Chapter 52
Chapter 52
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 52
Chapter Title: Overclock
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The three circles entwined around Leonard's heart began to spin. Dale gasped as he witnessed the torrent of crimson mana pouring from Leonard.
It was a waterfall of red mana, gushing forth like a burst dam. This was by no means a level a 3rd-circle mage could generate.
Not unless they possessed talent on par with Dale's.
'Overclock…'
The act of a mage accelerating their circle's rotation beyond its critical threshold. For a mage, it was the equivalent of a last stand, leaving no room for retreat.
Then there was the ruby crystal bracelet on Leonard's wrist. Its identity was unknown, but one thing was certain: Leonard Walter lacked the ability to handle that artifact.
'His mind is unraveling, made worse by the rampaging artifact.'
The artifact's existence was likely a significant factor in Leonard's strange state from the start.
Dale clicked his tongue and accelerated the circles around his own heart. Black and blue mana combined, swirling like a vortex at his feet, overwhelming Leonard's red mana, which had far surpassed its manageable threshold through overclocking.
"How…!"
The professor and undergraduate students watched in unconcealed shock.
For mages, it wasn't difficult to estimate a circle's RPM based on the amount of mana generated.
Had the eldest son of House Sachsen truly reached the 3rd circle? Even if he had, was it built through diligent training? Furthermore, did his circle's rotation speed even exceed 100 RPM? Before a talent that defied all convention, Dale was finally putting their lingering doubts to rest.
The average circle rotation speed for a typical mage was 300 RPM.
For those considered talented, like Leonard, it was around 1,000 RPM. Even by forcibly rotating his circles through overclocking, he couldn't quite reach 2,000 RPM.
However.
3,000 RPM. That was the speed at which Dale's first circle was spinning and generating mana. A literal "absurd amount of mana" swirled at his feet. And it was black-azure mana, a mixture of blue and black dual attributes.
A chilling cold and the refined essence of darkness.
Seeing it, everyone present understood.
The reputation that followed Dale, the eldest son of House Sachsen, was no lie.
"How in the world…"
Leonard laughed hollowly as he continued to accelerate his circles through overclocking. An insurmountable wall stood before him, no matter how much he struggled.
"Give up and get rid of that artifact now," Dale said.
"If you push it any further, it'll be irreversible."
That look, as if he were looking down on him, was unbearable.
"There's nothing to reverse!"
Imperial Count "Walter the Bloodflame"... as the proud eldest son of an Elder of the Red Tower, everyone around him had praised him as the most talented mage in the Empire.
'Ah, my. He has a very promising future as a mage!'
Even the great Marquis Yuriseu himself had showered Leonard with praise. The Master of the Red Magic Tower, the Lord Crimson himself, had high hopes for his talent! That was Leonard's pride, his self-esteem, and ultimately, his very ego.
The only law that existed in the Red Magic Tower was the law of power, and Leonard possessed that very "power." It was why he could reign as the king of the academy and was guaranteed a fast track as an elite of the Red Magic Tower.
—It should have been that way.
This world was unfair and absurd. And in that unfair world, Leonard had always been on the "winning side."
That was, until the "young eldest son of House Sachsen" appeared before him.
The incarnation of absurdity.
"Don't be ridiculous!"
He poured the excess mana generated through overclocking into his bracelet. The artifact belonging to Walter the Bloodflame, the "Chains of Hellfire."
"It is I! I am the greatest genius in the Empire!"
Leonard shouted amidst the raging storm of his emotions. The bracelet emitted a glow, and the swirling red mana in the area finally began to take the "form of magic."
Chains of fire whipped about from all directions.
Chains of flame. His heart felt hot enough to burst, but Leonard didn't care. *I have talent. And I have the capacity to handle this artifact. I will not fall here.* He brainwashed himself as the chains of fire lashed out in unison.
But the whip-like chains of flame simply vanished. They were effortlessly extinguished, blocked by the vortex of black-azure mana swirling at Dale's feet.
"A red mage shouldn't let his own fire go out so easily."
"…!"
Dale scoffed as if it were someone else's problem.
He had frozen the "molecular motion" in the area to a near standstill, sealing off the very prerequisite for flames to burn.
However, even for a skilled blue mage, extinguishing a red mage's flames was not as easy as it sounded. It was something only possible for Dale, who possessed a clear mental image based on "knowledge from another world."
After all, heat was merely a measure of the "intensity of molecular motion" that constitutes matter.
"…How dare you!"
In the first place, a red mage with battlefield experience would never let their flames be extinguished so easily. Even without precise knowledge like Dale's, they would never neglect to maintain the heat needed to sustain their flames in any situation.
