Chapter 1.
Just a moment ago.
“In that spirit, let me show you what real elite magic looks like.”
The moment those words ended, the battle between Iris and the Lich began.
Death Spheres were blocked with Ice Walls, and attacks that cut in from the side were countered and detonated with Ice Spears.
“Oh. That’s impressive.”
She really was an elite, it seemed.
Calculating all of that in real time inside her head while moving like that.
Here I am, just fiddling around with Fireball and Homing Bullet.
“Not bad.”
The problem was that the Lich had gotten back up without a scratch.
The scattered bones returned to their places, and its severed waist fused back together in an instant.
At first, Iris seemed to have the upper hand, but as time passed, the situation shifted.
‘This is looking pretty unreliable.’
Just a moment ago, she was boldly telling me to trust her, and now she was already exhausted.
If I just stood by with my hands folded, she might actually die, so I decided to try something, anything.
“AI.”
[Awaiting commands.]
“Analyze that Lich or whatever it is.”
[Beginning analysis.]
Translucent lines rose over the Lich’s body.
The skulls embedded in its torso, and the Death Mana connecting them.
Dozens of Magic Circles spread around it were all linked with red lines.
[The target is using 10 skulls as parallel computation units via Death Mana.]
“Yeah. Got it.”
Honestly, I don’t know exactly what that means.
Probably that having lots of brains makes it good at calculating.
Counting its own head, that’s eleven on its side, and Iris has one.
So it makes sense Iris is being pushed back.
[The computation results processed by each skull are transmitted to the main body via Death Mana.]
“Yeah. That’s the feeling.”
It’s like connecting multiple computers together with wires and using them all at once, huh.
I saw something like that in the news in my past life.
Connecting hundreds of servers to predict the weather, or analyzing signals that came from somewhere in space…
I remember it being something like, the more you connect, the better the performance.
[Tracking the source of the Death Mana.]
[Analyzing the flows branching from the source.]
[In simple terms, if we pinpoint the source of the Death Mana, we can read all of the target’s attack patterns.]
“Ah, now I fully understand.”
That was easier than I thought.
If we just lock onto where the Death Mana originates, we can know where it’ll send every spell.
Iris glanced over at me.
“…Leon?”
I looked over the Magic Circles spread across the air one by one.
Each circle had an activation order floating above it, and red lines were drawn along the paths where attacks would travel.
Spells that hadn’t even been fired yet were already visible to my eyes.
At this rate, we might actually stand a chance.
“Alright. Shall we start with Homing Bullet?”
“What could you possibly do with Homing Bullet…”
I raised my right hand, and a small light formed.
One became two, and two quickly surpassed ten.
[Based on the user’s remaining mana, the number of Homing Bullets is limited to 30.]
Thirty Homing Bullets orbited around me at different heights.
[Current calculation load: 872 operations per second.]
‘That’s a disgusting amount.’
Earlier, Iris said someone would need to be at least a Great Mage to process 20 operations per second.
And right now, more than forty times that many Spell Formulas are running wild in my head.
…Wait.
Thinking about it again, the AI really does seem to be a past-life privilege.
“So this is what they call a cheat protagonist.”
I extended my hand forward.
“Go.”
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang—!
The Homing Bullets scattered in every direction.
Death Spheres were pierced through, and Bone Spears and Black Flames exploded one after another.
Even newly created Magic Circles had their cores penetrated before they could finish forming.
Just a few seconds.
The attacks that had filled the corridor were completely gone.
The thirty Homing Bullets returned to orbit around me, spinning slowly.
“Controlling them isn’t so hard after all.”
[Applying parallel control.]
[Collision avoidance and trajectory correction will be performed automatically.]
“Ah. So that’s why it’s easy.”
“What the…”
The skulls embedded in its ribcage all clacked their jaws shut at once.
The violet flames flickering in the Lich’s eye sockets also went still.
“What… is that?”
The thing took a step back for the first time.
“I said, WHAT IS THAT—!”
“? It’s Homing Bullet.”
The Lich’s bony fingers trembled.
“You fool…! Are you telling me you applied continuous Trajectory Formulas to every single one of those massive mana masses?! Thirty of them at once?!”
“Loud.”
I looked around.
No new Magic Circles were visible anymore.
“No more spells to pull out?”
“Wh-what…”
“Guess not.”
I pointed my finger at the Lich.
“Go.”
BANG—!
All thirty Homing Bullets turned at the same instant.
Streams of light struck the Lich from every direction.
Its skull and ribs shattered all at once, and the heads embedded inside its body rolled across the floor.
“Hah…”
Black mana rose from the scattered bone fragments.
Soon after, the broken bones floated into the air and found their places again.
“HAHAHAHAHAHA!”
The Lich laughed, its body not even fully reassembled yet.
“No matter how powerful a spell you use, it’s useless!”
The shattered ribs clicked back together.
“I am a Lich! No matter how many times this body is destroyed, I can rise again!”
“It regenerates fast, too.”
Continuously destroying it doesn’t seem to mean much…
“AI. Is there any way to deal with this thing?”
[Conducting additional analysis.]
[Additional analysis of Death Mana complete.]
[The target’s soul is distributed across the entire Death Mana network, not the physical body.]
[If all connected Death Mana is incinerated, regeneration can be prevented.]
“Incinerated, huh.”
If burning it all without a trace was the answer, then I happened to have the perfect spell for that.
“AI. Prepare Fireball.”
[Preparing basic Fireball.]
“Burn all that Death Mana.”
[Reflecting request conditions.]
[Designating the Death Mana network as combustion target.]
[Restricting heat diffusion to non-target materials.]
The Homing Bullets orbiting around me scattered into light.
The remaining mana gathered into my palm.
[Recovering residual mana.]
