"I'm going too."
When nearly all of Class A had charged into Class B's lines, temporarily pushing them back—only for Sara's standout performance to swing the momentum back once more—
Katya, the sole person who had remained behind alongside Clyde as part of their side's defensive detail, made that call after assessing the state of the battle.
And she wasn't wrong. Class B's formation was superb—their coordination was far tighter than Class A's.
If someone didn't step in to support them, the flow of battle would inevitably tip past the point of no return.
It was less a suggestion born from that reasoning and more of a half-declaration—but—
"No—no way!"
Believe it or not, Clyde shot that down.
"If you leave, who's supposed to protect the crystal?! They're definitely going to try to drag you out and pick off the weak spots—that's why—"
"Even so, if we just stand here and watch, the front line will collapse for certain. Once Class B finishes off our attack force and turns this way, we lose either way. So the only choice is to head out and provide support, knowing the risk."
"T-That can't be! This is Class A we're talking about! They might be at a disadvantage now, but they'll rally eventually—believing in that and waiting here is your job right now..."
"...Are you kidding me?"
It was a parade of stubborn assumptions and wishful thinking—a judgment so lacking in objectivity it was hard to believe coming from a commander.
On top of that, there was a strange urgency in Clyde, as though he absolutely refused to let Katya onto the front lines—
(...Ah, so that's what this is about.)
Katya figured it out in an instant.
To put it bluntly, Clyde—
—didn't want Katya—
—on the front lines—
perform well—
didn't want—
that's all there is to it.
After all, if Katya—the undisputed strongest piece among the A-class—were to shine on the battlefield, Clyde, whose position was already on shaky ground, would be pushed into an even more dire situation.
And if that battlefield was the front lines, with only him standing alone before the crystal on his side's territory—it would look, visually, like he'd been completely left behind. The noble spectators watching from above would walk away with the strong impression that he "couldn't do anything."
He feared precisely that—meaning he was trying to shut her down not over the outcome of the battle, but to protect his own standing.
(Absurd.)
If that was his reasoning, there was even less reason to listen. Having made that judgment, Katya looked away from Clyde.
"Not even worth hearing. Stopping me won't do any good."
"Wh— Are you saying you won't follow the commander's orders?!"
"If I followed them, we'd definitely lose. I don't have time to stand around arguing with you. That's that."
With that, Katya took off—yet Clyde, still clinging desperately, called after her.
"W-Wait! —Then I'll head to the front lines too!"
"Huh?"
He stopped her in her tracks and launched into a baffling declaration.
"That's right! If the commander himself goes to the front lines and issues orders without regard for danger, that's exactly the kind of thing that lifts everyone's morale! So—"
"Pointless. And you'd just be in the way."
Those words were likely born from a single desperate desire to at least make some impression of his own valor. But even that, Katya mercilessly cut down.
"Just look at that battlefield and you'll understand—someone who can only give orders is meaningless now. ...Accept it already. The moment you took the bait from El's provocation and launched that charge, you were already dead. You became someone who can do nothing on this battlefield."
"Wh—"
"Shall I be more direct with you? — Right now, you're nothing but a useless burden."
The cold, brutal truth delivered without mercy. As Clyde stood there speechless, Katya drove her conclusion home.
"If you understand, then just stand there quietly and let me know if any students come after the crystal... though I doubt that'll happen, nine times out of ten. That's the best thing you can do right now."
Once she confirmed that he had finally stopped moving, Katya turned her back on Clyde for good.
Completely tuning out the look of despair on his face, she broke into a run toward the battlefield.
"...You certainly look like you're having fun."
And now.
<<
Netherworld of Salvation
>> Activating the spell, she deployed phantom soldiers to turn the tide of battle, and now murmured as she surveyed the battlefield from above.
What she had told Clyde earlier wasn't a lie. Going out there herself really was the best move in that situation.
...But if she were to add just a little more—truly just a little—if she were to voice something that might be called personal sentiment—
"Everyone in Class B, your movements are completely different from two weeks ago. ...You must have practiced every single day, and El must have trained you with everything he had. Even when he came home, El was always so busy and exhausted that he barely had time to talk with me. He must have given you his all, prioritizing you even over his time with me... Yes, truly. I'm jealous."
She wasn't angry. Since she understood this was only natural, she felt no anger.
While she had been caught up in pointless power struggles and storms of lies in Class A, Class B must have been bustling with energy, with Ermes at its center. It probably hadn't been smooth sailing either, but still—they must have spent far more intense and meaningful time together than Class A ever had. ...Casting her, his master, aside.
Ah, how truly enviable.
Ermes had once told her that, for her magic, it worked best when she channeled her emotions honestly and used them in her casting.
