The Broken Possessors of the Infinite Regression Academy - Chapter 182



Chapter 182 – Retrieving – 1

“Cough, cough!”

My suppressed lungs started working again and I coughed. I stood up unsteadily. I was sure I had defended myself, but my whole body ached. It felt like I had been given a dirty, strong massage for hours without stopping.

From afar, Aria was looking at me with a smirk. It was almost like a smile that said everything was going her way. Of course, it was natural since she flew back as soon as she felt that something was complete.

“How do you feel about it?”

“I don’t know what you did, but I know you did something crazy.”

“You don’t know what I did? You’re kidding. Can you say that after seeing this?”

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A yellow flame mixed with orange formed in Aria’s hand. With a light movement of her arm, she shot the flame into the nearby grass. As soon as the fireball hit the forest, it emitted light and heat, causing an explosion the size of a building.

“… … ?”

The forest was intact. It was as if nothing had happened, even though the impact point must have been completely burned down.

Now that I think about it, there was an explosion of that size just now, but I didn’t hear a sound. I don’t think they used some sort of sound-blocking magic either.

‘The wind… … ?’

Since when had the wind not been felt? The clouds floating in the sky were motionless, and the ground near Aria was frozen in a half-shattered state. And it was still floating in the air.

Leona, who was crouching down with my clothes wrapped around her from afar, was the same. Her face was a blank expression, and she didn’t move at all.

“I’ll ask again, Mira. How do you feel?”

“… … Is this the world you were in? You said it stopped because there was no one to read it?”

“That’s correct. As expected, you noticed.”

“Clap,” Aria said, smiling brightly and clapping her hands.

“I have lived alone in this world for over a thousand years? It has been a long, hard, and lonely time. How are you? Can you feel a little about how I feel? How lonely it must have been, and how hard it must have been?”

Instead of answering, I aimed for eternity. Aria tilted her head as if she didn’t understand me.

“After all this, you still want to fight with me? After seeing how I’ve lived? Seriously, you’re just too heartless, Mira.”

“Why shouldn’t I fight with you?”

“That’s because I succeeded in gambling. If I had been careless, my body would have exploded and I would have died… … But I did it. As you can see. Even if you are Mira, I don’t really recommend fighting me right now. I don’t want to fight Mira either. I’ll just get hurt for no reason.”

A magic circle was drawn next to Aria.

“They say seeing once is better than hearing a hundred times, so I’ll show you how to experience it yourself.”

At the same time as he spoke, a purple lightning flashed. It was a simple lightning spell. I hesitated as I tried to respond with a defensive barrier.

‘Magicㅡ’

For some reason, the magic didn’t work. I lifted Eternity without even having time to think about the reason, but it was already too late and I couldn’t completely block it.

I felt a sharp pain in my abdomen. Electricity flowed through my entire body, and my muscles stiffened momentarily. My feet were lifted into the air and my body was pushed back.

With his muscles barely recovered from paralysis, he tried to stop Eternity by slamming it into the ground, but the tip of the sword simply scraped the ground without any sensation. He couldn’t even hear the sound that should have been made as the tip of the sword rubbed against the ground.

In the strangely quiet world, I barely managed to stop myself by forcing myself to move the tip of my sword. My mouth was leaking blood, and my fingertips were tingling. My abdomen, which had been directly hit by lightning, was the same.

‘Is healing magic the same?’

Just as the defensive magic didn’t activate, neither did the healing magic. He slowly clenched and unclenched his fist and released his arm. Aria began to approach him with her smiling face.

“It won’t work. I added a special feature. You can’t use the magic of the world Mira was in. Because this is a different world from a different novel. Even if the same author rewrote the setting, wouldn’t it be abnormal to use magic from another world without any problem?”

Now I understand why that just happened. The defensive magic I used was the same as the one I used in the first world, and the healing magic goes without saying.

I changed my strategy. If I could only use the magic of this world, I would have to fight in a slightly different way.

‘Surely it can’t be because of Gwangchang too… … It was because he couldn’t use it in the first place.’

For a moment, I thought that was why I couldn’t use the light spear, but I realized that the timing wasn’t right and quickly put it away. It was not being able to use the light spear before Aria succeeded in her gamble.

“Mr. Mira, my thoughts haven’t changed yet.”

A magic circle with a complex pattern engraved on it appeared on Aria’s left hand. It was a magic circle of wide-area annihilation magic. Aria grabbed the magic circle that was almost finished and broke it, then smiled.

“I forgive you for trying to kill me. It hurt so much, but I can start over now. From the beginning, as if nothing had happened. I won’t let anyone else in, but I’ll let Mira-ssi in. You’re not going to fight me without healing magic, are you?”

“There’s nothing I can’t do. And, since I think the same way as you, why don’t you give up? I haven’t changed my mind yet.”

“Hmm… … Maybe I should have just left you alone for a thousand years? You’re so stubborn. Well, I guess that’s why you were able to be intertwined with me by fate.”

“I don’t think being locked up like that will change your mind. Don’t you think the same thing?”

“Aha, I see. So, you’re saying that if I give you the same amount of pain that would make you change your mind, you’ll change your mind, Mira? You should’ve said that earlier. It would’ve been a waste of time.”

Is that how it can be interpreted? It was absurd.

