10,000
"Ten thousand, please."
With Simon's shocking declaration, the underground dungeon was thrown into chaos.
"Di—did he just say what I think he said?"
"I must have misheard that, right?"
The students' lounge dissolved into an uproar in an instant. Even the teammates waiting in the staging area stood gaping, paralyzed by the sheer shock of it.
Thump.
The leader of Team 4 slumped back against the wall with hollow, empty eyes. Loraine was struck speechless, and Eshu clawed at her head with the expression of someone whose country had just fallen, shrieking at the top of her lungs.
"You insane son of a— PRESIDENT!!"
Toto's pupils were trembling.
"H-he must have misspoken. There's been some kind of mistake……"
It was an absurd, unfathomable number. The Dungeon Keeper asked him to repeat it as well, and Simon drove the point home like a hammer striking a nail, declaring it to everyone without a shred of hesitation.
"I will attempt the ten thousand."
Gulp.
KUAHAHAHAHAHA!
Just as everyone sat frozen, drained of their very souls, one of the elders who had been watching from the high seats threw back his head and roared with laughter.
"That's it! That's it! The Student Council President of Kizen should be at least this audacious!"
"He's lost his mind."
On the opposite side, another elder's face twisted into a scowl.
"Ten thousand in fifteen minutes. Does the number ten thousand strike this child as a joke?"
Even among the shrewd, battle-hardened elders, opinions split down the middle—and the students finally concluded that Simon had simply gone mad and given up on everything.
It was a number so absurd that no other interpretation was possible.
"We will prepare."
But the Dungeon Keeper simply strode off, wordless, to carry out his duty.
The voice came through the communication crystal at that moment.
"Can you prepare ten thousand monsters in the underground dungeon?"
"……Hmph. If I scrape the floor clean down to the very last one and flush them all out, I can manage something."
The Dungeon Keeper descended, and Simon drew in a long, deep breath and closed his eyes.
Focus.
He had come this far with the help of many people. The first voice Simon recalled was Grelion's.
"Your concept is unquestionably revolutionary. So why isn't your method revolutionary?"
"The answer is inside your own head."
Those words had struck Simon with tremendous force. He had gone straight to the twin professors of Summoning Elegy, Lin and Rune.
"An Ancient Undead's skull?"
Simon had shown the two Ancient Undead the 'Skull of Manus' that Erzebet had sealed away. The twins set the skull on their desk and turned it round and round, examining it like curious children.
"How fascinating! The core and everything else is long since destroyed, but its grudge must have run terribly deep—a faint trace of residual thought was still clinging to the very tip of the skull."
"We drew that residual thought into a summoning circle and spent ages reviving it, and this is the result."
"This is not the 'Manus' you speak of, Simon."
"Though it cannot quite be called a 'fragment of Manus' either, Simon."
Simon had nodded.
"I know. I want to control this corrupted fragment—even for a moment. Ten minutes would be enough."
"Well, in that case!"
"Leave it to us!"
The two undead girls had picked up chalk and approached the blackboard.
"As Ancient Undead who have existed since ages far, far before!"
"We shall teach you how to raise this child!"
After that.
With only the barest measures of control in place, Simon had begun to build his plan.
How do you fuse the head of one undead with the body of another into a single Dullahan?
There had been no need to obsess over the Rune of Linking. No need to obsess over formulas. No need to obsess over turning common sense on its head.
Simon was not the necromancer who had first invented the Dullahan.
Common sense isn't something you overturn.
He shifted his thinking entirely.
Common sense is something you transcend.
Chaos.
The chaos magic circle Simon had prepared in advance, drawn along his flank. That power would be the wellspring from which every step of the process flowed.
"Student Simon Polentia. Please prepare yourself."
At the sound of the announcement, Simon opened his subspace.
What tumbled out was the body of the Guardian Dullahan, collapsing to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut.
The sight of it unable to even stand properly made the expressions of the students watching from the lounge turn ugly.
"What's this? Looks like he couldn't even finish the thing."
"So the ten thousand was just him throwing out a number and giving up entirely?"
"……What a joke. How is that the top-ranked student?"
