36. Magic Survival (5)
While Magic Survival was underway,
Flame ran together with Anella to the waiting room where participants were sent after being eliminated.
“Emergency patients! Emergency patients! Deploy healers immediately!”
“What in the world happened here?!”
“How did they get burned? What on earth happened inside the stage?!”
Since people were not supposed to be injured during battles inside virtual space, no medical staff waited there for the purpose of treating wounds.
In that sense, it could be called a weakness unique to Stella Academy, the only place in the world that operated a virtual space.
“Excuse me, please move!”
The dark crimson flames were somehow being suppressed by the Stella faculty’s magic, but the actual injuries still were not being treated properly, so Flame pushed her way through them.
“Who are you?”
“She’s a student! Why are you in here? Get out right now!”
“Wait, isn’t that student Flame? I heard she learned healing-type magic. Things are urgent right now, so let her help!”
“Could you come this way? There’s an emergency patient!”
There were five or six patients with burns all over their bodies.
Even in a situation where every second mattered, a healer could normally only tend to one patient at a time.
But……
that was only true for ordinary, ordinary healers.
Flame stood in the middle of the groaning patients lying on the floor, brought both hands together, and quietly recited an incantation with her small lips.
“……O Light.”
Fwoosh!!
A dazzling golden flash covered the waiting room, and the patients’ wounds immediately began to close.
A miracle that even the clergy of the Holy Nation could not accomplish.
A divine power similar to this was something that could not be displayed unless one was at the level of the Holy Nation’s Saint or Saintess.
But because she was healing several people at once, the efficiency was poor, and her sea-like mana was consumed in an instant.
On top of that, because the wounds had been inflicted by the magic of a dark mage stronger than herself, it was impossible to heal them easily.
For now……
all she could do was prevent their injuries from worsening.
Of course, even that alone was more than enough to be called excellent emergency treatment.
“The healers are here!”
Because she had managed to keep the patients alive until the doctors and healing mages capable of proper treatment arrived.
“The student should rest now!”
“My, your complexion is pale. It seems you’ve exhausted too much mana at once and collapsed from mana depletion.”
“……Mm.”
As Flame staggered and slumped down where she stood, Anella hurriedly caught her.
‘Aaaahhhhhh…….’
There are too many mages around.
A mage here. A mage there.
And I’m a dark mage.
By the time her head had almost gone completely blank, one mage approached, placed a hand on her shoulder, and comforted her.
“It seems you’re very confused after suddenly seeing something you shouldn’t have. Don’t go speaking carelessly about this incident anywhere. We’ll handle it ourselves.”
“Um, I……”
“You must.”
When the Stella official gave the order of silence with a hardened expression, Anella nodded blankly.
However.
“……Who exactly decided that it should be kept secret?”
“Wh-Who…… P-Princess?”
Of all people, someone who could not be carelessly silenced had seen this scene.
It was Hong Biyeon, princess of Adolevit.
At some point, she had appeared in the waiting room, and with a deeply furrowed expression, she examined the patients’ condition.
If one saw this thick, sticky dark mana and still could not grasp the situation, then that person should be considered unqualified as a magic warrior cadet.
“A dark mage…… infiltrated inside Stella?”
“……Yes. That is correct.”
At last, Hong Biyeon had one of her questions answered clearly.
The reason Baek Yuseol had involved himself in children’s games and run around more desperately than anyone else.
It was to find and eliminate the dark mage.
Regressors, she had heard, were bound by the Contract of the Stars and could not speak aloud of future events.
Which meant that this time too, he had once again been struggling alone to solve the incident……
and that fact caused Hong Biyeon’s expression, already displeased, to turn ice-cold.
“This time, you’d best not think you can smooth things over so easily.”
No matter that she had enrolled with the status of a cadet—at her root, she was royalty from one of the three strongest nations in the world.
Adolevit had entrusted the safety of its princess to Stella, yet Stella had failed even to prevent the infiltration of a dark mage……
This would become a major controversy.
After Hong Biyeon delivered that short, sharp rebuke and turned away, the officials could only lower their heads in silence.
It seemed this year’s interschool competition would not pass quietly.
The participants and officials were not the only ones who had sensed that something strange was going on.
Some of the spectators watching Magic Survival had also realized that something unusual was happening in the tournament.
“Your Majesty. It seems a problem has arisen in the tournament.”
“……It would seem so.”
Kkotseorin habitually moved to touch her lotus-pink lips, only to realize she was wearing a mask and draw her hand back.
It was a habit that surfaced whenever she was deep in thought.
