The Fearsome Volcano Castle Lord
[So these are the ones who have set foot upon my territory.]
A dignified voice flowed out from within the face-concealing helm.
[This shall test my patience. None among you shall leave this land alive. If you wish to live, struggle with every ounce of strength you possess. Otherwise, nothing awaits you but a painful destruction.]
Her arm rose.
[I am the Volcano Castle Lord.]
KWAAAAAAAAAAAH—!
As if answering her words, the magma in the crater surged upward once more. The Volcano Castle Lord smiled in satisfaction.
And then, the person standing behind her.
……Isn't she getting a bit too into character?
The teaching assistant who had come along to rein in the Volcano Castle Lord's sudden theatrics was dripping with sweat. She too wore red armor, but hers was the plain garb of an ordinary soldier.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
And another person behind them, shedding streams of tears while delivering a standing ovation.
"Magnificent. Simply magnificent, Your Grace the Grand Duke!"
It was Endolas Vaudeville.
The Volcano Castle Lord turned to look back at him.
[What manner of slip of the tongue is this? In this place, I am the Volcano Castle Lord.]
"Ah, haha! Of course, of course!"
Endolas had been furious at Nephthys's capricious decision at first, but his thinking had since changed entirely.
They had seated a serving Legion Commander in the exam boss's chair! Who could possibly be better suited to this stage?
[I have sworn to Lady Nephthys.]
She drew in a deep breath.
[I declared that during this exam, I would hurl every ounce of power and every scrap of authority granted to me against the challengers.]
As she slowly clenched her fist, the red glove creaked.
[This is a true duel. I have cast myself as the villain, so I shall fight with all my strength for the sake of those who dare challenge me. That is the only path that will not dishonor them.]
The teaching assistant smiled bitterly.
I rather doubt the students see it that way.
Jean Arskalt, now become the Volcano Castle Lord, had no idea that failing students would actually be expelled from the academy.
Nephthys had simply come to her in person and asked, and she intended to carry out her orders with a soldier's thoroughness, nothing more.
Thus was the most terrifying Volcano Castle Lord in history born.
Thud. Thud.
Turning her back, she swept her red cloak behind her and strode into the depths of Volcano Castle.
At the very top floor of the fortress stood a great throne, and beside it rested a bow forged from red stone, as if sculpted straight out of molten lava.
VMMMM—
The bow was steadily charging with Jet-Black.
[Well, then.]
She took hold of it and lifted it up.
[I do wonder who will reach me first.]
It was the Gale Bow, the weapon she had wielded as her main armament as a Legion Commander.
The replica before her was identical to it in every outward detail.
After the Volcano Castle Lord made her appearance, the Group Exam on the Rehlon Archipelago leaped in difficulty to another level entirely.
From the very moment of her emergence, magma had begun pouring endlessly from the crater.
Volcanic debris and shards rained from the sky like comets, scorching the forests and islands to ash, while magma flooded across the ground like a deluge, sweeping away everything in its path without a trace.
An environment of extreme survival.
And from all that lava, lava monsters began to emerge. The students had to flee the natural disasters while simultaneously enduring the assaults of monsters continuously deployed across the entire exam grounds.
—Don't stop, keep running!
—Up! Look up! Watch your heads!
As if that weren't enough, the volcano monsters' behavior had changed as well.
The monsters that rose wherever the mountain's fury fell had once done nothing but attack whatever students happened to be nearby — but now they had suddenly begun moving with tactical sophistication.
They cut off the students' escape routes, herded them into the path of the magma flows, and even blocked their routes to the sea.
There was no such thing as an easy way out. The students had no choice but to force their way through the crisis through gritted teeth, and the casualties mounted one after another.
The lava that surged across the sea had laid waste to every island in the starting zone. The students had no choice but to take boats for the central island, or flee to ever more distant outlying isles.
"We made it! We're alive!"
A pair heading for a remote island raised their hands high, laughing.
Neither of them yet knew that an attack had also been underway from Volcano Castle itself. The student on the right of the pair turned his head.
"Enki, where to next?"
"Enki?"
He spun around in alarm — and found that his companion, who had without question boarded the same boat as him, was gone.
A single FWOOSH of seawater erupting in the far distance was all that remained to mark his end.
"N-no way. What got him……?"
One by one, students were vanishing to the attacks launched from Volcano Castle.
The terror of the exam grounds was driving the students deeper and deeper toward the edge.
Survivors: 288 / 370
With the Volcano Castle Lord's emergence driving the exam to such extremes, Kizen's students were now forced to choose between two paths.
They could devote themselves single-mindedly to somehow, desperately, surviving the remaining time.
Or they could seize the Volcano Castle Lord waiting at the mountain's peak and end this exam outright.
"We have to go take down the Volcano Castle Lord."
Simon's mind was made up in favor of the latter.
He was asking Dick and Cindy Vivace to lend him their strength.
"At this rate, far too many people are going to be expelled. If we wait until a truly close friend gets eliminated before we make up our minds, it'll be too late. We need to leave right now."
The two of them fell into thought for a moment. It was hardly an easy choice — but Dick quickly settled his deliberation, flashed a grin, and grabbed Simon's hand.
"Fine, what's there I can't do with you around? Let's do this!"
Dick, who had weathered hardship after hardship at Simon's side, was quick to commit.
