Magic Academy Mayhem: A Class Full of Maniacs - Chapter 37

Chapter 37

Cynthia and her four teammates analyzed their opponents’ advantages and openings based on how the match was unfolding, then discussed how they should coordinate if they ever found themselves at a disadvantage.

Time slipped by.

Another half hour passed before the match finally ended with a narrow victory for Tinglan Academy’s Wind Feather Team, bringing the day’s competitions to a complete close.

After the referee’s voice rang out, Lomita subconsciously glanced toward the corner of the very last row of the spectator stands.

Cynthia’s gaze had already been resting on the arena.

Their eyes met. Cynthia smiled at her.

Then she mouthed silently, “You were amazing.”

They were far apart, but Lomita still understood what she had said.

Feeling strangely awkward, she hurriedly looked away.

Then she gave herself a vicious scolding in her heart.

Had she lost her mind? Why had she looked over there…?

Anyone who didn’t know better would think they were close or something.

Fino noticed her movement and frowned slightly. “Since when did you become friends with her?”

It was obvious who she meant.

Lomita gave a cold snort. “What’s it to you? I’m not telling you.”

With that, she turned and walked off the arena. Her four teammates exchanged bewildered looks, then quickly followed after her.

“…”

Fino turned slightly and glanced at the red-haired girl in the corner of the stands.

A moment later, she withdrew her gaze and left the arena.

…At least her current state was much easier on the eyes than the gloomy, taciturn version in her memories.
The first day of matches ended amid the crowd’s cheers.

Cynthia and the others were finally able to leave the island.

After exchanging a token “see you tomorrow” with her teammates, Cynthia returned to the dormitory.

By the time she finished washing up, it was only 10:23 p.m.

Still early.

Cynthia simply took out the magic formula exercise book Griffin had sent her a few days earlier and began reviewing the mistakes, organizing them separately.

The composition of a magic circle was closely tied to formulas, and the amount of magic power it consumed was far greater than an ordinary magical attack.

Cynthia flipped to a blank page in her book and began practicing drawing magic circles on the paper.

As long as there was a detailed explanation, Cynthia could teach herself ordinary magic.

Unfortunately, magic circles were on an entirely different level of difficulty from other basic magic.

Although Griffin had already taught the content related to magic circles three times, she still had yet to fully grasp it.

The difficulty of magic circles lay in the fact that the trajectory of the runes, the nodes, the lines, and the infusion of energy all had to be one hundred percent precise.

On top of that, even the most basic magic circle required arranging a combination of the Triple Star Array and formulas. Cynthia failed at the final step every time.

This time was no exception.

The quill snapped again.

Cynthia stared at the failed array, which had automatically collapsed into a chaotic mess of lines, feeling somewhat unconvinced.

She used magic to wash the ruined pattern from the paper, then started drawing again.

After repeating the process more than a dozen times, it was already three-thirty in the morning.

Considering that she had a match tomorrow, Cynthia decided she would give it one last try and then quit.

Perhaps the heavens had finally taken pity on her, because this time, Cynthia actually succeeded.

Looking at the glowing lines on the paper, joy rose in Cynthia’s heart. But before she could be happy for even two seconds, she belatedly realized that what she had been practicing was… the Dream-Entering Magic Circle.

Before Cynthia could forcibly terminate the circle, her consciousness was swept into a teleportation rift.

The world spun. When her vision cleared again, what entered her sight was a sinister place utterly devoid of even the faintest glimmer of light.

“…”

If she remembered correctly, because this was a relatively basic magic circle, its coverage range was limited.

In other words… this place was probably one of her teammates’ dreams.

With scenery this pitch-black, could it be because the dream consciousness was currently in chaos?
Cynthia tried to force herself out of the dream, only to discover that she couldn’t. Worse, she couldn’t use magic in the dream either. The only thing she could summon was her Spirit Weapon.

…It seemed that when the caster’s realm was higher than hers, she could only wait for the magic circle to lose effect before she could leave.

Cynthia gave up resisting and simply sat down where she was.

After she had stayed there for a dozen minutes or so, bursts of sharp, grating laughter suddenly rose around her.

It was like blades scraping across glass, enough to make anyone’s scalp crawl.

Especially when everything around her was pitch-black. Eternal darkness, paired with the frigid temperature and that shrill laughter, had already reached a level that sent chills down the spine.

Whose dream was this dark?

Cynthia had not intended to pry, but…

She raised a hand and felt the hard, uneven thing beneath her legs.

Judging from the shape, they were bones.

There were more beside her as well. The number was far more than just one set.

Expressionless, Cynthia stood up. With every step she took, there came a crunching sound as bones were crushed beneath her feet.

It was honestly rather eerie.

Staying where she was only filled her with an inexplicable restlessness, so Cynthia simply followed the strange cries and searched in their direction.

She had no idea how long she walked before she finally saw a sliver of light.

After passing through the only thing before her that resembled a “door,” everything around her was still dim, but under the influence of that faint light, she could at least make out the general scene.

And yet, the sight before her made even Cynthia freeze in place, stunned beyond words.

On the other side of the light-door was a cage-like realm as deep as an abyss.

Countless malicious ghosts swarmed and wandered in every direction.

Atop that pale mountain of bones, a young man in white had iron chains nailed through his shoulder blades. Chains carrying a sinister, icy aura pierced through his limbs, every link sunk deep into flesh and embedded in the gaps between his bones.

His head hung low as he knelt atop the mountain of corpses.

His heart had been brutally pierced through by a Dark Iron Bone-Piercing Nail, and the exposed flesh had been gnawed until it was a mangled mess of blood and meat.

The already faint light just so happened to avoid him alone.

The young man’s entire face and body were covered by malicious ghosts with twisted, ferocious expressions, to the point that Cynthia could not make out his features at all.

If not for the scarred chest and abdomen that clearly belonged to a man, Cynthia would have had trouble even telling his gender.

His hair color was concealed by the ghosts and the pitch-black ghostly mist. In that moment, aside from shock, Cynthia also felt somewhat curious as to whose dream this was.

Her Spirit Weapon manifested in her hands. Cynthia had originally intended to eliminate the nearby malicious ghosts, but the instant her twin blades appeared, the dream suddenly began to collapse.

No… rather, the power of the magic circle was about to dissipate.

Of all times, it had to be now…

Just before she completely broke away from the dream, Cynthia seemed to see a pair of blood-red eyes.

There was not the slightest ripple of fear in those eyes, only endless dead silence and cold indifference.

Like a puppet that had already fallen into hell, so calm it chilled her to the bone.

“!”

Cynthia woke with a start.

Her head ached, and at some point her body had broken out in a cold sweat. Cynthia glanced at the messy tabletop, braced herself against the corner of the desk, and stood before walking toward the bathroom.

Only when she was lying in the bathtub, the overheated water rising over her body, did that inexplicable chill finally recede a little.

Cynthia pressed a hand to her temple and tried to recall the scene she had just seen. Yet for some reason, the image, which had never been very clear to begin with, had become even more blurred after she woke.

By now, she could only vaguely remember those blood-red eyes.

Damn it… who was that?

Red eyes. Could it have been Sangmo?

Or someone else in this building?

That scene had been far too real. So real it did not seem like a dream at all, which made Cynthia unable to stop thinking about it.

Unfortunately, in the end, she still could not determine who the person she had seen truly was…