Genius Swordsman of the Mage Empire Chapter 35 : Chapter 35

Chapter 35. Cold Reading (4)

In the darkness.

Silver-white mana surged forth in dozens of strands.

As Lien swung her arm wide, wires shot out.

Long wires, glowing pure white, split the space with sharp sounds of tearing air.

Chwaaaak!

As if exquisitely tailoring space, the wires instantly flashed through the surroundings, fragnting them.

Nearby walls and pillars were torn apart by the wires, showering dust and debris with loud roars.

‘Overwhelming.’

Persona thought this as she watched the pillar she had been using for cover just monts ago shatter and fall.

She moved, sohow trying to retreat amidst the falling debris and dust.

Lien imdiately dashed forward in pursuit.

Wires extending long from her swung fingertips now swirled around the sprinting Lien.

Sensing danger instantly, Persona desperately deployed a magic circle to buy ti.

Kugugugu……

The imdiately constructed magic circle caused a large portion of the ceiling to collapse, bringing down a huge ceiling section.

In the darkness. A massive stone structure fell diagonally in front of Lien with a heavy roar.

Kuuuuuung!

But Lien didn't stop, instead running up onto the huge fallen ceiling fragnt and sprinting across it.

She leaped straight from it, soaring high into the air.

Taat.

While airborne at high speed, Lien flipped her body, rotated sideways, and swung her hand.

The trajectories of the pure white wires wrapped around her plunged through the air, targeting Persona.

Persona hastily stretched her hand forward to counter the attack. A do-shaped mana barrier deployed around her.

Jiiik-

However, the ejected silver wires rapidly wound around the barrier, securing it. Imdiately, Lien pulled the entangled wires sharply from mid-air, rapidly changing direction.

In the darkness, a diving attack plumting at terrifying speed flew towards Persona.

Persona instinctively threw her body aside barely in ti.

Subsequently, without reducing speed, Lien landed piercingly where Persona had been just monts before.

-Kwaaaaang!

The ground imdiately shattered, and intense shockwaves, along with stone fragnts and dust, exploded in all directions.

‘What, this monster…’

In a fleeting mont where ti seed to slow down, Persona stared at the maid who had just landed before her with dumbfounded eyes.

In the center of the dust rising in the dark void.

The black and white skirt and apron billowed like waves with her movents.

Beyond the shadow of her cold silver hair, the maid who had just landed slowly raised her head and stared this way.

Beautiful silver-blue eyes that seed to shine clearly even in the interior darkness.

Those eyes, tinged with transparent anger, glared this way through the debris scattering in the air.

“…!”

When Persona unknowingly took half a step back from that chilling gaze.

Sothing suddenly caught her heel, causing her to lose balance and stumble backward, falling.

Piing.

A short tallic ring.

Only then, looking back, did she see the wires she had dodged earlier wrapped around the ceiling and pillars, lurking nacingly, tracing complex paths.

Like ticulously and exquisitely installed spiderwebs, the wires covering the space had blocked all escape routes.

From the very beginning of the engagent, the wires that maid had shot this way.

Each and every trajectory had been cutting off her escape routes.

Persona felt a chill run down her spine.

Against soone of that skill level, she likely couldn't have won even if she were in perfect condition.

Rather, it was a miracle she had managed to hold on this long despite being near mana depletion.

‘But…’

Persona smiled triumphantly.

‘Now, it’s my turn, having held out sohow!’

An olive-green magic circle, its construction now complete, rested in Persona’s hand.

What she had aid for all along, buying ti amidst this short but fierce engagent, was precisely constructing a magic circle to fully access that maid’s mana.

With the sense of her Unique Magic already reacting to the maid’s mana, Persona was certain.

‘As expected, I can interfere with this woman’s mana without issue.’

Unlike with Enoch, from whom she had sensed sothing strange earlier, interfering with the silver-haired maid’s mana was possible without obstruction, just like with ordinary mages.

If so, the outco was already decided.

Piing!

The next mont, the wire Lien ejected flew accurately towards her.

But just before it reached Persona.

The magic circle expanded greatly, activating in a way that covered the space between her and Lien.

Fwoosh.

Instantly, Persona’s unfolded inner world filled the surroundings.

“…?”

At the sudden environntal change, Lien briefly turned her head, calmly surveying the surroundings as if trying to grasp the situation.

‘Done. I’ve pulled her into my Unique Magic.’

Thinking she finally had her in her grasp, Persona smiled briefly.

But behind the maid.

For so reason, Enoch was also lying on the floor, dragged into her inner world along with them.

‘…How did the direct descendant follow into this inner world?’

Could he have been affected sohow by the fissure created when escaping Enoch's inner world earlier?

But there was no ti for lengthy thought.

After escaping Enoch's inner world and even fighting Lien, she had used almost all her mana.

The longer she delayed, the more certain her defeat beca.

