Chapter 146

<Milky Way Eruption> was a spell that caused fundamental collapse.

My body, the Philosopher’s Stone—the greatest substance in existence—was decomposing into water and light, piece by piece. An irreversible transformation. Droplets of water burst forth from my grotesquely transformed body as light flickered.

From a distance, it would look as if a galaxy was erupting from within me. Though not a real galaxy… the name was certainly fitting.

Resistance was impossible.

Was this truly a 6th Circle spell? A spectacular demonstration of overwhelming power that even my current <Saíl> couldn’t match. The ultimate alchemy that modified the Akashic Record itself to transform the target into water and light.

Through my fading vision, I saw Hwi Someong dissolving just like me, spewing light and water. What? This spell would kill you too? Did you want to kill me that badly?

Is that what an “Apostle of the Outer God” is?

-I’m certain! It’s one of our kind! A spirit! This power is definitely from a spirit!

-But… why can’t I see it yet? Where is it? Why?

In the final moment, Ari’s voice brushed past my ear.

Hey, can’t you see I’m dying here?

-Divine Mage! Hurry and find my kindred…! Huh? Divine Mage? Oh, oh? Are you dying? No! Divine Mage, noooo!

-Sob. I’m sorry. We’re sorry. Please don’t die sob…

-I don’t need my kindred anymore, okay? I don’t need them!

Ari was whining belatedly.

Crying like that…

I’m not dying, idiot. This is a simulation.

[Simulation End]

Though not what I’d expected…

It was an incredible discovery.

-Divine Mage. Hurry. Hurry and wake these up. Okay? Divine Mageeeee~

With Ari whining in reality too, I felt a strange sense of déjà vu as I plunged back into the darkness without responding.

Just wait a bit, Ari, who can’t even help when I’m dying.

[Simulation]

Simulation time available: 17 minutes.

Hwi Someong.

Just how many trump cards does she possess?

Gulp.

It’s been a while since my lips felt this dry.

* * *

Naturally, from the second attempt onward, I had no reason to lose.

I now knew a fight would break out, and I knew Hwi Someong wasn’t an ordinary Circle mage. I had no excuse to lose. But… Hwi Someong was a truly infuriating mage.

Boom-zzzzing!

“Sigh… <Water Light Rapid Fire> doesn’t work at all. You’re certainly troublesome.”

Troublesome? That’s my line!

Her movements were faster than mine even with Ari’s help, and her attacks were swifter than Lytol using [Time Acceleration]. In a flash, Hwi Someong would vanish from my sight. Meanwhile, the light she emitted had already reached my body.

Though I protected myself with the gale Ari created and dispersed the concentrated impact by filling my entire body’s Ki-blood with magical power, each hit still twisted my insides.

‘Stronger.’

I enhanced and regenerated my body using the Philosopher’s Stone—without these tricks, I might not have been able to endure. In any case, I was still being used as a human punching bag.

“Magic Eye-Interference!”

“Hmph! A shallow trick!”

I tried to catch her with Yuria’s [Magic Eye] since she was too fast to bind with <Sowing>, but I couldn’t catch Hwi Someong as she moved away with a flash!

“Kuh…”

Instead, blood spurted from my eyes. Why did this happen? Fighting Hwi Someong made me feel like an idiot. Even though I could clearly see magical power and mana, I couldn’t properly analyze anything.

And then immediately following…

Boom-zzzzing!

Yes, that. Boom-zing. <Water Light Rapid Fire>, she called it? Crazy flashes of light. I couldn’t even see them. Just flashes everywhere—it was complete chaos.

‘Reaction Necklace!’

I tried to reflect her attack using the treasure that Refinement had given me, but—

Bang-bang-bang! Crash! Boom!

The necklace’s light faded after barely blocking a few hits. It was supposed to be able to block one destruction spell from a 6th Circle wizard… these few flashes of light surpassed the power of a 6th Circle spell. How is that possible?

But the most frustrating thing was—

“Hmm… this won’t work. Let’s meet again later.”

After about three minutes of fighting with no results, Hwi Someong would invariably flee.

