Chapter 16 - Midterm Exam (4)

"First, you need to decide which of your patron devil's authorities you'll borrow. That's where it starts."

"Can I only use one?"

"Usually, yes. The Devil's price increases exponentially. If you want more authorities, they demand a much higher price. As a Devil Sorcerer, you should know this better than anyone, right?"

Sorry. I don't know about that.

"So, creating magic by borrowing a devil's power can be seen as starting with which of the devil's authorities you want to imitate. Understanding the Devil's power properly. Start with that."

"What comes after that?"

"You need to adjust. You've conceptualized a spell, so you'll pay this much as the price for using it. Ask the Devil to make the magic functional. Don't worry. Creating Devil Sorcerer magic itself isn't as difficult as for other mages. You leave the complex mana formulas or magic circles to the Devil and just prepare the price."

I see. So that’s how it works.

It was advice that would become the flesh and bones of my knowledge.

[I see...]

You shouldn't be understanding this just now, Lady Seir.

[...You are irreverent.]

§

There was a reason why I hadn't completed my magic yet despite having enough time.

It was because Seir's authorities were so diverse.

Depending on which authority I chose, the concept of the Devil's magic created through my pact with Seir would be determined.

Financial luck guaranteeing material abundance, detection power to find hidden things, dominion to command winged horses as subordinates, and so on...

As Seir herself described it as being infinitely close to omnipotence, her authorities were extremely wide-ranging.

So, I had to ponder my options.

But at this moment.

My pondering was dispelled.

I've decided.

[Tell me, my pact-bearer.]

I didn't have the skills needed to dodge that attack.

I had put up defense magic, but I instinctively knew.

It wasn't enough to block that.

So, what I needed now was...

The authority of movement. That's what I want.

[A wise choice.]

Right after Seir's reply.

It felt as if her hand touched my back.

Cold yet warm.

Heavy yet light.

A force that was still yet moving.

I felt the mana flowing through the pact seal coursing through my body, building some kind of framework.

Not satisfied with just flowing through all the nerves in my body, that mana seeped into my brain.

Lightning struck my brainstem.

The brainstem, which had the fastest response speed of the brain, was responsible for maintaining life functions.

At the same time, it was the part that regulated the state of consciousness.

My consciousness accelerated.

I realized what I needed to do, and how I should do it.

As soon as the realization came to be, I exerted my will.

Skaaaaak!!

"Huh?"

The dumbfounded voice of the guy echoed in the cavern.

It was understandable.

The strike he thought would definitely hit had missed.

Moreover, he had momentarily lost sight of me.

It wasn't just high-speed movement.

It was something of a different level.

Spatial movement.

It wasn't something that could be followed even with excellent dynamic vision.

The fragment of authority Seir had allowed was truly an incomprehensible mystery in itself.

A magic close to a miracle, whose principle I couldn't begin to understand even as I utilized it.

I thought of a name for this spell.

A name...

Spells needed a name.

A name defined the mystery, confirmed its form, and became an anchor that fixed that phenomenon in the world.

Spells that established their existence in this manner reproduced the same mystery afterward.

And for the name to give this magic, there could only be one.

"Blink...!"

[La Traviata!]

What, what?

"Huh...? La, what?"

[La Traviata. The Woman Who Strayed! S-surely you know of it, my pact-bearer?]

I nearly shouted, "What are you yappin’ about, you weeb?"

No, short-range spatial movement is definitely Blink.

This is a fact recorded even in the Goguryeo Watermelon Diagram.

If it wasn’t Blink, 500 million League of Legends players would rise up.

And besides, I'm not a woman; I'm a man.

"It's Blink. I can't give in on this."

[You haven’t seen Giuseppe Verdi's opera La Traviata; how can that be, my pact-bearer! Is this what they call culture shock, no, cultural collapse...!?]

I don't care about that...

Here it comes again!

Flash!

For an instant, my vision turned black and then returned.

I was back in the place where the guy's attack had just sliced through empty air.

The face of the psychopath who had been smiling even after killing people had turned cold.

Having seen it twice, the guy must have understood it.

The nature of the spell I had used.

"You, what are you? How can you use space...?"

To the guy asking with a visibly shocked expression, I returned the same words he had just said, "Is that important?"

"...You're right."

Kiiiiiiing-

An aggressive noise arose around the psychopath's body.

It sounded like a saw blade turning in some machine.

A Battle Mage? Or an Elementalist handling wind?

Shwaaak-!

