Chapter 86
The stands.
The students were all caught up in the excitement.
A chase between the top-ranked students of Classes A and B, following the former’s overwhelming performance.
“She’s insanely fast! She’s going so fast it’s hard to follow her with my eyes···!”
“I’d only ever heard people say the Class B top student was fast, but seeing it in person is something else.”
“Can Lady Glacia actually see that? How is she landing every one of those sword-aura strikes at that speed?”
“They’re both absolute monsters!”
That desperate struggle was bound to draw attention.
After all, ever more dazzling and desperate scenes were being broadcast.
“Is that··· domain swordsmanship?”
“The field was definitely a desert, but it changed into a snowfield in an instant.”
“Not content with changing the climate, she’s overturning the entire environment itself···?”
“No way. Are they really students like us···?”
Overwhelming power.
Lin’s swordsmanship drew gasps of admiration from the audience.
Meanwhile, Caitlyn kept forcing her way forward even while being chased by that monster.
“That’s powerful enough to knock someone unconscious with a single hit. How is she enduring several of those?”
“She’s relentless···. Even as sword aura bears down on her, she’s getting faster instead of slowing down.”
“She’s completely driven by spite, isn’t she? I’ve never seen Caitlyn like that.”
“But even doing that, she can’t break free from the pursuit···.”
The girl sprinted as though fueled by venom.
Yet despite that tenacity, she couldn’t shake Lin’s pursuit.
Lin and Caitlyn.
There was an immeasurable gap between them.
Lin had long since surpassed the level of a cadet, earning evaluations on par with most faculty members.
In the end, Caitlyn was unable to escape Zone 3 and was forced to retire near the boundary.
“Ah···.”
“So she got caught in the end···.”
“It can’t be helped. How could anyone shake off something like that?”
“She held out that long only because she was Caitlyn···.”
Caitlyn was a complete wreck.
Lin, on the other hand, didn’t even look tired.
Overwhelmed by that icy nobility, the students were unable to speak for a moment.
““······.””
They were on entirely different levels.
There was no way anyone could stand against someone like that.
Even though they weren’t the ones on the field, the students unconsciously lost their will to fight.
Thus, even when Victor appeared, the audience felt little excitement.
“Hey··· who’s standing in front of Caitlyn?”
“That’s the top student of Class E, isn’t it? Was he waiting nearby?”
“He seemed to be fighting Gale earlier, so I guess he came running over as soon as he subdued him.”
“Honestly, I’m not sure what that means···.”
Gale, a top-ranking cadet in Class A.
Victor had certainly overwhelmed him and made his presence known.
But even Victor seemed unlikely to turn the tide of the match.
The field was under the queen’s dominion.
“What··· the top student of Class E looks like he’s going to give it a try?”
“What? Isn’t that reckless? Since he has the flag too, shouldn’t he just run···?”
“He must have made his own judgment. He probably thought he had a better chance fighting than fleeing.”
“Still, isn’t it worth a try? When the two of them fought earlier, they seemed fairly evenly matched···?”
“Anyone could see Lady Glacia was holding back.”
Despite the students’ concern, the two eventually clashed.
A scythe and sword intertwined in midair, sending sparks flying.
Victor parried Lin’s attacks with ease.
He maintained a hair’s breadth of distance, moving so that he never allowed himself to be struck.
“He dodged it···!”
“What strange movements.”
The tension was taut.
Of course, Lin was the one dictating the flow.
The boy seemed to be doing nothing but postponing the defeat creeping toward him, one step at a time.
“He’s holding his own, but··· he’s not attacking at all.”
“He slips into an opening now and then, but Lady Glacia blocks every single attempt.”
“He’s still insane. How can he hold out that long against Lady Glacia? He’s dodging every attack···!”
“He’s not an ordinary kid, you know? The way he overwhelmed Gale earlier, and the way he’s moving now···.”
“He may be the top student of Class E, but it wouldn’t be strange if he were actually around the second-ranked student in Class A.”
“Ah··· now that you mention it, he was from Class E, wasn’t he?”
At that moment, the air around Lin changed completely.
The girl gripped her sword as though she were about to bring the match to an end.
Hundreds of layers of sword aura compressed over the white blade, held in a hilt gripped by both hands.
“W-what is that···?”
A strike that crushed common sense.
The watching students’ faces went white.
“That’s impossible.”
“That’s supposed to be swordsmanship?”
“Wait, even if he’s the top student of Class E, if he takes a hit like that···!”
“Shouldn’t the match be stopped!? Why aren’t the professors doing anything···?”
The stands erupted in commotion.
Yet even in that situation, the boy merely stood there calmly.
Around the time the students began to wonder if he had frozen in fear,
《······.》
The boy’s lips moved.
The pronunciation rang out clearly, even through the screen.
《Liberation.》
After that, there was no sound.
No image formed on the screen; it remained nothing but a field of pure white.
As a result, the students couldn’t properly see what was happening inside.
“Ugh, it’s so bright···!”
“What happened? Can anyone see anything?”
“I don’t know! I-I can’t hear anything either. Did something explode···?”
A few murmurs of agitation.
Before long, the light receded, and the field appeared once again in the hologram.
The scene visible to the students was as follows.
““······?””
A jungle swept away in its entirety.
The field had sunk into a vast depression, as though a gigantic crater had formed.
The countless trees, vines, and deep rivers that had once filled it had evaporated.
Not a trace of the original remained.
At its center, two people were illuminated.
A girl sprawled across the ground, and a boy standing calmly in place.
“······.”
“······.”
“······.”
“······Huh?”
The audience could do nothing but stare in stunned silence.
***
Jaber’s amplified strike.
