Chapter 795: The Meaning of April’s Ordinary Subject
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 795: The Meaning of April’s Ordinary Subject
"Why... why push me to this point?"
Looking at the dense thicket of muzzles in the distance, April knew that if she were still a teaching assistant, these firearms would be nothing more than a joke. But now, they could take her life.
Furthermore, her opposition was the Shi'an Bureau. Their firearms were clearly special-issue models from the Wizard Academy. While the outside world generally prohibited ordinary people from possessing Transcendent materials or creations, the Shi'an Bureau had quietly bypassed this restriction within the Wizard Academy’s sphere of influence.
Their personnel could apply for Transcendent bullets for enforcement. This was a world apart from the treatment of the Shi'an Bureau branches near the Witch Academy, who could do nothing but wait for the Discipline Squad to arrive.
But... none of that mattered to April.
She possessed the Ice Sealed World. Without an attack of the same intensity as a [Transcendent Knowledge] Fragment, or high-level mastery of Transcendent spatial dimensions, it was impossible to touch her within its frozen domain.
However, she was reaching her limit—her physical limit, which was also the limit of her ability to maintain the Ice Sealed World.
The Ice Sealed World could not expand indefinitely, nor could she use it to simply fly away. At this moment, the Ice Sealed World was like a final coffin of frost.
She had no other choice...
Gritting her teeth, she forced her body to endure, resisting the wizard toxins as she held up the Ice Sealed World.
The moment she activated it, the Ice Sealed World covered her entire body, then began to spread outward like creeping ice crystals.
Her physical body immediately took refuge within it, though her right hand, which gripped the fragment tightly, had already lost all sensation. April felt as if her entire right arm was being destroyed; the sub-zero temperatures of the ice were relentlessly eroding her core body temperature.
This sudden development startled the family members, making them think she intended to fight back. After all, she was still holding a powerful Transcendent fragment!
And they were merely ordinary people.
"Fire!"
Suddenly, someone issued a cold, ruthless command.
It wasn't someone from the Shi'an Bureau, but a member of the Hawthorne family. As the order fell, most of the armed men pulled their triggers. Amidst a violent cacophony of gunfire, a hail of bullets poured out.
For a moment, the sound of gunfire echoed over the skies of Monopeng City.
Though the Shi'an Bureau personnel hadn't officially received the order from their own chain of command, many followed suit and opened fire. Only a few looked toward their captain with hesitation, seemingly waiting for confirmation.
The leader of the Shi'an Bureau squad looked grim. While it was true the Shi'an Bureau didn't dare provoke the great families, for a family member to override their authority and order fire... what if those muzzles were pointed at them one day?
But in Monopeng City, the Hawthorne family held absolute power. The Shi'an Bureau had no choice but to bow their heads.
As the first volley of bullets poured out, they passed through the overlapping space of the Ice Sealed World, failing to cause April any harm.
The night was lit as bright as day by the floodlights. The barrage of tracer rounds converged on a single focal point like a glowing fan, a spectacular and terrifying sight.
The buildings behind her were swallowed by the massive volume of fire. No one cared about the lives of ordinary people. To reclaim the Ice Sealed World, what did it matter if Monopeng City burned in the fires of war all night?
To the Transcendent academies, everything in the outside world was nothing more than a name on a map.
It was precisely this attitude from the academies that had bred such reckless arrogance in the families.
"Stop! Cease fire!"
At that shout, everyone released their triggers. When the smoke cleared and they saw the girl still standing there completely unharmed, cold sweat broke out on their backs.
These men were not typical civilians; they knew enough to be terrified. They couldn't afford to provoke someone who couldn't be killed by guns.
They didn't understand the full scope of the situation, only the broad strokes: there was a traitor in the Hawthorne family, and this girl was it. But now that their only reliable weapons—their firearms—had lost their threat, fear naturally began to take hold.
"I want to see how much longer you can hold out, even with that Transcendent item in your hand!"
The man in the lead knew more than the others and wasn't as easily shaken. He spoke up to stabilize the situation.
He knew she was just a teaching assistant witch who had lost all her other means. Her only threat was that [Transcendent Knowledge] Fragment. Their goal was to recover that fragment at all costs. As for the traitorous girl, they were to capture her alive if possible, but killing her was acceptable if necessary.
