Midterm Exam (4)
“Huh? …What do you mean it won’t work?”
Ravne still held my hand, smiling faintly.
“The warmth reaching my hand is so gentle… yet Saya’s gaze isn’t turned toward me. That makes me a little sad.”
Sad…?
Was this Saintess candidate sulking because I had looked at someone else?
“I didn’t mean anything by it… If it bothered you, I’m sorry.”
At that, she smiled again as brightly as sunlight, as if nothing had happened.
“No. I was just being needlessly petulant.”
Even as she said so, instead of letting go she gently twined her fingers through mine.
“Only… we’re on the same team now. I’d like you to direct a little more of your attention my way.”
I swallowed dryly instead of answering.
As if savoring my fluster, Ravne looked up at me with sparkling eyes and smoothly changed the subject.
“Well then, shall we plan our strategy?”
She gave our linked hands a light swing and lowered her voice like someone sharing a secret.
A short while later, one figure stepped up onto the platform.
Professor Oliver, head of the Magic Department.
Behind him the faculty representing every department stood in perfect formation, not a single person out of line.
The gathered students held even their breathing, waiting for Professor Oliver to speak.
He remained silent for a moment, sweeping the great hall once with those blue eyes.
What lived in that gaze was neither encouragement nor concern—
it was the cold appraisal of a sorter, separating those who would survive this trial from those who would break.
“The midterm examination site is the Garden of Extinction.”
At the name that left his lips the students stirred faintly.
Despite the peaceful word “garden,” the ominous weight of “extinction” settled over the hall.
Professor Oliver paid it no mind and simply nodded toward the faculty behind him.
At that brief command the professors moved as one.
They took positions in a vast circle centered on the platform, closed their eyes, and began to chant.
Rumble…!
The marble floor of the great hall vibrated faintly; beneath the professors’ feet magic circles of differing colors bloomed.
A deep blue like the ocean abyss.
A churning brown like living earth.
A blazing red like open flame.
A whirling green like a storm.
Mana of every attribute braided together like enormous ropes and gathered into the empty air above the center of the platform.
The air itself screamed and twisted; a crushing pressure, as though space were being forcibly stuffed into a single point, pressed down on the entire hall.
“Ghk…!”
“Ugh!”
Several students unused to mana groaned and sank to their knees.
At last every strand of power condensed into one.
BOOOOM—!
With a brilliance too bright to look at, the space at the center of the platform tore open.
Beyond the severed edges of reality swirled an unreal vortex of light.
A gateway opened on the boundary between the real and the unreal.
Professor Oliver turned his back to that dazzling gate and spoke again. His voice was colder and heavier than before.
“The place you will enter is a virtual battlefield recreated by magic. An artificially created subspace.”
His gaze pierced each student in turn.
“This garden was born already carrying ‘extinction’ as its destiny. As time passes it will devour itself from the edges inward, vanishing toward the center.”
At the icy explanation the color slowly drained from the students’ faces.
A beautiful garden that destroyed itself, herding everything inside it toward the middle—a death-match arena.
“The rules are simple.”
Professor Oliver flicked his fingers. Faint light rose all at once from every student’s chest.
Over each uniform a palm-sized blue token engraved with the academy crest glowed softly.
“Your tokens are your points. Steal them. Survive.”
In that instant the students’ gazes changed.
Classmates who had stood side by side only moments ago were now both prey that would raise their scores and predators who would snatch their tokens.
“Fight with everything you have.”
Someone drew a long breath.
Someone else clenched a fist for no reason and glanced around.
“Of course, if you receive a wound severe enough to be fatal you will be forcibly ejected from the subspace. You need not fear for your lives.”
He crushed the faint sighs of relief with a sneer.
“Remember this well. Your bodies will not be scarred, but every pain you feel there—and every humiliation of defeat—will be real.”
The air around them shifted unmistakably.
Ambition and terror, excitement and despair tangled across the faces of the students filling the great hall.
Among them Ricotta stared at me as though turning something over in her mind, while Basil stood rigid with tension, fists clenched tight.
