Chương 17: Preparing for battle!

The Duke of the North? Urgent request for her support? Ophelia's ears buzzed and her heart began to beat very loudly. She forced herself to speak.

"What's going on there?" If the duke was requesting back-up, that could only mean the trouble involved another Level 1000. She might theoretically have the powers of an Archmage, but she had never actually gone to war before. Not a physical war, at least. She doubted her life and death battles in the comments section of the original Slayer's Requiem counted. Also, she'd barely had the time to look through her spellbook.

"The Beast King is making threats again," Bianca said quietly.

"The duke believes your presence might prevent bloodshed."

"What about you?"

"I fear the Beast King's bloodlust will only skyrocket if I make an appearance." Ophelia conceded the point. Since Bianca was the number one combat mage, the Beast King probably saw her as a worthy adversary. However, the prospect of fighting a spatial mage that could teleport armies around at a whim could only be aggravating for someone as hot-headed as the Beast King. The hesitance on her face must've been obvious, because Bianca sighed.

"You will be compensated for the trouble." If she was actually Lady Vyx, she probably would've slithered out of the responsibility. But Ophelia wasn't that woman. She hadn't had a good excuse to test out her powerful spells yet, and she was aching to try them out. Also, she could at least cast [Mass Warp] and get everyone to safety, if it came down to it. In the future, she would probably have to do a lot of fighting.

It was probably better to get some practice in with someone as strong as the Duke of the North at her back.

"Send me the location," she said, finally. If it's too scary, I'll just leave. No one can teleport away like I can! Bianca flashed an image of a snowy ridge onto the mirror. In the depths of Ophelia's mind, whatever part of her brain that was in charge of [Warping] hummed, calculating the mana cost of the long-distance [Warp]. Only 500, 000. Not even a twentieth of her mana pool. Not bad for crossing over two thousand miles in an instant.

"Can you be there in five hours?"

"Yes, Bianca."

"Thank you. I know that ever since… the war… you've been reticent to involve yourself in the outside world. Aedris can only thank you." Only after the mirror went cold did Ophelia remember something which made her eyes narrow. Didn't Ravenfall mention that when he had woken up in the body of Azazel, he'd been in the north? Had the demon lord been causing trouble over there?

Although she had no desire to communicate with Azazel, out of curiosity, she opened the Transmigrator Chat Room only to see that she was still blocked by the man. Ophelia closed the System screen with a huff. She made the deliberate decision to not freak out about the impending battle she'd just agreed to be a part of. Instead, she was going to be excited. This would be the first time she would truly get to test out her Archmage abilities. Unlocking a shop door and casting a few silencing spells was beginner stuff.

And that [Spatial Rift]... well… Anyway! First thing's first, she wasn't going to leave Rin and the kids alone in the apartment without better magical protection. If Azazel could slip inside, who knew what else could as well." [Spellbook]," intoned Ophelia. The thick pure black tome fell into her hand, the large purple eye embedded in the cover squinting in happiness. She flipped through the spells at the end of the book - her most powerful spells - searching for the best protective ward she could cast.

The best ones were quite dark in nature. However, she set her disquiet aside. If someone broke into an Archmage's apartment, didn't they deserve what they got? First… to tear out the previous protections. Ophelia put out her hand." [Dispel]." The spell grabbed her intent, channeling it into the apartment's foundations. A loud tearing sound echoed as the web of dozens of spells, charms, and wards layered on top of each other wrenched from their anchors, ripping apart like tissue paper.

She felt the previous caster's intent in the magic. A shield to protect. A bridge - harmony between spells. There was a warmth, too. A father's desire to keep his children safe, a blanket to shield from the cold. It was good magic. Just not good enough.

When the dispelling finished, the apartment's temperature fell a few degrees. The shadows seemed darker. The sound of the howling wind and the rain pelting the windows became a notch louder. The veil of protection had been torn away. A subtle sense of safety that most people would never have paid attention to until it was gone. Ophelia bit the inside of her cheek. Now to cast this Level 950 protective ward. The spell chart on the page involved an intricate diagram with over nine arrays within it.

