Chapter 11

The Giant Lizard was once the most powerful male among the members of his race, reigning as the strongest predator near the burning lands where thick fire flowed like a deadly river.

In that place, the creature had no adversary that could oppose it.

Whether members of his own species or the prey destined to fall into his jaws, all were too weak and small to pose a real threat.

As a Magical Beast that managed to reach the Third Rank, surpassing the normal limits of its species, the Giant Lizard simply could not be compared to its peers, being like an overlord in its natural habitat.

Those who opposed him were crushed without mercy.

Those who mistakenly considered him prey were devoured instead.

The male lizards were just his humble subordinates and spare dinner, while the female lizards were at his disposal so he could breed with them at any time, whenever he wanted.

So, this powerful magical beast lived a good life…until strange bipedal beings suddenly invaded its territory one day like any other.

The giant lizard was relaxing peacefully near one of the burning rivers as usual, along with several females dozing beside him, when out of nowhere several things that made a strange sound fell near them, releasing a smoke very different from the one emanating from the river.

As he roared in anger and the rest of the group stood ready for battle, they all felt a sudden feeling of weakness run through their bodies and couldn't keep their consciousnesses at bay for long.

The Giant Lizard was the one who was able to fight the hardest, but even he ended up succumbing to the alchemical gas that induced forced sleep even in powerful Magical Beasts like himself while the last image he saw was of some men in black hoods…

The Giant Lizard had no way of knowing at the time ...or even understanding for that matter, but he had been captured by a group of [Hunters] hired by the Alliance of Mages to gather rare magical beasts in order to conduct a secret experiment in the Imperial Capital.

His body and that of his females and subordinates were supposed to be quickly transported from the North to the capital on a long journey so that they could receive their large payment, but the encounter between a large group of bandits transporting a certain amount of Nox to be turned into slaves ended in conflict because the leader for some reason decided that they were easy prey.

The fight took place somewhere in the Cesna Mountain Range, and in the midst of the bloody battle that ensued between the two sides, the cell containing the great king of the hardstone lizards was damaged by a "coincidentally" stray fireball, allowing the King to break free from his prison as the enchantments sealing his magic were destroyed as a result.

That immediately marked the fate of both the hunters and the bandits. 

Without a second's hesitation, the furious magical beast summoned a shower of stones that mercilessly tore through most of the humans in the area without warning.

Not even the slaves, innocent victims of the bandits, were spared from his wrath, since for him, they were the same beings who dared to kidnap him and his positions.

And only one pitiful, lonely girl managed to escape that tragedy, with the slightly slow and weakened Lizard King angrily pursuing her into Cesna, both of them ending up in the Argos Forest and subsequently by “chance.”

Thus, the Beast King ended up at Runei Farm, fulfilling Arisella's "bad feeling"…

When it came down to it, the [Authoress of Prophecies] skill could have brought about multiple outcomes other than its user's supposedly bad feeling, many of which might have had more harmless results than the sudden appearance of such a Magical Beast...

It was simply Arisella's bad luck that those two groups happened to be so close to her home that they were unintentionally influenced by her ability...if Arisella finds out about the deaths this accident caused, one wouldn't know how she'd feel about it.

♦♦♦♦

What are Spirits, those mysterious beings that flow through the world?

Most people couldn't even properly come up with an answer to this question, as even the most knowledgeable struggle to adequately explain the existence of spirits — also known as Fae — and even the highest level of esotericism lacks a satisfactory explanation for these beings beyond their being made of something immaterial.

Some would describe them as beings of pure spiritual energy that possess life and a soul of their own, floating and moving with their own wills between this plane and the other.

Others as bodies made of the essence of the fundamental elements of reality.

While the more religious would say that they are servants of the gods, maintaining the natural balance of the world in their name.

Be that as it may, it was a well-known fact that although powerful, spirits had severe limitations on what they could do in the world.

Although a group of spirits had the power to cause a tsunami of catastrophic scale by gathering together if they so desired, it would cost them a great deal of mana and spiritual power, which is like their life force that keeps them in existence.

