Memoirs of a Wicked Magician - Chapter 108

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 108
Wasn’t this rather like a declaration that she intended to become the sovereign of the Contaminated Holy Site itself?
Liriope chose her words carefully before asking again.
“I’ve heard that an ancient magical civilization lies dormant in the Contaminated Holy Site. Is it their legacy you desire?”
“That wouldn’t be unwelcome, but what I truly want lies elsewhere.”
Liriope’s eyes dimmed quietly.
It seemed Seraphina was indeed targeting the power of Calamity she had coveted before the time reversal—and she meant to seize it from this point forward.
The moment Liriope’s expression began to leech of color, she felt Seraphina’s gaze upon her.
A web-like regard—cool yet viscous, unsettling.
For reasons she couldn’t name, Liriope’s spine crawled with dread, and her fingertips trembled.
“Then what will you do once you’ve claimed the Black Land?”
“You’re the second person to ask me that. Most people don’t usually pry beyond that point.”
Seraphina took no displeasure in Liriope’s curiosity. If anything, her smile—tinted by the green shadows of flowering plants—grew deeper still.
“Naturally, once the world becomes mine, I must make it rather more… serviceable, wouldn’t you say?”
In that instant, Liriope’s ears caught what sounded like a scream being torn from its moorings.
The world Seraphina had remade before the regression flickered before her eyes.
Contaminated earth spreading like plague, relentless and swift.
People wailing in grief and despair, robbed of family, friends, lovers.
Mountains of corpses rising higher day by day.
The land stained black and red.
Death spawning death, violence begetting violence, sorrow and hatred reaching the very edge of the heavens.
Yet more serviceable? How could anyone call such a future an improvement on this one?
Liriope’s emotions began to fray.
Od sensed the disturbance before anyone else and withdrew his influence. In that moment, Seraphina’s magic seeped deep into Liriope, and mercifully, calm settled over her mind once more.
“I see… Your ambitions are such that someone as ordinary as I couldn’t hope to match them, let alone imitate them.”
Yet because her emotions hadn’t fully settled, words with teeth slipped out unbidden.
“From ancient times, an unexplained Calamity has slumbered in the Contaminated Holy Site. That’s why most would aim for reclamation through sealing or purification… but it seems you truly wish to become the sovereign of the Contaminated Holy Site itself.”
“Do you even know what the Calamity is, the one people speak of?”
Thankfully, Seraphina merely countered with a question rather than displaying displeasure.
“Few have ever glimpsed what dwells at the very heart of the Contaminated Holy Site. Fewer still have survived the sight. Aren’t you curious what lies within?”
Liriope nodded, affirming Seraphina’s words.
“I am.”
“Then I shall show you something special.”
Whoosh!
Before Liriope could ready herself, Seraphina’s Mana surged. A violent gust tore through the space, sending Liriope’s hair cascading wildly.
Seraphina’s crimson smile rippled across Liriope’s dazzled vision, becoming a crescent that swallowed her whole.
In an instant, heaven and earth inverted.
Liriope sank defenseless into the memory Seraphina had shared with her.
* * *
At the very heart of the Contaminated Holy Site—that place no one had ever conquered—lay the nucleus.
It was enshrouded in a powerful Magical Barrier that concealed its interior in mystery.
Yet following Seraphina’s sight, Liriope was able to glimpse what lay beyond.
An unsreal world of desaturation, eaten away by light and darkness.
The Contaminated Holy Site had always been covered in nothing but white and black, yet she had never stopped to ask why.
But now, for the first time, Liriope understood the reason: a black void had devoured every hue from the place.
A deep blue flowed past her sight like tears.
Molten gold clotted and congealed, releasing a fishy stench; green rusted into silver corrosion.
The world was smothered beneath white malice, then torn asunder by black benevolence, which released a cacophony of laughter.
A sequence of words divorced from context, matched only by phenomena stripped of causation.
The land where dawn and night coexisted was empty of all substance.
And yet simultaneously it held all of creation, so that the Magical Barrier containing it seemed ready to rupture at any moment.
Everything was grotesque and aberrant, yet paradoxically everything within it was truth.
Her mind, having glimpsed the unbearable laws of such a world, fractured into thousands upon thousands of splinters.
[Liriope! You must leave at once!]
When Liriope finally reached her limit, Od wrenched her forcibly from Seraphina’s memory.
She gasped.
“My, escaping on your own—how resourceful.”
“Hah… hah! Ugh…!”
“Yes, most suffer complete mental collapse. That is why no one has ever conquered that place.”
