Magic Academy Mayhem: A Class Full of Maniacs - Chapter 39

Chapter 39

Although Saise was only the son of a baron, he had been Abel’s childhood study companion-an existence not unlike an attendant.

Everything he did revolved around currying favor with Abel, so naturally he had no reason to care about her status as a Duke’s Daughter.

Besides… these people all knew the original Cynthia wasn’t favored by her family.

Saise had always followed Abel, so of course he knew that lately, Cynthia had been acting as if she’d gone mad, her personality growing stranger by the day. Even so, he still wasn’t used to it.

His brow furrowed tightly. “A piece of trash from the lowest Sequence gets this worked up over a couple of comments?”

His tone was full of disdain.

He had been about to throw out a few harsher insults when, all of a sudden, a half-moon-shaped Lunar Ring emerged from the void.

“Saise, dodge!” a teammate shouted from behind him.

At the warning, Saise’s heart sank. He immediately released a defensive skill.

But the Lunar Ring still sliced across his back, and blood gushed out.

“Gaaah!” He let out a shrill cry of pain.

Eli kicked away the sword coming at him, raised his hand, and recalled the bloodstained Lunar Ring, forcibly driving his opponent back.

Then he glanced sideways at Cynthia and said casually, “He was too noisy. I couldn’t help myself. Sorry.”

He said sorry, but there wasn’t the slightest trace of apology in his voice.

“No, you did well.” Cynthia didn’t mind his sudden intervention.

She swept a glance over Saise, who had been knocked to the ground. With a swing of the scythe in her hand, she was just about to cut him down when white strings carrying a frosty chill yanked him into a safe zone.

At the same time, a melody that sounded half like weeping and half like a ghost’s wail rang out. The demonic energy spreading from the magic transformed into sonic blades that came tearing violently toward them.

Cynthia was forced to stop. Her gaze shifted to the girl in the enemy’s back line.

As expected of someone from the Divine Sequence, her reaction speed really was impressive…

Cynthia condensed her magic and forcibly broke through the sonic blades.

But the music went on without end. If they kept being worn down like this, they would sooner or later fall into a disadvantage.

Vernel raised her hand and condensed arrows, saying coolly, “Leave the enemy captain to me.”

As she spoke, the three arrows she shot split into nine in midair, colliding with the sonic waves above and producing an ear-piercing crack.

The collision of two massive surges of magic whipped up fierce winds across the arena, yet neither of them stopped.

“Soul-Binding Melody!” Anonna, the captain of Lightwing Team, swept her fingertips across the strings and used a Spirit Weapon skill. The melody abruptly plunged downward, turning into a sonic attack that struck directly at the soul.

But she did not stop there. She immediately followed with her second skill-Mixed Sound Conversion.

The music gradually transformed into a sky full of flaming rain, sweeping down under the control of the melody’s track.

The flames bloomed like sacred fire lotuses, dyeing even the clouds at the edge of the sky into rolling waves of bloodred.

Faced with such a fierce attack, Vernel didn’t even blink. She drew a bow in the void.

The arrows shot through the air, and the clear cry of a dragon resounded across the clouds.

Five arrows passed unerringly over everyone else and shot toward Anonna at the very rear.

Although Anonna reacted at once, one of the arrows still pierced straight into the strings.

In an instant, vines coiled around the body of the instrument.

The other four arrows also slammed into the air, transforming into indestructible vines that used Devour on the flames one by one.

The vines were actually immune to fire…

Anonna’s hand trembled slightly, and her expression turned a little more solemn.

Clearly they were low-Sequence… yet they were far stronger than she had imagined.

She had underestimated them.

“Damn it!” Saise, who had been saved by Anonna, hid beside her and said viciously, “They must have used some kind of evil spell!”

Anonna frowned at his words. “Shut up.”

Her voice was slightly cold. “Didn’t I tell you to follow my orders once we were on the field? Why did you go up on your own?”

Saise showed not the slightest bit of remorse. He gave two cold laughs. “Did I ever say I was going to follow your arrangements? I just can’t stand that bitch. Is that a problem? I don’t need you meddling. If you’re so amazing, then win against them yourself. Don’t think you’re so impressive just because your Sequence is high.”
A teammate beside him couldn’t stand listening anymore. “How can you talk like that?!”

Saise didn’t care in the slightest.

Anonna was growing irritated, but there was nothing she could do about a foolish teammate.

Ignoring him, she raised a hand and forcibly used magic to sever the vines covering the body of her zither.

Then, holding the instrument in one hand, she rapidly plucked the strings.

She directly activated her sequence-exclusive ability-Soul Control, which could interfere with and control the mind through sound.

The sound waves now carried an additional layer of spiritual interference. Simply blocking one’s hearing was useless.

Cynthia realized that very quickly.

Anonna’s realm was two stars higher than hers. Even if Cynthia used magic to resist, she couldn’t completely avoid the interference.

The sound stabbed Cynthia’s head with pain, and double images began to appear before her eyes. Beside her, Sangmo suddenly said, “Captain, come closer.”

He rarely spoke on his own initiative. Cynthia didn’t ask any questions and immediately stepped forward.

