Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 148
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Summoning Genius at the Necromancer Academy — Episode 148
Erzsebet’s cry went unanswered. She drew a deep breath, about to spread her webs across the vault, when—
“Wait.”
Kazan stopped her in her tracks.
[What is it?]
“Francesca doesn’t seem to be here.”
He strode forward, as if he’d noticed something.
At the far end of the Secret Hazardous Materials Vault stood a single table, its surface marked with layers of Security Magic residue. But what should have been resting there was gone—the surface lay empty.
Kazan bent close, studying the vacant space with fierce concentration. He was pulling out measuring tapes and various tools, trying to deduce what had originally occupied that spot.
[Master!]
Erzsebet, who had been examining the magical circle etched into the wall, ran over to Simon and made her report.
[The magical circle looks like it was installed at least a day ago!]
“She set up her traps and fled,” Kazan murmured.
“We’ve been outmaneuvered.”
Kazan looked up as he spoke.
“She never entered the Secret Hazardous Materials Vault to begin with. And more importantly—she had a Plan B in case all four Desolator charges failed to detonate. Seems like even you couldn’t foresee that future.”
“……!”
The blood drained from Simon’s face. The Priest’s threat of mass murder wasn’t over after all.
“What on earth did she take?”
“Prima Materia.”
Kazan answered without hesitation.
“It’s fiendishly complex, but in simple terms—it’s a device that can generate endless quantities of aberrant monsters.”
“You don’t mean she’s going to—”
“Attack Kizen with it, yes.”
Kazan’s eyes shifted to his wristwatch.
“By now, Francesca’s barrier will be more than halfway complete. Once it reaches one hundred percent, even faculty-level mages will need time to breach it. In that window, the Prima Materia’s monsters will slaughter every first-year student trapped behind that barrier.”
“We have to stop her. No matter what.”
Simon’s jaw clenched as he spoke. Kazan nodded grimly.
“I have a theory about where Francesca means to use that device. Come with me.”
“Right!”
* * *
At that same moment, Merin—having dealt with her assigned Desolator—arrived at the Learning Hall, the final location.
The classroom door burst open.
She stepped inside, her eyes sweeping the space.
‘Huh?’
The plant-form monsters that should have been guarding the Desolator lay scattered across the floor, either shredded to pieces or withered to husks.
Merin assessed the situation in seconds.
‘Someone beat me here. Kamibarez? Or…’
Glass exploded in a shower of shards.
A figure came crashing through the window and tumbled into the classroom.
Merin jumped back in alarm. The man who picked himself up in an awkward heap had a face she recognized instantly.
“Ow—what the hell! There’s a perfectly good door right there!”
“The situation required haste.”
Dick, playing spy with unsettling enthusiasm, adjusted Kazan’s glasses and scanned the room. The plants were all dead, but the Desolator was nowhere to be found.
“I was sure I’d be first. Did you handle it?”
“Not me. If not you, then Kamibarez must have arrived first.”
“Fair enough.”
Dick removed the glasses and slipped them into his pocket.
“So that takes care of all the Desolators?”
Merin nodded in agreement.
The three of them had split up, each taking a location. If Kamibarez had cleared hers first, then all four bombs were now neutralized.
“Yes!”
Dick threw both arms in the air.
“We saved Kizen!”
“Don’t… don’t get ahead of yourself. We can’t afford to drop our guard yet.”
Merin exhaled slowly, pressing her fingers to her temples.
Simon and Kazan still had to bring down Francesca. Until that was done, there was no room for complacency.
“Actually, I just had a rather fundamental question.”
Merin folded her arms across her chest.
“Simon and Kazan. How are two first-years supposed to bring down a Necromancer of senior instructor rank or above?”
Dick shrugged.
“Simon has Special Exception Grade 1, and besides—Kazan is genuinely strong.”
“That person?”
“Yeah. This is classified, but word is that not a single person who encountered Kazan on last year’s Survival Island made it out alive.”
He lowered his voice, speaking with an eerie tone.
“The second-years know him from last year’s undefeated tournament record. And when you consider he’s a Repeating Student—rare in Kizen—and belongs to the Thief Guild, doesn’t that paint a picture? He’s definitely a professional Necromancer who infiltrated Kizen on a mission!”
…….
Merin couldn’t swallow all of Dick’s claims wholesale, but if even part of what he said held truth, this pairing might very well be the combination most capable of bringing down Francesca in Kizen as it stood now.
After all, only students, minions, and junior instructors lacking real experience remained in Kizen.
“All right. Then we do what we can do.”
“What’s that?”
“Seize control of the Broadcasting Center and alert the students to the danger. Since we’ve eliminated all the Desolators, monitoring the situation and issuing warnings should be manageable.”
Merin sensed that the danger was far from over.
She was troubled by how carelessly the Desolators had been deployed for what was supposed to be a terrorist operation targeting Kizen itself.
It felt like a gamble—the attitude of someone who didn’t care whether it succeeded or failed. She became convinced that Francesca’s true plan lay elsewhere entirely.
Dick clapped his hands together at her words.
“Oh, I hadn’t thought of that!”
“Come on, move. If we can’t persuade the Broadcasting Center’s minions, we’ll subdue them by force and take over.”
“Okay!”
The two rushed out of the lecture hall and building, sprinting toward the Broadcasting Center. Across the campus, students bustled about preparing for the next class, filling the air with chatter as they moved between buildings.
