Mage Manual

Chapter 1674 - 1233: Rampage

Abnormality Synchronization is quite a wonderful experience.

When synchronizing with the Youmo, Ash feels like he’s amidst the raging sea, with dark clouds and violent winds and rains, bobbing up and down, feeling as if he’s a doll tossed into a spinning washing machine.

When synchronizing with the Mirror Demon, Ash feels himself sink into a tranquil ocean, with light from the moon or sun filtering gently into the water, enveloping him softly as he slowly descends, letting himself fall into the pitch-black sea bottom.

Throughout, Ash never loses consciousness, clearly aware of his ’true self’ in reality. It’s as if he’s in a lucid dream, unable to change the dream’s direction, interfere with his actions, or even conceive the idea of ’interference’; his mind slows to a crawl, merely recording his actions like a camera.

So he isn’t awakened by his own atrocities, but by the choking turbid currents of the Deep Sea.

Everywhere is Darkness, not a single ray penetrates; he cannot discern up from down as the murky currents toss him around. He feels as though he’s fallen to the deepest trenches, a place abandoned by the world, where even the most intense light cannot reach and resilient life cannot survive, apart from the volcanic mudstone deposits... more terrifying than Death, deeper than Despair.

Ash opens his eyes, seeing far away a black-haired girl sitting with her legs hugged to her chest.

He struggles to swim towards her, through water thick with silt like black mud.

Just as he approaches the girl and is about to greet her, she slowly turns her head; her serene face breaks into a grotesque smile, mouth widening disturbingly, her eyes nearly devoid of white.

The currents suddenly surge, hysterical Malevolence crashing against Ash.

Yet Ash isn’t swept away, for threads bind him, fixing him in place like an invisible cross. The girl slowly stands, approaches him, her fingers with hooked steel wires gently caressing Ash’s chin, mouth, nose, cheeks, eyes...

Then, a vicious plunge.

In agonizing pain that gnaws at his bones, Ash hears her voice whisper lightly in his ear, though her tone festers with decades of rotted malice:

"You’ve finally fallen into my hands, Observer."

*

"Uwah—"

The reborn Ash kneels at the sea bottom, retching as though trying to vomit out his insides. It takes him a long time to stand, limbs trembling continuously, lying like a dog with its spine removed, the echoes of pain gradually spreading through his neural pathways.

The only solace is that this isn’t reality; he doesn’t possess complete physiological functions, sparing him further disgrace.

"It hurts, doesn’t it."

Death Mad sits beside him, legs drawn close, unconcerned about revealing the view beneath her skirt, but in this dark Deep Sea, Ash is the only witness.

She slowly takes a drag from her cigarette, half of it turning to ash carried away by the currents.

"The Black Demon delights in tormenting others, possessing the neural pain points of every species; even those without pain she’ll create the sensation to make them understand what it means to long for life and fear death. Even among us who destroy Life as easily as breathing, who kill as casually as eating or sleeping, she’s the most extreme... Her nature isn’t ’kill’, but ’play’."

"We kill for results; she kills for the sake of killing."

Ash takes another several seconds to regain control over his body. In that moment of bondage by the Black Demon—unable to gauge the duration, the pain annihilated his perception of time—he’s subjected to numerous tormenting methods. Even recalling the wires in her hand makes Ash shiver violently.

If not for his body collapsing entirely, who knows how long the agony would persist. His battle wounds were substantial, his soul once tormented by the Shadow Sword, yet none compared to the Black Demon’s torture... She didn’t merely inflict pain straightforwardly but interlaced it with pleasure, itchiness, coolness, warmth, amplifying agony, offering no chance for adaptation or numbness.

The Black Demon’s sadism isn’t mere venting, but an art of Cruelty, the threads woven into Ash’s nerves like strings, composing a malevolent suite on his body.

"Outside..."

"This is your Spirit World, where time flows at a ratio of about 10000:1 compared to outside, granting you time to rest," Death Mad says.

"Why did she..." Ash forced himself to recall the appearance of the Black Demon, trying to dispel the fear in his heart: "Didn’t I ask her for help? Why did she go berserk?"

"Who told you that after Abnormality Synchronization with us we would follow your orders?" Death Mad pressed a cigarette into the muck, "I just said that after you pay 1/4 you can gain power... but not all power will follow your will. Wielding power that does not belong to you is risky."

