[629] Two Systems (2)
Inside the Force Dimension, Shirone dominated space and time; it seemed no one could shatter the absoluteness of that plane.
Shirone and Fermi were the two massive axes controlling the battlefield, and none of the participants could think beyond those two.
"Tense. Both Shirone and Fermi show no wavering."
Shiina's remark drew a reply from Etella.
"Fermi is handling the greater number. Conversely, you could say the participants are more reluctant to face Shirone."
Alpheas, slouched to one side, lifted a corner of his mouth.
"The tide has turned. Who would've thought I'd be the strongest."
When that line first left Shirone's lips, no teacher could help but doubt their ears.
"He's already past the limit of tension. He probably has no thought left but to pass."
"No."
Alpheas's assessment diverged from Olivia's.
"Even that isn't in his head anymore."
Two hundred berserk waves overlapped, striking a wall of matter that made the term "mass wave" feel inadequate, and Konggeo and Prings staggered.
'Feels like getting hit by a slab of iron.'
In reality their bodies would have been shattered first.
"Shirone!"
Khanis, who had cast Limit of Abyss, charged in under a temporary Immortal Function state.
'I'll win! In my master's name!'
A massive dark worm, manifested as a kin of darkness, arced and lunged, and Shirone's movement wavered.
"W-what the—!"
Poltar flinched, but Miro remained composed.
"This rhythm won't break from that."
A fissure tore through the dark worm's shadow; the berserk energy detonated and the darkness was swept away.
"Victory of strength."
Arin, who had cast Mind Control, had his mind counterattacked by Geumgangtae's spirit and was destroyed.
"Victory of willpower."
The Shining Chain shredded Konggeo's power lines and slammed into his solar plexus.
"Victory of finesse."
A Homing Photon Cannon curved around the ice wave and relentlessly bombarded Prings.
"Victory of sensitivity."
At Baikal's evaluation Elizabeth felt a shiver.
"They're overwhelming in every domain."
The way competitors neutralized others' specialties with their own felt surreal to the scouts.
"Why wouldn't there be fury?"
Alpheas, once hailed as a genius, could understand Shirone's mind.
"Why wouldn't he want to give up? He's human, after all."
Shirone, pressing the enemies alone, ground his teeth and fired his photon cannon in bursts.
'I can't become a mage!'
He had lived with that thought for twenty years.
"Guh!"
- Participant No. 6. Withdrawn from System 2000.
Konggeo lost consciousness first, and Shirone's flashes surged even faster.
- Participant No. 12. Withdrawn from System 2000.
Khanis collapsed.
- Participant No. 8. Withdrawn from System 2000.
Arin dropped to his knees.
"Mental power keeps recovering. Forty-six percent. Forty-eight percent."
Mind, spirit, and body rotated endlessly around the avatar, forming an infinite power source.
"It's like asking whether they truly did their best."
Albino said with a meaningful smile.
"Asking if I know the years I've lived."
Elizabeth's voice rose.
"Participant No. 18! No. 20! Eliminated!"
Binder and Suabi, swallowed by the Force Dimension, lost consciousness from Shirone's strike and fell.
'They're all getting wiped out.'
Luman fled the Force Dimension, and Prings—the only one who'd survived inside Shirone's rhythm—didn't dare approach again.
"This is getting interesting."
Miro's gaze shifted to Fermi.
'What will you do? At this rate you… you'll really be eaten, won't you?'
If Shirone enforced his system, every participant would likely unleash a coordinated attack on Fermi.
'Hmm, is this the graduation exam?'
Despite that, Fermi remained at ease, and Hershi, who'd been pressing him, scowled as if bored.
"What a monstrous guy."
Even Lycan and Richard, former members of the Golden Wheel, had joined, yet Fermi still controlled the situation.
At that moment Fermi's cold gaze snapped to Hershi.
"It's kid's play. System 2000 stuff."
Disaster Magic—Black Death.
Black smoke rose from Fermi's body and spread in all directions.
"Wha—!"
Teachers sprang up and scouts widened their eyes.
"That's black magic!"
"I thought it had already been lost."
It was the magic of Karnes, the witch of the Black Line who once roamed the world and slaughtered three million people.
Fermi split his mouth into a cruel grin.
"This is the power of money."
Smoke billowed as if something had exploded at the center, and black fiends sprang from the clouds' edges.
"Evacuate! If you get hit, you're finished!"
All participants fled beyond the smoke, but only a few dodged the fiends.
"Participant No. 15 (Closer), eliminated! No. 23 (Hershi), eliminated! No. 13 (Dorothy), eliminated! No. 19 (Pandora), eliminated!"
With four eliminated at once, the scouts began checking the rules.
"Is black magic even allowed?"
In reality, those struck by the fiends would have died wracked by the agony of rotting flesh.
"As far as System 2000 can implement, there's no issue with the regulation. However, since the Red Line issued a prohibition on this magic, there'll probably be complaints later."
Lala said.
"Black Death is nasty because it can't choose its targets. That's why it's strong. The eliminated will be furious."
"It's not simply bad luck."
Baikal glanced between Shirone and Fermi.
"After all, they chose No. 1."
When Black Death's effects dissipated, the battle lapsed into a lull.
Nine had been eliminated by Shirone and Fermi's actions, and the participants' minds were in turmoil.
