Chapter 407 - Isabella (3)
"…Why isn't he coming?"
Isabella muttered as she looked up at the clock tower in the nearby town.
The promised time had already passed, but Crodon hadn't shown his face. Considering she had arrived early, she'd been waiting for three hours now.
Could he have mistaken the date? Or maybe he heard the meeting place wrong?
Perhaps something happened to him along the way.
She couldn't hide her anxiety as she sank into thought, but of course, nothing changed.
There was no sign of Crodon coming, and time continued to flow.
Before long, the distant sunset began to sink.
The sky was bathed in crimson light.
Isabella, staring up for a moment, rose to her feet.
'For now, let's go back.'
Staying any longer would be nothing but a waste of time.
If something unavoidable really had happened, he would have sent word to the mansion.
With that judgment, Isabella left the town and cast
She still wasn't used to walking the sky, so she kept her altitude low and adjusted her speed just in case.
Fortunately, she made no mistakes.
Thanks to the knowledge and experience accumulated at the Academy.
Isabella was not like those hollow mages who raised their tiers without real learning.
'If only Xenia had gone to the Academy too.'
Her younger sister had stubbornly refused, saying, "I can just learn from you, sister!"
Yet, she had once been the one to push Isabella out the door, urging her to go learn everything she wanted at the Academy.
So willful, so stubborn.
'I have no choice but to teach Xenia myself… but Kael, I'll make sure he enters.'
Kael was nearly of the age to attend the Academy. He was so clever, it would be an invaluable experience.
The thought of what kind of great people her two precious siblings might become someday made her smile.
It didn't matter what goals they pursued. Whatever they chose, she just wanted them to be happy.
But perhaps that wish was too much to ask.
Isabella returned home.
Raging flames.
The stench of blood mingling with acrid smoke.
A sight she had never seen before.
The mansion was burning.
***
They say when one is too shocked, no sound comes out.
She was overwhelmed.
Isabella, eyes stretched wide, stared blankly at the blazing mansion. The unfamiliar heat carried by the wind touched her skin.
She hurriedly descended and landed in the front yard.
The first to greet her was the gardener, Carver.
Carver's throat was pierced by his favorite gardening shears, and his eyes stared at nothing.
"Carver… Carver…?"
She shook his body, but Carver didn't respond.
Of course not.
What could the dead hear, or feel? The faint warmth fading from his body was all he left behind.
Carver was dead.
Swallowing hard, Isabella's fingertips trembled as she slowly turned her head.
"…Marianne."
Not far away, the head maid, Marianne, leaned against the mansion wall.
The woman who had cared for them like a mother was engulfed in flames.
Marianne was dead.
'Is this… a dream?'
It must be.
Otherwise, there was no way the two of them would suddenly, so helplessly, die like this.
It had to be a nightmare.
When she woke, Carver and Marianne, and Kael and Xenia, would greet her as always in the morning.
Rumble…
The entrance of the mansion collapsed.
From within, bathed in golden firelight, three figures emerged.
Crying Kael, battered Xenia, and the man gripping their throats.
"…Crodon?"
Xenia was flung into the yard.
"Isabella, sister."
"Sis…!"
Their pained voices pierced her ears.
Crodon, with fingers pressed to Kael's neck, locked eyes with Isabella.
The same gaze as when he once tried to kill a student who had mocked him as a failure.
There was no doubt who had killed Carver, and Marianne.
Isabella was shaken.
"Cr, Crodon, why are you…."
"Isabella."
Crodon rubbed his face with one hand, brow furrowed.
"Why didn't you keep the heirlooms in one place? If you'd just left all three together, we wouldn't have had to meet like this."
"…What?"
"Tell me. Where's the last heirloom?"
Crodon, who had murdered Carver and Marianne and now held Kael and Xenia hostage, was demanding the heirlooms of House Argyle.
Finally, she understood.
Why Crodon attacked the mansion, why he tricked her into leaving.
There was only one reason.
Isabella's voice shook.
"They, they were all good to you. And for just… something like that…."
"I didn't want it to come to this. Truly. But I had no choice───"
"You dare call that words!!!!!"
Isabella's fury erupted.
She wanted to calculate a spell immediately and tear Crodon apart.
But he pulled Kael forward as a shield, gathering magic power at his fingertips.