‘Participants who are feeling pain…….’
At other interschool competitions, contestants usually wore powerful protective gear.
A shield spell that students could never destroy surrounded them, and instead the system calculated life points and determined who was eliminated.
Thanks to its use of a virtual-reality system, Stella Academy required no such cumbersome process, and they could engage in combat that felt as real as actual battle.
But because it was virtual reality, the participants should not have been able to feel pain—yet in the scene Kkotseorin had just witnessed, one female student had been screaming with flames all over her body.
Since multiple scenes were being broadcast at once, that particular scene had not been shown in detail, and even those who saw it probably had failed to notice what was strange about it……
but those especially sensitive to dark mages would have picked up on the suspicious signs.
“I will go and look into the situation.”
As Oranha said that and rose from his seat, Kkotseorin stopped him.
“There is no need. This is Stella.”
Even if something had happened, Stella would surely handle it on its own.
There was no need for them, who had come merely as spectators, to get involved.
‘At minimum, 5-Risk. If he is hiding his strength, then perhaps higher than that…….’
If a dark mage really had infiltrated Magic Survival and was attacking the students, then that person might be the very ‘Spirit Killer’ Oranha had spoken of.
If the Spirit Killer revealed his identity and released his aura, then the instant that happened, it would be caught by Kkotseorin’s keen insight.
And that would be the end of it.
The culprit would not leave this place alive.
‘I’ll return it in kind.’
Clenching her fist, she made a firm vow.
No matter what……
she would not let him die gently.
Magic Survival Stage.
At the far edge of the match area,
two boys were fighting.
Fwoosh! Boom!!
Flames colored like they had swallowed the night sky exploded, and a small cabin was blasted apart and sent flying.
Leaping up through the gap, Dok Cheolgwang thrust his left palm forward, then drew back his right fist with all his strength before driving it out.
Whoom—Kugugugung!!
A violent vortex of wind tore through everything ahead.
Overwhelming destructive force and a broad range, far too powerful to believe it had come from a cast that lasted less than a second!
But his opponent was no easy foe either. He lightly jumped aside to avoid it, then wrapped Dok Cheolgwang in black flames.
“Ki-hap!”
Paaang! Clang!
Vital force burst out from Dok Cheolgwang’s body, oxidizing and scattering the flames.
Then he crushed the broken rubble beneath his feet and leapt again and again!
“…Huh?!”
As Dok Cheolgwang suddenly charged at him, Berunkal was thrown badly off guard and retreated a long distance backward.
But even that distance was easily chased down, and Dok Cheolgwang threw a punch.
Crack! Boom!
A small tornado erupted from his fist!
And on top of that, when he slammed his right foot into the ground once more, a wall of stone formed behind Berunkal so he would not even be able to flee.
After becoming a dark mage, Berunkal had become unable to use any other magic at all, so he could not even unfold a shield. Left with no other choice, he defended against it with flames.
Fortunately for him, flames were strong against wind.
“What a complete madman……”
As a 5-Risk dark mage, Berunkal was one of the strongest beings in Magic Survival, to the point that he had no real equal there.
Naturally, he had assumed that in a one-on-one situation, he would be able to quickly put down anyone.
And yet……
‘Where the hell did a monster like that come from……’
He had been born with combat sense so absurd that it was hard to even call him human.
He was pressing Berunkal, a 5-Risk, using nothing more than 4-Class-level magic.
And on top of that, there was the problem of all that muscle.
Ordinary mages had little need for great muscle mass.
Muscles were of almost no help in the operation of magic, so all one really needed was enough to maintain basic physical stamina.
But for knight-type mages who fought in close quarters, things were a little different.
‘Power Jump.’
This technique, which used the recoil of mana to make a great leap over a short distance, put a huge strain on the legs and required very fine mana control.
But no matter how well you controlled it, the muscles in the legs were bound to bear the burden in the end, so knight-type mages had no choice but to train their muscles as a necessity.
Even so, there ought to have been limits to that too, yet Dok Cheolgwang had both refined mana control and massively developed leg muscles, allowing him to possess overwhelming mobility.
Boom!
The speed to close dozens of meters in an instant!
The rate of fire with which he spammed Power Jump without tiring!
And on top of that, the destructive chain of magic bursting out with every punch he threw!
“Tch!”
If Berunkal had been an ordinary 5-Class mage, he might really have been defeated by Dok Cheolgwang here.
But……
a 5-Risk was still a 5-Risk.
Dark crimson flames erupted upward from the ground, swallowing Dok Cheolgwang whole.
Fwoosh! Kuu-boom!!
