[249] System Operation (2)
But Shirone did not stop teleporting.
No matter how precise a defense, it cannot overcome the stimulus-before-response mechanism.
Now!
The moment Shirone tilted his body in a photonic state, Dante shifted into light and backed away.
Truly superhuman reflexes. This time, though, that reflex became a liability. Shirone dropped the fake motion and stepped back.
Crap!
By the time Dante realized Shirone's tactic, the teleport had already activated and he was moving away.
When the gap opened to twenty meters in an instant, Shirone fired a Photon Cannon.
Against a net of photons that swallowed every escape route as it closed, Dante's movements were useless. Choosing the only refuge—the ground—he landed and spread defensive magic circles over his head like a roof.
Shirone clenched his teeth and kept casting.
Immortal Function expands a mage's mind toward Infinity, but reality is unforgiving. If you fully unbolt Infinity, the self will disintegrate.
That's why Unlockers draw Infinite power through holes called Spirit Zones. The Spirit Zone serves as a barrier that holds the boundary between reality and Infinity.
In effect it gives you endless mental strength, but if a Spirit Zone's durability can't bear the weight of Infinity, you risk being swept away in an instant.
Still, although Shirone was spending mental power beyond his usable limit, he did not waver. He had reached a state of mind hardened past ordinary durability.
More! More! More!
Relying on that enormous will, the Photon Cannon poured down onto the ground without pause.
Ugh!
Dante spread ten defensive circles above his head like a roof and held on with everything he had. Yet he thought it impossible. Any human casting spells continuously will see their power wane bit by bit. But Shirone's assault wasn't weakening; it kept growing.
Damn it! What kind of attack power is this?
He had never felt this demoralized, not even against the kingdom's hardest hitters.
Dante realized at once: Immortal Function. The thing he'd dismissed as a monk's mental pastime was crushing him mercilessly.
The bombardment continued for two full minutes.
Dante couldn't move an inch from his defensive position. His specialty—evasion—was useless against an onslaught that fell like hail.
The students glanced nervously at the System-2000 bracelets warming on their wrists. That the bracelets controlling System 2000's data exchange were hot to the touch proved the amount of information flowing between Shirone and Dante had surged.
Do you think they'll explode? Mark asked, terrified.
Don't worry. They were fine during the graduation cohort. Even if System 2000 overheats, the safety mechanism will kick in in the worst case, Amy said.
Mark breathed a sigh of relief. I see, he murmured.
Of course, it's not common for them to get this hot, Amy added.
Shirone was starting to get impatient. Even though more than three minutes had passed, Dante's defense had not broken. But Dante's fierce resistance only stoked Shirone's resolve.
Then…!
Shirone halted the Photon Cannon's rapid fire and cast a laser. A single red beam struck Dante's magic circles.
When the power seemed weaker than expected, Dante sneered as if it were nothing and began repairing his circles.
Within seconds the ten or so circles were restored to perfect condition.
But moments later Dante's face twisted subtly, and unlike before an energy even stronger than the Photon Cannon began to press down.
W-what is—!
As Dante spat the words in shock, Shirone amplified the laser with everything he had.
The beam's girth thickened rapidly.
At last, with every ounce of power pulled from the realm of Infinity poured in, a colossal red flare swallowed Dante's position completely.
The students swallowed hard at the silhouette of Dante burning as if aflame.
As the beam thinned and finally vanished, Dante stood there, arms over his face, dazed. Not even a trace remained of the defensive magic circles that had repelled the Photon Cannon.
Shirone landed opposite him. Dante slowly lowered his arms, glared at Shirone, and ground his teeth.
Damn it…
Dante's knees buckled as if breaking and he collapsed to the ground.
He had tried to hold on, but the Photon Cannon's destructive force was overwhelming. The anti-magic shock that struck his brain was unlike any spell he had ever taken through System 2000.
This can't be… Dante's down again.
The first fall could be written off as Shirone's ambush, but this second knockout was plainly a gap in ability.
The students were stunned.
Even among the faculty there was a murmur. Who would have expected Shirone—only a year at the Magic Academy—to knock the kingdom's number one, Dante, down twice?
His disposition is sharp, but his magic is unexpectedly heavy, Etella said. Lacking finesse is a flaw, but he makes up for it with destructive power that overrides that shortcoming.
You could tell a mage's character by the magic he used. That was doubly true of Unlockers, whose spells manifest through unique conduits.
Sade licked his lips at Etella's praise. He wasn't personally fond of Shirone—after all, Shirone monopolized the girls' affections—but he couldn't deny his skill.
Well, he takes everything seriously, Sade added.
Dante's being knocked down only raised the students' excitement.
Everyone chanted Shirone's name, and the echoes lifted the mood even higher.
Nade blinked and said, Was Shirone's magic always this tough?
