Chapter 34. Cold Reading (3)
……What just happened?
Persona stared with blank eyes at the pool of fresh blood gushing from her slit-open stomach.
Her thoughts simply couldn't keep up with the series of events that had occurred so suddenly.
Her arms and legs had been completely severed dozens of tis, her neck torn by a sword blade.
The pain of that repeated death filled her head.
To the point where any kind of thought was impossible.
An inner world whose completeness her own Unique Magic couldn't even touch.
Senses as vivid as the real world, despite it being soone else's inner world.
Even the identity of this swordsman who cut her down countless tis.
Persona couldn't understand any of it.
‘Why? How did it end up like this?’
It was the first ti she had ever felt so powerless.
Her mind was already bleached white from the pain of death repeated nurous tis.
A desire to truly die and find peace, rather than continue experiencing this agony, dominated Persona's mind.
“How about it.”
Enoch crouched down beside her, lying there bleeding, and asked Persona.
“Feel like talking now?”
Enoch gazed intently at Persona, whose entire body had been brutally slashed by the Sword Saint's attacks.
Even for Enoch, who had experienced that hundreds, thousands of tis routinely, the sensation of death was still horrific.
If he hadn't possessed the original Enoch's ntal fortitude from the start, he might have lost his sanity thousands of tis over.
Persona, experiencing it for the first ti, and consecutively at that, must truly feel like death.
Swish.
anwhile, the Sword Saint looked down at the weakened Persona for a mont, then glanced back this way.
Enoch gave him a slight nod.
With that, his silhouette flickered and disappeared.
He'd only ever died endlessly at that guy's hands, so he hadn't known for sure, but perhaps they could communicate their intentions to each other in this world.
Anyway, that wasn't important right now……
‘Any more of this, and she'd really beco a wreck.’
Enoch looked down at Persona’s expression, her focus already lost and vacant.
It seed the agony of nurous deaths packed into a short ti had already sufficiently broken her spirit.
Now was the right ti to hear the information he wanted. He asked her again, her eyes now hollow.
“What is the purpose of the Magical Beastification experint Tantalus is conducting?”
The Magical Beasts he created were the culprits who killed Enoch in the original work. Therefore, now that he had beco Enoch, he absolutely had to find out the fundantal purpose of the Magical Beastification experint.
“What are you trying to do with the Magical Beasts created like that.”
At the very least, he needed to figure out why the Magical Beastified subjects killed Enoch, so he could definitively avoid the deaths to co.
“…You wouldn’t understand anyway…”
Just as Enoch thought that far, Persona’s bloodied lips parted slightly.
She barely managed to speak through a voice choked with pain.
“Since you want it so badly, I’ll tell you. That person… intends to prevent the repetition of the past.”
“The past?”
“Yes. This Magical Beastification experint is also related to that.”
“Details.”
“…Verses from forbidden texts left by dark mages of the old generation Underworld. A past prophecy.”
Persona muttered quietly in a fading voice.
“「…What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again. Focusing the mind and gathering wisdom, I deeply studied and examined all things in this world….」”
The mont Enoch paused at the appearance of such completely random sentences.
He sensed a flow of mana glowing from Persona’s left hand.
Woong.
A small mana construct, deliberately hidden from him, its flow suppressed.
The mont Enoch spotted it, he instantly materialized his sword and stabbed her neck.
Pooosh
Fresh blood spurted in all directions.
However, Persona, gasping but clinging to consciousness, gripped that fragnt with her last strength and slashed the space of the inner world.
Instantly, the olive-green mana transford into the shape of sharp glass shards, creating a small fissure in Enoch’s inner world.
“Kuk…!”
The mont the sudden crack appeared, Enoch staggered briefly.
What she had torn was his own inner world. Since it wasn't just a re concept, the dizziness he felt was naturally real.
It seed certain that the reason she had suddenly started spilling information was precisely to exploit this opening.
Tap.
As if escaping from here imdiately was urgent, Persona touched the fissure she had created and quickly activated a magic circle.
Instantly, her form was engulfed in a dazzling cluster of olive-green light, then disappeared as a streak of mana light out of the inner world.
Enoch staggered, looking that way. A very small fissure had appeared in his inner world.
‘Damn, I need to deactivate the inner world…’
Persona’s mind had likely escaped back to the real world. He needed to hurry back as well.
From experience, his physical body would be defenseless while he was inside the inner world.
