Chapter 149 - Konosuba Side Part 34.
Magic. Such a small, but a vague word. In the history of the world, or some worlds, in this case, magic was always something that stood out and raised a lot of arguments.
Magic is a term often used to refer to supernatural phenomena that cannot be explained or analyzed via any sort of scientific means and reasoning. Even with this explanation, magic is still such an arguable topic.
Is magic another form of study and observation for different laws of the universe, unlike scientific ones?
It could also be a complex system of arts, disciplines, and traditions that are firmly grounded in laws and knowledge that are wholly unknown and beyond the grasp of human sciences.
Or maybe just a complicated tool to get the job done?
The answer is.. everything is correct. Magic is such a volatile concept that everyone's interpretation of it can be true. But if we were to generalize a bit, magic can be universally thought of as a 'backdoor'.
People, who were put into hopelessness, will desperately seek the light of hope. Those whose wishes are not fulfilled, whose prayers to God went unanswered, such figures searched for an alternative, a backdoor, this is magic.
In this same fashion, there was a man who hated God a lot. This man traveled the world and studied magic. Relying on this backdoor to achieve his goals, one day, in the Egyptian desert, using his wife as a medium, he made contact with an entity.
After some twists and turns, the entity dictated to the man for an hour using his wife's body. Utilizing those secrets and mysteries, the man compiled the result and titled it, the Book of The Law. This grimoire that spelled the dawn of a new era would become the central tenet of a new religion, Thelema.
"And so, Aleister Crowley believed himself to be the prophet of the new era... Kinda ironic" Closing the Book of the Law or at least the part of Aleister's philosophy, Leo shook his head.
For what the head shakes? It could be for a lot of things. Maybe for how things came to be, it could be for Aleister's ideals and thoughts, or even for the fact that someone is using magic to destroy magic.
So, when did Leo decide to read this part of the grimoire? It happened because he's trying to get inspiration for a new idea.
World traveling is nearly impossible. No, it might be completely impossible. This is a fact that Leo reached after testing and studying the nature of the stream screen several times.
Despite seeing the destination, he can never feel it or touch it. He can't even see 'around' the destination. What is the 'passage' that links this screen to the other? It's like his vision is fixed in a straight line and he can't turn his eyes or head around to see.
Sending parts of his power resulted in the same conclusion. They either lost contact and obliterated or they couldn't even 'touch' the screen like it wasn't even there.
Even if Leo wanted to limit the 'travel' into 'virtual' and 'unreal' aspects with no physical relation, the challenge didn't get easier. Without the help of an 'Outer scale' entity like World's Wills and Outer Gods, a full world leap is an impossible feat for now and who knows for how long.
For this, after leaving the call from Kazuma and using vision and sound isolation on the area around the Chat screen, Leo focused on Thelema and Aleister's work in the Book of the Law.
Aleister Crowley without a doubt is a genius.
Although the true author and the holder of The Book of the Law is Aiwass(93), there's no denying Aleister's achievement in understanding, using, and translating the essence of Aiwass' knowledge into somehow 'humanism' and material world type of information.
Such achievement gave birth to Thelema, the koine Greek for will, a system of philosophical law and magic.
" However, even if I ignore the possibility of using it in this world, such a system is still not enough..." Leo tapped his forehead to clear his thoughts.
Walking in the somehow empty streets of Kuoh at such an hour, Leo looked at the sky. No matter how dumb this sounds, his goals are akin to a normal human trying to reach the sky with their hand.
After all, using a World's Wills as a reference and a base is pure insanity in a sense, but it's the best he could come up with for now. If it wasn't for him limiting the spell for basic 'vision' and 'dream' aspects, Leo wouldn't attempt it.
"If I could somehow display the same feat, even if it's just a trace of it..." Leo wondered for a moment before he took a white marble from who knows where.
To be frank, he has a 'footage' of a World's Will, even if it's just a form of possession and for an instant, accessing the material world.
The memory of DXD World's Will about the Asgard accident. That part of history, especially the important sides, is non-existent in Leo's eyes. Sometimes, he even wonders if they got deleted from the river of time, which isn't impossible considering his nature.
Shaking his head from those thoughts, Leo focused more on the important parts. In the Asgard accident, there was a World's Will present, which was Toaru. How did 'he' make it to the material world without wrecking it to dust is just a mystery.
The accident in Asgard was mostly caused by 'himself', which also refers to his Origin. In a sense, it isn't wrong to call that event his revelation. Yes, like Solomon receiving the ten rings, that situation wasn't much different.
The marble started to shine with a faint light before several images started to flash around it. It's points of view from a lot of places and a lot of individuals, just a pure memory and nothing else.
How he can interpret, understand, translate, and use such events is the most important factor of this 'virtual' world leap. Just, the process is so hard that there's no way to even start, or maybe he is still in a fog about the principles behind it.
Now, the role of DXD's memory comes into play, which is one of the reasons why Leo got this thing. Maybe a breakthrough in this process could be achieved by using it and Thelema principles as reference.