"Calm down, Isabella. I don't want to kill them too… Hand over [Blood of Resurrection] and I'll leave quietly. I swear."
He knew the name of the heirloom she hadn't revealed. Clearly, he had dug into the secrets of the Magus Nation and House Argyle.
The [Eye of Replication] and [Nucleus of Multiplication], hidden in the mansion's secret chamber, must already be in his hands…
Isabella wavered.
Such materials meant nothing compared to her siblings' lives.
But could she trust that handing over the [Blood of Resurrection] would make Crodon release the hostages? Would the disciple of the Bohemirn tower master leave living witnesses to his atrocities?
Of course not.
The [Blood of Resurrection] in her possession was her siblings' only lifeline.
They stood at an impasse.
But one of them had overlooked something.
"Sis, Isabella, Xenia…."
Kael's lips moved.
He was young, but clever enough to understand the situation.
And tragically, he was brave, and resolute.
Shing.
Kael pulled out the small dagger hidden inside his clothes.
A protective weapon Isabella had once given him. He had run around the yard with it, shouting that he would protect the family.
Of course, such a plain iron dagger could never harm Crodon.
Kael knew it too.
So he stabbed himself in the chest. No longer wanting to be the chain binding his sisters as a hostage.
"I'm, sorry."
Kael coughed blood.
His frail body couldn't withstand the mortal wound and collapsed.
His heartbeat ceased.
Kael was dead.
Startled, Crodon faltered.
"This crazy…."
"Kael!!!"
Xenia, fallen forward, screamed and raised her hand.
The 1st-tier elemental magic Isabella had taught her.
The icy arrow formed by magic power struck Crodon, but shattered against his robe's resistance.
Kael's suicide, and Xenia's counterattack.
Perhaps unprepared, Crodon was visibly flustered, reacting instinctively.
Craack!
The spear of earth pierced Xenia's side.
Blood poured onto the yard.
With effort, Xenia turned her eyes to Isabella and whispered.
"Sister, run… away…."
Her head dropped lifelessly.
Isabella called her name, but no answer came.
Only a sigh.
"You know resistance is pointless. You think I came alone? Hand over the [Blood of Resurrection], and I'll spare you. Seriously, why make it so difficult…."
The spear of ice grazed Crodon, colliding with the mansion.
Isabella staggered to her feet.
"Shut up."
Kwooong! Boom!
She unleashed spell after spell as soon as she calculated them, heedless of the drain.
All that mattered was killing Crodon. Red veins burst from excessive calculation and mana strain, tears and blood mixing as they streamed down her cheeks.
But Crodon at that time was a 3rd-tier mid-level mage, trained formally at Bohemirn tower.
Isabella, in contrast, was a self-taught alchemist, only recently advanced to 3rd-tier lower mage.
She could not be his match.
Especially in her enraged state.
After minutes of spell exchanges, deep wounds tore into her limbs, blood spraying.
Fragments of earth slammed into her chest.
The dull ache spread through her nerves and mana circuits, paralyzing her.
"…!!!"
A silent scream tore from Isabella's throat.
Her body could endure no longer. Her eyes lost focus, and she collapsed forward.
Step, step.
Crodon approached.
Isabella, teeth gritted, desperately seized his ankle.
Her nails broke against the defense of his magical items.
"If only you'd come with me to Bohemirn tower… All of this is your fault, Isabella. You brought this on yourself."
Crodon ran his hand through his hair, then erupted in anger.
"I promised to help you achieve your dream, remember? But you refused me. You broke the promise first! If you'd just listened…!! I would be favored by Master, and you would conduct your research with the tower's facilities. Xenia, Kael, Carver, Marianne—they'd all still be alive!!"
Crodon, who had reduced the mansion to ruins, poured out his grief and rage.
Twisted logic. Utter self-justification.
But Crodon meant every word. Isabella, once his friend, could tell. Which only made it all the more detestable, unbearable.
"Cro, don…!!!"
"But it's alright now. I begged Master, and borrowed his power. We can research together again, just like before. I'll help you. Just as we promised."
Crodon rolled up his sleeve and drew out a refined bracelet from his spatial bag.
One of Balrog's collection.
Inside it, multiple magic circles belonging to Balrog himself were stored.
"Forced magic circle, Coercion."
As he recited the circle's name, the bracelet flickered. That light shone onto Isabella's back.
Alongside the searing pain, she felt something seeping into her body.
