The Protagonist Already Knows

Chapter 26: Don’t Forget...

Due to her firm ambition, unwavering motivation, and genuine dedication, Evangel’s emotions were among the few strong enough to overpower my own.

"..."

Pausing for a moment, I alternated glances at Evangel, who was already studying for the Mana Theory quiz on the upcoming Monday, and the pitch-black outside through the windows.

I knew I would have to face myself, my own thoughts.

But... couldn’t it wait for just a single moment?

I knew my thoughts were childish...but so much had happened in the past week.

I had transmigrated into a new world...I had lost everything: my parents, my siblings, my friends...everyone I knew back on Earth was gone forever.

I-i couldn’t even recall my grandmother’s face anymore, could I...?

All that, combined with almost dying in a gate incident right when I arrived and running around Anubis with a demonic wraith chasing me, I felt as if my head were going to explode at any moment.

So...perhaps that was why, at that moment, I did something I usually would have never done. I took my first true step into this new world.

Finding myself standing right behind Evangel’s chair, I gently tapped her shoulder, watching her head spin around like an owl as her light-blue eyes met mine.

Glancing down at her paper, full of complex words I couldn’t understand and various formulas, I tried to find something wrong.

But, alas, I couldn’t.

After all, hadn’t done a single bit of studying or even taken notes, and the novel, of course, hadn’t mentioned any of that filler stuff, making my future knowledge useless in this aspect.

Eventually, I gave up and just said.

"Hey, you’re wrong."

"...?"

Her eyebrows slightly raised, she stared at me in silence.

Meeting her gaze, unsure as to why she was wrong as well, I eventually continued, recalling something

"Explanations, there’re useless. Innovating and creating new spells doesn’t require the underlying knowledge behind mana. It requires practical experience."

Then, touching my right sleeve and feeling the cold sensation of metal underneath my blazer, I took a deep breath.

Instantly, I felt a sharp pain, as if someone stabbed my arm with a knife.

As the mini-mechanical armband that I had modified to fit my arm drew blood from my bloodstream into the Intent loop, I felt my right hand surge with power, making me feel like I could chop through stone with it.

Gritting my teeth, I felt an explosion of pain in my shoulder, but continued allowing the knock-off metal armband to do its job.

Then, a moment later, pointing at my palm, which was shining a deathly black, I glanced down at Evangel.

Showing off my palm like a trophy, I confidently said.

"Look, I have no idea what mana even is, and I can do thi-"

"RUN!"

As a desperate scream echoed through the silent library, almost making me go deaf, I glanced toward the entrance... and saw a beam of pure light heading straight toward me like a guided missile.

The light instantly blinded me, making me feel as if I were looking directly at the sun.

Ah...I had forgotten. I had totally forgotten about him...it totally looked like I was about to cast a spell on Evangel, didn’t it?

I saw my life flashing before my eyes, countless familiar faces appearing in the darkness.

My eyes closed, I didn’t even bother trying to dodge and just muttered.

"Ah...I’m fucked, are-"

*BANG*

In the next moment, I felt my stomach practically burst open, as if it had been hit head-on by a heavy-ass cannonball.

Simultaneously, my entire body went aflame, every part of my skin charred.

As I flew off the ground and backward like a soccerball blasted toward the goal by a striker, blood poured out of my mouth from my probably broken lungs.

*BANG*

My eyelids involuntarily surged open as my banged-up body hit the wall on the other side of the library and dropped to the ground.

Blood rushed from my mouth like an endless river, and my chest was completely exposed and burned, my ribcage visible from the outside with only bits of charred skin remaining.

So...this was how it ended.

Unable to breathe, I slowly felt my consciousness slipping away bit by bit.

Instinctively, perhaps because of my gift’s death element, I understood that if I fell unconscious now, I would never wake up.

Even my regenerative abilities couldn’t help me here.

I could no longer feel my body.

I had died.

"..."

At least, that’s what would have probably happened if I were hit.

Not skipping a beat as the light beam approached, I instantly activated Anubis’s Ferry, my body immediately turning incorporeal.

In the next second...Ren’s body, moving at speed almost invisible to the eye, phased right through me.

Just a moment later, as the beam of light hit the wall I would have been splattered on, it rebounded straight off the wall and upward like a rocket

Then, reaching the library’s ceiling in less than a second and rebounding off it diagonally like a basketball, Ren landed right in front of me, the beam of light enveloping his body vanishing.

"..."

A pair of curved daggers was in his hands as he gazed at me, his ocean-blue eyes narrowed.

Rapidly blinking for a moment, adjusting to the sudden appearance of the light as bright as the sun and the return to darkness, I just sighed, feeling myself drop to the ground.

Gazing at my trembling arm, which couldn’t even hold my Dao if I wanted it to, I paused and glanced at Evangel, who...was not looking at either Ren or me?

Her eyes were wide-open, her light-blue pupils trembling within her eyelids.

Following Evangel’s gaze, I looked forward and past Ren...at the bookshelf behind him...or rather, the bookshelf that had been behind him.

The wooden bookshelf had completely collapsed from Ren’s light beam rebounding off it, hundreds of textbooks and novels charred to a crisp like burnt steak.

"...ah."

Perhaps, following everyone else’s gaze, Ren also slightly tilted his head, looking behind him.