Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint - Chapter 646

WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Chapter 646: Black Magic, White Magic, and Gray Magic - 9

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Cyan Tower Master Elisha Celsius held another title as well. She was the director of intelligence for the Arcane Federation, a powerful position overseeing all information flowing through the floating castle.

Elisha had been appointed director less for her abilities than for her personality. Most mages were solitary and self-centered, making them poor at observing others or digging up information. Aside from Elisha, whose social skills were excellent and who knew how to coordinate people, there was no one suited to the role.

Though Elisha secretly looked down on everyone, she performed her duties surprisingly well. Most information from inside and outside the floating castle passed through her hands, and she gathered and verified it with her natural intelligence.

That information included what Hughes had done after descending to Celsius territory.

"Lankart Spendry. I did as you said and kept an eye on Hughes, but..."

Elisha had suggested that Hughes stay with the Celsius family while he remained in the lower world. Celsius was her ancestral house, after all, and it lacked nothing an outstanding mage might need. It had been a gesture of goodwill, but Hughes had given an evasive answer and, for some reason, begun teaching children at an academy in the borderlands.

It was strange, but understandable. Hughes had been researching how to use magic with insufficient mana, and teaching children in the lower world while searching for a solution seemed plausible enough.

At some point, though, Elisha received word that Hughes was spreading standardized magic. She might have left, but Celsius was still her ancestral house. Elisha did not conceal the information, and the intelligence bureau discreetly passed it along to Celsius territory.

"Is this really all right?"

As a result, a clash occurred. It had been easy enough to foresee, and it could have been stopped.

If not for Lankart Spendry.

"What does it matter? Standardized magic is low-grade magic, sure, but there's no magic better suited to people of a low grade. Hui's judgment is completely sound."

Elisha had tried to stop the conflict. Nothing good would come from a disturbance now that the floating castle had descended. But Lankart stopped her, and Elisha had no choice but to follow his lead.

Was it because Lankart seemed willing to fight if necessary? That was part of it.

"Is that what the Temple of the Demon God wants?"

More precisely, it was because of those standing behind Lankart Spendry.

The Demon God's Temple.

Lankart answered with his arms folded.

"Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka is a Demon God. She had always been close to becoming one, but some incident brought about a complete rebirth. Hui was probably involved."

Elisha raised an eyebrow slightly. It was the first time she had heard that information, and nothing she had learned so far would have allowed her to deduce it. Lankart must have intentionally omitted it.

Of course, Lankart's words contained fanatical faith in Hughes and a leap of logic born from it, but they were still close to the truth.

"The first reason standardized magic is low-grade is because it demands the body as payment. The second is that, despite being black magic, it requires too little sacrifice to unleash great magic. It's ironic. It commits taboos for power, yet lacks the power to show for it. But if a vampire's regenerative ability could cover that cost..."

"The range of magic they could use would increase dramatically."

There was a form of magic called blood magic. It was magic vampires used by consuming their blood energy. Its origins lay in black magic, but offering their own bodies as sacrifices came so easily to vampires that it had been given a different name.

If every human could use it as a technique...

"The Demon God's Temple intends to make black magic into a World Rule?"

Elisha calmly stated the Demon God's Temple's ultimate goal, their long-cherished ambition.

A World Rule.

A rule the Demon God's Temple would build and apply across the entire world.

Great mage families wove relics into magic to create rules. They established rules in this cold, desolate land, then used those rules in their own ways to survive.

Yet no matter how powerful a relic was, it was only an object that caused phenomena in exchange for mana. Its range and power were limited. Relics were not eternal either. They could reach their limits, suffer damage, or be thrown out of balance by outside interference.

Many great mage families had disappeared because of that unavoidable uncertainty. After the powerful Fahrenheit Territory fell, some mages in particular began to have doubts.

Was it right to rely on rules built upon such imperfect relics?

The Celsius family sought greater stability by using more relics, but other mages looked outward.

Instead of imperfect relics with clear limits, they would place perfect, infinite mysteries at the heart of their magic circles.

Instead of a range covering no more than one city, they would encompass the entire planet.

Instead of unique magic, they would use the laws of the world.

They would bind Demon Gods together and create a vast, powerful, eternal rule encompassing the whole world.

The Demon God's Temple was a group gathered to pursue a goal that could tempt any mage.

It was the world's most dangerous secret society.

Lankart, one of its most dangerous mages, nodded without hesitation.

"Hui must have judged it worth considering."

Elisha was confused. As far as she knew, Hughes was a pure outsider from the military state who had never once set foot on Arcane Federation territory. How could he be connected to the Demon God's Temple?

And besides...

"I was the one who found you and brought you to the Demon God's Temple. Until then, I had never even heard of a person named Hughes."

Elisha had once been a member of the Demon God's Temple, though she kept her distance from it now. That made it even harder for her to understand.

Lankart spoke casually.

"You're the only one who's ever given me something I could call kindness. You may be proud."

"My eye for talent was accurate when I noticed yours... But now it feels like a mistake."

Back when Elisha had first entered the floating castle, she had worked for the intelligence bureau while traveling to nations around the world under the guise of a wandering mage.

The military state was a closed country that controlled information by unknown means. Too little was known about it for a nation of its size, but Elisha knew that was exactly when one had to target people.

