The Protagonist Already Knows

A rapier suddenly appeared in her right hand, materializing out of nothingness.

*BANG*

*CRASH*

In the next second, she jabbed the rapier forward, instantly shattering the glass door of the testing room and sending pieces of glass flying everywhere.

Instantly, I ducked down behind the table and firmly planted my paper on the ground, continuing to draw.

Walking through the broken glass door, Lily simply glanced at the various filled beakers around the room while muttering incoherently.

"Which one? Which one first? The venom one? Flame Breathing? Ice-Freeze?"

Seeing her madly gaze at the beakers before picking up the one filled with a light-green liquid, I couldn’t help but pause my design for a moment.

Was everyone insane at this academy!? Was that the cost of power?

Before I could even stand back up, her voice, now...in a jolly tone, suddenly echoed again.

"If you come and take it easy, I’ll go easy! I just need a punching bag for it, alright? Then I can return to my experiments, and you can run along. I might not even blacklist you if you’re lucky!"

Now standing up, I raised my hands and gazed at her as she approached my table.

"Can I talk for a m-"

Her rapier suddenly flew forward, aiming right at my stomach and poised to puncture my rib.

Instinctively, I fell backward to dodge, the rapier surging right above my head and nearly piercing my pupil.

"...what the he-"

At that moment, it clicked for me.

I was right back in Ascent...except the wraith was a psychotic and overly obsessed girl with father issues.

My intent sharpened: everything here was just another step toward my goal. I had to help this insane genius fix her invention.

I couldn’t back away now.

Not skipping a beat, Lily leaped into the air, landing atop the table and pointing her rapier down at my trembling body on the ground.

Leaping into the air, like a dolphin jumping out of the water and into the air, Lily placed both hands on her rapier’s hilt and pushed the tip of the sword straight down, aiming to pierce my stomach again.

Kicking off against the table’s leg with my feet, I barely managed to slide backward on the ground, the rapier piercing the white-tile ground where my stomach just was.

Instantly stepping forward, Lily raised her light rapier with insane speed, jabbing it diagonally downward at my right shoulder.

Taking a deep breath, I desperately tried to concentrate, as the tip of the rapier raced to tear apart my shoulder.

And then, I felt it: my entire body instantly became light as a feather.

As the rapier hit my shoulder, it simply phased right through it, embedding itself in the white-tile ground again.

It felt...weird; I could see the rapier was inside my shoulder, but I felt no pain.

However, as Lily’s eyebrows raised, I instantly jumped...no, flew upward.

Not even minding her existence, I raced right through her.

My intangible body phased through her body, my shoulder going through her wide-open mouth, as I flew in the air toward the testing room with the broken glass door.

The scene of our bodies overlapping must have looked extremely odd from a third-person point of view.

"What the hell!?"

As her curse sounded behind me, I felt my body rematerialize and instantly grabbed the metal armband she had left behind.

Not minding the pain of the sharp tips embedding themselves in my arm, I put on the metal armband and held it up like a trophy.

Turning around, Lily stared at me in a daze, her expression indecipherable and still stunned by my escape.

Looking at the smartwatch on my left hand, I immediatly opened the 3D modeling application I had used to replicate Ascent.

In the thirty seconds Lily dazedly gazed at me, I copied down the exact dimensions, materials, and layout of the metal armband.

Finally, as I finished creating a model of metalarband, Lily’s calm and neutral voice sounded again.

"Put... that down, now."

Hearing her serious voice, I calmly removed the armband and placed it on the ground, genuinely fearing for my life.

If she wanted to do so, she could get me killed by assassins, a comet, a sudden explosion, or pretty much anything with no consequences.

Hesitating, Lily pointed the tip of her rapier at me, glancing around.

"..."

However, I only stood still in silence.

Her voice, now tinged with a bit of sarcasm, reverberated.

"You don’t have enough mana to use that ability of yours, do you?"

"..."

With a devilish smile, like one right out of a nightmare, Lily approached me with her rapier, knowing I was completely trapped in the testing room.

"Who are you working with? Aureate? The Quorum? Who sent you here?"

Dryly coughing, I said while continuing to play with the armband replica on my smartwatch, adding to it.

"I’m...a solo player."

After pausing for a moment to add additional emotional impact, I added.

"Not even my family wants me to have their last name..."