“Hey, Merin! Don’t you think we’re actually pretty cool right now?”
Dick spoke with an excited face.
“While the other students go about their ordinary days, a major incident is actually lurking beneath the school! And here we are, moving on the request of agents to resolve that very incident! This feels like being a real secret agent and…….”
Thunk.
Dick’s words cut off abruptly. Merin, too caught up in her own running and shouting at him to stop his nonsense, didn’t notice.
Dick’s eyes lost their focus. He veered sideways and found himself walking alone into a narrow alley.
“You were telling quite an interesting story~”
Standing in the alley was a female student with ivory-colored hair, smiling brightly.
Dick, with a feather protruding from the nape of his neck, found his expression going slack the moment he saw her.
“You’re the friend who goes around with Simon, aren’t you?”
“Y-yes!”
“Would you like to secretly tell me what that major incident is?”
Serne, hands clasped together, tilted her head with an adorable wink and made her request.
Dick, his expression as if entranced, bobbed his head up and down enthusiastically.
* * *
“Hah! Hah!”
Kamibarez was running toward the north side of Kizen, beads of sweat rolling down her face.
As she ran, she skimmed through just a few passages of the diary.
Even that much made her skin crawl. Francesca had been a Priest of the Sacred Federation, and she was planning to destroy Kizen.
The knowledge that everyone’s lives now depended on her left her breathless even as she forced herself to keep moving.
Crash!
“Oof!”
Running heedlessly forward, she let out a brief cry and fell hard on her backside, bouncing backward after colliding with something invisible.
She scrambled to her feet and scanned the area, only to find a translucent, reddish, solid-seeming barrier blocking her path through the empty air.
Whether she probed it with her palms or tried to run around it, the barrier covered a wide area without gaps, severing all connection to the outside world completely.
“No…….”
She stepped back, her expression growing grave.
“Please……!”
She clenched her fists and unleashed a torrent of Blood Magic. But the barrier did not break. It didn’t even shake. Not a single crack. There was no sign it would shatter at all.
“Let me through!”
She gathered the Darkness into her small fists and struck—Bang! Bang! Bang!—pounding with her hands, kicking with her feet, hurling herself at it with her head, doing everything she could. Yet the barrier remained unbroken.
“Why…….”
She collapsed before the barrier, sinking to her knees.
“Why can’t I ever do anything but run away?”
A crushing sense of helplessness seized her.
Even now, Simon, Dick, and Merin were each performing their assigned roles, fighting earnestly.
She was always anxious. Sometimes, even when the four of them laughed and chattered together affably, those three felt impossibly distant to her.
Simon was someone who shone by his very existence, no matter where or when. Merin was brilliant and seemed like a superhuman who could do anything effortlessly. Dick used his own strengths decisively and pulled his weight in any situation.
Over the next three years, those three seemed capable of pushing through any obstacle that came their way.
But she was not like them.
She was good at nothing and unstable. There was the anxiety that she might not belong among them, and the worry that they would eventually abandon her as she fell behind, soaring to greater heights without her.
She clenched her fists tight.
She refused to despair like this any longer.
Staggering upright, she stared at the barrier with bloodshot, reddened eyes.
—How lamentable.
A voice, hazy as mist, echoed through her mind.
—Noble blood flows in your veins, yet you inherited the fragile body of your mother.
—Such precious blood wasted in a half-born creature. Heaven is indifferent indeed.
—Your frail flesh will never bear the weight of that power. You will wither and fade.
—If it were otherwise, there might have been hope.
—The age of decline. We live in its shadow.
Thud.
She began removing her clothes. Her school uniform jacket fell onto the grass.
—My daughter.
Among the countless voices, the voice of a great being made itself heard.
—This is your mother’s wish. From this moment, I shall seal your blood to protect you.
She unbuttoned her shirt and pulled it aside. Between her chest and navel, a crimson magic circle drawn in blood became visible.
She drew a deep breath and pressed her palm against the magic circle.
—The blood I passed to you will ultimately be your death. There is no other way for you to survive.
Having steeled herself, she inhaled sharply and, with all her strength, twisted the magic circle to the side.
Click!
As the magic circle rotated, the blood throughout her body began to roil like molten lava.
“Ugh!”
She staggered.
The seal broke, and reddish magical power surged from her body. Tears of blood dripped from her crimson eyes. Wracked by the agony of her entire form tearing apart and reassembling itself, she screamed in torment and pressed herself against the barrier.
Then she opened her mouth and drove her fangs hard into the barrier.
Crack!
The barrier, which had not yielded to any assault, suddenly bore a small puncture. The tips of her fangs gradually bored deeper into it.
She pressed her entire body against it and forced greater power into her fangs. As they drove deeper, the barrier cracked like glass, fracturing in a spider’s web across its surface.
“Aaaaaaaa!”
Crack-crack! Crack! Crack-crack!
The fissures in the barrier widened until at last—
Shatter!
The barrier shattered around her fangs, opening a hole. The moment Kamibarez passed through it, the barrier restored itself, returning without a trace to its original state.
“Hah! Hah!”
She stared ahead, her crimson eyes wide with intensity.
‘Please, let them all be safe!’
Cradling Ren’s diary to her chest, she released a wash of crimson aura across her body. The small wings attached to her back suddenly bloomed like they had drunk blood, expanding to tremendous size.
In the next instant, she launched herself from the ground and began flying through the sky at tremendous speed.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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