The Fallen Guardian Stone
Within the inner keep of Aon Castle hung a transparent barrier that enveloped the entire fortress.
It blocked any aerial intrusion toward the inner keep from outside, as well as any projectile assault—but the device sustaining that shield was none other than the Guardian Stone.
"Haa... haa..."
Simon had just arrived at the castle town within the inner keep, where the Guardian Stone stood.
The great crystal had been shattered completely, nothing left of it but rubble, and traces of battle were scattered everywhere.
It looked as though the lone Kizen student guarding this place, along with every beastfolk soldier, had been wiped out.
When on earth did they find the time?
Simon was crouched down, examining the shattered crystal fragments, when he suddenly sensed a presence behind him.
Exhaust
A curse came streaking in from behind his back. Simon twisted his body to dodge it in an instant, and as he turned, he prepared a curse of his own.
"Good reflexes."
A Kizen male student he had never seen before was approaching.
His uniform was filthy, caked with dirt, and blood was visibly seeping from wounds all over his body.
Simon lowered his hand and spoke.
"You're the one who broke the Guardian Stone?"
"Correct."
In truth, Juele's mission involved one thing besides 'hunting Simon.'
The moment he crossed over the inner keep and entered the castle town, he had secretly dropped the chess piece he'd been carrying—a small stone figurine—onto the ground.
And a short while later, that chess piece had risen up, swelling until it took the shape of a person.
"I'm a necromancer on the Gargoyle Techtree. I can turn into statues, into stone. Is that explanation enough for you?"
When he pressed the magic circle he had spread open against his own body, his skin hardened and took on the color of stone.
Simon knew that dark magic.
Statue Form.
He never expected to see a spell from the midterm exam with his own eyes like this.
While in Statue Form, a necromancer couldn't use dark magic, but he'd learned that it granted powerful immunity to curses and near-total immunity to physical attacks. Above all, the caster transformed into something inanimate, making his jet-black mana incredibly difficult to detect—even professional necromancers used it when lying in ambush.
"That's right—you've all been dancing in Elisa's palm from the very beginning!"
Kuwoong! Kuwoong! Kuwoong!
He charged, shaking the ground with every step.
Simon met the charge head-on, and he could see the boy clenching his fist and gathering jet-black mana.
What an idiot! My body is immune to physical attacks!
The male student swung a literal fist of stone—but Simon evaded it with a light sidestep and seized his back in the same breath.
This one was doomed from the start.
Short on jet-black mana, his back had been left unconverted—bare skin where stone should have been.
Simon's fist slammed into his back.
Hong Peng Original — Chwita
KKAJEEEEEEEEONG!
The boy flew several meters and crashed into a wall. The sound of a barrier shattering rang out.
Lac Stonville — Eliminated
Defense Team (11/15)
Siege Team (10/15)
"Good work out there."
This student's role had probably ended the moment the Guardian Stone broke.
The gargoyle student dissolved into the empty air, and Simon's gaze turned toward the peak of the castle.
The Royal Palace is in danger.
Raising the Commander's Token, Simon issued orders through the telepathic link, then began running toward the Royal Palace himself.
"A d-dragon has appeared!"
"It's the dragon from the legends! Run!"
The beastfolk fell into utter chaos.
At the sight of the Corpse Dragon, its entire body sheathed in dark scales, soaring on vast flapping wings, the soldiers of Aon Kingdom were gripped by absolute terror.
Every time the dragon loosed a thunderous roar, the soldiers scrambled to drop their weapons and flee.
The black dragon circled leisurely above the castle, destroying key structures, crushing the soldiers' morale, and at last arrived at the very peak of Aon Castle.
Gazing down at the Royal Palace from the sky, the dragon split its jaws wide open.
Dragon Breath
KWAAAAAAAANG!
A black sphere shot out and struck the Royal Palace.
A massive explosion tore through the air with a deafening roar, and the surroundings shook as if an earthquake had struck. Stone fragments rained down.
The dragon watched the scene in silence, then narrowed its eyes.
...Just as I thought.
The Royal Palace was an indestructible object.
To kill the King, there was no choice but to shrink his body down and enter the palace itself.
The black dragon descended to the ground, and its massive frame began to shrink. The long reptilian muzzle retracted into a human face, and the scales that had clung to its body without a gap now hung from it in dangling tatters.
The unique power of the Moore family—the ability to transform into a Corpse Dragon.
Hector, returned to the form of a man draped in the remains of a dragon, strode steadily toward the Royal Palace.
