Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Artificial Rift (3)

The monster's body, its entire head blown away, collapsed limply.

After drawing in a deep breath and slowly letting it out, I released the Holy Light Spear, which had stretched to nearly twenty meters in length.

THUD!

The Holy Light Spear hit the ground with a heavy boom.

I turned my head and looked at Viole, who was standing there with a dazed expression.

As I had said earlier, in the previous timeline, Viole had been no match for the Ozen Serpent.

When Viole had encountered the Ozen Serpent alone in the previous timeline, she had fought the monster by herself, only to end up poisoned by its venom.

Yulia and Lloyd had rushed over after grasping the situation and stood against the mid-rank monster, but by then Viole had already been severely poisoned.

That did not mean Yulia and Lloyd had managed to kill the mid-rank monster either.

Black Magic and Holy Magic were natural opposites.

Because of that, if they did not properly understand each other's techniques, their abilities could fizzle out or become distorted.

In the previous timeline, the two of them had overlooked that fact and fought the mid-rank monster relying only on their own abilities.

In the end, the two of them, whose teamwork had failed to align, had also suffered grievous injuries.

Most of all, I had not helped them in any way when they fought the mid-rank monster in the previous timeline.

What I had said back then had truly been something else.

'Why should I, a Black Mage, help a cleric?'

What a fool.

At this point, I was honestly starting to feel disgusted with myself.

Because I had spoken like that and then stood by doing nothing, things between Yulia and me had soured beyond repair from the very beginning.

On top of that, Yulia and Lloyd, whose teamwork had already been poor, ended up clashing emotionally as well.

By defeating the mid-rank monster myself, I had at least removed the risk of the three of them growing even farther apart.

I asked myself a question.

Then what about me now?

At the very least, I wanted to believe I had become a better person than I was back then.

"Not bad."

It was not as though this realization was anything new, but only now did it truly sink in.

That if I wanted to change the future, I had to change first.

***

"My goodness......"

Viole trailed off, covering her mouth with one hand.

To be honest, when Damon had told her the plan, she had only half believed him.

To forge a weapon out of Holy Power, enlarge it in an instant, and then pierce straight through the monster's head.

It was a method impossible unless one possessed a considerable amount of Holy Power within the body.

Holy Power was created by refining mana.

But until just moments ago, this boy had not even known how to bring forth Holy Power.

Then did that mean he was innately capable of rapidly refining mana into Holy Power?

Where in the world had someone like this come from......

"Thanks to you, I lived. If it weren't for you, I really would've......"

Viole had tried, in her own way, to thank Damon.

'...Huh?'

But the moment she looked at his right hand, all thoughts of gratitude came to a halt.

"Y-your right hand......"

At her words, Damon raised his right hand, and his eyes flew wide open.

Holy Power was still steadily pouring from the leather glove he was wearing.

The Holy Power leaking out stretched forth in rippling waves and was being absorbed into the Holy Light Spear.

RUMBLE......!

The Holy Light Spear, which had only been twenty meters long moments ago, had already stretched to thirty.

"Uh......"

"Mm......"

Judging by the way the spear kept growing, it did not seem as though it would stop on its own.

Left speechless for a moment, Damon and Viole exchanged glances at the same time.

"Why does that thing keep getting bigger?"

"You're the one who did it!"

***

Watching the Holy Light Spear continue to grow larger and larger, I clicked my tongue.

Now that, I had not expected.

Forging a weapon out of Holy Power and using it to get rid of a mid-rank monster had been fine enough.

At least, it would have been if the Holy Power generated by the Sacred Mark had not kept being absorbed into the Holy Light Spear.

Viole placed both hands on my shoulders as she faced me.

"Hold still."

The moment she gently closed her eyes, the amount of Holy Power leaking from the Sacred Mark began to decrease.

But that only lasted for a moment.

"Ugh!"

The instant she frowned, the amount of Holy Power pouring out returned to what it had been before.

"Why do you have this much Holy Power in your body?"

"You seemed pretty good at using blessings. Can't you do something about it?"

"This is hard even for me. I've never handled this much Holy Power before."

"It's that bad?"

Normally, whether it was "Mana Forging" or "Shadow Forging," once the mana supply was cut off or the construct left the hand, it would automatically come undone.

It seemed to be a problem caused by using Holy Power and the Sacred Mark rather than mana...... but since I had never properly learned Holy Magic myself, I had no suitable solution.

This was the price of forcing magic into existence through pure improvisation.

It was a fairly troublesome situation, but I had at least prepared a safety net of my own.

Lloyd and Yulia would be here soon enough.

"Viole! Are you okay?"

There they were.

I shifted my eyes toward the source of the presence.

Lloyd and Yulia came toward us, pushing through the brush.

"Ah, Yulia!"

Viole's face brightened the moment she saw Yulia.

"This is astonishing. To think you defeated a mid-rank monster on your own."

"You're Damon David, correct? I saw you fighting the monster on the way here. You truly worked hard."

The moment the two of them noticed the Holy Light Spear beside me swelling to a terrifying size, they were both struck speechless.

"How in the world did you make a spear that large?"

"How can a Holy Light Spear be this size......"

I felt relieved inside.

If Yulia was here, things were fine.

As an elite among elites who had even received the Sacred Mark from the Holy Order, she would at least know how to deal with Holy Magic if it ran wild.

"Viole, you can heal something like this, can't you?"

"I just tried, but it won't work....... He has too much Holy Power inside him. It's hard to control."

"Enough that even you can't handle it?"

Yulia's eyes widened, but she soon seemed to steel herself and nodded.

