I got into school for nothing-363
I got into school for nothing (363)
Lesson 71. To Return to Normal - 3
—What?!
It truly was an unexpected development, for Rasteil let out a genuine cry of alarm.
Of course, the moment his battleship was destroyed, he, being in charge of rear support, swiftly teleported to another battleship and was safe, but his desperate escape by magic was quite amusing to witness.
Perched upright on the head of Aire, who had transformed into a True Dragon, the twin-tailed witch, Stella, smirked at him with a rather cheerful smile.
"Even if you try, you can't become a True Dragon, and you can't even wield Starlight. Who do you think you are to trifle with us?"
"She sure hits where it hurts."
—Hhhwuuuuuh—.
I wondered if Aire, too, had been strengthened by the Melodia Family Head's abilities, as I watched her, when suddenly—
—KWOOOAAAHHHH!
The breath of frigid cold, unleashed from Aire's mouth, raced in a straight line, freezing every Dragon Fang Soldier in its path. Not content with that, it accurately struck the battleship Rasteil had teleported to, then split into several streams, precisely targeting other battleships.
—Grrgh...! It's no use after all!
—We must exclude that woman from our plans!
—First, capture her. Once we have her, we'll find a way.
—But don't kill her, don't...!
The Dragon Fang Soldiers, who had been momentarily pondering how to deal with Aire, seemed to have concluded that they had no choice but to capture her, but Ban Yuwon wasn't about to stand idly by.
"My output is still unstable, so... I really didn't want to use this if I could help it, but I have no choice."
Tsk, he lightly clicked his tongue, and drew forth his Authority.
A small box he had thrown into space earlier today, after piercing the dimensional wall, sensing his call, sprang open and burst apart.
Countless shimmering mirror fragments scattered throughout space, reflecting an eerie light, and creating a space enveloped in bright, hazy clouds within the cosmos.
The clouds gradually thinned while simultaneously expanding their domain—until they had consumed about half of the battlefield. Then, as if they had never existed, they completely melted away.
"Success."
Ban Yuwon softly murmured.
Although it required a significant amount of his energy to be injected beforehand to tame it, and then several more hours of absorbing and assimilating the surrounding energy and concepts, it still had many shortcomings befitting a prototype, yet—
"And the fact that it's even single-use is quite something."
Once he returned with this experiment's data, he would be able to create a more perfect version next time.
Ban Yuwon felt the countless fragments, impossible to number, endlessly expanding the domain of his Authority, and he smiled.
To be precise, his Authority, capable of analyzing and converting everything into linguistic concepts—due to the unparalleled martial art, Giwon Sword—was transforming into absolute domination, transcending mere conceptual control and interference over a vast area.
At this very moment, within this space, it would be appropriate to call him a god.
—While our goal is to harmonize innate Authority with martial arts to forge an even more transcendent power—this is truly remarkable, even frightening.
'It's just gear power, for now.'
Yugi, which forges primordial energy, Giwon Sword, which captures all shifting concepts and controls their flow, the Authority he inherited through his bloodline, and the amplification device created by brilliantly capable engineers.
None of this could have been achieved if even one of them were missing.
Would his ancestor have been capable of such a feat?
No, if they had been capable, even if his vassals had stabbed him in the back, he wouldn't have fallen, so perhaps it truly was impossible.
Perhaps even the Tower of Babel he had originally intended to create had initially aimed to be such an Authority amplification artifact.
—?!
They must have felt Ban Yuwon's Authority growing stronger, wider, and dominating the space.
Aire, Stella, and even the Dragon Fang Soldiers, including their enemy Rasteil, all turned their gaze towards Ban Yuwon.
But it was already too late.
"This is the consequence you brought upon yourselves. Accept it."
—Clap!
Ban Yuwon playfully tried to snap his fingers, but thinking that might be a bit too dangerous, he lightly clapped his hands instead.
The Dragon Fang Soldiers who were within the strong influence of his Authority—approximately half of the entire force—felt their bodies crumbling away and their eyes widened in terror.
—What, what is this....
Life (生), Dragon Fangs (龍牙), Mana (魔力), and even the techniques and magic that the Dragon Fang Soldiers had honed over hundreds, even thousands, of years.
All those abilities, the constituent elements of their very existence, were unraveling from them like golden threads.
They were being reverted to concepts while still alive.
For a living, breathing being, there could be no greater terror than that.
—Wait, save me.
—I wasn't born to die so meaninglessly!
—No, no. No no no no no!
