Even in Omok, Third Place
After suffering the humiliation of ranking third in Omok as well—and even losing to Louis—I returned to the dormitory and drilled Omok until I fell asleep. Some might wonder what there is to practice in Omok, but since Ella and the Club President had surpassed me through relentless repetition, practice was clearly the answer.
The next morning, as I headed to class with Louis, I kept replaying Omok games in my head.
“Kyaaaaah! It’s black magic!”
“A student is going berserk!!”
“Call the professors!”
“…?”
Screams erupted from the direction of the female dormitory.
“Hmm.”
“…Ashen, you’re going, right?”
“Of course.”
And, as expected, I didn’t back down. The incident broke out right after grades were posted. The power of a romance-fantasy heroine really was something else.
“Damn it, Ella! What the hell is with this aggro?!”
“Ashen…?”
“Nothing.”
Ignoring Louis’s stare that clearly said I was insane, I pulled my sword and Ashen’s Gauntlet from my subspace pouch.
“Let’s go!”
“Haah… I can’t stop you!”
Louis followed right behind me as I sprinted at full speed toward the female dormitory building.
“Oh… I didn’t expect this.”
“…The entire building’s been swallowed.”
The structure was completely covered in an unknown black liquid. Worse still, students whose bodies were mostly coated in the same substance began emerging from within.
“I can feel sticky demonic energy… This isn’t something holy power can’t—”
“Flame Enchant.”
—Fwoosh!
“Let’s go, Louis.”
“No, that liquid isn’t ordinary—”
“Hah!”
—Fwoosh!
“Kieeeek!”
I immediately enchanted my sword with flames and slashed through the liquid clinging to the female students, burning it away at the same time. Their uniforms were cut and slightly singed, but their minds cleared.
“No, that stuff doesn’t just burn with ordinary fire…”
“On second thought, it’d be better if I went in alone. You wait here, Louis.”
“No, I, well… okay…”
Louis looked like she had a lot to say but held it in. The situation was urgent, so I dashed straight into the dormitory.
‘I can already see how Ella’s going to handle this.’
Every student inside had probably been eroded like the ones outside. But our Saintess Ella would blast them all away with her Saintess Death Beam and somehow resolve everything. Still, the process wouldn’t be as simple as I’d described. An opponent Ella couldn’t easily handle was bound to appear.
“Miss Ella!!”
So I had to find Ella no matter what. That way I could steal the experience points.
“Ugh, Ray…”
Inside the female dormitory, where not a single ray of light penetrated, Ella herself became light and illuminated the path ahead.
“How did things end up like this…”
Ella wore an expression on the verge of tears as she recalled yesterday’s events. She had gone with Ray to check their grades. Ella remained first in the Economics Department, but Ray, despite her efforts, ranked near the bottom. Ella had worried Ray would be devastated, yet Ray kept her usual bright smile and insisted there was no need to worry. After that, they headed to the club room and played the new board game together.
Then, this morning, Ray’s entire body suddenly turned pitch black.
“Ray…”
[Ella…]
Now Ray hung from the ceiling, merged with the black liquid that had engulfed the entire building.
“Snap out of it, Ray! You can’t let that evil power consume you!”
[Ella… my friend Ella…]
Ella desperately called out, but Ray only smiled creepily with the single remaining part of her body—her mouth—while the rest had been swallowed by darkness.
[You’re too kind…]
“Ray…?”
[And beautiful.]
“Ray!”
[And you study well, you’re popular, and you even became a Saintess…]
“Ray! You have to come to your senses! You’re being tainted by evil energy right now—”
[No!!]
—Beeeeep…
“Ugh…!”
Ella clutched her ears at Ray’s thunderous shout. The sound was so loud it left her ears ringing, but she looked up at Ray without hesitation.
“Ray, right now you’re—”
[I wasn’t eaten! I… swallowed this power instead.]
“Ray…?”
[You know what? I always wanted to draw.]
Ray suddenly confessed what she had truly wanted to do.
[When I was little, my nanny said I had talent for painting. I even drew portraits of my parents. They loved them.]
But.
[As time passed, everything changed. My family forced me to study instead of paint. My parents scolded me whenever I picked up a brush. So I gave up my dream and kept studying economics…]
Ray’s lips twisted into an unnatural grin.
