Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Episode 3
My first impression upon throwing myself out the window was that the night view was rather decent. Seeing the mystical purple sky of the Mage Kingdom, just as I had in the game, I thought it was beautiful.
My second impression was relief. The game I played, Broken Sky, begins when a part of the sky shatters and "outsiders" invade. But I saw no broken parts in the sky. Thankfully, the game hadn't even started the tutorial yet.
And my final impression was that this might be doable. Two seconds after throwing myself out and beginning my freefall...
"So, you're following me."
As the ground became closer, I saw the red-haired woman jump out the window after me. Her wildly flowing hair and expressionless face looked eerie, and the weapon she held in her right hand was quite surprising.
"Scary."
It was a battle-axe, the kind Vikings might use in media. I expected a heavy weapon, but this was beyond my imagination, making my knees weak even in mid-air.
[Mana Dominator Lv. 1]
[★First-Time Limited Edition SSR-Rank Magic 100% Guaranteed!!]
I had only one perfect opportunity left. If I missed this, I would be killed instantly by her.
I could hit her. Both she and I were falling. If she had a skill to move freely in the air, she would have already gone for my throat.
But it wouldn't work. The distance to the ground was noticeably closer now. Even with the slowed perception from [Contemplation], there were only about two seconds left. Even if I killed her, I'd just die from the impact afterward.
In that case...
[Spatial Barrier Lv. 1]
It was time to use Oz's second active skill, [Spatial Barrier]. Deploying the skill took less than a second.
And then, the impact.
Crash!
The spherical barrier deployed around me shattered upon hitting the ground.
"As expected..."
Just as planned. The skill [Spatial Barrier], as I knew it, had the characteristic of 'absolutely' blocking an impact exceeding a certain damage threshold, once.
Kinetic energy was no exception. If it were a simple defensive spell, it might have blocked the impact of the fall but not the inertia of my body. I probably would have crashed into the deployed barrier and turned into a bloody mess.
It was because [Spatial Barrier] blocked 'anything' that could cause damage that I was able to survive.
"What?!"
The moment I heard the assassin's startled voice, I rolled away.
The assassin crashed down where I had been with a loud boom.
She probably wasn't dead. However, she hadn't expected me to crash directly into the ground either, so there was no follow-up attack. She probably thought Oz would use a levitation spell at the last moment.
"Amazing..."
"..."
I hadn't expected her to be so unscathed by the impact, let alone casually talk to me like this.
"You're very different today. Were you deceiving me?"
"We were both deceiving each other, so let's not bring that up now."
I conversed with the assassin amidst the dust cloud caused by the impact. However, with [Contemplation] activated, I could see her clearly. She had assumed a throwing stance, as if waiting for the right moment.
"Oz."
She knew Oz, but not me. I was vastly different from the original Oz.
"Please die."
She threw her axe while I watched. She probably thought it was a surprise attack. Furthermore, the distance between us was short.
"Hah!"
"...You dodged? From that distance?!"
But if I anticipated it, I could dodge. Even with its incredible speed, I believed I could react. An SSR-ranked character, even a mage, had higher stats than most R-ranked warriors.
The insurmountable wall of rank. More accurately, the wall of money. I seemed to be closer to a playable character than Oz's portrayal in the game's story.
"Sorry, but..."
I immediately deployed [Mana Dominator] after dodging the axe. She couldn't move immediately after that forceful throw. Her miscalculation was assuming I couldn't dodge because I was a mage.
Her expression, visible through the haze, was filled with shock.
"You underestimated me."
"...Underestimated?"
[Erosion Rate 20%]
Through the fog, her expression was laced with frustration. Perhaps she had spent considerable time trying to understand me.
But I was different now. I wasn't Oz, but someone else inhabiting Oz's body.
[Mana Dominator Lv. 1]
I felt the mana flowing within me gather at my fingertips. As chunks of mana were consumed, I felt a sense of loss. At the same time, an icy blue magic formula was completed. The completed magic was the same one used by the SSR-rank character, [Ice Palace Witch].
