chapter_0185

“Cough, cough!”

My suppressed lungs started working again, and I coughed. I got up, wobbling. Even though I had defended myself, my whole body ached as if I had received a very intense massage for several hours.

Aria was grinning from a distance, as if everything was going according to her plan. It was a smile that suggested that things were going her way. It was natural, as she had flown away as soon as she felt something was complete.

“What do you think?”

“I don’t know what you did, but I know you did something crazy.”

“How can you not know what I did? Are you joking? Can’t you tell just by looking at this?”

Yellow flames with orange streaks appeared in Aria’s hand. She lightly moved her arm and shot the flames at the nearby bushes. The fireball hit the bushes and exploded with light and heat, causing an explosion the size of a building.

“……?”

The bushes were intact. Despite the impact, which seemed like it should have burned everything in its path, they were completely unharmed. It was as if nothing had happened.

Come to think of it, I hadn’t heard any sound from that explosion, which should have been of that magnitude. It wasn’t as if she had used a sound-blocking magic along with it.

‘The wind……?’

I hadn’t felt the wind for some time. The clouds in the sky didn’t move, and the ground near Aria was half-destroyed and frozen in mid-air. So was Leona, sitting on the ground with my clothes on, far away.

“I’ll ask again, Mr. Mira. What do you think?”

“……Is this the world you were in? Did it stop because there was no one to read it?”

“Correct. You figured it out, as expected.”

Aria clapped her hands with a bright smile.

“I’ve been living alone in this world for over a thousand years. It was a long, difficult, and lonely time. Don’t you feel a little of what I felt? How lonely and how hard it was?”

Instead of answering, I aimed Eternity at her. Aria looked at me, not understanding why I was doing this.

“You still want to fight me even after seeing how I’ve lived? You know what I’ve been through, don’t you? Mr. Mira, you’re being really cold.”

“Why shouldn’t I fight you?”

“Because I succeeded in my gamble. I almost died with my body going ‘bang!’ and bursting, but…… I succeeded. As you can see. I don’t really recommend fighting me right now. I don’t want to fight you either. It’s pointless, and we’ll just get hurt.”

A magic circle appeared next to Aria.

“They say seeing is believing, so I’ll show you.”

As she spoke, purple lightning flashed. It was a simple lightning spell. I tried to respond with a barrier, but hesitated.

‘Magic……’

For some reason, magic wasn’t working. I didn’t have time to think about why, and as I raised Eternity, I was already too late to perfectly block it.

I felt a strong pain in my abdomen. Electricity flowed through my body, and my muscles stiffened momentarily. My feet floated in the air, and my body was pushed back.

I tried to stop by planting Eternity into the ground, but the blade only scraped the ground without any feeling. The blade made no sound as it scraped against the ground.

In this strangely quiet world, I barely managed to stop by moving the blade with numb muscles. Saliva came out of my mouth, and my fingertips tingled. The lightning-struck abdomen was the same.

‘Is healing magic the same?’

Just like defensive magic, healing magic wasn’t working either. I slowly clenched and unclenched my fists, flexing my arms. Aria approached me with a smile on her face.

“It won’t work. I’ve added a special feature. You can’t use the magic of the world you were in. Why? Because this is a different novel world. No matter how much the same author reuses settings, it’s abnormal to bring magic from another world and use it freely, isn’t it?”

Now I understood why such a thing had happened. The defensive magic I had used was from the first world, and the healing magic was the same.

I changed my strategy. If I couldn’t use the magic of this world, I would have to fight in a slightly different way.

‘Could it be that the Holy Lance is also…… no, that can’t be it. I couldn’t use it first.’

For a moment, I thought that maybe I couldn’t use the Holy Lance for the same reason, but I quickly dismissed the thought. Aria had succeeded in her gamble before I couldn’t use the lance.

“Mr. Mira. My thoughts haven’t changed.”

A complex pattern appeared on Aria’s left hand, forming a magic circle for a wide-area annihilation spell. Aria grinned and smashed the almost-completed magic circle, then smiled.

“I’ll forgive you for trying to kill me. It hurt a lot, but. We can start over now. From the beginning, as if nothing happened. I won’t let anyone else in, but I’ll let you in, Mr. Mira. Surely you’re not going to fight me without healing magic, are you?”

“I can do it, and, I have similar thoughts to you, so why don’t you give up? I haven’t changed my mind yet.”

“Hmm…… maybe I should have left you alone for a thousand years. You’re stubborn. Well, that’s why we’re destined to be together, aren’t we?”

“Being locked up like this won’t change my mind. You’re the same, aren’t you?”

“Ah, I understand. So, if I give you the same amount of pain as the pain that would make you change your mind, Mr. Mira, will you change your mind? Why didn’t you say that earlier? We almost wasted time.”

That’s how you interpret it. I was speechless.

While I was bewildered, the outline of a sword appeared in Aria’s right hand. I had never seen Aria wield a sword before, so this was probably the first time she had drawn it.

