Chapter 31
1.
“Wait a second. Is it because it’s been a while? Something seems off.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll show you again.”
Ceres’s long, delicate fingers covered my eyes again.
The result wasn’t much different.
A quick Fantasy Express death sightseeing trip, then back to reality.
“Can I use magic now?”
Ceres lightly bit her nail, looking utterly disbelieving.
“Do you have a headache or feel nauseous?”
“No.”
“Any signs of indescribable terror… or that your mind might split apart?”
“Should I?”
“…….”
The “death” Ceres had shown me, that vast black expanse.
Am I not scared?
Of course I’m scared.
The first time I was swallowed by it, I swore I’d never again invest, gamble, bet, or do extreme sports, etc.
I was that determined to root out anything that threatened my safety.
No, it’s hard to describe, but…
It’s so disgusting, creepy, and terrifying I’d almost rather enlist again.
Of course, it’s still scary now too.
But the death Ceres had shown me just now…
Hmm, maybe as unpleasant as reserve duty?
“That’s surprising.”
“What are they usually like?”
“The weak ones just die on the spot.”
“Eek, and the strong ones?”
“They puke or go into shell shock. I knew you had an aptitude, but I didn’t think it was this much.”
“What were you like the first time, Lady Ceres?”
Ceres didn’t answer.
Ah, I see.
An understanding of death.
I understood exactly what kind of stat it was.
Cedric Montraven, the genius necromancer who mocked even the gods.
So I have become death, the destroyer of worlds.
“Now that the aptitude test is over, what should I do?”
“You need to try manipulating mana.”
Ceres, who seemed somewhat troubled, answered.
Her interest seemed to have completely shifted from Project Z to the genius necromancer Cedric.
So had mine.
There were still two weeks until the zombie apocalypse, and a free power-up event was a serious matter.
Power gives you options.
And it helps keep you from dying like an idiot, too.
“Take my hand.”
“Like this?”
I took her hand with our fingers interlaced.
“Your hands are very pretty.”
Ceres gave me a curious side glance and then flowed mana into my body.
At that moment.
“Oh?!”
I could feel my mana circuits twitching.
“Stay still. I’m activating the mana slumbering in your circuits. Think of it as priming the pump. Don’t talk—just feel it.”
A little later, I began to feel the flow of real mana.
It spread through my body in a rush, passing through channels as dense as weed roots.
So this was what it actually felt like?
For about thirty minutes, I stared blankly, contemplating that power.
“Did you feel it properly?”
“Yes, I feel like I can do anything.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself.”
Ceres flicked her finger and tapped me on the tip of the nose.
“What you just felt was nothing but pure mana. If magic were watercolor, this would be the ‘water’ without any pigment. You can’t paint a picture with this.”
“So now I add the paint?”
“You catch on quickly. Go ahead. Draw that space you saw into yourself.”
Ceres explained very kindly in a soft voice.
So much so that I wondered if she even had this side to her.
“Death, darkness, the world of nothingness where everything has stopped. You redefine it. Make your subjectivity become reality.”
What is she talking about?
I wish she wouldn’t use such difficult words.
I’m just a high school graduate.
But contrary to those feelings, confidence was rising in me.
What should I do? For some reason, it didn’t feel impossible.
I closed my eyes and pictured that space of death.
I just needed to give the darkness inside it that ‘I’ll take this~’ vibe, right?
“Guhk…!”
My heart throbbed painfully.
Shit! I suddenly lost a bit of my confidence!
“It’s fine if it hurts. It’s supposed to hurt. Slowly guide the flow and draw it up into your hand.”
My circuits tingled as they heated up.
A bizarre, nauseating sensation, like transparent mana had turned into a black, sticky liquid like tar and was flowing through my body.
But I would endure it.
I wouldn’t die helplessly anymore.
Focus!!!!
After struggling like that for a while.
