Chapter 40: Fragments of the Past (3)

Manya and Vena, examining Signa’s body, quickly realized that these were magical symptoms.

First, Vena traced the flow of magic by touching Signa’s throat and forehead.

“…Tremendous magic. It’s boiling throughout her body. This amount, speed, and intensity… My goodness. Where on earth did this magic come from…?”

“That’s impossible! Signa… Lady Thermis isn’t a magician!”

Manya denied Vena’s diagnosis.

“But, this magic… the amount far exceeds even our limits.”

That, too, was an unbelievable story.

As Manya said, Signa was not a magician.

“Was she hiding something like a catalyst?”

“No. To be exact…”

Vena was sweating profusely.

“Magic… is being created inside her.”

“Being created?”

“I’ve never seen anything like this before. Magic is something that a spellcaster brings from the surroundings, but this…”

The room right next door was a magician’s prison where magic was extremely scarce.

Here, it was just a narrow passage in a cave.

Signa was not a magician, and Vena couldn’t even see the magic flowing into Signa in her eyes.

Yet, a tremendous amount of magic was rushing through Signa’s body like a torrent.

It seemed as if magic was suddenly being created out of nothing.

“I’ve felt it somewhere before, somehow black and ominous… This magic is somewhere… recently…”

Manya also touched Signa’s body again.

“Wait a minute. This is…”

She had to feel it with much duller senses than Vena,

But the moment she touched Signa’s body, Manya immediately recognized whose magic it was.

The black and ominous magic that Vena spoke of. Something so unique that it could be felt even with a magician’s synesthesia, not just sight.

Manya recalled Yukomis’s appearance threatening her in the Kipol Magic Tower.

“Yukomis’s…?”

“Ah. That’s right! It’s the very magic I saw right before she used the pillar of fire!”

Magic was something that was brought into the caster’s body from the outside.

However, as magic gathered and circulated around the magician, there were cases where it had a special ‘feeling’ or ‘atmosphere’ containing the spellcaster’s personality.

Like a fingerprint.

But the difference from a fingerprint was that such differences were very small or rare among magicians who were uninspired and close to mediocrity.

Such differences were something that only magicians with sensitive senses and extensive knowledge could recognize.

As is well known, most of the Wyvern Knights were exceptions,

And Yukomis belonged to a very extreme exception among those exceptions.

It wasn’t an ambiguous personality such as ‘a little reddish’ or ‘somehow seems to have a fresh scent’.

Once a magician experienced that dynamic and grotesque feeling of a swarm of insects boiling at their feet, they could never forget it.

That Yukomis’s magic was now flowing fiercely through Signa’s body.

Although it was only a handful, the flow of magic that very slightly opposed it was clear.

“It’s my magic…”

The magic she had poured in to fix Signa in her current form.

Manya had calculated everything from the start and transformed Signa into a woman.

The magic she had poured into Signa’s body, who was not even a magician, was fixed and had high stability unless something unusual happened.

But now, Manya’s magic was being messed up by the crazy flow of Yukomis’s magic.

That magic didn’t come from the outside either.

As Vena said…

“It’s like there’s a perpetual motion machine of magic somewhere inside her body…”

And it was constantly springing up.

“That can’t be!”

Manya suddenly rushed into the prison like crazy.

And confirmed Yukomis, who was still unconscious.

Of course, she was not using any magic.

It was a situation where nothing made sense.

Returning to Signa’s side in a flustered state, she thoroughly searched Signa’s belongings.

Could there be an object with magic or a relic?

‘The holy sword? Let’s put that aside for now.’

It had been emitting light until a little while ago, but at least now it was completely quiet.

While feeling her clothes and checking her belongings, Manya felt something strange.

She felt something wriggling under the clothes Signa was wearing.

Without hesitation, she loosened the front of her outer garment and shirt, and Manya felt nauseous for a moment at the sight that finally appeared.

Her chest…

Signa’s chest was boiling.

The skin near her heart was as if it had turned into mud, not flesh.

“What is it? What is this?”

The flesh turned into a liquid, then hardened again, and then became a liquid again.

That was being repeated indefinitely.

While the two shocked magicians were frozen, someone was silently crossing the cave passage.

It wasn’t the subordinate guarding the entrance.

Rather, that someone had completely neutralized all the subordinates and reached this place in an instant, chasing the faint signs of people in the cave.

Until just before reaching right behind the two magicians’ backs, she had not made the slightest noise.

What she held in her hand was a spear about 2m long, with the entire blade and handle made of metal.

An object made to function as both a staff and a spear.

It meant that the owner was an extremely rare person with both magic and close combat skills.

When Manya sensed someone’s presence, she was already aiming the spear blade at Manya’s neck.

“Explain.”

The voice she spat out was as cold as the temperature of the metal.

“What did you do.”

Vena, who saw the face of the stranger next to Manya, made a frightened breath.

It was Silissa’s voice.

She looked completely different from the last time she saw her.

Silissa, who did not resist and was just helplessly dragged off the platform and kicked out of the cave.

But now, Silissa, aiming the spear tip at Manya’s neck, was in a truly murderous state.

She had no sense of her usual reverence or humor, and Manya thought that she would not hesitate to stab her right away if she gave even a slightly false answer.

‘It’s all over.’

Vena thought so in despair.

All the believers put up a delaying fight at the cave entrance, but in the end, they couldn’t stop even one Silissa.

Thanks to the experience of suppressing Yukomis, she thought there was some chance of winning, but…

‘Was that just luck…’

Vena muttered to herself in vain.

Contrary to those expectations, there wasn’t even a scratch on Silissa’s entire body.

