Chương 12: The ?????

*The Occult Weavers have disbanded. They were absorbed into the Academy of Magic. The Archmage Tyrant has promised that the new members will be strictly surpervised and monitored. To assuage the justified fears across both worlds, he has also shared his research notes on hexes. Titled: 'Nature of Hexes and their countermeasures.' - Holy shit, if these notes are true, then half of the Witch Tyrant's hexes have been fake! Maybe more! @realmrikky (unverified) -> FallenAngel is NOT going to be happy about this.

Turns out she was a paper tiger all along! @[Deleted] -> Uh... you there commenter? @realmrikky (unverified) Ryan stared at the deathly pale [Mage]. He hadn't been completely sure it was her, but it was pretty obvious someone was fucking with him. He should have figured it out from the very start. Someone like Gamielle wouldn't miscalculate Zedart's strength. In hindsight, that should have been the first red flag. He flopped back, no longer holding his stump, just letting it bleed out.

"Fuck you, Gamielle, or whoever you are. If you're going to kill me, kill me already. I'm done playing your game." He wished he weren't so satisfied right now. A part of him felt vindicated that he'd beaten Zedart. Tricks or not. He'd won. Gamielle tutted.

"And here I had a whole 'nother fight for you. I was going to do a big slow clap reveal too."

"I said I'm done. Hurry up already."

"Oh, fine." Instead of dying, two things flew at him. A sparkling red vial landed on his chest, and a severed hand landed on his face. His severed hand. He spluttered in surprise and grabbed it with his other hand. He sat up and stared dumbly at the vial. An "H" potion, as in a high-grade potion. A million dollar potion in his lap.

"Well? Hurry up. Take too long, and it's going to take a few drops of a regeneration potion, and even I don't want to waste those."

"Why even do all this?"

"Your hand obviously, Manager's blasted asshole, you haven't lost that much blood." Ryan blinked. Whoever this was, she was still Gamielle. Then he waved his stump at her. Trying to see if he could make his blood spurt into her face. The crimson liquid dripped down an invisible barrier, as Gamielle shook her head in disappointment that he had even tried it. He just made it into a signalling motion with his stump.

"No, I mean why do all this?" Ryan asked again.

"To save your hand," Gamielle responded. Once again, ignoring his actual question.

"A hero that fought in vengeance for his damsel should be scarred not marred."

"I'm not touching shit till you tell me what the hell you want from me." Gamielle looked at Ryan with a raised eyebrow.

"Are you threatening me with the state of your own hand?" Ryan opened his mouth, then closed it. Then he conceded, not because she had a good point, but because his arm was screaming at him. He put his stump and hand together and held them in place with his legs. Uncorking the bottle with his mouth, he started pouring the sparkling liquid. Instead of pouring out in an uneven mess, the liquid floated neatly into the slits. Guided by Gamielle's telekinesis.

"A team without telekinesis often wastes significant amounts of potions," Gamielle said wistfully.

"The wasted potions are probably three times the amount actually used."

"Yeah, everyone knows that." He didn't keep the sarcasm out of his voice.

"You know, most people are respectful to people that could crush them like an insect, especially one that's so beautiful." Her hair spun as she shook her head. It might have been a beautiful sight, if only her guts weren't still on display. Ryan almost said something sarcastic but stopped himself when he felt the wondrous sensation of the potion. It didn't burn or itch. It felt like a warm, gentle massage throughout the severed section.

The remaining drops of the potion floated back into the bottle, and it corked itself. [Instant Dodge] He snatched at the potion as it flew away quicker, just out of reach.

"Hey! Who tries to steal from their savior?" Gamielle scolded. He just shrugged.

"Eh, I had to try." He rolled his shoulders and stared at Gamielle. Feeling a lot better than he had.

"So, miss dragonslayer, mind telling me who you are? And how the hell you were walking around a leveled zone?" Gamielle wrinkled her nose.

"Well, fine." She clicked her fingers, and her body shimmered, it slimmed down from her comical proportions. He'd connected the dots—illusion magic, that was what his fake system screens had been. But illusion magic was supposed to have limits, it couldn't just punch through a levelled zone like she had. Something else had to be going on. Her ears elongated, her features becoming just slighty more angular. Not a full elf but a half-elf.

Something about her face was incredibly familiar as Ryan blinked, then he understood completely. She didn't care about revenge from Zedart's parents. A mention of a rich mother. Half elf… Gamielle clasped her hands behind her back. She paced as she talked to the air.

"Originally, this scenario was supposed to end with my death. Leaving you and Zedart with something to bond over. Unfortunately, plans changed." She reached out towards Ryan as his leather jacket opened up by itself and a wrinkled letter floated towards her. He froze in horror as he realized this whole thing was his fault. The letter unfurled itself, and Gamielle read it out loud.

