"Is it your turn to make an entrance?" Serne asked, a faint smile gracing her lips.
Lorraine ignored her completely, turning to Simon.
"Are you okay?"
He quickly snapped out of his daze.
"Ah, yeah. The protective suit took the hit..."
"I don’t mean physically. How are you mentally?" Lorraine knew all about Serne’s unique ability.
"A feather just grazed me. I’m fine."
Lorraine nodded, her gaze turning cold as she faced Serne, who stood with a hand on her hip, an arrogant tilt to her posture.
"What is the meaning of this, Serne?" Lorraine demanded.
"What do you mean? I am simply taking the exam," Serne replied with a nonchalant shrug, which only made Lorraine’s expression darken.
"If you were just taking the exam, why erect a barrier to block the observers?"
"My, my. For someone of your station, you have quite the attitude," Serne said, lifting her chin. "Are you interrogating me? We are both students. What right do you have? You must think you’re already the Kizen student council president."
"Stop deflecting and answer the question."
"And if I refuse?"
Lorraine lowered her stance.
"Like you said, we’re taking an exam."
"This should be fun."
"Stay back, Simon."
He obediently retreated. Getting caught in a fight between those two felt like a death sentence, no matter how many lives he had.
Lorraine opened her palm, and Jet-Black flowed out, constructing four magic circles in the air. A volley of pitch-black arrows shot forth, and Serne giggled.
"Jet-black arrows? How adorable. Why be so coy with me..." Her eyes suddenly narrowed, darting behind her. Lorraine was already there, fist pulled back with explosive force.
A single punch created a massive shockwave that radiated in all directions, carving a crater dozens of meters wide into the landscape.
"How terrifying," Serne remarked, now hovering in the air with a smile.
Just then, a shadow fell over her. Lorraine had hurled a boulder the size of a house into the air.
"Hmph." At Serne’s gesture, the feathers around her sprang to life. With a series of graceful arcs, they sliced the boulder into a shower of fragments. Hands clasped behind her back, Serne flew effortlessly through the falling debris.
"Come down," Lorraine commanded, clenching and unclenching her fist. "You said we were taking an exam, you damn bitch."
"Such vulgar language from one of such a noble bloodline."
Lorraine glanced back at Simon.
"Looks like I’ll have to teach her a lesson. Simon, get far away from here."
He was already planning on it. As Simon turned to leave, Serne smiled wistfully.
"Why send him away? Shouldn’t you be showing off for him?"
"That sarcastic tone of yours..." A deadly aura of Jet-Black began to pour from Lorraine’s body. "It’s annoying."
"Hmph." Serne crossed her arms.
"Could it be that you don’t want the boy you’re interested in to see your ugly side?"
Lorraine’s red eyes flashed. A line tore through the empty air, ripping open like a jagged, monstrous maw. Inside was a void of pure darkness, filled with countless red eyes identical to her own. It was as if dozens of her were staring out from the abyss.
"That sends a chill down my spine," Serne admitted. "The power to open the Demon World. If people knew the insane things you and your mother are planning, I wonder how the world would react..."
She cut herself off, accelerating sharply as a torrent of crimson energy beams erupted from the spatial rift. Serne coated herself in feathers, accelerating again and again, her body a blur as she weaved through the destructive blasts that painted the sky crimson.
Lorraine summoned a skeleton horse from her Subspace. As she infused it with Jet-Black, its form shifted, cloaked in dark red magic. With a thud, she mounted the steed, and it kicked off the ground, soaring into the sky.
Soon, the two rivals faced each other in the air.
"I do not think this is a very good look for us, fighting like this," Serne said, spreading her arms as her feathers danced around her. "We are fated to fight eventually, are we not? Since we shall each become the rulers of Kizen and the Ivory Tower."
"If that happens, hundreds of thousands of innocent lives will be lost," Lorraine retorted, yanking on the Jet-Black reins. "So maybe this is the only way—to settle things now, while we’re still just students."
"You and your mother..." Serne raised her arms and crossed them. "Are so disgustingly pretentious."
A pure white trajectory and a crimson flash clashed madly in the sky. For the ordinary students on the central island, it was nothing short of a cataclysm. They scrambled for their lives, dodging the debris that rained down from the heavens.
Simon watched from a distance, a hollow laugh escaping his lips. ‘What in the world kind of fight is that?’
They were monsters, operating on a level far beyond any mere exam.
[Hehehehe! No need to be so mesmerized by something of that level!] Pier’s clone cackled from his pocket. [The ruler of Kizen? The master of the Ivory Tower? Empty titles! You are a Legion Commander! It won’t be long before you, too, reach those heights!]
"It still seems a long way off," Simon replied with a wry grin.