They simply couldn't use their abilities recklessly no matter how much they wanted to, having to be cautious with every use if they didn't want to die.

This is where humans come into play.

Humans possess the ability to rapidly recover mana, even without actively doing so, like spirits. They are a source of rapidly recovering mana, and spirits can use their powers without much repercussion thanks to the mana they draw from them.

Additionally, the more they use their powers, the more powerful they will become as they feed off of human spiritual energy to recover, which is another benefit of being around a human.

That's why spirits have been making contracts with humans they have affinity with since ancient times, and specifically sought out those with a good amount of mana and innate spiritual power as their most important partners.

In these deals, spirits have access to the mana of humans when they need to use it to restore themselves, and in return, humans would have access to their natural abilities, which they could channel through spoken language as if it were their own power...

That's one of the scenarios Arisella established to accommodate magic in this world. The same magic she used to beat the giant lizard-like Magical Beast.

Leaving aside the unpleasant problem her ability brought, there was something Arisella had to say about the fact that she was using offensive magic for the first time.

How damn cool was that!

She still had the soul of a young Otaku somewhere in her heart!

♦♦♦♦

When Arisella realized her [Authoress Of Prophecies] ability had been activated without her consent by lying about her bad feeling, she had imagined various scenarios of what might happen to Amelia's family because of her.

It could be that an unknown pest simply spread to all of their crops, causing them to start dying rapidly, which would cause many financial problems for the Runei family.

Or that several [Farmers] had accidentally damaged a barn in some way by getting into a fight.

Perhaps the worst scenario he imagined was that a fire would start in the horse stables, threatening the lives of everyone in the facility.

All the cases would make him feel guilty, especially the last one.

Certainly, the prophetess certainly couldn't have expected that her ability would bring a Magical Beast from who knows where to the people of Taylan. It was truly a completely unpleasant surprise.

What's a hard rock lizard doing in my village!? That ability didn't use much spiritual power... Why would something so unlikely be happening anyway?

Arisella thought to herself with all the disbelief and annoyance she could feel due to this situation.

Hardrock lizards were magical beasts that typically lived on the outskirts of Cesna, far from the Argos Forest. Their natural habitat was also far from this place, as they lived near the few lava pits found in the region, within the sphere of influence between two powerful noble families.

It wasn't a magical beast that had appeared in either of her novels for a variety of reasons, though the main and most obvious reason is that Arisella, like Amael, never designed such a magical beast. The reason she knew about the beast was because of the books she read from time to time in her free time.

However, Arisella also noticed that it was much larger than described in the bestiary, and that its rocky scales were too white... Perhaps it is a mutant of its species?

Either way, the only thing he could think of to explain why this magical beast was close enough to Taylan for her ability to take it into account, would be that some magical beast traffickers were taking the animal to be sold to some noble and it accidentally broke free...

No, stop, there's no time to waste thinking about the reasons why this was possible; we must stop him right here and quickly before he kills someone.

This would be my first dangerous fight in this life...

Arisella frowned at the thought.

Trying to fight a magical beast was very problematic due to these beings' enviable ability to manipulate their magic as naturally as breathing. A good example is the multiple earth-element attacks the beast employed, using nothing but instinct to guide its magic.

The Spirits in general also childishly complained about how these beings were also able to recover their magical energy as if nothing had happened by possessing their own physical bodies, while they had to rely on humans as a reliable source of fuel.

Some humans even hated magical beasts simply because they were born with such magical gifts, while they had to form a magical relationship to have access to the spirits' powers.

As mentioned before, for a human to be able to use magic in this world, one needed to make a contract with the spirits, something that in itself isn't hard to imagine very few could do, much less master, without being a professional.

First of all, one needed to awaken the [Magician] profession if one did not have the skill to do so by oneself.

That way, they will instinctively know what their elemental affinity is and what they need to do to attract the attention of a Spirit that adapts to them on its own.

This was different for each individual, so there was no standard to follow other than awakening the profession to begin with without fumbling around like spellcasters without such a useful profession in the distant past.

