“Geo!”
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I responded to that voice, coming from so far away.
There was a stone tower. In that room, a girl with chestnut hair was picking something up off the floor. It was a piece of parchment.
“A character sheet?”
A lot of numbers and terms that the girl was unfamiliar with were written in small letters on the parchment. But there was also a part that she could understand. It was the text under “Character Name.”
Is this…Geo’s? the girl thought when she looked at the parchment.
“I wonder how Geo’s doing.”
The name that the girl recognized on the parchment was “Geo Margilus.”
I was the one written on that sheet.
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Me.
To be precise, my consciousness had returned to the eighth-level spellbook archive of the inner world within the inner world. The book I’d tried to use just now—had I really tried to use it?—had failed, and yet there it was there on its pedestal as if nothing had ever happened.
It seemed I’d come back from the chaos at a slightly different time than I’d left it, so that made sense.
“Ugh.”
A huge amount of information was swirling around in my brain, stuffed in there from when I’d become a man without a name, without a self, blanked out of the world. That man desperately scrabbled to retain the information that would probably go foggy a few seconds later. The truths of the universe, the meaning of human existence, the reason why life was born. I knew the answer to every mystery in the world…but…damn, now it was all gone!
No…there was a small amount of that information left in my brain. It was the appearance of the world, as I’d seen it, apart from the constraints of time. The world was beginning and ending simultaneously. All the worlds were the same, in the sense that they were born and destroyed along the predefined rails of time. I also remembered that I already knew the world as it was.
I remembered that life was what we called a “story.”
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“Uh, can you get it together, please? I’m not going to wait any longer for your answer.”
In the spirit world of the daemons, the monochromatic daemonist held up his hand. It was the moment of his final ultimatum. At that same time, I was deep in my own inner world, trying once again to release the chaotic energy condensed into a book.
“As a consequence of this spell, the soul of the being at whom I aim my hand shall serve me and be mine to control. Mind Control!”
PA-KRISH!
There was a sound like ice being crushed. It was the sound of the dozens of silvery-white glass tentacles shooting out from around my feet.
The glass tendrils stretched out swiftly, instantly wrapping around the daemonist’s smooth, white body.
“Wh-what is this?! Sorcery?! No!”
The mystic was still hanging on. “Lord Wizard!”
The pure white monster kicked and struggled, trying to break free. But the power of the glass tentacles (or the energy of the spell they embodied) was too strong, and soon he couldn’t move.
“It’s a spell that dominates the spirit of the target and forces subservience.”
“You don’t have that power…”
“I never wanted to use this spell…”
The Rank 8 spell Mind Control was the mightiest spell to affect your opponent’s spirit. Unlike Curse, the subject of the spell did not realize that they were under an enchantment, and always swore absolute allegiance to the magician. You couldn’t go as far as to make the subject commit suicide, but all other behavior, even going against their own beliefs or principles, was allowed under the rules.
It was really just brainwashing. It was undoubtedly an evil act to manipulate a human spirit using these spells in a game, let alone real life. When I’d learned that the ritual of prophecy meant infiltrating the spirit world of the daemons, I’d prepared this just in case it was possible…
“Thank god… I think…”
Just this one time, given the opponent, I had no other choice. Or at least that’s what I told myself.
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“Oh! Uh… Muh…Margilus…”
Many glass tentacles had penetrated the monochrome being’s head. It was a grotesque sight, but I already felt that the power of my spell controlling his soul.
“First, make these daemons stand down! Next…your name and position. You’ll tell me everything.”
The duration of Mind Control was permanent until the spell was broken. There was tremendous value in having a high-ranking daemonist as a servant.
“A-as you comma—”
A voice of despair dripped from its slash of a mouth, now turned down pathetically. It might even be possible to exterminate all the daemonists right here and now. It would be a great achievement, even if it was impossible to fully suppress the generation of daemons.
Just then, I turned my attention to a small but strong glimmer of hope.
“You cannot control me!”
“Huh?!”
Its mouth grew and grew, becoming a gaping abyss. Even though his white body was being ripped apart by the glass tentacles, he raised both arms high in resistance.
Before I could grasp what was happening…
“Graaargh!”
The swarm of daemons had retreated a bit…but far behind him, there it was. The towering giant turned his face this way. The King of Daemons looked upon us.
He swung his hand, which was as large as a castle or even a town, down upon us.
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This was the daemons’ spirit world.
In this unique realm, the concept of size was almost completely irrelevant. However, when something that covered your entire line of vision was dropping down upon you at high speed, it was terrifying.
If this was the real world, my flesh and I would’ve both been pulverized in an instant.
Instead, we were subsumed within a sea of warm, sticky mucus. Apparently, the giant humanoid (or its fingertip) had swallowed us whole. I could barely make anything out, but I could see a bit and I could breathe.
The swarm of daemons that had filled the shore had already been crushed and assimilated. Only the elf maiden and myself, clinging together, remained in our original forms. And then…I could see the pure white daemonist, still restrained by my glass tentacles.
“Ah! Aaaagh!”
He screamed ceaselessly, twisting his body into strange contortions. His spirit-body was slowly slipping free from the tentacles, the embodiment of the Mind Control spell.
The spell’s power worked perfectly. However, it wouldn’t be of any use if his spirit-body lost all form. He was trying to assimilate with the King of Daemons, too.
“Stop it! I will not allow you to die!”
“This is not death! It’s just changing the state of my spirit… Although my body in reality will die during the transition…or so I think.”
He’d probably decided to destroy his spirit before being completely brainwashed by the power of the spell.
“Before you disappear, tell me! Where is your home base? What do you do there?!”
“I don’t know! Even if I’m gone…the daemons will come! The third brood event is less than ten years away!” Cackling in hatred, shamelessly exuding malice and spite, the daemonist’s monochrome body crumbled apart. As he vanished, his last words echoed. “Suffer and despair!”
Without anyone left to control, the tentacles disappeared as well.
“This…?”
I watched the monochrome body melt away into the surrounding mucus, resigned to my fate…but then I cried out in surprise. I realized that the mystic and I were surrounded by a strong, silvery-white barrier.
“It’s the Mind Wall spell that I used before the ritual.”
“So, this light is protecting us.”
Mind Wall, as the name suggests, has the effect of blocking all mental attacks. Without this protection, we would have been swallowed by the body of the King of Daemons in the same way as the daemonist, and lost our souls.