“Hraaaaaah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
On my palm, a pitch-black darkness gathered, as if death itself had been liquefied.
“Haa….”
The round, clumped darkness looked like a drop of oil floating in outer space.
Hmm, how should I put it?
It was fascinating, and I was very, very surprised that I had this fluffy little potential in me, but…
“It’s tiny.”
Wasn’t I supposed to be a monster of a talent?
The result of squeezing out every last drop of my mental strength and imagination was awfully puny.
I looked at Ceres anxiously.
“…….”
Her eyes were wide open.
My expression brightened right along with hers.
“Did I do well?”
“…….”
Ceres crossed her arms without answering and stared intently at the black droplet of mana I had summoned.
“This is your first time, then?”
“I didn’t know I had such terrifying talent myself.”
“Well… I did check the state of your circuits.”
“How long does it usually take to get this far in the curriculum?”
“If you have enough talent, one year.”
Hmm, that’s a little iffy.
“If you lack talent, a lifetime still wouldn’t be enough.”
Hell, yeah! That’s it!
Is the real deal finally coming? Is pathetic Cedric finally breaking out?
“Come with me for a moment.”
Ceres grabbed my wrist and led me to one side of the Hang House.
It was a white room that brought to mind an operating room.
In other words, Ceres’s workshop, where she had examined Arbel’s corpse.
When she lightly gestured into the air,
“Come out.”
A huge mannequin, maybe 2.5 meters tall, suddenly popped out.
As if it had been there all along.
Its limbs were long and lanky, and its eyelids were stitched crookedly with wire.
It was a mannequin with a flat face whose nose had been ground off as if with a grinder, and jagged, awl-like teeth.
What a brutal face.
It looked like something straight out of a horror game.
-Sniff sniff sniff
The mannequin lumbered over to me and sniffed around.
“…What is this gross thing?”
“That’s your target. I’ll teach you, so take it step by step.”
Ceres interlaced her fingers with mine again.
“Memorize the order and position of mana flow. You’ll use your circuits like a magic circle. Since it’s Tier 0, there’s nothing complicated.”
A mana flow stronger than before circulated once through my body along the circuits.
Like the flow of internal energy?
Once I could feel the flow properly, it wasn’t hard. I memorized it roughly.
“I memorized it step by step.”
“Now you just need to fire the mana at the target… But here’s the important part: you don’t just fire it.”
“Then what?”
“I told you before, didn’t I? Magic is imposing your world upon the world. You squeeze out an image and paint a picture with it.”
“A picture?”
“Think of your opponent’s cause of death and embody it in your image.”
Mama Ceres…
You’re moving way too fast.
Is magic always this abstract?
Can’t it be something like half a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of soy sauce?
“So you mean I should imagine that thing dying after being hit by my magic?”
“Yes. As vividly and specifically as possible. Falling to your death, drowning, electrocution, stabbing, strangulation. The cause of death doesn’t matter. Project the image of death that you can picture most clearly.”
The death I could picture most clearly?
Hmm…
I fell into thought for a moment.
Both the rooftop fall and the Cedric beatdown hurt.
It was scary and painful.
But the death etched most vividly into my mind—
-Clack
The sound of footsteps echoed in my ears like an auditory hallucination.
That chilling sensation of my body being sliced apart like soft butter.
The fleeting memory of my head flying into the sky and spinning around.
Even though I knew it was all in the past, my skin prickled and a cold chill sank deep into my gut.
I probably wouldn’t forget that feeling no matter how many times I died.
Right.
That was the absolute, irresistible death.
That bitch Kisara’s sword strike was the death I could picture most clearly.
“I pictured it.”
“From here on, it’s self-suggestion. You’re painting over the world with your own world.”
“How?”
“You can use an incantation, or make your own routine. What matters is consistency. Anything’s fine as long as you can convince yourself that your own stubbornness is ‘reality.’”
Her voice, softened as if not to disturb my concentration, tickled my ear.