Elisha approached the military state's mage officers, found the most talented among them, and won that person over. It was something no other mage could have imagined doing, but Elisha had succeeded.

It had become the thing she regretted most.

Lankart said,

"A mistake? Knowing something can never be a mistake. Not knowing is wrong. It's a deficiency. If you made one mistake, it was failing to see one thing."

"Your personality?"

"What's wrong with my personality? Besides, there's something more important than such a trivial matter."

Lankart dismissed his own personality as a trivial issue and wore a confident expression.

"You didn't know Hui."

"...What is he, exactly?"

"Hui can't be defined with one trivial phrase. That's why you can't understand him."

What in the world had Hughes done to turn that arrogant mage into such an ardent follower? It was beyond Elisha's comprehension.

"You don't seem to understand. Well, I get it. I didn't recognize him at first either. But... I can tell you one thing for certain."

Filled with faith so strong it bordered on madness, Lankart declared without the slightest hesitation.

"No mage can defeat Hui."

Law was written in law books, but it did not exist there.

If one had to find a material home for the intangible concept of law, it existed in people's hearts. That was why spreading a law could be a greater task than creating one. To change a single law, one had to overcome the hearts of everyone who knew it.

In that sense, the Arcane Federation's rules possessed a trait every ruler desired.

Immediate effect.

The moment a territorial rule changed, it applied to everyone in the territory.

"Huh? What's going on?"

"It's warm... Did summer come?"

"That can't be it. The family must be holding some festival. Or perhaps Lord Demon King in the floating castle complained about the cold."

The territory's temperature rose.

Celsius territory's rule was that its freezing and boiling points were abnormal. It had bound heat and raised the temperature, protecting this land from the bitter cold... until now.

The relics were located at the heart of the Celsius family, so the Celsius castle inevitably had to be the warmest place. Since the center of power was here, it was only natural that the heat remained here as well.

I changed that effect a little.

In addition to trapping heat, I made the rule gather cold from across the territory.

"It's warm. I finally feel like I can live. When the weather's cold, you have to stoke the fire harder, right?"

"Stop this at once!"

Rankin Celsius raised a staff and prepared a spell. Cold air pouring from it took the shape of icicles. As swirling mana coated the icicles, Rankin Celsius completed the spell.

"Ice Spike!"

The pointed ends of the icicles bore forced freezing magic, while their rears carried forced vaporization magic. Blasting white smoke behind them, the icicles flew at me like flaming arrows.

Oh, how scary. I reached for the thermometer in the Heritage Vault. Far above, I lightly touched the mark labeled 100 and muttered.

"Boiling Point Control, Over."

Pshhhhh.

The flying icicles rapidly lost strength. They had been propelled by jets of vapor through forced vaporization magic, but changing the boiling point stopped the vapor jets.

I watched the icicles wobble and flutter like butterflies, then adjusted the mark again.

"Boiling Point Control, Under."

The icicles that had lost their direction gained propulsion again. They shot off rapidly in every direction, targeting places throughout Celsius territory instead of me.

Rankin Celsius's expression hardened. No one knew the danger of those icicles better than Rankin.

"The icicles are enchanted with freezing magic! Don't get hit!"

Rankin Celsius raised a protective wall of ice around himself. Rankin's guards hid behind it, but the others had no such luxury.

"Aah!"

"Run!"

They failed to find cover in time and were struck directly by the icicles. Thud, thud thud. Dull impacts rang out. They were all armed, so the impact itself was not severe, but the problem was the freezing magic on the icicles. Ice spread outward from the points of impact. People screamed as they froze...

"Freezing Point Control. Over."

At that moment, the ice burst into water bombs. The drenched soldiers stared at one another in bewilderment. I clapped and shouted through the hazy steam.

"That was the Soaked Show! Thank you, everyone!"

‘What the...!’

Rankin Celsius, floundering in the water from the melted ice wall, could not hide shock.

‘It wasn't an accident. He didn't even aim for that. He calculated the freezing and boiling points, then altered their trajectories! How can someone who isn't even a Celsius use the relics so well?’

People who were suddenly soaked usually reacted in one of two ways. They either wilted or grew angry at the wetness and discomfort.

Most of the reactions I saw now were the latter. They had even armed themselves to capture me, so I supposed it couldn't be helped.

"You...!"

Before I could do anything, the troops rushed at me together. Soaked through, they charged at me, the one controlling the freezing and boiling points.

Well, it couldn't be helped. You wouldn't know unless you experienced it.

"Stop! Don't approach while you're wet...!"

"Freezing Point Control."

Crunch.

The charging troops froze from the ankles up. They lost their balance, crashed into one another, and fell, turning the place into chaos.

Kelvin Celsius said it was nothing special, but that was excessive humility. Controlling the freezing and boiling points was foundational knowledge in this land. If you could control them, you could do anything.

That was why the qualification did not come from bloodline or knowledge.

It simply meant that anyone could do it, as long as they used the tool well.

"W-What is that...?"

"Someone who isn't a Celsius... How can he use magic like that...?"

It seemed ice really was colder than water. They got angry when soaked with water, yet lost their spirit when struck by ice.

"This time, it's the Frozen Solid Show! Thank you!"

"That..."

No? They were angry again.

Then it happened.

"The strength of fools won't be enough."

Whoosh.

The ice flowed inward like an ebbing tide, gathering in one place.