I understood.

‘Her body must be strained.’

With that insane firepower at that speed, it would be strange if there wasn’t a physical toll. If there wasn’t, would she still be 6th Circle? The strongest in the Tower would be Ten Dragons instead of Nine Dragons.

I understood, but… that doesn’t mean I forgive her.

“Damn it! Let me land a hit too!!”

I felt like I was going to develop negative feelings toward everyone with platinum blonde hair.

And so, the [Simulation] continued, marked by humiliation and suffering.

Third [Simulation].

“Milky Way Eruption. Water Light Rapid Fire. I’ve never seen spells like these before. Are you using the power of spirits?”

“Follow the order. I’ll ask questions first.”

Boom-zzzzing-!

Fourth [Simulation]

“Wait. I have something to say about the Outer God.”

“Hmm? Interesting?”

Boom-zing-!

Fifth [Simulation]

“Fine. Let me just take a few hits first. <Saíl>!!”

“Hmm… I’ll come back later.”

Flash-!

“…”

[Simulation End]

Thud.

I collapsed on the floor. I didn’t even have enough magical power left to run another simulation. My body and mind were completely exhausted. And I’d gained nothing.

‘Stubborn woman.’

Honestly, I thought she would at least react when I mentioned the Outer God, but she attacked without even raising an eyebrow? Is she saying I should just cut to the chase and capture only her head for questioning? Insane…

The most infuriating moment was when I used <Saíl>. Just one second. If she had stayed just one more second, she would have been caught in <Saíl>’s power and couldn’t have escaped… but she retreated without hesitation. Maddening.

-You look like you’re in pain. Suddenly tired and in pain.

-What happened? Are you okay?

A warm breeze blew in and embraced my fallen body. I felt touched.

…Alright, Ari. I’ll let you off the hook for earlier.

Stroking the wind that cushioned me gently, I muttered.

“Remember Hwi Someong?”

-That person! The one who smelled like my kindred!

“Yes. Her. She was definitely wielding spirit power. Water spirit and light spirit. Two types.”

It wasn’t just <Milky Way Eruption>. That ‘boom-zing’ <Water Light Rapid Fire>. Although it was a bit confusing, that too was definitely spirit power.

-Really? Then let’s go find her. If it’s real, we should go right away.

-Maybe, just maybe. There might be a kindred with ancient memories!

“But… even when she was using spirit power, you said you couldn’t see the actual spirit. You couldn’t even see any traces like spirit stones. Is that possible?”

-Really…? You checked using the Gift and that’s what you found? I can’t believe it. Is that true?

-How could that be when she’s using our power? Not being visible… that’s strange.

It was certainly strange. The way Hwi Someong used spirits was completely incomprehensible. Until now, I could clearly see the operating principles of any magic, but this time was different.

In fact, spirit power itself was like that.

Normal magic works by creating ‘commands’ with one’s Circle. But Ari, right in front of me, didn’t need anything like ‘commands.’ Ari simply makes wind blow by willing it to blow, and stops it by willing it to stop. I used to think the complex magical power movements Ari created were spells that summoned wind… but after reaching 5th Circle and experimenting directly, there were too many phenomena that couldn’t be explained by that alone.

There was a hidden principle that couldn’t be analyzed even with the ability to see magical power and mana.

And Hwi Someong’s magic was the same.

Just as Ari manipulates wind, <Water Light Rapid Fire> erupts without any precursor.

Such an uninterpretable power could only be spirit power, yet the spirit itself wasn’t visible? That doesn’t make sense. Is Hwi Someong herself a spirit? That can’t be right either. Could that mana pattern that grew from within Hwi Someong when she used <Milky Way Eruption> be the spirit? But if so, it bothered me that Ari never managed to find the form of her kindred.

It’s frustrating.

So many unknowns, and getting Hwi Someong to talk was nearly impossible.

And there was another question that grated like sand in my mouth.

“Nadia?”

<Yay~! Nadia! Reporting in~>

“Do you know anything about the Outer God?”

