Shadows Beyond Reality (3)
I let out a soft chuckle. “Ha. In all my long years, I never thought I’d see something like this…”
The Grand Mage sighed in clear dismay. Kaira—no, I—simply smiled sweetly. It felt wonderful to finally witness this woman lose her composure.
I leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to the forehead of my beloved mother, who remained frozen in a vacant stupor with tentacles still writhing from every orifice of her body. Only then did I turn to face Viran.
“Wise Grand Mage, your attempt to uncover my secrets through experimentation was admirable, but it seems to have backfired. You tore so violently into the memories of a Kaira who was already battered and broken—well, not quite. Into my memories. Did you really think the seams of this world wouldn’t tear even wider?”
“It appears so. You are not the girl named Kaira, then? Who are you?”
I stuck my tongue out playfully before retracting it, grinning from ear to ear.
“Wrong! I am Kaira. I am Kaira now. And I have always been Kaira. That’s simply how things turned out.”
“Haa…”
Viran closed her eyes, her expression sinking into deep contemplation as she let out a sigh that seemed to rise from an endless abyss.
“I don’t know what manner of being you are, or how vast your power may be, but your tastes are both childish and utterly revolting. To devour the bodies of helpless young girls, stripping away their will entirely, then treat the empty shells like toys…”
“…Isn’t that exactly what you did, Master?”
“Master, is it? So you’ve completely consumed Kaira’s ego. What a distasteful puppet show.”
I offered no reply, merely winking at her. Even now, Viran seemed to be muttering something under her breath. Perhaps she still couldn’t accept what I had become.
“I wanted to watch your schemes unfold to the very end. That’s why I remained silent even after witnessing Pirel’s sudden transformation… If I ask you something, will you answer? What exactly do you want, now that you’ve torn your way into this world?”
“Hehe. Very well. Since you are the kind Master who shattered the mind of ‘me’—the one desperately trying to suppress my descent into this world—and helped me manifest, I’ll tell you anything you wish to know.”
“You mock Kaira’s dignity with every word. I would appreciate it if you stopped speaking as if you were her.”
I let a flicker of irritation show on my face.
“And you, who forcibly anchored your mind to this world through brute magical force, are the one who truly mocks the sacred dimensions beyond reality, aren’t you? You pathetic little worm who diligently studied how to steal the power that flows from our world.”
Still, I had no intention of wasting time in a petty argument with this self-proclaimed Grand Mage. I quickly smoothed my expression back into a smile.
“Anyway, let’s move on. Now then, where should I begin?”
“What exactly is Kaira? And what is your purpose?”
“Kaira… I was simply a lucky soul chosen by chance. Aside from being innocent, adorable, and pretty enough to be easily devoured anywhere, she was nothing special—no intellect, no strong will. Just the daughter of a baker. I gave that girl a gift, hoping she would recklessly tear at reality as she pleased. Armed with memories from Earth, she strutted about like some grand hero who had received a divine blessing.”
“And what was the point of all that? Invasion? Destruction? Or was it merely entertainment?”
“It could be all of those things. Or none of them. To insignificant specks of dust like you, Master, our whims must seem impossibly fickle. However—”
I extended several tendrils of shadow to bind the Grand Mage’s torso.
“—I find it quite unpleasant when someone interrupts me, you inferior creature. If you don’t want that filthy body of yours—stitched together from a corpse—to be torn to shreds, then listen carefully.”
“Tch…”
I smiled brightly and graciously offered a sliver of knowledge to this ant-like being whose intellect was so terribly lacking.
“You remember the Dark Dragon we sent as an invader about a hundred years ago, don’t you, Master? After that, we sent the Demon King. Do you truly understand what those beings were?”
“I know they were apostles you chose to bring ruin upon this world.”
“How vague. Typical of a mortal insect. Though I suppose you couldn’t possibly know more.”
I continued my explanation with a benevolent smile. Yes—when I recalled the memories of when I had been Kaira, simply refraining from crushing this so-called Grand Mage like a bug beneath my finger was an act of tremendous mercy.
“Beyond the reality you perceive, we exist. You mortals could not remember our names even if we spoke them, and your minds would shatter if you beheld our forms. But at the very least, know this: there are many of us.”
“Fascinating. Truly interesting knowledge.”
Viran’s sarcasm sounded like the sweetest music to my ears.
“As we carry out our grand designs encompassing countless realities, there are occasionally worlds that must be destroyed or claimed. We deny one another and fight for dominance beyond reality, yet when our interests align, we pool our strength. This time, we simply needed this world.”
“So you created beings like the Dark Dragon and the Demon King?”
“Exactly. We whispered to the most promising creatures among the vermin living in this reality, tempting them. We breathed a light breath into them and infused them with a command: we would each lend a small portion of our power, and with it, they were to purify the world until it was fit for our use. One was a massive lizard. The other was the chieftain of the wandering prodigals from the north.”
Viran wore a distinctly displeased expression.
