The End of the First Round

Aozaki Aoko instinctively took up a defensive stance. As magical energy surged, the choking smoke and dust gradually dispersed, revealing a figure covered in blood before her.

"You?!"

Surging magical energy raced through her Mage Circuits, producing a sound like machinery in motion. The Magic Bullet Formula unfolded. The moment the person before her made any suspicious move, Magic Bullets powerful enough to crack concrete walls would fire without hesitation.

"Good evening, Aozaki."

Michael waved with a smile, paying no mind to his bedraggled state, as though greeting a familiar friend.

Aozaki Aoko did not respond. She merely maintained her vigilant stance while quietly putting more distance between herself and Michael. One hand gripped the Glazed Cat Pendant.

Crack, crack, crack—

The glass in the door shattered. Amid the rain of glittering fragments, a pale arm shot straight toward Aozaki Aoko.

I let my guard down—I actually forgot about that thing!

Aozaki Aoko's heart sank. She had focused entirely on the mysterious mage before her and had actually forgotten about the puppet.

"Et clauserunt."

Michael uttered a brief, forceful incantation. It was the command to deactivate the puppet, but it had clearly failed. The continuously extending arm showed no sign of stopping, its sharp fingertips stabbing toward Aozaki Aoko's abdomen.

"Tch—"

The hidden mechanism inside the puppet had failed. It seemed Tōko Aozaki had never trusted him in the first place. Though that was only natural—who would use technology provided by someone else without making even a single alteration?

Drawing upon what little magical energy remained, he abruptly appeared before Aozaki Aoko. Then he grabbed the extending arm and gave it a fierce pull.

The classroom door exploded open. The puppet that closely resembled Aozaki Aoko flew rapidly toward Michael, its remaining five arms clicking as they stabbed toward his body like sharp war spears.

Michael's sapphire eyes reflected the sharp arms rushing toward him. Faced with the attack at point-blank range, his body suddenly blurred, as though veiled in a layer of gray gauze. Then he passed through those pointed arms and appeared before the puppet.

The puppet continued to emit curses without pause. It was precisely because of those curses that Aozaki Aoko could not approach it for close combat. Yet against Michael, those curses had no effect whatsoever.

Given Michael's resistance to magical energy and Mystery, curses of this level could be ignored entirely.

A pale arm pierced through the puppet's chest, along with its magical core, interrupting its automatic chanting cycle. The puppet struggled, exhausting the last of its magical energy before hanging limply from Michael's arm.

"Trash."

Michael curled his lip disdainfully and flung the puppet from his arm aside. The puppet Tōko Aozaki had made was indeed exquisite, but that was all. No matter how many puppets of this level there were, they could never threaten him.

Aozaki Aoko's heart pounded violently. Sweat from her palm had already soaked the Glazed Cat Pendant. The puppet that had nearly left her unable to fight back was utterly helpless before this mysterious mage—and worse still, this mage was her enemy.

Now she could only hope Alice could subdue this intruder...

She bit her lower lip. The feeling of placing her hopes in someone else was truly awful, even if that person was her friend.

Michael had clearly noticed Aozaki Aoko's subtle movement, but he had no mind to deal with it right now. What little magical energy he had left had been drained by the starburst and the battle, leaving his body utterly empty. His earlier injuries could only recover through the physical resilience of a Dead Apostle.

"Urgh..."

His organs churned. Thick, bright blood mixed with fragments of internal organs spewed from his mouth. After enduring such an earth-shaking explosion head-on, if not for the magical barrier, there probably would not even have been ashes left of him.

"Aozaki, I know you have many questions, but there is only one thing I can tell you right now: we are not enemies."

Michael looked toward Aozaki Aoko, his voice becoming gentle and sincere. After seeing that Phantasmal Species, he knew he probably could not deal with Tōko Aozaki alone. He needed help.

And there happened to be someone readily available before him. Though she was somewhat weak, she was still an inheritor of Magic. Surely she had something exceptional about her?

As he thought this, he consumed his life force in exchange for magical energy and silently used Suggestion Magecraft on Aozaki Aoko.

Unfortunately, his Suggestion Magecraft was like crashing into an impregnable wall and was resisted by Aozaki Aoko. It seemed an inheritor of Magic truly was extraordinary—but now Michael himself was in serious trouble.

The backlash from the magecraft worsened his injuries further. More fragments of his internal organs were vomited out, while the bloodthirsty impulse hidden within his bloodline could no longer be restrained. It surged over him in wave after wave, ready to drown his consciousness at any moment.

If I could drain every drop of her blood...

A trace of scarlet gradually stained his sapphire eyes. The world before him became one soaked in blood. Incoherent sounds escaped Michael's throat, but the thought of turning into that beastlike state filled him with intense disgust.

It made him recall that dark time more than two hundred years ago.

Forcibly suppressing his bloodlust, Michael converted his life force into magical energy and turned it into a bounded field that isolated his brain from his other organs, without considering the consequences at all.

Like a television that had suddenly been unplugged, he lost consciousness in an instant. Michael's vision went dark, and he knew nothing more. His heavily injured body swayed before collapsing in front of Aozaki Aoko.

Aozaki Aoko was utterly bewildered, having no idea what had happened. Instinctively, she unfolded the Magic Bullet Formula and gathered magical energy within it. If she wished, she could easily kill this intruder who had lost the ability to resist.

After hesitating for a long time, she ultimately did not do so. Both the earlier explosion and Michael's words obscured the truth like a thick fog. More importantly, Aozaki Aoko had seen a certain person's twisted sense of humor in that puppet.

—An exceptionally vile sense of humor.

Misaki High School, rear mountain

"Cough, cough..."

The entire rear mountain had been leveled by a layer, and the old school building had even been blasted into the air. Looking at the vivid crimson in her palm, Tōko Aozaki instinctively shook her head.

"As expected of The Fool. To think he had such a method... Cough, cough, cough..."

Shattered golden words drifted down like snowflakes before finally dissipating into the air. To withstand that attack, she had sacrificed one of her trump cards. The loss was no small matter, and she had not even managed to deal with Michael. It was a complete loss.

"That prey is quite interesting. Let me hunt him."

The Golden Wolf, restored to the form of a handsome youth, looked toward the school building and licked his lips.

"No, Beo. Your hunt will have to be postponed for a while. We need to rebuild our base."

Tōko Aozaki coughed several more times and cast Healing Magecraft on herself.

"Tch—"

The Golden Wolf called Beo curled his lip, clearly not taking Tōko Aozaki's words to heart.