...
{3rd Pov}
Flugel had already finished using each of his available spells one by one and was now deep in thought, carefully considering the results of his experiments. Meanwhile, beside him, Echidna's eyes were practically shining with excitement as she furiously scribbled notes into her book.
The speed at which she wrote was almost absurd.
Anyone watching the scene would think she was recording divine revelations or commandments delivered directly from heaven itself.
Eventually, Flugel glanced toward her.
And then he noticed something strange.
The book she was writing in was supposed to be her Tome of Wisdom.
The problem was that he knew exactly what that book was.
It was not a notebook or a journal, and it certainly was not something that required its owner to manually write information inside it.
The entire point of the tome was that it wrote itself.
Seeing Echidna actively filling pages with her own handwriting immediately made him realize something unusual was going on.
“You are the Witch of Greed, right?” he asked suddenly.
There was no attempt to soften the question and no effort made to maintain some lofty image of an all-knowing sage.
In fact, Flugel had already concluded that pretending to know everything was probably the wrong approach when dealing with Echidna.
Being mysterious was far more effective.
The less information he openly revealed, the more likely she was to become obsessed with figuring him out herself.
And knowing Echidna, she would probably reach some ridiculous conclusion on her own anyway.
Something like:
'Lord Flugel is obviously all knowing, but he intentionally pretends not to be all knowing because true omniscient beings have transcended the need to demonstrate their omniscience.'
Or some equally absurd line of reasoning.
The Witch of Greed had a remarkable talent for creating mysteries where none existed.
“Hmm, yes, Sir Flugel,” Echidna replied with a smile after finally stopping her frantic scribbling. She carefully closed the tome and shifted her full attention toward him.
“Though unlike the other Witches, my greatest power currently comes from my wisdom rather than my Witch Factor.”
As she spoke, her expression brightened considerably.
“With my magical prowess and my wisdom, I am more versatile than any Witch!” she declared proudly while puffing out her chest, genuinely confident in her abilities.
And honestly, she had every reason to be.
Even at her current age, Echidna could already be regarded as an unparalleled genius among magicians that are either present or came in past. Her understanding of magical theory, spirit arts, and countless other subjects far surpassed that of ordinary people.
She was genuinely proud of her accomplishments.
“Your Authority?” Flugel asked in a questioning tone.
The question caused Echidna to pause.
Then she sighed softly.
“Unfortunately, while I do possess the Witch Factor of Greed, I am not fully compatible with it.”
For the first time since the conversation began, her expression became slightly more complicated.
“I have the Witch Factor itself, but I have yet to completely merge with it or awaken an Authority. You could say that I am something of a Half Witch at the moment.”
As she finished speaking, she made a pitiful expression, almost as though she were the victim of some cruel cosmic joke.
To Echidna, the situation truly was frustrating.
She possessed the Witch Factor of Greed.
She carried the title associated with it.
And yet the very power that should have naturally belonged to her remained incomplete and inaccessible.
It was one of the few things in her life that she could not simply solve through intelligence or effort alone.
Naturally, that fact irritated the Witch of Greed more than she cared to admit.
“What makes you incompatible?” Flugel asked, sounding slightly amused.
While he was certainly surprised by the revelation that Echidna had not yet awakened her Authority of Greed, he did not find it completely unbelievable.
After all, incompatibility with a Witch Factor was not unheard of.
Even Satella herself had suffered from compatibility issues with her own Witch Factor.
Echidna remained silent for a brief moment before answering.
“I believe it is because of my goal.”
Her voice carried a seriousness that had been absent until now.
“My goal is to save the world.”
The moment those words left her mouth, Flugel’s expression changed.
The faint smile on his face disappeared entirely.
Seeing his reaction, Echidna neither became angry nor disappointed.
If anything, she looked as though she had expected that exact response from the beginning.
“Yes,” she continued calmly. “A Witch who is incapable of genuinely feeling love or care wishes to save the world.”
