Chapter 112: Failing Grade
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 112: Failing Grade
A massive fireball hurtled toward Rune.
Judging by its size alone, it looked like it would swallow her whole, but both Narupa and I simply stood by and watched.
Narupa had already signaled for me to stay out of it, and since Yarismal was keeping a close eye on Rune’s condition, I wasn’t worried.
Besides, the three of us were each prepared to step in if things went south.
“Hmph.”
Rune boldly took a running start and thrust her shield forward.
She actually charged straight into the fireball.
“Foolish! There’s no way a physical charge can withstand—”
Ssssssssss!
“It can?!”
Contrary to its appearance, the fireball striking Rune’s shield vanished pathetically.
There wasn’t even much of an explosion.
While Resin stood there in shock, Rune burst through the flames and slammed her shield into Resin’s side.
“Guh!”
Realizing she couldn’t win with raw strength, Resin tried to block before desperately using a short-range teleport.
“Sorry, but I already predicted that.”
“Diane?!”
Diane, who had become a master of these utility-type skills, predicted the exit point and threw her hidden weapons with pinpoint accuracy.
Whether she was startled by Diane’s presence or the incoming projectiles, Resin hurriedly swung her ruby-colored arm to deflect them.
Clang!
“How are you still alive, you bitch?! And what is that power? It feels familiar, yet different.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s a power far more human than yours.”
Hey, Diane, that’s not quite right.
You absorbed Barion’s power too, remember?
Anyway, if Narupa’s analysis is correct, Resin has absorbed Liras’s power.
I didn’t realize my former party members were this capable.
Had I been underestimating them just as they had underestimated me?
Then again, they were the ones who used to keep pace with me, so it wouldn’t be possible if they didn’t have some basic talent.
No, no—even so, two of them have absorbed the power of the Four Heavenly Kings now. There’s definitely something going on.
Either these girls were actually “prodigies” all along, or for some reason, the world is specifically targeting those around me.
This interference, which feels like a mix of coincidence and fate… it almost reminds me of her.
Is this the new taste of the Demon King?
“More importantly, how can a wench like you be by Lord Alto’s side!”
At Resin’s pointing finger, Diane gritted her teeth.
According to what I heard from Eris—the only one Diane truly opens up to—the former party members called Diane a “worthless wench” every single time they met.
“I’m by his side because he forgave me. Did I have any other choice?”
“A-Alto!”
“You seem to have a problem with my decision?”
“No, of course not! How could I! It’s just… for someone as noble as you, Lord Alto, to have someone like her nearby is a bit…”
“It’s the same thing. It means you have a problem with my decision.”
“That’s not it…”
Seeing the person I once thought was the most eloquent speaker stuttering like this was beyond frustrating—it was infuriating.
Rune lightly shook her shield and sneered.
“You say it’s ‘not it,’ but you keep talking back to my darling. What kind of mage can’t even speak properly?”
“Urgh!”
“That’s enough, Rune. The battle starts now.”
Narupa stepped in to restrain Rune.
Even though this was all a scripted performance, Resin gnashed her teeth and waited for the next words.
“Congratulations, Resin Luna. You’ve become quite useful, haven’t you?”
“Quite useful? Quite useful?! Is this all I look like to you?!”
“Yes.”
“I’ll kill—!”
“What I’m about to say is also Alto’s proposal. Are you going to listen or not?”
“I’m warning you for the last time. If you try to play word games with me, I will focus entirely on killing everyone here except for Lord Alto.”
“Sure, sure. I get it.”
“Respond properly!”
Infuriated by Narupa’s smirking, half-hearted response, Resin unleashed another barrage of magic, but it was all nullified by Rune’s shield.
According to Yarismal and Narupa, the Dakuren bloodline has a natural trait that allows them to endure and nullify magic to some extent.
Wait, isn’t that a total cheat?
No wonder the Marquis and Janks always dive headfirst into the middle of spells and sorcery.