The jeers poured down. Sneers and contempt overflowed.
Even the members of Team 10 and Team 4 waiting in the staging area—one and all—felt their expressions hardening by the moment. Simon paid it no mind and readied himself.
Prepare.
With his left hand he gripped the chaos circle at his side, and with his right he unfurled the activation circle that would bring the Dullahan to life.
Crack! Crack!
Even this circle, wrought of chaos, burned violet. Simon carved it into the Dullahan's body.
Link.
Not the Rune of Linking. Using a Rune of Transmission forged from chaos, he bound his own magic circle to the Dullahan's.
So far, this was mere preparation. And now—
Vmmm!
From here, it became real. Simon drew out the skull of Manus.
At the sudden appearance of a skeleton's head, the spectators all began to murmur and lean forward toward the screens.
"A—a skeleton's skull? On a Dullahan's body?"
"Has he actually lost his mind for real?"
If the skeleton head hadn't yet crossed the line, it had certainly gone right up to the edge of it—and this time even the elders and spectators' faces hardened to stone.
"Does he intend to insult Kizen itself?!"
"Filthy business. He'd have been better off withdrawing with his dignity intact."
What Simon did next was simple.
He broke the seal on the skull of Manus and placed it atop the empty neck of the Dullahan.
Here we go!
Simon activated Manus's summoning circle. Instantly—pop!—a ghostly light spilled from the eye sockets of the skull.
Seeing Manus move, that one time, was pure luck.
Manus raised vast quantities of jet-black energy and tried to claim nearby undead as his own body. Simon was exploiting that very nature.
GUSH-GUSH-GUSH-GUSH—!
The immense jet-black torrent pouring from Manus's skull plunged into the Dullahan's body, seeking to claim it for its own.
And waiting inside the Dullahan's body was a magic circle made entirely from the ingredients of chaos—Divinity, and SM-1 blood, and nothing else.
On its own, this circle had no effect whatsoever. But the moment it touched jet-black—
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA!
The three elements merged and transformed into Chaos.
A power that only Simon Polentia could command.
The black smoke billowing from the Dullahan's body bled into violet. Now his entire frame ran on the power of chaos.
As for the Jet-Black Engine—it was the one salvaged from the body of the 'One-Eyed Gentleman', which Erzebet had secured in the Frigod Autonomous Region. It was the only material in existence that could withstand Manus's output.
"Now!"
Simon shouted.
"We will now begin the examination!"
— The examination will now begin. —
CLANG!
CLANG!
CLANG!
CLANG!
Every door in the underground dungeon swung open, and black things came flooding out.
Ten thousand monsters.
In an instant, the examination hall turned pitch black.
"Gahk—!"
"What—what is this?!"
The students and spectators watching the screens recoiled in horror. No sooner had the dungeon doors opened than every screen was simply drowned in blackness.
The entire space had been swallowed by monsters in the blink of an eye.
Nothing could be seen. Nothing could be done. From the staging area, the students poured out laments laced with despair.
"H-how are you even supposed to fight in there?"
"It's over."
As everyone sneered, scorned, and despaired—
From out of the pitch-black darkness, dark as the deepest hour before dawn—
FLARE―!
A violet candleflame lit up the dark.
WHOOOOOOOOSH!
The world brightened, and through the screens the spectators witnessed it.
There, in the darkness.
The figure of a Dullahan, holding aloft a sword burning with jet-black flame.
"Let's go, Manus."
Simon said with quiet resolve.
What the Dullahan held was a violet wick of light, wrapped in a blade of dark blue fire.
Behind the barrier, Simon swept his arm in a single horizontal line. The candleflame followed the motion, tracing the same straight arc—
WHOOOOOOOOOOSH!
One strike.
The flame lit the world along its path, and the monsters caught along the contact line were reduced to ash in an instant.
"Wh—whoa! Whoa!"
"What—what on earth is happening?!"
The lounge and staging area were cauldrons of sheer shock.
Simon placed his hand on his chaos circle.
Raise the chaos output!
He doubled the amount of chaos fueling the wick.
Drain the mana!
