The Shattered World
Rucia's misunderstanding briefly short-circuited my brain.
So I'd blown up an entire dormitory just because I got caught sneaking in, had I?
Did I really look like that much of a lunatic?
'I've been slandered.'
Granted, I had beaten up a blonde noble delinquent the moment we met. And, fine, I had smashed through the common room wall the very next day. And yes, I may have also taught her how to smother her mock dungeon teammates…
'…Hmm.'
Once I actually laid it all out, there wasn't much to feel wronged about.
Just as I was resigning myself to quietly accepting my karma, Rucia spoke up, calm as ever.
"I was joking. I don't think you're the kind of person who'd do that, Master."
Her face was still perfectly blank, so I couldn't tell one way or the other.
…It was a joke, right?
"The incident you warned me about has happened, hasn't it?"
[It has.]
Anyway. Focus on the situation at hand.
'We're trapped on the stairs.'
To be precise, the flat landing where the staircase turned. Whether the wall below had collapsed too, the steps above and below were both completely blocked.
'This doesn't happen often.'
It made it hard to figure out what kind of incident we were dealing with. Tearing through the rubble and getting out right away would've solved everything, but—
"…Ugh."
Veronica, who had been sprawled beside us, stirred awake. The fact that she was already coming around meant the blast hadn't hit her too hard.
She lifted her head, scanned her surroundings, and then fixed her eyes on Rucia.
"This probably isn't a situation where we fight, right?"
she asked, her expression sour.
"How long was I out?"
Rucia ignored the question and studied the rubble instead, apparently checking whether she could break through it herself.
[A simple offensive spell would do it. The protective ward has completely dissolved.]
Rucia gave my head a gentle pat. That meant understood, presumably.
'Still.'
I replayed the sensation I'd felt right before the explosion. A powerful surge of mana from outside—and in that exact instant, the protective magic on the dormitory had vanished.
'That's strange.'
There had been no warning at all. No unraveling, no fracture—only the result, the flat fact that the magic was simply gone.
Just as I was wrestling with that odd, unnatural feeling, Veronica shuffled over to Rucia's side.
"So, are we smashing this?"
Her eyes weren't exactly warm, but she didn't seem interested in hostility either. Then again, she was one of the original story's leads—of course she could read a situation quickly.
"There's nothing good about being trapped in here. I'll take care of this one."
Veronica spread her mana. A spell took shape, and the air around us warped.
[Rucia. Step back about two paces.]
The Academy gathered talent of every stripe. There were prodigies like Chloe, gifted across the board—and then there were students like Rucia, who couldn't cast a single defensive spell yet still clawed their way to second place on sheer strength elsewhere.
And Veronica was—
High risk, pure firepower. A one-trick cannon.
"Lightning."
A prodigy specialized in lightning magic.
-KRAKOOOOM!
A flash of blue incinerated the rubble. The blocked staircase opened up, clean and clear.
"…Whew."
Veronica turned her head back, her green eyes settling on Rucia.
"We don't know what's going on, so stay sharp. Watch your surroundings."
With that, she started up the stairs.
'Huh?'
Her face had been rotten the whole time, but honestly? Judging purely by this moment, she was pretty textbook tsundere. Of course, considering the garbage she'd spouted at us earlier, they were practically sworn enemies.
'Beats me.'
That part had never been explained in the original story.
So there I was, mulling it over at full speed, when—
"Master. What should we do?"
Rucia whispered, having confirmed that Veronica was gone.
[Let's move for now. We need to figure out what's happening.]
Rucia nodded and started walking. As she climbed the stairs, she studied the wall that had just been shattered.
A black barrier stood in its place.
'Hm.'
She swept her gaze around. Every window was stained black, and here and there on the floor glistened patches of dark violet slime.
'An elite monster, then.'
Stuff a monster full of mana and it gets absurdly strong. Not just stronger—it awakens a unique ability of its own, which is what makes elites such a pain to hunt down.
And the ability of the thing that had struck this dormitory was—
'Domain designation.'
No matter what, this space could not be escaped.
Well, I could probably just punch through the wall and leave, but…
'Why would I?'
What, and pass up free combat experience? I'd come here for Rucia's training in the first place. Absolutely not running.
While I was lazily sorting through my thoughts, Veronica—who had ended up beside Rucia—let out a sigh.
"Probably an elite monster's doing, I'd guess."
She kept going.
"I heard they brought one in for experiments recently. Its ability was, what was it—seizing control of a building?"
That was startlingly accurate intel. I'd taken her for a nothing-but-offensive-magic type, and she knew this too?
'Full of surprises.'
Just as I was admiring her higher-than-expected intelligence, Veronica knocked on Chloe's door.
"Chloe? Can you hear me?"
No response. She tried the handle. Locked tight.
'Obviously not.'
That was thanks to the ability of this incident's mastermind—Salinder.
Every five minutes, the thing designated a random target. The space the target occupied was severed from everywhere else, and no one but Salinder could enter or leave it.
And no matter where its target fled, it would always come—
"…Something's wrong."
The instant Veronica's eyes darted to Rucia—
-KRAKOOOM!
A thunderous roar erupted from the staircase we'd just left.
[It's close. Let's fall back to the end of the corridor.]
