Chapter 189: A Special Thank You (4)
As expected, standing before me, holding a staff proudly, was the enormous mage I hadn’t seen in a long time.
Overwhelmed by a sudden surge of joy, I shouted,
“If you showed up after timing it, I’m going to be mad, Lucy!”
“Tsk. You caught me.”
“Hey, did you really time it?”
“Mwahahaha! The appearance of Kersilla Creon, who wouldn’t even hesitate to put his friend’s life on the line for a dramatic entrance! Ah, Ibi-ssi and Aila were worried sick about you. Mwahaha!”
“Damn you, you bastard!”
I smacked the back of Lucy’s head as I said that, but my face was smiling. And Lucy was grinning as well. A smile that felt completely natural despite the long time we hadn’t seen each other.
However, instead of a smile, Referndi’s face was filled with hatred as she yelled,
“Kersilla Creon-!”
“I’m sorry!”
“W-What?”
Lucy bowed his head deeply. Referndi was dumbfounded by the sudden apology, and Lucy continued in an earnest tone, his head still bowed. Hey, what are you doing?
“I’m sorry! I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere before, but I can’t remember! Or maybe I haven’t! Anyway, I don’t remember what I did wrong, but I’ll apologize anyway!”
Now I was dumbfounded. Lucy. It seems like you’re apologizing properly, but I don’t think this is the right situation for that…… You still don’t understand, do you?
Referndi trembled before shouting,
“Unforgivable! What you did to me! No matter what you say, I can’t forgive you! Kersilla Creon!”
Lucy’s expression looked as if he had bitten into a very bitter fruit. He let out a deep sigh and said,
“Alright. Let’s get married!”
“What?”
What?
“I, Lucy, as a man, will take responsibility! Even if I don’t remember, I’ll take responsibility since I did it! It’s a man’s duty! Even if it means a lifetime of nagging, I can’t help it. We’ll grow fond of each other eventually, right? I’ll try my best to be a loving husband!”
“Th-This……!”
Referndi was clearly trembling with an indescribable feeling of disgust. I would feel the same way. But Lucy’s misunderstanding seems to have gone beyond the point of no return.
“Don’t tell me you even got an abortion? Oh, damn. Then I won’t be able to keep my father’s will? No, it’s okay. Please let me take responsibility! As a man, as a person, I’ll try my best not to disappoint you again!”
I couldn’t help but press my temples and shake my head. Lucy, that’s not it……
Finally, Referndi exploded. Well, it’s understandable. Though she’s an enemy, I must admit that’s a very desirable reaction.
“What nonsense are you spouting! I can’t forgive you! Never! Kersilla Creon!”
“Sigh, as expected, you can’t trust a man who has sinned……”
I put my hand on his shoulder. If this goes any further, it’ll be a serious problem and everything will be blown. Anyway, this friend has a wild imagination, which is a big problem. Is it because he’s a mage?
“Lucy, that’s not it.”
“It’s not?”
“Yeah. It’s not.”
At my firm answer, Lucy’s face brightened.
“I see! Indeed, I thought it was strange. Even when I was drunk, I always used protection! And I thought it couldn’t be possible since everyone was just a one-night stand. Besides, I don’t touch colleagues. As expected!”
He’s truly an embarrassing friend. I don’t intend to defend Referndi, but I should give my friend a chance to realize his mistake.
Shaking my head, I said,
“Lucy, imagine if you were killed by someone else. And then assume you came back to life and met that person again. The feeling she’s feeling is the same as that.”
“Huh? Ah! Don’t tell me it’s the family of a woman I slept with?! Who had red hair? I’ve been starving for the past few years……”
“That’s not it! You damn fool! Listen to what people are saying!”
I yelled, but Lucy fell into deep thought, staring at Referndi. Please, someone hit this guy for me.
Referndi screamed, her face filled with the greatest humiliation imaginable.
“Th-This……! Are you making fun of me?!”
“No, that’s not it. I’ll think about it carefully. There must have been someone with red hair…… But is she your younger sister? No matter how much I think about it, I’ve never touched anyone older than me……”
“Shut up! You’ll never understand, even if you think about it for the rest of your life!”
Suddenly, I feel sympathy for Referndi. To be targeted by Lucy, that alone would be a huge humiliation. And to have it happen even after a reset……
Scratching my head, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
“But, Lucy, how did you get in here?”
“Ah, here? It’s my specialty. I can get into places with distorted spatial phases with a little bit of ingenuity.”
“How did you know to come here?”
“You contacted me. You said it was urgent, so I asked my master. Even though my research wasn’t finished yet.”
“Not…… finished?”
I asked with an anxious expression. I thought Lucy had learned the magic that could be considered Ol Keres Pendens’s legacy when he faced Referndi. That’s the conclusion I reached based on the timeline.
