[Trantor - Kiteretsu]


    [Proofreader - Kyros]


    Chapter 40


    Superior Mage Finals


    The weight of the finals was significantly lighterpared to the semifinals.


    "Princess Violet will end this quickly."


    "Her opponent isn’t even a Meister—just an ordinary mage, right?"


    The public had already decided the oue.


    "Even though Kaylen brought a mana suit, the performance gap is just too wide."


    "I’m curious to see how he ns to handle this."


    The same sentiment was shared among the scouts.


    Everyone anticipated Kaylen’s loss—an overwhelming defeat at that.


    Despite the lopsided expectations, the organizers decided to hold the finals without an audience.


    This decision came after the chaos caused during the semifinals.


    “It’s going to end quickly anyway, so they turned it into a closed match.”


    “Well, it couldn’t be helped. It’s a miracle no one was injured during the semifinals.”


    However, a special viewing area was reserved for high-ranking nobles and select scouts, where small groups had gathered to chat amongst themselves.


    “How many minutes do you think it’ll take, Lioness?”


    “That depends entirely on Her Highness’s mood.”


    Perhaps due to having been trapped in ice for several days, Lioness’s face was pale.


    “...The power of an S-ss is on apletely different level.”


    Having experienced the princess’s power firsthand, Lioness understood better than anyone the sheer destructive capability of her S-ss mana suit.


    This match wasn’t even fair to begin with.


    The difference in power was simply too vast.


    The beginning and end of this battle were entirely up to the princess.


    “Still, I doubt she’ll end it immediately. She’ll probably test him out first.”


    “I see...”


    “I hope the matchsts as long as possible. I want to see what he’s capable of.”


    With eyes full of anticipation, Lioness stared at the empty arena.


    “There he is.”


    Kaylen was the first to appear.


    nk. nk.


    Kaylen walked in, d in ck armor unlike anything anyone had seen before.


    The jet-ck steel te was etched with intricate magic circles, as though they were a part of its design...


    Every inch of the armor was inscribed with finely carved runes.


    “Is that... a mana suit?”


    “Judging by the runes and magic circles on the armor, it seems so...”


    “But it doesn’t look like it’s been lightened. The sound it makes when he walks is incredible.”


    One of the fundamental features of any mana suit is weight reduction.


    The sheer weight added by the magic circles necessary for mana concentration would normally make such suits impossible to wear.


    Without weight reduction, even knights would struggle to move in a mana suit—let alone a mage.


    But Kaylen, a mage, was walking under that weight?


    It defied all logic.


    “How is he even walking in that?”


    “It must be hard just to stand in that. Yet his walking posture is surprisingly stable.”


    “Still, that mana suit... in terms of practicality, it’s the worst. No other mage would even be able to stay upright in it.”


    “That thing is only good for salvaging the mana stones before tossing it out.”


    As murmurs of astonishment and harsh criticism about Kaylen’s mana suit filled the air, the attention quickly shifted when Princess Violet stepped onto the stage.


    d in a radiant blue robe, the princess ascended to the arena, wearing her signature half-mask, cia. She looked no different from how she typically appeared at the academy.


    “It’s about to begin.”


    “Judging by how Her Highness hasn’t entered Spirit Form, it seems she’s nning to go easy on him.”


    “She might be testing the student directly.”


    Apart from her mask, her body remained entirely free of ice.


    It was clear to the spectators that the finals wouldn’t end as quickly as anticipated. Instead, they watched in anticipation, curious to see how Kaylen would withstand the power of cia.


    But none of them imagined that he would be the one to attack first.


    “ze.”


    From Kaylen’s mana suit, a crimson glow radiated. At the same time, a bright yellow me ignited in the palm of his left hand.


    “Lightning Bolt.”


    Within the fire, a sharp white light shed. A cluster of lightning began to form amidst the ze.


    The fire briefly absorbed mana, and then—


    Crackle!


    Kaylen hurled a lightning-infused me straight at Princess Violet.


    The Lightning Bolt, fused with fire, surged toward her like an unrelenting storm.


    The mana suit Kaylen wore shimmered in alternating hues of red and white, bursting with intense energy. Fire and light mana swirled violently around the armor, creating a fierce storm of raw power.


    “Wait a minute, that mana suit...”


