Slice—
The sound of a blade cutting through flesh, followed by a spray of black blood. A demon's upper torso flew through the air, landing in a heap several meters away. Its lower half remained standing before me for a moment, then crumpled.
I kicked the legs aside and, in a single fluid motion, spun, bringing my greatsword around in a wide arc to meet the demon warrior who had been attempting to ambush me from behind.
The heavy blade moved as if it were weightless, and the demon, its eyes wide with shock, barely had time to raise its own weapon.
Clank—!
"What?!"
Sandalphon shattered the demon's sword, then continued its arc, cleaving through the warrior's armor and body as if they weren't there.
A storm of multicolored magic erupted from the distance, converging on my position.
The ground exploded, throwing up a thick cloud of dust and smoke that obscured the battlefield.
"Did we get it?" a mage asked.
"Stay sharp. We don't know."
"That thing... it's not human, is it?"
"Who cares? Just kill it."
The leader of the mages, a demon named Taldor, ignored his subordinates' chatter. His full attention was on the crimson sky, the barrier that had trapped them here.
He had been trying to analyze it since the battle began, but had made no progress. The power gap between himself and its caster was immense.
Worse, he could feel his own mana draining away, as if it were being siphoned directly from his body.
It's this barrier, he realized. We can't afford a prolonged battle. It will drain us dry.
Just as the thought crossed his mind, a searing pain erupted in his chest. He looked down and saw a gout of his own blood spraying into the air.
When...?!
A hole had been punched clean through him. He had no idea how I had bypassed his senses, slipped past his warrior guards, and gotten behind him.
I pushed his headless corpse aside and turned my attention to the remaining mages.
Through the thick, swirling dust, all they could see was a flicker of golden light, darting from target to target. With each flicker, another of their number fell. I was a phantom, a reaper in the mist, and their lives were my harvest.
Dismembered limbs and dissolving bodies flew through the smoke. Even for demons, creatures who rarely felt fear, the sight of an unstoppable, unkillable enemy was enough to instill a primal terror.
A few minutes later, it was over.
I dismissed the City of Devouring Time, and the crimson sky returned to normal. I stood in the silent, corpse-strewn field, cataloging the new magic I had collected.
When I was finished, I looked towards the distant city. My eyes zoomed in, focusing on the top of the wall.
A black-haired boy stood there, his bloodstained battle-axe held in a two-handed grip. Before him was a heavily armored demon, wielding a greatsword as long as Takson was tall.
The surrounding city guards were wounded, pinned down by the demon's overwhelming power. It seemed to be toying with them, which was the only reason Takson had arrived in time.
CLANG!
The force of the demon's blow sent a shudder through Takson's entire body. His arms trembled, and his knees nearly buckled. The stone beneath his feet fractured, a web of cracks spreading out from where he stood.
"Ugh," he grunted. "Impressive strength."
He hadn't felt a power gap like this in a long time. Not since his first encounter with the Zera simulation in the Virtual Combat Arena.
But he had experience with this kind of opponent now. In a split second, he formulated a new strategy.
The entire battle, from start to finish, was recorded by my remote sensors.
The crimson sky of my City of Devouring Time had alerted the entire city guard, which in turn had allowed them to spot the demon warrior who had managed to sneak inside. How a heavily armored brute had learned stealth magic was a question for another time.
But none of that mattered to me now.
Because standing before me was a new, and entirely unexpected, variable.
I stared at the short, golden-haired figure, my processors struggling to reconcile the data with my expectations.
Long, silky blond hair, pointed ears, and bare feet that remained pristine despite the muddy ground.
"I didn't expect to find something so interesting on a casual stroll," the elf said, her lips curling into a strange, knowing smile as her eyes met mine.
I gave no thought to the demon corpses dissolving around me.
Before me stood Serie. The master of nearly all magic from the age of myths to the present day. The progenitor of human magic.
She was the original target I had set for myself upon arriving in this world. To meet her now, so unexpectedly, was... surprising. But I knew this encounter was inevitable. It had merely been moved up in the schedule.
This elf, this petite, unassuming figure, was the most powerful mage in the world.
And her personality could be best described as, "Gentlemen, I love war."
The only thing she cared about was magic, and in her view, constant conflict was the most efficient engine for magical innovation.
Her small stature belied an existence that stretched back to the age of myths. Her reserves of mana and knowledge were, for all intents and purposes, infinite.
"Well? Have you nothing to say to me?" she asked, her sharp eyes boring into my own amber ones. "Or perhaps..."
"You are incapable of speech?"
"Rebuttal: This unit is equipped with a vocalization module."
I had no idea why this ancient, reclusive elf was here. I could not calculate her objective.
"Ho. A doll with no 'life,' yet it possesses self-awareness."
Tch. Her intuition was unnervingly accurate. After finding Takson, my need to seek out Serie had become less urgent. I never expected to just run into her like this.
As she spoke, my scanners were already at work. Her physical data was, as expected, that of a classic "mage" pathetically weak compared to my own.
But her true strength lay in her near-infinite grimoire of a mind. You could never predict what spell she would cast next.
….
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