Eps 253 Another Sky (3)
|Note
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Tears welled up in Mark's eyes. However, he did not let them fall.
“We can do it too.”
Maria looked back at Mark, seemingly a little surprised.
“We’ll keep working hard and pushing ourselves. And then, we will definitely challenge senior. We might not be able to win, but we’ll make sure to give it our all so he’ll have to face us. So don’t say such weak things. If you say something like that again, I won’t hang out with you anymore.”
“Mark...”
Iruki smiled faintly and said.
“There’s no such thing as talent in this world.”
Both Mark and Maria turned their heads simultaneously.
“To be exact, there’s no talent you can put a name to. A person with a mental disorder might not be good at math. But they could still become the best painter. Magic is a profession that encompasses every field. Shirone's insight or Dante's information processing skills, those don't guarantee their future. There's no need to envy what others have. If you can elevate what’s yours to the highest level, one day, you too might be able to defeat Shirone.”
“We, we don’t think that way….”
Mark waved his hand with a flushed face. Defeating Shirone? He had never even dreamed of such a thing.
But hearing these words from a genius recognized by the world, his confidence began to rise again.
It was the first time that Iruki felt like a senior.
Dante frowned at the flood of information. The sequence of 0s and 1s flashed through his mind at the speed of light. It was Shirone’s information added to Pascal’s information.
‘I can do it! I’m catching up!’
In the speed contest, Dante began to gain the upper hand. It was the difference between living beings and machines. While a living being’s endurance gradually decreases, Automaton continues to function at full capacity right until it self-destructs.
The students watched as Pascal's offensive magic gradually cornered Shirone. With the radius of Shirone’s teleportation shrinking, it seemed that in ten seconds, he would fall into the range of zero movement.
Still, Sienna couldn’t dare predict the outcome.
Shirone's movements were clearly being restricted, but Dante's mental strength was also nearly depleted.
‘Can Dante hold on?’
Sienna carefully observed the rate at which the gauge was decreasing.
‘He can hold on. At this rate, Dante will win.’
Sienna also had some hopes for Shirone's victory, but Dante clearly deserved to win. Especially considering Automaton’s responsiveness, it was a force strong enough to be effective even among professionals.
Five seconds. Four seconds.
The moment of Shirone's checkmate was approaching.
The radius of Wind Cutter’s rapid fire was shrinking, and inside Electric Mansion, the fully charged 100% volt was waiting to be unleashed.
The moment when Shirone’s movements would be completely blocked had arrived.
Dante instantly found the address of the Electric Cannon in the matrix of memory and transmitted it to Pascal.
‘Now!’
The moment Dante thinks so.
‘Now!’
Shirone also thought the same thing.
As the energy of the Electric Cannon filled the mansion, a flash of light focused in front of Shirone's eyes.
Dante sneered. No matter how powerful Photon Cannon was, the fully powered Electric Cannon would destroy even that and dominate the space.
At that moment, Shirone cast his ultimate magic.
Shining Impact!
Compressed photons, unified in polarization direction, exploded.
Then, Dante’s mind, which had been filled with 1s and 0s, was suddenly overwhelmed with information consisting only of 1s.
The simplest yet impossible-to-process amount of information.
As Pascal overloaded, Automaton came to a momentary halt. The students were shocked. Shirone had caused the system to short-circuit by triggering an explosion of light that paralyzed Dante’s system.
It was a strategy that wouldn’t work twice. It was clear that Shirone had saved this one opportunity for precisely this moment.
Dante's mind was as blank as Shining Impact. For a process that handled thousands of operations per second, the nearly one-second gap in calculations was fatal.
Dante covered his face with both arms. It was impossible to even predict what kind of attack would be launched.
But Shirone didn’t move. As he focused his mind, a brilliant light was born in front of him, drawing a massive circle. It was Halo, the angel's magic circle which he had become skilled at through lifting training.
Nade jumped up and shouted.
“Ataraxia!”
It was the appearance of a technique that could be called Shirone's signature ultimate technique. However, Nade soon made a puzzled expression.
Even if the halo was complete, information accumulation was a separate matter. Since it required a full minute, it wasn’t yet practical for real combat.
Iruki said with a frown.
"The worst move."
As Nade agreed in silence, Iruki continued speaking.
"But it's also the only move. He has done everything he can. If he doesn't activate Ataraxia now, there won't be another chance."
Dante barely managed to hold onto his fading consciousness. He never expected that an explosion of light would paralyze the system.
But there are no more opportunities.
Shirone, too, had exhausted all his strategies and was merely struggling with his last bit of strength. As Automaton regained functionality, the mansions turned toward Shirone in unison.
Despite the ominous magic circle looming above him, Shirone focused on constructing Halo. The pale flash of light traced a large trajectory based on pi, returning to its starting point. Finally, the Halo, the embodiment of the angel's spirit, stood like a shield in front of Shirone.
"Ugh! What is this!"
Boyle clutched his head and cried out in pain. The perception of a summoning mage differs from that of other mages. For someone who could easily detect even a one-millimeter error, the perfectly formed halo was a violent assault on his senses.
Iruki sensed this intuitively when he saw Boyle's condition. It was an impact occurring on a microscopic level, beyond what human senses could distinguish.
To him, there was no discernible difference between a regular circle and a perfect circle. But what about Dante, who could instinctively read information entropy?
“Gahhh!”
Just as Iruki had guessed, Dante was in intense pain with the veins on his neck popping out. The mental shock was so severe that even Pascal’s functionality was significantly reduced.
