"Doesn't it seem that way? What kind of magic is this? It's not typical of the professor. If we continue like this, we'll all freeze to death."
Neid was also perplexed. At this moment, there are hundreds of students here. He didn't think they could withstand such low temperatures, around minus twenty degrees. However, the pressure on Lucas was exceptional, as cellular cooling would decrease the efficiency of mitochondrial construction.
"Damn it! This is driving me crazy!"
Especially where Lucas was, there was even a strong wind, making the perceived temperature even lower. Necrosis was progressing from the peripheral nerve.
This was why high-level ice mages started defaulting to fighting with Blizzard. Their killing power isn't great, but it's wide-ranging magic and causes fixed damage called cooling, so it was essential before the great swordsmen.
"These damn mages."
Lucas was fed up with mages attacking swordsmen with all sorts of strange magic. But it wasn't the time to give up. Above all, he wasn't in his normal state.
As the sharp ice lance flew through the blizzard, Lucas hastily dodged. However, due to his weakened mitochondrial constitution, he couldn't dodge completely, and the attack grazed his side.
"Ugh, damn it..."
Most organisms tend to become less active at low temperatures. Additionally, due to the wind blowing while he swung his sword, the tips of his fingers were already showing signs of frostbite.
"The temperature seems to have dropped. Does he really plan to kill us all?"
The user of the scheme was so exposed to the cold that he was already starting to freeze and thought the students should have already died from the cold. However, in reality, only Lucas was trapped in the reduced blizzard.
Unaware of this fact, Lucas confronted Siena, who appeared through the blizzard.
"Are you crazy? How long will you continue with this cursed storm?"
Lucas suddenly stopped. Siena's eyes were still empty, without emotions, thoughts, or even an identity.
"It can't be..."
Lucas's shoulders trembled. He remembered the magic in his body not with his mind but with his body itself.
Literally, it was brain flesh.
Just as doctors learn skills through endless repetitive training, Siena had reached a level where she could implement specific patterns of brainwaves, even in situations where she had lost her memory.
Repetition, repetition. No matter how much pressure she had accumulated in her mind throughout her life.
"How much has this woman trained?"
His hair stood on end. Beyond her skills, the path she had walked was etched in his mind.
"Damn it! This is not just a small mistake, it's..."
He had to retreat at this point. While he valued money, ultimately, it was nothing more than a piece of metal in the face of his life.
Lucas gathered all his remaining strength and fled. If he could get out of the blizzard, he wouldn't pursue her. However, his thought was an illusion, and ultimately, he had to pay the price for showing his back to a rank 6 mage.
When Siena raised a finger and pointed at Lucas, shortly after, he screamed as he was buried in the snow.
"Kuaaaaah!"
There was no pain. However, Lucas's anatomical scheme power had lost both his legs, as if they had been cut with scissors.
"This can't be..."
It was the magic known as 'Absolute Zero,' which he had only heard in rumors.
The freezing magic, which could be considered as the best source of energy through crystallization preservation, is magic that severely limits particle activity. Siena became a rank 6 mage at the early age of 20 by mastering the domain of Absolute Zero. However, even with such a significant achievement, she could only produce a localized effect because this magic required immense mental strength.
"Curse it! They said it was a pathetic academy... but students and teachers, they're all monsters!"
Siena cast her next spell with an impassive expression. It was the advanced spell, Glacier Bombing, derived from the crystalline preservation of freezing energy. Several massive ice blocks formed in the sky, and Lucas's face turned pale. His legs were frozen, and he had no way to avoid it. He could only trust in fate.
Neid and Eruki ran towards the students. Although it wasn't a wide-area spell, the size of the ice blocks was so large that they couldn't be sure. When several ice blocks formed in different places and were slowly pushed together with a heavy mass, an almond-shaped ice block began to fall towards the students.
Neid ran towards Arin, grabbing her shoulders and making her fall to the ground.
"Kyaaak! What are you doing?!"
"Get the students to safety! We'll all die otherwise!"
"No, there's no time!"
Eruki stepped in between the two, shouting.
"I'll do it!"
"What do you intend to do?"
Eruki didn't have time to respond. Would it be possible? The ice block weighed many tons. Even if he were to blow it up with an Atomic Bomb, the problem would be the fragments it would shatter into. If the ice block didn't shatter into at least a thousand pieces, a single person would die when it fell.
"I have to try..."
The amount of motion could be predicted mathematically. If he broke the ice block, broke it again, and broke it again, he could destroy it before it fell.
"Here I go!"
The Disjunction Spirit Zone pierced into the center of the ice block. After a complete energy release process in the utilization barrier, the Atomic Bomb exploded, causing the ice block to break into seven pieces.
Eruki activated the Double Spirit Zone and fired Atomic Bombs like crazy to detonate the ice block.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!
Ice flowers blossomed. When the ice block exploded, it split into fragments that then burst like flames.
