Chapter 71
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 71
Chapter Title: Mad Dash to the Magic Tower
-----------------------------------------------------------------
After taking a deep breath, Elin presented her solution.
“How about we do it this way?”
Elin gazed at the necklace, briefly recalling the previous events.
Professor Prezel, who had become a demonic human, hadn’t even recognized her and had attacked as if she were an enemy.
‘I thought I could talk to her.’
She couldn’t deny her own naivety, but at least back then, she hadn’t been able to accept that Professor Prezel had turned into a demonic human.
‘And that nearly got me killed.’
Elin lowered her long eyelashes with a complicated expression.
Senior Radia’s judgment that she had to be killed had been correct.
She just hadn’t had the courage to make that decision herself.
Perhaps Professor Aiden, aware of her soft nature, had ruthlessly torn it away from Professor Prezel for that reason.
Even mentioning to suspect her, whom he had frequently helped.
‘The artifact is probably part of that, too.’
He pretended to be indifferent, but he was deeply considerate.
His kindness made her uneasy, as it didn’t seem like kindness without strings attached, but there were still countless opportunities to change her mind.
Elin closed her eyes, recalling the first memorized spell.
The crimson flames approached with the intent to melt everything.
Elin had frozen for a moment, but the artifact emitted a clear light, blocking the flames.
When the artifact glowed and automatically activated the spell within it.
Clang!
With a breaking sound, a translucent barrier split the dark red flames to either side.
Elin gripped the necklace around her neck and gathered her resolve.
“I have an artifact from Professor Aiden.”
Radia looked at the necklace around Elin’s neck with interest.
Her eyes seemed to narrow for some other reason, but Elin didn’t pay it any mind.
It was a memorize artifact that could hold spells—whether her own or others’—up to three times before being consumed, making it semi-permanent.
“It can hold three. One of them… I’ve already used.”
The first spell was the barrier that had blocked the crimson flames, as they had seen.
Now, two memorized spells remained.
Since casting was essential for such spells, the more memorized slots, the better.
Everyone knew that, but couldn’t do it because artifacts capable of storing spells were astronomically expensive.
And compared to that price, they were essentially single-use and non-reusable.
To make it semi-permanent like this wasn’t something money alone could achieve, so Professor Aiden had likely mobilized his personal fortune and abilities for this one necklace.
She still hadn’t repaid him for it.
But……
Elin’s eyes gleamed.
‘That’s why there’s even a sliver of possibility now.’
“So, what are the other two spells?”
Isel interjected.
“Excluding the barrier, the spells in the artifact are wind and earth wall.”
“And how do you plan to use those?”
“This is the eighth floor, so we need to start by getting the demonic human down to the ground.”
“Right.”
“Let’s push it off.”
The magic department building and the magic tower were nearby.
But they weren’t connected by a skybridge or anything; you had to walk on the ground to get there.
So… drop the demonic human to the ground.
It was a simple solution.
Luring it down the stairs from the eighth to the first floor would take too much time and make it hard to keep distance.
The demonic human’s heat rays passed right through walls.
Covering with obstacles didn’t seem very useful.
“Alright, push it off. But how?”
“The demonic human’s torso is exceptionally sturdy, with great endurance. So we need to deal with that first.”
“Then we make it unable to hold on or cut its legs. But it won’t just take it lying down.”
“I can block an attack once.”
The wind spell stored in the artifact.
More precisely, it held Arion’s wind.
Elin could handle wind magic as well as anyone, but Arion was contracted with two intermediate wind spirits.
Purely in terms of wind, Arion was a cut above her.
‘Though I have the edge in other elements…….’
A momentary whim of “good is good” had paid off now.
Ways to block fire included barriers, counter-fire, or manipulating the air to create a vacuum, but none were effective against the demonic human’s flames.
‘Flames infused with demonic energy burn even in a vacuum.’
Counter-fire would just be devoured by the blaze, barriers melted in an instant. Vacuum wasn’t very effective either.
In that case……
“I’ll offset the flames with wind. If done right, I can seal its movements for a short time. So……”
Elin turned her gaze.
To the demonic human’s legs.
Radia understood and nodded.
“So you want us to take the legs then.”
It was easy to mistake because it retained a human-like form, but a demonic human’s body was fundamentally different from a normal creature’s.
A clump of demonic energy without internals.
Its body, made of black particles that defied definition, contained impossible mass for its volume.
That granted it monstrous strength far surpassing human limits.
When it had lightly leaped from one floor to another in the double-height space, it had jumped several times its height on leg strength alone.
Conversely, that meant it could hold on with that same strength.
Elin nodded.
A demonic human without legs would lose its balance and collapse.
That would allow her to shove it out using the third stored spell, the earth wall.
‘I lack the proficiency to move an earth wall myself, but…….’
There was a powerful intermediate spirit here grumbling about the lack of earth.
Mila could solidify the earth, compress it firmly, and hurl the legless demonic human outside in an instant.
After hearing the full plan, Isel looked at Elin.
“But are you okay with that? If your safety isn’t guaranteed…….”
“I’ll be fine, Senior Isel.”
She would take the flames head-on.
This could easily lead to instant death if mishandled.
Isel meant whether she could handle that risk.
Elin nodded with conviction.
Then Radia added a question with a hint of concern.
