The Girl Who Hacked The Magic System

"HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAH"

As Ingela laughs so hard that she's snorting, the paladins are falling.

Literally.

There's a portal on the floor that leads to the ceiling, and the paladins are on a never-ending free fall.

"And she says I'm the scary one…"

"Right? You two have so much in common that I guess I have a type, after all…"

"You're not helping, Yaci."

Ingela used the fact that the slab on the floor and the one on the ceiling were originally part of the same rock to connect them through portals.

The paladins, robbed of their holy books, can't do a thing except for scream as their bodies accelerate.

"So, how long will we keep fooling around with them? Shouldn't we just kill them already?"

Lovelace isn't too happy with the idea, it seems.

"Hihihih… not yet, Lovelace. Let them… HahahHAHAHA… let them gain more speed first."

"More speed?"

"Yeah, so when I close the portals, they will just splat on the floor."

"Ingela, isn't that very mana costly?"

"But it's so funny, isn't it?"

Well, I can't say that it isn't, but…

"We aren't here just to have fun. We have a goal."

Lovelace said it all.

"Ingela, it's enough."

"Yes, Your Highness."

The portal closes, and the paladins fall to the floor at tremendous speed. The elite guys break like watermelons, while the high paladin seems to have survived the fall.

He isn't in very good condition, though, and Yaci quickly ties him up, while I use the communicating device to contact the base.

All defenses in the temple are dealt with, and soon our own troops will swarm this place. A portal opens near us, and a squad appears to take the high paladin into custody.

We will proceed on our mission, walking into the hidden depths of the temple.

:::

We pass through the antechamber Lovelace found earlier, with the library of books from before the goddess' takeover, and enter the place where the pieces used by the goddess are lined up like a museum.

At my side, Lovelace has a stern look on her face. She is probably steeling herself, trying to not cry.

"It's okay if you want to cry. We're here for you. I'm here for you."

I take her hand in mine as I try to comfort her, which makes her stop for a moment and smile at me. A strained smile with teary eyes.

"Thank you, Aurea. Thank you."

For us humans, trauma can take decades to heal, and we only live decades. I can only imagine how long the trauma of an immortal being lingers.

But it doesn't matter. I'm not a therapist, but I'll do my best to help her heal those wounds.

"Yaci, stay with Lovelace in the antechamber. I'll stay in this room a little bit longer."

Yaci nods, seeing the way Lovelace is being affected by her emotions. After they leave, I start appraising all the objects around me.

Most won't give me much useful information about what we're looking for, only bits and pieces about the goddess' life.

But then I find a scabbard.

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Juno's Crystal Knife's Scabbard

The protective case of a knife that was wielded by the goddess.

Extra Information:

This scabbard is the only one that can hold the Crystal Knife because of its storage properties.

After the Crystal Knife is imbued in someone's memory, it should be sheathed immediately; otherwise, the memories will fade away.

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Damn, this is a huge find.

I double-check the room to see if I'm not missing any item, then I go back to the antechamber, where Lovelace is chatting with Yaci and Kwarah while Yawarete and Ingela are in heaven with all those old books.

I sit at Lovelace's side, with the scabbard in hand.

"Did you find something, Aurea?"

"Yes… Lovelace, do you recognize this? Can you sense anything in it?"

Lovelace slowly takes the item from my hand and scrutinizes it. I can see that she switched to sensing only the mana by the way her iris changed to become completely pitch black.

Soon tears come bursting through her eyes, so I hug her while trying not to do anything to interrupt her analysis.

Yawarete and Ingela also come to us, curious about the item. Ingela is carrying a thick book in her hands.

After some minutes in contemplation, Lovelace finally speaks.

"I saw it… that moment, from the point of view of Julia."

"Julia?"

The girls look puzzled, but Lovelace had already told me about it.

"It's the goddess' original name. The name she had before becoming a goddess."

"So you saw her stabbing you… through her eyes?"

"More than simply seeing the scene. It was the memories of the moment, her memories. Including her feelings."

"…"

"She is even more despicable and disgusting than I thought. I never imagined she hated me THAT much. All the while deceiving me with sweet words."

"…"

I tighten my hug on her, which she reciprocates, and then all the girls hug her together. I feel bad for bringing it to her now.

"I'm sorry for making you see that."

We all stay like that for some time, in silence, until she speaks again.

"It's not your fault. And that was not all that I saw. This scabbard is part of the memory-slicing knife. It's the storage where the stolen memories go until they are transferred to another item."

"So, were you able to reclaim some of your memories?"

"Just some residual things, but the important part is that now I know exactly what kind of items we're searching for and also the locations they were stored."

She closes her eyes, as if shifting through her newly acquired memories.

"There are three; they are like pink pearls the size of a fist. And one of them was put in the dungeon below us."

"A dungeon? Below the temple?"

"Yes, there's a dungeon down there, built by the goddess herself. The memory pearl is at the last floor of that dungeon, in the room after the final boss."

"And the other two?"

"Also in dungeons. One is in the royal capital of Essendia, and the other is in Castro."

"Then let's start by retrieving the one that is in here."

I stand up, with a fire raging in my heart.

"Let's recover your memories and put an end to her reign."

"Yes. Let's do it, Aurea."

All the girls stand up as well, with Lovelace being last. And all of them said the exact same phrase.

Let's do it.