There was no self pity in her voice.
Only simple acknowledgment.
“But I believe that one day I will be able to intellectually deduce those feelings. I believe I will eventually understand them.”
Then her eyes began to shine with excitement.
The excitement of greed.
The excitement of possibility.
The excitement of someone staring at an endless horizon of knowledge.
“And I want to save the world,” she continued firmly. “I want to end wars. I want to eliminate plagues. I want wisdom and knowledge to spread across the world. I want civilization to advance beyond its current limits.”
Her breathing became slightly faster as she spoke.
“I want the world itself to continue progressing endlessly, becoming an eternal source of knowledge and discovery that can satisfy my greed forever.”
By the end of her declaration, her face was practically glowing with enthusiasm.
This was not a dream she had casually thought of.
This was not some passing ambition.
This was the ultimate objective she had built her entire life around.
The supreme goal of the Witch of Greed.
To save the world.
“You know...” Flugel began after a moment of silence, his gaze remaining fixed on Echidna. “That is a ridiculous goal to have.”
His voice carried no mockery or ridicule if anything, it sounded more thoughtful than before.
“To end all wars, to eliminate all diseases, to save the entire world...” he continued slowly. “You truly are the Witch of Greed to desire something that absurdly greedy.”
And for the first time, he felt as though several pieces of a puzzle had finally clicked into place inside his mind.
Many things that had happened throughout history suddenly made more sense.
Many of Echidna's future actions became easier to understand.
Because at her core, she had never desired a small dream.
She had desired everything.
Flugel stepped forward, closing some of the distance between them.
“There are people with good intentions who choose terrible paths,” he said calmly. “And then there are people whose motivations are selfish, yet who choose noble paths.”
His golden eyes remained steady.
“Your desire is ultimately to satisfy your greed. Yet the path you've chosen is one grand enough that most heroes would never even dare to attempt it.”
Then his expression became more serious.
“So let me warn you.”
The excitement in Echidna's eyes dimmed slightly as she listened.
“This path is not easy. In fact, it will challenge you in ways you cannot even imagine right now. The world will resist you. Reality itself will resist you.”
His voice remained calm.
“A single individual cannot accomplish such a goal alone.”
He paused briefly.
“To truly achieve everything you just described, one would practically need to become a god.”
However, Echidna did not hesitate.
“It does not matter, Sir Flugel.”
Her answer came immediately.
“If one person cannot achieve it, then many people shall.”
There was only conviction in her voice, the one tempered by her Greedy nature.
“I sought out all of the Witches not merely because I wished to observe them or study their abilities,” she continued while revealing more of her intentions than usual. “There are many reasons behind my search for them.”
Then she smiled.
“And this is one of those reasons.”
Her eyes gleamed with determination.
“If the abilities of multiple Witches can be combined, if their strengths can complement one another, then perhaps goals impossible for a single person may become possible for many.”
To Echidna, gathering the Witches was not simply an act of curiosity.
It was part of a larger plan.
A plan to assemble enough knowledge, enough power, and enough possibilities that even something as impossible as saving the world might eventually become achievable.
“Hmm, very well. In that case, I suppose you can have this,” Flugel said as he pulled out a thick book and handed it over to Echidna.
The moment the book entered her field of vision, her eyes began shining with the intensity of an unhinged cat that had just discovered an entire warehouse filled with its favorite food.
Curiosity.
Greed.
Obsession.
All three emotions practically radiated from her as she understood she finally made Flugel yield something!
Carefully accepting the book with both hands, she stared at it as though it were the most valuable treasure in existence.
“This is my personal spellbook,” Flugel explained with a small smile. “Everything inside was written by me.”
Echidna's grip tightened slightly.
“Within it, I have recorded numerous magical theories, spell structures, and observations. I have also introduced various concepts and terms that do not currently exist in this era.”
He continued calmly.
