Overpowered Archmage Doesn’t Hide His Talent

Chapter 137:

Translator: MarcTempest

Proofreader: naturallyInconsistent

Chapter 137: …It’s complicated.

“Ahh…!”

Whenever she tries to use dark magic, I capture it in a frame before it shows any effect.

This way, I get another piece of research material.

“Hey, what kind of human are you…!”

I had to consume a lot of mana to contain the power of dark magic, but in this dark place, I was compensated by the effect of the night spirit Hera.

When the frames were piled up on the floor, the vampire girl finally stopped using magic.

“Couldn’t you use more diverse dark magic?”

That was my impression as I smashed the frames that contained the same spells. After deleting all the duplicates, there were only about five left.

“I’ll research these spells and use them for good. I hope you’re a competent dark mage.”

“How can you say such arrogant words so casually? Human. You should say that after you win.”

The vampire girl sneered at me.

“The barrier won’t disappear unless you kill me. What are you going to do? The investors are all poisoned and dying.”

As if to show me something, the girl slowly cut her throat with her sharp thumbnail.

Blood gushed out of the deep wound, but she didn’t seem to be in pain at all.

“As you can see~ I’m not a dying body.”

She continued to mock me, and drew a small circle in the air with her index finger.

“This is the only thing I want. Human, you know what this means, right?”

Then, some impatient investors intervened.

“Do you want gold coins? I’ll give you as much as you want!”“Me too! I have plenty of gold coins!”

The vampire girl just looked at me quietly.

To begin with, what she drew was not a gold coin. It was a power source that contained the ancient rune magic.

“What are you going to do, kill all the investors? Are you really okay with that? You worked hard to create this magic department~”

“Pathetic. There’s no negotiation with you.”

I retorted with an even bigger sneer.

“A foolish way of using a lot of life force to show off. I’ve seen it countless times, and I’m sick of it.”

I used telekinesis to immobilize her body, as if I had put her on a vertical operating table. I slowly approached her and grabbed her throat with my hand.

“What should I teach you first about your foolishness?”

Life force, the source of dark magic.

It pulsed strongly in her blood. I started to push my mana into the wound on her neck.

“You’re foolish for thinking that you have an infinite amount when you don’t. That’s your limit.”

The girl was still bleeding from the wound. I filled my mana with the amount of life force that was leaking out.

Realizing my intention, the vampire girl looked at me with disbelief.

“…Are you crazy? You’re trying to fill my body with your mana?”

She continued to speak as if she was amused.

“Why would I resist? You and I are connected right now. The moment your pathetic plan fails, my life force will melt your body.”

I sighed.

I’ve seen so many arrogant races since I was born, but every time I face them, I feel the same contempt and anger.

“Vampire.”

I uttered her race.

His body shuddered slightly.

“Don’t you know that your guess is wrong?”

I don’t need to drain all her life force.

I pushed in a suitable amount of mana, and the vampire girl rolled her eyes to look at me.

The spells in my head were intricately intertwined and activated, and 「Reverse Flow」 was triggered.

“I don’t cover it with mana. I just need to reverse it.”

The mana that seeped into various places manipulated her blood flow.

Ignoring the organs that existed to prevent the reverse flow, I forced the huge amount to gush out backwards.

Pfff─!

The girl’s body shook violently with a loud noise. Blood burst out of every hole in her body.

It happened in an instant.

“Ack…. Ah, gah…”

I looked down at her, who was bleeding with her eyes completely rolled back, and added a few words.

“If you want the power source, just visit me normally. Isn’t the hostage act a bit childish?”

Even as she shed tears of blood, she regained her focus. She trembled and glared at me.

“Uh…. Chi…”

“There’s no need to be so upset. It’s not your body anyway.”

“…!”

Then, she looked even more shocked.

But the next moment, the blood that flowed back more violently exploded her body, and I tied the corpse with telekinesis so that it wouldn’t fly around.

“How unpleasant.”

That was my brief impression.

A dark magic that sacrificed the bodies of living creatures that had actually lived and acted. A completely different concept from creating clones.

What just happened was possession.

I quietly looked around. The purple mist had disappeared without a trace, and the barrier that surrounded the ballroom was also completely gone.

“…”

The eyes of the investors who survived without a scratch were directed at me.

Of course, there were also those who averted their eyes. They were the investors who had offered gold coins to the Vampire earlier.

“I don’t force you to invest.”

Everyone listened quietly to my words. In the ballroom where the light was slowly returning, I continued.

“But if you invest, you should know that there is no such thing as breaking your faith. You saw it, so you know.”

