Chapter 75
Chapter 75
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 75
Chapter Title: Severing the Memory World
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Watching Aumfasha's battle, Damian felt a sense of déjà vu.
It was similar to when he had torn a rift in Tower Master Ariella's mental world not long ago.
The coercive force trying to maintain the world, and Aumfasha's magic mercilessly destroying it.
In the process, the structure of the world in his memories gradually revealed itself.
But it wasn't within the scope of Damian's understanding.
Ariella's mental world had been impressive magic, but its theoretical foundation was something all mages of the era shared.
This was different. The ancient magic unfolding before his eyes couldn't be analyzed with Damian's background knowledge.
Modern magic was said to derive from ancient magic... but now, he wasn't so sure.
Simply manipulating mana required considerable talent. With such a structure, how many mages could have existed in this era?
It wasn't for nothing that Aumfasha and the Ziggurat's mages held such a sense of chosen superiority.
'Perhaps it became more accessible after mingling with black magic.'
Even such thoughts crossed his mind.
So he decided to give up trying to understand it. This must have been how ignorant people felt seeing black magic.
'Wait, do I really need to understand it properly?'
People of the present era accepted black magic as just magic. Only someone of Ariella's stature saw it as slightly unusual.
In truth, black magic could be explained through magical principles, even if not perfectly.
'I just need to understand it on my own terms, to the level I can grasp.'
Whether right or wrong didn't matter. He just needed to analyze and judge this world with his own principles.
'What I need to find right now is...'
The force that forcibly bound him as Slave No. 44. He had to locate its structure and shatter it.
'There!'
Amid the clash between the memory's owner and Aumfasha, he found the answer.
Crunch. Chomp. Black magic reinforced with primal mana—Predation. Nothing was beyond devouring.
"You bastard!!"
The woman's expression twisted grotesquely. She couldn't accept that Damian had interfered in her world.
"Oh ho. If you want to see true skill, I'd best step back."
"...No need for that."
"That's not for you to decide."
Aumfasha chuckled leisurely as he retreated.
He wasn't exactly on Damian's side to begin with.
But seeing him toy with people like this stirred irritation.
'Always saying whatever he wants, just like before.'
Even at the tower, he'd summoned Damian at his whim, done what he pleased, and vanished.
The difference now was that it had helped Damian back then.
"Don't get cocky!! Think I haven't fought black mages of your level before?"
The woman gathered mana and rose from her seat.
As she extended her hand, filth rained from the sky, blocking Damian's path.
Whoosh. Slash. Green flames engulfed the filth, and masterful swordsmanship cleaved it in two.
Damian leaped forward in a massive bound, charging at the woman.
'Hm?'
But his burning blade sliced only empty air. The woman had already put considerable distance between them.
'Spatial transfer? No, I didn't sense anything like that.'
Even using black magic—Gaze, the mana flow around the memory's owner was severed as cleanly as if cut by a blade.
"This is a world I created. What you can't comprehend, I can do at will."
The woman wiped a bead of cold sweat as she spoke.
She still believed she held the advantage, but Damian's skill exceeded her expectations.
'She is the memory's owner, but she doesn't control it perfectly.'
If she did, Damian and Aumfasha couldn't move freely.
She wielded some control over the memory world, but not to the extent of Ariella's mental world.
'And she has no other means to resist on her own.'
He didn't know what magic she had originally used, but now she could only maintain the memory world and exert control within it.
'In that case, black magic—Predation... No, it's too risky no matter how I think about it.'
With the Book of Hell and primal mana, devouring the entire world wasn't impossible.
But escaping intact was uncertain. The memory's owner wouldn't just watch.
If Aumfasha fought alongside, he might consider it, but not in this situation.
Using vengeful black magic carried burdens in many ways. Predation was especially grueling to endure.
The burning pain searing his flesh, the crushing pressure on his body, the nausea shaking his vision—worse was the hunger disrupting his focus.
'Take her down first, then think.'
That was all Damian could do now.
Crack! Damian generated a stone scale boulder beneath his feet and launched it diagonally upward.
Using the propulsion, he closed the distance to the woman, ignoring the filth.
Swoosh. Damian's sword cleaved empty air once more.
Just like before, the woman moved a significant distance without any warning.
