"Listen. In this order… Here. Free your classmates. They should go to the cafeteria, find a kitchen hand boy, and tell him to stop playing around and do his actual job. He will protect them."
"???"
Rotsard raised his hand, from his palms particles of bluish-white light began dripping down until they formed a dagger that he then handed to the bewildered girl as he instructed her.
"After that, you will use all the speed-enhancing spells you know and rush to the headmaster's office. Do not stop for anyone else beside, perhaps, the vice headmaster. If ANYONE else tries to stop you, blast them with the strongest spell you know. This place reeks of gedwyld, and that peasant-like filth isn't the only one to deofolize or become corrupted."
"!!!"
The giant continued, baring his teeth at a mere mention of the foul traitors, startling Bernadette quite a bit…
But she was the one with the most deceiving looks. Despite Bernadette appearing like a scared baby rabbit, her own sister, whom Rotsard held in high regard, could not even compare in terms of composure and decisiveness.
It took her a mere heartbeat to come back to her senses and nod, clenching both hands on the dagger's handle.
"After that, go find Mira Vultress. Tell her, her fiance asks her to help you. Together, go to your sister and Justin. They will be, most likely, already facing more of the scum that sold themselves to deofol filth. Aid them however you can, and you all should be fine... It might take some time to contain this one. Plant and mushroom-like corrupted are the most annoying to deal with."
Rotsard said, turning around, as the petite girl was already freeing her classmates.
"How come you sound as if you're certain I will be of any help?"
"Pffft!"
Bernadette asked without looking back at him, and the white-haired giant smirked, glancing at her over his shoulder.
"Hey, is that the attitude the next Royal Magician should have?"
"Wha…!? How do you know what I'm aiming to…!? Tsk! Nevermind. I understand. I'll get it done!"
Rotsard chuckled and said, momentarily shocking the girl.
What he did was reveal the future he learned through Arch Deofol's story, and he wouldn't even consider mentioning it … but at that point, too many things had changed already.
Brice Hervols being the one to deofolize instead of him, being the most significant… to his knowledge at that point in time, at least…
"Hey…. HEY! HEY! HEY! YOU PEASANT-LIKE TRASH THINK YOU AND YOUR FILTH CAN HIDE FROM ME!?"
"!?"
Suddenly, the white-haired giant straightened his back and spread his arms to the side, seemingly roaring at the empty sky…
"NATURE, EVEN CORRUPTED, SHOULD BE A COUNTER TO ICE, SO WHAT ARE YOU SO SCARED OF!? COME FACE ME!"
Rotsard roared and brought his hands together as if swiping his claws at the wall in front of him!
*THUUUMP* *CRACK*
"WHA..!?"
"HOW!?"
"IMPOSSIBLE…!"
"YOU…!?"
Yet instead of unleashing an attack similar to that which he cut the first monstrosity with, the movement somehow ended up pulling out more copies of Birce Hervolst!
Dozens of them came crashing through the windows of both dormitories and the main building, together with countless spore-carrying mushrooms, and at least three times as many of both copies and mushrooms got torn out from beneath the ground, all screeching with fury, hate, and disbelief as they flew over and past the decreasing number of trapped first-year students.
Pulled by Rotsard's mana manipulation, dozens of copies of Brice Hervols crashed into the ground in front of the white-haired giant.
"...so the original isn't here… Did it divide itself amongst the copies...? Tsk…! Ptfu!"
Rotsard sniffed the air briefly before clicking his tongue and spitting to the side with disgust.
"Hey, your actual contractor might be absent, but you should show yourself regardless, shouldn't you? You might be the strongest filth that I've encountered, not counting the Arch one of course, but you didn't fool yourself into believing that it changes anything!?"
"???"
"What are you talking about!?"
The white-haired giant snarled, causing a few of Brice's copies to screech in fury as they scrambled back to their feet.
"What. Are you all braindead already, or do you really not realize what your original allowed to enter this world? HEY! I'M TALKING ABOUT YOU!"
Rotsard scoffed mockingly before growling and digging his hands deep into the ground.
"Oho~ Got you~! DID YOU TRY TO WAIT AND REVEAL YOURSELF DRAMATICALLY ONCE I'M DONE WITH THOSE SMALL FRIES!? FUCK OFF! YOU'RE GETTING ON THE STAGE RIGHT NOW!"
*RUMBLE*
Rotsard said with a terrifying grin as he managed to grab something hidden underground and snarled as he ripped it out from its hiding spot.
With a huge tremor, most of the training ground burst open when a heart-like nucleus the size of a house, surrounded by a complicated net of intertwining, sickly-white roots, got pulled out in the open!
*whoosh*
Without any spell being chanted, a barrier of clear ice suddenly grew and separated Rotsard and all the monstrosities from the first-year students and the rest of the Royal Academy…
"You! Creature that's more fae than human, do you believe you can stand a chance against me when you hold weaknesses of both!?"
The deofol spoke up, the nucleus that was its main body pulsated and countless eyes opened within it…
Its physiology did not make sense, as despite there being no mouth, the eyelids moved like lips, and the voice came out of the eyeballs instead.
Its arrogance was obvious, yet it did not seem to even notice the additional barrier, which was obviously not its creation.
As for the white-haired giant…
"..."
He wasn't even looking at the foul existence! Instead, glancing over his shoulder until he made eye contact with Bernadette Edmesworth.
"...!"
The girl swallowed her saliva and nodded towards him.
"WHAT ARE YOU ALL WAITING FOR!? GO TO THE CAFETERIA AND SPEAK WITH THE KITCHEN HAND!"
"!!!"
She freed the last of her classmates and immediately kicked her to spur her and the rest into action, as all were horrified by the monstrosities to move.
With her call and a few more kicks, the first-year students rushed to the main building, allowing Bernadette to move on to her next objective.
With the ice dagger firmly in her hand, she hurriedly chanted several spells on herself and reached the balcony adjacent to the headmaster's office in a single jump.
"Surrender now, and you might save your puny li…"
"Ugh… Hel, I think I hate you even more than peasants… You reek, and your voice is making me want to rip my ears off…!"
The deofol mocked, using the language that allowed it to bypass the rule about speaking only the truth, but Rotsard had none of it.
With a capable person on the job, he could finally focus on the imminent threat.
"You're losing your possibly last chance. You might want to think it through carefully…"
The deofol flapped its eyelids, and more half-truth deceit came out.
"You know what? I think I want you to shut up, and that I'm going to make you~"
"...!"
Rotsard scoffed, raising his hand high into the air as a circle of light spilled out from beneath him and massive, disjointed, ephemeral wings spread out from above his back, causing the deofol to convulse in unease.
"Let all existence fall into slumber... Descent of the Silent Night!"
*&^#&^#%&^%#^*
Instead of shortening it, he extended the incantation of the most devastating spell as he lowered his hand, and every creature, every plant, every fiber, every cell, and every atom within the confines of his barrier came to a halt as the Essence of Winter manifested!
For the few onlookers on the outside, the insides of the barrier turned pitch-black, as the light trapped within froze too.
Not decay or death but…
Stagnation.
A perfect return to nonexistence that originally ended with the beginning of everything.
An affront to creation itself, a state that denied its own existence because it simply couldn't be.
An impossibility.
Heresy.
An error...
…gedwyld…