Cindy, on the other hand, deliberated a while longer. She turned the matter over for quite some time before speaking.
"Honestly? I couldn't care less about the Volcano Castle Lord. My own survival comes first."
"Understood."
"But it's also true that sticking next to the number one student in the whole year is good for staying alive."
Cindy took Simon's hand.
"As a teammate, I'll help you as far as I can. But the second things look dangerous, I'm surviving — even if I have to leave you two behind to do it."
Simon grinned.
"That's more than enough."
And so Simon moved out with Dick and Cindy, dodging the lava cascading down around them.
He wanted nothing more than to climb the mountain right now and breach the fortress floating above the crater — but the magma kept streaming relentlessly down the very slope they stood on, making the ascent impossible.
"Let's find another route up."
Dick said.
"No way the entire mountain is covered in continuously flowing lava. There's got to be a path we can take."
Simon agreed with Dick, and they set out again.
But before they had gone far, the group was forced to a halt once more.
"What is it, Cindy?"
Cindy, who had been walking at the front, was concentrating intently on something.
Her ears twitched, swiveled, twitched again.
"I hear people. Seven, maybe eight of them? Looks like there's a fight going on nearby."
"!"
She was the most gifted sensor among the three of them. Both of the others' eyes went wide.
"Anything else?"
"Hmm, listening to the sounds, I'd say they're fighting lava monsters that came out of here. They're outnumbered — it looks bad."
At her words, Simon answered without a moment's hesitation.
"Let's go save them."
Dick flinched.
"Hey, you sure about this? What if we go all the way to help them and they turn around and fight us?"
Dick, who had lost his fortress to students squabbling among themselves, sounded wary — but Simon shook his head.
"The situation's changed. At this point, every Kizen student has to combine forces if this exam is going to end in victory. Every additional fighter counts."
"Mmm…… can't argue with that. All right, let's go. But if it's anyone from Merdiana's crowd, we're bolting without looking back."
They broke into a run toward the direction Cindy had heard the sounds coming from.
Before long, the crackle of exploding black magic reached Simon's ears as well.
"Over there!"
Lava monsters risen from the magma were assaulting a band of students, and the battle was not going well for them at all.
Had they been fighting their way here for a long time? Their clothes and equipment were in tatters, every inch of them battered. Their concentration had frayed — one of the magic circles they tried to cast crumbled apart midway through.
"Ghk!"
A lava monster was advancing toward a girl who had fallen to the ground mid-fight, its maw gaping wide. The sight of it sent Simon stamping off the ground and charging out without a moment's delay.
"Gate Opening!"
SHRRRRRRRRK!
A colossal blade erupted from the ground and swept across in a single straight line. With a VRRUNG!, the lava monsters all faltered in unison — then toppled over, cleaved clean in half.
In the same instant, Simon spread his palm and brought his fist down in a pounding motion.
"Imperial Guard!"
An emerald radiance descended from the sky and coated Overlord's long frame. The silver blades turned a vivid, gleaming teal.
Simon Original — Terror Blade
"Crescent Slash!"
FWOOOOOOOM!
Overlord's blade, now twice its former length, cleaved through the empty air in the direction Simon's arm swept.
The sword-light beading at its tip flew forth in a crescent arc, slicing dozens of lava monsters apart in a single stroke.
"Wh-who—?"
The besieged students turned to look at Simon.
"We're coming too!"
Dick and Cindy followed close behind.
Dick grabbed a fistful of potion bottles from subspace and hurled them.
The moment he released the enchantment sealing each vial, the glass froze blinding white, shattered away, and out of the shards billowed plumes of blue mist.
PHSSSSSSSS!
The lava monsters were quenched by the flash-freeze effect and collapsed to the ground with a clatter.
Tap! Tah! Tah! Tah!
Cindy darted through the fray with feline grace, bopping each lava monster atop its head as she weaved between them.
Huella
Then, at her snap of the fingers, the monsters caved in all at once with a resounding CRUNCH!
Stamped into every one of their crushed bodies was the same enormous paw print.
"They came to help us!"
"We're s-saved."
The besieged students let out breaths of relief.
"Now's not the time to relax! Counterattack, everyone!"
Soon the students they had rescued swung over to the offensive as well, and together they managed to bring down the rest of the lava monsters without further loss.
The instant the battle ended, all of them collapsed where they stood or crumpled to the ground. Not one of them had a shred of strength left.
Simon walked among them, exchanging greetings.
"Overlord. I wondered who was behind that annoying summon of theirs."
Among them was a face Simon knew.
A blond boy with a hand in his pocket and a long fringe falling over one eye came walking up.
"Malcolm!"
It was Malcolm Randolph — the former Special Admission No. 10, who had served as head of the Disciplinary Committee last semester. He flashed a crooked grin.
"Appreciate you coming all the way out here just to save us."
"Of course I did."
The two clasped hands briefly.
"You were leading this group?"
At Simon's question, Malcolm smirked and shook his head.
"Nah, I'm just another grunt."
Malcolm tipped his chin toward someone beside him.
A girl was walking toward them.
"Thank you for rescuing us."
Simon's eyes went wide.
That's……
"My strength took a while to come back. I very nearly got flattened."
A girl with two long ears jutting up from her head.
None other than the Hemomancy Department Representative — and ninth in the entire year.
The girl whose name was synonymous with eccentricity was none other than—
"I'm Elysia Rosenfelt."