Chapter 809: The Wicked Lord's True Eye is the Strongest! The Mabinogion Has Come True
"Ma... magic?" the little chuunibyous exclaimed in unison, their eyes wide with disbelief.
Rikka had just finished recounting the bizarre sequence of events, proudly declaring that it was all the work of genuine magic. Naturally, neither Shinka Nibutani nor Satone Shichimiya bought a single word of it.
While the rest of the girls hadn't witnessed the surreal, otherworldly environment Shinka had been trapped in moments prior, they had seen her materialize out of thin air right before their eyes. Could a simple disappearing act really explain a person popping into existence from nothing?
"You can just chalk it up to magic," Ren said, his tone casual as he leaned back. "Long story short, this isn't some cheap haunted house, and we definitely aren't ghosts." A playful, teasing smirk tugged at the corner of his lips as his gaze shifted to Shinka. "So? Still scared?"
"Eek!" Shinka squeaked, her shoulders jumping as a visible shudder ran down her spine. She wrapped her arms around herself, her mind still fiercely rejecting the impossible reality staring her in the face.
"Alright then, if you're still skeptical, take a look at this." Ren casually flipped his right hand palm-up.
A faint shimmer rippled through the air, and a thick, heavy book materialized directly into his grasp.
Rikka Takanashi and Sanae Dekomori locked onto the tome instantly. Their eyes practically sparkled as they pointed at it, shouting in perfect, dramatic unison, "The Mabinogion!"
Shinka's head snapped up instinctively. The blood drained from her face. The heavy tome resting in Ren's hand was none other than the Mabinogion—the dark scripture she had penned herself. It was the ultimate monument to her cringe-inducing past, her absolute pillar of shame. It was the one cursed object she desperately wanted to burn, bury, and erase from the annals of human history.
"Ren-ge, where did you get the dark scripture from?" Rikka asked, tilting her head in genuine confusion.
"Yeah, I distinctly remember locking this book inside the cabinet," Sanae muttered, scratching her twin-tails with a perplexed frown. "I definitely didn't bring it with us."
Ignoring their confusion, Ren extended his arm, offering the dreaded book directly to Shinka. "I apologize for the little prank earlier. Consider this my peace offering to you."
"A gift...?" Shinka echoed, her voice hollow. She accepted the Mabinogion with trembling fingers, looking utterly bewildered. Handing her own embarrassing diary back to her—what kind of twisted apology gift was this? It was a perfectly reasonable reaction given the circumstances.
Before she could spiral into a panic attack, Ren reached over and flipped past the cover, bypassing the first few pages. He stopped on a specific spread filled with complex illustrations and dense text. The bold heading at the top read: Fireball Spell. Beneath it, a block of text detailed the destructive properties of the spell, accompanied by surprisingly well-drawn diagrams demonstrating the precise hand seals required to cast it.
The explanations were absurdly detailed, written with such passionate conviction that anyone ignorant of its true origins might genuinely believe it was the personal grimoire of a master sorcerer.
Shinka trembled from head to toe as her eyes scanned the familiar handwriting. A suffocating wave of second-hand embarrassment washed over her, prickling her skin like a thousand crawling ants. It felt as though someone was repeatedly stabbing her in the side with a blunt knife. She had written every single word of this nonsense during the peak of her severe chuunibyou phase. It was the darkest of dark histories.
"Ooh, what's this?" Satone and Kumin Tsuyuri, neither of whom had ever laid eyes on the infamous scripture, leaned in with unabashed curiosity.
"It is the foundational magic, the Fireball Spell!" Sanae declared, puffing out her small chest and patting it proudly, having already memorized the book cover to cover. "This is the absolute basic spell that Mori Summer emphasized one must master to walk the path of a true mage!"
"Whoa, how amazing!" Satone's eyes lit up with excitement. "So I just need to copy these hand gestures?"
Without waiting for an answer, she eagerly began to mimic the complex finger contortions depicted in the diagrams.
The 'Mori Summer' in question was currently experiencing a level of mortification so deep she felt ready to dig a trench through the floorboards with her bare toes. This wasn't a magic book. It was a monument to her delusions. Just as Shinka braced herself to endure this humiliating public execution...
Fwoosh!
"Waaahhh!" Satone shrieked, stumbling backward. "It's on fire!"
It really was on fire. Right there, hovering perfectly in the center of her palm, crackled a fist-sized sphere of blazing, superheated plasma.
Sanae and Kumin stared blankly at the floating inferno, their jaws practically hitting the floor. What were they even looking at? Satone had clumsily fumbled her way through the hand seals drawn in the Mabinogion. And then... actual, literal flames had burst forth from thin air.