Although the fragment in April's hand wasn't a standard Transcendent item and didn't require a specific "price" to use, the Ice Sealed World was no different from a cursed artifact to her now.
Even the Absolute Zero held by Tan Han required alchemy and sealing arts to be turned into a Sealed Alchemy Item, specifically designed to protect the user. Even then, Tan Han suffered backlash from the extreme cold. April was holding the Ice Sealed World directly; the damage she was taking was far greater than the price paid for using a typical Transcendent item.
The scene fell into a deadlock. The two sides existed on different spatial levels; neither could touch the other.
But in a war of attrition, April, who had nothing left, was destined to lose.
The Shi'an Bureau was here. Before long, the Wizard Academy would receive word and send reinforcements—actual Academy Students. Those wizards would have the right to use witchcraft and other methods. While they might not be able to break the Ice Sealed World easily, her fate was sealed to be a tragic one.
Moreover, if the opposition brought out another [Transcendent Knowledge] Fragment to counter her Ice Sealed World, they might very well succeed.
Regardless... her physical constitution wouldn't last long enough for them to try. She would collapse first.
This standoff should have been the moment she wanted most. Earlier, she had so many questions she wanted to scream. If she asked to see her father now, he might actually appear before her again.
But as she opened her mouth, she realized there was no one she actually wanted to see. Not a single person close to her remained... her mother was dead, her father was an unmitigated bastard, and her grandfather wasn't someone she could see just because she wanted to. As for her other relatives, none had left a meaningful impression on her.
She remained silent, but the Hawthornes weren't willing to just waste time with her.
They sent a family member forward to persuade her—not the man who had ordered the firing, but another person April vaguely remembered. In the vast Hawthorne family, finding someone April still had an impression of was no easy task.
But... April could no longer hear what the people outside were saying.
She only felt that they were annoying.
She even found herself missing her mentor. In the final moments of the dream, her mentor had given her a choice.
To resist, or to wait for death.
In that final opportunity, she had followed the most emotional choice of her heart, defying the shackles of her family.
She thought that was the best answer, but cold reality had given her a harsh lesson.
Sometimes, a lack of ability meant you had no choice at all. Just like now: she had chosen to resist, but in the end, she could still only wait for death.
Memories of the choices Mentor Chris had given her time and again surfaced in her mind. If she had followed her heart's true desire from that very first choice... would she have had a completely different ending?
"I'm sorry... Mentor Chris... I've let you down again..."
April slumped to her knees. Her body could no longer sustain the power of the Ice Sealed World; the numbness was about to strip away her ability to even maintain her balance.
"But this is all a dream... Mentor Chris won't be able to hear me anyway... it was all just my wishful thinking..."
Unbeknownst to her, tears began to fall, but they turned into ice crystals before they could hit the ground.
The collapse of the dream made her realize that everything she had done was in vain. Mentor Chris wouldn't come here to grant her salvation.
Her final connection with Mentor Chris had been severed completely after that confrontation match.
So... was there really no hope left?
April felt there was none. Although her subconscious hadn't given up the fight—and the series of events she had experienced were filled with an unusual sense of dissonance, proving someone was pulling the strings—her instincts suppressed the birth of such subjective thoughts.
April watched the clumsy performance of the people outside the Ice Sealed World. She wanted to laugh, but she couldn't.
At that moment, a familiar voice reached her ears.
"Are you planning to give up just like that?"
A somewhat illusory voice echoed in her mind, making her think it was another hallucination.
"Since you chose to resist by running away, why not resist to the very end?"
The voice echoed again, shattering the possibility that it was a hallucination. Her body jerked instinctively as she tried to find the source.
Through her blurred vision, she saw a familiar figure standing beside her.
"Mentor... Chris... how are you..."
"You still want to live, don't you? There is still resentment in your heart, and you still have things you wish to pursue."
"I... I... I am indeed resentful..."
"Why was I born into such a family? And I know... even if it weren't for this family, I still wouldn't get the life I want... Why is this world so twisted? Why can't it be as beautiful as the dream? Even if it's not that perfect, even if it's just a normal life and normal love... is even that a luxury?"
April's voice was hoarse. Many of her words were mere broken whimpers that perhaps only she could understand. Only the raw emotion poured into her speech allowed her resentment and helplessness to be felt, even if the words themselves were unclear.
"This world is sick. Complaining is merely the groan of the weak. Only the strong can make their voices heard."
