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Chapter 40
🕑 Added 2025-07-27 15:30:34 +0000 UTC(Sorry guys, it took a bit longer than I expected to get it fixed.)
Expectedly, there was a fail-safe built into the workshop, designed to blow back in the face of anyone who dared to hijack it in spectacular fashion... Unfortunately, it wasn't designed to account for someone like me. It would be awe-inducing if it was.
Dismantling the fail-safe was elementary work, forcing the workshop heel was even easier.
The moment I snapped my fingers, the 'world' around us shifted, every single magus present noticed. It didn't matter. None of them gave any real reaction, already familiar with my unique set of skills, even Heine.
Flueger wasn't... but the nomadic magus was just a chill guy like that. He was just sitting on a wall watching the chaos ensue, spouting something about having already withdrawn for this exact reason.
Glannid, however, was petrified. Gray tossed his mother to the ground right beside him, into a patch of well-kept lilies that were turned to mush under the creature's immense weight.
"This castle is now mine," I jabbed a thumb into my chest, still grinning. "You gonna cry?"
The crest interference went poof, gone with the wind. Glannid looked around hastily, disbelief etched all over his face. I didn't blame him. But damn if it wasn't too much fun.
"When did you-? How?! So easily?" Then, he just tore off his shirt like some kind of pervert, revealing Jiroubou's muscled form. His eyes betrayed a distinct lack of reason. "It doesn't matter! None of you here can beat us. I know even you don't have the destructive power."
"You're not wrong there." I admitted, scratching the back of my head.
"That thing was able to shrug off the Istari Living Stone," Waver murmured, a hand under his chin. "It's disconcerting but you're right. I would compare Heine's weaponry to that of a heroic spirit's and while I admit that it would be on the lower end, no, the lowest end... it's still too impressive to ignore."
For one, I had no idea what the hell a heroic spirit was. It did sound pretty cool though and going by the rule of cool... Well, now that was a troubling bit of information. At the same time though, there was no way it was murdering all of us either. Not now that I'd stripped away the only advantage they had.
A stalemate, then?
That was boring.
The beast howled again and rose to her feet. She encircled Glannid before standing behind protectively. She let out another deafening roar, as though she was daring us to try harming him while she was there.
Honestly, I was a bit moved. My mother-... Yes, my mother would have done the same. That short but tough as nails lady.
Luviagelita was quick to answer the 'provocation'. She tossed an ensemble of shimmering gemstones into the air that fell into a rudimentary five pointed star. Her Magic Crest flared unhindered. Concurrently, Heine's stone armour locked in place, his sea-colored eyes shone in the night as he raised his lance at the beast.
"I'll just retrieve the workshop from your cold dead corpse! You fucking upstart!" Glannid cackled. "And you missed something by the way-"
As I tilted my head in confusion, he raised a hand towards the night sky.
"Come to me! Protect your master!"
For a moment, nothing happened. Silence fell on the garden. Then, suddenly, the castle's doors flew open and...
"Oh my fucking God..."
"They're still my familiars!"
I couldn't help but groan.
Those creepy ass stone angels came piling out of Adra Castle. They broke through the windows, climbed along the walls, tumbled from the roof, and came alive all around us in the garden. But, the familiars weren't those angels themselves, I'd have noticed if that were the case. No, instead, they were some kind of spirits that had taken to possessing those statues and using them as bodies.
"Be proud! You gave me the idea! These stupid statues have been soaking up everything that my father did to those idiots who thought they could have their Crests fixed! All the pain and the mana! They're excellent vessels!"
"Buddy... they're still stone." I said calmly as they encircled us.
"So what?!"
Luviagelita changed the trajectory of her spell with an excited smile. "For your Queen!"
A fucking rainbow kamehameha erupted from the precious stones she used for her spells, lighting up the night as it tore- no, it pretty much evaporated every single statue it came into contact with.
"And, also, why do you think your family's such a big deal for being able to tamper with Magic Crests anyway?" I stepped up to my lady, gently grabbing her wrist. "It's just a bunch of circuits with spells inscribed into them. It's a damn storage. Fixing what's wrong or whatever is easy as hell. No, improving the spells is also easy as long as you know the language. They're just formulae."
"Don't be absurd! No one can understand Crests like-"
"Watch."
I connected my circuits to Luviagelita's.
"Henry, that's dangerous."
I could tell she didn't really mean those words and I appreciated the trust.
Narrowing my eyes, I began deciphering her spell in a more standard manner. The way magi tended to do it. For that, I recalled my professor's lessons.
Her spell was one of Jewel Magecraft, brought to fruition by storing vast amounts of mana in gemstones... in this case, rubies. The mana would then be be tinted or 'stained' with the mystical properties of the jewel itself.
In common mysticism, Rubies were associated with the Sun. In the Kabblah, they were associated with Gevurah. The Fifth Sephirah. Judgement. Corresponding to fire and awe... but for this instance, fire was what mattered. Symbolically, fire could be life but it could also be ruin, in both, fire was power.
So, her spell unleashed power, proportionate to the amount of mana she used for it.
With that, she mixed Sapphires, associated with the fourth Sephirah. Chesed. In this case, the meaning she used was ardour, and passion. Passion was strength. Essentially, it put what the rubies did on steroids.
Then there were the curses like Gandr and what not woven into the gems themselves. The stored mana itself was a spell, variation of some curse. They were what gave the pure 'power' a decent portion of its destructive capabilities. Rather, they served to enhance and augment.
