‘What is that!’ Marilyn gasped as she looked beyond the falling dust of the statues’ remains; but unlike her racing heart, her head calmly analyzed the situation.
‘It looks like he is wrapping his sword with Lyla’s magic, adding his own mana on top of it and shooting it out.’ Seeing this, Marilyn recalled a piece of information she had heard before. ‘Mana Adjoin!’
It was one of Zich’s skills that her master had told her about before. Using his companion’s magic, Zich increased his power by combining it with his own mana and shooting it out. Not only did it amplify the total power of his attack, but it also inflicted both magic and sword damage; the most surprising thing was that the magic’s properties changed slightly as it responded to Zich’s mana. Even the stone statues that boasted of complete resistance to magic crumbled against the formation of this type of attack.
Marilyn bit her lips and felt a surge of annoyance. It wasn’t because the statues were getting destroyed or that everything wasn’t going as planned.
‘He is supposed to use that skill with me!’
Unlike Zich’s other subordinates who rushed to the frontlines whenever a big battle broke out to slaughter their enemies, Marilyn always stuck closely to Zich’s side. During these times, the skill they commonly used was Mana Adjoin. She heard stories of how her curses blanketed the whirls created by Zich’s sword swings and chopped up everything in their path and spread the curses even farther. Since Zich’s three other subordinates preferred killing their enemies first-hand rather than collaborating (and their abilities were too unique to make mana adjoining possible anyways) this was a special skill that Zich only used with Marilyn. Naturally, Marilyn’s eyes turned green with envy to see Zich using this skill with Lyla.
“What an astounding skill. Wasn’t that something you only used to do with me?” She couldn’t help but make a remark even amid a battle.
Since Zich was also the talkative type during battles, he responded, “That was before the regression. Henceforth, that will never happen ever again.”
“Not at all, Sir Zich. Once time turns back again, it will be our special skill again.”
“You can have false hopes and misunderstandings by yourself, but don’t drag me into it. Otherwise, I will have to take matters into my own hands. Do you think you can handle that?”
“I think I can at least right now.”
“Well, let’s see,” Zich said and began to break apart the stone statues again.
Baaaaam!
There were fire sparks this time. Large sparks burst out from Zich’s sword and exploded on the stone statue. The statue’s entire head flew off. Marilyn’s eyes sparked with jealousy once again, but she repressed these feelings and racked her head.
‘How can Sir Zich already use Mana Adjoin?’
Without Zich’s astounding mana control skills, one couldn’t even attempt a skill like Mana Adjoin. Besides mind-boggling mana control skills, one also had to have a considerable amount of mana backing behind them.
‘How did Sir Zich awaken this much mana already?’ She was part of an organization who had immense interest in Zich and investigated him thoroughly. One of the key aspects of Zich they studied was his strength, and according to their study results, they found that even if Zich tried to release his mana as soon as he was born, it would be simply impossible for him to release all of it before he was twenty-five years old—that was how outstanding his mana was. They even organized the amount of mana that was possible for Zich to release at each age range. Thus, when they heard of happenings such as the fact that Zich had wielded great power at Violuwin, they knew he wouldn’t have awakened all his power yet. They supposed that he would’ve likely gotten help from an outside force. Their guess was right—Zich’s strength returned to levels that were within their projections.
‘Considering that, it’s impossible for Sir Zich perform Mana Adjoin with the amount of mana possible in his current age range.’ That was the case even if Zich had gone through a regression, and Marilyn was sure that Zich hadn’t gone back to the moment of his birth and started building up his mana then.
‘When he was at Steelwall, they said Sir Zich’s personality was exactly like Zich Steelwall.’ Yet, she heard that around the time he left the family, his personality had changed. The organization supposed that a variable that they didn’t know about occurred during that time and searched the family’s surroundings. Although the hero idiot dispersed the investigation team and made the search longer, they thought they would still be able to find what they were missing. However, no one expected regression as the changed variable. Their belief that they were the only ones who possessed the power of regression was too strong.
‘There was never a need to question the belief either.’ Marilyn didn’t know the exact number of times the regressions had occurred, but it seemed to have been an exceedingly great amount according to her master. Thus, how could they have possibly known that another person would suddenly come to possess such an ability?
Nevertheless, Zich had gone through this regression around the time his personality underwent a change. Marilyn wondered if Zich had been acting for a while to hide the fact that he regressed, but she erased that possibility.
‘According to his story, it seems that he regressed while he was Zich Moore. It’s impossible for Zich Moore to live while repressing his true personality and temper.’ Compared to the stories she heard about Zich Moore, the current Zich seemed much softer, but he was still Zich Moore. Moreover, the Steelwall Family treated Zich Steelwall as an embarrassment. The possibility that Zich would endure such treatment was zero. Thus, this meant that Zich was able to control this enormous amount of mana in that short amount of time. For Zich, this was an impossible feat.
“You released quite a lot of your mana.”
At Marilyn’s question, Zich replied easily again, “It’s amazing, right? You can really tell how crazy I worked.”
“I don’t think that was possible with just effort. If it’s all right, would you be able to tell me how you were able to release so much of your mana?”
