Reader Mage-Stubbing August 10! Chapter 26: 26-I’m Magic’s Antithesis

Read chapter 26 of Reader Mage-Stubbing August 10! by A_Random_Turtle on NovelPedia.

The joint look of confusion on Chima and Kim Minji’s face was one on a far deeper level than that word could define. To them, Merlin had uttered a bunch of gibberish that anyone with a molecule of sense should be unable to understand. After all, there was no such thing as the ability to cancel out magic. Merlin knew he had to explain it to them, and since he did not have the time to be dallying about, he decided to do just that. “Anti-magic,” he reiterated. “Magic, spells, none of that can work against me, because I can stop them from functioning. I’m magic’s antithesis.” But that didn’t make matters any better. “You’re a Deficient Mage,” Chima reminded him, not to sour his mood, but to tell him that he could not do anything even remotely magical—assuming he was telling the truth, that was. However, anti-magic wasn’t exactly magical, was it? It was anything but magical in fact, because the whole reason it existed was to make a mess of the concept of magic. Merlin wasn’t trying to debate at this moment, though. They had to get moving or everything they’d done up to this point would all be for naught. There was also one more thing that hovered around in his mind, and it was what the examiners watching at this moment thought of his revelation. They were going to see him in action soon enough, and that could be when everything came crumbling down, or his path to being an actual Mage began. That went for the disbelieving Chima and Kim Minji as well. “You should trust me,” said Merlin. “I’ve proven that I can be trusted, haven’t I?” Chima nodded. “You have. But what you’re saying now is on a completely different level from disarming traps.” “Then, if you’re still finding it hard to believe, you can ask her if what I’m saying is true or not.” Merlin jerked a thumb at Nora. Chima glanced at her and shook his head. “She’s your sister. She’ll obviously stand by your side.” Nora frowned. She kind of disliked that train of thought being associated with her. She always liked to see herself as upright, and so didn’t like to be associated with things like favoritism. “But… We don’t have the time for this,” Chima went on, now carrying his bag over his back like he should have been at the start. “I’ll trust you.” Merlin exhaled. He then glanced at Kim Minji. She closed her eyes for a moment and then nodded. “I barely understand what’s going on, but you’ve been right all this while, I don’t think there’s any reason for me to start doubting you,” she said. “Thank you,” Merlin replied to both of them. It would have been faster to make them believe by simply dispelling a spell, but that would be foolish of him. He was taking not even a single risk. “What now?” Nora asked, her arms folded, trying her best to put on a brave face. “How do we go about creating a path through the skeletons? We’ve never fought before, and not together too, it will be tough.” “It will, but I have an idea,” replied Merlin. Ever since he had asked them what spells they could use, he had been thinking about how they could best complement one another to break through the horde of skeletons, and also how they could defeat the Necromancer. And he had come up with the perfect way possible he could think of. “This is what we’ll do…” The hall was a circular ring surrounded by stone pillars on every side, and there were only two exits, the way they had come in from, and another almost fifty steps away. As soon as they stepped into it, the sounds of bones scrapping along the floor overshadowed the silence that had been in the hall, and from behind the pillars, groggily moving skeletons appeared. “Is everyone ready?” asked Merlin, retreating behind Chima who had taken the vanguard. They all nodded in reply. He had given them their orders, now they just had to execute it to perfection. The skeletons were going to launch a pincer attack, surrounding them from all directions, and naturally that would have been hard to break through considering the number of their party. However, that w