Midterm
Ray came running toward me, her voice shrill and frantic.
"Wha the heck are you doing?! Are you out of your mind?!"
It had been dangerous.
If I'd been just a second later, I might have turned into an electric hot dog.
"Good thing I made it."
"That won't solve the problem...! Never mind. We'll talk later."
Hmm. That sounded scary.
But like Ray said, right now we needed to focus on the reality right in front of us instead of discussing this.
Thanks to my intrusion, the enemy over there had gone into full defensive mode.
"Ray. Can you do it?"
"...As long as I can touch it."
"It won't be easy. That guy saw me, right?"
Just as Fiona had said.
That bastard had seen my Blink.
Anyone with a working brain would have set up countermeasures.
The current lull had been caused by the fact that the other side needed time too.
"I'll create an opening."
Arthur spoke decisively, as if to atone for the mistake he'd just made.
But I didn't need him to force things.
'There's someone else who can take that role.'
Three people were still watching and waiting.
Leaf, Amaya, and the brown-haired guy.
I told them to observe and intervene when the time came.
Even if the others didn't know, Leaf had already teamed up with me once, so she'd understand my plan.
"Keep fighting like before."
"...Understood."
Seeing that I had a plan, Arthur immediately agreed.
And he went straight into action.
"I want Alejandra's summoned creatures to handle the ranged attacks. Block them so they can't interfere with us at all. Fiona and I will be the support. Support the teacher who's at the front and stop the sorcerer from harassing the two of you."
The short break was over.
The sorcerer had rested his mana and rebuilt his defenses, and now our team—centered on him and me, the added manpower—had revised our strategy.
It was time to test it.
Who would win.
A wave of flames racing along the wind marked the opening of the battle.
Mirrors and spears flew everywhere, blocking the sorcerer's spells and intercepting them.
Spells flew in all directions.
Mana clashed, and the light that bloomed from the collisions painted new colors over the battlefield.
"It won't be easy..."
No openings.
The sorcerer's combat style, focused entirely on defense while looking for counters, seemed to be waiting for us to wear ourselves out first.
And his prediction had actually come true.
"Kyaaah!"
Our vanguard, Davinford, had collapsed after taking a counterattack.
When the anvil broke, the hammer lost its target.
The attack was now entirely in the enemy's hands.
At that exact moment.
Fwaaah—!
From the corner of my eye, a figure in steel armor fell from above, steel arms outstretched with a splash.
Boom—!
"Insane!"
He was completely covered in black steel?
That was a full-fledged war machine.
Zzaaaang!!
The hole created by Davinford's fall was filled by Amaya.
The iron shield in her hand blocked the sorcerer's curse. She was an unmovable wall.
And the water that had just appeared with the new vanguard moved as if it had life.
A mass of water coiled around the sorcerer like living snakes, whipping through the air.
"Pointless."
If water could even exert physical force, how strong would it be?
Unless it was a Water Jet fired at ultra-high pressure.
But what if it was ice?
"Freeze—!!"
As if gathering all the accumulated pain into a single strike.
The brown-haired guy shouted at the top of his lungs, pouring every ounce of his mana into one spell.
An ultra-low temperature field spread across the room.
The temperature inside the arena, already heated by Alejandra's flames, dropped sharply.
But the sudden plunge in temperature was only the side effect of the magic.
The brown-haired guy's spell had been meant to freeze the water that Leaf had summoned.
"I got him!"
"...I, I get it...!"
Even in the middle of it, he was still showing off.
The guy was definitely aware of his own appeal.
Anyway.
The opportunity had arrived.
"Go!"
With a shout, Arthur's power sword swept around the sorcerer.
It was like a flock of crows waiting for a corpse.
When the sorcerer cast his spell, the sword would strike instantly.
'Full sadism. I like it.'
Solid.
With this, we could focus on only one thing.
"I'm going straight ahead. Don't panic."
"Why would I panic? I believe in you."
"Then let's go."
With my hand on Ray's back.
I moved the mana.
Fwoosh—
My vision went black, and at the same time I crossed space once more.
§
The sorcerer, Jegan, probably realized right away that this mission had failed when Roman appeared.
A mage who crossed space.
That existence was lethal.
Since the gods had vanished and the world had lost its mysteries, and even now, with the Abyss bringing back the forbidden among the three domains—time, space, and perfect creation—a mage who manipulated those areas at will.
