Despite the bright, sunny weather, a dense fog blanketed the surroundings.
Ellin warily stared at the mist encircling her before suddenly flinching in surprise.
“Mila?”
A boy wearing overalls and a beret emerged through the fog.
The boy looked over Ellin’s miserable state, swallowed a groan, then extended a hand toward her where she had fallen.
─As your Contracted Spirit, I am sorry I could not appear sooner.
Although he had taken human form, the boy called Mila was the Intermediate Earth Spirit contracted to Ellin.
She had been calling for him inwardly for some time, but when he failed to appear, she had assumed the Barrier was preventing him from reaching her……
And now, after showing no sign of himself until this moment, he suddenly emerged from the fog?
Spirits did not possess fixed appearances.
They only assumed human forms to accommodate their contractors.
Before becoming a Spirit, Mila had apparently been a massive Earth Dragon.
After reminding Ellin of that fact, Mila immediately began grumbling.
─I intended to appear the moment you were endangered, but that person insisted on observing the situation first, which delayed me.
His archaic manner of speaking, so mismatched with his youthful appearance, was also a product of his true age.
Despite his appearance, Mila was a Spirit who had lived for at least several centuries.
Ellin nodded for the moment, then turned her attention elsewhere.
‘That person?’
As though answering her question, an animal slowly moved through the fog.
No.
A horse.
It looked down at her with solemn dignity.
“Who are you?”
─There are beasts ravaging my mountain. Are they yours?
The Spirit simply continued speaking, apparently uninterested in anyone else’s questions.
Ellin’s face immediately twisted.
“What the hell?”
She glared at the horse before her.
It had assumed the shape of a horse, but its entire body was composed of water.
As though its form had been sculpted from clear lake water, its transparent body reflected everything like a mirror.
That included the sunlight, which shone brilliantly from within its body.
But the light did not last long before dimming away.
They were surrounded by dense fog. There was nowhere for sunlight to penetrate from.
Yet the way the light continued glowing within the creature until the final moment before fading was both extraordinarily beautiful and strangely sinister.
The moisture in the air made everything feel damp as well.
There was something almost taboo about it.
A sense of sublimity and fear of the unknown crept over Ellin at the same time.
‘And what am I supposed to do about that?’
“…The Demon Wolves? You’re asking if they belong to me? I almost died because of them!”
Having lost all restraint, Ellin immediately spat out the barbed response.
Mila rubbed a hand over his face as though he had expected exactly this.
“What kind of nonsense is that? If you had any sense, you wouldn’t say something so ridic—”
─Ellin, I ask that you moderate your language. Please, grant me this request.
Mila sounded so earnestly pleading that Ellin stared at him.
Her gaze seemed to ask why he was being so deferential.
─Then they are not yours.
It was the deep voice of an adult woman.
There was no chance Mila would speak in such a voice, so it clearly belonged to the mare.
Thinking that, Ellin turned toward the mare and furrowed her brow.
─You will die before long.
“Ah, yes. Thank you so very much for telling me. It’s not like you’ve done anything to hel—”
─However, if those creatures are not yours, there should be no issue with killing them. Yet if I personally attempt to punish them, there is the troublesome possibility that my territory will be flooded.
Throughout their conversation, the Spirit had done nothing but move the fog around her.
But gradually, her presence began to swell.
It continued growing until she became something terrifying beyond measure.
Only then did the mare regard herself with apparent satisfaction as she spoke.
─Half-breed who is neither Witch nor Elf. If you become my hands and feet and dispose of those worthless beasts in my stead, I shall gladly lend you my own hands and feet.
“Who are you?”
At Ellin’s wary attempt to draw a boundary between them, the mare merely stared down as though demanding that Ellin answer her question instead.
Furious at the gaze that seemed to say her own question was not even worth answering, Ellin bit down on her lip.
‘I need to survive, but I also have to save Senior… and everyone else.’
And to do that…….
After going in circles, she ultimately had no choice but to rely on this suspicious mare.
‘Mila seems to vouch for her, so maybe she’s safe.’
Ellin had never heard of this Spirit.
She still seemed extremely suspicious, but considering how deferential Mila was toward her, she did not appear outright malicious.
‘Though she definitely seems like she has ulterior motives.’
