Chapter 118
Chapter 118
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 118
Chapter Title: Different Lies
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- Zzzt...
When the white star emitting extreme cold clashed with the red star harboring heat hot enough to incinerate everything in the sky above...
─────!!
The air screamed as it expanded, and faint vibrations reached even the grand hall beyond the sub-space.
The explosion's aftermath affected the observation devices, causing the grand hall's screens to flicker and glitch momentarily.
"...That wasn't just an Iceball and Fireball, was it?"
Laphia muttered with her mouth agape.
The magic Delphin had deployed was 「Fireball」 and 「Iceball」.
The most basic of basics, classified as the lowest tier among low-grade spells.
But...
"She's expanded the concept."
"Sir Erwin, what do you mean by that?"
"Hey, Seros, did getting beat so much make you forget even basic common sense?"
"No, I never learned it in the first place."
"Figures, your heads are full of shit..."
"??"
Seros stared blankly at Erwin, utterly unable to comprehend.
Ignoring him, Erwin shook his head and continued his explanation.
"Even low-grade magic is fundamentally a single 'concept.' For example, 「Fireball」 isn't just hurling a ball of fire—it's projecting the phenomenon of 'heat condensation' outward."
"Ah... I see."
"But what if you reinterpret that 'concept' by drawing it in and twisting it?"
"......Whoa~"
"Pushing 'heat condensation' and 'cold condensation' to their extremes and making them collide creates the concept of 'thermal expansion.' And... that resulted in the shockwave we're seeing now."
Laphia still couldn't close her gaping mouth, staring blankly at the screen.
She didn't understand a word of Erwin's explanation...
But she vaguely sensed that the grandiose words and the events unfolding on the screen were something extraordinary.
"...Is something that ridiculous even possible?"
"It's not ridiculous— he made it possible."
"You can just make it possible like that...?"
"Concepts are language. Magic circles are structures that interpret that language. Thus, the form of magic can be deformed based on how the user interprets it."
"Whoa......"
Um...!
Laphia didn't understand at all, but she nodded anyway.
A star had just exploded right in front of her— she had to believe something.
And...
"The professor too..."
Seros, who had been wide-eyed like Laphia and speechless, let out something between admiration and shock.
"How is the top student even alive after taking that...?"
Erwin silently turned his gaze away, and Laphia followed with her still-dazed eyes.
Where all their gazes converged...
Wriggle, wriggle—
From within the black liquid...
Adel rose, now tinged with a violet hue, from the shadow brimming with an unpleasant aura.
And...
-...!
-Uh!
-He's calling!
"...Huh?"
Twitch!
The spirits floating idly around Laphia shuddered all at once and whipped their heads around.
"What's wrong, why?"
-He's calling!
"Who is?"
-The king!
"...The king?"
King?
The only being the spirits here would call king...
Was undoubtedly the 'Spirit King.'
But Laphia whipped her head around, scanning the surroundings.
This was Yollum's grand hall.
Just students around— what king?
"...Huh?"
Laphia's gaze shifted back to the screen.
There...
At Adel's feet, a dark crimson shadow was wriggling upward.
"What the heck is that...?"
"Wow...... The top student always makes my heart race every time."
Twisted horns, wings scattering like mist.
Its appearance resembled a magic beast, but the dignity it exuded... was no magic beast.
Too divine to call a magic beast, too terrifying to call a spirit.
-It's the king!
-Is that... the king?
-Wow!
"...The king?"
The spirits, one by one...
Stopped floating around aimlessly and turned to gaze at that existence.
"That's... the Spirit King?"
That wasn't the Spirit King... it looked more like a dragon.
And to begin with... she'd never seen or even heard of a Spirit King that looked like that.
And...
-I'm going!
"What...? Where!"
-Me too!
-Me too, me too!!
"Hey, hey...!"
Laphia pitifully reached out...
But no spirit responded to her call.
***
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
【Echo's Call】
The cries of lost spirits echo in your ears.
: Summons spirits.
Reach out your hand.
Spirits will never ignore your call.
If you desire, be it light or darkness...
All will answer your summons.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
As I reached out my hand...
Spirits responding to the call began to appear one by one.
...Among them, I even spotted one that had been hovering near Laphia.
-Heehee...!
-Hi!?
Kyarruk, kyarruk.
Laughter tickling my ears.
"Hoo......"
I exhaled white breath...
And pointed my hand toward Delphin.
"Bahamut."
【...Command.】
"Catch him."
─────!!
At my words, Bahamut roared...
The sub-space trembled once more, and all the spirits surged toward Delphin in unison.
"Student Adel... I've thought it over carefully, and this seems unfair."
"Too bad."
"You're speaking so fluently now. Was the silent act just a concept?"
"I wish it was."
"Your voice is nicer than I expected."
Even if you say that, it doesn't flatter me— it just creeps me out.
