Chapter 253
Chapter 253
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 253
Chapter Title: A Different Sky (3)
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Tears welled up in Mark's eyes as well. But he refused to let them fall.
“We can do it too.”
Maria looked back at Mark, a little surprised.
“I’m going to try, and keep trying. So I can challenge him one day. I might not be able to win, but I’ll do my best to make him take me seriously. So don’t talk like you’re weak. If you say something like that one more time, I won’t hang around with you anymore.”
“Mark…”
Iruki said with a smirk.
“There’s no such thing as talent in this world.”
Mark and Maria turned their heads at the same time.
“To be precise, there’s no talent you can put a name to. An insane person can’t be good at math. But they could become the greatest painter. Magic is a profession that encompasses all fields. Shirone’s insight or Dante’s information processing ability don’t guarantee their future. There’s no need to envy what others have. If you raise what is uniquely yours to its peak, you too might one day be able to defeat Shirone.”
“W-We weren’t thinking that…”
Mark waved his hands, his face turning red. The thought of defeating Shirone was something he had never even considered in his dreams.
But hearing those words from a genius acknowledged by the world, his confidence began to swell once more.
It was the first time Iruki had felt like a senior.
Dante grimaced at the flood of information. Sequences of 0s and 1s flashed through his mind at the speed of light. It was Shirone's information added to Pascal's.
‘I can do this! I’m catching up!’
In the battle of speed, Dante began to gain the upper hand. It was the difference between a living being and a machine. A living being's stamina slowly depletes, but an automaton simply performs its original function until the moment it self-destructs.
The students watched as Pascal's offensive magic gradually cornered Shirone. Shirone's teleportation radius was shrinking, and it looked like he would fall into a state of zero movement in ten seconds.
Even so, Shina didn't dare predict the outcome of the match.
Shirone's movements were clearly being restricted, but Dante's mental energy was also nearing rock bottom.
‘Can Dante hold on?’
Shina stared intently at the rate the gauge was decreasing.
‘He can. At this rate, it'll be Dante's victory.’
While a small part of Shina also hoped for Shirone's victory, Dante certainly deserved to win. In particular, the automaton's responsiveness was powerful enough to be effective even among professionals.
Five seconds. Four seconds.
The moment Shirone would be checkmated was approaching.
The firing radius of Wind Cutter narrowed, and a 100-percent charged bolt waited to be fired from the Electric Mansion.
The moment came when Shirone's path was completely cut off.
Dante instantly found the address for Electric Cannon in the memory matrix and transmitted it to Pascal.
‘Now!’
The moment Dante thought that.
‘Now!’
Shirone was thinking the same thing.
The instant the Electric Cannon's energy filled the mansion, a flash of light converged before Shirone's eyes.
Dante scoffed. No matter how strong the Photon Cannon was, a full-power Electric Cannon would destroy even that and dominate the space.
At that moment, Shirone cast his ultimate spell.
Shining Impact!
Photons, compressed with a unified polarization, exploded.
Then, into Dante's mind, which had been filled with 1s and 0s, flooded information consisting only of 1s.
The simplest, yet impossibly large, piece of information.
Pascal overloaded, and the automaton froze for a moment. The students were shocked. He had created an explosion of light to paralyze Dante's system.
A strategy that wouldn't work twice. Shirone had clearly saved this one chance for this very moment.
Dante's mind went as white as the Shining Impact. A nearly one-second gap in processing, which had been handling thousands of pieces of information per second, was fatal.
Dante covered his face with both arms. It was impossible to even predict what kind of attack was coming.
But Shirone didn't move. As he focused his mind, a brilliant light was born before his eyes, drawing a massive circle. It was the angel's magic circle, Halo, which he had mastered through lifting training.
Nade shot to his feet and shouted.
“Ataraxia!”
It was the appearance of a technique that could be called Shirone's ultimate move. But Nade's expression soon turned to one of confusion.
Even if the halo was complete, information integration was a separate issue. It required a full minute, meaning it wasn't yet at a stage where it could be applied in a real battle.
Iruki grimaced and said.
“The worst possible move.”
As Nade agreed with his silence, Iruki continued.
“But it's also the only move. He's done everything he can. If not now, he won't get another chance to activate Ataraxia.”
Dante barely clung to his fading consciousness. He never imagined Shirone would use an explosion of light to paralyze his system.
But there would be no more chances.
Shirone, too, had exhausted all his strategies and was merely making a last-ditch struggle. As the automaton regained its function, the mansions all turned toward Shirone.
Shirone focused on constructing the Halo, even as he faced the menacingly floating magic circles. A pale flash of light drew a large trajectory based on pi, returning to its starting point. Finally, the Halo, the spirit of an angel, stood before Shirone like a shield.
“Ugh! What is this!”
Boyle clutched his head, crying out in pain. A summoner's sense of measurement is on a different level from other mages. To him, who could easily perceive an error of even one millimeter, the perfect halo was a form of violence delivered through shape.
Seeing Boyle's condition, Iruki had a gut feeling. It was an impact delivered from a microscopic world, imperceptible to human senses.
From his perspective, he couldn't tell the difference between an ordinary circle and a perfect one. But what about Dante, who could inherently read information entropy?
“Grrrgh!”
Just as Iruki suspected, Dante was in agony, veins bulging on his neck. As the shock hit his mind, Pascal's functionality dropped significantly.