Because this was virtual reality, he was not wearing a proper shield robe, so Dok Cheolgwang had no choice but to take the flames head-on.
And yet, even with his body engulfed in fire, he only let out a faint groan and made no cry of pain at all.
Among the greatest pains a human being could feel was the pain of burning alive.
“And you…… do not even feel pain?”
At that, Dok Cheolgwang bared his white teeth and laughed brightly.
“With enough will and enough muscle, you can overcome flames like this as many times as you want!”
“You lunatic……”
Berunkal clicked his tongue in disgust and ignited dark crimson flames in both hands.
Looking only at the situation, it might have seemed as though Dok Cheolgwang held the advantage.
However, the reality that victory tilted toward Berunkal could not be denied.
Because while Berunkal could inflict real damage on Dok Cheolgwang, the reverse was impossible.
Even if it had been uncertain whether Dok Cheolgwang could win in a pure battle, in a situation that was unequal from the beginning, victory for him was impossible.
Did Dok Cheolgwang not know that?
[28/100]
The number of survivors continued to drop, and the match area began shrinking to its next stage.
From the very beginning……
his goal had been this.
To keep that being, who could attack others inside virtual reality as if it were reality itself, from harming the other cadets.
He had been buying time.
Winning the match? My own safety?
None of that mattered.
If there was a dark mage before your eyes, then you stood before him and aimed your staff.
Because that was the duty of a magic warrior.
‘……I can’t believe it.’
Watching the situation from a distance in hiding, Hanabonyu stared at Dok Cheolgwang, his jaw trembling.
His entire body was already covered in flames, and he looked barely capable of standing at all.
And yet Dok Cheolgwang did not fall.
To the point that the boast he had thrown out earlier—that he had never fallen once in his life—felt as though it might truly be the truth.
‘But even that is reaching its limit now.’
He could not even use Power Jump properly anymore and was reduced to barely batting away the incoming flames with gusts from his fists, so it was only a matter of time before the battle was decided.
Dok Cheolgwang……
would die.
‘That can’t happen.’
He had thought every magic warrior cadet in the world was just like him.
That they attended academies only for certificates and diplomas.
That dealing with dark mages was a secondary concern, and what they really wanted was to work in safe, comfortable places while receiving high salaries……
That was what he had believed.
And that made sense.
In times like these, where would one even find a heroic magic warrior with a spirit fit for a fairy tale?
That was what he had firmly believed as he lived.
But now, a being truly worthy of being called a ‘mage’ stood right before his eyes.
Dok Cheolgwang was a Stella cadet he would ordinarily have envied bitterly, and yet right now all Hanabonyu could think was that he had to save him.
……By the time he came to himself.
“Yaaaaaah!!”
Hanabonyu was already running.
Toward Berunkal?
No.
Even if he did that, there was nothing he could do.
No matter that he had been treated as an elite in his own way, he knew well enough himself that he could not bring out his true strength in actual combat against a dark mage.
So he ran toward Dok Cheolgwang.
“Wh-What, who are you!”
Berunkal fired flames in panic, but he was already too late.
Because the sharp ice spike that shot from the tip of Hanabonyu’s wand had already pierced Dok Cheolgwang’s heart.
Dok Cheolgwang looked at him without a word.
Even though he seemed all but unconscious……
he was still standing straight on both feet.
[KILL! Hanabonyu — Dok Cheolgwang]
At last, when his figure dissolved into a cluster of light and vanished—
“……You bastard.”
Berunkal began releasing an enormous amount of dark mana from his entire body.
He had been the fly buzzing around and making things difficult, the one Berunkal had intended to finish off as painfully as possible.
“How dare you interfere……!”
Fwoooooosh!!
Dark crimson flames exploded upward and covered this entire area.
“Hiiik…….”
Thud!
Hanabonyu’s legs gave out immediately, and he collapsed to the ground.
If those flames hit him now, he would surely die.
But it was all right.
Was it because he had saved a hero by sacrificing himself?
No.
He still was not that magnanimous a man.
It was simply that……
[Warning! You have been exposed to mana outside the match area for an extended period of time!]
[Life Points are decreasing!]
Because he had not drunk a potion since earlier, all he could do was trust in his own Life Points, which were already scraping the bottom.
Fwoosh!!
“Die, you bastard!”
At last, Berunkal’s black flames exploded!
The writhing wave of fire lunged in—
[Life Points zero.]
[You have died.]
[DIE! Hanabonyu]
Hanabonyu’s form turned into a shower of light and vanished away.
— Read only on MugenCodex —
