The Girl Who Hacked The Magic System

"Lovelace!"

It worked! I tugged the connection and pulled her, bringing her back here.

"Huh?"

"I'm so glad you're okay, Lovelace!!"

I don't care about anything else. I just want to hug her, to cherish her.

"Aurea? How did you? Oh… Of course."

She hugs me back, holding me in her arms.

"Of course you would crack the code to bring me back. It's you, after all. Thank you."

"Shhh… Don't say anything. I'm here. You're here."

"Yes, we're here. I love you."

"I love you too."

I cup her face in my hands and kiss her. A tender, loving kiss.

We stay like that for I don't know how long. When we part, I manage to finally say it.

"I don't want you to disappear on me ever again."

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault. You had no way to know it."

She smiles at me, then looks around.

"Are we still in the dungeon? Where are the girls?"

"The girls?"

They are with me right now, as I am trying to create the spell. Where are they?

"Yaci? Ingela? Kwarah?"

"Have you finished your lovers scene? Can we go back into the room now?"

"Heh?"

They come from the door through which we had entered this room before.

"When we saw the vibe between you two, we just left the room for you."

Yaci explained it like she was explaining that water was wet.

Well, I guess I did forget that the rest of the world existed at that moment. So, yeah…

"I'm sorry, girls."

"No, no, it's okay, Aurea."

"Are you two finally dating now?"

"Is it official?"

We are soon bombarded with questions, which I have no idea how to answer. Are we dating? I don't know. Is it official? I have no idea.

Gladly, Yawarete steers the conversation into another matter.

"More importantly. Lovelace, where were you, after all? What happened when you touched the pearl?"

Thank you, Yawarete.

"Well, I was transported to the heart of the adventuring system."

"The heart of the system?"

:::

"And then, just as I told Shadow Me that I will rescue her, I felt a tug in my hair, and the next moment, I was here."

"So, not happy with tormenting you in your prison, she created a clone of you that was powerless and under her complete control, only so she could then torture you at will?"

"That's… a way to describe it."

My blood is boiling right now. I could torture that goddess myself, for years and years, if I could get my hands on her at this very moment.

That woman is the very definition of evil.

"And what about the system? Did your memories bring anything about it?"

Yawarete, yet again, steers the conversation onto practical matters.

"Yes, some pieces of information. It seems that even though I had foreseen the goddess' betrayal, I didn't have enough time to properly sort through my memories."

"And the memories Shadow You have access to?"

"They pertain to the daily maintenance of the system, but not to the level of super-user administrative powers. But I think that it's enough material for Aurea to play with."

As I hear that last part, I get out of my bubble of hatred against the goddess and switch back to the conversation.

"Huh? Will you share it with me?"

"Of course. You are the best programmer here. You would have a better time working with that limited information than I would ever have."

"I mean, you're not wrong… It seems fun."

"Yeah, when we're back at the office, I'll start scribbling down everything into a user manual of the system."

"Your Highness! Your Highness! Are you there?"

It's the communication device, interrupting our conversation. It probably brings not-so-happy news from the front.

"Yes. I'm here."

"The Blessed army is on the march to Essendia. It appears that they are going to join forces with a huge crusader army that is coming."

"Okay, we're going back. We just finished what we came here to do."

I look to everyone around me, only to see that I don't even need to give any order. They are already ready and eager to depart.

I open up a portal back to the hidden army's office.

:::

PoV: Lillian

I don't think I've ever seen anything even remotely similar to this place. Nor in real life, or in book pictures, dreams, or even in descriptions woven by songs.

It's a place of pure white marble and gold. A palace more opulent and pure than anything that could ever exist in the mortal world.

For this is not the mortal world. I don't need anyone to tell me that. I can feel it in every fiber of my being. This is a land where mortals aren't allowed to enter.

And yet, here I am.

Because mortal I am no more.

I don't know how I arrived here. Nor is there anyone to receive me.

This place is a temple complex with endless rooms and corridors, all white and gold. Sometimes, from small windows, I can see a sky of pure azure blue outside.

And yet, I never find anyone else.

I wander aimlessly through the endless palace, searching for I don't know what, until I reach a room with a statue inside it.

It's a statue of myself. A statue carved from pure white marble, adorned with golden laurel and the drawing of a golden heart full of thorns over where my heart would be.

It's a bigger-than-life statue, almost twice my size. And, on its feet, there's a golden plaque.

'Saint Lily, goddess of compassion.'

"Goddess of compassion… that's… that's a title I could be proud of." I say, to nobody in particular, as I contemplate my statue.

The me depicted in the statue wears revealing clothes, but not in a sensual manner. No, those clothes serve to show and accentuate the scars that cover my body.

The scars on my body, the thorns on my heart. Yeah, that sounds like me.

Both of them are part of my history. But why am I here?

Is it related to my ascension to godhood or whatever? Have I really, really, become a god?

It feels so surreal that it sounds like a lie. And yet, it feels right. It resonates with the newfound energy that has been budding inside me.

The power I still don't know how to harness.

Is this like a test for newcomer gods, or something like that?

Or related to the goddess Juno's silence? Is she also imprisoned in a place like this?

No, I don't really feel like I'm being a prisoner right now. I don't know how to get out of here, but it feels like it's more a matter of how long it would take me to find the solution to something, instead of a prison that could hold a goddess for over a decade.

I remember Aurea and Lovelace's lessons about mana sense and mana manipulation. Maybe there is where the answer lies.

I expand my senses, just like they taught me so long ago.

And it works. Something changes in the room. There's a faint light emanating from my statue.

It's a holy light, one that reverberates within my very being.

Maybe I'm expected to do something with that statue… I wonder what.