If that was the case, then now—having said she would give it her all—
She wasn't angry, but—channeling this feeling straight into her magic against Class B would be the right choice. No, this absolutely wasn't some kind of venting.
Alright, let's do this. Having made that decision, she raised her magic power even further.
"──Lady Katia!"
Perhaps having sensed how dangerous she was on this battlefield, one of the Class B students abandoned their own opponent and fired off magic directly at Katia.
A reasonable read of the battle situation and which enemy to prioritize. But──
"Too naive."
──That was only a viable tactic if you had the power to back it up.
She caught the incoming attack effortlessly with her phantom soldiers. The Class B student's eyes went wide, and she smiled faintly at them.
"You've gotten quite strong, you know. Two weeks training under Eru, going through Eru's training regimen — did that give you a confidence boost? ……But here's the thing,"
She instantly rallied the surrounding soldiers. A converging barrage of spirit bullets from multiple soldiers at once — packing power on par with standard Bloodline Magic — fully charged in the blink of an eye.
"Sorry, but──we've been doing the same training,
since two months ago,
and we've had a LOT more of it!"
With a retort thoroughly laced with personal feelings, she unleashed the attack without a shred of mercy.
──Just as expected.
Having awakened to the true power of magic and become the most powerful Bloodline Magic user of her generation, she was on an entirely different level — even compared to the other Class A students.
No matter how much they had trained, the current Class B students were simply no match for her whatsoever.
Which meant that if anyone could hope to stand against her──
"……There's only you, isn't there."
She looked at the silver-haired boy who had stepped in front of the struck Class B student and deflected her attack using a variation of the Wall of Light.
"Now then — how exactly do you plan to stop me, Eru?"
As though she had found the one she had been waiting for.
With a smile that was utterly lovely yet carried a faint hint of something dark rising behind it, Katia made her declaration.
◆
"…Please focus on your own opponent. Leave Katia's handling to me."
"R-right, got it!"
After calling out to the student who had been aiming for Katia, Ermes turned back toward her and spoke once more in his mind.
(…Now, then — the moment of truth.)
She was, without a doubt, the greatest wall in this contest.
He had told her the other day that their odds were fifty-fifty. The breakdown of that losing half of the "fifty" came down to two things: first, whether he could drag things into a chaotic melee from the start.
And the rest — every last bit of it — hinged on whether he could handle Katia.
That meant the bulk of their outcome rested on how he played things here. With that resolve steeling him, he fixed his gaze on her.
"I figured you'd be the one to come."
Katia spoke in an unhurried tone… accompanied by a smile that sent a faint chill down one's spine.
But she quickly composed her expression back to that of a composed mage and continued:
"Still, are you sure one person is enough? …I know it's rich, me saying this, but — even you, could you really stop me in your *current state*?"
"!"
At the same time, the number of phantom soldiers surrounding them increased yet further. Looking again, this single spell that could rival an entire army was, as expected, of an overwhelming scale beyond the norm.
…And what she said was absolutely right.
Ermes had claimed that even in his current state — that is, unable to use his Bloodline Magic reproduction — he could manage against a Class A opponent in a one-on-one fight… but that was, naturally, with her excepted.
Her abilities as a mage were currently overwhelming. No matter how skilled he was, he couldn't win against her with his Bloodline Magic sealed — to say nothing of the fact that she had enough leeway to deal with him while keeping tabs on everything else happening around her.
In truth, she was fully prepared to do exactly that. If that happened, the Class B students who were currently clinging to the Class A students would be forced to contend with her phantom soldiers as well, and this time it would be their own battle line that collapsed. That was an unavoidable future.
——That's right.
As a mage.
At least when he was up against her.
She didn't know.
What he had learned in Class B. The most shocking encounter he'd ever had after joining Class B, and what had come of it.
"Are you sure about this? I'm sorry, but against you in your current state, I could handle you with one hand tied behind my—"
"If I may."
Interrupting Katia's words with what was, admittedly, an impudent tone, Ermes spoke — and then.
First, he relaxed every muscle in his body. He swayed, letting his body tilt toward the ground, and just before he would have toppled over, he concentrated all his magic power into his feet in a single burst, converting it into propulsion and kicking off the ground with everything he had—
——Vanished.
That was probably what she saw, wasn't it. The same thing he himself had experienced on his second day after the transfer.
Still, she must have read that the charge was coming from the front, because she summoned her phantom soldiers and concentrated her defenses— but that was exactly what he'd expected.
Just before crashing into the wall of phantom soldiers, he slammed to a halt. Using the rebound, he leaped sideways, instantly righted his position, and before she could even react, he circled around behind her and struck at the nape of her neck with a knife-hand blow, aiming to take her consciousness—
"—!?"