A slashing attack flew without giving me time to think.

Flash-!

Another Blink.

This time, I immediately fired the magic bullet I had been condensing.

Boom!

It hit.

But it's too weak.

The power of the magic bullet couldn't penetrate that guy's defensive magic.

It was different from the entrants.

Unlike the newcomers who had never even entered the Abyss, the psychopath before him was a veteran who had been in and out of the Abyss, killing countless people.

His level of defense magic was of a different dimension.

"I see. You're a Devil Sorcerer, right? There's no way an infant mage could use spatial movement. That attack just now was also Devil's mana. I wonder how many more times you can use it?"

The guy regained his composure as he figured out the nature of my magic.

Those who borrow the power of Devils must pay a price.

If that was the case just for drawing mana, how much greater would the price be for touching the high-dimensional realm of spatial movement?

That's probably what this guy is thinking.

Moreover, the relief from knowing that my attacks couldn't harm him led the guy into an even more excited state.

"Come on! Come on! Try to dodge! Keep using it!"

Laughing maniacally as if he had taken drugs, the guy indiscriminately raised wind blades.

Flash-flash-!

Wind blades whirling in all directions.

A situation arose where I had to use Blink consecutively.

This is problematic.

I felt nauseous.

It was like riding a gyro drop without a break.

His body wasn't moving at all, but the visual information changed drastically in an instant, and that discrepancy shook his brain.

As he staggered from dizziness, the guy burst into laughter and shouted, "Ha! At your limit already!? That's what happens when a worm like a Devil Sorcerer dares to touch space."

He was really excited.

Giggling as if he had already won just because I staggered a little.

I need to increase the power of magic bullet.

Compression alone wasn't enough.

Even though I had increased the output by shooting from his fingertips instead of my palm, it was still blocked.

It's too much to reduce the number of fingers right now.

Then.

Rotation.

The image of the magic bullet was a gun.

And the power of guns changed dramatically with the introduction of rifling.

By adding rotation through rifling, bullets could travel further and stronger.

It was the same principle.

Add rotation.

Among the four fingers, two would be straight, while the index and ring fingers would be twisted like rifling grooves to add rotation.

The magic bullet, with added rotation, extended in a straight line and struck the guy.

Clang!

The sound was different.

Unlike before, when it crumbled powerlessly like an egg hitting a rock, this time, it visibly chipped away at the guy's defense magic.

It was enough power to give a sense of crisis.

If it hit the same spot consecutively, Roman's magic bullet would reach the guy's flesh.

The guy realized this too.

Wiping the smile off his face, suppressing his excitement, and regaining his reason.

The guy's eyes quickly darted around, focusing on his attention of me.

But what good was it to just look at me?

"I think you're making a big misunderstanding."

Seeing the Blink must have captivated his attention.

And with the stinging power of the rotating magic bullet, his head must be filled with thoughts of killing me.

I understood.

Even he thought it was quite unfair.

Spatial movement that just required enduring some motion sickness?

This was unbearable.

But that wasn't right.

"I'm not the only one here, you know."

Along with Roman's words from the passage connected to the cavern behind the guy, Leaf's clear voice rang out loudly.

"Undine! Pierce through!!"

With a bursting sound sharper than the guy's saw blade noise, a stream of water gushed out.

It was a super high-pressure cannon that compressed the massive amount of water Undine had gathered into a single point while Roman was buying time.

Splaaash!

The water stream pierced through the guy's defense magic, penetrated his body and turned red with blood.

"Huh?"

This was why spirit magic was scary.

It wasn't the strength of the Spirit Summoner themselves, but that of the spirit.

The problem was that in such cases, more often than not, the Spirit Summoner was controlled by the strong spirit.

Fortunately, or perhaps inevitably, Leaf's spirit faithfully fulfilled its role.

"You, bitch...!"

The guy turned his head to glare at Leaf.

Even Roman, who was out of his line of sight, felt chills from that intense killing intent.

How must Leaf feel, facing him head-on?

"You, at least..."

Kiiiiing-!

In the midst of dying.

The guy turned the direction of the mana he had gathered to intercept me towards Leaf.

A saw blade, forcibly drawn out from the dying flame of life, rotated fiercely.

Leaf, exposed to the killing intent, froze.

She looked like she couldn't put the thought of moving her feet into action.

Towards such a Leaf, the guy shot his vengeful saw blades.

"No."

Flash-!

"You die alone."

Flash-

Two Blinks.

That was enough to render the guy's last struggle futile.