"Just endure it, it won't take long."
Isabella felt it instinctively.
The moment that unknown magic circle was completed, everything would bend to Crodon's will.
Twisting her body, she forced her arm into her bosom.
Through her numbed fingertips, she felt the glass vial containing the [Blood of Resurrection].
'If I have no choice but to hand it over to Crodon…'
She would rather destroy it.
Forcing her head down until her neck nearly broke, Isabella bit into the vial.
Sharp shards embedded in her mouth, a taste beyond description wrapped around her tongue. The heirloom of House Argyle slid down her throat.
"Isabella, what are you───"
The special material was absorbed into her body.
Soon Isabella's flesh would collapse, and the [Blood of Resurrection] would mingle with her melted remains, lost forever.
That was the last resistance, and vengeance, she could muster.
At that moment.
The forced magic circle, Coercion, seeping from outside, clashed violently with the foreign substance. The repulsion made her blood, organs, and muscles boil and churn.
A reaction no one could have foreseen.
Grotesque screams rang out in all directions.
"…What is this."
Crodon's voice came faintly.
And with that, as though something burst from within, Isabella's vision went dark.
***
"…When I regained consciousness, I was in an unknown place."
Isabella stared blankly at the wall.
"And I just ran. I don't even know if I was fleeing, or trying to return home. I wasn't thinking at all. Later, when I finally saw myself in a mirror, my appearance had changed. My hair, my eyes…."
After wandering the world for a long while, Isabella gradually regained her senses.
And when reality sank in, she despaired.
Having lost her entire family before her eyes, she had no will left to live.
"So, I killed myself."
Isabella gave a small laugh.
"But I didn't die."
Even when she threw herself from the roof of a tall building, her skull shattered, her neck broken, she regenerated.
Even leaping from a high cliff, her body utterly destroyed, she regenerated.
Even when she allowed herself to be devoured by a beast, the same result. Instead, the poison-laced blood in her veins killed the monster instantly.
"In the end, I had no choice but to choose revenge. I couldn't die, and had no other reason to live."
So Isabella decided to earn money.
Without resources, she could not even dream of revenge.
The alchemy she had mastered so far proved to be a useful tool.
"For years, I lived like that, until one day I met a woman and child attacked by an insect-type variant. They were poisoned by a rare venom, and needed treatment from a bishop of the Church of Luas, but there wasn't enough time. The great city was too far, and the donation cost was astronomical."
But fortunately, Isabella possessed the knowledge.
She created a special antidote and cared for them for days. The mother and child recovered without aftereffects, and the husband and father, grateful, treated Isabella as a benefactor.
Verden asked.
"Then when did you become a musician?"
"Oh, that. I was singing for the child I mentioned earlier, just for fun… but the father overheard and asked if I'd thought about becoming a musician. He said he knew the field well, could get me performances, and even work as my coachman."
Isabella hadn't refused. She needed money.
Part of her also wanted to leave behind the music Xenia, and the family, had loved.
"I hid my identity, performed as a musician to earn money, and in the rest of my time I focused on magic."
Isabella's driving force was vengeance.
Through the forced magic circle, she endured the pain and used magic.
All to climb to greater heights.
Years passed, and Isabella at last reached 5th-tier.
Two years later, she even pioneered her magus path.
But then a problem arose.
The [Blood of Resurrection]'s rejection caused her magus path to warp.
Magus path,
The ability to weaken, and ultimately erase, the magical resistance of objects.
In simple terms, with
"It was an aberrant magus path… but not a bad one. I thought, maybe with this, I could close the gap and kill Crodon."
However.
"As I was later called the Melodist of Fortune , I began to grow complacent. More and more as time passed… Honestly, even aside from Crodon, breaking through Bohemirn tower's guard was impossible. I began doubting revenge itself. Then one day, the forced magic circle started to react."
She realized Bohemirn tower itself was pursuing her.
At first, she fled.
But then she stopped in her tracks. To dream of revenge, only to be hunted again by her family's killers.
Isabella mocked herself.
───Better to die than to live pathetically.
So with the wealth she had amassed, she prepared two artifacts, and in turn tracked them, arriving in Gargant, the great city where Ignacia's Scale would open.
"If I was going to die anyway, I thought I'd at least take the ones sent by Bohemirn tower with me. Secretly, I hoped it would be Crodon… but when I looked, it was Rayshen Tailroad. And from there, you know the rest."
