Aaron Dice and Chris
As the two four-star mages, Aaron Dice and Chris, began fighting in earnest, the surroundings were obliterated in an instant. Fiercely intertwining flames and light consumed everything. With nothing left to protect, Aaron's combat style shifted completely into an all-out offensive, while Chris found himself frantically forced onto the defensive.
What the hell is going on here?
Even as he pressured Chris, Aaron analyzed the situation with cold precision on another level. One thing was certain: something had gone wrong with the virtual world. The damage was bad enough, but the AI that had been floating in the sky had vanished at some point without a trace.
The fact that the organizing committee and the professors still haven't shown up means there's trouble on the outside too.
Another question gnawed at him: why was Chris acting like this? He wasn't an idiot. He must have noticed how strange the situation was.
To escape this mess, I desperately need Junior Togun's strength.
If rescue couldn't come from outside, they had to break out from within by shattering the virtual world. Under normal circumstances, students could never destroy a virtual realm created by archmages. But they were lucky. Togun was here, wielding the Masao family's heirloom. With his power, cutting through this virtual world should be possible, just like during the survival treasure hunt.
What a damned annoying situation.
He couldn't blame anyone else since he was the one who had knocked Togun unconscious. All he felt was intense self-loathing for failing to notice the anomaly sooner.
With that thought, Aaron stared directly at Chris and spoke.
"I'd like an explanation. Why are you doing this?"
"......"
"Stop pretending to be unconscious. I noticed you were in your right mind quite some time ago."
The way he had intelligently targeted only Togun and Jeon Raydel. The occasional frowns that revealed emotion. The atmosphere felt wrong, but his movements matched Chris's usual combat style perfectly. In other words, he was fighting Aaron of his own free will. In this virtual world where the concept of elimination had vanished, he was trying to actually kill them.
"So you're refusing to answer?"
Chris maintained his silence as radiance gathered above his palm. Aaron looked at the Sword of Glory formed by his vision magic, Flash Sculpting, and gave a bitter smile.
"Then I have no choice. I'll just have to subdue you by force...!"
The sword made of light swung down in a massive arc from above. A brilliant ray sliced through the fierce flames. Aaron dodged it lightly and stomped his foot.
Kwaaaang!
Flames seeped into the ground and erupted. Infernal fire boiled up from below and swallowed Chris whole. His skin instantly burned and peeled away from the scorching heat. Even with his ankles drenched in blood and pus, Chris ignored the agony and continued swinging the radiant sword at Aaron.
Swish!
The radiant sword stretched like rubber, grazing Aaron's cheek. The ultra-high heat radiating from the condensed light seared the cut skin, sending sharp burning pain through him.
As expected. Since it's light, it can change shape and length at will?
Light was originally a substance without any fixed form. Flash Sculpting was magic that let Chris manipulate space to shape light according to predetermined frames. Just as water took different shapes depending on its container, altering the spatial frame allowed him to stretch and compress light freely.
The reason Chris had stuck to fixed specifications and forms until now was likely to plant preconceptions in Aaron for the day they would fight.
Papapak!
The blade bent and twisted according to the shifting space. Weaving between curves and straight lines, it pursued Aaron before encircling the two of them completely.
It's certainly threatening, but...
A sword of extreme light with heat so intense that anything it grazed would be annihilated. But no matter how dangerous the blade, its wielder was a mage, not a warrior. To Aaron, who had just fought a desperate battle against Togun, Chris's movements felt tediously monotonous and simple.
Thud!
His retreat was cut off. So Aaron charged forward instead, kicking Chris's wrist upward. He closed the distance even further and flashed a grin at him.
"......!"
The sparkle surrounding Aaron intensified. Brilliant light flooded Chris's entire field of vision. Enormous mana rushed toward Aaron at terrifying speed. Before Chris could counter, it erupted outward in every direction at once.
Kwaaaaang!
Condensed explosion. The blast centered on Aaron expanded in all directions. Chris was thrown backward, unable to withstand the shock. Grinding his teeth in a body covered with wounds, he frowned and glared ahead.
"You're showing more emotion than before. Your poker face is completely gone."
Aaron's mocking provocation was calculated to the last detail. The opponent was a mage superior to him in spellcraft alone. To defeat him easily, he needed to shatter that trademark composure.
Uuuuung.
And the provocation worked rather well. Chris's hand gestures stirring the air grew noticeably rougher. It was proof that he was beginning to feel impatient facing Aaron.
Looking at the radiant swords filling the sky, Aaron reached out toward the flames scattering everywhere.
"Numbers alone won't get the job done."
Firepower had always been Aaron Dice's specialty. Flames whirled around him, riding the flow of mana he created. They formed a vortex and countered the incoming radiant swords. The chain explosions shattered the spatial frames holding the light, tearing the space itself to pieces.
"You've revealed too many of your trump cards."
Spell transformation. Direct interference with space. Just like the continuous repeated regeneration he had used against Togun's Anti-Magic Sword. Aaron displayed the most efficient countermeasures to Chris's magic and reached out toward him from within the surging flames.
