I have become Legion - 6 - Magic

‘You foolish girl!’

‘The Archenemy is defeated!’

‘We are in the era of Peace!’

‘You insult the hero!’

Ieshelia was born an Augur.

From the moment of her birth, she could see glimpses of the future. She could interpret patterns that did not exist to others. She had tried to warn the elders about the return of the Archenemy. But they did not listen. The elders were those who had lived in the time of the Hero. They still believed that the Archenemy was defeated.

But Ieshelia did not believe so.

She witnessed it.

It was a seven-headed hydra.

One head was skeletal. Another was a goat. The third wore a helmet. Fourth was a dragon. Fifth wielded a dagger. Sixth was demonic. And the seventh…

She still shivered at the thought.

“Ah…”

She had collapsed on the ground.

The most primal of fears.

Death.

She had met death.

To warn the world. She had decided to go wander the world. She would try to find people who could fight the calamities. A new hero, one could say. She was searching for such a person. That is when she met him.

Tattered clothes. A gladius at his hip. Frail and sickly.

But Ieshelia saw something else.

To keep her heart calm, she had aimed a spell at it.

At the Seventh Calamity.

He who is the Reaper.

But that thing was calm and joking. It was as if it looked down at all life. She tried her best to buy time by speaking to it. But it didn’t work for long. It approached. Ieshelia felt that everything was meaningless. Her life would be over. The spell would do nothing. And so she stopped breathing.

Yet death did not take her.

He just passed by her.

And continued on his way.

Ieshelia collapsed to the ground then.

The hydra may be seven-headed, but all the power was in the seventh. For he was the weakness in all life.

===

I, Antir Bright, am rich.

Valac had so many treasures.

“Didn’t you already feel enough pain?”

Yeah, buddy. Yeah, I did.

“How about Jack?”

In my hands I was holding a holy ember. No clue why a demon had some of these, but I wasn’t going to complain. This was going to hurt. It hadn’t been that long since I last used one. Well, at least for me. I had blacked out for over a week, after all.

My body burned up, yet…

“Huh.”

It wasn’t that painful.

Yeah, I was burning. My entire body was flaming hot. But it didn’t really hurt. I guess that was my [Pain Conquest] trait, or maybe it’s my insanely high willpower stat.

“Tovern!”

How about that?

“It’s the name of a friend of mine.”

Of course I can’t meet that friend again. Since we’re in different worlds now.

“How the hell?…”

Yeah, I was surprised too, buddy.

But I guess I’m just built different now.

After burning my body for around an hour or so. I had cleared all of my nonsuppressed curses, not including one.

Well, I had enough holy embers for it. But I didn’t think this guy would harm me.

“Isn’t that right, buddy?”

“I can’t even harm you, even if I wanted to.”

I jumped up from the ground. Activating [Limit Break] for a moment. Of course, there was some pain, but I’d need to get used to pain.

Well, this is gonna be hard.

“Any ideas, buddy?”

I looked around at the piles of golden coins and magical items. There were some art pieces, cultural artifacts, and weird stuff as well.

“I thought you had this already figured out.”

Was my buddy glaring at me?

“If you don’t choose a name soon, I’ll just keep calling you Buddy.”

And yeah. Actually, I didn’t have any plans on how to transport these treasures.

“I don’t have anything.”

I guessed so… Well; I guess I have to do that.

“What is That?”

Time to sell my soul!

“WHAT?!”

I’m a Calamity right? That means the Calamitous powers will be giving me many things. The thing is.. They have quite the special price. All the calamities end up like this. The Calamitous powers give them a trait and then offer them more stuff in exchange for some corruption.

So I’ll take some corruption and get in exchange a trait that will allow me to store these items.

“Aren’t you afraid that you’ll fall to corruption?”

Huh? No way. It’s gonna be a little annoying, but I’ll never lose.

After I had just gotten out of the lotus position, I straightaway went back to it. Closed my eyes, and sent a little prayer bird.

‘Hello Calamitous powers, you there?’

Opening my eyes, I saw infinite space, a void.

“What is it you wish to gain?”

A million voices spoke out in my head.

“Void Storage — Void Trait [A-1]“

I spoke calmly.