The moment she approached Sangmo, a swirl of crimson Magic Element wrapped around her entire body. Just as Cynthia was wondering what he planned to do, she suddenly noticed that Anonna’s sonic attack had weakened considerably.

The headache eased somewhat. Only then did Cynthia realize that the magic array he had summoned had already taken shape.

A defensive spell layered with a wide-range control spell.

That speed was already extraordinarily fast.

Cynthia looked toward her teammates. Vernel and the opposing captain, Anonna, were locked in a one-on-one clash.

Eli and Richter were each handling one opponent.

The injured Saise’s bleeding had also been stopped under the treatment of his team’s support mage. At that moment, he was staring darkly in Cynthia’s direction, clearly looking for an opportunity to strike.

If she left Sangmo’s summoning array now, she would definitely be affected by the sound waves again. Cynthia changed her strategy. Since close combat was restricted, she would switch from offense to defense.

The scythe in Cynthia’s hand transformed into a scepter.

She released her second skill-Light Domain.

Cynthia enhanced all four of them at once: speed, defense, strength, and healing. The fourfold stacking caused her Magic Element to drain wildly.

But the effect was obvious. Eli and the others, who had originally been evenly matched with their opponents, gradually gained the upper hand under the enhancement.

Just then, Kesa, the main attacker fighting Eli, suddenly erupted with an astonishing surge of magic.

Under everyone’s shocked gazes, his realm soared from six stars to seven, and the wounds on his body healed in an instant.

A sequence-exclusive ability, similar to Abel’s Blood Rage.

“Night Parade of a Hundred Demons!” he roared. The sky instantly turned pitch-black.

Endless vengeful ghosts emerged from beneath the ground, lunging at the five people on the field with snapping jaws. The surrounding fog thickened until it covered the entire arena, obscuring every scene.

Kesa did not stop attacking either. Using the darkness to conceal himself, he hid his figure. The support mage sensed his intention and immediately layered enhancements onto him.

Eli was stabbed through the shoulder blade by a longsword and let out a muffled groan.

Blood wound downward in a steady stream. Eli raised a hand and gripped the blade. Ignoring whether it would worsen his injury, he forcibly pulled the sword out of his flesh.

Kesa hadn’t expected him to be this insane as well and hurriedly withdrew his sword.

Just as Kesa was preparing to disappear into the black fog again, he saw the corners of Eli’s mouth curve into a smile.

Why was he smiling?

Kesa’s heart tightened, and unease crept in.

The moment that thought surfaced, a slender figure tore through the void and appeared behind him, the ice crystal sword in their hand pressing against the vital point at his throat.

At the same time, Eli’s Lunar Ring was flung in the opposite direction.

The position behind the black fog was exactly where… the support mage was!

Kesa’s pupils contracted sharply. Instinctively, he tried to move in to help, but the moment he stirred, the Ice Prism Sword at his neck mercilessly sliced through his skin.

And Cynthia, who had originally been at the very rear, had closed in at some point as well. Her scythe blade now crossed with the Ice Prism Sword, cutting off his retreat completely.

“You can barely save yourself, and you’re still thinking of saving someone else?”

The mocking chill in that voice was undisguised. Kesa glanced back at the young man behind him, whose smile never reached his eyes-angelic in appearance, yet far more like a nightmare. After a moment of silence, he said, “…I concede.”

Kesa was thrown past the red line of the arena platform. The instant the host announced his elimination, the opposing support mage was declared eliminated as well.

Kesa froze. How?

Wasn’t the support mage supposed to be under Saise’s protection?

The black mist in the arena dispersed, and only then did everyone finally see what had happened.

At some point, three Cynthias had appeared on the field.

No one could tell which one was the real body.

Not until… the two clones-one standing where Kesa had just been eliminated and the other in the center of the arena, confusing their opponents-merged back into one.

Only then did everyone realize that Cynthia’s real body had been within the range of Sangmo’s defensive magic array the entire time.

As for Sangmo himself, he had long since used the chaos to approach the enemy mage with a concealment skill, then forcibly eliminated them with one of his abilities.

With two teammates eliminated in succession, Anonna’s expression had already turned rather ugly.

Her fingers, which had been plucking the strings, suddenly snapped one of them. The string split into many threads, shooting like spikes toward Sangmo, who was closest to her.

Just as the zither threads were about to close in, Richter shifted slightly to the side and decisively transformed the Ice Prism Sword in his hand into the Soul-Devouring Chain.

In the blink of an eye, he flung it out and wrapped it around Sangmo’s waist. Then, with a flick of his wrist, he easily yanked Sangmo back.

At the same moment, Vernel unleashed two skills at once. Arrows filled the sky and fell like a torrential downpour, turning into green vines that tightly entangled the zither threads.

Seeing Anonna restrained, Sangmo immediately cast his second skill-Shadow Hand.

Thousands upon thousands of tentacles ensnared the Lightwing member standing at the very front before they could react. Spikes sank into their body, instantly forcing them into a brief state of paralysis.

Seizing the chance, Sangmo lightly lifted a finger. At his command, the tentacles lashed out and hurled the opponent beyond the red line of the arena platform.

