I Became the Servant of the Blind Wicked Woman

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Carisia, who was waiting for Orthes to return with Kine, heard a strange noise.

A cracking sound came from the barrier blocking the entrance to the promotion examination hall.

'I thought it was strong enough to stop the mindless Silver Thread hosts.'

Carisia didn't directly use barrier magic, but understanding the completeness of the spells in place was simple for her.

The barrier wasn't something that could be broken by the physical attacks of hosts who could do nothing but spread the Silver Thread.

'Is someone dismantling the barrier?'

Carisia infused her gauntlet with magic. She preferred not to cause a scene in the promotion examination hall if she could avoid it.

'But…'

Carisia's eyes moved.

At the end of her gaze was the Lampades Magic Tower. The people of the Lampades Magic Tower, mostly research mages, didn't seem capable of withstanding a large-scale assault that could breach the barrier.

'Orthes said he would be helpful to our goal, so I should protect him.'

Carisia's ultimate goal was the destruction of the Ten White Light Commandments. It was sometimes expressed as the collapse of the White Light Magic Tower, but ultimately, it was the Commandments that continued the name 'White Light.'

To erase White Light from the world, she had to destroy the Ten Commandments in the end.

The creation of Artificial Commandments, initially just a cover to hide the true goal of destroying White Light, had been increasingly empowered as an extension of this plan.

Carisia's occasional suggestion to Orthes, 'Let's use the Artificial Commandments as bombs to destroy White Light,' was half a joke.

In other words, it was half-serious.

The magic compressed in the Artificial Commandments, collected by Kaicle over the years by exploiting the intelligence of Etna City, had the potential to become the world's largest bomb.

Carisia had her eye on that potential.

No one in this world knew the minimum power needed to destroy the Ten Commandments.

No one had ever tried. Thus, Carisia always considered the runaway explosion of the Artificial Commandments, achieving mutual destruction with White Light, as one of the means she could employ.

Appointing Orthes, whom she trusted the most, as the person in charge of the 'Divine Investigation,' which aimed to perfect the Artificial Commandments, was part of the same strategy.

If it was impossible to destroy the Ten Commandments with all her magical abilities, the only means left would be the explosion of the Artificial Commandments.

A last resort to overturn the situation in an instant if all plans failed.

Moreover, the Artificial Commandments had uses other than being bombs.

The Tower Masters, backed by the Ten Commandments, could exhibit semi-divine capabilities within the Ten Commandments' magical fields.

The two potentials of the Ten Commandments: magic and spellcraft. In a fight with a Tower Master who could unleash ancient Grand Magic with boundless power, Carisia wasn't entirely confident in her victory.

'Fighting alongside Orthes would significantly increase our chances, but…'

The likelihood of either herself or Orthes suffering an irreparable injury was extremely high. No, the expression 'high' was inappropriate. 'Inevitable future' was closer to the truth.

That wasn't the conclusion she desired.

Normally, magical fields repelled each other and canceled out. The Artificial Commandments were also effective tools to suppress the Ten Commandments' magical fields and neutralize the Tower Masters' powers.

The Artificial Commandments, which began as a cover project, had now become a core project directly linked to Hydra Corporation's true objective.

Losing valuable talents who could significantly aid in the completion of the Artificial Commandments to the likes of the Eroders' terrorism was too much of a waste.

"Everyone, stand back."

A soft voice. The mages in the promotion examination hall instinctively agreed with that command.

Krrrk!

The cracking sound from the barrier grew clearer. Questions and fear began to fill people's eyes. How could the Silver Thread hosts break through the magic?

The quick-witted ones considered a dire possibility.

While the Silver Thread hosts couldn't break the barrier, could the Eroder mages who called themselves Argyrion?

───!

The magic composing the barrier was completely destroyed. A crashing sound, far more intense than glass shattering, swept through the area. Several mages involved in forming the barrier collapsed, bleeding.

"So, here you are, future comrades!"