Liriope, using Seraphina’s measured voice as a backdrop, heaved up everything that had clawed its way to her throat.
What defiled the table and floor was a viscous black liquid of unknown nature.
[Parts of your brain and internal organs have been contaminated. Expel everything within!]
Contaminated, merely from witnessing the memory indirectly?
Since Liriope was too dazed to act, Od urgently cast Purification Magic instead. Even as he did, Liriope retched again and again.
Seraphina, apparently undisturbed by the display, sipped her tea while observing her.
Reflecting on the memory she had just witnessed, Liriope found herself laughing hollowly despite herself.
Wanting to seize such a thing—something so utterly horrible?
She had known it, of course. But the woman truly was out of her mind.
No wonder she had abandoned her duty as a mage in the past and wrought such madness upon the world.
“Liriope, you once said your intention and Belkiers’ were different.”
Seraphina set down her teacup and leaned toward her.
“Yet I perceive a yearning in your eyes. If your desire to follow me is genuine, tell me—what do you wish to achieve at my side going forward?”
Liriope coughed up more black liquid and lifted her head.
Even as her face twisted in pain, her gaze piercing through Seraphina was steady, bright with unwavering intent.
“To climb higher… ever higher.”
Seraphina released a soft laugh and rose from her seat.
“To ascend. Everyone in the Magic Tower desires that. Then it seems you shall need a gift from me after all.”
The soft whisper of her robe brushed against leaves.
“But Belkiers is my sole treasure, my truest reflection. I promised to reserve his portion for him alone, and I cannot break that promise. What, then, shall I do?”
A cool hand descended upon Liriope’s sweat-beaded brow. It moved like flowing water, tracing the contours of her cheek before brushing the fine hairs at the nape of her neck and finally settling upon her shoulder.
“I know the easiest way to turn Belkiers’ heart. But tell me—do you suspect what I’m thinking now?”
Liriope met Seraphina’s gaze across the veil of shadow.
When their eyes aligned for the first time in direct confrontation, her entire body erupted in gooseflesh.
Liriope grasped Seraphina’s intent, and Seraphina knew that she did.
“Child, when I say you please me, I do not lie.”
……
“You bear a striking resemblance to someone I once knew well. Yes, I see your singularity at a glance…”
Like a full moon hanging faintly beyond black fog, her eyes possessed a strange gravitational pull that numbed thought itself.
“So, Liriope. I look forward to the day I can keep you at my side.”
Intending to release Liriope now, Seraphina’s Spatial Translocation enveloped her.
“Magic Tower Master.”
In that moment, Liriope’s hand dared to seize Seraphina’s arm.
“Will you allow me to visit again in the future?”
Her contaminated body could barely hold itself upright, swaying like that of someone drunk or drugged, and her complexion was deathly pale, ready to collapse at any instant.
Yet even in such a state, Liriope faced Seraphina with steady eyes and lifted the corners of her mouth in a smile.
For the great Magic Tower Master, this was evidently unexpected. A sigh and laughter intertwined and spilled from her lips.
And then she whispered.
“Yes. You are welcome anytime, child.”
* * *
“What are you doing?”
“Huh… cough…”
“What are you doing like this?”
Showing a kindness of sorts, Seraphina relocated Liriope to stand before Belkiers.
A deserted, shadowed corridor.
Liriope had no leisure to survey her surroundings and couldn’t determine where she was.
Above the crouched Liriope, a piercing gaze bore down.
Liriope raised her head after glimpsing the shoes that had come to rest inches from her face.
“Belkiers…”
Yet upon seeing him, she could say none of what she had meant to, and only black liquid poured from her lips instead.
Belkiers looked down at her with eyes like frozen stone.
So difficult was it even to remain seated that Liriope abandoned all pretense and collapsed onto her side.
“Get up.”
“I… just a moment, please.”
“Get up.”
His voice fell from above like a blade of frost.
Liriope exhaled deeply, then lifted her gaze.
“Are you angry?”
Belkiers did not answer.
Yet at her next words, the frozen rigidity of his expression cracked.
“I’m sorry…”
Her voice emerged toneless and thin, as though ready to dissolve into the void at any moment.
Her face, visible between tangled strands of hair, was pallid as new snow, and her body sprawled on the floor held not a trace of strength.
Belkiers was indeed furious, but he would have preferred if what he felt was merely that.
Then, moving at last, Belkiers drew nearer to her.
Though his expression remained rigidly set, when he lifted her into his arms, his touch was as careful and tender as if he were handling fragile glass.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————