Secondly, elemental affinity must be high enough to attract a Spirit's attention. Otherwise, if the individual finds their affinity insufficient with the information they gain through their awakening, they should train a unique method to elevate it; another benefit of the professions.

Finally, a person had to improve their relationship with the Spirit to increase compatibility and mutual trust, enhancing the spiritual bond between the two beings. This would allow the [Mage] to better utilize the spirit's abilities, and with a high-level spiritual bond, it was entirely possible to use magic without saying anything.

Therein lies another benefit of professions; while individuals with a certain level of talent for magic who nevertheless fail to awaken their mage professions have to use long incantations to enhance their focus in order to harness the power of spirits, true mages only needed to say short incantations for the magical effect they had envisioned to manifest, thanks to the {Spellcasting} skill.

At Grandmaster Rank, this skill allowed them to cast magic almost instantly, which was a huge advantage.

Of course, it was not impossible for spellcasters to shorten their spells, but it took time to learn how to channel the power of spirits without a firm spell to serve as a focus of their concentration, so very few were actually able to do so.

Furthermore, while professions allow humans to use spirit power with reduced strain, a human without a mage profession could not use spirit power for long periods of time regardless of whether they still have mana to use, as it would hurt their vitality due to their elemental affinity not being high enough to reach perfect compatibility, regardless of their relationship with the spirit.

But in this world, there were always exceptions to the rule; people blessed with gifts that would make others cough blood with anger and envy because of the things they could achieve effortlessly compared to them.

For example…a young girl with a very incredible magical talent since birth.

A magical talent in which a spirit, not the young woman, happily approached to make a contract with her because of the irresistible attraction that was her affinity with the wind that made it possible.

A contract where her high elemental affinity guaranteed perfect compatibility between human and spirit; one in which she possessed sufficient intelligence and imaginative ability to narrow down the spell's aria if she so desired…

Who else, if not Arisella Bluen herself?

She was a woman possessed of such a talent for magic that she should have awakened as a [Magician] and not a [Prophesy]. That was her; a child blessed by the spirits, literally, depending on how you look at it.

For several years, Arisella had hidden this kind of magical talent from others because she knew how abnormal it was, only revealing her skill in magic craftsmanship and basic wind magic.

But now that little girls were in immediate danger because of her, she couldn't care less about trying to keep these things to herself.

He would later worry about what others thought of his hidden power.

♦♦♦♦

Although the wound from the prophetess's magical attack was anything but weak, the gigantic rock lizard barely seemed hurt; it was furious at the attack from behind inflicted upon its massive being.

It wasn't something that worried her, as it was just a distraction, while her maid left her sisters' side to launch herself at great speed towards the magical beast, disappearing from the sight of normal humans by using two of her abilities.

[Hurry] was a skill with a rather simple name that all close combat professions possessed, but one should not be fooled by its simplicity, as it allowed its user to run faster than normal humans.

In conjunction with [Acceleration], a unique ability possessed only by Amelia, it was especially deadly. Thanks to [Acceleration], Amelia could accelerate all of her actions without affecting her processing ability at all.

As a result, it became possible for Amelia to move at a speed that even an average high-ranking Professionist would have difficulty defending against, and for her it would be almost the same as her normal movement.

That wasn't the only skill Amelia activated, she also made use of {Lancer}'s basic skill called [Wide Range]. This basic skill caused Amelia's mana to flow out of her body, imbuing her short spear and extending its range by turning it into what looked like a spear made of materialized light.

With the wind blowing her long turquoise hair tied back in a ponytail as she moved at ridiculous speeds, Amelia thrust her spear at high speed and force towards the Giant Hard Rock Lizard, penetrating several places on its body and wounding it as if its scales didn't even exist with her spear thrusts.

Gyaaaaak!!!

The beast screamed in pain and tried to attack its attacker with fury. However, no matter how much it swung its fearsome claws around, it couldn't manage to hit Amelia at all, who was like a pesky fly, persistently biting his flesh despite his constant attempts to kill it.

