Detected by a Necromancer
Having secretly prepared a holy magic circle in the park restroom, Simon stepped back outside.
He walked along at a leisurely, stroll-like pace, and when no one was watching, spread the holy magic from his hand naturally across the park grounds. Then, with a perfectly casual air, he kept walking until he stood a short distance from the site, quietly studying the crowd.
'The moment people start reacting is what matters.'
Ten seconds to go. Simon's heart pounded wildly.
'Focus.'
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
Whoosh!
A brilliant radiance welled up from the magic circle in the ground, and letters of light rose into the air.
In broad daylight, the effect wasn't especially dramatic. Ordinary passersby who happened to catch sight of it just assumed Kizen was holding some kind of event and reacted without much interest.
"......"
But there were those who showed a meaningful reaction.
Simon had been watching one particular person in the park. The deep hood kept their face almost entirely hidden, but their trembling shoulders and frozen, stiff movements made it obvious to anyone that they were startled.
The message Simon had written was none other than this:
[You have been detected by a Necromancer. Flee from this place, now.]
The person didn't do anything so crude as glance around in alarm. They simply pulled their hood down even deeper, rose from their seat, and began to walk away.
But to Simon's eyes, that composure only made them look all the more suspicious.
"Pardon me."
Simon boldly approached and spoke. The figure stopped dead in their tracks.
"I'm with the Student Council."
Simon held up his student council armband, and the figure slowly turned to face him.
"Is something the matter?"
A young woman's voice.
Ever Kire, the fanatic suspect believed to have infiltrated Kizen, was also a woman. Simon spoke tensely.
"We've received a report of explosives on Kizen grounds. Your cooperation would be appreciated for verification."
"...Explosives?"
"Yes. It won't take long. We'd be grateful if you'd accompany us as a reference witness."
"It seems there's been some misunderstanding."
The woman answered in a soft, measured voice and spread her robe wide.
"I am Anna Shalmont, daughter of House Shalmont. Here is my identification—"
Simon, waiting for her to produce her ID, realized one beat too late.
The dazzling radiance pouring out from within the robe.
Holy Light
Whoosh—!
"Kuh!"
It felt as though his entire body was being seared by sunlight.
While Simon flinched and raised his arm to shield his face, a fresh white sphere shot through the light and blasted into his chest.
Holy Buster
BOOM!
Simon's body flew several meters and rolled across the ground. The woman claiming to be Shalmont immediately turned her back and started running, while the spectators, thrown into panic by the sudden explosion of sound, screamed and fled.
'Just now, that was—!'
Simon lifted his head, his face twisted in a fierce scowl.
'White magic!'
And she had attacked first, even after he'd identified himself as student council.
There was no need to deliberate any further.
"Kazhan!!"
At Simon's shout, Kazhan, who had been waiting in the trees, dropped down at once. Approaching at a speed reminiscent of a wild animal, he swung his arm from behind.
Wham!
But she dodged it with a light dip of her head.
'Kazhan's ambush, that easily?'
Now it was the fanatic who extended her arm. Holy Busters erupted in rapid succession, and Kazhan recoiled, putting distance between them.
A necromancer who took white magic head-on could suffer fatal wounds.
"Kazhan! Keep her moving!"
The woman fled, Kazhan gave chase, and Simon kicked off a building wall and ran, closing the distance in an instant.
He could see the fanatic glancing back at him, sweat streaming down her face. The look on her said, How is that necromancer still moving?
"Stop right there!"
When Simon thrust up his index finger, bones floated up into the air and shot out like arrows.
Whoosh!
But with a single ripple of light from her arm, the bones scattered wildly out of control or veered off course, tumbling to the ground.
'As expected.'
Fundamentally, a fight against a Priest was a losing matchup for a necromancer. Thinking this chase wouldn't end easily, Simon readied his chaos magic.
"This is K-1! We're pursuing a fugitive presumed to be Ever Kire!"
Kazhan shouted urgently into his communication crystal.
"Requesting immediate support! Seal off the escape routes first!"
—Understood.
In the meantime, the fanatic ran past the park and darted into an alley between buildings, with Simon and Kazhan hot on her heels, kicking up jet-black at full power.
'!'
The alley she was passing through moved as if it were alive. The surrounding bricks rose up and transformed into 'women's hands'—slender wrists, long fingers—that lunged for Simon and Kazhan.
