Magic Academy Bans Harem

Chapter 283 Insects and Ants
In the battlefield.

"Ashes" Morlock Gabriel roared and scattered ash once more.

After blood patterns appeared on his face, his speech became increasingly unclear, and his actions became more and more monotonous.

However, Adeline, his rival, had no interest in such matters.

Adeline could hardly remember when the last time she had held a sword and faced a real opponent was.

Even though she would occasionally train secretly to prevent her skills from declining significantly due to laziness, she still felt noticeably rusty on the battlefield.

Fortunately, the opponent was not strong.

This was Adeline's most immediate thought regarding the "Darkborn" No. 0018, who possessed strange powers of unknown origin.

Adeline was once again surrounded by a large amount of ash.

Adeline, who was clearly much more relaxed this time than before, made everyone present "see clearly" what she had done before.

Those were strikes so swift that they were impossible for the naked eye to detect.

Perhaps "a thousand strikes in an instant" is an exaggeration, but dozens of thrusts in a single moment are more than enough.

For the past few months, Melsie had been practicing her swordsmanship, staring blankly at the sharp light that filled the sky.

For a moment, she felt that time had sped up.

Because, between each successive series of movements, Adeline's pauses were actually only a fleeting moment. However, to Melsie, those moments, less than a blink of an eye, felt so distinct, so "long." It was as if the entire world had frozen for a moment the instant Adeline prepared for her next attack.

The strange, thin sword, with its almost invisible blade, still emitted a single, undiminished flash of light.

The large-scale explosion that usually followed the flying ash and debris never occurred this time.

Before Adeline thrust her sword, the battlefield was silent. After she thrust, only a deeper silence filled the battlefield.

Countless ashes, drifting like snowflakes, were all precisely struck down by Adeline.

"Ah ah ah ah ah"

Morlock let out a low growl filled with fear.

He sprinkled ash more and more frequently, and in greater quantities.

But those present were able to catch fewer and fewer of Adeline's movements.

Adeline walked towards Morlock with a very rhythmic, slow motion, one hand behind her back. Everything Morlock threw at Adeline simply vanished into thin air around her with a series of whooshing sounds.

In just a few dozen seconds, Adeline literally "walked" to Morlock's front.

Seeing the rapier looming towards him, Moloch, who already knew his tricks would be useless but was helpless, simply lunged at Adeline, who was right in front of him.

Perhaps he thought Adeline's previous sword strikes were merely "soft" piercings of air, and therefore lacked power. Or perhaps he had some technique he could unleash upon close combat.

But the reality is that Adeline's sword strikes are anything but soft, and he can't even get close to her.

From an ordinary person's perspective, all one could see was Morlock lunging towards Adeline, as if he had crashed into an invisible wall. He was so close to Adeline, as if he could reach out and touch her, yet there was an insurmountable chasm between them.

Finally, Moloch, like a drowning man, wildly swung his arms forward, grabbing at something. His arms, having already endured countless fierce attacks, were sent flying dramatically backward.

After landing, Molok, whose body was riddled with holes like a beehive, was covered in blood and could no longer stand up.

On the battlefield, Adeline, who had completely defeated her opponent, still stood with her hands behind her back. Her posture was less like that of a swordswoman and more like that of a swordsmanship instructor.

The reason her posture looked a bit strange was because her teacher usually did it that way.

Before Roland Elson acquired the title of "Sword Saint," the universally recognized Sword Saint on the continent served in the royal palace of the Holy Kingdom of Libera. However, this former Sword Saint had a title that was more widely recognized than the "Sword Saint" title.

"The royal army".

The former swordsman, who is still alive today, no longer serves as the king's swordsmanship instructor. Instead, he enjoys teaching his other disciples in the palace.

Although the previous Sword Saint was actually quite dissatisfied with the disciple he had taken in—a disciple who was rigid-minded, completely inflexible, and seemed to have given part of his brain to his body at birth—he had to admit that the disciple was one of the few "achievements" he had made that could be seen in the world.

As Adeline flicked her sword, the strange sight of a bloodstain floating in mid-air vanished, and her rapier returned to its semi-invisible state.

