Chapter 88

Chapter 88

“Is it time for you to appear now?”

Serene smiled softly. Lorain lightly ignored her and turned to Simon.

“You alright, Simon?”

Simon quickly came to his senses and answered,

“Ah, yes. The protective suit—”

“Not your body. How’s your mind?”

Lorain knew of Serene’s unique ability.

“It’s okay. The feathers barely grazed me.”

Lorain nodded and stared straight ahead with a cold expression. There stood Serene, leaning slightly to the side with her hands on her hips.

“What is the meaning of all this, Serene?”

“Oh, I’m just taking the assessment, you see.”

Lorain’s expression became heavy as Serene calmly shrugged her shoulders.

“If you’re just taking the assessment, why did you block off the observer’s eyes with a barrier?”

“Oh my, this is going too far.”

Serene raised her head.

“Are you interrogating me right now? With what right? We’re both students here. You must be feeling like you’re student president or something already.”

“Stop changing the topic and answer the question.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

Lorain lowered her stance. 

“Just as you said you were doing, I’ll have to take the assessment, too.”

“Interesting.”

“Stand back, Simon.”

Simon obediently retreated, feeling as though dozens of lives wouldn’t be enough to survive getting involved in the fight between those two.

Lorain spread her palms, and jet-black flew out before collating into four magic circles hovering in the air.

Soon, dark arrows were fired from the magic circles. However, upon seeing that, Serene just giggled.

“Jet-black arrows? How cute~ C’mon, let’s not play between u—”

Serene’s eyes suddenly narrowed and turned to look behind her.

In a flash, Lorain had appeared behind Serene, a fist being flung as hard as possible.

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang!

A simple punch created a huge shock wave that spread out in all directions.

A crater over several-dozen-meters wide formed around the point of impact.

“How scary.”

Serene flew into the air and smiled.

As she smiled, her surroundings suddenly went dark, a shadow forming above her. And form above her it did, a giant rock thrown by Lorain hurtling toward Serene.

“Hmph.”

With a simple gesture from Serene, the feathers around her moved.

Clink! Clink!

The rock broke apart into fragments and fell as the feathers drew countless gashes into its front.

Serene clasped her hands behind her back and dodged the remains, flying freely through the fragments.

“Come down here.”

Said Lorain while warming up her fists.

“I thought we were taking the assessment, you bastard.”

“Our dear noble-blood seems quite foul-mouthed.”

Said Lorain while looking back at Simon.

“I think I have to get my hands on her. Simon, go run far away for now.”

He was already planning on it. As Simon turned his back and went further away, Serene gave a sad smile.

“Why are you sending him away like that? You have to let him see your ‘awesomeness’ from the side.”

“That sarcastic way of speaking…”

Jet-black began to pour from Lorain’s body ferociously.

“It’s annoying.”

“Hmm.”

Serene folded her arms.

“Maybe you don’t want to show your ugly side to someone you like……”

Lorain’s red eyes burned from within. A long line was drawn in the air before opening up like a jagged beast’s mouth.

The space inside was one of darkness, and countless red eyes gleamed from within.

The eyes looked identical to Lorain’s, as if there were dozens of her eyes.

“I’m appalled.”

Said Serene.

“A power that unlocks the realm of the Devil. I wonder how topsy-turvy the world would get if they figured out what you people, the mother and daughter, are planning to—”

Serene stopped talking and quickly flew up into the air. Countless red rays were fired from the mouth-shaped space.

In an attempt to double, no, triple her rate of assent, Serene attached feathers to her body, each of them aiding her flight.

“Uwaaaa.”

Her body rotated, twisted, rose up to the air at high speed, and then went back down.

Red rays of light were painted the sky in a destructive red.

[Neigh!]

Lorain took out a skeleton horse from her subspace. As she infused it with jet-black, black-red mana covered it, and it changed form.

Tap!

The skeleton horse immediately kicked off the ground as Lorain rode it into the sky. Soon, the two met in the air.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to fight like this now.”

The feathers began to dance in the air as Serene stretched out her arms.

“We’re destined to fight one day anyway, right? Since we’ll be the rulers of Kizen and the Ivory Tower.”

“If that happens, hundreds of millions of innocent lives will be wasted.”

Lorain roughly pulled the reins formed with jet-black.

“Therefore, it might be better to settle it up while we’re still at the student level.”

“Good grief. You and your mother are both disgusting hypocrites after all.”

Serene raised and crossed her arms.

The pure-white feathers and crimson-red rays collided in the air.

It was a natural disaster for the ordinary students taking the test on the central island.

Everyone was frantically running from the remnants of the attack falling from the sky.

Simon was no exception. When he looked up at the sky, he let out a feigned laugh.

‘……What in the world is that fight?’

They were extraordinary monsters.

They had already surpassed the level of the assessment and test.

[Kuhehehe! There’s no need to gawk at only that much!]

Pier’s clone opened its mouth and laughed.

[The Ruler of Kizen? The Lord of the Ivory Tower? Hollow titles, the both of them! You’re the Commander of the Legion! It won’t take long for you to reach that sky!]

“Looks pretty distant for now.”

Replied Simon, grinning. In any case, after quickly escaping from the battlefield, Simon got lost in thought.