Simon leapt from his spot in alarm, and Kazhan dropped low, hugging the ground, to slip beneath them.
GRUMBLE!
GRUMBLE GRUMBLE!
When the two looked up, more than twenty brick arms already filled the space around them. Every last one bore rings on its fingers and long, grown-out nails—a bizarre figure, an ornamentation that served no practical purpose whatsoever.
"So it's her ability."
Kazhan muttered, brushing dirt from his cheek with his sleeve.
"Matter manipulation, no less. One of the repertoires possible with Ever Kire's power."
"Go!"
The two immediately kicked off the ground and sprinted forward, the ringed hands surging after them.
"Hup!"
Simon threw Cloud against a building wall and leapt skyward, then kicked off the wall itself for another bound. The wall dented inward as his body rocketed upward at high speed.
Long fingers came wavering at him like serpents from every direction, waiting to seize him.
Hong Feng Original — Bayonet
Shaaak!
Simon's right hand slashed down, and the oncoming arm was cleaved cleanly apart. He slipped through the gap without a hitch.
"Kazhan!"
WHUMP!
KA-BOOM!
Amazingly, Kazhan wasn't taking to the air—he was charging straight through the middle. His signature movement, that paper-doll flutter, was still there, but now he bent his joints at uncanny angles to create openings no human could dodge, slipping through them.
Wham!
He ran as though skimming the surface of the earth, then rose into the air and, in mid-suspension, snapped his body rigidly into a straight line.
"!!"
Precisely through that gap, two arms swept past. Then his body unfolded again, and he was moving with startling agility.
'That's Kazhan for you. Never anyone worth worrying about!'
Simon pushed himself harder and resumed the chase. The two of them landed on the ground in a single motion and burst out of the alley flooded with arms—only to face forward.
Ahead, the fanatic was running along the road with her arm outstretched to the right.
"!"
And to the right, with the distant sea as a backdrop, spectators sat at shaded tables enjoying their tea time.
CRASH!
CRASH!
The ground heaved upward, and countless long-nailed women's arms erupted into the air.
"Gwah! What the—?!"
"Kyaaaaaa!"
Startled screams burst out from every direction.
"The civilians!"
"Simon! There are more on the other side!"
Crack!
An arm rising from a building's wall tore the roof off entire and hurled it toward the tables packed with people.
The two exchanged a glance, and without a word about who went first, they shot forward like lightning.
"Ah."
A pitch-black shadow swallowed the surroundings, and the people stood frozen, mouths agape, staring blankly at the falling roof.
Then Kazhan, risen into the air, clenched his teeth and drove his fist at that roof.
Hong Feng Original — Boxer
CRASH!!
The instant it met Kazhan's fist, the roof shattered into pieces and scattered. Simon swept his arm out roughly to the side, like someone hanging laundry on a line.
Bone Armor
Click! Clack!
Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack!
Bone armor fitted itself over the bodies of the people, and they soared up into the air and out of harm's way. The arms rising from the ground slashed futilely at empty space, and the wreckage of the roof fell onto vacant earth.
"Everyone, run!"
Simon shouted, recalling his Bone Armor. Kazhan, having smashed the roof to pieces, was already far ahead, chasing the fanatic. Simon hurried after him.
—This is Crow Aleister.
Just then, a voice came through the communication crystal in Kazhan's breast pocket.
—A barrier has been deployed. We are tightening the barrier net to trap the fanatic.
—This is Team D. Fugitive spotted. Joining the engagement!
From the sound of the communications, there were Crows in the rear, and Kazhan's fellow agents seemed to be converging as well.
Simon was quietly breathing a sigh of relief when—
"?!"
Something enormous was unfolding before them.
Ahead lay a field of boulders. And from that rocky terrain, massive women's hands were rising one after another, tracing O-shapes with their fingers, crossing over each other—forming some strange configuration.
And floating above it all was a colossal holy magic circle the size of an entire plaza.
It was a wide-area offensive white magic, one that would expose any necromancer who entered that space to raw divinity. The supporting agents were being helplessly struck down by the unidentified holy magic.
And through it all, the fanatic was escaping.
'Damn it!'
Simon surged with jet-black and sprinted forward.