There was no answer.

There was no need to listen even if there was.

I didn’t tell a single lie.

◈

Becky and Trixie were watching the situation outside the ballroom.

Lucky or unlucky.

They had wasted a lot of time at the clothing store, bickering all day, and when they arrived, a shocking scene awaited them.

The purple barrier completely wrapped the ballroom in a hemispherical shape. It was headache-inducing just to stand nearby.

“Huh? The barrier is disappearing!”

In the midst of that, someone shouted. Becky and Trixie opened their eyes wide and looked.

The thick barrier became translucent and then disappeared.

It was a perfect restoration without any side effects or aftermath. The knights and professors of the magic department arrived late and tried to enter.

But.

Someone walked out of the ballroom leisurely. Everyone stopped their movement to enter and focused their eyes on the strange gait.

Becky also stretched her neck and looked at who it was.

“Huh? Flan?”

Flan.

It was none other than him.

Others followed behind him.

“What’s inside?”

“What happened?”

“Did you find the Vampire who did it?”

Flan stopped quietly and looked around at the faces full of questions.

“Put them in black.”

He also sent a similar look to the magicians who arrived late, and they all did so.

“You just have to enjoy the melody and dance in the ballroom. Why are you all like that? As if you’re going to fight.”

Everyone blinked at Flan’s words.

Someone broke the silence and asked Flan.

“First of all, tell us what happened inside, so we can make a judgment.”

Then Flan pointed to the ballroom with his chin. The ballroom that was in perfect condition.

“Nothing happened.”

A low voice.

There seemed to be nothing wrong even if you looked at it with your own eyes, so the people who came didn’t have anything to say.

“Flan!”

Becky and Trixie approached Flan who was about to leave. Trixie’s face was full of questions, and Becky’s face was full of worry.

“Are you okay, Flan? I’m glad nothing happened…”

Becky unconsciously tried to grab Flan’s hand, but barely pulled it back.

“…”

Flan quietly looked at Trixie and Becky.

And then he narrowed his eyes.

“What are you guys?”

The same dress, the same necklace, the same bracelet… Flan couldn’t understand their behavior at all.

He nodded his head as if he understood after a while.

“Did you become friends?”

“No.”“No way!”◈

That night at midnight.

A meeting room in the void.

“The opponent was quite strong, huh?”

The Vampire’s executive ‘Mask’ asked. ‘Girl’ nodded her head with a displeased face.

“Leaving aside the strength, he’s a weirdo.”

“He must be in reality too. You broke the mask I cherished and returned.”

Mask’s special ability was to turn other living beings into vessels.

She called them masks and enjoyed collecting them.

“Can’t you just stop making those things! Ugh~ The more I think about it, the more annoyed I get. That insolent brat.”​

The girl tore off the arm of the cursed doll. 

She tried to justify her carelessness, but whenever she recalled the situation, her face turned red with anger.

​“It’s fine. It wasn’t an exploration mission anyway. Just tell me what you found out.”​

“You’re very observant. You figured out that I can reverse the life force in the blood, and that I’m possessing a vessel.”

“What about the negotiation?”

“If you want the power source related to the ancient runes, just come and get it. Playing hostage is childish, don’t you think?”

​A laughter echoed from behind the mask.

​“You’re definitely a strange human. But it’s okay. The power source is actually better for us if we take it after the research progresses.”

“Oh, right!”​

The girl jumped up as if she remembered something.​

“He used taxidermy, right? He really did that?”​

The mask and the girl’s eyes simultaneously turned to a corner of the Void. 

There stood Maiev. ​Maiev calmly answered.

“I got hit by it too. Strictly speaking, that human doesn’t use black magic the same way. He only uses pure magic to produce the same results.”

“Is that even possible?”

“Didn’t you just experience it yourself?”

“This rude bitch.”​

The girl glared at Maiev. She looked at her left arm and clicked her tongue.​

“You’re more pathetic. What did you do to lose an arm?”

​“…It’s complicated.”​

Maiev muttered quietly.​

To hide the slave mark, she had to cut off her arm every time she visited the Void.​ 

“But seriously, I don’t get it.”​

The girl murmured her question.

​“Other things aside, why didn’t my deadly poison work?”

“Didn’t you adjust the lethal dose?”

“I did. Don’t you know my ability? I did it for sure. That’s why I don’t understand. It’s impossible unless he eats my poison every day…”

​Cough, Maiev suddenly coughed.

​“…”​

The reason why the girl’s deadly poison didn’t work… Maiev seemed to know the reason.