While I was being dumbfounded, the outline of a sword appeared on Aria’s right hand. I’ve never seen Aria swing a sword before, so this is probably the first time she’s taken it out.

“… … .”

I hardened my face after realizing the identity of the sword. Seeing me like this, Aria’s smile grew even wider and she swung the sword in her hand.

“I see you still remember. How is it? Does it look familiar? I believe you fought the demons holding this for seven days and nights.”

A weapon with an appearance too extreme to be called a mere sword, more like a piece of wood with dozens of sharp blades sprouting out and with sharp tips.

It was the sword used by the Demon King of the First World.

When I saw the sword emitting an ominous aura, just like in my memory, my grip tightened. I instinctively felt bad. It was because my body remembered how much I had struggled to get rid of it.

“Are you ready to face the past, Mira?”

“Nonsense.”

“You won’t accept it. It’s sad.”

Aria, who had a smiling expression despite her words of sadness, held the magic sword upside down.

The tip struck the ground. A crimson shock wave erupted. If time had not stopped, that single movement would have created a crater tens of meters deep.

The shock waves that seemed to spread out in a circle soon rose into the air, gathered together, and came crashing down on me like a giant tidal wave.

I tried to summon the light window, but I still couldn’t get my hands on it. It seemed like I would have to try another method.

He took a natural stance, as if his body was flowing with water. He stepped forward with his left foot, turned his body half a turn, and drew his sword horizontally. Not swinging or cutting, but lightly, as if writing.

A blue crescent moon formed along the trajectory of eternity. The crescent moon, lying horizontally, collided head-on with the crimson shockwave that surged in like a tidal wave.

“… … .”

It was only a split second, but it felt incredibly strange that there was no sound even though the blue crescent was literally grinding away at the shockwave.

He continued the movement. This time, he stepped his right foot forward and pushed eternity into the remaining half of the space. The crescent moon grew in size, then became a half moon, and then a circle.

The moon has risen.

The shock wave from the collision with the full moon caused dark red smoke to flow in all directions.

It didn’t take long for both sides to perish. Aria’s eyes were wide open, as if surprised that the magic sword’s attack was blocked so easily.

“That’s magic swordsmanship, right? How did you do it? You probably can’t use the magic from that world.”

“Well, how did you do it?”

Strictly speaking, magic swordsmanship is not magic. It is a technique that simply substitutes the process of drawing a magic circle and chanting a spell in magic with swordsmanship.

So, if you just change the magic circle and spells to those of this world, you can use them as much as you want. The number of ways to do so is extremely limited, though.

“If you won’t tell me, then there’s nothing I can do. Anyway, you’re amazing, Mira.”

Clap, clap, clap, Aria clapped her hands. It was an applause that didn’t reach her at all.

“It’s an ambiguous response considering you tried to kill me.”

“Yes? Kill me? Me? Miss Mira?”

Aria tilted her head.

“why?”

“Are you really going to say that you didn’t intend to kill me after all that?”

“Of course. It was an attack that I knew Mira would block. The Mira I know isn’t someone who would die over something like that, right?”

“… … .”

I don’t know if I should say that he trusted me or if there was another way to explain it. Either way, it was clear that he wasn’t in his right mind.

“But this still won’t work. It seems that there are limits to using only fragmentary memories.”

Aria frowned as she tapped her magic sword and drew a magic circle again. What kind of crazy thing is she planning to do this time?

“So, I’ll call someone who can write better than me. I also need to invest time in other areas besides Mira.”

With the same smile as always, the magic circle turned bright red. It already looked ominous. It held onto eternity even tighter.

“… … !!!!!!”

As soon as I saw the overflowing magic energy, my whole body became stiff.

If time had passed properly, the mere appearance of the magic that was so vicious and not of this world would have turned the entire Academy grounds into a land of death.

“How is it? It looks more familiar than the Demon Sword, doesn’t it?”

The Demon King of the First World. He was slowly walking out from within the magic circle.

A face so handsome that it could easily be called handsome, except for the fact that his skin was dark red and a pair of large horns had grown from his head, looked around. His eyes narrowed.

The body that was close to human was the same. The human clothes and suits on the body seemed awkward, so he frowned and adjusted his clothes.

“… … .”

He hesitated and held Eternity so tightly that his knuckles turned white. If he had a light spear, or if he could use all the magic of the first world, he would have tried to fight.

But now it wasn’t like that. You want me to fight and win against the Demon King without any healing magic, magic from the other world, or even a light spear?

‘… … I can’t even say that I think I should try this.’

If I didn’t know the power, I would have tried to use a guest. But I said that because I knew, and because I remembered how much trouble I had to go through to take that guy down.

It was at least comforting that the atmosphere was weaker than when I first met him in the other world, but it wasn’t enough.

It felt like the amount of magic flowing nearby was slightly less, but the body itself seemed to be the same.

“Miss Mira, you’re playing with this guy. I’ve set it so that he won’t be killed, so you can just beat him up a bit and then capture him. Or you can surrender early.”

Aria tapped his shoulder as she placed the magic sword in his hand. His face slowly turned to Aria.

“Okay, go and deal with it. Be careful not to kill him.”

“It’s unpleasant.”

“I have something else to do – what are you saying now?”

At that moment, Aria’s body flew at an invisible speed and crashed into the academy building a long way away.

A crimson shockwave exploded a moment too late and soared into the sky.