A Chance That May Never Come
The awkward silence stretched between Hestia and Arie.
Though they were in the same class, the two had never shared any real connection before now, so it was hard to call them close. The one who shattered the silence that seemed like it might never end was, of course, Elisha.
“Ah, Saintess, you’re here? If you’re here, heal me real quick.”
“······?”
Arie stared at her with a dumbfounded expression. But Elisha simply waved her hand impatiently, as if she had no idea what the problem was.
“······You really are a unique person. I think I caught a glimpse of you sparring with the Hero. Your name was… Elisha, right?”
“That’s right. Just call me Elisha. Can I call you Arie too?”
“Hmmm, that’s fine.”
Arie looked at Elisha, who was treating her with strangely casual familiarity, like some rare creature. Still, she went ahead and began the treatment as requested.
Arie’s pure white mana seeped into every part of Elisha’s body. She wore a comfortable smile, closed her eyes, and surrendered herself to the Saintess’s power.
“···You don’t have any serious injuries. There shouldn’t be any lasting aftereffects either.”
“Once you’re done with me, take a look at Hestia too.”
Now it was Hestia’s turn to be examined. But she shook her head, clearly refusing.
“I am fine.”
“Hehe, are you really…?”
“Yes. I simply exhausted my stamina, that is all.”
Even as Hestia answered calmly, her arms were still trembling. But if you looked closely, the shaking was gradually subsiding. Arie observed her arms for a moment, decided she was okay, and soon lost interest, turning her head away.
“Understood. Then for now······.”
“Saintess.”
“······?”
Suddenly, Hestia cut her off with an expression that suggested she had realized something. Arie tilted her head and focused on what Hestia had to say.
“That pure white energy from before… Was it you who helped us, Saintess?”
“Pardon?”
“When the pillar shattered into pieces, I thought I sensed an energy similar to your mana.”
“···Hehe, who knows?”
Arie wore a mischievous smile. It was an ambiguous answer that could hardly be called confirmation, but when Hestia saw her laugh softly, she became certain that Arie had been the one who helped them that day.
“······Thank you.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Arie played dumb, but Hestia was truly grateful to her for blocking that attack. If not for Arie, she might have experienced the horrific act of taking her friend’s life with her own hands…
Of course, Elisha had calculated everything down to Arie’s intervention, so she hadn’t considered it particularly dangerous… But Hestia, who had no way of knowing that, naturally bowed her head in thanks.
The short exchange between the two softened the atmosphere a little. By then, Elisha, who had finished recovering, sprang up from her seat and stretched.
“Hnnngh…! I’m tired.”
“I’ll take care of the cleanup since I was the one who arrived late. You two have worked hard, so please don’t worry and go rest.”
“Shall we…?”
At Arie’s words, Elisha immediately began preparing to leave without a moment’s hesitation.
“I have things to do, and I need to open the door I locked earlier… I’ll head in first.”
“······Hehe.”
Arie smiled with a suspiciously playful aura, but Elisha acted as if it were nothing and walked right past her toward the dormitory. Hestia followed behind her, asking again whether it was really okay to leave the Saintess alone since, while she was grateful, something about her seemed a bit suspicious. But Elisha simply kept repeating that she shouldn’t worry about it.
And so Hestia and Elisha left, leaving Arie alone at the scene… She wiped the smile from her face and let out a sigh.
“Seriously… What boring people.”
In truth, Arie had wanted them to look at her with suspicion. She had deliberately appeared at a precarious moment, yet their reactions were far more lukewarm than she had expected. The Hero had at least shown a decent response, but even that had been too predictable. On the other hand, Elisha’s complete lack of suspicion was disappointing.
‘You can’t fill up on the first bite… Hehe, I’ll just have to look forward to next time.’
Arie inwardly vowed to come up with something even more ingenious soon.
—Kuhk!
At the small cough coming from behind her, she turned her head.
“I detected a faint biological response and wondered… It looks like I can save this one.”
Arie’s pure white mana blended with holy power, activating a wide-area healing spell. Countless creatures caught up in the fight but fortunate enough to survive received the Saintess’s warm treatment.
The Saintess, who felt a certain satisfaction in saving lives, suddenly noticed something strange.
“···Huh?”
It seemed like one of the corpses was missing…?
Transcendence—the realm where one casts off the limits of mortality and truly becomes part of history. Once you reach the position commonly called Transcendent, you gain the ability to see many things. Flows and histories that were invisible during your mortal days. You can see what you couldn’t see and read what you couldn’t read.
Of course, the depth depends on the individual Transcendent’s abilities and enlightenment, but compared to an ordinary mortal with nothing, the difference is terrifyingly vast.
