CH 263

*** Domination ***

Although Mary saw Arc and the others as insignificant beings, Mary couldn’t help but feel a sense of anxiousness. Her expression soon hardened.

“… What’s going on?”

“Why? Is it strange that your sword isn’t able to penetrate or injure our bodies?”

Merlin stepped in front of Mary, who was now completely stunned and flustered.

In his hand were five or six high-grade magic stones to activate his next spell.

“Ah, damn it. I tried to stop at least a single one of her attacks, but I couldn’t. I never thought I would be so overwhelmingly defeated by Snowflake Flower,” Sungmuk grumbled.

“It’s amazing that I don’t even feel any heat after being hit directly by her Class 8 spell,” Quiet Heaven commented.

“Although this non-destructive setting is limited to DIO, I still find it hard to believe that I’m not being affected by a strong qi attack. Judging by how things look, I should be able to block an ultimate spell,” Ellie added.

Sungmuk, as well as Quiet Heaven and Ellie, appeared unscathed after receiving Mary’s attacks.

Arc, who was blown away by Mary’s strong qi attack, also got up without any difficulty.

“W-what… what is happening?”

“Simple. We’ve been designated with DIO’s non-destructive system setting.”

“The non-destructive system setting can only be authorized and designated by operators with Level 2 access authority, so what you’re saying can’t be true! Wait, you must be the one who put DIO into its current emergency mode!”

Mary’s mood and expression changed rapidly.

As she exuded a terrifying force, all the mana around her began to intensely resonate.

However, Sungmuk casually approached Merlin, as if nothing special was going on, and asked a question.

“Is it alright to tell her everything?”

“It doesn’t matter even if she or they know.”

The moment he said this, all the magic stones in Merlin’s hand evaporated, and soon, a large magic circle appeared.

Bam!

An intangible yet terrifyingly powerful shockwave was shot out towards Mary, but the spell was neutralized in an instant.

Surprisingly, Mary read Merlin’s spell in its entirety and canceled it before it could injure or affect her.

“Wow. It seems your power level wasn’t something that was just given to you. You must be a true great mage.”

“You…!”

[Whoosh-]

Mary squinted her eyes and frowned. Soon, the huge image of a wolf, which she had summoned behind her, leapt out and teleported through space. The wolf bit down on Merlin’s torso area.

The undulating waves spreading from the wolf’s bite illustrated how the dimensional space was being distorted and how powerful the attack was, but even so, Merlin didn’t lose any HP.

“Wow, this system setting is amazing. I don’t receive any damage, even when attacked by a transcendent being.”

Although it was a setting that could never be possible in reality, Dynamic Island was a world where the space itself was made up from bytes of data; furthermore, considering that there were many transcendent beings within DIO, the non-destructive system setting was a logical and appropriate setting to protect the integrity of DIO’s critical systems and structures. How could DIO’s system be maintained if one couldn’t perfectly control the transcendent beings and their possibly destructive actions within DIO?

“Hmm. But if that’s the case, why doesn’t Mary have the non-destructive system setting placed on her? It would be logical to apply the setting on her, as she’s responsible for guarding the control room,” Arc asked.

Merlin momentarily flinched after seeing Arc, who had approached him.

“Where did your armor go?”

“I didn’t think I’d need it in my current state.”

The appearance of Arc, who had taken off her full body armor at some point, was quite unusual.

Strange tattoos were engraved all over her body, and light was emanating from those tattoos.

‘It’s an amplification system.’

Merlin immediately grasped the function and type of Arc’s tattoos.

In addition, Merlin realized that the amplification tattoos didn’t have any defensive protection.

Merlin assumed that, if it wasn’t for the full body armor she normally wore, Arc probably wouldn’t be able to display her usual aggressive fighting style.

“Well, to answer your question, the non-destructive system setting is a high-level setting that’s difficult to apply to things with complex structures, so there is a time limit when it’s applied to creatures or magic weapons. In addition, the operators probably assumed that Mary, a transcendent being, probably wouldn’t need such a protection setting placed on her.”

“So, you’re saying it doesn’t matter if the non-destructive system setting is placed on her or not? Wouldn’t it be beneficial to apply these settings on such important, critical figures?”

“Not necessarily.”

