Midterm Exams (6)
Hwook!
The wind roared.
A violent gust tore through the air. Leaves and condensed mana saturated the howling gale as it spun like a drill, transforming the mere brush of it into a killing machine that shredded flesh to ribbons.
A swift strike. I seized the spiral of wind head-on.
Grind-grind-grind!
The membrane of mana wrapped around my palm—woven from the Solar War Body—was shaved away with savage force. A stinging heat seeped into my skin, but I braced for the damage and tightened my grip all the same.
Psshh!
The moment I crushed the spiral's form, the leaves, stripped of their mana, withered like autumn foliage drifting to the ground. Skin peeled, blood welled at my fingertips, but I shook it off like dusting dirt from my clothes.
"You blocked it. But you're still far from enough!"
Diana swept her fan through the air. Behind movements graceful enough to evoke a swan's dance, a flock of wind bristling with naked bloodlust poured down like a rain of arrows.
I formed a finger gun, took aim, and unleashed a barrage of condensed mana.
Pew!
The magic bullet launched from between my thumb and forefinger collided with the gale, scattering shreds of broken mana in every direction.
"I'll give you credit for daring to challenge me with such meager talent. But if you keep this up, you'll be forced to watch your precious companions die horrific deaths. Are you truly all right with that?"
"God, you sure do love the sound of your own voice."
It wasn't even a psychological attack—she just never shut her mouth whenever we fought. The original novel had mentioned it too, but what was with these villains and their desperation to monologue? If spewing all that was some elaborate operation to terrorize my eardrums, I'd almost be tempted to applaud.
That aside, her point was valid. Rationally speaking, I should have dealt with her quickly and gone to rendezvous with Eva. The only reason I hadn't was that a worry still lodged in one corner of my heart was holding my feet in place.
BOOM!
A violent surge of mana trembled through the bars of the cage. A dense blanket of life force packed the entire area—more than enough to draw everyone's attention, mine included.
It's started.
The showdown that wouldn't unfold until the final act of Part One had only just now come to pass. Who would emerge the winner?
"Do you feel it? The overwhelming gulf in our caliber."
"Huh?"
"It shows on your face. The panic, trembling like a rat before a cat."
Diana's lips curled into a crescent moon. She leveled her fan at me and continued.
"Now that Lord Vital has shown his true colors, you have no chance of winning. He will accomplish the purpose for which he came here and see his will be done."
Oh, for the love of—look at this guy.
That smug expression of certain victory. Short or long, a fight was something you learned by actually trading blows. Pumping yourself up before the outcome was even decided—was that the exclusive inheritance of this world's aristocracy? Terre was the same way. Some people just needed to get hit once to come back to their senses.
"If you mean seizing the Time Divine Artifact that once belonged to the Archmage Kairos and ascending to God King, I'd say that's going to be a problem."
"How do you know that?"
A crack spiderwebbed across her composed expression, like shattering glass. For a schemer from another world crawling with monsters to have her plot laid bare by a mortal of this realm—she was practically trembling from head to toe, on the verge of tears.
"Don't tell me... Proto—"
"Don't get the wrong idea. I'm not on your side."
"The information leaked? From where—"
Confused, Diana gnawed on the tip of her fan, a glimpse of her characteristic unease flickering through. Then she steadied herself.
"No. It doesn't matter. Even if you knew, nothing changes."
"You think I didn't prepare for this situation?"
"Of course. If you'd known in advance, Byul's reaction and your clumsy handling of it would make no sense."
"Sharp. I'm impressed you reasoned that far."
She was right—Vital barging in mid-exam was a development I hadn't even imagined. Pure force majeure. A turn of events starkly different from the original novel, and I hadn't been able to respond in time. But so what? Did anything actually change because of it? I'd plug every leak in the boat regardless. Their efforts were admirable, but their timing was terrible.
"Though I'd say 'nothing changes' is putting it a bit generously."
"The plan succeeded. My master can now face the Archmage's child at peak condition."
"The Max Republic will be too busy dealing with the monster horde pouring in from the capital's outskirts to send reinforcements in time. Byul cannot intervene thanks to her pact with her mother, so there are no variables. None."
"No variables, huh? Because from where I'm standing, I can see two."
I held up two fingers in a V-sign, then folded one down to point out the first contradiction.
"Vital—the 'master' you keep bragging about. 'Peak condition,' my ass. Everyone knows he got the living daylights beaten out of him by the Archmage, so how about dropping the lies?"
Long ago, the Celestial Clan had yearned to lay hands on the absolute authority of the God King—the being they called their mother. Their plan to gather all ten Divine Artifacts, rally the descendants who inherited the God King's power, and transcend mortality itself had stood on the very brink of success.