This enraged the animal, who had lived like a little king among his kind for years, causing him to lift a small piece of land hoping for luck in ridding himself of the pesky pest. Obviously, he didn't succeed, as Amelia dodged him anyway, however...

“¡Amelia!“

“….!“

The battle maiden didn't need her mistress to warn her about the problem, as she immediately noticed which direction the piece of land was heading; toward her sisters. Her expression pale with fright, Amelia immediately rushed toward the piece of stone, striking it with her magic spear and using a special ability to shatter it into pieces.

[Power Explosion]

With the activation of that skill, the magical power that built her long-range spear gathered inside the stone and condensed, exploding into harmless pieces that struck both Amelia and her sisters, who covered each other as the stones struck them, crying in fear.

Unconcerned about her own bruises, Amelia ran to her younger sisters' side and shouted worriedly, her breathing labored, “Emma, ​​Natia, were you okay?”

“Y-yes,” the second oldest of the three sisters replied with tears in her eyes, scared and relieved to have survived until now thanks to her older sister.

She was more than surprised that Amelia had suddenly appeared at the side of her mistress, Arisella Bluen, to save the day. But she was also grateful, as her appearance had saved their lives. She wanted to thank them, but the situation still wasn't ideal, and the young woman noticed the beast attacking again.

“A-amelia”

“¡Amelia!“

“Tsk!”

The [Lancer] clicked her tongue as she immediately noticed the enemy's attack, feeling the troublesome feeling of emptiness that came with the loss of large amounts of mana and the exhaustion from such vigorous physical exertion in battle.

She was weakened and didn't have enough energy to continue fighting at her full capacity. Perhaps if she had time to take a mana and stamina potion to regain her strength, she could continue fighting properly, but the Magical Beast with several bleeding holes in its body obviously had no interest in allowing such a thing.

Those eyes that shone with intense killing intent just wanted to completely destroy her for the humiliation she caused, and Amelia remained expressionless on the outside, but she had to admit that she was a little scared.

Still, she wouldn't run. Her family was in danger from this creature...and she hadn't forgotten that she wasn't alone. Her mistress and two brave extras were here, determined to fight this threat.

"[Air pump]"

Arisella's scream echoed along with the surge of mana that was released from her body, causing a large amount of air to quickly gather and condense into a ball almost comparable in size to a grenade, which she immediately threw at the animal who was running furiously towards Amelia and her sisters.

Gyaaaaaaaaaa!!!

Once again, Arisella's magic struck the magical beast's back with ease. This time, however, there was a powerful blast of air that created a gust of wind in the surrounding area.

“”Kyaaa!!””

"Wow…!

“Gods…”

The two Runei sisters cried out in surprise, while the two [Farmers] gasped in utter shock at the fierce wind whipping their faces. It was the first time they had seen magic displayed in this way, and it was absolutely magnificent.

Even more surprising was the realization that their prophetess was also a powerful magician… No one would believe them if they told them!

As for Arisella, instead of being confident after seeing how her attack tore off a chunk of flesh from her enemy, she just narrowed her beautiful eyes while focusing solely on the gigantic animal that turned with anger in its eyes towards its attacker, herself, while gathering her magical power again to counterattack it.

He was determined to kill these pests that made his day a pretty horrible one.

However, not wanting to give it a chance to hurt their prophetess who bravely came to fight this monster to save them, the two [Farmers] attacked the magical beast from both sides, causing it to lose focus as one of them managed to successfully strike it with his Sickle empowered by his skill while the other was sent flying by the strike of its tail, injured as he painfully fell to the ground unconscious.

With a swift movement, the beast also sent the other [Farmer] flying with its arm, causing him to fall into the middle of the corn crops, his fate unknown.

Bastard!

Not wanting to waste the opportunity those brave farmhands gave her while gritting her teeth in anger, Arisella gathered her mana and channeled the power of her contracted spirit once more, this time in a silent chant before loudly shouting her will.