“Things such as temperature, various forms of magical logic, theories regarding the interaction of mana with the physical world, explanations of Yin and Yang Magic, and countless hypotheses regarding how magic itself functions.”
The more he spoke, the brighter Echidna's eyes became.
To her, this was not merely a spellbook.
It was an entirely new field of knowledge.
A treasure chest overflowing with unknown concepts.
“What do you desire in return, Sir Flugel?” she asked immediately.
Her voice trembled slightly.
And unlike many of her previous reactions, this excitement was not an act.
Even if Echidna did not truly understand happiness the way ordinary people did, she absolutely understood greed.
And at this moment, her greedy heart desperately wanted to devour every page of the book in her hands.
“I need nothing in return,” Flugel replied honestly.
The answer caused her to freeze.
For a moment, she simply stared at him.
Confused and puzzled, unable to process what she had just heard.
Because from Echidna's perspective, knowledge possessed value.
Enormous value.
People traded kingdoms for knowledge.
Killed for knowledge.
Dedicated entire lifetimes to acquiring knowledge.
Yet Flugel had casually handed over a treasure that could potentially change the future of her magical research and asked for absolutely nothing in exchange.
And that was something the Witch of Greed found far more difficult to understand than any equation he had ever given her.
She could not understand it.
How could someone ask for nothing in exchange for something so valuable?
The very idea felt fundamentally wrong to her.
Every time Echidna had obtained new knowledge from someone, there had always been a price attached. Sometimes it was money. Sometimes it was a favor. Sometimes it was a task. But there was always something demanded in return.
Knowledge had value.
Therefore, knowledge required payment.
That was the rule she had come to understand.
Even Reid Astrea was a perfect example of this way of thinking.
When he had decided to spare her earlier, he had not done so out of kindness. Instead, he had requested, or rather ordered, that she sleep with him.
The only reason she had escaped that situation was because Flugel had intervened.
But even then, the principle remained the same.
People always wanted something.
Everyone desired compensation.
Everyone expected a return on their investment.
That was how the Witch of Greed understood the world.
Nothing was free.
No transaction existed without an exchange.
No matter how noble or kind someone appeared, there was always some form of greed hidden beneath their actions.
Perhaps they wanted money.
Perhaps they wanted power.
Perhaps they wanted loyalty, admiration, affection, gratitude, or recognition.
The form of the payment changed from person to person, but the principle itself remained constant.
At least, that was what Echidna believed.
Because from her perspective, every human being possessed greed within their heart.
Everyone desired something.
And if they gave something away, then they naturally expected something in return.
Even emotions could function as a form of payment.
Love.
Friendship.
Trust.
Respect.
Those too were exchanges in her eyes.
“Sir Flugel, do you perhaps desire my feelings as payment? Or... perhaps myself for tonight?” Echidna asked after a long moment of thought, genuinely trying to arrive at a reasonable conclusion.
After all, many people desired such things.
The difference was that most of them hid those desires behind politeness and excuses.
Unlike Reid Astrea, who simply stated them openly without a shred of shame.
That man truly existed on an entirely different level of shamelessness.
“Hm,” Flugel hummed thoughtfully before shaking his head. “Even if I happen to be a degenerate, I would not want either of those as payment.”
His answer came immediately.
“Nor would I want feelings that are not genuine.”
Echidna blinked.
The answer once again failed to fit into her understanding of how people worked.
Flugel looked at her quietly before continuing.
“It is simply that I heard your goal.”
His voice remained calm.
“And I must admit, even though you are dyed completely in the color of Greed, there is something surprisingly innocent hidden within it.”
A faint smile appeared on his face.
“You shine far more brightly than you realize.”
For perhaps the first time in a long while, Echidna found herself unable to immediately formulate a response.
Not because she was embarrassed or happy.
But because she genuinely did not know how to categorize what she had just heard.
Flugel then turned around and began walking away.
However, before leaving, he spoke one final time.
“If you insist on considering that book a payment, then repay me in a different way.”
