Into the Master's Memories (1)
Into the Master's Memories (1)
[Skill 'Teleport' activated.]
The moment Olivia felt her feet touch the ground, she used the Skill again.
[Skill 'Teleport' activated.]
She had to get as far from the city as possible.
Teleport was not normally a spell you could cast this rapidly. But she had drawn Magic Circles along every route in advance, which was what made fast movement like this possible now.
Each jump flipped the scenery a hundred and eighty degrees. She had no time to check where she was.
Against anyone else, it might have worked, but the person chasing her now was Melina, a virtuoso of spatial magic.
Melina's single-jump distance was longer, and her speed was greater.
In the end, she would be caught before she reached the north.
'But I could get close.'
Charrrrrk!
Golden chains shot toward Olivia's back. Instead of blocking the chains, Olivia evaded with Blink.
The chains grazed the place where Olivia had stood.
It was razor-close.
A cold sweat ran down her skin. The tension was no joke—one mistake and she would plunge straight into the abyss.
Snatch!
A hand burst out of empty air.
A hand with every fingernail torn off flailed, trying to seize Olivia.
Olivia startled violently and recoiled.
'Fuck.'
This was a different kind of terror from what she'd felt with Kleis.
Back then, the feeling had been that she would die if she let her guard down. Now she felt like she was being chased by a deranged killer.
Riiiip.
Melina clawed space open with both hands. Blood ran from her torn wounds. Melina ignored the wounds and kept her gaze fixed on Olivia.
"...Come here."
The eyes that had always held sagacity were gone.
Killing Intent and madness.
That was all.
At least for that moment, even Olivia couldn't help flinching.
"You won't come?"
Melina's expression abruptly went blank. Olivia learned for the first time that day that a blank face could be that ferocious.
"...I see I taught you wrong. Very, very wrong."
Flames flared to life in Melina's hand. She laid her other hand on her own chest and spoke.
"I truly cherished you. I half-wondered if this was what it would have felt like to have a child of my own."
Melina's eyes grew distant for an instant.
"You were my pride. You were my everything."
The color of the flames shifted rapidly. What had started red turned blue, and now it blazed with an ominous black.
Black Flame.
The so-called Hellfire.
In a single breath, Melina manifested a spell at a realm no mage of the Red Tower had ever reached.
"But... You drove a knife into this heart of mine."
The instant Melina's face hardened coldly, the Black Flame shot forward. Kaboom! With a vicious roar, the ice barrier burst apart.
Through the steam, Melina suddenly shoved her face close.
"...!"
Before Olivia could react, Melina seized her shoulder and swept her legs out from under her.
'What kind of strength...!'
Her combat style was completely different from the Melina Olivia knew.
Melina wasn't someone who charged in recklessly. She was someone who gave you no opening at long range and pressed you until you dried up.
Olivia had never imagined she would close the distance like this.
[Skill 'Blink' activated.]
[Skill 'Blink'—]
Pah-pah-pah-pah-pah!
Just before her back hit the ground, Olivia barely escaped with Blink.
Thud.
Olivia groaned as she landed. She had known it instinctively the moment she let Melina near her.
'If I let my guard down, I'm done in one go.'
There was no guarantee that the game's scripted patterns would apply in reality.
Olivia thrust her staff forward.
Grrrrrk-crack!
Frigid mana began to seize the area on all sides. Melina did not stand by and watch.
Whuuuuuuu.
The space-time around Melina twisted.
In an instant, the world was split into two domains.
A domain filled with bitter cold, and a domain where space-time was distorted.
"Disciple, why do you keep running?"
"Is the old woman going senile? I never had a teacher like you."
A ripple crossed Melina's eyes.
But only for a moment.
"...What a wounding thing to say. But perhaps once, though now I feel nothing at all."
['Archmage Melina' uses 'Spatial Erosion'!]
The golden chains began to cover the sky, little by little.
"I acknowledge it too. The me of my past life was not a true teacher. I merely watched my disciple stray."
The sky was draped in gold.
"So even if it's painful, do not resent me."
From that point on, it was discipline.
Crunch!
The moment Melina closed her fist, the space that held Olivia's left arm crumpled with no warning at all.
"Kh!"
A short groan burst from Olivia's lips. Her left hand was literally reduced to a rag.
She'd yanked her arm back the instant she sensed the mana flow—thank the gods. Otherwise, she would have been crippled.
"Do not dodge! Accept your punishment obediently!"
Crunch! Crunch! Crrr-unch! Crunch!
In the blink of an eye, everything around her crumpled. Like aluminum cans being crushed.
The chains blanketing the sky weren't watching idly either. They steadily constricted their domain, limiting Olivia's area of activity.
Boom!
A chain rebounded, unable to pierce the barrier. Olivia now focused on defense instead of evasion.
