The Ivory Tower's Heir
"Hmm."
A smile drifted across Serne's face.
The Legion's skeletons and corpse spiders had surrounded her without a single gap. Outnumbered twenty-seven to two, she showed not the faintest trace of unease.
"Well then, this should be an amusing pastime. Let me play with you, Legion Commander."
She extended a slender index finger in a straight line.
Shhk.
An uncanny, pure-white feather sprouted from her fingertip. Simon watched her every movement with intense concentration.
That's Serne's unique power.
A force said to be obtained by only a rare handful of chosen beings on this continent. Not dark magic, not holy magic, not pure magic—nothing of the sort, but an 'extrasensory power' outside every established category. On an entirely different level from the Black Hand Haren Coke wielded. She curled the feather lightly in her palm and threw it.
Fast!
Simon gritted his teeth, drew his short sword, and swung.
Clang!
Steel met feather—and it was the steel that shattered. Still, the blade had barely managed to deflect the trajectory; the feather grazed Simon's cheek and buried itself in a tree behind him.
Thump!
For that split second, Simon felt a burning agony as if he were roasting in a sulfur hell, then snapped back to reality.
It had lasted less than a second, but every cell and organ system in his body had already reacted, flooding him with endorphins to blunt the pain.
What the hell is this?
Cold sweat poured down his back. Serne spoke.
"This is my power. I can pour emotions into these feathers."
Simon looked behind him.
The tree where the feather had lodged was twisting its branches into knots. As if feeling its whole body being devoured by pests, the trunk began synthesizing insect-repelling compounds and releasing a scent into the air to lure the pests' natural predators.
Simon caught a whiff of something sour, like tree sap. If the plant kingdom was reacting this violently...
"Joy, rage, pleasure—all the primary emotions, of course. But also fear, the lust to dominate, even total listlessness. Anything you like."
New feathers rose from her hand. Six of them danced above her palm.
"If the target is human, a single feather is enough to make them crawl like a dog. Care to find out?"
The full-scale assault began.
The feathers tore through the air at a vicious speed, and Simon flung himself desperately out of the way. Each one that struck the ground rang out with a thunderous crack.
Shhk!
She plucked a feather straight from her fingertip and gripped it in her hand. The feather stained pitch-black and launched itself even faster than before.
The black feather reflected in Simon's eyes the instant he landed.
Ssshhk!
Just then, Pier lunged in front of him and cleaved the greatsword through it.
[Khhhh! You alright?]
"As expected, the reaction speed of an Ancient Undead is terrifying~"
Serne murmured. Pier readjusted his grip on the pure-white greatsword.
[What's the plan, boy?]
Simon rose to his feet, his face grim.
"We fight."
Before the words had even finished leaving his mouth, Pier's body shot forward like an arrow.
Serne smirked and threw a feather.
Pier's frame flashed upward, then broke sharply at an angle and dove down. She raised the feather clutched in her opposite hand above her head.
KAGAGAGAGAGAK!
Sword and feather collided, spraying furious sparks. Somewhere along the way, the feather had transformed into a defensive magic circle.
"I've been wandering around without a care in the world—who would've thought I'd end up facing an Ancient Undead out here?"
[Hmph!]
Rough flames roared up in Pier's eyes.
BOOM!
Pier's greatsword ripped the barrier to shreds, and Serne fled backward through the gap.
'Web!'
The moment Simon's eyes went wide, the corpse spiders he'd scattered around the field fired their webs in unison.
She evaded them all with her hands clasped leisurely behind her back, her steps gliding light as air. She might as well have been floating a few inches above the ground.
'Spearmen, advance!'
SHAAAAAA!
The skeletons lying in ambush in the underbrush thrust their spears. Five spears tore toward Serne's torso, but she flattened herself to the ground and slipped beneath them.
"What a nuisance."
PA-PA-PA-PA-PAK!
Feathers erupted from her body and blew the surrounding skeletons to pieces. As she rose again, a mountain-sized slash from Pier came crashing down on her back.
KWAKWAKWAKWAKWAKWA!
A precise chain of attacks that gave her no room to breathe.
Serne fled into the air to escape the firepower, and the corpse spiders came swinging at her from front and back like pendulums. She shot the spiders down with nimble volleys of feathers and climbed even higher.
'So loading emotions into the feathers isn't the whole story.'
Simon bit his lip as he watched.