Echidna's eyes followed his departing figure.
“Show me your growth.”
His voice carried across the field.
“And prove that you can change the world.”
Having said that, Flugel continued walking forward without waiting for a response.
Meanwhile, Echidna remained standing where she was, the spellbook still held tightly against her chest as she stared in the direction Flugel had disappeared.
She began analyzing his words.
Naturally.
That was what she always did.
At first glance, it sounded as though Flugel was simply greedy for her future growth.
However, the internal logic behind that conclusion immediately began falling apart the more she examined it.
The value he would supposedly receive was a value that he himself had already created.
He had written the spellbook.
He had handed it to her freely.
He had given her knowledge that would help satisfy her own greed.
Yet he had not demanded loyalty, service or ownership from her.
He had not even requested that she remain by his side.
Which meant that even if she eventually grew stronger because of the knowledge he had provided, there was no guarantee that he would ever personally benefit from it.
The entire transaction made no sense.
Incomprehensible.
Incalculable.
Impossible.
No matter how many angles she approached it from, she could not understand the logic behind his actions.
Obviously, Flugel possessed greed.
Everyone possessed greed.
He was human.
Therefore, he should desire something.
Then why?
Love?
Impossible.
Echidna dismissed the possibility almost immediately.
Flugel did not love her.
That much was obvious.
Their relationship had not progressed to that point, and she was confident enough in her observations to conclude that love was not the answer.
Gratitude?
Even more ridiculous.
If anything, the situation should have been the complete opposite.
She should be the one feeling gratitude toward him.
Without Flugel's intervention, she would have almost certainly died at the hands of the so called Heavenly Sword, Reid Astrea or perhaps forced by him to server him.
She could not understand.
Why?
Why?
Why?
Why?
Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? WHY? WHY?! WHY?!
Countless questions surfaced within Echidna's mind one after another, yet none of them brought her any closer to an answer.
She knew that no amount of asking "why" would be enough to explain what she had just experienced.
The logic simply refused to connect.
Slowly, she tightened her grip around the spellbook.
Then tightened it further.
The book was pressed firmly against her chest as though she were afraid it might suddenly disappear.
For the first time in her life, she felt as though she had encountered a form of greed that she had never seen before.
Or perhaps...
Was it even greed at all?
That question lingered in her mind.
Unable to leave.
Unable to be answered.
‘You, who are draped in the Seven Sins, are the most virtuous of all,’ she thought silently.
The conclusion formed naturally within her mind.
In truth, she had already reached this conclusion long ago.
She had already guessed the identity of Flugel.
Or at least, what he truly was.
The Great Sage of this era.
The only existence capable of being compatible with all seven Authorities.
The only being who could possibly stand at the intersection of every Sin without being consumed by any of them.
That was the answer she had gradually arrived at after observing him.
After all, how else could she explain him?
Time and time again, Flugel displayed knowledge that should not exist.
Knowledge that even she had never encountered despite traveling across more than half the world in pursuit of wisdom.
Time and time again, he accomplished things that should have been impossible.
Things that defied common sense.
Things that should not have been achievable through ordinary talent alone.
So why such a decision? Of course because as she said he was perhaps virtuous.
Virtue?
That was something humans possessed.
Not Witches like her.
At least, that was what Echidna had always believed.
Even if her ultimate goal was to save the world, she had never considered that goal to be born from virtue or kindness.
Quite the opposite.
She viewed it as the natural extension of her own sin.
Greed.
She wanted knowledge.
She wanted progress.
She wanted a world that would continue producing new discoveries for eternity.
In the end, even her desire to save the world was simply another expression of that greed.
And yet...
The existence known as Flugel completely contradicted everything she thought she understood.
A man who possessed not one sin.
Not two.
But potentially all seven.
A man draped in Authorities derived from the Seven Deadly Sins themselves.
And despite that, he displayed a level of virtue she could not comprehend.
The contradiction fascinated her.
