Chương 23: Disciple of Destruction

'Well… that may have been the most predictable request anyone had ever made.' Gloria thought, recalling how Iris had whispered the names of her spells throughout the battle. Her enthusiasm made perfect sense though, because Gloria would have reacted much the same way if she had encountered someone capable of tearing apart the established META that everyone else was a slave to.

She would have absorbed every spell that person offered, tested each one from every conceivable angle and filled several notebooks with increasingly unhinged theories, yet all of that knowledge would ultimately have served the single obsession at the center of her magical life: destruction.

Anything capable of granting her spells greater power, speed, range, precision or scale would have been studied until she understood exactly how to weave it into her arsenal and make the next explosion even more GLORIOUS than the last. Iris presented a more difficult problem, since her abilities belonged far more naturally to a ranger than any kind of mage, while Gloria's own experience had been gathered through classes built almost entirely around spellcraft.

Their styles shared very little beyond the fact that both could kill things from a comfortable distance. Iris gradually raised her head when Gloria's silence continued, the confidence behind her request beginning to falter.

"Um… Lady Gloria?" she ventured, only for Echidna to lift a hand between them.

"Silence, child, for much is presently unfolding within the mind of the Mighty, and your impatience must not disturb whatever revelation she is preparing to bestow upon this lesser world," Echidna declared. Iris blinked at her, clearly uncertain whether she was expected to apologize, though she eventually closed her mouth and returned to waiting.

For once, Echidna's absurd reverence had carried her toward the correct conclusion, because the more Gloria considered the problem, the more possibilities began opening before her.

This world had already allowed her to draw magical circles with her feet, alter spells beyond the limits imposed by DDO and witness magic formed through imagination alone, while Echidna herself had displayed abilities that Gloria had never encountered during any version of her old raid, leaving little reason to assume that the class restrictions she remembered still possessed any authority here.

Iris offered the perfect opportunity to discover how someone born beneath this world's rules would develop after being introduced to Gloria's magic, because every step of her progress could reveal how circles were truly learned, whether an archer could incorporate them into skills that had never required such structures and whether the two systems might produce something neither age had managed to create on its own.

Gloria would gain just as much from the arrangement, since Iris understood chantless spellcasting in a way she did not, and studying the girl's methods might eventually allow her to combine imagination with the precision of a magical circle. The possibility of creating entirely new magic sent a thrill through Gloria so powerful that her wings nearly unfolded.

She had every intention of attempting it, though she would first need to understand the most basic principles of chantless magic before she started inventing spells capable of breaking those principles, and having a student beside her would provide both motivation and someone upon whom she could test the safer results. Gloria finally returned her full attention to the woman bowing before her, whose hands had curled tightly against her knees.

"Raise your head, Iris, for I have considered your request and found your determination worthy of my guidance! From this moment forward, I shall accept responsibility for directing the strength you seek, provided that you possess the discipline to follow wherever my instruction may lead." Iris lifted her head so quickly that her hair snapped behind her, and for a few heartbeats she stared at Gloria without moving.

Once she fully processed the answer, she sprang upright with a delighted cry and began bouncing upon the balls of her feet.

"You accept? You truly accept!" Iris exclaimed as she landed, only to leap again before the first wave of excitement had passed through her.

"Thank you, Lady Gloria! I swear that I will remember everything you teach me, practice until my hands refuse to move and do whatever is required of me!" You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Her celebration carried her several steps sideways and nearly into the path of a lumbering baggage beetle whose shell had been covered with bulging sacks of grain, forcing Echidna to seize Iris by the upper arm and pull her back with enough strength to leave the girl's feet swinging above the ground.

"Control yourself, child, for becoming the student of the Mighty is an honor that should inspire reverence rather than this... ridiculous hopping."

"I am trying, Lady Echidna, but she said yes!" Iris replied, and the enormous smile across her face made it clear that no amount of dignity would survive the next several minutes. Even after Echidna released her, she continued rocking on her heels with her hands clasped tightly behind her back. Iris's delight pleased Gloria more than she cared to admit, especially since such an enthusiastic response was exactly what she had expected.

