Chapter 72 – Ariel’s Past

Ariel’s Past

I pushed through the crowd and reached the front space where the platform was placed.
Behind the platform where he had been standing, it looked like an ordinary wall at first glance, but…

‘What a shallow trick.’
…When I dispelled the camouflage magic hanging on the wall, stairs leading underground were revealed.
I stepped into the ominous passage without even a faint point of light, illuminating the surroundings with light magic as I quickly moved forward.

‘How far does this go?’
Even chasing with acceleration magic, the distance wasn’t closing easily.
It’s surprising that there’s such a space under the abandoned building, but these stairs leading underground seem to continue endlessly.

“What’s this now?”
Just as fatigue was starting to accumulate in my legs, another firmly closed iron door appeared.
A sturdy iron door at a glance, with magic treatment on the surface.

Crunch.
…Of course, an iron door can’t block my way. I’m like a truck with a broken handle.
What’s visible behind the crumpled iron door is a huge cavern.
And the face of the guy I was chasing.

The man’s expression showed surprise at me crumpling the iron door like a piece of paper.
“This is absurd. To crumple a magically treated iron door like this. Aren’t you sorry for the humans who worked hard to make this door?”
“What about it?”

“Haha. How cold. Damn human.”
As I approached closer, he started backing away little by little.
When I illuminated the cavern with light magic, strange patterns densely engraved on the walls became visible.

‘What is this.’
Instinctively, I feel like I shouldn’t stay here for long. I need to finish this quickly and leave.
“Do you know? This place was supposedly prepared as a shelter during the war between humans and demons long ago. By the way, I did this interior. Isn’t it wonderful? These patterns.”

I need to shut his mouth first. Every word he says is so precious, I can’t listen anymore.
I tried to subdue him by pressing down with my favorite gravity magic, but… I realized something strange had happened.
“Huh…?”

“Pfft. Don’t tell me you’re thinking something like—your mana isn’t moving as you wish?”
He smirked with an unpleasant smile.
‘What’s going on?’

…Frustratingly, as he said, my mana wasn’t moving according to my will.
It’s even difficult to gather the mana accumulated in my body.
He’s still smirking unpleasantly.

‘My magic power keeps getting absorbed… by those disgusting patterns.’
It seems the patterns densely filling the walls are acting as some kind of barrier… and there are certain types who can deploy such barriers.
A barrier of a strange form, different from ordinary magic barriers.

“You, are you a demon?”
“Haha. Who knows?”
“These unpleasant barriers are your demon specialty, aren’t they?”

To my question, he said with a sly smile,
“It was quite difficult. It was quite a lot to prepare by myself.”
His words meant that I had fallen nicely into a trap.

“…Did you know I would infiltrate the Truth Church?”
While throwing a question at him, pretending to be calm, I glanced at the entrance I had just come through.
The iron door is still crumpled. I might be able to escape through there if needed, but I doubt he’d just watch.

…The situation is not good at all. Maybe it would have been better to send Celestian priest here.
It’s not that there’s no way to break the barrier… but it’s a method I’m a bit reluctant to use, so I want to keep it as a last resort.

“You’re asking if I knew you would come here? Of course. Because you wouldn’t just pass by when hearing about the truth of magic. I’ve been watching since you and that priest were pretending to be funny beggars.”
“What do you mean by that?”

What the hell is this bastard, no, this guy talking about? Why wouldn’t I pass by when hearing about the truth of magic? I’m not a scholar in a magic tower.
Only those magic tower guys who do magic research all day get excited about such things.

“Hm? Wasn’t that it? Erdas-nim… no, Erdas said you would react if it was you…”
Seeing my reaction, he continued as if it was unexpected.
“The Truth Tower where you were. Isn’t it exactly the same ideology you pursued there?”

What the hell is this bastard blabbering about now?
“Don’t you recall anything when hearing the name Erdas?”
“What…?”

“Experiment Subject Ward 16, Room 212. Proceeding with experiments on Ariel.”
“This experiment will overload the mana circuits, drastically shortening spell casting time. All other subjects have failed, but… I have a feeling this subject might be different.”
“My goodness. I thought it had failed when the subject’s life signs briefly disappeared… but I can’t believe it.”

“There’s no doubt. This child can become a god of magic.”
“—Everything is for the truth of magic.”
The moment I heard his words, what came to mind were memories I had barely hidden away in the depths of my memory.

‘Where is this….’
The goddess reincarnated me into the body of a girl named Ariel.
Before I could even wonder why she reincarnated me into another world when I had only died from being stabbed by a friend…

“My goodness. I thought it had failed when the subject’s life signs briefly disappeared… but I can’t believe it.”
…What overwhelmed me was pain as if my entire body was being torn apart. A pain incomparable to being stabbed by a knife.
“Kyaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!”

A scream flowing from the depths of my soul.
I wanted to end my life immediately to be free from the pain, but my tightly bound limbs didn’t even allow that.
Don’t they say that when pain reaches a certain threshold, endorphins are secreted in the brain to alleviate the pain?

“Pl-Please. Kill me…”
It’s a blatant lie. Or else, it wouldn’t be this painful.
I still can’t forget the sensation of knowledge being forcibly crammed into my brain.

On the day when a vast amount of magic knowledge was shoved into my head, I looked like a madwoman drooling for days.
Of course, the experiments continued even then.
They called themselves those approaching the truth. The so-called Tower of Truth.

“Initiating experiment on Subject Ward 16, Room 212. Ariel.”
Their eyes are always tinged with madness. Chilling eyes that don’t see people as people.
When I lost consciousness after writhing in pain, I would always wake up to cold walls and iron bars greeting me.

“Success…! This subject can become a god of magic!”
Later, when I reached the level of an archmage in just three months, they called me a success.

—–

“Hey. What if that subject tries to escape?”
“Don’t worry. The first thing we do to experimental subjects brought into our tower is have Erdas-nim personally erase their personalities with magic. That subject is no different from a doll that only responds to stimuli.”
“Well, Erdas-nim is the best in that field after all.”

‘What bullshit.’
Perhaps the original owner of this body, the girl named Ariel, had indeed fallen into a doll-like state as they said before I possessed it.
But I wasn’t a doll. I was still alive. With the sole intention of one day embedding a fireball in their heads.

On one day as I was constantly looking for an opportunity, the experimenter in charge of me released the restraints binding my body and said to me,
“Subject 212. This is the final test. We’ve received information that a hero party will be storming our Tower of Truth. Eliminate them.”

Thanks to my obediently following their orders until now and lowering their guard, the man in front of me thought I had completely become a puppet following his words.
‘Stay calm.’

Without even time to feel joy at the release of the restraints that had bound me so tiresomely, I began to remove one by one the dozens of self-destruct formulas they had engraved on my body as a safety measure.
If I had made even the slightest mistake, the formulas would have activated in a chain reaction… but there was no way I would make a mistake.

How long had I been longing for this moment? I had long since finished deciphering the formulas engraved on my body.
“Why isn’t there any respon—Gyaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!”

After removing the last self-destruct formula, I immediately used gravity magic to tear off the limbs of the experimenter approaching me.
…I didn’t forget to use silence magic in case any sound might leak out.
“Im-Impossible. The self-destruct formulas…!”

Bewilderment and terror colored the face of the experimenter who was about to activate my self-destruct formulas.
Even with his limbs torn off, he tried to escape from this place, wriggling like an insect.
“…”

As I was admiring that sight, I created a small fireball in my hand.
“You, what are you trying to—Gyaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!”
My time with him wasn’t very long. Because there were many people waiting for me.

That day, I burned down the hell surrounding me.