...I quietly shut my mouth.
The signs of the impending backlash were coming any second... the familiar pain creeping up my nape.
"Really... such a pain...!"
Pop! Pop!
Delphin swiftly retreated, extending his hand.
Magic circles formed in an instant, flames bursting continuously toward the spirits.
But... the spirits didn't even flinch.
Instead, under Bahamut's command, they multiplied in number, encircling Delphin.
【Grrr.......】
At the center,
As Bahamut opened its maw, mana condensed explosively...
──────!!
Soon, a single breath shot toward Delphin, fast as light.
Overwhelming power, tension thick enough to stop one's breath.
"This is...!"
Delphin hurriedly deployed a magic circle.
But the breath's speed was beyond imagination...
Direct hit.
The breath engulfed Delphin completely.
"...."
But... surprisingly, Delphin was unharmed.
And in the breath's wake, a swarm of illusory butterflies fluttered chaotically around him.
The butterflies flew along paths of light, disrupting mana flow, enveloping Delphin's body.
Whoosh—!
For a moment, flames flared, and the illusory butterflies scattered like mist...
"......!"
This time was different.
No illusion, no magical afterimage...
-Heehee!
-Here I am~
With the spirits' whispers...
Spirits with physical form revealed themselves.
"...."
I quietly raised my hand and drew a line in the air.
One stroke.
In that single line, I engraved silence instead of words.
- Zzzt... Zzzzt...
Rippling air.
A spatial singularity sucking in even sound.
"I've seen enough of that magic...!"
Swish!
Limbs seized by spirits, Delphin gritted his teeth and twisted his body.
A precise magic circle formed at his fingertips, the spell extending toward me...
"...Heh."
I smirked.
Three patterns in Delphin's behavior I'd analyzed.
The final one.
Delphin 'reads' opponents' magic and overly refines his own...
At the cost of neglecting his field of vision and surroundings.
I'd discovered this during Delphin and Laphia's duel.
The brief moment Laphia's spirit landed a hit on Delphin.
To call it effective damage was generous— more like dealing 1 damage to a 100 HP foe...
But there, I found the answer.
[ 【Daydream】 is dispelled! ]
"...What?!"
My form drawing a line in the air with fingertips.
That was an illusion created by 【Daydream】.
The real me...
─────Splash!
Stood atop Leviathan's head, bursting from the abyss.
Far from Delphin.
I drew another single line in the air.
- Zzzt...... Zzzzt...
A singularity formed in the space where Delphin stood.
I placed a hand to my mouth... and uttered 【Word of Command】 once more.
But.
"...Event horizon──"
Drip...
Blood trickled from my mouth.
Something even Veronica's sub-space couldn't contain was leaking from within me.
"...Tch."
I clicked my tongue briefly, gritted my teeth, and gripped 【Leviathan】 again.
Having used 【Word of Command】 three times in a day consecutively, any further activation was dangerous.
"...Levi."
Sss...
Leviathan's form writhed like a serpent, shooting toward Delphin.
"Hoo......"
I caught my breath briefly.
Chill gradually creeping down my body... my dissipating breath growing fainter.
─────Boom!!
As Leviathan charged, Delphin twisted his body without hesitation, barely dodging.
And... behind him was I.
Swish──!
In that instant as 【Leviathan】 swung wide.
Delphin's lip slowly curled up.
"Student Adel... Fights aren't won with emotion, but with reason."
...Snap.
Flick of the finger.
A flash of light overflowed, a massive magic circle forming before my eyes.
"Emotion just turns yourself into a weapon that stabs you in the end."
Before 【Leviathan】 could reach Delphin, the magic circle was already complete.
A hopeless situation.
But...
I slyly curled my lip.
"...Doesn't matter."
"......!"
[ 【Daydream】 is dispelled! ]
【Leviathan】's form melted away like mist... and from the scattering dream emerged a pitch-black silhouette.
【Void Dragon】. A dragon nonexistent yet perfect, perfect yet nonexistent.
That fragment of an instant was reborn in human hands as 'eternity.'
And that eternity approached another's eternity.
"Because I'm a model student too."
Delphin often said in lectures.
Magic must always be rational, and sometimes emotions must be factored into calculations.
And above all...
Never let go of 'reason.'
"......This."
I know.
In this fight, I'd been overly emotional.
Inferiority, resentment, jealousy.
All those emotions had consumed me, piling up without disruption.
Sometimes they tripped me, sometimes they propelled me forward...
But in the end, they were all me.
Even if distorted and false... the me built upon emotions was 'real.'
"...I've taught one student well."
"I'm the smart one."
──Clang!
The sound of glass shattering...
My dagger unraveled the magic circle's structure to nothing.
Stab...!
"Yes... smart student Adel."
The dagger's tip reached Delphin's chest...
Delphin let out a soft chuckle.
"My defeat."