"[Storm of Arrows]"

The waves of magical energy had already alarmed the magical beast of the impending attack as it quickly returned its attention to her, but it was too late for the self-proclaimed Lizard King; the wind in the surroundings materialized into units of almost invisible yet tangible and lethal arrows that flew forcefully and pierced through its tough scales, penetrating its flesh mercilessly and forcefully.

¡Gyaaaaaa!

In its fury, the magical beast retaliated by launching a shower of fist-sized rocks in his direction, flying at high speed as it roared intensely.

"My Lady!" Amelia shouted urgently, preparing to rush forward to protect Arisella without thinking, even though she should have been aware of her lack of power to stop such magic even at full strength. After all, she was only a Second-Rank Professionist.

However, before the [Lancer] could do anything foolish in trying to save her master, a powerful gust of wind suddenly rose from Arisella's feet and effectively prevented the magic-made rocks from reaching her, violently fluttering her beautiful brown hair.

"Oh...! T-that's...!"

After that phenomenon, a majestic hand made of air suddenly formed above the Hard Rock Lizard without warning, slamming it into the ground with force; almost as if it were trying to crush a mere insect for a few seconds before vanishing into nothingness, leaving the stunned and injured lizard inside a crater shaped like its body.

There was no doubt that such an attack must have left several internal wounds.

"E-eh....that was amazing!" Emma exclaimed aloud as she watched the scene in utter amazement, her eyes and Natha's leaving behind their fear to look at the incredible display of magical prowess before them with fascination.

They could never have imagined that their people's prophetess was so skilled in magic that she could so one-sidedly strike down a Magical Beast capable of playing with the earth as if it were a limb.

Is that the power that can be achieved by forming a contract with the sacred spirits of the wind? It's wonderful…

Emma thought happily as she watched Arisella running her hand through her hair with an expression that was difficult to capture from her perspective.

Little Natha in particular, looked at Arisella with childlike admiration in her beautiful green eyes.

While on the other hand, Amelia also showed surprise at the magical power at Arisella's disposal, but she was mostly proud to see what use it was to a woman who was not only a Prophetess who could see the future, but also a powerful mage in her own right.

However, the Runei sisters had no way of knowing at the time; the fact that this wasn't Arisella's doing, something you could see from their surprised expression if you paid close enough attention.

It was the willingness of his spirit to protect his contractor by voluntarily expending his own mana that caused that astonishing phenomenon that some might mistakenly perceive as the divine judgment of a god.

Worried that she might die if she didn't do anything, she stood up for her master and mercilessly attacked the lizard. She certainly didn't expect Airean to intervene in such a... magnificent manner, though she was grateful to be saved at the last second.

He had to admit he probably wouldn't have responded well to that, and even now it felt as unreal as he'd been close to death...

Arisella, now it's time to kick that big guy's scaly ass quickly before he can move! He has to suffer!

Airean's exhausted but furious voice echoed in her head shortly after the act, no doubt angry that he was forced to summon all that power to defend her in exchange for what was essentially her lifeblood. Smiling bitterly in response, Arisella decided to put that matter aside to continue fighting the animal that glared at her with its chilling yellow eyes.

Before it could fully rise, Arisella used her mana and with the power of Airean manipulated the surrounding wind currents, creating a huge wind spear in less than four seconds that rubbed above the magical beast.

¡Gryaaaa!

Yes, yes, roar all you want....Now die!

The Hard Rock Lizard reared up on two legs as it roared in defiance at the spear threatening it, simultaneously causing the nearby ground to tremble with its magic. However, Arisella merely scoffed and brought the spear down hard on it.

Just as huge chunks of earth were gradually rising around him as if to try to protect himself from the weapon made of pure magic, the wind spear descended at a speed that made it impossible for the lizard to defend itself, piercing his chest without mercy.

From the flesh of that impaled Magical Beast emerged a large amount of red blood that spread over the ground like an abundant river that somehow reminded the Lizard King of his beloved home.

With an unexpected feeling of nostalgia amidst the hatred and resentment for what he lost that very day, the Giant Hard Rock Lizard lost his consciousness.