Chapter 33
Chapter 33
Randolf snorted.
‘If I’d only managed to survive, I would have done whatever it took to stop that pathetic man from being appointed to Rubiness Academy.’
But that was impossible.
There was no chance Randolf would survive this.
-Grrrrrrrrrr!!!
The Fragment let out a roar that sounded furious, and Randolf’s face stiffened.
He couldn’t stop that.
‘No. There has to be some way…!’
But then, at that very moment—
Something unbelievable happened.
No, “something incomprehensible” was a more accurate way to put it.
Lurch!
The Fragment’s body staggered.
As though some tremendous force were pressing down on it.
‘…What just happened?’
Unable to understand the situation, Randolf eyed his surroundings warily.
The strange events continued.
-Grrrrrr!!
The Fragment twisted its body as if trying to break free of the immense force, then hurled an evil aura toward Randolf.
But—
‘…It’s weaker than before?’
Randolf blinked.
He wasn’t imagining it.
He could block the attack far more easily!
‘Why?’
Randolf looked around.
It hadn’t weakened on its own.
Someone had definitely intervened.
‘But unless it’s a being from Above the Heavens, it should be impossible to suppress a Great Existence like that, shouldn’t it?’
Above the Heavens.
That meant a Level 9 Ascendant.
True absolutes, gazing down upon the world from an unfathomably high place.
There was no way one of them would suddenly appear somewhere like this.
And yet, one incomprehensible thing after another kept happening.
Fwoooosh!
The inside of Randolf’s body, which had been terribly damaged, began to recover!
‘…Did one of the Ascendants really…?’
In the end, Randolf could only conclude that this was what had happened.
A righteous Ascendant had secretly intervened against the rampage of the evil Great Existence.
‘Thank you, nameless Ascendant. I will never forget this kindness.’
Fwoooosh!!
A powerful aura rose from Randolf’s body as his strength returned.
It was power that called to mind the heyday of the “Heaven-Shaking Mage.”
Randolf gazed at the Fragment, lightning flashing in his eyes.
“I will never lose.”
Kwa-gwa-gwang!
A powerful spell crashed down upon the Fragment’s body, and the battle entered a new phase.
‘This should buy us a little breathing room for now.’
I let out a sigh of relief.
I hadn’t originally intended to get involved like this, but Randolf had looked so precarious that I’d stepped in.
‘…Did I help him too much? He must have realized that someone intervened.’
I regretted it belatedly, but there was nothing I could do about it.
‘Former President Randolf is essential to the progression of the Rubines Scenario. I can’t let him die.’
I shook my head and focused on what I’d been doing.
‘It’s still only at 40%. I’ve got a long way to go.’
The higher my control rate climbed, the stronger the resistance became, and the harder the task grew.
‘Focus.’
I looked around.
The scene was indistinguishable from reality.
But my vision held something else.
Magical formulas.
‘This isn’t reality. It’s the Phantom Dream. In other words, it’s a magical space.’
It just wasn’t ordinary magic.
This was the manifestation of a Great Existence’s power.
It was an entirely different form from the Star-Rank Magic System of humans, symbolized by “stars.”
If Star-Rank Magic could be compared to science, meticulously refined, then this Phantom Dream was the art of Chaos in its rawest form.
‘But in the end, the essence is the same. Magic is magic.’
Shhhhh!
My eyes dissected the Dreamworld down to its every last detail.
It was a chaotic mess, impossible to distinguish, like ink swirling together underwater. But even in a situation like this, my Grandmaster ability analyzed the meaning of each part.
‘If I can interpret the meaning, interfering won’t be difficult.’
Normally, it would have been impossible because of my chronic weakness: a shortage of Mana.
But this was the Phantom Dream.
The Phantom Dream was a place where anything could happen.
I granted myself an immense amount of Mana.
“49.9%.”
I was just about to cross the halfway mark.
All I had to do now was take one more step, and my control rate would surpass that of the Phantom Dream’s original owner, the Lord of the Phantom Dream.
But then, an unexpected interruption came.
“…Stop, you fool.”
A figure wearing a mask appeared!
A coiled snake was engraved on the mask’s forehead.
‘The mark of Ouroboros! So Ouroboros really was behind this.’
The figure issued a cold warning.
“I thought something was going strangely, but to think you, Ban Trash, were interfering with the Phantom Dream. Have you been hiding your abilities all this time?”
Instead of answering, I brought up something else.
“Are you an enforcer of Ouroboros?”
“…What?”
“No, let me be more specific. Are you Viscount Vermont, deputy commander of the Second Battalion of the Imperial Court Magician Corps, and the rat who sold his soul to Ouroboros?”
“!!”
I saw him falter.
I’d identified him correctly.
“How do you know that? I’ll have to kill you here and now.”
A chilling killing intent rose around him.
It was a powerful aura that, as I was now, I didn’t even dare think of standing against.
‘Viscount Vermont, deputy commander of the Imperial Court Magician Corps, is a Level 6 powerhouse.’
He let out a sly laugh.
“You seem full of yourself because you’ve taken control of the Dreamworld, but don’t be mistaken. The power of the Phantom Dream cannot affect beings that exist in reality.”
He was right.
The reason I’d been able to easily dispose of the Monsters, including the Death Knight, earlier was that they were “illusory” beings born in the Phantom Dream.
Since Viscount Vermont was a real person, I couldn’t use the same method as before on him.
But—
“Let me ask you something. Do you know when I… no, when ‘Ban’ started being called Ban the Trash?”
“…What the hell are you suddenly talking about?”
“Since I was five. After they discovered I had Mana Insensitivity, they started calling me Ban the Trash, because I’d been born a worthless piece of trash.”