The Dullahan's Jet-Black Engine began devouring every scrap of mana in the examination hall—so voraciously that it created the illusion of space itself warping around the Dullahan's frame.
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA!
The jet-black flames wrapped around the enlarged violet wick swelled in turn, spiraling into a colossal vortex. The tip of that whirling flaming blade now stretched from the center of the hall all the way to the dungeon's far wall.
Go.
The Chaos Dullahan adjusted his grip on the blade and raised it to his brow. After holding a posture of almost ceremonial reverence, the Dullahan's waist twisted—and the candleflame swept through a full 360-degree rotation.
WHOOOOOOOSH!
The waist of pitch-black darkness split apart, and the monsters were incinerated in its wake.
"WHOOOAAAAAA!"
The students screamed, faces flushed with excitement.
"Thousands—thousands in a single strike?"
"Is that even possible?!"
Manus—no, the Chaos Dullahan—began swinging the flame-swirling blade in a relentless, unbroken chain.
His slashes tore through the world again and again, ringing out across it.
⟨ Imperial Swordsmanship — Woohwa (Rain Blossom) ⟩
⟨ Imperial Swordsmanship — Junchun (Dredging River) ⟩
⟨ Imperial Swordsmanship — Hyeonmong (Present Dream) ⟩
⟨ Imperial Swordsmanship — Weimu (Majesty) ⟩
The Dullahan danced with his sword, and the darkness was swept away.
"Impossible—that's insane!"
CRASH!
In the monitoring station, a Crow Agent kicked his chair aside and tore off his very mask, eyes bulging.
"How does a Dullahan wield the lost swordsmanship of the Empire?!"
The flames curved. They cut straight lines. They unfurled afterimages and bloomed into dozens of petals at once.
Across screens painted solid black, the sword burned white voids into existence.
The voids were swallowed by darkness in moments—but the flame passed again, and white bloomed once more.
Shrack!
Manus tightened his grip and drew the blade back to his hip in a stance of readiness.
Then he pivoted his body and unleashed the draw—
and the world was consumed by fire.
⟨ Imperial Swordsmanship — Hoicheon (Revolving Heaven) ⟩
"WHOOOAAA!"
"He's already cut down half of them!"
"Five thousand! He's killed five thousand!"
The watching students had lost all touch with composure.
……A wave-type technique.
Arms crossed, watching with a terrifyingly grave expression, Hector ground his teeth.
The Chaos Dullahan swung his candle-like blade, and in its wake crackling currents of violet light leapt out and flowed across the monsters' bodies—traveling, traveling, transferring from one monster to the next, until they were irradiated and annihilated all at once.
So that's it. As long as the space is confined like this, numbers stop meaning anything past a thousand.
Headcount was never an absolute measure of strength. Numbers only gained tactical value when spread across a wide battlefield.
In the limited space of a single room, whether a thousand bugs filled it or a hundred million, a single bomb would destroy them all with perfect fairness.
A technique that affected the entire space.
That Dullahan possessed one—and that was why Simon had chosen ten thousand.
"Damn it all!"
THUD!
Hector slammed his fist down on the arm of the sofa.
So I was the one who set my own limit, caged by the rules of the exam!
PABA-BA-BA-BANG!
The Chaos Dullahan shoved through the monsters with his body and charged to the very farthest reaches of the underground dungeon. And in that instant, his sword grew enormous.
⟨ Imperial Swordsmanship — Changcheon (Surging Sky) ⟩
The blade of chaos, jet-black, and flame swept across the world—and only then did the screens turn white.
By now, no one could muster so much as a gasp of awe.
They could only gape, jaws hanging open, in stunned silence.
"Simon!"
Then Loraine's cry rang out. Everyone whose attention had been glued to the Dullahan belatedly snapped their eyes toward Simon.
"!"
Simon was soaked in blood.
"Hahk! Hahk!"
No caster could remain unscathed while wielding such overwhelming power. Jet-black backflow had set in, and blood was streaming steadily from his mouth and nose.
The power exceeded expectations—but……!
The risk had exceeded them too.
His consciousness flickered in and out like a dying light. His heart pounded erratically, and his organs twisted inside him.
