Chapter 104: Linhard’s sin
Amy was staring in fury.
She had just heard something unimaginable.
"You... were you the one who put me in that cell for so many years?"
In front of her was the one responsible for her suffering.
Linhard was looking at her with a dull expression.
"If you can move me from this place, even an inch, I'll tell you something."
Immediately Amy conjured a powerful spell, but remembered that Razel, Leila and Livie were here.
They could die by accident.
She didn't want that.
She used a low level spell and attacked him with purple lightning.
Linhard used his spear and the lightning was absorbed.
"...!"
She didn't understand why her attack was absorbed, but she didn't hesitate to throw more at him.
Every magical attack of hers was absorbed by the spear.
Amy stopped his attacks because these were useless.
This time she used something different.
"Teleportation Magic."
Teleportation magic in the game was level 8.
Managing to unlock this spell cost a lot of points, items and experience required.
It was useful to escape from enemies and reach other places in an instant.
The only drawback is due to the depletion of magic power.
This ability had a lot of criticism from players.
Most comments were from those who complained that it was a high level spell, but it didn't make things easier for them.
Others defended it, saying that they liked it for a better experience and not to make things easier for them.
In the end the discussion came to nothing.
Amy teleported them into the sky, she used a spell to make him float and not fall to the ground.
She had a look of victory on her face.
Linhard sighed and said.
"I wasn't expecting this. You're a box of surprises."
"Good. I'll keep my promise."
"... Do you remember anything from your childhood?"
"All I remember is a dark room and I don't know how long it was."
"I also remember my mother's voice begging to be released."
"One day they took me out of there and said they sold me to the imperial palace."
Linhard hearing that started to laugh.
"Hahahaha, really. that's what they told you?"
"They really did make fun of you. That person undoubtedly wanted to create a sad background for you."
Linhard waved his hand and broke Amy's spell.
He was falling, but activated his own spell.
"Flight magic."
A magic circle appeared on each of his feet.
Then, he began to ascend straight towards Amy.
Linhard was walking in the sky.
"This is the power of science, the power of my brain creating with my hands."
"Not even the once recognized wizard king, of the extinct Albanian wizard kingdom. Who was called the most powerful wizard in the world and from whom this country after destroying him seized that name to create the holy wizards."
"No one compares to my intellect."
Linhard pointed his weapon at Amy.
"I'll show you that I, Linhard E. Weissman is unrivaled in magic!"
He went straight to the sky, surpassing Amy's altitude and attacked her with an attack she was unfamiliar with.
"Radium Celsius!"
A powerful color-changing flame came straight at Amy.
She activated a shield which blocked the heat ray.
But the impact was so powerful that Amy was pushed back.
"How is this possible?"
She didn't understand herself why she was pushed, the shield she activated was level 4.
(He can push me back. That means the level of his magic power is out of the ordinary.)
(He's an opponent that I can't underestimate or hold back.)
(I will use everything I have from the beginning and finish him off.)
Amy held back to get information out of him, but he mentioned something odd.
She will leave him in a state where he doesn't need his extremities, only breathing and eating to interrogate him.
She increased the power of her magic and now the shield was level 5.
The heat ray was losing power as Amy laughed.
"I'm sorry you thought you could beat me. But now the fun is over."
"I'll show you─"
Amy was hit on the cheek by something invisible and was sent into the forest.
A huge rumbling sound was heard.
Amy was with bruises on her body and her dress was scratched, showing her legs and a bit of her underwear.
She was slowly getting to her feet.
"What... was that?"
"Something invisible hit me."
Again she was hit and sent flying into the sky.
Linhard was attacking her was what she thought, but he wasn't moving.
She used a large amount of spells to attack whatever hit her.
Thanks to the dust she could see long spectral hands moving like tentacles.
She watched the direction and they came from Linhard's free hand.
He sneered at her.
"Despite having a great deal of magical power. You don't use it, what a pathetic waste of power."
"I was right in secretly wanting to eliminate you. You are a waste of time."
