Chapter 38: The future shown by Altra (2)

“Cough, cough! I-is everyone okay?”

In the ruins of the completely collapsed Coral Hall.
Silvia desperately called out as she barely escaped the thick dust.

Then, crunch, Bianca pushed aside the broken brick fragments and revealed her disheveled appearance.

“Ugh, crazy. Did you really blow up the entire Coral Hall? I thought you were just going to destroy the roof.”

“W-well, the mana of a rising star… it’s a power that surpasses imagination. I didn’t know an ordinary spell could have this much destructive power.”

Eve, who had come to her senses, also coughed, fanning away the sand dust.

The place where they were sitting was the classroom that had once been on the third floor of the Coral Hall.
But now, it had been reduced to a pile of ashes and had collapsed from the top to the ground.

The wide-area explosion magic that Silvia had cast. It had caused the entire building to collapse.

“Damn it, wasn’t the original plan to send a signal outside? That’s why we went all the way up to the top floor.”

Bianca complained, dusting off the pale limestone on her blazer.

“It was the perfect place to slack off alone, and she just blew up this honey pot. Where am I supposed to take a nap from now on?”

“Stop grumbling, Bianca. Miss Silvia couldn’t help it either. If you want to nap, you should do it in your dorm, not in a damp and dark ruined building like this.”

“Tsk, alright. I get it. You’re always nagging.”

The two of them, who didn’t stop bickering even after narrowly escaping death.
Looking at them, Silvia inwardly smiled bitterly.

The landmark of the academy, the Coral Hall, which she had destroyed with her own hands.
Looking at its remains, her own unfortunate future was vividly drawn in her mind.

‘I’m… really dead to the professor.’

As Bianca said, the first plan Silvia had devised was to send a distress signal outside.

To the full professors and other faculty members, a so-called emergency communication network is provided in case of emergencies.
This is a communication magic that only allows limited access to academy staff.
Naturally, ordinary academy students could not use the communication network carelessly.

Because they could play pranks like making false reports, and the network itself could become chaotic due to the surge in communication.

However, Silvia was the chairman’s only daughter, and a student who had been known as a child prodigy since she was young.
She had long since figured out the trick of interfering with communication magic and slipping in her voice.

She just hadn’t tried it because the procedure was complicated and she didn’t want to get a spanking from her mother for doing something foolish.

‘So I went up to the top floor where the magic power would spread best…’

But the magical beast wasn’t a fool either, and it seemed to have noticed that Silvia was trying to call for help.

As soon as she entered the third-floor classroom and started to hold her ground, it swelled up its body and wrapped around the outside like a membrane.
Thanks to that, instead of the magic power leaking out, it was all absorbed by the liquid magical beast and disappeared.

‘A magical beast that eats magic power… I’ve never even heard of such a thing.’

Silvia frowned slightly, recalling the dizzying crisis.

The monster was gradually melting the classroom walls and infiltrating, and she was in a crisis where she couldn’t send a distress call as planned.
In this situation, there was only one decision she could make.

“Well, still… thanks to the Garcia girl, we all ended up okay without any injuries.”

Tap, tap! Bianca smiled, cleaning her torn stockings.

“To be able to cast such a reckless explosion spell and at the same time implement a sturdy defensive barrier. I guess the judges didn’t give you the 2nd rank for nothing. Normally, we all should have been crushed to death.”

That’s right. It wasn’t just a part of the building that was destroyed, but a large three-story building that had collapsed all at once.
If it weren’t for the protection of the barrier, the 2nd, 7th, and 10th ranked students would have made the Coral Hall their grave.

“But with this much of an explosion… did we defeat the magical beast too?”

Eve said, reloading her six-shooter.
The previous magazine had been completely used up trying to stop the liquid lump from invading the classroom.

“No matter how excellent a monster’s regenerative ability is, I don’t think it would be okay after being hit by magic that could blow up a building. Maybe this is the end of the situation…”

“Tsk. Hey, Eve. Are you going to say something ominous?”