The bread and butter of the Edelfelt Family was how they meshed the two different schools of Gemcraft and Cursecraft to enhance both to an insane level.
Naturally, I didn't say this aloud. To parse her mechanism so completely would de-mystify and weaken her spell.
All of this was bullshit jargon to a person like me who saw this mysticism as letters for a language used to influence the world... but as I'd realised before, this sort of mysticism and meaning was exactly what gave said languages power in the world of magecraft.
What I did next was cut out excess, and simply refine what was already there while tacking on a little bit of extra flair. Essentially, a bit of necessary editing or polishing.
The power of her spell increased sixfold. Her Kamehameha became a super Kamehameha (haha) and when I moved her hand around, it, in somewhat anti-climactic fashion, pretty much deleted every single one of those familiars he summoned.
Good riddance. I'd had more than enough of angels.
"Does this make me the new Lord Ashborn? I mean, I just improved the spell inside a Crest."
Glannid's eyes opened wide. He was too shocked to even speak.
And unexpectedly, Luviagelita grabbed me by the collars and stared right into my eyes. "D-Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?!"
"Aw come on, you should be proud. You should even thank me for making your spell better. I'll settle for a kiss."
She gave me one. She actually gave me one. In front of everyone.
Well... I was a bit flustered now. Then I noticed the heavy blush on her face.
"Why are you embarrassed too?!"
"...I-I could ask you the same!"
"Then don't do it to begin with!"
"Shut...Shut up! You a-asked for it!"
Waver just sucked on his cigar and blew out some smoke. "I get the distinct feeling that if I did that, I would get my neck broken."
"You would." Luviagelita shot him a glare.
He sighed. "How unfair."
"It's fine only because... because it's him. Don't get any ideas, you hack."
Rubbing my nose to push down the embarrassment, I sauntered over to Heine with a hand in my pocket. If I remembered right, his magic crest was damaged during a rushed transplant and draining his life force. I put a hand on the knight's shoulder.
"What is it, Henry?"
Since it was actively doing the draining, it was easy to track down the issue by following the trail. The rest of his Crest held no meaning to me, as I already had his Living Stone. The issue was one you'd expect from any piece of mishandled hardware. The hasty transplant had damaged some circuits inside the Crest, and they were just continuously draining his life force... like faulty electrical wires.
I couldn't tamper with the circuits themselves just yet, but I could use the spell I'd made from Gray's scythe to redirect the 'current' to other circuits instead, effectively cutting off the damaged area. Since the others worked properly, there was no excess drainage.
"There. Feel any different?"
"Not particularly." Heine idly shook his head, firmly gripping his lance.
"Well, I fixed the issue with your crest."
He gave no answer... just stared at me. I couldn't even tell what kind of expression he had because of the stone helm around his face. Then, he suddenly put a hand on my shoulder.
"If you speak truly... I... I am in your debt. I will not even ask how... and no one will learn of what you did. Please. If you have something that I can do-"
"Nah." I waved my hand with a smile. "You're my bro."
He nodded reluctantly and said nothing else.
Maybe he was startled? That was cool. I'd never seen him break his calm look before.
"You bastards! Stop ignoring me!" Glannid finally returned to Planet Earth and immediately started bitching.
"You're a seasonal villain man, shut up. You only exist for character development. What are you even going to do at this point?"
Annoyed, he flickered next to me using Raven Flight. Heine pierced him through the shoulder before he could do anything and held him. I used Raven Flight to deliver a roundhouse kick directly to his chin, one that sent him crashing back into his mother.
There was nothing to learn here anymore, and I'd had my fun. It was time to finish things up.
"Maybe you should just run away-... Wait no. I need to help out that horny shonen mc."
I remembered my decision regarding Jiroubou... and yes, helping him here was well within my power. 'Glannid' was only in control because of the implanted Magic Crest. He was like a magical parasite. Messing up just about anything 'magical' was my whole shtick.
"What-"
I flickered next to him, and slammed him against the ground before jabbing a hand through the pulsing crest above his breast. Unceremoniously, I inserted copious amounts of my chaos letters into its make to send it haywire. The active crest started collapsing in on itself as he began screaming impotently into the night.
...No one really cared about the murderous fuck who wanted to use everyone as materials. How utterly surprising.
"Sit ashamed, Glannid. You were trivial."
His mother tried to jump me, but Gray's scythe met her sharp fangs instead of my neck. I got smacked across the face by my fellow apprentice's leathery black cloak instead.
With a chuckle, I dusted my hands.
"So, that just leaves you."
I smiled at the raging beast struggling against Gray.
-
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Comments
SRWilson MR
I forgot to mention, but with everything Henry is capable of, I wonder how long it will be before Luvia herself starts showing him off to other people. After all, this guy is basically her future husband. And the magi seem to enjoy these dick-measuring contests.
SRWilson MR
My god, the guy was so humiliated in this chapter that all that was missing was for Henry and Luvia to start emojiing on top of Glannid. As always, I love the interactions with Luvia. Now that she's allowed him to connect with her Crest in front of several people, he's gone from boyfriend to unofficial fiancé. And finally, I found Heine's reaction interesting. Mages are so used to coldness, indifference, betrayal, etc., that they're shocked to see genuinely friendly social interactions. It reminds me of Olga when Waver encourages her to make friends with his students and she didn't know what to do.