'Sixteen survivors remain.'
If six more fell, graduation would be guaranteed.
'I can't believe I made it this far.'
Maya's heart thudded—she'd been branded the first eliminated at every graduation exam until now.
Though she benefited from the interplay of Fermi's and Shirone's systems, that wasn't the point for her.
"Chief, my sister might pass."
The mystic tribespeople in a corner of the stands clasped their hands and watched with desperate eyes.
"Maya…"
The chief could tell Maya knew little of magic, but he could see she was not without skill.
'A pitiful child.'
Maya was a genius, but the battlefield ruled by cold logic was no place for her.
'I must pass.'
She could yield to fate for her tribe's sake, but reality was merciless.
'It's Maya.'
'We have to eliminate Maya first.'
With only one elimination needed to skyrocket someone's chances of passing, ridding the field of the weakest—Maya—was the straightforward move.
When Pisho, Luman, and Sabina attacked from three directions, Maya felt the world go dark.
'I can't fall here!'
Clenching her teeth, Kaiden stepped before Maya and attacked the three.
"Why?"
Kaiden's intervention was the baffling moment of this year's exam.
Rumors said the Fermi-centered faction had splintered, but the main reason someone of Maya's limited ability had come this far was that Kaiden always showed up at decisive moments to take the spot beforehand.
'Coincidence, maybe.'
In a graduation exam where personal feelings were forbidden, there was no reason Kaiden would fight for someone he wasn't close to.
"The confrontation structure's getting complicated."
This was the biggest branching point of the exam—the moment when true friend-or-foe distinctions collapsed.
'Rapid Stream!'
Deep blue water whipped around Pony and swept violently in all directions.
"Mother, are you watching? Your daughter is carving out her own future."
"Total mass 4.2 tons. Rapid current coefficient 3.3. Kinetic energy per unit area: 983 water per cubic meter."
Elizabeth analyzed, but Baikal gave no answer.
"Evaluate it. Only No. 11 lacks a recorded grade."
"...S."
"Huh?"
Lala turned in surprise.
"There was an order from above."
Pony was royalty.
"But—"
"The authority of the crown overrides the association. Mark it S."
Baikal wasn't exactly pleased either.
"It's the reality of monarchy. Don't analyze No. 11 anymore. Whatever grade you give, every magic institution under the kingdom will bow and take them."
"...Understood."
Lala wrote it down and Baikal added a line.
"Of course, they still have to pass."
With the final ten in sight, it was foolish to take on Shirone and Fermi. In the tense mind games, no one had been eliminated.
'Graduation's basically decided.'
Fermi, having already read the situation, drifted through the chaotic field, waiting for others to self-destruct.
"Huh?"
Then a flash from the photon cannon surged forward.
'Ghost Movement!'
By automatic response, he leaned his torso back and saw Shirone diving in.
'Fermi. I won't let you pass.'
Evil flickered in Fermi's eyes when he read Shirone's thought.
'As expected, an excellent idiot!'
When the two who'd both earned S-ranks from the scouts collided head-on, the audience's focus sharpened.
Fermi's skill—using countless high-level magics like tricks to counter quantum superposition—was undeniable.
"He really is No. 1."
The more true that was, the angrier Shirone grew.
'I will not forgive you!'
Every spell Fermi wielded had been bought with students' defeats—students who'd given their best for six years.
'Yeah, I know. You hate me, don't you.'
Imagining Shirone's rage, Fermi's grin turned colder.
'If blocking the opponent's desire is victory—'
Disaster Magic—Black Death.
'I'll smile as I hand you your passing, Shirone!'
Black smoke billowed and the fiends born of that malice spread in all directions.
If he could knock out six here, then even if Shirone killed him, it wouldn't prevent the passing outcome.
'Amgu!'
When two hundred Shirones cast Amgu at once, the Black Death smoke swirled and was drawn in.
'You're thrashing pretty hard, Shirone.'
Fermi sneered and charged.
'You can't eliminate me. Not unless it's Ataraxia-level magic.'
At that moment, from Shirone's body that had annihilated the Force Dimension, a colossal manifestation of the Radiant Angel rose.
"W-what is that?"
The avatar, which until now had only existed in a time-like form, took on a physical manifestation for the first time, and everyone's eyes widened.
'Faster! Faster!'
The sequence pattern raced at a terrifying speed, the winged Radiant Angel spread its wings and ascended high into the sky.
"It finally integrates."
Miro's eyes shone.
It was the true avatar art—the moment Shirone's omniscient divine particles fused with the Radiant Angel's avatar.
The angel flew to the top of the coliseum, raised its spear toward the ground, and as time-ki converted into space-ki an enormous kinetic energy began concentrating on the spear.
'What now?'
Fermi stared up at the Radiant Angel, realized something, and teleported in an instant.
"This damn—!"
Avatar Technique—Angel's Punishment.
The spear plunged at a speed too fast for the eye to track, connecting the start and end coordinates with a line of light.
"Gyaaaak!"
At the same time, Fermi's body—moving by flash—was skewered on the spear of light like a fish impaled by a harpoon.
"He stabbed me while I was teleporting!"
A speed beyond common sense; the force generated stretched a tail of zeros across Elizabeth's retina as it streaked.
12,000,000 Crash.