The Sun (1)
The director’s voice echoed through the speaker.
“Proof, you say…?”
Obviously, I want you to show me your aptitude right this instant. And look, there’s the perfect opponent standing right next to you.
From the atmosphere just moments ago, I’d thought we were simply heading off to the academy. Apparently, things weren’t going to wrap up that neatly.
Well, I did expect something like this.
“Yeah, but still…”
The director wasn’t the kind of man who would just let me waltz into the academy after winning a verbal spar. Even if I won the negotiation, I knew he’d find some excuse to trip me up. That was exactly why I’d been gripping Dana’s arm so tightly.
“Then it’s decided. You’ll have a mock battle with Dana today. Only after seeing your aptitude with my own eyes can I make my decision with a clear conscience.”
“And if I lose?”
“Then you don’t get to go to the academy.”
What a dirty old bastard.
“Then I guess I have no choice but to win.”
“Exactly. So let’s amend the contract: if you defeat Dana, I will permit your admission to the academy… Does that work for you?”
“Sounds good.”
The moment I answered, the Ten Commandments contract engraved on my heart began to slowly dissolve. With that, the negotiation with the director was over. All that remained now was the final trial.
While the director and I were inwardly sharpening our blades and laughing to ourselves, Dana—who had been standing there like a loyal retainer, completely lost—poked me hard in the side.
“W-what is going on, Plea?!”
*
When I explained the current situation to Dana, she learned the shocking truth for the first time. Somehow, I had used a Ten Commandments contract to create a negotiation with Wilhelm and demanded to be released from this research institute. It was a condition that should never have been allowed, but my incredible silver tongue had somehow managed to roast the director alive. Of course, he wasn’t about to accept it so easily, so he’d added the condition that I had to defeat her first.
“U-um… Director?”
“What is it, Miss Dana?”
“Why do I have to fight Plea?!”
“Because… you are the most suitable person to test her.”
I wanted to scream at Wilhelm to fight me himself, but no matter how many years he had left, my conscience wouldn’t let me tell an eighty-year-old man to throw punches. As for the other ability users in the institute, they were far below both me and the director. The only one even remotely close in ability was the secretary, but she was a healer with practically zero combat power.
In the end, the only person in this entire institute capable of facing me was Dana.
“Haa…”
I let out a long sigh and slumped to the floor. Wilhelm’s voice came through the speaker, cheering me on to do my best. If I could, I would have just let Plea win and told her to live however she wanted… but I couldn’t do that. I knew exactly why Plea had to stay here.
A slimy sense of guilt crept up from the depths of my heart, but I turned my eyes away from those sticky emotions and asked Wilhelm,
“When should we start…?”
“When? Right now, of course.”
*
All the equipment in the vast training hall had been cleared away. A cube-shaped space sixty meters wide, a hundred meters long, and thirty meters high. Inside the alloy-covered training—no, duel arena—Dana and I faced each other.
An intangible pressure immediately crushed down on my entire body.
“Is this… killing intent?”
Dana didn’t answer. She simply nodded.
It was a technique that infused mana into the desire to kill one’s opponent, turning it into a form of crowd control. A single line of cold sweat trickled down my forehead. That was tension.
According to the plan I had made yesterday, I should be able to defeat Dana without any problems. But the woman standing before me now felt different somehow. She was different from the specs I’d seen in the game. It was experience, and it was also her autonomy.
I didn’t bother thinking that something had gone wrong. I already knew it would be meaningless.
“Hup!”
I moved my mana to shake off the killing intent and tension. The mana that flowed from my heart to my forearm, then from my forearm to my wrist, carried a portion of my ability. When it finally reached my fingertips and escaped my body—
-Ping!
Light bloomed from my fingers. It was something I had accidentally created during past fireball training. Any radiant flame-type ability user could use it, but my version operated on a completely different level.
“Ugh!”
A faint groan escaped Dana’s lips. Normal radiance was little more than bright lighting, but when I poured in my overwhelming mana, that light became comparable to the output of a flashbang grenade. Even with her eyes closed, Dana groaned at the incoming rays of light. I didn’t miss the opening and charged forward.
“Haaap!”
With a short shout, mana flowed through my entire body. Wrapped in basic physical reinforcement, I hurled myself at her. I quickly crouched, pulled my clenched fist back to my waist, then drove it upward toward the sky.
“Ugh…”
My fist struck Dana squarely in the solar plexus, drawing a heavy groan from her. Without hesitation, I slammed blazing mana into my clenched fist. The second strike exploded.
-Kwaaaang!
A sound like a bomb detonating erupted from my fist, and a massive flame burst out from behind her back. Even though the entire duel arena grew scorching hot from the overwhelming firepower, Dana didn’t get pushed back even an inch. Instead, she grabbed the arm that was still buried in her stomach.
“It’s hot, Plea…”
“If you’ve got the energy to joke around, could you at least pretend to get knocked back a little?”
She smiled brightly and tightened her grip. For a moment, the crushing pain felt like my arm was about to be torn off. But I quickly poured mana into my other hand and pressed it against her arm.
Mana Discharge.