"So, I'm doing this, huh? Some things should stay buried rather than exposing them to the river of time again..." Closing his eyes for a moment, Leo clenched his fist on the marble before he said " Well, most of these things are time bombs, which I don't need more of them."
With those words, the marble crumbled inside Leo's fist before several images flashed and entered his brain. An angel's screams that shook the soul in Asgard, several forces in this world reacted, a young man with a spear, the whole world situation, all of them were present in front of Leo.
This actually made him impressed. Compared to him, the omniscience of World's Wills feels completely natural and doesn't carry any heavy feelings. The scenes flashed smoothly and clearly, from the time he lost control in Asgard to other points of view.
" Cao Cao? the descendant of Cao Cao, Cao Mengde? Hmmm... True Longinus and... ugh, the Dying will of God'' Looking at a particular scene of a young man losing control of his lance, Leo shook his head before he heard something that made him tilt it.
Listening to what the 'Dying Will' said and the action it performed, Leo stopped in his place for a while.
"Those words... Thelema? Or at least the summed up meaning and this action" Ignoring everything, Leo kept playing the scene of True Longinus shooting the beam to the sky.
"No, it looks more like a signal. It's like someone pulling a trigger or pushing a button on something, or even giving instructions, and in this case... '' Looking at the sky, Leo found the target instantly before he said " God's system? But..."
Then the scenes in his mind flashed again into a particular moment when Michael and other archangels, all of them praying to the... God's system core.
"...." At that moment, Leo's face became expressionless.
Not like the usual expressionless because he was speechless, but it was more of an inhuman type. It was a face and eyes that'll probably send a deathly chill into any nearby soul.
Keeping his eyes on God's system in the sky, Leo seemed to see something before he slowly removed his eyes and looked in another direction.
Locking his target, Leo's entire body shone before turning into a ray of light that shot towards the horizon and disappeared from this place.
No one in the whole street noticed something strange and everyone carried their business like usual.
Somewhere in the European mountains, a bunch of people were walking under the leadership of a young man.
Cao Cao, the leader of the Hero Faction, was taking his team towards their goal.
The Hero Faction is one of the factions in the Khaos Brigade that consists solely of Humans with the goal of defeating 'evil beings' such as Demons and other supernatural beings.
Today, Ophis was finally reported to have returned to the headquarters. Usually, Cao Cao wouldn't care much about such a thing because it usually happens all the time, but there have been rumors that Ophis went and met that 'person'. historical
That 'person' is related to an accident that made Cao Cao think a lot. His Longinus, his spear, went completely out of control that day.
"Joker..." Muttering a certain name, Cao Cao gazed at the distant landscape.
The sub-leader, Georg, sighed a little because he could guess what his leader was thinking about.
Yet, at that moment, the True Longinus appeared in Cao Cao's hand without a warning.
"What?" Cao Cao exclaimed from surprise, but more shocked, even his team members were surprised.
Then without giving them a chance to speak another word, 'it' fell from the sky.
A ray of light dropped from the sky at a ridiculous speed before it gathered into a young man's shape.
'He' was wearing casual clothes that any person would wear and holding a book in his arms. 'His' shape and form was clearly like a normal human being, yet when the Hero faction saw 'his' face, they froze.
It was a blank like their brains couldn't process information about it and left an empty space. They could see, but couldn't at the same time, it was such a weird experience.
Yet, it sent chills, a terrible deathly coldness that made them freeze, especially those eyes. Cao Cao dealt with supernatural beings, even gods, but this was the first time that he saw something, so.. Inhuman. There was no better description than that.
This feeling, this scene, it's all the same. Holding the True Longinus, Cao Cao felt the same thing repeating, except him losing control, but the reaction of the spear was the same.
Slowly landing from the air, 'his' foot touched the ground as the sound made them all flinch and recover.
"...!"Cao Cao wanted to say something, but the moment he blinked, he saw that someone was right in front of him.
{Fast!} Cao Cao wanted to raise the True Longinus to defend, but that was his last thought before the sharp pain assaulted his face.
A speeding book that carried an explosive airflow came with a crushing force and slammed Cao Cao's face.
*Baaam!*
Cao Cao's entire body went airborne while rotating like a gyro in its place. It was such a precise strike that his body achieved perfect rotation in the air, even his mind seemed to be hit by a huge force before falling down unconscious.
Leo looked at this without an expression as he caught the True Longinus before it fell. Only then the Hero Faction woke up from the shock of their leader turning into a gyro after a book slammed his face.
"You bastard!" shocked by this astonishing development, Heracles was enraged as he rushed forward while his body was covered with a golden aura.
Two silver dragon arms appeared behind Siegfried before he held his demonic swords, but he stopped by Georg, who caught the wrist of his silver arm.
"No! You idiot, stop!" Grabbing Siegfried, Georg tried to stop Heracles, but it was too late.
He could only try and activate his Longinus Dimensional Lost for defense and prepare an escape while other members took their weapons and sacred gears out.
Gazing at the exposed back of the enemy, Heracles planned to unleash all his power on this damn sneak attacker! But in fact, the moment he took that step forward, his heart fell to the bottom and his whole body was covered in a cold sweat.
