2. The Archmage and the Eternal Gates

「 Realm: Advelia, Ragnas Continent, inside the Eternal Gates 」

POV: Eien Von Liberia, Imperial Archmage "Truth of Magica"

As we entered the huge gates, I felt like we we entered another world unlike any others. Magica was too condensed, elements too stable that it's abnormal but the most important thing is that the world laws are none. Normally world laws are something present everywhere, anywhere and since our realm is a super graded one word laws should be abduent. Looks like my previous theory about the gate liking to an empty realm or dimension was correct.

"Everyone, even though we are strong we must not be careless. Advance slowly and steadily, forme a 10 person team and let your teammates help each other and if any team is in danger the closest team shall help. there should be no team separating themselves from the other unites by more that 20 meters. Now then Begin the cleaning operation;"

After giving them orders we begin clearing the long hallway that have more than 1.000 meters in width and an incalculable length

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It's been 40 days since we entered, at first the magicians apart from the me and the 2 Archmages had hard time using magic because of Magica's concentration and the knights were our backbones, since knights use Vigour, Fury and Magica to strengthen themselves and use knight, berserker and Armament techniques.

One of the Archmages was a Spellsword, he can use Magus and Armament techniques, so he teached the others the trick to use magic more efficiently in this broken environment. Thanks to him, in the third day all mages were able to fight normally.

I also helped him a little by sharing the way to move Magica with everyone simultaneously. as a result everyone including the archmages began shouting things like 'oohh The Truth of Magica is blessing us!' 'Hail the Queen of Magus' 'ohh her highness' Magica is inside me!' and the like. Haa~

In the tenth day we were attacked by some sort of boss monster, some sort of Black Cyclops with white strips estimated degree of power SS+. That was the first time we had casualties. 20 dead and 50 injured.

Zania was also injured when we were ambushed by some wolfs monster when we were battling the Cyclops. I took that as a pretext and sent her away from the Gate with the injured.

The official reason is 'guiding the injured back' but the real reason is that I do not want her to die. She is still too weak to continue, plus she is a young talent to be groomed. At first she was against it, so I told her secretly with telepathy while giving her my personal Space Ring.

'Zania listen I shall give you a mission, first return to the capital and report to the emperor about what I concluded until now. Second, live and do not die for the next hundred year .Third this ring contain all my Legacy until now, although sealed you will be able to open it later since no one other than you can open it or it will explode with everything inside it. I am not giving this to you cause I plan to die or anything, it's just a form of reassurance since I do not want to let my work until now go to waste.'

After that she still was stubborn and did not want to go. Still I changed her mind after much effort. In the end she went with 'Master I will wait for you to return this ring'

She really is the dream disciple for everyone.

After that we met boss class monsters one after another, one stronger than the other. sometimes they were a more than one at a time. In the end all the 500 elite knights and 100 intermediate mages were dead. That was terrible. So I ended up whispering

"Haa~...I want something sweet~..."(Eien)

"hahaha...your disciple is gone, so are the sweet, your highness"(???)

Answering my whisper was Claude, the Archmage who is also a spellsword.By the way he is also a one of the four SSS+, like me. He looks like the guy next door, with a warm face, but his tempered body tells otherwise. He is also young, having 29 years old. compared with the other Archmage here, who have something around 400 years, he is too young (like me).

Also he is the only person I have to take seriously (apart from the geezer) if I want to win.

"Claude, It's not like we do not know each other or are some strangers so stop with 'your highness', and if you have some sweet give me."(Eien)

Hearing me, He laughed while taking a hard sweet and giving it to me

"I know your sweet tooth, so I bought some with me, here. Well you saying to call you by your name mean you accept me? I told you I will only call you by your name if you became mine!"(Claude)

"Say that after beating me in a fight…"(Eien)

Well although I said that, I am quite interested in him. No to put it bluntly I do like him and his love is also genuine.but you see...I made that stupid promise and made it known so I can't just say ' ahh ok' to him! The thing is, one day on a private duel I lost on purpose so I could go out with him, but he saw it as me making a joke of him since he do not know my feelings. In the end, It was my disciple who said something to him and cleared the misunderstanding.

