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There was a mansion outside of Arcadia that had been unoccupied for a long time, yet the sofa and furniture were still neatly arranged. A middle-aged woman sat on the sofa.
The woman soon saw two people enter the room and smiled.
“Please enter, little sister.”
“Duchess…”
Lucia, walking alongside Chiffon, hesitated. She had finally realized who was in the room.
“What do you mean, ‘Duchess’?” Vanessa waved her hand. “Just call me sister.”
“B-But…” Lucia trailed off.
Vanessa ignored her reaction and carried on.
“I never dreamed that you would be my little sister. Of course, we don’t come from the same mother, and since I was not in the Imperial palace at that time, I had never seen you… Ah! Your name isn’t Lucia, but Asiru, right?”
“I don’t quite remember…” Lucia’s gaze wavered.
“I understand.” Vanessa’s smile deepened. “You continued to pretend that you lost your memories because you’re worried about your child’s future, right? It’s obvious since that’s usually the case for the children born from the Imperial family.”
Lucia went silent, and Vanessa took the chance to strike the finishing blow.
“You don’t have to do that anymore, because I will help you.”
Lucia was visibly startled. Noticing this, Vanessa smiled inwardly.
“You know, I only have one dream: making my child, Babel, the next Duke Agnus. To make that dream can come true, I can do anything, so…”
A quick look at tinyurl.com/2p9emv8w will leave you more fulfilled.
Vanessa trailed off as she put on a desperate expression.
“My dear sister, please help me.”
“....”
“If you do, I will give it my all to help your child, Joshua, get out of this country.”
Finally, Vanessa's die was cast.
As if pondering over Vanessa’s words, Lucia remained silent for a long time. She finally spoke.
“How could I dare…?”
At that, there was a gleam in Vanessa and Chiffon’s eyes. This was the moment where their doubts turned to certainty.
‘This is it.’
Vanessa jumped for joy inside, but on the outside, she carefully straightened her posture
“Shouldn’t we get revenge on him?” Vanessa asked. “He kidnapped you from a very comfortable life in the Imperial palace, raped you, and forced you to birth an unwanted child. That’s not all: he also made your life a living hell by turning you into a maid with no future. Aden von Agnus ruined your life.”
Lucia’s eyes wavered as she listened to Vanessa. In fact, she had another secret that others did not know—but even taking that into account, Joshua was the most precious thing in her life. After careful deliberation, the hesitation in Lucia’s eyes suddenly disappeared, as if it was never there in the first place.
“I don’t care about revenge.”
It was unexpected. To think that someone from the Imperial family had no thoughts of revenge even after going through something like that.
Vanessa's self-assured, satisfied smile froze, and her face gradually lost expression.
Then Lucia opened her mouth again.
“I am fine. As long as Joshua is safe… that’s enough.”
At those words, the suddenly heavy air became lively again. Vanessa brightened.
“I’m really happy that I can be with my long-lost little sister.”
Vanessa held out her hand but kept her eyes on Lucia. Vanessa might look weak on the outside, but on the inside, she was much, much stronger than anyone else.
“I hope we can get along, Asiru.”
“I abandoned that name a long time ago, so…”
Vanessa hesitated for a moment when Lucia spoke quietly.
“From now and forever, please address me as Lucia.”
Vanessa nodded with a wider smile.
“If you want.”
***
Imyeong. [1]
Special artifacts came with unique names. In particular, names were only given to the Three Heavenly, Seven Renowned, and Ten Unique Artifacts.
Imyeong had two meanings: one was the name of a specific artifact, literally a nickname; the other one was the resonance of the artifact itself—such as the sound that the red spear was releasing right now.
The spear let out a cry and spewed a wave of fire. A group of up to a hundred wizards was swept away by the wave. The scorching heat burned through their skin and ultimately reached their souls.
“Aaaaaaaaaaagh!”
“What was that…” Zephyros and Scorpino murmured blankly as the acrid smell assaulted their noses.
The screams of their fellow mages echoed inside the confines of the room.
“Is that an artifact with built-in magic?” Scorpino wondered. “But I’ve never seen someone use that with the flame system—”
A white electric current flew across the floor, interrupting Scorpino. Just like a pebble thrown into a wide lake causes ripples in the water, the current was small at first, but it grew wider and wider.
“Keugh—”
Everyone gathered on one side and spread shield magic before the waves of fire and lightning could reach them, but nearly twenty mages convulsed as they were electrocuted by the electric current that rode up from below.