Predation. Liberation.
The power was utterly absurd.
Even though I was the one wielding the strike, its aftermath was powerful enough to engulf me as well.
The high-pressure flash swept across the entire jungle, ruthlessly tearing apart the neatly arranged field.
The snowstorm the girl had unleashed was swallowed up without a trace.
Ding-!
[The item ‘Evil God’s Mask’ has been activated.]
-Uses remaining: 1/3
-Time until charges replenish: 47 hours 54 minutes 39 seconds
The mask that canceled out the recoil.
As the light and dust cleared, a distant landscape came into view.
I stood before the crumpled remains of Zone 2.
“······.”
This really is no different from a nuclear bomb.
I clicked my tongue softly.
Its original power, then boosted fourfold on top of that.
Good thing it only grazed her. If it had been a clean hit, I might have become a murderer.
“Ignition. Gauntlet.”
A hand twitched lightly.
The scythe’s form unraveled, and Wriggler coiled between my fingers.
“Phew···.”
I crossed the scorched field.
Before long, I reached the center of the crater.
Blue hair lay spread beautifully across the ground.
The girl was a mess of dirt and dust, her pupils blinking blankly.
“Lady Glacia.”
“······.”
Lin still had a faint trace of consciousness left.
Even if it had only grazed her, that strike had been powerful enough to collapse the entire jungle···.
‘Just how strong is she?’
Once again, I felt the full extent of her power.
Despite surely having suffered considerable damage, not even a crack marred the girl’s expression.
She merely lay there, apparently unable to spare the strength to move, gazing up at the artificially blue sky.
Lifeless eyes.
‘No reaction, either.’
A brief silence settled over us.
Soon, her dust-covered lips moved weakly.
In a hoarse voice, the girl muttered a single calm word.
“How···?”
The attack just now.
She seemed to be asking what it had been.
“Heh heh.”
Instead of answering, I placed a finger over the mask’s lips.
“It’s a secret.”
“······I see.”
Lin closed her eyes with a feeble response.
Her consciousness soon cut out, and the girl passed out as though she had simply fallen asleep.
An alert appeared from her crystal ball lying nearby.
Beep beep beep-!
[The second member has withdrawn from the team.]
[Team member ‘Lin Glacia’ has been removed from the match after being deemed unable to fight.]
I turned my back on the girl.
Having been ruled a withdrawal, she would soon be reverse-summoned out of the field.
Caitlyn, whom I had laid down nearby, seemed to have already been reverse-summoned and taken to the infirmary as well.
I moved forward on tired legs.
‘Then··· let’s finish this.’
It had been an unusually long match.
It felt as though eight hours had passed, but the crystal ball showed only one hour.
“I’m dying. I’m dying.”
A field that could hardly be called a jungle anymore.
Crossing Zone 2, I finally reached Zone 1.
The vast grassland and the altar standing at its center came into view at a glance.
“Sir Victor!”
“Miss Ranne.”
Ranne greeted me at once.
The girl held her spear while keeping watch over the surroundings.
“The flag is safe! But I still haven’t subdued the opposing team’s Sprinter. I wonder if she’s using some kind of stealth spell; she’s concealing her presence even on a grassland with nowhere to hide. We’ve been locked in a standoff this entire time.”
“It seems she couldn’t break through Miss Ranne’s ironclad defense.”
“No wonder.”
I had been wondering why there was no word from this side, but it seemed she had performed the Keeper role perfectly.
As a result, the Sprinter had been unable to enter and had remained at a standoff, waiting for an opportunity.
And with the other team members withdrawing one after another in the meantime, she was checkmated.
“Well··· it doesn’t matter now.”
I climbed the steps and reached the top of the altar.
Whoooosh-.
A blue flag fluttered vigorously in the meadow wind.
Beside it, I planted the red flag Caitlyn had brought.
Kwaak-!
At the same time, a faint cluster of light enveloped the altar.
An announcement soon rang out across the entire field.
Leaning my back against the altar, I listened to the vague announcement.
《The flag has been captured.》
《Team Victor wins.》
It was over.
An overwhelming victory.
《Congratulations on the team’s victory.》
《Victor, Ranne Kihano, Dexi Clouis.》
《Students still on the field, please respond to the reverse-summoning request.》
Amid the reverberating announcement,
the blue screen I had been waiting for appeared before my eyes.
Ding-!
[Sub Quest Cleared!]
-Title: I’ll Stand at the Flag
-Description: Win the practical exam ‘Capture the Flag’ by an overwhelming margin.
[You put on an amazing performance and led the match to victory!]
-A reward has been issued. Please check your inventory.
Ding-!
[Hidden Quest Cleared!]
-Title: The Academy’s Superstar!
-Description: Claim first place in the rankings for your year.
[You proved your abilities in front of the entire student body!]
-A special reward has been issued. Please check your inventory.
I skimmed through the messages.
Amid that, one window suddenly caught my eye.
[Special Reward]
-You have acquired a ‘???-Grade Reward Selection Ticket’.
-You can choose two of the presented rewards and claim them.
“What···?”
I couldn’t help but raise a question mark.
[???-Grade Reward Selection Ticket]
A selection ticket—a type of reward I had never seen before.
Of course, that was strange too, but what caught my attention was the grade displayed at the front.
Three question marks instead of letters.
I had seen this somewhere before.
Ding-!
[Evil God’s Mask]
-Category: ???
-Grade: ???
-Status: ???
-Description: Throw it away. Throw it away. Throw it away. Throw it away. Throw it away. Get rid of it. Get rid of it. Get rid of it. Thr.
“······Huh.”
Something.
Something interesting had fallen into my hands.