CLANG!
Just then, the palace doors burst open and beastfolk knights clad in steel plate armor came pouring out.
CHAENG!
TING!
They drew their swords and leveled them at Hector.
"We are the Royal Knights! Cheek!"
"Cheek! Cheek! Guardian of the wicked Khan Kingdom, be gone! Jik!"
A callus formed on Hector's forehead.
"Don't you dare give me orders, you fakes."
"Jik-jik! Attack!"
"AIUM AON!!"
Every knight roared as one and surged forward. Hector clicked his tongue in irritation and opened a subspace.
"Fight, you wretches."
Skeletons descended from the subspace.
The instant they left the subspace, their bodies disassembled and reassembled into rigid, straight, one-dimensional forms.
Bone Spear
Hector swept his arm with a bored expression. The bone javelins floating in the air erupted with a spine-chilling shriek as they tore through the air.
PWOK! PWOK! PWOK!
The flying bone spears punched straight through steel plate armor, felling the beastfolk knights in a single stroke. Their comrades dropped one after another, helplessly—but the knights did not retreat. They only quickened their pace.
Suuu.
Hector extended a finger. A scarlet curse shot from his fingertip, linking the knight charging him head-on with the four comrades behind him like a thread.
"GRAAAH!"
The lead knight raised his sword.
Hector's body was patched here and there with Corpse Dragon scales, and the knight caught one of the exposed gaps and swung—
KKANG!
Hector's scales moved on their own, blocking the blade.
"N-no!"
Now a mountain of a man, Hector raised his fist. Beneath the giant shadow that draped his body, the knight trembled in terror.
KKWAK!
Hector's fist drove into the knight's helmet. Helmet and skull crumpled together, and the knight dropped like a puppet with cut strings. At the same moment, the four knights linked to him by the curse took the identical shock to their heads and collapsed.
"I am a necromancer. You trash."
BBOK!
Another knight went down under Hector's kick. The Bone Spears, finished reassembling in the sky above, poured down like a deluge and pierced through the knights' bodies.
"If you want to stop me, at the very least—"
He spun in a full rotation. The dragon wings on his back snapped out like blades, slicing through the knights as they passed.
"—bring me Simon Polentia!"
Wherever Hector moved, knights lost their lives.
The time it took Hector to annihilate the Royal Knights—the finest elite of Aon Kingdom—was a mere five minutes.
"Not even enough to call a warm-up."
Hector snorted and strode toward the Royal Palace.
Exhaust
PAK! A curse came flying from his flank like lightning. Hector formed Cancellation in his right hand and swept it aside, deflecting the curse.
"I can't let you reach the Royal Palace! Hector Moore!"
Somehow, a Kizen female student of the defense team had climbed the stairs. She activated all of the magic circles she had suspended in the air at once.
Exhaust
Blind
Pain
With an indifferent expression, Hector twisted his body to evade some curses and spread Cancellation to neutralize others.
The last curse he shattered by gathering jet-black into his fist and releasing it in perfect time with the incoming spell.
"...No way!"
The girl's face went rigid. This time, Hector extended his arm.
Strangle
She gasped and slapped her palms together to form Cancellation—but Hector's curse passed straight through the Cancellation circle and burrowed into her body.
"K-KAHK!"
Clutching her throat, she crumpled to the ground. Tears welled in her eyes as choking sounds escaped her lips.
"Pathetic."
Hector lowered his arm with a bored look.
"Waste your time obsessing over curse-spam tactics that only work in the lower and Low Squads, and you won't last a second against someone in the High Squad, trash."
"Get back, Fengel!"
This time, a curly-haired male student blocked the entrance to the Royal Palace. Irritation crept into Hector's expression.
"I have no need for small fry like you. Bring me Simon Polentia!"
"Sorry, but Simon's a little busy!"
The boy grinned and activated a magic circle on his palm.
Blood Silk—a fundamental technique of Hemomancy. Silk woven from blood draped itself over the boy's body.
"Someone like you, I can deal with on my own!"
A Hemomancer this time.
Hector waited with a cold expression. The Blood Silk that draped over the man like a robe twisted and coiled into layer upon layer, hardening into full-body protection.
Blood Robe
Having finished casting his dark magic, the boy charged at Hector.
In response, Hector sharpened the scales clinging to his body and flung them out.
PWOK! PWOK! PWOK!
And of course, the boy's Blood Robe devoured every single scale-projectile flawlessly.
"Sorry, but this is my original dark magic!"