"A Legion Commander really is on another level!"
Serne swept her hand like a conductor. The feathers fluttering on the breeze dissolved into Jet-Black, and the Jet-Black warped into magic circles.
Multi-casting of more than twenty spells—the kind that would make even active-duty necromancers click their tongues—was, to her, no more difficult than a casual wave of the hand.
Each feather was a weapon, a vessel of emotion, and a magic circle all at once.
Twenty magic circles blazing to life around her, Serne smiled.
"Dark Flare."
"...What?"
KWAKWAKWAKWAKWAKWAKWABOOM!
Twenty streams of black flame erupted from the circles and turned the ground into a wasteland. The skeletons and corpse spiders were swept up in the overwhelming firepower and blown apart, utterly helpless.
KUWOONG!
Simon dodged a direct hit by a hair's breadth, but more than half his Barrier Gauge vanished.
'...That was ALL Dark Flare? That's impossible!'
Special Admission No. 2, Serne Aindark, had long since soared past the level of any student.
[How lukewarm.]
Just then, Pier, who had soared into the sky, appeared behind Serne's back.
KWAAAAAANG!
With the impact, her body crashed to the earth. And faster still, Pier—who had already landed and been waiting—swung his greatsword.
CLANG!
Serne turned feathers into a shield and blocked it, and Pier pressed the assault like a madman.
"Kuh!"
Sacrificing feather after feather to hold him off, Serne retreated a great distance and spread her palm wide.
The feathers drifting through the air transformed into black magic circles and ringed Pier on all sides.
[HOOOHP!]
Pier's eyes flashed.
The pure-white greatsword became a single streak, carving countless blade-trails through the air. In moments, every one of the magic circles blanketing the sky had been shredded to ribbons.
[You've clearly surpassed the level of a student!]
Pier kicked off the ground and leapt.
[But the level of a mere student is all it is!!]
The pure-white greatsword came down with the force to cleave Serne's forehead in two.
Thud.
"You walked right into it."
The greatsword stopped a hair's breadth short. Twenty feathers were embedded in Pier's body.
"I baited your attack and raised the feathers I'd already laid on the ground."
She approached with light, graceful steps and tapped his skull with a fingertip.
But Pier showed no reaction at all.
"Twenty feathers of listlessness. Normally my power doesn't work on the undead—but for an Ancient Undead, it did. You've existed for so long that you think, reason, and feel just like a person."
She turned her head toward Simon.
"Now then~ Legion Commander? Your trump card has been sealed. So..."
Simon grinned.
"That's just wishful thinking on your part."
[Heheh! KHAHAHAHAHA!]
At the sound of Pier's laughter, Serne looked back.
The feathers clinging to Pier's body were shuddering—and falling away one by one.
[Emotions do exist within me, girl! But you think THIS much is enough to shake me?!]
KUGUGUGUGUGUGU!
Azure-black Jet-Black erupted from Pier's body like an explosion.
[My will! Is not so weak!!]
Having shattered Serne's power through sheer will alone, Pier seized his greatsword in a crushing grip.
Serne hastily fell back, sending feathers outward to unfold defensive magic circles.
[No more tricks! DIE!]
Pier's greatsword scattered light in every direction.
⟨ Fierce Night ⟩
KWAAAAAAAAAA!
The slash split the world in half and detonated into a massive explosion. It was far larger than any slash of Pier's Simon had ever seen.
'Kuh!'
The savage shockwave tore trees and plants out by the roots.
Simon shielded his face with his arm and stared straight ahead.
'...Pier! You really can't kill her! She's the Ivory Tower's successor!'
[What a worrywart you are.]
Pier rested his greatsword on his shoulder.
[She's more of a monster than you realize.]
KUGUGUGU—
Just as Pier had said—as the smoke cleared, Serne revealed herself.
Simon's eyes went wide. Three wings sprouted from her left shoulder.
"It's been a long time since I showed anyone this form."
And they were wings on one side only. Her right side bore nothing at all.
This was the true nature of her power. A surge of Jet-Black on a scale incomparable to anything before washed over the field.
'Pier. Can you use that technique one more time?'
[Khhhh! Of course!]
'If I draw Serne's attention...'
"By the way, us."
Serne said, pointing behind them.
"Are we going to keep fighting like this?"
Simon's eyes widened.
Pier's slash had just split open the barrier Serne had woven around the area. Once the collapse began, the whole thing came crashing down with a series of splintering cracks.