“Pardon?”

As she asked back, not understanding, Bianca glared at Eve and sneered.

“You’re a kid who reads a lot of novels, but you don’t even know the unwritten rule of development? If you say something useless like ‘Did we defeat it?’, even the dead will be resurrected and come back…”’

Crack!

Did Bianca’s sarcasm act as a foreshadowing?
Before she could even finish her sentence, a loud roar came from the other side, and fragments flew up.

And the next moment.

Gurgle-!!

A green liquid, even larger than before, revealed its terrifying form.
If its original size was that of a full-grown bull, now it was almost the size of a zoo elephant.

“Damn it! I knew this would happen!”

Bianca complained, watching the writhing magical beast.
She immediately unfurled her leather whip and asked.

“By the way, why did it suddenly get bigger? It was definitely smaller than that before.”

“That’s…”

If Silvia’s guess was correct, the monster was a beast that strengthened itself by sucking human magic power.
Instead of being damaged by the explosion spell, it seemed to have swallowed it and used it as nourishment.

‘A magical beast that gets stronger the more you attack it with magic?’

A being that was a complete opposite to magicians like Silvia.
But it didn’t seem like Eve’s or Bianca’s physical attacks were effective either.
She couldn’t even guess where such an out-of-spec monster had come from and infiltrated the academy.

And if this monster was a magical beast that could completely counter magicians…

‘Can we really win?’

What if, by some chance, Professor Anastasia witnessed the explosion and came?
No matter how excellent a black mage the professor was, if her opponent was a strange creature that ate magic power…

“Ha, damn it. I shouldn’t have thrown away that cigarette earlier.”

The liquid monster, even more enraged, approached them. Watching this, Bianca’s lips curled up in a bitter smile.
She made a gesture of smoking a cigarette and grumbled.

“I’m craving a cigarette now that I think I might die. It was a pretty long cigarette, I should have just left it.”

“That damn cigarette, cigarette. I don’t know why people like something that’s not good for their bodies.”

Eve Vellam also took a firing stance and aimed her gun at the monster.

Was it because it was a life-or-death moment where she might see her life flash before her eyes?
A certain man who loved cigarettes as much as Bianca somehow came to mind.

‘I wanted to meet him again… at least once.’

Muttering her simple wish, Eve swallowed dryly.

To face a monster that wouldn’t budge even after fighting so hard.
Perhaps she would be buried in the academy today, a final premonition even swirled.

As if to mock the three girls, the monster made a grotesque sound and swelled up its body.
Just as the tsunami of green ooze was about to swallow them all.

“Silvia?”

The weight of the air suddenly changed.
And then, an enormous flow of magic power rushed in.

The monster, startled by the chilling presence, stopped its movements.

“P-Professor?”

At the same time, Silvia, who had recognized the voice, turned her head happily.

“You finally came-hieek?!”

“Hehe, Silvia? There you are.”

As soon as she saw Anastasia’s expression, her face turned pale and she closed her mouth.

Professor Anastasia, who was smiling the ‘smile’ Silvia had always wanted to receive.
She clenched her fists and opened her mouth in an unfittingly gentle tone.

“I wonder where the perfectly fine Coral Hall disappeared to. And what is that wobbly, giant jelly?”

Thump, thump. Cold footsteps approached, kicking away the rubble of the ruins.
Silver hair fluttering violently with anger.
Beyond that, a chilling request flowed out calmly, enough to give goosebumps.

“If you don’t want to be scolded, you’d better explain properly. And right now.”

“Hngh, hwaa…”

The corners of the professor’s lips were definitely turned up beautifully.
But the only emotion contained within was a cold yet hot, contradictory anger.

‘I-I’m dead…!’

Only then did Silvia vaguely realize that it was not the time to worry about a mere monster.

Forget about making up for her score, she would be lucky if she wasn’t shattered by the furious Anastasia.
And isn’t this a killing intent that can’t even be compared to the anger she showed at the Group A test site?

