The Developer Reborn As Archmage

The Seer’s presence in the auction complicated things for Darya. She hadn’t thought a distinct merfolk man would infiltrate the colosseum. He added a whole new angle to worry about when she hadn’t planned to rescue the mermaid girl this soon. It simply couldn’t be done with this many people around, not without a lot of collateral damage. Now that the choice belonged to the disguised Seer, who is surely running high on emotions.

Drakva finalized the auction while she was forming the plan in her head. The girl was sold at 5.6 million gold after a prolonged battle between two of the private sections, the muffled man and the woman who shouted the first offer. The woman won the final bid by 400,000.

After a short farewell speech and a teaser about the items queued up for the next auction in two weeks, Drakva wheeled all the items back through the tunnel, inviting those who won their bids to follow him.

“Seris, keep an eye on those two guards,” Darya said, gripping the railing as she watched the fish tank disappear around the corner with Drakva.

Seris pulled out her wand and tapped the side of her forehead, making her eyes glow light blue. “I can track them like this,” she said, swiveling her head in the direction of the guards who stood at the exit for the bidders to leave.

This was the same spell that she used to locate Fominel when he was flying to the island by himself. Faint threads of mana twirled out of Seris’s eyes, connecting to the soldiers that she was looking at.

“Sarka, can you see now?” Darya asked.

“A lot better than before, princess. Yes. What do you want me to do?”

“The girl. I want you to track her mana signature at all times. If I get into a situation where she’s visible to you, keep an eye on her. Alert me before anything can happen to her.”

“Understood, princess!” Sarka said eagerly.

“There is one more thing I want to ask you, but there’s no time. Play along for now, no matter what.”

“I shall trust your judgement without question.”

Well, he’s not going to like it if I have enough time to tell him. Maybe this is for the best.

“Soldier on the right moving up,” Seris said without looking at Darya. She was concentrating on the two soldiers who were now blending into the crowd.

“He’s going to make a move,” Darya said, loosening the straps of the dagger on her lower leg. “I need to be there when he screws it up.”

“How are we going to sneak into that tunnel?” Seris asked. It was guarded by two other guards who had a list to check off the winning bidders. The Seer was sneaking through the crowd towards the short queue for the tunnel. His right hand never left the sword hilt, and his left hand was inside a pocket.

Smoke bombs? flashbangs? grenades? He’s going to do something at the tunnel queue. Looks like it’s going to be big and loud.

The man didn’t seem to be in a hurry. He kept looking up at private sections now and then, and he followed the ones that left with a blank expression. Luckily, he wasn’t stupid enough to cause a ruckus when people who could shake Galtea were in the same room. He seemed wary of the bodyguards of the wealthy, looking around suspiciously as he walked forward through empty chairs.

Darya was seeing the same thing. The private sections were full of formidable-looking bodyguards. Most of them were masked or hooded, and there was no telling what they were, warriors or mages. The wealthiest bidders of Galtea wouldn’t move without adequate protections.

The Seer had been careful enough to infiltrate this deep well in advance. Whatever his plan was, it wasn’t going to be a suicidal charge. He seemed to have something figured out. Darya intended to take advantage of the trouble he was about to cause.

“Seris, act surprised like everyone else.”

“Huh? Surprised by what—”

She didn’t get to finish her sentence. A metal ball clattered on the wooden stage and exploded into a million sparks. Darya barely managed to cover her eyes while pushing Seris behind her.

The sparks were still burning when she opened her eyes and leapt over the railing.

[Vainfall: Terminate]

[Smooth Slither]

[Wind Step]

She slithered through the sparks in a split second, making it right next to the tunnel entrance. As she counted the first second in the monochrome world, she saw the Seer pointing a stubby crooked wand attached to the inner lining of his forearm. A yellow-blue stream of mana remained frozen at the tip, casting a cone at the feet of the two guards at the tunnel entrance, along with two bodyguards of the duke.

“What in the—” Sarka exclaimed. “What magics is this!”

This was his first time actually experiencing the Terminate. He had to be shocked to discover she was performing this feat without skills or spells.

“Quiet!” Darya hissed as she noticed at least two people noticing her as she phased right through them. Everyone was frozen where they were. The two who may have heard Sarka’s passing voice were predicted to turn around. Despite this minor problem, everyone else was more or less distracted by the sparks, which were now frozen mid-air like a galaxy in miniature.

The duke was already protected by what could only be a mage. It was an old man wearing a peculiar owl mask. His eyes had also tracked her as she leapt off the railing, passing across his field of vision. He had already lost her in the same second, but he had a three-foot-long wand already out, halfway into sparking a red bolt at the Seer.

Shit. I have to stop that.

Darya leapt back during the next second, drawing her dagger. She didn’t have the time or the luxury to tune the amount of violence. She slashed across, keeping her movement deliberately slow enough to send prediction dots flying. The diagonal cut landed across the old man’s right wrist, loosening his grip on the wand.

