A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special

“Good work, Lunia.”

An eyeball-shaped necklace popped out of Desir’s dimensional pocket and fell into his palm. It had lost its original brilliant color and turned a pale, grayish brown.

[-No way… ]

The results of the Artemis System’s analysis was absolute. And this absolute analysis had declared the death of Desir Arman. It was unthinkable for any other result to occur.

However, Desir stood in front of Priscilla, looking fine.

[-Since when have you had… I thought Lunia was in the possession of Skull Mask.]

Lunia had introduced herself as Artemis’s assistant, and while that was still true, she did so by functioning as the system’s auxiliary mainframe. She was not powerful enough to create Shadow Worlds or manipulate the world itself, but she could reverse causality on a small scale. Like how Crow Mask was able to restore his body during his fight with Swan, Desir was able to survive Priscilla’s attack unscathed.

It was a single-use action, with an extremely long cooldown, but that was enough for Desir.

‘It worked just as Lunia said it would.’

If this was an attack calculated and predicted by the Artemis system, even a reversal of cause and effect would have been useless. But Desir was able to use Lunia to act outside of the calculations of the Artemis system. Because the auxiliary system, Lunia, was the same as the Artemis system itself. This exclusion had become a blind spot: there was no need to calculate the actions of oneself.

[-But what’s the point of holding out like that?]

In the end, the situation had not changed. For some reason, Desir had very little mana left; he would not be able to launch many more attacks.

‘His struggle is futile. I am already a god. I already beat Desir when he was in peak condition, and now I’m several times stronger. Our fight wasn’t even close; it was time-consuming at best.’

When Priscilla thought so, Desir spoke in a calm voice.

“I made time. That’s enough.”

Despite the desperation Desir should have felt, he had a faint smirk on his lips. The scene infuriated Priscilla. When she attempted to peer into Desir’s future, she instead recalled part of the world’s lost history.

Despite the creation of a divine power, the Artemis system, humankind still collapsed. The demons that appeared were powerful, but with the ability to reverse causality and manipulate the fabric of the world, they would have eventually been dealt with. What eventually pushed humanity to the brink was the appearance of an extraterrestrial being, a dragon, something that the Artemis system could not calculate the actions of. Its appearance caused the system to malfunction, and mankind’s greatest invention was reduced to a pile of scrap metal. Humanity was destroyed.

‘Why did this suddenly come to mind? The collapse of the past should be irrelevant… ’

Priscilla let her thoughts wander. Conflating the two situations would have to be the product of a wild delusion. Desir, who had now been weakened to the point of helplessness, was no different to her than a flying bug that made an annoying noise.

*Flutter*

The wings hanging behind Priscilla’s back unfolded in unison.

[-This is the end of your struggle.]

Her wings unfolded, and a dazzling array of shimmering strands of light covered the entire area, spanning many kilometers in radius.

It was the light of extinction. The core of Dresden was wiped out without a trace. The brilliant light only allowed Priscilla to maintain her existence.

If this attack were to be repeated many times, Desir would die every time, even if he had the power to reverse cause and effect at will. Priscilla smiled and turned her head.

“It’s you who will meet their end, Priscilla.”

She could not help but be astonished. This was because Desir, who should have disappeared, was still standing… again.

*Flow*

An irritating noise continued to throb in the background. At that moment Priscilla noticed that something like black mist was flowing out of Desir.

The pure-black darkness gradually encroached upon the light that covered everything else.

[-What the hell is this… ?!]

The darkness that seeped out of Desir did not shrink away when touched by the mighty light of destruction. Instead, it was the light that was devoured.

Priscilla’s power of extinction, granted by the Artemis system, was a force that shook cause and effect, ignoring even the natural laws of the world. It was no exaggeration to say that she had access to the powers of god.

But Desir was incapacitating such power. In that case, had his strength surpassed that of the gods?

*Step*

*Step*

Desir took a step towards Priscilla, and each time he stepped forward, darkness spread and covered the light. Being witness to such a sight, Priscilla only felt one emotion.

Futility.

Even though she could no longer see the future, she started getting premonitions of defeat.

‘I can not… end like this!’

Priscilla concentrated all of her strength into a single attack, halting the darkening of the world. A vast expanse of light that made the whole world pale. Light concentrated at a single point, eventually releasing at Desir.

The power to destroy all beings in the world had been directed at a single person. But Desir did not stop.

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“The source of your power comes from the magical element of light.”

As soon as the vast beam of light reached the darkness, it simply lost its strength and disappeared into the vast darkness.

“Though it seems supernatural, light is a physical part of the world. It’s a wave that conforms to physics, with a natural and tangible manifestation.”

*Step*

*Step*

“I don’t need to block your power over causality. If I divide my mana small enough, I can block your light directly.”

“… !”

The darkness was not some cursed power; it was just mana that was blocking out all light, resulting in the terrifying scene created.

[-Only… that shouldn’t be able to overwhelm the power of a god!]

“God? The Artemis system is no god. It’s a piece of technology, something invented by humans.”

Desir had to invent a magic system that existed outside of any preexisting structure discovered by humanity. To do so, he had to work with mana on a microscopic and fundamental level. The deconstruction of mana into something small enough to block light was abstract, but not that difficult.

‘Of course, it had a complicated structure that caused me a great deal of frustration.’

One problem was that the process itself was very complicated. That was why…

“All I needed to beat you was time.”

Time.

The moment she heard it, Priscilla seemed to have been hit hard on the back of her head.

‘Have you been calculating my strength since the beginning?’

Inversion. To do so, you needed to grasp your opponent’s strength, analyze them thoroughly, and then neutralize their attacks. It did not require powerful magic, or an unusual artifact, but in the end a counter-attack that Priscilla had dismissed was what eventually caught her off guard.

Finally, Priscilla realized. Most of Desir’s attacks had been directed towards comprehending her power, and once he had done that, they had been used to buy him time.

[-For this… only from the very beginning… ]

‘When did it start? Since when have I been playing in his hands?’

*Step*

*Step*

The distance between Desir and Priscilla gradually narrowed.

[-Think about this again, Desir.]

Priscilla shouted at the approaching Desir.

[-I admit that what I’m trying to do will require a lot of sacrifice. But imagine the results! Can you really say that I’m in the wrong?]

But Desir walked silently, as if he did not hear Priscilla’s voice. As Desir gradually neared, her tone became urgent.

[-You should see the big picture, Desir! In the perfect world I will bring about, all of mankind can be happy! Even you! Zod can be brought back! So please… !]

“Give up.”

There was a strange ring to Desir’s voice. It was a voice that seemed to be a mixture of hatred and sorrow.

“You lost.”

*Touch*

Before she knew it, Desir reached out his hand and touched Priscilla’s forehead.

*Kiiying*

Magic began to unfold in front of his hand. Since he did not have much mana left after dismantling her light, he could only use spells up to the Third-Circle, which were drastically weaker than the spells he had been using up till now. But Priscilla, whose only remaining power had been blocked, could not resist this paltry level of spell. Soon after the spell array completed, the spell was completely revealed.

It was a spell that Priscilla had seen many times.

[Fire Storm]

Third-Circle magic. But Priscilla knew it held more power than any other Third-Circle spell. The moment the spell was unleashed, the Artemis system would be reduced to ashes as well.

‘It can’t be helped.’

At the last moment, she decided to take a final gamble.

*Fire*

The heat slowly rose. Just before the storm of vast flames hit Priscilla. A cold mechanical sound resonated in both Des1r and Priscilla’s ears.

[-Proceeding with world reversal.]

A dark cloud sprawled over Dresden and devoured the two.

—-