‘Blowing up the Coral Hall… no excuse will work, will it?’

Just as she was half-giving up with a bitter smile and empty tears.

“Professor Anastasia!”

Eve desperately turned to her and shouted.

“Help! A magical beast has appeared at the academy! And it’s a very dangerous one!”

“…A magical beast?”

Professor Anastasia asked back calmly at Eve Vellam’s single word.

Perhaps realizing Eve and Bianca were next to Silvia, her fierce expression gradually softened.
Then, 쓱, she glanced back and forth between the collapsed Coral Hall and the liquid monster with her yellow eyes.

“Hmph.”

Anastasia, who had been doing that for a while, suddenly let out a sigh.
Then, she took out another lollipop from her pocket and said in a low voice.

“Was that the situation?”

“Silvia!!”

“Professor Anastasia! What on earth is this, heck?!”

Just then, a crowd of people who had come to check the situation from another direction poured in.

On the left were the housemaster and assistant professors of Carnelian, who had rushed out after hearing the explosion.
On the right were the members of the board of directors, who had rushed to the scene following Anastasia.

Chairman Forte, who was at the head of the group, shouted in astonishment.

“Th-that… what on earth is that?”

Gurgle-!!

The gurgling of the liquid lump with an enormous body.
At the unimaginable, grotesque sight, everyone gathered here could not hide their bewilderment.

It was then.

“Huh? Is that perhaps?”

Dolores, the person in charge of mystical zoology, who was observing the liquid magical beast.
As if she had suddenly noticed something, she widened her eyes and stuttered.

“I-impossible! Why is that abomination on the academy grounds…”

“Prepare to attack! Suppress it with concentrated fire!”

At that moment, the officer commanding the board of directors’ members shouted loudly.
At this, the magicians in blood-red cloaks chanted in unison and aimed at the magical beast.

“Fire!”

As the officer who had finished the incantation was giving the firing order.

“N-no! If you attack it with magic!”

Dolores, who was startled, tried to stop the members, but it was too late.

Fwoosh-!

All sorts of offensive magic spells left the fingertips of the members and flew towards the monster.

A burning fireball, a dazzling magic missile, a lightning bolt crackling with electricity, and so on, of all kinds.

However, the moment all those spells hit the surface of the liquid.

“Huh?”

“W-what is this?”

The surprised members muttered to themselves, stepping back.
All the magic that had been cast at the monster had been absorbed and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Not only that, but the monster’s size began to grow even more than before.
If it was just the size of an elephant a moment ago, now it was almost the size of a house.

Seeing this, Dolores waved her arms and shouted at the top of her lungs.

“You fools! I told you not to attack it with magic! White magic doesn’t work on that thing!”

“Wh-white magic…”

“Doesn’t work?”

“What does that mean, Professor Dolores? White magic doesn’t work!”

While the members were murmuring, Forte quickly turned to the Carnelian housemaster and asked.

“Th-that thing is not an ordinary magical beast, Madam Chairman! That’s, that’s…”

At this, Dolores pointed a trembling arm at the magical beast.
Then, she made a shocking statement that startled everyone present.

“The formless monster that the witch Altra personally created! It’s a Magic Eater that swallows white mages and digests them with acidic solution!”

An experiment of the ancient witch, Altra.
The impact of that single phrase was enormous.

The first witch who had driven the first Hero party to near annihilation, and in the end, had scattered a great disaster upon the world by taking them down with her.

The legends of the abominations she had created by combining alchemy and necromancy were an immortal topic that was often on people’s lips.

But those abominations were also supposed to have been exterminated by the first Hero along with Altra’s demise.
Panic spread among the magicians at the declaration that a magical beast that had been extinct for centuries had returned.

“M-Magic Eaters are beings created by Altra to hunt and torture white mages! They are the natural enemies of us magicians, who are constitutionally at odds with them!”

Dolores, gasping for breath, poured out the knowledge she had as an authority on mystical zoology.