"He's in danger!"
"We have to halt the exam right now! That student could die!"
The medical team came sprinting with a stretcher—but Simon slowly raised his palm and stopped them.
"Student!"
"Simon Polentia."
Aaron had rushed into the examination grounds before anyone else, though no one had seen when he'd arrived. He spoke only the name, but his voice was steeped in deep, unmistakable worry.
"Keep…… going! Please let me keep going!"
Simon forced down the bubbling blood and thrust both hands forward in a gesture of intent. The Chaos Dullahan, in turn, slowly shifted his stance and swept his blade at the incoming monsters.
SHRAAAAK!
Lines of light slashed down one after another, carving the monsters to pieces that rained onto the floor—already buried under drifts of incinerated ash.
"Why……"
Eshu's legs gave out beneath her, and she crumpled, her face full of frantic alarm.
"Why are you pushing yourself this far? It's just an exam! Even if you only cut a thousand—no, even eight hundred……"
Simon doesn't
Loraine clenched her fist tight.
set limits for himself. That's why.
Exams were nothing but motive and assignment. An exam could supply the motive, but what defined its end was not the exam—it was oneself.
He fought a battle against himself to surpass his own limits.
That was why, while others made Skeleton Mages, he had made a Lich.
That was why, while others cut down forty, he cut down ten thousand.
He's looking at something higher.
On the sofa in the lounge, Serne nibbled at her fingertip, licking her lips with a look of genuine admiration.
"Fufu. Finally showing the minnows what a real presence looks like, are we?"
The staging area, the lounge, the spectator hall.
Every one of them held its breath, staring in a daze.
"GRRGH!"
Simon crushed his fist so tight it creaked. His whole body groaned. His breath caught and stuttered, and his vision swam.
Flare!
The sword's flame, weakening by the moment, guttered out—and the blade returned to being an ordinary longsword.
Manus, who had been gleefully cutting monsters down, suddenly found himself without his burning sword. He stopped mid-step and turned to stare at Simon behind the barrier.
Sensing something oddly like resentment in that gaze, Simon chuckled despite himself.
"Sorry. But I can still—"
Simon flexed strength into his blood-soaked arm.
"—fight."
[…….]
"KEEEEEEHHH!"
"GRRRIIIH!"
The monsters charged at Manus, who had come to a standstill. Manus re-gripped his sword and swung without so much as a glance back.
An X-shaped slash carved through the air, and dozens more monsters were cut down and piled onto the floor.
"GO, SIMON!!"
Then, from the staging area, came a shout full of cracks and wobbles. Simon's mind snapped back into focus.
To—Toto?
Toto was overcoming his shyness entirely, screaming himself hoarse.
"You can do it!!"
Only then did the other teammates, who had stood dazed for a moment, raise their voices too.
"You're doing great! Hang in there!!"
"PRESIDENT!!"
Suddenly, the cheering caught fire.
And it wasn't just the staging area—the lounge was the same.
"What are you doing! Grab that one running away!"
"It's slipping past you on the left! Pay attention!"
"Keep going! Keep going!"
Everyone pressed up against the monitors with faces at a fever pitch of excitement, wholly absorbed in Simon's every movement.
His chest grew hot.
Rankings, position points—none of it mattered anymore, not now. Whether he dropped a place or ten meant nothing.
They simply wanted to see the end of this spectacle.
CRACK!
The seated elders shattered their armrests and surged to their feet.
"This—it sets the blood on fire!"
"HAHAHAHA! I can't watch sitting down! If only I were ten years younger, I'd be out there with those youngsters!"
The Crows.
"……Takes me back to my own days at Kizen."
"Keep the nonsense to a minimum, senior."
The professors too.
"He owes this to my advice. Simon Polentia."
"No! He referenced Lin's formulas!"
"No! It was Rune's formulas he referenced!"
And then—
SLAM!
"That absolute lunatic!"
Hector, who had been pretending indifference while sneaking glances from his seat, finally burst through his classmates, shoving them aside, and planted himself in front of the screen.
"If you're going to win, then win it properly! Simon Polentia!!"