Isabella exhaled lightly.
"Anyway. That's the end of my story. I hope it wasn't too boring. Now I'll ask again. What is it you want from me? Are you seeking a companion in vengeance?"
"Yes."
"I thought so. Well… with your ability, you could erase the Coercion engraved on my body. Just like you did for Rayshen."
Isabella grasped the dining table.
"But you know, too."
Boom!
She hurled the heavy table aside.
With pure strength, without reinforcement from enchantment or ki.
"As you can see, I'm not human. I'm closer to a monster, like a variant."
She showed the newly grown arm. Her poisonous blood, too.
Her torn heart had regenerated, even the life force she had forcibly drained with the artifact [Screamer] was filling again.
No human could help but feel revulsion.
Even Isabella herself did.
"And if you remove the forced magic circle, the [Blood of Resurrection] will be directly absorbed into my body. Then I'll die. Or become a monster. No one could save me."
"What if it's possible?"
"…What?"
Verden manipulated his mana.
In the air, a circle of blue light formed… within it, countless small and large circles, formulas, and figures filled the space, a magic circle of unfathomable complexity.
The magic circle of Defying the Heavens, a fragment of it.
The masterpiece of Verden's life, the core of his genius.
"A magic circle that reconstructs the flesh. If I inscribe it directly at your core, adjusting only the parts repelling the [Blood of Resurrection]… you will neither die, nor become a monster. Instead, you will be reborn as something new."
"A new, existence?"
"I cannot guarantee the result. This will be the first time I've applied the circle to another, not myself."
Verden continued.
"Even so, whether to attempt it, or continue as you are, is your choice, Isabella Argyle."
The possibility of survival.
As she turned it over in her mind, Isabella hesitated.
"…Why go that far? You don't even truly need my power, do you?"
"I'll ask in return. Why do you go so far to find reasons to reject help?"
For a moment, Isabella was at a loss for words.
"Even if you are a monster, it doesn't matter. And I don't take in companions in exchange for favors. Even if this succeeds, you need not help me. Whatever life you choose afterward, I will respect it."
For now, it was only words.
But unlike Crodon, who had spoken of dreams and made promises, yet betrayed, this was fundamentally different.
Unconsciously, she swallowed.
Silence hung heavy.
Isabella cautiously parted her lips.
"Then, promise me one thing."
She clenched her fists, her voice low.
"No matter what happens, don't betray me. If you ever do, just kill me outright. So I never even realize I was betrayed."
"I will never betray you. I promise."
Blue eyes met golden.
"Good. Then… from now on, I'll live for you."
"I told you, I don't seek repayment."
"You said you'd respect my choice, didn't you? Then respect this."
Isabella crossed her arms.
The tension lifted.
It seemed she had made her decision.
Verden nodded, gesturing toward the bed.
Since the procedure would take long, standing would only burden Isabella more.
"If this circle is to be inscribed 'directly' into my core… then this will just get in the way."
Isabella rose, lifting her clothes.
Lying down on the bed, she brushed aside her dark green hair.
Her pale back was revealed.
Verden spoke.
"Lower your resistance as much as you can. So my mana can force its way in."
"Got it. But Verden, what should I call you from now on? Should I call you my lord too?"
"Call me what you like. As long as it's not strange."
"Really? Then…"
Isabella whispered.
"Patriarch. I'll call you Patriarch."
What meaning lay in that title?
Verden didn't need to ask. He understood. It was Isabella's declaration.
'Similar to Adrian, yet different.'
Verden placed his hand on Isabella.
Just as when he had first activated Defying the Heavens, drawing upon the tower's power source, the circle required immense mana.
Even a fragment demanded the same.
Of course, there was no such power source here, but that was no problem.
'The mana in my heart will take its place.'
Preparations were complete.
"This will hurt greatly."
"I'm used to pain, don't waste your sympathy. I won't die anyway."
Taking her words to heart, Verden activated his mana circuits in full.
Before removing Coercion, he first had to lay the foundation of Defying the Heavens. Forcibly suppressing her resistance, lowered to its limit.
At the same time, he drew the black dagger from his waist, piercing her skin, carving the circle as wound and scar.
The room filled with blood, groans, and screams.
This pain, one day, would be delivered to Bohemirn tower.
Without fail.
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