Chapter 391
Chapter 391
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 391
Chapter Title: Combat Readiness (4)
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“Photon Sculpting. It’s evolved beyond Fractal.”
Canis muttered, his expression tense.
Creating wings from light was proof that his sculpting had transcended the realm of photons.
Shirone had already comprehended the art of Incarnation.
“How much does he know?”
Harvest said through the mental channel.
-If he's at the stage of wielding specific magic, we have to assume he's ahead of us. It seems the Immortal Function wasn't the only reason he passed the Kalpa.
That would explain the sense of unease Canis had felt at the time.
“It's become clearer.”
Canis looked back at Arin.
“What do you mean?”
“Shirone's wings. They're clearer now.”
Canis tilted his head. It was unusual for her to refer to the shape of a specific object.
‘Come to think of it…’
On Galliante Island, Arin had asked if Shirone was blond.
He hadn't thought much of it then, but now, after hearing Harvest's words, he couldn't just dismiss it.
“What exactly do you see when you look at Shirone? Can you explain it?”
“Shirone.”
“Yes?”
“Shirone is Shirone. I'd vaguely suspected it for a while, but now I know. I was seeing Shirone's Incarnation.”
Arin couldn't analyze the forms reflected in her Super Mirror. But the form of an Incarnation, born from the numbers of the law, never changes.
“It's not the art of Incarnation. Shirone *is* an Incarnation.”
That was the conclusion Arin had reached through her Mental Transcendence.
“Hmm.”
Canis turned to Shirone with a grave expression.
There had to be a difference between the art of Incarnation and being an Incarnation. He couldn't imagine what would happen if they faced off head-on.
“What do you mean, the wings have gotten clearer?”
“They were there back then, too. The wings on Shirone's back.”
“What?”
When they met on Galliante, Shirone didn't have a technique like the Wings of Light. So how could she have seen them?
“Was it like a feeling?”
Arin shook her head.
“There are no feelings in an Incarnation. It just is. But it wasn't as clear as it is now. It was there as a transparent form, as if made of wind. But now, it's tinged with a golden light.”
Arin was not a clairvoyant. Therefore, it was highly likely the wings she saw were part of his Incarnation.
‘His Incarnation has wings?’
If Shirone continued to strengthen the power of his Incarnation, would wings truly sprout from his shoulders?
There was likely no one in the world who could answer that question.
Shirone watched the navigation spell fixed before his eyes and bent his knees.
‘One, two…’
Finally, the arrow pointed to the sky.
‘Three!’
At the same time, the Wings of Light flapped, and his body shot upward.
The acceleration, generated by slamming his mass down at near-light speed, was immense, and everyone looked up with startled expressions.
Confirming the direction, distance, and speed within 0.8 seconds to cast Teleport was a matter of intuition.
The trickiest part was that the navigation's suggestion would change mid-teleport.
This meant a decision could only be made after the turn was complete, resulting in a loss of roughly 0.2 seconds.
That 0.2 seconds must have been the time that could be shortened by the God Particle proposed by the Association.
‘This is where it begins!’
The Wings of Light met that standard perfectly.
Boom!
As the wings flapped mid-teleport, the flash of light veered vertically.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
As a series of explosive sounds erupted, Shirone executed the navigation's suggestions without error.
“Kghh!”
The pressure of the g-forces from the sharp turns was Shirone's alone to bear.
With each turn, he felt the blood in his veins rush to one side and his muscles tear.
Armant's Adamant Body would have been able to eliminate such risk factors on its own, but he was currently unprotected.
The stronger the pressure, the more intense his wing beats became. He couldn't stop, even if it meant his body would break.
This was a flight to become a mage.
“Wow, he's actually doing it?”
The 0.2-second difference was palpable even to the students on the ground. It was a trajectory completely different from a normal teleport.
Knowing how much strain twisting direction mid-cast put on the body, they felt a chill.
“Isn't he going to fall apart up there? He must be under several times the force of gravity.”
“But if he can withstand it, it's on a whole other level from teleportation.”
The very rhythm of the movement was different.
With a syncopation this extreme, an opponent would likely perceive it as an entirely new tactic.
Even numerically, the advantage was immense.
In a hypothetical 100-turn battle, it meant he could reach his desired coordinates a full 20 seconds faster than his opponent.
And that was the true meaning behind the 0.2 seconds Shirone was now executing.
‘When is this going to end?’
The navigation tormented Shirone relentlessly, as if it had a mind of its own. Reversals were standard, and it demanded consecutive vertical drops and ascents.
Just how far had he flown?
The grounds of the magic academy looked small enough to fit inside a circle made by his fingers.
No movement evaluation for any school of magic required such a vast space. What was the Association thinking?
‘No, this is right!’
Shirone believed blindly. The God Particle was his, but there would be no error in the standards calculated by professionals.
Finally, the arrow pointed toward the magic academy.
The speed suggested by the navigation was an average of over 300 kilometers per hour. The distance was a staggering 5.4 kilometers.
‘I have to get there in 65 seconds?’
A distance that would require 540 consecutive teleports. The problem was that inertia reset each time, so he couldn't build up momentum.
This was never about the photon school. What the Association demanded was the dynamics of mass—in other words, movement with acceleration.
“Hooooo!”
Shirone started with a teleport, then immediately began flapping his Wings of Light at maximum speed. Each time the wings struck the air, the sound of them tearing through it flew toward the academy.
180 kilometers per hour. 220 kilometers per hour. 280 kilometers per hour.
The moment he passed the 2.4-kilometer mark, he finally broke 300 kilometers per hour.
