Chapter 523
The ice around began gathering toward Maelyn.
When she stretched out her hand, the ice turned into massive spikes and shot forward.
Swaeeeeeck!
A chunk of ice the size of a carriage tore through the air.
White’s response was simple—he merely stretched his bare palm forward, without even a magic circle.
‘!’
And just before Maelyn’s spell reached his hand, it was nullified and vanished. Only a few fragments of ice scattered, sprinkling against White’s clothes.
“It’s blocked!”
Kamibarez stomped in frustration.
‘……What was that just now?’
Simon’s eyes sharpened as he observed White.
For blocking such a massive attack, it was strange how few fragments had scattered.
“Then how about this!”
Whoooosh!
Maelyn activated the magic circle blooming on her left hand.
<Dark Flare>
Back in her first year, preparing that black magic took quite a long time. Now, she could conjure it easily right from the start of the match.
Pitch-black flames stretched forward, spewing foul smoke. White once again raised his palm.
Shara-rak!
Even Dark Flare was snuffed out with ease.
“Hm.”
Maelyn lowered her stance with a troubled expression. Ice rose beneath her heels, holding up her body.
“I don’t know what it is yet, but I’ll just have to keep hammering away!”
<Ice Road>
Chwaaaaaaak!
Her specialty was unleashed. Using the ice rising beneath her feet, she zipped across the arena at high speed. At the same time, she thrust forward her palm with another magic circle.
<Maelyn Remade – Ice Bolt>
Kwakwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!
A rapid-fire version of Ice Bolt. Small but sharp ice shards poured out from her palm in a relentless barrage. Simon nodded firmly as he watched.
‘She’s doing great—her situational judgment is quick!’
Since large-scale black magic didn’t work, she switched to a combination of high-speed movement and rapid-fire magic. Circling White, she unleashed a storm of ice shards.
But White began moving too.
A transparent barrier unfolded around his body from his palm. As he rotated his arm slowly to the side, the barrier followed, deflecting the ice shards.
Kamibarez’s expression stiffened.
“Maelyn’s Darkness Ice Bolt isn’t being destroyed, it’s disappearing.”
“Yeah. I think it’s just an extension of the same technique that erased Dark Flare earlier.”
At the end of first year, White had defeated Moyran’s third-year Student Council President.
Even if that president was a second-rounder who hadn’t transferred to Keyzen, he was still an elite who had trained black magic for three straight years.
It shouldn’t have been possible for a mere first-year transfer to defeat him.
Unless… there was one possibility.
‘An ability.’
With black magic alone, beating a third-year would have been impossible.
So White must have used a unique ability combined with Darkness. If it was an innate, powerful ability on the level of Loraine or Serne, then it wasn’t unthinkable for him to win.
The question was whether Maelyn could uncover what kind of ability he was using, that seemed to be the “key” to this match.
“Haaah!”
While circling and firing shards, Maelyn switched tactics. Drawing White’s focus, she raised a massive ice wall behind him.
The wall collapsed forward toward White.
‘A physical attack using ice weight!’
White pulled his right hand back and extended it behind him. When the falling wall touched his palm, the center of it vanished as though hollow.
<Paralyze>
Maelyn seized the opening and launched a curse. It struck his back precisely, yet White casually brushed the spot with his hand as though dusting off his clothes.
Simon’s expression grew grim.
‘He blocked that chain attack so easily.’
Darkness Ice Bolt. Darkness Flame. High-speed movement and rapid-fire magic. Physical ice-weight strikes. Curses.
Maelyn kept broadening her repertoire, desperate to break through White’s defenses—but nothing worked.
Kwakwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!
Left with no choice, she resumed circling White and showering him with ice.
The match dragged on, and spectators began sighing or turning their heads away.
“I don’t see any chance of victory.”
“Even Keyzen’s vice-president can’t do anything, huh.”
The same pattern as all the other necromancers who lost to White was repeating.
Many spectators, convinced it was already over, began to leave their seats.
Kamibarez watched nervously, wringing her hands.
“Maelyn……!”
Thunk!
Then it happened—an ice shard struck White’s body.
“……”
White lowered his head. His transparent barrier was still up.
Thunk! Thunk!
A second and third shard broke through.
Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!
One after another, more and more pierced the barrier.
White was being hit.
Wooooah!
The spectators who had been leaving rushed back to their seats, abuzz with excitement.
Simon quickly checked the barrier gauge displayed on the mana screen.
[Maelyn Villene: 100%]
[White: 95%]
It was certain.
Her attacks were getting through.
“White’s been hit!”
Waaaaaah!
A roar of astonishment erupted from all directions. Maelyn stopped her Ice Road and stood firm.
“I’ve never even heard of such a thing before, but that power you’re using…”
She pointed her finger straight at White.
“It’s an ability that absorbs Darkness, isn’t it?”
“……”
White remained silent. She hadn’t expected an answer anyway. Hands on her hips, she stood tall.
“Judging from your reaction, I hit the mark. The truth is, what I just fired mixed with Darkness wasn’t…”
Woooong!
She revealed a magic circle.
A vivid blue—without a trace of black aura.
“…It was a pure elemental spell made with mana alone.”
Simon grabbed the fence with excitement, shaking it.
‘That’s it, Maelyn!’
Mana and magicians are the inferior counterparts to Darkness and necromancers.