But just as he tried to deactivate his inner world.
Pale letters suddenly appeared.
? Warning: Abnormal fissure detected in the current 「World of Impermanence 」
? Notification: Automatic restoration of the 「World of Impermanence」 comncing….
? Recomndation: Maintain connection to the 「World of Impermanence」 until current restoration work is complete
‘World of Impermanence?’
Was that the original na of this inner world?
Enoch approached the fissure to check. Indeed, an unfamiliar light was leaking through the crack Persona had made in the inner world.
And that space was rapidly being restored by the surrounding darkness. But there was no ti to leisurely wait for it to be fully repaired.
‘There’s no ti.’
Enoch focused his mind again.
Persona might already be moving in reality to kill him.
The next mont, reacting to his will, other warning ssages appeared before his eyes.
? Notification: Caution! Deactivating 「World of Impermanence」 will cause status abnormalities until full restoration
? Warning: Risk of temporary influence by another's mana exists before completion of this task
***
“…Ugh.”
Persona staggered but stood up in the darkness of reality.
Her breathing was ragged, cold sweat flowed.
From the magic deployed in the world just monts ago, she instinctively felt mana depletion approaching.
She looked at Enoch, still collapsed before her.
‘Like a monster.’
Clearly, in the final mont, she had desperately squeezed out a large amount of mana to deploy her Unique Magic.
Normally, consuming this much mana. The opponent’s inner world would have collapsed long ago, with mana to spare.
But against that inner world, creating just a tiny opening for escape was all she could manage. Now she knew the reason why.
Persona muttered lowly.
“To think. That failure, the secluded direct descendant… was a manifester of Unique Mana.”
Only after escaping did she have the leisure to realize it was an inner world constructed with Unique Mana.
Only then did the strange parts start making sense, one by one.
His weapon.
At first, she thought it was just a unique magic gear shaped like a sword, but looking closer, there was no magic stone anywhere.
And until now, she hadn't detected even a hint of him trying to use magic.
Naturally.
‘Those who manifest Unique Mana cannot beco mages.’
Having concluded her thoughts, Persona looked down at the boy before her.
Enoch had already opened his eyes and was glaring this way, but he still seed unable to properly control his body.
Persona bit her lip against the pain of mana depletion but smiled slightly and said.
“Seems your body isn't moving well.”
Having created a fissure in his inner world, his ego, it was only natural.
However, while it was a blow that would have instantly collapsed the ego of an ordinary person, for that boy, it would likely amount to nothing more than a temporary paralysis.
A complete world constructed with Unique Mana quickly heals itself.
Because only those who have 'constructed their inner self with Unique Mana' through endless introspection can transform their ntal image into such a complete world.
It was originally the inviolable domain of one who had established a firm inner world through their own will.
It was by no ans a fragile world that others could permanently affect or interfere with.
‘…But that makes it even stranger. Why on earth is this kid…’
Manifesting Unique Mana and creating one's own inner world.
That was, in fact, the domain of talent, possible only for an extrely small minority.
-The supre state where a human reaches their own inner self.
Originally, interfering with such an overwhelmingly complete inner world with her clumsy Unique Magic should have been impossible.
Yet her final resistance had succeeded in creating a very small, but definite, crack in that world.
What could possibly be the reason for that absurd phenonon?
“…Ah, haha. So that’s what it was.”
Persona suddenly laughed, looking dumbfounded as if realizing sothing, despite staggering.
Once a certain idea crossed her mind, she finally began to understand Enoch's unbelievable situation little by little.
“You. You’re under so kind of ridiculous misunderstanding.”
She slowly opened her mouth, looking at Enoch who still couldn't control his body.
Soone's inner world established with Unique Mana, which should originally be impossible even to trespass upon. There could only be one reason why her existence not only entered that inviolable space but could even interfere with it.
“I really don’t know why it’s like that, but……”
Persona muttered, looking at Enoch.
“You… are not certain who you yourself are.”
She quietly mulled over that astonishing fact.
That was why she could enter this boy’s inner world.
He himself wasn't convinced that it was his own inner world.
‘I have no clue why that boy thinks that way…’
It had to be true.
That could be the only reason she was able to set foot in that flawless inner world.
She had seen the inner worlds of countless people until now.
But not only was this the first ti seeing a world actually constructed with Unique Mana, it was also the first ti seeing soone so confused about their own ego.
“But anyway…….”
Grip.