"All right. Then I'll solve it."

Holy Power rose along her hand and arm. 

Then she straightened one arm and pressed the fingers of her right hand together, forming a knifehand.

That hand shape was rather peculiar. 

Was it some secret art passed down through the Holy Order?

As someone trying to learn Holy Magic, I found myself a little curious what kind of treatment this was.

Viole stepped in front of Yulia just as she was about to approach me.

"H-hey... Sister? You're not seriously going to use that, are you?"

"You know there isn't a surer method than this."

"Hey, even so......"

Judging by how Viole was trying to stop her, the pain from the treatment must have been rather severe.

They were worrying over nothing.

I was a regressor who had personally lived through the end of the world. 

I was confident I could grit my teeth and endure most pain.

"You're the valedictorian of the Holy Magic Department's incoming class, right? Do something about this damned spear. I can't control it properly."

"Leaving it as it is would be even more dangerous."

"Sigh, I definitely warned you."

Faced with the stubborn attitudes of both Yulia and me, Viole shook her head and stepped aside.

"Please sit down and relax your body as much as possible."

When I sat on the ground as Yulia instructed, she came right up beside me, knelt on one knee, and drew her right arm back behind her.

"First of all, let me apologize in advance."

"Does the treatment hurt that much?"

"Uh... it probably won't hurt as much as you're imagining. It will just feel a little unpleasant?"

"......?"

By this point, even I had begun to realize something was off.

"You'll understand once you experience it yourself. It's also easier to succeed if you don't know what's coming."

"What in the world are you—"

A shrill sound of wind brushed past the nape of my neck for the briefest instant.

WHAM!

Before I had any chance to react, a powerful blow struck the back of my neck.

'...Ah.'

As my vision darkened, one fact came to mind.

When magic ran wild, one of the surest and most effective ways to resolve it— was to knock the caster unconscious.

Once consciousness was gone, the brain could no longer process the spell, and the raging magic would be dispelled.

Ha, some secret art that was.

'This is what you call treatment?'

The last sensation I felt was someone catching me as I fell, and then my consciousness sank into darkness.

***

When I opened my eyes, I saw a familiar ceiling.

I threw off the blanket covering me and sat up.

Soft beds placed at regular intervals, and the smell of disinfectant lingering at the tip of my nose.

This was the hospital installed within Saengterminum.

"Ugh......"

I rubbed the stiff back of my neck.

What had happened just earlier passed through my mind like a panorama.

So... I got hit once by that knifehand, passed out, and ended up admitted here?

No, really, even with exceptional physical abilities and all, how was a woman who called herself a holy knight so absurdly good at knocking people unconscious? 

Was she really a holy knight?

I understood there had been no other way, but that did not make it any less infuriating.

"There ought to be a limit to how crude someone can be."

"You're not exactly in a position to say that, are you?"

When I turned my head to the right, Levia was looking down at me with dead eyes.

It seemed she had been sitting there the whole time until I woke up.

I heard from Levia what had happened after I lost consciousness.

Within mere seconds of my blacking out, the rampaging Holy Light Spear had stopped growing.

Levia had also arrived not long after I passed out, and she said she had seen the Holy Light Spear dissipating in midair with her own eyes.

"I was worried because something had gone wrong in the Artificial Rift. I just didn't know you had gone in there with the freshmen."

Though for someone who claimed she had been worried, her expression looked awfully sour.

"No, shouldn't you be thanking me first at a time like this? I think things would have gotten dangerous if it weren't for me."

"To a fool who used the Sacred Mark without even properly learning Holy Magic? What would you have done if Yulia hadn't knocked you out?"

Well... I had only tried it because it seemed like it might work.

I had not expected it to run wild.

"The Sacred Mark wasn't exposed, so isn't that enough to keep it from becoming a major problem......?"

"What on earth is wrong with your personality....... Ha, no, forget it."

Thoroughly fed up, Levia waved one hand.

"Well... even a managed Artificial Rift is still a Rift. Sometimes, like now, a monster with a higher grade than the depth should allow suddenly pops out. I do find them and eliminate them right away, though."

"How are the other three who were there?"

"They came out safely, of course. I went there myself."

"That is a relief, at least."

After watching my expression, Levia continued.

"...You were more surprising than I expected."

"What do you mean?"

"When you were lying unconscious inside the Artificial Rift, I wondered whether I should just throw you out of Saengterminum."

"That feels far too harsh. I even got myself knocked out while killing a mid-rank monster."

"That is precisely why. I was certain you would have used Black Magic while fighting the monster. But when I asked the freshmen who were there, it seems you did not use Black Magic at all."

"Ah... so that was it?"

A small laugh escaped me before I realized it.

I understood what that dragon meant by saying that.

She really had distrusted me to a ridiculous degree all this time.

Because she was a dragon with a strong sense of pride, that was simply how she expressed herself. 

In her own way, she was telling me she saw me differently now.

That she had begun to look at me anew.

"You could have lost your life if things had gone wrong. I didn't think you would keep your promise with me that well."

I could say with certainty that I would not have died.

Still, when she was evaluating me that favorably, feigning humility would have been discourteous.

"So you've finally recognized my true worth."

"You just can't resist getting ahead of yourself the instant you have a chance."

Her tone was still sharp, but a faint smile hung at the corner of her lips.

After this incident, it was probably safe to say she had come to trust me to some degree.

That was definitely a good sign.

"Welcome to Saengterminum, Aron Bayonel."

"Of course."

It was nothing more than a simple greeting.

And yet, it felt as though the distance between the Headmaster and me, which had once seemed so far, had grown just a little smaller.