The overwhelming torrent of mana that had once sent Dana flying in a single blow poured into her. But she was a hero representing an entire nation, someone who had surpassed human limits. Just before my mana could fully explode, she swiftly twisted my arm and stepped back.
“Krrgh…!”
Indescribable pain shot up from my forearm, which had been bent in the opposite direction. But showing an opening was the same as inviting death, so I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood and retreated.
-Crack.
I rapidly realigned the broken arm, drew mana from my heart, and fired it. Thick flames erupted from the injured limb, surging out with enough force to engulf the entire arena. Would Dana dodge? Or block? There was no need to worry about such things. The premise itself was different from the start.
-Whoosh.
Yellow flames ignited along Dana’s arm. In the instant before my flames swallowed my vision, I caught a glimpse. The faint flames only covered her forearm, but I felt an instinctive danger and quickly jumped backward.
“Good reflexes.”
Whoosh. Unlike the flames I created, hers produced a small, burning sound—the Sacred Fire. But the sacred flames wrapped around her hand tore through my overwhelming blaze and raked across the spot where I had been standing.
“Damn it!”
The output of her sacred fire was higher than I expected. And…
“Where do you think you’re going!”
“Gah!”
Dana’s skill far exceeded my predictions. Even though there were still about five years until the original story began, her ability was hardly any different from what it would be five years later. Her fist struck my heart. I barely managed to block it with the mana I had gathered, but the damage was significant.
“Khaa… haa…”
The blow seemed to have hit my lungs as well as my heart. I could barely breathe, only managing to continue thanks to mana. My head was spinning. Just from allowing a single clean hit, I couldn’t see any path to victory.
The only things I could do were shoot flames from my hands or blind her with light. But the former was burned away by her sacred fire, and while the latter worked, it couldn’t deal any direct damage to her.
Should I increase the flame output even more?
No. I desperately wanted to, but with my current mana efficiency, producing flames stronger than this was impossible. Besides… my firepower wasn’t the problem.
When I glanced at her, faint burn marks covered her face, and her fire-resistant protective suit was scorched and torn in several places. In the end, it all came down to how efficiently I could control my mana… or so I thought.
I wasn’t sure, but trusting in the experience I had gained so far, I stood up once more and unleashed flames. Watching Dana steadily accumulate injuries from my fire, I barely endured her counterattacks with the mana I had gathered.
“Krr…”
I continued controlling my mana. In this extreme situation, I could feel my mana control increasing little by little. If I kept this up… could I win?
The question arose. Developing control in extreme situations could be considered a kind of fortuitous encounter. But could that really let me defeat the woman before me?
She was Dana. One of the five heroes representing the nation’s top rankers, and recently she had risen another level to claim the fourth seat. Could I really defeat someone like her just because I gained a single fortuitous encounter?
My current control was in the triple digits. In contrast, Dana’s control was in the single digits—or rather, it had probably gone beyond that into the decimal points of zero. There was no way I could beat a woman like that just by raising my control a little.
Then…
“What should I do?”
I kept pouring out flames, but the life in my eyes was gradually fading. There was no hope. Our experience levels were different from the very beginning. At best, my flames could only give her light burns… Burns…?
Just before despair could completely overtake my mind, a single realization flashed through me. She was recovering almost instantly, yet she was still taking damage from my attacks. And from the simplest flame emission, at that. Why?
Was it because my control had reached triple digits? No. Even when my control was in the six-digit range, my flame emission had been similar to what it was now.
A hollow laugh escaped me.
“Haha…”
The answer had been in my hands from the very beginning.
“I wasted seven whole years.”
Control would certainly help to some extent. But could that control truly bring out my fundamental advantage?
I laughed. I laughed like a madman, finding the whole thing ridiculous, and continued pouring out flames. Rampage? Misfire? Screw that. What did any of that matter? Was I really going to live as a proper hero anyway? Going to the academy was nothing more than an excuse to get out of here.
“I really just ran around in circles, huh…”
When I let out a hollow chuckle, Dana frowned. Since I had said I’d only been wasting time in her class, it was natural for her to feel offended. But… so what?
I released my control over my mana. There was no way I could defeat the woman in front of me with that kind of control anyway. Instead, I poured all that concentration into my inner world.
The brilliantly shining star and the nearly infinite mana. I guided the mana and brought it to that star. But this time, I didn’t just touch the edge like before. Using every ounce of control I had trained until now, I wrapped the star itself—the very core of my inner world—with my mana!
The blue-glowing star became enveloped in my mana. The star of the endless mana sea was wrapped, packaged perfectly by my power. And then I opened my eyes.
This technique didn’t need control. It didn’t need efficiency. It overloaded the body, overworked the brain, and caused the ability to run wild. The overwhelming technique born from that process. My own original, made possible only because I possessed infinite mana.
“It was this easy all along…”
I stretched my hand toward the sky and released my mana. Mana was the passageway connecting reality and the inner world. I sent the mana that wrapped the star out into reality as it was.
Miniature Sun Manifestation
A fireball the size of a fist appeared in my hand. The overwhelming light it emitted began to melt the world away.