Before long, only Anonna and Saise were left in the entire arena.

Eli and Richter worked with Vernel to keep Anonna pinned down, leaving her unable to do anything beyond protecting herself.

Meanwhile, Sangmo’s tentacles did not stop. They bound Saise and flung him backward, right in front of Cynthia.

The tentacles remained, coiling around Saise’s limbs like chains. Their spikes pierced through him, leaving him with no strength to resist.

Although they had spent more than a month together, Sangmo still felt a little uncomfortable when he met Cynthia’s gaze.

He tugged at his hood, blocking off their line of sight.

His voice was very low, carrying a trace of hoarseness from long-term insomnia, deep and rough, yet still pleasant to the ear. “…I’ll leave this filthy thing to the captain.”

“Thank you.” Cynthia hadn’t expected him to be so considerate, and the smile on her face was genuinely brilliant in that moment. “Looks like our Sangmo understands me best.”

“…” Faced with her teasing praise, the tips of Sangmo’s ears, hidden beneath his hood, turned faintly red. He lowered his head and pretended not to hear.

Cynthia did not pay it much mind. Right now, she had to focus all her attention on one person.

A malicious smile flowed through Cynthia’s eyes. Saise recalled Abel’s fate that day, and a chill sank straight to the bottom of his heart.

“I con-” He wanted to concede on his own, but before he could even finish the word, the spiked tentacle pierced through his throat.

His throat was crushed until he could barely breathe, and the invasive sensation made him want to retch.
But whenever Saise was on the verge of suffocating, she would withdraw it again, as if she were deliberately torturing him.

Cynthia was already closing in. She had neither the habit nor the inclination to look up at anyone, so she lifted her foot and kicked Saise in the knee.

A stabbing pain, as if the bone had snapped, instantly shot through his entire body. Saise cried out in pain and was forced to kneel.

Cynthia looked down at that disgusting face for a moment, then suddenly smiled.

Only after coating her hand in a glove formed from Magic Element, one that would keep filth and backlash from touching her, did she raise her hand and slap Saise hard across the face.

“Smack!”

The crisp sound of the slap came together with a muffled whimper spilling from Saise’s throat.

His face was knocked to one side, and besides unwillingness and rage, there was fear on it now.

Cynthia did not stop. She raised her hand and slapped him several more times.

Compared to cutting someone with a knife, slapping did not cause much actual damage.

But since ancient times, it had always been profoundly humiliating.

“Smack, smack… smack!”

The sounds of the arena were completely replaced by the ringing slaps.

Saise’s face swelled up in an instant, blood flying everywhere.

Cynthia looked faintly disgusted. While feeling glad she had formed gloves with magic, she raised a hand and clamped it tightly over his face. “Weren’t you fond of barking like a dog? Can you still make a sound now?”

“You really do take after your master. Your brain is filled with paste, and even the bit of humanity you were born with has been wiped clean. You’re so stupid it’s almost laughable.”

Cynthia did not care how the spectators viewed her. Since they called her a villainess, then she might as well make that so-called title real. In a way, she was kindly granting their wish.

Cynthia suddenly felt that she truly was great and benevolent.

She flung Saise’s face away, and her Spirit Weapon transformed into twin blades. One pierced through his shoulder, while the other shaved slices of flesh from his face and limbs.

In the face of all this, Cynthia was like an emotionless puppet, without the slightest fear or pity.

The emotion veiling those pale, molten-gold eyes was an almost cruel indifference.

The spectators watched the scene unfold with their own eyes. Aside from a small minority who felt nothing, most of them thought Cynthia had gone mad.

“Is she insane? This is just the Freshman Competition. Why does every match she fights have to be so bloody?”

“Exactly. She’s basically a demon… This is terrifying.”

“Is there anyone normal on the Eclipse Moon Team…?”

Some people could not stand listening to that and said quietly, “Uh, wasn’t this situation caused because Abel and Saise provoked her first?”

“That’s right. In the second singles match, she didn’t do anything to her opponent. If we’re really assigning blame, then the ones who provoked her first are at fault.”

Seeing that some people were still speaking up for Cynthia, those who were already dissatisfied grew even more extreme. “This is deliberate revenge. A villainess really is a villainess. She’s had this rotten character ever since she was little. Duke Valensidra and the Duchess are both so perfect, so who knows who this mad dog takes after.”

“…Watch your mouth.”

“You can curse her if you want, but you really shouldn’t say things like that.”

Sitting in the very front row, at the best viewing spot, Lomita did not hear a word the crowd was saying. Her gaze was fixed straight on the bloody scene atop the arena stage.

Not only did she feel no repulsion at all, her eyes were burning with an abnormal heat.

The hands hidden beneath her sleeves trembled with excitement.

As she looked at Cynthia on the stage, a strange and absurd emotion surged within Lomita’s heart.

It was neither pity nor fear.

It was a kind of sick elation, almost like joy.

She simply felt that this pathological, frenzied “red” was the one and only color in this dull, tedious world.

The smile on Lomita’s face was completely undisguised.

Sure enough… only an existence like this was worthy of her attention.