Awareness returned to me in a rush. I opened my eyes to find myself standing in a featureless expanse of blinding white—an infinite horizon where the ground and the sky were one and the same.
As I stared out at the endless line where the white met the white, the memories of what had happened before I lost consciousness flickered back to life.
Right. I had unfurled the scroll to learn Evangeline's signature art, the Magic of Darkness. Immediately after, a mass of shadows—a literal manifestation of the abyss—had surged forth and swallowed me whole.
"Hmph. You finally woke up."
A voice rang out from behind me. Instinct took over; I kicked off the ground, leaping back as I whirled around to face the speaker.
What stood before me—or rather, what existed before me—was a writhing mass of darkness. It was about a meter tall, an amorphous, undulating blob that seemed to pulse with a life of its own.
"Who are you?" I demanded.
"Me? I suppose... you could call me an Artificial Spirit."
"An Artificial Spirit?"
"Indeed. I was created by Master Evangeline to guide the scroll's user through the initiation of the Magic of Darkness. However, as a prototype, I can only manifest myself once."
Every time it spoke in its strangely high-pitched voice, the mass of shadow squelched and shifted. I couldn't tell if that was its natural state or some quirk of its design.
"Now then," the spirit continued. "Since you have entered my realm, I take it you are prepared to inherit the Magic of Darkness?"
"Yeah. That's why I'm here."
"Very well. Then... take your stance."
"What?"
"If you don't defend yourself... you will die. Not a death of the flesh, but a death of the soul."
"Wait, what the hell are you—!?"
I didn't get to finish. Sensing a lethal spike in pressure, I lunged to the side.
BOOM!
A pillar of what could only be described as "black flame" erupted from the spot where I had been standing a split second before.
"Tch! No talking it out, then? Slime!"
It was a reflex. I tried to deploy my Slime—or rather, I attempted to.
But there was no surge of tentacles from my body. No rift to the Dimensional Storage opened. My voice simply echoed fruitlessly into the white void.
"What...?"
For over twenty years, through two lives, my "reincarnation perks" like the Storage and the Slime had never failed me. Not once. I glared at the shadow and tried to force my Status Window to appear. Nothing.
"I don't know what you're trying to do," the spirit remarked, "but I should warn you: in this world, only techniques fueled by mana or ki are permitted. Irregular skills from outside this system will not manifest."
"I see. So that's how it is."
To create a space capable of nullifying "cheat" skills of that magnitude... Evangeline truly was a monster who had survived six centuries of supernatural warfare.
"But if that's the case, I still have plenty of options!"
Judging by the spirit's behavior, I'd likely have to defeat it to master the magic. The goal was simple, even if the execution was not.
"Even for someone created by Master Evangeline, it's hard for me to fathom," the spirit mused. "That there are still fools who would willingly seek the power of the dark."
As it spoke, a dozen bolts of blackened ice—a corrupted version of Magic Archer—streaked toward me. I used Shundo to blur past the projectiles, closing the distance between us.
"Arianrhod! Awake and manifest, O burning Salamander! Envelop my foe in your pyre... Violet Flame Snare!"
A cylindrical wall of purple fire erupted around the spirit, trapping it within a vortex of intense heat. Ordinarily, the temperature inside that column would be higher than a blast furnace, but against an entity made of living shadow, I doubted it would be enough.
"What do you think 'Darkness' is?" the spirit asked. Its voice was calm, showing no signs of distress as it stood amidst the violet flames. "The shadow cast by the light? The night that follows the day? Evil against Good? Order versus Chaos? Reason against the Absurd?"
"Arianrhod! O purifying flame that burns all to ash, lord of destruction and sign of rebirth, dwell within my hand and devour my enemy... Crimson Blaze!"
I poured double the usual amount of SP into the spell. A miniature sun manifest inside the fiery cylinder, unleashing a wave of heat that distorted the very space of the white room. However...
"What you need here, boy, is something far more primal."
A cold shiver raced down my spine. The sensation of impending doom was so sharp that I acted purely on instinct.
"Accel!"
The Spirit Command triggered. With my speed magically boosted, I vanished from my position just as a bolt of black lightning tore through the spot where I'd been standing.
Tch. Fire, ice, and now lightning? It has at least three elements... Wait.
I had just used "Accel." That wasn't a spell of this world; it was a Spirit Command. Why did it work when my Slime didn't? Was the spirit lying about the rules? No... Spirit Commands consume SP. Perhaps in this realm, SP was being recognized as the equivalent of mana. Whatever the reason, I wasn't going to complain. Having access to Spirit Commands changed everything.
"It is the dark hole that swallows all. The darkness of the beginning. The Primordial Chaos."
"What are you talking about?"
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