What Merlin assumed was true. The non-destructive system was essentially a critical component of maintaining system stability and integrity from powers within the system itself. The reason why Jenica, the Empress of Magic, the being who initially developed DIO, placed Mary as a guardian of the system control room was to prevent the possibility of [outside] beings, not users, invading and affecting DIO’s operation.

If an outside being were to enter DIO and fight against Mary, the non-destructive system setting wouldn’t help Mary, as she’d be contending against a being that was outside the reach and realm of DIO. In other words, Mary could use strong qi and ultimate spell attacks when battling a potential outside being without affecting the stability and integrity of DIO, so there was no need to place the non-destructive setting on her. In other words, the system setting only applied to those that resided within the confines of the DIO system.

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The current situation, where users hacked the system and took control over the control room, was an unexpected situation that no one, not even Jenica, had ever imagined.

“Anyway, what the hell is going on? The Snowflake Flower I knew in the past didn’t know how to use magic. What did she do in such a short period of time to reach the level of transcendence in swordsmanship and in all those other spiritual power areas?”

“… It’s because I’m no longer Snowflake Flower. I am Marionette Hold.”

Mary, who had been looking at the party members with a confused expression and overhearing their conversation, spoke out.

Sungmuk made a confused face, as if he still didn’t understand.

“What? Does changing your name give you powers?”

“No, that’s not it. Of course, it is true that I retain my memories of being Snowflake Flower, but that is only a small part of who I am now. Right now, I am an aggregate of countless ‘me’s.”

After hearing her soft-spoken reply, Merlin spoke up.

“Could it be that you’re a singularity of parallel universes?”

“… Yes. Just like you, I’m also a mutant.”

Singularities of parallel universes were known to be rare, though they were not considered Irregulars.

Singularity of parallel universe beings were said to possess the ability to awaken their singularity under unique conditions, which allowed them to connect to the various ‘me’s that existed in parallel universes, who lived drastically different lives, had their own unique memories, and possessed varying skill sets. Hence, these singularity beings could accept and absorb infinite memories, as much as the number of parallel universes, and become completely different beings than before.

“I heard most singularity beings go crazy.”

“Yes, that’s true. However, the situation was different for me because the Noblesse found the ‘me’ that existed before I awakened my singularity. They cut off or restricted unnecessary memories and collected and combined only the necessary ones to make me who I am today.”

If she had accepted her various ‘me’ memories prior to being enslaved by the Noblesse, like other singularity beings, and had endured her singularity awakening without any restriction or compartmentalization process, which the Noblesse had placed on her, even the Noblesse would have had a hard time trying to suppress her and use her as they pleased.

However, currently, she was an existence curated by the Noblesse, and it was impossible for her to escape DIO’s system.

Quiet Heaven, who had been quietly listening to Mary’s explanation, nodded his head quietly.

“In other words, that means that you are a being who has trained and reached the pinnacle in all the abilities and skills that exist in DIO to the point of transcendence. Are you a minor copy of the All Master?”

“That name again. I hear that name often. It makes me want to meet All Master and see who he or she is.”

Mary gave a defeated smile as she stated that it wasn’t the first time she heard such a name.

However, Merlin was confused.

“All Master?”

“A legendary hero who saved the entire universe. He’s also known as Milleion, the human god. There’s almost no one in the universe who doesn’t know about him or know of his name.”

“Milleion…”

After hearing Quiet Heaven’s words, Merlin fell into thought.

‘Come to think of it… I recall someone with a similar ID posting on the bulletin boards about Dual Cultivation Technique and splitting one’s ego.’

At that time, Merlin simply thought, ‘Oh. There are specialists like this in DIO’, but now, Merlin realized the truth.

There was no specialist at that level that existed within DIO.

‘Did All Master make a quick appearance while the Empress of Magic, Jenica, was still alive and running DIO?’

However, Merlin soon started spell chanting. Right now, the issue of Milleion wasn’t that important.

This time around, Merlin placed a bunch of traps in his spell.

Boom!

“Oh, you were able to cancel all those, too? You truly are a great mage.”

“You! What do you want? Even if you have the non-destructive system setting placed on you, you’ll only be unharmed from my attacks. It’ll still be impossible for you to defeat me!”

Mary’s words were true. She had spoken this truth while negating another one of Merlin’s spells.

Due to the non-destructive system setting placed on them, Merlin’s party members were virtually invincible.

However, the invincibility was limited to defense… The non-destructive system setting had no effect on their offensive capabilities.