‘Dammit! What's happening all of a sudden? What the hell is that circle?’
Iruki held onto a sliver of hope. Shirone must have calculated this far before activating Ataraxia.
But would this be enough?
Boyle had already recovered from the shock. Ironically, it was because his level was lower.
Amy recalled what had happened in heaven.
‘I see. So that’s why Baalv…’
Ataraxia was a form that could inflict an even stronger shock on those who had reached a higher state.
She finally understood why the 2nd Horn Mara had recoiled before Shirone's Ataraxia in heaven.
If so, who here would suffer the most from the appearance of the Halo?
Amy turned her gaze to Olivia. As expected, her shoulders were trembling.
‘What in the world is that…’
Olivia bit down on her lip.
She, who stood at the pinnacle of human senses, nearly lost consciousness for a moment upon seeing the Halo.
She endured it with the mental fortitude of a great mage, but at her level, a momentary lapse was fatal. It was not a state that could be mastered at Shirone's current level.
‘That is a circle that cannot be created by human ability. What is he trying to put into a space that can contain the entire world?’
The concept of Ataraxia began to assemble within the Halo.
From outside the halo, multicolored rays of light flew in like a shower, engraving themselves onto the magic circle like ripples.
Olivia thought that phenomenon also made no sense.
As far as she knew, it was impossible for information to enter a magic circle from the outside. It was an optical illusion, caused by the information integration speed approaching the speed of light.
‘Impossible…’
Realizing that, Olivia's eyes filled with shock. If the integration speed was truly near the speed of light, then any magic circle should be completed in less than a second. And yet, ten seconds had passed, and far from being complete, the speed was actually increasing.
That thing is dangerous.
Dante's judgment was the same. The assembly of a massive concept. If he let this continue, he would completely lose the advantage he had worked so hard to gain.
“I can't let that happen.”
Dante activated the Electric Mansions. With the sound of splitting wood, a blend of white and blue electricity shot out.
Shirone hastily threw himself aside. Ataraxia was not even half complete. Moreover, the automaton, having fully regained its functions, began to resume its barrage.
Amy frowned in dismay. In the end, the last chance he had gained with Shining Impact was wasted in vain.
“Huh?”
At that moment, Amy's eyes lit up. Iruki and Nade also watched the Halo with expressions of disbelief.
Information continued to integrate into the halo. But that should have been impossible. Shirone was still flying around, dodging the barrage.
“What? What's going on?”
Iruki's mind raced. Was it really possible to teleport and operate a magic circle at the same time? Shirone didn't have a servant, nor could he operate something like Pascal as Dante did.
‘It must be a parallel circuit. No, is it just appearing to be parallel?’
At that moment, a flash of insight struck him.
“That's it!”
“Iruki, what is it?”
Amy asked with a surprised look, and Iruki, unable to contain his excitement, shouted.
“Time-division. He's using time-division.”
Nade, finally realizing, slapped his knee.
“Ah! Of course! That would make it possible!”
“What's time-division? Can Senior Shirone use two types of magic at the same time?”
“He's splitting the operation into units of time. He's switching between task A and task B at an incredible speed. ABABABAB, like that. That way, a phenomenon occurs as if two spells are being deployed simultaneously.”
Mark's mouth hung open in a daze. He had split time into ten-thousandths of a second on the uncrossable bridge, but switching between two tasks was a challenge on a completely different level. It was only possible for Shirone, who possessed insight more precise than mere knowledge.
For the first time since the duel began, Olivia felt a thrill of excitement.
To attempt time-division. It was a technique that extremely few even among high-ranking mages on the front lines could perform.
‘So Shirone is evolving, too?’
Olivia shot a venomous glare at Alpheas, then did a double take, her eyes widening in shock.
A savage energy was storming across Alpheas's face. The corners of his mouth were stretched to his ears in a grin that wouldn't close.
‘Kukuku. Shirone, now you're finally acting a bit more like yourself.’
Even Alpheas had never expected Shirone to attempt time-division. He felt like giving him a standing ovation.
When he first heard about Ataraxia, he had estimated a minimum of four years. He thought that, at the very least, that much training would be necessary to use it in a real battle.
But Shirone had done it in just four months.
Using time-division would slow the information integration speed by about half, but compared to being defenseless for a full minute while constructing the magic circle, it barely even counted as a drawback.
Above all, he wanted to see just how powerful it would be. Just imagining the destructive power of information integrated for over two minutes at the speed of light sent a jolt of electricity through his body.
‘Just a little more, just a little longer…!’
Shirone switched between tasks with all his might. Time-division felt akin to juggling with his thoughts. If he lost the afterimage of a memory for even an instant, everything would turn to nothing.
Dodging Dante's attacks in such a state was no easy feat. But he didn't want to lose. The title of the kingdom's best didn't matter. It was a sense of desperation, as if he would never be able to move forward again if he couldn't defeat Dante here.
Dante was so anxious his heart felt like it would burst. The automaton's speed seemed on the verge of catching up to Shirone, yet it couldn't quite manage it.
‘Damn it! What in the world is going on?’
When on earth is that magic circle going to activate?
If he could just know that much, he could form a strategy, but even for him, a major in information magic, it was a strange concept he couldn't decipher. It made no sense that such a combination was even possible, but above all, the sheer scale of the information was too immense.