Lucy’s face took on the expression of someone in deep thought.
“I was in the middle of researching how to make it look more flashy. No matter how powerful the magic is, it’s no fun to use if it’s not flashy. It’s the most important part.”
“What about the other thing? That legacy thing.”
“Huh? That’s already done. My master is quite mischievous. He called me at the very end, after almost finishing the research. He must have been wondering when I would learn all those spells, but that’s underestimating his disciple. Just like the day Ibi-ssi looked at Risel with a meaningful expression one night, and then couldn’t get out of bed the next morning, rejoicing in her choice……”
“There was no such day.”
“What? The nuisance was gone, so it’s still not done yet! My friend, don’t you have some serious problems? I’m worried as a man!”
“Speaking as a man, could you please pay attention to that side now? Hmm?”
My friend, who couldn’t be any less combat-ready, looked at Referndi, who was burning with rage. She seemed extremely angry that she was being ignored.
“Th-This……! This!”
“Ah, sorry for ignoring you. Now, we should talk about our problem. But are you really not related to her?”
“Die!”
Along with a classic line, an improvised fireball flew towards him. Lucy, without a hint of surprise, lightly swung his staff once. The fireball disappeared like a candle being extinguished.
Scratching his head with the end of his staff, he said,
“It seems like we need to have a round before settling our grievances…… Risel?”
“I’ll explain everything, so just take care of it. But can you do it? I heard from Aila that she’s……”
“A Prime magic user, right? It’s okay. I have a way.”
He said confidently. It seems like he has a way, but I have no idea what it is.
However, it’s highly likely that the method is the same as what Referndi remembers.
I quietly said to him,
“Lucy, a piece of advice.”
“Huh? What advice?”
“You need to prepare the strongest magic you can use right now. I’m serious.”
I gave him advice with a serious expression. Lucy was puzzled. But I didn’t change my expression, and he soon nodded.
“Alright. Thanks for the advice.”
His voice was filled with seriousness. He slowly walked forward. It seems like he’s made up his mind to settle things with Referndi.
I stepped back. I need to stay as far away as possible because an unimaginable, enormous power will clash. Then, as I turned my head to tell Lucy how powerful her magic was, I decided to keep my mouth shut.
My friend, clad in a navy blue robe, showed a reliable back, unlike a mage.
Looking at the back that showed the greatest trust a man could show another man, I nodded.
That person is not my friend Lucy, but the mage Kersilla Creon. So there’s nothing to worry about.
Shall we watch a mage’s fight?
How does a mage fight a mage?
Actually, a mage’s fight is quite different from the simple power struggle that ordinary people imagine, where they indiscriminately use magic, causing explosions and destruction everywhere.
Before using magic, they first expand their power called ‘Nature Domination.’
Because I somehow remembered the story Lucy told me when he was drunk, I think I roughly understand how the two people staring each other down are fighting.
Just as the ultimate goal of a martial artist is to win without fighting, the same goes for a mage. However, they aim to win not through magic, but through an invisible battle before that.
In nature, there is a special power that mages can sense, a power called ‘Magic Essence.’ It can be seen as a kind of small grain or flow of that power, where the dramatically strengthened power of nature is concentrated.
Nature Domination refers to the power to gather this Magic Essence under one’s control. Mages said that by feeling this power, they could end their fight before it even began.
A mage’s fight is quite ruthless compared to a martial artist’s. Luck doesn’t work for them, and a mage with superior Nature Domination can defeat a mage with inferior Nature Domination.
There is no fluke here, and it wouldn’t be awkward to use the word ‘absolute.’
In the world of magic, there are possibilities and probabilities, but no such thing as luck. The basic principle is to obtain the maximum result with minimum effort in a always calculated situation.
The reason they are floating in the air and staring at each other for so long is because they are engaged in a ruthless fight.
If, while competing in Nature Domination, the two are at a similar level……
They both raised their staffs simultaneously.
A magical medium that was either carved by themselves, their master, or someone else.
Although they can use magic without a staff, they can use magic much more easily and powerfully when holding a staff that is tailored to their hand and made for them.
Using that staff, they use the highest level of magic they can use and clash head-on.
A single decisive battle.
Naturally, as those who stake their lives on magic, their lives are also at stake in this battle.
I didn’t expect Referndi, who considers the Magnolia Oath less valuable than a disposable slipper, to accept this classic duel method.
Did she want to take revenge in the same way because she lost in the past while fighting in this way?
The two mages began their silent and powerful incantations.
