A Complete Defeat
With his decisive duel against Simon looming, Jule quietly found himself recalling a conversation with Elisa.
—If you can pressure Simon into deploying the Royal Guard, the operation might as well be a success. Then just run for it.
Hearing that, Jule had shaken his head.
—I must decline. A contest against Simon is precisely what I wished for. I shall fight him honorably, win, and return.
—Ugh! Your problem is that you're not necromancer enough!
In the end, Elisa had relented and shared her method for breaking him down.
—Grand Summoner tactics are honestly the same everywhere you go, aren't they? Dodge the summons as much as possible and target the summoner first. But Simon is also skilled in dark martial arts, so that approach doesn't work well on him.
—Then what would you have me do?
—Target the skeletons that became the Royal Guard.
A cunning gleam had flashed in Elisa's eyes.
—Simon and the Royal Guard are linked, they say. Something about the Blood Golem being the base—I don't know the details either. But anyway! If you destroy the Royal Guard while pressing the summoner Simon, the damage will bleed back into him.
The Royal Guard was Simon's greatest strength, and at the same time, his greatest weakness.
That was what Elisa had told him.
"Go."
At Simon's command, the twenty-three scattered strands of the Royal Guard hurled themselves at Jule all at once.
"Hm."
Jule calmly gripped the hilt of his cursed sword, and its power activated.
A crimson sword slash spread outward in a circle around him, halting the Royal Guard's charge. Three of the guards failed to evade in time and were cleaved in two by the blow.
"!"
Far away, Simon couldn't hide his pain and clutched his chest.
Looking closely, one could see that he had taken damage in the exact spot where the Royal Guard had been struck.
As expected, Elisa's analysis was correct.
But Simon didn't simply take it lying down. One of the Royal Guard appeared with its cloak billowing and slashed at Jule head-on.
Jule twisted his head aside to dodge, but an emerald slash came down from his flank and hammered against his barrier.
Fast!
A blindingly swift blade, almost impossible to believe as the movement of a skeleton.
Jule broke out of the encirclement at a sprint, with twenty Royal Guards hot on his heels.
He would have to take them down one by one, for certain.
As he fled, Jule leapt high, planted both feet on a nearby brick house, and shot forward like something launched from a springboard.
His target was the Royal Guard directly ahead.
One down first.
Jule swung his scabbard, and the guard raised its sword in a defensive stance before itself.
CLANG!
But the moment the blades met, the opposing sword became three. Other Royal Guards had slipped in from left and right, reinforcing the defense.
Slash!
Slash!
At the same moment, the guards that had looped around behind struck. His Barrier Gauge carved away in one great bite.
Their coordination is exquisite.
Simon was controlling all twenty skeletons simultaneously, without a single blind spot in their timing.
Twenty blades became one, tightening the noose around Jule. Emerald sword-light poured in from every direction, gilding the air in brilliant, cascading arcs.
The moment you're surrounded is the moment you've lost!
Jule too gave up on meeting the Royal Guard head-on and shifted to a style built around keeping his distance.
Each time he fled and gripped the cursed sword's hilt, a Royal Guard collapsed to the ground—and Simon reeled from the backlash.
Your Royal Guard is undoubtedly overwhelming. Once it's deployed, even Kizen's established powers would be swept aside without lifting a finger. However!
Jule seized the hilt and slammed it into the ground.
You've simply given me more targets to cut down!
⟨ Golden Wheel ⟩
Seven arcs of slashing force rippled out across the ground from the scabbard planted at its center.
Several more Royal Guards toppled, and this time Simon's knee hit the ground with a heavy thud.
To wield this cursed sword, I have cast away so much.
Hidden beneath his uniform, Jule's bare body bore no fewer than six Perpetual Magic Circles.
Wielding the cursed sword had demanded enormous sacrifice. He had lost an eye. He had lost his sense of taste. He had given up restful sleep. Every day he groaned in pain and was hounded by nightmares.