“Our proposal is as follows: If you can suppress or defeat us to prove your worth, my brother said he would take you as a concubine.”
“A concubine? A concubine?! Where else would you find a woman like me? To think I’d be a mere concubine…!”
“Oh? Look at this one.”
The faces of Narupa, Rune, and Yarismal hardened instantly.
Yarismal smiled while grinding her teeth.
“Have you already forgotten the humiliation you caused my brother? You should be grateful just to be included at all.”
“I have been reborn. The filthy Resin of the past is dead; I have become pure white.”
“I’ve seen enough. You’re hopeless.”
Equipping Love and Peace in both hands, Yarismal flared her divine power.
“I’ll kill you nice and clean.”
Rune, Yarismal, and Narupa moved into formation, while Diane vanished from sight.
I stepped back.
Narupa’s condition was that I shouldn’t accidentally kill Resin by getting involved.
“Lord Alto! Please listen!”
“What is it?”
“If I can prove that I am stronger than these women, please accept me as your primary wife. I will… I will show you how well I can do. As a life partner, as a wife…!”
“Sure, give it a shot.”
Despite the lackluster response, Resin hesitated before asking again.
“I can kill them, right?”
“Yeah, go ahead. You bitch.”
Rune was the one who directly accepted the provocation.
“For the record, we aren’t going to kill you. We’re going to make you suffer so much that you’ll regret being alive.”
“Just try it! Who dares stop me!”
Resin screamed as she flared both demonic energy and mana.
“I am Resin Luna! No one shall stop this Empress’s ascent!!!”
Empress, huh?
She was acting as if she’d become some sort of sovereign.
However, Resin’s power was indeed monstrous.
Beams fired from her ruby arms and magic spheres of various attributes hammered relentlessly against Rune’s shield.
“Kh…!”
Even for Rune, taking a continuous barrage was difficult; scratches appeared on her arms and cheeks where spells grazed her.
Yarismal quickly healed her with divine power, but they were being pushed back bit by bit.
In that moment, Resin fired a sudden burst of magic and teleported into the air behind Rune.
“Hehe!”
She reached out with a sneer, but—
“I can see you.”
“Tsk!”
Appearing even faster than Resin, Diane swept her dagger across the arm made of magic stone.
As her side was also slashed deep by Diane’s relentless space-time attacks, Resin clicked her tongue and retreated to her original position.
“Hiding cowardly behind your party members, are you, Narupa!”
But Narupa chose retribution over a verbal response.
“Fixed.”
Cr-cr-crack!
“Ugh?!”
The ground beneath Resin’s feet froze, locking her legs in place.
“Multi-fire Non-attribute Magic Bullets.”
Countless bullets of light filled the air around Resin.
“Strike.”
Literally endless magic bullets began to batter Resin.
She deployed a barrier, but she was forced to her knees before she could even let out a scream.
She must have shrunk her barrier to the minimum range, as no visible wounds appeared even as the bullets pummeled her body.
“Kuaaaaaagh!”
Resin was pressed against the floor like gum, nearly flattened.
“My, you’re still all talk, aren’t you, Resin?”
“Don’t look at me like that!!!!”
Staking everything on her pride, she began to cancel out the magic bullets.
Despite the unending stream, she countered them one by one until she stood tall, glaring at Narupa and firing back an equal number of magic bullets.
“I always hated that about you!!! You could end things with one powerful blow, yet you insist on using these petty tricks just to piss people off! It’s fucking annoying!”
“Seeing how worked up you are, I must be doing a very good job. Thanks for the compliment.”
“It’s not a compliment!!!!”
Losing her temper again, Resin gathered mana, ignoring the magic bullets striking her body.
As she mixed demonic energy into a massive mass of mana, a murky, ash-colored energy of an indistinguishable attribute was formed.
“Try blocking this!”
“Hmph!”
Rune raised her shield to block, but the sound of something snapping echoed repeatedly.