Even so, the girl's willingness to place herself entirely within Gloria's hands brought another matter back to the front of her thoughts, one that had bothered her since the moment Echidna's attack tore away the Archer's disguise.

"Calm yourself for a moment, Iris, because there is a question I require you to answer before we proceed any further," Gloria said, watching as the girl immediately forced her heels against the ground.

"Anything, Lady Gloria, and I truly mean anything," she replied, her smile refusing to diminish even as Gloria stepped closer.

"Whatever you wish to know, I shall answer to the fullest extent of my ability." Gloria met her strange ringed eyes directly and leaned forward without the slightest concern for the distance disappearing between them.

"Does the name Sarasarayumi carry any meaning for you?" Echidna's reaction was small, yet Gloria noticed her eyes widen as her attention shifted toward Gloria and then settled upon Iris. Sarasarayumi's name had clearly survived the Golden Age, and Echidna appeared to remember enough about its owner to understand why Gloria had raised the subject. Iris lifted a hand to her chin and studied Gloria's face, nodding several times while quietly murmuring, "A test?" beneath her breath.

Three seconds passed before recognition finally arrived, making her snap her fingers.

"Oh, yes, I know that name," she said, looking almost relieved that her first question as Gloria's student concerned a subject she had studied.

"Sarasarayumi was one of the Supreme Beings who stood against you during Judgment Day, was she not?" Gloria closed the remaining distance so quickly that Iris's relief vanished beneath a fresh wave of surprise, leaving their faces so close that their brows nearly touched. A blush spread across Iris's cheeks, though Gloria noticed none of it.

"Then tell me how you know of her," Gloria said, refusing to surrender even an inch of the distance between them.

"What became of her after Judgment Day, where did she establish her domain, and did she leave behind any family or descendants whose blood might have reached the present age?" Iris leaned backward as far as she could without taking a full step away, her blush deepening while she searched for the least painful way to answer.

"I will be honest with you, Lady Gloria, although I fear the truth may disappoint you, because Sarasarayumi is among the least understood of all the Supreme Beings whose names survived the Golden Age." Gloria finally straightened enough to give her room, though her eyes remained fixed upon the Archer as Iris continued.

"She disappeared almost immediately after Judgment Day and withdrew so completely that no reliable account places her anywhere in the centuries that followed, while the few stories claiming otherwise contradict one another so thoroughly that most historians consider them worthless. Because she belonged to the human race, the common belief is that she eventually died of old age somewhere within that solitude, although no remains were ever recovered and no witness has ever confirmed her death."

Gloria's foot shifted back before she caught herself, and for several moments her gaze wandered past Iris into the passing crowd without truly settling upon anyone. Her claws curled slowly into her palm, pressing against the scales there until she raised a fist to her mouth and cleared her throat.

"I see," Gloria replied, though the words emerged more quietly than she intended.

"For someone such as her to disappear so completely, leaving no one who can say where she spent her final years or where she was laid to rest… I had hoped history might have preserved more." Her gaze lowered briefly before returning to Iris.

"Your resemblance to her remains extraordinary, for when I first saw your face, I allowed myself to believe, if only for a moment, that Sarasarayumi herself stood before me. Even after learning your name, I wondered whether she might have left descendants during her years of seclusion."

"Lady Gloria," Iris began, tilting her head as though uncertain whether another test had begun, "I knew that I could not be Sarasarayumi's descendant from the moment you suggested it, because I am not anyone's descendant. I have no parents, no ancestors and no sisters whom I can truly call my own, for there has never been a bloodline leading to me or continuing through me."

'Right… I was so focused on her face and those damn eyes that I completely overlooked her title.'

"I know that I may not appear to be one," Iris continued, gesturing toward herself.

"My body possesses none of the animalistic traits that usually reveal a Grounded's origin, nor do I carry any obvious markings from the environment that created me, so most people assume I am human when they first see my face. Even so, I am a Grounded, Lady Gloria, and I was created rather than born."