The void itself took form. It was the form of a woman. She was beautiful, with long black hair. Purple eyes that pulled you in. And a figure that would tempt even a god.

Huh? I don’t remember anything like this in-game.

She approached me, and in an instant, I felt a soft sensation pressing on my chest. She whispered something in my ear…

It was very comforting.

The words didn’t make sense.

But I understood the meaning.

Yeah, right, why did I have to save the world?

I could just go hide somewhere.

The other calamities wouldn’t fight me.

Then… Then I could… I could come to this place more often.

She will give me everything.

“Ugly Bitch.”

I spoke out to her.

What?

Why are you so surprised?

I am Legion.

No temptation will work on me.

I already healed from your corruption.

My sight came back to me, and I was back in the dungeon.

Well, that was fucked.

“Did you fall to corruption?”

My shadow asked me, a bit afraid, it seemed.

“Yeah.”

“But I got better.”

It was a bit of a gamble. I figured I could resist the corruption if I tried my best. But I also thought that Legion would allow me to heal from the corruption. Well, I still shouldn’t do that again. The Calamitous powers are probably gonna figure out something new to fuck me over.

But still…

Why a beautiful woman?

Is that really the best way to tempt me? Uhh… Maybe?

Honestly, the words were more tempting. Like I’m already tired of fighting constantly. Pain is painful. Death is scary. Even as I conquer both, those are still human things.

One price for speaking directly to a god is that you lose a part of your faith. And well, my faith just went down to 30 from that. Still, it’s best this way. I don’t really wanna keep these treasures waiting here for a random person to pick up. They’re rightfully mine by right of murder.

Oops, I forgot I didn’t actually become a follower of the God of Murder.

Thankfully [Void Storage] is an A grade inventory trait, meaning I can fit all these treasures.

“Honestly, why did you have to be so rich?”

You didn’t even do anything with it.

I have more loose change than an entire kingdom.

So I guess when I come to the academy I’ll be the richest person there.

Out of the treasures, there’s a lot of important stuff for my future plans. But I’ll only talk about them when they become relevant. We wouldn’t want to listen to me yap about a bunch of stuff that will happen in the future, right?

“Who are you talking to?”

Huh? The readers, of course. This situation makes no sense for it to be reality. It’s straight up the plot of a novel, right? So there’s gotta be readers.

“You are insane.”

Yes, I am.

Stretching.

Yeah, I gotta stretch before running. Right?

“So, where are we going next?”

Well, since I killed one demon already. How about I go kill a second one?

“Let me guess. You also somehow know their name?”

Obviously.

Magic Power is weird though.

“What do you mean?”

Like it kinda feels like blood. It’s flowing through my body. I can kinda understand that. But unlike blood, I can actually feel it. It’s a strange sensation.

“Right. You said you’re from another world. Did your world not have magic power?”

Nope. None of that.

“Then your civilizations must’ve been more primitive.”

Actually, the opposite. We bullied nature into doing things way beyond most magic. Like we went to the moon with explosives. We trapped lightning to fuel our cities. And uh, a bunch of other cool stuff. Well, I don’t really know much more, since I was pretty reclusive. And I dropped out of school.

“I’d say that’s much stranger.”

I guess so.

Anyway, about magic power. It also kinda feels like a wave going through my body. Especially so for me. Since the magic power stat is based on your willpower, so I have tons of it.

So yeah, I should probably figure out how to use it.

I’ve read all the books in-game, so that should count for something, right?

Like I actually decoded all the magic symbols, so I could’ve made my own spells, but I wasn’t allowed to. Boo hoo.

So yeah, with all that. I should be able to figure out how to use magic power, and, well, magic by myself. So while running. I feel out the ripples in the magic power. Closing my eyes as my body goes up and down. Annoyingly, I feel my heart beating really loudly.

Oh, it stopped.

[Your health has reached 0]

[You have di…]

[Legion activates – You cannot die]

I got up from the ground.

What the fuck?

Did I really just run fast and long enough till my heart literally stopped?

Damn scary.

Well, whatever. Time to do it again.

So yeah. Magic Power. Back on track. Let’s see. Hmm… Yeah… Right… Maybe?… Honestly… I have no clue. How am I supposed to move it around? Like, uh, I can feel it moving in my body. Like a tide. But how do I affect that? And how do I make it do stuff?