“I can answer as many questions as you would like, but Marilyn, do you have enough time to hear my explanation?”
Bam!
Zich pierced the statue’s waist and with a mana attachment attack using Lyla’s ice magic—he eventually cut off the entire waist area of the statue and the statue’s upper body fell. The lower body also collapsed to the ground. Zich and Lyla were already very close to Marilyn. True to Zich’s words, it seemed as if Zich could immediately suppress Marilyn and end the battle.
However, Marilyn also had another trick up her sleeve. “Yes, it seems so. I also don’t think I have enough time for more questions.”
Marilyn raised her staff up high and hit the ground. A change occurred in the pyramid, which was a short distance away from them.
Ziiiiing!
A peculiar sound rang in the air. It sounded as if something was vibrating the air. They didn’t even need to check what it was. Zich and Lyla had heard this sound plenty of times before. The tree shook.
Whoosh!
The statue near him swung down its sword at Zich, and Zich tried to deflect the sword like before. However, Zich changed his mind and decided to just push the sword to the side because the speed of the sword was clearly faster than before.
Crassssh!
“Ugh!” A groan escaped from Zich’s mouth.
Zich was able to successfully lessen the sword’s power by pushing it to the side. Despite Windur’s branch-like shape, Zich was able to skillfully divert the power of his opponent’s sword—and this was truly a testament to Zich’s amazing skill. However, even though Zich pushed the sword to the side, the statue’s strength had increased to an extent that Zich’s arms became sore. Seeing that Zich was having a hard time, Lyla immediately raised her staff. Lightning poured down on the shadows that rushed towards Zich.
Crackle!
The lightning’s light flashed in the space all around them. A large number of shadows were swept by Lyla’s magic and disappeared, but Lyla frowned. The number of shadows that disappeared were much smaller than before. It was clear that the statues and shadows’ strengths had been greatly amplified. Zich also used mana attachment, but its effect had also decreased.
“The situation has reversed again.” Marilyn winked.
“As expected, the mana moving the statues and shadows seem to be coming from the tree.” As Lyla murmured to herself, Marilyn stared at her.
Marilyn’s eyes turned sharp.
Lyla asked, “You lowered the suppressor on the tree and raised the mana supplied to the statues and shadows, right?”
“Yep. As expected of Lyla. You were able to easily catch that.”
“If you do that, the entire system will be overloaded even if performance improves temporarily.”
“Thank you for your concern, but it’s fine. If I can catch you two, it doesn’t matter if this defense system breaks.” Moreover, even if the defense system broke down and important information disappeared, it didn’t matter. As long as Marilyn informed her master about the existence of this place, her master could investigate this place after going through another regression. It was much more valuable to capture Zich and make him spit out secrets about his regression and capture Lyla and put her back in her original spot.
“Then, why don’t you just rip off the entire suppressor device instead?”
“I can’t do that.” Marilyn shook her head firmly. “Now that I think about it, you tried to lead me into taking off that suppressor device, right? You told me that the Brushel System was written in the graves.” This was a thought that Marilyn immediately had after finding out that Zich and Lyla both knew she was a traitor. “I don’t know the exact reason why, but since you two seem to be urgently waiting for me to take off that suppressor, I can’t just do that.”
Zich said, “As expected, you catch on to things really quickly.”
“Don’t you think I need to at least be on this level to be Sir Zich’s strategist in the future?”
“I’m saying this one more time, but you won’t have an opportunity to be my strategist again.”
“I’m saying this one more time, but I’m going to continue working next to you, Sir Zich.”
Zich clicked his tongue at her obsessive words.
Crash!
Zich evaded a stone sword that dropped next to him and swung Windur.
Bam!
A large dent formed on the statue’s arm. However, it was not enough for the statue to be neutralized.
“You should really give up now. There’s no chance that you two can win,” Marilyn advised Zich once again.
Zich smiled at her. It wasn’t a hopeless smile that people made when they completely gave up. Instead, it was a smile that was slightly playful. Marilyn’s face stiffened; shivers ran down her body and she didn’t know why.
“My cute ex-strategist Marilyn.” Zich clicked his tongue in an exaggerated way and continued, “Did you think I made my plan without thinking that you’d be able to catch onto my plans?”
“What…” Marilyn was unable to finish her sentence.
Baaaaaaam!
A new sound erupted in the room. The sound came from the same place as last time—the pyramid. However, the sound was not a small vibration but a loud explosion. Marilyn widened her eyes and stared at the pyramid. Was she mistaken? The tree on top of the pyramid looked much more lively than before. However, that was the only time she could pay attention to another place besides where Zich was.
“Marilyn.” Zich called out to her; his voice sounded extremely calm and collected. “Now that I think about it, you said you only heard stories about how I was like when I was the Demon Lord of Strength, right?”
Marilyn stared at Zich. She saw him raise Windur high in the air. He shouted with a clear voice, “I will clearly show you why I was called the Demon Lord of Strength! You don’t need to refuse! I can at least do this much for my lovely subordinate!”
Zich swung Windur.