HWOONG!
The boy swung his fist. Hector tilted his body aside to dodge—but at the same moment, the Blood Robe swelled up, transformed into spikes, and stabbed into Hector's body.
I got him...!
Hector's expression sank, cold and flat.
"Cute. Trash."
Hong Peng Original — Cheonhyung
With no complicated movements, no calculations—just a purely, simply thrown punch—Hector's fist buried itself into the boy's abdomen.
"KEHAK!"
The blow passed clean through the Blood Robe and struck the boy's body directly. He gagged, clutching his stomach and staggering.
"What was 'original' about that?"
Hector closed the distance in long strides and hammered his fist into the boy's face.
KKWAK!
"Every fool out there tweaks a basic technique a little and starts crying 'original, original.'"
CRUNCH!
"Fifty of you at a time drop like flies, and still—"
BBOK!
"—trash like this keeps crawling into Kizen."
PPAAAAAAAK!
Hector had stopped using Cheonhyung entirely, now simply pounding the boy with his bare fists. At last, the Blood Robe dispelled, revealing the boy's bare body. Shivering, he raised his arms in a pleading gesture.
"S-stop... please...!"
KKWAK!
Hector's uppercut snapped the boy's chin back. The whites of his eyes showed, and he dropped limp to the ground.
Emons Polorence — Eliminated
Defense Team (10/15)
Siege Team (10/15)
"Every species of vermin crawling out of the woodwork, how infuriating...!"
Even as he muttered, Hector swept his arm to the side without so much as a glance.
KJANG!
He lightly deflected the incoming curse with Cancellation, and when he turned his head, the girl he'd called Fengel earlier was standing there, panting for breath.
"So you fancy yourself a curse-caster, do you? You undid my Strangle."
Hector approached like a god of death. Trembling all over, Fengel still steeled her eyes and raised both hands.
"HAAAAAA!"
Curses fired from her fingertips one after another, rapid-fire. But Hector deflected and shattered them with nothing more than the casual sweep of a single arm.
When her prepared curses ran dry, she backed away, face drained with terror.
"So it's cheap curse-spam again in the end. Can't shake that trash habit, can you."
Hector lowered his stance to the ground and charged.
The distance between them closed in an instant—and at that very moment:
Got him!
Fengel smirked. Hector passed straight through her blurred, fading form.
Damn it—Spirit Transformation!
She spun around and wrapped her arms around Hector's back, whose back was now exposed to her.
Banshee's Embrace
As the dark magic activated by embrace took effect, Hector's body turned gray and his movements froze completely.
"Too bad. I'm not actually a curse-caster—I'm of the Banshee clan."
Pretending to be a curse-caster was the decoy. Fengel's true major was Spirit Magic.
"Banshee's Embrace severs not only the movements of the one I embrace, but their very thoughts."
She patted Hector's cheek as she spoke. He was so enormous that she ended up looking like a cicada clinging to a tree trunk.
"Now then, how shall I finish off the young lord of the Moore family, who can no longer move...?"
PWOOK! PWOK! PWOK! PWOK! PWOK!
Her back blazed with pain as if seared by fire, and her pupils shook.
At some point, Hector's scales had embedded themselves in her back like throwing knives.
"AAH!"
Pain whited out her mind. Her concentration shattered, and focus returned to Hector's eyes.
"Curse-caster or spirit-caster, it makes no difference."
SNATCH.
Hector seized Fengel by the head with one hand and lifted her clean off him.
"A-AAAHAAACK!!"
"The moment you get close, you're guaranteed to pull some petty little trick—so I planned around it."
When Hector saw his opponent obsessively spamming curses beyond all reason, he realized something was up.
So he had planted jet-black mana in his scales beforehand and pulled them back, then set them to return to his own body after a set time if he didn't actively control them.
"Now disappear."
KKWAJIK!
KKWAK!
Under Hector's monstrous grip, the girl's Barrier Gauge shattered piece by piece.
At that very moment—
"!"
A shoe sole appeared out of nowhere, right in Hector's face.
KKJEEEEEEOK!
Hector barely managed to raise his other hand in a guard.
He was shoved sliding backward, and a boy came down to the ground with Fengel in his arms.
And at last—
"KAH...!"
Joy he could not suppress erupted from him, and Hector's mouth split open like a monster's.
"I was just starting to miss the filthy thrill of fighting you! SIMON POLENTIA!!"
Simon gently lowered Fengel to the ground, then rose to his feet.