“Lo Aria Prime. In the name of the Prime Ancestor, I, Referndi Eraham, seek. The closest to the beginning, the farthest from the end, drawing up the profound, casting away the unfulfilled desire, O Origin, come. My words, my thoughts, my desires, my power calls. Beyond the horizon, beyond thought, beyond time, beyond concepts……”
“My name is Kersilla Creon! The hammer that orchestrates time, the instrument that plays the future, the beast that leaps into the past! And the ruler of space who has realized the secrets of the beginning, the successor of Ol Keres Pendens! The Awakened One who knows his name and inherits his will! The seeker of truth who sees the world with his eyes, knows space with his head, and understands the universe with his heart!”
Referndi’s incantation was calm and deeply resonant, unlike her personality. I’ve heard Lucy’s incantation often, but this time, the latter part was a bit longer. It’s still a powerful incantation.
Their incantations struck like lightning and surged like the wind. As if squeezing the essence of magic with their very existence, as if drawing up the essence of this world, it was fierce and deep, gentle and beautiful.
The incantation of the spell, which was like a song, was already over by the time I realized it. They were pointing their staffs at each other, locking eyes.
Perhaps there was a mage-like sense in the reason why they both uttered the name of the spell simultaneously.
“Lo Aria Prime’s……!”
“Ol Keres Pendens’s……!”
The two spells, which must have reached the absolute domain, manifested simultaneously as if they had promised to do so.
“Terminate Prime!”
“Infinite Potential!”
Instinct warns me. Every sense in my body screams.
Dangerous.
The mages’ unfulfilled desire is to reach perfection. To do so, they seek and research the external power of the world within the framework of the world.
Mages are heretics of the world who easily transcend reality. That’s why they easily go mad. They easily become distorted. They easily become isolated.
The midpoint they reach as they pursue the ultimate.
A power of the realm that can be called absolute, close to perfection.
In the end, like everything magic does, they create a disparity in this world.
Dangerous.
A small entity like me doesn’t have the power to withstand the disparity of this world. I have to move away from them, not get closer. That’s the law of the world.
I stepped back.
A little more, a little more, keep going.
Before I knew it, my back was against the wall Referndi had created. But my eyes clearly saw how their magic was clashing. Or maybe, I didn’t see it.
All sorts of sounds can be heard. Birds chirping, lightning striking, cliffs collapsing, a child being born, a person dying, summer insects singing a winter’s rhapsody.
Clang! Crackle! Boom!
The pale, burning water flowers, intertwined with purplish-orange, bloom with a splendid simplicity. The blooming seeds are revealed inward and hidden outward, burying undistorted distortion, dirty purity, and white darkness as fruits.
The distortion is there. Space is distorted, the world is distorted, distorting everything, erasing, creating, collapsing, erecting, spitting, swallowing, exhaling, and inhaling.
I don’t have the ‘what’ to describe that.
How can I describe a scene that effortlessly transcends reality, as if taking a stroll?
For a short or long moment, what I was seeing was not something I could see, and what I was hearing was not something I could hear.
After a time of feeling what I couldn’t feel, the banished reality inevitably returned to its place.
Lucy…… was where I remembered him to be.
And so was Referndi.
She said,
“Was that your hidden card?”
“Whew! Prime Magic, I almost got hit. Even a magic that annihilates all Prime Elements couldn’t erase the contradiction that exists between existence and non-existence?”
“That’s right. And I erased all of your existence and possibilities. Yet, to draw out infinite possibilities…… That can’t be space, can it?”
“No. It is space. Because all my possibilities are spread out in parallel dimensions. I drew in the power of all the ‘me’s’ that exist there. Therefore, this is Spatial Magic. Your magic can’t do anything to me, who exists across this dimension and other parallel dimensions.”
“The same goes for you.”
I don’t understand what they’re talking about.
Only in their tone can I glimpse a bit of awe for each other. It’s like the atmosphere after martial artists fought with all their might and acknowledged each other.
Lucy said,
“So, are you feeling better now?”
“Phew, haha! Hahaha! I understand. Why I couldn’t help but lose to you. In the end, even if I had worked for a few more years, I couldn’t have defeated the ruler of space?”
Referndi’s words were laced with regret. Lucy swung his staff once. Then, a Lucy who somehow seemed more realistic than before appeared there.
He said he was straddling the boundary between this dimension and a parallel dimension, right?
Lucy said,
“Now, let’s talk about our problem. Risel said he would tell me, but I want to hear it from you directly.”
“Ah, fine, whatever. Tsk……”
Referndi scratched her head and lowered it.
It seemed like she was thinking seriously about something.
Perhaps, after measuring their strength, she felt the difference and, like a mage, accepted it.
But…… something’s strange?
A sense of incongruity.
The same feeling I felt when I saw Artshever was felt from Referndi.
Why?
Suddenly, my sense of reality, which had temporarily left due to the confrontation between the two high-ranking mages, returned. And the moment reality settled in, I could make a judgment.
Referndi shouldn’t be like this!
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