‘I just need to quickly manipulate that maid’s inner world, make her go berserk, and escape in the confusion.’

That direct descendant happened to be damaged in his inner world and couldn't even flee.

In the end, Enoch would be helplessly caught up in the rampage of his own guard maid.

“Given the circumstances, I don’t have ti to leisurely investigate your mories.”

Persona said, deploying the magic circle.

A person’s inner self is remarkably delicate.

Their diverse ntal worlds are made up of their individual experiences and emotions accumulated throughout life. All those elents constitute that person’s ego.

‘Precisely why that intricate world gets distorted by even ‘slight interference’.’

taphorically, it’s like slightly removing one cog from an intricate clockwork chanism.

Naturally, breaking a complex machine is possible just by damaging a single trivial part.

And if it's a person's inner self, which is even more delicate than that, it goes without saying.

Any further delay ant her complete defeat. Before activating the magic, quickly use Revelation Amplification…

“It’s a Unique Magic that interferes with consciousness through mana.”

Lien’s calm voice was suddenly heard.

Persona was montarily speechless at those words.

How could she already know this magic even before Revelation Amplification was used?

“…Well, maybe soone like you would know.”

Ignoring Persona’s slightly amused words, Lien tilted her head slightly to the side and asked.

“You seem close to mana depletion.”

Persona’s expression, which had painstakingly maintained a relaxed tone until now, hardened slightly.

Even though mages draw upon the mana existing around them, each person has an innate limit to how much they can wield.

And when that limit is precariously reached, it’s called mana depletion.

Lien spoke quietly.

“If you continue using Unique Magic like this, your life will be in danger.”

As she said, mana depletion is fatal. Without resting to recover, the pain is truly severe.

If one forcibly uses magic further in a state of mana depletion, there's a possibility of becoming crippled or dying.

But Persona stated monotonously.

“I know that too.”

“Then fleeing would have been the more rational choice.”

The maid asked back, still in a transparent tone.

Of course, as the maid said, if she had tried to flee from the beginning, she might have escaped sohow.

But Persona simply shook her head.

“I can’t do that. As long as your family targets Lord Tantalus, I cannot let you leave here alive.”

She glanced sideways at Enoch lying beside her.

If they returned alive to the family, all information about her side would fall into the Elsyde family’s hands.

And above all…….

‘Enoch Elsyde must, no matter what, be killed right now!’

Vendetta's Rank 13 executive, and Tantalus who saved her. Enoch had asked about him earlier.

She knew instinctively then.

That soday, he would seek out Tantalus.

Persona bit her lip slightly.

‘I cannot let this guy reach him.’

Ever since seeing the boy’s inner world earlier. She felt it instinctively.

Soone with such an absurd inner world, what heights would they reach, how strong would they beco. If she didn't stop him now, she couldn't even fathom how far he would grow.

What would happen if she let him be was obvious.

Probably by the ti Enoch reached Tantalus. He would have grown much stronger than now.

If so, she absolutely had to eliminate the root of that threat here.

Definitely.

Persona muttered quietly.

“…He gave aning to my life, when I had been abandoned by everything.”

Tantalus was the benefactor who gave her aning.

Protecting him was the mission she had adopted as the aning of her life. Persona lifted her head.

Her olive-green eyes, filled with determination, t Lien’s silver-blue eyes.

“Whether it’s the Main House or the Empire. Whether it’s Elsyde’s direct descendant, I won’t tolerate anyone touching him!”

Persona, having almost completely constructed the spherical magic circle shining brilliantly in her hand.

Beyond the light of that magic circle, past events flashed through her mind like a revolving lantern.

The incident where her own family, rely a small-scale renowned magic house in the past, was politically swept away.

And the fact that her Unique Magic, feared for its potential to 'interfere with the human mind', led to her being branded a dark mage.

And the family’s cruel choice to maintain its lineage in the Empire. The innocent Rank 10 mage who had to be abandoned by everything she loved.

When she was abandoned by all of society like that.

The only person who took her in.

“The Empire drove out, having committed no wrong, simply for manifesting the Unique Magic of a dark mage. Naturally, even my family abandoned . Lord Tantalus was the one who gave a new mission to live for back then.”

She added, staggering from the pain of mana depletion.

“You, of all people, should understand.”

Persona looked straight at the silver-haired maid before her and said.

“You, too, are a survivor of a family exterminated for being branded dark mages. Lien.”

***

Lien didn’t particularly respond to her words.

She rely continued to gaze intently with a still-cold expression.

Persona looked at the surrounding wires and said.

“Honestly, I didn’t recognize you at first…. But I figured it out from your striking appearance and magic gear.”

She faced Lien and said.

“Rumors were quite rampant when you disappeared, but I never expected to et you here like this.”

“I do not know you.”

Persona laughed at Lien’s emotionless reply.

“Unlike you, I didn’t exactly live as a celebrity when I was young.”

