How to Survive at the Academy
chapter-160

Crebin Subjugation Battle (11)

The amount of magic devoured by a high-ranking spirit is beyond imagination.

Just manifesting a high spirit nearly drains all the mana from my body, but summoning a top-tier spirit feels like scraping every last bit of mana from me, even if only present for a fleeting moment.

Furthermore, it wasn’t even the full summoning of the top-tier Fire Spirit ‘Theophis’. Only its head manifested, emitting a single burst of flame and performing one act of its blessing.

It all took place in less than 10 seconds. For that brief moment, the flames radiating from the magic circle above engulfed the manor, splitting the estate in two.

Whoosh, the flames stretched out and soared into the night sky.

Everyone on the Rothtaylor manor grounds witnessed it.

The Cathedral Knights and Imperial Guards who were outside guarding the guests, as well as the separate troops who had entered the manor, including Princess Phoenia and Yenika on their way to the central garden.

The single streak of flame, sweeping across the estate and reaching for the night sky, was clearly visible to both the Saintess Clarice, under Racian’s protection leaning against a garden tree, and Tanya, sitting dazed next to Arwen’s corpse. Even Lucy, her twin pigtails undone with grazes on her body exchanging blows with Mevulor, could not miss the sight, along with Sella walking through the central garden and Lortelle having stepped down from her carriage.

The breath that sliced the mansion burned its exposed underground lab, the spire, the main house, and even one side of the outer wall, sweeping them all into the sky.

Theophis’ divine fire consumes everything indiscriminately.

The underground facilities, the spire’s artworks, and the beautiful exterior of the central mansion were not spared, nor were things unseen.

The true terror of Theophis’ flames lay in their ability to burn away even the surrounding mana.

Temporarily, all the mana of the central mansion grounds vanished into flame.

While human sources of magic will eventually refill the area with new mana, the temporary nullification of all magic in the vicinity carries significant meaning.

For Crebin, who relies on an external injection of mana, it means Mevulor’s influence is momentarily disabled, a fact of great significance.

―Boom!

―Fire!

The ravaged Crebin was thrust into the devastated area.

Struggling amidst the searing heat, his flesh which had been eerily squirming like dry twigs twisted upon itself.

“Cough… guhk…”

Suffering multiple consecutive shocks, his body was already pushed to its limits.

With all of Mevulor’s mana burnt away, Crebin barely maintained his body, coughing up blood.

Straining his bloodshot eyes, he looked up towards Ed.

Merely invoking Theophis’ flames, even briefly, seizes an astronomical amount of mana.

Ed, too, is completely wrecked from the ring’s backlash, little able to maintain his own body.

The burning underground research facility.

Ed sat on his knees amidst the heat, having completely lost consciousness.

Now would be the time to finish him, but Crebin, too, could not command his own body.

―Thud, thump!

As the stone pillars of the underground facility collapsed, the already compromised ground suffered a further blow; soon, they might be crushed to death beneath it.

The burning central mansion of Rothtaylor began to collapse, the pillars giving way, and soon the proud mansion crumbled into history.

The giant mansion collapsed, the dust reaching even the underground labs.

―Crackling flames!

In the smoke-filled, suffocating area, construction debris now rendered the visibility nil.

Gritting his teeth, with swollen eyes, Crebin barely rose to his feet.

“Kugh… Aaaargh!”

With an almost-scream of exertion, Crebin pushed himself up on trembling legs, managing to lift his emaciated left hand.

The Mevulor’s sigil still marked his dry hand. Receiving mana from Mevulor again, he could continue fighting.

Reacting to the sigil, from above the manor, Mevulor started to manifest tremendous mana.

Though Theophis had burnt away the mana, once Mevulor spread its force, it could once again fill the manor grounds. It was only a matter of time.

Yet, Lucy foresaw Mevulor’s intent.

―Flaring magic!

Around Mevulor, multiple magic circles flared again, aiming to block the flow of external mana. While non-internal mana flows couldn’t be halted, all that mattered was preventing Mevulor’s influence from reaching the battlefield.

Numerous eyes of Mevulor directed upwards again towards Lucy in the skies.

Her face coated in dust, she wiped it off with her sleeve, messy hair gathered up while focusing on disrupting the entirety of Mevulor’s mana flow.

“Stop your incessant tricks.”

Exponentially massive mana erupted, peerless even to Mevulor’s.

With one swift motion, Lucy conjured a hundred icy spears, launching them towards Mevulor.

No mana reached from Mevulor.