Trouble. With the barrier shattered, they were now inside the Observers' field of view.
'Damn it—come back!'
Simon pulled an imaginary lever.
The skeletons and corpse spiders that had been encircling Serne swiftly withdrew into subspace.
Serne, apparently judging that revealing her wings served no purpose either, tucked them back inside her body.
'Pier, you too.'
[Me as well?]
Pier's expression hardened.
[It's not about being discovered! That woman's feathers hold the power to turn a human into a complete wreck in an instant!]
'It's fine. I have a plan.'
Simon fingered the artifact necklace hanging around his neck—the one Nephthys had given him.
'I'll keep subspace open. Slip inside for now, and if I'm ever in real danger, come back out.'
[Hmph. Be careful!]
Pier withdrew into subspace as well, and Serne's barrier vanished completely. The area was so thoroughly scorched that the Observers overhead began circling back through the skies.
"Whew."
Now only Simon and Serne remained. Simon lightly adjusted his uniform tie.
"Doesn't this mean that last option you mentioned is off the table?"
The plan to eliminate Simon and bury the Legion so that no one else could claim it was now impossible. Kizen's watchful eyes were trained on them from above, sharp and blue.
"You're right. Then how about this instead?"
Serne plucked out a single feather and pressed it to her own cheek.
"In a fit of whimsy, I play with you however I like, then you fail out of your exams. I'll erase your memories, of course."
"Ha."
The wind blew. A single feather drifted on the breeze and landed with a soft tap at Simon's feet.
— You are about to live through a painful life at Kizen.
The feather dissolved into a magic circle, and her voice rang out.
— Unknown misfortunes will pile upon you. You'll fail your exams, botch your practical assessments, and at last be expelled from Kizen. And once their protection falls away, I will come for you. Well? Isn't that a legal and sensible way to persuade you?
Simon let out a short laugh and rested a hand on his hip.
"Persistent. That's how you've handled all the others too, isn't it?"
She only blinked, wearing the smile of someone who had no idea what he meant.
It was obvious. Drop promising future pillars of Kizen out of the school, then quietly recruit the demoralized student into the Ivory Tower.
Talent poaching, in essence.
Of course, it would be a problem if she were caught—but whether a student got expelled from Kizen or not meant nothing to her.
According to what Meilin had said yesterday, Serne was studying here because of a binding pact with Kizen.
Special Admission was, whatever anyone said, an enormous privilege—but seen diplomatically, the situation was strange in its own way. A massive organization like the Ivory Tower had been forced to send its own successor away to an outside power.
Bluntly put, it was like a prince or princess being taken hostage.
Given that, her hatred of Kizen was, in a way, only natural. Serne's goal was most likely the Ivory Tower's complete independence.
Feels like I've wandered into something complicated.
Kizen was no mere school.
It brimmed with the talents that would one day steer the Dark Alliance and the entire continent.
To lay the continent's cornerstone, to draft its blueprint—countless conflicting interests and smears and schemes would surely be lurking within these walls.
He would be caught up in many more power struggles to come.
And each time, what would be the wisest way to respond? Once again, a new task had been laid at Simon's feet.
"Serne."
"Yes?"
"There are people your methods won't break."
Simon slowly took his stance.
"Your way only multiplies your enemies."
"How dare you preach, and in whose presence, exactly?"
Serne raised her arm. Twenty feathers spilled from it, scattering on the wind before converging toward a single point.
"I am the next Master of the Ivory Tower. The one who will split the continent in three and throw open a new era."
The instant she pointed her finger, the feathers shot forward like bullets.
Simon stamped down on his Jet-Black to dodge—but just then.
FWOOSH!
The air warped, and someone thrust themselves in front of Simon.
The figure's move was simple—a single sweep of the arm, as if shaking something off.
PA-ANG!
That was all.
The feathers that had come charging with the force to tear through anything vanished without a trace.
"My, my. I believe I just heard something very interesting—"
An oppressive presence that made his whole body tremble at the mere sound of her voice.
"Who's getting expelled from Kizen? Who's losing their protection?"
Black hair whipped in the wind, and bone-chilling crimson eyes flashed wide.
"Simon is under my protection, you dog of the Ivory Tower."
A leading candidate to become Kizen's next Supreme Ruler, and a rising new pillar of the Dark Alliance.
Lorraine had entered the fray.