Persona simply said that and extended her arm. The spherical magic circle constructed in her hand emitted light towards Lien.

“The chat went on too long. I’ll end this quickly.”

For Lien, who seed to already know about this magic, Revelation Amplification was naturally unnecessary.

Following Persona’s will, the magic circle rotated and activated. She bit her bleeding lip, trying to hold onto her fading consciousness from mana depletion.

Now, the task was simple.

‘The inner worlds most people possess are diverse worlds similar to reality.’

Countless types of emotions and mories beco various grasses, trees, beautiful flowers, birds chirping, and butterflies fluttering their wings.

Such diverse and delicate worlds are the normal inner worlds possessed by ordinary people.

Plucking the fully blood flowers there, or killing birds and butterflies—even such trivial, small damages imdiately cause defects in a person's ego, shaking it greatly.

Her Unique Magic utilized precisely that point.

Inducing a rampage, in particular, is even simpler.

Just ‘making a ss of the inner world’ is enough to severely distort the ego and establish a rampage.

‘The direct descendant's inner world I saw just now was rely an exception of soone who manifested Unique Mana.’

In contrast, Lien before her, though strong, was naturally within the category of an ordinary mage.

Therefore, it was certain she too possessed an ordinary inner world that could be interfered with.

‘If so, making her rampage is no big deal.’

Woong.

Towards the activating magic circle, Persona focused her mind as she always had.

Wheeeing.

Finally, the magic circle rotated, completing the passage connecting to Lien’s inner world.

Persona imdiately closed her eyes and activated the magic circle.

Instantly, her mind materialized, reversing the surrounding atmosphere.

Feeling the familiar sensation beyond her closed eyelids, she intuitively realized she had successfully entered Lien’s inner world.

Swish.

The diverse scenery unique to Lien's inner world, which she would now see directly. Picturing its rough outline, Persona slowly opened her eyes.

‘Now, only one thing remains.’

Just slightly distort her unique inner world like this, and make Lien rampage as planned…

“……?”

But the next mont,

All of Persona’s thoughts stopped.

Lien’s inner world, unfolding before her opened eyes.

It far surpassed Persona’s imagination.

-Pure white.

A vast, empty space of pure white, containing nothing.

However, upon the clean, flawless white space, there existed only one thing.

Persona’s pupils dilated instantaneously as she confird the ‘one and only existence’ in that white world.

‘That is-’

Standing with his back turned this way.

A black-haired boy.

-Enoch Elsyde.

In Lien’s inner world, there was only one person.

Only Enoch.

Besides him, nothing else existed in her inner world.

“…Impossible.”

The mont she realized its aning.

Persona unknowingly took a step back and muttered.

A chillingly pure inner world where only one person existed.

Persona, staring blankly at it, had already realized.

Far from inducing a rampage.

This inner self was ‘impossible to interfere with at all’.

Being so blindly pure, nothing could be manipulated according to her will.

‘B-But… for such an inner world to exist…’

Srrrk.

As if proving that a world like this couldn't be affected by Persona’s Unique Magic at all.

Lien’s pure white inner world was already slowly fading away before Persona’s eyes.

Click.

Instantly, a footstep sound made Persona lift her head.

Stepping on the fading afterimage of the white world, Lien had approached right in front of Persona.

The maid’s silver-blue eyes, having reached right before her, stared coldly this way from beyond the shadow cast by her silver-white hair.

Persona unknowingly took a slight step back from that gaze.

“…You’re not normal.”

Persona muttered in a low voice.

Naturally, only words like ‘not normal’ ca out.

The experiences and emotions she had lived through until now. The countless diverse emotions felt in daily life, including relationships with others.

All those should have materialized, forming such a diverse inner world.

Because that's what humans are.

That's how they live.

Naturally, the inner worlds of the countless people Persona had seen until now had all been like that.

But this maid─

“This inner world…… Then, the aning of your life is solely……!”

Persona, instantly realizing what this inner world signified, unknowingly took a step back.

But Lien was still approaching without even answering.

“D-Don’t co closer!”

Persona felt a montary surge of fear and hurriedly deployed her mana.

But faster than that, Lien’s wire instantly wrapped around Persona’s arm and entangled her neck.

Lien pulled sharply on the wire wrapped around Persona’s neck with her white, slender fingertips.

Piiing─

A small tallic tone from the silver thread (銀絲) sang lowly, like a tightly tuned string instrunt.

Like a dog’s leash, the thread Lien pulled dragged Persona’s neck forward.

“You said you protect the person who gave aning to your life.”

Into the ear of Persona, whose head was forcibly pulled forward, bound by the wire, Lien whispered thinly in an infinitely cold voice.

“ too.”

The next mont, Lien’s silver-white mana flowed through the wire, directly shattering the magic circle that constructed Persona’s inner world.

With a sharp sound like breaking glass,

The space of Persona’s inner world shattered into pieces and scattered in all directions.