Chapter 216: Alice Subjugation (12)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 216: Alice Subjugation (12)
“Is anyone there?!”
The Imperial Knight’s shout echoed urgently, but no response came from the hallway. Dorothy had already incapacitated every knight who had attempted to bar her path.
Dorothy was a ticking time bomb. Märchen Academy treated her as a student in name only, but once she lost her reason and went berserk, she became a force of nature that few could hope to contain.
Only Alice Carroll had ever truly served as her tether. But now, Alice was gone.
Pierre stared at Dorothy, his face pale with shock. Suddenly, a surge of invisible force hoisted him off the ground and slammed him violently against the wall.
Baaam!!
“Ugh...!”
Dorothy clutched her head with her left hand, her right arm outstretched. With a sharp motion, Pierre’s body was yanked toward her, and she caught him by the throat.
Blood trickled down Pierre’s face. He gasped, clawing at the hand crushing his windpipe. Dorothy glared at him, her eyes bloodshot and wild.
“You tried to kill Isaac during the Grand Festival, didn’t you? What gave you the nerve to come crawling back? Did I go too easy on you…?”
“Kuuugh…!”
“Fortunately… even a bastard like you has a use now… Let’s postpone your death for a moment, shall we…?”
Pierre could only wheeze, unable to draw a full breath.
Between the fever and the agonizing headache, Dorothy’s breathing was ragged. Her voice cracked, her sentences fractured by pain.
“Dorothy Heartnova! What do you think you’re doing?!” the Imperial Knight roared.
“Shut your mouth.”
“Kugh!”
Kuuuuu!
A crushing gravitational pressure descended upon the knight. The very ground beneath him distorted. He gritted his teeth, enduring the excruciating pain that threatened to pulverize his bones.
He couldn't move. Dorothy had intensified the gravity just enough to pin him to the spot.
“The only business I have… is with this bastard… He was nowhere to be found, so I came looking for him myself…”
“Have you lost your mind?!” the knight shouted, his eyes wide with alarm.
Dorothy hadn’t slept for days, relentlessly unleashing starlight magic upon the Abyss. She was in a state where she could collapse and die at any moment, likely due to a severe congestion of starlight mana within her circuits.
Has she finally snapped? the knight wondered.
No, that’s not it.
Mana exhaustion alone didn't drive her to this.
Despite his fury, the Imperial Knight felt a flicker of concern. No matter how powerful she was, Dorothy was still just a student. However, she was currently crossing a line that could not be uncrossed. He prepared to use force to stop her.
Dorothy narrowed her eyes.
Even if every Imperial Knight remaining at Märchen Academy attacked her at once, they wouldn't be able to bring her down.
But the Slayers were converging. Soon, they would reach the land bridge. Even Dorothy couldn't defeat them all. If she made an enemy of the Empire now, her safety—and her life—would be forfeit.
But Dorothy didn’t care.
“I have no grudge against you… To me… Isaac is the most important…”
“You really…!”
“To save Isaac!!” Dorothy screamed. “I need these bastards…!”
Even though her head felt like it was being split open, Isaac’s face and voice remained vivid in her mind.
For Dorothy, Isaac was more important than any law. He had become her entire world. He had given her a future when she was staring into the maw of death. To her, Isaac was far more precious than her own life—a life that should have ended long ago.
Even using [Last Light of a Dying Star], a starlight spell that consumed her very soul as fuel, wouldn't be enough to repay what she owed him.
She knew Isaac harbored a hidden, formidable power… but she also knew its limits. Having stood by his side, she understood the toll it took. Moreover, when Isaac was captured, his mana had been nearly depleted. Anyone on the island could see his energy had dwindled to almost nothing.
That was why Dorothy had grown desperate. That was why she had changed her plan.
She would take the four Paladins and tear her way into their world. She would use them as guides to find the one who had summoned the demon in the sky.
