Running Away From The Hero! (Remake)

RATH 104

TL: Eevee

RIP the saddest of pandas. The internet will mourn for you.

12. It’s not over til it’s over (2)

#2 Their story: Aris ril Letia’s story.

『A long long time ago.

The world was created, and when not as much time had gone by compared to now.

Something impure managed to get into this perfectly created world.

But that impurity that had not been born for long before the other gods sealed it away, in a place half-removed from this world.

But one god, although we don’t know why, broke that seal.

And so, darkness fell across the world because of the Evil God Pandora’s actions.

They say it took a long time to break free of the era of darkness.

Humans, dwarves, elves, even the dragons and the demons.

Even the spirits, moreover, the King of spirits, could not avoid that era of darkness.

Spirits dyed in evil were born under the influence of the evil god, and seeking to save them, the kindest Spirit King of them all set forward, only for him too, to be dyed in evil.

That Spirit King was so strong, he destroyed four other Spirit Kings and the remaining Spirit Kings had to combine all their power, and were only just able to defeat him.

This is the Elemental Roar.

The product of a miracle created with the power of the Spirit Kings combined, purely for the sake of defeating the Evil Spirit King.

I pondered as to whether an elementalist could use this miracle or not.

And the answer came to me fairly quickly.

That it is [Nearly Impossible].

Having many people gather their power together for a single attack has always been a very different thing.

As an example, when using what is commonly known as a Grand Magic, which one cannot use on their own, the magicians involved need to have trained with each other and trust one another for several years at least, decades at most.

Each magician must control their own magic, as well as linking the connections between individual casters to form the spell.

And yet despite all those preparations, cooperative spells can still fail.

Elementals are embodiments of all nature.

Since they are created purely from nature, they are purer than any other being, and have distinct personalities of their own.

And therefore, it is rare to see elementals even of the same nature cooperate.

And an elementalist controlling this process?

That is close to impossible.

Connections between people alone are impossible to get right with just a couple of years of practice, but let alone between people, there is also the necessity of connections between elementals.

Although there are people that are contracted to multiple elementals or beasts, but that is simply a direct connection between them and another elemental.

In order to make connections with other people’s elementals, it is a necessity to go through said other person, and elementals that are more mental than physical, as well as gods, cannot accept this connection.

The majority of summons have a very strong sense of possessiveness.

To a summon, their summoner is the only exit they have to another world.

But it is obvious that the more summons that summoner has, the less opportunities they have to leave through that exit.

Even low-ranking elementals without even a proper sense of reason dislike their summoner contracting another summon, so would those gods and devils with their high sense of pride wish for such a thing?

I once had the opportunity to meet a summoner contracted to both a god and a devil, and every time they got a chance, they would say -is it her, or me!- and badger their summoner to break his contract with the other.

To put it in simpler terms, a single summoner being contracted to many summons is similar to a country’s king mediating between nobles that dislike each other.

Now, let’s add on the necessity of connections with other people on top of this scenario.

While cooperating with another country’s king, at the same time they also need to get another country’s nobles working in tandem with their own countries’.

We are talking about another nation’s nobles, who barely even listen to their own king as it is!

Is it possible? No, it is not.

And that is why in the case of elementalists, common sense is that forming connections are impossible.

But I thought of a different approach.

Let’s change the situation a bit.

From ‘connections between elementalists are impossible’ to ‘convicing foreign nobles that don’t even listen to their own king to cooperate.’

Is it impossible?

Yes, it is impossible. You cannot ever hope to convince them with ordinary means.

But there are always ways to get around things in the mechanizations of people.

And there are many very simple options in a situation like the one presented.

Threats are good.

Put a knife at their throat, and tell them to cooperate if they do not wish to die.

Magic is also good.

Cast an illusion spell and have them see an illusion, or brainwash them and make them into your puppet.

You can buy them out.

Say that if they were to vote in your favour, you will give them hundreds of thousands of gold coins.