"But I... I..."
No matter how much logic she heard, April remained immersed in her own world. Wisdom isn't something you can just understand by hearing it; it must be experienced and felt to become one's own wealth.
She understood Mentor Chris's words, of course, but she couldn't even save herself. How could she be considered strong?
It was all a joke...
"From the moment you entered the Witch Academy, there was a path you could have taken. But you ignored its existence from the very beginning. Why not be bold and try it now?"
"What is it..."
April asked instinctively, but as the words left her mouth, she realized she already knew the answer.
It was the path of advancement she had always discarded—the taboo act her family preached as the abandonment of one's humanity.
The first lesson taught to any family member chosen to apply to a Transcendent academy was that they must never advance to Transcendent status. They were told it was an act of self-abandonment; becoming Transcendent meant discarding the original self to become something else, to merge into another race—and wizards were no exception.
The family had countless stories of ancestors who tried to transcend, and the result was always the same: they abandoned the family. Thus, even if many still didn't understand why they couldn't transcend, it had become a default family rule—a rule that had to be kept hidden from the Academy!
But now... April didn't care anymore.
Becoming a Transcendent didn't seem as terrifying as her family claimed. During her days at the Witch Academy, Mentor Chris and the other mentors she spent time with were Transcendent Witches, yet they were also lovely people who enjoyed being called "Sister."
But... did she really still have the qualification to become a Transcendent Witch?
She had been expelled from the Witch Academy and had signed the Witch Contract that all deported students had to follow.
She had lost all her Mana Sources and her spellbook.
She had completely lost the foundation for advancement.
"It seems you already know. The Witches welcome any preparatory witch who truly wishes to join the great family."
"Now... make good on your choice."
As Chris's voice faded, her figure began to dissipate, leaving only an outstretched hand holding a Mana Source, which she thoughtfully pressed toward April.
A single... Mana Source.
But it was enough. In the earliest days of the Witch Academy, the Witchification brought about by a single Mana Source was theoretically enough to support a preparatory witch's advancement to Transcendent Witch within ten years.
Any additional Mana Sources were merely an extra pursuit of power.
At this moment, I, along with Sister Bai, watched from the side with anticipation, waiting for the miracle to happen.
And I had made all the necessary preparations.
The metamorphosis of life during the Transcendent advancement, the completion of the Witch racial concept, the incubation of self-generated mana, the foundation of power supported by the research subject, the sublimation from soul essence to a true soul...
Each of these transformations corresponded to a domain I craved. It was an observational experience I could only dream of.
I was also prepared to reveal myself and dominate the scene at a moment's notice. No one would be allowed to interrupt this ritual of advancement!
Bai Yu was also on high alert. She understood clearly that not even a Transcendent could be allowed to disturb Xiao Han's experiment!
Meanwhile, April stared blankly at the Mana Source before her, her gaze dazed.
"A real... Mana... Source?"
April thought this was all a fantasy of her own mind, an overlap of dream and reality, a delusion before death.
But... a Mana Source could not be faked.
April reached out instinctively. She had never scrutinized a Mana Source so closely. Ever since she had reached the cap of ten thousand Mana Sources, she had never cared about their existence.
But now, she suddenly found it beautiful.
The life level within her, which almost touched the truth of time, began to stir.
The lessons Mentor Chris had once taught on how to attempt Transcendent advancement now flashed before her eyes like a cinematic recap of her life.
She felt as if she had returned to the days when she was willing to listen to Mentor Chris's lectures.
In this moment, the Mana Source she held in her left hand merged with the one Mentor Chris had held during that lecture.
An indescribable resonance stimulated every sensory nerve in April's body, as if something was blooming from the depths of her life!
In this instant, April felt an unprecedented sense of comfort and fluidity, as if all the shackles of the past were stepping aside for her.
The deepest desire of her heart transformed into her most steadfast source of power.
"I only ever craved a normal life and love... So... is this the true meaning of my Ordinary Subject?"
The scene before April's eyes shifted back to the moment Mentor Chris had forcefully made her choose the Ordinary Subject.
Her past self had no intention of becoming Transcendent and had simply accepted it silently. But she had never imagined that, even then, Mentor Chris had already foreseen her predicament.
In that moment, Mentor Chris had fired a bullet that had left her confused; in this moment, it struck her right between the eyes.
But now, she accepted it with a smile.