Unlike the students, including Melsie, who were completely dumbfounded, the princess's guards, who had been in a rather disheveled state during the previous battle, were not surprised by this scene.

The Third Princess's guard appears to be very weak, but this is not the case. The reason for this is that the strongest members of the guard are usually confined to wheelchairs.

Besides the shocked students and the guards who were used to it, there was a girl nearby whose thoughts were different from everyone else's.

That's Ginny.

Having once gone to Adeline and Ann's yard to paint as a "painter" and been captured by Ritas, she now personally experienced just how much trouble a person could cause and how many people they should never mess with.

"Even though we don't know who his sister is, let's lock them up together."

After sheathing her sword, Adeline gave the order and prepared to leave.

At that very moment, Melcy, Tabata, and Noah all simultaneously showed a slight daze.

"It's not over yet?"

Melcy, seemingly conversing with someone she couldn't see, murmured something to herself, then her face immediately showed a tense expression.
"Watch out! Ms. Adeline, this isn't over yet!"

"?"

Although somewhat confused, Adeline reacted quickly enough to dart forward a distance without seeing any leg movements before looking back.

Then she saw a pool of blood that had splattered where she had been standing.

"What a pity."

A voice rang out from the pool of blood.

In the distance, Moloch, whose body resembled a beehive, was still gushing blood, and the amount he was spitting out had reached an abnormal level.

The blood in his body gathered together, constantly replenishing him until he could make a sound, and even sneaked into Adeline's pool of blood, gradually coalescing into a figure that seemed to slowly rise from the surface of a lake.

"It would be beautiful to have my 'color' applied to the disciple of the old Sword Saint."

The crimson figure spoke in the voice of a young woman, her face filled with sorrow.

Even though this woman, with her truly unusual skin color, possessed an exceptionally refined appearance, the first word that came to mind for everyone who saw her was "evil."

"It's such a pity. The team led by the 'Fireworks Craftsman' could only penetrate to such a depth. Perhaps, as that person said, focusing too much on the 'Tree Witch' and 'Pioneer' in the open is what caused them to be unexpectedly tripped up by the greatest hidden threat."

"who are you!"

Facing the "monster" who seemed completely unconcerned about her sneak attack and who, upon revealing herself, began to speak in a pretentious, mournful voice, Adeline demanded an explanation.

"I...I'm just an insignificant person." In the next instant, having already confirmed that the other party was a threat, Adeline decisively drew her rapier again and stabbed at the blood-red woman.

"Ahhh—it's so fierce, so powerful. My body simply can't withstand this force right now."

Under Adeline's stabbing, the strange woman's blood-filled body was rapidly dissipating.

Even though the actual scene was like this, and the woman's words were also like this, her tone of voice made onlookers feel no sense of urgency.

"Under any other circumstances, I might have simply given up, but today is different. There will surely be a kind adult who will erase all traces of my actions. So—"

Suddenly, the blood-red woman stretched out her arm, which was already separated from her shoulder.

Then, centered on her, the "sea of ​​blood" gushed out violently.

The crimson wave that spread outwards did not engulf everyone present, but instead "pushed" the vast majority of them far away.

"So, let me show you a little about my 'courtyard'."

In an instant, the crimson color swept across the stronghold of the princess's camp.

The princess's guards, including Adeline, were scattered and broken up as they were pushed back.

When they finally managed to regain their footing, what they saw was a blood-red sphere, about the size of a three-story building, floating slightly on the ground where they had been on the battlefield.

"What the hell is this."

Although pulled by an irresistible force and forced to move a long distance, Adeline, whose body was not seriously injured, immediately picked up a sword that had fallen not far from her and stabbed it at the blood-red sphere in front of her.

It was a very strange sensation.

The crimson sphere was neither hard nor soft; when you struck it, you felt a solid impact but no force returned, and you couldn't cause it any damage.

The crimson sphere, seemingly unwilling to stoop to the level of those who attacked it, appeared to be situated in an "untouchable" location.

"!"

After attacking the crimson sphere for a while without success, Adeline looked around and her expression turned grim.