Professor Oliver raised a hand and pointed at the gateway.
“Survive. And prove that you are worthy to be called students of Solaris Academy.”
His final words filled the hall.
Hundreds of students roared—or swallowed screams—and charged as one toward the gate of light.
With the dizzying sensation of my entire body dissolving into particles of light and then reforming, my vision was at last filled by a new world.
What stretched before my eyes was an endlessly vast, unrealistically beautiful garden.
White flowers that seemed to hold sunlight and glow softly, ancient moss-covered statues, and a sweet yet cool air that wrapped around everything.
“Wow…”
A small gasp of wonder slipped from Ravne’s lips.
But there was no time to admire the unreal scenery.
“Ravne, listen carefully.”
I ducked behind the nearest crystal pillar and spoke low.
“As I said briefly earlier, our strategy is to avoid combat and find that person as quickly as possible.”
“Understood, Saya. I’ll do my best.”
At Ravne’s unwavering answer I nodded in satisfaction.
We had just taken position and begun scanning the surroundings when—
“Whoa, look at that. Points walking right up to us from the start.”
Two figures looked down on us from atop a pillar, laughing.
The problem child who had been wrecked in sparring practice, and a Saintess candidate who looked completely lacking in combat ability.
In their eyes we must have seemed like the perfect “token vending machines.”
“Hand over your tokens quietly and leave, and we’ll send you off without pain!”
One of them shouted with swagger and began chanting threateningly. A moment later a massive fireball blazed into existence above our heads.
They’re throwing away the advantage of the first strike with their own feet.
I clicked my tongue inwardly and whispered to Ravne.
“Ravne, ready to run?”
“Yes!”
“Good. On three. One, two… now!”
At my signal we both launched ourselves in opposite directions.
In that exact instant the enormous fireball arced down and slammed into the spot where we had stood.
BOOOOM—!
An ear-splitting explosion shattered the brilliant crystal pillar into flying shards. The ground shook; a hot, violent blast of wind scoured our backs.
“Ugh…!”
“Holy Barrier!”
At Ravne’s cry a thin golden membrane unfurled in a semicircle around us.
The barrier barely held off the flying fragments and heat, yet it trembled dangerously under the impact.
“Those little—! How dare they run?!”
“After them! Those two are ours!”
Enraged shouts rang out behind us.
The moment the barrier vanished I seized Ravne’s wrist and started running again.
Our only goal was to get out of their sight and find her.
“Saya! Which way?”
“That way for now—the crystal-grass thicket where the fog is!”
I was already drawing the map of this garden I had seen countless times inside the game.
We crashed through crystal grass that shattered underfoot and plunged into the fog-choked thicket.
Dreamlike mist that hid even a handspan ahead swallowed our forms.
“Damn it, I can’t see a thing in this fog!”
“Doesn’t matter! They went that way! Just blow the whole place away with magic!”
An ominous surge of mana began to condense behind us again.
“Ravne, down!”
The instant we dropped low—
dozens of ice spears howled through the fog.
Crystal grass around us exploded into shards; a few spears skimmed past just above our heads.
“It seems they have no intention of letting us go quietly.”
Ravne kept her voice calm as she whispered.
We couldn’t waste time on trash like this…
In this free-for-all the single most powerful variable—
the broken multi-target carry who could sweep the battlefield with overwhelming wide-area magic—
we had to find Panir as fast as possible.
But two more students blocked our path.
They had already spotted us and wore thin, nasty smiles.
Surrounded front and back.
Honestly, being treated like a walking token vending machine is starting to piss me off.
I sighed and reached for my waist.
The silver case I had obtained in the infirmary.
The box that held my weapon, the Trigger Needles.
No choice. I’ll have to use them once here…
That was when it happened.
A colossal roar that made the entire space we stood in tremble. Ravne, I, and even the students who had been surrounding us all looked up toward the sky where the sound had come from.
“Wha—!”
“What the hell is that…?!”
Panir, you broken little monster!
How long had the exam even been going, and she had already finished a meteor spell?