The Sky Beneath His Feet

Thousands of meters above sea level.

Built atop the clouds, Sierra's famous pride and joy — the Sky Stadium.

There was no ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ground to speak of. Jagged rock pillars jutted upward from the void, each barely wide enough for a single person to crouch on, and Simon and Zetz now stood upon two of them.

Dressed in his barrier suit, Simon was loosening up, rolling his arms with easy, practiced motions. Zetz, meanwhile, was waving toward the stands and even throwing out a wink or two, utterly at his leisure.

"Simon! Don't lose!"

Oddly enough, the cheering was coming from the opponent's home turf — Benz and the Aland transfer students had claimed the front-row seats.

Benz in particular was so fired up that the veins stood out on his neck.

"You already beat me, so go out there and take down that Sierra guy even faster than you took me down! You know what I mean, right? No going easy on him — just crush him! Full force, straight down!"

The glares he received from the Sierra students were scorching, but Benz refused to be cowed and only raised his voice louder. Simon stifled a laugh and gave him a wave.

Flit, flit—

Just then, a violet butterfly fluttered down beside Simon.

Professor Jane's dark magic.

A magic circle was drawn across the butterfly's wings, and Jane's voice flowed out from within it.

Turn the terrain's advantage against him.

Simon grasped the idea at once.

"Understood, Professor. Thank you for the advice!"

Having said its piece, Jane's butterfly dispersed into the air and vanished. Simon turned his head toward Zetz.

"Now, we begin the match between Sierra's representative, Zetz Chimerat, and Kizen's Student Council President, Simon Polentia!"

The referee for this match raised a whistle to his lips.

"Begin!"

Peeeeeeeeeeep!

The instant the whistle sounded, Simon and Zetz both dropped into their stances, dark magic already gathering.

Given the nature of the arena, a surprise close-quarters assault with battle arts was impossible. Both of them had been granted time — and time enough to be the first to secure a means of flight unbound by the terrain.

Royal Guard.

Simon readied the Royal Guard circle while keeping his eyes on Zetz. As expected, the man was preparing flight magic of his own.

A single enormous magic circle unfurled in the air, with three auxiliary circles floating beside it, formulas assembling themselves at a staggering pace.

"Woooooah!"

"Look at that speed!"

The Sierra students were beside themselves, screaming themselves hoarse.

"He must've drilled nothing but that circle for ages."

"Cheap shot."

The Aland transfer students grumbled under their breath.

In the blink of an eye, Zetz completed his flight circle and pressed it against his back. Wings of jet-black unfurled behind him, beating up and down in a steady rhythm.

"Zetz is airborne first!"

The student commentator practically leapt out of his seat, one leg thrown up on the chair in front of him.

"That's our Zetz for you! A necromancer who commands the sky is the one fit to rule this 'Sky Stadium'! At this point, I'd say the match is already seventy percent his!"

"Shut up with the biased commentary!"

Benz's protest was easily swallowed up by the roar of the Sierra crowd.

'Hm.'

Unshaken, Simon kept assembling the Royal Guard and lifted his head. Soaring into the sky, Zetz spread his palms with obvious relish.

Fwhoosh!

Fwhoosh-hoosh!

Green flames rose from his palms.

It wasn't the Dark Flare everyone knew. Judging by the rippling shape and hue of the fire, this was a Remake or Original-grade jet-black flame.

"Simon, I don't know what spell you've got prepped over there."

Zetz thrust his arm high overhead.

"But you'd be a lot more comfortable just giving up now!"

FWOOROOROOSH!

A shell of flame packed with crushing firepower came screaming down. Simon split his focus away from the Royal Guard circle — which demanded one hundred percent of his concentration — and kicked off the rock with jet-black coiling around both feet.

KWAAAAAANG!

The fireball obliterated the waist of the very pillar Simon had been standing on. The top of the column tipped over and plunged down beneath the clouds.

Simon, who had already leapt safely to the next pillar, wiped the sweat streaming down his face. Beside him, the commentator's excited voice rang out.

"Right out of the gate, our Zetz comes charging in! Truly the overwhelming firepower of Sierra's second year!"

Zetz's fireballs came one after another, shattering every pillar Simon touched down on. Each time, Simon rode a step of jet-black back into the air.

Too far!

The gaps between the rock pillars were random. The last jump had been manageable with a jet-black step alone, but this distance was considerable.

Simon extended his index finger.

<Cloud>

A turquoise line shot out and slapped against the waist of the next pillar. Simon gripped it with both hands, swung his legs forward, and flew.

Fwhoosh!

Fwhoosh!

Swinging from line to line, he slipped cleanly past the fireballs chasing at his heels. Startled cries erupted from all around the stadium.

"Hup."

Simon touched down safely on a pillar on the far side.

"Not bad! Let's see how long you can keep dodging!"

Flames reigniting, Zetz launched a fresh offensive.

What followed was a repeating pattern — Simon on the run, Zetz raining down assault after assault. Zetz, having fought his way past hundreds-to-one odds for his transfer spot, lived up to the reputation, churning out ferocious firepower without pause.

"Ah — and Kizen's Student Council President! He looks far too busy dodging to even think about preparing a high-tier spell!"

Zetz didn't stop at simply bombarding Simon. He smashed the pillars themselves, steadily shrinking the battlefield's footholds.

WAAAAAAH!

But Simon's evasion was uncanny. Wielding the Cloud ropes like extensions of his own limbs, he migrated from pillar to pillar, and even climbed the sloped surfaces on the strength of his legs alone.

'…This monster's stamina.'

Zetz's expression stiffened slightly.

At this level of pressure, something should have cracked by now — yet Simon hadn't so much as panted for breath. Anchored by solid battle arts fundamentals, he was buying time with perfect stability.

"Zetz! Watch out!"