No matter how much she analyzed it, the answer refused to appear.
At some point, she realized her face felt strangely warm.
Her grip on the spellbook tightened further.
Only then did she notice that her cheeks had become slightly flushed.
What was this feeling?
Love?
No.
Absolutely not!
The answer came immediately.
Greed.
It had to be greed.
A burning desire to understand why such a contradiction could exist.
A desperate urge to uncover the logic behind Flugel's existence.
That was all it was.
Nothing more.
Nothing less.
At least, that was what Echidna told herself.
After all, even she, the embodiment of Greed, had become incompatible with her own Witch Factor because of the concepts she believed in.
Because of her views regarding right and wrong.
Because of her desire to save the world.
Yet somehow, Flugel stood before her as an even greater contradiction.
A man carrying the power of sin while displaying qualities that should not have belonged to someone burdened by those sins.
And more than anything else, Echidna wanted to understand why.
Of course, Echidna did not truly understand concepts such as right and wrong the way ordinary people did.
She could only observe the moral compasses of others and draw conclusions from them.
That was why she had chosen to follow those principles.
Not because she inherently believed in them or because she was naturally virtuous.
But because she had concluded that they possessed value.
Even her desire to save the world originated from greed.
However, she was fully aware that the path she had chosen was not necessarily the most efficient one.
There were countless alternatives.
Perhaps ruling the world through fear as a tyrant would produce results more quickly.
Perhaps forcing progress through absolute authority would be more practical.
Perhaps manipulating everyone from the shadows would be easier.
There were many methods.
Many possibilities.
Many solutions.
Yet despite knowing that, she had still chosen this path.
A path where knowledge would spread.
A path where civilization would advance.
A path where the world itself could continue growing rather than being forced into submission.
To Echidna, it was still greed.
But it was the form of greed she had chosen for herself.
Her fingers tightened slightly around the spellbook Flugel had given her.
Then a thought surfaced in her mind.
'Truly... I suppose only someone like the Sage could remain incomprehensible even to a Witch.'
The thought lingered there for a moment.
And then—
She smiled.
A smile that was not the carefully crafted smile of a beautiful maiden neither the charming smile she used to manipulate conversations nor the polite smile she showed strangers.
A genuine one.
A smile entirely free of pretense.
Perhaps for the first time since meeting Flugel, Echidna smiled without calculating what she would gain from it.
...
Flugel continued with his experiments after leaving Echidna to her own devices. Since she had already buried herself in the spellbook and would likely remain occupied for hours, perhaps even days, he no longer had to worry about her for the time being.
His attention returned to the problem that had been occupying his thoughts ever since he arrived in this era.
What kind of magic should he create?
That was the question.
As he walked across the grasslands, his mind worked relentlessly through theory after theory.
Od Laguna was ultimately the foundation upon which the world's magic system operated.
Mana flowed through every part of the world, every living being and magic was governed by it.
Everything within this world existed under its framework.
In many ways, Od Laguna functioned as both the source and the administrator of the world's supernatural laws.
However, that same fact revealed its greatest limitation.
Od Laguna could only properly govern things that belonged to its own system.
Things that existed within its own framework.
Things that could be understood through its own logic.
Anything outside that framework became a problem.
Anything beyond its comprehension could not be properly manipulated by it.
It could not fully understand foreign mysteries.
It could not process concepts that existed beyond the boundaries of its own world.
In a sense, Od Laguna was trapped by its own logic.
It could not easily step outside the rules that defined its existence.
And that was where Authorities became such an anomaly.
Authorities did not truly belong to the world's conventional power system.
They operated according to entirely different principles.
Rather than following the laws of Od Laguna, they often imposed their own laws upon reality.
That was precisely why they were so dangerous and why they were so difficult to understand.
The problem, however, was obvious.
Flugel was currently attempting to use magic derived from Od Laguna itself to create something capable of disobeying or disregarding existence of Od Laguna.
The idea sounded almost contradictory.