The Dragon Fang Soldiers, realizing what was happening, screamed in despair as they vanished.
Naturally, like powder dissolving in water, they transformed into beautiful golden threads, rippling through space.
Dragon Fang Soldiers who were outside the Authority's range, or those whose strength Ban Yuwon's amplified Authority couldn't 'melt away', broke out in cold sweat and retreated as far as possible.
Even his allies trembled at this exercise of Authority, which truly deserved to be called divine.
"Hah... he's really going all out..."
Even Stella, who was fixing the spatial rift Aire had torn open to prepare for calling in other reinforcements, saw the sight and muttered with a serious expression.
If that old man, the previous Tower Lord, had wielded such terrifying Authority, then it would be only natural for him to be wary of everyone, and even be stabbed in the back by the very vassals he created himself, she thought.
Considering that, wasn't Ban Yuwon, who had composed all his vassals solely of those who would die for him and couldn't live without him, truly wise after all?
'No, wait a minute. That includes me too, doesn't it?'
Conflicted, Stella decided to first finish opening the portal and then think about it.
After all the hard work I put in today, surely that man wouldn't just let it slide, would he? He'd at least give me a hug, wouldn't he?
While Stella was having such adorable thoughts, the cosmic horror that had enveloped the area was growing in magnitude.
No, it would be more accurate to say that the quality of that terror was escalating.
This was because Ban Yuwon, who had instantly seized all the concepts that made up half of the Dragon Fang Soldier legion, was now unraveling those threads in mid-air and reassembling them anew.
—No, no. That can't be.
—Stop him!
The Dragon Fang Soldiers, sensing what was about to happen, charged forward with desperate shouts.
Rasteil also widened his eyes and tried to stop it, but Aire's renewed magic blocked him. The Dragon Fang Soldier who charged directly was swept away by a fierce torrent of characters and similarly 'conceptualized' out of existence.
—Noooooooo!
—I won't forgive you, Tower Lord!
"Seriously, they're reacting as if I'm some villain."
Ban Yuwon muttered, utterly baffled by the enemies' panicked reactions.
They were the ones who provoked him first, when he was just minding his own business, and now they're causing trouble, even chasing him to his home planet.
He was merely responding proactively and doing his best, so what was he supposed to do if they reacted as if he were a demon?
"What else? I'll just have to become a real demon."
—I know you're enjoying this.
Pressing his lips together at Dokgo Yeon's comment, Ban Yuwon, based on the results of his two years of training in the Tower, began the creation process outside the Tower.
From the concepts of hundreds of Dragon Fang Soldiers, beings that were Dragon Fang Soldiers, yet not Dragon Fang Soldiers.
He was creating vassals who would follow only Ban Yuwon.
This was an act on a different dimension from his previous exercises of Authority, in that he was completely creating both the inner and outer forms purely from concepts, without any pre-existing framework.
Though he was performing it as if it were nothing, this was a task close to Ban Yuwon's ultimate goal... and the reason for that hardly needed to be stated.
—Stop it at once—!
Hadn't it been said that there were five first-generation strongest Dragon Fang Soldiers? Then he would make five as well.
He had already shared the concept of Echion, which he had obtained previously, with Asha and Aire. But the concepts of the two other first-generation Dragon Fang Soldiers he had obtained today would be mixed in there and divided....
"Receive a fragment of my soul."
He activated 'Soul Flame (魂炎)', the Authority he had plundered from a Constellation long ago and had been consistently making good use of. He tore off a part of his soul, divided it into five flames, and breathed them into his creations.
Perhaps his ancestor hadn't performed such a task.
If he had instilled a part of himself into their very genesis, solidifying their existence, and granted them absolute loyalty, they wouldn't have dared to even conceive of killing their master, no matter what means they employed.
'Was he too stingy to share?'
Dismissing the sudden thought as absurd with a chuckle, he strengthened his connection with them through resonance.
The five neatly separated bundles of golden threads in the air gradually began to take on the outlines of bodies.
For something made by grinding up hundreds of Dragon Fang Soldiers and adding two of the strongest first-generation Dragon Fang Soldiers, it was a surprisingly quiet birth.
—How can this be... This simply cannot be....
"They're only based on Dragon Fang Soldiers, but they're not real Dragon Fang Soldiers, so stop reacting like that."
Ah, he could feel the effects of the Authority amplification device slowly wearing off, and the expanded senses being abruptly cut off.
Since he had already done everything he could, he had no regrets, but the moment the omniscience and omnipotence he had briefly realized were stripped away, it felt as if a part of his senses had been torn off.