"......"
The bombardment surged like a raging tide, rapidly expanding the space and disrupting the spells Chris needed to calculate. In the burning heat, Chris widened his eyes in concentration. The moment his pupils contracted and his four-white eyes stood out sharply, white lasers sprayed in every direction, hammering the flames relentlessly.
It was a technique that analyzed the weaknesses in Aaron's magic formulas and destroyed the spells themselves. Chris countered with near-miraculous dispels using his Eye that Sees Mana, but Aaron had already prepared countermeasures for that as well.
Hwaruruk!
Infinite repeated regeneration of spells. The same technique he had displayed against Togun. No matter how specialized Chris was at destroying opponents' magic formulas, his ability couldn't compare to the Anti-Magic Sword.
The spells repaired themselves faster than they could be broken. Infinitely overlapping parallel magic circles continuously filled every destroyed gap.
He was being pushed back helplessly. Both his vision magic, Flash Sculpting, and the dispels through the Eye that Sees Mana. Every advantage Chris possessed had been rendered completely useless by Aaron's tricks.
At this point, he had no choice but to admit it. Aaron Dice, the mage standing at the pinnacle of Benedict Academy, was clearly superior to him.
"Give up already. You'll really die at this rate."
Moreover, unlike himself, the opponent had no intention of killing him and only meant to subdue. Facing those unwavering, clear black eyes with the bright red pupils burning at their center, Chris finally let out a deep sigh as if he had reached a decision.
Was that a sign of surrender? The moment Aaron thought so, Chris's right hand slowly rose to his own neck. Grabbing the black collar, he tore it off without the slightest hesitation.
The professor will understand this time, right?
In the past, he had arbitrarily removed his Mana Restriction Cuffs to protect his mother and received her harsh scolding. The collar around his neck was a new mana restriction tool that Professor Repli had prepared after hearing about his past. He had promised not to remove it until he could properly control his Ebon, but surely Professor Repli would understand just this once.
"No matter how dark the future may seem, do not wander, boy. For even above the pitch-black night sky of the metropolis, stars twinkle and shine."
The entire world had turned its back on Chris. Professor Repli was the first to reach out and accept his existence. If there was ever a moment in his life that needed to shine, it was now. For Professor Repli's sake, he would do everything in his power to light the path ahead.
Chris looked at Aaron again after forcibly tearing off the collar. Sensing a chilling aura from those four-white eyes, Aaron quickly retreated to create distance.
Kung!
The spot where Aaron had been standing collapsed entirely. The atmosphere itself warped from the overwhelming density of gathered mana. Frowning at the sight, Aaron urgently turned his gaze toward Chris.
"......"
Their eyes met. The point where mana condensed shifted according to the movement of that gaze. It was a magic eye that manipulated the mana itself, not merely tracked movement. Aaron, who had seen through the essence of the rampage that even Chris couldn't control, gritted his teeth and released flames beneath his feet.
What kind of ridiculous cheat power is this now?
He wasn't even casting a spell. All Chris had done was look at where Aaron was standing. Yet the mana in the air gathered into his field of vision following that gaze, like a pet desperately trying to catch its owner's attention.
Crack!
It couldn't compare to Togun Masao's Anti-Magic Sword, but the sensation was every bit as absurdly overpowered. Aaron flew through the sky like a rocket, spewing flames in every direction while Chris's eyes relentlessly tracked him. The moment Aaron accelerated once more to escape that gaze and pointed a blazing finger at Chris—
"......"
A chilling sensation prickled the back of his head. Suddenly the world behind Aaron lit up brilliantly. In that ominous atmosphere, his perception stretched endlessly as if time itself had stopped. His head turned slowly. And he saw it.
In the sky, a gigantic sword of radiance shining more brilliantly than the sun, falling straight toward him.
"Flash Sculpting"
"Glory Sword"
⟨ The Glory ⟩
The gaze that had followed the trajectory of Aaron Dice's movements. The enormous magic circle constructed from the vast mana condensed along with that gaze. From within it emerged the Sword of Glory, plummeting with the majestic force to crush the entire world beneath it from the clouds.
"......"
Aaron had no time to think of anything else. He immediately spun in the opposite direction and pointed his fingers toward the falling Sword of Glory. Elemental magic, White Flame. Pure white flames created through extreme compression. The ultra-high-temperature flames, rarely seen naturally on Earth, shot toward the gigantic sword of light that covered the entire sky.
Kwaaaaaaaaaang!
The two great magics collided, and a massive shockwave swept across the area.
"Urgh!"
Unable to withstand the impact, Aaron tumbled across the ground multiple times. Lifting his head with a body covered in wounds, he let out a hollow laugh and uttered a rare curse.
"Haha, this is insane."
Chris's gaze was still following him. Mana particles gathered around Aaron in the wake of those eyes. With no breathing room whatsoever, Aaron gritted his teeth and hurled his body swiftly to the side.