The OP Lich is a Returnee, Chapter 151

Chapter 151 – Live Show

Jack Harris was a bit nervous, and more than a bit excited. That was understandable, of course. The last time this guest had been on his show, terrorists had attacked, only for her to stop bullets midflight and then rip their souls from their bodies, all without even rising from her chair. All while looking like a villain from a fantasy game. Not that having a bit of fear, even though she wasn’t directing her ire at him, was a perfectly natural, and indeed, rational, response.

The excitement, of course, was because that segment had also been one of the highest-rated ones in his show’s history, and had quickly gone viral online. He’d made quite a bit of money off that interview directly, but even more from how it reinvigorated interest in the show. Having the Lich Queen on again would surely give him another boost, especially considering everything that had happened since her last appearance.

After all, since then, she’d started teaching people magic, making magic items that were selling all around the world, and had even had a personal audience with the King of England! Of course, there had also been a couple rampages, most famously the one against the CIA, which only added to the stories around her. And then, there was the whole thing with these seals.

She’d made no secret where the final seal was, after all. She’d have to come back to the United States in order to finish the job. How would the authorities react? Last time she was on US soil, she basically bitch-slapped the federal government and told them to behave. Sure, the Justice Department backed down from talk of terrorism charges, but that didn’t mean everything was fine, especially after the information she’d released about this clandestine intelligence agency that tried to pressure her. Oh, she hadn’t released it publicly, but she’d sent it to so many people that it was guaranteed to leak.

The light came on, telling him they were coming back from commercial in three, two, one, now. “We’ve got a special guest tonight, folks. The Lich Queen of Risen Athelia is here tonight, and we’re going to be talking about her latest moves in the world.”

There was applause from the crowd, as expected. “Don’t worry, though. We had a team of trained professionals sweep the studio for terrorists. There was a brief scare earlier, when they thought they found chemical weapons, but it was just Taco Bell.”

A round of laughs, also as expected. Jack held for just a moment, and then broke in, just after the response crested, instead of waiting for it to die. “Now, put your hands together and let’s welcome Queen Akagawa Kaori back to the show!”

More applause, and some active cheers, as the Lich Queen walked onto the stage. Only, this time she wasn’t dressed in armor with her bones on display. Instead, she was in what people called her ‘human guise’, and wearing a… magical girl outfit in silver and black? Some of those cheers turned to wolf whistles. The Queen certainly knew how to wind up a crowd.

“Welcome back to the show, your Majesty!”

She smiled back at him, as she shook his hand, and then sat on the offered chair. The short skirt of her outfit showed off a lot of skin as she crossed her legs, but nothing that would need to get blurred out for broadcast, fortunately. “Thank you, Jack. It is good to be back.”

“I must say, your Majesty, I was not expecting this wardrobe choice. What influenced this decision, if I might ask?”

The Queen laughed, and said, “Oh, this? It is something I had put together mostly for fun. One of the entertainment companies under the Akagawa Company pitched the idea of an anime starring a fictionalized version of me, called Mahou Shoujo Kikansha, or Magical Girl Returnee. I actually got to do the voice acting for my character in the Japanese dub, which was an exciting new experience. It should be coming to streaming services next season.”

That was completely unexpected, but Jack knew how to roll with an obvious conversation hook. “Really? And is this the costume your character transforms into?”

The Queen beamed at him. “Actually, the reverse! This is what my character wears most of the time, but then, when things get tough, she goes through the whole magical girl transformation routine, and looks more like my true form, with staff and crown and everything. Most of the story is about her trying to adjust back to life in the world, after having done the whole summoned heroine thing and coming home.”

“So, really a fictionalized version of your own story, then? How much of it is the real thing, and how much is fiction? I know there have been plenty of people wanting to know more about your adventures in the other world, but forty years is a long time to sum up in a single interview.”

“There are some flashbacks to the other world, but most of it is grounded in this world. So, it is more of a fictionalized retelling of everything I’ve gone through since coming home. I’m hoping that people will like it enough that I can do a second season, including my journey to undo the seals and fully release magic back into this world.”

“Well, that brings up the questions on everyone’s mind. Why release the seals, and what are you going to do about what people are calling the ‘Prime Seal’ out in California?”

“Well, Jack, the why is easy. Forty years ago, the rulers of Athelia decided that stealing people from another world was easier than paying to train an army to fight against the Demon King. However, ripping people from one world to the other weakened the seal on magic in this world. The leakage is what allowed everyone here to start discovering magic and learning how to use it.

“Unfortunately, this was basically the equivalent of someone punching a hole in a dam, allowing water to leak through. That water has a weight all its own, and the leak gradually gets larger and larger, until you risk a catastrophic release as the dam fails altogether. And since no one in this world knew about the dam, much less had the knowledge or skills necessary to repair it, the damage progressed to the point where the only option was to have a controlled release of the water, and dismantle the dam.”

