The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith (47 page)

“
They didn’t
mention me, did they…?”

“
No, they just said
that there was another mage among the foreigners that had graduated
from Rosenheim a while before he did. Xiao said that was impossible,
he refused to believe it, blah blah blah. In the end, a bunch of
foreigners that were studying at the college began to swarm around
him, and he was forced to go into hiding. He’s still a glory
seeker, though, so finding him was easy.”

“
I see, well it’s
good that my name wasn’t made public. Did you learn any details
on his Frozen Flame? I assume that’s what he used to graduate
from the college.”

“
Ah, yeah. It wasn’t
really that impressive. All he did was give a high level ice spell a
more fluid form, letting it appear to be fire. Then, whenever the
‘fire’ hits something, it freezes over as if all heat had
been drained from it.”

“
Really…?
That’s it? I had been hoping for something better. But, I
suppose it does fill the conditions. What about his tome? He
shouldn’t have any objects that were able to hide it like I
do.”

“
He doesn’t.
But he doesn’t really use it either. If anything, he sees it as
a nuisance to carry around the book. My spy actually had to sneak
into an inn to get a look at it and confirm he really was a mage.”

“
Did they get a look
at the book’s runes to figure out what type it was?”

“
Yeah, there were
attack runes on the book instead of the protection ones on yours. So
he likely has one of the Assailant Tomes. It’s a good match for
yours really, if he takes the time to develop it.”

“
Well.. I can’t
deny that I’m a bit disappointed, now that you have told me all
of this. I thought someone else who went through the trials of
becoming a true mage would work harder to fit in with this world.”

Lilith smiled, patting my
shoulder. “It’s alright. Not everyone can be as obsessive
as you are.”

“
....Aren’t
you supposed to try to cheer me up?”

She smirked, winking at
me. “Maybe later. You had a spell you wanted to show us,
right?”

Dariel glanced to me at
Lilith’s comment, and I nodded. “Yeah. It should be fine
to use it out here when nobody else is around.” I walked over
towards the edge of the boat and retrieved my book, flipping through
the pages until it came to the spell I wanted. Holding my staff up
with my spare hand, I began the incantation.

“
Ancient laws which
bind this world, rules set down from god to man. Twist, unbind,
destroy the world with my fury.” I thought I heard Lilith gasp
behind me, and in the air a good distance from the boat a magic
circle of light appeared, spinning slightly above the water. As I
spoke the next line, a second and third one appeared above and below
it. “Let he who walks before me and all among them burn to ash
at my will.”

The clouds above the magic
circle began to part, a bright light shining from above. “Let
the sky itself be overturned and forsaken, and shatter the world
below. Magus Wrath!” Suddenly, it was as if a storm broke out
in the area around us, a strong gust of wind blowing towards the
magic circles. Then, the bright light from above shot down, piercing
each of the three circles at once to strike into the water.

The wide beam, which I
estimated to be half a kilometer thick, didn’t disappear right
away. It persisted while my mana was plummeting, lasting a full ten
seconds before both the beam and my mana were entirely gone. For
those ten seconds though, the seas parted. The spell was vaporizing
the water faster than it could fill the hole left behind, causing a
whirlpool that began to drag us towards it.

Standing near the edge of
the water, I almost fell overboard, but Denise and Dariel were there
to catch me. The Unity was being rocked back and forth, refusing to
be overturned by using what little mana I had left until the spell
was done. The sky, which for a few moments had been as bright as
daylight, returned to its normal darkness. The sea took a bit longer
to settle, waves pouring in and out from the spot I had targeted.

Denise and Dariel were
stunned by the display. Even I hadn’t expected that kind of
effect. But, the strongest reaction came from Lilith, who hadn’t
moved a single step even when I was about to fall off the ship. Her
arm seemed to be slightly trembling until finally she came up and
asked in a quiet voice. “Jin… where did you get that
spell..”

“
I just got it…
after I reached a certain level of power, it just appeared…
Sorry… was it too much like an angel spell?” I asked
because it did seem to be a light smiting down from heaven.

She shook her head to my
question, but then added. “It’s not possible that you got
it because you reached that level of power… that power is way
beyond you… even if it is you..”

“
Uh.. sorry…
dumb mage here, mind explaining that spell a bit? You seem to know
more about it than I do.” I glanced to Lilith, who nodded
slightly, keeping her eyes down.

“
Magus Wrath, one of
the two Grand Magics of the first Archmage. Do you know about the
Archmages?” When I shook my head she continued. “Among
the mages, there are specialists. Elementalists, enchanters,
diviners, and so on. There are those who even master two fields in
their life. Very rarely, not since five hundred years ago, there is
one who masters every form of magic. They are known as an Archmage,
the highest form of existence among magic users.”

After this talk, I
remembered my quest I had received in Rosenheim, the Path of the
Archmage. “I’m no Archmage. I haven’t even mastered
one field of magic let alone all of them.”

“
I know that..
that’s why that spell is beyond you. The first Archmage
possessed two Grand spells that were unique to him. They were the
magics of creation and destruction. Magus Mercy, and Magus Wrath.”
She looked up at me, and I saw that her eyes were extremely sad.

“
You knew the first
Archmage?”

She nodded to my question.
“I knew there was something special about you. But to be
connected to that guy, really…” She let out a small
smile.

“
You know…
I’m not from this world, right? There’s no way that I
could really be related to him..”

“
I know that,
idiot..” She said in her small voice again. “But your
magic can be. You even act like that jerk.”

“
Jerk? Hey, I
thought I was a nice guy?” I looked down to her, and then to
the other women. “I’m a nice guy, right?”

“
No, you’re
definitely a nice guy.” Dariel nodded firmly, and Lilith
laughed.