“I didn’t do it…”

Slowly, very slowly, Manya, who looked back at Silissa, had tears welling up in both eyes.

“Sil… Silissa. Help me…”

It was ironic that she had slandered and kicked her out as a traitor, but Manya soon knelt down and prostrated herself in front of her.

“I don’t know why it turned out like this… I don’t know the reason… But… but my Lady Thermis…”

Manya looked down at Signa again.

“She’s dying… What should I do…”

Silissa, looking down at Manya, who was crying sincerely, realized that this was not acting.

As Silissa’s expression softened a little, Vena also put down her staff and stepped aside.

“Please… Silissa. Now that it’s come to this, you’re the only one I can trust…”

“Get out of the way.”

Silissa, hearing the sincere appeal, roughly kicked away the two people who were covering Signa and sitting down with the spear.

They did not resist and obediently pushed away.

“If you dare to do anything wrong, both of your lives are over.”

“I’ll never do that. Please save Lady Thermis. Please…”

“Step back. And kneel in a position where I can see you, with both hands raised. Never move.”

Manya and Vena followed Silissa’s instructions.

Soon after, they felt their knees sticking to the floor, and they felt their vision being taken away.

It was a vision-blocking and binding spell.

It was a strange karma. The magic they used was soon returned to the casters.

With the spear shaft in one hand, Silissa carefully knelt in front of the girl.

“This is…”

She had come with half a certainty, but Silissa could not help but be greatly shaken when she saw Signa in person.

‘How… how could this happen.’

Now she felt like she knew.

What kind of scheme Manya had.

Why all the believers here were so desperately trying to stop her. Where their certainty came from.

Everything was explained.

‘Did she call her Lady Thermis? Indeed, it is as she said.’

As if going back to a past she had never seen, the girl in front of her retained the traces of Thermis that Silissa knew.

Silissa was sure that this was the same girl in the hood who had shouted at her.

‘Yukomis said that the lord around this time had black hair.’

Then dozens of questions swirled in her head.

Is she really the lord? Is she the same person? If that’s really the case, why does she look younger?

Could she just be someone similar? Why did Yukomis try to hide this from me?

‘No. This is not the time to think about such things.’

The questions could be asked later.

Saving this dying girl, or the lord, was the top priority above anything else.

‘Her body is like a lump of fire, and her breathing has almost stopped. This is…’

Silissa, who urgently felt Signa’s pulse, traced the flow of magic much more precisely than Vena and Manya.

‘…Yukomis’s magic. The flesh is boiling… The regeneration magic is being activated infinitely.’

It didn’t take Silissa a few seconds to conclude that this was a ‘forced healing’ magic.

This characteristic magic. This characteristic activation process. There was no room for misinterpretation or confusion.

Silissa had watched this magic countless times by her side.

There was only one person in this world who owned this magic.

‘But there doesn’t seem to be any external injuries on her chest. Internal injuries? No. Something is strange even to say that. Injuries to places other than her chest are, bare feet, hands, shoulders, and muscles in her limbs. Regeneration magic is being activated in these places too… But for some reason it’s failing, and this level of intense reaction isn’t happening. Only her chest is this much… What’s the reason?’

Only her chest, which seemed to have no injuries on the outside, was reacting so heterogeneously.

“What did you do?”

“I didn’t, I didn’t do anything. She was just hit with a binding spell once, and like this…”

Manya, who answered, was still sobbing.

Silissa sighed. Even to Silissa, she didn’t think she could do such a thing.

‘I feel a tremendous sense of urgency. It’s like this magic itself is in a panic.’

She had never seen it in person, but it was a symptom she knew from what she had heard.

This was completely the same as the last appearance of the lord that Ilesha had told her about.

What an irony, the wound that drove her to death was also on her chest.

That sword that cleanly pierced her heart.

Silissa shook her head.

‘Whatever it is, the binding spell can’t be the cause. But she wasn’t hit by the Demon King’s magic either. Then what on earth is the reason?’

Silissa’s head felt like it was about to explode.

She could recognize the phenomenon, but she couldn’t deduce a way to deal with it.

With her limited knowledge and ability, the limit was just recognizing ‘that’s the state she’s in’.

?

Silissa suddenly found the holy sword’s magic inside Signa’s body.

She had only felt it for a very brief moment among the Yukomis’s magic flowing like a torrent through her entire body, but there was no way Silissa could mistake it.

“Tell me. Did this girl happen to hold the holy sword?”

“…She held it. She definitely held it.”

“What happened when she held the holy sword?”

“A brilliant… light…”

“Are you sure? You didn’t see it wrong?”

“Ye, yes. As soon as she grabbed it… a golden radiance…”

What that meant was…

The girl in front of her was the owner chosen by the holy sword.

Yukomis’s unique magic that she had cast on only one person.

And the same malfunction of that magic as the lord’s last moment.

Failure.

On top of that…

The same voice as her. A scream that seemed to know herself.

The same appearance as her in her younger days.

‘There’s no way this could be someone else.’

All the evidence was perfect.

“Where is Yukomis?”

Silissa included the name of the person who was more knowledgeable about this issue than anyone else.

“I know that you have captured and bound my comrade. Where is she now?”

Looking at the anxious expressions of Vena and Manya, Silissa shouted.

“Your punishment can be done later! But isn’t the girl in front of you, the lord, dying!”

“But, Yukomis is unconscious right now…”

“Is she in a very serious condition?”

Manya couldn’t deny it.

After maintaining a brief silence, Silissa quickly made a decision.

“It can’t be helped. I have no choice but to wake her up forcibly.”

Silissa knew.

If this girl was her lord.

If she was really Thermis Solenas.

Yukomis would never want to lose her again.