According to the in-game skill description, it was the only spell with the largest attack range among all characters...
[Curse of Perpetual Snow]
...an unavoidable wide-area freezing spell.
"Farewell."
"I still didn't understand you, Oz. I thought I knew everything by now..."
The red-haired woman wore a miserable expression and ceased resisting. Was she giving up?
While I pondered, the magic, with its beautiful formula like a work of art, was unleashed.
The world was painted white.
In an instant, the tall building I was in, along with the surrounding scenery, transformed into a snowy field. Amidst the raging blizzard that continued to fall...
I didn't know if the assassin caught in the magic was dead or alive. I couldn't confirm because she was buried in ice and snow. I didn't check, either.
[Erosion Rate 14%]
She probably wasn't dead. It would be better for my fragile mental state to think that way, so I decided to do just that. I'd better learn a defensive spell, in case I met her again. I couldn't bear the anxiety of staking everything on a single gamble like this.
[Erosion Rate 10%]
Looking up at the sky, the blizzard seemed to be stopping. Through the white snowflakes, I could see the purple sky and twinkling stars. It was a beautiful starry sky, the kind I had only seen in books or videos.
It felt surreal. I realized once again that this was a world inside a game.
"...Is it starting soon?"
I looked beyond the purple sky and twinkling stars. Far away, where the purple faded and indigo mixed in...
I saw a small 'crack.'
It was a crack so small that I wouldn't have noticed it if it weren't for [Contemplation].
The sign that the game was about to begin, the invasion of the 'outsiders' who were the main villains of the story, the harbinger of the protagonist's life changing drastically, was right before my eyes.
Directly beneath that cracked sky was a small kingdom called Chrysos. It was a country destined to be destroyed by the time the game began.
And the sole survivor of the fallen Chrysos was the protagonist of Broken Sky and one of the five indispensable Key Persons in the main storyline:
[KP Princess of the Ruined Kingdom]
Eleanor von Chrysos
From now on, everything would begin to revolve around her. The game, filled with her struggles to rebuild her kingdom, her connections with countless people, and the conspiracies of monsters and those in power, was about to begin.
So, what should I do? What should I, who had become Oz, do?
If I were an extra, I wouldn't have to worry so much. But I had become Oz, a regular character with a considerable role in the story.
And Oz's role was to be beaten up and rolled around like an armadillo.
I couldn't follow that storyline. It was impossible to play such a dangerous role where life and death were at stake.
So, I had to actively shatter the main storyline. In that case, most of the story I knew would be greatly distorted.
Therefore, I had to focus on the people, not the events. Looking at the cracked sky, I reached out to the falling snowflakes. The snow that landed on my fingertips melted away from my body heat.
"..."
It wasn't cold, even though it was snowing so much. It was a strange sensation. It felt so unreal.
[Erosion Rate 8%]
The fall of Chrysos was inevitable, something that was bound to happen. There was nothing I could do about it now. I had no reason to feel guilty since I couldn't take responsibility for everything just because I knew about it.
[Erosion Rate 6%]
This was just a world within a game, after all. I decided to think that way.
I wasn't particularly cold, but it wouldn't be good to keep losing body heat, so I returned to the building where I had been.
And what greeted me as I entered...
"What...?"
...was an empty space. I had anticipated another assassin popping out, at worst, so I couldn't help but laugh. Was it from relief? No, the situation had become even more complicated.
The building Oz was staying in was quite large. There was no way there wouldn't be any caretakers in such a place.
The same went for outside the building. It was eerily quiet, despite the commotion. It was more accurate to say that the people in the entire block had been removed, not just the building.
Restricting movement on such a large scale couldn't be hidden. Even if it was hidden for now, it would definitely be discovered later. Then perhaps they didn't care if it was discovered. No, they might even be expecting some kind of derived effect from being discovered.
Then this was a declaration of war. A declaration of intent to attack me.