    “Doesn’t itck basic safety mechanisms?”


    “And it’s not even in Spirit Form...”


    “Can he really withstand that?”


    Ordinarily, the mana exuding from a suit of such magnitude would require careful regtion. Yet Kaylen’s suit skipped that entirely.


    Fire and light mana spewed uncontrobly from the suit. For a regr mage, enduring such chaos inside the suit would be impossible.


    And yet, somehow, Kaylen alone managed to withstand it.


    “Well, one thing’s certain—it packs a punch.”


    This mana suit had sacrificed weight reduction, safety, and everything else for raw power alone.


    And that raw power was undeniable—strong enough to far exceed anyone’s expectations.


    “Ice Shield.”


    A sturdy shield of ice materialized in front of Princess Violet.


    Crackle, hiss…


    As soon as the Lightning Bolt struck it, the shield began to melt away almost instantly.


    Even though the princess was deliberately holding back her strength, her shield was imbued with the magical energy of cia, her S-ss mana suit. Yet it shattered as though it were made of ss.


    “Ice—”


    “Lightning Bolt.”


    Before Princess Violet could summon another shield, Kaylen’s lightning struck again.


    Crash!


    Her ice shield splintered into countless shards.


    The bolt of lightning struck Princess Violet directly in the blink of an eye.


    Or, to be precise, it struck cia.


    Crackle.


    Crackle-crackle.


    Electric currents rippled across the icy mask.


    Princess Violet’s eyes widened.


    “Ah...”


    It was hot.


    Far hotter than the warmth she had felt when Kaylen had previously set her body aze.


    In the spot where cia resided, fully transforming her face into ice, an unfamiliar and foreign sensation made itself known.


    It was searing, painful, and tingling.


    The princess instinctively brought her hand to her face.


    At the base of her icy mask, cia, right at her cheekbone, she felt heat.


    "Your Highness."


    Kaylen, d in his shimmering mana suit that seemed both absurd and impractical, stood before her.


    The armor, pulsating with light,pletely ignored aesthetic bnce or restraint, its surface covered with glowing magical circles and rune engravings.


    It was almostughable.


    It resembled something from the distant past, from the era when mana suits were first invented—rudimentary and unrefined.


    “Don’t hold back on me,” he said.


    Suddenly, Kaylen looked entirely different.


    Wearing that oundish mana suit, he was now someone who could face her in battle.


    Someone worthy of shing against the power of cia.


    “...I see. My apologies.”


    Hiss...


    The scorched portion of cia rapidly repaired itself.


    Princess Violet’s body began to freeze over in an instant.


    “I’ll face you properly.”


    The transformation happened in a heartbeat. Princess Violet, now fully synchronized with cia, activated Spirit Form, the core ability of her high-grade mana suit.


    [TL/N: Spirit Form is basically when a person goes through Spirit Assimtion and transforms their body with respect to their Elemental power, as seen in the fight between Lioness and Violet in the first Semi-final]


    ‘She’s strong.’


    The sight of Princess Violet’s Spirit Form was as formidable as expected.


    Though Kaylen had known this from a distance, facing it head-on was a vastly different experience.


    The ze spell, which had roared like an eternal me, was extinguished without a trace.


    Even the Lightning Bolt that Kaylen had unleashed had dissipated entirely.


    [Be careful, Lord Kaylen,] came her voice, resonating with the ethereal chill of her icy form.


    Nowpletely transformed into a spirit of ice, Princess Violet smiled faintly as she issued her warning.


    [cia is enraged, and it’s difficult to control its power right now.]


    Whoosh.


    The temperature of the arena plummeted in an instant.


    The ground beneath them froze solid as if they had been transported to the pr regions.


    Had Kaylen been unprotected, without channeling his aura, he would have been frozen solid within moments.


    “Fire Shield.”


    But now, he had his mana suit.


    Kaylen’s thoughts shed back to Myorn’s warning:


    “The mana suit I modified… it won’tst long.”


    He could almost hear her voice again.


    “I didn’t have enough time, so I just patched together what was avable. If you weren’t a Swordmaster, I would never have let you wear it. Its stability is abysmal—it could break down at any moment.”


    The mana suit had sacrificed everything for raw power.


    Kaylen knew he had to treat the suit as if it might fail at any second. Every battle with it was a race against time.