Reading flow and history means understanding and seeing through your opponent. It’s hardly easy for an ordinary mortal who can’t do that to defeat a Transcendent. It would take a miracle that only a tiny handful like the Hero or the Saintess could possibly achieve.
“Looking at it that way… you really are a lucky bastard.”
“Kk, kgh…!”
“There’s no way a half-baked newbie who just barely stepped into Transcendence could neutralize Sabina with such a simple trick. It really is a miracle.”
Well, he himself didn’t seem to realize just how absurdly low the odds of that were.
I released the hand gripping his throat and threw him to the floor.
“Kuhk, hack…!”
Only then, with his airway finally clear, did he glare at me with confused eyes. It was understandable. He had thought that by reaching Transcendence and breaking the limits of his mortal body, he had become something greater—only to find himself completely helpless just from having his throat grabbed… Compared to the stories of Transcendents that had been passed down, it would be even harder to comprehend.
“You… Just what the hell are you…?”
“What a clichéd question.”
The equally clichéd answer to such a predictable question would be something like, ‘I have no obligation to tell you.’
I slowly approached him as he remained unable to stand. He tried to struggle somehow using the demonic energy left in his armor, but the energy, having lost its control, no longer moved according to his will.
I stomped down hard on his flailing arm.
“Aaaaaaaaagh!!!”
The sound of bones breaking was accompanied by an ear-piercing scream that filled the area. The already shattered dark-red armor could no longer protect his body. I bent down, picked up a fragment of the armor, and spoke to the agonized Karl Myers.
“This is what happens when you try to handle something you can’t control.”
“···What would you know…!”
“Still, I understand. To your eyes, this must have looked like your last hope.”
It was undeniable that he had been hasty, but it was uncertain whether his body, already ruined by the curse, could have held out long enough to wait for a later chance. It was probably better to gamble on even a low probability than to endlessly wait for a hope that might never come.
In reality, his judgment had been somewhat accurate. When the Academy was in an uproar over various incidents, large and small, and the headmaster was suffering from overwork… ‘Just then’ an unusual type of mana was discovered. That information, which should have been treated as top secret, ‘coincidentally’ reached Karl Myers’s ears. He learned through his son Pascal, who ‘just happened’ to be attending the Academy, that the mana’s properties could neutralize the curse that had plagued his family for generations.
While he had been watching for an opportunity, ‘at just the right moment’ someone damaged the Academy’s barrier, and the Transcendent headmaster guarding it suffered severe internal injuries. Another Transcendent who considered the culprit an enemy quickly arrived at the Academy, but before he could gather detailed information, he was forced to leave immediately under the pretext that he must not interfere with the barrier’s repair.
And that news was quickly delivered to Karl Myers, who ‘by chance’ had been outside due to his schedule…
Even up to this point, the odds were already astronomically low. The moment he succeeded in neutralizing the headmaster, it was no different from him achieving a true miracle.
But unfortunately, as long as a regressor existed… no matter how hard he tried, the result would not change. Karl Myers himself had no idea, but even in the first round where Elisha had not intervened, his plan had been stopped by the Saintess. It had been a plan that could never succeed from the beginning, and simply reaching this point was an incredible stroke of luck.
This was his limit.
Yes, normally, this would be the point where Karl Myers should exit the stage. In every previous round, both Karl and Pascal had died instantly on the spot, and I had finished the cleanup by secretly retrieving the dangerous mana that had seeped into Karl.
Even now, if I wanted, I could wrap up the incident without much fuss. But this time… I thought I would give them one last chance, since it might be their final one.
Karl was going to die soon anyway. An incomplete Transcendence achieved through a family heirloom… And now that even the dagger serving as its medium had been taken from him, his body would soon lose its balance of energy and completely disintegrate, leaving only traces of demonic energy and mana behind.
Of course, there was one solution. A simple but extremely difficult one that would become his final lifeline.
I clenched my hand in the empty air and slowly moved my arm.
“W-what is this…?”
The moment a sound that should never have been heard rang out, Karl’s eyes, which had been writhing in pain, shook violently. Following the path of my moving arm, space tore open, creating a hole the height of a person. I lifted him with one hand and threw him inside. He couldn’t even land properly and rolled pathetically across the floor.
“This is your last chance—one that may never come again.”
“Kgh!”
“Survive until the end. This is a special opportunity I’m giving you, your desperate stroke of luck. And······.”
To him, who still hadn’t regained his senses, I spoke quietly.
“It is your son’s final request—the one you tried so desperately to protect.”
For a moment, a massive magic circle floating in the sky was reflected in his eyes… I quietly wished him luck and closed the torn space once more.