「That was dangerous」
「Un……」
「Amazing firepower」

The three walked out of the dome and looked at the duo soaring in the sky. From the looks of it, they already had no mana left.

Once they confirmed it, the three took out their weapons to end the long finals. [¹]

「Regretfully, your last attack wasn’t able to finish us. This is the end」

Hearing his words, Selena flashed a small smile.

「This wasn’t our last attack. Aishi! 」

Selena screamed the name of the fallen Aishi. She had no idea whether she was conscious or not, whether she was able to cast or not. But it didn’t matter.

Believing in your friend is a matter of course. Mona was of the same opinion. Mona too believed in her. [²]

「Yes」

Aishi stood up and quietly activated a spell. There was a firm will in her answer.

「Roar.『Snow Empire』」

Right after she cast the spell, an abnormality happened to Seiya’s team.

「This is…..」

Unexpectedly, their hands, starting from the fingers, begun to freeze. The same was true for Aishi, her fingers were gradually covered in ice.

Seiya decided to cast『Mantle of Light』 but found himself unable to manipulate his mana as easily as before. When he tried to do, he was unable to move his sluggish mana well.

Seiya’s whole body was quickly covered in ice. Not only he, but also Yua and Lily met the same fate.

The three didn’t move, just like a mannequin.

「It has finally ended」

Looking at their frozen appearance, Aishi breathed out a sigh, Mona and Selena, who were floating in the sky, joined her on that.

「I’m so tired, Aishi」
「Good work everyone」
「Yes」

Aishi usual expressionless face changed ever so slightly. [³]

That could be attributed to the change of her attitude during the fight. The three didn’t have any mana left, so they waited for their hearts to stop beating and them retiring.

Operation Delta progressed as planned and was completed successfully.

Aishi’s『Snow Empire』caused a myriad of tiny indiscernible snowflakes to appear in the air thus freezing the opponents.

Unknown to the opponents, the tiny snowflakes were able to enter their bodies to calm down their inner mana and stop the function of their body.

Because of that, the blood flow gradually slowed down leading to the decrease in body temperature.

Together with the inner decrease in temperature, the snowflakes also gathered outside the body and added to the calming effect.

A body, after being calmed from inside and outside, gradually cease to function. That’s why Seiya had problems with moving his mana around.

Operation Delta was the last plan that the student council came up with against Seiya’s team.

First, Selena cast『Guardian Dragon of the Shrine Maiden of the Fire Dragon Kagutsuchi』 with all her power. It would have been great if it worked with just that, but she wasn’t so optimistic about that.

Predicting that it wouldn’t bring the desired results, she used it to buy some time.

『Snow Empire』classified as a top-class advanced spell and requires a considerable amount of mana to cast. Even Aishi was only able to cast it on one target and wasn’t able to completely stop its body functions.

However, this time, she was able to completely freeze three targets at the same time.

Of course, there was a reason. Aishi simply didn’t have enough mana to freeze three people. That’s why she used the support.

『Snow Empire』’s activation process always starts with producing enough water. This is a basic procedure for ice magic. You can’t produce ice without any water.

Next step was about spreading the water around and crystallizing it in the small snowflakes and wait for the target to calm down.

In this process, producing water and spreading it around required the most mana.

Without this step, she would have been able to freeze five people.

That’s why the student council decided to skip those two processes. They used Lily’s water instead. Lily uses water as it is, unlike normal magicians, her water didn’t contain any mana within it.

And such water was spread around the whole stadium. The ground was damp and had puddles in some places.

In other words, because of the excess of water in the stadium, the process of its creation was no longer necessary.

Then what about the target designation? Aishi didn’t specify the target in the first place. Because the air was moist, there was no need to specify the target.

The water was in the air due to『Guardian Dragon of the Shrine Maiden of the Fire Dragon Kagutsuchi』.

Selena incorporated the explosion in the final stage of her spell and Seiya’s team immediately retreated under the dome of light, which was covered in water.

After the explosion, there was no water on the ground or the dome. Where did that water go? The answer is air. Due to the explosion, the water was swiftly vaporized and the vapors filled the air.