Realizing this, Crebin felt a chill. In the center of the burning lab, the collapsing underground, idling meant an imminent crushing death.

Though battered, he must ascend to the surface if he is to survive.

“Kr, krgh… *cough*…”

The desire to live was no lesser in Crebin. Power struggles and the struggle to live ingrained a will to survive stronger than that of any other.

His strength was nearly gone, it was mere agony pulling his body up, gripping at a piece of the ground.

In the choking smoke and dust, he managed to push his body up, but the wall he needed to climb was immensely daunting.

Halfway up, the facility might collapse before Crebin could ascend, still, he did not stop.

How to survive this chaos. If only he could endure until Mevulor replenished his power, the situation could be salvaged.

For now, he just needed to climb to the surface, keep alive, and hide anywhere.

Survival meant opportunities. He couldn’t perish here, trapped by disaster.

With that single-minded determination, Crebin grasped the cliff, pushing his body up and up again through the debris, his struggle both desperate and pitiable.

―Snap.

However, behind him, amidst the stinging smoke, an arm reached out.

That arm, emerging like a demon from hell, grasped the back of Crebin’s clothes and violently flung him to the ground.

His desperate ascent undone in mere moments, Crebin’s body slammed to the floor—shivers coursing through him once more.

Ed Rothtaylor, blood streaming from his forehead, clenched his jaw to maintain consciousness, harnessing an immense amount of mana despite the severe backlash from the golden phoenix ring.

Not just a durable kind, not merely a cockroach of a man, but a will that was hardly human.

The recoil from using the ring didn’t just cease when refraining from mana use; the more mana employed, the muscles stiffened, fever tormented, consciousness faded.

Even that Phoenia of Faelover had to stay in bed for nearly a month after summoning a high-ranking spirit.

Albeit on a much smaller scale, Ed Rothtaylor too had managed such a feat with a high spirit. And despite the enormous mana spent, he held onto his consciousness to the end.

Crebin felt his teeth grinding. The murderous aura from the blood-drenched Ed Rothtaylor was as suffocating as a curse that would pursue him till death.

“Enough… brat…!”

In the end, even Crebin couldn’t help but swear from sheer disgust.

The venom in Ed’s presence now invoked not just awe but fear.

The fragments of a collapsed pillar scattered, hitting both men. Crebin grunted with the impact; Ed Rothtaylor, losing his balance, stumbled towards the ground.

Yet, amongst the rising flames and smoke, he staggered back to his feet, biting down hard.

No mana remained for either Crebin or Ed.

In a situation that could see them both crushed to death, Ed still swayed, lifting Crebin by the collar.

Crebin used nearly all his strength just to shake off that hand.

Both Crebin and Ed nearly lost balance with that single motion. Yet Ed again grabbed Crebin’s shoulder and brought his forehead ‘down into his head.

Crebin stumbled backward, collapsing, while Ed climbed on top and repeatedly struck his face with clenched fists.

The thuds echoed for a while; as Crebin grunted, a molar popped out, rolling on the floor.

But still, Ed did no stop, he continued to pummel the other’s face. After being beaten for a while, Crebin dredged up all his strength and kicked Ed away.

Crebin spat blood, coughing, and staggering up, stepped hard on Ed’s ankle.

Emitting a ‘krgh’ sound, Ed twisted his foot; now Crebin climbed on top, strangling Ed by the throat.

Crebin’s blood-caked hands squeezed tigher and tighter.

Already afflicted by headaches, fever, and chills from the ring’s recoil, the choking smoke from the fire and Crebin’s choking grasp made consciousness fade.

“Hu-urgh… Khuuck…”

With an expression of indistinguishable laughter or crying, Crebin maintained his asphyxiating grip.

“You… what do you know… You brat… How desperately I’ve struggled for this life… Understand? A deserter?”

He intensified his grip, his eyes bloodshot as he spoke.

“Don’t judge me by your standards, you dull witted fool… Don’t insult me, unable to grasp my aesthetics, my values!”

“You… Ambiguous fool…”

Coughing, Ed replied.

He grabbed a rock, smashing Crebin’s hand; Crebin recoiled, crying out and tumbling backwards.

“If you were a genuine human encased in evil, not merely a deserter, you would hold no regrets, no second thoughts.”

The blow shattered Crebin’s nails. His hand nearly crushed, the pain was excruciating. Ed, swaying, stood again, grabbed the collar and hammered his fist into his face.

“Such a man, hangs such a grand portrait of Arwen in the Central Mansion’s hall?”

Crebin’s pupils trembled once again.

