[396] Taking the High Ground (5)
"How was it, my strategy? Worked perfectly, right?"
Screamer licked his lips.
He'd never thought the kid was a good person. Even if someone seemed decent, was there a senior in the graduating class who trusted others more than himself?
Too much self-assurance, though, is always hard for others to swallow.
"Anyway, enough. You did a reverse position? Were you trying to throw the match? You should've said something beforehand."
"Hehe, sorry. It was my trump card, so I saved it. We knocked Maya out, so we've got the advantage now. I even considered disqualifying her on the spot."
Nade's interference had ruined that plan.
Aider liked to think of himself as crazy, but Nade's face back then had been disturbingly out of the normal range.
"Aider."
At Shirone's voice, Aider turned.
"Oh? Shirone-hyung, this is our side. Ah, rules say it's okay? Still, eavesdropping on plans is cowardly."
"...Why did you do it?"
Aider tilted his head. Then, belatedly realizing, he snapped his fingers and shrugged.
"Oh, Maya? Why? You didn't come all the way over here just to bitch, did you?"
"I'll ask again. Why did you do it?"
Aider's expression crumpled.
With his true colors shown, there was none of the old deference he used to display around seniors.
"What's the problem? I was just trying to put the guard in a groggy state. I hit Screamer and Nade, too. Maya was ridiculously weak. If it had been Amy—"
"Don't get the wrong idea. I'm not here to get angry. That's not what I'm asking."
"Is that so?"
Aider laced his fingers and rested his chin on his hands.
"I told you clearly. After the survival test, remember?"
A coldness ran through Shirone's eyes.
"Don't touch me."
"..."
He had said he'd crush anyone who pulled stunts. In short, Aider was on Shirone's kill list.
"Hahaha! So should I go, 'Oh, got it, I'll never touch you again, promise'?"
In the past he might have feigned fear, but now that he'd taken power from the massive Fermi group, he felt invincible.
"Just know it. I only wanted to confirm."
Shirone turned and walked back to his team.
His friends closed in. With only a minute until Round 6, they had to set their strategy fast.
"Shirone, let's defend this round. Maya's willpower will take time to recover."
"No. I'll finish it here. I'll handle it—hold Screamer's team back. If Forward's alone they won't send backup."
Maya wouldn't recover mid-fight. With her Omniscience suppressed and her Omnipotence strengthened, Aider's violence had left too deep a wound.
"Shirone, don't get excited. I'm annoyed too, but winning is what matters right now. You'll be even angrier if we lose. You know that, right?" Iruki said.
"It's fine. I really don't care."
Shirone smiled with his eyes, then his face suddenly hardened and he turned. A terrible chill cut through the air; his friends made way for him.
"He's really pissed now."
Once it reached this point, nobody could stop Shirone.
As expected, the instant Round 6 began Shirone flew straight at Aider, eyes fixed and ignoring everything else.
"Phew, creepy."
Aider's smile trembled. Fear and exhilaration warred on his face.
The one in the graduating class with the strongest will was coming to crush him.
"That only makes me enjoy this more."
The thought of wanting to kill someone yet not being able to twitch a hair sent shivers through him.
Aider weaved through the barrage of photon cannons, making Shirone's frustration all the sharper.
"Hahaha! What am I supposed to do? I'm not getting hit at all. Calculating Maya's damage would take forever!"
Shirone gave no answer and landed in front of the flag.
Wind cutters formed in Aider's hands. The moment Shirone touched the flag, Aider planned to counter and finish him.
"Ataraxia."
A pale light gathered ten meters above the summit and drew a huge circle. Gasps rose from outside the arena. The halo was at least twice as large as when Shirone had faced Dante.
Aider stared up at the luminous ring, stunned. Realizing something, he hastily retreated beyond its radius.
'Damn. What an annoying kid.'
There was a way to do this. If Ataraxia covered the high ground, even grabbing the flag wouldn't let someone approach easily.
'Then...'
Aider crouched, calculating the instant to leap out. Once the circle completed, there would be no chance.
"Thirty seconds."
Shirone said, "Thirty seconds. If you can't stop me inside that time, you will never be able to beat me."
'I know that, you bastard.'
Knowing and being able to act were different—Aider had seen with his own eyes the power of Shirone's magic circle.
If he rushed in and got caught, win or lose he might be in the infirmary for the next round.
'No way... I won't die anyway.'
It was the thousandth attempt, after all.
Filtered through a "what if" he'd never choose in real combat, the fight suddenly looked worth taking.
'I'm going in!'
The fact that a mage's power in a time-split state drops to less than half swayed Aider's decision.
He should be able to do it.
But when a photon cannon streaked by and blasted his eardrums, gooseflesh rose all over his skin.
'Damn! Still no good?'
Even in a time-split state, Shirone's single-combat power ranked among the top of the graduating class. One shot's force was beyond what Aider could handle.
'No, I won't get hit. He can never hit me.'
The price of the deal with Fermi had been huge. With Ghost Movement alone, he felt he could graduate even without Fermi's crew.
"What the hell? Even the great Shirone's nothing special? That's why you sat around until Maya got beaten."
Shirone fired photon cannons at top speed.
But Ghost Movement predictably shoved Aider aside and he avoided the flash.
"Hahaha! No matter what, it won't hit! I told you from the start—"
Thud! A powerful impact landed on the back of his head.
'Huh...?'
One of Aider's legs buckled.
The AT Algorithm had been broken. Worse than the pain of anti-magic was that fact itself.
