A Crow Descends on the Control Room
Kuuuuuguuuung!
Fist-sized blocks of white—no, fists the size of houses—came raining down from the sky in a chaotic storm. Simon, riding atop his golem board, slipped and weaved between them like an eel.
Faster! Faster than this!
The golem board surged with another burst of acceleration, shooting out between the legs of the Prima Materia monsters. The behemoths, forced to jam their fists down into the gap after him, crashed into one another and became hopelessly tangled.
KWA-KWA-KWANG!
Gwoooong!
It was a recklessly dangerous gamble where a single misstep meant death, but Simon was committing to it without hesitation.
Hill ahead.
A squat rise of terrain jutted up just a few meters in front of him. Simon gripped the tail of the board and leaned his body slightly.
Vuuuuuuuung!
The board rode up the slope and launched into the air. It hung suspended for a few seconds, then came down again and settled onto the packed earth.
-Grrrrrrrrrrah!
The monsters shrieked and gave chase, but the gap in speed was simply too great.
Simon grabbed his wind-whipped hair back into place and grinned.
"See you later!"
Having torn across the monster-churning grassland in the blink of an eye, Simon now arrived at a familiar place.
Rochest—the students' city.
It's been a long time since I've been here too.
The place he used to sneak off to through secret routes whenever class ended. The premier dating spot for students, the weekend meeting square. But seeing the normally bustling city standing empty and desolate felt strangely alien.
Still, reaching this place meant Kizen was just a little farther ahead.
Simon was pushing the golem board's speed even higher when—
Fweeeing!
Ping!
Arrows of pure white suddenly came flying over the rooftops of the buildings ahead.
Holy arrows?
Simon immediately wrenched the golem board sideways, and the arrows slammed into the ground with a rapid staccato.
What? Why is priest white magic here of all places...?
Tap. Tap. Tap.
A grim, deliberate sound of footsteps echoed in his ears. Simon's head, nerves already stretched taut, snapped around in the opposite direction.
Two men dressed in white were approaching.
"Death to the enemies of the Goddess."
"Judgment upon the profane."
Muttering in voices as gloomy as fanatics, they traced holy symbols across their chests and began deploying white magic.
From their movements alone, Simon had the spell identified before they finished casting. Having been to the Holy Federation himself, there was no way he couldn't recognize it.
Exorcism
KWARURUNG!
Pure white divinity came crashing down from the magic circle in the sky like a bolt of lightning. Simon floored the golem board and dodged it by a hair's breadth.
"This is insane! Why are you people here?!"
Simon shouted, but the priests showed no interest whatsoever in conversation.
The fact that priests were on Roc Island at all was a tremendous shock. The theory that this was all some Kizen exam flickered and dimmed in Simon's mind for a moment—and an even darker thought crept in. What if Efnel really had attacked Kizen?
"Death to the enemies of the Goddess."
The two men's casting speed accelerated. Numerous magic circles unfolded in the air, and pillars of light poured down like artillery fire.
Can't dodge an Exorcism!
Simon slammed his hand down on the front of the board.
Rise up!
Kudeudeuk!
Half the board folded and reared up until it shielded Simon's entire body. Then the Exorcism struck the front face dead-on, and the board shook repeatedly under the impacts.
But—
It held!
A knowing smile crept across Simon's lips.
As Simon had experienced firsthand in the Holy Federation, priests who fought necromancers at range generally fell into one of two styles.
The first was anti-magic white magic—dumping vast quantities of pure divinity onto the target like a bombardment, with no physical force involved. Exorcism was the representative spell. Against a necromancer or undead, a single hit could shatter the core and take them out of the fight entirely.
The second was white magic with physical force layered on top. The holy arrows that had come flying a moment ago were a prime example.
Short of overwhelming raw power, Exorcism struggled to blast through wall-like obstacles—but with physical force included, it could. The tradeoff was that it couldn't down a necromancer in one shot the way anti-magic spells could.
So in the end, I only need to watch out for Exorcism.
The priests had just fired Exorcism—their kind of instant-kill move. That was why Simon had raised the golem to erect a physical barrier, and the defense had succeeded.
His opponents, apparently realizing that spamming Exorcism wouldn't cut it, switched their circles and raised a cluster of holy spears into the air.
At that, Simon lowered the golem's guard as if he'd been waiting for exactly this, and gunned the speed.
"!"
For divinity to carry physical force, it had to take shape—and that shape was almost always a projectile launch. And right at that moment of launch, the golem board's overwhelming speed blew straight past them.
Whung! Whung!
Weaving nimbly between the incoming holy spears, Simon tore down Rochest's streets. He had to get out of this city fast and reach the Kizen campus.
-Kikikikikikik!
A bone-chilling shriek rang out from somewhere, and a Prima Materia monster came bounding out of the opposite alley.
So they're here too!
Other monsters that had been loitering in the streets also spotted Simon and began charging.
My jet-black reserves are going to be cutting it close!
Sweating hard, Simon pushed the board even faster.
The closer he drew to the Kizen campus, the fewer small monsters there were, and the more the mix shifted toward powerful mid-sized and large ones.
Which actually worked in his favor. Pouring jet-black into the board, Simon slipped and danced his way through the white monsters' attacks.
Pabak!
Then a holy spear struck the tip of the golem board and ricocheted off.
Simon's head snapped up in alarm—holy spears were slicing through the air from the side.
There are MORE priests?
Not the ones behind him. Far off in the distance, priests leaping across the rooftops were hurling holy spears and Exorcisms his way.