Gurgle. At the boundary with the existing filth, new sludge spawned and surrounded Damian.
Damian sprayed hellfire widely in a circle around him. The green flames devoured the surrounding filth.
'What?'
But unlike before, the filth didn't lose form even within the hellfire.
"I told you! This isn't my first time facing a black mage like you!"
He instantly used black magic—Gaze to check the filth's status. She had made adjustments based on the previous clash.
Shrieeeek!! Even within the green flames, the intact filth bared thorns at Damian.
Snap. But the attack never landed. Damian snapped his fingers, making the hellfire blaze fiercer.
The hellfire he'd used moments ago had the power to burn off a hand. Enduring the scorching pain, Damian amplified it up to his elbow.
"Th-this firepower..."
The Book of Hell—Mem was relatively common. So even in the ancient civilization, many black mages must have used hellfire.
"M-Molech...!"
Even so, most had contracted ordinary infernals. Few could have made a pact with Hell's lord, the master of all infernals, Molech.
From her expression, she had little experience against Molech's hellfire. She couldn't prepare countermeasures on the spot.
Crack! Damian used another stone scale boulder as a foothold and leaped at the woman again.
A smile crept back onto the woman's lips as she watched. Damian's attacks were ultimately limited.
If she could just keep this loathsome black mage pinned here, victory would be hers.
Or so she thought.
"Arghhh!"
The woman clutched her left shoulder and screamed.
Union with the sword. Damian's strike had slashed her shoulder.
Red blood slowly spread over her thin clothing.
But she had no time to writhe in pain. She had to move before the next attack.
"Oh ho. So that's the principle."
Aumfasha, observing from the air, let out an exclamation.
"It's not her moving—everything else is moving around her."
So Damian's solution was simple: calculate the distance she'd move and cover that much more.
He had to maintain black magic—Gaze overlaid on his pupils continuously.
The intense nausea left no room for other black magic.
But Damian had another means.
The sword.
Another weapon honed by two years under Derek's tutelage, enlightenment from the battle with the Mountain Sage, and daily spars with Agnes.
"Those eyes—Decarabia's? No, no... Now I see, you're a monster beyond imagination."
Having slain countless black mages, Aumfasha could roughly discern their contracted demons.
But the afterimage Damian showed was unlike any before.
Because all contracts etched in his soul were with lords of Hell.
"A human favored by Hell!! What an insolent existence!!"
Aumfasha grinned, baring his teeth. Even hating black mages, one couldn't help but admire such a being.
'I was prepared to lose an arm... A pre-prepared defensive spell?'
Even as a memory construct, she was an ancient mage. She likely had unexpected means.
"...Damn."
Damian regripped his sword, but he couldn't target the woman immediately.
Gurgle gurgle gurgle. Far more sludge erupted than before, incomparable in quantity.
Though burned by hellfire and torn by stone scales, their sheer numbers blocked his movement.
Craaaack!! The space, now without boundaries of light and darkness, shook violently. The woman was straining considerably.
"That is...?"
Having cleared all the sludge, Damian narrowed his eyes. Aumfasha stroked his chin at the woman's change.
"I didn't plan to go this far..."
The woman's body turned translucent and floated in the air.
Black magic—Gaze revealed her body merging with the memory world.
"Sacrificing her own existence to heighten control..."
Aumfasha's words cut off. The woman swung her palm, and he vanished without a trace.
"Urghhh!!!"
Damian wasn't unscathed either. No external damage showed, but a heavy shock rattled his internals.
But unlike Aumfasha, a pure memory being, his existence wasn't erased.
Ptoo. Damian spat a clot of blood and steadied himself.
"...Why are you smiling?"
The woman's reaction made her tilt her head.
Had the shock broken his mind? With her heightened control over the space, Damian had no chance.
"Well..."
Damian raised his sword again.
"Because in this state, I can cut you down."
The aura emanating from the woman resembled the Mountain Sage from the past.
An existence condensed with the concept of death. Vague in form yet present, but union with the sword allowed severing a portion of that death.
Slicing the memory world itself was beyond Damian. He couldn't pinpoint what to cut.
But with the memory's owner as a focal point, slashing the world centered on her wasn't impossible.
