The Bell of Transcendence
Hmm.
Erciel pursed her lips, staring down at the stack of documents. They were requests from alchemists hoping to cooperate with her mages.
The reason was simple enough. A figure had surfaced out of nowhere of late — Veritas. This Veritas had appeared without warning, delivered a lecture, and by all accounts the alchemists had gone into raptures over it.
What could possibly be so special?
Erciel tapped her tablet and pulled up the video. On the screen, a masked man was lecturing.
Oh ho.
Every time the lecture rolled on to a new section, Erciel let out a gasp. The content was stunning. Tuning one's mana to coax a material's latent properties into full bloom; dragging out two perfectly opposed natures and weaponizing their clash as a bomb, or transmuting poison into an elixir. Even judged through a mage's eyes, the thing was packed wall to wall with astonishing material.
"What do you think?"
"Impressive."
Erciel nodded along at Melanie's verdict. If it looked this good even through a mage's eyes, she could only imagine the shock the alchemists must have taken.
"It's probably on the same level as the birth of circle magic formulas."
"...It's that significant?"
Hmm.
Then they simply had to bring that being into their fold. The trouble was, anyone who knew of this had likely already made their move.
Korea. And America.
Britain might be called the land of mages, but set beside those two countries it paled considerably — for if it ever came to war with the world itself, either of them had the strength to bring that world to its knees.
"Then I suppose I'll have to pass this time. I'll just have my subordinates dig into his identity."
With that, Erciel switched off the tablet.
"What's this now?"
"About what?"
"That Veritas person. He's someone you know."
"...I beg your pardon?"
At Melanie's bombshell, a blank look crept over Erciel's face.
"Lee Seoha. Isn't he the man you've set your heart on?"
...
Erciel ignored the teasing and looked back at the screen. Well — now that she set the lecture itself aside and simply watched the man, his bearing did seem familiar. Above all, there was the pressure she'd felt when this Veritas first stepped into frame. It reached her through the screen, yes, but Erciel had felt that exact pressure once before.
Lee Seoha.
It had been during the weapon selection. When he took hold of the Heukcheon Demonic Sword, she had felt precisely this kind of pressure.
What a fascinating man.
Just when she thought she'd finally gotten a measure of him, another side of him surfaced. Like a moment ago. That was simply the kind of man he was — an onion, peeling back one layer only to find another beneath it, forever.
"Then I'll just have to change my approach."
Erciel issued a few additional instructions. She had deliberately prepared a lavish gift to put Lee Seoha in her debt — but looking at it now, that alone seemed a touch insufficient. She added one thing after another to the gift, and smiled.
What expression would he wear? Would he nod as though it were only natural, or would surprise flicker across his face? He would almost certainly wear the former — and yet some part of her ached to see him startled.
Imagining that scene, Erciel sank back into her chair.
Where am I?
Hong Yuhwa stared up at the sky with a dazed expression. The sky was clear. Not a single cloud. The sun blazed down in full glory — and her future was pitch black.
"Time's up," Lee Seoha said with a faint smile.
Every muscle in her body was screaming. Soreness, everywhere. She had braced herself for a fair share of this when she set out to become a hero, but something about this felt wrong — a sensation of every muscle across her entire body aching in perfect, even measure.
"Tired? You can rest if you need to," Lee Seoha said, his tone feigning innocence.
Hong Yuhwa bristled, but her body refused to move.
Physical training with Lee Seoha. It helped tremendously — he tailored everything to her, conditioning the muscles of her whole body one by one. And yet Hong Yuhwa couldn't for the life of her grasp what any of this had to do with drawing out her talent.
Nettled as she was, she pushed herself upright.
"Shall we keep going?"
The girl beside Lee Seoha spoke in that soft, unassuming tone. Seo Gayeon. Black hair, black eyes — an adorable girl's face, and yet Hong Yuhwa found her grating.
"Yuhwa is a mage, you know. What possible point is there to physical training like this?"
"See?"
Another quiet little jab at her pride.
But Hong Yuhwa let Seo Gayeon's words pass unanswered — because she had read the anxiety lodged deep in the girl's eyes.
You could always give up, you know.
If she said it, Lee Seoha would go easy on Hong Yuhwa. He would lower the intensity and stop pushing her the way he did now. And Lee Seoha's expectations of Hong Yuhwa would sink along with it.
Seo Gayeon knew exactly what her own feelings were.
Jealousy.
Hong Yuhwa possessed a dazzling talent. A mage at the Academy who had cleared the Tower of Ordeals ranked fourth — that was proof enough. Outstanding talent had met an outstanding family; the Red Tower Lord had schooled her since she was five. Where magic was concerned, the only person in this school capable of catching Hong Yuhwa was Erciel.
So there was truly no need for Lee Seoha to help her at all.
Seo Gayeon buried that feeling deep. She loved it when Lee Seoha looked at her. If he would only look at her — only at her — she felt she could do anything. If he ever learned how she felt, it would only trouble him, and Seo Gayeon had no wish to become his burden.
What can I do? I just have to work harder.
If she refined her starlight mana further and brought him results, Lee Seoha would look her way again.
Meanwhile, Lee Seoha watched the two of them and thought, Is this really all right?
Bringing Hong Yuhwa in for conditioning had been the right call; the problem was that he'd agreed when Seo Gayeon asked to train alongside them.
Jealousy, is it.
Seo Gayeon's dependency ran deep. Him latching onto Hong Yuhwa, determined to bloom her talent and teach her — that part was right. He simply didn't want Seo Gayeon's jealousy of the girl to drive a wedge between them.