Even the Ivory Tower, once called the cradle of all magicians and more prestigious than Keyzen itself, eventually acknowledged this and converted fully to necromancy.
But during club season, Maelyn had joined the Pure Magic Research Club. She’d heard that learning pure magic formulas would later help her understand Darkness formulas more deeply—and chose to pursue it.
Of course, many mocked her, saying she should’ve just studied her textbooks instead of wasting time in such a club.
But here and now, that unique repertoire of pure magic was working.
“Here I come!”
Maelyn stomped down on the magic circle she’d drawn on the ground.
Kwooooom!
The frozen waterways shot ice into the sky. Carefully, she inscribed each shard with magic circles made purely of mana.
Then, raising her prepared Darkness Ice Barrier, she launched the ice forward—followed by a wave of Darkness Frost magic.
Kwakwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!
Normally, bare ice alone was weak, so it was always bolstered with Darkness. But now that she knew White’s secret, she avoided mixing them.
Tat! Tat!
White dodged frantically. If he used his ability, pure magic pierced through it. If he raised a Darkness shield, the Darkness Frost tore it apart.
Pow!
Thunk!
His barrier flickered and blinked under the relentless strikes.
[Maelyn Villene: 100%]
[White: 87%]
“Not yet!”
Maelyn drew a Darkness Flame formula with her right hand.
“It’s far from over!”
Then with her left, she etched a pure elemental spell.
Her specialty—multi-casting. With different black magics blooming in each hand, she fired them simultaneously.
White’s barrier gauge was steadily gnawed away. Her eyes sharpened with resolve.
‘I will win, no matter what!’
* * *
Three days earlier.
— So that’s why a Keyzen junior came all the way out here, to this remote post in Shahed. I was wondering what for.
A bespectacled woman gave a dry laugh as she looked at the bowing Maelyn.
— You want me to teach you the duties and tips of a vice-president?
— Please, senior!
Maelyn bent even deeper at the waist, raising her voice.
— I heard you were the true driving force behind last year’s golden era of the Phantasus’ student council! I came to learn your know-how, senior!
— That’s your business. Why should I eat into my off-hours for that? I’m still new at this job myself. I’m tired.
— I’ll wake up early and handle your morning schedule for you tomorrow!
— Nonsense!
In truth, Maelyn had come here to Shahed solely to meet last year’s Keyzen vice-president. Kamibarez had gladly tagged along.
— Senior! I cleaned everything already!
— I told you not to!
— You must be hungry. I left some fruit on your desk!
Maelyn carried out her own assignment evaluation while shadowing the former vice-president everywhere. Her persistence wore the woman down until she finally spoke.
— Why are you going this far?
“……”
Maelyn clenched her fists tightly.
— Because I want to help the one who acknowledged me.
Simon had chosen her as vice-president.
Of course she knew what rumors were circulating among the students.
She just got lucky with friends. Riding on Simon’s coattails. Her first group project teammate was Keyzen’s top student, talk about fortune.
Yes, it was natural that a Student Council President at Keyzen would surround himself with trusted aides. And she knew the sneers were little more than childish jealousy.
But Maelyn couldn’t be satisfied with that.
Keyzen was a meritocracy.
— From the start, I had only you in mind.
— As vice-president, there’s no one more suited than you.
Her cheeks still flushed when she remembered Simon saying that.
So it was fine if people insulted her—but she didn’t want Simon, the one who had chosen her, to be insulted because of her.
If she was vice-president, then she had to prove herself worthy of the position.
— Professor Jane! May I trouble you to review my report?
Day after day in Keyzen.
— During evaluations, how can we suppress resistance from the cafeteria staff?
— Hey, everyone! I’m Maelyn from the student council! Just running a quick survey…
She cut into her nights, grinding away tirelessly.
Even if it was only an interim student council until third-year Aizel returned, even if it was nothing more than a midsummer night’s dream, she wanted to prove why Simon had chosen her.
With sheer ability.
So beyond just striving to surpass Serne, she also studied to fulfill her vice-presidential duties.
— Senior! Where should I clean next?”
This assignment evaluation was just another part of that resolve.
In the end, Maelyn’s sincerity moved even the former vice-president.
— This is the notebook I used when I was vice-president… Haaah, why am I even doing this.
— Thank you, senior!
She had to work harder.
Even harder.
The four-day evaluation period wasn’t nearly enough to learn all the duties of a vice-president, but when she heard from Jane that Simon was fighting in the transfer evaluation as president, she rushed straight to Moyran.
“I will—!”
Maelyn stretched both arms wide, unleashing black magic.
“—never lose!”
Kwaaarrrrk!
Pillars of black-glossed ice erupted from the ground, swallowing White. He tried to melt the ice with his ability, but this time Maelyn hadn’t only used the Darkness Ice Barrier.
‘!’
His arms were bound—locked in place by pure elemental ice.
Taat!
Riding the ice upward, she vaulted above him.
She forged a hammer: its handle shaped from Darkness Ice, its head forged from pure elemental ice.
<Maelyn Remade – Frozen Hammer>
Kwoooooooong!
The handle twisted into place, and the ice hammer crashed downward.
White’s body bent violently under the blow, collapsing as white frost and glittering ice shards scattered in all directions.
The crowd erupted with explosive cheers like cannon fire.
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters
Very good story and translation but half the chapter aren't for free and it is wayyyy too expensive will it stat like tjis foreve or will it get free after some time