"You've lost your mind. I see your sword has some special power, but you think that puny blade can sever this world?"
She wasn't wrong. Union with the sword couldn't extend beyond the blade's length.
So he needed a larger sword.
Swooo. After summoning spectral entity—Xenon, Damian pulled out his undeaths, starting with the death knight.
He also condensed primal mana in his hand. He couldn't use more himself. But Xenon could.
Roooar!!! As primal mana dwelled, a dark blue aura rose from Xenon's body.
Thud thud thud. Spectral entity—Xenon manipulated the undeaths, fusing them onto the death knight to form one massive undead.
Even with a death knight core, an improvised undead lacked durability. Complex movements would be difficult.
But it didn't matter. Damian needed it for one thing: swinging the sword from above down.
"You... resorting to some vile power again!!"
Necromancy hadn't been invented in this era. To her, it looked like desecrating corpses.
Swoosh. Before the death knight's gigantification finished, the memory's owner swung her hand again.
Her victory was assured, but no need to let the opponent pull tricks.
Damian knew this too. He tried using Book of Hell—He to erect a stone scale barrier.
"Oh ho. Up to something fun again, I see."
Aumfasha's voice rang out, though his existence had clearly been erased. At the same time, the woman's attack was halted by an invisible slash.
"Aumfasha. How...?"
"Hm? Did you think I'd make no preparations after realizing I was just a memory construct? You don't know me well, it seems."
Hah. Damian couldn't help a hollow laugh at that.
More relief that he hadn't wasted the Book of Hell—and that this man wasn't his enemy.
"Finish it quickly. My time here is running out, so show me something good before I go?"
With Aumfasha blocking the woman's attack, Damian gained some leeway.
Spectral entities moved automatically, but direct mana infusion from a black mage enhanced their performance.
'Good.'
The now-gigantic death knight, empowered by primal mana, rose. The sword it held matched its size.
Damian stood beneath the death knight, focusing his mind. His vision fully synced with the death knight's.
Craaack. The death knight's arms raised the sword with an eerie sound. Its size meant it took time.
But synchronization was perfect. He'd succeeded once before, and now its body was more intact than in the sewers.
'What must be severed is the memory's owner. More precisely, the foundation upholding this world beyond her.'
Yet in the final moment, only he and the sword would remain. Union with the sword was completed through such concepts.
────.
No sound came. The opponent lacked form even more than the Mountain Sage.
But Damian distinctly felt severing something.
Thud. Thud. Thud. The undeaths sustaining the massive death knight fell one by one.
Even with primal mana, improvised undeaths had poor durability.
"I didn't notice earlier, but that sword is definitely..."
"You know about union with the sword?"
But no answer came from Aumfasha. His existence had fully vanished.
'I'll see him again at the tower anyway.'
Though whether he'd get answers was uncertain.
"Urghhh!! You damned cur...!"
The woman howled. Her lower half from the waist down was gruesomely gone.
"Hey, ancient one. Why the hell did you try to lock me here? Some prince? What was that about? And why did Aumfasha betray you lot?"
"Don't get cocky. You think a lowly black mage like you has any right to look down on me!!"
She had no intention of answering questions.
'Can't exactly ask Hell's lords either.'
They'd be the types to chime in during a fight like this. But they'd been too quiet.
It was the same when Cathedral wielded demonic power—they hid much, separate from their interest in Damian.
Of course, it didn't matter. As long as it didn't hinder his revenge, ancient history was trivial.
"It's not over yet. Not for me, nor this world. We'll both crumble soon enough."
The space of mingled light and darkness faded, returning them to the Ziggurat's interior.
But this place wasn't normal either. Buildings crumbled slowly, and no other mages were visible.
"The other trash trapped here. This world's final defense mechanism will..."
"Don't get cocky, I said? I'd love to throw that right back at you."
Rumble. Amid the collapsed walls, purple light shone.
"I don't know how much you know about our era's magic and auras, but we're not to be dismissed so lightly."
"What?"
"And one here in particular..."
Zzzzt. Damian's hairs stood on end.
If he felt this much current from here, how wild must she be raging?
"Is a madwoman blessed by magic."
Madness that prickled even his soul.
Once it bred fear, now it only reignited his thirst for revenge against her.