No one had ever heard of him.
Not even among the demonologists who used similar magic.
'Miscalculation.'
There had originally been four opponents I expected to face.
Arthur Carlyle, Fiona McManus, Alejandra Rubio, and last but not least, Theresia Nachtblumer—who wasn't here today.
Three would have been manageable, but the beastman had dragged it out.
And now with the newly arrived elementalist and demonologist added.
If we insisted on a straight fight, no guarantee that any single one of us would walk away with our lives.
So there was only one other path.
Whether he'd moved space again or not, the moment the mana flared, a demonologist and a beastman appeared in front of us.
Beyond the silver light that was piercing my heart as he removed his mana shield and advanced.
Jegan looked at the people watching him and said.
"Enjoy this. Your deaths have been postponed."
The first one to notice was, of course, Roman.
Not because he had some special sense for mana flow, or because he had Ray's sharp instincts.
Roman had noticed it through purely logical induction from common knowledge.
Villains who said things like that never died quietly!
"Ray! Hurry...!"
"Corpse Explosion."
The corpses that had been filling the room swelled up.
The precursor to the explosion.
Magic had been cast to stop him, but it was already too late.
As soon as Ray's Arjentus touched Jegan.
The explosion filled the entire room.
§
My ears were still ringing.
How big had the explosion been?
I quietly watched the others who were cleaning up the situation and assessing the damage.
The attackers were all dealt with, so now we just needed to find an exit.
It was almost time to leave the room—I was already thinking of relief—when—
"We're screwed."
Arthur, who had collapsed beside me, muttered blankly.
"What?"
We took out the sorcerer.
All we had to do now was find a way out here or wait to be rescued from outside, right?
"We're completely isolated."
"Why?"
The passages were blocked. What's the problem?
Why not just blast through the ceiling with magic?
"The exit is sealed. The central passage that was the only way out has also collapsed."
Even as I tilted my head at Fiona's explanation, Alejandra added more.
"You still don't get it? There's always been a space expansion down here. Probably the sorcerer twisted it and created the dungeon. That guy was basically a lich. He might have prepared something from inside beforehand."
"So?"
"If we mess with it, the dungeonized underground level might go into a rampage. Just like when the first group did it."
"In the worst case, the underground level would crush and squeeze us."
To summarize:
1. The underground level has always been unstable because of the Abyss's relics.
2. Then some cause turned it into a dungeon—basically a powder keg.
3. The existing passage was sealed by the corpse explosion, so we can't get out.
4. If we mess with it, the dungeon will go on a rampage and everything will be screwed.
5. We're done.
Yeah.
We were really screwed.
"Food and water can be taken care of, but if the air gets blocked too, that's the worst."
"So what? We just try to break out and let fate decide if we live or die."
"First, let's check what's happening outside. There's a mirror we left behind, so we can see from here. The connection hasn't been cut—that's good."
Fiona moved one of the floating mirrors with her fingers, then twisted the mana.
Pop—
The outside world appeared in the mirror.
"Battle's happening over there too."
"Of course. The guild master or the teacher wouldn't just stand by if they heard something."
"Grand Duchess, how far can you see? I want a wider view."
Unfortunately, not too far. Actually, this mirror is right above us."
While the three representatives of the current students continued their discussion, my eyes stayed fixed on one thing.
Fiona's mirror.
The outside scene it showed.
'Seir-nim.'
[Yes, Contractor.]
'Will it work?'
Blink.
The magic using Seir's power of movement wasn't a perfect space teleport.
There were conditions.
It had to be within my line of sight.
Even though Seir had designed the magic's structure, the activation was entirely up to me.
I couldn't teleport to a place I couldn't perceive.
And even though I hadn't checked in detail, there was probably a distance limit.
There was plenty of fuel, but my hardware—the output—was limited.
However, what if I moved directly above my head?
If I could indirectly confirm the destination point by seeing it with my own eyes, even if I couldn't see it directly?
[Possible.]
It worked.
Let's review the problem we had just run into.
Messing with it could cause even bigger issues.
Here, those three were trapped.
'Then we don't touch anything and just leave.'
I walked over to the three people still trying to find a way out.
Around them, the surviving students who had given up on their own solutions had gathered.
I declared to them.
"There's a way out."