Because, while all of the princess's guards, including her, were "excluded" by the crimson sphere, the three students, Melsie, Tabata, and Noah, were nowhere to be seen.

"I suppose I won't be able to achieve my goal this time. But perhaps those things were never meant for me. So, I'm genuinely relieved to have seen you, the Primal Stones, burdened with 'sinful blood'—"

Inside the crimson sphere, Melcy, Tabata, Noah, and Ginny (who was inadvertently overlooked) stared tremblingly at the strange woman who had swelled several times her original size after entering the crimson sphere.

Unlike Ginny, who had no "faith," the other three girls, who were truly devoted to their faith, still had the unrestrained screams of the Bathing Goddess echoing in their ears.

"Run! Don't hesitate! Run wherever you can! She's the 'Wanderer'! The leader of the 'Darkborn,' the Wanderer!!!"

In the heart of Earls College, in the Dean's office.

Faced with the Crest Council Chairman, or rather the former Chairman Gran, who kept trying to "settle" the scores of the past years with words, Dean Livis's initial approach was to casually find two wads of cotton and plug her ears.

After turning halfway around, she positioned the back of her chair facing Grant. Therefore, she effortlessly and completely ignored Grant's utterly disgraceful behavior.

Livis, seemingly with all her power restricted, just stared listlessly out the window, as if waiting for something.

At a certain moment, as if sensing that time was about to pass, Livis turned around and faced Gran again.

At this point, Gran's condition was already quite poor.

After all, he sacrificed his own flesh and blood, his soul, and everything else, and with the help of external forces, he barely managed to "seal" Livis for this period of time.

"How pathetic, you old man. You've paid such a high price, yet you still dare not take a single step closer to me, who is 'powerless'?"

Livis said lightly.

Gran seemed to be yelling some more profanities, but Livis's earplugs were of good quality, so she didn't hear them.

"I'm wondering if this is really not part of my traitor John's plan?"

Upon hearing John's name mentioned by Livis, Gran, who was carrying a large, bleeding eye on his back, was clearly taken aback.

"Because, although he is not likable at all, he is not 'insignificant'. Therefore, he will not go to great lengths to do something as petty as keeping me occupied."

Perhaps she was thinking of some of the funny things John did during his time at the academy, or maybe she was remembering how she used to tease that ambitious little guy. In any case, thinking of something happy, Livis shrugged slightly and chuckled twice.

"Besides, he's not stupid either. So he doesn't think that this level of effort can really do anything to me."

As soon as Livis said those words, Gran, who had been making a lot of noise, suddenly fell silent.

fear.

It originates from the very root of the will to survive: fear.

No matter how much of an advantage she has, if the "Tree Witch" lowers her voice even slightly, her opponents will inevitably feel a pure and utter fear.

“Sometimes, I really wonder. What is it about that John kid that makes him so charming? What did he do to you that makes you willing to give everything to him? Are you moths drawn to the flame, and he is the flame?”

Staring into Gran's cloudy eyes, for a moment, Livis seemed genuinely curious.

But it only lasted for a moment.

Before Grant could reply, Livis had already changed her mind.

"Forget it, a fanatic rotten to the core like this probably can't say anything interesting."

As she spoke, Livis pointed her right finger at Gran.

She simply bent her index finger slightly and flicked it lightly at Gran.

That action was both very casual and very cold.

In the next instant, Gran's head flew up and smashed into the wall, turning into a muddy mess.

"Why would you need magic to crush an ant?"

Livis gently shook her head, gazing at Gran's slowly collapsing corpse for a moment.
"Even if it's an insect, after raising it for decades, you'll develop some attachment to it."

Livis whispered softly, paused for a moment, then suddenly broke into a bright, self-deprecating smile. She shifted her gaze, now only indifferent, from Gran's corpse.

Outside the window, a colossal object, accompanied by a deafening roar, rose into the air above the academy, casting its enormous shadow over the area below.

"It seems the old man really lacks a sense of time. The interesting things are finally beginning—"

The Tree Witch rose, casually blasting the already "dirty" building and the surrounding thieves into dust. From the ruins, which could no longer even be called rubble, she flew into the sky.

(End of this chapter)