Having quickly distanced himself from the battlefield, he refocused. ‘Back to the task at hand. With this much noise and vibration...’
He reached the edge of a canyon, a vantage point with a sweeping view of the island. He began to release his Jet-Black in all directions.
’If Vickrum reacted to this and came nearby...’
The corners of Simon’s mouth lifted.
’Just as I thought!’
Simon twisted away as the ground erupted, a bandaged arm shooting out from the earth.
The monster’s entire body emerged. It was wrapped head to toe in living bandages, only its deep, empty eye sockets visible.
’It’s smaller than before.’
Vickrum’s size was said to increase with its rage. When it fought Meirin, it had been large enough to rest its chin on the canyon rim while standing, but now it was barely able to hang on.
It planted a knee on the cliff’s edge and began to haul itself up.
He had to move before it attacked again. Simon hurled the object in his hand toward the monster’s head.
[VICKRUM!!!] the object shrieked.
It was Pier’s clone. The monster paused, its gaze fixing on the small, skeletal figure.
[IT IS I! PIER, THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE LEGION!]
’—Pi... er?’
It understood him! Simon quickly scanned the sky. An observer was hovering in the distance, but it was far enough. For now.
’I think we have a minute or two!’
[I’m gonna come out!]
Simon opened his Subspace, and Pier shot out, immediately taking cover behind a tree in the observer’s blind spot.
[What are you doing here, Vickrum!] Pier bellowed. [The Legion has been reborn! Hurry and join us!]
’—Le... gion?’ the creature echoed, tilting its massive head. ‘—Le... gion.’
As it repeated the word, its head began to swell.
’—Le... gion! Le... gion! Le... gion!’
Soon, its entire body was inflating like a grotesque balloon.
[Damn it!]
As the replica grew, Pier’s clone was dislodged. Simon snatched it from the air and broke into a run.
’—Legion! Hurts! Legion! Hurts! Legion! Hurts!’
"What’s wrong with it, Pier?!" Simon yelled.
[Now I know for sure! That thing is not Vickrum!] Pier’s voice was grim. [It’s an elaborately made fake! A replica!]
As the replica continued to expand, the observers began to draw closer.
"Pier! Get inside, now!"
’—It huuuuurts! Aaaaaaaah!’
The creature, now monstrously large, lowered its head and stared directly at Simon. A cold dread washed over him.
’—It’s the Legion! The Legion hurts! I don’t like things that hurt!’
The giant slammed its fist into the ground. With a deafening roar, the entire cliff face collapsed. Simon scrambled into the forest, desperate to get out of its sight.
"But why is a replica attacking me?!"
[How should I know!] Pier shot back.
’—Uuuuhhhhhhhhhh!’
Unable to find Simon, the replica began smashing the ground at random.
"Woaaaaaah!"
"What the hell is that thing?!"
Students screamed from all directions. The replica turned toward the sound and swung its massive leg in a devastating kick.
The terrain buckled and collapsed. Simon saw two students thrown into the air, saved only when a companion snagged them with a thread of Jet-Black.
’—Uuuhhhhhhhhhhh!’
It was still growing.
[It’s gone berserk!] Pier’s clone shouted. [If we leave it, it’ll just keep getting bigger!]
’Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!’
The replica began lumbering away from the canyon, heading in the opposite direction. It was completely out of control, and the entire island was an active exam site. If this continued, things would get much, much worse.
’Damn it!’
Simon turned and ran. He had to find a solution, and fast. Waiting for the professors to call off the exam would be too late. Kizen’s instructors, as he’d learned during the Cyclops evaluation, rarely intervened unless a situation became completely untenable.
[Where are you going, boy! That’s the opposite direction!]
"I have to persuade someone who can stop it!"
He sprinted toward the one place no one else dared to go: the battlefield where Lorraine and Serne were still locked in combat, oblivious to the chaos unfolding elsewhere.
"LORRAINE!!" Simon screamed.
"WE HAVE A PROBLEM!!"
He worried she wouldn’t hear him over the din of their battle, but she immediately broke off her attack, guiding her skeleton horse down toward him.
"Simon! What’s wrong?"
"A giant monster has gone berserk and is heading for the other students! We have to stop it now!"
Lorraine’s expression hardened.
"Which way?"
"Toward the southern part of the island. I’ll guide you."
"How funny," Serne scoffed, descending from the sky with her arms crossed. "Who said I would let you go?" She held a feather poised in her hand. "Berserk or not, that is the organizers’ problem. I will not allow our fight to end so anticlimactically..."
"Ah, right. Serne, you’re here too." Simon’s face broke into a grin, as if this were the perfect solution. "Sorry to ask, but can you help us out?"
"What?" Serne looked at him as if he had lost his mind.

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