“When they are first born, they are small and weak, but as they come into contact with white magic, they gradually grow and increase their power… and eventually, they reach a level where they devour magic power like nutrients! At that size, our magic will no longer work on it!”

“Th-that means?”

“Attacking it now will only be like feeding it! We should have dealt with it when it was small and weak and magic still worked, but I don’t know where it was hiding and growing its power…!”

At Dolores’s words, the Magic Eater sloshed its body as if to laugh.

The monster that had made the guard George Kapkhan its first victim, and had grown by attacking a few unlucky magicians while disguised as him.
Although it had missed its last prey, Silvia, it didn’t matter at all.

Now that it had reached the mature stage intended as a weapon, there were no white mages nearby who could face it.

The magicians who had realized this were also all flustered and just stomping their feet.

Only one person.

Rip. Anastasia, who was unwrapping a candy wrapper and calmly observing the Magic Eater.

“Ah!”

It was then. Forte, who had been distracted by the Magic Eater, belatedly found her daughter in the ruins.

“Silvia!!”

“Huh, Mom?”

Silvia quickly turned her head at Forte’s cry.

But the mother and daughter’s brief reunion was short-lived.

Guaaak-!!

“Kyaaak!”

The Magic Eater, which had swelled up, poured down like a landslide and attacked Silvia.
Then, it swallowed her, Eve, and Bianca in one gulp.

“N-noo–!!!”

Forte screamed at the horrifying sight and rushed forward.
But she was soon blocked by her subordinates from the board of directors who stopped her physically.

“No, Madam Chairman! It’s too dangerous!”

“It’s a Magic Eater that only appears in legends! If you’re not careful, you’ll die too!”

“Let me go!! My daughter!! Silvia!!”

Forte cried out in a tearing voice, pushing away her subordinates.
She immediately cast all sorts of spells to save her daughter, but as Dolores had explained, it had no effect.

As soon as the magic touched the surface of the Magic Eater, it was turned into fertilizer that nourished it and was absorbed.

“Grrr-heuk! Geh-heup!”

“Aaaah!! Silvia!! Silviaaa-!!”

Forte threw a tantrum, watching her daughter struggling inside the slime.

If left like that, she would soon suffocate and die, or be digested and disappear by the acidic secretions.
She wanted to save her by any means, but unfortunately, there was nothing she could do as a mother.

“Ugh, sob! No! Noo-!!”

Forte reached out her arms, tears streaming down her face.

Her precious child, whom she had cherished more than anyone after losing her husband in a witch hunt.
The reason and purpose of her life, and a ray of light that had shone on Forte’s gloomy life.

Struggling powerlessly to reach her child, Forte cried out her daughter’s name with a breaking heart.

“Silviaaa–!!!”

It was at that very moment.

Swish-!

Forte de Garcia, who had lived her entire life without believing in miracles.

“Kuh?!”

The first miracle of her life happened before her eyes.

Thump! A gurgling sound and a splash of slimy liquid.
Then, a figure that had been thrown to the ground coughed and wiped off the things on her body.

Gasping for breath and trembling, it was none other than…

“S-Silvia!!”

“Huh? Mom?”

Silvia’s eyes widened.
Seeing that her daughter had escaped safely, Forte burst into tears and rushed to hug her.

“Silvia, my daughter! You’re safe! Ugh, sob, Silvia…!”

“Uh, uh. I’m okay, Mom.”

Silvia muttered with a dazed expression.

“But… why am I okay?”

She asked, looking at the side.

Eve Vellam and Bianca di Monferrato, who had been swallowed by the monster at the same time as her.
They too had somehow escaped safely like Silvia, and were coughing and shaking off the liquid.

“If I’ve done this much, Madam Chairman.”

Of course, it didn’t take long to realize the reason.

“I can assume that the recommendation for resignation is off the table, right?”

Crunch. Professor Anastasia, with a raspberry-flavored lollipop between her molars.

Flutter, flutter. Waving the shadow tentacles that had snatched Silvia and her classmates, she was now facing the Magic Eater head-on.