[And I failed, didn’t I? I stayed up all night studying! I put down the brush, picked up a pen, and studied numbers and letters instead of drawing!]
—Crack.
Ray’s body, hanging upside down from the ceiling, twisted with a grotesque sound.
[So I was going to give up on everything. But then…]
Last night, they had come to her.
[They looked like ordinary artists. But they openly declared they were black mages.]
“…!”
[Strangely, their unhidden nature was so captivating I couldn’t look away.]
And while Ray watched, they simply showed her art.
[They painted, sculpted, composed songs. Then they quietly asked if I wanted to join them.]
They were black mages, yet different from the others. They weren’t coercive or grotesquely obsessive.
[They simply asked. Because art is free…]
Ray’s body stretched until she was at eye level with Ella.
[What do you think, Ella? Isn’t my art truly beautiful?]
“…”
[Even so, since you’re my friend, I wanted to ask your opinion instead of turning you into a piece. As a Saintess, you’d be the ultimate audience—]
“It’s not beautiful.”
[…What?]
Ray’s smile froze at Ella’s answer. The way her lips slowly drooped looked grotesque, but Ella continued without pause.
“The Ray I liked was the one who secretly doodled during class and laughed. Not this!”
[…Ella.]
“You always pretended to be bright, but you were actually exhausted from studying late into the night. That Ray was the one I—”
[Shut up!!]
—Wham!
“Kyaaah!”
Unable to listen any longer, Ray’s black arm stretched out and struck Ella. Ella screamed and fell backward from the sudden pain. Ray brought her face right up to Ella’s.
[You don’t understand art. This is true art. A little doodle born from oppression is nothing…]
“Even a doodle can be beautiful!”
[…!]
Ray, who had looked ready to bite Ella’s face off, suddenly stopped. After a moment of thought, she spoke again.
[Someone who doesn’t understand true art isn’t my friend.]
“Ray!!”
[I’ve changed my mind. I’ll turn you into one of my artworks too.]
“!! Th-this is…!”
Ray waved her hand a few times, and the black liquid on the floor began crawling up Ella’s legs.
“Ugh…!”
—Flash!
Ella released her holy power in response, melting the liquid away. Ray clicked her tongue and snapped her fingers.
—Snap.
[You should’ve quietly become a piece. Now you’ve made things troublesome.]
Black tentacles shot out from all directions, aiming at Ella.
[O Painter, please accept the soul of this foolish one.]
With those cryptic words, the tentacles lunged at Ella simultaneously.
“Ice Armor. Fire Wall.”
—Crack!
—Fwoosh!
In an instant, Ella’s body was encased in ice while fierce flames blocked her surroundings.
[…Intruder.]
Annoyed by the sight, Ray twisted her waist and turned toward the sound.
“Fire Arrow.”
—Fwoosh!
[?!]
A flaming arrow pierced straight through her face.
—Boom!
Ray’s head exploded. At the same time, the tentacles froze in place. The ice and fire surrounding Ella faded away.
“…Eh?”
Ella stared at her friend, whose head had just burst. And the cause of it was—
“Are you all right, Miss Ella? I aimed for the head right away, as usual.”
As always, it was that lunatic.
***
Inside the building completely covered in black liquid, female students whose bodies had been eroded lunged at me.
“Greeeeh…”
“Flame flick.”
“Ueh…? Th-thank you!”
“Greeeh…”
“Whoa, why is this one only in her underwear…! Flame flick!”
“Thank— Kyaaah!”
“Guuuh…”
“…Looks like if the liquid falls off, they’re naked. Flick anyway.”
“Uwa…? Th-thank— Kyaaaaah!”
A few awkward situations arose during the process, but it was fine. Pain that couldn’t kill me only made me stronger.
After advancing for a while, I saw it.
“Hmm, looks like I arrived at a critical moment.”
A villain was trying to turn the romance-fantasy heroine into mincemeat with countless tentacles. So I first protected Ella’s body with ice magic, then swept the area with fire magic. Couldn’t let our heroine get burned, after all.
And the moment the enemy turned toward me in surprise—
“Fire Arrow.”
I used the honorable technique of the Volcano Sect and blew her head clean off.