I don't like it.
A dark, murky emotion reached him — vivid and clear, as though he were peering straight down into her heart.
"How strange."
"...What is with that girl? How is she resonating with the Heaven-Defying energy?" Yeongcheon sounded genuinely baffled.
"Resonating?"
"Yes, Master Seoha. That girl is in resonance with you right now. That is a truly special thing."
Resonance, huh.
Even he knew something of the phenomenon. In rare cases, there existed mana whose wavelengths matched with uncanny precision — the Illusion-Dream mana Erciel carried and the Reality-Dream mana Melanie held, for instance. And somewhere out there, though he had yet to show himself, was a hero who would resonate with both lightning mana and flame mana.
But Seo Gayeon's mana and his own energy were another matter entirely. Hers was mana blessed by the power of starlight. His was the Heaven-Defying energy that rejected and negated all mana.
And these two were supposed to resonate?
Yet the vivid emotion he'd felt moments ago had, without question, been Seo Gayeon's. This was... a matter he would have to look into. Not that resonance would be a bad thing — with two energies fused into one, he could unleash techniques worthy of the word ultimate.
In any case.
Lee Seoha fixed his gaze ahead. Hong Yuhwa was exercising, glaring at him the whole while with smoldering eyes.
Her competitive streak ran strong. But at times it swelled to a strange degree — she would unleash that fighting spirit at him even though she was nowhere near Erciel's level. And it had never once gone out.
The influence of the Usurper talent. Or perhaps it was that very fire which had forged the Usurper in the first place.
I'd say it's about time for the next stage.
The reason for the physical training was simple: it was to grant the wish she made without ever knowing she was making it.
Now, where was a suitable demon stronghold nearby...
Lee Seoha searched his memory for an appropriate demon lair.
The weekend. Saturday.
Campus was all but deserted on weekends as a rule — today was the exception. With final evaluations closing in, club activities had ground to a halt and everyone had stayed behind to study on their own.
"Training again today?"
Hong Yuhwa asked, her voice worn thin.
Lee Seoha gave a quiet nod.
She's looking pretty worn out.
Now was the moment. The Usurper was a sore subject indeed for someone like Hong Yuhwa.
She was upright. In competition she drew a hard line among her means and methods — she would never stoop to the tricks of the wicked path. She fought fair and square, and when she lost, she accepted defeat cleanly. It was why she was so popular; her followers, too, rallied to her on account of that very character.
But the Usurper was a power that ran contrary to everything she was.
Usurpation. Quite literally, the power to steal what belonged to another.
That was why he had pushed her so hard. Only when she was driven to her limit and made to face herself would that talent answer Hong Yuhwa's will.
"Today, let's skip training and move to live combat."
"Live combat?"
"Yeah. The timing's about right."
As it happened, a major incident was waiting right on the other side of finals.
One of the Villain groups — the False Heaven Brigade.
They would storm the Red Tower, and the Red Tower Lord would be left gravely wounded. Hong Yuhwa, caught in that same attack, would find her life hanging by a thread — or ended outright.
Back when he moved as a Player, saving Hong Yuhwa had been the most he could manage.
This time, he would not let it end that way.
A space steeped in murky, dim mana.
Upon the throne, a certain being was watching a recording.
The Heaven Society. Footage seized as those beings were driven back in defeat — and within it, a figure commanding black wings at its own will.
The Heavenly Demon. So they called the being in the footage: the most exalted existence the Heaven Society served, the demon who would one day bury the very heavens in demonic dark.
That being was famous. Word drifted among certain of the Transcendents — the Heavenly Demon wielded the Heaven-Defying power that negated all things, and its very existence was said to be the negation of everything. There were no exceptions. Transcendent, or one who had shed their shell through power gained from the Outer realms — it negated them all alike.
"Is that one the prophesied existence?"
The question was posed, and the answer seemed to be no.
That one negates all things. Mana, power from the Outer realms, abilities. Not every mystery under the sun, perhaps, but it flouts the laws of the world — and the laws beyond the world as well. It is not the prophesied existence.
And yet that existence was a threat to them. A considerable one. For now it lingered at the level of a mere student, but its growth was brutally steep. Someday it would become the kind of being to drive a dagger into their hearts.
Not a Superior Class, though.
No one could fail to hear of an existence bearing power that singular. That was precisely what a Superior Class was — a realm where one rang one's presence out into the world, and the world itself answered in reply. The same held true for demons. No existence alive could slip past that law.
Dong— dong— dong—.
A bell tolled — this inside the Boundary forged by the one hailed as the greatest of the great heroes in human history, no less. Not that any actual bell hung here.
This was the law that sounded when an existence "transcended" — shedding its shell — and set its own law reverberating through the world.
A Superior Class. The toll meant that a new Superior Class had appeared.
"My King."
A shadow surged upward and molded itself into human form. It spoke to its king from bended knee.
"We have confirmed that one of the False Heaven Brigade has entered the Superior Class."
"Is that so."
"Shall we put them to use?"
"Hmm."
The False Heaven Brigade. A pack of Villains, yes — but their strength was of a different order entirely from the ordinary sort of demon. Most of them stood at Superior Class or beyond. No — by now, every last one of them had likely crossed that threshold.
"Good. Place a commission with them."
The one called King turned his gaze aside.
"The commission... yes, this will do. The target is Lee Seoha. Alive would be ideal — though dead will serve just as well."
The subordinate who received the King's command bowed his head.