Seeing the wooden and iron parts of the shield crumbling into dust, Yarismal shouted in alarm.
“Drop the shield! It carries corrosion and decay!”
“Dammit!”
Rune hurled the shield away and dove to the side.
Left exposed in the front, Yarismal quickly countered the ashen energy with her divine power.
It was a brief moment, but their teamwork was excellent.
That aside, it was clear that if that had hit, both Rune and Yarismal would have been in serious trouble.
This bitch, Resin, is crossing the line.
I’ll have to step in myself if things get truly dangerous.
“Aaaaaaaagh—!!!!”
“Haha?”
In contrast to Resin, who was shouting and drenched in sweat, Narupa gave a relaxed laugh.
Even so, a small bead of sweat had formed on Narupa’s forehead.
To be honest, while her firepower is overwhelming, Resin is weaker than Barion despite having the power of a Heavenly King.
Compared to Barion, who used her domain and unique traits to scatter us and take the high ground, Resin let all her prepared traps and monsters go to waste and faced us while we were at full strength.
On top of that, she’s stubbornly trying to take on the entire adventurer party at once.
“Not bad, Resin. Shall we turn up the output a bit?”
“W-What?!”
The number of magic bullets increased.
Resin was struggling to keep up, but Narupa’s mana capacity was truly phenomenal.
I could only marvel at her mana reserves, which seemed even greater than Bisharen Diberuper’s.
“Let’s add a few variations.”
“Khhh!”
The pure physical bullets, which had been non-attribute, were now imbued with all sorts of elements. Resin desperately countered each one with the opposing attribute.
“And let’s throw in that ‘one big hit’ you like so much.”
In front of Resin, the magic bullets merged and condensed, eventually forming a sphere of black mana where all colors bled together.
“Haha! Yes! So that’s why it was black! Because it contains every attribute!”
Resin also concentrated her firepower.
She tried to create the same black light, but outnumbered and outmatched, she could only produce the ashen gray.
And even that ashen light was pushed back by Narupa’s black sphere.
“Uuuuuuuugh—!!!!!”
Watching the black sphere slowly approach as she failed to hold it back, Resin broke into a cold sweat, then—
“Hehehehe… Huhahahaha!!”
Instead, she laughed loudly and spread her arms, taking the hit with her body.
“What? Is she crazy? Giving up?”
Rune muttered blankly, but what followed was Resin’s confident voice.
“Narupa, you stupid bitch! You were the fool until the very end! I’ve already figured out your black light. I may have looked pathetic in front of Lord Alto, but I succeeded that very day! I grew because of it. And with that growth, I even killed the Dean and absorbed his power!”
Just as she said, Resin, who had absorbed the black sphere, grinned.
“The analysis is already complete.”
She struck an arrogant pose, her ruby limbs glowing.
“How does it feel to have raised your own enemy? I’d love to hear your thoughts.”
And the expression on Narupa’s face as she watched this…
“I can’t believe this…”
…was filled with despair.
“Ahahahaha! Come on, answer me, Narupa Diberuper! The greatest enemy you created with your own hands—”
“Is this really the best you can do?”
“Pardon?”
Resin reflexively stammered back in formal speech.
Ignoring her, Narupa screamed in pure rage.
“I gave you so many days! And you dare to act smug in front of me just because you managed to absorb it?! You think you finished your assignment?!”
“Uh? Uh…?”
Gritting her teeth and brushing back her bangs, Narupa whispered, unable to contain her fury.
“Resin Luna.”
“What is this mana…?”
“You fail.”
Clench.
As Narupa clenched and then opened her fist in the air—
Thwack!
“Guh, bleargh!”
Spikes made of black light erupted from all over Resin’s body.
“Teacher…”
Thwack!
“Urgh!”
“…is truly…”
Thwack!
“Blargh!”
“…disappointed in you.”
Then, a relentless storm of magic bullets began to pummel Resin.