-……”

I stiffened at the sight of the sword. It was a weapon that looked more like a pointed wooden block than a sword, with dozens of sharp blades protruding from it.

It was the sword used by the Demon Lord of the first world.

I felt a surge of negative emotions as I saw the sword, which emitted an ominous aura just like in my memory. It was because my body remembered how desperately I had struggled to get rid of it.

“Are you ready to face the past, Mr. Mira?”

“Useless talk.”

“You’re not accepting it. I’m sad.”

Despite saying she was sad, Aria kept smiling as she held the Demon Sword upside down.

The tip of the sword slammed into the ground. A crimson shockwave erupted. If time hadn’t stopped, that single action would have created a crater dozens of meters deep.

The shockwave spread out in a circle, then soared into the air and merged into a huge tidal wave that rushed towards me.

I tried to summon the Holy Lance, but I still couldn’t grasp it. I would have to use a different method.

My body moved naturally and gracefully. I stepped forward with my left foot, turned my body halfway, and drew Eternity horizontally. I didn’t swing or slash the sword, but wrote with it lightly.

A light blue crescent moon appeared along the path of Eternity. The horizontal crescent moon collided with the crimson tidal wave head-on.

“……”

It was strange that no sound was heard, even though the crescent moon was literally grinding the shockwave, for just a moment.

I continued my movements. This time, I stepped forward with my right foot in front of my left, and pushed Eternity into the remaining half of the space. The crescent moon grew larger and soon became a half-moon, then a full moon.

The moon rose.

The crimson smoke billowed from the collision between the full moon and the shockwave.

It wouldn’t take long for both sides to be annihilated. Aria was surprised that her Demon Sword attack had been blocked so easily, and she stared at me with wide eyes.

“Is that Demon Sword Magic? How did you do it? You can’t use the magic of that world.”

“Hmm. How did I do it?”

Demon Sword Magic was not strictly speaking magic. It was a technique that replaced the process of drawing a magic circle and chanting a spell with sword techniques.

So, as long as you changed the magic circle and spell to those of this world, you could use it as much as you wanted. The number of techniques was extremely limited, though.

“If you don’t want to tell me, I can’t help it. Anyway, you’re amazing, Mr. Mira.”

Aria clapped, but the applause was far from sincere.

“Your reaction is ambiguous for someone who tried to kill me.”

“Huh? Kill? Me? You?”

Aria tilted her head.

“Why?”

“Are you trying to say that you didn’t intend to kill me, even though you didn’t know if I could block it?”

“Of course. You’re not the kind of person who would die from that, Mr. Mira.”

“……”

I didn’t know if I should take it as he trusted me or if there was another explanation. Either way, it was clear that he wasn’t in his right mind.

“But this is still not enough. It seems there’s a limit to using only fragmentary memories.”

Aria frowned as she tapped the Demon Sword and drew a magic circle. What kind of crazy stunt was she about to pull now?

“So, I’ll call someone who can use it better than you. I need to invest time in someone other than you, Mr. Mira.”

As always, she smiled, and the magic circle turned bright red. It was already an ominous sight. I gripped Eternity even tighter.

“……!!!!!!”

As soon as I saw the overflowing magic, my whole body stiffened.

If time had been flowing properly, the entire Academy grounds would have become a land of death just by its appearance, as the magic was so vicious and not of this world.

“How does it feel? Isn’t this more familiar than the Demon Sword?”

The Demon Lord of the first world. He was slowly walking out of the magic circle, his skin a deep crimson, with a pair of huge horns growing from his head, and a handsome face that could be called a bishounen if not for the horns. He looked around, his eyes narrowing.

His human-like body was the same. He fidgeted with his clothes, a human outfit, a suit, which looked awkward on him, and adjusted his attire.

“……”

I clutched Eternity so hard that my knuckles turned white. If I had the Holy Lance or could use the magic of the first world, I would have tried to fight him.

But that wasn’t the case now. I couldn’t use healing magic, the magic of that world, or even the Holy Lance. How was I supposed to fight and win against the Demon Lord?

‘……I should try it, but this is ridiculous.’

If I didn’t know his full power, I might have tried to be reckless. But I knew how much I had struggled and suffered to defeat him, so I couldn’t even think of it.

It was comforting that the atmosphere flowing from him was weaker than when I first met him in that world, but that was not enough. It seemed to be the same body, just with a little less magic flowing around him.

“Play with this guy, Mr. Mira. I’ve set it so he won’t kill you. Just get beaten up and captured, or surrender early if you want.”

Aria handed the Demon Sword to the Demon Lord and patted his shoulder. His face slowly turned towards Aria.

“Go on, fight him. Be careful not to kill him.”

“Annoying.”

“I have other things to do…… what did you just say?”

At that moment, Aria’s body flew at an unimaginable speed and crashed into a distant Academy building.

A crimson shockwave soared into the sky a beat later.