On one side of the burning Central Mansion, the large portrait of Arwen that Ed Rothtaylor had first seen when he entered the mansion’s grounds was now burning with the mansion.

Even the portraits of the great ancestors could not claim such a prominent place. Was this a token of the last respects for Arwen or a sign of guilt?

“You should have borne the consequence of your own doing. Did you think that acting as if you didn’t see it by covering your eyes would erase all your misdeeds?”

Ed’s repeated blows were blocked by Crebin. Suddenly, Crebin yanked hard, throwing off the balance of power and sending the battered Ed rolling across the ground.

Crebin, barely able to stand, turned again with blood-red eyes toward Ed.

“Shut your mouth… Just lie there quietly…!”

However, Ed tripped Crebin by hooking his leg, causing him both to tumble to the ground with a thud.

As Crebin clutched his now-tattered collar and tried to get up, Ed once again mounted him.

Sweeping aside the cape Crebin had worn, the silk vest he had been wearing underneath was exposed.

On its chest… there hung a feather decoration, a gift from Arwen, identical to the one from Ed’s room.

Seeing this, Ed Rothtaylor scoffed with a hollow laugh. Even to the end, the last line of conscience that Crebin couldn’t release was this trifle.

“Do you think Arwen Rothtaylor remained loyal to the end with respect and reverence for you alone?”

As Crebin Rothtaylor’s successor, Arwen Rothtaylor, who had always followed in his footsteps, must have seen the pressure of numerous burdens when she looked up at his back at that moment.

Benevolence, corruption, they were all just masks. Beneath those numerous masks, there was only a pathetic runaway, crushed under the weight of great burdens.

Arwen Rothtaylor herself would have been the first to notice this.

“She just pitied you. You should have known that.”

Crebin, vomiting blood, tried to seize Ed’s throat. But Ed brushed his hand aside and grabbed Crebin’s neck instead.

“You’re the one who ruined Arwen.”

“Shut… up…!”

As Crebin rolled to the side, Ed’s body was also pushed and rolled away.

Crebin managed to regain control of his lower body and stood up, and Ed too regained his composure.

Crebin, staggering, charged at Ed, ramming his shoulder into Ed’s body. With a choke, Ed was flung several yards and rolled across the ground. His body was truly at its limit.

*Clang!*

A staff caught Ed’s eyes, lying on the ground. Without mana, the staff would be meaningless to lift.

However, Ed’s attention was suddenly drawn to the small feather decoration hanging on the end of the staff.

It was definitely… an item from Ed’s own room, tucked among the letters exchanged between Arwen and Ed.

Though considered a magical tool, generally used as a feather quill pen, it was fundamentally just a decoration.

Yet, it faintly contained mana. The presence of that mana, weak though it may be with the essence of a spirit, was unmistakably that of Yenika Faelover.

Yenika Faelover knew Ed’s style of combat better than anyone.

If pushed to the very brink, Ed would resort to using the Glast Ring, burning all his mana completely.

Yenika sent him this as the last method of battle, knowing well this fact.

Ed felt Yenika’s message within the delicate flow of mana in the feather.

In situations of extreme desperation, even the slightest bit of remaining mana could tip the scales of victory.

“Now… die…!”

Crebin, with gritted teeth, picked up a large stone, rushing to deliver the final blow to Ed.

Ed, fallen and clenching his teeth, managed to rise and grasp the feather decoration at the end of the staff.

*Woooosh!*

The wind’s aura enveloped Crebin.

Crebin’s eyes widened in disbelief. There should be no mana left, the very presence of such power was strange.

The materialized blade of wind sliced from his shoulder to his waist. *Slish*, blood sprayed.

Drawing on the last of his mana, Ed manifested an elemental formula, returning the ceremonial dagger back to his hand.

The ceremonial dagger of the Rothtaylor family, commonly used in various household ceremonies, was engraved with a soaring hawk, symbolizing the great glory of the Rothtaylor family.

That dagger thus pierced the heart of the family head.

*Thud.*

*Clang!*

Blood surged out in torrents.

The stone that Crebin had been holding rolled on the ground.

In the center of the burning underground research facility, staggering backward a few times, Crebin collapsed to the ground in a heap.

Blood spread all over the floor.

“Keuh… cough…”

Looking up at the sky, the sight of Lucy destroying all the eyes of Mebuler became evident.

The night sky unfolded with all sorts of magical circles and constellations.

Before it, Ed, drenched in blood, stood in the way.

“You, why… go to such lengths…”

Ed did not respond at length.

“With things as they are, one of us had to die.”