"Kazhan! Circle around from the side! I'll send a signal with the communication crystal!"
"Reckless, Simon! Wait for reinforcements!"
Simon charged alone into the sacred domain where dazzling light poured down from above.
'At this density of divinity, it should be enough to mask my own!'
The corners of Simon's mouth curled up. The moment he felt his whole body tingling and stinging, he flipped the switch.
'I can do anything!'
The jet-black within him drained away, and a new power filled his frame. Transformed into a Priest, Simon plunged through the domain of light.
"?!"
Inside, the fanatic—preparing a teleportation magic circle with her divinity—wore a look of utter disbelief.
"Impossible! How is a necromancer inside a sanctum spell—?!"
"Something like this?"
Simon spread his palm, then brought his clenched fist down hard beneath it.
"—is lukewarm!"
Light blazing down from the sky slammed into the teleportation circle. The modifiers she had only just begun arranging took damage, the balance collapsed, and the other elements began spiraling wildly out of true.
"...You monster!"
The Priest wheeled around and fled in haste.
When her divinity failed her, she made hands with her ability and sent them swinging, but Simon dodged them with agile footwork and kept up the pursuit.
[Kwahahaha!]
Pier's detached spirit, watching on, let out a great cackle.
[From a Priest's standpoint, I suppose this Boy must be a living nightmare!]
The fanatic fled past Simon, out beyond her own magic. Simon chased her in a dizzying run, and before he knew it, trees and thickets had grown dense all around them. It was the Forbidden Forest.
"Kazhan! We're in the Forbidden Forest! You're tracking my position, right?"
—Confirmed. Going in ahead of you.
Simon was keeping a fixed distance between himself and the fanatic. It was a movement born of his steady analysis of her power. Her hand-creating ability grew slower the farther away it operated.
A rabbit drive.
Time was now on their side.
Across all of Roke Island, Kizen's necromancers were closing in. No matter how long she ran, sooner or later she would slam into a barrier directly controlled by a Crow-class operative.
'I will catch her, no matter what!'
The Dark Festival was a festival for everyone.
And beyond merely trying to ruin it—an act of terror meant to take people's lives was something he could never, ever forgive.
THUD!
Just then, the sound of impact rang out ahead.
'Kazhan!'
KA-BOOM!
WHAM!
Trees split apart one after another, and the sounds of fists and limbs colliding rang out. Simon pushed through the brush and emerged as well.
Smack!
Thwack!
Kazhan and the fugitive were locked in a fierce exchange of blows. Every time their fists met, the air itself trembled; every time their kicks crossed, the ground beneath their feet caved in.
A contest of Battle Arts against Sacred Arts.
Thwip!
Then the fugitive caught the arm Kazhan threw and wrenched it sideways—
Crunch!
—and stomped down on his heel. His heel bent in a direction it should never have bent and struck the ground.
GRAAAAGH!
Kazhan let out a roar of agony. Her next knee drove up into his jaw, and as he floated into the air she seized him by the hair and slammed him down into the earth.
BOOM!
A massive crater tore open. Dirt and dust geysered upward as the ground sank a full story below, centered on the two of them.
'No way!'
Simon's mouth hung open.
'She beat Kazhan... in hand-to-hand combat?'
"Am I."
A pure-white radiance flickered in her pupils.
Rumble rumble rumble!
Rumble rumble rumble!
"—funny to you?"
A hundred enormous arms rose up around them, circling, crossing, and bending into position to prepare her formula. Cold sweat broke out on Simon's brow.
Too late, the Saintess of the Harvest's question echoed through his mind.
—But here's the fundamental question. Can you lot actually beat Ever Kire?
Simon laughed, pale-faced and sweating cold.
"...Of course we will!"
TWANG!
Thwip!
Just then, every joint in Kazhan's body twisted at uncanny angles, and he coiled around the fugitive's body like a serpent.
"Urgh!"
The leg and elbow that should have been broken moments ago were moving perfectly. Blood trickling from his lips, Kazhan roared.
"Now, Simon!"
Crack!
Tendons stood out along Simon's arm. Seizing the violet spear that had erupted from his hip in an instant, weight loaded onto his front foot, he hurled it.
Simon Original — Chaos Spear
Magic of chaos tore through the air toward the fanatic, ferocious and unrelenting.