Overpowered Archmage Doesn’t Hide His Talent

Chapter 179:

Chapter 179 Remember that your life was meaningless. 

“Sigh.”

As he restored his body that was riddled with holes, Dusk let out a sigh mixed with laughter.

Surely, Flan was a human beyond his expectations.

“You make me use my life force to recover.”

Just as humans consume mana to manifest magic, vampires use their life force. 

Dusk was originally more inclined to spend his life force on disguise than recovery.

That’s why he was interested in Flan.

It meant that Flan was strong, since he made Dusk use his life force to recover. Moreover, he was not similar to other humans.

In short, he was a talent.

However.

‘He should be synchronized, right?’

Why was the princess fine when he was in the form of Aurora? 

It was a simple and big question, but Dusk soon shook it off.

It was because he remembered the words of the girl vampire at the meeting.

-No, how can you not be careless against a human?

Dusk muttered with a sneer.

“I guess I was too careless too.”

He had no choice but to blame himself if there was a mistake. 

There was never a problem with the ‘synchronization’ for a long and long time, so he manifested his refined black magic once again.

Kwang-!

At least, until his head exploded.

“…”

After restoring his eyes, Dusk narrowed his brows. As expected, this time too, Aurora’s body was fine.

Bang-! Kwang-!

Dusk’s body explosions continued in a chain.

The power itself was not great. 

It was only a level of blowing up the ends of his limbs. But that made Dusk’s mood even more uncomfortable.

The meaning was clear.

Once, and again.

As if to make Dusk realize that he was not synchronized, Flan repeated the small explosions.

As time went on, Dusk began to feel anxious. 

He put aside all the attacks and defenses and focused only on the synchronization.

…But there was no problem with the synchronization.

“Why?”

He looked down at his arm. 

He saw his hand that had disappeared from the explosion. 

Normally, the body of the princess, who was the original, should have exploded too.

“Did you see through it?”

He couldn’t help but think that way. 

The man in front of him, he pierced through the principle of ‘synchronization’ and inflicted effective hits only on Dusk.

“I told you for sure. It’s written on your face.”

Flan continued calmly.

“It was the words you spat out, including your pathetic magic.”

Dusk suddenly felt something on his forehead. 

It was sweat. 

This body was feeling the sensation of ‘tension’ for the first time in a long time.

“I admit it. I tried to take it too easy.”

Dusk stared at Flan with a strange look. Then, the vampire’s body twisted and began to create a new appearance.

“I’ll show you how long I’ve been watching you, how deeply I’ve studied you, this love and interest…! My sincerity…! I’ll show you now!”

The scene of bones being reassembled and muscles being torn and reattached was not strange to call it recreation. 

Flan watched it quietly.

Soon, a woman appeared.

Black hair like pitch black, burning red eyes, a knight who looked like Scarlet but much stronger.

As Flan calmly guessed the identity of the appearance, a faint voice came from the floor.

“The Knight of Blaze…?”

The owner of the voice was Aurora.

She was in a situation where she couldn’t even control her own body, but she opened her eyes wide and muttered.

“Parents, parents’ appearance. How dare you, with such a method…!”

“Hahaha, haha!”

Dusk burst into laughter as he saw the princess’s unfamiliar reaction. 

Anyone would respect the being that created them, and humans were especially strong in that aspect.

Slap-!

“Ugh…!”

And he kicked her head nicely.

“Shut your mouth. I’m not using a cheap trick. Aren’t humans too weak to be serious?”

They had different personalities and tendencies, but they were not different in the big picture. 

That was human.

Even the attacks that were rushing towards Dusk were now completely stopped. 

It was evidence that it worked. 

He slowly regained his composure.

“Flan, this is just a taste of the ‘hard process’. My research on humans is very subtle and deep.”

Dusk spread his arms wide, as if to hug me, with a merciful expression on his face.

“How about it? Why don’t you just skip to the sweet outcome?”

“Dusk.”

My voice was still cold.

I couldn’t read any emotion or intention in his voice. He probably guessed that it was ‘anger’. But his guess was soon shattered.

Flan was mocking him.