“By any chance, are you contracted with a wind spirit too? An intermediate one?”
“A wind spirit…? Yes, I am. It’s an intermediate spirit. But why do you ask?”
Only then did Radia flash a bright smile.
Elin found it deeply unsettling.
* * *
That was exactly why, just moments ago, Elin had let out a sharp scream while running.
She now bitterly regretted glossing over it.
“Is this really right?”
They were heading straight for the magic tower, sure.
They were luring the demonic human according to plan, but……
‘This feels so flimsy!’
Elin hunched her upper body, her face ashen as if she were dead.
Right there, embers that had grazed past scorched the ground with crackling pops.
Radia swatted away incoming flames from behind, urging her to run instead of scream.
“Enough, just run!”
Elin began regretting coming up with this plan so hastily.
‘I shouldn’t have trusted them!’
It had gone smoothly at first.
Using the artifact to offset the demonic human’s flames, while Radia and Isel severed its legs.
Then consuming the last artifact to erect an earth wall, which Mila used to shove the demonic human outside.
Everything had gone perfectly.
She thought it would end just like that.
Mila, who hadn’t shone in the fight against the flying types, seemed satisfied with the thick earth wall and pushed the demonic human right out.
She had assumed they’d naturally head down the stairs next.
Her skepticism about using the stairs stemmed from the heat rays piercing walls, but having shoved it out, the threat was somewhat reduced.
Above all, there was no other sensible way down besides stairs.
But Radia and Isel must have secretly consulted without telling her, because they grabbed Elin and jumped down.
From a full eight floors up.
At that moment, Elin’s pupils shook as if in an earthquake, repeatedly muttering why?
‘Why jump together!?’
Not wanting to die from the fall, she hastily asked her wind spirit Hela to stop them, but they had still plummeted from eight floors.
“You didn’t ask about the wind spirit just for this, did you?”
Elin swallowed a sob inwardly.
Those intelligent muscleheads. They always seemed cool and rational, but deep down, they were the type to think, ‘If things go wrong, physical ability can handle it.’
Incoming flames?
Just dodge.
Can’t dodge?
Just slash.
To Elin the mage, it was utterly baffling, but Radia and Isel, who had devised and endorsed the plan, couldn’t have been more in sync.
‘Make bait with magic?’
‘Ah, yes. A demonic human that’s lost most of its intellect can be fooled by even my hastily made golem…….’
‘Doesn’t that take a long time?’
‘Golem creation doesn’t take that much time. And I happen to have all the necessary materials on hand.’
Radia cut in from the side.
‘That consumes a lot of mana.’
‘Normally, yes, but… I have plenty of mana. I can handle that much.’
Right, it consumes a lot of mana.
At those words, Radia and Isel shook their heads in unison.
Then they started bringing up things Elin didn’t know.
‘A mage’s mana is…….’
‘Precious.’
‘Even if we make a golem, we still have to run to the magic tower.’
‘Whether we make a golem, send it ahead with the demonic human as the lead, and follow, or run straight to the tower as bait from the start, it’s the same.’
Elin hurriedly shook her head.
Somehow, the conversation was veering off from what she’d expected.
‘Safety! Safety!’
Her passionate plea was swallowed by talk of efficiency.
That was Elin’s fatal mistake.
‘It saves time, saves Elin’s mana, and a golem’s movements aren’t as lively as ours anyway. Better to just go before it feels off?’
‘Senior Isel, you’re joking, right?’
Radia nodded vigorously in agreement.
Even then, Elin thought it was a joke.
Back to square one.
“Huh? If flames come flying? Let’s dodge hard!”
What?
“Hmm… unavoidable flames, yeah, that’s tricky.”
Radia then gave a lukewarm smile, telling her not to worry.
“Don’t worry, I’ll slash those.”
Elin was tasting the downsides of groupthink in real time.
Huff, huff.
The rotten dead-fish eyes fixed on Elin.
Saving a bit of its mana, and she already felt like a zombie.
Her legs trembled.
If so, at least those two should regret it a little……
But no, they moved with sharp precision as if it were nothing.
They slashed the demonic human’s flames and unleashed fierce attacks to accumulate damage before reaching the magic tower.
It was also why Elin, with her short stride, hadn’t been caught yet.
Seeing that, Elin let out a wry laugh.
‘Not a normal person in sight.’
Right, exaggerating a bit, dropping the demonic human from the magic department’s eighth floor.
Not walking down, but jumping together.
Provoking it to lure it was good.
But running despite other options.
A sprint all the way to the magic tower.
A plan from those intelligent muscleheads.
“Elin! Duck!”
Elin hurled herself forward, pale-faced.
An explosion rang out, and the spot she’d just been standing was engulfed in flames.
“…Hic.”
Everything was good, all good, but……
Truth be told, nothing was good, but somehow it had worked out.
But……
“This is too much……!”
Even so, instead of illusions or bait with magic, just bolting straight to the magic tower.
Elin couldn’t comprehend the plan at all.
The problem was that Radia and Isel acted like nothing was wrong.
That upended Elin’s common sense.
“…I miss Professor Aiden.”
If it were Professor Aiden, he’d stop those two’s recklessness.
Elin ran on, on the verge of tears.
To survive, she had to get that demonic human to the magic tower somehow.
For survival’s sake.