The voice was different from the terrorist who had announced the manifesto. But it was clear that this person was also a member of Argyrion.

Behind the Argyrion mage stood numerous automatons. These automatons had exposed frames and artificial muscles without skin.

And each fiber of the muscles seemed to be made of the familiar Silver Thread. As the silver humanoids gradually walked into the promotion examination hall, the Argyrion mage spoke.

"Let us escape the wicked clutches of the Ten Towers together and pursue our cause—"

The mage's eyes locked onto Carisia. Old, blurry memories of past fears revived from the baptism of the extra-dimension.

"You…"

Carisia snapped her fingers. The metallic gauntlet rang with a sharp sound.

And a dome-shaped light barrier enveloped the entrance of the promotion examination hall.

***

Survivor of the Golden Desert operation. One of the two mages Argyrion had dispatched for this mission, Iobates, spewed anger upon seeing the great enemy from the past.

"How are you here!"

And Carisia didn't particularly enjoy such debates.

It was a judgment based on the combat principles she had learned from Orthes.

A dense magic circle was drawn in the air at the tip of her pointed finger aimed at Iobates. The prepared beam had added aiming and tracking.

Fire.

The process of Carisia pointing her finger and releasing the light was so silent that it hardly seemed like an attack. In a fight between mages, detecting an attack meant sensing the magical flow that signaled the onset of magic.

However, Carisia's magic suppressed the flow of magic to the extreme.

It was an attack without warning, perfected through long pursuits with Blasphemia.

Iobates didn't dodge the strike. He had seen many colleagues fall to that technique. It wasn't a spell he could avoid with his skills.

Instead, he layered magical barriers. The tracking beam bent and flew through the gaps in the barriers.

"Hyaah!"

The path of the beam, which twisted to break through the magical barriers, granted just enough time for Iobates to pull an automaton with his telekinetic magic.

Iobates had an automaton collide with the deadly beam. The automaton's body melted in an instant, and even the internal mana stone was shattered.

The beam disappeared after destroying one automaton. Iobates quickly threw himself among the automatons.

It was time gained by sacrificing one Silver Thread automaton. Iobates assessed his remaining forces.

'There are about twenty automatons trapped in this barrier with me. I'm not connected to any other automatons outside. Can I defeat that monster with these?'

Coldly, he evaluated it as impossible. That monster had defeated all the agents deployed in the Golden Desert operation despite unexpected variables. It would be different if Commander Halto was here, but he alone couldn't be a match for that opponent.

The best option he had was to escape this place and relay the news of the monster to Argyrion.

Having decided, Iobates looked at Carisia, trying to find a clue to dismantle the barrier.

And that was the end of him.

***

Iobates' brain was fried.

It was the effect of the curse Carisia had prepared.

To see something meant to recognize its existence. The reason monstrous beings capable of cursing others simply by being seen could exist was due to this principle.

By witnessing the curse, the concept embedded itself within the observer. Carisia had created a curse by adding her magical properties to this 'witnessing' mechanism.

The principle was simple: enhance the output of visible light entering the eyes of those who saw Carisia to the extreme.

As a result, Iobates died. He couldn't even put up a proper resistance.

'It seems hard to face a Tower Master with this.'

It was Carisia's self-assessment. Currently, various conditions overlapped, making her control over magic overwhelmingly superior. The curse succeeded because it pierced through the opponent's magical field and amplified the light output within their brain.

Without piercing the magical field, the curse was meaningless.

It seemed difficult for this to be a fatal blow against high-ranking Eroders who wouldn't die from mere brain damage.

'Well, I'll discuss specific improvements with Orthes when he returns.'

Carisia leisurely dismantled the automatons that had lost their controller. She did it to greet Orthes.

***

Oh, damn it.

"Blasphemia scum! Where are the members of our cult you kidnapped?"

How did the Cult of the Vanished Gods crawl all the way here?

To read over 200 fully translated episodes, patreon.com/Denji02