SHRAAAAK!
Manus's blade cleaved through eight more monsters.
But Manus could no longer produce a proper sword strike.
The Jet-Black Engine had stopped.
"GRRGH—!"
Merely sustaining the Dullahan made Simon feel as though his entire body was about to burst apart. Manus turned to look at Simon a second time.
"Keep…… going!"
Every capillary in his strained eyes burst, bloodshot threads spreading across them as tears of blood welled over.
But Simon did not stop.
Manus kicked one charging monster apart with his foot.
"Seven left!"
"Seven!"
Everyone shouted with one voice.
"On your left, Simon!"
Simon's eyes whipped around. Manus's gaze followed, and his blade cut down the monster charging from the right.
"SIIIIIX!"
Toto howled in a voice split completely ragged.
CRASH!
Manus charged in and cut down two more monsters. The remaining monsters were two fleeing Jezilies.
Besides those, two ordinary orcs had apparently been driven mad by the chaos—having lost their reason, they were careening around in a blind, mindless rampage.
Robbing a target of its reason was the nature of chaos itself, but in this exam it worked against him.
"Keep moving!"
"Steady, one at a time!"
"30 seconds!"
The streaming blood made it nearly impossible to see—but it didn't matter anymore.
Somewhere along the way, Simon could see the monsters through Manus's eyes.
The residual thought is fully linked! He's opened his mind to me!
Simon swung his arm with all his strength, and Manus's sword moved in perfect accord with it.
"Four monsters left!"
"15 seconds!"
Even Manus's strength was visibly failing now.
His whole body was heavy as if waterlogged. Even the magnificent body of a Guardian Dullahan was struggling to fully contain Manus's swordplay. His limbs were coming apart at the seams, bending at grotesque angles, soaked pitch black.
"HAAAAH!"
CRACK!
Simon and Manus squeezed out the last of their strength, charged, and took the head off a fleeing Jezilie.
"Two!"
"Two monsters left!"
"10 seconds!"
Simon gritted his teeth.
Damn it!
The two chaos-maddened orcs were drifting apart, heading in opposite directions.
The whole room counted down as one.
"9!"
"8!"
TAK!
Better to move than to waste time deliberating.
Manus lunged at the orc on the right first and swung—
SSRRNG!
His foot slipped on the floor, and the stroke fell short, severing only the orc's arm. One-armed, the orc shrieked and bolted.
"6!"
"5!"
Time stretched to an excruciating crawl.
And at the same instant, the last thread of his reason trembled, fraying at the edge.
Focus!
Kill 9,999 and the score was zero.
The rules demanded all ten thousand, every last one.
Focus!
Simon gathered every ounce of sensation into the tip of his blade and swept it sideways once more.
He felt the orc's neck come away.
One remained.
"4!"
"3!"
The instant the head fell, he spun his body. The last orc was already fleeing far into the distance.
Faster than the severed head could strike the ground, he kicked off the floor, leapt, and swung—
"2!"
"1!"
The descending blade—
Ah……!
—did not connect.
Its arc sliced through empty air, his grip gave out, and the sword flew spinning skyward.
Simon tore free of Manus's residual thought and wiped the blood from his eyes with his sleeve, staring straight ahead.
'!'
The last remaining orc.
Embedded in the back of its neck was the skull of Manus.
No way—!
Manus had seized his own head with his left hand and hurled it at the orc himself.
Manus was smiling as he looked this way. The orc, its nape crushed between Manus's teeth, crumpled to the floor.
And in a space that had held ten thousand monsters—
the only thing left standing was the headless body of a Dullahan.
Simon Polentia — 10,000 / 10,000 monsters eliminated within the time limit!
Simon Polentia and Team 6 have earned 10,000 POINTS!
"WHOOOOAAAAAAAH!"
Students with faces flushed crimson from excitement and elation came pouring toward Simon, roaring their joy.
Once again, a new legend had been written.
Tap—
Aaron, watching from the closest vantage point of all, didn't even notice the cigar fall from his mouth to the floor.
Both his palms were slick with sweat.
"……You lunatic."
He had really done it.
He had cut down ten thousand.