“
That’s right,
you’re both nice guys. Sorry, let myself get carried away with
the past there.”

“
It’s alright.
I should probably tell you something too.” She looked at me
oddly, but I continued. “Well, Denise already knows most of
this. But when a foreigner like me receives a request, something like
a floating page appears in front of us that only we can see. I got
one of those before graduating, telling me to master three different
fields of magic. It was called the Path of the Archmage.”

Lilith smiled a bit again.
“Knew it.”

I turned to look at her
again. “But I’m not that guy, so please don’t hold
whatever grudge you had with him against me, please?” I smiled
and held out a hand for her, but she just blinked to me for a bit
before letting out a big laugh, like she had never laughed before.

“
Grudge? Oh.. you
though.. no, no… of course not.” It took over a minute
before she calmed down enough to use a full sentence. “I don’t
have a grudge or anything like that… Like I said, he was a
nice guy. He was also my husband.” And on that note, she
grinned wryly to me.

Chapter
22

“
...” The
three of us just stood in shock for a moment before I broke the
silence. “You.. had a husband? A human husband?”

“
Eh? How is that
possible? He was a demon, of course!” Lilith laughed again
after declaring this. “You thought an Archmage had to be human?
No, any race can become one. It’s about magical talent more
than anything, and demons have a lot of time to practice.”

“
Ah… so
that’s why me using one of his signature spells was such a
shock to you. I’m sorry, that was my misunderstanding.”
Now that my mana had recovered enough, I turned the auto-pilot for
the ship back on. Seems that when I ran out of mana, everything shut
down. Strangely, I still had my manifested robes on, though. Maybe it
wasn’t considered a part of my mana when I used it like this?

“
No, I probably gave
that kind of impression, huh? Now, tell me more about how you got
that spell.”

“
Alright, fine.
Well, with a foreigner, all of our abilities are called talents…”
I began explaining like I had with Denise, about Talents, skills, and
levels. Dariel and Lilith both listened attentively, accepting this
as just another facet of being a foreigner.

“
When a foreigner
reaches level one hundred, they unlock something called a Hidden
Power. Denise got the ability to move extremely fast. Maybe even
faster than you did in that fight a bit ago. And me, I got the Magus
Wrath.”

“
Hmm… it
would have been more fitting if you had gotten Mercy instead of
Wrath. It’s more like you to be the savior than the destroyer.”
Lilith nodded to herself. “But it is harder to create than
destroy, so maybe if you unlock another Hidden Power, it will be
that?”

“
Maybe, that or a
signature spell of another Archmage.”

The demon queen firmly
shook her head. “No, it’ll be Mercy. You are too much
like him to get something from one of the others.”

“
...You are enjoying
the fact that my magic is so close to your old husband, aren’t
you?”

Lilith blushed a bit,
looking away. “Am not.. I just think it would be kind of nice
for you to be like him is all..”

“
Did he have a
Guardian Tome like I do?” I asked, more out of curiosity than
anything.

“
No.. the Dictum
wasn’t created until after his time. Even demons aren’t
immortal..”

“
I’m sorry…
what happened?”

Lilith smiled bitterly up
to me. “I should be happy, really. It was because of him that
the treaty was created. He was the last casualty of the war.”

I smirked, patting her
head. “So that’s why he was a jerk. To go off and leave a
girl like you by herself.”

Lilith jerked her head
into a nod, keeping her eyes closed. “Right? Totally a big
jerk. The worst..”

I could swear that she was
just barely holding back tears, but she managed to pull herself
together after a bit. “Anyways… you wanted to contact
Xiao, right? I checked just before coming here, and he hasn’t
left for your world yet.”

It took me a second to
register
my world
to
mean the real world. Seems I got a bit caught up myself. “Yeah,
sure. Just need something to scry with…”

Lilith smirks a bit to me,
all of her former sorrow gone from her features. “Well, we just
happen to be in the middle of the sea, don’t we.”

“
... This is true.
Dariel, give me a hand for a second?” I created a wide bowl
just a couple inches deep in front of me and set it on the ground.
Dariel then brought up a small thread of water and fed it into the
bowl until it was full. “Thanks. Now, let’s see if this
will work.”

Referencing my grimoire
again, I recited the spell I used to find the gate to hell beneath
the oasis. “Eyes that transcend space, search for the one I
seek.” I made sure to feed more mana into the spell to further
increase its power. “Show me the one who wields the frozen
fire, the mage of Eastal, Xiao.”

Ripples formed from the
center of the water, and then a picture formed of a young man, no
older than eighteen. He was tall and slim, with short blonde hair.
His outfit was a simple traveler’s cloak, trying to conceal his
face from onlookers, but his expression changed slightly into a smile
whenever people were looking.

“
You’re right…
a total glory seeker. I’m going to send him a message. Want me
to include you guys in it, or just let you listen through the bowl?”

Lilith shrugged. “Might
as well just have us listen through that. He doesn’t need to
know about me yet.”

“
Right, I
understand. Message, Xiao.” Suddenly, the man in the pool of
water jerked his head to the side, having received the tone of the
message spell. “Hello. You may want to duck into that alley
before replying. People tend to think you’re crazy when you
talk to yourself.”

Xiao’s eye twitched
a bit at my joke, but it was an honest statement. I couldn’t
count how many looks I got while talking to Denise in Rosenheim with
the message spell. But, eventually he did walk into the alley. “Who
are you? And how did you find me?”

“
I had an
acquaintance locate you after learning about your graduation. As for
who I am… if you are the Frozen Flame, then you can call me…
the Wordsmith.” The three women around me giggled at my
reference to the runes I crafted, looking to each other with a smile.