At the same time, a mid-sized monster charged straight at him, swinging hook-like forelimbs. And from the flank, an Exorcism came screaming in.
Focus.
Under the crushing tension, sound vanished, and time slowed.
The monster's hook and the incoming Exorcism's trajectory played out in slow motion.
Simon stamped on the jet-black and leapt.
His body soared skyward off the board, and the monster's claws and the Exorcism carved through empty air where he'd been.
For a brief moment in the air, Simon stretched his body into a straight line, legs extended. The board, advancing at its perfectly even pace, aligned exactly with his trajectory and dropped in beneath his feet.
Chwak!
The instant Simon's feet touched the board, time snapped back to normal. Having escaped perfectly, Simon shot through the encirclement and away.
Whew. The monsters I can manage somehow, but the priests are a real pain.
He left the physical attacks to the monsters littering the streets, while the priests simply rained down Exorcisms from a safe distance.
Simon decided to strike back.
First, he rounded behind a building and brought the golem board to a halt. Planting his left foot firmly on the ground, he readied the Overlord, then pulled three zombies out of his subspace.
Tentacle blades rose up from the ground and coiled around the zombies' torsos, bending taut like drawn bowstrings. Soon Simon calmly completed the magic circle, eyes gleaming.
Fire!
The Overlord's bent tentacles, strung like a bow, flung the zombies over the rooftops like a catapult. Simon counted a few numbers in his head, then clenched his fist.
Corpse Explosion!
KWA-A-A-ANG!
KWAA-A-A-A-A-ANG!
Twin blasts of thunder rolled out from beyond the buildings. One of them must have been hit before it even landed.
But the incoming Exorcisms had stopped too. This was the moment—Simon bolted out onto the road at full speed.
* * *
"O-oh! Now THAT'S more like it!"
Evangelos, watching everything unfold through the mana screens, shook his staff in his clenched fist.
"That's the one! This is the guy I've been waiting for!"
The creativity of using a mud golem as a vehicle. Then flinging zombies with his tentacle summon like a catapult and capping it off with Corpse Explosion.
Compared to the Special Admission No. 1s of years past, who had simply steamrolled everything before them with overwhelming force, this year's No. 1 had been modest by contrast—but his flashes of judgment and ingenuity were top-of-the-class, without question.
Truthfully, the ones like him had the higher ceiling.
Heh, now I actually want to raise him. Is this why they all covet a Kizen professorship?
"Director. Chatel Maer is approaching Rochest."
At the staff member's report, Evangelos waved his hand briskly.
"Never mind that. Throw every priest with bandwidth to spare at Simon Polentia."
The staff member's face went white with horror.
"A-are you serious? Simon has already taken down how many priests—"
"Move. All these esteemed guests came all this way—shouldn't we give them something entertaining to watch? Leave the staging to me."
Evangelos, utterly hooked on Simon now, had his eyes locked on the screen showing the boy riding his golem board.
"What, no answer?"
"......"
The atmosphere in the execution headquarters froze solid in an instant. Every staff member broke out in a cold sweat, glancing nervously toward the back of the room.
Are these people insane, Evangelos muttered, turning around.
His pupils, too, dilated just like the other staffers'.
"......What the hell is this absolute lunatic doing here?"
A man in a white suit had stormed unannounced into the test execution headquarters. Everyone stood frozen in place, staring at him.
Evangelos cleared his throat and let out an awkward laugh.
"Since when is a professor allowed into a Kizen-run exam? You planning to lecture me about fairness next?"
Curse Studies professor and member of the Crow—Bahil smiled pleasantly.
"I came in as a Crow agent, not as a professor. And really, senior—for you of all people to babble about fairness? Isn't what you're doing rather filthy in its own right?"
"......Hey."
Evangelos's eyes flashed.
"Have you actually lost your mind?"
Slik.
A thousand needles, from who knew where, halted in midair right in front of Bahil. A single twitch of a finger would have meant impalement.
"They slap the Kizen professor title on you and Nephthys goes soft on you, and now your ego's swollen to bursting, is that it?"
"Senior."
Bahil said evenly.
"There are students watching. Don't embarrass yourself—put your toys away."
Pat!
Evangelos spread his palm. All thousand needles turned jet-black.
"Toys, you say? Why don't you come find out what it feels like to get pricked?"
Bahil smirked.
"Ooh, by all means. Give it a try."
Evangelos, seething with fury, felt his expression harden for a split second.
"......"
A long silence stretched between them. Then Evangelos's shoulders began to shake, and he burst into loud laughter.
"Wahaha, you absolute bastard!"
Evangelos covered his forehead and eyes with his palm.
After a few seconds like that, he slowly lowered his hand—his thousand needles were surrounding nothing but empty air.
And Bahil was leaning against the far wall with his arms crossed, as if he'd teleported there.
"......A curse. When did you even—?"
Evangelos's curse resistance had been pierced clean through. Cursing this clean and this invisible—it sent chills crawling down his whole body.
Bahil simply shrugged his shoulders, nonchalant, as if this much were trivial.
"......You really never get old, do you."
When Evangelos flicked his hand, every one of the needles vanished into the air with a slick! sound, as though swallowed by the void.
He leaned back against his chair and rubbed his own shoulders with both hands.
"Fine, damn it. Someone of YOUR caliber, crawling in here of all places? What do you want?"
"I knew you'd make a spectacle of yourself, senior. You never disappoint."
Bahil pointed a finger at the screen. His voice turned ice-cold.
"Don't you dare lay a hand on mine."