"The risk has always been there, you just avoided it before: when synchronizing with Youmo, you were in Ocean Hell, and even if Youmo wanted to vent, they could only take it out on The Forgotten; when synchronizing with the Mirror Demon, it was to protect the Silver Lamp, and besides, the Mirror Demon was somewhat rational, so it listened to your orders to fight against the four descending Divine Lords."

"But this time you synchronized with the Black Demon."

Death Mad whispered:

"She has already gone mad, and can only warm herself with despair. She wishes to drag everyone into Hell, how could she follow your orders to guard this world?"

"But... why?" Ash couldn’t understand: "What benefit does it give her? Doesn’t she want to drive away Uroboros? Doesn’t she want to replace us and live in a stable, beautiful world?"

"That’s not it." Death Mad tilted his head to look at him: "She does want to replace Lissdia, but not to live... she just doesn’t want Lissdia to live."

Ash was stunned.

"You don’t know how much she hates Lissdia, hates her with gritted teeth, with heart-wrenching intensity." Death Mad hugged his legs and said with a deep tone, like a ghost telling a ghost story: "The better you treat Lissdia, the more she hates. She hates you for loving Lissdia so much, and she hates how Lissdia had the luck to meet you."

"She was tormented so terribly by the Observer... every time she managed to grasp a bit of happiness, it turned out to be bait for the Observer. She was toyed with like a puppet by the Observer, who never let her achieve her desires in the end. Her sorrow split into seventeen sisters to accompany her, because besides her sisters she had nothing."

Ash was silent for a moment, then said: "But the one who harmed her was the Observer."

"Don’t you really understand?"

Death Mad laughed:

"She’s afraid... just like you’re now afraid of her threads, she fears the Observer’s gaze. You were tortured once and remember it so deeply, but she was given hope and then despair by the Observer time and time again. When she was at her weakest, the Observer was someone she relied on and trusted the most; their relationship was like yours and Lissdia, but the Observer wasn’t the Knight escorting the Princess, he was the ultimate Evil Dragon."

"She tried countless times to assassinate the Observer, but every time failed. Although the Observer was indeed stronger than her, in my view, the only reason she failed was because she feared the Observer too much, getting within five steps of him made rational thought impossible, and she couldn’t even hide her Killing Intent."

"She cowered in front of the Observer, but dared to attack you all with heavy blows. She originally thought you’d eventually become like the Observer, never imagined you would genuinely like Lissdia... so every time she saw you being close to Lissdia, it would deeply wound her heart, constantly reminding her how unlucky she was."

"Why is she the Black Demon sinking into the quagmire, while Lissdia lives in the witch’s honey pot? Why did she encounter the Observer, but Lissdia encountered you? What’s the difference between her and Lissdia? Just because her timeline is earlier, she deserves to suffer and endure hardships?"

"After finally reaching the peak, she encountered Uroboros who couldn’t be defeated, had to abandon the world and escape against the timeline... her mentality had long collapsed, leaving only a shell named the Black Demon."

Death Mad said: "It’s not that she doesn’t want to live, she just doesn’t think she can live."

"Rather than saving the world, why not drag the whole world into Hell sooner, destroy your last bit of happiness entirely? She can’t live, but you and Lissdia not living is very important to her."

Ash sighed lightly, "So she absolutely won’t change her mind? Can I let the Observer—"

Death Mad laughed, knocked a cigarette out of the pack: "Did you forget? If you get close to the Observer, you’ll immediately collapse into the singular ’Ash Heath’, if you have confidence to defeat the Observer in the resurrection match, it’s not impossible."

"You guys don’t have any after-sales service?" Ash indignantly snatched her cigarette, "I paid 1/4 of my spirit, and all I got was the Black Demon wantonly using my body? Why didn’t you make this clear to me just now... deceitful merchant!"

Death Mad suddenly turned cold, beckoned with her finger. Ash had to light the cigarette and put it in her mouth, his expression aggrieved like someone who bought a house from a scamming developer and could only pray for their conscience to kick in: "What should I do now?"

Death Mad took a deep drag from the cigarette, pointed to the rear, Ash looked over and finally saw the Black Demon sitting not far away. But she seemed not to notice them, sitting on the ground hugging her legs like a mushroom, as if to mold in this dark Deep Sea forever.

"Suppress her." Death Mad said: "Then you can reclaim dominance over your body."