Memoirs of a Wicked Magician - Chapter 43

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 43
Liliope clawed at the hand gripping her throat, and the words jolted her back to her senses. She seized the Mana already primed in motion ahead of her and drew it upward in a single, sharp motion.
Burst!
“Argh!”
An imperfect Mana Barrier—deep teal and invisible to the naked eye—flickered into being, and Kam was hurled backward.
“Cough, cough! Ugh, cough…!”
Liliope hacked and gagged violently, pulling deep breaths into her empty lungs.
“Where are you—don’t you run!”
But the barrier lasted only a moment before dissolving. In that instant, Kam, already on his feet, swung his fist at Liliope’s face.
Crack!
“Ah….”
Liliope crumpled with a small gasp, cradling her jaw in her hands.
Blood from her nose stained the space above her lip, then dripped to the ground, leaving scarlet traces. At least her nose didn’t seem to be broken—small mercy.
“Just die already! Die again, right now, by my hand!”
“You—you bastard….”
They say there’s a Law of Trash Conservation in this world.
So why did this lunatic have to go berserk the moment Zed calmed down?
“Why don’t you die instead!”
In her round, violet eyes—which had been shining with a lamb’s gentle light—venom flashed suddenly.
Liliope and Kam began grappling fiercely, writhing against each other.
It was somewhat embarrassing to admit, but Liliope still found it easier and simpler to settle things with her fists than to resort to Magic.
Thud!
“Hack!”
Crack!
“Ugh…!”
In their fierce struggle, Kam’s nose was completely flattened, blood pouring freely, and Liliope’s head—having been slammed into the ground—throbbed with dizziness, wringing gasps from her.
Clang!
Then, suddenly, something struck Kam’s leg.
Both their gazes snapped to the same spot: a spear-like weapon that one of Zed’s companions had dropped earlier, now half-buried beneath creeping vines.
In that instant, sparks of hunger lit both their eyes.
Without hesitation, they both reached for it.
Kam was the one lucky—or unlucky—enough to seize it.
Whoosh!
“…!”
But before Kam could properly grip it and drive it into Liliope’s body, the world suddenly blazed bright.
At first glance it looked like fine sleet dancing through empty air, or perhaps a swarm of small fireflies swarming forward.
But it was pollen—ejected from the Great King Flower growing before Zed.
The color itself was the deep blue-gray of the forest’s own hue….
‘No—!’
This was something that absolutely must not be inhaled.
Liliope abandoned the stumbling Kam and bolted toward Caliona, who lay sprawled nearby.
The moment her Magic wrapped around Caliona again, the spear Kam lifted swung toward Liliope’s body.
And immediately, the blue pollen swept over them all.
* * *
“Please… save me.”
Ah, this nightmare again.
In the gray dreamscape, a house burning brilliant red.
A black shadow looming over her.
“Please save me. Please save me. Please save me. Please save me….”
This was Caliona’s memory from one year ago—the day she and her younger sister were left alone together.
The nightmare of that final day when her warm, peaceful family still existed.
Locked away in memory like sealed inside a box, never quite clear, Caliona trembled with fear each time she experienced it.
Behind her was the closet where she’d hidden her sister; beyond the shattered window lay her parents’ corpses, torn to shreds and hanging like rags.
The black monster’s visage reflected in the scattered shards of glass—dozens, hundreds of eyes embedded within it, all seeming to bear down on Caliona.
On that day when the gray earth suddenly surged and broke through the mages’ barriers, when the black shadow flowing from the Defiled Sanctuary trampled her life—that terrible, distant day.
“Would you like to live?”
The creature spoke to the weeping Caliona.
Yet for a shadow from the Defiled Sanctuary to understand human language was absurd; this was surely just a scene spawned from a distorted, corrupted memory.
“Then shall I give you a chance?”
A demon—far more terrible than the black shadow it resembled—smiled at Caliona.
Caliona shook her head frantically and did not answer.
She already knew what would come next.
But even if she were to go blind, she did not wish to witness that scene again.
So Caliona, seeking escape from that hellish moment that returned in these tiresome nightmares, gripped her own neck as though to break it and released a silent scream.
* * *
Tap, tap, tap….
“Oh… sister….”
“Liliope…?”
Ah, was this also an extension of the dream?
Crushed beneath a grip so powerful it felt suffocating, Caliona forced her eyes open with difficulty.
Her blurred vision revealed nothing, but the soft whisper settling near her ear—her younger sister’s voice—became her landmark, dimly lighting the way.
“Sister… don’t lift your head. Just stay still for a moment.”
Liliope’s body, hugging Caliona’s head close, was small. Yet somehow, in this moment alone, it felt like an unbreakable, safe wall.
The thought occurred to Caliona in her hazed mind, and suddenly she let out a small, involuntary laugh.
It seemed absurd to think such a thing about her younger sister.
Then something warm—indefinable—dripped softly onto her cheek.
The sensation felt both strange and strangely familiar, and the faint question rising in her mind became suddenly clearer.
“Ugh, ugh…. What—what is this now? Ack! Cough…!”
Not far away, a boy’s shrill voice babbled something incomprehensibly.
But her hearing, like her vision, had dulled far more than usual, and the noise beyond the small embrace holding her remained indistinct.
Caliona’s eyelids, heavy as lead, fluttered as she exhaled slowly, burning breaths.
Why… why was this?
Why did her entire body ache so terribly?
It was as though she’d swallowed an enormous ball of fire whole—her insides scorched and burned with an indescribable sting.
Now that she thought about it, hadn’t this started when she underwent some sort of Ceremonial Rite at the Northern Mage Tower with her sister?
She remembered the horrible pain—like thousands of heated needles driving deep into her heart—becoming unbearable, and losing consciousness while clutching her sister.
Even now….
Even now, it was excruciating—as though her body were being torn to shreds from within, rendered into rags.
And a violent, almost primal urge surged through her: if only she could cool this insufferable heat, she would do anything.
Yes—for instance, this formless, cool blue aura flowing from her younger sister’s body, enfolding her so gently.
She felt a vague, inexplicable certainty that swallowing it would free her from this endless agony.
So Caliona, following her instinct, pulled her sister’s body closer and inhaled deeply—drawing in that formless, sweet aura that seemed prepared just for her.
Ah.
The moment she tasted it, she knew: yes, this was it.
‘Ah yes. This is what I want.’
This luscious power filling her sister’s body.
She had to consume it all—every last bit—scraping the bottom clean, until her own core was full. Only then would she find peace.

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