Chapter 271

Princess Sererassie knew.

This world would not leave her alone.

“Duke.”

“Today, you’ll be receiving etiquette training instead of magic.”

“Gather all the royal family in the Crimson Crescent Palace.”

The responsibilities that came with her innate blood and abilities did not allow her to enjoy pure exploration alone.

“Here are the graphs for magical realm appearance rates and the emergence of high-level Infiltrators.”

“Compared to 300 years ago, the number of high-risk magical realms has significantly increased.”

“The number of infiltrating magicians is steadily rising. We need measures—.”

The world she had risen to through her natural abilities was more precarious than she had thought.

Ultimately, the time had come for someone to support that fragile world, no matter what they had to do.

Sererassie thought everyone would be just watching.

“That’s just people.”

However, her half-brother twin was not a person and willingly did anything.

“Kill all who resist.”

“We can’t leave anyone who might interfere with her alive.”

Among them were cruel acts of dragging her out of the lab and treating her like a mercenary magician, wandering around everywhere.

“Sister.”

“You don’t like it! I don’t know what it is, but you don’t like it!”

“Please take care.”

As a result, Sererassie ended up knowing too much about the world.

“I can’t just sit still anymore.”

“How nice it would be if everything ran smoothly without me.”

“But that’s the problem.”

Before her eyes, Tenitia was fighting against the Infiltrators.

“Ha!”

An Infiltrator Priest unleashed waves of dense mental energy and black feathers, while a bug knight charged with its pincers swinging.

When they were cut down, even more came out.

Sererassie knew that no matter how capable Tenitia was, she couldn’t handle all of those high-level Infiltrators.

Clang!

“Guh!”

In fact, the areas where armor had been shattered were increasing.

Valenciaunos was also frowning.

Valenciaunos cared for Tenitia.

In the past, he treated her like a chess piece, but even Sererassie, who currently showed no interest in people, could sense how much he cared.

The reason he wasn’t rushing in was likely because he knew that utilizing his knowledge of corruption to find a solution was more helpful right now.

“Yeah. I can’t just sit still anymore.”

Now it wasn’t enough to just go or look for something; she needed to strike with lightning.

She knew what she loved and was best at.

“It’s magic.”

At least in the magical aspect, she had to step forward and analyze it before Valenciaunos to find the answers.

“From my master, from Jeilliris, from you. Just digging into what was given to me was the most fun. But now that time is over.”

A genius who had stepped into the realm of 6 circles in their twenties took a step forward.

“Now you’re going to uncover all the corruption.”

* * *

Sererassie looked at the Infiltrator Priests and bug knights popping up everywhere.

“Lady Trentia!”

Tenitia began to be pushed back, and eventually, Valenciaunos and Rudi joined the front line.

Sererassie furrowed her brow as she assessed the numbers.

“There are too many.”

It was a joke circulating during the academy exam period.

To become as strong as a Sword Expert through the power of corruption, one had to work hard enough to become a Sword Expert; thus, being corrupted was always a loss, and they should stop complaining and focus on training instead.

“No matter how strong the High Priest is, there’s no way they created this many Infiltrators here. Then where did they come from? It means Lanzo’s scouts and Helena’s scouts wouldn’t have been unaware of this.”

If she, Tenitia, and Valenciaunos hadn’t pre-empted it by putting their scouts to sleep, they would have been detected a hundred times.

It was an absurd situation.

But no matter how absurd it was, once it became reality, the wrong side was undoubtedly the theory.

“If you try to align the theory with reality, it becomes a country that hunts magicians for the sake of equality like Lanzo’s. Let’s think rationally.”

Sererassie quickly regained her composure, searching her mind for knowledge related to movement.

“Flash flight, fire flight, wind magic, destruction art, spatial transfer, sharing, sharing?”

The word sharing flashed through her mind, and the recent incident she’d encountered related to sharing came to mind.

“Brother!”

Even now, Valenciaunos was enhancing Tenitia’s mechanical armor through fragments of Az.

“Do you think you figured something out?”

“There are fragments of Az nearby! Dominance! Blast them all!”

Valenciaunos’s yellow eyes widened in an instant.

An emotion of disbelief, unbefitting of the Bandit Duke, flickered across his face as he stepped back significantly.

Zzzz!

His black-gloved hands melted into his skin, and white hands split like cracked porcelain, with orange crystals sprouting up amidst the cracks.