A hair's breadth away. She twisted her neck at the very last instant, and at the same time, a phantom soldier's arm shot in to deflect the strike.
……Close. He would have preferred to end it right there on the opening move, but that was perhaps too much to ask.
Still, this should have made one thing clear to her. ……That under no circumstances was he an opponent she could afford to let her guard down around.
Yes. As a mage, she was overwhelmingly superior in her current state — with his power restricted, he stood no chance.
But——
As a mage, she
The weak point is
close combat.
This was true for Ermes, and she was no exception.
And he had encountered a girl in Class B who specialized in exploiting that very weakness. Struck by her, he begged for her teachings to learn those techniques, and the two of them sparred nearly every day.
Even alongside his Class B training, even pushing through his exhausted body to keep those sparring sessions going — it was all for this. To hone his trump card against Katia, the greatest obstacle in the competition.
Of course, Katia's Bloodline Magic was beyond the ordinary. Even if he challenged her to close combat like this, he'd be deflected by her phantom soldiers, and the chances of landing a decisive blow were slim.
But even someone like her, at this distance, facing an opponent whose fighting style was her natural nemesis — she shouldn't have the composure to spare attention for anything else.
"...Forgive my impertinence, but allow me to say something."
With that aim in mind, he deliberately spoke with bold confidence.
"Please don't go saying something so forlorn as fighting me halfheartedly —
focus on me alone.
Put your full attention on me.
Please.
Otherwise, even against the current me, you might find your footing swept right out from under you."
This was the strategy against Katia.
Pit Ermes or Niina — both relatively strong in close combat — against her to hold her in place and prevent her from turning her attention elsewhere.
The question was which one to deploy, but since Niina, with her high mobility, was better suited to supporting classmates, and Ermes could counter with magic even if she managed to create distance in a worst-case scenario, this was the pair they settled on.
His line, delivered with that intent behind it. Katia's expression went blank for an instant — but she quickly recovered her smile.
"...Oho. So that's what you're going with."
Huh, he thought.
Something was off — her reaction wasn't what he'd expected. As Ermes thought this, she opened her lips to speak.
"...You know, I've been putting up with it for so long? Because it was something you chose, because it was something you wanted to try your best at. Even when you were worn out from B-Class's special training and couldn't pay attention to me, even when there was absolutely no time for lunch, even when I kept thinking you were probably getting closer and closer to Sara and Nina — right?"
She lined up her words with that faintly chilling smile from earlier.
"I was patient all the way until the competition was supposed to be over, and yet you go and say something like that in front of me. 'Focus on just yourself,' of all things... Fufu, fine. I'll take you up on that provocation. Because if that's the case—"
At the same time, before he even realized it, Ghost Soldiers had surrounded him on all sides. As if to say, "You're not getting away."
Even so, she deepened her smile to something so beautiful it could captivate an angel, and declared:
"—Then starting right now, in this moment—
you have my permission
to keep me
all to yourself.
...Is that what you're telling me?"
...What was going on?
He'd only said those earlier words to get her attention — but it seemed like instead of merely catching her interest, he'd accidentally triggered a switch inside her that should never, ever be pressed. Honestly, he was a little scared.
(No — calm down.)
For now, he steadied his rattled composure and thought things through.
...Everything had gone differently from what he'd predicted, but the objective was still being achieved. In short, all he had to do was keep her so fixated on him that she couldn't spare a thought for anything else. That would eliminate the numerical disadvantage from the Ghost Soldier reinforcements, and give his classmates enough breathing room to rally.
Judging by how things had been before Katia joined the battle, if that happened, Nina's support alone should be more than enough. He needed to focus on her... or rather, some ominous intuition told him that if he didn't, things would go very badly.
"...Alright."
Then what he needed to do from here on was simple.
He just had to keep fighting — and hold out until his classmates defeated the A-Class students.
Katia —
with desperate, all-or-nothing effort —
I will stop
her.
.
Stalling for time and waiting for reinforcements once the others are taken down. Honestly, since there's not much chance of winning even in close combat, sticking to that strategy is the best option.
...What supreme irony. The very person who had said "Only think about your own victory" would end up choosing the option that made him the greatest sacrifice for the team.
But even so — strangely, he didn't feel bad about it.
"Well then, let's have a proper match."
"Yes, I'm looking forward to it."
After sending a wordless cheer to his classmates — "Leave the rest to you" —
and exchanging a few brief words, Ermes stepped forward to face the greatest threat this confrontation had to offer.
Necromancers do have quite the yandere streak. Stay tuned for the next chapter!