Using the same momentum, Darya pivoted on her heel and leapt back into the tunnel entrance as the monochrome world faded. She gripped the dagger hilt tighter, pouring mana into the drenched blade to increase damage dealt. She caught a glimpse right as the world caught up to the prediction.

The duke’s bodyguard lost his grip on the wand, spraying blood from his hand like a broken hose as he collapsed backwards. The two guards at the tunnel entrance sank three feet into the wooden floor in an instant.

Can Seer wield mana that well? Wonder if he’s a mage or a warlock?

There was no time to inspect anybody. Darya had entered the next phase of the problem by entering the tunnel. Straight ahead of her, halfway turned with curious faces, were the group that won the bid for the mermaid. The mysterious woman was at the front, and she hadn’t noticed anything wrong just yet.

Darya briefly made eye contact with a lanky bodyguard with curled horns and red eyes. He was just beginning to sniff the air.

“He’s using a passive for tracking scents!” Sarka whispered, despite her earlier warning to stay quiet.

[Vainfall: Terminate]

Leaping two feet up, she slashed the tall man across the face with the dagger, making sure to cut across his nose. There were no quick escape methods left. Wind Step was still in cooldown. She only had Smooth Silver left. She started counting to keep the rhythm.

One.

Leaning forward like a track runner, she dashed straight ahead, phasing through everyone ahead of her.

Two.

She burst straight through the woman, catching a glimpse of her bewildered face. The bodyguards on either side of her carried two large suitcases. For the second time since her arrival in Galtea, Darya was leaving millions that she could steal behind.

Three.

Pivoting off the wall as the visual artifacts flickered around her, she pushed forward around the corner of the tunnel.

Half.

She saw the end of the tunnel opening to a larger hall about twenty meters ahead. She wasn’t going to make it.

[Vainfall: Terminate]

One.

The monochrome world flickered, giant voxel cubes ripping apart at the seams. The visual artifacting was getting worse.

Two.

She dashed yet again like a runner, using the curvature of the tunnel wall to propel herself forward like a frog leaping off a branch. Smooth Slither threw her fast enough to phase through a pillar in the hall ahead.

Three. Fuck.

She found herself in a situation yet again. She was now only two feet away from Drakva, who had been standing at the entrance to welcome his clients. Having sensed someone coming, Drakva was already extending his hand forward in a friendly gesture. She ducked almost on instinct, noticing right away that Drakva’s grey eyes had noticed something.

Half.

Ducking under Drakva’s open arm, she sliced across his ribs, sparing no remorse for the slaver orc. The dagger passed through, splashing red dots of flesh and blood. Drakva seemed to register the impact as the world caught up. He may have caught a glimpse of her passing as well.

[Skill: Wind Step]

-20 SP • 8s Cooldown

[view more]

Verse had registered her action as a battle, changing the skill and spell activation methods right away. This meant Drakva was also entering combat mode, either based on what he noticed or purely on hostile orc instinct.

She dashed as far away from Drakva as possible, listening to him grunt as the cut registered in his brain. His hand was already bursting with orange-red mana as he curled his fingers inwards into a claw. His blood splashed on a pillar nearby as he swayed on his feet.

“Turning this way, he can sense you!” Sarka whispered as Drakva began rotating on his heel, ready to extend his clawed hand charged with mana.

[Vainfall: Terminate]

One.

The world flickered, visual artefacts growing wilder and larger. Darya gripped the hilt of the ritual dagger, pouring mana into it. She caught a split-second glimpse of Drakva exploding with mana as blood sprayed out of him. The orange shard of the ritual blade glowed hot, summoning a dark figure out of thin air.

Two.

Darya saw a black shadow pouring out of the dagger blade, but she didn’t get to see how it worked. In the next split second, she ceased to exist in Vainfall, popping into the grey void through a gap in reality that she couldn’t avoid.

She had no body again. Vainfall turned transparent behind her, fully isolating her in the dev void.

“Back here again,” Darya said with a sigh. She had fully expected this to happen. There was no way to avoid the void when Terminate commands are chained.

“Mother Goddess! I-Is this afterlife?!” Sarka’s voice echoed the void. “Don’t tell me the orc finished us off with something?!”

“No, we’re fine,” Darya said. “Nothing happens to us as long as we’re here.”

“That sounds like a more positive spin on death. Where are we exactly?!”

“Think of this place like a blank canvas,” Darya said, the next command ringing in her brain almost by muscle memory.

[/dev]

“I don’t understand. Is this a domain? A folded space? Are we in the warp?” Sarka was curious as an Archmage supreme who had surely never seen anything similar before.

“...Yes,” Darya said dismissively.

“What are we doing here?” Sarka asked with an audible gulp.

“Let’s see what brushes I can paint with, before we get back to finish what we started,” Darya said as the void fluctuated in response.