Reincarnated Lord: I Conquered Fate With My Harem-Chapter 48: Muna And Darios
Scanning the area once more, I braced myself and asked. "What’s the game?"
"THE GAME IS SIMPLE!" the voices boomed in unison.
I raised my brows and shot the flying sentries a knowing glance.
"A simple game? Hmm... let’s see," I said.
"I TELL YOU A STORY, AND YOU TELL ME YOURS!"
"Huh?" I turned my head to match the location of the sentries, which had suddenly disappeared into thin air. "Wherever you are, I know you can still hear me..."
"LET’S PLAY A STORYTELLING GAME. I WILL GO FIRST!"
As soon as the voices boomed, the whole place twisted for a moment... and the game began.
...
In a vast space, there was no sky, no stars, nothing to be counted as a world feature.
There was nothing but a velvet emptiness without color or weight. Just the void.
And in this void, many mage candidates were suspended above an immeasurable abyss, floating on a trembling circle of shimmering gold light.
This circle was what had carried them so far around this abyss, and its glow is now weakening with every passing breath. Every passing second.
Among this group of mages were Muna Seafrost of the Water Duchedom, and Darios of the Earth Duchedom.
One after another, in turn, the circles of other mages weaken and fade out, leaving them to fall into the unknown abyss below... losing their lives.
"This circle keeps fading," Darios commented, clenching his fists at his sides. "Had I known..."
"...comes at last," Muna interrupted, looking quite comfortable.
Her kimono fluttered without wind. And there was no ground beneath them. Only the thin circle, which was consistently fraying at the edges like a burning paper.
"For real? How can you be calm presently?" Darios said with a mixture of disbelief and caution.
He would rather not do anything that might trigger the Lioness should she find a way out.
"Are you able to think of something?" He continued. "At this rate, we will all die. I mean, both of us." Darios added, taking note that only the two of them now remained out of the other mages.
They were able to hold up long enough to have only half of the circle still carrying both of them. It could be called grace according to the unlucky ones, but the real truth lay in their power as nobles with high Mana power.
Their fellows weren’t able to tolerate the consistent fading of the circle due to the low concentration of their mana, but even these two would soon join them as theirs isn’t able to hold the circle anymore.
"I wonder what luck others might be facing out there... F**k, is this what they call a test?" Darius continued, his voice like that of a mosquito in the ears of Muna, who was trying to think.
"Can you shut it for once!" Muna roared, her pitched voice getting buried in nothingness.
It was true that they found themselves in an area with no air.
No direction.
Not even a place to land.
The worst part was that gravity here couldn’t be trusted. Some of the mages who lost their lives did so because their circles completely faded off.
But the majority of them had jumped out of the circle, thinking it was the best option. Thinking they might somehow float in air weightlessly to a landing point. But gravity betrayed them.
A few only got drowned, meeting the fate of the former category. While those who were lucky floated only for a brief moment, and their bodies dissipated into smoke.
’I’m shouting at him, but I feel like screaming,’ Muna thought, looking intensely before her.
’As a Water Echo Magic user, I can’t think of a way to manipulate this area’s nature. And he’s but an Earth magic user; what can we do?’ Muna thought, desperate but not giving a hint of it.
In the midst of the chaotic trouble going on in her mind, she was able to think of something even she didn’t believe in.
"Water Echo, don’t fail me now," she muttered, getting the attention of Darios, who had almost lost hope.
Water Echo was not simple water magic. It might not summon waves or conjure ice out of nowhere. But it helps to manipulate memories.
It is from the manipulated memories that one can be able to possess an Echo of a victim object or creature.
When it rains, the air carries traces of it. Even a person’s breath held stories of what they had passed through.
"There is no water nor life nor even a lingering memory in this void. Nothing for your power to cling to. How do you even plan to..." Darios, after understanding how Muna’s power worked, said, but was cut short.
"... I hate pessimistic peacocks," Muna commented, and lowered herself, touching a palm to the fragile circle ring beneath her feet.
Although it was no longer worthy to be called a circle, it was a semicircle, sort of moon-shaped.
Immediately she touched the ring; it flickered aggressively, threatening to vanish entirely at that moment.
"Please, just a moment more," Muna murmured.
Darios drew a deep breath and activated his magic to flicker in his palm. "I can offer help if you need it."
Muna ignored him.
She focused all her magic perception on her palm pressed on the circle.
A ripple of blue light spread from her hand, extending to also encircle the ring on which Darios floated.
"Water Echo: Resonance Dive."
She had not uttered this spell because she knew it existed, but because she placed all hopes now on her imagination.
Immediately the words left her mouth, and she sank into the remaining memory the circle possessed.
"Goodluck," Darios voice faded as Muna’s consciousness plunged into the circle’s memory space.
It was going to be her first time making use of her magic for something besides creating an Echo.
Suddenly, Muna found herself standing in a reflection of a circle’s past.
The reflection was made of a bright chamber of runes, where a hooded Arcane Architect was creating it anew.
This architect, although blurred, happened to possess a full figure-shape of Magister Dango. But something was off... the head was missing.
Notwithstanding, Muna still stood, watching attentively.
The figure lifted its hand. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮
Three different runes lit up from the flow of mana that came from the hand, forming different letters.
One described "stability," and another "anchor." The third one was sluggish but was endlessly able to establish the word "Descent".
Muna wasn’t able to fully grasp the meaning behind those words before she was snapped back into the void.
Immediately, the circle beneath them broke in three.
"No—no, no! Tell me it isn’t our fate?" Darios screamed.
He leapt instinctively, landing on one of the fragments. It was already shrinking fast.
Muna remained on the one she found herself.
She wasn’t able to understand the words so far, but she understood one thing.
"Memory is used to create a resemblance," she said, determined.
"Water Echo: Memory Reconstruction!"
She extended both arms, and the magic, which now engulfed each of the broken pieces of the circle, began to rise in the form of smoke into her palms.
Once the former magic was gone, a new one replaced it, streaming from her fingertips like liquid light.
Darios was amazed as he saw the magic converge before separating into small droplets of glowing memory-water.
’So, this is the power of the Lioness?’ he thought.
Not long after, the broken pieces of the circles lit up with the same runes Muna had seen in the vision.
Anchor. Stability and Descent.
"Hold... hold!" Muna demanded, feeling something bad was about to happen.
"Not good."
Their circles had reformed, stabilized, and were now glowing brighter and stronger.
Then, they felt it. A pull from beneath.
Instead of floating, the reconstructed circles began to descend so fast.
Darios became sober. "Aren’t we going to meet the fate of the others?" he asked with a shaky voice.
"At least, we still have the circles," Muna replied, giving herself the faintest hope that things should turn out well.
They continued speeding downward. Darios nearly lost balance, but he desperately planted his feet wide and continued with the motion.
They still weren’t sure what their fate was, or even if that was meant to be one of their tests, but something flickered in their vision.
[Congratulations! Your hard work has paid off.]
For a moment, Muna and Darios froze but didn’t stop their descent.
[You have...]
They couldn’t complete reading the floating words before them before getting distracted.
"Oh, yes. The spell will surely unravel fast," Muna said, looking down at the circle, which was no longer able to hold back.
It no longer faded off but formed cracks on itself, about to break a moment soon.
"Just get us closer," she prayed.
But it seemed her prayers weren’t answered, or were they?
The circles finally broke, and they soon found themselves falling into the abyss.
"I guess... it’s over now." Darios, murmured.