From that day I never went easy on him and always went all-out, even though he never won they were times where it was close call so yeah…

"Man I was just stupid to let that opportunity slip.."(Claude)

"Mm? Which opportunity?"(Eien)

"N-no nothing…"(Claude)

Well sometimes he is weird so let's just close an eye at that to not embarrass him since I am the girl he likes. How nice of me~

As we were going deeper I detected something. Something, with an aura too strong…Claude also seemed to detect it since he also stopped.

"Everyone the one before us is at least SSS+ Monster, it can even be an EX.So everyone shall take care of himself.Also I think that this will be the end of this 'dungeon' so let's win and return celebrate"

"""yes ma'am"""

While advancing steadily, we arrived in some sort of big hall. And in the middle of this hall I saw it, a girl closing her eyes ...no that's not it, it was a humanoid monster. A petite body, lovely face, silver hair and...a pair of black and white horns and wings…

Suddenly she opened her eyes. Mysterious eyes where black and white merge and not at the same time.

seeing us dumbfounded she giggled and said

"Hi everyone, nice to meet you, I am Mari the first dimension's demon of the Eternity Gates guardian. Well look at you so excellent that-"(Mari)

"Misteria's Will - Disaster"(Eien)

"Ruling Divine - World's Slay"(Claude)

Without letting her finish I and Claude unleashed one of our strongest attacks. Taking our attack as a signal the others began attacking too.

"Well aren't you a lively bunch? if so let...The slaughter begin"(Eien)

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How much time passed since the battle begin? 5 days? 10days? I do not remember.

"huuh huuh huuh Claude can you still fight"

"agrh...huuh huuh Of course who do you take me for"

At this time the only people alive are me and Claude, everyone else died. Even the Archmage sacrificed himself to take her left arm and left black wing that release black thunder. The others did their best to create an opportunity to destroy the black a horn that can release all kind of black magic and the white horn that give her regeneration, eventually succumbing to their death.

"agrh...aw aw aw maan, to do this to a beauty like me?"

"shut up, like hell I will fall for your charm!"

Right, her eyes can release charm magic to beguile and control the opponent. And Claude was affected, If I was not here and hugged him from behind to calm him and return him to sanity he would have gone out of control and killed his allies.

When he returned to sanity, apparently he was enraged by the fact that he was charmed by another women and in his enraged state ended up gouging one of her eyes by sacrificing one of his 4 swords.

"Naa challengers let's finish this shall we?"(Mari)

Rising her remaining right hand, an insane amount of Magica began accumulating.

Understanding that this will be the last bout we also grathered everything we can to cast our strongest spells

"By all creation abide by my will and disappear. Laws Edict - Universe Erasure!"(Eien)

"By the way of Divinity and Ruling I Shall order: Heaven's Way - Disintegration!"(Claude)

Claude situated himself in front of me to tank since he used dual wielding swords and since I can make the magic fly Above his head

"hahaha that's right let's finish this so I can get my reward sooner ...Eternity shall begin with this sword. Eternity - Eternal Pierce!"(Mary)

in her hand an ethereal sword formed, the sword was gigantic, but the aura of the sword was...

The 3 attacks collided and I blacked out…

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When I came to I saw Claude standing facing me with his back, and Mary's body, who more than half disappeared. Seeing that a sense of fulfillment was born in me

"Claude, we did it!"

"....y..eah…..we did it…."

eh? A sense of dread filled me at that time.

"Claude? are….you ok ?"

Suddenly claude fell, only to find a gaping head sized hole in his stomach…

eh? why is there a hole there? why..? wh---y?????? no.. noo..NOOOOO

"CLAUUUUDE!!!"