So, who was it?
"Someone more powerful than Oz...?"
As far as I knew, there were no other successors besides Oz in Spellerge. The right of succession in Spellerge wasn't based on bloodline, but talent. And Oz was the sole successor in this vast kingdom.
That meant he held an unparalleled position. With such a status, even if he were indifferent, he would have guards and various factions backing him.
And above all, the king who appointed Oz as his successor would support him.
Yet, someone with the power and authority to dismantle and suppress all of that existed. Moreover, if someone could make such a blatant attack in this manner, declaring their hostility towards me...
There could only be one person.
"...What did this crazy bastard do to be abandoned by the king?"
[Mage King]
Salem Sudra
The king who acknowledged Oz as his successor. The king of the Mage Kingdom, Spellerge, had personally declared his intent to abandon me.
[Mage King] Salem was the strongest mage and the absolute ruler of Spellerge. He wasn't lacking in power or authority, so why couldn't he protect his successor?
"There are... no other possibilities."
Such an attack wouldn't have been possible unless their relationship was already strained. It was a declaration of war by the king who had appointed me as successor.
It was impossible unless it was a lunatic who intended to fight the entire kingdom.
"I wondered why someone as powerful as Oz was at the academy..."
The game primarily focused on growth within the academy. I was planning to head to the academy eventually anyway. If the protagonist failed, this world would head straight for destruction. Even if I couldn't actively assist, I planned to observe. But I never considered the circumstances.
An independent institution, said to have been established by dragons to impart their teachings to humans:
Scientia Academy.
It was quite a prestigious academy. So, why would Oz head there? Oz, the central figure of the kingdom, known as the [Successor to the Mage King]?
He wouldn't need to go for educational purposes unless the dragons themselves were teaching. Then there must have been other reasons for him to go there...
Historically, why would royalty study abroad in other countries? Of course, there were cases for learning.
But wouldn't there be more cases of those fleeing for their lives after losing power struggles, or those taken hostage?
"He couldn't have been a hostage... Spellerge was a powerful nation in the game."
I was doomed. The more I thought about it, the more I saw only one possibility.
Of course, this was still just speculation. Above all, I didn't even know why Salem had abandoned Oz.
Maybe I was mistaken. However, the mere fact that Oz was at Scientia instead of Spellerge in the game meant my life was in danger.
"The conclusion hasn't changed. But..."
I was planning to go to Scientia. That was the plan from the beginning.
Because [Princess of the Ruined Kingdom] Eleanor von Chrysos, the protagonist of the game, would also be heading to Scientia.
Since a dragon reigned there, Scientia was considered a politically neutral zone that no one could touch. If anyone messed with it, they would face unprecedented terror that could easily incinerate a nation.
The sudden collapse of the sky wasn't something any country could take lightly. Therefore, all eyes would be on the fallen Chrysos.
So, what if there was a survivor from that fallen kingdom? Naturally, quite a few people would believe that Chrysos was the cause of the sky's collapse.
It was dangerous for her to reveal her existence right now. So, she needed helpers and a safe haven.
Normally, it would be best for her to completely disappear into the shadows, but she couldn't do that for another reason.
"...It wasn't just the protagonist who needed a safe haven."
If my successor status was the issue, they could simply revoke it. But instead, they made such a declaration, meaning they intended to use the entire country to kill me. In meritocratic Spellerge, the successor status was something to be earned.
Naturally, it was faster to kill and eliminate than to suppress with skill. With such a clear method available, Salem had made the first move.
Now, other powerful figures in the Mage Kingdom, who had been watching, would try to tear me apart like wolves.
"Ha..."
I laughed, my heart pounded, and my breath grew short. The moment I understood the situat
ion, everything in the world began to feel like daggers pointed at me.
I couldn't stay here. From now on, until I reached Scientia, I couldn't afford a single moment of rest.
"Damn it."
If I wanted to live, I had to escape Spellerge before the hounds descended upon me.