If they are a noble interested in money, they will cooperate.

Already, we have three different solutions.

Now let’s return to the original question.

Is cooperation between elementals impossible?

I say that it is difficult.

I did not come to the conclusion that it is [almost impossible] for no reason.

But, it is not impossible.

It is almost impossible.

Meaning, it is difficult, but very much possible.

Out of all the different types of summon out there, elementals are the ones affected most by the state of their summoner.

And so, if the summoners themselves show a unity close to brainwashing, the elementals too, will be able to achieve a state close to brainwashing.

Of course you cannot actually brainwash them.

Because summons are very sensitive to the state of their summoner, if there is an anomaly in the mind of the summoner, if the summon detects the presence of another person, they will not carry out the orders.

So in order to use Elemental Roar, you need a powerful emotion that can bring together countless summoners to a single unified front.

And the best emotion to bring everyone’s hearts together is』

“Anger… is it?”

I had been reading the book that vice-pres had given me, as I looked up and stared blankly at the scene in front of me.

One hundred people all emitting a dark aura.

And in the middle of them all, for the sake of raising morale, Yugrasia’s vice-president spouted off lie after lie as he accelerated Yugrasia’s imminent closure.

But amazingly, despite there being no mind controlling magic of any shape or form whatsoever being used, all one hundred were all of the same mind.

-Kill that motherfucker Nerkia.

The anger directed at Pres was tying everyone’s hearts in union.

A pure state of heart without a single trace of any other thoughts!

“Summon your elementals! As many as you can!”

Countless elementals appeared.

And they were all, singing.

“Alright, it worked!”

Vice-pres looked on with a proud look on his face as he used Loki’s shoes to move to where I was in a single step.

“Lady Aris, tell them to aim this technique over there once it’s ready. I… I will head on over and give Nerkia a taste of my bamboo spear!”

“Eh? Wait, isn’t it better if vice-pres is the one to take command… ah.”

As vice-pres ran off at high speeds over to the Arucia base without even listening to me, I could only sigh.

“But, it was really possible?”

The song of the elementals continued.

A beautiful song, but a destructive song, one that could destroy anything, no matter what it was.

『But, this hypothesis is one that I cannot confirm for myself, as I am not an elementalist.』

“Professor, your students are proving your theory right in front of me right now?”

And for an incredibly stupid reason at that.

Low, mid, high-rank elementals.

These elementals that differed in their classes, in their elements, were all coming together as one as they sang.

A fantastical scene that hundreds of elementals were creating.

And in the middle of it all, a mass of light was growing bigger and bigger.

And that mass was.

-Elemental Roar.

With the shouts of a hundred, it fell down onto Arucia’s main base.

…They’re not going to die, right?

#3 Their story: A certain villain boss’s story.

I looked up into the sky.

A ball of light had begun to drop on us.

Grit.

I found myself grinding my teeth without thinking.

I had never expected the current emperor to be this decisive in his actions.

How many students were here right now?

There were at least a hundred. There could even be more than a thousand.

And these were Arucia and Marcis students as well.

It might have been a different story if this had been Mercaria’s main abse.

Because if it had been Mercaria’s, the vast majority of whose students were commoners, they could use them as a sacrifice to annihilate the anti-empire army.

But Arucia and Marcis were schools where the students were mostly the scion of nobility.

And yet, they abandoned them?

“Incredible.”

His decisiveness was praiseworthy, even as an enemy.

Even if defence and teleportation spells were casted throughout the imperial festival grounds, a blast of that level would vaporise everyone before you could be transported out.

Now how will the empire’s emperor deal with the aftermath of this ludicrous stunt?

Will he admit that he did it?

Never.

Massacring the children of nobles right in front of his people.

Even the emperor of the Karuan Empire, with its absolute imperial rule, had his limits for what would or wouldn’t stand.

Then, as our doing?

He could do that.

The anti-empire army’s suicide attack.

And at the same time, keeping a tighter leash in his court.