It was like trying to use the rules of a system to create something that existed outside those rules.
Like asking a cage to construct the key that could unlock itself.
Most magicians would dismiss the concept as impossible.
Yet Flugel continued thinking about it regardless.
Of course, Subaru had also awakened three entirely new abilities that did not belong to the World of Od Laguna at all.
Psychic, Aura and Ki.
These were powers that existed outside the world's conventional framework, making them fundamentally different from ordinary magic and even many supernatural abilities found within this era.
In the World of Od Laguna, mana flowed through every living being.
Every creature possessed a gate and possessed some degree of affinity with mana even if that affinity was so insignificant that it was practically useless, it still existed.
Mana was the universal foundation shared by all life.
For Flugel, however, the situation was different.
His Aura and Ki did not function in the same way as mana.
Ki was closer to life energy.
Aura, meanwhile, was something even stranger.
Both Ki and Aura were connected to his existence itself and interacted with his life force to varying degrees, yet they remained distinct from ordinary mana.
In many ways, they represented entirely separate systems that Od Laguna neither created nor fully understood.
Because of that, Subaru had spent considerable time studying the differences between them.
One conclusion he had already reached was particularly important.
If Flugel lost all of his mana, he would survive.
The consequences would certainly be unpleasant, but he would remain alive.
Likewise, even if he somehow exhausted every last drop of Ki within his body, he would still continue living.
Aura, however, was different.
Completely different.
Aura was not merely energy.
Aura was directly connected to the soul itself.
It was, in many ways, an expression of the soul's existence.
A manifestation of the Od and spirit that composed the foundation of who he was.
Because of that, losing Aura entirely was not comparable to exhausting mana or Ki.
If all of his Aura were somehow destroyed or removed, the result would be death, just like his prior loop where he exhausted his aura and ki against White Whale.
The only circumstances under which Aura could be completely lost would be if his Od or soul itself suffered destruction.
There was also Psychic energy to consider. However, Subaru had not spent nearly as much time studying those three abilities as he would have liked.
While he had already developed several techniques and skills based on Psychic power, Aura, and Ki, they still remained far below the level of the Authorities he possessed.
The difference was simply too great.
No matter how useful those abilities were, they could not currently compare to the absurdity that Authorities represented.
At best, they increased his versatility and provided additional options in combat or research.
At worst, they were merely supplementary powers.
The situation was somewhat similar to Reina's relationship with her Divine Protections.
The Divine Protections certainly made her more versatile.
They gave her countless advantages and allowed her to perform feats that ordinary people could never hope to achieve.
However, even if every single Divine Protection disappeared from her body, Reina would still remain monstrously powerful.
She would still be among the strongest beings in existence.
The only major difference would be that she could actually be killed.
Without the protection and support of Od Laguna, immortality and countless safeguards would no longer remain available to her.
Yet her own strength would still be overwhelming.
Meanwhile, Divine Protections themselves were peculiar existences.
Unlike many abilities, they were directly connected to Od Laguna.
As long as the Od Laguna continued to exist, the Divine Protection of Phoenix itself would remain with its owner, even if connection is weakened or cut off.
Which was why someone like Reina remained such a terrifying existence and as long as Od Laguna continued recognizing her, those blessings would continue to return again and again.
‘Even when we developed a form of magic capable of branching through time and space, all it ultimately accomplished was allowing us to reach different timelines of the same world,’ Subaru thought as he reviewed his previous experiments.
The Yggdrasil Magic they had created was certainly impressive.
It could travel across timelines and let the user interact with alternate histories and in some cases, it could even escape the immediate framework of a particular worldline.
However, there was still a fundamental flaw.
No matter how far it traveled, it always ended up within another version of Od Laguna's reality.
It never crossed into an entirely separate dimensional framework.
That was the problem.
The magic lacked a proper dimensional axis.
It could move horizontally across possibilities but not vertically into fundamentally different realities.
