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A flood of poison pours down endlessly.

Of course, an ordinary user would be done for, and even a decent ranker would melt away without a chance.

Neris urgently tried to protect her guild members while attempting to pull out the holy shield she had in her pocket.

“Uh…?”

“Sis! Come down!”

“Quickly activate the shield!”

There’s none.

All the ‘Orb of Light’ shields that can temporarily create a holy barrier had vanished, and soon even the previously used shield would disappear.

All that remained were twenty incompetent users who couldn’t use magic.

I misjudged.

‘They were hostile from the start.’

From the moment we fell in front of the Demon’s mansion, or perhaps the moment we entered the Demon Realm, it might have been wrong…

“Sis!!”

Kwaaaahh!!!

The poison of the plague engulfed them.

■

“…Am I alive?”

Neris touched the ground.

Then she immediately fell.

The wave of poison crashed over them, and the guild members who were behind her melted away without even a scream.

Of course, for a user, it would only be a mere ‘sting’…

‘They really loved to immerse themselves.’

It was possible they set the pain sensitivity to the maximum, so it probably hurt quite a bit.

“Ugh.”

Tap tap.

Neris had also set her own pain sensitivity high enough, but it wasn’t significantly painful or anything.

“Why am I still alive?”

Surely, she should have melted away like the others.

In this situation where she couldn’t use magic, no matter how good her specs were, those crows looked quite powerful.

Neris rose from the spot where she had fallen.

Smash.

“…Huh?”

Zwaaaaang…

“Whaaaat???”

Magic… magic…

“Magic is being cast?”

Neris saw the 17-layered ‘Charging Magic Barrier’ melting away from her body.

And instinctively, she wiggled her hands wrapped in ‘Miracle Armor: Mythical Enhancement’.

All of it was auxiliary magic she had input before the fight.

While there weren’t any separate input slots or macro programs, Neris always instinctively used her magic before battles.

With a dazed feeling, Neris began to activate the remaining buffs, barriers, and magic enhancements one by one.

Neris’s power amplified to dozens of times more than before.

Caw!

Caw~~!

She could sense the crows were slightly flustered.

It wasn’t so much that they were shocked by her immense power, rather, they seemed more surprised that she hadn’t died.

The crows gathered poison again, preparing to attack.

“…I don’t know what’s going on.”

Neris laughed.

Whatever it was, magic had returned!

There was no longer a need to be swayed by demons.

What she had wanted wasn’t the power of a demon, it was to avoid becoming an incompetent user.

“It’s time to counterattack, you little brat.”

Whooooom! Whooooom! Whooooom!

Dozens of spells rose behind Neris.

■

Kugugugung…!

“Looks like you’re having fun.”

“I was surprised, after all. Hehe.”

On the mountain that soared high, nearly touching the sky, Black Lily smiled down as she controlled the magic lightning.

-Caw!

-Take that! It’s a 47-layered spell!!!

Kwagagagahh!!

The battle of Neris and the plague monster.

The terrain below the mountain drastically transformed due to their fight.

The plague monster was a strong enough beast to handle lower-tier demons and demon races.

Of course, it wouldn’t win against an intermediate, but it was no match for a ranker-level user.

However, Neris was pressing the plague monster with only the fact that she could now use magic.

The reason such a bizarre phenomenon occurred was very simple.

“Turning a lack of talent into talent… it’s quite fascinating.”

Neris lacked talent.

She couldn’t feel mana and couldn’t even learn the simplest magic incantations.

Could one believe that a mage, who couldn’t even manifest the incantation for ‘Fireball,’ was true?

Naturally, most people would evaluate her as not being a mage, but Neris was undeniably a mage.

Using dozens of spells without any restrictions, layering them like a ‘combination,’ she was a genius mage.

No user could stack spells quite like Neris.

Feeling mana is a huge blessing, but conversely, it bound one to the ‘rules of mana.’

While she was able to use more powerful spells than usual, it came with side effects.

“Since you can’t feel mana, you can use magic freely without external dangers and fears, and perform actions outside of established logic. They say you see as much as you know, don’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“Of course, you need to have enough power to cover that ignorance.”

As all the magic from the west flowed into one place, the demons hiding everywhere were all slaughtered, opening up a void.

In that void, thousands upon thousands of magic circles, drawn by Lily, began to unfurl.

It was like a ‘world’ phenomenon.

“In that sense, I haven’t been blessed. I just happened to open my eyes.”

“Do you regret it?”

“Well, I do, but… what can be done.”

It was already in the past.

If there was a mistake, it was facing Lily the moment she opened her eyes.

Black Lily felt a strange mix of envy and sympathy as she retrieved her staff.

Now, this place had completely become her territory.

An area where even the highest-ranking demon, Silence, wouldn’t dare to invade unless he came in person.

Just three more times of this work and it would be over.

“Bring them soon. I think we need to talk.”

“Okay.”

■

Kwaagahh!!

Caw~~!!

“I can do it!”

Neris unleashed the poisonous fog as she wielded magic.

The crows, in agony from Neris’s blend of fire and ice magic, spewed poison everywhere.

For some reason, it felt like her spells were working even better than before.

‘The casting speed has increased compared to usual. It definitely wasn’t like this before…’

She could barely cast 30-40 spells linked together, but now it felt like she could do twice that.

Moreover, the mana consumption wasn’t even half of what it usually was.

Looking at the amount of mana in her sight, it seemed to just be halfway there.

If she could effectively utilize the various mythical-tier equipment, potions, and spell enhancements, she could drag this out much longer.

‘Could it be that my talent has finally blossomed?!’

Once, Lady Lily said:

“I have ‘no’ magical talent at all.”

From the perspective of a mage, it was an utterly hopeless statement, but she knew it well herself.

Neris couldn’t even cast the common incantation for ‘Fireball.’

Caw!

But now it was different.

“Inferno Mirror.”

A sphere of glass made from lava rose, completely trapping the crows.

The crows spewed poison, but since it was a spell intertwined with dozens of others, they couldn’t break through and just kept circling in the sky.

Neris clenched her fist.

Though she still couldn’t feel mana at all, there was something different compared to before.

“My talent is finally…”

“You don’t have talent.”

“?”

Someone approached and dispelled the lava glass.

The crows, now free, showed hostility toward Neris, but upon seeing the little girl below, they flew toward the mountain instead.

That girl…

“Just change the flow of all powers, including magic, to one place. Since magic doesn’t face resistance from the surrounding environment, it becomes more ‘efficient.’”

“That’s the boss, right? The one from where the vampires were…?”

“Hmm… maybe you really do have talent. You’re using it ‘just’ like that, without knowing how to use it efficiently, right?”

As Blodia’s hand pointed toward Neris, she felt a shiver run down her spine.

The level of power was completely different from that of the crows.

‘But…’

“Anyway, let’s go ahead and act casually. Black Lily is looking for you.”

“…You’re really underestimating me. Even if it’s not Lady Lily, I—”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

Whoosh.

Neris’s head exploded, and she collapsed just like that.

 

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