The books in-game just told me higher order concepts like how to construct spells and such.

‘FUCKER LISTEN TO ME!!!’

Oh, damn, that worked.

I felt the magic power inside my body try to escape when I thought that.

So I need to be aggressive. Threaten it kinda like that?

“I might not know a lot about the world.”

Huh, what are you talking about?

“But I do know that you’re way beyond saving.”

Aww shucks man, no need to compliment me like that. I know that I don’t need saving, since I can just do it myself.

“You know that isn’t what I meant.”

Then you asshole! How am I supposed to make the magic power move?

“Apply your intent to it.”

What does that even mean? Nevermind. I’ve got it already. I’ve already figured out my own way.

“You’re not using magic power the proper way. You’re just making it scared of you.”

That works though, doesn’t it?

“But how!? And why?”

The why is simple.

Mages, when they’re young, they develop the tools to use magic power. Let’s say that magic power is water. Normally, you’d start by using your hands to hold your magic power. If you’ve ever held water between your hands in a shower, then it’s like that. But their magic power grows bigger and bigger, so they need something else. So they develop buckets, then barrels, and such on. But here’s my problem. My magic power is the entire ocean. And I only have my hands to lift it all.

So I can’t. It’s just not possible.

Instead, I use a little trick. It’s something everyone who has a “law trait” can do. And Legion is a law trait and a calamity trait, so I can also do it. Basically, since law traits make you the representatives of those physical forces, you are quite influential in the conceptual court. And out of all the laws, Legion represents the greatest one. Fun thing, magic power is somewhat conscious within the conceptual court.

But they’re not that important. It’s kinda like an intern being screamed at by the emperor of the multiverse. Yeah, honestly, they’re probably scared as fuck. They can’t think properly, so they just do what I tell them to do. But they all do it. Instead of me having proper control, I just scream at them to go in a direction.

And that’s the how.

“Insane.”

It’s crude and unrefined, but you if you have enough… You can do this.

‘Condense!’

An angry command resonates with my immense willpower, and through the Law of Permanence. The Magic Power in my body obeys in fear. The ocean compresses into a small point of blue in the center of my palm.

And I.

‘Be Free!’

Let it loose.

All the magic power explodes forth, free of my command. It has become an energy of the world, and an explosion destroys a part of my body. My arm is gone, my face is burnt half off. An immense amount of pain streams through my head, so I just suffer through it. Till my body regenerates. Of course, thanks to the power of Legion, this does not take long.

So that is what you can do with a fuckton of magic power.

And it fucking hurts!

It’s a worthy price for that power though. Would have another.

Rather, I will have another.

“What the hell do you plan to do now?”

Well, I need a speed boost, right? The basic spell for speed boost is just improving your muscles, right? But that ain’t good enough for me. Let’s start at the top. This is an especially good place to train this kind of thing… Yeah, probably not. So instead of improving my speed. I’m thinking of shrinking the space between myself and the goal. And since the Misty Forest already has a bunch of spatial distortions, I can use those as an example.

Like why should I begin from the beginning, when I can just challenge the hardest challenge right away. I might die. But that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make. Especially considering how I’m just gonna revive right after.

Ok let’s try this.

First, threaten the magic power to form a field right in front of me.

Good, good. This is looking nice.

It’s a little hard to concentrate though since I’m also running at full speed.

Ok next up is to, uh… Let’s see. Increase the length of the field and then forcefully shrink it, pulling myself to the end of that field.

And let’s try it.

[Your health has reached 0]

[You have di…]

[Legion activates – You cannot die]

Ok slight problem…

Correction.

I think I made a slight mistake.

The field was supposed to start from behind me, not in-front of me.

Since with how I did it, it just ripped the front half of my body from my back half.

“You know a normal person wouldn’t be trying such dangerous magics.“

As I said—

“A normal person would start with the easy magics first, to prove that they can.”

Hey why did you cut me off.

“Normally you’d learn from a teacher first. Since you know magic is dangerous.”

But I’m—

“But you’re an idiot.”

Built different.

You know… You were much more fun when you seemed afraid of me.