Self-suggestion, huh…
In simple terms, magic is applying your power-fantasy setting to reality.
And self-suggestion means adding my own details so I don’t psych myself out with a ‘But does this actually work?’
In that case, something came immediately to mind.
“…hand seals?”
In front of the puzzled Ceres,
I quietly brought both hands together in front of my solar plexus.
One last memory came to mind.
The form of death that had torn me apart, that fear and despair.
I’d make that mannequin feel it too.
“Split in half and die.”
-Shwaak
That’s what it sounded like.
The round, drifting mana instantly drew a black line through the air, taking on a crescent shape.
A light breeze brushed my cheek.
-Thud
At the same time, the mannequin was sliced along a cut line connecting the top of its head and its groin.
======
:::Challenge Objective (New!):::
- Use Tier 0 magic. +5pt
======
I looked down at my mudra with trembling eyes.
“This is… the power of a necromancer…?”
Death makes it badass!!!
It’s a little different from what I knew, but it’s insanely cool!!!
Now that I think about it, Ceres’s magic was a little different from a conventional necromancer who raises corpses and controls them.
For the first time, I liked this world’s setting.
A corpse-obsessed freak hauling zombies and skeletons around.
In a hyper-inflated setting where rank 7 is Adam Smasher, that would definitely look lame, right?
“Lady Ceres! I did it! Kiss me as a reward, mwah!”
Ah, right, we’re not that close this run yet, are we?
I had unconsciously acted like I did in the previous run.
But Ceres was smiling, not the least bit angry.
It looked incredulous, and also like the smile of someone who had found a very amusing toy.
“Interesting. Very interesting. Extremely… impressive.”
She clapped lightly.
The mannequin split in half snapped back together and disappeared as if sucked into the air.
“What you just used was basic death-type magic. It’s a Cause-of-Death Declaration that lumps the cause together and brings forth the result.”
“Even the name is cool. At this point, how strong would Cedric be?”
Confidence surged through me.
Even when I’d used Level 1 Enhancement and swung Heroi, I’d never felt this confident.
“If you can use only the most basic applications, you’d be about rank 7.”
“Rank 7!”
“It’s only Tier 0, but it’s still ‘magic.’”
In fact, among real mages, Tier 0 magic wouldn’t even count as magic, but who cares?
My chest swelled with excitement.
In just one day since the start of the run, I’d already reached the level where I could stand shoulder to shoulder with Soonming.
“Thank you so much!!!!”
“Thanks, my ass… I never imagined you’d learn it in a single day. I’m speechless.”
“It’s all thanks to my excellent teacher! I didn’t really do anything!”
Seeing Ceres give a dry laugh, I thought.
This run is really different!
.
.
.
Ceres mulled over the moment just now as she looked at Cedric, who was smiling ingratiatingly.
More precisely, the moment Cedric had used “Cause-of-Death Declaration.”
It was a pitiful amount, but Cedric’s process of drawing up mana and mixing in “color” was perfect.
But he completely botched the timing of channeling it through his circuits and bringing it forth.
The mana leaked out through the wrong path, not the one Ceres had told him.
That much I understand.
Death Sentence was a simple spell, but Cedric was a beginner.
It was his first time using it, so getting confused was understandable.
But there was one part I couldn’t understand.
“Split in half and die.”
And yet the Cause-of-Death Declaration still detonated.
It cleanly bisected one of the specimens of the “Masquerade” Ceres was so proud of.
There was only one case where this was possible.
A vivid “image” that could laughably make up for any lack of technique.
A death so vivid it could lightly press down on an ordinary human mind.
When the one facing it could stare it down.
“Um… could I borrow the shower for a bit? As you can see, I’m a sorry mess.”
“Go ahead.”
Cedric headed off to the bathroom, grinning as if nothing had happened.
“What kind of hell did you come back from?”
Watching his retreating back, Ceres murmured without realizing it.