Chapter 114
Chapter 114
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 114
Chapter Title: 12. It's Not Over Till It's Over (3)
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#5 Their Circumstances: Risen de Roa's Circumstances.
As the light in the sky grew dimmer, I ended up telling yet another lie.
-Are you insane?
-You're not going out easy, that's for sure.
I'd sold out Lady Aris.
But the ladies I'd already offered up as sacrifices to kill Nerkia weren't one or two.
I'd gone after border counts, even marquis houses.
The Ten Great Clans were nothing by comparison.
-Limbs getting torn off is the basic package anyway. You think you'd survive just because a few other parts get ripped away?
-Kyah, you were the craziest of all my contractors in history, but now you've gone and surpassed that by another level! I'm starting to respect you at this point!
Wow, I'd earned respect from a god.
For actions like that.
"It won't fail, right?"
As if in answer to my words, the sphere in the sky swelled once more, shattering the mana barrier and beginning its descent.
-But how do you plan to dodge it?
-It's fine. Even if it hits, it's designed not to kill.
An attack infused with the power of all spirits.
An assault containing every attribute, superior to any single one.
A single blow that could annihilate existence itself if desired—but I couldn't let a traitor to the academy and a betrayer of men like Nerkia go peacefully.
That's why it had to be capture at all costs.
Once captured and dragged back, we'd make him pay for betraying the academy by handing him over to the Silver Devil.
Subject him to torments worse than death, as we knew all too well!
-But dialing it back just enough not to kill won't be easy, will it?
-Yeah, exactly.
Manipulating mana precisely as desired is incredibly difficult.
Imagining someone dying is easy enough.
But envisioning an attack that incapacitates without killing? That's no simple task.
How many people, short of torture experts, truly understand human limits?
And this was a grand magic spell cast by a hundred people.
Normally, not even the Empire—no, not a single group on the continent—could coordinate that everyone knew those exact limits.
-But we've experienced it firsthand from the Silver Devil!
-Kyah, impressive. Yuglasia! Even that's part of the training!
We'd constantly endured unimaginable agony.
Pain transcending death.
Yet we never died.
In fact, the next day, our bodies felt lighter, our condition at its peak.
But it hurt.
It hurt enough to kill.
A hundred people who'd experienced that could easily imagine the sensation of pain without death.
They just had to recall their own daily ordeals!
"Graaaah!"
"Guaaaaaah!"
"Dodge, dodge it!"
"Dodge how? How do you dodge that?!"
Screams of agony began to echo.
As Elemental Roar slowly descended, swallowing the ramparts, the first casualties appeared.
"For now... it'll hurt, but."
We had to endure.
To catch Nerkia.
-Not going to defend?
-The Silver Devil never bothers with defense, after all.
Can't dodge it either.
So this attack, modeled after the Silver Devil, couldn't be blocked.
The best option was to take it and get back up fast.
The good news? Over a hundred and twelve were waiting outside.
"Well, they'll handle it, right?"
I closed my eyes, bracing not for peaceful rest, but for the pain.
The assault—feeble compared to the Silver Devil—rattled my body.
"Urgh..."
How much time passed?
Consciousness began to return.
Where was this? Still Arsia's headquarters?
Or an infirmary?
"Vice President, are you coming to?"
"Urgh..."
A woman's voice reached me, clumsy but clear.
"Come on, get up already."
Had the match not ended yet?
The urgent voice pressed on.
Right, then I had to get up.
If the match wasn't over, Nerkia might not be caught yet!
As I slowly opened my eyes, light flooded in.
"Ah, you're awake."
What I saw was Lady Aris, sighing in relief like all was well.
"I was so worried..."
She beamed at my recovered state.
"Do you have any idea how badly I wanted to kill you, Vice President?"
"Ah..."
Come to think of it, I'd screwed over Lady Aris too.
"Die."
With the smile of the king of hell, a massive sword aura cleaved the air.
#6 Their Circumstances: Some Student Council President's Circumstances.
"Urgh... did I survive?"
The massive spirit power plummeting from the sky.
I'd evacuated with those nearby underground, then squeezed every ounce of mana from the group to erect a defensive barrier—but it hadn't been enough.
I'd really thought I was done for.
But luckily, they'd held back just short of lethal.
"First... gotta wake everyone."
Arsia's students lay scattered like corpses around me.
As I shook them awake, Risen's voice echoed from afar.
...Already starting?
"Ah, Lady Aris! Please, hear me out!"
"Shut up. You think I'll let that devil's tongue wag?"
Thanks to Lady Aris, we'd bought some time.
No idea what else he'd done, but her fury pierced the heavens.
"Hey. Hey, Kir? Get up! We stay like this, we're wiped out!"
I grabbed Arsia's student council president Kir by the collar and shook him hard.
When he let out weird groans like "Uuuugh~", I started thumping him everywhere.
"Cough! What the—!"
"You up?"