“Oh, I am terrified. But as you said, it’s more fun to make fun.”

“Hahahahahaha.”

Okay, that’s fair.

“Anyway, how the fuck does that work?”

What do you mean?

“You just distorted space, didn’t you?”

Oh that? It’s quite simple. I told the magic to form into a field with a specific shape, and then I told it to transform that field’s shape. Very simple isn’t it. Tell it to be a 1×1 box, and then tell it to be 1×2 box, and everything gets dragged. You can use it to rip apart a person technically.

“If that’s really possible, why isn’t everyone a space magic mage?”

Cus, it takes a fuckton of magic power. To do that failure, that I just did. It took everything. And I barely moved 20 meters. The cost of creating the field and then transforming it depends on the magic power density, air doesn’t have a lot, so this is easier. But to do this to an actual person, it would take tons more.

“Wait, if you’re shrinking the space. Wouldn’t that cause your insides to shrink?”

Yup. It probably would’ve hurt a fuckton. If I had felt it. But nah, I saw the message on my system. I had died instantly, so Legion just reformed me. That magic wouldn’t work with anyone else.

Oh right. What kinda life did you live before you got attached to me?

“That… I don’t actually remember.”

Well, that’s fucked.

You think the demons sealed your memory?

“Maybe? I don’t know.”

Well, you probably already noticed, but I’m actually not Antir Bright. My name is []. I’m from earth, a recluse living off my parent’s moderate sized fortune. In my world there was this game called [Quest], and I think it was made in the image of this world. Or rather, I think this world is just a copy of that game. But you’re probably going to disagree with me on that.

“Yes… It doesn’t really make sense that this world is a game.”

Even though there’s video game mechanics as part of the lore? No nevermind. Those probably just seem normal to you.

“I have no clue what you just said.”

Fair.

[Your health has reached 0]

[You have di…]

[Legion activates – You cannot die]

My heart again stopped from overwork.

I got up from the ground.

“I wonder how long have I been running.”

Well, whatever. I continue running. I’m still following the path to that place. It’s a city with a demon. The demon, Camio, the fucker is an annoying plotting guy who causes a bunch of incidents in the future. So gonna kill him before he does anything too bad. And also get some proper clothes. I’m basically nude with how many tears there are in my clothes. The important parts are still covered up, though.

“So you want to save the world?”

Yeah… I’ve witnessed this world’s future many times. And I like the people in this world. As I said before, I was a recluse in my previous world. So I didn’t really interact with others much. But in this world there’s a lot of people I care about. Even if they don’t know me.

“I don’t really understand it. But I’ll help you. Or rather, I’ll serve you.”

Serve?

“Yes. I was made for it. My entire essence wants me to serve the rulers of hell.”

But I’m a human.

“You’re a demon of greater evil.”

Well, humanity is pretty terrifying.

“You are terrifying.”

One hundred twenty nine.

That’s the tree right there.

Now if I got through this portal, I’ll only be around one hour from the city of Ivearlisk.

“Right, you get powers when you kill demons?”

Yeah?

“So what’s President Camio’s power?”

Oh that?

It’s an A rank ability called [Prediction].

“Then wouldn’t he know you’re already coming after him?”

That’s exactly why I’m trying my best to get there so fast.

So I continue to just run. Each step that I take feels like the mix of stepping on a lego and walking on a really hot surface. I don’t have the words to describe it. And that’s just what my feet feel. All the muscles in my body are crying out and the pain feels like it’s ringing in my head. My body ran out of sweat a long time ago, and so I just get hotter and hotter, it feels like I’m burning alive. Each beat of my heart feels like it’s constricting around my neck, each one takes away my breath. And that’s just the physical effects of my running. With Limit Break I feel like I’m being shocked alive, and the continuous use of Spatial Distortion to move forward ends up with my physical condition constantly restored from the instant deaths.

Yet even with all this. I have to continue training while running. What do I need to train? I need to become better at using my magic power. Currently it’s slow. So every time my magic power feels like it’s restored enough, I use it to blow up a hand of mine. They restore at a quick enough rate that I can keep doing this. Of course not having a hand is a pain, and obviously painful. But still, I need something to train my magic power.

And well… That’s how my journey continues towards Ivearlisk.