Chapter 134
At the same time as Director Melina’s order was given, all kinds of magic flew toward Rio.
A dark blue cloud struck down lightning from above his head, and then a gigantic pillar of fire spun rapidly like a tornado, whipping toward him as if to swallow him whole.
Immediately after that, blade-shaped ice crystals flew at him ferociously, as though they were going to slice his body apart.
However, with just a single gesture of his hand, Rio easily blocked all of the magic.
“So this is the level of the Magic Academy. You dare present magic of this caliber as an attack? It wouldn’t even be good enough to scratch an itchy sole of my foot.”
Mocking Melina in a thoroughly sarcastic tone, Rio strode straight into the academy’s front gate.
Then, the faintly shimmering outlines behind him gradually became clearer.
It was the mage corps of the Kingdom of Tian that he had brought with him.
“…!”
“You didn’t really think I came here alone, did you? Ah, of course, even if I had been alone, bringing down this single academy wouldn’t have been any problem.”
The Tian mages, wrapped in pitch-black robes, looked eerie and desolate, like a jet-black secret society.
Their presence was so overwhelming that even the Imperial soldiers surrounding the academy walls flinched in alarm.
“A-are you the Tian reinforcements His Majesty the Emperor spoke of…?”
“That’s right. We will take care of the academy, so please withdraw for the moment.”
Rio gave a small nod toward the mages. At once, the Tian mages raised their staffs and cast destructive spells, demolishing the academy’s walls.
“It’s probably going to get dangerous from here on, so be careful.”
Seeing Rio calmly chatting on the eve of a decisive battle, Melina, burning with anger, raised her hand high.
A small flame that bloomed at her fingertips shot up into the sky and burst with a bang.
The scattered sparks of fire quickly gathered in one place and formed the shape of a gigantic bird.
The firebird gracefully circled once in the air and then flew toward Rio.
“This is why I said you’re predictable. Are fire, water, ice, and junk like that all the magic you know how to use?”
With a snort of laughter, Rio’s violet eyes flashed.
When he spread his right hand, a small purple sphere formed above his palm.
It was a sphere of magical power that devoured everything. Small stones and dust—甚至 the surrounding air—seemed to be sucked into the sphere.
When Rio thrust his hand forward, the sphere shot toward the firebird at high speed, growing larger as it went.
The purple sphere swallowed up the rubble of the collapsed wall and even the old trees deeply rooted in the academy garden, and then casually devoured the gigantic firebird as well.
After that, silence followed.
“D-don’t be afraid! We are the f-first mages of the Empire!”
Someone shouted from behind Melina in a trembling voice.
Starting with that voice, the mages on both sides began hurling powerful spells at each other.
Flashing flames, shards of ice, shockwaves that shook the ground, and magic that distorted time and space decorated the academy garden in dazzling fashion.
The monument boasting the academy’s long history was mercilessly shattered. The tower for observing constellations lost its roof, and the glass greenhouse for cultivating magical plants was smashed to pieces until its original form could no longer be recognized.
“You wicked people! How dare you destroy this academy, which shares its fate with the Astria Empire, in this way!”
Melina clenched her teeth, but the momentum had already tipped.
The academy’s mages were gradually pushed back. A few brave ones struggled desperately to hold their ground, but they could not close the gap in skill with the Tian mages.
When a spell fired by someone struck the academy’s main building squarely, the stone structure that had boasted hundreds of years of history collapsed with a crash.
It was the very building that housed Director Melina’s office.
“N-no…!”
Realizing the situation too late, Melina stopped attacking and rushed toward the direction of the director’s office, but it was already too late.
Black mist was billowing from the direction of her office.
The fragile black crystal orb must have shattered from the impact of the main building’s collapse.
“D-Director Melina! What is that black mist…?”
One of the academy mages asked her in a trembling voice.
Had there ever been something in the Magic Academy that emitted such ominous energy…? And in Director Melina’s office, of all places?
“Isn’t that… a trace of black magic?”
At the words “black magic,” the academy mages visibly began to waver.
They were people who took pride in being the Empire’s foremost mages. They never agreed with such heretical magic as black magic, nor did they ever touch it—they were upright people.
The Magic Academy led by Director Melina was supposed to be such a place. And yet…
“So you finally reveal your true colors.”
Rio grinned, showing his teeth.
Since it was no longer necessary for him to step in and expose her as a black mage, it meant that, as the master of the magic tower, he had one less thing to do.
“O-our director is a black mage?”
“That can’t be. We’ve spent so much time with Director Melina!”
“Then how do you explain that black mist? That is unmistakably the aura of black magic!”
The academy mages began arguing among themselves.
“I… came here because I was moved by the benevolent direction the Magic Academy pursued.”
“My parents lost their lives during the Black Mage War. After learning that I had talent as a mage, I entered this place with the resolve to eradicate evil black magic.”
“I wanted to heal people with magic and save their lives. But isn’t black magic a form of magic that uses people’s life force as its driving power…?”
It did not take long for those who had been loudly speaking one after another to fall silent.
The academy mages glared at Director Melina with cold eyes. The chilling aura they emitted seemed to freeze even the surrounding air.
“You… deceived us?”
Melina’s face was overtaken by dismay.
The mages slowly closed in on her. Some of them pointed their staffs at her while chanting spells.
As Melina stepped backward, she tripped over the rubble of the collapsed building and fell onto her back. Her face went pale as she hurriedly fumbled at her neck.
‘I-I never thought I’d be driven into a corner like this…!’
She always wore around her neck a teleportation magic stone that could be used only once.
Unlike ordinary teleportation magic stones, this one could even cross over to the continent beyond the sea. Its destination was, of course, Snaud.
It was a magic stone she carried so that she could immediately rush to Ellarion’s side in an emergency…
“Trying to run?”
At some point, Rio had come right up beside her, smiling sinisterly as he swiftly snatched the necklace from her neck.
In his hand, the dark crimson magic stone glinted.
“That won’t do.”
When Rio raised his other hand and slammed it down into the air, a gigantic hand of magical power appeared in midair and pressed Melina down mercilessly.
‘It’s definitely pushing me to my limits.’
I tightly clenched my trembling hands. My legs felt weak, and my head was spinning.
Clone magic, stealth magic, defensive magic, mirror magic…
Using all kinds of magic at once had temporarily drained my strength.
‘But if I hadn’t done this, I would never have been able to provoke Ellarion. He would have dragged things out somehow until the hourglass was filled.’
Ellarion was exactly as despicable as I had seen in Father’s diary.
I could understand why Father had suffered so much because of his younger sibling. With a blood relative like that, it would have been better to have none at all.
For now, the children’s safety was the most important thing, so I made a plan to get them away from his side.
First, I used mirror magic to project an image as if the children were standing beside me, then used stealth magic to conceal the real bodies of the children who were actually beside him.
As expected, Ellarion panicked and showed an opening, and I took that moment to cast defensive magic on the children and safely evacuate them.
Lastly, after using clone magic to confuse Ellarion, the finale of the plan was for Nox, under stealth magic, to secretly approach Ellarion and steal the hourglass.
‘If I hadn’t regained my power at Father’s grave, I would never have been able to use magic like this.’
Just how many spells had I layered together?!
Even before the decisive battle with Director Jang, my power had already been extremely strong—enough to subdue the rampaging sea dragon Gari in a single blow.
But now that I could use magical power in addition to dragon power, I was more than capable of taking on Ellarion, who had exhausted much of his strength using creation magic.
There was just one problem left