[Redistributing available mana to Fireball.]
[Current calculation load: 1,024 operations per second]
Red flames rose from my palm.
Soon, the Fireball that had been fist-sized quickly grew past my height.
“…What? Why is it so big?”
It didn’t stop there—it swelled up until it filled the corridor ceiling.
“Hey, AI. Isn’t this too big?”
[Reflecting the request to ‘increase destructive power’ that was input at the Training Grounds.]
“If I’d used this at the Training Grounds, it would’ve been a real disaster.”
The Lich looked up at the Fireball.
The violet flames in its eye sockets wavered.
“Wh-wh…”
Beside me, Iris stood with her mouth hanging open in a daze.
“G-God…”
I lowered my hand toward the Lich.
“Go.”
WHOOOOM—!
The massive Fireball pushed through the corridor as it advanced.
“D-Damn it!”
The Lich hastily raised a defensive spell.
[Identical Death Mana detected in the defensive Spell Formula.]
[Forcibly converting all Death Mana connected to the target into fuel for the Fireball.]
The barrier the Lich had raised burned red and was sucked into the Fireball.
“What the…!”
The more it layered on defenses, the bigger the Fireball grew.
“N-No…!”
The Fireball swallowed the Lich whole.
It frantically pulled in Death Mana.
The shattered ribs tried to reattach, and the skulls inside its body all deployed Spell Formulas at once.
But even the Death Mana gathered for regeneration turned into red flames.
“Why…”
The Lich’s body crumbled from the inside.
It couldn’t block. It couldn’t regenerate.
The harder it struggled to survive, the more fiercely the Fireball burned.
“This can’t be…! I transcended humanity! To something like a mere spell…!”
For the first time, fear bled through the Lich’s voice.
“GYAAAAAH—!!!!!!!!”
KABOOOOM—!
The voice cut off.
Where the flames cleared, only blackened bone dust remained.
[Death Mana reaction from the target has been extinguished.]
[No possibility of regeneration.]
“Hmm.“
I made thirty Homing Bullets, and took down the Lich with a single Fireball.
At this point, I think I should finally admit it.
“As expected, I really am a genius.”
[Negation. It is the AI’s performance that is excellent.]
Shut up.
“Well, moving around a bit did help with digestion.”
Right now, I could probably put away two bowls of soup.
Iris slowly approached my side.
“You are…”
“What is it?”
She looked up at my face, her lips moving a few times without a sound.
That was when a hurried voice reached us from afar.
“Iris! Leon!”
The sound of multiple footsteps echoed through the corridor.
“Are you over there!”
It was the Instructor’s voice.
“Yes! We’re here!”
I immediately raised my hand.
Iris didn’t answer.
She just stood there staring blankly at my face.
2.
The Instructor said he had gathered the Climbers remaining in Irotia and come looking for us.
The stone path above had collapsed, and even the search spell installed by the Magic Academy wasn’t working properly, so it had taken a long time.
Anyway, after all that ordeal, we made it back to the Magic Academy.
Iris had the wound on her shoulder treated, and I also received a simple check-up just in case.
Fortunately, there were no issues.
We agreed to discuss the details of what happened tomorrow.
The Instructor stood up first, saying we needed rest and that he had to write an incident report.
“An incident report? Why?”
“…Because this was also an accident caused by my carelessness.”
The Instructor let out a deep sigh.
“Besides, the Head of the Magic Academy was furious when he heard the report that you two almost got hurt…”
His voice trailed off.
‘I should have said something felt off the moment we were at the Portal.’
His face was completely grim, shoulders slumped—kinda pitiful, honestly.
I wonder if I’ll see him alive tomorrow morning.
“Phew… Is it over?”
I finally relaxed a little.
But there was still one very important problem remaining.
“We… missed dinner.”
This is a truly critical issue.
The cafeteria doors were already firmly locked.
While we were getting treated, dinner time had already ended…
“…Should I go eat outside?”
[The user’s current assets amount to 2 Copper Coins.]
[Eating out is impossible.]
“…I know.”
Celia definitely said it back then.
Three meals a day, guaranteed, with unlimited snacks on top.
With a hopeful heart, I rummaged through the break room tucked in the corner of the annex.
An empty basket.
A completely empty cupboard.
One jar with a bit of dried tea leaves left.
There was nothing edible at all.
“So this is a sweatshop after all.”
It’s a bit ridiculous to call it a sweatshop just because I didn’t get a single snack,
but what can I do when that’s how I feel right now.
In the end, I returned to my room empty-handed and lay down on the bed.
Before long, my stomach let out a growl.
“…I guess I have to tough it out until tomorrow morning.”
[While asleep, the likelihood of perceiving hunger decreases.]
“So you’re saying if I’m hungry, I should just sleep?”
[Affirmative.]
I wanted to argue, but I couldn’t think of anything to say.
“Ugh. Fine. Let’s just sleep.”
I pulled up the blanket and was about to close my eyes when—
Knock, knock.
Someone was at the door.
What? Who would come looking for me at this hour?
“Who is it?”
After a moment, a small voice came back.
“…It’s Iris.”
“Iris?”
I got up from the bed and opened the door.
Iris was standing in the hallway.
Her treated shoulder was wrapped in fresh bandages.
“What is it? Why aren’t you resting and coming all the way here?”
“…There is something I wish to say.”
She couldn’t lift her head, just staring at the floor.
It was a bit different from her usual self.
“Come in, then.”
As I stepped aside, Iris entered the room.
She confirmed the door was closed.
And then.
Thud.
“…What are you doing?”
Iris suddenly knelt down in front of me.
With both hands neatly placed together, she bowed her head deeply.
“…Apostle of God.”
“Huh?”
“Please accept my loyalty.”
“…”
Out of nowhere??