But his opponent was neither a formal mage of the Red Magic Tower nor a Purifier.
He was just a brat from a sheltered world, his ego needlessly inflated by empty praise.
Moreover, mages do not train with the assumption they will be active on a battlefield. The act of practicing magic and "training to utilize magic on the battlefield" are two separate things.
In that respect, Leonard was no match for Dale.
"It's not too late yet."
Dale continued.
"Give up and drop the artifact."
He had no expectation that his opponent would listen.
"It's starting to hurt too much to hold on, isn't it?"
Even now, at the limit of his overclock, Leonard's heart must be writhing in burning agony. He probably didn't even have the strength left to be stubborn.
"Kuh…!"
Indeed, Dale's prediction was accurate. Leonard's heart was screaming in pain, as if it were about to burn away.
Dale's only miscalculation was that Leonard's pride was not as fragile as he thought.
The Red Magic Tower's ideology, which was akin to brainwashing, and the reality of those who believed unquestionably in an order based on power. To them, being weak was tantamount to having their very existence denied.
Amidst an uncontrollable full acceleration, beyond the control of his circles… rampaging mana consumed Leonard's consciousness.
For a moment, the world stopped.
"…!"
He looked around. Leonard knew this place.
Every mage has an inner world built from their ideology.
—And this was "Leonard's world."
A world of enlightenment. An abyss of ideology.
"Ha, haha…"
Furthermore, in a situation like this, it could only mean one thing. Leonard burst into laughter. He placed a hand on his chest, sensing "another ring" around his heart.
A fourth ring of mana. The mark of the 4th circle.
"I did it, I did it!"
In his own world, Leonard couldn't stop laughing. To have achieved the 4th circle at the age of twenty! What could this be if not the "greatest talent in the Empire!" Thinking this, Leonard laughed maniacally.
It was at that moment.
*Fwoosh!*
Leonard's world was engulfed in flames and began to burn.
A hellfire, like the end of the world, was consuming his world.
***
"…!"
Dale gasped in shock at the unexpected situation.
Leonard Walter's body was on fire, along with the newly formed fourth mana circle around his heart.
It was something even Dale hadn't anticipated.
Just as Dale had once reached the 3rd circle, this was the act of throwing oneself at full force to "shatter the wall itself." But Leonard lacked the capacity to handle such a feat.
As a result of forcibly creating the 4th circle, his world of ideology was running rampant.
It was a catastrophe that occurred, paradoxically, because Leonard "had talent."
Magic was the power to superimpose imagination onto reality, and when that power couldn't be controlled and went berserk, it meant only one thing.
"Ideological Encroachment upon Reality."
The surrounding landscape was distorting, fusing with Leonard's "world of ideology."
The world was burning, as if trapped and isolated within a barrier, engulfing even the students and instructors of the 3rd-circle advanced class.
'This has gotten complicated.'
Dale clicked his tongue inwardly at the sight.
'Not that it changes anything.'
He thought, glancing at his Shadow Cloak, which was disguised as a black surcoat. The other party was the one who had recklessly gone berserk and become a threat; Dale's actions were purely "self-defense."
It was at that moment.
*'I have to show that damned brat.'*
*'That I, Leonard Walter, am the greatest genius in the Empire.'*
Just as Dale had once resonated with Sephia's world, Leonard's rampaging voice and emotions were now flowing into him.
The feeling of facing an insurmountable wall… blocked Dale's path. An indescribable sense of despair constricted his heart—the crushing weight of the "Black Prince" as felt from Leonard Walter's perspective.
It was the same despair Dale's enemies felt before him, and the sensation made Dale bite his lip softly.
Just as it had with Sephia, a disquiet that threatened his composure swept over his consciousness.
An indescribably massive wall blocked his path. It was the "Wall of Dale," experienced for the first time from another's point of view.
The facts he had taken for granted now returned as daggers piercing him.
And yet—.
'Was this all it was?'
Facing a wall of insurmountable despair, Dale sneered coldly.
"The great 'Black Prince' isn't as intimidating as I thought."
He recalled the enemies his past self had defeated. Monsters who defied convention, whom the word "strong" could not fully describe. And as a hunting dog of the Empire, he had hunted countless such monsters.
Having faced the abyssal worlds of those monsters head-on, Dale was not one to be shaken by a mere resonance of this level.
He looked at "Leonard Walter" and his world, burning before him.
Nothing would change. After a moment of observation, he muttered indifferently, as if it were someone else's problem.
"What do I care?"