Persona slowly gripped Enoch’s neck.
She was close to mana depletion, so she couldn't recklessly use magic.
However, she could still kill the currently weakened boy before her with just this.
She gripped Enoch’s neck, choking the life out of him.
‘If left alone, this guy will grow towards an unknowable state.’
She knew because she had just seen the infinite world constructed with Unique Mana.
The existence of that world contained the certainty of Enoch’s potential.
‘A powerful existence that could change the entire fate of the Empire, incomparable to the existing Rank 1 mages. If left alive, this boy will soday beco sothing more than that.’
Thinking that far, Persona laughed lowly.
However, right now, the boy’s neck was in her grasp.
Variables always exist, and they determine the winner and loser. The survivor and the deceased.
The world originally works that way.
That's why she could laugh.
“Bla .”
Persona tightened her fingers wrapped around Enoch’s neck.
This boy was one who had reached the state of constructing his inner world with Unique Mana.
Even if it was a state possible only for a tiny minority, that didn't an he was immortal.
But the next mont,
─Kwaaaaang!
With the trace of a silver mana light streaking across once, the side partition wall between them shattered and collapsed.
Due to the debris and roar, Persona let go of Enoch’s neck and looked there.
From behind the falling fragnts of the partition wall, a maid with flowing silver-white hair erged.
Bright red fresh blood was spattered on the girl’s white cheeks and the apron of her maid uniform.
Swish.
She slowly walked out, glanced at Enoch’s condition, and quietly turned her gaze towards Persona.
“…….”
Silver-blue eyes shining clearly with faint anger in the darkness.
At that chillingly cold yet beautiful sight, Persona montarily held her breath and muttered.
“The Magical Beasts…?”
Suddenly, the scene inside the building partition she had destroyed ca into Persona’s view.
The flesh and limbs of all those nurous Magical Beasts had already been cleanly severed and scattered across the floor and walls.
‘All those elite-type Magical Beasts, easily numbering in the dozens…….’
The scene, with the interior walls and test tubes all stained with fresh blood, resembled a depiction of hell.
Persona bit her lip and glared at Lien. Sohow holding onto her dizzy thoughts from mana depletion, she quickly assessed the situation.
‘Unique magic gear and combat style. And skilled enough to kill all the Magical Beasts. A Rank 10 mage.’
But no matter how high above Rank 10, how could she overwhelm the Magical Beasts like that in such a short ti?
‘Their individual specs were certainly enough to easily handle a Rank 11 combat mage.’
Of course, she knew well that the difference between a mage who surpassed the Rank 10 wall and a Rank 11 was incomparably vast.
But for a maid to slaughter so many, this quickly, without a single scratch.
“Is the maid outfit a preference? It doesn't match your skill at all.”
Persona, trying hard to regain her composure, deliberately spoke to Lien who was approaching her.
If she didn't do sothing like this, she felt she might lose consciousness from the pain of forcibly escaping Enoch's inner world.
‘Seeing her co this far, I thought she wasn't just a simple maid… but to think she was this kind of monster.’
Even amidst the confusion, her ntal strength had already finished assessing the strength and situation.
Since a 9th Circle direct descendant on the verge of disownnt couldn't possibly have a Follower Family, this silver-haired girl before her must be so kind of guard protecting the direct descendant.
Besides, judging by the signs, it was obvious Enoch would regain consciousness soon too.
An enemy joining the fray in an already unfavorable situation.
But that was only based on the standards of ‘ordinary mages’.
However, with her Unique Magic, this situation changed completely.
‘……Perfect.’
Persona smiled, facing the maid who was briefly spreading and pulling wires between her slender fingers.
The nightmare-like experience in Enoch’s inner world just now was a peculiar exception she had never experienced before.
But what about this maid right before her eyes?
Exceptions are exceptions because they are rare.
Therefore, the answer was already decided.
Woong.
Persona swiftly constructed a magic circle and extended her hand.
This very maid would beco the card to turn this overwhelmingly disadvantageous situation around.
‘If I interfere with that maid’s inner self, make her go berserk, and buy ti for to escape…!’
Persona imdiately began arranging her mana.
─Piiing!
The next mont, Lien’s wires, imbued with silver-white mana, pierced the darkness and shot towards her.
And simultaneously, Persona deployed her olive-green mana as if to counter.
The two powerful manas, unfolding intensely in the darkness, collided.
Reviews
All reviews (0)