Looking up in disbelief, he saw Shirone's face wobbling faintly. The strike had been far more powerful than expected.
'He hit me clean.'
But how?
The AT Algorithm responds to any object that creates air resistance. Whether the blow came from behind or rose from below, it should have reacted.
"What the... is that?"
As his focus returned, Aider finally saw the photon cannons floating around Shirone.
They weren't larger or clearer—only a chilling red dot at the center of each light.
"Laser Guidance Algorithm," Dorothy murmured.
A top-tier Omniscience, rivaling the AT Algorithm. The laser Omnipotence itself made it supreme.
'So that's why he targeted Shirone...'
Dorothy's devices had functions similar to the AT Algorithm, but the Laser Guidance Algorithm was essentially the natural counter to any automatic-reflection defense.
"Damn it! Damn! Damn!"
Aider flew around the high ground to evade the homing photon cannons, but no matter where he ran he couldn't shake them.
He wanted to peel the red-dotted light off his skin.
Each shot packed nearly eight thousand Press of force.
'Damn! Where the hell did such magic come from?'
A homing photon cannon intercepting a level-seven drone could trace flight paths on par with a frontline pro-mage's movements.
Aider couldn't escape the Laser Guidance Algorithm's grip; eventually he was trapped.
"Ugh!"
Just before a homing photon cannon struck, Aider's body bucked as a flash grazed him.
Relief lasted only a moment before true terror arrived.
Eight photons circled like hyenas around prey, sliding endlessly over the AT Algorithm and closing in.
"Uh? Uh—"
His body convulsed against his will and bile rose. Worse than nausea was the dread of the impending impact.
"Argh!"
A homing photon cannon coiled around Aider's waist like a serpent and detonated against the back of his head.
"Ugh!"
The force would have rendered anyone unconscious unless they'd passed durability stage four.
Aider crashed to the ground and lifted his head. Emotion warped his face into something demonic.
"You piece of—"
Pfffffft!
The repeated impacts from the air drowned his scream.
The homing photon cannons showed no mercy. The merciless light simply bombarded wherever the lasers guided.
"Gaaaaah!"
Aider clutched his head, agony ripping through him as if hundreds of awls bored into his brain.
Realizing he couldn't win like this, he saw Shirone approaching and desperately dropped to his knees.
"I-I'm sorry! Hyung!"
Shirone stopped walking.
"I was wrong! I won't do it again. Take the flag and finish it. Please!"
"What did you do wrong?"
"I hit Maya. I'm sorry for hiding my true feelings and pretending otherwise. I'm just this kind of guy. I can't help it. But I won't do it again. I'll apologize to her."
Mages know precisely how their actions affect the world. That's why they don't display anger—unless even that act converges to the best possible outcome.
"...Make sure you apologize to Maya."
Shirone walked past Aider without more words.
'Ah, Shirone-hyung. Hyung really is—'
Aider's eyes flickered as he watched Shirone turn away.
If only he could land a proper strike on that back of the head. If he could see Shirone bleeding and falling, and then beat him while he lay there—
How exhilarating would that be?
Just imagining it sent his mind reeling.
Anticipated pleasure pulled him into the Spirit Zone. Ghost Movement began to envelop him as the AT Algorithm reactivated.
'I can do it. From this distance, he can't counterattack!'
Shirone looked up at the sky. The hot anger that had burned in his head instantly turned to ice.
The sky felt cold.
One hundred percent focus honed the Spirit Zone to a razor edge; Omniscience and Omnipotence fused in powerful harmony.
He suppressed even a trace of rage and poured it into his magic.
This was a mage's rage.
"Now!"
Just as Aider lunged with eyes wide, Screamer shouted.
"Idiot! Up! Up!"
Aider's head snapped up.
Ataraxia had completed without him noticing. From even higher above, lasers from the homing photon cannons aimed at his brow.
They differed in power and scale from the cast at Dante. That time the sync had been fifty percent; now it was eighty.
"Damn it!"
Aider clutched his head and crouched.
The homing photon cannons pierced Ataraxia, and a massive flash plunged straight down from ten meters above.
"Gaaaaaaaah!"
The torrent of mass converted to anti-magic destroyed Aider's mind. Both nostrils burst with a thud and bloody tears streamed down his face.
Drdrdrdrdrdr!
Aider's body began vibrating at a terrifying speed.
Humans don't get crush status checks, but the interactions between magics were clearly being implemented.
The shockwave caught the AT Algorithm and it began to move Aider.
The problem was... there was nowhere left to dodge.
"Gaaack! Gaaack!"
Trapped in the massive flash, Aider was flung at tremendous speed. It felt as if someone grabbed his spine and shook it.
Crack! Crunch! The sound of his body fracturing stunned everyone.
The flash lasted only 1.6 seconds, but it was long enough to leave no intact bones.
Aider, hurled beyond the flash, tumbled down the hill. He lay staring at the sky, his eyes blank.
Only after Ataraxia faded did Shirone turn back and walk to him.
Even seeing his limbs bent in impossible directions, his expression was calm.
"Keep your promise to apologize to Maya."
If Shirone's bones had been the ones broken, would Aider's actions have been examinable? Was Maya's weakness un-mage-like, or Aider's cruelty simply a mage's cruelty?
There was no need to judge. Shirone would keep going, and Aider's graduating-class journey ended here.
That was all that mattered to a mage.
The arena doors opened and medics ran in.
(End of Volume 16)