Published: August 15, 2025
“Let’s rest around here for today.”
After we annihilated the massive horde of undead, we resumed our march toward the ghost town. However, the further we advanced, the more frequently we encountered undead. Considering the time spent on extermination, we decided to stop for the night at a campsite one step earlier than planned.
Nighttime is when undead are most active, and even if they weren’t, the darkness made it dangerous. There was no need to push ourselves, so this was a reasonable decision. No one objected to Mr. Seaver’s proposal.
“Remily.”
“Leave it to me. Ryoma-chan, I’ll show you a handy spell.”
“! Please, go ahead!”
“Alright then, here we go: ‘Holy Space.’”
After a casual remark, there was a brief pause followed by the release of mana. It was more than any of her spells we had seen so far on this journey. A faint light spread out from her, and soon the mana and light extended past the campsite to the outer perimeter of the defensive line, stabilizing into a hemispherical dome.
Inside the dome of light, perhaps due to the saturation of Miss Remily’s mana, the air felt cleaner than before.
“This is an intermediate-level light magic spell called ‘Holy Space.’ Using this magic, you can create a temporary area where undead magical beasts can’t enter. Zombies, skeletons, or even wraiths vanish just by touching it. It’s a spell used for camping or resting in places like this.
“The things to watch out for are that the duration and range depend on your skill level. Also, if the undead are powerful magical beasts, this spell won’t instantly destroy them, and they might force their way in. Even then, they’ll be weakened, but your mana will be rapidly depleted, and the effect of Holy Space will disappear if you leave it unchecked. So if there’s a strong undead, deal with it immediately. Also, don’t rely too much on this spell. It’s best to camp in a safe place as much as possible.
“As for practice… Ryoma-chan, just try to imitate what you see for now. At first, it’s fine if the range is only enough for you to lie down inside.”
With that, I gave it a try. Using light magic mana, I determined the area in the style of barrier magic, and visualized saturating the space with light attribute mana before chanting the spell.
“‘Holy Space.’”
The magic activated as imagined, but it was harder to handle than barrier magic. It’s like this… if a normal barrier magic is a wall and the mana filling it is water, this magic feels like cloth. The wall doesn’t let water pass and holds it in place, but with cloth, the water seeps through. If I let my guard down during activation, the mana inside would have leaked out rapidly. I think I succeeded for now, but…
“Miss Remily, how did I do?”
When I asked, Miss Remily looked somewhat troubled.
“There are still rough edges, but you succeeded. Congratulations on learning Holy Space. It’s nice that it’s easy, but it doesn’t feel like I’m really teaching you… By the way, this is said to be the most difficult intermediate light magic spell to control.”
“I can use some barrier magic too, so I tried it with that feeling in mind.”
“Barrier magic and light magic are both magic — using mana to bring about the phenomena you want. So if their use and purpose are similar, their effects and methods tend to be similar too.
“Magic is classified that way because humanity defined ‘this is what barrier magic is’ and ‘this is what light magic is’ just to pass down the technique. It’s meant to make it easier to teach and learn, so you don’t need to be too particular about it. I think Ryoma-chan is especially that kind of person.”
Since arriving in this world, I’d often felt how convenient and free magic is, so the idea that all magic fundamentally involves manipulating mana resonated with me.
“Alright, we’ve got the explanation and practice for Holy Space done, so let’s prepare for camping.”
“Even if we can keep the undead out, camping in the open is tough.”