‘Damn it! Why is this happening all of a sudden? What the hell is that circle?’
Iruki held onto a glimmer of hope. It was clear that Shirone had calculated all of this and triggered Ataraxia accordingly.
But would this be enough?
Boyle was already recovering from the shock, ironically because of his low level.
Amy recalled what had happened in Heaven.
'I see. So then Baalb....'
Ataraxia is a form that delivers a much more powerful impact to those at higher levels.
She finally understood why two-horned Mara had been forced to retreat in front of Shirone’s Ataraxia in heaven.
So, in this scenario, who would be suffering the most from the appearance of the Halo?
Amy turned her gaze to Olivia. As expected, her shoulders were trembling.
‘What on earth is that...’
Olivia bit her lip.
Being at the pinnacle of human sensory perception, when she saw the Halo, she almost lost consciousness for a moment.
Though she managed to hold on with the mental strength of arcmage, but at her level, a momentary lapse is fatal. The level Shirone had achieved was far beyond what should be possible for a human.
‘This is a circle that cannot be created with human abilities. What is he trying to put into this space that can hold the entire world?’
The concept of Ataraxia began to assemble within the Halo.
From the outer edge of the halo, beams of light of various colors rained down like a shower, imprinting ripples across the magic circle.
Olivia thought that phenomenon was nonsense.
According to her understanding, it's impossible for information to enter the magic circle from the outside. The speed at which information was being condensed was approaching the speed of light, causing an optical illusion in human vision.
'That doesn’t make sense...'
Olivia's eyes were filled with shock as she came to a realization. If the rate of information integration truly approached the speed of light, then any magic circle should be completed in less than a second. Yet, more than 10 seconds had passed, and instead of being finished, the speed was accelerating.
That's dangerous.
Dante reached the same conclusion. The assembly of such a massive concept—if left unchecked, he would lose the upper hand he'd worked so hard to secure.
"I can't let that happen."
Dante activated the Electric Mansion. The sound of wood splintering filled the air as white and blue electricity crackled forth.
Shirone quickly leaped out of the way. Ataraxia was not even halfway complete, and now Automaton had fully regained its functionality, resuming its barrage.
Amy furrowed her brow in frustration. As expected, using it in actual combat was too much. In the end, the last chance Shirone had gained with Shining Impact was wasted.
"Huh?"
At that moment, Amy's eyes sparkled. Iruki and Nade also looked at Halo with expressions of disbelief.
Information continued to accumulate in the Halo. But that was impossible. Shirone was still flying around, dodging the barrage of attacks.
"What? What's going on?"
Iruki's head spun quickly. Was it really possible to use teleportation and operate a magic circle at the same time? Shirone wasn’t a Savant, nor could he use Pascal like Dante.
'It's definitely a parallel circuit. No, is it just appearing to be parallel?'
At that moment, a flash of insight crossed his mind.
“That’s it!”
“Iruki, what's going on?"
When Amy asked with a surprised expression, Iruki couldn't contain his excitement and shouted.
"Time division! He's using time division."
Only then did Nade realize this and smacked his knee.
"Ah! Of course! With that, it's possible!"
"Time division? Does that mean Senior Shirone can use two spells at once?"
"He's splitting the computation by time units. He’s rapidly switching between the omniscience of A and the omniscience of B at an incredibly fast pace. Like ABABABAB. It creates the illusion that two magics are being cast simultaneously."
Mark gaped. Even on Uncrossable Bridge, he could split time into ten thousandths, but switching between two omniscience was on a completely different level of difficulty. It was something only someone with Shirone’s sharp insight, beyond mere knowledge, could achieve.
For the first time since the battle began, Olivia felt a rush of excitement.
Attempting time division. This was an extremely rare skill even among high-ranking mages on the front line.
'Does thin mean Shirone is evolving, just like the rest of us?' (‘진화하는 건 시로네도 마찬가지라는 건가?’)
Olivia shot a sharp glance at Alpheas, then blinked in surprise.
A violent energy was rushing across Alpheas's expression. His grin stretched from ear to ear, practically ripping open.
'Kekekeke. Shirone, now you're starting to act like yourself.'
Even Alpheas hadn’t expected Shirone to attempt time division. He felt like giving him a standing ovation.
When he first heard about Ataraxia, he estimated it would take at least four years for Shirone to be able to use it in battle. Even at best, that’s how long the training should take.
But Shirone had done it in just four months.
Using time division would slow down the rate of information accumulation by about half, but compared to having to spend an entire minute defenseless while building the magic circle, this wasn’t even a drawback.
More than anything, Alpheas wanted to see how powerful it would be. Just imagining the destructive power of information accumulated at the speed of light for more than two minutes sent jolts of electricity through his body.
'A little more, just a little more…!'
Shirone strained every nerve to switch the omniscience. Time division felt like juggling with his thoughts. If she missed even a moment of the afterimage of her memory, everything would go down the drain.
Dodging Dante’s attacks in such a state was no easy task. But he couldn’t lose. He didn’t care about being called the best in the kingdom. If he didn’t defeat Dante here, he felt like he would never be able to move forward again.
Dante was so nervous that his heart was about to burst. Automaton seemed close to catching Shirone but couldn’t quite manage it.
'Shit! What the hell is going on?'
When on earth does that magic circle activate?
If he could at least figure that out, he could form a strategy, but even with his specialization in information magic, he couldn’t decipher the bizarre concept behind it. It didn't make sense that such a combination was possible, but more than anything, the size of the information was simply too large.
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