On top of that, as a necromancer, nearly every other field of dark magic—curses, summoning, hemomancy—might as well have been sealed away. All that remained to Jule was this single cursed blade.
While other students learned things from their professors, Jule gave things up.
And the more he gave up, the stronger the cursed sword grew.
Sacrifice. That was the only way Jule grew.
I want to know!
Another Royal Guard burst apart under a slash of the cursed sword and fell. Simon's face went pale.
Just how far can I reach—with this sword, bought by discarding everything that once made me who I am!
As Jule steadily adapted to the Royal Guard's offensive, Simon made a drastic change.
Swish. Swish.
The teal light drained from several of the Royal Guards' bodies, and they crumbled into bone shards that scattered across the ground.
All those Royal Guards shrank to five in an instant. Simon had voluntarily withdrawn his power to reduce their number.
A blatant blunder!
Abandoning numbers—the greatest advantage of a summoner—of his own will!
There was no reason to hesitate any longer. Jule charged straight at Simon the summoner.
But even as he panted for breath, Simon wore a faint smile.
"It's common sense, of course."
A Royal Guard moved to block Jule's charge.
"But the fewer the numbers..."
From above, a guard came spinning through the air like a tumbling acrobat and swept its blade down. With a clang!, Jule blocked the attack—but the impact drove his foot deep into the earth.
"...the higher the quality of control."
Jule sprinted sideways and thrust out his scabbard, but the guard simply tilted its head to dodge, reversed course, and plunged its sword into his side as it swept past.
"Hngh!"
Jule instantly seized the cursed sword's hilt.
SLAAASH!
The cursed sword's straight line of force cut through the air—but the Royal Guards dropped low and evaded it with ease.
No way!
The slashing arc that sailed through empty space slammed into a helpless pile of stones, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Moments later, five emerald slashes sliced through the dust cloud and descended upon Jule.
"Guhk!"
Five blades and one cursed sword clashed ferociously. Dazzling sword-light burst and flared again and again.
One guard spun like a top, whirling its blade; one leapt through the air in a rain of descending strikes; one parried Jule's attacks head-on; and still another hounded his rear with a relentless flurry of thrusts.
Cuts bloomed all over Jule's body, and his Barrier Gauge flashed red.
If it's come to this, there is only one way!
Jule abandoned the Royal Guard entirely and charged straight at Simon. Then, gripping the scabbard with both hands, he raised it before his own face.
Click.
'!'
Simon's eyes went wide at the sight.
Not all the way—but for the first time, Jule's scabbard had opened. The crimson blade inside gleamed as it caught the light.
Jule's body faced forward, but his gaze was fixed on the Royal Guard chasing him from behind.
He wouldn't—!
Simon issued an Absolute Order to the entirety of the Royal Guard.
⟨ Four Wheels ⟩
SLAAASH!
Four arcs of slashing force passed through the torsos of the pursuing Royal Guards. Their bodies dropped away all at once, Simon's eyes lost focus, and he crumpled to his knees on the ground.
"Foes in my way."
Having drawn the cursed sword only slightly, Jule now stood holding it fully bared from its sheath, as if turning to the next page of a book.
Thud!
Dropping the scabbard, he leveled the cursed sword and charged at Simon. The blade's tip drove toward the nape of Simon's neck.
"!"
Just then, light flooded back into Simon's eyes, and he tilted his body to evade. Then, driving in反过来—no, driving in to counterattack, he pressed his palm against Jule's abdomen.
⟨ Simon Original — Touch Wave ⟩
WHAM!
The shockwave bursting from his palm sent Jule's body hurtling backward.
How is he unharmed—?!
Jule's eyes darted back.
Of the five Royal Guards he had cut down moments ago, four were charging toward him, their bodies perfectly intact.
"Obviously."