Satone was completely panicking, waving her hand around as the fireball trailed her movements. "It's burning! Wh-what do I do?!"
"Doesn't the book tell you?" Ren reminded her, his voice infuriatingly calm amidst the chaos.
"The book..." Satone scrambled closer to Shinka, her eyes darting across the open pages until she found the specific gesture required to cancel the spell. She hastily snapped her fingers into the designated position.
Poof.
The fireball vanished instantly, leaving behind nothing but a faint wisp of smoke.
Only then did Satone finally let out a massive sigh of relief, her chest heaving as her heart hammered wildly against her ribs, the lingering adrenaline still coursing through her veins.
"What just happened?!"
The frantic question didn't come from Satone, but from Shinka. She lunged forward, grabbing Satone's hand in a vice grip, her eyes wide as she frantically inspected the girl's palm and sleeve.
"Where's the mechanism?!" she demanded, desperately searching for hidden wires, concealed lighters, or flash paper.
"Uh, uh, there's no mechanism!" Satone stammered, shrinking back from the taller girl's intense scrutiny. "I... I was literally just trying out the gesture..."
"Eeeek! I did it!"
A sudden, jubilant cheer erupted right beside them. The group whipped their heads around.
It was Sanae. She stood tall, a triumphant grin plastered across her face as she held up a crackling orb of fire, perfectly identical to the one Satone had conjured moments prior.
Shinka's mind short-circuited. The gears in her head ground to a halt as a terrifying, utterly insane hypothesis began to form. She swallowed hard, her throat suddenly dry.
"Dekomori..." she started, her voice trembling with a chaotic mix of desperate hope and deep fear. "You didn't also..."
Before she could even finish her sentence, Sanae eagerly cut her off. "Mori Summer! I've mastered the basic Fireball Spell! From this day forward, I am a true mage!"
Watching the spectacle, Kumin curiously arranged her fingers into the same shape. A soft fwoosh echoed in the room.
"Wow! I did it too!" she cheered, admiring the warm glow illuminating her gentle features.
Shinka stood perfectly still, utterly dumbfounded. Her cringe-inducing, chuunibyou dark history had actually just taught three high school girls how to cast literal magic. But... how was that even scientifically possible?
"Why am I the only one who can't do it?" Shinka muttered, staring blankly at her own empty hands. "I clearly tried so many times back then..."
The color drained from her world, leaving her standing in a bleak, gray void of despair. She, the original author, couldn't even use the magic from the very scripture she had painstakingly written.
"Heh, don't worry, it's not a skill issue on your part," Ren chimed in at the perfect moment, thoroughly amused by her existential crisis. "I just took the liberty of modifying this Mabinogion of yours. Everything written inside its pages can now manifest into reality."
He paused, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "Though, for safety's sake, I've sealed away any of the apocalyptic, world-ending magic you scribbled down that could cause major disturbances." He let out a low, satisfied chuckle. "So? How does a genuine magic grimoire hold up as an apology gift?"
Shinka couldn't even begin to articulate the storm of emotions raging inside her chest. There was absolute shock, yes, but beneath that layered a thrilling, obvious surge of excitement. She was stunned that Ren possessed the godlike power to accomplish such a feat, yet overwhelmingly ecstatic that her wildest childhood fantasies had just been validated as reality.
But more... Ren and Rikka... just who exactly were they?
"Take your time and play around with it," Ren said, stepping past her. He gave Shinka's shoulder a reassuring pat. "Just remember not to go blowing up the neighborhood."
With that casual warning, he turned and strolled out of the room, giving the girls some space to process their newly acquired arcane powers.
The moment the door clicked shut and Ren's footsteps faded down the hall, the atmosphere in the room shifted. Four pairs of intense, unblinking eyes simultaneously locked onto Rikka.
Shinka pursed her lips, her expression dead serious as she voiced the singular, burning question occupying all of their minds.
"Rikka... your brother... who exactly is he?"
"Ren-ge?" Rikka blinked, her vibrant eyes wide with innocent confusion. Then, her expression hardened into one of absolute, unwavering solemnity. "Why, he is the eternal contractor to the wielder of the Wicked Lord's True Eye, of course!"
Had she said this just an hour ago, they would have instantly dismissed her dramatic declaration as yet another chuunibyou delusion. They would have chuckled, rolled their eyes, and perhaps even humored her by joining in on the role-play.
However, right now?
Not a single person in that room dared to doubt her.
As they stood there, hands still tingling with the residual heat of actual magic, their minds drifted back to the bold claim Rikka always kept on her lips.
The Wicked Lord's True Eye... could it truly be the strongest power in the world?
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