She couldn't dodge anymore anyway.
[Skill 'Blink' activated.]
[Space is being eroded—movement-type magic cannot be used!]
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!
The chains struck the barrier at an increasingly rapid tempo. She had layered multiple barriers, so they hadn't cracked, but she couldn't stop herself from being driven into the ground bit by bit.
It really was different.
During the Genocide Ending, Melina had been desperately defending. The setup had been Melina trying to stop Olivia, who was charging in for the kill...
Now it was the exact opposite.
She felt the importance of favorability grinding in her bones once more. If she'd neglected Melina's favorability grinding when she went for the Genocide Ending, things would have gone badly off the rails right from the start.
Melina's primary attributes were time and space.
If the chains eroding all directions and the space crumpling every time she clenched her fist were spatial magic.
Where was time?
Through the barrier, Olivia gazed at Melina. Melina's eyes were glowing a far brighter gold than before.
'...That crazy bitch.'
Right now, Melina would be feeling as though time were flowing slowly for her.
Increasing the density of time to accelerate cognition.
That was what allowed Melina to boast an overwhelming calculation speed compared to others.
It was the same reason she could simultaneously control hundreds of chains.
And astonishingly, that was only Stage 1.
Stage 2 was interfering with the opponent's time, and Stage 3 was interfering with the world's time.
Of course, Melina could only reach Stage 2.
'Stage 3 has a Level 100 requirement.'
She knew because she'd taken the time mage tech tree before.
The controls were disgustingly hard, and she'd dropped it midway because the mana consumption was unbearable, but she couldn't deny it was a top-tier attribute.
'I thought she'd be a little different.'
Unlike Kleis, who had opened by hurling a greatsword, hadn't Melina at least started with something resembling conversation?
So she'd meant to stay on defense until Melina calmed down, but looking at her now, she didn't seem likely to calm down at all.
Drip.
Blood ran from her left hand.
Throb! Throb!
Olivia's brow furrowed at the burning pain.
'Screw respecting your elders. I'm about to die here.'
Olivia's presence shifted.
She just had to avoid killing her. As long as she didn't kill her.
The regressor privilege? She'd subdue her—no, knock her out completely. If she was unconscious before the privilege could even activate, what could she possibly do?
"...I can't just take a beating and live with it, you goddamn old hag."
At the same moment, the mana of the earth rippled.
The rippling mana was the herald of a grand spell.
Having anticipated that Olivia would go on the offensive, Melina smiled broadly.
A grand spell was powerful, but that meant it had a long casting time. Which meant, if you knew when your opponent would cast it, you could land a blow in return.
"Disciple, you've grown so dull!"
Golden mana shot toward Olivia.
['Archmage Melina' interferes with your time!]
- Casting time increases significantly!
- Calculation speed decreases significantly!
Her thoughts slowed.
Melina's laughter reached her ears long after. Ages passed before she saw Melina's action and processed it as "She laughed."
Time was flowing on as it was. Only "Olivia's cognitive speed" had slowed.
Melina staggered.
'I should have done this sooner!'
Blood ran from her nose. Magic that interfered with an opponent's time clearly put an immense strain on the body.
But look at the result.
Her always-sharp disciple was wearing an uncharacteristically stupid expression, wasn't she?
"Forgive me."
Melina extended her hand. Olivia would never walk again after this day. She would not move her arms. She would never use magic again.
And furthermore...
She hesitated.
Sensing something wrong, Melina stopped. Right now, Olivia's cognition should be a hundred times slower than normal.
Since her very thoughts were slow, it should take her ages just to move a finger.
It had to be so.
Then why...
'Is she smiling?'
Olivia was smiling. The magic couldn't have failed. Olivia's movements had visibly slowed—that was proof. Then only one possibility remained.
That long before Melina had cast the spell, Olivia had already been ready to smile.
...Why?
Unless she had pre-cast the spell...
Rrrrrrumble.
'...The sky?!'
Melina's head snapped up.
Before she could even react.
A colossal pillar of light struck the earth.
"---------."
Melina's eyes rolled back. Her entire body scorched, she toppled backward.
Thump.
A moment later.
Olivia's body twitched. Her cognitive speed had returned to normal.
And only then was the identity of the spell that Melina had shed blood to stop revealed.
[Skill 'Ice Ball' activated.]
A lump of ice the size of a head thumped to the ground.
It had been a simple trick.
She had finished casting a grand spell first and then raised her mana.
Melina had naturally been unable to avoid falling for it. What kind of mage would waste mana like that?
'...Is it over?'
Olivia slowly approached Melina, then prodded her with the toe of her foot.
She was definitely unconscious.
Olivia carefully lifted Melina into her arms.
"Let's go, old lady."
To the north.