“But sharing this world among us all would be boring, wouldn’t it? So I created ‘me.’ I selected a suitable soul from somewhere beyond the world, disguised its body’s destruction as an accident, whispered false promises, and granted it absurd abilities so it could wield power however it wished.”
“…You promised to divide the world among yourselves, yet secretly schemed to project far greater influence upon it than the others?”
I nodded. As expected of a Grand Mage, Viran’s comprehension was excellent.
“The others likely had similar plans. If I sat idle, I would be the only one at a loss.”
I closed my eyes slightly and licked my lips, openly displaying my regret.
“But then ‘I’ became far too engrossed in playing hero and ruined our plans. Who would have thought the baker’s daughter would march straight toward the Demon King? Leaving her with memories of her previous life—where she had received a proper education in an advanced civilization—and giving her the chance to enter the Magic Academy was probably the first mistake.”
I shook my head slowly.
“Still, the ‘me’ who wielded her gifted power without any sense of danger, tearing reality apart at will, was inevitably twisted by the resulting karma and plunged into misfortune. She used that power every single day on trivial things like restoring her hymen, completely unaware of how dangerous it was. In the end, both her soul and her fate were shredded like rags, leaving her a broken wreck that connected this reality to what lay beyond.”
I stroked my own sex with open pride. The torn seams of reality, now a repulsive gray and writhing like tentacles, covered it completely.
“However, the hero Kaira possessed a soul tempered by countless hardships. Even those gaps weren’t enough for me to devour her easily. So I gradually corrupted her heart and shattered her soul until she could be consumed. I meticulously adjusted the circumstances of the world so she would slowly become a broken bitch consumed by masochism, sadism, self-destructive urges, and insatiable lust. And yet, even as her soul barely endured its collapse, you drove in the final nail.”
I flicked my tongue. Jet-black tentacles that had sprouted like additional tongues swept refreshingly across my face.
“So look! The body beyond became the perfect vessel for me to descend in person.”
The tiny creature before me stared at my bright, beaming smile with an expression of pure disgust.
“The Demon King failed, but I’ve found a proxy body for my direct descent. There’s no longer any need for him. The other beings’ schemes don’t seem to have borne fruit yet, so I can claim this entire reality for myself… I can’t possibly let this opportunity slip, can I?”
“I see.”
My head—already heavily shrouded by the torn wounds of reality, barely visible to Viran—tilted curiously as I widened my eyes.
“You’re surprisingly calm. You’ve been muttering nonstop since earlier. Were you praying to a god on the verge of death?”
I bared my teeth in a wide grin and added one more thing.
“From the perspective of a lowly creature like you, Master, I am also a great god. Offer your prayers to me. Who knows? I might grant you a few gifts.”
Viran pretended to ignore me, but—
“You stole Kaira’s personality and you still don’t know? Almost no mage believes in gods. We can sense that the so-called ‘gods’ living where mana flows in are nothing more than things like you.”
Her pitiful insult was so adorable that I let out a small laugh.
“Haa… Well, that was how the setting went.”
“And after giving Kaira such power… it seems you don’t even understand this much.”
Only then did I notice the complex spell formula forming in Viran’s hand. So that was what she had been muttering about—calculating it in her head all this time.
“Aha. You pretended to be curious about all sorts of things just to buy time to cast a spell?”
I mocked the Grand Mage’s foolish blunder, so unlike her usual composure.
“You couldn’t even kill a single Dark Dragon with magic prepared by dozens of people, yet you think you can use magic on me? This form you see—the shell of a baker’s daughter—is merely a shadow cast into reality by a single strand of hair from my true self. Even so, it carries a weight on an entirely different dimension from that lizard. I am no longer something magic can affect. You of all people should understand that, Master.”
“Ah, yes. That may be true. But this is a little different. Yes… quite different. It should feel… very familiar to you.”
Something felt off. I frowned slightly and examined the mana gathering in the Grand Mage’s hand. It was a grand spell too complex for the knowledge of ‘me’—the ordinary mage Kaira—to decipher.
The bandages wrapped around Viran’s right arm slid off with a soft rustle. Along with them fell her completely decayed arm, snapping off with a dull thud.
Was the mage’s dead body finally collapsing? It seemed this grand spell required her to draw upon even the circulating mana that anchored her life to this world.
I felt no wariness. Even if it was a mighty spell capable of reducing an entire kingdom to ash, it would be useless against me—a mere fragment of a shadow cast by a colossal being from beyond that had eroded reality itself.
In fact, this was a perfect opportunity. If I could instill despair in this Grand Mage who boasted of living for centuries, she would become a herald who would make all mortal civilizations tremble until the moment I reshaped the world to my liking. And the terror of vermin was the finest seasoning of all.
Viran reached out toward me with a relaxed smile, closed her eyes, and quietly chanted the words.
The words that were far, far too familiar to me.
"Rewind."
⟨ Time Rewinding ⟩