“Fine. I’ll get rid of them for you… so lend me your power.”
Having obtained the answer she wanted, the mare sank into the fog and gradually dispersed like smoke.
─Very well, my new contractor. My name is Elise. I am the ancient ruler of the territory you call the Imperial Capital, and the lord who, according to Radon’s arrangement, lent this domain to the rustic Donapart.
“What?”
Donapart was both the name of the Imperial Capital and the name of the Emperor.
Rustic?
Just as Ellin was about to demand an explanation for that absurd statement, the mist cleared and the forest returned.
When she looked behind her, she found the wolves torn to pieces and scattered across the ground.
The moment she returned, Ellin was greeted by the revolting sight and immediately covered her nose.
The metallic stench of entrails.
Organs spilling across the ground like liquefied Slimes.
A texture that looked as though it would squish beneath the slightest touch.
Their wet, glistening surfaces.
Every part of the sight inspired instinctive revulsion.
Ellin suppressed another wave of nausea rising through her throat and forced herself to stand.
“That damned mare. Did she really have to cut them up this badly……?”
The wounds had clearly been made by blades, but Ellin did not have the stomach to inspect the corpses closely.
Because of that, she mistakenly assumed the arrogant Spirit had done it.
Which resulted in Ellin grumbling under her breath.
Then she suddenly raised her head.
“Senior. I have to find Senior… No.”
Senior must have escaped safely.
She had to have.
‘I can’t even find her in here without a medium.’
Then where would Aisel have gone after escaping?
‘The clearing.’
She would definitely have headed toward the clearing.
In that case, Ellin needed to go there as well.
That was where they would meet.
“I need to get to the clearing.”
She had to save the students.
It was not as though Ellin was particularly close to any of them.
She had always existed somewhat apart from the others, and while no one openly shunned her, she was not oblivious to the subtle distance they kept.
Even so…….
‘That’s still different from standing by while they die right beside me.’
This was simply universal human compassion.
A person might care more about a scratch on their own hand than the death of a stranger far away, but that did not mean they could simply look away from a massacre happening right before their eyes.
Even if she had no relationship with those people, she still wanted them not to die.
Because she did not want to bear the moral burden of knowing that she had seen it happen and chosen to do nothing.
Because that frightened her.
With what little breath she could scrape together, Ellin forced herself toward the clearing.
Her hair was twisted like seaweed, while the dirt she had picked up rolling across the ground clung to her sweat.
Her clothes were soaked through and stuck unpleasantly against her skin.
The clammy sensation only worsened her discomfort.
She wanted to wash.
She wanted to sleep.
She wanted to rest.
“Urgh. Ha… Haah.”
Every breath made her lungs ache as though holes had been punched through them.
Wiping the tears gathering around her eyes, she slowly continued forward one step at a time.
Please.
Let the worst thing she could imagine not have happened.
It did not take long for that hope to shatter.
GRRRRRR—
A wolf.
The leader, the one that had previously watched from atop the rise with seeming disinterest.
Now it personally stood before her, baring its fangs.
But something about its appearance was abnormal.
Its immense size, as large as two adult men put together.
Its massive frame.
The thick pelt around its neck that resembled a mane.
None of those things held Ellin’s attention.
Only one thing did.
‘One of its forelegs is gone.’
The place where its right forepaw should have been was completely empty, as though someone had severed it.
The leader limped as well, suggesting that it had suffered other wounds.
These were no minor injuries.
Hovering on the very edge of what could be called fatal wounds, the leader released a threatening growl.
“So you were running away.”
There was no need to ask from whom.
There were not many people capable of reducing it to such a state.
The face of that insufferable blond professor appeared in her mind.
‘That professor may be irritating, but…….’
“You irritated me even more. Good. That arrogant attitude of yours… I wanted to crush it myself.”
Ellin slowly drew up a stream of water.
“Let’s see which one of us dies. You damned wolf bastard.”
The timid Ellin from moments before had long since vanished.
Her fighting spirit surged.
Watching the scene from a distance, the blond-haired man… no, I squeezed my eyes shut.
Ellin had begun fighting the Demon Wolf for no particular reason.
It was not strange for her to fight after encountering it, but the intensity of her aggression was unusual.