The intelligence requirement for a spell went up exponentially the more arrays it had. A lesser mage would probably pore over this chart for years, unable to make heads or tails of it. As for Ophelia? The language of magic might as well be her mother tongue. She looked over the diagram, understanding all the parts without really even trying. It was strange.

Somehow she knew that if the Eres glyph was turned twenty-five degrees left, that meant the spell would work twice as well during a full moon, but she didn't know why." [Insatiable Living Darkness Guardian Ward]," she intoned. Like always, she didn't need to draw the array, or even imagine it. Her understanding was so deep that the spell simply worked. However, it was more intensive than a simple [Dispel].

She could feel the intent course through the well-worn grooves in her mind - Lady Vyx's mind - pulling from her to manifest the spell. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. —- Ophelia glared at her phone in the darkness. From: Mother Babe, that girl Charlotte Kona just overtook you in followers. You have to do something, otherwise everyone's just gonna think you're a flash in the pan. I hear Philippe Patek is considering sponsoring her over you. 🙁 Hah.

Did mom still believe she was that gullible? Ophelia knew she was just trying to cause issues. Yet. And yet. She would die before she let Charlotte Kona surpass her. It wouldn't be the first time she had crushed someone beneath her heel. —- Ophelia gasped as that memory wrenched itself to the forefront of her mind, the essence of it siphoning into the dark ward.

All of her vicious competitiveness, the neverending hunger to do better and better, to be the best—all of it poured out of her and into the spell like blood from an open wound. Excuse me? My ambition is my best quality! Since when was a healthy sense of drive 'dark'? The [Insatiable Living Darkness Guardian Ward] sank into the foundations of the apartment, giving it a new sense of unholy life. Ophelia caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye. Her shadow curtsied towards her.

This piece of magic was quite vicious. If an intruder tried to break in, the apartment itself would eat them. As they say, offense is the best defense. Now that she felt Rin and the kids were safer, it was time to cram. The last few days had been so hectic that she hadn't had any time to review the spells she knew. It had been a bit irritating.

Not only was she about to fight in the north, but in a few days, she would also be walking the halls of the highest place of magical learning in the kingdom trying to pass herself off as an Archmage. She needed to do some studying. She'd never been so excited for something academic in her life! She opened her spellbook and began memorizing as many spells as she could. To her delight, everything came… easily.

She skipped over the niche, dark arts spells, as she doubted the heroic Duke of the North would be requesting those from her. Interestingly, the pages with spatial arts didn't have spell charts, but instead massive headache-inducing equations. They had a lot more math than astrology and glyphs. Spatial magic had the highest intellect stat requirements of any mage specialty. In order to teleport you needed to be able to calibrate your location against the location you wanted to end up at.

Only a few mages were capable of popping around a battlefield at will. That required constant, very quick, calculations. That wasn't even mentioning things like compressing or widening space between two points. Or creating a pocket dimension. It was the most precise branch of magic. When Ophelia had first seen her 30, 000, 000 intellect, she'd thought it was a little overkill. Other Archmages in the story capped out around 10, 000, 000.

However, seeing these spatial equations, the massive intellect seemed very necessary. Ophelia just gave the equation a passing glance and she could feel something shift in her subconscious—the vague impression of the numbers resolving. I guess I owe this to my giant brain. Funny. Math had been her worst subject, once. As she flipped through her spellbook, one particular spell caught her eye. [Soulgaze]. It didn't have a particular affinity attached to it.

All mages automatically acquired the spell upon reaching Level 500. It was a perception technique, allowing a mage to peel back all falsehoods and peer into their target's very soul. A passive spell that activated automatically when they locked eyes. Activated automatically? Ophelia really hoped she hadn't accidentally been soulgazing at people. The thought was somewhat terrifying. She found a mirror in the hallway and let the skill take hold.