Those vapors were used in Aishi’s spell. The vaporized water rose in the air. In other words, it was randomly scattered around the stadium.

After crystallizing it, it was no different from normal『Snow Empire』. That was the reason.

「Long…..」

Mona muttered as such.

The barrier set up around the stadium is supposed to retire the participants upon receiving fatal injuries or death.

At this point, they were frozen for one minute. It was about time for their heart to stop. However, there were no signs of them retiring at all.

Selena and Aishi also noticed this abnormality, an impatient expression surfaced if their faces.

「It can’t be, their hearts are still beating!」
「No way」

Selena and Aishi became increasingly worried. Soon after, the ice around them cracked. The cracks spread around the whole surface and then it crumbled.

Their figures could be seen emerging from the inside.

「How did you……」

Aishi lost her words at this unexpected development. That’s only natural. After all, they, whose cells were supposed to halt their functions, were standing right before her.

「Full mana release」
「Eh?」
「I see…..」
「That’s right. Once you perform full mana release, your whole body will become active for a moment. That’s why you can wrest control of your body and break out. That being said, you need to wait until your body was almost completely frozen」

As Lily said, they did full mana release right before their hearts stopped.

In other words, right before their deaths. When you release your mana at that timing, the brain uses the opening to take control of the body again.

Without being able to control your mana, full mana release is risky, but they didn’t have much choice.

「Ridiculous…..」
「For you to be able of such a thing……..」
「Just how much mana do you have……」

The three became speechless at their ridiculous methods.

On the other side, Seiya’s team took out their weapons. Lily with the Hollins, Yua with the Yuriel and Seiya with the other Hollins.

In the next moment, victory and defeat were decided. The student council turned into dust and retired. [⁴]

Nevertheless, the whole stadium was enveloped in silence.

「Judge, it is over」
「Eh, ah. The winner is team 86! 」

After Seiya’s reminder, the judge announced the result in a fluster. Hearing his voice, the audience came to their senses and loudly cheered.

Uooooooooooooooooooooooo!

「Wow, that student council loooooost! The winners of Arsenia Magic Academy preliminaries for the Leiria Magic Tournament are Seiya Kiritsuna, Yua Arunia, and Lily Aruniaaaaaaaa. The three are the representatives of our Arsenia Magic Academyyyyyyy」

Uooooooooooooooooooooooo!

The competition in Arsenia Magic Academy was over under the loud cheers of the audience.

There were two men in the VIP room up high. One was a red-haired man overlooking the stadium, Leonardo. Another one was a blue-haired man in glasses, Zadman.

「We weren’t able to use『Possession』. Regretful」

Said Zadman to Leonardo.

But Leonardo didn’t look bothered by it at all. Leonardo planned to unearth Seiya’s true nature in this final fight.

Leonardo aimed for Selena. When her strongest spell, 『Atos』was broken, she fell into despair. That was her weakest moment.

Leonardo tried to cast the spell on such Selena. However, it ended in failure. The reason is, Selena was able to overcome her weakness.

Aishi fought to protect Selena. Her action pulled Selena out from her despair. In the end, Leonardo wasn’t able to do what he wanted.

However, Leonardo didn’t mind, he had another purpose.

「Zadman, what is happening over there?」
「Yes, everything went as planned」
「I see」

After receiving Zadman’s report, Leonardo grinned. But in the next moment, he felt a shock in his chest.

「Uh……」

Leonardo suddenly coughed up blood. When he looked down, he saw an arm in the middle of his chest. To be precise, someone stabbed him from behind.

「Guh, you *******……..」
「Good work up until now. You are of no use anymore」

The culprit behind an arm in his chest was Zadman.

「What is……happening…..」
「Just as I said. You overdid things a bit. Even if you want the dark attribute so much, you attracted attention from an apostle」
「This is different…..from the deal……」

Somehow spoke Leonardo. However, his body was already at its limit.

「You are right. Well, you could say that you suffered because of your own greed」
「The hell…..」
「I was in your care all this time. Please rest in peace」
「Guha……」

Zadman crushed his heart and Leonardo died.

In that way, one fight has ended and a new one has begun.