn’t dreaming.

"Elina Verhen? You want me to kidnap Elina Verhen?" Phillard remembered her from the days he had spent protecting Lith’s family from the shadows in exchange for dimensional magic lessons and two enchanted axes.

Lith had scammed the Lindwurm back then, and Phillard had sworn revenge after discovering the youth had imbued the weapons only with the most basic enchantments.

"I won’t be anyone’s fall guy ever again."

"This goes against the rules of the black market." Sigmur objected. "Anonymity is key to protect the client in case of failure. You are the one getting paid. Either you accept the terms of the deal as they are or nothing."

"Rules?" The Lindwurm sneered. "There has never been a Supreme Magus before. I doubt there is any rule about dealing with him. And how many times has the black market brokered a mission against a Divine Beast?

"No names, just give me a number."

Sigmur remained silent.

No one had ever accepted a mission against a Magus, let alone a Supreme Magus. A few clients had commissioned things like stealing a Divine Beast’s egg or a specific treasure, but no mercenary had ever accepted them either.

"See?" Phillard’s maw curled into an amiable smile. "We are breaking new grounds and this kind of thing requires more flexibility. I can’t trust your client having my back if they are too scared to even show their face.

"Tell them I want a piece of Verhen as much as they do. If my word isn’t enough, they can find themselves another Awakened and we’ll never speak of this ever again. No harm, no foul."

"I’ll pass the message and let the client know." Sigmur replied.