"If only that person could understand that you're useless... no, it's not time to remember failures."
Linhard stopped the phantom hands coming from the spell and his face was furious.
"I'm going to show off the power of the magic armor I created for that Archduke of Ideal."
"Take thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis!"
She approached at great speed.
Amy watched him, she reached out her hand and materialized a beautiful sword called Gram.
It was the sword Razel used in his duel against Lambert.
According to Amy, this sword was detailed in something called "sketch to recreate the sacred sword". Where according to the notations, it was a failure.
Amy flew straight at him and the two collided.
A strong shockwave hit the forest.
Amy and Linhard were attacking each other with all their power.
◇◇◇
The battle between Linhard and Amy escalated different levels as they soared between the heights.
Energy bolts, fire, lightning and even combined elemental attacks were sent at each other.
The attacks hit different areas of the forest, Amy made sure that the attacks did not land on the castle.
But at the same time she was trying not to kill Linhard.
She couldn't believe that he was on her level.
But what he said, makes her feel confused, that being the reason why from time to time she gets hit by the attacks.
Why was I locked in there for so long?
Why is my magical power so great?
What was the reason I was sold?
Those questions she once asked herself came back again now with force.
That's because Linhard has said things that have made her doubt her existence.
(He knows who I am and won't tell me.)
(What do you mean by the background they created for me?)
(Who is "that person" he's talking about?)
Amy was distracted and failed to see the spear approaching her face.
She activated a small spell and it was broken.
More defensive spells came and like glass they were destroyed.
Just in time Amy avoided the spear piercing her head, but part of her hair as well as her ear were cut off.
The damage was minor, but blood was pouring down her wound.
She stepped back, Linhard spoke to her.
"That sword if I'm not mistaken is Gram, right?"
"One of my failed experiments to try to recreate the holy sword that was destroyed a millennium ago."
"If my perfect memory serves me correctly, it was in an underground hiding place, wasn't it?"
Amy replied after a brief pause.
"It was guarded by a rock golem... wasn't it?"
"Yes. That's right."
He replied without interest.
Amy bit her tongue as she understood that even the home where she lived, belonged to him.
Right now she doubted her existence.
(This guy is defeating me in every way.)
(I could easily defeat him, but my head has a lot of nagging questions.)
(What should I do, Razel-sama?)
"...!"
At that moment, Amy recalled a conversation with Razel from long ago.
◇◇◇
It was a little while after Amy felt to manage to trust Razel.
The two of them were near the fireplace, they were wearing blankets and beside them was a silver tray with cookies and hot chocolate.
They were playing cards.
Moments like this warmed Amy's heart.
She pulled out a card, it was the joker's card.
After seeing it, she became sad.
Razel asked her.
"Why are you crying?"
"If it's because I'm cheating. I'm sorry, I won't do it again."
She bowed her head in denial. With tears she told him.
"It's not that."
"It's just that I thought about that night."
"Seeing this clown, I thought my life was the same."
"I'm worthless. I'm disposable."
"I don't know who my father is, let alone what I was doing in that place."
"I also have no idea what they were going to do to me by taking me to that place."
"I thought... that my life is nothing more than a mockery someone made."
Razel walked over and hugged her.
He told her something she would never forget.
"Forget everything."
Amy's eyes widened.
"You don't need a past you don't remember."
"You don't need to know what they hurt for or if they're still alive."
"All you need to know is this."
"You are Amy and no one else."
"You are a special person to me."
"You only need to think about today and the future, the past is the same as looking back. You don't need to remember what hurt you."
She smiled and hugged him.
"Thank you for everything."
Razel hugged her too, and because of the good atmosphere... they did it.
◇◇◇
*Smile*
Amy smiled as she remembered that day.
She looked at Linhard with a serious expression on her face.
"What's with that face?"
"Don't tell me you're admitting your own defeat already, are you?"
Linhard sneered at her, Amy held out her hand and said.
"Black Room."
A magic circle with various circles inside manifested in the air.
They formed a cube and then everything went dark.
