Chapter 68
Chapter 68
Chapter 68
Queen of the Psychics (4)
In fact, Gray's wide-area provocation had been a matter discussed in advance.
Originally, Rudian had planned to start from a different angle and set up the board, but upon hearing that Matheus Kepler was acting as the leader of the hardliners, Rudian made a sharp turn in his plans.
For Maria's 'throne succession plan' that was created this way, the first thing Rudian did was to bring in Bellatrix—specifically, Gray.
"Huh? I don't work for free."
Separate from following Rudian around out of interest, Gray showed extreme reluctance toward matters that didn't involve his own interests.
"How about you take a look at this?"
So Rudian reversed that reluctance by presenting him with an artifact.
"Whatever you command, big brother."
The sight of Gray bowing at a 90-degree angle the moment he received the artifact was quite a refreshing spectacle.
An artifact personally crafted by Caslay Lichmond was a treasure valuable enough to be designated as a national treasure by itself.
Valuable enough to make even Gray bow so deeply.
In truth, no matter how much of a genius of the century Gray might be, unless he used underhanded tricks bordering on cheating like Rudian, there were bound to be limitations due to his age.
Psychic Luminous was a group where reputation and actual skill were extremely inversely proportional.
Even a single mid-level expert would be enough to crush him.
So Rudian had tried to put himself and Yev as the next batters in case Gray got beaten.
But for some reason, Gray showed strange pride, claiming he could handle it alone, and performed better than expected, defeating two opponents.
"I am Maria Kepler. It's a pleasure to meet you again like this."
The plan proceeded smoothly, and as planned, Maria stepped forward while restraining Elvin.
As previously agreed upon, Elvin obediently stepped back when Maria came forward. The other elders were flustered but tried to dissuade Maria.
"Maria! What are you doing! Now is not yet the time for you to step forward!"
"You are our hope! If you go out unprepared like this...!"
"Unprepared... You say?"
WHOOSH!
The elders felt their hearts grow cold from the terrifying killing intent flowing from Maria.
Maria's presence, which overwhelmed everyone in the venue, far exceeded the expectations of all the elders who had watched her since childhood.
"Two people have already been defeated. Psychic Luminous's honor has fallen to the ground, and as your queen, I have the responsibility to restore that honor."
"Q-Queen...?"
"Am I not?"
At Maria's low and quiet words, the elders fell silent.
At Maria's attitude, Matheus Kepler, though showing signs of surprise, quietly kept his mouth shut.
While the situation was flowing this way, Rudian made a small sound and gestured to Gray.
"Gray, that's enough. Come back now."
Having already achieved two victories, Gray had done enough face-saving as a member of Bellatrix.
Gray's claim that he would face three people alone could somehow be withdrawn by force now that Maria had stepped forward.
Now, if Rudian himself stepped forward and pretended to lose after putting up a decent fight, the plan would move toward its climax...
"Hey, why aren't you coming?"
For some reason, Gray was pretending not to hear Rudian's words and was shooting combative glances at Maria.
"Bro, you know what? I hold your skills in pretty high regard."
Gray's lips twisted slightly.
"That time I challenged you recently. In my life, I've rarely been so miserably beaten by someone my age."
Not long ago, during the brief time Rudian had returned to the capital, Gray had challenged Rudian.
If it had been before leaving the capital, it might have been different, but against Rudian's martial prowess after passing through the Tower of Trials, the result was naturally Gray's crushing defeat.
Since then, Gray had begun following Rudian around, interested not just in the magical items Rudian possessed, but in Rudian as a person.
"But when that bro deals with that woman, he's quite careful. It's definitely different from how he treats that beanpole."
Even while they spoke casually and got along well, there was definitely a cautious air about it.
The fact that someone who would unhesitatingly smack the back of his head showed such an attitude.
If the reason for that was truly 'skill'...!
"I can't stand not confirming it."
"Oh no...!"
Even when facing Serza, Gray hadn't been so aggressive, but now Gray's eyes were completely fired up.
Rudian covered his eyes with his palm and sighed.
'I told you to come back because I was worried about you!'
What was the point of forcing a fight with an obvious outcome?
Rudian's intention to step forward now was to preserve Gray's pride, not for any other reason.
'I was trying to save some face for you because I was grateful you persuaded Sonya...'
This setup was only possible with the cooperation of not just Gray, but Sonya, the head of Bellatrix.
Otherwise, no matter how much of a young lord Gray might be, he couldn't decide the family's fortune in such an all-or-nothing manner.
"Will this be alright...? It would be better to switch with Rudian, wouldn't it?"
Maria offered one last mercy, but Gray remained unmoved.
"Hmph! Mind your own business! I'll smash you just like those two earlier!"
Maria glanced slightly and made eye contact with Rudian.
Rudian sighed.
Since it had come to this, he might as well show Gray what was above the heavens, and also as punishment for ignoring his goodwill...
SWISH!
He made a gesture of slitting his throat with his thumb.
"In that case... I'll yield the first move to you. Please give it your all without regrets."
"You think I can't if you tell me to?"
Gray roared and activated all the magical tools he was wearing.
Not stopping there, he began chanting a long incantation as if preparing his ultimate attack.
'Oh?'
Gray's current level was 6th Class.
But combined with his genius-level calculation ability and magic power control, plus his equipment boost, he could cast 7th Class magic without difficulty.
However, as he earnestly chanted spells and activated all the items he possessed, the magnitude of the condensing power was exceeding even 7th Class.
"Haaah!"
WHOOSH!
A massive fireball began to appear before Gray's outstretched arms.
