The Black Sphere's Collapse
The direct collision of an Inner World unfolded at point-blank range around the black sphere, carefully positioned so that the children floating like polygons above it would remain untouched. Professor Karlsen's forcibly manifested realm pierced straight through the opposing dark mage's world and shattered it completely.
The enemy world crumbled slowly, breaking apart piece by piece. The attractive force that had been drawing the wasted mana out of the children suddenly vanished. The mana that had gathered into a spherical shape began to shake with extreme instability.
What followed was inevitable: a massive detonation.
Judging by scale alone, the Inner World mana—comparable to a 6-star mage—spread rapidly in every direction in a large-scale self-destruct explosion. This was one of the unique traits that distinguished this particular Inner World from others, and Professor Karlsen had naturally anticipated it as well.
Boom!
Professor Karlsen wrapped his own Inner World around the perimeter of the black sphere. The barrier was designed to prevent the explosion's aftermath from reaching the students' satellites. Every curse melted into that world clung to the sphere like stakes and chains, completely denying the blast entry into his own domain.
Rumble.
The repulsive force pushing outward replaced the attractive force that had been pulling inward. The black sphere was forcibly compressed by Professor Karlsen's power. The mana, now with nowhere to go, continued to shake unsteadily and raged wildly in all directions.
Crack!
Before long, it broke free from the collapsing computational domain and stretched out beyond the boundaries of the real world.
"Well, the rest should be handled by the other professors."
Protect the students. Destroy the enemy's Inner World. And drive the culprit out of this world.
Just by accomplishing these three things, Professor Karlsen had more than fulfilled his role. The remaining tasks now fell to the other professors waiting outside.
"Ah, am I a bit late?"
Just as he was breathing a sigh of relief at the resolution of the incident, a mysterious voice suddenly reached his ear.
His perception slowed to an extreme degree. It felt as if time itself had stopped. Jeon Raydel stood frozen like a statue, seemingly unaware of the intruder's presence. Between them, someone brushed past at incredible speed and muttered as if to themselves.
"Well, it doesn't really matter."
There wasn't even time to identify the intruder. Before the 7-star dark mage could react, a shadow leaped toward the spot where the black sphere was swirling unstably. Watching it escape the world alongside the exploding sphere, Professor Karlsen's brow furrowed deeply.
Who the hell was that?
It wasn't the culprit. Judging by how overwhelmingly they had suppressed him in an instant, the opponent was at least an 8-star transcendent. Why would such a being have been in this world?
Professor Karlsen felt a lingering unease as he watched the black mana flowing out into the outside world. The encounter had been so brief it almost felt like an illusion.
Incredible.
Even from a distance, the mana waves made his skin tingle. The mana from the negative dimension was fluctuating so violently that, despite the restriction cuffs on his ankles, it felt no different from being uncuffed. The mana waves rushed into his nostrils with the same unpleasant sensation as inhaling cigarette smoke.
If it detonated properly, it would wipe out not only the academy but the entire surrounding area. A spell formula rapidly materialized around the bomb-like sphere.
The caster was Professor Magnus. The spell formulas were incomparably more complex than the puzzle he had assigned as homework. They intertwined organically to form a single massive magic circle.
"Hmm."
Even Marily, standing beside Arina, swallowed a groan and shook her head. She couldn't decipher even half of the formulas within the circle. This was the true power of a high-ranking mage.
The magic circle rising from Professor Magnus's hand first suppressed and contained the explosion's force.
Crack.
As expected from something made on the spot, its effectiveness was limited. The circle began to crack, unable to fully withstand the blast. But that was fine. It had bought enough time for the other professors to prepare.
Wooooong!
Starting with Professor Magnus's circle, numerous other magic circles surged forth and rapidly surrounded the black mana. Under their thorough restraint, the black mana was sealed tight, unable to move an inch.
"Uwaaaaaaaaaaah!"
Then, accompanied by a scream, a hazy black figure so distorted that its facial features were unrecognizable rose up. It glared fiercely at the professors blocking its path.
This was the dark mage responsible for the incident. Having melted his body into an astral form through dark magic and hidden it beyond the computational domain, the criminal had finally revealed himself. The professors' faces filled with individual expressions of rage at the appearance of the sinner who had threatened their students.
I can't get caught like this!
After everything he had done to get this far. After escaping from hell through the passage that man had opened, he had moved with extreme caution. He had caused trouble inside the farm that Ern Benedict created and was just about to stretch his reach back into the outside world.
Yet he was going to be caught so pathetically before he could even begin his real activities in earnest?
Don't make me laugh!
Being caught wasn't scary. Dying wasn't frightening either. But failing to accomplish his goal was terrifying beyond measure. This was the task entrusted to him by the one who had pulled him out of hell. And that person would never tolerate failure.
This isn't something that ends with death!
He was an archvillain who had turned even hell into a mess. There was no escaping his influence even if he fled back to hell. He would inevitably have to pay the price for failure someday.
He had to escape. No matter what.
Yet despite his desperate, violent resistance to survive, the magic circles surrounding him didn't budge an inch. It was only natural. While he had used the shared mana and minds of the students to elevate his Inner World to nearly 6-star level, his actual realm was only 5-star.
Benedict Academy only granted professorships to those who had reached at least 5-star. Not every professor was present due to their individual schedules, but every mage gathered here possessed power ranging from 5-star to 6-star.
I need to create an opening.
What he needed for escape was a variable. Just the tiniest gap in those magic circles would do. There was still a chance. The dark mage struggled even harder with that thought in mind.
Along with the fluctuating mana, the bodies of the collapsed students began to twitch more violently. Then, with grotesque movements, the students started to rise.
The negative dimensional mana seeped into their bodies, forcibly manipulating those whose minds had not yet fully returned.