It would not be weird for him to take this opportunity to accuse the nobles that opposed him to be part of the anti-empire army and have them all executed.

Or he could claim that this was a declaration of war by an enemy country that low-key opposed him.

How cold-hearted he was!

How cruel he was!

How evil he was!

Was this the emperor of the world’s strongest superpower nation?

To use his own people, these young students as a sacrifice, and eliminate his enemies!

“Kghh… emperor! Do not take our power lightly!”

I circulated magic power through my entire body.

Although I had no talent for the sword, I had plenty of talent for magic.

And the talent to be an archmage at that.

The anti-empire army was an organisation that were formed of the descendants of the royalty of the countries conquered by the empire.

I, who had honed my skills with countless magic tomes smuggled away before the empire brought those nations down, was proud of my power that not even the Head of the Magic Tower would be able to match.

“O mana.”

As I focused on the magic power within my body, the air began to shake.

It was a sign that the magic in the atmosphere was submitting to me.

But…

“How strong.”

Because I was dominating the magic in the air, I knew.

I could not dominate the mana around that giant mass of light.

No, there was no mana around it at all.

That was a light of destruction that even vaporised the magic of its surroundings.

This was impossible to do on my own.

“All magicians of the anti-empire army. Use all your power, and stop that magic!”

I gathered magic power in my voice and spread it through the entire castle.

One my one, I could feel the presence of other magicians.

There were some that even deserved to be called archmages, and there were also others that would be called high-rank magicians no matter what kind of Magic Tower they entered.

Our power was that of one of the top ten Magic Towers of the continent or greater.

That was the combat power of the mages of the anti-empire army.

“O Great Magics! Accept my will and protect me from my enemies!”

This was not the empire-style magic bombardment created by the empire.

Simply the pure, overwhelming force of magic brought on by the power of elementals.

And so I also began to resist with magic.

Stack layers and layers of magic barriers, as thick and strong as I could.

Stack them again, and again, and again, and again.

This was done not just by me, but all the other magicians of the anti-empire army.

The transparent magic barrier was getting so thick we could almost see it with our naked eyes.

And then, our barrier met the barrage of the imperial army.

“Kuhk!”

“My lord!”

A massive shockwave rocked through my organs.

It is impossible. It is inevitable. So give up here, was what the magic was saying.

“Kuhuk… not… not yet!”

But I could not be defeated here.

The grudge of the anti-empire army was far too deep to end right here, right now with just a single bombardment.

“O great… power of magic!”

I sent another magic barrier imbued with my will into the sky.

My organs were already a mess.

Blood kept on running up my throat and into my mouth, but the taste of blood sharpened my mind even further.

‘Even if this is my end.’

I could not let this be the end of the anti-empire army.

“This, is my full power, emperor!”

I had prepared myself for death long ago.

One layer, and then another.

As the number of magic barriers shrank, so too, did the mass of light gradually get smaller.

“This is my victory… emperor.”

And the moment I let myself smile at the sight of the diminishing light.

“Damn you all, is this really all you idiots have? I didn’t want to say this as well, but listen up, you fucking solos! That asshole Nerkia even went and seduced Lady Ariiiiiiiiiiiiiss!”

From somewhere distant I heard a very angry voice.

Judging by the names I just heard, one of the important members of the summoner’s school Yugrasia, the daughter of the Letia family apparently liked the Yugrasia student council president.

‘Why?’

Just why was I hearing such a thing in the middle of that fiendish emperor’s bombardment?

And.

-We’re going to kill you, Nerkiaaaaaa!

At the same time I heard a scream close to despair.

“What?!”

Why was it that the dying mass of light started to get larger again?

#4 Their story: Aris ril Letia’s story.

“Damn you all, is this really all you idiots have? I didn’t want to say this as well, but listen up, you fucking solos!

That asshole Nerkia even went and seduced Lady Ariiiiiiiiiiiiiss!”

..Now what manner of bullshit is this?