Jack silently thanked his staff for making sure he’d had the information on all this before the show aired. He didn’t have the talent for magic, like some people, so he’d never trained in using it. Fortunately, the image of what happens when a dam breaks was easy to understand, even for a layman like him.

“So, fixing the dam is beyond even your capabilities, your Majesty?”

“Sadly, yes. To put it in terms most people can easily understand, think of this like a computer. You can use your personal computer easily enough, no? Perhaps you’re even someone with superior skills, who can do IT work or actual programming. Now, picture an alien supercomputer that is running a programming language you’ve never seen, based on a machine language that is utterly unfamiliar, on hardware that is completely unlike anything you’ve used, and all the notes, such as they are, have been written in six languages so old that the best translations you can do is a game of telephone translating through similar languages until you get to English. You’d still be someone with superior skills, but being able to use them on this problem would need years, possibly decades, to sort through all that.”

“If you’re the person with ‘superior skills’, what does that put the rest of us at?”

The Queen giggled. “Oh, I am not disparaging the thaumaturges of this world. Far from it. But it is the difference between someone building on the foundation of math, as the ancient Greeks knew it, and math, as the people to day knew it. Take Pythagoras from ancient Greece, and a math major at any university today, and try to teach them advanced calculus. The math major is going to smoke the ancient polymath, because they are not starting from the same place.

“This world has had magic for forty years. It only stands to reason that the people of this world would not have the institutional knowledge of countless generations that existed in the other world. I benefited from that institutional knowledge, allowing me to start at a higher point in knowledge than the people in this world.

“However, in terms of knowledge alone, it is entirely possible for the mortal humans of this world to surpass me. The likelihood of a mortal surpassing my power is practically nonexistent, but my knowledge? You build upon each other, and stand on the shoulders of those who came before. Eventually, the knowledge of mortals will reach my level, and surpass it.”

“Amazing! Certainly something to keep the magic scholars going, then. But returning back to the subject of the seal, do you have any plans for what to do with it?”

“Well, obviously I can’t make too many detailed plans until I actually see the state of the seal, and the guardian, and all that. Ideally, when I go to the seal the Guardian will be in place, I’ll defeat them, and then the seal will still be stable enough for the ritual to take place. If the seal is too damaged to be unsealed safely, then other means will need to be considered.”

“Too damaged, from the magic wearing away at it, right?”

“Exactly. The reason I’ve been crisscrossing the world undoing the lesser seals is because the Prime Seal was damaged. Each seal took some of the pressure off the main one, but it is still damaged. I won’t know whether it can be safely undone until I see it for myself.”

“And if it is too damaged?”

“Then I will do what I can to ensure it is stable long enough to evacuate the areas most likely to be affected by the blast when the seal eventually fails. The US government has acted against me, but that does not mean I bear any malice towards the US people. I would try and let as many of them as possible escape the danger zone.”

“What kind of danger zone are we talking about, here? Fifty miles? A hundred?”

“The seal is dangerously close to a major fault line, Jack. If something happens, then the resulting danger zone would be the area roughly from Vancouver, in Canada, to Cabo San Lucas, in Mexico, and from the Pacific Ocean to roughly Las Vegas.”

His brain literally shut down at that pronouncement. Somehow, he remembered how to speak. “You’re talking about the entire west coast of North America, pretty much. That’s millions of people and countless billions, maybe even trillions in damage!”

“Indeed. That is what the most likely outcome of the seal catastrophically failing is. However, if the seal is not too far gone, then I will attempt the same ritual as I’ve used at the other seals. Should it succeed, the worst case will be avoided.”

“What are the chances it could fail?”

“If I am left to my own devices? I estimate one chance in twenty, perhaps one in ten. If the US government tries to meddle or interfere? More like one in three.”

“Why so big a disparity?”

“Because if the government gets involved, inevitably they will have someone there that is going to try and interfere, or do something else stupid, like trying to attack or subdue me while I am ‘weakened’ or ‘distracted’. Not considering the fact that distracting someone who is disarming a bomb is a catastrophically stupid idea.”

“So, if the government pokes its nose in, boom?”

“Unless whoever they send are weak enough that dealing with them doesn’t impact my focus on the task at hand. That would be where the one chance in three comes in. Not that they could defeat me, but they may distract me enough that I lose control of the ritual, and then the West Coast may begin in Nevada, or even Utah.”

“What would you recommend to people living in that area, then?”

“If it looks like the seal cannot be safely undone, I will give enough warning that people should be able to safely evacuate. To ensure that the ritual has the highest chance of success, I would suggest that people contact their congressmen, senators, governors, and state representatives, to put as much pressure on the government to sit this out and let the person who might be able to disarm this bomb work in peace.”