Iruki agreed. Maybe he was confident, or maybe he aimed for a psychological effect. It's different from last semester—seems like something changed in his mindset.
Amy, resting her chin on her hand, twisted a wry smile. Well…he did go through some rough things.
Shirone had fought the Parrot Mercenaries in a bloody battle on Galliant Island. In Elysion he'd confronted countless foes beyond human limits.
If nothing had changed since last semester, that would have been the strange thing.
My god… Dante… how could this happen… Reporter Killine was aghast. Putting his undefeated record aside, no one had ever seen someone force Dante to his knees so completely.
Shirone, you say? How has someone like him never been in the mags? he wondered.
According to his research, Shirone had only been at the Academy for a year. If true, he wouldn't have had time to stand out.
Killine hadn't believed it at first. Even if true, he assumed Shirone was just an overhyped provincial student.
But he had completely overwhelmed Dante. A rookie who appeared like a comet.
Dante rose slowly. Unlike the first time, his face showed no emotion.
Second knockdown. That's a first too, he said, shaking his head. Counting is pointless now.
Because Shirone himself was a first.
An offensively one-sided mage was the type Dante could most easily handle and enjoyed fighting. But against an opponent with such brutal punching power, it had backfired.
A bitter smile pulled at Dante's lips. He hadn't expected to use this magic circle before even entering the graduation ranks.
He had never cast it in an official match; counting unofficial ones, only twice.
Only Closer and Sabina knew that those two opponents had been an active rank-9 mage and seventy B-ranked rogues.
Sorry. I guess I underestimated you, he said.
At that moment a huge magic circle burned red centered on Dante. Its clarity far surpassed an instant circle and it was at least ten times larger.
Shiina checked Dante's mental gauge and found it had suddenly dropped by more than half.
That vast mental reserve that had shown no sign of shrinking in battle—now half of it was being used. It was hard to guess what kind of circle that would be.
Central Computation Magic Circle: Pascal, Dante muttered.
The massive circle flared red and about a hundred magic circles sprang into existence at once.
Shirone stared, stunned by magic circles each channeling a different spell. It felt like facing a hundred mages.
Immortal Function—I scoffed at it, but it's certainly impressive. The insight of an Unlocker, he thought.
Shirone had no time to respond. Whatever this magic was, it was on a different level from instant circles. If he didn't analyze it quickly, he'd lose the edge.
This time I'll show you what I have, Dante said.
As he stretched out his hands, spells poured from the hundred or so circles.
Wind Cutter and Fireball, Lightning Bolt and Ice Spear, even photon outputs with no physical force.
Shirone stood frozen at the scene.
Most shocking of all: more than ten different spells were being cast simultaneously.
Even Iruki, as a Servant, could at most cast two spells with a double Spirit Zone—so this felt unreal.
Maybe… it's a parallel circuit, Nade said, biting his thumbnail.
Huh? A parallel circuit? Mark turned in surprise. Those magic circles?
Magic requires intense concentration. To cast one spell you can't allow any other thought. But each of Dante's circles has its own independent circuit, Nade went on.
Is that possible? Unless you have multiple brains, you can only create one circle per conduit. Even passives are produced in temporal sequence, Mark protested.
Nade pointed at Dante's Pascal. Exactly. Dante made another brain. That central circle is pooling Dante's conduit and distributing it in parallel.
Nade's guess was correct. Pascal was a circle that stored the conduit flowing through a mage's mind into memory and then processed it via parallel computation.
Dante, having activated Pascal, was anything but defensive. He crushed his opponents with overwhelming firepower.
Proving it, every basic spell taught at school erupted from the circles.
Shirone did not stop his assault. Creating virtual memory and unfolding serial thoughts in parallel was a wondrous feat.
But strictly speaking, serial versus parallel isn't an absolute superiority. In parallel circuits, individual power inevitably drops.
That the spells coming from Dante's circles were all basic spells was evidence.
There's no time. I have to finish this now, Shirone thought.
The time he could sustain the realm of Infinity was running out. Now was the only chance to overpower Dante by force.
Shirone poured everything into a Photon Cannon. But when the beam passed through a certain region, its speed suddenly slowed.
Photons nearing quasi-light speed decelerated until they seemed snail-like. Shirone scanned ahead and realized why.
The hundreds of circles Dante had spread formed small clusters that exerted influence over specific spaces.
If you connected the circles that formed a cluster into virtual planes, they built cubic volumes like dice—and inside each cube a specific magic was being activated.
Three-dimensional mansions? Nade cried in disbelief. A student can use that?
Dante had assembled two-dimensional planar circles into a three-dimensional structure.
Shirone's Photon Cannon had slowed because it entered a mansion simultaneously targeted by six slow circles spaced five meters apart.
When functionality depends on how many circuits you can pack into a confined space, a three-dimensional mansion delivered efficiency that surpassed the limits of a plane.