Linhard looked at the situation, but remained calm.
"This will not serve to defeat me. I will show you the power of magic level 6."
Amy tilted her head to the side to say.
"Do it."
Linhard attacked.
"Fahrenheit Novus."
A heat ray of great magnitude was sent at Amy.
This was a spell that surpassed conventional magic.
Blocking it for a normal person was impossible.
Except for Amy.
She raised her hand and activated a level 7 spell.
"Black Hole."
A small sphere that was even darker than the place where it was located was manifested.
The sphere absorbed the heat ray and then disappeared.
For the first time in the entire battle, Linhard raised an eyebrow.
"It was luck, a minor calculation gone wrong."
"Let's see how you can handle this."
"Kelvin Holocaustus."
The heat ray was just as big as a small planet.
It was headed straight for Amy.
She just yawned and snapped her fingers.
"Dispel."
The heat ray was vanished in its entirety.
Unlike just now, Linhard showed a confused expression on his face.
"... Huh? What happened?"
"My attack was level 7."
"According to the story of the saint. The goddess Alexia gave humans the blessing to reach level 10."
"Level 7 is something capable of wiping out a small country and you wiped it out with a single attack."
"You're wrong."
Amy said flashing a smile of utter confidence.
"It wasn't an attack. It was a simple dispel spell, the same thing you use to remove someone's sleep spell."
"The difference is that this was a level 8 one."
"Level 8 you say!"
Linhard showed veins on his forehead. He spat at Amy.
"That's stupid!"
"Throughout my years of life I've only been able to reach level 7 and you, a mere half-breed, a failure who had to have died for that person to not be obsessed with you."
"You say my magic is inferior to yours! Is that what you're saying?"
"Yes. You are inferior to me."
Amy replied without hesitation.
The look on her face was different from before.
It was the same look she gave Gerhard when she defeated him.
The look of an absolute entity.
Someone who is above others.
Linhard became angry and manifested thousands of magic circles.
"I will kill you since your mere existence is a nuisance to my future!"
Amy instead said.
"Same here. You are a nuisance that got in the way of this day where I was strolling with my beloved."
"You deserve to die in the most painful way possible."
She snapped her finger.
And behind her a giant magic circle of rainbow colors manifested.
It was so big it took up all the space.
Amy said.
"Level 9 magic... this spell is so powerful that, if I hadn't activated this gigantic cube, this place including the county would be destroyed."
She glared at Linhard.
"Chaos Vortex."
"You will not die a simple death, you will be shattered on a cellular level and then rebuilt to be destroyed again."
"The process will last until the magic power I used runs out. And it's not one that will last a little while, even years."
Behind them a hole opened up and began to suck.
Amy snapped her fingers and disappeared.
Linhard tried to escape, but his weapon was the first thing to be sucked out.
"No..."
"It can't be..."
"I'm the smartest man in the world!"
"Linhard E. Weissman!"
"I'm supposed to find out why reason is 10 levels of magic and all the secrets of this world!"
"Including that 'fall' mentioned!"
"The holy grail was within my reach─!"
Linhard stopped himself from speaking as at the same time to stop himself from being sucked in.
He was being pulled into the vortex.
"Holy grail... level 10 magic... SS project..."
"It will be... that there is a relation between them?"
Those were Linhard's final words before he was sucked into the vortex.
His body began to shred like cheese in cubes.
This torment would not end soon.
◇◇◇
After leaving the place, Amy went straight to the room where Livie was.
She gently picked her up and then used a detection spell to find her family.
"Leila is upstairs... now where is he─"
"...!"
"It can't be, Razel-sama!"
◇◇◇
In a room where a large cloud of smoke was billowing out from the flames of the place.
Olgren who had turned into a monster was laughing.
"Gororororo. that's all the famous Licht can offer?"
The reason for that mockery was because Razel lay lying in a pool of his own blood.
Razel's battle against Olgren ended with a quick winner.
"Everyone in this country will be sorry they ever messed with me!"
"Gorororororororo! Gorororororororo!"