Rucia moved fast, but Veronica flared her mana and shouted, "Running's pointless—the stairs will be sealed either way! We fight here!"
Salinder was slightly slower than someone trained in mana. Better to sprint away and prepare one heavy blow, honestly.
'Eh, I'll play along.'
It wasn't a terrible plan, all things considered.
[Let's group up. Defense magic looks like the play.]
"Yes."
Rucia readied her spell in a flash—and a black, shapeless horror materialized in front of Veronica.
A spined monstrosity so large it filled the corridor by itself. The distance between it and Veronica was—
'…Five meters?'
Its strike was faster than Rucia's barrier. At this rate, Veronica was in serious danger.
Party-hunting experience was valuable too, so maybe I'd help out. Just for a second.
-CLANG!
I slammed a shield across its path.
"…!"
I couldn't hold the lane long. One second—no more.
But it was enough.
-BZZZZRAK!
A dazzling flash blew the creature's head clean off.
Veronica detonated mana against the floor and hurled herself backward. At the same instant, the monster's wound began to churn and seethe.
-Glrk. Glrrglrr.
The head was regenerating.
'Two seconds of downtime, was it?'
Plenty of time to layer an intricate spell. And sure enough—
Rucia's barrier sealed off the entire corridor. A solid wall, punched through only with a handful of gaps wide enough for magic to pass.
Light flared through them.
-KUGUGUGUNG!
This time, the thing's claw exploded.
Veronica readied her next spell and asked, "That first barrier. Your familiar cast it, didn't it?"
Silence.
"Right—useless question. Then how long can you keep up the one you've got now?"
"Indefinitely."
Veronica's magic cracked and flashed again; the monster's opposite arm burst apart.
"Answer me properly. There's no way you can hold that thing up forever."
Veronica's face twisted.
In a way, her disbelief was fair. Just passively sustaining a barrier like that demanded monstrous concentration—and on top of it, Salinder's attacks hammered the shield with damage, nonstop. An ordinary mage would have had their mind buckle within three minutes.
'Rucia doesn't care, though.'
Mental stamina? Rucia could practice magic for ten hours straight without blinking.
And that barrier was mine, anyway.
'Mana efficiency's on a whole different level too.'
Five minutes until the target designation expired. All she had to do was coast until then.
Three minutes or so crawled by.
"Haah… haah…"
Veronica was gasping for air. The mana flowing through her had gone unstable—her hands shook as if convulsing, and her eyes were losing focus. She looked one blink away from passing out.
'Well, yeah.'
Lightning magic packed ferocious power, but the toll on the body was brutal. The sensible play was to rest several seconds between each cast—
"…Lightning."
-KRAKOOOM!
—and she was spamming them at two-to-three-second intervals. It was a miracle she hadn't already collapsed.
'Is she doing it because she thinks Rucia can't hold out?'
To be fair, that was true. If Veronica hadn't been tearing the thing's limbs apart, the barrier would've broken in under a minute.
But the cost of all that spell-spamming—
"…That was it. One more attack is my limit."
Veronica's voice was barely a murmur. She didn't even have the strength left to shout.
'If she fires that, she dies.'
In that state, the spell would take her life right along with it.
[Tell her to stop. It's your turn now.]
Rucia snatched Veronica's wrist. The mana swirling through her scattered, and the spell fizzled out mid-cast.
Veronica crumpled to the floor, and Rucia looked down at her sidelong.
"Switch."
Veronica's eyes widened a fraction.
Rucia walked slowly forward, and then, in a calm, even tone, called my name—the one I'd been given as part of my dutiful-familiar persona.
"Chirpy."
As if in answer, a subspace opened beside her. A dark hole yawned, and a book tumbled out into her hands.
The hidden piece we'd obtained before.
Rucia gripped the book in her right hand and unfolded her mana. The volume rose into the air and spread wide, blue light wreathing its pages.
-CRASH!
The barrier holding Salinder at bay shattered, and the creature tore down the corridor in a sprint.
'Not a chance.'
My barrier slammed shut across the hall. Veronica's face went white with disbelief.
"A familiar… casting magic like that…?"
Well, because it wasn't actually a familiar.
"…Haah."
With a short exhale, Rucia began preparing her spell. One formula. Four. Ten. Countless spell-structures layered over one another into a single shape.
"What… what are you doing…?"
Bewilderment crept across Veronica's face. That many stacked formulae? It was madness—efficiency thrown entirely to the wind. And the shape of the spell was unmistakably a Mana Bullet.
There was no way a beginner's spell like that could bring down that monster.
And yet.
Fifty formulae converged into a single magic. A sphere of blue bloomed at the tip of Rucia's outstretched hand. The air trembled as if shuddering at the mana flooding off of it—and then a Mana Bullet a full meter across was launched at the black monstrosity.
"Impact—"
-KUUUUNG!
Blue light crushed down over Salinder's body. Overwhelming destructive power—power impossible to believe belonged to a Mana Bullet.
The monster's body melted away in an instant, and at the point of impact, nothing remained at all.
"…It's dead."
Veronica stared, hollow, at the place where the creature had been.
"But that's… that's a basic spell…?"
Veronica the raw-firepower lightning mage.
Her world collapsed that day.