<Nope~ Since it has the character for ‘god’ (神), isn’t it related to Administrator business? I don’t know about Administrator affairs~>

Argh! Argh! Arrrgh!

Nothing is easy to solve!

I jumped to my feet. Though my body was in a terrible state, my legs trembling, my frustration wouldn’t let me stay still. I cleared my desk and spread out pens and notebooks. I pulled books off the shelves and stacked them up.

“Fine. Hwi Someong. If you won’t open your mouth, I’ll analyze you myself!”

Spirits, Outer Gods, I’ll dissect every single one of your secrets.

First, spirits.

Just as Refinement added mana studies to modern magical theory,

Now I’ll add spirit studies.

Just watch.

“Crunch. I’ll definitely hit you.”

-S-scary. The Divine Mage suddenly got scary…

I glared with burning eyes at Ari, who was hiding behind the bookshelf.

Sorry, Ari. As soon as I recover enough magical power for [Simulation], I’ll have to experiment on you first.

* * *

Pan-Dalus was a famous bibliophile. While Refinement carried his workshop on one large cart, Pan-Dalus transported an entire library on five carts enchanted with spatial magic. It was so impressive that it was considered one of Pathfinder’s proud assets rather than a mere personal collection.

Until now, I hadn’t read many books. I felt that modern theories—which unnecessarily complicated self-evident and simple principles—contaminated my brain just by looking at them. I thought it wiser to spend that time improving my skills instead.

But watching Refinement changed my mind. Modern magical theory is, in a way, a record of countless failures. Although most of their conclusions are wrong, there’s much to learn from the process. So many attempts made throughout the long history of magic. Vast experimental data that would be difficult to catch up with even if I ran [Simulation] my entire life, outlandish failures. Yes. If properly organized and correctly interpreted, they could indeed contain truth.

Stacking countless failures to climb higher.

My perspective had broadened enough to benefit from that now.

‘Hwi Someong. No matter how different her magic is from existing magic, it couldn’t have appeared out of nowhere. After all, Truth Tower is still an organization rooted in mage society.’

…I’ve said a lot of nice things, but maybe it’s just the burning desire to unravel Hwi Someong that’s driving me. What turned me from a book-avoider into a bookworm, employing every possible means? Nothing motivates like anger, indeed.

‘Can’t be analyzed even with the ability to see mana and magical power? Then I’ll break through using human wisdom.’

Pan-Dalus’s library took the form of a massive cylinder. Standing on a central stone slab, you could see all the books at once, and searching for an index on the slab would illuminate all books containing that index with a light spell.

<History of Truth Tower>

<Reflections on Truth Tower Spells>

<Catalog of Self-Sacrificial Spells>

<Forbidden Secret Techniques>

…

Thud!

Pan-Dalus stacked another pile of books on my desk. His voice sounded slightly weary.

“Can you really absorb all that at that speed?”

Flip-flip-flip. Thud!

Meanwhile, I finished reading <Unexplained Magical Phenomena> and pushed it to one corner. It contained nothing useful. I immediately reached for <Forbidden Secret Techniques> beside it.

Flip-flip-flip.

I held the book close to my eyes and scanned through the pages.

“I can check well enough to see if there’s anything I need.”

“Heh, even if I asked you to look for torn pages, that speed would make it difficult.”

I’ve always been confident in my reading speed. Perhaps because my Gift was related to the Akashic Record from the beginning, I was good at reading any kind of records. I also had good memory. After enhancing my body, side effects like eye strain or headaches had disappeared as well.

Now, show me. Information that could reveal the trick behind Hwi Someong’s mysterious spells <Milky Way Eruption> and <Water Light Rapid Fire>.

Flip-flip-flip…

Pause.

The pages that had been flowing like water stopped at one spot. A smile formed on my lips involuntarily.

See? No matter how special Truth Tower’s spells are, they’re still derived from modern magical theory.

The mention of the Outer God still bothers me, but it’s an “Outer” God, after all.

Just looking at how she tried to kill me, claiming I wasn’t human, they’re ultimately beings with roots in humanity.

“Got it. The tail.”