But they failed. The Archmage Kairos. The man who, alongside Proto, had come closest to the God King betrayed the alliance, along with the faction that followed him. It collapsed, and the wounded clan was banished to the other world where the monsters dwelled.
They spent ages upon ages sharpening their blades, dreaming of nothing but revenge—yet their enemy had long since fled through the escape hatch called death. So the blade, honed for a target no longer there, turned toward his daughter. Vengeance by proxy, in other words.
"Can a man so broken he can barely control his Divine Artifacts properly really defeat the rightful successor? I'd say no."
"Forgive me, but may I ask your name?"
"It's Solis, but why the sudden interest?"
"I've never heard of you. I didn't expect anyone in this world to know us so well."
"I'm just well-read."
Compliments from a beautiful woman make a man dance. Well, now. How embarrassing.
"But Eva Amethyst, though she may be the rightful inheritor of the Divine Artifact, is still an unpolished girl. With my master absorbing the mana of the humans in the Colosseum and devoting himself to recovery, there is no way she can win."
"True. Looking at it that way, Eva and Chloe just might barely lose? The turning point comes down to one thing—whether Vital can use that technique or not."
In the original novel, after a long, grueling duel, Vital failed to unleash the secret art he'd prided himself on. Eva's magic pierced his heart, and he groveled on the ground to survive.
"Not that it's any of your business. Right?"
"A disciple always wishes for her master's victory. I firmly believe he will claim the Time Divine Artifact for himself."
"Sure, sure. You'd want him to win. And you're also drooling over the idea of backstabbing a exhausted Vital and swallowing two Divine Artifacts whole. I know."
"Wha—!"
Her true intentions, veiled behind the mask of a disciple's loyalty. When I ripped the veil away, her expression curdled like milk left out in the height of summer.
"Doesn't matter who wins. I'll kill the exhausted one and monopolize the Artifacts. That's your little scheme, hatched behind Vital's back. Am I wrong?"
The final act of Part One. Vital had begged Eva for his life.
Your father and I were acquainted. Please, I beg you—grant me just one chance. He'd cried out in abject servility. Behind her iron resolve that she could not let him live, Eva had felt a flicker of pity. She had been on the verge of granting him a painless, peaceful end, at the very least.
You worked hard, Master. Rest in peace.
And then Diana appeared. She cut the dying Vital's throat and stole the Artifact. The author caught a fair amount of hate for having it snatched away so brazenly in front of everyone, but regardless—she reappeared in Part Two alongside the other Celestials as an Artifact bearer, cementing her role as one of the bosses barring Eva's path.
One of the loose ends that absolutely had to be dealt with. I, too, had resolved on the spot to hunt Diana down and tear her apart the moment I spotted Vital on the broadcast.
But—but still!
"I'm facing the dilemma of a lifetime right now. A disciple who'd betray her master, a villain who'd torment Eva. There's really no reason I should let a rebellious merchant like you live."
And yet, would you look at that?
The Diana standing before me was far more beautiful than I'd imagined. There'd been no illustrations in the original, so I hadn't known. Perhaps it was because she was of the Celestial Clan, but her visuals were stunning—she wouldn't have looked out of place standing beside the protagonist's party.
Killing off a character with a face like that, just like that? That would be a loss to all humanity.
Therefore:
"The gentleman slumbering deep within my chest speaks. By the multiplication table of nine, you shall devote yourself to servicing me."
"What kind of pathetic nonsense is that?!"
Diana swept her fan once more and whipped up the wind. Her signature spell, the one that had hounded me this whole fight—Waltz of the Green Wind.
Yes. Magic.
"Now this is just getting boring."
WHUMP!
Before it could even touch my body, the fierce gale bristling with razor edges died with a pathetic whimper.
Usurper. The unique ability of Solis, granting him command over the authority of magic itself—bending spells to his will or snuffing them out entirely. Her attacks could have been blocked at any moment I chose.
"If magic won't work, then...!"
The instant she realized her spells were useless, Diana reached for her next move. But I was hardly the type to stand by and watch.
I funneled mana into the bracelet and drew out its power as a weapon. The Solar Halo rose above my head.
"Take a little nap."
A light gesture. A quiet pronouncement of judgment.
The clouds smothering the sky split apart as if cleaved by a single stroke of a blade.
Rrrumble!
A sphere of fire of immense mass pried its way through the fissure in the heavens. An artificial sun vast enough to swallow the entire Colosseum, drawn down by gravity, plummeted toward the crown of her head.
Only one option remained to Diana.
"...Eh?"
With a dumbfounded expression, she could do nothing but watch with her own two eyes as the sun collided with the earth.