A gigantic size that could easily contain dozens of adults with room to spare!
Moreover, its color was gradually changing from red to yellow, and then bit by bit to a vivid white.
"Are you planning to burn this entire place down?"
"Shut up!"
The psychics of Psychic Luminous, who had already noticed the danger of that flame, began overlapping solid shields to protect themselves.
'It's like a mini-nuke.'
That was proof that the power of the magic Gray was currently deploying was absurd enough to remind one of such a thing.
"Here it comes! Hellfire!"
The hellish calamity fire, praised as one of the strongest even among 8th Class spells, flew toward Maria.
RUMBLE! CRACK!
The Hellfire swallowed Maria whole, turning the entire environment created within the Sands of Time into a ball of fire!
"What? Don't tell me she's going to die from taking that?"
Gray, kneeling on one knee and drenched in cold sweat from the backlash of casting great magic beyond his current capabilities, shouted.
"Bro! If you don't hurry and save that woman, something terrible will happen!"
Despite having unleashed magic far too powerful to use against a single person, his expression was triumphant without a hint of shame.
While the white flames burned brilliantly, Rudian gave Gray brief advice with an expressionless face.
"Duck."
"...Huh?"
"I said duck."
Before Gray could understand the meaning of Rudian's advice, a telekinetic projectile pierced through the flames and headed toward Gray.
"...Huh?"
Before Gray's perception could notice the projectile, the artifacts he was wearing reacted first, generating shields.
But...
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
The soccer ball-sized projectile that came flying through the flames easily shattered all those shields and charged toward Gray's face.
"A-Arc Shield!"
Taking advantage of the projectile being slowed down by breaking through the shields, he belatedly generated another layer of shield, but...
THUD!
Even that shield shattered completely as the projectile struck Gray directly in the face.
"Aaaaargh!"
With terrible pain, Gray screamed and fell backward.
'Hmm, seeing that he's screaming, fortunately she did control her power.'
Rudian secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
If she had truly used her power mercilessly, his face would have been blown off before he could even scream.
***
"Huff, huff!"
Gray, who had fallen flat on his back, wiped the nosebleed flowing down to his philtrum.
'W-what was that just now?'
Though it was smaller than a simple fireball, its power was no less than the Hellfire he had launched.
What was even more shocking was that she had counterattacked so lightly while taking a direct hit from Hellfire.
'The opponent? Is she alive?'
If Hellfire had exploded, at minimum a radius of several hundred meters should have been engulfed in flames and turned into hell.
But Gray wondered why, despite all his shields being broken, he felt no heat from the Hellfire on his skin other than the pain.
And that question was resolved the moment he raised his head.
WHOOOOSH!
"Ha, hahaha..."
Gray stared blankly ahead with an expression of disbelief.
The Hellfire flames that should have turned mountains and fields into hell were now being controlled as a docile sphere above Maria's hand.
And when Maria lightly clenched her fist, the flames went 'poof!' and were extinguished anticlimactically.
"......"
Gray intuitively realized at that moment that the match was decided.
And Gray understood why Rudian had been so careful when dealing with Maria.
His opponent was truly an unprecedented monster with talent and power beyond his own, one that even his mother Sonya couldn't stand against!
"Will you continue?"
The outcome was already clear.
Gray had been defeated without dealing even 1 point of damage despite giving his all.
The Psychic Luminous side, who should have been cheering, were instead staring with their mouths agape at Maria's transcendent display.
'They must be bewildered too. They expected something based on her childhood talent, but they probably never knew she'd be this strong.'
The elders of Psychic Luminous knew Maria's talent better than anyone, but they had never once experienced Maria displaying her true full power.
And now everyone present would have felt firsthand her power that directly crushed 8th Class magic.
"Not yet..."
"......"
"I haven't lost yet!"
Gray gritted his teeth and got up from his position.
"This Gray Bellatrix losing twice? This genius of the century, Gray! And to a woman at that! There's no way I'd lose so miserably!"
Well, sexist remarks aside... To Gray's eyes, Maria would just appear to be an ordinary young lady with no particular flow of magic power or physical training.
That's why many strong fighters had underestimated Maria at first glance, and that's why they had their heads blown off with a single strike.
"Aaaaargh!"
Gray screamed and charged at Maria.
However, there was no way other techniques would work on someone who wasn't affected by Hellfire.
THUD!
Gray was knocked unconscious by Maria's light gesture to the back of his head.
As Gray collapsed limply to the ground, Rudian, who had approached at some point, lifted him up and made eye contact with Maria.
"Good work. Nice power control."
At Rudian's words, Maria's expression somehow became sulky.
"What, you weren't worried about my safety?"
"Ah, no... Of course I knew you'd block it... No! That's not it!"
It would be rude to say such things to a lady!
As Rudian desperately tried to choose his words, for some reason Maria chuckled and shook her head.
"It's fine. I've never expected such thoughtfulness from you anyway."
"No, no. I'm such a thoughtful man!"
"Nonsense. Would such a man speak like that?"
There was nothing he could say in response!
Seeing Rudian flustered, Maria giggled and relaxed her expression.
"I'm joking. I thought I'd tease you a bit before the finale."
"......"
"Right, now that we've come this far, we should finish it."
Maria spun around and headed toward Psychic Luminous.
"Maria, very well done..."
"Father. No, General Commander Matheus Kepler."
FLINCH!
At Maria's cold demeanor, all those who had tried to welcome her stopped their actions.
Maria looked directly at the current head of Psychic Luminous and slowly continued.
"Here and now, I request the succession ceremony from you."