"Mezhar is not the final piece. Nasty." Then the letter caught on fire. Realm Quest, Deliver the Manager's letter, failed!

"Unfortunately, you had to be the one to bring the first letter from the Manager in eight years. We thought he'd abandoned us." Abandoned us?

"Why does that mean you had to do this?" Gamielle shook her head, her face impassive.

"You're smarter than that. A letter arrives saying that the most recent Legend is not the final piece. Delivered right when I was in the middle of working with one of the most talented blademasters I've seen. You can see the implication can't you?"

"So… you set up a test to find out who the final piece was between us." Ryan had been trying not to think about the idea that he was someone special. It was childish behavior, and he'd given up on that kind of dream years ago. If he had been honest, he might have said that the real reason he didn't throw away the letter was because he wanted to be special. And now he was paying the price for it. If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Gamielle looked somber.

"It wasn't me, I wouldn't do this."

"Your mom," Ryan said.

"A Tyrant, the Witch Tyrant." A tall elf materialized next to Gamielle. Not looking any older than her, but was far, far more dignified. A figure with countless statues and portraits made about her in The Realm and on Earth. She wore a haunting white robe with a large drooping witch's hat. Everything in pure white, even her hair. An aesthetic she had switched to in more recent years. The she-elf Pioneer, China's Traitor, The Hexmage, The Healer Killer Witch. The Witch Tyrant. She smacked Gamielle in the head.

"You gave him too many hints." She scolded. Gamielle rubbed at her head and glared at her mother. It made sense. Not even the nations of Earth could keep dragonslayers silent. The only ones that those above the ninth realm feared? The Witch Tyrant stared down at him, an arch look of true judgment. Ryan met the eyes of one who had challenged an entire world. It wasn't the smartest of moves. A cold weight washed over his entire being.

His body felt like it was decaying just by being in her presence, his blood stopping its flow, his eyes drying out, his fingers lost sensation as his cells started just started dying. This was just from her presence, no not her presence. Aura.

"Hm, more adequate than expected," the Witch Tyrant commented. Ryan straightened and hurried to stand up as he remembered his [Rebellious] title.

"Glad to make an impression on the Witch Tyrant." He wasn't sure what he was supposed to say to her. She was originally Chinese, did that mean he should bow? Then again, maybe not. Every Tyrant had technically betrayed their own country of origin. The silence stretched for a little too long, and Ryan broke eye contact to look at Gamielle.

"Do I bow?" Realmers did bow to the Tyrants, so maybe he should be doing the same. The Witch Tyrant shook her head and turned to Gamielle.

"Inform him of what he needs to know. Nothing more, do I make myself clear?"

"Okay moooom." The Witch Tyrant's eye twitched, and then she disappeared. Ryan felt like he could breathe again. Gamielle waggled her eyebrows at him.

"She's pouting because her aura didn't work as much as it should have." A manifestation of a spectral hand appeared in the air. Gamielle shrieked as it chased her around the room. Both the [Mage] and spectral hand sped up until they were going too fast for him to follow. A thud was all he heard as a Gamielle shaped hole appeared in the side of a wall. What the fuck is happening? Then the walls changed, no longer were they made of stone but simple dirt. The entire chamber had been an illusion.

Just like the system screens and just like Gamielle had been. There were limits to magic, illusion magic especially had been carefully mapped out. Rules established and countermeasures created. He just didn't have anything like it he could use to counter it right now.

"Abuse! Abuse!" Gamielle yelled as she climbed out of the hole her body had made. She dusted herself off and shook her hair, dirt flying everywhere.

"Alright, what do you want me for?" Ryan asked.

"Me? The same thing I've always wanted. To help raise the next generation." She looked wistfully upwards, like an old heroine who hadn't just manipulated two of the younger generation into a deathmatch.

"Don't look at me like that." She snapped.

"Not only was it not my idea, but you now have an earned soulweapon. It shouldn't hurt your achievements." It seemed to always wrap around to achievements. Zedart was willing to kill for it, Gamielle made him kill Zedart for it. Ryan clenched his fists, unclenched them and slouched.

"I just wanted to deliver a letter. The Manager told me that if I didn't, the world would face disaster." Gamielle almost looked sympathetic.

"The Realm's always under threat of disaster, that's how he gets ya. He finds someone, gives them a quest, and then they go through hell. Sorry."

"So, all of what it said was bullshit? That there isn't a world ending disaster coming?" She frowned at him and tilted her head.

"There are some major issues brewing… but that's not what he meant when he gave you this letter. No, this goes to a core issue. One that-" She frowned as she picked at her ear.

"Just be careful. He's not omniscient. Don't let him trap you into thinking that." Gamielle turned and waved at the air, talking to someone he couldn't hear.