‘Let’s focus on my work again. With this much sound and vibration…’

Simon reached the cliff of the canyon.

The location gave an unobstructed view of the island. Simon began to emit jet-black in all directions.

‘If Big Krum reacted to this and made his way nearby……’

Crrrrruumble!

A smile crept its way up Simon’s lips.

‘I knew it!’

* * *

Translator – Ramen

Proofreader – Artethrax

* * *

Babababam!

Simon twisted out of the way as the ground rose up and a monster’s arm wrapped in bandages popped out.

[Gwooooooooooooooooooh!]

Then, the whole body of the monster was revealed.

Every millimetre of skin was covered in bandages, but his eye sockets were clearly visible.

‘He’s smaller than when I first saw him.’

Simon heard that Big Krum got bigger the angrier he was. When fighting with Meilyn, he was big enough to put his face on the canyon with both legs on the ground, but now, he was barely hanging on the canyon.

Thud!

Big Krum was climbing up over the edge of the cliff, swinging a leg over the top.

[Gwoooooooh!]

He had to move first before he got attacked. Amassing all his might, Simon threw the object in his hand toward Big Krum’s head.

[Big Krum!!!]

~Krum! ~Krum!

The object that Simon threw was Pier’s clone. Big Krum also paused and looked at the clone.

[It’s me, the Marshall of the Legion, Pier!]

[Pi……er?]

He could communicate!

Simon quickly turned his gaze upward. An observer was seen in the sky in the distance.

‘We should be fine for the next minute or two! The nearest observer isn’t that close.’

[I’m heading out!]

As Simon opened the subspace, Pier immediately jumped out.

While hiding himself amongst the trees, avoiding the oberserver’s eye, Pier said,

[What are you doing here, Big Krum?!! The Legion has revived! Hurry up and join the Legion!]

[Le……gion?]

Big Krum tilted his huge head.

[Le……gion?]

Big Krum’s head started to grow bigger.

[Le……gion! Le……gion! Le……gion!]

Soon, it was not just his head, but his whole body had begun inflating like a balloon.

[Dammit!]

As Big Krum grew bigger and bigger, Pier’s clone fell from Big Krum. Simon quickly retrieved it and ran.

[Legion! Hurts! Legion! Hurts! Legion! Hurts!]

“What’s wrong with him, Pier?!”

[Now I’m certain! He’s not Big Krum!]

Said Pier in a serious voice.

[That’s an elaborately crafted fake! It’s a clone of Big Krum!]

As Big Krum began to grow endlessly, the observers flying in the sky came closer to see the situation. 

“Pier! Please get back inside for now!”

[It hurrrrrrrrrrrrtsssssss!!]

Big Krum, who grew bigger and bigger, lowered his head and looked at Simon. 

A shiver went down Simon’s spine.

[It’s Legion! Legion hurts! I hate pain!]

Woooooooooooosh!

The giant hit the ground with a large fist. The entire edge of the cliff fell with a thunderous bang!

Simon rushed into the woods, blocking off Big Krum line of sight.

“But why is the clone attacking me?!”

[How the hell would I know that?!]

Big Krum looked around in an attempt to find Simon.

[Gwoooooooooooooooooooooh!]

However, as Simon was nowhere to be seen, Big Krum began to smash at the ground blindly with his huge fists.

“Kyaaaaaaaah!”

“Wh-What is that?”

Students could be heard screaming and shouting. Big Krum looked in the direction of the noise, lifted his huge leg up, and kicked.

Bang!

The entire area had collapsed, and you could see two students flying off.

Fortunately, their teammates pulled them back with jet-black threads and got them out of there.

[Gwooooooooooooooh!]

Big Krum was getting bigger and bigger.

[He went berserk!] 

Shouted Pier’s clone.

[If you leave him like this, he’ll just keep getting bigger!]

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

Big Krum started in the opposite direction, away from the canyon.

He was already out of control. And the whole island was still under the assessment.

At this rate, someone could die.

‘Dammit!’

Simon turned his back and ran. He had to take action right away.

Waiting for the professors to stop the assessment would take to long. He felt it before, during the cyclops assessment, but Kizen didn’t want to get involved in the students’ matters unless they really had to.

[Where are you going, Boy?! You’re going in the opposite direction to him, you know?]

“I gotta persuade someone who can stop that!”

The place that Simon immediately ran to was the battlefield. The place where Lorain and Serene were fighting. The place no one would dare to step foot in.

Distracted by their intense battle, the two of them hadn’t noticed what was happening around them.

“Lorain!!”

Shouted Simon.

“There’s a problem!!”

He didn’t know if she could hear him while in the sky, but Lorain immediately stopped fighting and rode her skeleton horse down next to Simon.

“Simon! What’s wrong?”

“A super-large monster went berserk and is heading towards the students right now! We need to stop him!”

Lorain’s expression stiffened up.

“Which way?”

“Toward the southern island. I’ll guide you.”

“Ridiculous.”

Serene, arms crossed, came down from the sky.

“Who said I’d let her go?”

She held a feather in her hand.

“Whether it’s berserk or whatever, that’s the organizers’ problem. I won’t let our fight to come to nothi—”

“Ah, right. Serene, you were here too.”

Simon smiled as if he was glad to see her.

“I’m sorry, but could you help us?”

“What?!”

——