Scarlet

I blankly stare at the screen for several seconds before raising my hand and clenching my fist, grabbing control over the Red Plague that I somehow still sense within the artificial magical reality. And immediately after doing that, the Red Plague stops trying to eat through the reality, instead freezing in place with a struggle. Then a portal to the magical reality opens up next to me, likely Artificios’s doing, and I draw the Red Plague through the portal back into my body.

Silence fills the room after that, leaving the three of us awkwardly staring at the collapsing magical reality.

Eventually I hear Allen calmly ask, “So what were you talking about?”

I glance at Allen to find him frowning at Artificios, who is simply scratching the back of his neck and avoiding Allen’s gaze despite him being a Class V and Allen being Class IV.

What’s he mean?

I frown and tilt my head slightly.

Well, whatever he means aside, I was honestly hoping training in a magical reality would work… after all, they’re basically the same as our regular reality. Just in a parallel projected universe somewhere else in the void. So it shouldn’t have been eaten or anything like that.

So… why didn’t it work?

“Why didn’t what work?” I hear Tar’s voice, bringing my attention to him as he appears in the air and glances at Allen and Artificios, who are now arguing in a rather strange way. With Allen fussing at Artificios for being arrogant and reckless despite Allen being only Class IV.

A rather odd duo, to be sure.

I glance back at Tar again.

Well, Artificios got into contact with me not long after you left through Allen, saying that he wanted to give me a place to test and get used to Warden of the Red Plague. He mentioned that a magical reality should work well for testing, and I agreed with him in that thought.

But then the Red Plague started eating the magical reality instead, leaving us to where we are now.

I glance back at Allen as he continues fussing at Artificios.

And… yeah, you can see what’s happened since.

I turn back to Tar as he begins speaking, not taking his gaze off of the two Guardians, “It makes sense that the magical reality wouldn’t work for testing. I could’ve told you as much myself.”

Wait, really? Why’s that?

He turns to look at me again. “Because the entire magical reality is anchored to our own reality, even if it’s located somewhere else. Meaning that if the Red Plague devours the anchor, the magical reality itself will collapse.”

Oh. That does make sense.

Wait, why wouldn’t Artificios realize that himself? Shouldn’t it be something he would know, considering he’s the one making the magical realities?

Tar frowns at that before answering, “Not necessarily. If I had to guess, he either doesn’t know exactly how his magic works or what it does, or he simply overestimated how strong his magical anchors are. Or he underestimated the Red Plague, which is entirely possible.”

I glance at Artificios, finding him to somehow look playful and arrogant at the same time despite being chastised by someone weaker than him.

Okay, yeah, I can see that last one being true. And maybe even the first one as well.

Tar and I watch the two continue their antics for a little bit before I raise my hand and bring forth some of the Red Plague above my hand. Then I just stare at it for several seconds with a frown on my face as the blood orb writhes and tries to escape with no success at all.

If I can’t train the skill in a magical reality, then where can I train it?

“You could try training it on Tartarus, but that would be dangerous, and I doubt the demons would let you go to Tartarus in the first place,” Tar points out.

I frown at that but agree, nonetheless. Because the only way for me to get to Tartarus is through Class V Fractures and Gates now that I’m a Class V myself.

And those are all rather strongly guarded by Nobles and Clan Nobles.

The only way I can think of to distract the Nobles away from the Gates or Fractures is with the help of the Knights, who I’m sure wouldn’t let me go either due to Vargas’s rampage. Or I could try to spread the Red Plague a little bit there to make them rush to deal with it, but that would be counterproductive to the goal I’m trying to achieve.

Besides. I’d just end up putting Tartarus at risk instead by going there, even if the demons there are stronger than the humans and demons on Earth.

“True,” Tar comments with a nod of his head.

Guess I’m stuck being extremely careful not to destroy the planet.

I let out a sigh at that before glancing at the two idiots again.

By now the respect that I had for Artificios is… not anywhere near what it was when I came here.

It’s kind of hard to highly respect him when he’s acting like a child towards Allen, after all. Even if I do still respect his work.

Tar and I continue watching the idiots for a few minutes before I begin to lose my patience and walk up to them, summoning Red Plague above my shoulders to form spikes directed at the two as I glare and say, “Are you two quite done yet?”

They immediately shut up, looking at the spikes of Red Plague that I quickly retract into my body not long after they shut up. Mostly because while they do work as a threat, I’d rather not actually hurt them. Or kill them, considering how possible that could actually be if I infected them. Especially Allen.

Best not to kill my soon-to-be-adopted-father.

Tar snorts at that, but I ignore him to say, “Thanks for trying to help me Artificios, but I’m going to go back to my training now.”

He waves at me with a playful smile and says, “Alrighty, have fun little red!”

I blink at the nickname he just gave me before deciding to ignore it and turning into blood to leave the place.

That guy is not what I was expecting.