D.I.O

Chapter 263

*** Domination ***

Although Mary saw Arc and the others as insignificant, she couldn’t help but feel anxious, and her expression soon hardened.

“… What’s going on?”

“What? Is it strange that your sword couldn’t cut or injure us?”

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

He held five or six high-grade magic stones to activate his next spell.

“Ah, damn it. I tried to stop at least one of her attacks but failed. I never thought Snowflake Flower would defeat me in such an overwhelming fashion,” Sungmuk grumbled.

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

“Although this non-destructive setting is limited to DIO, I still find it hard to believe that a strong qi attack didn’t affect me. 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.

As for Arc, Mary’s skill blew her away, but she got up without difficulty.

“W-what… what is happening?”

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

“Only operators with Level 2 access authority can enable that setting, so what you’re saying can’t be right! Wait, you must be the one who put DIO into its emergency mode!”

Mary’s mood and expression changed rapidly.

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

However, Sungmuk casually approached Merlin as if nothing special was happening and questioned him.

“Is it alright to tell her everything?”

“It doesn’t matter if she or the operators find out.”

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

Bam!

An intangible yet terrifyingly powerful shockwave shot toward Mary, but she neutralized the spell in an instant.

Surprisingly, Mary recognized Merlin’s spell and canceled it before it could injure or affect her.

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

“You!”

[Whoosh-]

Mary squinted and frowned. Soon, the huge image of a wolf, which she had summoned behind her, leaped out and teleported through space. Then, the wolf bit Merlin’s torso.

The undulating waves spreading from the wolf’s bite illustrated the attack’s power, the dimension itself becoming distorted. Yet, regardless, 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 this setting could never be found in reality, the world of Dynamic Island was comprised of bytes of data. Furthermore, considering the many transcendents within DIO, the non-destructive system setting was a logical and appropriate method to protect the integrity of DIO’s critical systems and structures. How could DIO’s system be maintained if the transcendents and their possibly destructive actions weren’t controlled?

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

Merlin briefly 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.”

After taking off her full-body armor at some point, Arc’s appearance was quite unusual.

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

‘It’s an amplification system.’

Merlin immediately grasped the function of Arc’s tattoos.

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

Merlin assumed that if it weren’t for the armor she usually wore, Arc probably couldn’t 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. Thus, there is a time limit when it is used on creatures or magic weapons. In addition, the operators probably assumed that Mary, a transcendent, wouldn’t need such protection.”

“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.”

Merlin’s assumption was correct. The non-destructive system was a critical component of maintaining system stability and integrity from powers within the system. The original developer of DIO, Jenica, the Empress of Magic, placed Mary as a guardian of the system control room to prevent [outside] beings, not users, from invading and affecting DIO’s operation.

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

The current situation, where users hacked the system and took control of 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 didn’t use magic. What did she do in such a short period to reach transcendence in swordsmanship and all those other spiritual power areas?”

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

Mary spoke, with the NPC watching the party members with a confused expression and listening to their conversation until now.

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, I have retained my memories of being Snowflake Flower, but that is only a small part of who I am. Right now, I am an aggregate of countless ‘selves.’”

After hearing her soft-spoken reply, Merlin replied.

“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 rare, though they were not considered Irregulars.

Beings such as this were said to possess the ability to awaken their singularity under unique conditions, which allowed them to connect to the various ‘selves’ 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 as many memories as there were parallel universes and become entirely different than before.

“I heard most singularity beings go crazy.”

“Yes, that is typically the case. However, my situation was different because the Noblesse found the ‘me’ that existed before I awakened my singularity. They cut off or restricted unnecessary memories, collecting and combining only the necessary ones to make me who I am today.”

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

However, currently, she was an existence curated by the Noblesse, and she couldn’t escape DIO’s system.

Quiet Heaven had been quietly listening to Mary’s explanation, and he nodded quietly.

“In other words, that means 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 they are.”

Mary gave a defeated smile as she stated this.

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 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 chanting his spell. Right now, Milleion wasn’t that important.

This time, 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, you’ll only be unharmed from my attacks. It’ll still be impossible for you to defeat me!”

Mary wasn’t lying as she spoke 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 did not affect their offensive capabilities.