The features of her face blurred into the background, the gold of her eyes standing out almost separately from the rest of her. Like two harsh streaks of metallic yellow on a watercolor portrait. The gold swirled and pulsed in a gentle, hypnotizing rhythm, and even she found it hard to look away. Yeah, this was definitely the spell. Although hers seemed to have a luring quality, while Bianca's was threatening. Perhaps the spell was influenced by personality. Good thing she hadn't confronted Bianca about it.

It really did seem like something mages could just do sometimes. Ophelia let the [Soulgaze] fade. She looked at her face in the mirror, and gently touched her cheek. Lady Vyx didn't have a bad angle. She was flawless no matter how you looked at her. A twang went through her heart. Being Lady Vyx was fun. She was hot, powerful, and respected. But she missed her old face too. Even though she often had to spend minutes - sometimes hours - adjusting the lighting and angling the camera just right to get a decent shot.

Ophelia Kalisz had been worth looking at, too. Her face was a little rounder, a little sweeter, and she had dimples when she smiled. When Lady Vyx smiled, there was nothing sweet in it at all, even when it was Ophelia behind the face. Lady Vyx could be mischievous, smug, snarky. Not sweet. After a few hours of studying, she closed the book, her mind beginning to cramp. That was enough for now. If the duke asked why there were gaps in her repertoire, she would just blame it on being rusty.

It was time to get ready for battle. Ophelia cast open her closet. Inside hung a massive number of dresses, gowns, and robes of all styles for every occasion. In the back was a glass case she never dared to touch before. Lady Vyx's battle robes. They were structured in the chest and shoulders - the lines sharp and military. The cloth was pitch-black with deep purple accents, strewn with shimmering gold details of a moon and stars.

A cape was clasped around the neck with giant purple gemstone, forming a stiff hood over top. Ophelia used [Observe] on the battle robes. [Regalia of the Sovereigness of the Seam] She squinted as a list of bonuses scrolled past her vision in a seemingly endless barrage.

Intellect Final Multiplier increased by 20%, Wisdom Base Multiplier increased by 20% (cannot stack), +150, 000 to Constitution, +300, 000 HP, 50% Resistance to Elemental Magic (Independent and Exclusive effect), Special Effect: Automatically deflect any magical attacks below Level 900, Special Effect: Resistant to Realm Sickness, Special Effect: Immunity to Anti-Magic Fields below Level 1000, Special Effect: Incur a three second delay prior to being pulled into a Divine Domain—"Yes, please," she whispered.

"I'll take all of that, thank you." Ophelia ran her fingers across the seam of the glass box and the multitude of silver latches all popped open one after the other. She removed her current outfit and pulled the battle robes over her head. There was something satisfying in how perfectly every line was contoured to her body. The fabric was soft, yet bracing, and she could feel the sheer power rushing through every thread, making her head rush.

Ophelia drew the hood over her forehead, casting the upper half of her face in shadow. Only the gold of her eyes shone in the darkness. Next… At the bottom of the glass case was another case. Darker. She wondered what was inside. She unlatched it and her eyes widened in glee. Ophelia lifted a pair of massive garden shears into the air. The shears were almost normal looking - silver, with a wickedly sharp edge. But she could hear the cold hum of spatial magic within the weapon.

[Shears of the Heavenly Garden] Level 1000 - Cut. Every character in Slayer's Requiem had a signature weapon that fit their character design. Especially the Level 1000 heroes. This was apparently Lady Vyx's. Ophelia wondered how she should carry the weapon around when she realized the case had a strap on it. She placed the shears back inside the box and slung it across her back, securing it with the strap. She eagerly went over to the mirror.

The hooded battle robes, golden eyes, a mysterious weapon strapped to her back - she looked formidable. Like a secret boss encounter that was way harder than the flashy, main boss. The kind that people needed to watch hours of tutorials and gameplay in order to even attempt. Well. This Archmage was as ready as she ever was going to be. It was time to go to the north!