The starlight mana boiling in her circuits surged furiously. Her body felt as if it were melting, yet the sensation elevated her to a higher realm of existence.
Now, she was confident. She could take others with her as she intervened in another world bathed in starlight. It was a sudden growth born from four days of emotional turmoil and the reckless over-expenditure of her power.
Dorothy was determined to find the true body of the demon that had possessed Alice. She would force it to reveal how to counter the Abyss. She knew, thanks to the power of [All in the World], that the entity inside Alice was merely a fragment.
It didn't matter if she was weaker than the demon. She would gladly trade every remaining second of her lifespan for a starlight spell powerful enough to bridge the gap.
“Kuuuugh…!”
A migraine tore through Dorothy’s skull, as if a thousand daggers were relentlessly stabbing her brain. At the same time, she felt a strange sense of weightlessness—an intoxicating feeling of omnipotence. It felt as if she could do anything.
Hallucinations flickered before her eyes—something was reaching out to her from the void. She had a foreboding feeling that if she took that hand, she would be dragged to a distant place from which she could never return.
Dorothy ignored the visions.
Booooom!!
Dorothy smashed through the prison walls, keeping Pierre suspended in the air beside her. She flew at a terrifying speed, reaching the central square of the Academy in seconds.
With flickers of starlight magic, she tore through the walls of the other makeshift prisons, summoning the remaining Paladins to her. Having already pinpointed their locations, the feat was effortless.
“Ugh!”
“Kugh…!”
“Kugugh!”
The Spade Paladin, Zenon.
The Heart Paladin, Shera Hectorica.
The Diamond Paladin, Alexa.
Like Pierre, they were bound in straitjackets and suspended in the air around Dorothy.
A massive commotion erupted. The four Paladins struggled, gasping for air as they were held fast by an invisible, choking force.
“Dorothy Heartnova! What are you doing?!”
“Cease this madness immediately!”
The Imperial Knights reacted instantly, surrounding Dorothy with weapons drawn. Headmistress Elena Woodline and the Professors of Orphin Hall arrived at the square shortly after, stunned by the scene.
A Slayer unit composed of the Royal Guards was currently crossing the land bridge. The Imperial Knights were desperate to avoid chaos before their arrival.
Dorothy’s lifeless eyes scanned the knights pointing blades at her.
Hwaaaa!!
A brilliant, distinct radiance began to emanate from her body.
The power of [All in the World] and her transcendent ability to traverse starlight-filled worlds began to manifest, attempting to erase her and the Paladins from the Academy Square. The Imperial Knights watched in awe and terror at the mystical sight.
Over the last four days, Dorothy had used her powers of observation to track the world the foot soldiers had been sent back to. In addition to pouring her power into the Abyss, this was the impossible task she had set for herself.
The Imperial Knights rushed forward, unleashing their attacks to stop her.
“Don’t… interfere…!”
However, Dorothy’s prismatic starlight magic swirled around her, blocking every strike and blasting the knights back.
At that moment—
Purple lightning struck Dorothy.
Kwagagagang!!
Claaaang!!
Dorothy deployed a starlight shield to intercept the bolt, but the sheer intensity of the lightning shattered her concentration.
The glow surrounding her faded. Her gaze wavered, turning toward the female student who had struck her.
Magrio, the Vice-Commander of the Imperial Knights, raised his arm to signal his men to hold their positions. He wanted to see how this would play out.
“I’ve hated you from the very beginning.”
A girl with rose-gold hair walked nonchalantly past the Imperial Knights and stopped in front of Dorothy.
She was a student from the Magic Department who, like Dorothy, had spent four sleepless nights pouring her magic into the Abyss.
It was Luce Eltania.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Luce asked.
She looked like an emotionless doll, yet a vein of cold cynicism ran through her voice and expression.
Dorothy, clutching her splitting head and gasping for air, glared back at Luce.
Both girls had deep, dark shadows under their eyes.