That’s right. “Ban” hadn’t started being called Ban the Trash because of his delinquent behavior. It was because of his “defect”: Mana Insensitivity.
The truth was, mana wasn’t an essential ability for everyday life. There were far more jobs that didn’t use mana at all.
Among ordinary people, Mana Insensitivity wasn’t a flaw in any way.
But among the nobility, it was different.
A defective, disabled person.
That was how people had looked at “Ban” ever since he was a child.
‘Ban only became so twisted in the first place because of the way people had treated him since he was little.’
According to the backstory, Ban had tried to become a mage so he could overcome his “disability” and show all those people who’d pointed fingers at him what he was capable of.
That was why I’d always wondered about one thing.
“Have you ever wondered what would’ve happened if Ban hadn’t been born with Mana Insensitivity?”
“…What the hell are you babbling about now?”
His face twisted into a snarl.
He looked ready to snuff out my life at any moment.
But why was that?
I wasn’t afraid at all.
It wasn’t because of the Black Flame Dragon.
The Black Flame Dragon only disguised my outward appearance; it didn’t change the cowardly nature of who I was inside.
The reason I could stand my ground like this now was ‘confidence.’
I brought up another question that had recently occurred to me.
“Let me ask you one more thing. You’ve realized just how extraordinary my talent is, haven’t you? I’ve even managed to wrest control of the Dreamworld away from its owner. My one and only flaw is Mana Insensitivity. But tell me—”
I twisted the corner of my mouth.
“Can you imagine how strong ‘I’ would be if I didn’t have Mana Insensitivity?”
“!!”
The strongest magic I could currently use was First Star Rank.
And even then, it was only around the intermediate level of First Star Rank.
It wasn’t all that different from the students taking the entrance exam right now.
That was all because of Mana Insensitivity.
But what if I didn’t have Mana Insensitivity?
Now was the time to find out.
“Shut up! I’ll kill you!!”
He cast a spell.
A Sixth-Star Owner Spell, no less.
A spell that only an Archmage—one who had forged his own path and reached the deeper reaches of magic—could cast.
My own magic, by contrast, was paltry.
-Bzzzt.
Thunder Wheel Blade.
A Fourth-Star Rank spell.
‘My theoretical level is Fourth Star Rank. While cramming for the civil service exam over the past month, I managed to get Fourth-Star spells into my head, too.’
In other words, without the limitations of Mana Insensitivity, I was a Fourth-Star Expert-class mage.
A level utterly lacking compared with a Sixth-Star Archmage like him.
Even so—
‘I don’t think I’m going to lose.’
No. If anything—
‘I’m going to win.’
As if nodding in agreement, a message appeared before me.
-Win rate when fighting an Archmage-class mage without Mana Insensitivity: 100%
At the same time—
KWA-RURURU!!!
His magic surged toward me like a raging wave.
It was a powerful spell that, as befitted an Owner Spell, could neither be dodged nor stood against.
I thrust my hand forward to meet it.
Thunder Wheel Blade.
A Fourth-Star Rank spell in which a blade of lightning spun forward like a wheel.
It was a powerful spell in its own right, but it was no match for the spell he had cast.
An even bigger problem was that the spell I’d cast looked absolutely pathetic.
Normally, a majestic, greatsword-like bolt of lightning should have shot forward. But the one I’d made was barely the size of a dagger.
“Hah, after all that big talk, that’s all you’ve got? You’re going to die ri—!”
His eyes suddenly flew wide open, as if they were about to tear.
Something had happened that was unbelievable, something that should never have been possible according to the laws of magic.
Flash!
My tiny blade of lightning split apart his spell, surging toward me like a raging flood.
It looked as though a sword were cleaving through a colossal wave.
And it didn’t stop there. My blade of lightning went on to cut straight through his neck.
It was over.
I stared in a daze.
‘I beat a Sixth-Star Archmage-class mage. And that easily. With a mere Fourth-Star spell.’
The reality of it only began to sink in belatedly.
‘The Grandmaster of Magic really is overpowered.’
One thing I’d learned was that if I could just reach Fourth Star Rank, I’d be able to wield power that surpassed Sixth Star Rank.
‘Well, this is a treacherous world. There’s no harm in being strong. My actual attainment is only First Star Rank, though, so I still have a long way to go.’
I shook my head.
Right now, I needed to focus on resolving the crisis.
‘When I took out that bastard Vermont, who’d awakened the Fragment of the Lord of the Phantom Dream, my control rate shot way up.’
It was already at 80%.
I was right on the verge of reaching 100%.
But the situation didn’t resolve itself so easily.
Suddenly, a voice pressed down on my soul.
-How dare… a mere mortal…
“!!”
A fear unlike any I’d experienced until now descended upon me.
‘The Lord of the Phantom Dream is directly pressuring me!’
It felt as though my soul were being crushed.
As if, before a higher-dimensional being of an entirely different order, I’d become a trembling insect.
But I gritted my teeth.
‘Get a hold of yourself. It’s a bluff. Don’t fall for it.’
I recalled my experience in sales.
A frightened dog was always the one that barked the loudest.
The more cornered someone was, the more likely they were to put on a show of strength.
‘He’s anxious because he’s afraid I’ll take control of this world from him.’
The solution was simple.
There was no need to pretend to be strong alongside him.
One fact bomb would be enough.
“I wonder which of us is the insignificant insect.”
-…What?
“You call yourself a Great Existence, but aren’t you nothing more than a being reduced to a mere trace after being defeated by human hands?”
-!!
That was right. For all its grandiose words, the thing was ultimately a defeated soldier.
And Black Flame Dragon had, at just the right moment, provoked it in a way befitting Black Flame Dragon.
“Stop pretending to be strong. It makes you look weak.”