And the reason was obvious.
The magic itself had been designed by people whose understanding of different dimensions was incomplete.
Subaru himself was no exception.
His comprehension of dimensional theory was still limited.
What he wanted was something different that reaching just another timeline or dimension within Od Laguna.
He wanted to reach a dimension like Earth, a world that existed completely outside the boundaries of Od Laguna.
‘So how am I supposed to recreate something like Tier Magic from Overlord, or any other magical system that functions independently of Od Laguna's framework?’ he wondered.
After spending some time thinking about it, he arrived at a relatively simple conclusion.
If Od Laguna naturally produced Od Laguna compatible magic, then the opposite should also be true.
To create magic that could function beyond Od Laguna, he would need to introduce something that did not belong to Od Laguna.
Something capable of acting as a contaminant within the system.
An Authority was one possibility.
Aura was another.
Ki qualified as well.
Even Psychic energy could potentially serve that role.
Each of them originated from systems fundamentally different from conventional mana.
Each of them possessed characteristics that Od Laguna did not naturally govern.
And if he could successfully integrate those foreign elements into magic itself...
Then perhaps he could create something entirely new.
A magic system capable of functioning beyond the world's normal restrictions.
A magic system that could eventually reach other dimensions rather than merely alternate timelines.
Having finally settled on a direction, Subaru decided not to begin with anything complicated.
There was no point starting with advanced spells.
Every experiment needed a foundation.
And so he chose the most basic spell possible.
Fire Magic.
More specifically—
The simplest offensive spell imaginable in every rpg game that had so many things in common, that finding who copied who was truly impossiblwa.
"Fireball."
Tier 1 Spell: [Fireball.]
A spell that should require no particular elemental affinity to cast unlike Od Laguna's basic fire magic. That was precisely why Subaru had chosen it as his first experiment. If he could successfully alter a basic spell, then modifying more advanced magic later would become significantly easier.
Taking a deep breath, Flugel slowly guided mana through his gate.
Then, with extreme care, he subtly mixed a trace amount of Aura into the mana flow.
The original attributeless mana remained intact while carrying a foreign element that did not naturally belong to Od Laguna's system.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then he completed the spell.
“Tier 1 Spell: [Fireball!]”
The chant left his mouth.
Instantly, a sphere of blazing fire materialized in front of him.
Then the fireball launched forward, like a torpedo.
BOOM!
The spell struck a nearby boulder.
The impact instantly pulverized an entire section of the rock, sending fragments flying in every direction.
Dust filled the air.
“Holy Mother of Cow!”
He genuinely could not believe it.
He had succeeded on his very first attempt!
A Fire Spell created using principles that did not fully belong to Od Laguna's internal logic.
A spell tainted with otherworldliness.
A spell that theoretically should not exist.
His body trembled with excitement.
“I am Ainz Ooal Gown!” he muttered before immediately breaking into laughter.
The laughter of a mad villain that is going over to take the world.
Meanwhile, Echidna had been approaching with a question she intended to ask.
However, the moment she arrived, she froze.
Standing in the distance, she watched the normally calm and gentle Flugel laughing like some ancient demon lord who had just unlocked forbidden knowledge.
A small part of her was honestly impressed.
Another part became even more curious.
‘Truly worthy of the Sage who reigns over the Seven Sins,’ she thought while observing him carefully.
The scene only deepened the mystery surrounding him.
‘Virtuous, yet sinful. Wise, yet absurd. Gentle, yet capable of such terrifying ambition.’
The contradiction fascinated her.
As she looked at Flugel standing there with a grin on his face, she felt her desire to unravel his mysteries growing stronger than ever before.
After all, what kind of person could laugh like a future demon king one moment and still remain so undeniably virtuous the next?
That question alone was enough to ignite the Witch of Greed's curiosity all over again.
To be continued...
(A/N: Holy Shit! Re: Zero characters glazing each other is such a re:zero thing to do! LMAO)