*Clang, clank!*

The dagger that fell from Ed’s hand hit the ground several times and rolled away. Ed, now limp, made it clear to Crebin.

“Yeah. Even if you’re called a coward or whatever… you still struggled to survive as pitifully as you could…”

“Keuh… cough… cough… No… I… the blood… I’m bleeding… save me…”

“That is why I won’t lay at you the moral judgments of whether what you did was wrong… This is a matter beyond that…”

Ed merely affirmed, softly.

Despite all the possible noble reasons and scales that could be used against the unsightly Crebin, Ed disregards them all.

Instead, he simplified the story.

In this world, akin to the wild, the law of nature prevails. If two travelers on the same path collide, one must end.

“I survive, and you die.”

That tale was sheer and simple.

In the collapsing underground research facility, he collapsed to his knees, the strength leaving his body.

Though his body was in tatters, he clearly drew breath.

And so, he survived again. As he always had.

* * *

With the summoner’s energy dissipating, Mebuler also showed evident signs of panic.

Releasing a massive amount of mana, he tried to cover the grounds again with his power, breaking the magical formations Lucy had set up.

Gremlins invaded the mansion en masse once more, and the weakened tentacles began to rise.

With the mansion’s power flow briefly gone, the soldiers of the Cathedral Knights who had made it into the Central Mansion were all in disarray.

But they were quickly taken care of by the legion of spirits once more descending upon the gremlins.

Lucy was not idle either. By manifesting high-level magic continuously, she pushed Mebuler further into a corner.

From amidst the sea of spirits in the sky, a hurried Yenika appeared. Princess Phoenia, who had entered the central garden riding on a spirit with Yenika, did not hesitate to rush towards the collapsing underground laboratory.

Therein lay one corpse with eyes lost to focus, gazing up at the sky, and beside it, a blond boy sitting collapsed.

Once they landed in the crumbling underground lab, Yenika and Phoenia caught their breath at the sight of the battered Ed.

He had nearly lost consciousness, having concluded everything.

Slumped beside Crebin’s corpse, closing his eyes amidst the smoke, his figure was like that of a pilgrim who had fulfilled his destiny.

What did Phoenia, who could perceive the hearts of men, see in him?

From the day of the entrance exam, in the forests north of the academy, to the end marked by Crebin’s death.

Phoenia, having left the Rothtaylor family of her own accord, had come all the way to the end, surviving alone, weathering through everything his life had thrown at him… She could hardly breathe, overwhelmed by the vision of his life.

Was she merely an obstacle in his challenging path? The thought burned within her like a stream of fire.

Watching Yenika rush to embrace his shoulders, Phoenia realized something.

Ed Rothtaylor lived a life in the wild. Countless tribulations and the occasional fruits of victory were just struggles in the fight for survival.

How could she not show respect for that life?

Realizing her own shame after casting aside even the dream of imperial power through several tribulations and failures, Phoenia’s eyes regained their determination. She shouted to Yenika that they must take him immediately.

In the burning mansion grounds.

Holding the body of the battered Ed, the two girls rode the spirits and escaped the crumbling underground research facility.

Beneath them remained Crebin Rothtaylor.

Amidst the falling rocks, his lifeless eyes, drained of vitality, looked up at the crumbling sky, his form all that was left.

* * *

“The Rothtaylor family is finished now.”

Princess Sella whispered to Dest as she surveyed the central garden.

From a glance at the internal situation, it seemed that the accomplices were mostly vassals or servants of the Rothtaylor family.

“How we condemn those remaining guilty and how we conclude the end… seems likely to have a significant impact on the next competition for imperial power. A sovereign must also know how to aptly punish the disloyal.”

The massacre that took place at the Rothtaylor mansion would likely go down in imperial history as a tremendous disaster.

Was it an opportunity given by the gods or a curse to be present at the scene of this disaster?

Regardless, Sella quietly watched over the mansion and contemplated the matter.

Surely, someone must take control and settle the situation.

If they managed to bring matters to a conclusion, their abilities would be fully recognized, having adeptly resolved a historic disaster.

The first step was to capture all remaining members of the Rothtaylor family and call them to account for their crimes.

Mebuler’s encompassing power was also waning. With Crebin’s death and the loss of his medium, Mebuler’s strength ebbed away, and Lucy continued to press harder.

“We’ll be busy.”

Watching, Sella turned around.

“Once the imperial army arrives, seal off the entrance to the mansion. Don’t let a single rat escape.”

Still, the moon was high in the sky.

The long night stretched on.