A heartbeat later, in a blaze of fierce sword-light, the Royal Guards crossed paths with Jule's body. They came to a stop in their follow-through cutting stances, and from the body suspended in midair—
Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash!
Four arcs of emerald light flashed as the strikes landed. The barrier enveloping Jule flared blood-red, strained to its absolute limit.
"You didn't cut them down."
Simon, gasping for breath, raised a single finger toward the sky.
Crash!
Jule collapsed to the ground. Groaning, he looked up at Simon.
"How in the world—?!"
"You never cut down the Royal Guard at all."
When Jule had unleashed his final technique, Simon had noticed his gaze turned backward and realized he was targeting the Royal Guard.
So he had predicted the path of the slash, then used an Absolute Order to simply drop the skeletons' bodies out of the way. The sword-light had passed harmlessly through the gaps.
Hearing the explanation, Jule was stunned.
"You... you predicted the blade's path and dropped the parts out of the way?"
"Yeah. You don't have complete control over the cursed sword yet, do you?"
From the moment it left its scabbard, the cursed sword seemed to slip free of Jule's control. He merely suggested its direction—and even he couldn't properly perceive the process by which it warped reality. Repeated experiments had already confirmed as much.
Only then did Jule seem to accept it, letting out an empty laugh.
"A complete defeat for me."
Click. Click-click.
As he watched the Royal Guard's airborne bodies, shattered into bone fragments at Simon's command, convert into Bone Needles, Jule closed his eyes.
"Next time, I shall challenge you in far more perfect condition."
...I really don't want to accept that.
From Simon's standpoint, Jule was a necromancer he genuinely dreaded facing.
The strongest of all the students he'd fought recently.
"Good work out there."
With a sweep of Simon's arm, countless Bone Needles hammered into Jule's final barrier.
[Jule Vincere — ELIMINATED]
[Defense Team (12/15)]
[Siege Team (11/15)]
His body vanished completely from the battlefield.
At that same moment, before the North Gate.
"Attack! Attack! Keep pushing in!"
Elisa, the siege team's supreme commander, was personally directing the assault on the north bastion.
Just then, a message appeared before her eyes.
[Jule Vincere — ELIMINATED]
"Hmm."
Even with the siege team's core asset taken down, she showed no sign of being shaken.
"Good work, Jule. I won't let your sacrifice be in vain."
Raising the Commander's Token in her hand, she gave her order.
"Raku, you made it in safely, yes? Then bring it all down."
While Simon and Jule fought their ferocious duel, the siege itself unfolded in a tense, evenly matched stalemate.
All of the Aion Kingdom's forces defending the outer wall had retreated to the inner keep, and now the Khan Kingdom was beginning its assault on the inner wall as well.
Just as the fierce battle raged on, good news arrived.
Special Admission No. 5, Jule, had been eliminated.
"Whoa! Jule got taken down here of all places!"
"Nice, nice!"
"Nobody let your guard down!"
Everyone was clamoring and laughing—everyone except Meilin, whose face was set in intense concentration. She was coating the ramparts in ice, sending scaling soldiers sliding back down.
"We have to hold this wall perfectly until time runs out!"
"We know, we know."
"Still, this spot's actually pretty solid."
At the outer wall, they'd had to mind every single arrow flying in from enemy lines, but the inner keep was far taller, which gave them a real sense of security.
Whether the enemy scaled the walls or battered the gates, cracking this position would be no easy task. And with the number of key defense points sharply reduced, the students could conserve their Jet-Black as well.
"Nice, nice!"
Dick clapped his hands, cheering his teammates on.
"Guys! All we have to do is hold out like—!"
[The Guardian Stone has collapsed.]
[Dewey Norman — ELIMINATED]
A message out of nowhere.
Moments later, the transparent magic membrane enveloping the entire inner keep began to lift away.
"Huh?"
"What? We're holding the inner wall—when did they even...!"
Then every eye turned skyward.
A great black dragon, wings spread wide, was soaring up into the sky.