“Capture them!”

Darkness stirred beneath the Archbishop’s hood as the bug knights and Infiltrator Priests fiercely pressed down on Valenciaunos.

Translucent black tentacles sliced through the air, purple curses and mental waves reverberated, and the bug knights swung their poisonous stingers and pincers.

“Your Highness!”

“I will draw out the time!”

However, Valenciaunos had powerful allies.

The “enemy knight,” Tenitia, raised a blood-soaked greatsword, and “duelist,” “maid sharpshooter” Rudi drew the revolver magic rifle Agathe and sandworm tooth dagger.

“They broke through!”

“Damn it!”

“Duke!”

Sererassie heard the screams of Lanzo and the soldiers and turned around.

The Lanzo and soldiers who had been holding off the regular Infiltrators were crumbling.

“Uggghhh!”

“Don’t bite!”

“Damn it!”

“The burden each person has to bear is increasing too much.”

When one ally falls, I have to take their share.

However, when fighting Infiltrators, that fallen ally instantly turns into an enemy, so the burden increased exponentially.

Sererassie urgently called out the activation word.

“Self Field!”

Woooom!

Massive mana gathered, and blue particles surged up, pushing the Infiltrators back.

“Woaaaah!”

“AAAHHH!”

The Infiltrators shot razor-like feathers at Sererassie and unleashed mental waves.

The genius magician gritted her teeth through a severe headache.

“It hurts.”

Tears trickled from her differently-colored eyes, and blood flowed freely from her nose.

She quickly checked to see if her brother saw it, then shot out “Piercing Flash” and unleashed “Steel Blades” one after another.

“Now, it’s time for the magicians to pay the price for the pain!”

Crackling!

Boom!

The Infiltrators, who had been rushing in like a flock of birds in an autumn wheat field, froze like mice before a snake.

* * *

Sererassie was a research magician, but she often operated as a warlock unintentionally.

While she didn’t consciously think about it, she too was a member of the Solletarass royal family, mixed with the blood of strong and cruel races like elves, ogres, and dragons.

She had an excellent sense of battle, accurately pinpointing the moment to strike and position herself.

“Every choice comes with a price!”

Zing!

A blue laser flickered, and one Infiltrator rolled to the ground.

“You’ll pay dearly for shoving the magicians’ awareness into the muck!”

Wiiiiiing!

As black iron powder spiraled, tough feathers were shredded to pieces.

“Kieeeek!”

A large Infiltrator Priest finally broke through Rudi and Tenitia and charged out.

“Valen! I’m sorry!”

“Princess Sererassie!”

Thud, thud, thud, thud!

With each of the priest’s heavy legs striking the ground, it shook.

Valenciaunos stood rooted in place as if he had sunk there, sweating profusely.

His already pale cheeks were darkened, and his yellow pupils were half-dazed.

Sererassie infused mana into the earrings made of “Ikaris” pearls, a gift from Karios, and flew up.

Shadows of a pointed hat, robe, and staff fell to the ground.

It was an overwhelmingly magician-like shadow.

The Infiltrator Priest looked up at her, hood pulled over their head.

The twisted, crimson face beneath the hood was quite the sight to behold.

“I fly through the sky and overlook the ground. How very like a magician!”

Sererassie smiled sweetly and called forth lightning.

Crackling!

“For strength and knowledge, I trade with the ancients. It’s said to be a romance dreamed of by magicians who are tired of chasing after unseen truths.”

“Kieeeek!”

“But I don’t understand why that’s considered romance. There are no shortcuts to learning.”

Blue sparks leapt from her blue eyes, while yellow sparks floated from her yellow eyes, and the seeker of truth wore a mourning expression.

“Isn’t it more enjoyable to choose a path that no one has trodden and discover one by one what lies ahead?”

Zing!

Zzzzzzing!

A white beam of lightning bursting with blue sparks shot forth from her staff, piercing the priest’s massive body.

The reddish giant hidden beneath the black robes was now exposed under the sun, and Sererassie frowned.

“You didn’t want the pain of learning; you just wanted the fruit.”

The Infiltrator Priest resembled a monster like a starfish, with a mingling of bones and flesh.

“Learning how to properly consume that fruit is the very essence of education.”

When absurdity occurs, it’s those who ponder ‘why’ more than ‘how’ that stand out.

Those who feel curiosity rather than fear in the face of the incomprehensible.