"It's necromancy!"
The essence of necromancy was to instill an ego into a dead corpse and control it. One could create a superior ego using the memories a corpse held in life—like with Death Knights or Liches—and implant it. Or, like the zombies that had rampaged through the Grant Department Store, one could implant an inferior ego capable of following only simple commands.
What the dark mage had done was the latter: using the unconscious students' bodies as corpses and raising them with inferior egos. It was possible because the shared mana linked through the Mana Up application had not yet been severed from them.
Unlike the exploding negative dimensional mana, this connection could not be blocked by the magic circles' restraint.
"Suppress him!"
Even so, they could not touch the students. It was a ruthless method that essentially used the students as hostages, but it still fell within the professors' expectations.
The makeshift mana restriction cuffs created by alchemy professor Toltem Paracelsus activated. The magic tools that had been placed on the students' wrists beforehand triggered the moment necromancy manifested, forcibly severing their mana connection to the outside.
The principle behind shared mana was ultimately the same as basic mana accumulation. The only difference was whether the source was the mana of nature or someone else's mana. By using the restriction cuffs to cut off the mana circulation between inside and outside, the connected network would naturally break.
Although they were makeshift cuffs with performance far inferior to those used by police in the field, they were more than enough to stop the dark mage's trickery.
"Damn it."
The dark mage burst with frustration at the sight. He had thought it was a rather good plan, but it had been suppressed before he could even begin properly. To make matters worse, the magic circles were contracting, gradually narrowing the radius in which he could act.
The reason a dark mage could threaten everyone was, after all, due to the existence of an abnormal Inner World. Overwhelming a mage in a pure contest of spell formulas was extremely difficult.
"Damn these professors!"
His Inner World had been destroyed. He could barely even release the negative dimensional mana outward, let alone curses. The students he had connected to mentally had become useless before he could even use them.
There was no way out now. If only there was just the slightest gap...
"Hmm?"
Suddenly, the dark mage's eyes narrowed in confusion. His mana was leaking out from somewhere. But where? The magic circles set up by those damned academy professors were clearly sealing him perfectly without a single gap.
The dark mage focused his mind for a moment, feeling bewildered. Then his eyes widened roundly.
There was another exit. Besides the one where the professors were waiting, there was another outlet.
Did he give up?
The dark mage's resistance suddenly went quiet. Professor Scape narrowed his eyes at the unexpectedly quick surrender. It was natural to give up when there was no other option, but considering the attitude he had shown until now, surrendering so easily was clearly suspicious.
"......"
Professor Magnus was looking at it with the same suspicion. The negative dimensional mana was decreasing smoothly. Professor Magnus stared warily at the dark mage, who was slowly revealing his true form within the blackened haze.
The moment he noticed even that silhouette beginning to waver, he seemed to realize something and shouted loudly.
"We must stop him!"
Now that he thought about it, there was one more. Besides the smartphones gathered here, there was another outlet. The one that Hemming had been carrying when he rushed to the hospital after hearing about his son.
"Shit!"
There had been something like that! To put it in perspective, it was as if they had thoroughly blocked the main entrance but a separate emergency exit had existed all along. Professor Scape panicked at the unexpected situation.
It was a dilemma. They had to stop the dark mage's actions, but if they released the magic circles, the still-unstable negative dimensional mana would explode outward in all directions.
If we send the students outside the auditorium right now......
No. It was impossible. Moving all the unconscious students would take too much time. It was obvious that the dark mage would escape before they could fully evacuate.
Is it even possible?
Doubt crept in. Could they really suppress the dark mage before the explosion spread after opening the magic circles? And more importantly, could they properly block it so that the students wouldn't be harmed in the process? Against something whose power rivaled 6-star grand magic?
There's no other way anyway.
They had no choice. They couldn't let that dark mage escape like this.
With that thought, Professor Scape circulated his mana and reinforced his body to its limit.
"I'm going in. Prepare to respond."
At Professor Scape's words, the other professors each swallowed their groans. Time was short. The professors quickly calculated which formulas in their magic circles needed to be modified.
Their distress spread even to the students. Arina couldn't hide her anxious feelings and clasped her hands together in front of her chest.
"......!"
Something brushed past her side at high speed. Togun Masao was recklessly dashing forward toward where the professors were gathered. Beside the startled Arina, Marily let out a small exclamation as if she had realized something.
"That's right! We still have that guy!"
Then she looked at Arina and shouted urgently.
"Take off the mana restriction cuffs."
"Huh?"
"Now!"
Not knowing what it was about but sensing the urgency in Marily's cry, Arina quickly removed the mana restriction cuffs from her ankles. Without even time to adjust to the suddenly surging affinity, Arina handed the cuffs to Marily.
Marily took them and, without hesitation, hurled them with all her strength toward Togun, who was running ahead.
"Catch! That's the main body, so makeshift cuffs like the ones used on the other students won't be able to properly restrain it!"
In the end, the only method left was to break through the stagnant negative dimensional mana and slap the mana restriction cuffs directly onto the dark mage to sever all the shared mana.
That was exactly what Professor Scape had been about to do. But there were clear risks if she did it herself.
Togun Masao, however, was different. If he stepped forward, he could approach the dark mage without the negative dimensional mana spreading. No matter how powerful the attack was, as long as it was made of mana, it would be useless in front of him.
"Thanks."
Catching it lightly without even looking, Togun's eyes sank coldly as he stared at the fleeing dark mage.
How dare you target someone?
Running toward where Andy was? Don't make him laugh. That was the one thing he could never allow.
He would definitely stop it.
A powerful tenacity mixed with resolve and sheer willpower. In front of such a Togun, a sword shining pure white materialized in the air and settled into his grasp.