Did she know I was here?
Still, unless I injured it that blatantly, it would not yet have been an opponent Ellin could handle.
I rubbed a hand down my face.
“Is this because of me?”
The wolves were stronger than they should have been.
Originally, only the leader was supposed to be a Demon Wolf, while the rest were ordinary wolves.
Instead, every last one of them had become a Demon Wolf.
And the leader among them was a Chimera.
It was obvious who had tampered with them.
The Heretic Mages.
If I had left things alone, everyone except Ellin truly would have died.
Perhaps even Ellin herself might have been in danger.
I watched the streams of water spraying through the air in the distance.
Ellin had successfully completed her contract with the Guardian of Spirit Mountain.
The sight brought me relief, but my thoughts remained tangled.
Elise, the High-Ranking Spirit.
Born a High Spirit, she had ruled this land as its true master for more than a thousand years.
Spirits wandered from place to place regardless of rank.
They did so to maintain the circulation of nature.
But an exceedingly small number refused that duty and settled permanently in one location.
A Spirit that remained in one place and continuously infused that region with its own energy—
Within the territory saturated by their energy, such Spirits could draw out power a full degree purer than other Spirits of the same rank.
Because of that, Spirit Summoners classified them as existing between Supreme Spirits and High Spirits and gave them the designation High-Ranking Spirit.
Elise was a High-Ranking Spirit who had ruled this land since before the Imperial Capital became the Imperial Capital.
She would undoubtedly provide Ellin with exponential growth, but…….
“Still, without the trigger, she’s weak.”
Merely obtaining a fortuitous encounter was not enough to complete the process.
If Ellin was truly going to become the Spirit Summoner from the original story who commanded ten thousand Spirits by herself, this was nowhere near sufficient.
“So she really did need to see that scene.”
The sight awaiting her when she reached the clearing full of hope—
Her companions reduced to meals for the wolves.
Ellin’s Awakening was only completed by using that despair as fertilizer to ignite her rage.
And I had prevented it.
Judging by her current state, Ellin was barely scratching the surface of Elise’s power, much less drawing it out properly.
It would be fair to say that her Awakening was only half-complete.
Below the required threshold.
If that was the case, there was no way Ellin could perform as she had in the original story during the tunnel incident that would come later.
Countless Monsters would burst through the academy grounds from underground.
It would be the first clear signal that the academy itself was being deliberately targeted, as well as the first blatant move by the Heretic Mages.
Together with the Monsters pouring out of the Snowfield Magic Tower, they would launch a two-pronged offensive, plunging the academy into an unprecedented crisis.
In the original story, the awakened Ellin commanded an army of Spirits and fought alongside the professors to stop it.
“That’s impossible right now.”
Ellin’s Awakening was incomplete.
Even if she gradually learned to use her new abilities properly, there was no reason to believe she would fully catch up before the tunnel incident.
In that case, the gap left by her missing strength……
“I’ll have to fill it.”
Because I was the one who twisted the original story.
***
Ellin shouted and unleashed streams of water.
Each one struck like a fatal blow, piercing through the leader’s body, yet even with half its head destroyed, the leader continued charging toward her.
It was the effect of being a Chimera.
Its tenacious vitality meant that even destroying half its head was not enough to kill it.
That resilience came at the cost of an unnaturally short lifespan, but…….
‘It’s practically disposable anyway.’
If it displayed overwhelming power in the one battle it needed to win, struggled violently, and then died afterward, that was enough.
The beast charged with all the unrestrained savagery of a wild animal, completely disregarding its own wounds.
Ellin closed her eyes.
She forced her failing body upright.
“Damn it.”
If only she had been a little more accustomed to this power!
She had only just obtained it, so using it effectively was difficult.
And at the most critical moment, she had failed to control it.
When she failed to completely destroy its head and only blew half of it away, the wounded beast roared without restraint and glared at her viciously.
Only then did Ellin realize that her mistaken attack had been the decisive error.
There would be no next chance.
That wolf would use its enormous body to seize her.
Then it would tear her apart.
Ellin closed her eyes.
And before her stood the blond-haired professor, though she had no idea when he had arrived.
He slowly drew his Rapier.
White feathers drifted through the air, as though they could lull the entire world into silence.