“Such a person can climb the tree and pluck the fruits of magic.”

Rumble!

Flash!

Five blue pillars descended from a stormy sky.

“Kiee—.”

“You mean a person like me.”

As Sererassie confidently smiled, five Infiltrator Priests vanished without a trace.

* * *

“Thank you, Your Highness!”

“…….”

“Brother? Are you far?”

Lady Trentia and Rudi caught their breath, and just as the Archbishop lifted the feather-like greatsword again, Sererassie felt a soft murmur escape her lips.

At that moment, my focus returned.

“I found it!”

I felt the resonance of fragments of Az in a nearby tent.

Surrounded by the energy of corruption and obscured by some unknown magic tool, determining its location was challenging.

While moving and fighting, I had been a step late in realizing it; pointing it out revealed it was Brnoa’s tent.

“Oh, oh?”

Upon checking again, I saw Infiltrator Priests and knights were all emerging from that direction.

“Damn it!”

I cursed, and I must have activated the resonance of the fragment that was likely part of the spatial transfer magic tool.

Woooom!

An invisible red thread connected me to the fragment, which began to vibrate violently.

“You! Young Solletarass!”

Noticing something, the Infiltrator Archbishop strode toward me.

“You shall not pass! You hideous monster!”

“Get away from Valen!”

“You’re the head of the ones distorting reality!”

Lady Trentia swung her greatsword, Rudi fired his magic rifle, and Sererassie called down lightning.

The black feathers whirled around the Archbishop, and dark mana blades exploded forth.

Clang!

Boom!

Smash!

The greatsword flew away, the magic rifle was deflected, and the lightning was blocked.

I began to amplify the resonance of Az’s fragments, which were likely parts of the magic tool.

Woooom!

My mana and flames flowed toward it, amplifying endlessly.

In that moment, I instinctively knew.

If this explodes, we all go up.

The fragments of Az were like the infinite circle Gelirise had shown after negotiating with Philius.

Fizzle!

No matter how small the fragment was, I could endlessly amplify strength based on my capacity and control.

Before my eyes, the fragment shimmered.

The blue fragment gradually turned red.

“Lady Trentia! Get Rudi and retreat!”

Lady Trentia wrapped her arms around Rudi’s waist and leaped.

“Don’t forget about your sister!”

Sererassie soared high into the sky.

I confidently looked at the advancing Archbishop, smiling faintly.

Darkness swirled with rage beneath the towering hood.

“In truth, I am confident in my endurance.”

My uniform is going to get ripped again.

Zzzz.

I enveloped my entire body in scales as I awaited the Archbishop.

“Now we’re two.”

He raised a sword-like black feather.

Swoosh!

The dark mana blade gleamed, seemingly about to slice my body in half.

I chuckled coldly and detonated the Az fragment.

“No. I’ve achieved fusion too.”

Boom!

From the tent dozens of steps away, a massive column of fire erupted.

Kugugugu!

A fierce shockwave swept through, and mushroom-shaped clouds billowed upwards.

Bright red flames greedily licked their way toward us.

The Archbishop’s face, obscured by shadows, looked deeply distorted.

“Hahaha!”

I laughed maniacally, spreading my arms wide.

Now, let’s see which of us is stronger against fire.

Let’s test it.

…Huh?

At the very last moment, I felt a hand pulling me back.

* * *

“Please take care of yourself! Why the hell are your arms spread wide? Were you trying to look cool even in that situation? You’re gasping for breath using flash movement!”

Sererassie’s dark blue hair tickled my cheek.

“You dragged me into your path! You lured me with the promise of an interesting world! And now, what if you’re the one trying to die first?”

The black mist that had covered the ground had vanished, but the mushroom clouds still lingered.

It hadn’t been long since the explosion.

As I rose, I asked, “I wasn’t planning to die… what about the Archbishop?”

“He ran away, leaving behind an arm and pieces of a magic tool. Seeing him half-melted was quite relieving.”

“Ah.”

I hadn’t managed to kill him.

A deep regret filled me, alongside a surge of competitive spirit.

Next time, I promised I would burn that face to a crisp.

At the same time, I realized there was as much to gain as there was to lose from not killing the Archbishop.

Sererassie.

The unparalleled genius magician revealed her motivation to the world.

“And about the 2,000 Lanzo soldiers who were caught up in the explosion, they were injured. Oh, look, Eric is coming!”