The Omen Begins
[────!] Thud thud thud thud! The golem, massive enough to rival a tank on the third floor of an apartment building, let out another heavy vibration as it charged straight at me.
The sight of that enormous thing closing in by the second was more than enough to tell me something was seriously wrong.
"Professor! No matter how I look at it, something's off!"
"What? I can't hear you!"
I bellowed at the top of my lungs to alert Professor Marcus to the gravity of the situation, but the golem's vibrations and noise drowned out my voice completely. It never even reached him.
Grasping at straws, I whipped my head around to look for Evan and Sionel, but for some reason, the two of them were off chatting by themselves in the distance.
In other words, I was utterly, completely on my own—no help from anyone.
Great. Perfectly fucked.
[───!]
Whether it knew I was isolated or not, the golem stubbornly fixed its gaze on me alone and barreled forward. Amid this crowd of over a hundred people, the fact that only this golem had eyes for me—and me alone—hit me right in the feels.
"…Draw."
And the even more heartbreaking truth? I had to take it down with my own hands.
But what choice did I have? Otherwise, I'd be the one turned into paste any second now.
May you be reborn as a person in your next life, oh golem.
Flash!
IV – The Emperor
Card Direction: Upright
Card Meaning: Fatherhood, Sense of Responsibility
The mystical power within the card awakens awareness of a father's great fatherhood and sense of responsibility.
I slipped the card between my fingers. This time, it was the upright Emperor—a card with a pretty abstract meaning that was hard to pin down at first glance. But I could sense the outcome it would unleash.
It was like the image of the result the card summoned was already etched into my mind. Every time I used the ability, that image sharpened, making me think some kind of proficiency was building up.
[────!]
Whoosh!
While I activated the skill and checked the card's info, pausing for a split second, the golem thrust its massive palm toward me. The motion was clumsy and awkward, like swatting a fly, but the speed and mass behind it? All too real.
In short, even a light brush from that hand would snap bones without question.
Thud!
To dodge that future, I got my feet moving fast. Sure, the golem was a notch quicker than me, but since I could see exactly where it would strike, going all-out let me evade its grasp.
First, I circled from its front to slip behind it.
Crash!
Its missed strike finally hit the ground, sending the arena floor rumbling hard.
[────!]
Realizing its attack had whiffed and I'd gotten behind it, the thing twisted its body to look back.
All its joints, including limbs, move like a normal person's—surprisingly quick for its size. It's for sparring, so no special functions beyond physical strikes. Safe bet.
I gathered every scrap of info from its movements and compiled it.
Compiled info goes to the suspicion stage.
Possible self-destruct. Possible body transformation. Possible intelligence to sense danger.
In suspicion, eliminate the impossible, keep the possible.
What's left after eliminating impossibilities is truth, no matter how improbable.
Those truths elevate to certainty.
[──────!!]
After one failed attack, the golem spread both hands wide, clasping them like in prayer as it swung its arms.
Now, certainty stage.
In certainty, build action plans on reliable truths.
The golem's current stance: legs spread wide, lowered to strike at me below.
Thud!
Matching that, I dove into its guard. Hugging the ground low to squeeze through the gap its clashing arms would create, then slip between its legs.
Scraaaape!
Dragging across the floor on my belly to its rear, I sprang up fast—had to land my strike before it could turn.
One hand gripped the card, the other my sparring mace.
I pressed the card to its waist like a nail, hammering it in with the mace like a mallet.
Crack!
Once. Barely in.
Crunch! Crunch!
Twice, thrice, four times. Deep enough now.
[───────!!!]
Feeling pain from the card embedded in its waist, it thrashed wildly, swinging its huge arm to swat me away.
But what it wanted? Probably impossible.
"My turn ain't over yet, you piece of shit."
Its turn would never come.
Crunch! Craaaack!
[─! ─! ─!]
The card lodged in its waist—the upright Emperor—began to glow.
Its meaning: fatherhood and responsibility. A sturdy back like a father's, shielding family from the world's harsh storms—that back manifested as a protective barrier.
A physical-force curtain unfurled from the card, slowly pushing out and shattering the golem's body as foreign matter.
Crunch!
The spherical barrier grew steadily until it could envelop two people easily. The golem's waist shattered completely, cleanly severing upper and lower halves.
Thud!
With no support, the upper body crashed to the arena floor in a cloud of dust, the lower following suit.
[───.]
An injury that would instantly kill any human. The golem wasn't immune either—after a few dying groans of vibration, it went fully still.
A fight I'd thought impossible at first ended in my victory.
"…It actually worked."
I stared blankly at the fallen golem, clenching and unclenching my fist repeatedly.
Was that really a golem on par with my own capabilities?
If so, did my power come purely from my unique skill, or…
Clap clap clap.
"……?"
Lost in the afterglow of the fight and swirling thoughts, a dull applause snapped me back.
"Well done, Lerven. Beyond expectations."
The source? Professor Marcus. He grinned satisfyingly at the golem I'd felled.
"A splendid demonstration. Everyone, give it up for Lerven for his hard work."
Clap clap clap—
At Professor Marcus's urging, the students who'd eyed me with disdain, those shocked by the downed golem, even the indifferent ones—all applauded me.
All but one person.
Well, one dragon—Sidus.
Stubborn as hell, that one.
*
"Good work. You're dismissed."
Nod.
Professor Marcus sent Lerven back to the ranks and turned to clean up the golem he'd wrecked.
Upper and lower halves separated, fully powered down—it looked irreparably broken, but as long as the core was intact, this high-performance piece could revert to pristine condition anytime.
Creak creak pop.
Professor Marcus reached into the golem's hollowed head, carefully extracting the core inside.
The round, dark orb held its shape just like when he'd first inserted it—thankfully undamaged.
"…This, the adjustment…?"
Turning the core this way and that to check for issues, Professor Marcus suddenly realized the adjustment was off.
The sparring golems modified by the academy were capped at half the original output.
Yet the core in his hand had all limits lifted—not just output, but size too.
Suspecting a dud, he checked other sparring cores. Every single one had the same output limit failure.
"……."
After inspecting every core, Professor Marcus's face darkened sharply.
These sparring cores were academy property, strictly managed to prevent leaks.
They should've been tuned flawless, no malfunctions.
But every core he'd brought was altered to a degree that could've severely injured anyone using it.
As if someone had deliberately set it up that way.
Come to think of it… how did that kid…?
Pondering the malice-drenched setup briefly, another question bloomed in Professor Marcus's mind.
About the boy who'd just felled the golem.
That golem had no output or size limits either, which meant the kid had taken down something several times his own level.
"This year's freshmen will undoubtedly form Triam Academy's golden generation. I guarantee it."
"This… maybe the headmaster was right."
Noting the boy who might lead the academy's coming golden generation, Professor Marcus hurriedly packed up.
For kids like him to fully realize that golden era, they had to resolve the current crisis ASAP.
None other than the matter of the "Academy's Betrayer."