Ch. 195: Absolute Ruler of Time
In a world where time was paused, a severely beat up man put himself between a girl and a Magician. The girl’s face, however, was now bleached white as she stood next to his side.
Igni: “That’s enough. There’s no point being stubborn.”
Gregory: “........as if you would understand!!”
Gregory roared in response to Igni’s words.
Igni: “And is that why you allow your partner to carry all the burden and suffer?”
Gregory: “You would never understand! Crein is everything to me! We, together, are one and complete!”
And Gregory began his incantation, but Igni was no longer paying attention to him.
Instead, Igni had turned his eyes to Crein who was next to Gregory.
Though her face was ghostly white, she continued to hold on to her Spell with all her might.
Igni: (Is she doing it for herself? Is she trying to prove something? …….no, that’s not it.)
Crein strained and struggled for someone else’s sake. And it was obvious for who.
Igni: “........ah, okay.”
Igni let out a frustrated sigh. He had no way of knowing Gregory and Crein’s relationship.
So all he had were simple conjectures from what little he could gather.
Because he knew it was all conjecture, he decided to take all his thoughts, crumble it into a ball, and throw it in the dustbin. It was then that he realized how cruel he was being to them.
Igni: “.........I’m sorry.”
But it was difficult to know who he spoke the words to.
Igni said one quick incantation, and created a [Mini-Cosmos] {Fireball} that flickered in the air.
Gregory: “..........?!”
Gregory and Crein both realized that they could no longer move their body.
Igni: “My Magic creates a small universe. And I can connect the time between that universe and things in this universe.”
Gregory: “.................!”
Gregory wordlessly stared back at Igni.
No, it’s not that he had nothing to say. It was that his mouth was completely frozen.
Igni: “But the strange thing is, the time your consciousness senses and the time your physical body senses are two different things. Do you get what I’m trying to say?”
Igni looked at both Gregory and Crein.
Yes, what Igni was did wasーー
Igni: “Yeah, so right now, I accelerated the time experienced by your consciousness and my physical body even more. I accelerated your time much faster than the girl right there to as close to infinity as possible. Because of that time difference, everything looks frozen to you.”
And Gregory continued to stare with frozen eyes at Igni.
Igni: “........that was my bad. I should have done this sooner. That way, you would not have suffered so much.”
Igni pointed the brightly shining {Fireball} at Gregory and Crein.
Igni recognized that his arrogance brought about this outcome. He had been so certain of his victory once he initiated his Magic. But out of the 3, only Igni shared that opinion. Both Gregory and Crein believed that they still could fight against Igni. Or they thought they could. And Igni only encouraged that thought.
Because to them, they must have thought that they were stepping into the realms of Magic themselves.
That’s why both Gregory and Crein could not give up or surrender.
They believed that there was a way to overcome this if they kept trying.
Igni: “I don’t believe you did anything that deserves execution. I don’t think you did anything to deserve being imprisoned in the Underground Prison, Labyrinth, either. ……..wait, no. I think you went too far with those Vampires at the end. That was bad.”
Igni continued on without allowing any interruptions.
If Gregory or Crein could move, would their expressions have changed? Would they have realized what Igni’s Magic meant and despaired?
Igni: (......if that was the case, then that’s fine.)
Yes, Igni thought. That would have been fine.
Once they realize the absolute disparity in strength between Igni and themselves, they would stop struggling.
So there was no reason to harm them further.
Igni: “.......I think you have the wrong idea, so just to be clear, I’m not doing this because I like hurting people.”
And Igni turned his attention to Gregory.
Igni: “And if I wanted to, I could kill both of you. But I won’t. This is the Rolmod Academy. I will hand you all over to the Academy alive and have you both make amends for the wrongs you have done today.”
Continuing to speak, Igni had to show them that the difference of strength is far too wide.
Igni: “That’s why I’m asking you to surrender.”
Igni then returned the speed of time of Gregory and Crein’s bodies to normal. At that instant, Crein released her Spell. Once she did, both froze in time once again.
Igni: “........ohhhh, so that’s how that works.”
Igni observed the two as he came to some conclusions about the [Flux] Magic Type. When Crein stops time, she would accelerate time to as close to infinity - the same as Igni. That’s why she was able to move after the world had been paused.
But with the Spell deactivated, both would return to their normal speed of time.
In other words, they could not continue to move inside a paused world like Igni.
Igni sighed deeply and returned his own time back to normal.
Gregory: “......are you going to arrest us?”
Igni: “Yeah, I don’t have a reason to kill you.”
Besides, Igni was never comfortable with the idea of taking someone’s life.
If he could capture someone without killing them, that is what he would prefer to do.
In fact, that is a much more difficult path. And hence, being successful at doing so means you will look stronger to those around you.
If you look stronger, you will be more popular.
Gregory’s eyes fell upon the mini-cosmos fireball. And with realization dawning on him, his legs gave out and collapsed onto his knees. Igni had not released his Magic Spell yet. He still had to go hunt down the Vampires that Gregory and Crein had released onto the campus.
Igni: “I’d like to ask you a few questions.”
Gregory: “.......what.”
Igni: “Why did you come to the Rolmod Academy?” Gregory: “...................you wouldn’t believe me even if I told you.”
Igni: “If you don’t say anything, there’s nothing for me to believe or disbelieve.”
Hearing Igni’s words, a look of surrender crossed Gregory’s face as he opened his mouth to speak.
Gregory: “........the [Demon King] is back.”
Igni: “.............where?” The answer caught Igni by surprise and in a low tone, he continued his questioning.
Under normal circumstances, there would be no reason to take this man seriously. But even if this man was absolutely insane, what he was doing was too desperate. No matter how crazy you may be, no one would be desperate enough to infiltrate the Rolmod Wizard Academy and release Vampires inside.
This was too calculated - a plan that could have been executed by a man with a sound mind.
Gregory: “In the [Demon King’s] realm.”
Igni: “.......do you have proof?” Gregory: “If you go there, you will see.”
Igni: “..........”
The words reminded Igni of what Abyss had said.
That there were too many Magicians, too many geniuses in this day and age.
And it was because they had to prepare for something that was coming. What that was, no one knew.
But if the [Demon King] had truly returned, thenーー
Igni: “.........now I get it.”
Gregory: “.......you believe me?” Gregory looked astonished at Igni’s answer.
Igni: “I heard someone say something similar before.”
And with that, Igni turned his back on the two.
Igni: “Hey, Gregoryーー”
Gregory: “.....don’t call me by my nameーー”
Igni: “If she’s that important to you, make sure to protect her next time.”
Igni left it at that and headed out to hunt down the Vampires scattered throughout the campus. As Igni kicked and jumped off the roof, he saw the flower of undoing bloom on the campus grounds.
