Blood and dirt mix together, creating a mess.
I lifted my faintly trembling eyelids.
“Ss... Hah...”
With every breath, my side throbs painfully.
The bleeding hasn’t stopped yet.
“Sybil, Sybil! Focus!”
“I know! I do know...!”
Elodie's voice seems to be urging Sybil.
Sybil's voice is on the verge of tears.
It seems I was only unconscious for a brief moment.
I roll my eyes to check my surroundings.
Looking up a bit, I could see Sybil and Elodie.
Elodie appears to be restraining Rokbel.
Though I’m not certain, it seems like she’s using wind magic to limit Rokbel's movements.
Probably, even if Rokbel is shocked now, he won't faint. He's already in a state similar to unconsciousness. In such a state, he can only move as if spellbound.
That means he must be continually restrained.
Moreover, as a child, his body is fragile, so too much force cannot be applied.
Elodie has powerful output at its maximum, but she's clumsy at controlling the output itself. Probably because she's hardly ever done it.
In the Constel’s Divine Power Measurement Room, freshmen measure the increase in their strength, not focusing on control.
Focusing on detailed control from the first year might hinder the extraction of maximum divine power.
“Kill Frondier, Sybil! It’s Frondier!”
“Gr, ugh...!”
On the other hand, Sybil seems unable to move as she wishes, as if resisting Serf's command.
Is this Serf's ability? I don’t fully understand the principle, but it seems to make the opponent follow his command.
Considering it doesn’t work on me and Elodie, there must be some conditions needed.
Like physical contact is required, or one has to pass an item enchanted with their magic to the opponent.
“...Sy, bil...”
I called out to Sybil with a voice barely louder than a breath.
“Fr, Frondier?! You’re awake, ugh!”
Miraculously, Sybil heard my voice and reacted, but she’s still sweating bullets trying to resist the command.
Rokbel passed out as soon as Serf gave the order.
Great, Sybil.
“Huuurk!”
I pressed my hands on the floor and forced myself up. A sharp pain immediately shot through my side.
Dammit, it’s so painful that tears are coming out.
I felt my arms trembling as I slowly raised myself by a few centimeters.
It hurts.
I don’t want to get up.
I want to rest.
I’m going to die at this rate.
As these pathetic thoughts ran through my mind…
…I got up.
“Fron.. dier…”
The eyes of Elodie and Sybil were the widest I had ever seen.
It was as if they couldn’t believe that I was up.
“Don’t look at me like that.”
It really seemed like I was seriously injured.
I can’t even take a single step now.
I can’t even lift my arms.
Phew, wheeze.
How many times have I done this, this lousy breathing.
But if I don’t do this, the pain makes it hard to breathe properly.
“F, Frondier. Stay down! Don’t think about doing something reckless! I’ll handle this!”
Elodie shouted at me.
I understand a bit now. Elodie’s way of speaking.
Elodie was focused on subduing Rokbel while Sybil was busy wrestling with her own body.
And in the middle of all that, she’s telling me to stay down.
“Don’t worry, Elodie.”
“Worry, my—!”
“Elodie.”
I looked into Elodie’s eyes.
Blue eyes. The first time I saw Elodie, her eyes reminded me of a lake.
Frondier probably thought the same thing.
He must have kept thinking that.
As he watched Elodie walking ahead, her retreating back getting further away.
As he watched her smiling face occasionally looking back at him.
Frondier fell into a deep sense of inferiority.
At the end of that suffering, he came to the conclusion that he had to take away Elodie’s divine power.
His reason was simple.
He wanted to walk with her.
He wanted to stand next to her.
Now I understand what Frondier wanted to say to Elodie for so long.
Even though he felt inferior to her, even though he was crushed by his own powerlessness.
He must have wanted to say it anyway.
Whether it was pure or defiled.
That one sentence.
I will convey it on your behalf.
"I'll help you now."
"…What?"
Leaving Elodie behind, bewildered,
I pull out the 'Menosorpo' from the workshop.
I spread it out on the floor.
Just as 'Weaving' doesn't require actual materials,
My rune doesn't need to be physically drawn.
"Mana, is it barely enough to perform?"
I feel the blood and mana draining from my side.
Whether it's just my imagination, or that's how mana works, I'm not sure.
But I feel exhausted as I pour mana into the Menosorpo.
Ssshh…
Once again.
Huu─
After exhaling,
I imbued the Menosorpo with mana and 'declared'.
"Menosorpo."
With my declaration, the rune emitted light.
The rune was enormous.
To an extent that such words are insufficient.
It spread not just around me, Elodie, and Sybil, over Rokbel, but even to the forest where those from Indus were hiding.
"This is from that time…."
Elodie murmured.
She must have remembered.
The rune I had tried out in the clearing at the Roach mansion.
Nothing had happened then.
Despite using mana.
"What, what is this…!"
Serf's voice was filled with astonishment.
But the rune did nothing but emit light; nothing special happened.
Except that its shape began to be visible, it was no different from the Menosorpo before.
"──Ha! It was all a bluff, Frondier! Just die quietly! Sybil won't be able to hold out forever!"
Serf exclaimed.
Quite bold for someone hiding in the forest.
And where did the honorifics go?
"Fr, Frondier…."
Sybil called me with a trembling voice.
She was facing me.
And now, she was a little closer than before.
"Run away…."
When I saw Sybil's face.
She was crying.
Her beautiful face was stained with tears and hair.
Yet, Sybil pleaded with me.
"I'm saying I'll kill you, Frondier…."