At the shout from the stands, Zetz's gaze snapped backward. Simon — who had been fleeing along a Cloud line — suddenly burst out of his rear at point-blank range.

He looped back on the line's centrifugal force—!

Simon grinned and swung his arm.

A Bone Sphere built from skeleton bones came hurtling out, and Zetz hastily threw up a guard.

THOOM!

The green fire spread like a wall and repelled the sphere. Rebounding off the barrier, the Bone Sphere shattered into a swarm of bones that came streaking back and wrapped itself around Simon's right arm.

<Bone Armor — Handgun Mode>

This time bone rounds rattled ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out of the launcher in rapid succession. Zetz darted nimbly upward, several rounds grazing past his body by a hair's breadth.

'A counterattack in the middle of all this?!'

Zetz broke into a wide grin.

"Now that's more like it! Kizen's Student Council President!"

With his adaptation to the terrain complete, Simon was no longer content to merely evade. Twisting through the air with Cloud and battle arts in tandem, he planted his undead on every pillar along the way.

Zetz, striding across the battlefield on jet-black wings, now had to eat attacks from zombies clinging to the rock walls and dodge arrows loosed by skeleton archers perched atop other columns.

Under these conditions, he could no longer bombard his opponent with impunity. Simon's counterattacks weighed on his mind, and his movements grew careful.

'There he is!'

The moment Zetz spotted Simon's back and began raising a fireball, a skeleton archer's arrow came flying in from the side.

'Tch!'

Zetz craned his neck aside, dodging by a razor's margin. In that window, Simon slipped his body behind a pillar.

'No — how does he not make a single mistake?!'

One misstep. One waver of the Cloud. One skeleton a meter out of position.

Any one of those, and the match would have been Zetz's.

And yet Simon was walking that razor's edge flawlessly.

Monstrous focus.

Ironclad stamina to sustain it.

And an acrobatic feat impossible without a wealth of hard-won experience.

The match everyone had assumed would be one-sided was spiraling somewhere strange.

"Heh heh! So Professor Jane's words were no idle boast."

Up in the VIP seats, Sierra's Headmaster and Jane stood side by side, watching the match. The Headmaster stroked the beard on his chin.

"I expected you to bring back a third-year safely, but there was a reason you pushed your way in with a second-year Student Council President after all."

Jane turned to him with a face of stone.

"The bet. You haven't forgotten, have ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you?"

"Of course not!"

There was still plenty of composure left on the Sierra Headmaster's face.

"You may think time favors your side, but Zetz's reserves of strength are nothing to scoff at either!"

'Where the hell did he vanish to this time?'

Zetz beat his jet-black wings, scanning his surroundings. Simon had hidden himself in the blind spot behind a pillar, and was nowhere to be seen.

He'd have to search from above, then.

The moment Zetz made ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that call and rose toward the higher sky—

ZING!

An emerald flash came curving toward him like a comet.

'Fast!'

Zetz hastily spread his flames into a shield, but the turquoise blade-light carved through it cleanly. What slipped through the gap was a skeleton, cape billowing behind it.

CRAK!

The skeleton smashed a sword strike across Zetz as it blew past. His barrier gauge, once green, flickered orange and plummeted to nearly half its capacity in an instant.

'A flying skeleton?'

Zetz climbed altitude in a panic — and as if they had been waiting for exactly that, six more emerald comets came streaking after him. Every one of them a skeleton.

"Damn it all!"

Cursing, Zetz triggered the dark magic he'd been hoarding. Flames erupted outward from his entire body in a ring, hurling back the offensive.

"Zetz, careful!"

"Zetzeee!"

The crowd's shouts hardly mattered — he could already feel it, a colossal presence closing in at his back.

<Simon Original — Royal Guard, Flight Mode>

Simon was flying through the sky clad in Bone Armor forged from those gleaming turquoise skeletons.

A charge accelerated to its absolute limit.

A fire shield couldn't stop this. Zetz hastily tore the sword from his waist.

KAAAAAAAANG!

Turquoise and white light collided, kicking up a ferocious shockwave. The students in the stands screamed and ducked low.

GRRAKAKAKAK!

The two locked blades strained against each other in a taut tug-of-war. Simon, Royal Guard sword in hand, was grinning.

"Ghh! You can even fly with that technique?!"

"Of course I can."

Zetz layered another overload spell across his body and, in the same breath, drew three fireball circles in the air around him, one after another.

Seeing the circles, Simon shoved Zetz's blade away and fell back — and the instant he did, three completed fireballs came pouring down on him.

Shiiiing!

Simon swept the Royal Guard's sword in an elegant arc. The turquoise blade-light traced three overlapping afterimages, and the fireballs were sheared apart and scattered into the empty air.

'Swordsmanship too?!'

Zetz retreated, a chill crawling over him, while Simon smiled with perfect calm.

"Got you."

KRAK!

Pain flared from his back, and Zetz's face twisted. One of the Royal Guard skeletons diving in from behind had sliced clean through his right wing.

'This is bad!'

He couldn't fly on a single wing. Zetz's body lost its balance and began to tilt.

'Ghh — calm down! Stay calm! Land first, buy some time, and repair the wing before—'

But.

Simon was not the sort of man to leave that repair window open for him.

"Corpse Explosion."

The moment Simon closed his fist, deafening detonations erupted from every direction at once.

The surrounding rock pillars were collapsing like dominoes, crashing down one after another.

'No — he wouldn't—!'

Watching his footholds vanish in real time, Zetz's face went white.

'He planted his undead for THIS from the very beginning!'

Only now did Zetz remember the zombies Simon had attached to the cliffs.

He'd been beaten.

Completely.

'In this Sky Stadium of all places—!'

Zetz, down to a single wing, plummeted into the abyss along with the collapsing pillars.