Run! Run! A warrior's instinct is always sharp and now Heracles' instinct tells him to run from this place the fastest he can, but before he could stop, heavy oppression fell on this place.
An invisible pressure manifested in the air around Leo as it gathered behind him. Something emerged, two black weird masses exploded from Leo's back.
They were weird and didn't have any particular form. Just a formless mass of a highly compressed AIM field and Telesma gathered instinctively on Leo's back like wings.
Then they exploded and turned into several ribbons that shot towards the Hero Faction instantly.
Heracles activated his sacred gear immediately to stop the ribbon, but it didn't work. The sacred gear ability seemed to lose effect when contacting the ribbon, leaving him in astonishment.
Despite having a speed almost like teleportation for Heracles, the seemingly harmless ribbon exploded with a huge force when it reached its target ignoring all obstacles in its way.
*BAMMMM!!*
A shockwave hit the air before Heracles was shot like a rag doll while crashing into several trees and rocks. Almost like getting hit by a train, he felt his entire body crumbling and an intense pain assaulted his nerves before slamming on the ground and falling unconscious.
"Heracl-...!!" Jeanne was shocked by how Heracles was flickered like a ball, but her eyes shrank into a needle from horror.
She didn't know when a ribbon was right above her head, slamming down like a wipe before everything went blank.
*BOOOOOOM!!!*
A cloud of dust raised and cracks filled the ground like spiderwebs. Georg felt the earth shaking from that strike and couldn't tell Jeanne's situation.
"This is impossible!" Georg was completely shocked.
Jeanne was clearly in his Dimension Lost zone, yet that didn't stop those ribbons at all! They passed through the mist like it was nothing!
"Let me go!" Seigfried tried to break away from Georg's hand, but the latter didn't budge and said " Are you looking for death?! Can't you see who...eh?"
At that moment, Georg felt all the resistance on his hand disappeared. He looked down to see that he was still holding the silver arm's wrist and... the entire arm.
Seigfried had the same expression as Georg while looking at his cleanly cut silver arms, even the cutting place was glowing with heat before his vision flashed, and felt his chest sinking.
Without a warning, Georg didn't even blink as Seigfried vanished from his vision while the wind blew his clothes and hair. The only thing left was the demonic swords on the ground and a severed silver arm.
*BOOM!!*
Moving his eyes slowly, he saw Seigfried pinned on the mountain wall inside a huge crater next to Heracles. Georg's body was shaking inside the mist of his Longinus, but it didn't make him feel any safer.
Despite his shaking body and the ridiculous situation, Georg knew that he can't stay like this, but for some reason, the attack never came. The ribbons retreated like they finished the job and returned to that ever-changing form on Leo's back.
Georg wasn't sure about what was happening, but in any case, he couldn't waste this chance. He needs to take everyone and get out of here! This isn't something they could deal with!
Dimension Lost mist started to spread and fill the area, especially around his teammates. The moment he can teleport them, Georg planned to use the Balance Breaker to trap that guy and run away.
However, when the mist reached near Cao Cao, the formless wings entered a state of frenzy again and turned into several ribbons, but this time, they were bigger and less in number.
"Dammit! Dimension Create!" Screaming the name of his Balance Breaker, Georg was going all out, however, one of the ribbons just swept horizontally.
*Screech*
A horrible sound like fingernails on the backboard echoed in the mist.
In the unbelievable stare of Georg, the ribbon moved through the mist at an astonishing speed, leaving a trail of light and particles in its path, and causing this horrible sound.
His Longinus' mist got cleaved, no, the moment it touched those ribbons, the mist converted into some sort of light and energy as it got annihilated. That was Georg's last thought before the ribbon reached him and everything blacked out.
The Heroic Faction was wiped out just like that. It hasn't even been one minute and everyone was lying down in an unknown state. It was like every strike was calculated to the necessary force to crush every member instantly.
"...." In all this period, Leo was checking the True Longinus without paying attention to what happened behind him.
Well, it wasn't even him doing anything. All that happened here is a 'defensive mechanism' of the wings when the permissions are available.
Feeling the resistance from the spear, Leo didn't care about his burning palms as he raised it and pointed at the sky, it was the same angle and position when Cao Cao lost control.
"It was a signal and also a kind of message, but Thelema..." Leo mutated with a low voice before he let go of the True Longinus.
The spear vanished into particles of light and returned to Cao Cao's body. Glancing behind him, Leo stopped for a moment when he saw the Hero Faction condition.
Wings are instinctively a part of angels, so when the permissions are available, they will manifest immediately using the available Telesma and, in this case, also the AIM Field. They can even perform calculations.
In any case, Leo tilted his head before he squatted down and put a big stack of money near Cao Cao's face with a note next to it. It said ' Lying with heavy injuries in the middle of nowhere isn't healthy, go to the hospital for your body... and brain. With love-- Joker'
"Now, for the second location..." Leo turned into light and shot towards the sky, leaving the Hero Faction members lying in the middle of nowhere.
It's kinda weird to say, but it's time for him to go to Heaven.. yay.