Neid and Arin watched in astonishment as the chain explosions happened in the sky. Then, they realized that the ice fragments were falling like hail, but fortunately, no one was hurt.
Arin's gaze trembled with shock. Arcane had always underestimated the students of the magic academy. Weak students who took what was given to them without spirit or determination. But what she had seen in the students of the magic academy far exceeded her expectations.
"So, this is a magic academy, isn't it?"
Arin turned around. When she realized she was leaning on the chest of a stranger, she immediately pushed him away and shouted:
"What are you doing?!"
Neid's face turned red as Arin yelled at him.
"What, me? I was just helping you, anyway!"
"Why are you helping me? We're enemies!"
"Who cares? Undo the mind control spell now! Do you really plan to kill all these people? And you claim to be in your right mind?"
Arin bit her lip. She knew that after today, she would be the protagonist of a massacre that would go down in history, but she wasn't afraid. Anyway, if she hadn't found Kanis in Radum, her fate would have been a tragedy.
"It doesn't matter. If it's for Kanis, I'm willing to let the whole world die."
Neid saw indifference and disdain in Arin's eyes. He wondered what kind of life she must have lived to have such a look.
"As you wish."
Eruki carried Siena, who lay in the snow, and then looked at Lucas. Did even evildoers believe in a god? He was trapped in a space a few meters wide between two threatening ice blocks. But the wrongdoer had suffered so much that his jaw dropped, and only the whites of his eyes were visible. Without legs, escape was impossible. Ultimately, he would be an outcast returning to the Imperno prison in about seven days.
Kaboom!
Neid and Eruki turned when they heard a thunderous noise in the forest. A massive beam of energy shot up into the sky.
"Wow, what's that?"
"It's the Photon Cannon. Didn't you notice its light?"
Shirone emerged from the trembling forest.
Arin's face turned as red as if she had just emerged from the mud. It was clear that Kanis had the upper hand.
But her expectations were thwarted.
As Havist knocked down trees left and right with his long arms, Kanis limped out. He was in worse shape than Shirone, but by no means less determined.
Eruki couldn't help but murmur, "Phantom...?"
"No, that can't be. Shirone's Photon Cannon evolved during the battle, right? But still, he can't win."
Shirone got up and spoke.
"I can't win."
His friends were left bewildered. Maybe it was the first time they had heard those words from Shirone since they had known him.
"Hey Shirone, don't speak so weakly."
"He's incredibly strong."
Shirone admitted sincerely. Although they knew he was the apprentice of an archmage, they could feel his determination in every one of his spells. A will not to lose. A will to destroy humanity. A will to prove that he was the best.
Despite maximizing the power of the Photon Cannon, Kanis's shadow completely absorbed it. From then on, it was an endless battle. They wore down their bodies by exchanging the power of the Photon Cannon with dark magic.
Finally, Kanis managed to counterattack successfully and pushed Shirone out of the forest.
"He's so strong... Why would he want to hurt people?"
If someone chose to do evil for some reason, it's possible. All human beings make mistakes. However, it couldn't be accepted that evil was strong. Strength was not a mistake, but a product of effort.
"Why are you doing this? What did the students do to you?"
"Are you only talking because you feel powerless? It's the typical pattern of weak nobility."
Shirone didn't get angry because it wasn't true.
"Answer me. What you're doing now is terrible and will go down in history. You should at least listen to the reason."
"History? Who cares about that? Those discarded are just fighting to survive one more day. I have to kill someone, or they'll kill me."
"Stop rationalizing with falsehoods. No matter what kind of life you've had, there is no one in the world who hasn't suffered. We all have to embrace pain from time to time."
"Have you ever eaten scraps of food fallen on the ground?"
Shirone fell silent as the cold wind blew.
'Kanis...'
Arin's eyes filled with sadness. Those who had never lived in Radum knew nothing about that place.
It was a completely separate world from the outside world.
Kanis and Arin were abandoned there. They couldn't remember when they started living together or why they were the only survivors in that place.
However, since they regained consciousness, they had been there, surviving while other friends died or were sold as slaves.
Kanis was exceptionally intelligent from a young age. Despite being a weak child, he showed how strong he could become when his talent was combined with his determination.
The only thing Kanis wanted from that place was to protect Arin for that day.
In Radum, there were no women, or more precisely, there were no women left after childhood. In a place where food was extremely scarce, defenseless girls were destined to die at birth.
However, Arin survived in Radum until the age of ten.
The only woman in Radum.
Kanis was the one who protected that grim symbol.
He always roared like a madman. When he sensed someone lurking around Arin, he attacked without fear of death. They couldn't join any organization while she was with him. So they lived day by day scavenging through garbage.
What was truly ironic was that even in Radum, the garbage had an owner. They fought fiercely to get the leftovers that others had discarded.
After an endless struggle, Kanis could barely obtain half of a moldy bread.