But because he had lost time in the initial acceleration phase, he had to fly even faster to meet the average speed.
“Ugggggh!”
His vision narrowed until he could only see the navigation, a sensation not unlike falling off a cliff.
Shirone focused solely on speed. The navigation wouldn't just slam a student into a cliff face, after all.
340 kilometers per hour.
He doubled the surface area of his Wings of Light. A power comparable to the Photon Cannon flapped, and his acceleration skyrocketed.
440 kilometers per hour.
He heard a burning sound in his eardrums. The magic academy was approaching at an incredible speed.
‘Wait…’
A thought suddenly struck him.
Who could guarantee that the navigation wouldn't slam him into a cliff?
That was just the vague hope of someone cornered, not a rational judgment.
The only reliable piece of information was that the navigation was simply pointing to the academy's coordinates.
‘This is insane!’
Shirone pulled the Wings of Light in closer to his body.
He had already built up as much acceleration as possible. But if he lost speed now, he would fail. The only safety measure to protect his life was air resistance.
KRRRRRRRRRRR!
Shirone felt a violent vibration as he tore through the body of the air. He'd never known air could be such a solid substance.
The students who spotted Shirone shot to their feet.
“Get back! If he crashes here, we're all done for!”
But where could they go? Unable to predict his exact landing spot, they could only sway their upper bodies left and right.
Only when he reached the evaluation grounds did the navigation offer its final suggestion: a single dot. It meant it would be in his best interest to stop right there.
“Hup!”
Shirone's eyes flew open as he swung the Wings of Light forward.
BA-BOOOOOOM!
An ear-splitting sound erupted. The dust of the training grounds was pushed back, spreading a thick cloud before them.
The students who had turned away grimaced, a ringing sound flowing through their deafened ears.
But soon, their gazes shifted with fearful expressions to the sight of the dust settling.
Imagining Shirone's mangled corpse, it would have been better if the dust never cleared.
“Sh-Shirone?”
Maya took a step forward, her face pale. But her body was frozen, and she couldn't go any further.
“Shirone! Shirone!”
Amy and her friends rushed past her and onto the evaluation grounds.
Flap!
A slow, massive sound scattered the dust in all directions. Nade, who had gotten a mouthful of dirt, spat it out and looked ahead.
Shirone, hovering five meters in the air, was slowly flapping his wings as he descended to the ground.
“Shirone, are you okay?”
Shirone answered with a smile and turned his gaze to Maya. A thrilling sense of euphoria washed over him as she collapsed to the ground with a look of relief.
It was, without a doubt, a contradictory emotion.
“I'm fine. Let's finish the evaluation first.”
As he folded the Wings of Light, causing them to dissipate, golden fragments scattered brilliantly for a moment before vanishing without a trace.
The evaluating instructor began to record.
“Shirone, you have passed the Movement Control Master difficulty. With this, your score for today is 30 points.”
It fell short of Fermi's 100 points, but the minds of the entire graduating class were once again thrown into turmoil.
Fermi, the All Master. And Shirone, who, despite not being an All Master, had surpassed Fermi's capabilities.
The showdown between the two was still neck and neck.
‘This just made things more complicated. Is Fermi really going to be broken at this rate?’
Excluding Fermi's group, these were students who had staked their lives on this graduation exam, so it was only natural for conflict to arise.
The Electric Monster, Lycan, said with cold eyes.
“I've never seen a guy so tenacious. Fermi, it's about time…!”
Lycan's face froze as he turned his head.
Fermi's eyes were not normal. His right pupil was rolled upward, and his left was pushed to the side.
It was the face of the true monster hidden behind the businessman's mask.
‘Damn it, this is no different from a mutual suicide pact.’
The Rule Breaker. No matter how cold and logical his thinking, inside he was a monster, twisted beyond repair.
It was unlikely, but if Fermi started to act on his emotions, they would suffer enormous losses.
‘How much do we make in a month…’
The thought occurred to him that it might be better to just let someone like Shirone go.
“Hey, Fermi. You…”
“I'm calling an emergency meeting. All executives, gather at the Golden Wheel.”
Fermi gave the brief order and walked away.
As if he had seen a ghost whose facial features had vanished, Lycan couldn't remember what Fermi's face had looked like just moments before.
* * *
The Hill Conquest evaluation was two days away.
Students would be gathering in secret for strategy meetings, and it was time for those who hadn't yet formed teams to make their decisions.
As befitted a mock evaluation for the graduation exam, everything from team composition to matchups was left to the students.
They could challenge a team of their choice, and if a team was challenged by multiple others or not challenged at all, the matchup would be decided by drawing lots.
So far, Shirone's team was the only one whose full roster had been revealed.
The Screamer team, on the other hand, was still shrouded in mystery. At least, it was to Shirone's team.
‘I wonder if she's in the music room again today?’
Shirone entered the graduating class building. At Iruki's request, he had gone to find Maya earlier than their scheduled strategy meeting.
Just as he expected, the sound of singing flowed from the music room, and his heart began to pound as he recalled the feelings from that day at sunset.
He slowly opened the door and went inside. Maya turned her head with a bright smile.
“Oh, Shirone! What are you doing here? I thought we were meeting later.”
Shirone felt a sense of bewilderment. Sometimes she felt distant, but at times like this, she was friendlier than anyone.
“Iruki asked if we could meet a little earlier. He said he came up with a custom strategy for the Screamer team.”
“Oh, I see. Where are we meeting?”
Closing the piano and standing up, Maya walked past Shirone toward the door. She smelled of milk, like a child.