The Western Wasteland was a giant death trap that most sane humans tended to avoid. Riddled with cursed swampland, the area was nigh uninhabitable to most plant life. And while it was just a stone’s throw from the capital, there wasn’t a single living being in sight... except for Tanya, of course. She’d come here to vent.
“From twilight I summon the ultimate fucking destruction! Ashes to ashes, dust to dust; heed my call and unleash your fucking might! Fuck this shit!”
Her furious incantation echoed across the entire wasteland, sending a tremor through the silty soil. If any other Mage had been around to hear it, they probably would’ve rolled their eyes at her complete disregard for proper casting etiquette.
Worse still, she was casting Explosion, an Arcane-level spell. Generally speaking, it wasn’t the sort of spell you could conjure up without assistance from a magic circle or a staff. And with that half-assed incantation, the average Mage would have no hope of success.
But Tanya was not your average Mage.
And so, with an earth-shaking kaboom, an entire craggy mountain promptly shattered into shrapnel, the blast ruffling her cloak and pastel pink hair.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck! ‘You’re a woman, Tanya!’ Fuck you! From twilight I summon the ultimate destruction! ASHES TO ASHES! DUST TO DUST!”
She fired off Explosion after Explosion, leaving giant craters in the earth as she decimated everything in sight. At the moment, she was hardly fit to be called a Mage—not when she was conducting herself like a total Demon Lord.
While she typically exercised some level of restraint in order to prevent excess damage to the world around her, Tanya was in fact an exceptionally competent Mage. Not only could she perform Explosion with an imprecise incantation, but multiple times in a row at that. Her mana capacity was off the charts.
Sure, perhaps some of it could be attributed to natural-born talent, but for the most part, Tanya had dedicated a great portion of her life to magical studies and training. And as an adventurer, all that hard work was finally starting to bear fruit—that is, until—
“HEED MY CALL! AND UNLEASH YOUR MIGHT!” she screamed, letting loose again and again and again as her fury surged. At this rate, maybe she’d run out of mana and pass out... but right now, she didn’t care. All this raw magical skill, and yet she was thrown out of the party over her gender... She needed an outlet for her anger towards Ryan.
I mean, the whole reason I started holding myself back was because HE kept complaining that a girl shouldn’t use so many Arcane spells! Tanya fumed internally. What a fucking joke! And after all I did for you! I even consoled you when you were crying about your receding hairline, you pansy asshole!
“UNLEASH YOUR MIGHT! EXPLOSION! GO TO HELL!!!”
But just as the largest mountain on the horizon turned to dust—
“That’s quite enough, thank you!” a woman’s voice called out.
Instantly, Tanya’s rage-induced magic spell petered out. She could scarcely believe it. In what world could someone nullify a spell that was already cast?! She’d never heard of such a thing!
“Huh? Who’s there?!” she asked, baffled. This was the Western Wasteland. No one ever came here on a lark.
Then she realized—the voice was coming from directly above her.
“What the—you can FLY?!”
“Of course I can. I’m a Sorceress, you know.”
A lone woman floated in the air, bobbing slightly up and down like a buoy on the ocean’s surface, tendrils of long raven-black hair fanned out in every direction as though she were underwater. Tanya stared, mouth agape. Even among the most competent Mages, only a scant few could cast levitation magic—and yet this woman wasn’t even using a staff. To Tanya, this was beyond all reason.
“What do you want? Wait—did you just call yourself a Sorceress?”
Ancestor to the modern Mage class, the Sorceress class had long since been lost to the mists of time. It was a term reserved for those who could cast magic with a mere snap of their fingers, no study or training required. And once upon a time, the Empire of Pajan was home to a single Sorceress-class woman.
According to legends, her lifespan was so long, people questioned whether she was an elf or if she’d somehow attained immortality... but then Maxwell the Grand Mage sealed her away for all eternity and was lauded as a national hero, or so Tanya had heard.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Yes, I’m afraid there’s no two ways about it. I’m a Sorceress, through and through,” the woman answered cheerfully as she bobbed in place. “My name is Laplace. Enchantée, mademoiselle.”
Laplace... Why does that name sound so familiar...?