    “That means this has to be a short fight.”


    He observed the flow of mana around him.


    Centered on Princess Violet, an overwhelming wave of ice mana expanded outward, sweeping through everything in its path.


    “She might not be able to control the output, but… she doesn’t need to.”


    The sheer force of cia’s power wasn’t concentrated. It spread equally in all directions, creating an omnipresent field of icy dominance.


    It was the same as when she had fought against Lioness—her power was vast and unrelenting, rather than precise.


    Yet even without focus, the transcendence of cia’s strength was undeniable.


    Kaylen could already see the frost creeping toward him, extending its domain at an rming rate.


    It wasn’t just a matter of advancing toward her; even holding back her overwhelming power seemed nearly impossible.


    “Still… right now, this is when she’s weakest.”


    The longer the fight dragged on, the more mana cia would unleash, and the freezing power would only intensify.


    If he was going to challenge her, the moment was now.


    “Six des—Unleash.”


    Kaylen summoned the power of his six elemental des, channeling his aura to activate them.


    From the six—fire, water, wind, light, darkness, and earth—he chose three.


    Fire. Light. And Darkness.


    The chosen des resonated, their energies linking to Kaylen’s mana suit.


    “ze.”


    “Sunlight.”


    The mes that erupted this time were far stronger than before, bolstered by the unleashed power of the Six des.


    Encased in zing light, the temperature around Kaylen surged dramatically.


    His mana suit now glowed with two distinct hues—one half a fiery red, the other a radiant white.


    Fire and light merged, much like when he had used his lightning magic earlier.


    “Now, let’s add darkness to this… to create an undying me.”


    Although Kaylen had never studied dark magic formally, he could still manipte the mana to infuse it into his spell.


    The destructive and sinister attribute of darkness blended with the mes.


    Whoosh.


    The roaring fire diminished.


    What had once been an inferno that shot skyward now barely reached above Kaylen’s head, reduced to a contained, flickering me.


    Even with the light of the sun imbued in it, the fire seemed smaller, weaker.


    [What…?!]


    But cia’s power couldn’t pierce the strange me.


    The ground beneath Kaylen’s feet, far from freezing, began to melt under the intense heat.


    [“Ice Field!”]


    Princess Violet hastily invoked another spell, amplifying cia’s power.


    Yet—


    Step. Step.


    Kaylen walked forward, unwavering, the eerie me still in his grasp.


    [What is that fire…?!]


    From the outside, the me appeared white-hot, glowing with an almost divine purity. But at its core, it burned ck—a dark, mysterious energy radiating from within.


    Fire, light, and darkness—an unnatural and destructive harmony.


    The sh of the three attributes—fire, light, and darkness—created a spell of immense power, each force colliding and feeding into the other.


    “It’s iplete… but I can manage a crude imitation.”


    A grand spell: Hellfire.


    An eternally burning me, known as the fire of the underworld.


    Kaylencked the incantation, and his understanding of the necessary magic circles was woefully insufficient.


    Yet, the memory lingered. During his time as Emperor, he had once stood against a demon lord, enduring the full force of Hellfire.


    Its unique flow of mana and distinct properties had been seared into his mind.


    Light and dark mana constantly shing, their conflict fueling the fire’s mana, allowing it to burn endlessly…


    The struggle to extinguish that eternal me had nearly cost him his life.


    But because he remembered that battle vividly, he could at least mimic it now.


    Step.


    Step.


    Kaylen walked forward, wielding the hellish me.


    His steps were deliberate and heavy, the effort to maintain the fire evident in every move. Yet, he pressed on, undeterred.


    As he advanced, the frozen world around him began to melt.


    The sight caused Princess Violet’s expression to harden.


    Her cial domain, which had effortlessly consumed the arena, was dissolving with every step Kaylen took.


    The me he carried, while imperfect, was undeniably destructive.


    The sh of opposing forces within the fire—light, dark, and me—made it vtile, but also unstoppable.


    Kaylen’s pace was slow, but it was steady. Each step ate away at cia’s frostbitten terrain.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    Princess Violet’s lips tightened into a thin line, the weight of the situation dawning on her.


    She had underestimated him.


    [Trantor - Kiteretsu]


    [Proofreader - Kyros]