—You have gained ultimate enlightenment regarding the path martial arts shall take. The depth of Yugi has reached 2,300, and the depth of Giwon Sword has reached 3,500.
—The depths of the All-seeing Eye, All-hearing Ear, and All-speaking Mouth each deepen by 100. You can see more, hear more accurately, and speak louder.
—The depth of Life has reached 4,800, and the depth of Soul has reached 6,000.
Apart from the immense shock of the loss, overwhelming growth occurred solely in the process of tracing its vestiges and embodying what remained.
This was entirely due to Ban Yuwon's Authority being specialized in analyzing and understanding phenomena, allowing him to analyze even his own abilities, which had momentarily reached an absolute realm.
Other individuals, no matter how much their Authority was amplified, would likely not achieve such dramatic growth.
—Stooooooop!
Whether Ban Yuwon felt proud that his massive investment in creating a single-use artifact had paid off or not, the panicked Dragon Fang Soldiers, seeing the new race being born in space, screamed in terror and unleashed horrific waves of energy.
Since they couldn't stop the birth, their sole thought was to somehow kill them before they could act.
—Die!
—We cannot allow such things to be born!
The amplified Dragon Fang Soldiers, empowered by the Melodia Family Head's buff, gathered their energy and unleashed it. The resulting wave took the form of a gaping dragon's maw—a wave no less potent than the breath Aire had just fired.
Aire, meanwhile, was engaged in an intense magical battle with Rasteil, and Stella was pouring all her power into opening the dimensional portal. At this rate, the five newly born vassals would inevitably be destroyed—
"Oh."
—Guh?!
It began to slowly disintegrate from its very tip.
From its appearance, it looked as if Ban Yuwon had once again unleashed his Authority, but that wasn't the case.
The rippling concepts fully converged, and amidst a gentle cluster of light, Ban Yuwon's newly born vassals revealed themselves.
They were seen extending their arms in unison, and unleashing golden magical power.
Surprisingly, these brand-new creations were 'resonating' with Ban Yuwon's Authority, analyzing and dissecting the incoming waves of magical power.
'It must be something they can do because their concepts are similar to those of the Dragon Fang Soldiers. Even I can't do that.'
It was the same principle as a spider not getting caught in its own web.
Soon, as the waves unleashed by the Dragon Fang Soldiers with all their might completely vanished, the five completed vassals emerged from beyond.
Perhaps because he had deliberately removed the reproductive functions that existed in Dragon Fang Soldiers and created them in an almost asexual form, a strong sense of uncanniness emanated from their bland, expressionless faces and bodies.
"Hmph."
"Haa."
"Why? Why are they so openly relieved after seeing them?"
—Haaah....
Even Dokgo Yeon!
Surely they didn't think Ban Yuwon would intentionally create beauties, did they?
As I've said countless times, he's not even the type to be overly fond of women!
All he thought about while modifying the concepts of Dragon Fang Soldiers to create vassals was reducing side effects and handling them efficiently!
"This is too unfair...."
Ban Yuwon converted his sense of injustice into fighting spirit and anger, and gave a brief command to his five newly created vassals.
"Each of you may take all the concepts you successfully hunt."
""Understood, Lord.""
Perhaps because they had inherited the nature of Dragon Fang Soldiers, as soon as they could speak, unlike Lilyth, who would often play tricks on him, they responded in unison with voices imbued with loyalty, and immediately began their 'hunt'.
In their first hunt, which extended with invisible speed, five Dragon Fang Soldiers were instantly destroyed.
The sight of the vassals instantly conceptualizing their prey and absorbing it instilled a feeling akin to sheer terror.
—What—!
—Stop them, stop them!
—Lord Hyperenor, save me—!
Since they were created by consolidating the concepts of robust Dragon Fang Soldiers, they were naturally much stronger and faster than the Dragon Fang Soldiers scattered throughout this space—their level was comparable to that of the strongest first-generation Dragon Fang Soldiers.
The Dragon Fang Soldiers, sensing this, grew tense. Then, the surviving first-generation Dragon Fang Soldiers—Udios and Hyperenor—gathered around them.
"It's done!"
"Yuwon, are you alright?!"
"Master!"
At last, the dimensional portal fully opened, and reinforcements, including Yumina and Rucell, began pouring out.
With Aire's rampage, every battleship had been utterly destroyed. Rasteil, the Melodia Family Head, who had struggled with magic until the very end, only to finally be caught by her foreleg, saw this and slowly closed his eyes.
He had accepted that everything was over.
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