"Oh, shut up. We're ruining his life. We might as well throw him a bone." She then turned to Ryan with the most serious look he'd ever seen from her.

"There's no going back now, not when both the Manager and my mother have you in their webs. There's only two paths for you. Either you get strong enough that it doesn't matter what they're planning. Or you become cunning enough that it's better to leave you alone." She was telling him to become a genius that could contend with the smartest person in the world or strong enough to fight a Tyrant head on.

"Is that even possible?" Gamielle spread her arms. An imitation of the Manager's suit appeared over her robes, "Everything you want is here. The Trials await. Do you want freedom? All you have to do is complete the Trials and raise your realm."

"Ha ha." Ryan said dryly. He just had to complete Trials. It was as simple as that.

"How are you going to convince Zedart to let it go? You cost him his safety net."

"Eh? You're the one that killed him, don't put that on me." Both Gamielle and Ryan confused each other with their line of thinking.

"You're not going to convince him to let it go?" Ryan asked.

"Why would I do that? I practiced so hard on my damsel-in-distress routine, here watch." The [Mage] suddenly burst into tears as her figure re-expanded and she turned back into her human form. She rubbed her eyes with the backs of her hands.

"The evil Destined killed me and Zedart, h-he stabbed me in the back and then must have killed Zedart. He's a monster! He needs to be blacklisted. I'm putting a million dollar bounty on each of his lives." Ryan's jaw dropped in horror.

"What are you doing? How is getting blacklisted with a million dollar bounty supposed to help me?" She sniffed, then put up two fingers.

"Two million total, and it'll help you raise your achievement rating. Getting blacklisted and having righteous adventurers after you will help in the long run." She winked at him like she was doing him a favor.

"Even if you gave me five more soulbound equipment, it'd be impossible. Even if I had max gear and emergency scrolls, that'd be impossible. You're just telling me to die." Gamielle's expression softened, her eyes swept over Zedart's corpse and she sighed.

"I can't overrule my mother. But she isn't completely out of her mind either. I can't aid you in any true capacity, but I will help keep your identity a secret and keep Zedart's parents off your back. But beyond that?" Gamielle shook her head.

"You're going to have to learn to fend for yourself. Even this scuffle was greatly diminished by our meddling." She called this entire encounter a 'scuffle'. As if it were just two children fighting each other with sticks. For her it might as well have been. He swallowed.

"What happened to the others that brought messages from the Manager? What are my odds?"

"One."

"One?" He asked.

"One out of forty-four that we know of has become powerful enough to break free. His name is Mezhar. Thirty-five are dead, and the others are still in progress." What horrible odds.

"What are you all even preparing for?" Gamielle smiled, she did a twirl and went back to her half-elf self. She then spread her arms.

"The end of course." Gamielle glanced around for a spectral hand. It didn't come.

"Everyone who knows is preparing for the end of the Trial System. When that happens, you're going to wish you had taken every chance to get stronger. Who knows, maybe you'll even thank my mom one day." Ryan looked at her. The normally bubbly [Mage] didn't look happy saying any of this.

"I hope I never do." Gamielle smiled, then she shook her head.

"Anyways, now is the time for you to get your affairs in order on Earth. Figure out what you're going to do and remember revival timers on Zedart." Ryan grimaced.

"Yeah, no, I can't do that."

"What do you mean? You can't have given up on Earth like that. You have parents you care about, don't you?" Ryan considered lying but realized there wasn't really a point. She'd seen his face, and the Witch Tyrant was probably the best internet sleuth in the world.

"I wasn't lying when I said I died and I need an energy control teacher. The Manager said that if I don't get it sorted, then my soul will pull in two places if I tried to get back to Earth." Gamielle raised an eyebrow in doubt, wondering if he was lying to her or not. She tilted her head to the side and frowned.

"That doesn't make sense. That's not how the [Return to Earth] skill works."

"It's what the Manager said, and he doesn't lie…" Ryan trailed off, realizing how odd that statement sounded after all he'd been put through.

"The Manager doesn't lie," she agreed.

"But the Trial System doesn't make mistakes like that. What exactly did it say?"

"I chose the wrong class and race… that since I died in the abode, and that in cases where my body is dead… the [Return to Earth] skill will try to create a body for me and this might cause my soul to pull in two directions." Ryan frowned, trying to remember the exact words. He'd been so off balance that he didn't completely remember every word. The Manager had spoken quickly before it had pushed him forward. He narrowed his eyes.

"Wait, my body isn't dead anymore." The Manager had never really said that he was in danger if he used the skill. He'd only said that he'd have a higher chance of survival.

"Holy fuck, that piece of shit screwed me. That-" Gamielle shrugged mirthlessly.

"Yup, welcome to the club."

"THAT MOTHERFU-" [Return to Earth] initiated. 12 hours until he was blacklisted from the Adventurer's Guild.