“A double-core artifact?” Zephyros thundered, his voice heavy with astonishment.
In most cases, common artifacts only had one spell built-in. The criteria for distinguishing between an inferior and superior artifact, in this case, was the level of the built-in magic.
Of course, there were also artifacts with two or three spells built into them. However, such items were usually only low-rank artifacts made for day-to-day convenience.
But by that logic, then the sea of flame and the sky of lightning in front of them right now, was Class 5 or higher magic.
“Plus, I don’t remember seeing any magic spells like that before.”
“Is that a kind of ancient artifact?”
Zephyros and Scorpino’s faces were both quite tense. They hadn’t figured out yet that the tremendous power belonged to the man they’d just met.
“Even if he borrows the power of the artifact—”
“The power it holds within is quite clear.”
“Since he already used the built-in magic, he wouldn’t be able to manifest it anymore.”
Zephiros held out a red staff, reminiscent of the sun. Scorpino, on the other hand, headed forward with a purple staff reminiscent of the dim moon.
“It’s my first time seeing that, so I’m a little shocked.”
“But.”
“We won’t let you,”
“Run wild anymore.”
As if they had rehearsed in advance, the Red Flame and Void were in perfect sync. Maybe it was natural for them; their movements were so similar that it was hard to differentiate between the two of them.
“Sunlight illuminates the morning.”
“Moonlight illuminates the night.”
The mana in the air began to fluctuate rapidly at the same time as a deep hum filled the air.
Their voices continued in perfect sync.
“The power of the light is the source of all things.”
“And the energy of the moonlight completes its other half.”
On the staff held by Zephiros, hot fire mana formed.
Simultaneously, purple mana, overflowing with obviously ominous energy, transferred to Scorpino's staff.
“At this moment, the catastrophe of hell comes to reduce everything in creation to ash.”
“At this moment, even the slightest mote of light will be swallowed up and returned to the empty void.”
“Gather that heat into these fingertips.”
“Gather that void into these fingertips.”
Finally, the two of the Seven Mages' staffs were pointed at Joshua.
“The enemy is in front of me; annihilate him.”
Their two voices merged as one. The moment they spoke the last word, a tremendous roar filled the interior of the floor. It was a Class 6 unique spell. They were the only two in the entire continent who could cast this spell.
Joshua, who had been sweeping away the enemies, began to slow. Soon, he stopped entirely. He already knew that the two mages were preparing for something, but Joshua remained still for one particular reason: he wanted to prove that he was stronger regardless of what they tried. He did not even look in their direction because he knew that he had the power to beat them down unconditionally.
‘That refusal to believe in things that don’t fit in your common sense—that arrogance is one of the reasons why you will never achieve your dreams.’
Joshua swung his spear with hard eyes.
A storm of flames was approaching him while scorching anything that crossed its path, and the energy of the void crushed everything in its way. Compared to the attacks coming his way, Joshua's movements were very shabby indeed—but he was sure that the results would be something else.
Something set their hair aflutter. Something weird. Something that shouldn’t exist inside the Tower. Both of the mages thought of the same question at the same time:
“Wind?”
Zephyros was about to say something, but the sight he beheld unfolding in front of him forced his mouth shut. He was seeing it with his own eyes, but he still couldn’t believe it.
The combination of the flaming storm that he sank all of his mana into, and the pressure of the void—the essence of his colleague's magic—should have instantly annihilated their enemies.
But instead, their spells were gathering in one place—the tip of their opponent’s spear.
“What the—” Zephyros’s mouth was left gaping yet again.
What was this situation?
The energy wasn't completely lost, nor was it defeated by an enormous power. Just like how cotton absorbed water, the spear was absorbing the energies of their spells.
Even more shocking than that…
Joshua was not absorbing the shock—he embraced the shock, turning his body naturally like flowing water, sending out another gentle gust of wind. It was a secret technique that returned an attack to his opponent; the end, though gentle, maximized its power.
Level 6 of the Magic Spear Arts, Void Spear: Void God’s Wind.
Joshua’s muscles flexed as he completed a full revolution.
The original power, which had doubled in size, shot forth once again, heading toward two of the Seven Mages.
The Red Flame and the Void stood still as a statue.
1. We left it as imyeong because it is a homonym that has two meanings. It can mean another name or a resonance made by a weapon with an ego. ☜