“Is that what you came up with? Just…”

At the same time, Dusk’s body swayed.

“…!”

By the time he sensed the vast flow of mana, like a vast sea, there was already a large hole in his stomach.

“Gah─!”

He spat out a lot of blood that he couldn’t swallow.

Humans would feel guilt and hesitation when killing someone who was engraved in their brains as a ‘precious existence’. 

There could be no exception. Dusk had to use his distant intelligence to understand the situation.

“How could you, without any hesitation, like this…?”

“It’s boring, Dusk.”

Squeak─

With a short sound, Dusk’s neck was cut.

Dusk’s head, floating high in the sky, was met with Aurora’s stunned face.

◈

Dusk kept changing his appearance afterwards. 

Parents, friends, subordinates… He seemed to imitate them at random, as if they were engraved in his body.

But none of them were threatening.

I didn’t feel any connection with the humans he imitated. 

And the result was this.

“Mirror world.”

Dusk muttered suddenly.

…At the same time, the world changed.

The whole world was soaked in mirrors.

Kugugugu─

A shock that shook the heavens and the earth. 

A dizzying maze made of mirrors on the floor, ceiling, and walls. 

All the things we understood were swallowed by the mirrors and diminished.

A silence where no sound existed.

Another me smiled in front of my eyes.

I muttered briefly.

“Is this your own domain?”

I was familiar with the concept of own domains. I had experienced it through Maiev’s ‘Flower in the Water’ world.

But I wasn’t worried even if Dusk took my form. We weren’t in sync in the first place. 

No, synchronization itself was a trick.

He copied the appearance of the other person, then hid his presence and attacked both himself and the target at the same time. 

In other words, it was a high-difficulty illusion.

I was confident in my mental power more than anyone else.

“You should know. You can never imitate me.”

So I said, as if nailing a nail to the mirror.

“You shout synchronization, but you’re just a fake. You’re a fake who can’t even approach the essence for a moment.”

Dusk was enraged by my words. 

The blood-red mana of the vampire began to sway from beyond the mirror.

“…”

He stared at me for a while.

“Fake and real will be redefined by me.”

With those words, the mirror world vibrated.

Kwagwagwagwa─

Many mirror surfaces began to reflect me. His voice slowly surrounded the space.

“I will devour your mind completely. I will become you and meet the princess.”

The mirror surfaces themselves began to approach me slowly. 

Memories related to the people Dusk imitated, which remained somewhere in my head, floated in the air.

“Flan, it’s not too late. If you compromise with reality, you can remain as the real one.”

Dusk rummaged through my thoughts.

I firmly rejected his attempt to dominate my emotions and memories, and muttered.

“I wonder if you can do it.”

Dusk didn’t answer with his voice. But soon after, the vibration of the whole space increased. It seemed to be a considerable provocation for him.

The more he did, the more calm I found.

“You can’t even imitate me, let alone devour me.”

“…!”

Dusk’s eyes in the mirror began to shake. 

He was clearly shaken. But I didn’t miss the guy who tried to turn his eyes away.

“Look me in the eye and say it. Dusk.”

Such interference was nothing but a child’s play.

My flawless mana ran through my body and unfolded magic. 

I slowly changed the mirror world into my library.

I performed a simple miracle of changing his space into mine.

I looked closely into the mirror.

“Speak up,” I said.

“No, no. No. No─!” 

He started to avoid my gaze. His arrogant plan to clone me had gone wrong.

“Are you really worthy of being the original?”

I was curious.

Did he really have the confidence to do that?

“Ah─! Aaaah─!”

The mirror began to crack.

“Blame yourself for having no essence.”

As spiderweb-like cracks appeared, the reflections of the fakes multiplied. 

They all looked agonized.

“Remember that your life was meaningless, no matter how long you lived.”

Crash─!

The mirror shattered.

It was probably beyond repair.

Dusk had lost the battle for his identity.

Sssss─

After his unique domain dispersed, I suddenly felt a strong gaze on me.

A tear drop on the tip of her chin, swollen eyes, and gasping breath. She looked miserable, not like a princess at all.

Aurora was looking at me.

After a while, she licked her lips.