After ages of no response, one kick to the gut had him gasping to his feet.
"Wake the others quick. Risen and Lady Aris are right outside."
"Urk... we undetected?"
"Yeah, luckily. Risen must've poked the wrong bear— they're fighting now."
Screams and explosions from outside; Kir nodded.
"Could be a human ploy?"
"It's Risen."
"...High chance it's real, then."
Even students from other academies knew Risen's reputation!
Yes. Risen had pulled stunts not just at Yuglasia, but at other academies countless times. A legend.
"When Risen's madness has them fighting each other, that's our chance. Wake everyone and bail."
Risen and Lady Aris were Yuglasia's undeniable top forces.
Here, only I and Lady Nermia could face them one-on-one.
But judging by that bombardment's scale, Yuglasia had hundreds of students here at least.
Our current forces, honed by the Silver Devil, couldn't hold them off.
The longer it dragged, the more isolated Lady Nermia and I would become—leading to defeat.
That would be a disaster.
"Damn it, got it."
Kir got the no-win odds, clicked his tongue, and started rousing the fallen students.
"They won't wake."
"Normal folks would've died from that. The shock must be massive."
Five minutes of shaking the downed—only a dozen stirred.
If Arsia's famously tough students were like this, Marsis's were hopeless.
"No good. Kir. Leave the ones who can't move properly, pull out. Gather who can from the outsiders first."
"You?"
"I'll link with Lady Nermia and hold Yuglasia as long as possible."
"...Hate to say it, but I'm counting on you."
Kir nodded; I checked outside.
A castle in ruins.
Sword aura scars stood out amid the spirit magic devastation.
"Ah..."
Where those scars ended.
Atop the flagpole symbolizing Arsia—where their banner once flew—Risen dangled, battered and bound.
[This man is a fraud who kept spouting nonsense.]
"What nonsense did he even say..."
"Want to know, President?"
"Ghck?!"
A voice, and a sword grazed where my neck had been.
Ambush? Was that Risen fake too?
"You look rattled, President. But that's no fake. Just the fitting end for a real fraud."
Shing.
Sword in right hand; left draws another from behind his back.
"Now, right beside it. I'll display the traitor's end too, President!"
"My king!"
Sword auras ignited on his twin blades.
Not his usual spear—his true specialty, twin swords.
Lady Aris used a spear over her main weapon, sword, at Yuglasia for two reasons.
One: fight the Silver Devil from farther away.
Two: conserve mana.
Focusing sword aura at a spear tip used far less than coating a whole blade.
After battling countless professors, preparing for a protracted war against gods and spirit kings, Lady Aris drawing twin swords signaled she wouldn't waste time on me.
Then I had to overwhelm her fast with full power.
"Howl, thunder! Rage, storm!"
Lightning spirit king's might, plus top-tier wind spirit force.
The power defied imagination.
Even Karan Empire's continent-topping forces had but five official top-tier spirit contractors.
Contracting one earned a viscountcy.
Top-tier spirits wielded such immense power.
Now fused with a king's.
Might rivaling sword aura—surpassing it against groups.
"Goaaaaah!"
Using it on a girl fresh to the academy sounded harsh in tales alone.
But.
"That's all you've got?!"
Her opponent: genius who shattered the Empire's youngest swordmaster record.
Talented enough to forge aura on a spear, not her usual sword.
Underestimate her as a little girl, and I'd lose for sure.
"Flame of beginnings. Water, source of all. Ever-free wind. Earth embracing all."
As lightning storm clashed with sword aura, I prepped the next spell.
Fire and water, wind and earth.
Gathering the four major attributes' spirit powers, fusing them.
A feat only I could pull at Yuglasia—no, rare even among summoners.
That's why they called me Spirit Legion.
"Elemental Burst."
Toward Lady Aris advancing through the shaved storm, I unleashed the ultimate fusion of four top-tier spirits.
"Burn. Flames of ruin."
The colossal shockwave!
Strike of four spirits meets vast fire!
...Huh? Fire?
"What?!"
Lady Retia: swordmaster and god-tier summoner.
But her summon: goddess Athena of war and wisdom.
No fire ties.
Yet blocking my attack: pristine white flame.
Beyond red and blue—white flame, pinnacle alongside black.
"Why?"
As Elemental Burst and white flame faded, Lady Aris appeared.
"And Lady Nermia there?"
Marsis's Lady Nermia, our ace ally.
"It's the same for me, Yuglasia President. Like you... I have reasons Yuglasia must win."
Lady Nermia aimed her flame sword at me, deadly serious.
Beside her, Lady Aris leveled twin blades brimming with sword aura.
And
"Criminal Nerkia, hear this."
Black-clad men materialized around us.
"The verdict is in. For you."
Nearly a hundred in black robes of shadow spirit make by that bastard Reidan—spirits summoned in flashes around them.
-Death sentence.
Looked like no escape.